Unlimited Possibilities

To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment – Ralph Waldo Emerson

I conducted a workshop at a client last week. At this client site you can only gain access into and around the building using finger print ID technology. If your finger prints are not recognised by the system, then you can’t move around on your own. On this particular day I was at my adventurous best and decided to take an unguided tour. I went through the first door by tagging along with someone whose fingerprint was in the system. That is as far as I went because he was going to another part in the building. I tried to place my fingerprint on the access panel and a red light flashed. Access denied. It then dawned on me that I was stuck. I tried all my fingers, and even spoke the heavenly language. Still access denied. I stayed there for a good ten minutes before an escort came to ‘set me free’.  I was then given a guided tour and even ended up speaking to one good Doctor in Aeronautics who will organise for me to take some flying lessons.

As I drove home, I began to reflect on this experience. I imagined how in life we try to open the right doors with the wrong keys and vice versa. I thought about how we make things difficult for ourselves instead of getting the right people to open doors for us. I will share the lessons from this self reflection.

You Are The Key

In a world with billions of people, no one catch match your fingerprints. That is how unique and special you are. It means there you are the unique key to certain opportunities in this world. The world is full of doors of possibilities but unless you unlock them with your uniqueness, they will remain closed. You need to discover who you are and begin to create solutions to humanity’s needs around your uniqueness.

You are fearfully and wonderfully made. The Creator took His time and great care to wire you up to deliver something special to this world. You are a special package containing goodies of greatness for delivery to humanity. Keys are made to size and shape. Don’t try to do everything, if the Creator wanted us to be a master key, He would have made us all the same. Your strengths, personality, size, shape, height, skills and passions make you just the right person to do something in this world which only you can do it.

Get To The Right Door

As I set about to check out this client premises I had no idea where I was going to. It was just the sense of adventure that got me going. The lesson from this is that sometimes in life people set out to do things without any aim. The result is they find themselves stuck. You end going to the wrong doors, expend your energy and your time. This can be easily addressed by sitting down and coming up with a purpose and vision of what you want to do in life. There are stories of people who are in the wrong profession, wrong business and wrong relationship. Why? They probably knocked on the wrong door. To unlock possibilities you need to go to the right door. If you are going to wrong door you are like a knife trying to be a saw – you limit your possibilities.

Find An Escort

If there are doors of opportunity which only you can open, it means there are some which only other people can open. I took an unguided tour without an escort and spend a frustrating ten minutes stuck. This is what happens when you don’t get someone else with the key to unlock possibilities for you. It can be a whole lifetime of frustration. That job from hell. That business which is giving you sleepless nights. Use your networks, colleagues, friends, professionals, a coach or a mentor to help unlock doors for you.

Every opportunity is just one person away; you just need to know who that person is. My escort at this company took me to this good Doctor who will now help me realise my lifelong dream of flying a plane. What could have been an aimless walkabout or tour became an opportunity. Unlocking possibilities! Yes you can…

Authentic Personal Branding

‘We attain the greatest success and happiness possible in this life when we use our native capacities to their greatest extent’ – Dr Blanton

I have a Gucci suit which I bought for a tidy US dollar sum. One day I saw a colleague wearing the same ‘Gucci’ suit. I made a comment about how the suit was a nice Gucci, and that I owned exactly the same suit. He just laughed and opened the inside of the suit to reveal the suit label. Alas it was a ‘fong kong’ or a ‘zhing zhong’. It had all the appearance of a Gucci suit but was not the real thing. On a closer look, the inside lining was already torn, and the outside material had bubbles betraying every pretence of being a Gucci.

Ok, ok let me play the bad guy, lest you lose the lesson because you think I am being self conceited. My brother in law recently got a birthday present of an Arsenal football club jersey bought straight from the Emirates Stadium in the UK. It has the look and feel of an authentic Arsenal jersey…sweat absorption, aerodynamic texture…all the bells and whistles. I also have a Chelsea club jersey bought from ‘downtown’. Each time I have worn this jersey, my 3 year old daughter Zoe, always says, ‘Dad everyone will laugh at you’. I don’t know what she saw in that jersey, but I have now restricted wearing that jersey to the indoors following her ‘daughterly’ advice.

What are the lessons? Your personal brand is pretty much like a product. If you are not authentic, when people take a closer look, they will see the torn lining, bubbles, warts and all. Let’s dig deeper into this.

Personal Branding

Personal Branding is a way of clarifying or communicating what makes you different and special. It is an understanding of your unique attributes namely your passions, strengths, values and skills. It is about what makes you ‘younique’. It is more than a logo, a tagline, airbrushing or a spin job but a unique promise of the value you were born to add to this world. Those attributes which make you fit to execute your special assignment in this world. Your personal brand cannot be separated from what makes you unique – your strengths, skills, passions and values. You cannot fake these attributes otherwise you will soon be exposed as not being authentic. Understanding your personal brand helps you define the direction which your life must take professionally or in business.

You Are The Real Thing

Purpose authenticates your brand. Your purpose is linked to your wiring (passions, values, skills and strengths). Passion for your purpose comes when you are exceedingly motivated by your work because you have faith in its inherent worth, and you can apply your capabilities to utmost effect. Personal branding is permission to be your authentic self. A secure identity is the foundation for developing a strong and authentic personal brand. The best brands simply express who they are. Coca Cola is ‘brrrrrrrrr’ wherever you are…it will always be Coca Cola. Like Coke, be driven by your unique attributes. Do not try to be another Mother Theresa, Jack Welch, Branson, Motsepe, Dr King Jr, Masiyiwa, Mandela or Oprah. The world needs fresh inspiration from you. You are robbing the world of the next biggest thing after Obama by sitting on your immense gifting.

Generational Personal Branding

There is nothing inspirational about being the ‘ex-powerhouse, former top leader, once a democrat et.c. I know of leaders in different spheres from my hometown who are now a former shadow of themselves. What went wrong? They failed the generational branding test. If your personal brand will die within one generation, then it is not an authentic brand. Generation is made up of two words gene and ration which literally means spreading or rationing your genes over time. An authentic brand is able to be reproduced and spread over many generations. You were born when Coca Cola was around, and I have no doubt that your grandchildren will still drink Coke. Now that is an authentic brand.

Success is not about ‘having’ but about ‘being’. Greatness is not measured by what you have, but by what you give. You give by investing in your personality, so that you become so great that many aspire to your inspiration. ‘Being’ means becoming what you must be and maximizing your full potential. Invest in your strengths, skills, passions and values so that you can positively influence those in your sphere of influence. One day future generations must be able to celebrate your personal brand, stand on your shoulders see greater possibilities ahead and be inspired to open new frontiers for the next generation.

Unbreakable Spirit

It is not the strongest of the species that survive, nor the most intelligent, but the most responsive to change — Charles Darwin

I recently travelled to Zimbabwe. I marveled at the level of resilience of the folks I met. In particular a relative narrated how he was beaten in the post 29 March hostilities. He shared how he struggled with the serious hunger that ravaged Zimbabwe last year. He was earning less than 30 US cents per day as a porter and has a wife and four children.  As if that was not enough, he almost died from cholera at the height of the epidemic late last year. This is a lot to happen to anybody in any part of the world.

There is something which I found striking about him – he laughed about the experiences and demonstrated a readiness to reclaim his life. One word explains his spirit – RESILIENCE! None of these experiences broke his spirit. He has bounced back from a time of severe challenges. After my chat with him, I was refreshed than depressed. He is the symbol of the resilience of many in Zimbabwe who have experienced more than 10 years of extremely difficult conditions but have not given up on their dreams. You need to develop this unbreakable spirit in order to overcome any challenges on your voyage to greatness.

Resilience

The word resilience comes from the Latin word resile which means to leap back. Resilience is the ability to recover from or adjust easily to misfortune or change. It is also the capability of a strained body to recover its size and shape – to bounce back – after being subjected to adversity or stress. If you subject a spring or a stress ball to pressure it will come back to its original size and form. If you have resilience it means when you are subjected to pressure or adversity you do not lose your orientation or focus.

Resilience is a combination of faith, love and hope. The faith to see your dreams in the land of hope far ahead. The love to pursue your dreams with the passion of a zealot, and a readiness to sacrifice without complaining.

Dimensions of Resilience

1. Self-Assurance

You need to view the world as complex and challenging but filled with opportunity. Hold a positive self-perception and self regard. Be confident in your ability to meet any challenge with hope and realistic optimism.

2. Personal Vision/Purpose

You must have certainty of what you believe in. It must be something to live for and if necessary to die for. Have a clear vision of what you want to accomplish/achieve. Approach adversity and stress with a sense of hope. Belief and purpose carries you forward in life. With no vision you are like a cork floating in water…you will go anywhere, or a ship on dry ground, you will go nowhere.

3. Flexible/Adaptable

“Blessed are the flexible, for they shall not be bent out of shape” – Dr Michael McGriffy

Flexibility is about being aware of and sensitive to changes in the environment. In business we talk of operational agility. It is the ability to shift gears in response to what is happening. Remain true to your purpose/vision while making room for other ideas and opportunities. The giant oak which does not bend when the wind comes is uprooted. It must learn from the grass which survives the wind because it knows how to bend.

4. Organized

You need to create structures and methods to bring order and stability on your own terms. Set realistic goals for yourself. Manage the stormy moments with calm and clarity of purpose. The best way to deal with times of uncertainty and great difficulty is to be organized. Organising brings certainty to uncertainty.

5. Problem Solver

Think critically and reflectively. View impossible problems as challenges and opportunities for learning and growth. Anticipate setbacks and missteps. Solve problems for the long long-term. View failures as opportunities for inspiration to do better.

Never allow anything to break your spirit. Even 27 years in jail would not break Nelson Mandela’s spirit. This is the power of resilience. I could share about Viktor Frankl in Nazi camps or how President Jacob Zuma bounced back from the political wilderness to win convincingly. The measure of a man is the way he bears up under misfortune. No one sees your courage in the sunshine. It takes difficulty and darkness to prove bravery

Resilience is the shield which protects your dreams from the fiery darts of adversity!