Meet Sam Baraka Arunga (His Barakaness) who loves everything books, entrepreneurship and music. Baraka is ambitious and a highly motivated person. He is insightful and is not afraid of being phenomenal… I usher you to Baraka’s life;
Joanne: Tell me a little bit about yourself
Baraka: I am a 70 year old 20 year old. I like vintage stuff: music, cars, architecture, culture you mention it. I work at Startup grind Eldoret and I also have my own startup. I’m the world’s biggest House of Cards, Suits and Power fan.
Joanne: Why do you do what you do?
Baraka: I am an entrepreneur because of a number of reasons.
One, I like the idea of challenging myself and doing things that scare me.
Two, I’m all for experimenting and failing and that’s really frowned upon in the corporate life.
Three, I want to be remembered.
Joanne: Where do you see yourself in five years?
Baraka: In five years I see myself as thee industry leader in outdoor advertising and also having connected Kenyans in all major cities to free internet. That and being the owner of Kenya’s only 1961 Mercedes 190 SL Cabriolet. Honestly, I’m in the dark about every other aspect of my future life.
Joanne: What is your day like, say a weekend?
Baraka: My weekends are pretty much me- time and they aren’t very different from my weekdays. Although I occasionally go for hikes or a mountain bike ride then come down and read a book or watch any of the shows I mentioned earlier. I could pretty much survive on just a combination of those.
Joanne: Do you have an embarrassing moment, What was it?
Baraka: As a socially awkward person I do have lots of them but I never remember much because there’s always a new one to replace an old one. But I remember this time I had a Science congress presentation that I did not prep for. I was sweating and stammering through the whole thing. But I bet right now nobody remembers, that’s the beauty of embarrassing moments.
Joanne: What is the one thing that most people don’t know about you?
Baraka: What most people don’t know about me is I can’t swim. There’s something about floating on water I just can’t seem to get.
Baraka: Earphones. I have to brag, I have the sickest music collection in town. A lot of my life happens with music playing; it’s almost like a drug. I don’t know what a trip to town, or anywhere, would be if I couldn’t air guitar to The Heavy.
Joanne: If you ruled the world for a day. What would you do?
Baraka: If I ruled the world for a day I would appoint other people, call them my minions, to do the ruling and find a Ferrari to drive around Italy all day. You only rule once.
Joanne: Which Zodiac sign are you, what do you find most interesting about this Sign
Baraka: Aquarius. I have never bothered with Zodiac signs before but I just checked it out and it says I’m good in the world business, advertising and promotion. I currently do all three!
Joanne: iPhone or Samsung?
Baraka: iPhone, because to me Samsung come off as people pleasers. Apple goes all out and it’s their way or the Samsung. In a world where customer is king, that’s pretty ballsy.
Joanne: What is your guilty pleasure?
Baraka: No, I can’t say that.
Joanne: Give me three qualities of the Ideal woman for you
Baraka: She reads. Bookies and nerds are my favorite people.
She’s driven. I like ladies who are about something and are working towards it.
She’s supportive in the right way. Equal measures of encouragement and corrective criticism.
(Think Claire Underwood, she’s ideal)
Joanne: What do you like most about Eldoret Town
Baraka: I like Eldoret because it’s an emerging market. There are lots of opportunities here.
Eldoret is also small and relaxed. You can actually slow down to enjoy life and not feel guilty about it or get left behind.
Joanne: Before you Hit 40 years, what is that one thing you’d like to Learn or do, the 1 person you’d like to meet, and the one place you’d like to visit
Baraka: I’d like to finally know how to cook and not just walk into the kitchen and make stuff that blows up or kills people. That and to ski.
I would like to meet Charles Bradley; I think he’s the greatest musician alive. Finding people that make good music these days is really rare.
I’d like to visit Italy. That’s if Elon Musk doesn’t put people on Mars. If he does then Mars it is. I actually think he will.
Joanne: What are your parting shots
Baraka: Always do that that feels counter intuitive because as humans we are wired to be cowards. That’s an original Baraka philosophy by the way.