recycle ideas. And as long as they remain there, they will never stumble upon the extraordinary.
Your greatest breakthrough will not come from what you already know. It will not come from where you are comfortable. It will not come from the paths you’ ve always walked. Your greatest breakthrough is waiting in the realm of the unfamiliar.
When I discovered Francis on that stage, it hit me hard. I had been looking in all the familiar places, but my solution was hiding where I had never looked. The treasure was in the unexpected.
The question for you today is simple but powerful: Where are you not looking? Because that may just be where your destiny is hiding.
History is full of men and women who became legends not because they followed the familiar path, but because they dared to look where no one else was looking.
For years, the computer industry was obsessed with hardware. Companies made billions producing bigger, faster, and shinier machines. That was the pattern- the familiar. Then along came a few people who asked a different question: What about the invisible part? What about software? Microsoft, Oracle, and others bet on what nobody else was betting on and the result is that they rewrote the rules of wealth and technology. The hardware giants that once ruled are now footnotes, while the software visionaries shaped the digital world as we know it.
The same pattern played out in banking. For decades, banks operated under one assumption: only the wealthy are worth banking. Poor people were“ unbankable.” That was the familiar. But then came Muhammad Yunus with Grameen Bank in Bangladesh. He looked where no one else was looking-among the poor, the marginalized, the invisible. He gave them
micro-loans, and they repaid faithfully. What started as an experiment exploded into a revolution, earning Yunus a Nobel Prize. And the ripple spread banks like Equity Bank in Kenya also embraced that model, transforming millions of lives and rewriting what banking could look like.
Let us also take a look at mobile phones. When they first landed in Africa, they were toys for the rich. Billing was on a per-minute basis, and exclusivity was the rule. Even with the GSM revolution, mobile services still leaned heavily toward those who could afford them. But then came Safaricom. They did something radical. They looked where no one else was looking- at the ordinary mwananchi. They introduced per-second billing and suddenly the phone was no longer a status symbol. It became a necessity. And when they birthed M-PESA, they turned a communication company into a financial revolution. Today, Kenya is the global reference point for mobile money because Safaricom dared to look beyond the obvious.
The lesson from all these examples is that breakthroughs rarely come from the comfort zones of familiarity. They are birthed in the wilderness of the unfamiliar. The future belongs to those who can train their eyes to see value where others see nothing.
I discovered Francis not in the polished places I was searching, but in the front seat of my car and I was at the back. Microsoft found the future in software when the world was blinded by hardware. Grameen Bank found fortune in the poor when the world was blinded by wealth. Safaricom found power in the masses when the world was blinded by the elite.
So I ask you again, with urgency and conviction: Where are you not looking? Because your Francis, your billiondollar idea, your Nobel-Prize-winning breakthrough, your transformation- may
The pioneer’ s advantage diminishes because everyone else studies you like a live case study. They learn from your mistakes. They copy your strengths. And then they improve on them. The vulnerability of success is that it gives others a platform to build on while you stay trapped in what“ used to work.” not be in the place you’ re scanning so hard. It may be in the shadows, waiting for you to dare to look differently.
The pattern repeats across history. Breakthroughs come, not from the obvious, but from the overlooked. Take the hospitality industry. For decades, hotels ruled supreme. If you wanted to travel, you booked a hotel room. That was the familiar. Then along came a strange idea: What if people could pay to sleep in someone’ s spare room? At first, it sounded laughable and even ridiculous. Who would let strangers into their home? Who would trust strangers enough to sleep there? But Airbnb dared to look where no one else was looking- at unused living spaces. That single shift shook the entire hospitality industry. Today, Airbnb is worth billions, and hotels are scrambling to keep up.
Look also at transportation. Taxi companies invested in fleets, medallions, and expensive licensing. That was the familiar. But nobody was looking at the ordinary person’ s car as a taxi. Uber did. They built a platform, empowered everyday people to become drivers, and unleashed a trillion-dollar shift in how we move.
And then there’ s entertainment. For years, Blockbuster made billions renting out tapes and DVDs. Their empire was built on stores, shelves, and late fees. That was the familiar. But then Netflix asked a different question: What if people could stream movies from home? Nobody was looking in that direction. Blockbuster laughed. Today, Blockbuster is gone, and Netflix has become a global giant, shaping culture itself.
Again and again, the same truth emerges: The treasure is never in the obvious. It is never in the familiar patterns. It is always in the places we have ignored, dismissed, or considered impossible.
So, I return to the question that now burns in me, both as a leader and as a student of history: Where are you not looking? Because your Francis, your breakthrough, your billion-dollar idea, may be standing quietly in the corner, waiting for you to finally see.
If breakthroughs happen where no one is looking and everyone wants to break through, why then are people not looking where the breakthroughs are? It’ s simple: blind spots created by past success.
The greatest threat to success is not failure; it is success itself. Yet you will
44 MAL68 / 24 ISSUE