Faith Muigai has worked as the Regional Director for the SafeCare Program with PharmAccess Foundation, an organization that innovates in Health Care by increasing access to affordable health services in Kenya and Sub Saharan Africa.

Greatest milestone: I moved from the USA to Kenya in 2012, having lived there for 17 years.

I took a leap of faith and joined an organization known as Jacaranda Health. I wanted to impact on maternal and child care in informal and emerging markets. I rose from a Clinical Director to Chief Medical Officer. In 2017, this maternal health care centre was awarded the highest attainment in SafeCare Level 5. As a result, I rose through the ranks to lead the SafeCare program.

My career success secret: Service, resilience, commitment, passion and willingness to learn continuously.

I am very hands-on because I want to be well versed in what I do. I surround myself with smart people to learn from different lenses.  I have learned the value of building teams. An effective team will build and grow you as well.  I also got to where I am today because my family values and ethos demand for hard work and positive contribution to uplifting communities.

My regret: I had the opportunity to have good jobs in wonderful organizations with good income when I finished college.

But I faltered and lived for the moment without the future in mind. I am now scrambling to make wise investments and catch up so that my children have the best, and so that I can retire before I am 60.  There never is the right time to make an investment, start early, start small, and plan for tomorrow today!

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Biggest loss: I was leading an organization that was financially not viable.

Jacaranda Health’s first birthing centre was loss-making because we were building a foreign business model as opposed to understanding the needs of the community and being responsive with a local solution. It was a midwife led facility with no operating theatre.

Initially, it did not provide follow-up child care because we thought mothers in informal sectors would take their children to paediatricians. We were also located in an area where most of the population was retiring, and the number of women in reproductive age was low. In the end, we closed the facility and picked a second site in Kahawa West. We applied all the lessons we learnt and started growing. The facility is operational to date and has an operating theatre too.

Saving method: I have an account where a proportion of my income is channelled.

I also save from my Sacco, dividends from organizations of which I am a shareholder (actually my father initiated this as a way to reward academic excellence) and also investments in Sugar Cane farming.  It is now time for me to go big and invest in real estate. Previously I was not a saver. Retail therapy was my thing. I am now more conscious and understand what a must-have is and what a nice-to-have is.

Entrepreneurship versus employment: I have done both. I advocate for both.

As an employee, you learn discipline, ethics, focus on deliverables, systems and processes. As an entrepreneur you have the ability to do so much at your own terms. But it is the ethos of being an employee that will tame you as an entrepreneur and give you the requisite focus to building business systems that work and deliver.

My parting shot: Learn to engage and do good. Do not judge people by the cover; there is so much we do not see and so much good we do not transfer.

Don’t accept blame for other people’s inadequacies. Focus your energy on fulfilling your dream and do not give up. Be confident to say ‘no’ if you do not agree with views or actions. Your opinion or stance can be the game changer. Dare to dream and ‘Do You’ because no one can do it better.

This profile feature on Faith Muigai was first published in the Saturday Magazine. The Saturday Magazine is a publication of the Nation Media Group.