Trails of making a dollar

Today my article writing will take on a new form. In this form, there will be no need to assign blame or inspire anger and animosity. In fact, this writing hopes for you the reader to come out feeling gratitude for better platforms such as LinkedIn and Entrepreneurs doing their best to organize markets. However, one needs to understand where the title comes from to open one’s mind to where the story leads too.

I have an incredibly good friend of mine from university. I remember sitting at the lunch table in the cafeteria and him saying to us all at the table, “you know what guys, poverty looks good on paper. These academics and high-class people will give a powerful speech about 2 million people dying of poverty in Africa. If you went on the ground to see the two million people and what it means, you would have tears in your eyes. I am telling you poverty looks good on paper!”

It is with this background that I write the story of one mother who was trying to feed 3 kids 10 years ago. Her name for the purpose of this story is Grace. One day I sat down to talk to grace as a young man who knew nothing about life. I asked her, “Grace, how do you feed your kids?” She looked me deep in the eye, made me sit down and recounted a story that goes a little bit like this.

“My business has a cycle, and in the game I play, there is nothing unethical or illegal that I do. I believe in a God, and I do not want to go to hell. The most important thing to me is my children. So, for the cycle that I am about to explain to you, I need to start from the beginning. Mufaro, I am a street vendor. I did not get the opportunity to go to school. I did not grow up with the luxuries and privileges that you now have. I learnt a good sense of right and wrong. I was shown a practical thought process. With that, I hope that one day I can give my kids the same and a little bit more. Because by the time we get to my great grandkids in my lifetime. I know that this life will be better for all of us. Just doing a little bit better than those before us goes a long way over time.

My cycle starts with $250 give or take. With this money, what I do is I hitch hike to the neighboring country of South Africa or Mozambique, depending on the season. I go there in search of secondhand clothing. You know those clothes that are giveaway for goodwill on TV, they sell them here in Africa. They are supposed to be free donations, but this is life, and we are happy because it creates business for us. If given away for free, people would die of hunger I tell you. Not everything the media tells you is true. When I get to the town where they are sold, I must wake up early in the morning around 5 am to get in line for the premium bags of old clothes. I need the top selection of clothing for me to make a profit. But you need to understand that I am not going on holiday when I am traveling. I am going to work. So, because most busses travel at night usually I get to my destination 3 hours before I wake up. I always wake up on time because I cannot afford to miss that for which I travelled. Also, I can’t afford to spend unnecessary time in places, all my money is for my kids.

When I buy these clothes, I make sure that I put them in the taxi and go straight back to the bus terminus so that I go back home. Sixty percent of the money is spent on these things and the rest is for travel and bribes to make sure that the goods get back home safely. Now the trick you need to learn with clothes is that clothes are sold at the beginning of the season. I have been doing this for years now, so I now know that if I get jackets at the beginning of winter season, we are getting the newest trends from the west as they are the trend setters, and we are the followers. There is a small window for clothes that you need to understand.

You see when you get the latest trend you can get 300% profit. That is why it is important to get there early and get the clothes here as fast as possible. What I do is I rent a stall at a local market for a month or two, $50 a month and few bribes. I know I said what I do is not illegal but if the legal institutions encourage us to do what they say is illegal then is it illegal? It is not that great because I still must save for my kid’s bus fare for school, their food, etc. So, a lot of the time I fast in prayer so that the money adds up while I sell the clothes. Yes, I can have up to $1000 cash when I am done with my selling, but you need to know that this is nothing over a period of 3 months with 3 kids. They need to go to school everyday each with $1 bus fare, they need food every day, school fees etc. By the time I am done in the next few months I am usually left with $100 extra and 20% of the clothes that are left that are out of style and cannot be sold.

So, what I do next is remarkably interesting, I go to the eastern highlands where they sell fruits. What I usually do is trade clothes for the fruit. In the rural areas they are not fashion conscious so they will take the clothes for the unbelievably cheap fruit. So, imagine now if I were to get 8 oranges for $1 now I can get up to 14 at the value of the same $1. For me there is a big profit. But it takes far much more effort to get all the things that I need because no one person can take all the clothes. You need to be hard and fast in your bargaining. 3 days in and 3 days out. I stay at a relative’s place, so it is much easier for me to do this. I must do this very quickly as you know fruit will rot and there are no fridges in the rural areas. So, when I am done, I rent a truck to take me back home. When I get home I start to sell the fruit. The window for selling clothes has closed.

From here you can imagine that I can make another $500 profit that goes all for my kids. But I need to tell you that I forgot about my rent, which is about $150 a month for a two-roomed house. So, when you do the math after I sell all this stuff again for the next 2 weeks I am back to the beginning of the cycle. But this time I travel buying and selling fruits till the next clothes season.”

I would like to take the time for you to notice what I did not write. I did not tell a story about how horrible Grace’s situation was even though there were many opportunities too. Notice that despite what could be taken to be a challenging situation, the human spirit rises to the occasion. I drafted a story about someone who was in the middle of solving a complicated situation. The moment they stop, it is game over, so this inspires the right enterprising spirit and real creativity. If this lady were a board of directors we can see how well she could time the market strategically, in finance especially derivatives, they call this Theta. She knows her market cycle well and what is needed when. It is even fair to say that she understands procurement and planning. To organize her business, informal as it may be is impressive especially given that little margin of safety. Then the fact that she knows how to sell means everything. If your business can generate revenue that is more than you spend, go on to take care of your needs and family, albeit it barely making it means something.

The reason this means more is because entrepreneurship starts from the beginning. Hold up, let us stop, dear reader is this not now confusing? What point am I trying to get at? Poverty looks good on paper. Let us think about this for a second.

Why does poverty look good on paper? Whose fault is it really? How do we fix it? What can be done? After asking all these questions I need to make the point that I want to make clear, clear. I do not have answers to most of the questions, but I have a fierce optimism about the human spirit when it is well resourced.

Regardless of the situation that those counted to be in poverty are in, given the right tools, they have the capacity to break the cycle. So much is being done in the market to empower youth and young people, there are more venture capitalists, platforms like LinkedIn help connect professionals, IT is making things easier, and markets are organizing better. The story I have written above was told to me 10 years ago and I recently met a much happier Grace doing the same thing but much smarter and at ease because it is what she knows and does best.

According to the World Economic Forum, it is thanks to trade and commerce that the world is now prosperous. The ability for one to pull themselves by the right economic means necessary to achieve their intended outcomes helps steer society forward. This is not a call to action but a quite simple statement, poverty looks good on paper, but it does not have to be the closing chapter of the story.