I BELIEVED GETTING MARRIED WAS ESSENTIAL FOR MY SUCCESS

 

Our Executive director wrote a candid piece of how he discovered the idea of making a five year plan and how it has transformed his life. Many young people would put marriage as the last thing on the list because they believe it's an expensive affair- He put marriage top on his list of priorities and considered it a critical element if at all he was to succeed in life.

Read his reflections in the below article.

ZACHUAS OGONJI FIVE YEAR PLAN

ABOUT ME

I am 35 years old.

I have a family- My wife and Three Children (Two girls aged 9, 4 and a boy aged 1 year old)

I am from a family of 9 siblings (4^th born) - My parents are all still alive.

Academically- I am pursuing a second bachelor’s degree in business administration at BYU, I hold a first bachelor’s degree in development studies from Mount Kenya University, I also studied Diploma in Mechanical Engineering at Nairobi Technical Training Institute. I completed my Highschool education in 2008 and Primary education in 2004.

I have attended several fellowships. Political leadership and Governance programmes by FES-Kenya in 2017, Young Africa Leadership Initiative (YALI) by US Government in 2018, Obama Africa Leaders by Obama Foundation- 2019/2020 and Mandela Washington Fellowship by the US government in 2023.

I have taken many online courses of interest.

My Professional and career experience spans 11 years and I prefer to be identified as a Development Practitioner and Social Enterprise development Consultant. Am other opportunities, I served as Country Director for Lift the Children for three years between 2019 and 2022. I am the Founder of Village to Global Foundation, Plomuna Projects Investment Limited, Inua Village Savings and Credit Cooperative Society Limited and Inua Village Textile Industry Limited.

MY LIFE PRINCIPLES

1.       I believe that families are God given to strengthen individuals.

2.       I believe in helping people to stand on their own two feet and solve everyday life challenges.

3.       I believe everyone and everything can improve and grow.

4.       I believe in working hard in everything I do- being proactive and always keeping a positive attitude.

Background of My personal Plan.

In 2013 after completing a Diploma in Engineering- I was faced with my first dilemma in life. During my 90 days of post diploma Attachment, I discovered my passion and strength were different from what I had studied.

I was to decide whether to continue working and finding opportunities and an engineering technician even though I did not like it- (A lot of money had been spent on the three-year course by sponsors) or to fly and find my purpose. I chose the latter-.

Having come from an extremely poor background, I had to work through everything by myself.

It was in April 2013, that I realized that I needed a life plan. It came to me like a revelation one night.

With limited knowledge and Ideas- I drafted my first five-year plan (2014-2018) The plan had this core components

1.       Marry and start a family.

2.  Go back to university and pursue a goal that aligned to my passion in community projects.

3.       Find a big and complex Church that would anchor my faith and spirituality.

4.       Seek Opportunities to lead and build my leadership skills.

As 2018 came to an end, I sat down to evaluate how much I had accomplished on that plan. These were the shocking outcomes.

1.       In June 2013 I was baptized a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter- Day Saints. By 2018 I had served in various callings including First Counselor in the Bishopric.

2.       In May of 2014 I married Mercy and by end of 2018, I had a family of three people. We got sealed in the Temple in 2016.

3.       In April of 2014 I started a bachelor’s degree in development studies and graduated in December of 2017.

4.       In May of 2013 I launched my first Community Based organization and by the end of 2018 I had worked with and operated a series of projects including being hired as a Country Director for Lift the Children in November of 2018.

5.       On the leadership front- I made significant progress including attending two major leadership fellowships in 2017 and 18.

In Just Five years I had transformed my life in ways that I would have never imagined. Determined and eager to grow further. I developed my second Five-year Plan. This Plan was uniquely different because I was no longer a single young man- I had a wife and two children to think about and have them involved.

The 2019-2024 plan that I am currently implementing and will end in December was more outlooking.

1.       We set out to empower my siblings more deliberately and other people that would otherwise depend on us for financial support.

2.       We set out to ensure everyone in our family was accessing the best education that could help them become better contributors.

3.       We set out to start developing family wealth and resources.

4.       Continue deepening my leadership skills and opportunities to lead.

5.       Grow our family’s faith in Jesus Christ and ensure continued spiritual growth.

6.       Be physically and mentally healthy.

As I start 2024- I am spending the first part of the year mediating on how far I have come with the 6 areas and my overall growth as an individual who now has responsibilities beyond self.

Already I can enumerate some of the huge successes we have realized since 2019.

1.       Through the work, I inspired my elder siblings to aspire to learn new skills and if possible open their opportunities to learning. My Sister our eldest, took up the challenge. 22 years after she dropped out of school due to lack of fees, she enrolled back in adult learning completed and took a course in Early Childhood Education. I enjoy seeing her flourish. My two elder brothers too went back to adult classes and in 2022 they sat for Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education. They are now enrolled in various online courses. My younger brothers and Sisters are all on the same path of developing skills that would lead them to become self- reliant.

2.       I enrolled back to university to start a second-degree program in Business administration same as my wife who graduated two years ago with a Diploma in Food production.

3.       Between 2019 and now, I have attended some of the prestigious leadership training and my work at Lift the Children as a Country Director for three years demonstrated that with planning even the wildest of imagination are within reach.

I have continued to see new possibilities for growth and have been even bold to start several businesses in this period.

As I talk to young people about having personal plans- I do understand how such a tool can shape their perspectives about life, As I speak to parents and organizations asking them to support their children or youth in their program to join my coaching program- I fully understand how the power of a personal story like this can transform attitudes and mindsets of young people.

My desire is to have more and more young people understand and embrace structured planning for their lives so they can thrive.

To know more about our Coaching and other projects head to

www.plomuna.co.ke

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