100 million Cheque: Part 2

Continued from part 1

After writing the 100M cheque and saying the big prayer, Mark got thinking. He always had the urge to get into consultancy of some sort and he thought it was a good opportunity to try something. After thorough thinking, he decided he’d venture into training managers and business owner from all walks of life on matters corporate governance. He however didn't have a clue how and where to start. As he was thinking up of setting a firm, he decided to apply for scholarships abroad with a view of acquiring some skills in his line of interest.

Two months after sending many applications, he got a positive response from some University in Australia. Lucky for him, the scholarship was fully paid for. He therefore, held his thoughts and plans of setting up the firm and decided to go study first. He found himself in Australia and studied for 3 years. Upon graduation he was lucky to get some job there, a contract for two years. He really worked his socks off and saved a lot of money. At the expiry of the contract he returned to Kenya as a loaded man with approx. 15M. A tidy sum for a young man in his mid-thirties. This, coupled with newly acquired skills on corporate governance and training, he was raring to go.

On landing in Kenya, his immediate thoughts were to actualize his dream and set up his firm and get going. Blame the devil if you may but the rich fool mentality caught up with him. He assumed that the money was too much for him to finish in his lifetime. He bought a big car and started to indulge in alcohol together with some friends. Talk of bad company. To make it worse he was still single and girls started milling around him. He thought that overnight he had become ‘tall dark and handsome’ now that the girls were looking for him. You know some of us who are as short as Zacchaeus of the bible and not so good looking get worried when all of a sudden girls get interested in you. Of course when you sit on a fat wallet you can become very tall and good looking.

No money is big money if all you are doing is spending it. Mark lost his dream and money too. One day one time, he realized that his money was tending towards zero at an alarming rate. But then it was too late when he realized so, because by the then it was only the big car remaining and some tens of thousands. He also realized that he forgot God; you see when all is bliss, it is very easy to forget your Maker especially in the days of your youth (Ecclesiastes 12:1). Someday, as frustrations started getting in, he took his bible and as he was flipping through he saw the 100M cheque. It made him more frustrated and in the heat of the moment he tore the cheque into two and threw it in the dustbin.

That night he tried to sleep but somehow he could not. In the dark of the night, he had an opportunity to look at roller coaster of a life he had lived, mistakes made, opportunities missed and lesson to be learnt. He knew that he had goofed big time. It was on this night that in my humble opinion he experienced a transformation. He rose from his bed, went looking for the torn cheque in the dustbin, took it and returned it inside his bible. This explained why the cheque I saw was in two pieces. It was a time of re-awakening his dream, at time when he asked God for a second chance on bended knees. Prodigal son returning to his father and promising to behave and become a good steward.

By then his drinking buddies had left his life, and the gold prospectors too had realized that no more gold was available. This time, the lessons were finally and painfully learnt. He was evidently at the rock bottom of a sinusoidal wave. You know they taught me about y = sin x to be the sinusoidal wave.

Mark embarked on immediate transformation by first offloading the state of the art Mercedes Benz. It had to go……after all where else would he get any reasonable cash to rebuild his life?

The final part details how he managed to rebuild his life to his present state which left me in awe. He not only became a strong Christian believer but he also adopted a business bible, same to the one adopted by Fai Amarios (he of kata pingu fame), RIP. He also walked down the aisle and he kept saying his family is a big inspiration. Curious to know whether he finally earned the right to cash the 100M cheque?