Look at the Beauty

These words of David in Psalm 46:10 “Be still and know that I am God” kept ringing inside my head as I was driving through Nyamweda, Mhondoro. I have driven through this rural beauty so many times before and as a matter of fact, I was born there. I had not realized how beautiful my place of birth was. It took a hiatus period of more than 10 years to realize this beauty. It’s funny how we ignore beautiful things around us just because we think anything exotic is better. This time around it was different. I fully appreciated the vegetation, the climbing rocks /hanging rocks, cactus and the native acacia species. This is a God given beauty; no human effort went into beautifying this largely undisturbed area. See the picture to the right how beauty comes out of it. I took this picture very close to the place of my birth. I could not help it but to rejoice for the natural beauty God has endowed my home.

Many times, we are so preoccupied by the cares of this life that we begin to ignore the beautiful and wonderful things surrounding us. As a matter of fact some of those things have been given to us for therapy but we miss it and look for therapy in what is not therapeutic. The familiar had to become unfamiliar for me to begin to enjoy and appreciate the nature’s beauty. A friend of mine after a trip to the Victoria Falls had intimated me that he had seen a hippopotamus and all he had to say was its beauty is in its ugliness. We have a lot of valuables around us that we have taken for granted and we treat those things like trash or in-valuables. At times it takes an outsider to come and alert us of the value around us.

The beauty that I saw in my native home is beyond comparison, especially after been stuck for a long time around the concrete and mortar of Boston. Unfortunately not everyone around me as we stopped to take pictures appreciated the beauty. Life is that way at times that a star shining so brilliantly bright is not seen by everyone. We know the story of the shepherds and Herod, and how the later did not see the star the shepherds had seen.

Now that you think you know

This is a second part to “ I want to know” in honor of Angela and Simukai.

“I want to know if you can see beauty, even when it’s not pretty, everyday, and if you can source your own life from its presence.

I want to know if you can live with failure, yours and mine, and still stand on the edge of the lake and shout to the silver of the full moon, “Yes!”

It doesn’t interest me to know where you live or how much money you have. I want to know if you can get up, after the night of grief and despair, weary and bruised to the bone, and do what needs to be done to feed the children.

It doesn’t interest me who you know or how you came to be here. I want to know if you will stand alone in the center of the fire with me and not shrink back.

It doesn’t interest me where or what or with whom you have studied. I want to know what sustains you, from inside, when all else falls away.

I want to know if you can be alone with yourself and if you truly like the company you keep in the empty moments”. (Part B; I want to know--Oriah)

I want to know

I was honored to be asked to read this essay at my nephew’s wedding --Simu and his bride Angie in Marinette, WI.

“It doesn’t interest me what you do for a living. I want to know what you ache for, and if you dare to dream of meeting your heart’s longing.

It doesn’t interest me how old you are. I want to know if you will risk looking like a fool for love, for your dream, for the adventure of being alive.

It doesn’t interest me what planets are squaring with your moon. I want to know if you have touched the center of your own sorrow, if you have been opened by life’s betrayals or have become shriveled and closed from fear of further pain. I want to know if you can sit with pain, mine or your own, without moving to hide it or fade it or fix it.

I want to know if you can be with joy, mine or your own, if you can dance with wildness and let the ecstasy fill you to the tips of your fingers and toes without cautioning us to be careful, to be realistic, to remember the limitations of being human”.(Part A; I want to know--Oriah)

Harness Your Mind

I got what I’m posting today in my mailbox from Dr. Mike Murdock and felt it might bless you the way it did to me.

What happens in your mind is likely to happen in your future. Meditate on specific Scriptures today that will unlock your faith in God. Make your mind your servant. Fill your Mental Warehouse with the Word of God.

“Whatsoever things are true,
whatsoever things are honest,
whatsoever things are just,
whatsoever things are pure,
whatsoever things are of good report;
if there be any virtue, if there be any praise,
think on these things” (Philippians 4:8)

The Mark of a Good Leader

When people fail, a good leader doesn’t treat them as failures; s/he corrects them and tries to help them learn their lessons so they can do it better next time. The leader does not throw the baby out with bath water. There are many people who, when you make one mistake, they cancel you. They don’t want you around anymore, they don’t want to talk to you anymore, and they put you aside because they do not want to deal with you anymore. All this, is a sign of poor leadership. True leaders are not annoyed by people’s failures, they are challenged by them. They do not consider the behavior, but the potential within. Leaders separate a person’s behavior from their self worth and do not confuse their value for their present condition.

In every organization, there will be opportunities to fail, and some people do fail. Leaders need to realize that that everybody fails. The former President of the USA, Bill Clinton, wrote this about himself in his book---My Life. During the final days of his presidency, the then Chairman of PLO, came to his office to thank him for his efforts of bringing a lasting peace in the Middle East and to let him know that he was a great man, but Clinton replied “ Mr. Chairman, I am a failure, and you made me one.” Here is a highly successful and admired leader world over who confessed to be a failure---he had spent so much time in retreats and meetings trying to achieve an elusive peace deal.

Some people make mistakes and the first thing they say is “I will never amount to anything. My mom always told me I was a failure, my grandma told me nothing worthy could come out of my life, and the teachers told me I was a loser". Then, they sit down in a puddle of failure and bathe themselves. For years they stay in that puddle. If you have missed your exit on the highway of life, don’t continue in the wrong direction. Stop, turn around and get back on track and be like Dr. Myles Munroe who said “Failure is only a temporary detour and should never become a permanent address.”

What are your Core Competencies?

Competency refers to a combination of skills, attributes and behaviors that are directly related to a successful performance on the job or task. Core competencies are the skills, attributes and behavior s which are considered important for all staff of an organization, regardless of their function or level.

Defining competencies is important both for the organization and for staff. Competencies are forward-leaning. They describe the skills and attributes staff and managers will need in order to build a new organizational culture and meet future challenges. They help organizations clarify expectations, define future development needs, and conduct more focused recruitment and development planning. Competencies provide a sound basis for consistent and objective performance standards by creating shared language about what is needed and expected in an organization.

Competencies need to be developed and strengthened throughout one’s career. Acquiring a competency is not a one-time event, but rather an ongoing process. Formal training can help, but experience, coaching, feedback and individual learning activities are needed as well. Organizations are constantly evaluating their core competencies to be able to meet challenges of the day and of the future. An African statesman and former Secretary General of the UN, Kofi Annan said this about competencies, “It is my hope that competencies will provide us with shared language for talking, in concrete terms, about high performance and managerial excellence. I believe that a shared view of the standards we are striving to achieve will assist us in our continuing efforts to prepare the Organization to meet the challenges of the 21st century”

Let things be done decently and in Order

Zig Ziglar has been credited for statements like: “Regardless of your past, tomorrow is a clean slate.” “You were designed for accomplishment, engineered for success, and endowed with Seeds of Greatness.” “When you are tough on yourself, life is easier on you.” “If you don’t like the output, then change the input.” The big question is, how do you harness great things around you for your success?

Yesterday, I had to change my input so I could get the output I wanted. My desk was so cluttered and I could not get an article I wanted to read for my work. I decided to be tough on myself, take some precious time and go through my desk and make some order. In other words, I practiced what has become known as Everything Has A Home (EHAH).

I decided that everything around me should have a place assigned to it. This way, I was able to create order around my desk. I have come to know order as a secret of great productivity. Over time, we accumulate things that we don’t really need and they increase clutter around us. May be it was time someone had a garage sale. Do you really need those four or so vacuum cleaners in your garage? Give away some to create order and space in your garage.

Order is the accurate arrangement of things. Order is necessary in all facets of life. Imagine how unnerving would it be if the traffic lights on Madison Square Garden or Broadway, NYC stopped working and there was no one to control the flood of pedestrians and cars. Order in traffic, creates safety and protection. Order in business prevents financial mistakes. Order in relationships diminishes conflict. Order in appearance will increase beauty. Order in an environment creates comfort and serenity. What kind of order are you creating today? Let all things be done decently and in order. (1 Corinthians 14v40)

Ask and ask for Information

Information creates knowledge systems. Hosea a prophet of old in his book writes about the absence of knowledge; “my people are destroyed for lack of knowledge” Hosea 4 part of v6. Simply put, ignorance creates crisis while on the other hand, information settles crisis. It is vitally important to keep up with current events. Watch. Listen. Observe. Ask questions and analyze what happens around you. Open your eyes and become aware.

When General Colin Powell was the chairman of the Joint Chief of Staff, he was known for how carefully he prepared for battle. He would order satellite photos, send out scouting patrols, and collect intelligence information available before deciding where, or whether, to attack. According to the esteemed General, “collect all the data you can, and if uncertain don’t make the decision until you must”.

Real estate mogul, Donald Trump uses the same mindset in decision making, “I am a firm believer in asking everyone for an opinion before I make a decision. I ask and ask and ask until I begin to get a gut feeling about it. That’s when I make a decision.”

Readers are Leaders. Questions are the Doors of Life.

Progress is Step-Wise

Successful people are forward leaning and they understand that a house is built a brick at a time. Progress is step-wise, one step at time. The biggest investment in attaining great achievement is self-investment/improvement. Champions buy things that build mental power and proficiency. Successful people are not only ware houses of information and facts but their education stimulate and cultivate exercises of the mind. Most life battles are fought in the mind and we become what we think and visualize. It is vital to have good food for the mind.

William Penn once wrote, “Time is what we want most, but what we use worst”. To experience success, you must continually evaluate your daily routine. You must ensure that you are performing the highest level of tasks and priorities. Successful people know how to differentiate between discipline and habit. Habit is the child of discipline. Discipline is doing something you hate to create something you love. You will become a champion by maintaining a discipline until it becomes a habit ---a daily routine in your life.

Successful people pursue others of like mind who have attained to greatness. They interview them and ask pertinent questions to avoid reinventing the wheel. Instead, they build upon the strength of mentors. Winston Churchill at the conclusion of the WWII retorted “many people regard me to be successful, but it is because I stood on the shoulders of giants”.

Refuse to be a Circus Elephant

Great leaders are not without personal challenges; Winston Churchill and Abraham Lincoln battled depression, but they saw a better future where others saw doom. Successful people go where they are celebrated and not where they are merely tolerated. Marcus Buckingham stammered his way into a person of great influence. He left his native country for the US because according to him “In England the streets are small, the cars are small, and the dreams are small. I could not have done in the UK what I have done here (US)”.

Sitting on a laurel is almost like a circus elephant. The other day I was watching on television how they train a circus elephant. While the elephant is young, they leash the elephant on a strong tree or object, and it tries to pull away for many days and then it gives up. Upon giving up something almost eternal happens in the thinking of the elephant. It almost goes like; “if you can’t beat them you better join them”. The elephants cedes its strength to this one battle of many wars that it has lost and at any other time the subconscious mind goes back to that point of defeat and says I will not even try again, am a defeated foe, my fate is written. Once the elephant has been broken that way, next time they thither it to a small shrub and it will not pull away. At circus they tie the leash to a small metal post and to the elephant and now grown, the pole is Mount Everest.

When we decide that we have arrived, we mentally bind ourselves to that achievement so much that we feel there is nothing else to accomplish. When faced with a small challenge that would otherwise promote us to higher places, we seat down resigned to our past feats. There is a whole new world of deeds and accomplishments that we may never experience if we decide to be leashed to yesterday’s achievements. In life we may lose one battle or the other, but this does not mean we have lost the war. Life has many battles in a large war. Let’s learn how to shake off negative experiences and learn from them and move on to the next challenge.

What do you do when the chips are down?

An eagle is known for soaring to the high skies, presumably where the air is cleaner than lower skies. Eagles thrive on eating fresh food and would not even bother to eat something they did not kill themselves unlike vultures that thrive on dead matter. To be able to eat fresh daily, an eagle has to stay alert and on the hunt, ready to strike when opportunity presents itself. In fact eagles create their own opportunities; such is the nature of hunters. Most birds and animals run away from raging storms, but an eagle flies into the eye of the storm.

When the chips are down, an eagle reinvents itself many times over to be current and to remain relevant. Each one of us is endowed with creative abilities to be innovative and daring to go where no man has gone. While we pursue these great strides we move away from situations that keep us down trodden and in the rat. All this requires discipline and observance of order on our part. Authority has to be honored and due respect rendered to deserving principals. Small hinges open big doors wide. It is the little principled steps that we take that make the world of a difference. Successful individuals respect order enough to make changes as required but contented people sit on laurels.

Accountability keeps us in check that we are doing what we are charged and are being responsible. A person who lacks accountability is like an athlete on a relay team. Each member on the team is accountable to one another and owes team mates their selfless commitment to win it all. Now if one member of the team decides they will not run straight ahead with the button in their assigned lane and instead runs as humanly possible to the nearest candy booth, in the process while setting a world record speed, they disqualify their entire team from winning. The problem is not that the team was not fast enough, but one member was out of principle and spoiled it for everyone. Success comes to disciplined individuals who are responsible over their new found fame. Once in a while, rules of engagement changes, but principles remain the same. Times and seasons changes as well, you don’t have to see snow flacks to know that it’s winter. They are enough signs to show your seasons have changed and would require a different set of clothing. When chips are down, it’s a season for renewal.

For me, the past week was very difficult in many ways, chips were down and I had to take a leaf out of Thomas Paine who wrote, “The real man smiles in trouble, gathers strength from distress, and grows brave by reflection”. Never has my faith been tested so strongly. Faith to know that the sun will rise, the rain will stop, the pain will go away, and God, our God, has not left me nor forsaken me. He is here for me, and He will uplift me. To know that I’m not my job or my paycheck, I am so much more. I am a strong, resourceful, resilient man, and like those who have struggled before me, I will not only survive, but I will flourish.

Seeds of Greatness

Water the seeds of greatness in your heart. Feed yourself with good diet of the mind, thought and emotion. What you read, think on and look on affects you in both ways; good or bad. Give a chance the seeds of greatness to grow in you by focusing on the positive and reducing negative tendencies. Everything begins small. The skyscraper began with a single brick, the giant oak tree with a tiny acorn. You are just a portion of what you will be tomorrow.

The Chinese have a proverb that says ”a journey of a thousand miles start with a single step”. You may not look like the finished product yet, but if you focus and stay the course you will surely become the vision you have in your mind. Job, a man who suffered so many negative experiences wrote in his book “Though your beginning was small, yet your latter end would increase greatly” Job 8:7.

William Shakespeare, a revered writer, in one of his books wrote, “There is a tide in the affairs of men”. He was reflecting on his observation of the turning pages of history and their influence upon our lives. There have been eras in the history of the world in which multiple tide-like influences have impacted our civilization and way of life at nearly the same time. These tides come in like an elevator in a building; they either take you to the penthouse or to the basement. At such times, this is when the seeds of greatness become an asset. The way you respond will either create a monumental benefit where you reach to the pinnacle or be swept by the tide and become a wreck for not exercising due diligence.

Network Your Way to the Next Level

To go to the next level, one needs to hear through different ears and see through different sets of eyes. It is important to be willing to listen to others. We are all endowed with different skills and abilities. God created us so we may be complete through our interdependence. There is no single complete human being who has all the answers of the world. We rely on each other and we need to learn skills of effective delegation.

Networking with people of all backgrounds propels us forward to our next level of achievement. For indeed, there is always a higher place of achievement that where you are. Constantly prepare for opportunities that do not presently exist, dream in broad-day light with your eyes wide open. Ask others around you to do the same and combine the dreams for greater critical mass.

When we do not expand our paradigm from a laurel we lose out. The Swiss well known for their mastery in mechanical watch became so obsessed with that invention to the extent that they failed to embrace the new discovery of battery-operated quartz watch. Because of their stance on battery operated watch at the time of invention, their market-share plummeted from eight out of ten watch buyers in 1968 to one out of ten watch buyers today. The market share was taken up by others who saw potential in the new battery watch and the Swiss have since regretted their missed opportunity.

There is always a higher place than where you are presently. Paul, an apostle of the bible says “forgetting those things that are behind, I press towards the mark towards the high call of God”. Paul could have been content to settle on a few books of the bible he had written so far, but he decided to keep on pushing. His desire barring getting him into trouble with local authorities, he also got audience with the highest authority of the time-Caesar-to him he appealed his case.

Failing to Plan is a Plan to Fail

Everything around us is planned for, someone had to sit down and write blue prints for your house or apartment. The car you drive was planned and the food you ate today started with a plant geneticist/plant breeder who designed and worked on a particular trait to be expressed by that seed akin to Gregor Mendel’s pea plant experiment. After that an agronomist had to design a crop production system in which the tender seed was to be cared for and worked with a farmer who actually planted the seed, watered and ultimately harvested and safely stored the seeds before presenting them to a food specialist. The food specialist prepared the seed(s) in such a way that when you get to the food market/supermarket they will be readily usable by the kitchen technician---who in most cases is your mom. The food technician dresses or cooks the food, which no longer looks like a seed but more like a powder or other forms and sets it on the table.

The whole food value chain had to be planned to function well and to deliver food on the table because food matters so much. Some countries have had a change of government as a result of poor food planning. World economies are planned to deliver basic necessities and luxury goods. Poorly designed economies render their citizens to the dustbin of poverty and they become forgotten citizens of the world. Poverty has never solved any problem and breeds a dependency syndrome.

Planning is so important to the extent that even our designer had to plan your day to be born, body frame, looks, speech and future. He says, for I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope (Jeremiah 29 v 11). Planning usually involves writing things down, the preceding extract from Jeremiah was written down so we can share it with others. You also need to do the same for your life, because what you write down, you can accomplish. Planning should be your second nature; even mundane things require planning, such as your sleeping and waking up are planned events. If you don’t give yourself enough rest, sooner than later your output starts approaching mediocre standards. Relationships are planned events, you don’t just relate with someone when you can’t give them your attention, time and goodwill. Thus, failing to plan is the only sure plan to fail.

Battle versus War

It is better to lose a battle and win the war than win a battle and lose the war. People who settle on laurels are battle winners and they forget the war is raging on and need to press on for total victory of the war. A battle is a small enclave to the big picture. Most people when they hit a single success they celebrate as if there are no more other successes to go for. In fact in business it’s not the first time buyers that matters the most but repeat buyers. They give business a chance to remain viable tomorrow and beyond.

Success hinges on finding ways of doing things better. When you believe in yourself, your mind will find ways to do things. Where there is a will, there is a way. However, you have to start hating average people’s attitude. These are people who resent change; anything new in their surrounding is intimidating because things have always been done this way. They are the people with strange religious beliefs that “television is the devil’s box” and when it comes to invention of an airplane they said “man had no right to enter the province reserved for birds”. Great minds think like Dr. Von Braun who said “man belongs to where man wants to go”. Average folks stick to tradition and are frozen in that state. Ideas are fruits of our mind and they need to be nourished. They are perishable and thus need to be harnessed and developed.

South Africa Votes

About 23 million eligible South Africans will go to the polls tomorrow (April 22, 2009), the fourth all race election since 1994. The mood is charged with enthusiasm as it was in 1994 general election that ushered in former President Nelson Mandela as the first black President of the Republic of South Africa. The current race pits three front runners; Jacob Zuma a grassroots leader with national appeal and from the African National Congress (ANC)-Mandela’s party, new party leader former Bishop Mvume Dandala, relatively unknown in politics although he had a few brushes with anti-apartheid activism from the Congress of the People (Cope), and Helen Zille, a former journalist and now leader of the Democratic Alliance (DA).

The general election includes voting for members of the legislative assembly comprising at least 9,000 candidates of which about 3,500 are female. Pundits are giving ANC thumbs up and Jacob Zuma is likely to become the next President of the Republic of South Africa. The DA leader in a recent interview alluded to the fact that her role in the election is to stop the ANC from gaining two-thirds of the votes (i.e. of elected parliamentarians). Two-thirds votes give any ruling party sweeping powers to run through legislations unopposed and can easily change the constitution to their desire. One pundit noted that this was the first time South Africa is going to be led by someone not from the educated black elite since the historic elections of 1994.

These elections are not only being closely watched in South Africa, but also in the rest of Africa and the world. After all, South Africa is one of the few remaining democracies in Africa, richest country in Africa, the only African country on the G20, and could provide leadership, especially in the African Renaissance project. The spirit of an emerging and promising nationhood was articulated by former President Nelson Mandela at his inauguration in 1994 when he took a leaf out of Marianne Williamson’s book, A Return to Love. Mandela thundered;

Our greatest fear at the birth of this wonderful nation is not that we are inadequate, but that we are powerful beyond measure.
It is our light, not our darkness that frightens us.
We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, handsome, talented and fabulous?
Actually, who are you not to be?
You are a child of God.
Your playing small does not serve the world.
There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won’t feel insecure around you.
We were born to make manifest the glory of God within us.
It is not just in some; it is in everyone.
And, as we let our own light shine, we consciously give other people permission to do the same.
As we are liberated from fear, our presence automatically liberates others.

Be Educated in the Right Way

I got this piece from my brother in London and thought you might enjoy it as much as I did.

A PhD graduate and an ordinary man went on a camping trip, set up their tent and fell asleep. Some hours later, the ordinary man woke up his PhD friend: "Look up at the sky and tell me what you see?"

The PhD man replies: "I see millions of stars." The ordinary man asks: "What does that tell you?"

The PhD guy ponders for a minute: "Astronomically speaking, it tells me that there are millions of galaxies and potentially billions of planets. Astrologically, it tells me that Satan is in Leo. Time wise, it appears to be approximately a quarter past three. Theologically, it's evident the Lord is all-powerful and we are small and insignificant. Meteorologically, it seems we will have a beautiful day tomorrow. What does it tell you?"

The ordinary man is silent for a moment, and then speaks: "Practically........it tells me that someone has stolen our tent".

Be educated in the right way and do not go beyond the boundaries! Credit: Anonymous Author

Move beyond a Laurel

Today in the state of California is a foreign born governor called Arnold Schwarzenegger. California is also called the Golden State and is one of the richest states in the Union. How did this happen, that a foreign born person out of at least 100 million eligible individuals in the country would end up at the helm? Here is a man who saw beyond his limitation of not being a club member. He had done well in his native home of Austria as a body builder but that did not fulfill his desire. He still wanted more and pressed on for an opportunity that did not exist in his home and sought it out elsewhere. He found a lot of people sitting on laurels. Most folks were happy to be talking about sports, movies, cars among other things.

Did the gubernatorial position Arnold holds come easy? In my opinion it was easier said than done. For starters, he had to learn English and be comfortable doing business in English, and be paraded in his Terminator and other movies. Each time he had a movie success, he was winning people on his side. When opportunity presented itself through a referendum of recall of Davis, he availed himself for the position. Governor Schwarzenegger could have stopped at his success as an action hero, after all he is the Terminator, but instead he pressed on to the next challenge.

I have often listened to candidates running for political office. They want to remind us of what they achieved in the past while others give excuses why they did not keep a pledge from last time. Rarely do you hear of the vision for the future, where they will go and what they will do. If there are such blue prints, at most they are fuzzy. You wonder why people are so fascinated with laurels. Laurels provide an escape from reality to bask on what we have been, buy yesterday’s victory, a resource for a foregone season. Today and tomorrow have a different challenge. Life around us tells us differences in time, there is time for winter, spring, summer and autumn. We rarely have summer intermeshed with winter; these are distinct seasons with different manifestations.

If we master the art that a victory for today is not eternal although it can be stretched to overlap into another season, the better we will be to confront our future. We just have to stay hungry for more as life itself can be daunting, especially when we are ill prepared for its many challenges. In most cases we celebrate prematurely, and confuse means to an end. Instead, we should cultivate and master the means (tools) for more intended outcomes.

You Cannot Advance Beyond Your Vision

No one can advance beyond the vision that they have for their life. It doesn’t matter how much potential you have, how gorgeous you appear in someone else’s eyes, or how much opportunity surrounds you, if you can’t see it, you will never be it.

Someone somewhere might have the most glorious vision for your life. They could share it with you or even sing it to you. They could recite the vision in a poem. Your life will remain the same unless and until you develop your own vision of it. Do you get it now? Someone else’s vision for your life may be awesome, but it’s not enough. No matter how much a friend may believe that you belong in there, unless you can first see yourself in a better place, you will never experience that better place. You cannot advance beyond the vision that you have for your own life.

Success hinges on finding ways to do things better. When you believe in yourself, your mind will find ways to do things because “the eyes of the wise are in his head, but those of a fool are at the ends of the earth”. Great minds think like Von Braun who said “man belongs to where man wants to go”. People with no vision stick to tradition and are frozen in that state. If we get stuck in tradition, nothing else will grow as such is the inability of ice. New ideas never sprout on ice.

Walt Disney founded the world premier amusement park after he had been fired from his newspaper job because they said he lacked imagination. One thing about Walt Disney is that he believed in himself. This character was show-cased when he said "somehow I can't believe there are any heights that can't be scaled by a man who knows the secret of making dreams come true. This special secret, it seems to me, can be summarized in four C's. They are Curiosity, Confidence, Courage, and Constancy and the greatest of these is Confidence. When you believe a thing, believe it all the way, implicitly and unquestionably."

Don’t Flinch and Don’t Sit on a Laurel

No matter how debilitating your current circumstance, you cannot afford to give up hope. A life without hope is one lived without a vision, a blueprint for a better tomorrow. Every vision is costly if it has to be transformed into a mission and ultimately becomes mission accomplished.

Former President Nelson Mandela epitomized patience and tenacity; he could have missed it if he had given up hope of freedom. He pressed on for many years with no end in sight. At the end he moved from jail house to state house. We salute you Madiba! A secret that he mastered was never to flinch in the face of adversity even one that sought to obliterate his very existence. He was willing to sacrifice for the greater good. It is never easy to rise for your convictions. There seem to be someone, somewhere and somehow think there are more noble ideas than your ideals. They are many purveyors of interposition. Don’t flinch in their face.

No matter how good your accomplishments are, don’t stop there. Use your success as a launching pad; expend knowledge learned from the previous victory for bigger and even greater challenges. Most people sit on laurels because they think it took them so long to be where they only dreamed of. A constant look for greater challenges and better achievements should be etched out in your mind and spirit.

Greatness surrounds us all the time and just merely waiting our recognition or embrace. One such person who was a super achiever yet did not rest on his laurels was Jesus of the Bible. He could have bragged about turning dirty dish washing water into the best wine ever at a wedding, raising Lazarus from the dead, healing a woman from an issue of blood or opening the eyes of a few blind people. But he kept on pushing forward because he knew the best is yet to come. To him receiving the kingdom was more important than anything else.

Words Matter

Words are the raw materials of thoughts. When spoken or read, the mind automatically converts words or phrases into mind pictures. When you write or speak, in a sense you are a projector showing movies in the minds of others. Therefore, the words we speak or write are very important. Suppose you say “we face a problem”. By this statement, you create in the minds of others of something difficult and unpleasant to solve. If instead you say “we face a challenge”, you create a mind picture of fun, sport, something pleasant to do.

People have jobs because they spoke the right words during the interview. Relationships are the same, you’re in it because you spoke words or words were spoken to you and you responded positively. Unfortunately, words also have a negative force, such as starting wars or fights. Most wars or fights are started not because someone fired a shot, but because someone spoke words that rubbed off on someone the wrong way. What is required is to harness the power of words for positive outcomes.

Many organizations have known the truth about the power of words and that is why they choose words very carefully to project themselves. A point in case is Nike “Just Do It”; US Army “Be all you can be”; McDonald’s “I’m lovin’ it”. Others use phrases like “You can go anyway from here”; “Some people just know how to fly”; “Where others have scratched the surface, we dig deeper”; “Go on, after all you’re a tiger”. Ross Perot, the famed billionaire said “one good idea can enable a man to live like a king the rest of his life”. Ideas are expressed through words. Begin to use words and phrases which produce big, positive mental images, you will be surprised by the level of success.

From Three Wheeler to Tata Nano

Tata Motors, a part of a fledgling Indian Tata Group announced today that they will make available for purchase next month throughout India, their ground breaking and revolutionary vehicle called Tata Nano. Tata Nano is approximately 3 m (10 feet) long and quite a charm to behold. As I listened to a BBC reporter this morning, I could not help myself think that my village could use this new mode of transportation. On the other hand, I thought of the pot holes that define a road leading to my village and was saddened by the fact that a car of this size might be buried alive in one of those pot holes. May be the first step is to repair or build a better road to benefit from this “milestone” technology.

What is more impressive about the Tata Nano is its affordability. It will go on the market to millions of Indians at $1, 979. Indeed, it is the world’s cheapest car yet. Tata Nano has inevitably put India once again on the world map. Nano comes at a time when the three big ones in the US (GMC, Chrysler and to a lesser extent Ford) have been taking their begging bowls to Capitol Hill for alms from Congress. Worldwide, the car industry is reeling from slumping demand, but not so for the Nano. Mr. Ratan Tata, owner of Tata Group is no stranger to going against currency. He takes calculated risks and in the past, he has been rewarded handsomely. I see no difference with their new product, the Tata Nano.

When others are worried about potential carbon increase due to fossil fuel, for millions of Indians who have been stuck with three wheelers or motorcycles, it’s a far cry to deny them the same technology that has been available elsewhere for so long. I agree that the environment matters, but any consideration should be done with other things on the table. Why can’t we develop technologies in tandem that both achieve modernization and at the same time protect the environment?
Tata Nano is not without competition, this is what a few had to say; “I should thank you, this is really fantastic. This is what we should try and achieve. We must acknowledge the great work done by you. However, we will compete with you.” Carlos Ghosn, CEO of RENAULT-NISSAN. “ I congratulate you for three things; (i) a modern and contemporary car design, (ii) sufficient internal volume, (iii)designed and developed entirely on your own” Luca Cordero diMontezemolo, Chairman, FIAT. Tata Nano won the Wall Street Journal Technology Innovation Award in 2008 in the transportation category for a ground breaking innovation that demonstrates measurable impact. What are your thoughts about Tata Nano?

There is room for more

When Coca-Cola came up with a formula for carbonated drink, they patented it and moved on to create other drinks from this prototype. They did not sit on a laurel, they used the original to come up with "what if" scenario. Henry Ford did not come up with the first automobile, but he revolutionized the industry by creating assembly lines for mass production. You may not need to come up with an original prototype, but to tweak what is there for efficiency, etc,.

McDonald's did not come up with the first idea for a hamburger, but they created a uniform franchise system and sold franchises to willing entrepreneurs. Other fast food chains started mushrooming--Taco Bells, Burger King, Subway to mention a few. All these alternatives to McDonald's could have cried foul because someone else has started a fast food chain , therefore there is nothing left for us. A little ingenuity of the same product packaged differently or cooked slightly differently, offered variable appetite choices to go by. There is room for more ingenuity.

Defeat is not an option

A failure is a man who has blundered, but is not able to cash in on the experience. Successful persons have had setbacks at one time or another. What we hear or read about great persons, is a revised resume that deliberately leaves out some lows/downturns experienced on the road to success.

The bible attests to the fact that a righteous man falls seven times, but the Lord picks him up. Defeat is a state of mind, and successful people are good at salvaging something from every setback.

Thomas Edison, a famous Bostonian inventor of electricity said this about his several attempts at coming up with a light bulb, "I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that wont't work". He had this attitude that "if we all did the things we are capable of doing, we would literally astound ourselves". Just because something doesn't do what you planned it to do, doesn't mean it's useless. In fact some inventions came about as an accident.

Fast Lane

I'm joining the fast lane. I'm not technology averse. I see what it can do for me. I wish I had larched on it several years back. What matters now, is I am in the fast lane. It's a new life and is very exciting to be able to get over the hump.