Enterprise lessons from a shepherd boy – 3

I heartily congratulate Dr. John Kayode Fayemi, Governor-elect of Ekiti State. Dr. Fayemi is one of Ekiti’s leading lights and a very brilliant mind whose capacity for leadership and pedigree of excellence are not in doubt. This being his second coming to the saddle in Ekiti, it is hoped that the lessons learnt from his ouster in 2014 and his exposure to governance at the federal level will combine to enable him deliver good governance, a commodity that is currently in dire need in Ekiti State. Back to our discourse.

When King Saul took a good look at the lad standing before him with the bombastic posturing and the elephant-size ambition of claiming Goliath’s head as a trophy, he must have felt that as a parent, he had to stop the young boy from making his parents mourn his premature demise. He, therefore, did all that he could to discourage David from pursuing what he (Saul) saw as certain path of perdition. If none of the skilled men of war was bold enough to confront the giant, what chance on earth did a teenager have?

Every dreamer will have his fair share of discouragers. All you need to do to have them is to have a big dream that is unprecedented. A leader must therefore be very careful who he submits his dream to for scrutiny and affirmation. Discouragers fall into various categories. Not every voice of discouragement is ill-intentioned. Many are well-meaning, sincere people who love you and care deeply about you and so believe that they need to stop you before you ‘self-destruct’ or make a big fool of yourself. They are sincerely concerned about your well-being and just don’t want to see you being “unreasonable”. Then there are those who feel threatened by the potential in your dream and so don’t want you to achieve that magnitude of success because it would expose their own mediocrity. Furthermore, there are those who just don’t like you and cannot stand your success. You don’t have to have offended them. The fact that you wake up daily and the very ground on which you walk make them sick! There are those who, no matter how well you describe it, don’t see what you see! The final category comprises those who may have ventured on a similar pursuit before and failed. So they have concluded that it is not possible. Never allow those who are fleeing from a problem tell you what to do or not to do to solve it!

The problem with many dreamers is that, due to reasons ranging from timidity to foppish veneration, they always allow those who don’t see what they see to determine what they do! When that happens, distraction is the result, a prelude to the burial of several visions.

• When Ooni dazzled in Brazil

A visionary leader must make up his mind about what instructs him; his dream or the environment. Great achievers are instructed by their vision and they learn to subordinate every other consideration to it. If you want to be a serious player in the game of destiny, keep your eyes on the ball, not the scoreboard.

Positive memories are always great weapons for confronting present challenges. Every one of us has a memory bank. In it we archive all our experiences, good or bad. This is why it is not always good advice when people tell you to forget your past. Every man’s story has chapters of victory as much as chapters of disappointments and failures. Ditto for any organization. When confronted with dilemmas in the present, achievers consult their memory bank for chapters of victories and achievements to provide fuel for present momentum and future achievement. For the leader, amnesia about the past must be deliberately selective. The past is not a prison but a school from which we draw lessons and inspiration. Even the chapters of errors and failures become strengths when the lessons are learnt and used. As David rehearsed the victories he had scored over a lion and a bear, he was emboldened to believe that the God who made those victories possible would do it again. With those two most dreaded animals as previous trophies, Goliath was not going to be to David, the world’s greatest challenge!

Opinions are like noses, everyone has them. When people see that they cannot discourage you from pursuing a goal, they are quick to offer words of advice on how to go forward. Some would even go as far as volunteering strategy that they consider to be fool-proof. Saul offered David his armour. Out of courtesy, David tried it on but soon discovered that rather than help his quest, it was going to be an albatross. He promptly declined using it. Successful leaders are not averse to ideas and suggestions from external sources. However, they learn to process every idea, suggestion or strategy with the eye of their desired outcome and would usually turn down a strategy or advice that they have not or cannot master. When people give you advice on a matter, they usually speak within the limits of their knowledge and expertise. Interrogate their own experience and benefits from their suggestions and strategies. If none of them has significantly worked for them, you can almost be certain that they would not work for you either. As the Yoruba would say, “When a man promises to furnish you with a wardrobe, take a good look at what he himself is putting on!” Be grateful for the input but always ask yourself if you can process and use those suggestions or offers. If you find them cumbersome, stick with what you have mastered and which has worked well for you. I am a PDIA Practitioner with a Harvard University certification. One of my Professors in the PDIA program made it very clear to us that no nation develops on a template that it cannot localize and domesticate. Genuine development must be home-grown and locally tested and operated. Even when ideas and technologies are adapted, they must be seen to suit the local milieu of operation. Failure to understand this is the reason why several World Bank and IMF economic prescriptions and blueprints which may have worked in certain structured environments usually fall flat when applied to other climes. Leaders must therefore always interrogate their peculiar circumstances vis-a-vis their desired outcome before settling on any imported strategy. Even if the strategy had worked for its proponents in time past, (Saul had won a few battles wearing that armour), are the circumstances then and now the same?

The fact that it previously worked for Saul is no guarantee that it would work for David. In the present circumstance, close contact with Goliath would have entailed using a spear or a sword. Compared to what the giant paraded in the name of those weapons, David or anyone else in Israel’s army at that time would have been dead meat in seconds!…

Remember, the sky is not your limit, God is!