#entrepreneurship #successmotivation #overcomechallenges Event MC Abel Opiyo - actually known as Habel Opiyo - was thriving and living his best life as an ex-Communications student, tutor and host - when life suddenly started to teach him some interesting lessons. For our first interview this year, we sit down with him as he tells us how he learned…

Did you know that Nameless experienced music failure when his second song after "Megarider" was badly received? Well, it was. Thus started his journey into design-thinking, and creating music for his target audience rather than creating music he liked. In the meantime, while his career was tanking... so was his relationship with his wife Wahu. In f…

"Everyone like to have a little fun so, shake your bum like a true African!" Ma-lines za Nameless! Considering his public performance confidence, do you think Nameless has a social anxiety problem? Doesn't look like it, but when he first burst onto the music scene with his hit song 'Megarider', this is what he was battling, While it seemed like he …

In the final part of the Tazim Elkington interview, she explains how the lessons she has learned over time have made her the person she is now - comfortable in her skin, and aware that there's always more growth to experience. She's had to put those lessons into practice, finally allowing herself to let people into her life, and to be open to their…

Tazim Elkington is not a fan of the word 'failure' - because in her experience, everything is a lesson designed to inspire us and take us to the next level. In Part 2 of her interview, she explains how she suffered career burnout, got divorced, found happiness with a new partner, and moved to Canada to start a new life with him... until 9/11 put an…

Tazim Elkington wears many hats: she is a hypno- and regression therapist, authentic leadership speaker, evolutionary disrupter, among many others. While she has her finally has her life as an entrepreneur in the therapy space together, it didn't start out that way. In fact, things were so bad at home, growing up, that she opted to leave at the ten…

Everyone loves Sanaipei Tande! She's the superstar singer and actress whose captivating turn as Nana Tandala on the TV show 'Kina' enthralled the country. She is also a radio show host and an accomplished singer who first found fame as a member of the group Sema. But while she might look like she was touched by the golden star of fame pretty early …

Mwaniki Mageria is the co-owner of Documentary & Reality TV (D&R TV, which produced The Real Housewives of Nairobi). He is also the host of the popular TV show Foods of Kenya, founder of Balozi Productions, emcee and all-round entrepreneur, among many other titles he holds. But did you know that before he achieved his current level of fame and comf…

Betty Oloo-Anderson started her career without the academic credentials required to get her to scale the highest levels of the development industry. Although she started out with secretarial course qualifications, she quickly learned how to utilise the experience she had acquired in one job to take to the next. It wasn't always easy; there were two…

What is the Y Combinator programme? Only the best-known online business start-up accelerator in the world, responsible for helping CEOs such as Sam Altman of OpenAI and the owners of AirBnB bring their dreams to life. Techpreneur Sam Gichuru applied for the programme six times, and was rejected in four instances. Today, his hybrid Kidato School is …

Beth Wairimu's story of bouncing back after going through a season of intense challenges, one after the other, will inspire you to go through your tough moments, acknowledge your feelings, and stay the course. When she quit her high-flying job to start a different career path, she had no idea how the Covid pandemic would upend her life. Thus starte…

Starting a new business can be very difficult for anyone dealing with a mental health condition. This is a lesson that Joram Mwinamo, 43, married and a father of four, learned very early in his entrepreneurial journey. He now runs a successful business called SNDBX, an entrepreneur support hub where business owners can access all the scale-and-grow…

Njeri Wangari, aka The Kenyan Poet, was doing very well in her IT career and pursuing her side-passion for telling Kenyan stories and poetry when the bug to start her own story-telling platform hit her. She then commenced the gruelling journey towards building an app that would supply the country's children with the very best of our indigenous know…

Muthoni Ngugi was a successful young businesswoman who, at the age of 23, was already making Sh5 million a month from her furniture business, Gaze Furnishings Kenya. Then she met a man... and six months into their relationship, found herself at his mercy, with a baby in tow, suffering severe beatings every day and wondering how to escape her circum…

When Hellen Ashiko Mbune started her career as a sales representative for a leading media house, she immediately knew she was cut out to succeed - except that she had one problem: Not having the patience to see a job through to the end. What followed was a series of short stints at various workplaces... until her luck ran out and she found herself …

Pastor Pauline Mwarabu, 41 and a co-pastor at JCC Ongata Rongai, is no stranger to failure. She first experienced it when she failed her KCSE exams - but because she was determined to go to university, she took it upon herself to find some money to take herself back to school to repeat the exam. She passed with flying colours and made it to univers…

When fitness enthusiast and HR business owner Butch Singh, 48, took it upon himself to raise funds for a girls' school at the Coast, he chose a most taxing challenge: To ride a bicycle all the way from Nairobi to Mombasa... alone. Having made the decision in an instant, and with very few weeks to train before he kicked off the ride, Butch took hims…

Joseph Odindo is a one-man masterclass in the art of good journalism. A self-taught journalist, he has worked in the profession for decades, rising through the ranks to earn the title all upwardly-mobile journalists covet: Group Editorial Director. He served in this role at The Standard Group, and has also served as Editorial Director at the Nation…

When Amakove Wala and her husband separated nine years ago, thus began her new life as a mother of four - one son and triplet daughters. Raising four children in a single-income household is no easy feat, and thus she has dabbled with various business, won some, and lost some. She has also learned the value of personal relationships of all sorts th…

Carol Nyaga, a mother of three, had no idea how to raise a child when she had her first one just after she finished high school. Having watched her parents fumble in their effort to raise her, she, in turn, became a detached mother whose only focus was to provide for her child. She eventually ended up in the advertising sector where her career grew…

Amani Maranga, a marketing and communications executive and current host of the men-only podcast Living Truthfully, was doing really well in his career, holding two jobs that put him in the orbit of the rich elite of the country, and starting a successful communications business... until an unfortunate decision he made led to the demise of his marr…

John Muriithi is a serial entrepreneur who has worked in media, events, real estate development and sales, and farming. He started off working for a local media house before he followed his entrepreneurial urge and launched into business. Thus followed a raft of interruptions from the political and economic climates he was dealing with at the time.…

Miriam Nabakwe is a food and beverage manager who has worked for leading restaurant chains and hotels in Kenya such as The Tamarind Group, Dorman's and The Fairview Hotel. Despite her success in employment, she chose to go the solopreneur route... and after a series of bad decisions, shortly found herself facing the auctioneer's hammer. She has sin…

This week we're talking to Nancy Kairo who is a certified life-coach, stylist and budding author... and her experiences with failure and how she moved past them will blow your mind! She re-started her life at the age of 44, but when you listen to her, you realise that 'age' is nothing but a number... and it's been nothing but favour from God since …

Rita Kanana was a high-flying C-suite executive in the tech world... until her craving for entrepreneurship saw her leave to co-found a fintech business. As business dipped and the partnership fell apart, she found herself having to figure out creative ways to keep staff motivated. She eventually left the business and found her footing in the wonde…

In 2022, Khalif Kairo, former CEO of car imports company Imports by Kairo, watched as a dispute between him and his business partners turned into an acrimonious battle of press statements that nearly bankrupted and deflated him. In this episode - featuring never-heard-before details of what was going on behind the scenes - he tells us how he surviv…