People always ask us, “How did you start Ajiri Tea?” These types of questions often seem to imply that the starting of a company was the hard part. In reality, it wasn’t the starting of Ajiri Tea that was the hard part (though there certainty was and still are growing pains). No, it is the sticking with it that seems to be the challenge. It is the daily hustle, or as we in the coffee and tea business call it, the daily grind. It is the questioning and reexamining if what you are doing is the right thing. The hard part is marketing your brand. Getting your name out there. Filling orders. Opening bank accounts in Kenya. Buying 30 pairs of shoes for the students and then buying 30 more pairs next year because they no longer fit. The hard part is wondering if you are doing enough. The hard part is measuring up to your own expectations.
Starting a company was easy because we didn’t have any expectations. We were young and didn’t know of the traditional business framework or even have a plan. We had an idea and we had drive, and we had a boundless sense of optimism (and we had a small loan). We didn’t know what we should do or what we could do. We just did. We asked questions, we found mentors. And that mentality—that nothing is impossible—starts to diminish as one gets older and as the company starts to mature.
The challenge—the “hard part”—is holding onto that same sense of optimism. We tell our students that they can be whatever they want to be. That they are capable. That they are worthy of success. James, a recent Ajiri graduate, said four years ago that he wanted to become an engineer. James just applied to study engineering in university. Fanisha, a former Ajiri student, told us when she was 14 years old that she wanted to become a doctor. She is now entering her final year of medical school.
So when Sara and I have our doubts, when we are knee-deep in orders and the phone doesn’t stop ringing, and we are only running on caffeine, we give ourselves that same pep talk we give our students. And just look at what they have become!
Would love to have tea some day.
All the best,.
Brooks Goddard/Needham
Hi Kate and Sara-
Just started my Back – School – Campaign for the students. Will call in my order soon!
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Angela, Wesley, and Damacline were now hopelessly off course. They had managed to scale that final fence and were walking down toward a forest. I wanted to run to them, set them on the right course, explain scale and direction and how they should put the compass on the map. But instead I watched them from the top of the hill. They were now making pretend owl calls to each other, quite literally hooting from one group to another and then bursting into laughter.
See, there is this tip-toeing around issues in business. No company should align itself too "political" for fear of alienating customers. But to have opinions and emotions—well, that's just human. As a society, we've become too corporatized—too sanitized to believe that companies shouldn't have a voice. Of course politics affect our business. Tariffs on tea! The war in Iran means higher costs of shipping our tea. The elimination of USAID and its direct impact on our community in Kenya. But more so than something directly affecting us and our business, we still care about policies that affect our neighbors and people across the world.
At Ajiri, we feel so lucky to be on this earth at the same time as all of you. Your purchase of tea holds a lot of that elusive power of art. Sure, your purchase is the transference of physical money that goes to support women and children. But your purchases of tea, time and time again, transfers this feeling of belief. You believe in these women. You believe in these kids. You believe that the world can be a better place.
Kate Holby
Author