Tales of Strength and Resilience: Ep 8 with Douglas Ogutu

Tales of Strength and Resilience podcast explores the boundless dimensions of strength and resilience. Join the host, Muthoni Waigwa, on a transformative journey as we delve into the very essence of these profound qualities. We will unveil the multifaceted nature of strength and resilience in heartfelt conversations with extraordinary individuals.

Douglas Ogutu who resides in Nakuru, Kenya – is an award-winning artist, entrepreneur, and the founder of Dowe Music & Arts - an academy and a production studio. He offers training in music (instrumentation as well as singing) and arts, Entrepreneurial Skills, Writing, Design Thinking and Leadership. He organizes mentorship workshops through Art4Leadership programs in which young people are linked to potential employers, sponsors, colleagues as they get entertained through music and arts together with professional speeches. 

Being an innovative person, he has leveraged on the power of technology to keep his artistic, leadership and business endeavors going. This is through virtual trainings from his academy, collaborations with creatives within and outside the country as well as workshops and concerts where he is either invited or organizes to perform. ]

Currently, Douglas is the Participant Engagement Chair for the Kenya National Yali Alumni Chapter where he mobilizes the young people in taking part in socioeconomic projects and initiatives while spearheading the visibility amplification for the alumni.

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Transcript

Muthoni Waigwa:         Welcome to the Tales of Strength and Resilience podcast, where we explore the boundless dimensions of strength and resilience. Join me your host, Muthoni Waigwa, on a transformation journey. As we delve into the very essence of these profound qualities. We will unveil the multifaceted nature of strength and resilience in heartfelt conversations with extraordinary individuals. We will empower and enlighten through these inspiring stories triumphing over adversity and discovering transformation lessons embedded within. Get ready for today's episode where untold stories of inner power and tenacity await us. Let's begin.

                                    Hey there. Thank you for listening wherever you are in the world. In today's conversation, we delved into the compelling topic of embarking on uncharted journeys and embracing one's true purpose. It's worth noting that in Africa, the arts are often perceived merely as a pastime, incapable of meeting one's everyday financial needs. However, art stands as a powerful medium through which we can safeguard our rich cultural heritage, chronicle our stories, and catalyze positive transformations.

                                    Today's guest left us with a memorable insight, bills do not care about your purpose. In the spotlight of this episode is Douglas Ogutu, who resides in Nakuru, Kenya. He is an award-winning artist, entrepreneur, and the founder of Dowe Music and Arts an academy and a production studio. He offers training in music instrumentation, as well as singing and arts, entrepreneurial skills, writing, design thinking, and leadership. He organizes mentorship workshops through art for leadership programs in which young people are linked to potential employers, sponsors, colleagues as they get entertained through music and arts, together with professional speeches.

                                    Being an innovative person, he has leveraged on the power of technology to keep his artistic, leadership, and business endeavors going. This is through virtual trainings from his academy, collaborations with creatives within and outside the country, as well as workshops and concerts where he's either invited or organizes to perform. Currently, Douglas is the participant engagement chair for the Kenya National Yali alumni chapter where he mobilizes the young people in taking part in socioeconomic projects and initiatives while spearheading the visibility amplification for the alumni. Let's listen. Welcome on to the show, Douglas.

Douglas Ogutu:             Thank you. Thank you very much. Feel honored.

Muthoni Waigwa:         So before we go deeper into the conversation, who is Douglas?

Douglas Ogutu:             Douglas is an artist based in Kenya, mostly operating within Nakuru and Nairobi, and someone who is passionate about social positive change and leadership, sound leadership, especially in Africa.

Muthoni Waigwa:         Thank you for sharing that. When you say sound leadership, someone might be listening in and they might be wondering what's the difference between good leadership, sound leadership, all these things that we say. Sometimes we may confuse people. What is sound leadership to you?

Douglas Ogutu:             For me, sound leadership, I take it as a synonym to servant leadership. Sound leadership is a concept that came to be, I think in the nineties. No, in the seventies. Where we have all those forms of leadership, like autocratic, laissez-faire, and all that. But then servant leadership is whereby whenever someone gets an opportunity to be on the forefront or to be at the top, it's important to realize that your role there or my role at that point is to serve. Just putting the needs of whoever I am leading first before mine. So when I talk about sound leadership, it has to do with the servant leadership.

Muthoni Waigwa:         I hear you. Putting others first before ourselves and also just being someone who is able to drop their potential in someone and ensure that they too can fulfill their dreams and purpose. So as a young child, did you have examples of people who were servant leaders or individuals who saw the leadership potential in you?

Douglas Ogutu:             Pretty much, but then it was a little farfetched and up to today, I really don't know how it came to be, but I used to hear about John Kufuor from Ghana, that time he was president. And you can't imagine how it, I mean his CV influenced me from that time up to today. I think one of my best countries if that I have a dream, if I were to relocate the way people want to relocate to the US and all that, I think Ghana would be that country. And so I used to hear about how Ghana was peaceful and some of the contributions at that time.

                                    And of course the other person would be Nelson Mandela. Reading and hearing stories about how he was on the forefront in making sure that apartheid is no more. And at the same time he faced a lot of animosity, but then when he comes back from jail, his point was let's embrace peace and embrace dialogue, embrace forgiveness and all that. So those two people I think had a huge impact on me. Loving sound leadership is not just something that has come when I'm of age, it's just something that from my young age. So those two people I think had a great impact on me.

Muthoni Waigwa:         It's interesting how you've mentioned Nelson Mandela. Truly, he embodied the whole world of servant leadership and being able to pull the entire country together to form a new South Africa. In your bio, you have founded an organization called Dowe Music and Arts, an academy and a production studio. And with it you've been able to set up workshops through art for leadership programs. So how did you find the synergy between arts and leadership and ensuring that you transfer these skills to the people that you are training and to the people that you're mentoring?

Douglas Ogutu:             Yeah, I'll answer this question in a manner that I think for me, the understanding stems from the fact that every human being and essentially anything, anything, not just human beings. Anything, any form of matter has purpose on this world. And when we talk about purpose, it means that I have a specific role I need to achieve or to fulfill while I am still on this earth. And so to achieve that role, you need a medium. And so after discovering that I am gifted in the area of the arts, then I realized that the arts can be a very good tool for me to achieve the purpose that I have have for this world, which is raising other people, mentoring people and all that. So when I looked at the various other things that I can do, it doesn't mean I can only do art.

                                    There are other things that I can do. Then I realized, "Well, if I venture into the arts, I'll be able to impact the society effortlessly." And so it was just a very deliberate choice, just deciding that I'll go with the arts because one, first of all, it's easier. That's of course on my perspective, someone else might say something else, but it's easier for me to gather people and curate a very strong message in a simple piece of work that you can consume, let's say within a minute or within five minutes or sometimes within an hour. And at the same time reaching a mass of people, unlike if maybe I were to do something else.

                                    So for me, art is a medium through which I'm able to achieve my purpose, through which I can communicate what I need to communicate. Because again, it's interesting that you asked that question because just yesterday I was talking to someone and he was like, "I don't understand how you are able to fuse your music into these themes that usually with entertainment they will be very boring." Themes of leadership themes to do with things like let's say economic empowerment. And so for me, I realized that's a gift that I have, and now I'm just taking advantage of the gift to be able now to communicate messages that are inspiring hope and at the same time inspiring sound leadership, which I'm passionate about.

Muthoni Waigwa:         That is very inspiring, how you're using your gifts to serve others, using your gifts to inspire hope. But here's the thing, Douglas, us people in the creative industry and in the arts, when we were choosing this path and pushing forward and saying that we're going to be artists, we were looked at with, lack of a better way, side eye. For those who don't know what the side eye is someone who's just looking at you like you don't know what you're doing. They look at you and they're just full of doubt that you are going to be able to have a life or livelihood with your arts. So how have you been able to be resilient and strong in choosing this path of arts where people see it as a hobby, where people see it as something that's not sustainable or we can't earn an income from our artistic gifts?

Douglas Ogutu:             Yeah, that's a very realistic question and I like it that you also understand the dynamics here. I would say on this point it has not and it's yet to become easy. That's the confession of the whole matter because just as you have hinted, the society hasn't understood that art is really, art is work. And there was someone who said something like to produce, let's say to produce, if someone is an actor to produce a skit that is going to be aired for two minutes, he was saying he needs 48 hours. But then I would say it is the ignorance or just, I mean I think it's a deliberate choice by society not to understand the work that goes into the art. And so if something that you're going to consume just for two minutes is going to take someone 48 hours and so that they can bring out that the spectacular thing that you want to watch.

                                    It's unfortunate that we still have to explain ourselves as artists. We still have to prove ourselves as artists and all that. So for me, it has not been easy, and I'll just put it to you right now that it's until 2022, towards the end of 2022 that because I decided to enter into the arts way back in 2015, that's where I just made deliberate decision. But then now from that period up to until towards the end of 2022, I lost a lot of friends. I lost peers, I lost a lot of people whom some we were together in campus and then they realized, "Hey, this guy is losing." And so it was just like a shedding off of friends and everything and all that. And so until last year is when now I started seeing people now starting to come back, reconnecting and realizing, "Oh, this guy was serious."

                                    And part of it is because maybe someone is seeing an impact somewhere or someone has visited someplace and they realize there's my name somewhere. There's a poster of mine somewhere. And so when you talk about how I've been resilient, I think it's the point of just understanding your purpose. Because you see, if someone creates a pen, the work of the pen is to write. So as long as that pen is not writing, if the pen was a human being, the pen will not rest until it gets somewhere where it's going to write. So I think that's fortunately for human beings, we have a conscience, we have a will. So once you understand that this is the purpose that I have in this world, then it helps you now to be resilient. Because you are stopping at nothing but achieving that which is your life mission and purpose.

Muthoni Waigwa:         I'm hearing you seeing how you lost friends and people walked away from you because of your choice of pursuing purpose. I resonate with it because when I started my business way back in 2013 and you keep pursuing that goal. People just walk away and friends abandon you because as you mentioned, they don't believe in what you're doing. They think that you are being crazy. But it's so important, as you have said, that we need to know our purpose and truly commit to it. Because once you commit to purpose, it gives you the desire to continue being resilient and it also flames the fire of strength within us. But also when we are pursuing this purpose that we have been given, there are challenges that we face along the way and sometimes we can get so discouraged and disappointed that we've chosen this path. So how have you been able to overcome these challenges and maintain the mindset of strength and resilience?

Douglas Ogutu:             Yeah, a very good question again. One of the great things that I think I learned after I think while and after Compass was just the point that I need to be upgrading myself. And so upgrading myself involves signing up for fellowships, signing up for learning spaces, doing numerous courses here and there because the truth be told, if I were just the same person I was in 2015, then I would've given up because as a person, you are also a human being. So it reaches at a point where you also begin to doubt yourself. You also begin to feel like, "Yeah, maybe they're right." And if it is in the space of art, and especially now if you are becoming a young adult, there's that point where bills do not know your purpose.

Muthoni Waigwa:         It's so true.

Douglas Ogutu:             Yeah, the bills do not care about your purpose. There are some needs, family needs, they do not know what your purpose is. So that becomes a very shaky ground. It becomes really, really shaky. But then if you heal yourself and to upgrading yourself, that reality that you are facing, that we have bills and everything. But at the same time you are looking at the two people. When you look at two timeframes, there are always two people. Like myself. Even last year, the quality I'm putting out there today is way different from the kind of quality that someone would look at let's say in 2022 in January.

                                    So when I look at that, then it becomes a point that is encouraging me. Yes, right now I might not be getting the output that I want, but at the same time I'm not where I used to be. So that means there's progress. And as humans generally, we love progress. So when you are able to look at the progress that you are making, however small it may be, it encourages you that at one point you are going to actually achieve that which you are looking for. So I think for me, that's the point that has kept me being able to put two people on the mirror. Me as a person today and me as a person, they say, yesterday. When I see the difference in that, then I'm convinced that where I'm headed is not backwards, it's forward. So that helps me just for your head.

Muthoni Waigwa:         I like that. Just being your own competitor, because sometimes in this journey we like comparing ourselves to others. So I like your analogy of looking at yourself in the mirror and seeing who I was yesterday and who I am now. I can see progress. And that's really important as we overcome challenges, as we navigate life circumstances. And I think this point ties in well with failure because obviously as we pursue purpose, we're going to fail. And just to build upon what you've just shared, how would you tie in this analogy of looking at yourself in the mirror and saying, "I failed, but I'm going to continue moving forward"?

Douglas Ogutu:             Yeah, definitely. And it's a good thing that you are also in the art space, so you understand that. Let's take a very simple example. If we are going to shoot a certain scene, let's say for music or just some art or a presentation we want to send out there, the question is where did we get the terms take one, take two? What does take one, take two mean? It means there's a certain take that is going to be failure. And so that for me is something that has shown me, has taught me. I have failed a number of times. I'm a musician by and large. And so there are those times I look back and I'm like, "Oh dude, there was a time you didn't know how to play a certain chord." And you see, when you are performing songs, there's a song.... You don't dictate. It is the composer who dictates what chords you're going to use.

                                    So if you're going to perform someone's song and you do not know a certain chord, and the performance day has arrived, what happens? That's the point of failure. I'm also looking at situations where I've been in Nakuru for quite a while, and sometimes most of the time you make your introspection, you look at your business and then sometimes you find that the sales are not even, you don't even have something called sales for a certain month. And you're like, "God, and I've been waking up every day, every day I'm doing this work. So what is happening? Am I not advertising enough?" Then you look, all you've been doing is advertising all through the week, all through the month and all that. So those things usually come across.

                                    But then I think also, like I said, being at a point where you are able to empower yourself. Because if you give yourself to learning, instead of blaming yourself at some point, let's say when business is not working or when a certain initiative has not worked, you are able to do a comparative study to find out what is happening in the market. And then you are able to say, you can gauge yourself on the scales and say, "Yeah, this is a trend in the market, so someone else is also facing this, and so what mistake have I done that is similar to what they did maybe and also face the same challenge?" So being able to do that comparative study helps you also to know where you are and be able to put in the best strategies to move forward. But again, I also think that unlike what we agree on, knowing, I think just failure is a part of the process. It becomes fertile if failure just tells you to quit.

                                    But if you can look at failure as an accessory to you learning deeper, to you understanding what you need to do better, I think failure is just a good thing. But the unfortunate thing is when we were growing up, we were taught to be competitive, compete with other people, make sure no one is below you and all that. But then that made us fear failure. And what I've come to learn that when I fear failure, I'm surely going to fail again. So for me, it's just a point of where I'm looking at failure as an accessory. So if it comes, I'll turn it around and just take advantage of it in terms of, "What lesson do I need to pick there?" And the sad truth or the honest truth is that sometimes you'll not appreciate the lessons any better, unlike someone who has gone through failure, that is the sad truth about life. So someone who has gone through failure, if they take the advantages and just leverage on the lessons, they're likely to be better than you who just sail through smoothly.

Muthoni Waigwa:         I like how you've said that using the terminology for being on set. Take one, take two. I have never really seen it like that. If mean, if we're saying take two is it means that take one didn't turn out well. So that was a moment of failure, so let's accommodate more room for improvement. I really like that analogy.

                                    And also, I like how you've said that failure is an accessory, and that means then we have to have a healthy relationship with failure, where we shift our mindset to see failure as part of the process, as something that will always be with us. We all have a binder or a pen in our handbags or in our bags so that we can use as we go along. So thank you for sharing that, that failure is an accessory, and so we don't need to shy away from it or resent it, just embrace it and have a healthy relationship with it. So with that in mind, how do you encourage someone who has said, "I do not want to fail, I just want life to move smoothly" and now they're going through failure and they're hopeless. What would you tell them?

Douglas Ogutu:             Yeah, it might be a hard one, but then I'll go back to what I've just said. It's an accessory. So if I had such a person and they're still adamant, "I don't want to experience failure." I'll say if they have failed once, I would just ask them, "If you were attending a certain class and then your school gave you a book, and then for some reason they were distributing pens and the pens got depleted, so you don't have a pen. But the rule is you have to write notes." I know someone will say, "No, we have smartphones, but we have the rule. You have to write on your book." Now that pen is the failure, right? So what are you going to do? I think you need to use that pen, otherwise you'll fail exam. So you'll be experiencing failure twice. So that for me is the point.

                                    If I take it as an accessory, it'll be a moment for me just encouraging the person that look here, part of failure happens just it's like someone standing up there and tell you, "Hey, there's this point you didn't use well, so why don't you try to use it well?" And for me, just approaching failure from a perspective where it's an accessory, it's a pointer where it's like it's giving you some other, the third eye. You know that aha moment when in school we were taught the aha moment in psychology. You've been doing something trying to read, then all of a sudden it clicks and then you discover, "Aha, I got this and this is what I've not been seeing." So for me, I'll encourage them. And one of the things is also just to encourage people to read. Reading is very important. Of course, if you don't like reading nowadays we have videos.

                                    So you can watch. You can watch stories, you can watch how people are, other people have gone through their success story because sometimes we fall through anguish just because we are thinking we are the only ones who are failing or we are the only ones who are terrible. We are the only ones who have made such a mistake. But if you just open your eyes, Google, I mean watch videos or read, you realize perhaps even your failure was not as bad as you thought it was, and there's someone else who went through the exact thing that you are going through, and now you can learn from them to how to navigate.

                                    And that's also something that I'm really encouraging people that sometimes you may be living in a certain locality, just open your eyes, network with as many people as possible. If people around your community do not do the same things that you are doing. The world nowadays is a global village. Google around, I mean check what is happening in Indonesia. You might be shocked that there is someone who is doing exactly the same thing that you are doing. I heard the other day that in this world there's someone actually who looks exactly like you and only a small percentage get a chance to meet that person.

Muthoni Waigwa:         Yes, there is someone who looks like me and you somewhere in the world, and hopefully by chance we may get to meet them. And I appreciate what you've said that just embrace failure and see it as something that is part of life, and it's something that will make you resilient and strong and keep pushing forward. So you're passionate about change in Africa. So as we wind down this conversation, what are your hopes and aspirations for young people in Africa?

Douglas Ogutu:             First of all is a change of mindset. We agree. We have grown up just looking at the difficulty we are in terms of leadership, in terms of systems and all that. And so it's unfortunate that for many countries in Africa, 50 years down the line, even after colonization, it's unfortunate that we are still nursing wounds. I mean, by now we should be talking of scars, but we are still nursing the colonialism wounds. And that's the sad thing for me. So my hope is that we can rise up about that and realize that this Africa, we can indeed be a superpower. We can rise up. I mean the whole world, everybody's talking of how Africa is well-endowed with resources, but then Africa is still in the Third World. That doesn't sit well with me. So for me, it's a hope that we'll have a change in the mindset, and at the same time, just have people who are courageous enough, be people who are courageous enough to take the change that we want and begin to drive it.

Muthoni Waigwa:         Thank you for sharing that, Douglas. It's all about mindset. It's all about change, and we can do it today. I invite you to carry the lessons learned in this podcast into your own lives, embracing your inner strength and nurturing resilience in the face of adversity. Let's forge a future where we support one another and celebrate the triumphs shaping our journeys.

                                    Thank you for listening and stay tuned for more inspiring episodes that will continue to ignite the flame of strength and resilience within you. Until next time, I'm your host, Muthoni Waigwa, bidding you farewell, but not goodbye.