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We spoke to David O. Sijenyi, a consultant with passion in turning companies’ fortunes around and he had some interesting thoughts on how to turn your dreams into reality

David O. Sijenyi, a business development consultant and certified coach. (courtesy)
  • Majority of the people live to only see success from a distance like a mirage and grow bitter wondering what it is they did wrong not to earn it.
  • According to the University of Scranton, a whopping 92% of people who set New Year’s goals never actually achieve them.
  • Business Insider SSA recently had a chat with David O. Sijenyi, a business development consultant and a celebrated life coach. Find out the answer to this age old puzzle here!

In life, everyone wishes to be successful, not everyone, however, ends up becoming successful.

In fact, the majority of the people live to only see success from a distance like a mirage and grow bitter wondering what it is they did wrong not to earn it.

According to the University of Scranton, a whopping 92% of people who set New Year’s goals never actually achieve them. The same grim statistics haunt entrepreneurs, who decide to start businesses, and within the first twelve months most businesses go under.

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So, what exactly do the 8% of us in a very elite category of goal-achievers do differently that we ‘mere mortals’ don’t?

Business Insider SSA recently had a chat with David O. Sijenyi, a business development consultant and certified coach, who now traverses the continent partnering with companies and individuals on how to turn their fortunes around.

He is currently working with entrepreneurs to develop their businesses to scale up and prepare them for investment conversations across Africa for the world.

David is also the Regional Director for Africa with the global peer to peer advisory boards company, The Alpha Group, seeking to double the value of African businesses in two to three years.

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We sought to find out the answer to this age old puzzle. Here is an excerpt from our conversation.

Start small but think big

‘A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step’ the saying couldn’t be truer especially when it comes to making life changes.

A lot of the time, people want to wake up in the morning, wish for something and then by the end of the day expect to see changes. David says that is farfetched.

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“Among the things people do is they want to make a drastic change very quickly and that doesn’t always work out,” he states. 

David says making baby steps is what ultimately gives you the strength and confidence to run. More so it limits the scenario of feeling overwhelmed and quickly falling back to your old habits. 

That said, one can also make a drastic change so long as they are prepared to sit it out to the end.

“Now if circumstances put you in a place where you can make do with what you have and you’re ready for the consequences then go for it but the long term strategy always pays out,” says the former CEO of a money transfer company with operations in Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Dubai and the UK.

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How to beat the vicious cycle of failure

They say it's only a fool who does the same thing over and over again while expecting different results.

Well, according to David it is not that simple and a lot of sane people are stuck chasing after their dreams and doing different things but still getting the same results.

People go through experiences which then form a belief, these beliefs impact on the actions that they make, those actions impact the results that they get so it’s a vicious circle,” mentions the motivational speaker who targets mindset shift. 

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Experience is the best teacher in life but sometimes experiences are actually the problem and bad teachers who sow seeds of self-doubt, insecurity and failure long before someone has even tried something.

“For example, if you believe you can never become a business owner do you know that you then do things that ensure you can never become a business owner,” says the life coach who is passionate about drawing people out of their comfort zones and leading them to personal success that is replicable.

He adds, “Our experiences form certain beliefs, we may not have a lot of control around our experiences but if we change our beliefs then our actions are impacted. 

Ultimately David believes the key to breaking this vicious circle of failure is by changing the source of our actions, our beliefs.

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“So, if you were to fix this mess where do you start? By changing your believes,” says David

Once you are clear what it is you want, stick to it

Once you have identified your purpose and passion then you need to have a plan to actualise it.

Having a plan is the easy part, the hard part is following it through. Something David knows too well.

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“In 2009, I decided to quit my full time job and become a freelance sales person. I took a huge pay cut, more than half of what I used to earn but because I strongly believed this was the turnaround I needed, I did everything within my power to make it a reality. 

“I trusted God in everything, prayed, read books, worked hard and guess what, I went through 9 whole months of zero earnings but on month number 9, the day I made my first freelance sale and saw my commission, everything changed.” says David

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Eyewitness? Submit your stories now via social or:

Email: news@pulselive.co.ke

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