I overheard one boss, in my recent sojourn, coaching his team: “When you have a damaged ceiling, you put a bucket underneath the leak to catch water drips,” My small heart burst with ire. Treacherous. Misguided statement. If this type of counsel is left unchecked, believe me, gains made by pioneers of business ventures that we find ourselves in, risk being scrubbed. Erased. Utterly. Aren’t we supposed to access the damaged part of the roof and fix it at once? You can’t normalize a situation by massaging the effects. But the cause.
Today, I am motivated to uncover the secret of success. I learned it from a maharaja. In 2012. Somewhere in East Africa.
When you were born, a seed was placed inside you. This seed is your innate giftedness. Your talent. Your distinctiveness. Your uniqueness. This seed is supposed to be nurtured, germinate, grow, flower and bear fruits whilst you walk the planet. Your giftedness directs you toward areas of life that fit your natural inclination. The drawback is that if this seed stays idle for long, it doesn’t die or gets depleted, but becomes flabby. It stifles. You have to re-awaken it to be useful again and that takes effort. Enormous effort, I must admit. Just like muscles that aren’t subjected to a work-out in the gym grow weak with time. The point is, when we become docile, we create a mental landscape that is barren. Passivity strangles ability. There’s only one person that can make the seed sprout and blossom to its full potential. Do you know who that person is? The one you see in the mirror in the morning. The one standing in your shoes right now. Not your CEO. Not your boss. Not your spouse. Not your priest or sheik. Not your parents. Not your siblings. Not your significant others. All of them are incapable. Unqualified, innately. And don’t blame them. Hold nature accountable. You’re responsible for your own success.
Success is a discipline of three critical steps. Those, who follow them, become great.
Perception
Perception, as the word mimics, is how we interpret situations; our attitude toward problems and opportunities; how we understand and construe what occurs around and within us; the meaning we give to our day-to-day experiences. Your perception of things can be a source of strength or weakness. Consider performance appraisal, for example: How do you view them? Source of feedback for work and personal improvement? Or do you resent them for the reason that your boss takes them as kangaroo court to batter, criticize, chastise you and your performance? Are you emotional, fearful, hateful, pessimistic, pre-judgmental of other people’s motives or circumstances? This is a bad nursery bed for success. Success aligns itself with simplicity, respect, humility, and grit.
Two great salesmen, Jabir Odhiambo and Tulibako Ally, were sent to a far country on a feasibility study to look for a market for shoes. In order to get proper viability of the market, upon arrival, the two salesmen visited every corner of the country. They asked locals questions, took notes, acquired and considered every bit of intelligence of this virgin market. But curiosity took hold of the two gentlemen - no person in this part of the world had shoes on their feet.
The first to report back to head office was Tulibako Ally. He dialed the phone number of his sales manager; “ . . . sir, I am sorry. There is no market for shoes in this country. None of the residents here put on shoes. Fruitless trip. I am flying back home, immediately.” Before his manager had a chance to ask him some questions about the market, Ally was already airborne, flying back home.
Jabir Odhiambo, too, took his turn to report to his manager, “ . . . sir, I am enthralled. There is a big market for shoes in this country. We visited every part of the country. Virgin market. We’ll be the first to sell shoes to people in this country. I can’t wait. For a start, send me eight containers. I’ll be at the port in seven days’ time to collect my consignment.” He dropped the phone, threw fist in the air, immediately dashed to the trading center to look for a building that he could rent for a shop.
That’s the power of perception. Same feature being characterized differently. One sees it as an opportunity, the other views it as a snag.
Action
Three neighborhood security guards were patrolling the streets of Kigogo late in the night. Kigogo was a favela. Most houses in Kigogo were run-down and didn’t have electricity. Ironically, every street of Kigogo was illuminated by glistening streetlights. As the security guards moved around the neighborhood, patrolling, they caught sight of a woman rummaging flowerbeds, water farrows and combing the driveway with a broom. Under streetlight close to her house. One could deduce that she was looking for something. She appeared to be busy and looked dejected.
The three security guards stealthily approached the woman, asking, “. . . madam. We have been seeing you for the past two hours moving up and down. What’s the problem? Are you looking for something?” She responded with a low voice, “Yes, I have misplaced my wedding ring. Pure gold.” Without being called to, the three guards, at once, joined the woman to look for the missing wedding ring. They looked for it everywhere in the compound of her house.
Realizing that the search was not yielding any result, one of the guards, who looked more senior in age than the other two, asked the woman, again. “Madam, are you sure that you misplaced your wedding ring, here, in the yard? The woman without taking her head up, responded; “No. I misplaced it in my bathroom. You see, every time I take a bath, I remove my wedding ring. Now, I can’t remember where I put it in the bathroom.” The three guards looked at each other, baffled. “Why, then, are you looking for it outside the house? Wouldn’t you logically be looking for it in your bathroom or bedroom, madam?” She replied, “True. But look, there is more light outside than in my bathroom.” With that response, the three guards left the scene, leaving her alone, still searching for the misplaced wedding ring outside the house.
Too many people, including the woman in the story above, take action as a fad. A panacea. The truth of the matter is: action is not a panacea nor a magic pill. ‘Take one pill today and you’ll be successful, tomorrow.’ It doesn’t work that way. Politicians misguide us to be action-oriented if we are to be successful; to roll up sleeves of our shirts and make hands dirty. This is half-truth. It’s not any kind of action that births success. But directed action is. Not everything we do, morphs into success. Most salaried workers spend almost one third of working adult life at their workplace, but it doesn’t mean that every worker is successful. What we do with our 8 of the 24 hours at our workplace determines our success. One of the stumbling blocks of success is not being able to direct our talent on high impact areas. Not hitting hairy audacious goals on their head, as celebrated leadership researcher and writer, Jim Collin languaged it. Busyness of business doesn’t make one to be successful. Directed action does. Unplanned and undirected action produces unexpected and undesired results. Potential that is unexpressed turns into pain. Try a lot of stuff but keep what works.
Willpower
If you want to drive from Lilongwe to Blantyre, Lusaka to Tunduma, Dodoma to Dar es Salaam, Nairobi to Mombasa, Walvis Bay to Rundu, Kampala to Mbarara or from point A to point B, you need enough fuel in the tank. No matter how powerful your car may be, without enough fuel, you’ll never reach your destination. The same is true with success. If you are to be successful, you need to have enough motivation and drive inside.
Positive perception and directed action are like skeletons. They provide good structure but need meat on the bones to form a health body. On their own, they aren’t useful. Willpower is another ingredient for successful life. What is willpower? Willpower is the cultivation and maintenance of our inner determination that allows us to move forward amidst dark clouds. When circumstances are bad; when the chips are down. Willpower is a burning desire to achieve goals. Willpower is the internal dynamo that pushes an athlete out of bed, in a chilling morning, to put on running shoes and to dash out for a jog. Willpower is a force that keeps a studious student glued to his study materials in the library when other students are out updating their Facebook, Instagram, and other social media accounts. Willpower is what makes a junior auditor to work late in the night to polish up a report in order to meet submission deadlines. Yes, willpower is the fuel that lubricated the frail legs of sixty-five-year-old Colonel Harland Sanders, to knock on the doors of 800 restaurants in Corbin, Kentucky to sell his chicken recipe prior to setting up KFC. I tell you; willpower is the force that drove Edmund Hillary to scale mount Everest after several failed attempts. If you ask me, I’ll tell you that willpower is the resolve that compelled Nelson Mandela to abandon his lawyering career and join the struggle for freedom. Willpower is what kept Michael Phelps in the swimming pool the whole day rehearsing strokes for the Olympic games. Yes, willpower is the gusto that kept you going when naysayers doubted your capability and ability that you would make it in life. No person or nation achieves success without willpower. Willpower is a powerful engine that moves you from where you are to where you want to be. Without it, you are as good as dead.
Herewith bonus point.
A story is told about a small-time thief, who stole the king’s expensive royal coat. Stealing king’s property was a risky venture. No one knew how he managed to break into the king’s palace. But he had to undertake the risk. He had a mission to accomplish - to be accepted into the league of big-time thieves. One day, he went to meet with his idols, the big-time thieves. In fact, he went there to brag about his accomplishment so that the other thieves could accept him into their league.
Convinced by his achievement, the thieves’ leader asked him a question; “how much did you sell the royal coat at, mate?” He stood up and said, proudly, “I sold it at a cool $100.” He expected his statement to impress the big-time thieves. He was shocked when they all burst out laughing. The gang leader asked him why he sold it at only $100 and not more. His response shocked the other thieves even more; “Is there any number larger than hundred?”
The rationale of the story is that your exposure shapes your reality. Every single person walking planet earth today, you and I included, has the potential to be successful. But we must be aware of and act on the secrets of success if we are to be successful.
Lester Chinyang’anya ǀ General Manager - Operations ǀ Minet Malawi
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