Here are some notes on some remarkable entrepreneurs in Malawi, answered in FAQ format.

There are links below to further resources, including videos – enjoy! 

Q: Was I able to get anywhere new this year, and was I able to find any new stories?

A: Yes – here are some new extreme entrepreneurship stories from Malawi:

Johny Saylence, who figured out his own hydroelectric project (using water dropping down a mountain) that, as of October, 2021, is bringing electricity to over 300 homes in his village, which has never had a steady, predictable supply.

Here is a video of the location (my first attempt at using a drone to record part of a story).

Here is a video of Johny showing us the turbine and dynamo and explaining how they work.

Here is a video of Johny explaining where the components come from.

Here is a video (if you scroll down in this LinkedIn post, created earlier in 2021 while we were on location) of what it was like traveling up (and down) the mountain near Livingstonia with Johny’s friend.

Here’s a video that includes a view of Lake Malawi at sunrise - and Johny answering whether his system could be replicated (he says that a neighboring village would prefer to attach themselves to his network).

Johny explains his vision (that others doubted): why not generate your own electricity?

Finally, here’s Johny thanking some important individuals (from a great viewpoint above the waterfall). Like the people profiled in my first book, he makes it clear that a team is needed to succeed, and he invites us to visit - emphasizing that the attention gives him positive encouragement that what he does matters.

Mike Mlombwa, who arrived in Blantyre as a child wearing sandals made from discarded tires. He progressively built bigger businesses, starting with selling stationary, until now he owns a car rental business (Countrywide). He started an organization that now helps Indigenous Malawians to learn business skills and start their own companies.

Memory Mdyetseni, founder of an unusual school, Atsikana Pa Ulendo Secondary School, who’s shown that poor country kids can do just as much as those born into privilege: every 3 tuition-paying families subsidize a 4th student’s scholarship. Many of these return to their home villages help others (either entering care professions like teaching or nursing, or else starting businesses) and are seen as role models. Others are at universities (all of the public universities in Malawi, plus some in the US and Canada). One of her big lessons — and my favorite quote from our conversation — is that “the world belongs to the stubborn.”

Olivia Linenga Chifukwa, founder of a local support group of women entrepreneurs. Here is a link to our conversation in Zomba.

Remy Gakwaya, who fled Burundi (after losing his family to conflict) to Malawi, only to discover that he was barred from working as a refugee. So he taught himself to code online on a simple smartphone. Then he earned a degree online. Besides programming to earn money, since 2015 he has taught 2,000 other people to code. Early this summer (2021), he founded a school (takenoLAB) that now teaches both fellow refugees and native Malawians (including mothers) entrepreneurship skills and how to code and freelance or find employment.

Q: How do I find people like these?

A: Like the people at the center of these stories, I ask for help – for example, this summer I posted a simple question on social media: whether anyone out there knew folks where I was going. A journalist friend in Poland knew a Malawian journalist who suggested that Johny’s hydropower story would be one of the more interesting untold stories in her country – thank you, Robert Socha and Chisomo Ngulube, respectively! But there’s also being open to serendipity. It was only after I got there (and at the end of the trip, at a place I almost did not visit, that I met people who suggested that I interview Olivia and Remy (thanks Annalies, owner of Pakachere Backpackers Hostel in Zomba, and her friend Tom, for the connection to Remy).

Q: Any themes these new stories have in common, and with those in my book?

A: There are a few. Hard to list them all here. But here are a few: first, they start! Often with a surprising lack of a planning – but there’s magic in trial-and-error-and-refining, and not being intimidated or limited by what is not known. There’s also being motivated by a sense of mission to solve a problem, rather than money – and that sense of mission, combined with grit, consistent effort, and asking for help, sometimes results in funding and other support, then financial sustainability, and maybe even profitability, assuming they decide to run their venture as a business.

The key characteristic of “do more doing than planning” is illustrated very much by the story of Johny’s hydroelectric project. He started his project by creating a collection pool for water at the top of the mountain, before knowing exactly what piping or generator he would use, or how he would fund those key components, or even how the electricity would eventually be distributed!

This is not to say that planning is not important. But a lot of connections and sources of support were only discovered because the protagonists were taking action. Or, conversely, supporters and investors found the entrepreneurs. This was the case in the example of Johny’s hydroelectric project. In fact, some connections and sources of support are impossible to foresee ahead of time. Similarly, Memory Mdyetseni noted that she only met her most important partner, a Canadian, because she had started taking action.

These traits are also apparent in the stories in my book. Some of the characters and their organizations are continuing to survive – and some even thrive – despite adversity and the volatility and craziness of the world, because of their predisposition to take action and openness to adaptation. One entrepreneur openly criticizes over-planning and openly advocates a playful, open-ended approach to trial-and-error, calling it “a tropical way of thinking” (Paulo Lugari in Colombia, as quoted in Chapter 6 of my book).

Some background:

Q: Why have I visited 122 countries (and counting)?

A: As I mention in my book, it’s partly driven by teaching. A lot of my students and ~96% of people on the planet aren’t Americans. So I started collecting stories of entrepreneurs in unfamiliar places with inspiring and universally relevant lessons to share. Students loved these instructive mini-cases. Some won awards. A majority of these diverse main characters are female founders. I finally collected some into my first book: Extreme Entrepreneurship, which is a like a blend of Anthony Bourdain’s Parts Unknown and Guy Raz’s How I Built This.

Q: What does it take to qualify as an example of extreme entrepreneurship?

A: This term does not has a set definition. To qualify for inclusion in my book, the stories have some combination of (1) starting out with few resources and/or (2) overcoming other adversity, like poverty, being a new arrival with no preexisting network, or being in a conflict zone, etc., and (3) starting a venture that brings about change, which (4) seems unlikely to succeed, plus (5) often involves an interesting location.