Meet The 25 Year Old Kenyan IT Wizard Attending An Invite Only IT Conference In Switzerland Alongside Bill Gates!
I talked to Nickson Rwigi yesterday after learning of his fortune. You see, I grew up knowing him , we sort of come from the same village and practically grew up together. We pretty much chased chicken and tied strings to dung beetles and had a good laugh at it. But as I got lost in copies of Hardy Boys, Nancy Drew files and Mark Twain, Nickson took a different path, he shocked the village with his little inventions, at 13, he had fashioned a little contraption from an old perfume bottle that he filled with water and placed next to the hearth, It would keep a fire going for hours, though it nearly blew up their little Kitchen, Nickson had Identified as a master innovator, a Da Vinci protege.
Allow me to tell you the tale of Nickson, the guy that has been chosen to attend an IT conference in Switzerland along the worlds que est que- the who is who, I’m talking the Bill Gates kind of “who is who” Isn’t that an achievement for a young man of 25?
Nickson never had the privilege of growing in a well-to-do family, he has known penury and strife but the hunger to make something out of his situation propelled him to be the wizard that he is today.
Nickson grew up penury,being the first born, He endured all the stresses thet first borns can relate to (I’m no first born, I wouldn’t know) He attended Utumishi Boys Academy and broke the record of being the first form one to be suspended from school after only two weeks. (Not quite the guru here)- The reason for the suspension was that it was alleged that he had stolen his computer teacher’s window XP CD. Never mind that he became the entertainment prefect years later.
After Utumishi, Nickson went to Mr Kenya univesity where he majored in IT, for him, It was as easy as eating Okro soup,he had assembled his first computer in class six, though the computer had no Os and didn’t work, Nickson had learnt the art. He later joined the employ of Dataguard Distributors as a Systems Engineer, but resigned two years later to start his own IT Company.
He reckons: “I worked close to 2 years with Dataguard, I resigned with nothing and opted to venture into IT business, I started my small company Cyber Dynamics, dealt with IT supplies and support. I was the “info”, “sales”, “Accounts” … etc. I am happy the company is 2 years old. My capital at startup was 40K. I dint have an office, and that was a challenge convincing my clients, that it wasn’t a briefcase company, which in real sense was.”
“Time flew by, business grew and Cybercom Global was born, a limited company dealing with IT solutions. It hasn’t been easy to keep up with the trend, but having a positive mindset and the will to keep on keeping on has greatly impacted a lot in the business and also in my life. Being an icon and a leader at CyberCom, I have really learnt a lot. Discipline, hardwork and determinatfion has played a huge role in the growth of the 2 companies. We are still growing and soon will be venturing into outside market of East African. Our mission is to bring technology close to east Africa.
“I am honored to have to represent Kenya at the Switzerland, I am still in disbelief, I have dreams but, like most of you, I never thought mine would dawn like this, I hope to have the ability to give back to the society in kind, be a force to reckon with and leave a legacy behind. Nickson Concludes. but not before I catch a few quotes on a plaque in his office.
“Our greatest weakness lies in giving up. The most certain way to succeed is always to try just one more time, the mind is everything, what you think, you become”.
