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August 25/08/08 is a day I will hold dear to my memory. It was around 5.30 pm as I walked down the staircase heading home when I bumped into Linus Gitahi (Chief Executive of the Nation Media Group) with whom we exchanged greetings, held a conversation for a few minutes before we parted ways.

I noticed he had shed a few pounds that matched well with his reputation of being charming, witty and open minded. As I was waiting for the last trip “bus” to arrive I caught a glimpse of him at the doorway trying to catch the bus as well.

Shock was written all over my face! He jumped into the bus without struggling as if that was part of his daily routine and greeted everyone in the bus with a warm smile. I could hear murmurs from the back but these eventually faded as the bus moved.

I could not hold my burning question anymore, I asked, “how do you manage to do this?” and he replied “how will I know what people think if I’m not part of the crowd”. We went on with the conversation and from that point I realized that he - a CEO is also a normal human being. For him though, he is a unique CEO - who doesn’t think class and what the public will say but- how do I get my work done?

I dare say, in Kenya it’s very rare to find a CEO hopping into a bus or even catching public transport but Linus was an exception. While in the bus he was a colleague, a friend and above all a human being and I remembered the famous quote by Kahlil Gibran saying “Generosity is giving more than you can, and pride is taking less than you need”. From that point I thought to myself that this is the kind of a person I want to be when I become a CEO. I want to be able to understand the heart and mind of people, not by looking at what they have already achieved, but at what they aspire to be.