George Lutta is the brilliant, charismatic CEO of Media Initiative, a Media Buying unit owned by Scangroup.
How was his journey to the top? He was gracious enough to sit with the Money Academy and take us through his life journey. Here’s his story.

‘I figured out early that good grades do have a bearing on the life you lead. I decided that I would take two years out of my life and study for my A-Levels to ensure I got good grades. For two years, it was just school, books, and study and to some extent religion, because church was the only place I went outside of school and home. It kept me focused. I did pass, however there was one paper, I was 100% sure that I would get an A, that was how much I had studied. I used to write notes on the board summarized from my head. I quickly jumped to conclusions in that paper and answered the wrong question. I learnt to never be too sure of yourself, don’t be too confident or get ahead of yourself, focus and have a life outside of your focus.

College was a breeze; I knew I wasn’t getting a First Class because I knew it would not have any bearing on my future. I knew I wanted to be a marketer and not a scholar so as much as I passed I did enjoy my time there.
I graduated from university at a time when the economy was bad. Jobs were NON-existent and I was idle at home for three months. I got frustrated and decided I would get out and do whatever came my way. My first job was printing t-shirts for a politician who had a contract with an NGO. I printed t-shirts the whole night; I was paid 100Kshs for that.
I went home and told my Dad, he told me that was the first money I had earned in the time I had been home. Now I knew exactly what it took to earn money. Underpaid or not, now I knew what it took to be paid.

My next job was a street marketer or a push guy, one of those people who ask you whether you’d like to buy whatever was on offeror solicit your opinion on products. There was a promotion going on so we went round collecting ideas and opinions from people in the streets. I was paid 100/= a week or 500/= a month good money back then, I saved up to buy clothes, suits. I wanted to look smart when I got a job because I was sure I would get one.

I did that for two months before getting a job as a temporary employee at Action Aid. I didn’t mind being a temp because I never forgot about being paid 100/= a day. 100/= a day for a kid who used to live at home was good money, my parents allowed me to live with them for free, free food I didn’t have a reason to complain. I lived in Nairobi when so many others came from up-country to make a living here. Why shouldn’t I work and take up any job that came my way? I was ready to do anything.

I worked there for two years. I worked in a place that was two hours from Kitui with the poorest of the poor educating them and helping them improve their life. It involved things like encouraging them to keep their kids in school, cut the grass to avoid mosquitoes and malaria, boil water for drinking. It was a very poor and dry area. What kept me going were the lessons I learnt from the people I worked with. They were extremely poor but had a coping mechanism. Who was I not to cope? The greatest lesson was that they were happy in their living conditions. For them if their children were in school and healthy, if they had food they were happy. Why should the rest of us be unhappy when we have so much more?

I also learnt to live on very little, watching them I figured that you actually don’t need to live on much. If you do want more you have to plan for it. Truth is nice things cost us. I had always been the kid who saved, never asking my parents for things like clothes. I would see something I liked and saved up for it, I never got a car or even a TV from home I just saved. Parents always buy what they think is best for you not what you want, so I saved and by Form 2 I bought myself clothes.

People always see the nice things they want but are not willing to forego something for what they want. It may look like I live an ostentatious life but really, I save and plan. A good life costs you either now or later. I save for things before I get them. If I want to buy a car in 2013, I’ll start planning for it in 2009. You need to think well in advance before you buy anything. It’s the journey that matters for me, planning how to get to that goal and figuring out what I’ll give up to get what I want.

Working in Kitui helped me save. This worked well for me when the NGO project ended it meant I was laid off. I came back to Nairobi to try and get a job. I was ready to be out of a job for six months, I got one in three. That’s what wealth is, how long you can stay out of a job without changing your lifestyle. I knew that I wanted to work in advertising and got a job at Ogilvy.
I had always been fascinated by advertising; I would sit and study the adverts from abroad that ran at the end of movies. They were interesting and witty, and I wondered why Kenyan advertising wasn’t.

The ads would stick in my head the way movies do for some people. In some ways there was a huge disconnect between what was advertised and the people who it was aimed atin Kenya. Would the people in Kitui and other rural-urban areas get it? Did the people advertising understand how the rest of Kenya lived? I was able to marry the best of those two worlds and that’s how I got into the business. The desire to aspire for more is innate in all of us, advertising is about tapping into that desire. It always made me curious how to tap into it and make people want something enough to spend their time on it.

I worked in Ogilvy then I went to Coca Cola and worked there for a while then they closed the department I worked in and for a second time in my life, I was out of a job, I had to start again. By then I was certain that I was going to be in advertising. I had experience, knowledge and was good at it, so I figured I’d go back to what I loved. I came here (Scangroup) and that’s what I’ve been doing since.

The biggest lesson I have learnt is that a bigger part of what wealth is how content you are. Too many people are not content and keep wanting and collecting things when in essence life is not about possessions. We declare that we must have certain things and strive for them never understanding that we really don’t need them. We have a culture where people believe they must have everything- the nicest car, job, house, trips. You go through life very unhappy and discontent because you think you must have something but you never figure out why? Or how having them will help you, or why once you get it, it’s something else you MUST have. The journey is always better than the destination .

I love what I do, I know if I was out of a job I’d work for free that’s how much I love what I do. Too many people hate their jobs and live miserable lives. It’s not worth it! You’re probably struggling and striving for a lifestyle that will never make you happy. Figure out what you love, what you are here to do and let go of the expectation that material things will make you happy.

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