For many, the idea of blindly leaving a well-paying job and entering an unknown territory is always unthinkable. But for Prishna Shah, 46, when the time came, she didn’t flinch, taking up a huge responsibility of being in charge of the family business.
She is the Chief Executive Officer of One-stop Enterprise, a snack manufacturing company based in Nairobi, but also practices clinical psychology, which she studied at the university.
Her journey towards taking charge of her family’s business began in 2008. She had taken a leave of absence from her clinical psychologist job in Arusha, Tanzania.
“I took a three-month leave where I spent two months in our factory. That was my turning point because it was during that time that I fell in love with the working atmosphere and I never looked back,” she narrates.
Prishna had moved to Tanzania in 1999 after getting engaged and even getting married. “My spouse was Tanzanian, and so when we got married, as tradition would have it, I had to move over there with my husband,” she explains.
Before that, she had worked at Mathari Mental hospital, a job she took up in 1997, immediately after graduating from university. “I had just completed my degree at the United States International University Africa USIU. I had also done pre-med at the University of Nairobi immediately after completing my KCSE in 1993. But I didn’t want to continue practicing medicine, and so when we went to psychological rotation, I felt that this was my calling,” she explains.
According to Prishna, her parents always supported her decisions. Being an only child, she says, as long as she was doing something that would help her, her parents had no problem. “So even my decision to change from pre-med didn’t seem to bother them. It is the same support that I would witness even when I decided to leave my job years later,” she adds.
Prishna says her job at Mathari mental hospital was an eye-opener, not only as a woman but as a Kenyan Asian.
“Keep it in mind that during this time, mental health and more so mental illness was still a big taboo and people did not want to talk about it or even acknowledge it.”
Still, things remained quite normal throughout her career at Mathari mental hospital.
However, it doesn’t mean that during her practice as a psychologist, she never came across inspiring and memorable moments, as she recalls her special moment while working in Tanzania.
“There was this 17-year-old Rwandan genocide survivor, who had appeared as a witness in the infamous genocide trial and had moved to the US, but then five years ago he came to Kenya and said he wanted to meet me. Then, he was almost 30 and he had gotten a scholarship, studied, and had a great job. It was evident I had made a difference in someone’s life, and that was the most satisfying feeling in my whole career,” she says.
Fast forward to now, Prishna runs her family’s business in the snack food industry. “As manufacturers in the snack food industry, our biggest raw material has been potatoes. When I joined the family business, they were still using the brokers to source and buy potatoes. This did not sit well with me, and I decided to try and find a way to source directly from farmers.”
She started traveling to regions where potatoes are grown and engaged with farmers directly. Over the years, she has worked closely with farmers and educated them on the benefit of dealing directly with processors, and end-users. “This way they understand what we need from them in terms of quality, size, and they also get better pricing which in turn improves their lives.”
She believes farmers are one of our most important resources in Kenya, and without them, we wouldn’t survive. “I want there to be a level playing field which is fair and transparent for everyone in the supply chain,” she says.
On switching careers and taking full control of their company, she says, her parents gave her the blessings. “My late mum was the founder of the business and together with my father, they agreed that indeed I was the best fit,” she chuckles.
But clinical psychology hasn’t left her, she says, as she continues to practice. “I work with AAR as a Locum and also have my private practice. Other than that I do a lot of corporate training not only on mental health in the workplace but also change management, conflict resolution, and team cohesion.”
On the other hand, she has a son who is 12 years old now, and she is the primary caregiver to her father. This means that most of the time her hands are full.
How does she juggle it all? It’s all a matter of prioritising and planning. “I run my practice on appointments and it has worked well for me so far. I have also learnt to lean on those who are in my life to help me at home. My family and friends are my biggest supporters and backbone, and I call on them.”
The secret also lies in her self-care habit. She finds time to relax and go out with friends whenever she can.
“I have come to realise that I have to take care of myself so that I can take care of others. When I am not whole, I am not of use to anyone, and you cannot pour from an empty cup, thus I have to reenergize now and then. My greatest philosophy has been to do what makes you happy as long as you don’t hurt other people,” she surmises. BY DAILY NATION