 Yes, we are back with Enterpreneurship Tuesday and as usual, so we had a talk, a very powerful talk from the CEO of Microsoft, courtesy of YouTube, courtesy of Bloomberg, but right about now we are having our first guest of the day and in the spirit of celebrating the reading culture, we are going to be at St. Paul's University, where we are going to be having Googie with Yongo and the son, Mokoma Wangoogie and these guys are amazing writers. It's a lineage of amazing writers. So in the spirit of celebrating this, we have Joseph Muah, who's an author as well from the USIU, the United States University, all right, and is an author. He has a book club as well and is just trying to promote the reading culture in Kenya, which is not quite popular. Thank you, nice to have me around. Joseph Muah, you told me the ladies call you Joseph Kisses. Joseph Muah, yeah, you know, like when you google the word Muah, you'll get like, you know, that's how we pronounce the case words. So the ladies call you Joseph Kisses? No, no, no. They just pronounce it in the usual African way. All right, if I missed anything, your camera is number four. You can tell us a brief bio of yourself. Okay, so I can describe me as a young ambitious boy, yeah, because I'm 20 right now. So I started writing when I was 18. So that was the passion. That's when I developed the passion because I realized that in this world, the only thing that is going to liberate us from anything, if you want to be successful at anything, you'll have to first invest in your mind. So I always try to figure out, I used to read a lot of books actually at the age of 18 to 20. I make sure that I read at least two books a day. So now I sat down with myself and I asked myself, how can I be able to... Sit down with yourself. Exactly. So I asked myself, how exactly can I be able to give in my input to people so that they can be able to get to at least gain from my knowledge? And that's when I started writing. So I'm a writer and I focus more on self-development, how we can be able to push people because you have to be pushed to be successful. So I focus on more on that. And I run several programs, Mentor Gold Book Club, which now focuses on helping people maintain the discipline of reading. Before we talk about the reading culture, critics might ask or say, what does a 20-year-old know about self-improvement? What is a 20-year-old see? How do you defend yourself when you get to hear things like this, when you're about to talk to some grown people or when you're about to present your stuff to some grown people? Well, I think for the most part, age doesn't matter. What matters is what is in your head. What matters is what is in your head. Joseph, Moa, WhiteFay4 on Twitter, WhiteFay4 on Instagram, and WhiteFay4 on Facebook. Don't forget entrepreneurship Tuesday, the hashtag. Don't forget why in the morning the hashtag. And don't forget we are going to be at St. Paul's University. All right, so what's in your head is what matters. That's it. All right, how do you develop what's in your head? Because we have a lot of influences, yeah. From the music we listen to in the Matatu, what we watch on TV. What do you think is the best way of developing what's in your head? This thing that you say is so powerful, can make a 20-year-old stand in front of aged people and tell them something really substantial. Okay, I think for the most part, what is in your head matters a lot. And there is a lot of noise out there. If you're listening to the wrong people, you're listening to the wrong things. So what you can basically do, it's very simple. You can just go in into books because books will never lie. Books are actually the primary sources of knowledge. You can always see the kind of book that you want to read, like how to make money, how to do this and this and this, how to win and influence people. You can always see the exact thing that you're going to read. So if you read that, it kind of rubs off on you, on your brain. And now, once you get that rub off in your brain, you can go ahead now and execute that. You begin leaving what you read in those books. So that's exactly how you influence your brain for the most part. So reading is very important. When we talk about reading, when we talk about literature, people quickly rush into English books. Do you think vernacular books and Swahili books can serve the same role in improving your knowledge? Yeah, I think that's right because we all have different languages, right? If I go to Spain, for example, I won't be able to find any English book. If I find, if maybe I have a chance to find one, it's only a few. There they have all the books that how to win and influence people translated into Spanish language. So language doesn't really matter. What matters is the content in the book that you're reading. Because at the end of the day, that is what is going to help you. Because if I decide to say the only way to win in this world is to practice, you know, as Bruce Lee said that I don't fear a man who practices a thousand kicks a day, but I do fear a man who practices one kick in a thousand times. So if I translate that into maybe Kikui or Kamba, there is no difference. It's still the same content, right? So what really matters is are you really understanding what is in the book? All right. That's a powerful quote right there. I don't fear a man who practices a thousand kicks in a day. I fear a man who practices one kick a thousand times. Perfect. That is a message from that line. You have a book. Yeah, I do. This book is on Amazon. It's on Amazon. Right. And this book is called cutting edge. No, exactly. That was the first one. I have a different one called a legend mindset. So the cutting edge was a kindle that I uploaded along time ago, but I don't really focus on that because it's only abstract. The one I usually focus on the most is called a legends mindset. Yeah. So the cutting edge is where you started. Legends mindset is where you are right now. That's it. And a legends mindset is what you're pushing right now. Yeah. And you'd like people to read it because you feel like there's a lot of knowledge. Yeah. What inspired you to write this book first? What inspired me to write their book is the fact that throughout my life, I feel it's always been a cycle of learning. A cycle of learning. That's the point because I used to be with my father. I used to be with my grandfather and they used to teach me certain things. Right. And some of these things we don't get to learn in school. Right. For the most part, when most people go to school, all they learn about is the syllabus and everything that is set for them. But there is other things like mental, mental, what do you call it, mental health, how to make money. Nobody teaches us those things. So we had to have someone come in to give us the knowledge that they acquired and they have tested and it has worked for them. So that's why I decided to come in and gather everything that I've ever learned ever since I was a kid and put that into writing. Are you a religious person? Yeah, of course. You're a religious person? I am. All right. So religion says we should only put our trust in God. Yeah. Books are written by people. Books are written by people. Can we trust books 100%? Yeah, I think for the most part, yeah. We can trust books 100% because I am a writer and I know what exactly it takes to sit down, focus on an idea and give it out. Because I can come here and tell you, hey, this is the part, this is what, for example, there's a saying that says, if you're in a room playing poker and in that means you don't know who the sucker in the room is, you're the sucker in the room. So I can tell you that if I had, I hadn't experienced this yet. A key. And everyone has to make the power of books, actually. And I can give you an example of Warren Buffett. Do you know what Warren Buffett? Yes, yes, yes, yes. The CEO of Baxia, otherwise. This guy never went to school. Warren Buffett says he reads a book a day, ever since he was a kid. And you wonder why this guy is running that big an empire. I think is why he's among top 10 richest people in the world. Billions of dollars for sure. Exactly. And the reason is why he's there is because of reading. So I think the safest bed that we've got is books. And on the issue about God, you see God only helps people who help themselves. So I like that. Yeah, if you just do, if you just sit down every day and all you do is pray and don't, you don't do anything, then I think you're living in the spiritual world. We only have two kinds of war. We have the spiritual world and we have the real world. So you have to go in there, ask for that resiliency and inspiration and inspiration and then come into reality and find a way how to deal with real world problems. And books will guide you on that. Books will definitely guide you on that. For sure. You have a book club. You are the CEO of an organization trying to support the youth in so many kinds of ways. But I like to know. I was talking to Mokoma here and we agreed on one thing. The reading culture is not is not alive in this country right now. What do you blame this on? As somebody who has gone through the system, 844 system, you went, you sat your KCPE under pressure, you sat your KCSE under pressure and now you're into the American system of education at USAU. You have at least gotten a taste of the American system and the 844 system. What do you blame the lack of the reading culture on in this country right now? I think I will blame the educational system that we have. I would say it has a lot of flaws. First, the average person really reads a book for three years. I read a very interesting research about that because when you are going through this educational system, it kind of wires your brain to associate reading with pain. Reading, you associate reading with pain. Yeah. If you don't read, you're punished. If you don't read, you fail. Exactly. You read to cramp for examinations. Exactly. You read for. To evade those, you know. You read to impress your parents. Exactly. You read for very stupid reasons if you ask me for lack of better words. Yeah. What should we be training these kids, these kids to read for them? I think if the educational system can find a way to, to make this to rewire the brains of the millennials so that now they can stop looking at reading from a perspective of I want to avoid this and this and this and focus on reading as I mean to get knowledge. And I think the best way to do this is to do away with the grading system. Right? Because people, most people, if you go to many classes, the most commonly asked question there is what is going to come in the exam. So, when the lecturer or the teacher tells them this is what is going to come, they go ahead on that specific chapter and they only read that. So, the rest, they just put it away. So, I think if what we should do is remove those grading system and make kids read more. And the very best way to do that is to show these guys that reading is the very best way to enlighten your mind. It opens your head, it opens your mind and now you have a different way of thinking. Yeah. All right. I remember when I was in school, shout out to my literature teacher by the way. Yeah. This was one of the books I enjoyed the most. Okay. And the reason I enjoyed this book so much, he used to tell us read the book. Just go read the book if you want to read it or not. Just go read it. Yeah. And then tomorrow, we'll talk about it in class. And then during the class session where we exchange ideas and everybody gives their perspective on the book, it was so fun. He made it so fun that if you didn't read the book, you have to read it so that the next class you don't want people are talking about. Yeah. So, do you think entertainment is also a way of promoting the reading culture? Yeah. Entertainment is also a way of promoting that because I think when you see entertainment, what it does is that it releases dopamine in your brain. Dopamine hormones. When you're entertaining. Yeah. Dopamine. And so when your brain function with dopamine, you get to learn and you get you get that excitement to go ahead and read more. But what happens with the educational system when the teacher comes in and they punish you and they tell you if you don't do this, you'll have to repeat this class. Your brain does the opposite. And they profile people. You are the stupid ones. You're the smart ones. You're the middle ones. You're the cute ones. You're the ugly ones. So your brain functions with cortisol, which is exactly the same opposite of dopamine. Dopamine. So your brain kind of you know what happens with cortisol? That's the feel bad. So you get to develop that feeling that you never want to read again because it's pain. Yeah. So I think entertainment if we can find a way to help these guys release dopamine while reading, that's a good way to go. You have a YouTube channel. Maybe you can share it with the people before we share some content obvious from YouTube. The energy and the millionaire mindset. Yeah. All right. Yeah. So your YouTube channel and your social media handles before we can get to see this. Okay. If you want to get my YouTube channel, it's Joseph Muatox. That's a YouTube. I still have content on Facebook. That's Mentor Gold. It's a Facebook page. And also my personal page is Joseph Muo. And yeah, you can also get me on my WhatsApp. All right. Yeah. We'll be sharing the number a little bit later. But right about now, let's get some of the content Joseph Muo posts on YouTube. Let's get a taste of his mindset. Then we'll be back with some more of this interview. Don't go no man. Energy. So here's the point. Have you ever met with people that don't have any sense of energy at all in their life? People who look bold. People who just look miserable. And I'll tell you what, these are the kind of people that suffer from this mental health diseases. I don't want to call them that depression and stress and everything because they don't have any energy at all in their life. So here is a little secret. Let me let you in on it. Your energy affects your emotion and your confidence as well. And if I look around the world, everything that is related to the good life is always connected to both your emotions and your confidence. Okay. So if you want to live a stress-free life, a depression-free life, a life that you don't have to worry about some basic negative stuff happening in your life, a life that you will be happy all day, then you need to upgrade your energy levels. If you want to be successful, I'm talking about money business-wise and everything, there is a sudden, not a sudden, everything is related to confidence. Everything comes down to the basic master confidence, you understand? And you can only gain confidence when you have the energy. Have you ever met with people that will just convince you, according to how they're portraying themselves with energy and everything and be like, hey, buddy, I want to sell this product to you. I think this is this. And then you just kind of feel like you're pulled to buy that product. Those are the kind of people that get very successful. You want to be there, then you have to be confident. You have to be confident. And you can only gain your confidence when you raise your energy. Okay. You can only win interviews when you answer those questions with confidence. Okay. And confidence really, really lies on your energy. You don't have energy, you don't have confidence. Okay. There's no rebuttal against that. So you want to be successful. Old sport, you want to live a life. Yes, that is that Joseph Moore talks on YouTube. I hope you learned something from that. If you'd need some more insight, please head to his YouTube channel and just get inspired. I'm interested to know how you started doing this thing. Okay. I say everything has a start. And there's a saying, step by step you get ahead, but not necessarily in fast spots. So you see the reason is to want more people don't really get to live to their ultimate potential is because they're waiting for that period where now they're going to have all the resources, everything that they need. Period that might never come. Exactly. And that period never comes. It never comes. Nine times out of ten, the moment never comes. It never comes. So for me, what I decided is that I have an inner feeling that is actually driving me to move forward and spread this news to the people. So what I had to do was start. I wasn't that confident. Actually, I remember when I did my very first, I have like 62 videos on YouTube. When I did my first video, I used to freak out. You see that camera fever and self-criticism. Yeah, exactly. Oh, I think I'm not good at this and this and this. But then I told myself, you know what kid, this is, you've got to do this more often. And now 62 videos later, I am confident. I can share out my opinion and everything to the world. So I'll tell people, all you need to do is get started. And for the millennials, they don't realize it that the greatest asset that they got is their phones. That single device that they have, it's more powerful than the fast rocket that got the man in the moon. So they have to make use of it. It has a camera. It has the social. It can access the internet. So what? You can communicate with anybody from anywhere on this planet. Yeah, exactly. So what else are you waiting for? No resources. The chances of you winning a lottery or getting someone to tell you, hey, I've got to invest in you. I can see you have this idea. I like the chances of getting hit by a scrap metal from a plane above. Very minimal. When you put your content out there, you don't know who's going to see it. I don't. So it's very important to put your content out there. If you want to do something phenomenal, very important. So all you had to do is start. All I had to do was that. Amazing. How can people get to join the book club? Okay, I'd say the book club is running in three parts of major cities that we have in Kenya. There's one in Nairobi. There's one in Machakos. And there's one in Thika. So coordinating all this. I'm coordinating all this. So if they want to join and we are looking for serious people, people who really understand the value of knowledge. You see my mentor told me, listen kid, in this world, people who are going to end up controlling everything. People who are going to end up running everything are people who are willing to sit down. Charlie Manga calls this acidity. Sitting down, putting your butt in the chair, taking a book and read. Those are the kind of people that want to control the world. But for the rest of the guys that are not willing to do that, it's going to be a hard bet for them. Yeah, if they decide to go through the School of Hard Knocks, well, you know the results, right? They will get there. They are success at the age of 60 or 70. You know, I'm a big fan of Hollywood, Beverly Hills, to be precise. And I usually like to watch other YouTube videos to do with all these guys who do vlogs and everything. And one common thing I realize is that the people that you see driving all these fancy cars, Lamborghini, I'm talking cars like Ferrari, you know, all these fancy, fancy sports cars are people who are old. Because they got their success at 70. Why? Because they decided to use the School of Hard Knocks. They didn't realize that you can use the shortcut and the shortcut is learning it from other people's experience. We've done it already. We've done it already. So there's no new thing under the sun. No new thing. You just take it and make it your own. Exactly. Powerful. So the best way to learn from other people is through books. So you're coordinating a book club in Machaco, Nairobi and Thicke. All right, how can people get to join it? We were to talk about that. Okay, they can reach me personally. Your camera is number four. They can reach you. You can reach me personally on my official contacts, my number precisely. And you can also send an email, a serious email, because as I said before, we're looking for serious people who understand the real value of knowledge. These are the people who are going to run the all 10 years, 20 years to come from now. The people who are willing to read. Exactly. The people who want to get some content in there. Yes. So yeah, they can reach me out through the number, my number, my official number. You can say the number all over again as we wrap this up. The number is 0796, 700, 292. All right. So for somebody who's watching and maybe the last book they read was in high school, was a set book, what can you tell them? What advice can you give them in terms of picking a book to read? Because when you go to a library, when you go to a bookstore, you have motivational books, you have fictional books, you have romantic books, you have all sorts of books, you have history books, there are all kinds of books. How can somebody get to understand what they're going to be interested in as a book to read? Well, I think for me, you can actually focus on the the four major, major pillars of a good life. Number one, we have health, wealth, love, and happiness. Because if you look at everything that happens in this world, you always revolve around those four pillars. Right? A book about wealth, you can always find that. Okay? Once in a while, once in a month, you a week or something like that, you read a book about wealth and how to create all these things, how to do your taxes, how to do, you don't really have to be a finance student to learn about these things. You can always just go to the library and pick a book about that, learn about saving, learn about debentures, all these things. That will save you time to get, you know, it will save you, you know, a lot of struggle from having to deal with people who want to turn you into the sucker. A book about wealth, right? That's the one I'm talking about. A book about health. A book about wealth will help you in the streets of Nairobi. Yeah, a book about health as well, keep you fit. A book about love. Love is like friends, family, and acquaintances. It'll help you know how to associate people. Yeah, how to associate people because we have a lot of mentally unhealthy people per se out there, so you know how to do the social skills. Yeah, you have to know how to exactly read people, right? A book about happiness as well, how to deal with stress, how to deal with depression, anxiety, and all these things. So the four pillars of life. The four pillars. Health, love, and happiness. Happiness. Make sure you get a dose of that every time you pick a book to read. Exactly. Thank you very much for coming through to I in the morning. Nice. I appreciate you Mr. Joseph. Thank you. Yes, in the spirit of celebrating the reading culture, we are going to be at St. Paul's University with Ngugiwati Ongo and Mokoma Waangugi. Yes, and we have the amazing author here. Joseph Muah is a motivational speaker as well at the age of 20 at the Uni, at the USAU, right? Yeah. All right, thank you very much for coming through to I in the morning. Keep doing what you're doing. We appreciate you so much. Hilda Wathiti and Joy Muchache still have interviews lined up for you guys so don't go nowhere. Don't touch that the bounce is also going to be live on location at St. Paul's. We enjoyed Saturday with Marsh Auto and this is that season where we celebrate the Y-254 anniversary. So we might be coming to Houtnir you so keep it locked to Y-254 for more information.