Ross Perot once said, “The activist is not the man who says the river is dirty. The activist is the man who rolls up the sleeves of his shirt and cleans up the river.
If you are looking for an opportunity to challenge yourself - mentally, physically, emotionally, or spiritually - consider scaling a lofty mountain and look no further than Mount Kilimanjaro in East Africa. Standing at 5,895 meters into the sky, Mount Kilimanjaro, a sanctuary to beautiful flora and diverse fauna, attracts experienced and inexperienced mountain hikers from every corner and depth of the world. The hiking season runs from July through October, yearly.
The date was September 23, 2015. The time was 4.28 am. The place was Moshi. One of my goals, before I would die, was to climb, see and stand on top of mount Kilimanjaro. I understood then that making it to the summit of the mountain - Kibo or Mawenzi - was not easy. The rugged Mawenzi is even more treacherous than Kibo. To make it to the top, one needs not only to be mentally alert and in good physical shape but to also have experienced mountain guides, proper gear, and equipment. Yes, climbing mount Kilimanjaro even in the clearest of the weather can be extremely perilous even for the most experienced of climbers.
Determined to realize my life goal, I hitch-hiked in a crowded dala-dala (bus) from my base in Masaki, Dar es salaam heading north to Moshi. Being an inexperienced climber, I sought service of the most experienced mountain guide in town. His name was Juma Omary Tumaini, a local Chagga from Lombo in Moshi. I spent two days assimilating to the weather of the region. On the third day, we were ready for the ascent. Before we set off, as he has done so many times before with so many climbers, Juma brought together thirteen enthusiastic climbers, who were under his stewardship for some pep-talk and ritual, to prepare us mentally for the mission. Standing at 7 feet 6 inches, Juma looked intimidating but exceptionally focused.
He gave us a pep-talk on the dos and don’ts of mountaineering. He then switched our attention to a ritual that we were told he performs before he sees his hiker clients to the summit. “Wateja wangu (my customers), before we head to Kibo, I have one particular important message for you. I want to talk to you about visualization – its power and shortcoming. For the past year or so, you guys have been dreaming of getting to the top of mount Kilimanjaro. I congratulate you all for keeping your dream alive and for making it this far. This is a dream that gets on people’s to-do-list but dies on paper without seeing the light of day. Hongera sana (congratulations). But the journey has not yet started. Today, some of you will realize your dream, sad to say, others will not. However, I am determined to lead you to Uhuru point. But I can only play a part. The rest lies with you as individuals. Whether you reach the top or not will depend on what you think and do between now and the time we put our boots on the ground and take the first step for the ascent. So, please, pay attention to what I will do, say, and show you in the next twenty minutes. It is very important.” He continued in a rather hoarse but measured voice, “. . . you have been visualizing yourselves standing on top of this mystical mountain for some months for some of you, and for others, for some years. I want to warn you - vision is not enough. You must combine it with venture. Be daring. All great leaders and teams that you know or have read about or watch on television have one thing in common - they have a personal bias toward action. Top performers – be it at school, in business, or in personal ventures - have a nudge to tap into their passion and strong sense of action. What you focus on grows, what you dwell on expands.” I did not understand the meaning of his statements in relation to mountaineering. I had heard these statements several times before in leadership seminars and commerce. What do they have to do with mountaineering? I wondered.
With that remark, he summoned us together and led us into a nearby auditorium. He closed the door and windows and ordered one of his team members to switch off the lights. I looked at my wristwatch. The time was 4:28 am. The room was pitch dark. I was terrified. There were seventeen of us in the room, including Juma and his three staffers. Silence and anxiety engulfed the room. A few minutes later, we heard footsteps coming from backstage of the auditorium. Then we saw a spark of fire on stage. It was Juma switching on a lighter to light a candle. What was Juma up to? I wondered silently. The auditorium was still pitch-dark. I heard a fellow sitting next to me humming prayer softly. My heart deflated with apprehension. I remembered an incident that happened somewhere in the region a couple of years back where an overzealous church pastor locked up congregants and set a praying house on fire, killing everyone in the house. Were we headed for a similar ordeal? Everyone was terrified. Moshi is relatively colder in September, but I found myself perspiring heavily. There was graveyard silence. You could hear a pin drop. A few minutes later, Juma broke the silence. “Now, wateja wangu, as promised, I would like to show you the power of visualization, how you and I make it effective or ineffective. He paused to regain breath, hesitated, and continued, “. . . I want you all to visualize this candle extinguishing through the power of your mind and prayer. I want to show you the amazing power when all of us in this room collectively focus hard on one subject. Do not do anything else other than imagine this candle going off. In simple language, I want you folks to engage in a concentrated deep prayer that this candle should go off.” He clapped his hands, urging us to start visualizing, “. . . One. Two. Three. Start.” A minute passed. Two minutes. Five minutes. The candle twinkled and flickered. Then glowed. We respectfully kept on staring at the candle, hoping it would dim off on the strength of our imagination. No matter how hard we tried to visualize, the candle kept on burning normally. I thought maybe we were not concentrating enough. I straightened up my posture. Suddenly, the candle started to dim off. I thought we were making headway. I was elated. I was about to witness something amazing in my life. Something profound. How can mere imagination extinguish a burning candle? Unexpectedly, the candle glowed and started to burn normally, again. We continued with our exercise of visualizing. Fifteen minutes passed. Sixteen minutes. Seventeen minutes. Still, nothing happened. Exactly twenty minutes into the exercise, Juma stepped forward and blew the candle off with a massive puff of air.
Then, Juma ordered one of his staffers to put on the lights. He grinned and said, “ladies and gentlemen, the moral of the exercise is that no matter how much you visualize, imagine, or pray for something, nothing happens without taking action. A while ago, you and I failed to extinguish a burning candle with visualization. With imagination. Some of you were even praying. Twenty minutes. I had to step forward and blow air at the candle for it to go off. Very truly, I tell you, if you want to achieve something in life, you must take action on a goal or dream. Visualization is not enough. Thinking alone is not enough. Prayers, too, cannot be answered until acted upon. Combine it with action. Get out of the highway of your imagination and move. Take courage in the words of Facebook founder, Mark Zuckerberg, ‘. . . you are better off trying something and failing it so you can learn from it rather than not doing anything at all.’ I wish you good luck. One. Two. Three. Let’s go.” We headed for the mountaintop - Uhuru point to be precise - inspired by the words of Juma Omary Tumaini, a veteran mountain guide from Lombo in Moshi.
Like most people, you and I are not immune to this bigoted thinking. We are good at conceptualizing, praying, formulating strategies, and drawing plans but poor at execution. We spend time in praying houses, humming ‘. . . I receive,’ yet our hands remain folded. Walk into reception areas and boardrooms of great companies, and perhaps you will get my point. Look at the vision and mission statements on the walls. Powerful dreams and visions for the future. Compare that with employees’ attitude and intensity of execution in pursuit of the said visions. Poor or no execution at all. Big gap. The vision says one thing and employees do the opposite. I have come across many outstanding companies through my leadership and personal mastery coaching experience that articulate formidable competencies, yet employees fail to embrace and activate them. Many companies have hairy audacious goals (to borrow Jim Collins' term), lofty plans, and sublime strategies, but flop in implementation. They are not doing enough to keep up with the requirements of the visions. What economics Nobel-laureates Herbert Simon said many years ago is still valid today, “. . . a wealth of information creates poverty of attention.”
The essential factor that separates one man from his fellows in terms of achievement and success is his greater capacity and intensity in acting on ideas. It pains to see men and women, boys, and girls in their prime age, with special abilities contributing little to their own success and that of their employers. On the other hand, we see others who are less gifted but accomplish and achieve more. It is not age, height, beauty, skin pigmentation, or qualifications that produce results. We produce results by taking the right action on ideas. By implementing strategies. By making the wheels roll. Unremittingly.
As I live and grow older, it has become clearer to me that what separates elite performers and high-performing teams from decimal performers is not qualification, age, pigmentation of their skin, extroversion, level of ideation, visualization, imagination, or prayers but the ability to think and agility to act on ideas persistently. Audacity to take the right action on goals. Taking charge of situations. Observing and reading about high performers over the years, I have noticed that these elite performers do not just ideate, analyse, conceptualize, and pray for situations in boardrooms, they also spend time in mailrooms, acting on concepts, ideas, and prayers with gusto. Just thinking about goals is not enough. We must take the right action to fulfil those dreams and make them a reality. Do not spend the rest of your precious life stringing and unstringing your instrument. Pluck it. Sing your song. Life is like a book - what you choose to do with your life dictates whether it is an adventure loaded with success or a blank page.
Lester Chinyang’anya ǀ General Manager - Operations ǀ Minet Malawi
Comments
Post a Comment