Catching a Vision Others Can't See

When I was about 9 years old, we would frequently visit my grandparents’ house in Lake Isabella, near inland California’s desert. One day, instead of throwing rocks or shooting sling-shots with my brothers, I wanted to help the hummingbirds. It seemed the tiny, ruby-colored birds had to work really hard just to get a drink from the hummingbird feeder in their front yard. I decided to stand beneath the feeder and offer my arm as a ‘perch’ for them to land on. My parents chuckled and told me I was wasting my time. I decided to try anyway…

After ten minutes, I realized a problem with my plan: I couldn’t hold my arm up any longer! I found a stick and cut it to the right height and returned to my post. An hour passed. An hour and 45 minutes passed. Then, I heard the rapid buzz of humming wings behind my head. I tried not to move (or breathe) as the bird came closer to inspect this curious perch. Ten seconds later, he zipped around to face me, landed on my arm and started drinking from the feeder, eventually stopping his wings altogether. Just inches from my nose was the most colorful and radiant bird I had ever seen! From then on, hummingbirds took turns landing and drinking from my perch whenever I visited Grandma and Grandpa. My parents took a picture (below- with hummingbird in front of white well) amused at the determination of their son. This was the first time I can recall deciding to do something others thought impossible or impractical… it has since become something of a habit and perhaps one reason we have caught a vision for helping Rwandan entrepreneurs.

Some friends and family have told us we are wasting our time and abilities in Rwanda. Others have told us we don’t know what we’re getting into. Yet it is clear Rwandan entrepreneurs are needed today, and we are well suited to helping them make the most of the energy they’re expending. It may take time to understand and help the clients we serve, but we believe if we can do it well, we may have the rare privilege of seeing a few Rwandan entrepreneurs take flight.

Those that catch a vision others don’t, and have the determination to see it through, often get to glimpse pure beauty… at least in my experience.

Onward & Upward,
-Carter

Focused Flexibility (or... Blundering with Purpose!)

Shortly after departing for Rwanda, Dano and I adopted a mantra: “Focused Flexibility”. We had just ten days in Rwanda to evaluate the merit of our proposed plan, and we needed to know if “on the ground” reality would support such a concept (or if we needed to put our energies into finding work elsewhere!).

By March, 2009, we had created a plan for addressing the needs of a people and place we did not know. I had never even been to Africa! As a marketer, this violated many of my own prescriptions for talking to the patient before prescribing a remedy. Still, we had asked enough wise people and done enough research to know there was a “missing middle” in the Rwandan economy that may be addressed by well-qualified and well-intentioned managers. We had to be focused on the particular need of building businesses that could employ many, but we had to be flexible enough to do it in a way that made sense to people and places we did not yet know. We could only figure out if and how we could best remedy such a need by learning and being pliable enough to adapt as local conditions required. While this may seem a tall order, we took some comfort in the fact that we had the right motives and might figure out the rest as we went. In the words of Friedrich Nietzsche, “He who has a why can endure any how”.

After over 45 meetings with entrepreneurs and others interested in building Rwanda and her economy, we boarded the plane to return. In just ten days, much had changed:

• we began targeting proven companies (employing more than 20) rather than start-ups
• we began partnering with the Government of Rwanda to serve promising companies
• we established new, like-minded strategic partners (and stopped working with others)
• we identified potential clients who wanted, and could pay for, what we could offer
• we changed our name to signify the ambition of our clients (Karisimbi volcano is the tallest point in Rwanda) and partnership with promising entrepreneurs
  

In short, we re-wrote our plan to sync with the reality we found, and the result was more compelling than we’d hoped for or imagined. With this confirmation, we proceeded to quit our jobs, sell our houses, and move our families to Kigali, Rwanda. Given how much we have yet to learn, we are sure to blunder with purpose for many years to come…

Onward & Upward,
-Carter

Don't Donate... INVEST

What a difference a word makes! A tremendous amount of assumptions can go into a simple word.... and sometimes challenging those assumptions is an uphill battle.

Donor-types and investor-types have expressed interest in supporting our efforts, so we thought it best to use the same word to describe what we hoped each could do: invest.

Investors expect a return, and frankly, we think that’s a good thing. Since we are a socially-motivated company, those interested in contributing financially are typically socially-motivated as well. All these folks expect a social return, but a subset also hope for a financial return, and they are not used to using the same word to describe both types of expectations.

Exhibit A: My father-in-law was warned by the Compliance Officer at his brokerage firm that he should limit involvement with Karisimbi Partners because he is restricted from “investing” in deals outside his firm.

Exhibit B (from the opposite direction): a charitable foundation balked when we used the word “invest” because they are restricted from making contributions to any but those with 501(c)3 status (which we have via a strategic partner, but most that have such status avoid using the word invest).

Both camps find themselves challenging underlying assumptions from opposing sides of the divide between profit and non-profit institutions. Jessica Jackley (one of Kiva’s co-founders) states, “people still have a lot of misperceptions about the limitations of being a (non-profit). It’s a tax code, not a religion.” Yet misperceptions are not easily erased.

We feel both donors and investors should expect a measureable impact for their contribution. This keeps Karisimbi Partners accountable. Instead of perpetuating a ‘donor mentality’, we’d prefer an ‘investor mentality’ (especially one that tallies more than merely money). Some prefer to call this Social Return on Investment. This mentality carries more dignity and mutual respect to contributor and contributee…. modeling the relationship we hope to soon have with clients.

So even if our use of the word invest conveys more than commonly ascribed, we intend to continue using the word (and expand its meaning) for the good of all involved.

Onward & upward,
-Carter

A "Dream Summit"... where it all began

It all started when two couples convened for a weekend retreat together…

The Crockett and Jukanovich couples have been kindred spirits and dear friends since they lived near each other in Seattle’s inner city (the Rainier Valley district). Although they have lived in separate cities and countries for the past six years, this friendship has proven to be one of those rare gifts that perpetually challenges and inspires. It seemed innocent enough to spend a weekend together considering what the future might hold… but what emerged by Sunday was a common dream nobody suspected; a dream that has captured their imagination and determination to see what they could do to join the hopeful work going on in Rwanda. The simple ‘vision’ was stated: To move two families to Rwanda in order to do what they do best for the benefit of those who need it most.

And what an adventure this simple vision has set into motion….

This is the first posting in an attempt to trace the dream we now call Karisimbi Business Partners. Our initial inspiration and advice came from those leading Hope International, Bridge2Rwanda and the KIST Business Incubator. Please forgive any naivety or mistakes revealed in this or future posts, they are ours and should not reflect adversely to those advising us. Our desire is to use this blog as a forum for refining our thoughts, sharing what we've learned, and inviting others to the journey so they can inform and extend it in better ways. One thing we know for sure: we have a lot to learn! We look forward to using this forum to learn more quickly and share more broadly than would otherwise be feasible.

Onward & Upward!
-Carter