While it may be common sense to have to try something before you can experience failure at it, many people feel the reverse effect: the onset of failure before there is even a chance to achieve any measurable results. Instead, we should first be asking ourselves what our goals are and further define what failure looks like so we can identify it before it is too late.

When looking at some of the things you might have abandoned or walked away from for one reason or another, take a minute to look at those things through the lens of my statement above. Suddenly, things take on a different shape and you might even start to feel differently about having regrets.

Some projects I’ve walked away from left me with feelings of deep regret at best to incredible angst and bitterness at worst. I’ve been at both ends of the spectrum.

But the “take-home” message here is that you should re-examine why you walked away from something and whether or not you gave it enough time to come to fruition. If you’re like me, you think analytically and have to have a reason for everything under the sun. That can be a downfall, but it doesn’t have to be. You can use that to your advantage.

Consider whether or not you took things far enough to see any measurable results and, even more importantly, whether or not you gave yourself any goals to begin with. A project without clearly-defined goals is a project destined for disappointment and possible failure. If you didn’t define any goals and you ended up walking away from a project prematurely, don’t fret. Do what I did. Learn from it and move on. Your next project will come together more clearly.

A good example of an ombudsman to the international aid business would likely be someone like William Easterly, a New York Times writer who blogs over at Aid Watch. Many people love him and many hate him, but one thing is for sure, he says what needs to be said as though he were a modern-day prophet. He blogs passionately and calls out large entities on what they might be doing wrong in order that they might change their habits and become more effective and responsible to the people. I have great respect for the man. Sometimes he is wrong and more often he is right, but he is willing to admit to any mistakes he might have made in his statements as long as there is fact to prove it. In my opinion, he is a great ombudsman who is badly needed in the constantly-troubled and corrupt international aid business.

Now that we have an idea of what an ombudsman does, why does African tech need an ombudsman?
For those who don’t follow the African tech scene, much of this might be news to you. Much of it is likely to stir up some strong feelings from those working in African tech, but it needs to be said. Stay with me…

The African tech scene is very young and taking shape. With this comes many mistakes, lessons learned, and hardships that nobody wants to experience, but are necessary to the journey of progress. Because tech is still so young to Africa, it is common to see many people looking for a leader or someone to follow. This has always been a sore spot for me because good, worthy leaders are hard to find, but those willing to claim tech priesthood in African tech are a dime a dozen.

Because there are so many “thought leaders” coming out of the woodwork, there is a high need for criticism to be openly accepted among African tech. Without this criticism, we have a few leaders and tons of followers. We have lots of new ventures but no real lessons learned. With healthy criticism and investigation, we have more leaders being raised up and fewer people feeling like they are being neglected and ignored. We also have more positive cases of progress and fewer wasted resources and duplicity among efforts.

I was once asked by an African to participate in his venture whereby I would handle web design and consultation while working closely with an African designer on the company branding. I received several drafts of the logo design from the African designer and felt strongly that they weren’t up to the standard I wanted to portray for the company. I sent my thoughts to both the owner and the designer, giving a detailed and technical analysis as to why the branding wasn’t where we wanted to be and what could be done to improve the design. I was immediately blasted by the African owner for this analysis claiming it would hurt the designers’ feelings. I was shocked since my intention was to see the designer build upon his skill set and improve his abilities. Call it a cultural misunderstanding, but I wasn’t tearing him down, only trying to build him up. It took quite a few emails to clear things up and in the end the designer told me his feelings were never hurt in the beginning after all and that he welcomed open criticism. High standards were important to me but it was clear that it wasn’t the priority for the businessman.

The reason I bring this up is because we need to be open about African tech and the people involved. We need to ask questions and voice our opinions. We need to speak up regardless of who’s feelings might be hurt. After all, don’t we all want to see progress being made in African tech? How is progress going to be made if there is no willingness to have open and critical discussions about what is being done? We need to stop tip-toeing around and communicate openly with how we are really feeling.

Having said that, what issues need to be openly criticized?
I have listed a few of my complaints below, although there are many more.

• Elitism–It is fairly easy to narrow down Africa’s tech leaders to a handful of people, once you have been in the scene for a few months. I could go on and on about the elitism in African tech. Willing participants or not, these leaders are seen by many as elitist jet-setters who travel the globe from conference to conference hobnobbing with other so-called “thought leaders” discussing ways they are going to ‘save’ Africa with their ideas. God only knows how much money is spent on their global travel, yet how little real and measurable progress is made from such events. A friend once told me that an idea is worthless unless it is executed. Only then can you tell if it is holds any value. It’s true, ideas are easy to come by and everyone has tons of them. Go to a tech conference and you will be surrounded by tech buzzwords and ‘brilliant’ ideas spouted by caffeinated techies carrying expensive Macbooks. The same is true for inspiration. What good is it if there isn’t a measurable result or outcome? I can be inspired by many things, but unless I turn that inspiration into something proactive, it fails to have any impact. Now that I’ve said it, I’ll be the first to admit that some things do come out of conferencing and face-to-face meetups. But I’ve been to an equal amount of events that have benefited me versus one’s that have been a complete waste of my time with lots of fancy words thrown around by so-called thought leaders. What I am saying is that few people have stood up to measure the results, if there are any to be measured, or for these elitist individuals to be accountable to ordinary Africans for themselves and what they spend their time on. With leadership comes great responsibility, but to hear a leader in African tech claim they were wrong about something is like finding a needle in a haystack. This builds a strong sense of elitism among African tech that is clearly evident once you measure how many of these leaders are actual Africans. What we are witnessing now in African tech is a modern form of colonialism where few Africans are seen as leaders and the leaders in the public eye are all Americans. Unless I’m missing it, there is very little evidence of African leadership rising from the tech circles. The goal should be to build up African leaders who can contribute to the tech industry with real progress. If you claim to be an African tech incubator, where is the measurable impact? How many startups have you fueled? This brings me to my second point, self-interest.
• Self-interest–On the surface, many ventures and individuals elicit a sense of charity, community, and openness. Buzzwords are intermingled with fancy logos and graphics. But behind the scenes there is self-interest and elitism built into these ventures. Too many of these individuals are more interested in building up a name for themselves. I once went to a meetup with a handful of some of the more well-known people in the African mobile tech industry and I was amazed at how many nonprofits there were that were just businesses in disguise seeking to make a dollar off of Africa. But the minute you mentioned business, the room would get quiet. Now, I’m not in any way against doing business in Africa. What I am against is dishonesty and lack of transparency. Call a spade a spade. If you’re in Africa for the business, come out and say it. Africa desperately needs business in a global context, but what Africa needs more is for Africans to be trained up in the ways of doing business. Instead of so many trying to find ways of profiting off of Africa, why are there so few concerned with Africa’s long-term ability to become self-sustainable? After all, this is true empowerment. If we are really interested in empowerment, where are the results in African tech? How many of them are empowering others instead of empowering themselves?
• No passion–At that same meeting mentioned above, not only was it only about the business side of things and the “opportunities” to be had, there was no passion in the participants. None. I couldn’t find one reason they were doing what they do other than it was an opportunity. I started my interest in Africa before I was 16 years old because of the human rights issues evident in South Sudan. I became passionate about the African people and I quickly understood how many needs there were throughout this diverse continent and the complexity of those needs. I visited 4 African countries in 2005 and saw incredible diversity between each of them. I saw tremendous beauty in the people I met and I fell in love with Africa. I wasn’t an idealist but a realist who saw the human factor in what I was striving for. This is too often absent from African tech circles. We need to bring a healthy dose of passion back to African tech and make personal connections to why we do what we do. If we are not reaching out to African individuals, we are not doing Africa any good for the long-term. We need to trace our passion back to individuals.
• Lack of communication–There is a serious problem with communication among African tech. I can’t count how many unanswered emails I have from people you likely read about every day. Whether they lack the time or interest to respond, the fact stands that they are not willing to communicate to people who truly need their advice. While it takes less than 5 minutes to respond to an email, even to say you aren’t interested or have the time, to not respond sends an entirely wrong signal. It echoes the elitism that exists among African tech circles. I’m important, you’re not. The sad part about this lack of communication is that it only hurts collaborative efforts and morale among those of us striving to make some sort of difference.

There are many more issues that could be added to the list, but these are a few that I have dealt with personally. I have witnessed all of these firsthand with African Tech Network. I am sure that I am not the first, nor will be the last to deal with them. My point for writing this is to say, we need more honest communicators in African tech who are willing to say what needs to be said. African tech needs an ombudsman who’s reputation isn’t on the line who is willing to call out people on their lack of transparency and unwillingness to accept open criticism. African tech leaders need to understand their responsibility to African techies. When someone calls for help, help them.

Following that trend, feel free to voice your concern, anger, disagreement, approval in the comments section below. I’m more than willing to hear you out.

My intention was never to gain a following, but simply to allow for an outlet when the moment struck me. So here’s that moment.

Today I was inspired by a post called “300 Words” on Hugh MacLeod’s blog that was basically a call on writers to produce at least 300 words of writing every day. While I might not be able to produce 300 words every day, I’ll try to produce something of interest.

For those not in the ‘know’, nearly all of my time has been swallowed up in African Tech Network. The growth of ATN has been tremendous to say the least. We currently have users from 12 African countries who work in the arena of technology. I am squeezing every hour of my time to improving the site and make it more useful as a resource for technologists. All in all I am happy with the progress.

If you are interested in what I am working on/talking about, follow me on Twitter. Hardly a day goes by I am not conversing on Twitter. And, I promise, most of what I say is not pointless psychobabble but meaningful quips about exciting things.

ACMFI is currently holding a logo contest sponsored by Redcloud Money and the prize is $2,000 USD. You could design the official logo for ACMFI! If interested, email Emmanuel Okoegwale your interest.

Also, we highly encourage you to join us on LinkedIn and Twitter, as well as subscribe to our email list to stay up-to-date with our organization. (Our Facebook group is coming soon.)

In this week’s Kiva Pledge Update I am supporting Semugenya James’ Group, who is currently operating a general store in Lugazi, Uganda.

According to their Kiva business page:

Semugenya James is a hardworking woman with a retail shop in Lweru trading centre. She is 45 years old and married. She is responsible for twelve children between the ages of four and 24 years, some her own and some, orphans.

Semugenya used to be a farmer but was affected by the drop in price of produce and so changed to retail sales. From her shop she makes 200,000 UGX in profits, mostly attributable to the use of her loan and the quality of her products.

At the moment, Semugenya is requesting a loan to restock her shop with more goods and to pay for part of her children’s school fees. Semugenya dreams of becoming a wholesaler as well as educating her children to the highest level.

Stay tuned for the next Kiva Pledge Update on October 11th.

In this week’s Kiva Pledge Update I am supporting Dawa Marita, who is currently in the business of selling bread and beans in Gudele, Sudan.

According to his Kiva business page:

Dawa Marita is currently in the business of selling bread and beans and is requesting a loan to stock more beans to sell. Dawa is 39 years old and is Married with a husband that is a teacher. She has 4 children and her children go to school. With the extra profits from her loan, she hopes to be able to open up a shop BRAC’s holistic approach to poverty alleviation and empowerment of the poor encompasses a range of core programs in economic and social development, health, education , and human rights and legal services which are delivered through an extensive network of village organizations. BRAC has become one of the world’s largest NGOs as a measured by the scale and diversity of its interventions. In 2007, BRAC started operations in Southern Sudan. The microfinance program, which is targeted towards returning war refugees, has already formed 418 village organizations with more than 14,000 women members.

Stay tuned for the next Kiva Pledge Update on September 27th.

In this week’s Kiva Pledge Update I am supporting Androa Alfred Bayo, who operates a mobile phone shop in Koboko, Uganda.

According to his Kiva business page:

Bayo Androa Alfred is aged thirty-two year old, married and blessed with one child. He is more so looking after two dependents that are schooling. He owns a rental shop which is known as Chemical tech located along main road in Koboko town. He has been operating his business since the year 2002 so far seven years. He is using the loan to purchase phone accessories that is selling phones, phone housings, batteries and more so repairing phones for his customers and so forth. Bayo is a hardworking business man whose dream is to prosper in life.

Stay tuned for the next Kiva Pledge Update on September 13th.

In this week’s Kiva Pledge Update I am supporting Nelson Ndung’u Itotia, a water distributor in Muthure, Kikuyu, Kenya. As water is a critical need in Africa, the services that Nelson Ndung’u Itotia provides are essential to his community’s survival.

According to his Kiva business page:

Nelson Itotia is a 35-year-old married father of two children who lives in Muthure, Kikuyu. He supplies water to homesteads and construction projects. He also owns rental houses where he earns about KSH 4,000 per month. Nelson was introduced to KADET by a friend who was already a member of KADET. He has borrowed from K-REP Bank before but this will be his first loan with KADET. He wants to use the loan to dig his borehole deeper so that he can have enough water for his personal use and for his business. One day Nelson hopes to expand his water supply business by buying a truck to supply water in large quantities in addition to delivery with his donkey. In addition to all that, he would like to raise pigs on his farm.

Stay tuned for the next Kiva Pledge Update on August 30th.

In this week’s Kiva Pledge Update I am supporting Bakary Diakité, a metal worker in Bougouni, Mali. This is my first Kiva loan to Mali.

According to their Kiva business page:

Mr. Bakary Diakité, age 24, has no children. He lives with his wife in a large family in his father’s place in the Massablacoura district of Bougouni City (third administrative region of the Republic of Mali). He was not placed into school by his parents due to societal reasons. Soon, he started earning an income. For some years, he tried different businesses without success. He ultimately opted to learn the trade of welding from his maternal uncle. With eight years of experience with his uncle, Bakary now has a good command of this trade and is much appreciated and in high demand in Bougouni.

In his search for supplemental financial resources to make his workshop more profitable (by equipping it with the electrical power indispensable for his work), Bakary decided to join the loan program of the micro-finance institution Soro Yiriwaso. He is now on his first individual loan. This loan will be used to cover the costs of joining the power grid of the energy company of Mali Société Énergie du Mali (EDM) for his workshop located in the area where he lives.

With customers from all walks of life, he envisions realizing a monthly profit of 25,000 francs CFA that will be used to improve his enterprise. His ambition is to attract more customers and to do better in satisfying them.

Stay tuned for the next Kiva Pledge Update on August 16th.

About a month ago, it was announced that the United States Agency for International Development was teaming up with Western Union and a host of other partners to provide funding in the range of $50-100k and technical assistance to members of the African diaspora based in the U.S., desiring to build businesses in their home country. Among other criteria, loan recipients must also have a local partner residing in the country they intend on doing business.

The idea behind USAID granting loans to the African diaspora is to utilize the knowledge of local conditions that those in the African diaspora have as well as tap into the immense human capital that exists in African immigrants who want to invest back into their home countries.

I believe this is part of a larger effort of a transformation to open up aid efforts to those who have the potential to change their own circumstances if given the opportunity. Depending on how much red tape is involved, I’m hoping this is a worthy and successful effort by USAID. Time will tell.

USAID has set up a website called the African Diaspora Marketplace with full details: http://www.diasporamarketplace.org/