If you have to keep applying the force to do it, you will lose. Definitely, you will.

This is going to be a long newsletter. Hope worth committing.

For most people, building readiness is another set of rolling on the bed when you are supposed to be sleeping. Wondering how they would be able to become ready.

The pain of laziness must outweigh the pain of becoming ready. It must outweigh the pain of dragging through with anything that’s just passing through yourself.

Very direct and clear – getting ready takes work. And no one would underestimate that.

But lazing around comes with lots of pain.

As I continue to push my understanding about how to succeed in entrepreneurship, I have come to realize there are so many silent and very successful business men and women.

One key thing very clear with them is that what has taken them where they are is ability to create fun on many aspects that keeps them ready. Great desire creating fun in doing hard things and on that point, they get massive insights.

The sure thing with yourself is that you are also already - ready

Your actions follows a certain preparation whether consciously or unconsciously

Your preparedness is always conditioned into your mind by your environment.

Your actions and identity therefore solidifies based on the environment

Readiness is a feature. It’s an identity  

 Therefore, you are always ready based on your pre-conditionment

You are ready to take up what you already identify with.

Someone who deeply identifies with being great manual work labourer ( after many years contracting plow and plant during different seasons) doesn’t have to force to pick up hoe every day for the next assignment on a rainy day.

That’s who they are. That’s their identity

A business person who picks Kshs 1,000,000 directly from business cash box and sends to vehicle dealer as a deposit for private use vehicle just because the dealer announced arrival of a new stock that is fancy, would do it again and again without pain even if it strains business survival.

Their goals are intertwined with no actual strong commitment for the business. That’s who they are.

In fact they would feel more pain by not practicing such recklessness.

That is intertwined with who they are – not because they were is locked like that from birth, but their conditionment don’t allow them see other way ( human feel threatened when their conditioned goals seem threatened)

The key thing is which is that goal you have that feels threatened

This is point where it becomes more interesting

A small business owner doesn’t have to force herself fetching business cash to pay merry go round that will mature 10 months later. A beer lover doesn’t force picking business money in the evening to pass by club for beer that otherwise can’t afford without business money. Someone who loves a phone game or a TV series doesn’t feel pain procrastinating their daily job to watch whole series or continue scrolling through mobile games.

These type of people, give them credit, they are arguably not lazy at all. They are just self- ready towards their conditioned goal.

Just being ready to persistently push for mediocre goal

For sure , this where most people are. And mainly those asking why is my business not growing. Where being ready for mediocre system is outweighing being ready for change. And I have mentioned above about dozens of silent men and women swimming in very successful businesses started and run for the last no more than 15 years (This is real witnessing I have gotten through our work of working with established business on Operations Improvement & Excellence.

Some one said ‘’Gachoka, these people seem flowing with easiness – no pain’’

Yes sure, for me developing deep insight on what to write about, targeting practical ways to write on and make you a better self to build business, is very comfortable. Not thinking deep is very boring for me. I can no longer pick doing business just for cash transactions. That’s how I did businesses when I was starting. Now it’s even very boring to discuss about it.

So when I meet many people ask how I manage to interplate business design and ability to grow- it’s the choice I made some years back and now I am always ready to see business in the form of their design and not in form of their bringing cash – very unsustainable approach.

More interesting

Your behaviours are intrinsically tied to who you are. Your identity. The identity you have worked to create.

If you, today, you can decide to join in- to understand this process, or re-engineer it, the next bang would be ability to achieve nearly impossible goals of growth.

Can you connect

The best laboratory is the pain you go through - stagnation of your business or life

Are you ready to set yourself on to your marks, get ready ?

Every day for you, seems same as last many more days – noticing huge weight of stagnation

May be more pain would still be required to push you out. Or you are ready for change and expose yourself to a different conditioning.

When I started coaching small and micro businesses for growth, I got like 10 owners. I created a calendar of structured calls of 30 mins once per week. Where someone would need some clarification, they could text me on WhatsApp and I would guide.

I realized the phase of awareness was done- 2 months into it- and now needed to hold each one of them accountable. All these was being done for FREE.

It became interesting – accountability phase.

Out of 10 only 4 were able to catch up with accountability. Their conditionment could not allow the rest get out of their comfort zones.

No keeping call time, no doing assignment on time, so many more excuse of why they don’t open business on time consistently and so on.

I am happy they are enjoying their comfort zone. Let’s hope pain will not push them to oblivion later into some few years.

With the rest 4 – my coaching program became better and better. The target is to make their business being able to generate over Kes 10M in annual revenue in two years.

Readiness isn’t built, it’s discovered

I have consistently been creating time for deep thoughtfulness last 9 months now

I have been writing fortnight newsletter last 10 months now

I have been enhancing small and micro business coaching last 8 months now

I have been attending sessions to be coached last 18 months now.

I have been doing weekly work out since Feb 2025

I have been reading books one every month since Dec 2024

Becoming ready for all the above, was never forthcoming. I fell off very many times, until I started the journey to discover my conditionment and identity.

These have delivered myself to so many great opportunities – just last 18 months combined.

What was hard to get ready for, is now hard not to do.

And these have been possible as a result of awareness of pain, changing my conditionment environment and DISCOVERY.

When you identify where you are is more painful than where you want to be – your readiness starts (awareness force)

Let’s set in some bullet form summary.

Are you ready ?

10 Ways to build readiness

 #1 – What is story about you

Are you an investor in your business or just employee ready to get cash and close the day. Until you obtain investor mentality, it will be hard to be ready

#2- Season of planting & harvesting

Understand your season. Your start up small & micro business cannot be at harvesting season. Be ready to plant, sacrifice and wait

#3-Master yourself

Build cognitive abilities for things that matters. Unlock your environment to see bigger things

#4- Design the business to become brand for the world

Build curiosity to see business designs that are for world. Many micro businesses are not designed in a way they can grow

#5- Leverage through cooperation and networks

List 100 people you want to network with coming year and start looking for them

#6- Continuous learning

You will become ready on the journey of your learning. Your commitment to learning is directly proportional to ability to be ready

#7 –Look long-term and strategic

Create mentality of long term vision. Where will you be in 10 years. Same micro problems. Learn to combine your everyday activities with strategic positioning. Like building friendships that will materialize in 2 years.

#8-Overcome Fragmentedness

See the whole picture. Even if you have small challenges today, what do you see the reality will be like in 5 yrs

#9- You have passion but build relevant activities

Build planner that pushes you to doing activities that yield results. Too much talking will not deliver anything. Be a doer. With activity planning you become better in creating quality activities

#10- Bottom line – Be open to coaching.

Abandon your ego. It’s not your fault that you don’t know. Be ready to be coached and shown what works. Your mind is powerful and will be very generous to pick up and enable you shorten the journey of growing business.

That was really very long piece. Hope it was worth.

Thank you my friend for your time

Gachoka

Ps

I am Gachoka Kang’ata (GK) very passionate about entrepreneurship. My mission- Sharing for Growth. Over 5,000 reading this newsletter monthly.

MD at Cygnus Consulting – working with mid-sized businesses on Continuous Improvement (CI) Designs – Operations Improvement & Excellence. So far, Cygnus pride having worked with over 50 Owners and decision makers.  See more: www.cygnus.co.ke

Founder & dedicated coach of micro & small enterprises for growth. Looking forward to impact over 1000 small business in 5 years. See more www.poweringhouse.com

Follow me on socials https://www.linkedin.com/feed/   and https://x.com/CharlesGachoka