Growing up on an island, I was fortunate to reside near a big and busy harbor. As a kid, I spent time at the waterfront, watching and admiring ships of varied sizes, types, and shapes loading and unloading passengers and cargo. Large, medium, and small ships, cruise boats, rafters, and dugout canoes. The large ships generally brought bulky cargo from the world and carried shipments of similar scale from the island to the world. Medium and small ships were primarily used to ferry light cargo and passengers. Cruise boats and rafters were dominantly used for water sports and surfing activities. Peasant fishermen used dugout canoes for subsistence fishing.
I used to stand on the wharf, admiring crew members with awe. I envied them a lot for being lucky to travel to various places. They traveled to places I could only visit through sheer imagination or I could merely read about in my primary school geography books. I also admired their all-white uniform – their white pair of trousers, white sleeveless shirt, and the white belt enlivened by white safety boots. The captain used to wear a white sailor’s hat which was embroidered with gold lace knitted immaculately around the rim. They were a marvel to look at. As I grew up, I nursed the ambition of being a sailor, too. To be precise, I wanted to be captain of a ship. Fast forward to five decades later, I am a scribe. A Mwalimu. How I changed my career ambition is a story of another day. I will tell you my story about how I divorced my aspiration [or better, how the aspiration divorced me] from being a sailor to a scribe, next time over a cup of cappuccino at Starbucks, perhaps.
One day, a friendly crewmember of one of the big ships saw me lingering on the wharf. He recognized me and invited me aboard for a tour of the ship. I was elated. It was my first time to be inside a ship. The tour was marvelous. We visited all major sections of the ship - the engine room, passenger cabin, forecastle, crew dormitories, top deck, starboard, restaurant, and navigation bridge. I liked the navigation bridge more than the other sections. The navigation bridge, as the term connotates, is where the ship is controlled and steered. It is the office of the captain. It is likened to the driver’s seat of a car or the cockpit of an airplane. I took a few pictures with the captain and crew members. I even had the opportunity to chat with the captain. I asked him about their next destination. Without making any reference to the travel schedule that was displayed on the noticeboard, he instantly gave me an answer, “. . . we will leave the harbor tomorrow morning at 04:00 hours. From here, we are heading south, to Jinja port. We will be at the port for twenty-four hours, then leave for Senga port, en route to Monkey Bay.”
As soon as I was old enough, I was able to take ship trips on my own, as a passenger. I visited all those places that I dreamt of when I was young. No matter how long the trips took, I never got tired of sailing and watching the sea. Sometimes, the sea was as calm as water in a cup. At other times, it was rough.
One day, the ship that I boarded endured a severe storm. Five ships made sail from the island on that day. The storm occurred when the ships were about thirty kilometers away from the island. The other four ships - medium and small - that had set off on that day returned to the island for safety reasons. Our ship was the only one that continued with its planned voyage since it was big enough to put up with the turbulence. For twenty-seven voyage hours, we were lambasted and hit by cyclonic wind and hulking waves amidst torrential rainfall. Visibility was poor. I thought the ship was going to sink. I recalled scenes of desperate and helpless passengers in the Titanic movie which showed how RMS Titanic struck an iceberg and sank. I was afraid. Nonetheless, despite the severity of the storm, inside the ship, it was cozy and comfy. Taking its planned deep-sea route, our ship soldiered on to its destined port, Jinja, where it docked safely. On that particular day, apart from the ships that returned to the island’s harbor, two small ships capsized and experienced fatalities. Thereupon, I derived an adage that I use as a reminder of the importance of personal resilience whenever I face hardship and life’s curved balls - only great ships sail in rough seas. Everything great in life comes at a cost. Hard times make powerful humans.
We all have the desire to be liked, influential, impressive, prosperous, happy, and fulfilled. The poor aspire to be rich. The ignorant pursue knowledge. The sick yearn for robustness. The landless desire to be the landlord. The lonely seek companionship. The prisoner craves freedom. The led fancy leadership. The dissident seek justice, equity, and equality. The sinner prays for salvation. Yes, fulfillment is human nature. Ok. If fulfillment is human nature, why, then, are some people better off, more fulfilled, more prosperous, more knowledgeable, more impressive, or more endowed with resources than others? Why do some people achieve better results than others given the same allotment of time and other resources? Or put it directly, why do some people accept living in paucity, mediocrity, deprivation in a world of abundance? Why do most people settle for less than they are capable of? Don’t we all live under the same horizon and sky? Now, I get it - we share the same sky but live in different horizons. Some people’s horizons are wider than others, so they view the world differently and achieve different and super results.
Nothing brings so much misery and suffering to humanity as fear. Take or live it, the number one cause of paucity, mediocrity, and deprivation in our lives is fear. Surprisingly, fear is a state of mind. If you and I don’t keep fear in its place, it can destroy our chances of progress and achievement. Fear of poverty, for example, is premised on the grounds that most of us believe that we have no value to offer to the marketplace, yet the high power endowed each one of us with a native gift to serve humanity for our maintenance and livelihood.
Fear leads to anxiety and avoidance. It keeps us small and stuck in our comfort zone instead of charting course and sailing in deep seas for greater rewards like the big ship in the story above. Fear keeps us from trying new adventures. From taking new risks. From maximizing our potential. We are afraid that if we try and do not succeed, people will laugh at us. We will be embarrassed. As such, we simply decide not to try at all. This mentality and inaction give us temporary emotional relief from potential pain and embarrassment. We forget that nothing great in life was achieved by a ‘normal’ person seated in a comfortable position. Was it not Frank Herbert, author of Dune, who beautifully said, “. . . I must not fear. Fear is the mind-killer. Fear is a little death that brings total obliteration. I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass over me and through me. And when it has gone past, I will take the inner eye to see its path. Where the fear has gone, there will be nothing. Only I will remain.” Fear is a dream destroyer. It makes great souls [you and I included] to be and remain small. Fear blocks you and I from accessing abundance, instead we settle for paucity, mediocrity, and deprivation like the small ships that returned to the harbor on the island.
John A. Shedd wittily observed, “. . . boats that stay in the safe harbor are never banged up by rough seas. But that’s not what boats are made for.” So, next time a challenge presents itself, be daring. Go out and pluck the fruit on the limb. Next time you fly, daredevil - ask for an upgrade to fly in business class. Yes, you got me right, daredevil, at home, ask your spouse for more love and understanding. We all know that the competition is tough out there, it's a good time to be fearless and bold – ask your manager for a higher budget. Yes, you don’t have enough funds, I know, but still, be daring – embark on that dream house project that you have been putting on hold for many years. If you dare for nothing, you need hope for nothing. Risks that we dare, befriend us, and those that we don’t, persist. As you put yourself in this trajectory, you experience many rewards and start to see good things happening in your life. No one reaches the top without daring. When you face your fears and move towards them, they diminish and recede like Italian wax. But when you back away from the circumstances and people [yes people] that you fear, those forces grow until they dominate and own your life. The world is like a book where those who do not take risks read only one page, rather, read only the front cover of the book.
Why do most of us not chase our dreams to the end? When people are hard-pressed, why do crafty excuses suddenly emerge? The reason some people do not go far in life is because of fear. Fear of failure. Fear of inadequacy. Fear of disapproval. Fear of change. Fear of losing control. Fear of disappointment. Fear of death. Fear of fear. Even those who consider themselves righteous and sinless are afraid of death, yet death is the gateway to eternity. Most of us sidestep opportunities and shake hands with fear. What we do not know is that fear is the tomb in which opportunities are buried. My urge to you, today, is to look for challenges that give you goosebumps. Ideas, dreams, and openings that scare you. Opportunities disguise themselves as problems. When a workmate speaks to you rudely or provokes you, thank them. Those are entry points into your potential. Life’s disappointments are opportunities. Rain-bearing clouds are never white; they are dark for a reason. The law of nature is difficult to comprehend.
When God prepares you to do something extraordinary, he begins with a difficulty. The Israelites were promised ‘land that flowed with honey and milk’ – yet they suffered for forty years in the wilderness to access and own the land. It took more than a thousand heartbreaks for Thomas Edison to invent a light bulb. Without the failures of Lisa, the NeXT computer and the ousting from Apple, Steve Jobs may not have built the resilience and insatiable relentlessness that defined his success and leadership legacy. The larger point, dear reader, is that when God plans to do something wonderful in your life, he begins with an impossibility. To prepare you for the treasure. For the reward. For the applause. Life presents us many opportunities, but we do not see them as such because they disguise themselves with and as difficulties. In life, you will meet barriers and sail rough seas on the way to your port of success. People will shout at you. Haters will haul stones at you. Critics will demean your efforts and achievements. Detractors will try to obliterate your legacy to short-circuit it from posterity. In the same way, Ceasar and Jesus were betrayed by their confidants, your colleagues will betray you and hand you over to adversaries to be crucified. Verily, I say unto you, take heart; that is the law of nature. Something splendid is cooking in the background.
Shape, sharpen, strategize, and position yourself purposefully for success. There is a reason marathon runners are lean. And there is a reason why pugilists are muscular. There is a reason you are who you are. Do not be awestruck by other people and try to imitate them. God created you in and with a certain form, shape, race, gender, weight, height, and personality, for a reason. Too many people make cemeteries of their formidable lives by burying their uniqueness. Growing up near a busy harbor, I learned a fundamental leadership lesson that big ships operate in the same way as great leaders [rather, great leaders operate in the same way as big ships]. They are exceedingly daring and resilient. Let me ask you a question - how daring and resilient are you?
You are sailing in a ‘ship,’ that is your life. The metaphor may sound scary or liberating depending on your level of daring about how you marshal this ship called ‘your life.’ If you know how to steer it, you will reach almost any destination or goal that you desire in life. Regrettably, if you don’t know how to steer it, you will linger in the safe harbor of the island of your life like the small ships, rafters, and dugout canoes in the story above.
Unfortunately, you and I have no life manual that explains how to operate our lives. We cruise along, comfortable with paucity, mediocrity, and deprivation. We are unprepared for the storms of life that sometimes keep us chained and locked in the harbor without venturing into the open sea of opportunities and abundance. Most of us keep returning to the safe harbor of our island every time we face nature’s curved balls, hardships, and adversities. Was it not Albert Einstein who reminded us that ‘. . . if we keep doing what we have always done, we will keep getting what we have always gotten.’ For the sake of respect, he courteously referred to it as insanity. Let me restate Einstein's point in simple terms – if we keep going where we are going in life, we will end up where we have been heading, not where we want to be.
My small piece of advice is that you can’t linger in the harbor any longer. The harbor gives you safety in the short term only, but regrets forever. Leave the harbor, sail in the deep seas, and face the storm. Take control of the ship called ‘your life.’ If you habitually keep returning to the safe harbor every time you face a storm in the open sea like the small ships in the story above, you will run out of fuel. My story, dear reader, is that once you have charted course, dared and navigated the rough deep sea, and steered the ship to your destination, you will reach a level of success that every soul walking the planet, today, will acknowledge and marvel at your daring and applaud you. In the process, you will inspire others, who will in turn keep the ripple going. You will create a movement of leaders. Your name will be etched in the book of the great ones. Is this not what great leadership is all about?
Lester Chinyang’anya ǀ General Manager - Operations ǀ Minet Malawi
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