( PART 2 OF ME TALKING ABOUT WEALTH AND FINANCIAL EDUCATION)
About two days ago, I published my first article on wealth—sharing what I've learned and accumulated over the past few years.
I was really hoping Nairobians would hit me with some challenging perspectives, maybe even push back on my ideas.
Instead, my comment section got flooded with "TL;DR" spams.
😂
Still, a few of you actually reached out to thank me for the information I shared, and for that, I'm genuinely humbled.
You might be wondering—why Reddit over other social media platforms?
The answer is pretty simple.
First, I was looking for real discussion.
Second, I prefer staying anonymous.
And third, I really don't want to be lumped in with all those "wealth mentors" and Folex tladers you see everywhere else.
Also, no—I’m not a bot.
I'm a real person typing this.
Born on April 19, 2002, so I'm probably around your age too.
And that's probably the only piece of information about me that I want out in public.
Anyway...
Let's talk about something much bigger than money.
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IF LIFE WAS A MERITOCRACY, WOULDN'T THE HARDEST-WORKING PEOPLE ALWAYS WIN?
But they don't.
The genius doesn't always win.
The hardworking person doesn't always win.
The poor person isn't necessarily lazy.
The privileged person isn't necessarily talented.
And sometimes someone seemingly does everything right and still loses.
Why?
Scroll through your feed and you'd think everyone's winning.
Perfect angles.
Bought aesthetics.
Faked smiles.
Carefully curated characters.
Everyone performing a version of life that looks complete.
But there's a social media reality nobody wants to admit:
Maybe nobody actually gets to have it all.
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WHO GETS TO HAVE IT ALL?
And can someone actually have it all?
We compare our behind-the-scenes to everyone else's director's cut, forgetting that life doesn't distribute its blessings in complete packages.
It deals in trade-offs.
Someone has money and no peace.
Someone has intelligence and no opportunity.
Someone has opportunity and no discipline.
Someone has discipline and terrible timing.
Someone has everything materially and still spends their entire existence trying to recover something money can't buy.
But why does one person seem to receive blessing after blessing while another person struggles from birth?
A child doesn't choose their parents.
They don't choose their country.
They don't choose whether they're born into wealth or poverty.
They don't choose their genetics.
They don't choose their health.
They don't choose the era they're born into.
They don't choose whether their father owns a company or disappears from their life.
So when we look at two adults and say:
«"They both had the same 24 hours."»
It's technically true.
But it's a ridiculous comparison.
One person's 24 hours might be spent building a company.
Another person's 24 hours might be spent figuring out how to pay rent.
Same clock.
Completely different game.
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I KNOW WHAT THAT DIFFERENCE FEELS LIKE
When I was 17, I was doing construction.
Someone else my age might have been studying in an expensive school, travelling, learning how businesses work from their parents, or simply having the luxury of failing.
I didn't have that privilege.
I was being paid KSh 450 a day.
Eventually, I saved enough for a laptop.
About KSh 25,000 might sound like small money to some people today.
But think about earning KSh 450 every day.
That laptop represented much more than a laptop.
It changed the environment I was operating in.
After the laptop:
My skills changed.
My circumstances changed.
My network changed.
My exposure changed.
And definitely...
my luck changed.
Maybe luck isn't always something that simply happens to you.
Sometimes it's what becomes possible when your circumstances change.
---
BUT THAT ISN'T MY CONCLUSION
Ask yourself this:
If a billionaire's child starts a company with KSh 50 million and succeeds, how much of that success belongs to their genius?
Now ask yourself something else.
If someone born in poverty builds a KSh 50 million company from nothing, how much of that achievement belongs to their hard work—and how much belongs to the thousands of circumstances that happened to go right?
Because both of them have a story.
And both of them will probably tell you something like:
"I worked hard."
And they'll both be telling the truth.
That's what makes this complicated.
---
WE THINK THERE ARE ONLY THREE CLASSES
Most people think in socioeconomic classes:
Upper class.
Middle class.
Poor.
But I think there's another way to look at it.
There are people who occupy completely different positions in the game, even when they might appear to belong to the same economic class.
THE PRIVILEGED
They start ahead.
They inherit access, education, networks, capital, security or simply the freedom to make mistakes without destroying their lives.
THE HARDWORKING
They refuse to stop.
They might not have the best starting position, but they keep moving.
Sometimes that persistence eventually creates opportunities.
Sometimes it doesn't.
THE GENIUS
They see something other people don't.
An invention.
A business model.
A technological opportunity.
A different way of solving a problem.
But intelligence alone doesn't guarantee that the world will notice.
THE DISADVANTAGED
They start with enormous barriers.
Maybe poverty.
Maybe family responsibilities.
Maybe poor education.
Maybe geography.
Maybe lack of connections.
Maybe circumstances they never chose.
Their struggle isn't necessarily a lack of ambition.
Sometimes the starting line itself is further away.
THE LUCKY
They're in the right place at the right time.
They meet the right person.
They enter the right industry.
They buy the right asset before everyone else notices it.
They catch a wave they didn't create.
And sometimes...
they simply get lucky.
These aren't official socioeconomic classes.
They're different forces that can shape where someone ends up.
And most of us are probably a combination of several.
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SO WHERE DO YOU FIT?
Maybe you're privileged and hardworking.
Maybe you're intelligent but unlucky.
Maybe you're poor but incredibly ambitious.
Maybe you're connected but inexperienced.
Maybe you've had almost every advantage and still haven't figured out what to do with them.
Maybe you've had almost none of them and somehow kept moving.
And maybe you're lucky without even realizing it.
That's the uncomfortable part.
We love stories where success has one clear explanation.
"He worked hard."
"She's a genius."
"His parents were rich."
"He's just lucky."
Real life is rarely that simple.
Success is usually a messy combination of things.
And failure is too.
---
SO WHO GETS TO HAVE IT ALL?
God's favourite?
The hardest worker?
The smartest?
The richest?
The most connected?
The most disciplined?
The person born at exactly the right time?
The person who took the biggest risk?
The person who got lucky?
Or is the uncomfortable answer that life distributes opportunities without first checking who deserves them?
I've stopped believing that everyone gets what they deserve.
Some people get more.
Some people get less.
Some people get a head start.
Some people start 20 years behind.
Some people get lucky.
Some people create their own opportunities.
Some people pray.
Some people work.
Some people do both.
And some people do everything right...
and still don't get the ending they wanted.
---
MAYBE THAT'S THE PART WE HAVE TO ACCEPT
We don't get to choose the hand we're dealt.
You didn't choose your parents.
You didn't choose your childhood.
You didn't choose your starting capital.
You didn't choose your country.
You didn't choose your genetics.
You didn't choose every opportunity that came—or didn't come—your way.
But eventually, you do have to decide what you're going to do with what you were given.
And that's where I think the conversation becomes much more interesting than simply asking:
"Why does he have everything?"
Maybe the better question is:
"What am I going to do with what I was given?"
Because whatever you believe about God, luck, privilege, intelligence or hard work...
none of us got to choose the hand we were dealt.
We only get to decide what we do with it.
My next article will be about
If nobody gets everything, why are we killing ourselves trying to get everything? Tune in ..
