TEN years ago in 1997, the government of Zimbabwe gave veterans of the liberation war, one off sums of ZW$50 000 each (to give you some perspective a recent graduate earned $3 500 per month in 1998). Therefore $50 000 was a tidy sum, back then in any currency.
My nephews Boaz and John also got this amount. We all celebrated it, because we felt it was recognition long over due. But alas, if only we knew we would lose both of them within a few years after that, we would have turned away this money. They went wild, changing women, deserted their families and went on a drinking binge. In short they completely lost it.
Their story is one of the many. Some went and bought cabbages for their cattle while others bought wrist watches for their dogs. A few hired metered cabs (taxis) on journeys that could best be served by buses.
Why? Why? Why?
They had not developed the mind to handle $50 000. It was better to give them $10, because this was familiar territory for them! This explains why some people whenever they get a lump sum, they spend it until they get to their normal threshold, and then they come back to their senses. If they get $1 million today, and their normal threshold is $200 000, they will blow the $800 000 until the ‘demon’ goes away, then their heart starts beating normally again.
It is a mindset. $50 000 could have started a business, or invested in stocks, or even build a house. It was literally thrown away. Poverty is therefore not the absence of resources, but the absence of a resourceful mind. Resources can never be a substitute of what we do not have mentally. You become poor twice, first in your mind, then in reality.
The Wealthy Paradigm
I like thinking big. If you’re going to be thinking anything, you might as well think big – Donald Trump
Donald Trump is an American billionaire. In 1990 Trump was forced into bankruptcy over USD$2 billion worth of loans that he could no longer afford to pay. He basically lost everything that he had. He was in the negative to an extent the war veteran with $50 000 was richer.
However, within 2 years Trump had made a rebound. He was a billionaire again. How did he do it? He had a wealth mindset. He was thinking from a different paradigm. Trump never stopped believing that he was rich. He would tell himself and everybody who cared to listen that “I’m the biggest developer in the hottest city in the world.” No one today will doubt that Trump is big in property in New York City. He had it in his mind, before it was manifested in reality.
You become a billionaire twice – first in your mind then, secondly in the bank.
To be wealthy is not reflected in the state of your material resources. It is a state of mind. The presence of lots of material resources does not indicate wealth. How many people got free farms in Zimbabwe? How many have been successful farmers? Why has Zimbabwe gone so hungry, yet land is in the hands of many? The poor are not made rich, by pampering them with resources; they are made rich by changing their minds.
Thomas Edison (electric bulb inventor) had only 3 months of formal schooling, yet he is the greatest inventor who ever lived. He was operating from a different paradigm – a position of abundance than deficiency! Think wealthy and become wealthy. Think poor and you remain poor. It sounds simple, but it is indeed that simple. I have always said that it is better to see yourself as a rich man discovering your wealth than a poor man trying to be rich. It makes a big difference.
Mind Matters
In the foregoing we have settled the fact that poverty and wealth are all the result of the mind. Why am I sharing this with you? It is because I want you all to be a people of means and substance who can make a difference to their generation.
One of the things which the West and the advocates of Afropessimism have done to Africa is to engage Africa at a physical level – resources. Africa has been reduced to a subject about poverty, war, disease, bad governance, etc. They even have a Poverty Conference for Africa. O mon Dieu!
Every conference is about the bad. Is it not time that we also have a conference about the good that can come out of Africa? There is need for a new agenda for Africa – changing the mindset of Africa. That is the import of this article. Our minds need to change. Big offices, cars, houses, do not necessarily makes us big people. Making a difference in life can be more serious than that. The reason why time and place cannot affect our success is because the success triggers all come from the mind than our environment. The mind is made up of six elements – EGO, EMOTIONS, IMAGINATION, REASON, CONSCIENCE and MEMORY.
Embracing New Paradigms
“…be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind…” – Romans 12:2
To be steeped in tradition is death. To live in the past is mortal. To hold on to old paradigms is fatal. A religion that does not change people’s minds is a cult, creates robots and leads to doom. Progressive societies and individuals embrace change. The renewing of the mind means the continual refining of thought patterns and processes. It means being born again, a renaissance.
I have worked in the Information Communication and Technology (ICT) industry all my life, and I know that investment in IT systems (hardware and software) is both a strategic and competitive imperative. For example the old telecom model of fixed lines is faced with extinction, with convergence even cellular companies have to change their mindset and move into broadband. The ICT industry is the caricature of the ever changing dynamics which as human beings we find ourselves in everyday.
If your mind is stagnated in yesterday’s paradigm you become obsolete. Your mind, like a computer needs to have continuous “software” updates. Your knowledge repository needs to be constantly updated so you have a complete and functional database. Once in a while, it is even better to change the whole operating system. This means embracing new paradigms, new thinking and exploring new possibilities.
ThePhronesisof Success
The embracing of new paradigms is about thinking differently. You are transformed into a new being. Whereas you used to think defeated, weak, beggarly, sickly, poor, downcast, you need to come to a place where you draw a line. Enough is enough!
Aristotle, one of the greatest philosophers of all time distinguishes between two intellectual virtues: sophia and phronesis. Sophia (Greek for “wisdom”) is the ability to think well about the nature of the world, and is used in our attempts to discover why the world is the way it is. Phronesis is the ability to think about how and why you should act in order to change things, and especially to change your lives for the best. To come to that place, you need to control the six elements of your brain which are:
1. Your ego
This is the source of willpower. It acts as the ultimate judge, with the power to modify, reverse, change or remove the work of all the other elements of the brain. This critical part of your brain needs to be controlled. Your ego can stand for anything you value from sickness and poverty to your greatest desires. Your ego can be weak and timid or over inflated. Your ego and self esteem go hand in hand. Do not let anyone or anything pollute it with thoughts of fear and worry through negative comments. If you are in Zimbabwe, you should never allow the restrictive social and political environment deflate your ego. If you are in the Diaspora, don’t play second fiddle because you are from “burning Zimbabwe”. No a thousand times no – YOU are much bigger than that.
2. Your emotions
The second element you need to control is emotions. I sleep peacefully everyday because I do not worry or fret over problems I cannot solve. No money in the bank, or no food in the fridge, work or car problems, I still sleep easy! In life there are two problems: one you can solve and one you cannot solve. The ones you can solve get on to solve them immediately. The ones you cannot solve shunt them to a sea of forgetfulness. Our upbringing has conditioned us to think that worrying over problems is responsibility. It’s not. When you worry you attract negative energy. It destroys your creative force, undermines your initiative, disturbs your faculty of reasoning and confuses your whole brain. To be successful, you need the self discipline of closing the door on fear and worry and open the doors of faith and hope. It is this character that makes you look cool like a cucumber even when challenges heat up in your life. Create an atmosphere of success in your life.
3. Your reason
If the ego is the supreme judge, your reason is the judge of appeal, who deals with routine judgments. It is the master of opinions and judgments. This part of your mind is the one that teaches you to be circumspect, to be rational and make decisions which are sound. This is the reason why even when political temperatures rise, we need to speak words seasoned with grace.
4. Your imagination
This is the wellspring of ideas. All creative effort is birthed in this part of the brain. Your imagination should be aligned to your purpose, and not fantasies like winning the lotto. The wildest of ideas that have ever happened in the world originate from imagination. Think about Walt Disney. He imagined a theme park, where children would be playing while parents are laughing. This led to the birth of Disneyland. You cultivate this faculty by challenging things, questioning things, possibility thinking and seeking out things. In a war zone, social or political quandary, financial quagmire – imagine your way out! The challenges faced by Zimbabwe require uncommon imagination.
5. Your conscience
This is the moral voice of all your actions and thoughts. If you listen to this voice and take its counsel, you will forever be esteemed and have a sense of self honour too. When you sear your conscience you with a hot iron, it becomes dead. Success without a conscience is like a whitewashed tomb – glorious on the outside, but empty inside. This week I read that global warming has become a real threat to the world. Years of decadent and irresponsible success especially in the West is now causing serious unintended consequences. Don’t kill, steal, lie, bribe or buy your way to success. What is the point of winning a battle if you gonna lose the war?
6. Your memory
One of the reasons why many people fail to move forward is because they are living in the past. You find a grown up man still grieving over a father they lost when they were still a young boy. Or you are still brooding over that lost opportunity, failed relationship, and divorce, lost business or job. Delete it from your memory – you are wasting space for good memories. Yes you can learn lessons from those past experiences, but going back to them takes you nowhere. However positive memories are anchors for success, so cherish them.
READER OPINIONS
n/a • n/a Subject: n/a Mon, 17 Mar 2008 17:52:10 • What happened to your column this week? I was looking forward to it bro.
n/a • n/a Subject: summary Sat, 08 Mar 2008 03:34:03 • You obviously skived off school when they were teaching others about summarising!
n/a • n/a Subject: n/a Sat, 08 Mar 2008 01:23:51 • Didn't you learn about summary writing at school?
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