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.
Wednesday, April 29, 2009
Tuesday, April 21, 2009
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.
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.
Thursday, April 16, 2009
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
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
Tuesday, April 14, 2009
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.
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.
Friday, April 3, 2009
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."
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