Tuesday, April 24, 2018
BE WORLD CLASS
The world has shrunk into a global village. Political
boundaries mean nothing in the current environment. If you are in business;
fear the international competitors you do not know than the locals you know,
they are upping the game significantly and shortly they will drive you out of business
in your own country. India is making strides in technology and with cloud computing
your competitors in service delivery are hiding in the sky
Whatever you aim to achieve, aim to be the best in the world.
The world is gunning for the best of the best. The world wants best music, best
arts, best talents. The academic front is evidence that competition is tough.
Many international universities are recruiting students in Africa outsmarting our
local universities that probably stopped growing many years past.
In 1948, a cartoon in America depicted a father telling his
son, ‘finish your food, another child is starving in China.’ In 1980, the same
cartoon changes the story and depicts a father telling the son ‘study hard,
somebody is studying in China.’ This is how China has broken the boundaries of
competition and the sooner we realise the better. It is not amazing therefore
to see China investing a lot in infrastructure and agriculture in Africa and
beyond. China is harnessing its human resource to reposition itself as a global
leader.
Let not your mind be confined by the vicinity you are living
in. Do not be satisfied with your position in the current state. The rate at
which the world is moving, you could be a star in a small location today that
ends up being irrelevant tomorrow as new investors and new global ideas
overtake your most recent priviledges.
The sporting world is a great testimony that minds of people
can change, that peoples’ attention can easily change focus and that people
want nothing but the best. Just take notice of how people patronize
international sporting events, even memorizing profiles of sports personalities
that are millions of miles away from them. People want the best, mediocrity is no
excuse, poverty is no excuse, lack of support is no excuse. If you fail to make
it then you have yourself to blame.
Beat the yourself of yesterday. You have no any competitor
in life but yourself. You are the best in the way you are; you only need to harness
your potential and make it explosive on the market. Keep increasing your
training, keep intensifying your studying, keep on working hard and harder
every day. Unleash the best out of yourself then you will beat world records.
The records are already in you, you only have to unleash them on the world
scale.
It is very simple. All humans are born to be successful;
they are born to be successful. The world has showcased many times more than
number that your background is no limiting factor to what you can achieve. Most
of the top people in the country - driving the posh vehicles you ever admire -
come from very humble beginnings. Most of them walked on foot to school, some
of them will tell you they had no pair of shoes in school; they have a litany
of the many times they went to school on an empty stomach and how they survived
term after term with no pocket money. That was no deterrent to their dream,
they were geared to beat the themselves of yesterday, and they were by and
large moving out of the quagmire of poverty.
Most millionaires and billionaires that the world celebrates
now are self-made. They beat the themselves of yesterday. Malawi is no
exception. Dr. Thomson Mpinganjira did not inherit a bank from parents, he made
his own; Jimmy Koreia Mpatsa was not fortunate to go into college, there was
even a time he was fired from his job and survived on writing short stories but
became a billionaire. You have many stories in your localities. Napoleon Dzombe
built a business empire that started with Malawi 77 Kwacha and he was a
secondary school dropout. Take time to read the story of Mike Chilewe who made
millions from welding yet previously he was an ESCOM meter reader.
Aim to defy all odds, be world class in your thinking, be
world class in the way you carry out your business, be world class in
everything. The world is geared towards world class products and services.
Nothing can stop you if only you believe. You are the next big thing this
country has ever had. Put yourself in the Guinness book of records. Nothing can
stop you but yourself.
BE A SOLUTION PROVIDER
This is life and you have problems that pull you down.
Everybody has problems. Get in touch with people that have the most wonderful
smiles, they will still tell you that beneath their smiles are problems as
well. Problems are part of life and problems will always be part of life. The
greatest thing in life is how you deal with problems when they enter the circle
of your life and that is what makes a difference.
Problem make you great. If there were no Goliath, David
would not have been a hero. If there was no apartheid, Nelson Mandela would not
have been a global icon. If there was no racial segregation in America, Martin
Luther King Jr would have been an unknown figure. If there was no colonialism,
Dr. Kamuzu Banda would not have been a liberation figure.
The greatest successes, the greatest innovations and even
greatest thinkers were created from problems. Come to think about it. Henry
Ford noted that most Americans could not afford vehicles. That was a problem.
He did not make part of the complaining masses, he provided a solution then
Ford motors was born. Examine your problem, it is an opportunity presented to
you to make a difference.
To be successful in life you have to provide solutions. You
do not just sit in front of a TV screen to watch soccer or a film; you are
running away from boredom. Those people that play sports or are actors in
different films only do one simple thing: chasing boredom out of your life.
They make you spend your idle time with happiness.
All successful initiatives are successful when they solve
problems. William Kamkwamba did not join the bandwagon of people that were
complaining of drought and hunger. He developed a windmill from rudimentary
products and that made a difference. Through his windmill he irrigated the
family’s farm and provided electricity. It is not complaining that matters, it
is looking at problems from the inverse angle that you cherish the
opportunities they provides.
We are told that Mr. Kalua started Combine Cargo having been
fired from the company he was working. He was jobless. He turned his problem
into a solution. When Jimmy Koreia Koreia-Mpatsa was fired he turned to writing
short stories for newspapers for a living. Mike Mlombwa noted the poverty that
was grinding him in his home area, he walked on foot from Neno to Blantyre in
search of a living and he made it.
Successful people have an interesting story to tell. The
world was amazed when a Kenyan grandfather enrolled for primary school all just
to learn how to read and write. He did not mind about people’s perception.
There was debate whether it was necessary for him to be enrolled or not. His
problem was that he could not read and write. He did not accept to be resigned
to his fate, he made a difference.
This is the time you start looking at all the problems you
are facing in life positively. Those problems hid beneath them an unpolished
diamond. Do not be like the type of people that complain of traffic everyday
they are going to work. The traffic is a problem that awaits their solution. It
is simple, if roads are congested then start off early from home and you will
reach the office on time. If traffic is congested after 5pm then work a little
bit longer thus maximizing productivity. In the end, your company will rely on you;
you will be rewarded with promotion after promotion. The genesis of it would be
that you were running away from congestion on the road. You have the solution
within the touching distance. You only need to start seeing the world from the
inverse angle.
In life we waste a lot of time trying to change others. We
anticipate that others will be the solutions to the problems we are facing. If
anything we attribute our problems to them. It is very simple; change yourself
first then all the problems will go away. If somebody looks down upon you, do
not look down on them as well; smile at them and that will make a difference. If
your boss does not like you, as you think he or she does not like you, do not
pay back through unliking him, buy him or her a gift and that will change his
perceptions of you. Change yourself first. Remember to be the change that you
would like to see.
Carry on with your dreams. Cherish the problems you are
encountering. Zig Ziggler was right, at the end of the day, do not be the type
of person who says ‘I wish I could, I wish I could, I wish I could. Be the type
of the person who says I am glad I did, I am glad I did, I am glad I did.’
You will be of great help to the world the moment you stop
complaining of your problems and start becoming a solution provider. In life
people need solutions. People have many problems and to win their hearts
provide solutions and you will make it.
THE FINISH LINE MATTERS
Imagine what you will become when finally you have succeeded?
If you are entrepreneur, what sort of joy will engulf you when you win that
contract that you have gone to the length to prepare? If you are an athlete,
how excited will you be to represent your country at the world stage with all
the television cameras set just to cover your victory? If you are a student,
how memorable will it be, that moment you will put on a gown holding your qualification
with a distinction? In anything that you do, how comforting will it be to hear
people mentioning your name and singing praise of you success? That is what you
should aim at – the finish line
Never lose sight of the goal. Many circumstances you
will encounter in life will by and large be curtaining your goal. Tear away the
curtains of frustrations you meet along the way, the curtains of failure, the
curtains of disillusionment. Make your goal visible to you all the times. Write
your goal on a paper and paste it at the most visible place in your bedroom so
that every time you retire to sleep you reflect on the goal and every moment
you wake up you are constantly reminded of what you want to achieve in life.
Writing on the 7
habits of the highly effective people Stephen Covey emphasizes that you
begin with the end in mind. Beginning with the end in mind gives you a clear
understanding of your destination. It means you know better where you are going
so that you understand where you are now and be able to devise that the steps
you take are always in the right direction.
Covey teaches: ‘by keeping the end clear in the
mind, you can make certain that whatever you do on the particular day does not
violate the criteria you have found supremely important and that each day of
your life contributes in a meaningful way to the vision you have of your life
as a whole.’
Focus on the finish line. Abebe Bikila won the
Olympics in 1960 in Rome and amazed the world as he run barefoot. He did not
care that people would look at him as a lunatic. He was never bothered that
those in shoes would have an advantage over him. He was focused on the finish
line and he made it. When you undertake whatever you undertake with the end
always in focus, you are destined to make it.
If you are a business person, do not waste time
blaming inflation, interest rates, tough economic environment, and all other
excuses, focus at delivering value in your business to offer your customers
best products and services so that profits rise. Businesses grow even in the hostile
Mogadishu in Somalia, what hostility are you facing? If you are in agriculture,
you do not blame the weather, in the desert Saudi Arabia they grow tomato just
as the Israelis use limited space to maximize agriculture. Seek no excuses,
focus on the finish line and you will make it.
On the men who built America, Andrew Carnagie
focused on making the cities of America stand tall on steel and he made it.
John D Rockefeller transformed the night with kerosene lamps. J.P. Morgan and
Thomas Edison made electricity light homes from coast to coast. Henry Ford made
a vehicle to be affordable to average America. William Kamkwamba built a
windmill from rudimentary products, a standard seven drop out in Mulanje made
his own radio station. People that cross seas are focused at reaching the
finish line. They care less of the circumstances they pass through – victory is
all that matters upon reaching the finish line.
WHAT YOU THINK OF YOURSELF MATTERS
There are times we feel like giving up on our
dreams, and many indeed do give up. Disillusionment, disappointment, backward
thinking, regrets, all creep in as we notice that we are trying in vain to
achieve our dreams. But wait a moment, nobody should lie to you that the path
to achieving dreams is a perfect highway. Get prepared to fail more and more,
to have your ideas bruised. Waking up and carrying on against the gradient of
challenges is the surest way to success.
Every time you feel like giving up, seek inspiration
from the dung beetle. The dung beetle pushes the ball that is usually many
times its size and weight and gradients present problems. The force of gravity
at many times creates an inevitable consequence. As gravity outweighs the
strength of the beetle or even in a situation where the beetle has made a
slight error in the pushing trajectory, the nest sphere stutters and then rolls
backwards temporarily squashing the hapless beetle.
Stephen Berry explains very well how a dung beetle
never gives up. Writing in the book Strategies
of the Serengeti Berry says , ‘with energy sapped, pride tarnished but
determination undiminished, the more successful beetles rise from such a
crushing experience to scurry back to their rogue dung-ball and recommence
pushing despite the ground temporarily lost. With uncomplaining and enviable
resolve the beetle heaves and pushes its dung to retread the path thinking only
of the unknown route ahead rather than dwelling on the course already trodden
which spans so visibly in front of him as he pushes.’
In the pursuit of your dreams be prepared to fail
again and again, you will have to deal with the treacherous gradients of
disappointment, belittlement, lack of support, castigation and many vices that
may be there to pull you down. No matter how down you fall, start pushing your
dreams forward again, concentrating on what you intend to achieve than the
pains of failure recently experienced.
People will not believe you, people will call you crazy
but keep on pushing your dung-ball dreams against the gradient of any
opposition. If those that were working on the computer dream had listened to
the words of Thomas Watson, Chairman of IBM in 1943, computers would not have
been there now. Watson said: ‘I think there is a world market for up to five
computers.’
If the world’s successful rock band had not risen
beyond the frustration of rejection, the Beatles could not have become the
world’s celebrated rock band it eventually became. When Decca Recording was turning
down the Beatles for a recording contract in 1962 he said: ‘groups featuring
guitars are on the way out.’
When the television was coming in, the pioneers of
the television did it right not to listen to what 20th Century-Fox
boss Darryl Zanuck said. His view was that television would never become
popular and he stressed ‘people will soon get tired of staring at a box every
night.’
It is appropriate to know that people’s minds are
skewed towards the negative. There is a ninety five percentage chance that your
ideas will not be supported until you surprise the world. The world will not
believe you until you finally make it then at that point you will become a
reference point. Les Brown was right, ‘never let the opinions of others become
your reality.’ Always remember that you are a leader of your own dreams and
destiny.
Lance Kurke is right, ‘truly great leaders change
the world around them…they treat problems as addressable opportunities. Leaders
make the world, obviously within constraints, the way they want it to be.
Always ask yourself, who you are and what you want to be and that is what
matters most.’
Lance Kurke gives us a good lesson when he writes,
‘in modern times people obsess about what car they drive. Wise people know that
the only obsession is not what others think, but what we think of ourselves;
that is, who we are.’
Never stop scaling the heights, never stop running
in the pursuit of your dreams. Keep falling and waking up. If you make mistakes
on the way, do not dwell on it let alone let the past immobilize you. Just
learn from the mistakes made and keep on going. You are the next big thing the
world has ever had.
