How to Create Weatlh: Blood, Sweat, and Tears for Zambians Living in Foreign Lands

It is not unusual to find a group of Zambians who describe Zambia in glowing terms. That is not to say you would have to go to the ends of the world to find those that are totally divorced from her. Divorce Zambia?

They may have reasons. It is not for anyone of us to judge. For when somebody has a stone in their shoe, only they would know it and they would walk funny as long as it remains there. That group is not my concern. I am interested in the team of Zambians living in foreign lands who have been dealt a hard punch many a times but have refused to stay down. This is the team whose trials and tribulations I am familiar with.

Many Zambians living in foreign lands work hard for their money. Whatever it its that they get to keep is rescued from the talons of competing uses. It takes immense self discipline to resist the temptation to splurge. More so when you see the locals spending like there is no tomorrow.

The difference between the locals and the Zambians is that the locals do not have a flimsy background in terms of wealth like most Zambians do. As though that is not enough, the Zambians have a lot of responsibilities, to their immediate families and the families they left behind. They have elderly parents to support, brothers to feed, nieces and nephews to put through school, in addition to their own wives and acculturated belligerent children, not to mention bills. It is good enough that they have the courage to remember Zambia because some of their compatriots don't. Not even the illness and subsequent death of their parents would move them to want to visit the land the where their umbilical cord is buried.

As one would imagine, these two groups are not differentiated by skin color, hair style, mascara, the cars they drive or the homes they live in. The difference, however, is the method by which they choose to end the cycle of poverty. By this I mean creating wealth.

Some of them may be rich by all standards but they are not wealthy. The distinction between wealth and riches can be understood by examining the definition of the two terms. Being rich, in my view, is having substantial disposable income that exceeds one's spending needs, while wealth is a collection of assets that yield to its owner a flow of income without requiring the owner's presence. This portfolio of assets is usually under the watchful eye of somebody who is not the owner. Meaning, the owner has found and enlisted the helping hand of an enthusiastic, willing and able trustworthy person. Let's call this the third dimension.

The third dimension usually comes in the form of a relative, a friend, a lawyer or simply an employee. It is this element that bleeds almost every Zambian living in foreign land who attempts to create wealth in Zambia. The people forming this dimension have this misconception that Zambians living in foreign lands have too much money so much so that after signing all the nifty agreements, they see an opportunity to spend foolishly the money they don't know how it was raised.

What the third dimension of Zambians doesn't realize is that the Zambian living in foreign lands, upon recognizing the great opportunities to multiply a penny, may have borrowed to augment their small savings - that which they rescued from the demands of their children and spouses. Now, no banks in foreign lands lend the kind of money brought into Zambia by these patriotic Zambians without collateral. So then, if they didn't put up their car and draw out equity in their home, it is credit cards to the rescue. Anyone who has bothered to find out even a little about life in foreign lands would know that credit card interests have no mercy. But the Zambian living in foreign land, who hails from a humble background, realizes that akamuti ukwete, eko bominako imbwa. They brave it!

This is the money that the third dimension spends like they were Rockefeller children. One would be hard-pressed to find an enterprising Zambian in foreign land without a long and winding war story. Given an opportunity they would want to share with you the depth of the cuts and how much blood they have lost, how much they have sweated and how many tracks of tears on their faces one can find as they attempt to break free from the chains of poverty.

Zambia, the place we call home, has become unnavigable terrain in a business sense. We have, over the years, tried to find people to work with to create a portfolio of assets that can generate a steady flow of income for the benefit of all involved. We have drawn contracts with siblings, lawyers and employees but we end up losing our investments. I mean hundreds of thousands of dollars are lost every year because the lawyer did not do his job, your sibling got stupid, your employee took you for a ride and yet at the end, everyone but you wants to get paid.

Some people have argued that the mistake we make is that we place so much money in the hands of people who don't have much to start with. They further suggest that in order for such an undertaking to work, you need to start by bringing them up the economic ladder first and then give them the responsibility. A few things are wrong with that line of thouhgt.

First, it is made by people who themselves have never been involved in any business undertaking at all, so they would be arguing from a blind spot. In America, they call them Monday Morning Quarterbacks!

Second, it is made by people who don't want to hear the full story. They are locked in their own misunderstanding and whatever it is you try to say does not add up.

Third, their suggestion is in fact one cause of failure. Raising one a couple of notches on an economic ladder solidifies the misconception that you have a fountain of cash in the back yard in foreign land and that when they waste it, you will easily replenish it.

Fourth, they think that when you share your experience with them, you are trashing innocent Zambians because you have grown big headed, because you are in or are from a foreign land.

I am mounting a defense for Zambians living in foreign lands because in all situations, it is only their chickens that die, their houses that get built, or their intended get sold to two other people, their certificate of title that take six years to secure, their trucks that get sold for pennies on the dollar, their residential plots that get squatted on by political cadres, their floor plans that get rejected, their inquiries that get responded to, their proposals that get sucked up by bureaucratic black holes, and the list goes on. The Zambia that foreigners go to and make money hand over fist is somehow impossible for Zambians living in foreign lands. One would be forced to ask: What is it that the foreigners know about doing business in Zambia that we Zambians don't? How come they experience immense success after sowing so little and we end up with blood, sweat and tears in similar undertakings?

I think I know the cause; it has several faces. First, the people we interact with don't have respect for themselves. They only begin to gain some when they get themselves associated with someone they feel is superior to them. And a foreigner, to most Zambians, no matter how ugly, is seen as a superior being. Second, most Zambians may not admit to this but they would not want to see another Zambia succeed. They suffer from the crab bucket syndrome. In an effort to get themselves out of poverty they have to pull someone else down even if it means ukucilika uko buleswa. Third, many Zambians are impatient; they seem not to have the time to let the goose grow into a layer so they can pick a golden egg every morning. They are not satisfied with an egg a day, so they reach into the goose to get all the eggs now and in doing so they kill the goose that lays the golden eggs. In essence,they have a tendency to violate the law of the harvest. Fourth and most important; they refuse to learn to do business the business way. In other words, they get stuck in the comfort zone that ignorance provides. They take pride in being part owner but fail to embrace the spirit of work.

Zambians living in foreign lands on the other hand are stuck on the horns of dilemma; to find a good team of fellow Zambians on the ground who would put in as much work into the venture as if they were the owner, or quit their jobs and return to Zambia to try their prowess. This would create a gap in the financing equations - who would pay back the loans? They need fellow Zambians on the ground who would share in the vision and protect the assets from internal as well as external elements while the assets produce income for mutual benefit.

Foreign lands are replete with business models that be easily implemented when one has people one can work with without sacrificing the current source of income. Zambia's rate of unemployment can be reduced in no time if the third dimension did not unwittingly open the jugular, stub you in the back and put unnecessary financial burden on you.

So, we can conclude that a Zambian living in foreign land would do well to spend time to find constitute a group of reliable people to work with. It is better to miss an opportunity than to try and lose through ignorance, incompetence and spite.