A story is told about a woman who was working in a garden outside of her house. It happened that a senior pastor and a monsignor from her church were passing by her house. Fascinated by the magnificence of the garden, they stopped the vehicle to talk to the woman. “Madam, this is the most beautiful orchard that I have seen in this area. God certainly blessed you with an extraordinary garden,” remarked the pastor. The garden looked pristine. Exquisite. Full of beautiful multicolour flowers, neatly trimmed exotic hedges, painted, and smartened up flowerpots, un-littered freshly mown green grass, and clean clear water flowing from a fountain into an ornamental pond. Everything was simply in its place.
The woman, wiping her brow to remove globules of sweat that had collected on her creased forehead, responded meekly, “thank you for the compliment, pastor. But you should have seen this place five years ago when I had just bought it and moved into the compound. It wasn’t as beautiful as you see it today.”
As the pastor and his travel companion drove away, they realized that every gardener along this road had been blessed with the same soil, same natural resources, same weather, and other ecological endowments, yet their gardens looked different. The other gardens looked unkempt. Disordered. Substandard. While each gardener had similar materials to work with, this woman had done something truly extraordinary. Her garden had by far surpassed those of her neighbours. Much as the woman was grateful for what she was given, she knew that what she did with it was the difference between success and failure.
The moral of the story is that good fortune may help you to get to the top, but it takes adoption and internalization of certain habits to stay there and achieve super results sustainably. Marshal Goldsmith understood this truth and put it better than I could when he narrated, “what brought you here, won’t take you there.”
There are no extra people on earth. Each one of us is important and blessed with some unique gifts. We did not come into this world empty-handed. Man or woman, black or white, villager or city dweller, literate or illiterate, short or tall. Each one of us has a talent that our generation yearns to be served with. You and I have a call on our talents and skills to make humanity better. Turn around and open your eyes - the people that you consider to be successful have reached that level of success not because they are more gifted than the rest of us; . . . not because they are more intelligent than you and me; . . . not because they worship a more powerful deity; . . . not because they have stronger genetic coding; . . . not because their DNA make-up is securer. No. If this was the case, then, I tell you, all of us could have been playing in the premier league of our lives, decorated with badges of honour – since we are all gifted. So, what is it under the sun that makes some people bask in the sunshine of success while others linger in its shadows?
For the past twelve years, I have been studying, researching, and neuro-mirroring the Samurai - their life ethos and work ethics. The Samurai of Japan were renowned for their deep-seated ethos and ethics; their military dexterity and prowess made them win almost all the wars that they fought. They are rated as the most successful clan that ever lived. The Samurai’s social decorum was unique. Unrivalled. They galvanized their life ethos on an unwritten code (bushido). Obedience to the code was non-negotiable. Every member of the clan, young or old, male, or female, resident or non-resident followed it wholly and heroically. Dicta of the code included obedience, self-discipline, self-sacrifice, bravery, and skill. Dissent of any tenet or the code itself had far-fetching consequences – involuntary death.
Why do I bother telling you about this medieval clan and its ethos? Dear reader here’s the thing: Values and habits once ingrained in a family’s, team's, company’s, tribe's, or nation’s culture (ethos and ethics) have the potential to disintegrate or strengthen its success unequivocally. What is my point here? The Samurai ruled Japan successfully for 800 years because its citizens embodied habits that were encrypted into a code of conduct, and all followed it unquestionably.
Angella Duckworth, an eminent professor of social psychology at the University of Pennsylvania popularized a term that speaks of game changers’ work ethos - grit. Grit speaks of someone determined and courageous to scale the loftiest of the peaks regardless of the number and size of hurdles carved along their way. Someone who perseveres, is committed, devoted, and obsessed with a vision to produce epic performance.
They work hard. Epic performers have one thing in common - they work hard on one theme of life at a time. They don’t scatter their brilliance on several projects. They devote their cognitive bandwidth to one core theme of life. Top performers are purists, not generalists. Consider Tiger Woods – he devoted all his wake and work time to nothing else but golf. Jose Mourinho – football management. Leo Tolstoy - writing. Christopher Columbus – ocean exploration. Charles Darwin – evolutionary biology. Billy Graham – evangelism. Aliko Dangote – entrepreneurship. Michael Jordan – basketball. Tupac Amaru Shakur aka Makaveli – hip hop rap music. I am yet to come across an epic performer who excelled in seven or more themes of life. All history makers, living or deceased, had or have one thing that they obsessed with or obsess themselves. They pour or poured themselves into it with grit and granularity. My larger point is that personal success has nothing to do with one’s genetics or intelligence - it has something to do with how one capitalizes on one’s talent. World changers and titans of industry treat talent as capital – seed money that you put into a business to grow the enterprise. Consider bank notes that grace your wallet. On their own, those bank notes are as useless as the word useless connotates. You may have millions of shillings. If you keep those bank notes under a pillow in your bedroom or bury them in the yard of your house - keeping them unused, unemployed, - at the end of the day, they remain valueless, worthless papers. Unless we convert our shillings into something of value, which is also sought by the public, we’ll forever linger in the shadows of success. What’s my point? Identify, allocate and dedicate your talent toward solving other people’s problems or satisfying their needs. Writer, motivational speaker, and trainer, John C. Maxwell, defines success as “. . . understanding one’s life purpose and working towards its achievement whilst adding value to others to achieve their goals.”
They ask great questions. Success-conscious people understand that no person has a monopoly on wisdom. They appreciate that every soul that walks this planet knows something or knows about something that they don’t know. They are aware that they can’t solve all problems on their own and so they are hunters for information and help. They mine knowledge from other people’s minds. Successful people are good at asking questions. They are curious. They ask for help, . . . they ask for consideration, . . . they ask for understanding, . . . they ask for clarification, . . . they ask for a raise, . . . they ask for guidance, . . . they ask great questions that elicit understanding and solutions. Above all, they ask for feedback.
They are generous. Apart from preaching about salvation, what do these books have in common? Quran. Dhammapada – moral teachings of Buddha. Upanishad – the sacred book of ancient India. The Tora – spiritual script of the Jewish faith. Bhagavad-Gita – Sanskritic teachings of the Far East. Holy Bible – the sacred book of Christians. Analects – the book which contains teachings of Confucius. It’s not a coincidence that the teachings of all major religions sanctify the habit of giving and being generous. These teachings certify that “. . . the hand that giveth is more blessed than the one that taketh.”
You and I carry a blessing. I have mine. You have yours. What we do with it determines our place under the sun. Allow me to make a revelation - the purpose of our gift is service. Unless we offer or give ourselves in service to others through our gifts, we will linger on the edges of success, settling for a life of existence rather than a life of substance. Napoleon Hill understood this principle better than I do when he remarked, “. . . never in the history of the world has there been such abundant opportunity as there is now for the person who is willing to serve before trying to collect.” If you want to make an impact on somebody’s life, you don’t have to preach a sermon to them. Instead, be good to them. Be kind to them. Your actions will speak louder than words.
There is a story about a judge who was waiting to board a train. It started to rain. He opened his umbrella and sought shelter under it. A few other passengers did likewise. Not far from where the judge was standing, there was a certain diffident man who was trying to secure shelter under a tree, but with little success. He was getting wet. Concerned with the man’s situation, the learned judge extended an invitation to share the umbrella with him. As the two strangers started to share a conversation, the long-awaited train pulled up. They promptly boarded it. In no time, the train paced off. Three days later, the judge was in court to hear a case of an armed robbery. It happened that the accused was the man that the judge had shared an umbrella with at the train station. The judge decided to relieve himself from hearing the case. News about the judge’s action went viral. The public was surprised by the judge’s decision. They had never seen or read or heard about a judge excusing himself from hearing a matter that involved an accused whom he had only met in the street as a stranger.
If you were the judge presiding over the case, would you have withdrawn yourself from hearing it? If your answer is yes, you are not alone. Pat yourself on the back. You’ve passed the test. Your neurochemical oxytocin – a hormone that strengthens social bonding between individuals – is functioning properly. Neuroscience has found out that once you offer someone an idea or information or time or any resource that eventually improves their life, your brain gets tattooed to the effect that you don’t want to see them suffer or get into trouble again. It’s the law of nature. Many high performers that I know, exemplify the Samurai code. They work hard, ask great questions, and are generous. Isn’t it true then that success is not about genetics but about the ability to install a code or series of rituals that are in tandem with one’s talent which - when one runs them - bring genius? What you do with your God-given gift determines your place under the sun. The key philosophy of life is ‘what you focus on grows; what you think about expands; what you dwell on determines your destiny.’
It doesn’t matter how smart you are. It doesn’t matter that you graduated from college magna cum laude. It really doesn’t matter that you attend each and every seminar that you come across in your industry. What really matters is that you apply knowledge and ritualize your talent in one theme of life. Verily, verily, I say unto you, nothing works for those who don’t put in the hours to work. Nothing works for those who don’t take time to reflect and ask great questions. Nothing works for those who are not generous to others. Success is something that you attract by the person you become. Talent is never enough. Just like the woman in the story above, you must do more to become a success. There are no shortcuts.
Lester Chinyang’anya ǀ General Manager - Operations ǀ Minet Malawi
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