There's nothing as satisfying as ticking goals off a list, especially if your goals are the kind that often results in people laughing in your face.
That was the reaction I got when I informed my betrothed that I would turn my boda boda biashara into an empire by July, and marry her by September.
"Lakini Mutiso you have to be the craziest dreamer this side of the Sahara. Is your nduthii Covid-19 proof or do you have some money stashed away somewhere?" she quipped with an overdose of sarcasm.
Funny enough she was partly right. I did have some money stashed away. Only that it wasn't exactly mine.
After two years of riding my boda boda to its very limits, I had finally built an enviable record with the Co-op Bank family.
I don't know if this is the case with other financial institutions but mine takes personalised banking to a whole new level.
The first time my personal banker called to inform me of my new possibilities, I hang up. I honestly thought it was my lifelong friend Wambua playing another prank on me.
Wambua is what you would call a creative. Excellent in IT but still capable of beating any toddler as far as a wondrous mind is concerned. He is the reason why I ended up believing that stars were actually peepholes to another universe. Crazy, I know.
Anyway, the bank called again, I didn't hang up.
I had a plan in place. I would buy 5 more boda bodas and turn my passenger model into a fleet of delivery vessels.
March 13 was a dark day for the nation as this virus thing finally crossed our borders.
However, for a delivery business, this was actually a sort of blessing in disguise.
There's always a silver lining in every dark cloud if you look hard enough.
With the entire nation wary of moving around, my personalised deliveries complete with social media pages, fanned by the little English I learned in school, thrived.
From shopping to emergency transportation, Mutiso & Co, did it all.
Within the first 5 months, my Co-op Bank family almost named me the client of the year.
Paying my dues was that much easier on their online banking platform and Mwende (my betrothed) soon caught up to the fact that her man was bringing in some really juicy bacon.
She has always been good with numbers and lets just say, opposites attract.
Her exceptional accounting skills and my street smartness has seen our deliveries empire double in capacity.
It's now September and everything is in place. I just need her father's blessing.
Wambua tells me I need to take a drum of traditional brew and a black hen to my in-laws. I'm definitely not doing that.