Why Agnes Considers Herself Successful

If you were to bump into Agnes on any week day in the busy streets of Kampala you might not take much notice of her. Her open, serious face does not reveal much about her. That is until you get a chance to talk to her and learn what she does. She runs a printing business, is a Director of a Legal publishing company and aspires to start another business in Fashion and Designing. This for a 32 year old single lady is quite an accomplishment.
“I want to make a difference in this world and that is why I do all these things. It’s not just for the money,” she says.
She will tell you that getting to where she is has not been an easy ride. Raised up in a family of nine children with parents separated nothing else but determination and focus has got her to where she is presently.
“I stopped my secondary school education in form four in Kenya and didn’t do well enough to qualify to go to the university. So for the next two years I just sat at home. Until that is I got a clerical job.”
Knowing though that the job she got was going to be temporary she decided to take an evening secretarial course so that she would have some papers to show when job hunting. Five years later she was out of a job.
Again without a job she got an invitation to work in Kampala in a publishing company.
“I decided to try out the opportunity.” However in the time she worked in the company she saw an opportunity that was to shape her course of action in the next few years.
“I realised that there were people who had small printing jobs and who were being ignored by the company I was working for because the company was only interested in big clients with a lot of money. So I thought that if I could get a computer and some capital I could service these customers and get some money, though not a lot.”
Getting capital was quite a challenge because she was paid very little and sometimes she would not be paid for two months. During the time that she worked for the publishing company she also took evening classes in computer. With the knowledge she gained from the course and from working in the printing company together with the help of a friend who managed to get her some capital she proceeded to launch her business.
“I decided that instead of making money for someone else I could use the knowledge I had to make money for myself.”
Ever thinking forward she decided to continue with her education. She says that she needed to do this in order to use the knowledge she got from her education to develop her business and maybe get a job where she could work for a few years and get capital for her business. With this in mind she again enrolled for evening classes and within one year had passed her Advanced level high school studies and qualified to go to university.
It was quite a challenge though having to balance reading with running a business. One of them would have to suffer, citing examples of the time when she was cheated of her money by someone she had entrusted her business to. She believes that were it not for having to balance the two activities together she would have performed better at the university. She only managed a lower second degree in business administration.
However she has no regrets.
“I gave it my best and I believe that is good enough. In life it is better to look back and know that you gave something your best even if you were not as successful as you would have wanted to be than have regrets because you did not give it your best.” She considers herself successful. “To me success is the ability to accomplish and achieve something; it’s about achieving a dream. I wanted to get a degree and I have it, I have a job which I can use to support myself and others if necessary so I do consider myself successful,” she says.
On her plans for the future she says, “I want to make a difference in this world. For me that would be an additional reason to consider myself successful. My grandfather is the person who really inspired me and is my role model. He helped many people and really made a difference in their lives. I want to do the same.”