I haven't written for over two weeks now. Well, my last piece was discredited by my brother. The content was a heavy tell all piece about my childhood life. He felt it was not appropriate for the family'...s brand irrespective of the truth in all of it. Oh well...that had to be canned.
Lately I have been meeting new and very powerful people from different industries: some of the people who I believe we all think they are perfect; these are potential coaches, mentors, trainers and to some degree I could actually name them idols. But what has been the greatest shock is how SOME people are bullies, power hungry and impossible to learn from or inspire. These can also be pessimists, cynics, critics, know-it-alls and other common jerk monsters who have a way of popping into our lives, debatable I agree. I at times think we let them.
After a tell-all telephonic conversation with my mentor I discovered a couple of things about him which drew me closer to my idea of strength and serenity. He believes in strength and repeatedly refers to his mistakes and what he draws out of them for a constructive evaluation. I believe this is the power of acknowledgement as opposed to denial in a world that isn’t perfect, where only positive energy can help you grow into greatness.
I took a little time to "research" about what negative energy does to you, besides over ruling your judgment and shadowing your resourcefulness. The preparation for success is to identify and protect yourself from all forms of negative energy. That's what you and I have be failing to do, identify the demon and crawl as far as possible.
Johnny N , a boxing and mental theorist says "Negative people are resisting, refusing, disagreeable, pessimistic, detrimental, destroying, and limiting."
These people don’t help you. They don’t make you stronger. Their number one goal is to SHUT YOU DOWN! And for no reason other than because they are negative. It has NOTHING to do with you; they just don’t enjoy life. Nothing is perfect, and their nature makes them react NEGATIVELY to everything.
Negative energy wears you out, takes the fun out of life, and kills all your dreams before they’re even given a chance. Negativity is that little voice that keeps saying, “You can’t, you suck, it’ll never happen.”
And WHY?! Why would anybody want that? How does this kind of thinking help ANYONE? How does negativity make anyone smarter, stronger, harder working, or luckier, or more likely to succeed? Why would we keep an idea lingering in our minds if it didn’t do anything for us? Negativity is useless and there’s no place for it in your life.
To further explain this I'd like to give you a scenario, this is a conversation which a friend of mine Mfezeko have actually debated on. The example is based on the social changes brought about by Universities merging in South Africa. Institutions such as Tshwane University of Technology placed the Communications, IT and Journalism departments in Soshanguve, a township in the North of Pretoria, where a cold day could be anything around 20 degrees, yes a cold day. Within these departments you can be confronted by an 18year old Sithembiso* aka Cee-Terms* , who studied at the larny Southdowns College and didn't have a good score to enroll at Tukkies for a degree and was faced with studying towards a N.Dip in his desired field. This is the well groomed gentleman, the man's man and a chick magnet. This guy did his research about the institution and fully understands the career path he is talking.
On the other hand you have a 22 year old Ramehlolo aka Mahlanyeng whose parents wouldn't take his nonsense and enrolled him for a year long certificate program because the campus is conveniently close to home and it would be easy to monitor him and keep him off the streets.
These are two completely different clients being hosted by one service provider. Please evaluate this situation and tell me what you make out of this, based on negativity.
There is surely a dreamer who is dedicated to completing his program and making a career out of his passion. On the other hand there is someone who has been forced to "keep busy" and maybe see the light.
The interaction between these two people will definitely have a conflict base. The positive energy projected by Sithembiso may be received as intimidation and being snobbish by the other. As messed up as the human mind is, the inferior person in this setting resorts to finding negatives in everything the other guy does and nails him down. The territory advantage also becomes a power tool used as "the snob can't do anything, this is my hood"... What do you think this energy could do to the guy with the passion?
I have an incident happening in my life and the negativity has got to a point where it throws me off. I'm tired of trying to impress (in this relationship) and earn faith and respect. Now I work towards shaming the enemy, but it is not fun. I can't even celebrate my own efforts because I bounce energy on revenge instead of the highly anticipated success.
I need to bring an end to this cycle. I refuse to be oppressed by someone who I obviously intimidate. I am young, intelligent and have a long road to success ahead of me.
If you have such a situation, either socially, academically, professionally or at home, I believe it is time you re-evaluate your attitude towards it because it is extremely damaging.
Think about it... Negative energy is the most awful form of energy but abnormally powerful because it taps on the unconscious part of your brain and stays longer. Let go of it...
Tuesday, 19 March 2013
Monday, 4 March 2013
Celebrating my friend: The Entrepreneur
"Our creatures are our thoughts," said the poet John Donn...e way back in the 1620s, and our thoughts "reach from east to west, from earth to heaven; that do not only bestride all the sea and land, but span the sun and firmament at once; my thoughts reach all, comprehend all."
The idea of entrepreneurship frightens me & throws me off because of all the risks involved; finances, emotional strains, mental growth as well as the most sought after - career development. There are many other factors that encourage a healthy businessman or a conscious brand. There are many things which we tend to commit to based on the economic and social structures we live in.
Often, when I engage in personal development arguments, I always emphasise on the individual point of references because I believe these play a major role in each and every person's goals as well as the patterns of the paths we take.
Just to paint a personal picture I will give you an idea of my ground of decision making. I was born to a family of five where I was my mother's last experience in labour. The head of our household was a traffic cop for about a decade & he eventually ventured into the buzzing transport business, without any decent educational background, he succeeded. Our home-maker was a clerk at the local High Court & a BA degree later became the Human Resources Officer of various government institutions. My siblings chose different paths and my late brother, the first of the kickball team shot into Electrical Engineering and broke all rules at his University by scooping all awards religiously and earning himself an amazing bursary; because of this I felt the pressure to push the bar higher for everyone, as the 5th team player and ventured into the health science field with the hope of becoming a plastic surgeon, that was a short-lived dream which never manifested itself into a lucrative deal.
With all that background given, I think you have the idea of a family I come from and that is what I call my original point of reference. There was no sense of ever wishing to start a business because with the network I was born in, it meant it was for people who didn't study nor had a career.
I made a complete U-turn and surrendered to the PR & Branding bug that had secretly been nudging me for as long as I can remember. A few years into the communications game I met someone with a stubborn personality and was hell bent on becoming an entrepreneur. It didn't make sense to me because I figured he didn't have to be at Varsity because I had seen someone succeed in business without even going through middle school.
We became very close friends (if not brothers) and no matter how hard I pushed him to invest in the corporate game, he didn't show interest, he just wanted to become a businessman, period. Here I was in a communications field with people who were totally relaxed and for most of the people I had met, winning was passing but not getting an A. Where I had been before, studying meant a maximum of three hours of sleep and at least three nights without any. We fought day and night over academics & making it to the finish line. The poor guy probably still regrets agreeing to move in with me in 2010 because I made his last year at varsity a nightmare. I pushed him from aiming to pass to being aroused by the idea of getting distinctions. I imposed.
Let me fast forward you to five years later, being now. The now that I am with a prestigious Design institution as a PR Manager and he on the other hand took risks and shot into entrepreneurship and owns a guest house in the humble Klerksdorp in the North West Province. Let this link tell you the story:
http://rumonline.co.za/young-entrepreneur-runs-qm-guesthouse-and-functions-venue/
As I read through the link I went down memory lane to my primary school principal who used to say to us "Whatever the human mind can think of can happen."
I couldn't understand his enmity towards everything about being part of the corporate game. However, I grew to understand what I had concluded to be laziness and it translated to passion and patience. I liked his confidence, arrogance and resistance to pressure. Today I believe his brain reaches where it pleases with ease. My point of references clearly didn't influence him as his was evidently as strong as instincts and dreams.
I am inspired, motivated and blown away by a formidable combination of perseverance and hard work. This also took me to one of the pieces I have read by Robert Krulwich who has a remarkable view on the Universe and the powers that are embodied by this
enormous space of energy.
In his own words "Speaking personally, I'm rooting for the universe. I don't need, don't want, don't like the idea of one day knowing all there is to know. I don't think we can. I think about Job, the bible's just and honest man, being lifted up high into the heavens so he can see all of God's creation and shrinking painfully away from the sight of "Things too wonderful for me." I'm not saying we shouldn't try. And even if we amplify our brains with powerful computers, my hunch is the universe will still outwit us, will still be "too wonderful" to be decoded, because we are, in the end, so much smaller than it is. And that's not a bad thing. To my mind, it's the search that matters, that sharpens us, gives us something noble to do."
After that; now I ask you a silly question, with respect (LOL), where is your head at? My mind is still in the corporate game, working towards becoming an MD of a media house (could be my own) at 28, a CEO at 33 and an editor of an international lifestyle magazine at 35. #LEGGO
*Dedicated to my friend - Lehlohonolo "Junior" Ntaopane. Well done!!
The idea of entrepreneurship frightens me & throws me off because of all the risks involved; finances, emotional strains, mental growth as well as the most sought after - career development. There are many other factors that encourage a healthy businessman or a conscious brand. There are many things which we tend to commit to based on the economic and social structures we live in.
Often, when I engage in personal development arguments, I always emphasise on the individual point of references because I believe these play a major role in each and every person's goals as well as the patterns of the paths we take.
Just to paint a personal picture I will give you an idea of my ground of decision making. I was born to a family of five where I was my mother's last experience in labour. The head of our household was a traffic cop for about a decade & he eventually ventured into the buzzing transport business, without any decent educational background, he succeeded. Our home-maker was a clerk at the local High Court & a BA degree later became the Human Resources Officer of various government institutions. My siblings chose different paths and my late brother, the first of the kickball team shot into Electrical Engineering and broke all rules at his University by scooping all awards religiously and earning himself an amazing bursary; because of this I felt the pressure to push the bar higher for everyone, as the 5th team player and ventured into the health science field with the hope of becoming a plastic surgeon, that was a short-lived dream which never manifested itself into a lucrative deal.
With all that background given, I think you have the idea of a family I come from and that is what I call my original point of reference. There was no sense of ever wishing to start a business because with the network I was born in, it meant it was for people who didn't study nor had a career.
I made a complete U-turn and surrendered to the PR & Branding bug that had secretly been nudging me for as long as I can remember. A few years into the communications game I met someone with a stubborn personality and was hell bent on becoming an entrepreneur. It didn't make sense to me because I figured he didn't have to be at Varsity because I had seen someone succeed in business without even going through middle school.
We became very close friends (if not brothers) and no matter how hard I pushed him to invest in the corporate game, he didn't show interest, he just wanted to become a businessman, period. Here I was in a communications field with people who were totally relaxed and for most of the people I had met, winning was passing but not getting an A. Where I had been before, studying meant a maximum of three hours of sleep and at least three nights without any. We fought day and night over academics & making it to the finish line. The poor guy probably still regrets agreeing to move in with me in 2010 because I made his last year at varsity a nightmare. I pushed him from aiming to pass to being aroused by the idea of getting distinctions. I imposed.
Let me fast forward you to five years later, being now. The now that I am with a prestigious Design institution as a PR Manager and he on the other hand took risks and shot into entrepreneurship and owns a guest house in the humble Klerksdorp in the North West Province. Let this link tell you the story:
http://rumonline.co.za/young-entrepreneur-runs-qm-guesthouse-and-functions-venue/
As I read through the link I went down memory lane to my primary school principal who used to say to us "Whatever the human mind can think of can happen."
I couldn't understand his enmity towards everything about being part of the corporate game. However, I grew to understand what I had concluded to be laziness and it translated to passion and patience. I liked his confidence, arrogance and resistance to pressure. Today I believe his brain reaches where it pleases with ease. My point of references clearly didn't influence him as his was evidently as strong as instincts and dreams.
I am inspired, motivated and blown away by a formidable combination of perseverance and hard work. This also took me to one of the pieces I have read by Robert Krulwich who has a remarkable view on the Universe and the powers that are embodied by this
enormous space of energy.
In his own words "Speaking personally, I'm rooting for the universe. I don't need, don't want, don't like the idea of one day knowing all there is to know. I don't think we can. I think about Job, the bible's just and honest man, being lifted up high into the heavens so he can see all of God's creation and shrinking painfully away from the sight of "Things too wonderful for me." I'm not saying we shouldn't try. And even if we amplify our brains with powerful computers, my hunch is the universe will still outwit us, will still be "too wonderful" to be decoded, because we are, in the end, so much smaller than it is. And that's not a bad thing. To my mind, it's the search that matters, that sharpens us, gives us something noble to do."
After that; now I ask you a silly question, with respect (LOL), where is your head at? My mind is still in the corporate game, working towards becoming an MD of a media house (could be my own) at 28, a CEO at 33 and an editor of an international lifestyle magazine at 35. #LEGGO
*Dedicated to my friend - Lehlohonolo "Junior" Ntaopane. Well done!!
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