Let me take you back to a time when you were younger and innocent. You learnt that the formula for calculating the area of a right-angled triangle is half of the base length multiplied by the height.

Why half? Why not a third or quarter?

It’s simple but significant. A right-angled triangle is half a rectangle whose area is base length multiplied by height. Now you know where the half came from. Did you really have to cram that formula? Would it not have been better to learn how to derive it?

But why does a simple formula matter to a hustler with bigger things to think about like food and shelter?

The truth is that after school and in the real world, we rarely use formulas. We rarely use precedents. We face new situations every day. That demands new thinking all the time.

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Take the most important variable (maths again) in your hustle -- people or customers. They are different every day. Even repeat customers change. To take care of their needs and get their money, you also have to change the way you offer services or the product.

Think of big firms like Apple, Google, Safaricom or even Ivy League universities like Harvard. They love offering new products or services. Each generation of customers is different. Formulas are best in textbooks, not in reality.

To leave formulas behind demands innovation. You can’t be innovative without thinking creatively. This demands analysis of new trends and patterns both within the country and outside. Yet one of the lasting legacies of school is to avoid reading or research. Did the school inadvertently teach us there is a formula for everything? Noted the popularity of apps, except one for thinking.

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It’s time to forget about formulas and seek new ways to run a business from sourcing to serving customers. We are not denying there are generally accepted principles of running a business or hustle, but the bigger part of your business is under your control, your creativity.

Traditions are a good counterpart of formulas. They are part of the school of thought that ‘we have always done things this way.’ One bright side of Covid -19 is to show us that we can do things differently, that we can abandon the formula. If you want to build your hustle into the next big multinational corporation, be ready to think differently and abandon formulas. Who thought we could one day pay our bills through Mpesa or hold virtual meetings? People who didn't hold on to the age-old formulas made this possible.