BOOK: INSPIRED BY BITATURE
AUTHOR: ROBERT BAKE TUMUHAISE
PRICE: sh60,000
Available in major bookshops around Kampala
Patrick Bitature is a local businessman who has been
involved in everything from nightclubs to retail trade to telecommunications to
power generation to hotels and real estate. With the breadth of his experience,
a book about him should be a good read.
“Inspired by Bitature” is a first stub at chronicling
Bitature’s life and times. It is not a biography in the traditional sense, more
and exploration of the man’s thoughts through the adoring eyes of his mentee
the author Robert Bake Tumuhaise.
Speeches given by Bitature throughout the years are
interspersed with Tumuhaise’s narration of his experience with Bitature and
commentary of what he has learned at the feet of the master.
The speeches alone, which date back a decade are worth more
than the value of the book. Made to audiences ranging from young entrepreneurs
to graduation classes, here and abroad, they help distil the essence of the
man.
"Born into relative wealth, his childhood was cut short when his father, Paul Bitature, was murdered during the Idi Amin era. His epiphany came soon after when his mother, still grieving from the loss, around the dining table declared they would have to get used to tea without sugar....
The young Bitature without consultation jumped on a bus to Nairobi, Kenya, and
came back with 15kg of sugar, sold some to the neighbours and made a profit
many times over what he had paid for the schoolboy suitcase full of sugar.
He has been involved in looking after his family ever since.
Through the speeches you discern a sincere desire to distill
the lessons he has learnt, a veritable “What they do not teach you in business
school” handbook, for other people going into business. It is a constant theme
through his speeches that our society is training too many employees and no job
creators. His hope is that prospective entrepreneurs can learn from his
triumphs and failures and hopefully travel a much smoother journey.
He says he determined
from a young age that he would make $100,000, otherwise he wold not get married
but he sees no reason why any able bodied Uganda does not aim at a million
dollars. Bitature says a goal like that would give purpose to our lives and set
the mind thinking.
He counsels that success cannot be faked, with a side jab to
some of our fake tycoons, and he says real success can only come with
determination and persistence.
The conventional wisdom is that rich men’s top priority is
money, the making, keeping and growing of, but he says that money comes a
distant fifth as a priority in his life behind his family, business, God and
friends, urging the reader to “Desire to have money but don’t be ruled by
money.”
He has some timely thoughts on how to raise capital in our
economy, explores why businesses fail, ruminates on the habits that create
achievers and puts serious thought to how to change the world.
As earlier said the real value of the book is in the display
of Bitature’s thought processes. It is evident very quickly that he does not
think like your everyday man. His outlook on family, achievement and even
politics is shaped by his business experience.
This is important because for the rest of us mere mortals we
don’t realise that from the intangible – thoughts, values and beliefs come the
tangible – money, property and even fame. A reorientation of our thinking is
where we need to start in trying to climb to a new level.
"The book is also important because through Bitature, born and bred here, we can see the possibilities. Many of the accounts of successful people around are of foreign businessmen, operating in a different context from ourselves...
Which brings us to an important point. Many of our
successful people have died before thy have made an account of their lives.
Most because they underestimate the value of their example to future
generations. As a result we have lost invaluable resource with the passing of
the titans of our society.
I know it is said that if you want to hide things from the
black man put in a book. But while that may true for today’s black man these
stories will be recorded for posterity and for a different kind of black man.
The author needs to be commended for recognising the value
of Bitature’s journey to a wider audience and bringing it to life. But one
cannot help feeling that Bitature owes another book.
*The book is being launched on April14th at The Protea
Hotel, Kololo. Entrance fee sh100,000
