Chess, County Lines, and Comebacks: When Resilience Meets Strategy
Owen Gachiri is the firstborn and only son in a family of three, raised by a single mother. She was constantly on the move, chasing opportunity across various parts of Kenya, starting, and selling businesses, and reinventing herself to provide for her children. “We moved a lot,” Owen recalls. “Wherever the next opportunity was, we went. Watching my mom hustle taught me survival, adaptability, and hard work. She showed me that you can start from scratch and make something out of nothing.”
Owen’s early exposure to the hustle laid a durable foundation. Over and above that, Wavumbuzi provided the crucial structure, tools, and mindset to transform his hustle abilities into a thriving entrepreneurial venture.
In 2021, Owen registered and actively engaged in the Wavumbuzi Entrepreneurship Challenge. As a naturally competitive learner, he did not take his 19th-place ranking lightly. He came back in the 2023 edition determined to do better; and he did. He tackled multiple quests, including E-commerce and Sports, emerging first in the latter. Behind the scenes, Owen was navigating serious financial strain. He had to pause school due to fees. When he returned to school, he continued completing Wavumbuzi quests. “That kind of inclusion meant everything,” he says. “Even in the middle of struggles, I could continue learning, growing, and proving myself.”
“Quests like E-commerce taught me how to think like a businessperson,” Owen reflects. “You had to step into the shoes of an entrepreneur, identify opportunities, build strategies, think about customer acquisition, and use tech smartly.”
After finishing high school in 2023, Owen took on a managerial role in his mother’s newly opened hardware store. With no formal business training, he leaned heavily on what Wavumbuzi had given him. “I had a mindset. I had frameworks. I had confidence. Even without a degree in business, I could experiment and manage.”
For Owen, the biggest gift Wavumbuzi gave him was the freedom to imagine a different path. “When you are young, everyone tells you to be a doctor or a pilot. It can feel like there is no room to dream differently. But Wavumbuzi showed me that being an entrepreneur is also a powerful path. It taught me to be open-minded, to think across sectors. One day I am in urban farming, the next I am solving a tech or sports challenge.”
He also learned the power of resilience, something that carried over to his real-world efforts to start a chess coaching program. Despite over 10 years of playing experience, schools rejected him repeatedly. “I approached five schools, gave them demos, followed up, nothing. But I kept going.” Today, he is coaching in four schools.
Now in university studying Dental Technology, Owen is clear about his future, indicating “Entrepreneurship is my chosen path. My mom taught me to hustle. Wavumbuzi taught me to build. I want to create jobs, give others a chance, especially street kids and build multiple businesses. I am not here to just follow a career. I am here to create opportunities.”
