Sunday, July 09, 2017
BELIEVE YOU CAN: ADD THE ACTION DOSAGE
Belief is the drive that pushes us forward. Belief is the
light that chases away the darkness of fear, doubt and disbelief in our dreams.
Belief is the catalyst that transforms our negatives into positives. But belief
to be effective has a Siamese twin and that is action. Whatever you believe in
you cannot achieve it if you do not take action.
Bill Gold was absolutely right, you were born to win, but to
be a winner, you must plan to win, prepare to win and expect to win. It is not
a hidden fact that life has a lot to offer to those who dare to follow their
dreams, who dare to take their future into their own hands, who dare to step
over their failures and reach for victory.
Any superstar that marvels us today believed in what he or
she could do and invested a lot of time on training to become the best. Sir
Thomas Edison failed 9999 times to come up with the light bulb only to succeed
at the 10000th time. If he had not turned his belief into action,
possibly we should have been using kerosene lamps up until now. Bill Gates
believed in computers transforming the corporate and personal lives, he went on
programming and now he is the richest person on earth.
And when you are injecting the dosage of action in your
belief factor, hold the biggest vision possible for your life and it can come true.
Marc Eisenson in the book Six secrets to
a rich life eloquently gives a practical example of the power of holding
the biggest vision possible.
It is well stated in the book that in her commencement
speech to the 1997 graduating class of Wellesley College, Oprah Winfrey told
the story of her ‘wildest dreams’ show, where she asked women to share their
wildest dreams so she could fulfill some of them. One woman got to ride a camel
in Egypt. Another asked for and got a house. A third dreamer had her college
debt paid off. Many other women had a simpler dream - they just wanted to meet
Oprah.
The story goes on to explain that those women who just
wanted to meet Oprah and got their wish were upset when they found out what
Oprah had done to others. As she said in her speech, “….some of them afterwards
were crying to me, saying that we didn’t know, we didn’t know and this is
unfair! And I said, ‘that is the lesson: you needed to dream a bigger dream for
yourself.’”
The words of wisdom say: shoot for the moon, even if you
miss you will land among the stars. The bottom line is shoot as you have
already believed that your arrow can reach the moon. Remember that an AK 47
rifle with all the fear it brings in people cannot fire let alone kill if no
one pulls its trigger. We all believe an AK 47 is a death sentence but it is
only when action is ignited on its trigger that its real characters can be
visible.
But taking action comes at a cost, it entails that you
change the way you do things, you start investing your time and money in the
idea you believe in. This swings you into the uncomfortable zone. But it is
necessary to do that. To get what you want in life, you have to let go of
things you do not want, even though you may have invested a lot of time and
money in them along the way. While this is difficult, the benefits will make it
well worth the effort.
People will laugh at you as you begin to change. If your
dream still remains a mere dream it is all just because you are not taking the action
to change your lifestyle. It takes courage to change, teaches Marc Eisenson
again, as it often arouses conflicts with the ones we love.
Act now, act now, act now, you need to act because your
dreams are not far away; they are only a few steps ahead waiting there for you.
If David had not challenged Goliath he could not have been a revered hero among
the Israelis. If Fidel Castro had underestimated his less than two scores army
and fought on he could not have overthrown Batista in Cuba. If William
Kamkwamba had not built a windmill from rudimentary products his name would
have died in limbo. If Michael Jordan had not tried the many slum dunks, he
could not have been the best basketball star the world has ever had. Even
though with a hoarse voice, Tracy Chapman went on singing and mesmerized the
world.
BELIEVE YOU CAN
There is just only one life and this entails therefore
that seizing all opportunities available within one’s lifetime is a noble task
as after this life there is no second chance. The time to be successful is now.
Writing in the book Great motivation
secrets of great leaders John Baldoni bares it all: ‘there is an innate
desire to succeed in all of us.’
But there is a secret to success. And it answers to
one word – believe. Believe you can and you will make it. Barack Obama
electrified the American society with his slogan ‘yes, we can.’ The core reason
why others always see success slipping through their fingers like soap bubbles
is all because they hardly believe in themselves and their ideas; they miss the
‘belief’ factor in the script of success. We do not succeed when we long lost
dreaming and end up dressing in the borrowed dreams of others.
Every amazing thing that we see, every success story
people talk about, are all a result of somebody’s belief in himself or herself.
Andrew Carnegie believed steel would change the world and that saw the
emergence of skyscrapers. The Wright Brothers believed they could create a big
flying bird then no wonder they made the airplane. JF Kennedy believed it was
possible to put a man on the moon and it is not surprising that later Neil
Armstrong stepped his foot on the moon. JP Morgan believed that Thomas Edison’s
idea of electricity could revolutionise the world and indeed electricity
replaced kerosene lamps as a source of energy and light.
The world today is a beneficiary of many beliefs of
other people. History of achievers tells us that your background matters
nothing, your academic underpriviledgedness matters nothing, failures of the
past are no yardstick for measuring your future success, what you believe in is
all that matters. Ideas believed in and put into action change the world.
A boy from an impoverished rural area in Neno walked
on foot to Blantyre and now he is a billionaire owning Countrywide car hire –
Mike Mlombwa. He was once dismissed from his job and once survived on writing
short stories and is now a billionaire business tycoon – Jimmy Koreia –Mpatsa.
Born from a very humble beginning and achieved what many thought impossible,
owning a bank –Dr. Thomson Mpinganjira. A form two drop out started a business
with seventy seven kwacha and built a business empire and became a renowned
philanthropist – Napoleon Dzombe. Malawi has more professionals and business
giants whose backgrounds defy all odds.
On the world stage there is no shortage of examples
that signify the impact of belief. Defeated eight times in elections, Abraham
Lincoln went on to become America’s greatest president. A man who led an army
of peasants, Mao, built a strong Chinese nation. The seventh child of a poor
American couple, Michael Jackson, became the superstar of the millennium.
The litany of names of those that believed and made
it can hardly be exhausted. A boy from the slum, Pele, became the king of
football. A woman who worked in cafes, J.K. Rowling, wrote the famous Harry
Potter. A common man, Mahatma Gandhi, became the father of India. A nurse
inspired the idea of the Red Cross – Florence Nightingale. A nun became a
mother to all – Mother Theresa. A cancer survivor became a cycling champion –
Lance Armstrong. A neglected child became a television icon – Oprah Winfrey. A
computer programmer became the richest man on earth – Bill Gates. A tribal boy
became a national hero – Nelson Mandela. A slave became a legend – Spartacus.
They were all just someone until they believed. They
were simple humans as we are, with many imperfections and failed many times as
well as we all do. They dared to chase what they believed in and that made a
difference.
What are you waiting for? You are the next big story
the world has ever had. You have the ideas and the momentum that can change the
world. You are the next biggest entrepreneur Malawi has ever had, the next Bill
Gates, the next Warren Buffet, the next Aliko Dangote, the next Simbi-Phiri,
the next Bingu wa Mutharika, the next Neil Armstrong, the next Nick Vujicic.
You do not know what you can achieve until you try. Believe in your idea and
try to put them into action then the world will marvel at you. Just believe you
can.
