Change Your World

Everyone one of us was born for a purpose. You are not a biological accident or a historical mishap. It was by divine foreknowledge and set purpose that you were born within that particular family at that particular time. It is for that reason why it is not braggadocios for you to claim that you were born to be great. You were born to create and fix things in your world. You were born to make a difference. God’s methods are men. You were sent to represent the agenda of your Maker in this world. Your point of greatness is your point of relevance. Some things must change in this world because you came. You represent a solution to the world around you because you were born for such a time as this.

Change Your World

Your world represents your family, community, neighbourhood, church, country, business or workplace. Purpose in your heart to do something wherever you are. It could even be planting a tree, adding something new to alter the landscape. Develop a new product, a new song for the choir, volunteer your time or knowledge or pray for your country. You cannot pass through a place and not leave a mark. When future generations come will they see any of your footsteps? Will they see monuments of success or ruins of failure? Beacons of hope or signposts of doom? Add value rather than destroy value. Your world must change because you were born for such a time as this.

Inspirational Dissatisfaction

Do not be content with the way things are. Instead of being despondent and negative, develop an inspirational dissatisfaction with the way things are. Develop a knack for progressive change. If things are bad, make them good, if they are good make them better, if they are better make them best. Instead of folding your hands in surrender, roll up your sleeves in defiance. Look at every challenge as an opportunity for you to be relevant. You make a difference when you develop inspirational dissatisfaction. Things must change because you were born for such a time as this to cause the change.

Generational Burden

The course of nations, politics, families, churches and businesses has been changed by individuals who developed a generational burden. Each generation receives the baton of responsibility. It is incumbent upon the current generation to continue the race. As we stand on the shoulders of previous generations, we have a responsibility to do better. When you develop a generational burden, you know the purpose of your generation and play your part. You need to have a burden to set certain things right in your generation. To perpetuate intergenerational weaknesses is irresponsible. If you inherited poverty from your father, your children must inherit wealth. Develop a burden to architect a new vision for your family, community, business and nation. Your generation must be the one to set up future generations for lasting success. You were born for such a time as this.

Not Under Your Watch

Once you receive the baton of generational responsibility there are things that must never happen under your watch. The company you are working for should grow because you are there. Your business should prosper under your watch. Your church should go to new levels under your watch. History must record that under your watch, family generational poverty was eradicated. It must be recorded under your watch, no more broken families. Under your watch you made the family name great. Under your watch you put the business on the map. Your generational legacy must be that you contributed to building a great nation. You were born for such a time as this.

Dare To Dream

We need a dream today. A dream of a place where people are not judged by which country they come from but what dream they have. People are not judged by who they vote for, but what they aspire for in their dreams. Many years ago, there was one young man. His name was Joseph. He “dreamed a dream” about himself being a great man. This dream did not please his brothers who conspired to kill him. Joseph was sold by his brothers into slavery not before being first thrown into a pit. His new masters took him to Egypt where he was a slave. While working as a Houseboy in the Governor’s house in Egypt, he worked so well, he was promoted to be the Director of State Residences.

After some time he ended up in prison after being falsely accused of attempted rape by the Madam of the house. In prison Joseph was so diligent he was promoted to be a “prefect” of the other prisoners. While a prisoner Joseph nurtured his special gift – he was dreamer. I imagine he would dream all sorts of nice things including seeing himself as somebody one day. He never wallowed in self pity or despondency. He kept on dreaming and even developed an uncanny ability to interpret dreams. All the fellow prisoners would come to him for “dream consultancy”. Talk about increasing your product range!

One day the President of Egypt (Pharaoh) had a worrisome dream. He needed interpretation. All his men of wisdom, clairvoyants, seers, soothsayers, and astrologers could not interpret the dream! It took, Joseph the prisoner to interpret the President’s dream! He managed to interpret the dream in social, political, economic and strategic terms. This man with a coat of many colours was truly amazing. That was his ticket out of prison to become a Prime Minister in a foreign land! Time will fail me if I talk about Daniel who was also in exile in Babylon, but used dreams to be promoted. Dreams work! Let me share some lessons from this story.

Lesson 1 – Dare to Dream

Woe to those who are at ease in life. The future belongs to those who dream. To make a difference in life you need to dream. A dream is a picture of your future. It is a preview of what lies ahead. It is the bridge to where you are going with your life.

Lesson 2 – A Dream Brings Opposition

The day you decide to be someone, is the day great opposition starts. The day Joseph said he was going to be a great man. His brothers hated him so much that they even conspired to kill him. Some of you, your dreams have even taken you to places and through processes you don’t like, but hold on to your dream. Your dream is more real, than reality!

Lesson 3 – Dreamers Walk Alone

The day you set to dream, you become an outcast. Joseph’s dream took him away from his own family and country of birth. You cannot be everything to everyone if you are going somewhere with your life. Dreams put you on different level than everyone else. Like an eagle you soar above everybody and everything else. Your dream becomes your company and your obsession.

Lesson 4 – Dreams Set Your Priorities

Joseph never flinched even in the face of great adversity. He had a dream to be a great man so he acted like one. When he was a Houseboy in the Governor’s house, he worked with diligence and excellence until he was promoted to be the Overseer of the Governor’s house (Director of State Residences). He did not let prison contain him. He imprisoned prison. He conquered prison by working hard and he was promoted to a Prison Prefect. His dream set the context of his priorities. When you have a dream you are like a woman carrying a baby in the womb. Your diet changes, your routine changes, your sleeping habits change.

Lesson 5 – Dreams Follow Due Process

Sustainable dreams follow due process. The longevity of your greatness is a factor of the process. If your dreams are microwave dreams, they are just a mirage and only last a short while. If your dreams go through a refiner’s fire, then they will last a whole legacy. Joseph earned his stripes whether in the pit, in the Governor’s house or in prison. If you gallivant at work and dream of promotion, please think again. If you are a briefcase businessman and just wheel and deal, be more serious otherwise you will remain a fly by night. A dream is found on rocky ground, anchored in due process and established by action.

Lesson 6 – Dreams Liberate

It doesn’t matter where you are today. Under tyranny, selfish employer, in exile or diaspora, financial mess, marriage prison, suffocating relationship? Start dreaming while you are there. Dream your way out. I am tempted to share about Martin Luther King. He had a dream. If you can conceive it, you can achieve it. A dream is what the eye of faith has seen in the land of hope ahead. Dream!

The Essence Of Leadership

The paradox of leadership is that it is one subject that is most discussed, but also least understood. Yet it’s a subject which affects our whole world. It is as pervasive as life itself, yet elusive. There are so many in positions of leadership. It is one thing to be in a position of leadership and quite another to exercise leadership. Leadership is one subject that is so abused, less than used. Where is our sense of leadership if 3 year olds are bashed because their parents support a particular party? Would billions of US dollars not be better spend feeding the millions in Africa who live on below 1 USD per day than on an endless war in Iraq? The import of this article is to provoke self introspection in whether we are exercising leadership where we are.

There are so many definitions of leadership. Oswald Sanders defines leadership as influence. It is not coercion or manipulation but the ability to get enthusiastic buy in to accomplish objectives or get results. One of the best definitions of leadership that I have ever come across is the one by Myles Munroe. He defines leadership as “the capacity to influence others through inspiration, motivated by passion, generated by a vision, produced by a conviction, ignited by a purpose”. What a loaded definition!

Affect Your Environment

Leadership does not reside in offices, it resides in people. The people who have affected our world the most have not been those who hold certain offices. It is common people who did common things to accomplish uncommon results. You do not need to have the money of Bill Gates to be a leader. Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu, better known as Mother Theresa had no money. All she had was inspiration, passion, a vision, conviction and some purpose for good measure. All she wanted to do was to help the poorest of the poor of Calcutta using love which is “a fruit in season at all times, and within reach of every hand”. Her philosophy was very simple – don’t wait for leaders, do it alone from person to person. She became a celebrated leader! Every one of us has the capacity to lead.

A Record, History or Legacy

What dream do you have in your heart today? Do you believe in that dream to a point of rebellion or stubbornness? There are three levels of influence in life. We all have a record, a history and a legacy. Those who coast through life neither affecting themselves or touching anything just leave a record. The second group is those who touch a life, start something, and make history. The last group are those who think and start something so BIG it can’t be accomplished in their lifetime, so BIG, it touches many people. This is where we all should aim to be – creating a legacy. A record will be deleted over time. History will be distorted with time. A legacy is eternal and incorruptible.

Be A Champion

There is a simple lesson in the example of Mother Theresa. She became a champion of the poor of Calcutta. The seeds of leadership are found in the one thing that you can do to meet the needs of others. Leadership is about being champions in your families, professions, communities, nations and the world. Secondly, the greatest leadership simply expresses who you are. There are causes which only YOU can champion. Lastly, you need to be driven by inspiration, motivated by a consuming passion, guided by a vision, anchored by conviction and fired by a purpose. This is the essence of leadership.

Time For A Makeover

A significant event happened on the weekend. The British Labour Party suffered its worst electoral defeat in 40 years. Make no mistake, the Labour Party is a great political party,– but have they transformed themselves to be in sync with the aspirations of their constituencies? The answer is in the ballot results. I would like to share some few points which I began to reflect upon.

Don’t Live In The Past

If you drive your car by looking in the rear view mirror you will soon crash. The mood of the hour in Britain was aptly captured by former Home Secretary David Blunkett who said: “We’ve got to get a grip and we’ve got to build on the progress we’ve made but we can’t rest on what we’ve done.” His point was very simple, the Labour Party has to stop living in the past, but to set an agenda for the hour. While the Labour Party was busy sharing about the old Labour victories, the Conservatives were quietly preaching a simple message – change. Change works! I would like to exhort you today to stop celebrating the past and look at a new agenda. Get a grip on your life today, set new milestones, new challenges and new adventures. Are you ready for today’s challenge? Instead of reminiscing on past victories reflect on future milestones.

Images of The Future

I am not very sentimental about the past, but I am fanatical about my future. I want to encourage you to do something practical today. Go and pull down those old photos which remind you of your past. Replace them with pictures of your future. What you keep looking at you become. This is the psychology of advertising – the more you look the more you want to buy it. In my bedroom, I have cuttings of the kind of house I would like to move into in the future pasted on the wall. I see it every night before I go to sleep, and every morning when I wake up. It is being formed in my spirit as I call it forth everyday. The same goes for my office – I have a cutting of the kind of office I would like to have. I like to surround myself with images of my future. This energizes my spirit and feeds my motivation. At a business level, the vision and mission are images of the future of your business. Where do you see your business in future? Live your life with images of your future surrounding you. As you do that destiny is birthed in your heart, and soon it will manifest in the physical.

Reinvent Yourself

A political party which holds on to an ideology for over forty years runs the risk of becoming irrelevant. I have just finished an article for the Black Business Quarterly (BBQ Magazine) where I am a columnist. I wrote, “The last decade has witnessed seismic changes in the business landscape. Old business maps, beacons, tools and processes are fast becoming redundant in the hurly burly of a globalised business environment” The point I was making is that businesses must be adoptive to change. Like a business you must be constantly repositioning, reengineering and if necessary rebranding yourself. The way you are positioned and the way you are branded (read my article on You Are A Brand) determines who sees you and what opportunities come your way. If you were a political party which tries to sell a 50 year ideology to an 18 year old, I bet that would be a hard sell. Time honoured notions of “this is how we do business” do not work anymore. Try time sensitive notions. Reinvent yourself for relevance.

Challenging Yourself

You need to visit a nice restaurant even if it means all you will order is water. It opens up your thinking. Last year I spent a weekend in the world renowned Michelangelo Towers Hotel with my wife (home was just 10 minutes away!). Boy, I felt like a king! It was a single experience, but life changing and life challenging. I am not a hotel junkie, but I certainly want to come to a point in life where I can afford that experience whenever I feel like it. There are certain faculties of your mind that are triggered by a different environment. Take a drive in a nice neighbourhood and check out the houses. Peradventure, you might be challenged. You cannot begin to change until you have been exposed to triggers of change. Go to that car dealership, test drive that German machine even if you know you don’t have the money. Just tell the car “One day I will drive you”. Challenge yourself by going to places where you think you do not belong. Peep, sneak, gatecrash…you are in the makeover process.