Friends & Family,
I hope you’ve had a great start to the new year! I’ve been writing Moving to Musanze since the end of 2022, when Karen and I made the decision to launch our encore careers and start the process of building Virunga Mountain Spirits.
Marc Freedman in his book, Encore: Finding Work that Matters in the Second Half of Life, details a trend that feels familiar. We chose not to simply “phase out or fade away.” Our choice was to create a meaningful second career built on what we’d done for decades: running organizations and businesses that care about impact. Today, we are producing a premium product and experience that creates jobs and generates income along the potato value chain in Rwanda, especially for women.
A business advisor often reminds us just how many enterprises with vision, resources and a good plan fail to launch. I can understand why. It’s hard. Starting a business like this means constantly having to think about everything all at the same time; being prepared for the unexpected. I don’t expect that to change anytime soon.
We are fortunate. Kari Vodka sales are gaining momentum, and guests are discovering Chef Theo’s delicious farm to fork cuisine. We are building a strong team to manage hospitality, production, distribution and administration. While Karen’s strong management and leadership skills propel our enterprise, we are 100 percent aligned on the culture we want to foster.
Eric, one of our kitchen apprentices, frequently helps out the production team with bottling. His colleague, Irene, has doubled as a bartender and server on occasion. Karen’s first agenda item at a recent staff meeting was to reinforce how interdependent we are as a small staff; how important it is to ask for help and support.
We all giggle a bit when we see Karen picking up trash or weeds in the garden, but she sets the right example: nobody is above menial tasks. Both of us read Danny Meyer’s book: Setting the Table: The Transforming Power of Hospitality in Business. In it Meyer describes his approach to “enlightened hospitality” and how it has driven the growth of his highly successful restaurants.
Rwanda cultivates “enlightened tourism” at the lodges surrounding Virunga Mountain Spirits. We aspire to that too, for all of our guests. They deserve a premium product and experience that matches the beauty of our surroundings. When our guests leave satiated by our cuisine and craft cocktails, when they appreciate the intentional design of the distillery, it cements my confidence in our decision to become encore entrepreneurs.
We’ve heard from some of you that you will be visiting us soon. We look forward to sharing the #SpiritofVirunga.
All the best,
Bill