Failure to plan can end in grief
IWENT on an exhilarating fishing trip with a coterie of friends last weekend and enjoyed every bit of it, except how it ended. We shared boyhood tales, roasted meat, danced to music and quaffed ice-cold beers on the riverbank while taking photographs of ourselves.
Though we lacked experience on how to set the hooks, place the bait and cast rods into the water, we managed to catch some fish.
Seeing we had caught more than we needed, we sought to sell some and commit the proceeds to buy more beer.
Just as we were discussing this, an elderly man with a furrowed brow who was fishing nearby offered to help us find a market for our catch.
He actually made us believe he had a ready market. The old-timer took the cooler box containing the fish and that was the last time we saw him.
Only God knows what happened to the fish and my cooler box. Looking for the old man appeared worse than hunting for raccoons with dogs at night.
To our collective disgust, it later dawned on us that we had become too trusting of the old man that we never cared to ask his name, contact details or even his totem.
Such are the pitfalls of venturing into an enterprise without any knowledge of the market, including basic things like pricing.
I am sure there are many people out there who have fallen into the same predicament.
There are countless women who have dated and even fallen pregnant for men they do not know.
“He was such a caring man who paid even fees for a child I had in an earlier marriage. Everything went on so smoothly that I never thought he would ever do this to me.
“Even when he gave me money, he dealt on a cash basis and we would only operate by word of mouth.
“I am sure he will come back, but to be honest, I do not even know his name,” I heard a young woman telling her aunts after she had fallen pregnant.
While I did not believe her at first, I soon realised that there are many such cases like the one that took place on our recent fishing expedition.
As I commit pen to paper, gentle reader, some people are stuck with dozens of rabbits which they reared on the promise of a ready market by some unknown persons, who also wrung them of cash for training them how to take care of rabbits.
“Oh, the world has become something else. There are people who came here and offered to train us in rearing rabbits for a fee. They gave us a list of dos and dont’s, which we religiously followed. The rabbits multiplied as they had promised, but when it came to the marketing aspect, they disappeared.
“I am stuck with these rabbits, which I have since started giving away to friends and relatives, but they, too, are no longer interested in them. Had I known, I wouldn’t have started this project, which is giving me headaches,” one old lady from Marlborough told this writer.
But she is not the only one.
There are countless farmers out there who are rearing more chickens than they need and are failing to get a market for them.
These are the kind of people who force their workmates to take as many chickens as they want and pay for the birds when their financial situation permits.
“It is good to be in business, but people must know where they will sell the produce at the end of the day.
“I am sick and tired of a brother who is forcing me to consume his chickens because he has no ready market. The other biggest challenge is that almost everyone out there, including big companies, is producing chickens.
“Whenever we set out to do something, let us think of the market first,” quipped one Tellmore Nyakabau of Mufakose.
People who sell vegetables are also doing the same.
“Tapinda botso rekudya mapotatoes pano. My sister grew a lot of potatoes, but she has no ready market, and she is foisting these on me week after week. I am now tired of them. I wish she had done research before venturing into that business.”
We really need to plan in all we do and avoid burdening our peers because of our bad planning.