Victor

Hi everyone! Today I will ask a few questions to my guest, who decided to change his life by turning his hobby into a business. But who will tell the story better than you Victor! Hello!

Hello! Thank you for the invitation! I would love to share some details about my idea.

Thank you and well, we are all ears, maybe let’s start with a brief background of yours?

Sure! So, like it was said my name is Victor, I’m a 24-year-old Kenyan electrical engineering student in Budapest, Hungary. From a young age I always knew that although I was very business minded, I would never live my life going for a 9-5 job stuck behind a desk all day. The mere thought of it would send chills down my back, and I thus knew that if I wanted to live the carefree life I wanted, I would need to find ways of making money that would make me happy and allow me the flexibility to do what I wanted with my life when I wanted to do it.

So you felt that you needed autonomy?

That’s right! This initially led me to start a few businesses as a kid, from selling snacks during teatime to bookmarks and other small items you might find with a kid. As I grew older, I expanded to whatever I could do then, and started a YouTube channel, became a professional photographer, dabbled in being an influencer and promoter, and generally tried different things that were in line with my talents and hobbies.

This is impressive!

And with all of this came my latest venture, which is hosting Formula 1 watch parties. As with most other ventures I went into, I wanted to find a way to make money doing what I loved, where I would be my own boss and wouldn’t be tied down to company policies and rules.

Freedom to live my life as I want to has always been a high priority for me.

So with Formula 1, I realized that if I played my cards right, I could continue watching the races as I was before, but also hang out with my friends and get paid in the end.

How it all started is very interesting and random. I was in Kenya last year in August, and the F1 season was coming off its summer break. The race weekend also happened to be my last weekend in Kenya before I would be going back to Budapest, so a lot of my friends wanted to watch the race with me. It was then that I thought of approaching an establishment to allow me and my friends to go watch the race there, but instead of me paying for the space, they would actually pay me since I would be bringing them business.

To understand how audacious of a move that was, there was no one else doing that in Nairobi, and I would be the first. After searching for an establishment willing to take up my idea and project, I finally landed on one with a team that had been looking for exactly what I was offering. We then talked over the details and planned for the race on Sunday. This was on a Wednesday, and I would be going on vacation from Thursday to Saturday. Many thought it would be impossible to create an event and make it successful in a few days when I wouldn’t even be in the city, but when it’s meant to be, it’s meant to be. The event on Sunday went smoothly with about 50 people showing up, and the establishment was so happy with it that by Monday we had signed a deal to host races for the rest of the season.

You got real proof that you are good at it, amazing considering your age! 

Yeah but if I say it was all sunshine and roses I would lie. The challenges were there plenty, as there are with every business, but at the time I had a beautiful team that faced the challenges head-on and we got through the problems together.

One of the biggest challenges was the pandemic situation. Not only was it hard to convince people to show up with everything going on, but there was also a curfew that meant people were afraid to be caught outside. It was also a new concept, which meant that people had to get used to not watching the races from their homes, as is very popular with most viewers. But slowly by slowly we picked up momentum, and even though we had a few night races where only 5-15 people would show up, our biggest strength was consistency.

To build a successful brand, consistency has to be your number 1 priority. Once people believe in what you do, and see your reliability, they will always support you and help you grow.

By the end of the season we were having around 100 people showing up for every race, and for the last race, we had a whopping 200+ people. It was amazing to see how this random idea had grown into this massive project, with other establishments trying to emulate me.

And how does it look currently? 

At the start of this current season, the establishment changed managers, and that led to a mass exodus of employees, including the team that I had started this project with. In hindsight, I should’ve seen this as a warning, but a false sense of security has crept in, and me and my employees believed that we would be able to work with the new team as we had with the previous one. Sadly, after a few races, we noticed that we weren’t seeing eye to eye on crucial issues, and I had to take the decision to cancel the partnership with them, even though I didn’t have a backup.

I would consider this the biggest setback we had, but it was a necessary one because we weren’t happy and were losing the trust of our people. For a few races we didn’t have a place to host and thus had no income, but an establishment approached us with the idea for us hosting for them, and were willing to grow the project afresh. After 3 races it’s been very challenging as they weren’t as prepared as initially expected, but all good things take some time. I believe we’ll surpass where we once were, and that all we need is patience.

Your story deserves to be heard. I am so happy that you have accepted my invitation! Thank you for sharing!

Thank you for hearing me out! And I also hope that my story inspires someone to go out into the world and risk it all to do something that makes them happy and complete. There are a lot of ways to enjoy this world whilst making money, and everyone deserves an opportunity to express that.

I am sure. Words have their power.