In 2021 Judge Not Any Book By Its Cover

Many creatures, humans included, scale down or magnify their actual status or sizes depending on their targeted outcome.

The peacock has a dual purposed strategy. When attracting a mate or when threatened, it fans its tail to look much bigger and capable in the mate's eyes or so that its would-be attacker can quickly consider the possibility of getting overpowered.

The millipede coils itself into a coin-like shape and plays dead, while the skunk and the desert chameleon both spray their aggressors with a memorable foul-smelling fluid.

In Kenya, the word "sosi" is associated with eating but it has another meaning. It's a tactic that has worked for me over the years. I have called it SOsi or SIso depending on the emphasis denoted in capital letters.

Silly on the Outside but smart inside - SOsi or vice versa - SIso. Even the smartest guys that I have encountered have fallen for the hat that I chose when I make them feel smarter. I have shared it with some people and the results have never disappointed.

A friend of mine has become better than the teacher and perfected it beyond my intended application. This chap has consistently played foolishly before a certain group of associates that he wanted to rid himself off without hurting anyone. So he became the subject of discomforting vibes and for sure, he has faded away as a shooting star would.

When he wanted to go up the corporate ladder, this guy worked like he had two manuals. One on how to work hard, and another on how to suck up. He rose and got the prize at the price of much time and great effort. And soon after assuming high office, he changed completely. His true colours emerged. He fired anyone that did not just look as if, but could pronounce the word "threat". He moved from SIso to SOsi.

At one point, everyone thought that this man was destined to fail but he stepped up the gears and turned the company's fortunes from single-digit to double-digit profits within two years. The shareholders turned their eyes away from his methods and firmly on his results.

Not too long ago, this CEO tested the board's resolve to keep him by threatening to quit and they offered him an additional four years at the helm. Those employees who encountered his rough edges still curse him albeit from outside the company that they once served so diligently, but it matters no more for the results speak louder without their input.

Last year, many hitherto iconic organisations succumbed under the weight of a business-as-usual attitude. Others that were nondescript at the time, surmounted the huddles and grew against the grain. No one gave them a chance beyond their self-belief.

Innovation is now proving to be the only room left in the world. Those who stand tall to judge others by their unusual looks are in for a rude shock. They are dying slowly because they have remained analogue and very much old school and are now tempting the dinosaur's fate when the new ways are plain to see.

The obvious is now uncomfortably not that obvious any more. The innovative people are viewed as unorthodox but they equally are calling the peacock's bluff and giving it a run for its beauty and going for what matters, its brains. The next big thing in the banking world's operating systems will most likely come from a Kayole or a Umoja inner core based school leaver without a bank account.

This developer shall do it from his phone and with a limited budget. This guy will move from rags to riches as the dominant players now, will find it wiser to use their riches to make rags for our doorsteps. That day is coming. A while ago, banks wired money between themselves exclusively but today, Mpesa is the same thing but between two phone users with no banking experience.

The day is soon coming when it won't mean much to own a building in downtown Nairobi. The physical world has embraced plenty of virtual operations besides, the virtual world does not ask you to pay goodwill to enjoy the same thing three times, location, location, location. In the virtual world, both the provider and consumer chose their respective locations.

Many things set before 2021 are modelled for a world that no longer exists. This year is ready for those eager to embrace new models at short notice. They don't have covers to be judged by. They have a platform to prove their functionality through present-day technologies. Those who are stubbornly too rich from the old ways to bother at all, will soon literally join the TV soap: "The Rich Also Cry" and this time as reality TV, if they don't look at the man in the mirror and ask him to change his ways.

In times such as these when most air passengers need no money, no tickets and no visas to travel because they are outnumbered by disease-causing viruses, life must move on albeit, in other ways. These new ways belong to the unorthodox, to those who cannot be measured using conventional metrics. The funny thing is that those who want to judge these new ways are illiterate of them or indifferent to their true impact.

Too many things today look silly on the outside but are smart from inside and hence the temptation to judge the book by its cover. When their forms remain constant, their rules change and that's why things are harder to read.

We have another term, "Toti", tortoise on the outside but a tiger inside. Those associated with this term, deceptively look slow, but it is this misreading of them that gets them to maul you when your guard is down.

When you have a Toti guy that is a SOsi type, then you cannot judge this book by its cover. This one is that old guy in the office whose steady pace is confused for slowness but in a real sense, he is taking well thought out steps that are correctly calculated. His demeanour appears as if 'last century' and silly but the opposition is always left gasping in his wake when the smartness in his stealth materialises. These are the rare rocks of all ages.

When the old Toti - SOsi types work hand in hand with youthful innovators, then the ground surely shifts. And a year like this one ahead of us has many old and young people collaborating symbiotically. Noah and the ark project was one such collaboration. And when it rained, it poured and only those involved in the project alongside the animals were spared the wrath.

So may you embrace the innovative spirit this year and leave the judgement to the future generations who will emulate or avoid our ways. Let us all make it to the ark of our time, or should we say yatch?