Monday, May 22, 2017
DARE TO BE DIFFERENT
Any wonder why we achieve little? The answer is simple, we
follow the bandwagon and we are no different to millions of others. People that
have been successful have been as a result of following the road not taken,
they have been challenging the status quo and that made a difference. Not long
ago it was unthinkable that an ordinary person could own a radio and TV station
until when Gospel Kadzako did it. He does not come from a wealthy background,
he does not have the most prestigious qualifications. The only thing he has is
that he believed that he could make a difference, he dared to be different.
In the book the Millionaire Mind it is well explained that
successful people are different, they don’t follow the crowd, and those who
don’t follow the crowd are often criticized for being different. Have an idea
that people will criticize and run with it, that is what is going to make a
difference. Offer your servces in the most exceptional way such that others
would need to learn from you. By the time they are learning from you, you have
already covered many more miles in your business and service delivery. You are
never the same, you have made it.
Napoleon’s Dzombe’s Mtalimanja logo has an exciting motto in
it. It simply reads: Grow big or go home. That is certainly the mantra that has
grown Mtalimanja into a multi billion business. Napoleon Dzombe made a
difference. He dropped out of school when he was in form 2 and informed his
father that he wanted to start a business. His father gave him a cow. Napoleon
Dzombe sold it for 77 Malawi Kwacha and that marked the beginning of his
businesses. Using the money he bought salt that he would sell to farmers in
rural areas on the payment mode that they would give him the money equivalent
through groundnuts or maize upon harvesting. That is how Napoleon Dzombe dared
to be different. The difference has seen Mtalimanja becoming one of the biggest
exporters of soya, a conglomerate with business interests in sugar, rice, tooth
picks, mats, blinds and many products.
It is daring to be different that matters. When revolts
against British colonialism were more justified to be through armed
revolutions, Mahatma Gandhi opted for non violence and that is what he is
renowned for. In the midst of abject poverty and segregation in the United
States of America, Martin Luther King Jr brought hope to the downtrodden blacks
of America with his speech ‘I have a dream.’ The speech resonates in the minds
of people throughout the world over half a century years after his assassination.
He dared to be different.
Neil A.
Armstrong was a NASA astronaut and the first man on the moon or, more
accurately, the first man to set foot on the moon. He was also an accomplished
test pilot and a figure so large in American and world history that you can bet
many generations from now people will still be talking about him, as well as
his moon landing. Neil Armstrong dared to be different. If he had not decided
to be different then his name would have had no space to be remembered for in
history.
Daring to be
different is all that makes a difference. Your social economic stand is
nothing, it is the different path you take that matters most. Consider the
story of William Kamkwamba. When
the Daily Times wrote a story on Kamkwamba's wind turbine in November 2006, the
story circulated through the blogosphere and TED conference director Emeka
Okafor invited Kamkwamba to talk at TEDGlobal 2007 in Arusha, Tanzania as a
guest. His speech moved the audience,
and several venture capitalists at the conference pledged to help finance his
secondary education. His story was covered by Sarah Childress for The Wall
Street Journal. He became a student at African Bible College Christian Academy
in Lilongwe. He then went on to receive a scholarship to the African Leadership
Academy and in 2014 graduated from Dartmouth College in Hannover, New
Hampshire.
In 2013 TIME magazine named Kamkwamba one of the "30 People Under 30 Changing The World.
In 2010, The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind was selected as the University of Florida common book, required for all incoming students to read. In 2014, it was selected as the common book at Auburn University and University of Michigan College of Engineering, as well. William made an appearance at each university to discuss his book and life.
In 2014, Kamkwamba received his bachelor's degree from Dartmouth College in Hanover, New Hampshire where he was a student and elected to the Sphinx Senior Honor Society. This is the same William who a crippling famine forced to drop out of school, and he was not able to return to school because his family was unable to afford the tuition fee. If he had not dared to be different, his life story would have remained unknown.
