Let’s invest in the marketplace of ideas rather than buy land we cannot exploit

 

PHOTO | EMMANUEL DUNAND | FILE Mr Jeff Bezos with a Kindle.  AFP

In Summary
The true value of land is not so much in its ownership as we have been socialised to believe, but in using it to accommodate one’s ideas
In Kenya, most of the people who invest in land largely pride themselves in owning it rather than in using it to plant the seed of their ideas
By Ng'anga Mbugua
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The value of land will continue to appreciate with the passing of time. That is a given. However, ideas remain the prime real estate of the future. Although land promises generous returns, these are hardly immediate except in usurious cases.

That is why the youthful population with access to capital would do this country a greater economic good by investing in the marketplace of ideas rather than in land they are unlikely to develop in the short term.

And they can learn a few lessons from other men of ideas like Richard Branson and Ashton Kutcher, both among entrepreneurs who are set to earn millions of dollars once Twitter — a social media company in which they have shares — is listed at the New York Stock Exchange next month.

They can also learn from Jeff Bezos, the man who transformed Amazon from an ordinary online retail store to the most dynamic virtual shop.

When Bezos made his millions, he did not invest in idle land. Rather, he has taken the courageous decision to buy a newspaper at a time when newspapers in Europe and America are struggling. (READ: Can Amazon CEO halt Washington Post fall?)

And the question that those who watch him will be asking is whether he can do for newspapers what he did for online shopping.

Even in instances where Branson has invested in land — as he did in the Maasai Mara where he recently opened an establishment — he has done so with the aim of transforming the hospitality industry.

In the process, he has created jobs and opportunities for many at home and abroad. And without a doubt, his ideas are likely to be replicated when others learn from him and try them out on a smaller scale elsewhere.

As such, the true value of land is not so much in its ownership as we have been socialised to believe, but in using it to accommodate one’s ideas.

One of the most inspiring stories I have read was in a book called The Ideas Factory, which gives a detailed account of the scientists who laid the foundation for major technological advancements that led to the invention of the radio, television and telephone among other modern-day gadgets.

They all worked for a company called Bell Labs, whose factory was built on land that, until that time, was a desolate wasteland with nothing but grass as far as the eye could see.

But because the people who started the factory — and those they hired — had a transformative mindset, they put the world on a path of technological advancement.

Today, Bell Labs as it existed then is dead but its fruits are still being harvested all over the world. Never mind that it all started “in the middle of nowhere”.

PRIDE IN OWNING LAND

In Kenya, most of the people who invest in land largely pride themselves in owning it rather than in using it to plant the seed of their ideas.

They retain the land with the expectation of selling it for a steep premium in future. However, if we are to transform our society and build a modern economy where more of us have an opportunity to play an active role in baking the national cake, we need to question the rationale behind this received wisdom. It is what stands between us and progress.

Unlike land — whose price is way above the reach of many — ideas will always be available to those who pursue them and have the patience and talent to turn them into commodities and other offerings they can then put to the service of humanity for a fee.

These are the people who, like Branson or Bezos, are not afraid of venturing into new investment territories. If their ideas and vision are rewarded with success, they are the people who will be joining the propertied class in a few decades because through their enterprise, they will have accumulated enough wealth to afford their membership into that class.

At present, Kenyans who are most likely to buy land are those who already own it. And more often than not, they let it lie idle for years, yet they would, in the long-term, reap greater rewards by investing their money in ideas that can generate more wealth for themselves while cascading the economic benefits to those who can only invest their skills and muscles in enterprise.