Tuesday, May 23, 2017
RISE BEYOND THE ASHES OF DISAPPOINTMENT
Humanity hates pain yet we cannot live without pain. Pain is
one significant factor that drives humans forward. Because we do not want to
experience it, we work hard to avoid it. But life has one simple principle; pain
will always get on the path of our lives. And with pain comes disappointment
and disillusionment.
Disappointment is a great teacher that we have to embrace.
There is no mentor as great as disappointment. When life is normal we take it
for granted, we linger in the comfort zone and we stop thinking, we stop
challenging our brains. Most businesses are born out of disappointment of a
failed business. Most people in the corporate world are advancing their studies
having been disappointed that the educational qualifications they have are not
giving them an upper edge to be accorded luxurious positions. Their
disappointment becomes a driver of their ambitions.
There is a significant increase in the number of employees
that are doing businesses. The bottom line is that they are disappointed with their
perks hence to live a life of their dreams they have to take the road not
taken: face challenges head on and start doing businesses. If they were not
disappointed with their salaries they could not have created small businesses
which in the end are growing big thus employing more people.
Disappointment is a necessary evil. People that have been
disappointed in their working environment end up realizing that their corporate
life is nothing but a shadow and that their relevance can erode any moment. In
such realisation they end up crating other niches, exploiting their skills and
talents to enhance their lives. Some of them become consultants or even part
time lecturers and teachers.
Writing of the battle at the Alegria de Pio, Ernesto Che Guevara
says ‘we walked until darkness made it impossible to go on, and decided to lie
down and go to sleep huddled together in a heap. We were starving and thirsty,
and mosquitoes adding to our misery. This was the baptism of fire, December 5,
1956, on the outskirts of Niquero. Such was the beginning of forging what would
become the Rebel Army.’
Without the disappointment of the loss of fellow comrades,
the Rebel Army would not have been born and certainly Cuba could not have ended
up in the hands of Fidel Castro.
Consider the story of Martin Brown, founder and CEO of Radical
Mobility, a South African business that designs, manufactures and markets power
wheelchairs for people with disabilities. Brown is a quadriplegic and has been
confined to a wheelchair since 1998. His company sprouted from the need to find
an electric wheelchair that catered for his needs – such as the ability to
drive on beach sand and overcome slopes and other obstacles.
The accident he had was a big disappointment to him but he never let it
control his destiny. The disappointment opened new eyes in him to see other
wonderful opportunities. If it was not for the accident Radical Mobility could
not have been born and the solutions that it has provided to the disabled could
possibly not have been there.
Great people face disappointments many a times. Billionaire Richard
Branson explains his disappointment as he was attempting to keep his airline in
business. Branson says: ‘after the great leap into setting up Virgin Atlantic,
I now found that it was difficult to develop the airline as quickly as I
wanted. Although we had had a wonderful year and had been voted the Best
Business Class Airline, Virgin Atlantic was confined to operating from Gatwick
Airport. Due to a single short runway and the lack of connecting flights,
Gatwick was less profitable….we were struggling to make money…with our endless
struggles to make ends meet at Virgin Atlantic, I began to question whether I
should start doing something completely different. I even thought of going to
University and study history.
If Branson had given up to the disappointment, Virgin Atlantic could
not have been as huge and successful an airline as it is now. It would have
been an airline confined to the museum of history.
What matters is rising beyond disappointment and the world is not short
of stories of people that did that. Unbelievable so to say that Winston
Churchill who eventually became British Prime Minister was a child who had been
ignored by parents, who did poorly in class, stuttered and spoke with a lisp.
They actually called him a disappointment and a boy of ‘low intelligence.’
If Churchill had given in to that disappointment he would not have been
one of British respected Prime Ministers.
Learn from the pains encountered. Learn from the disappointment
and betrayal felt in life. Life is practical and out of practical elements come
disappointment which is the springboard to success. Disappointment has the
torch to light the realities of life and unmask the masquerading lifestyles of
people that pretend to love while hiding beneath their smiles disastrous venom.
But surviving disappointment is the virtue of the strong. It is as difficult as
to forgive. It is only the strong that can forgive as it is only the strong
that survive disappointment and move on.
