What did you dream of becoming? Career detours, quiet resilience, and the rediscovery of purpose in unlikely places.
A Small Team. Big Stories. Honest Conversations.
On Saturday (Dec 20, 2025), I had the privilege of attending Shamba Connect’s end-year staff retreat.
I left reminded that some of the most profound leadership conversations don’t occur in boardrooms.
They don’t take place in conference halls. Nor do they happen behind polished PowerPoint slides.
Shamba Connect is a lean, nimble agribusiness team. Supporting urban farming and landscaping. Helping households and institutions grow greener, healthier spaces.
But beyond gardens and farms, what stood out most was the people. Young professionals early in their careers. Carrying big questions about life, work, money, and meaning.
It was within this space that we explored a familiar but rarely spoken tension:
The gap between what we wanted to become, and what we are becoming.
A Different Room. A Different Rhythm.
This conversation unfolded at the Nairobi Arboretum — Park and Garden.
Not online.
Not in a boardroom.
Not in a conference hall.
Unlike my previous engagements. Webinars, corporate meeting rooms, and packed conference halls. This time there was no suit, no laptop, no pointer, no projector.
Just shorts. A t-shirt.
Open skies. Old trees.
And the constant chattering of monkeys in the background.
Nature was not a backdrop. It was a participant.
Without slides to hide behind. The conversation slowed. It deepened. Stories flowed more freely. Laughter lingered longer.
And somewhere between career detours and life lessons, I noticed something I hadn’t seen in a while: Butterflies.
It felt symbolic. Growth doesn’t always need polish. Sometimes it needs presence.
My Long Way Round (And Why I Shared It)
I shared a bit of my own winding path.
I began working life as a laboratory assistant. Doubling up as a morgue attendant, at the University of Nairobi’s Anatomy lab (Chiromo).
Later, in my early 20s, I worked as a supermarket attendant.
My dream was to study medicine. But my heart leaned toward writing. A passion now budding into storytelling.
Not to romanticize struggle, but to normalize it. Because as I listened, I realized. My story was not exceptional. It was familiar.
Story One: Engineering Deferred, Purpose Detoured
One young man’s story stayed with me.
Amos’ father was involved in a serious accident that kept him out of work for over five years. Overnight, stability vanished. Dreams had to adjust.
Engineering, his course of choice, became impossible. Survival came first. He joined the National Youth Service. Studied General Agriculture.
Today, he works at Shamba Connect, as a technical expert.
Not because this was the dream. But because this was what was in his hands.
And yet, in the dignity of honest work. You could sense something rebuilding. Discipline, confidence, and hope. Sometimes purpose doesn’t disappear. It waits.
Story Two: A Brilliant Mind, Temporarily Distracted
Another story carried a different weight.
In high school, Godwish fell in with the wrong crowd. He ended up leading a school strike at a national school in Nairobi. He was expelled.
He joined a rural school in Form 3.
That year, he studied for less than two weeks in total. Promoted to Form 4 “on faith”. He drifted further. Dipped into truancy, side hustles, and early income.
The dream of becoming a doctor slowly faded. Not from lack of ability, but from distraction.
Listening to him speak now, with clarity, humor, and self-awareness. You realize how thin the line can be between potential fulfilled and potential delayed.
The Conversation That Emerged
From these stories, our discussion naturally settled around three themes:
1. Purpose isn’t always found. Sometimes it’s recovered. Life interrupts. Circumstances reroute us. Purpose often emerges not from ideal conditions, but from response.
2. What’s in your hands matters. Skills, opportunities, networks, even temporary roles. These are not accidents. They can be building blocks, not dead ends.
3. Social networks shape trajectories. Who you walk with matters. Peers can pull you forward. Or quietly derail you.
We also talked money. One practical anchor stood out:
Pay yourself first. A simple discipline that begins the journey from money slavery to money mastery. What many call financial freedom.
How This Fits a Bigger Journey
This Arboretum conversation built on, and gently contrasted with, other spaces where I’ve been reflecting out loud:
- Speaking at Fusion Group on career cycles
- Addressing the National Construction Authority on leadership, pressure, and purpose in lean seasons
- A Webinar on surviving and thriving in lean seasons
Different rooms. Different audiences. Same underlying question:
How do we live meaningfully. Within and beyond our careers. When life doesn’t go as planned?
Where Shamba Connect Fits In
Beyond the retreat, Shamba Connect itself tells a quiet story of purpose in practice.
They exist to enhance the health and wealth of its stakeholders through farming solutions, offering:
- Kitchen garden setup and maintenance for homes, schools, and offices
- Landscaping services for residential and institutional spaces
- Commercial rabbit farming for breeders, meat, organic rabbit-based foliar & fertilizers
- Training and consultancy in sustainable agribusiness
If you’re thinking about greener spaces, safe food, or urban agriculture. Shamba Connect is worth exploring and supporting.
The Emergence of Growth Communities
What struck me most was this: these conversations are no longer isolated moments.
They are becoming Growth Communities. Spaces where stories are shared. Resilience is normalized. And purpose is explored together.
Not polished. Not perfect. But honest, human, and hopeful. And sometimes, that’s exactly where growth begins.
For the curious reader, here are two more reflections:
👉 Sometimes, closed gates lead us to new purpose:🌱 From Closed Gates to New Purpose: A Journey of Faith, Hustle and Small Wins
👉 Other times, we don’t become what we planned, but we still become useful: I Didn’t Become a Surgeon, But I Still Helped Heal
Closing Thoughts
We began 2025 with enthusiasm and oversized dreams.
Clear plans. Confident timelines. And quiet assumptions that life would mostly cooperate.
Now, as the year closes, we find ourselves stocktaking. Some of us are surprised by where we landed. Others… not so much.
The economy stretched us. The weather tested us. People disappointed us. Politics played us.
And yet, here we are. Still standing. Still learning. Still becoming.
It’s December. The season of pauses, reflections, and grace. As lights go up and calendars slow down, may we give ourselves credit for the resilience we didn’t know we had.
May this Christmas meet us gently. With rest, warmth, laughter, and the reminder that progress is not always loud, linear, or Instagrammable.
We may not always become what we once dreamed of. But with reflection, discipline, and the right people around us, we can still become whole, useful, and fulfilled.
And that, perhaps, is the greater win. Here’s to more honest stories. Braver questions. And growing communities in 2026.
Merry Christmas, and onward, together. 🎄✨
#StillStanding #Mentorship #Inspiring #Resilience #PurposeJourney #CareerDetours #GrowthCommunities #YouthInWork #AgribusinessStories
Joseph Ngaara is inspired by people’s life experiences. Do you have an intriguing life story and need to share your triumph or tragedy? Email: j.mungai@hotmail.co.uk
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