The Sunday Mail
When things stop working, as they sometimes will, do not despair or run wild and complain to everyone who can lend an ear.
Never substitute aimless running with strategic execution. Prophecies of doom are not an entrepreneurial opportunity survey. Hopeless drifting is not strategy leadership. When things are not working out, as they sometimes do, take heart, the world has not yet come to an end.
Be bold and be determined, thoughtful and focused, fearful but unfazed.
Entrepreneurs fish in troubled waters. Calm waters are not for sailors but lunch-time cruise fanatics who will be back home soon. Troubled waters are a signal of opportunity, turbulence is a sign that you are in motion.
Always remember that no storm lasts forever and no winter is wearingly eternal. When the road ahead looks long, bleak and winding, do not stop driving if you have a worthy destination and dream. This is the nature of life and its journeys of enterprise. Sometimes the journeys are long, tiring and challenging. A winding road is still a road.
Never lose hope
Your faith in your vision is your greatest asset when hearts are shaken, wallets thin and minds perplexed. Keep hope alive, you will smile another day. Greatness is achievable and attainable. Never let mountains tempt you to abandon the journey.
When what was working perfectly in the past stops working, you know you have just entered a new phase, its time to think and work. What worked in the past will not always work forever. The past is overgrazed pasture.
Such is the nature of life
What worked as a child, may not work as an adult. What worked as a student, may not work in the world of work. What worked in the past, may not work in the future. What worked as an employee may not work as an employer.
When what was working stops working, you know that it is time to change course and tactics. Not all change will be productive, but without change there can be no sustained productivity.
You do not navigate the future zoomed into the rear-view mirror. Face forward. Do not remain camped in the past and keep hoping that the past is coming back.
When you learn how to cycle, you are advised to look ahead, not at your feet. The same is true with your present circumstances. Look ahead and not at what your feet are doing.
Blame trap
It is easy to blame and it is human to complain. Blaming and complaining are not a symptom of wisdom or evidence of analytic rigour or strategic insight.
Whoever and whatever you blame you empower to control and determine your misery. Stop pointing fingers unless you are illustrating the solution you are offering. Stop blaming unless you have a solution to offer.
Refuse to leave yourself powerless, clueless and energy-less by blaming. Refuse to think, talk or act like a victim or his relative. There is enough blame going around for you to want to join that lost train and fellowship around blame.
What this world is desperate for is answers, solutions and those who are willing to stand up and be counted. Finger pointing is a stone throwing exercise that is not comparable to bricklaying.
Your life will never rise beyond your level of blame and those to whom you attribute your misery. Your life can only change to the degree you are willing to take responsibility.
Until you swallow this bitter pill, you will continue to choke on mediocrity.
In hunting for greatness, the search for a scapegoat and easy path to success is the easiest of all hunting expeditions.
Hunt all you may for the blameworthy and pass all the blame to all you know, but that will never lift you into anything. Blame games solve little and move no-one forward. The greatness journey starts when you take responsibility.
Shifting blame is not strategy. In strategy you define what winning means, where you will play and how you will win. Challenge, adversity, turbulence are part of the territory of opportunity.
Blaming is usually the easy way out of responsibility. It is easy to blame your ancestry, shareholders, suppliers and sons.
Never forget that you are also an ancestor in the making. Extending the chain of blame is not bravery. It is easy to blame history and forget that what you are doing today is forging history. What is difficult is choosing to re-write history in new bold and different terms that you define.
Blame is the creed of the unmotivated, song of blind guides, chorus of complainers and religion of the stagnant.
Do not run
In most buildings, emergency notices often caution that in cases of fire “Walk, do not run.” I used to think that is contrary to the spirit of an emergency until I realised that running and panicking may lead to more danger.
Problems are not to be run from, but faced. In life, the shortcut usually ends up being a wild detour.
Is there a book entitled “Running away to greatness”? Alas, I am yet to find it.
Running away leaves you exhausted, fearful and lost. Seeking for safe spaces leaves you running from opportunity and shying away from growth. You cannot shrink your way to greatness.
You do not eat an elephant by running away from it. You eat it by confronting it, killing, skinning and then eating it one bite at a time. Choose to face your mountains and trouble your troubles. Sometimes they will be big, huge, fat and fearful.
Never let fear tempt you to run away. Stand in the heat for your purification. Stand the pressure for your hardening. Face the music in order to perfect your dance. Running away is not creativity or innovation. Obstacles, challenges and the unfamiliar are catalysts of creativity.
Listen to your problems; do not run away from them. Do not build walls or pretend that all is well. Acknowledge your emotions and disappointment but face your problems and solve them.
Wrestle with the proverbial stranger until day break and breakthrough. The pace may be dead slow but keep moving. Sometimes your challenges have a message you should hear, changes you should make and new paths you should walk.
Problems have voice, hear them. They have ears, speak to them.
Think differently
Many people are not held back by situations, balance sheets, sales or funding. The biggest drawback in any situation is your mindset – how you think and interpret what happens.
What’s happening in your mind is more important than anything else that is said to be happening. Unless you change your thinking, you will never change your vision, action or narrative.
Negative thinking blocks your imagination and switches off your creativity. Small thinking holds you hostage and breeds fear and insane action.
Change your thinking and you change your life. Eliminate your disempowering beliefs and limiting values. Rebel against negative social hypnosis and do not allow dejected vision-less people to programme you with negativity. Manage diligently the dialogue that is going on in your mind and organisation.
When you think that opportunity no longer exists, you start preparing for landing when there is space to fly. When you stop seeing possibilities, you start ignoring your own potential.
Look at what you are reading and the anatomy of your regular conversations. Instead of watching for signs of gloom and doom, read books and information that unshackles your thoughts and unhinges your creativity.
Your spirit is stronger than your challenges. In you lies great powers that if aroused would shock you and transform your life beyond recognition.
Refuse to imprison your mind through unbelief and poison your creativity and innovation through shallow thought streams.
The opportunities of today will not be there forever. What you let pass, while you run, will not always be waiting for you.
Think and dream of possibilities. Harness your power and unleash your greatness. Faith finds best expression when the unbelieving are hyperventilating in despondency and despair. Contrary winds make kites fly higher.
Stinging bees make sweet honey. Times of challenge allow giants to emerge and send pretenders scampering for safety. The best captains hold the reins in troubled times.
In easy times any fool will proclaim his bravery and expertise. It is in times of challenge that true entrepreneurs emerge. Business opportunity is most abundant when there are problems are biting and the environment is rough and tough. Your spirit is stronger than your situation and your mind is stronger than your challenges.
Be careful what you are crying for. Success without effort and challenge is either fake or fiction. Do not stop thinking.
Milton Kamwendo is an international transformational and inspirational speaker, author and coach. He is a strategy and innovation consultant and leadership coach and can be reached at [email protected] or WhatsApp number 0772422634
