Despite not having had any official schooling, Steve Mululu is now fulfilling his goal after successfully establishing a chain of health and fitness enterprises in Johannesburg, South Africa.
During a recent interview, he shared the pivotal circumstances that brought him to his ambition.
Coming from a family of 60 siblings, Mululu knew he needed to find a way to stand out if he wanted to leave his mark on this planet.
“My father had 4 wives all of whom had 15 kids. It seems like the only Bible verse he read was ‘go forth and multiply’,” he revealed
Mululu subsequently relocated to Nairobi, the capital, when he was only 17.
His only strength was his raw energy, which he had unwittingly increased while caring for his father’s farm.
As a result, Mululu found himself living and roaming from slum to slum, searching for his purpose.
He immediately found work at the National Cereals and Produce Board warehouse in Industrial Area, where he was responsible for sealing, stacking and moving cartons.
However, he quit on the first day.
“I noticed that my colleagues were all walking with a visible hunch and limp. I pulled one of them to the side and made some small talk in a bid to know more about the job. One of them told me he had been working at the warehouse for 40 years. I quit there and then,” he recounted.
Mululu went on to say that settling for a life similar, if not worse, than the one he had left upcountry was unthinkable to him.
At this point, he had an insight. He chose to focus on his brute might and raw energy.
Boxing was an obvious decision, and he quickly established himself as a regular at many gyms, where he not only trained but also observed and learned.
He soon began training his own clientele, one of whom pointed out the potential chances in South Africa during the 1990s.
Mululu eventually used everything he had accumulated and migrated to South Africa with the support of relatives.
He began his career as a personal trainer at a Johannesburg gym, where he continued to improve himself emotionally and physically.
He used to and still does wake up every morning for two hours of study, a pattern he also follows at night.
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Within five years of being in South Africa, he was working as a fully qualified professional trainer for wealthy clients.
Mululu desired for his own gym, where he could execute his own ideas about a holistic approach to exercise.
Despite being discouraged by his consumers at the gym, the owner of the site he had in mind requesting three months of rental upfront, and overseas suppliers of training equipment demanding 50% payment.
He repeatedly emailed North America’s largest seller of gym equipment, eagerly explaining the prospects in the South African market.
Six weeks later, he received a letter from the company’s Europe sales manager, informing him that he will be visiting Johannesburg soon.
Mululu accompanied him to his ideal location in Sunninghill and introduced the sales manager to the landlord as a “business partner,” impressing him so much that he was offered a lease.
His go-getter attitude also enabled him to sign up 100 paying clients before his first gym opened its doors.
He was still completely impoverished and on the verge of declaring bankruptcy and liquidating his business when he decided to approach a local venture capital firm.
Mululu, a man of faith, revealed that the firm’s willingness to take a chance on him was due to God’s grace. He was granted a loan of Ksh5 million, and the rest is history.
Within four years, he was profitable and quickly expanded by opening two other wellness centers. He started out doing everything, including cleaning, training and sales.
Mululu now has a staff of at least 50.
“We need to invest more on positive self-empowerment programs. I think our biggest shortcoming as Africans is not lack of opportunities, we just don’t believe in ourselves
“We always come into any situation from a position of underprivileged ‘I’m not good enough’. Unfortunately, your world is a mirror of your thoughts,” he said.
