Redefining Success

So I happen to be preparing this update on a Saturday and not the Friday. Some would be wondering why that is the case. Reminder. I am a student, and sometimes school can get on my neck.

In as much as school can get on my neck, I still get to have contact with the outside world. Probably due to my philia for the so called social networks where I have connected with people from all walks of life and liked (I guess followed would be the right word) all the online news pages, good and bad, partisan and non-partisan alike. That works for me because it makes me find all the relevant updates in one place. Updates on events, news, scandals (woe to him who broadcasts), ideologies and everything else there is to know. Good stuff.

There has been an interesting evolution in social network traffic among Malawian young people (in case some of you did not notice). Nowadays people are posting in terms of prosperity, poverty reduction, entrepreneurship, job creation, generational thinking and above that success. Of course we should also point out that some have been left behind and are still talking about swag, beer, drinks and parties. Hopefully they will join the other group.

Honestly saying, I like this whole evolutionary change in the mindsets of young Malawians. It gives me hope that I will see things work right here in Malawi in my lifetime, hope of which I had lost the moment I realized how things work in Malawi. Our minds are being turned around and oscillating at wavelengths of positivity and while some are just talking without doing anything others are on the ground working things out and producing results. Again, a good thing for those producing results.

So…

Here we are. We have a verbal positive change around us. Of the things that I have noted people to be talking about, one thing that has caught my interest is the issue of success which I think is being grossly “misdefined” in the modern day. For us to understand this whole phenomenon, I guess I have to take you through the origin of the messages that are coming through to the young people and causing this wave of change. 

Of late, there are some generous people who felt like it would be good if they shared the knowledge they have with others. The very knowledge that propelled them to the level they are. It is not a bad thing to think of it. In fact it is good. The interesting thing is that when these coaches get into training people, they share a lot of insights about how what they are teaching transformed their lives. Again, great things. Not a good thing to teach things you are not practicing. On the other hand, this has become a problem because it has, to some extent, narrowed the definition of success to the many young people out there.

The logic here is simple. If someone is in business, for example, and comes to tell you about success citing examples from his own life, you would turn towards thinking that the definition of success is having a successful business. That is pretty much the same story in academics, spirituality and pretty much any other thing you can think of.

What I have noted of late is that nowadays there is the gospel of entrepreneurship that is being preached around. Bad thing? NO! (My classmate, Jane once told me that there is such a thing called a big, fat, NO. This is the one). Toxic? Maybe.

I have heard of stories from a lot of notable people, some of whom are my friends, about how entrepreneurship turned their lives around moneywise. People would tell you how they are able to employ a certain number of people, and that is absolute success. What most of the young people are forgetting, on the other hand nowadays is that success includes but is not limited to stuff like entrepreneurship and job creation. 

You probably have figured out what the next paragraph is all about, and yes; you were right if you thought I wanted to advocate on the acceptance of diversity. Not all of us would go down into the books as employers and entrepreneurs. In fact some of us would have to work for someone or some entity and there is no inferiority in being an employee. For some reason some people have instilled into us this mindset that we don’t have to work for anyone but to have people working for us. I, to some extent, find that wrong and I will always say this that there is nothing wrong in being an employee.

Correct definition for success? In my view, success should be about the constant of achievement of preset and realistic and personalized goals in one’s life. The goals should include but should not be limited to financial success. They in fact must include a financial element. Tamvana? On the other hand, what we have to know is that there is a life outside finances. We need good families out there. Most of the readers I know are theistic (I recommend conversion if you are an atheist) so religious goals come into play too. There is also need for thinking about academic progress and those of you who are leaders need to also think about where you want to go with leadership. I shouldn’t forget about reproductive goals. Very important. 

Outroduction? In as much as we need to succeed financially (not only for ourselves, but also for our children) we don’t need to limit the definition of success to finances. There is more to it than that. The fact that we have role models who teach us the route to success does not mean we should limit our scope of thinking to theirs. It is important to get the principles of their thought process but not their very thoughts because chances are that they never read a book or got training under a coach to achieve what they achieved. 

There is a popular saying that if you don’t pursue your dreams someone else will hire you to help them pursue theirs. The popular interpretation of this entails that being employed by someone means inferiority. I could be so for someone who narrows the definition of success to financial gains. For someone who thinks in terms of making impact, it is a different story. There are some dreams worth fulfilment and if people have them they just need to be supported. Nothing wrong with that.

Young man! Young lady! You are part of the golden generation in this nation. Thank you for joining the club of positive thinkers, but for now it is high time you made your personal definition of success.

Consider this an epistle.

Richie.

On the Thing Called "Risk Taking"

It has been a busy and interesting week. Most of my friends (like Mikoyan) from whose thoughts I derive my articles were nowhere to be seen as they were busy preparing for examinations (Wait! I was also writing mine). Had no chat to talk about which forced me to go back two years, 5 months and 16 days back.


That exact date was a memorable day because it was my 20th birthday. For the first time I had two parties or something that looked like it and I loved that so much.


I will not get into the details on the parties but I would like to say something about the advice one Kabambo Kalombola (we used to call him Alfred then) gave me. I have forgotten the actual words he said that time, but what he was saying was sort of advocating for the "screw it, let's do it" kind of life, if I am to borrow Sir Richard Branson's language.


In his words, he had observed that I am the sort of person who calculates every move I want to make to the end before executing. He also observed that every moment I saw an anticipated danger to any plan that could halt its completion, I would leave the project, important as it may be. Maybe most of that was taking reference to my reserved attitude to relationships. Gone now.


The point? He revealed to me a description that I have by word. I used to do that without giving much thought to it. After he said it, I got to give it a serious thought and perfect the art of fact-based foresight. It's amazing how an advocate of something I have never and will never agree with was able to help me perfect the opposite in me.


I did not need to read any book for me to be like this. I was born in the month of May, which makes my sign Taurus and in the year of the Rooster in the Chinese Zodiak for those of you who believe in that sort of thing. It might be the thing that explains my prudence for you. In my own right, I think it is my upbringing that has made me "overly careful" as dear Kabambo ( who is too much of a risk taker) pointed out.


If you try to think of the benefit of the when thing, here is the philosophy behind it.


You need to do an assessment of anything and as you do that you need to have a goal in mind. When you have the goal you need to map out all the possible ways or processes to it. By this you also need to think of who will be involved and how they will affect the achievement of the goal; the sort of people they call stakeholders in the corporate world.


The point of doing this assessment is to see whether what you are up to is feasible or not. If it is and you see no possible hiccups in the way, you go for it. If you see that there will certainly be something between you and your goal, that is where you need to make a critical decision. It is just that you either abandon the project completely or try to fix the potential problem before you hit the road. The former is what dear Kabambo faulted me with. To be honest I like working in comfort zones so I don't like cracking my head with fixing issues when I have an easy way which is called abandoning ship. Not something you have to learn from me, anyway. We are different and some of these things are done looking at the benefits of the ventures. The rule is to never fight losing battles, for those of you that missed that one.


Now here is where the feasiblity analysis gets interesting. It is not always in black and white and as simple as feasible and not feasible. There will be some times that after factoring everything out you might just end up with an ambiguous result; not knowing whether you will succeed or not. Some of you might be able to identify with this sort of situation. There is no single way of handling this situation.


There might be some time that you might just have to get to it and deal with circumstances as you go along. Ray Bradbury once said that sometimes we just have to jump out of the window and grow wings on the way down. The sort of thing called risk taking.


Risk taking. Now this is the sort of thing that people have grossly misunderstood over the times. If you were to ask me about risk taking based on the analysis I just shared, I would think of only one situation as one that calls for risk taking.


When you are sure that something will work, fine and good. You do not need to take any risk. On the extreme end, when you know there is a clear hiccup that cannot be fixed, you do not need to go for it because that is stupidity as opposed to risk taking.


Risk taking is the sort of thing you do in a 50-50 situation and it is about venturing into the unknown.


Some might think I might be advocating for the sort of lazy and "in-the-comfort-zone" life I live and love to stay in. Far from the point. On the other hand, I am just trying to draw the line between risk taking and the other close thing people mistake it for; and it is called carelessness.


I could write some more paragraphs on this, but I guess reaching this far you have gotten the sense of what I wanted to communicate. Like I pointed out, even Jesus himself once talked about making a calculation of costs before we start building a house. I guess that could be another one to draw a lesson from, otherwise not all we call risk taking deserves to be called that.


That being said, I should also say that not all risks are worth taking. Topic for another day,   but that's it.



Post script.

Richie Online is now on Facebook. Do the like thing. Mwazitsata?

On the UNIMA Golden Jubilee

Friday, 9th October, 2015, There is a lot of activity at the College of Medicine as I write. Spaces being cleared, cleaning done, shades constructed and a whole lot of other things. I am told it is the celebration of the University of Malawi's 50 years of existence. How awesome! 50 years is a whole lot.

I must say that I will not be part of the celebrations. At least not directly, because the very time His Excellency (all my respect to him) will be driving in will be the time I will be leaving for my weekend call (let's call it hospital duty and yes, we do work on Saturdays as students). Can't complain, though. At least I will be one of the people who will be representing the few hundred people who still do school work on weekends while the rest celebrate.

On the other hand, I am looking at this as the main event of the Jubillee celebrations. I heard about the UNIMA at 50 tree planting before. Good initiative. I just don't remember why I missed that one.

I am told that there will be a lot to showcase at the event. I am also told that there will be a parade of the alumni and some UNIMA choir. That makes me wish I were there to witness the whole thing, but on the other hand I am thinking that it is okay not to be for some reason.

You might call me names for this but I think we don't have much to point to as we celebrate the golden jubilee. There are two reasons for which I say this and I will get into that.

The first reason for which I say the celebration is not worth the attention is the state of the university itself as we speak. There is a lot that has taken place in the 50 years that the university has existed. Colleges have been added and taken out. The university has seen a lot of people graduate into various fields and many programs have been introduced. So much we can talk about. My concern is, however, that most of the reforms and restructuring exercises that have taken place have not brought about progress in the university.

The first issue that comes to mind is that of the way in which colleges in UNIMA are admitting students. The people responsible rightly saw that there was a need for more people to be enrolled into the university and to graduate for the development. What wasn't done right was the reform that was done to achieve this. Interestingly enough, nowadays students are being enrolled based on classroom and not bed space. Result? Students from COM at Mount Pleasant and those fro. Chanco in a ghetto called Chikanda. How convenient that is, all of us already know.

And then comes the issue of food. For some reason this too was privatised and the end result is students either not getting enough money to keep them through the month and getting the allowances late. At some point in one college people wanted to mix up this money with fees resulting into a demonstration that left the school closed. That is the UNIMA we have at 50 years.

The other issue is that of infrastructure. Truth be told we are lagging behind when it comes to this. Most of our structures in the university are hardly maintained and many facilities are in a poor state. The very structures that were supposed to be the landmarks in the colleges, talk of the Lecture Theatre at the mighty Polytechnic and the Library at Chanco, are not in the most desirable state you would want them to be. I shouldn't talk about the already "not enough" hostels in the colleges. While the students bear part of the blame for not taking care of their own things, lack of maintenance has been a main player in this situation. A friend of mine once showed me a picture of the university in Taiwan and he told me it is from there that the Chancellor college design was taken. The fact that the university in question looks sparkling new while its little sister called Chanco is in a bad state leaves a lot of questions than answers.

Having talked about the state of the university, I should point out that the other reason the celebration doesn't seem very necessary is the impact the university and its graduates have had on this country. People have been trained for years in the university; graduating after finishing and I do not think that we have seen enough of the intellect translate into material development, which I guess the aim of the training in the long run is.

Before I talk about how graduates have failed to give back to the country, it is better that I point out how they have failed to contribute to the very institution that trained them. Most of the graduates benefited from a loan in as far as fees are concerned, in the name of being needy students. Probably someone would say that the university should have put up a tracking mechanism for the loan repayment. Good excuse. On the other hand, I think we have been irresponsible with our university and that is why we find it in the state that it is. I am saying this because I am inclined to believe that by design this whole loan for needy students thing was meant to be a self- sustaining revolving fund with little, if any external boosters.

Now to the big one. We have seen a lot of people from different fields graduate with so little added to their fields. So many economists in both the private and public sectors and a crumbling economy. So many electrical engineers and we continue to be on daily doses of blackouts. Some fields of course have shown a lot of progress but with the people who are supposed to be experts in the many fields of study in our university we are supposed to see more than we have achieved now.

Well. That whole writing was for the love of complaining. I do not suggest that we cancel the celebrations or close the university. What I would call on is a moment of reflection. As students, administrators and stakeholders, there is a lot that can be done to improve both the process and outcome of the training that the government is investing in the training of the many that are getting through the corridors of mother UNIMA.

Fellow intellectuals, as we sail through the university, we need to understand that we have an obligation to give back both to our university and to our country at large. There is more to the skills we are attaining than just bringing food on our table and clothing on our bodies. We need to think of how we can use the knowledge mother UNIMA is bestowing upon us to develop our motherland. It is with these changes that we will celebrate a progressive century of existence otherwise we might have nothing but failure to celebrate about come 2065.

The university organized an essay competition on the reflection of the 50 years of existence and the possible ways of making the university better. Intellectuals wrote and I hope those views will be taken into account as we move from the maintenance management of our dear UNIMA to bringing in innovations that will work in propelling the University of Malawi forward. There is a hope for a better UNIMA.

Happy 50th birthday UNIMA and may we all work and live to see you be what you are meant to be; an institution of excellence.

Yet another chat

You probably read the extracts from semi structured chats. Well. I don't like having volumes, but I had another chat I would like to share.

This one was with my good friend, Mikoyan. Well. Mikoyan is not his real name but I gave him that one for our love of Russian military aircraft. We were talking about how wonderful the Sukhoi SU-35 is an awesome plane (too much detail, ain't it?) and rather unnaturally our chat escalated into having Malawi manufacture jets. Or the possibility thereof. Now that was a turn that we were not supposed to take because it brought memories of how we don't even have a presidential jet and the moment we got there we started talking about our poverty. Sad ending to a cool thing, right? That is the moment in which you don't like being a a Malawian, but some of us are different. While others ruin the country we are busy thinking of how to rehabilitate it. And we talk about it.

There we were. Talking about the country and the issues. I can't remember how the story escalated but we ended up talking about food security. Two important points came up on that.

The first one was of course why we are still in this dependence on rain in our agriculture when we in fact we have an axis of all year rainwater in the country. Before I had my vision tunnelled to medicine I read some geography books (not sure as to why they call it human Geography. Doesn't make sense). They said in Israel they get water from the dead sea and desalinate it for agriculture. Someone also once told me that they import some soil from Egypt. Know what? Israel makes over $2 billion in exports of food. 2 billion.

Come to Malawi. Good soil and fresh water and people still complain about poor rains leading to poor yields. Zero pa ten. Shows you that something is not right around here. Looming hunger around and no one mentions winter cropping as a solution.

The other point was that of our farming being too manual. Still using a hoe is just too inefficient but somehow more than 2000 or more than that years after Prophet Elisha used a plough we are stuck with the hoe. I won't go into the fact that people have donated tractors which have ended up rotting in some warehouse. I mean, the tractors are meant to be in EPAs (Extension Planning Areas) or district offices. Interestingly enough some of them do not have cars and the ones that do hardly have fuel. Just not sure if a tractor would be operational when people are not going for meetings (here in Malawi we love meetings).

Anyway. That was out of the love for complaining. We might think of what the government is doing to address my worries and those that you have. Well. I am sure that on paper someone drafted a nice policy on irrigation; but this is Malawi, so policies end up in the same books they are written and on desks at the lake. Nothing materializes.

Again someone is thinking I am talking about those in offices. Well, not this time. We Malawians are just resistant to change and in as much as some things are not brought to beneficiaries, I have my doubts that they would make a difference in the grassroots. The reason, according to my good friend who has worked with people in the villages, is that these programs are meant for farmers and sadly we don't have any. Whatever he meant I can't explain, but he was right.

Conclusion from the whole thing? If you want to make some changes don't draft a national policy. Instead make a policy that impacts your life and that of your spouse and children. If it is working draft another one that encompasses your friends and then you can extend it to friends of your friends. If that works again, gather friends of your friends' friends and include them in your game changer; but make them pay for it (I need to emphasize on this one. This one should not be free). Main point is that you should have results and work with a limited group of people where you are.

Mikoyan told me there is one issue with that strategy. He says the old stars will end up bewitching you. Well. They could, but this is a challenge worth taking.

That was humor (you were supposed to laugh at that) but on a serious note, here is what I have to say. Henry Kachaje once said this country is poor because poor people live in it. If some of us could take the overlooked resources to full use; and few more emulated and more emulated from the emulators, this country could change for the better.

Another proposed to our man made problems; again from a semistructured chat.

Upping the Cyber Game

It is 2015 and that means we are in the 21st century. I wasn't there in the 18th but I have every reason to believe that this is the best time there has been. Of course this thought is a bit shallow because I am just considering one thing (let me critique it before you do) and that is the technological advancement that has taken the world by storm.

Truth be told, lazy people have invented a lot over time and they have made life super simple. Pretty much every field from transport to food production has been simplified to the simplest level that I do not think things will get any advanced than this. I mean, if someone made a nsima cooker, how simpler can life get? Usipa cooker or something? That would just be unacceptable.

Digression. I would like to talk about the very innovation that is making you read this post and that is the advancement in information and communication technology (ICT. This is what it stands for. In case... Yeah).

This whole digitalization of the world, the coming of the internet, computerization of everything is just so good that it has made interaction very simple and enjoyable. On a more important note, it has revolutionized the way in which things are done and the quality of outcomes of many things in almost every field.

To add to this, we are now in the age where a smartphone is no longer considered a luxury and almost every Jim and Jane has their own 3.5 inch touch screen Droid, or windows phone or something in those lines. Good development. In fact I usually use my phone to update the blog. Just one of the 70 or so things I use my phone for.

So much good stuff said but let's not get carried away because there is an issue at hand. In as much as we have these innovations, not all of us have embraced them and put them to use. In other words we still have people living in 1960 while the rest of the world is in 2015.

Before you begin to judge let me make a point that I am not talking about people who do not have the financial ability to purchase a 7 inch phone called a tablet for swagger or whatever they call it. I an talking about people who have the technology at their disposal but are not putting it to maximum use. If you are one of them, well, this is for you and you might join the rest of the world in 2015.

The first thing that we all need to understand is that a readily accessible and working e mail address is a basic need nowadays. The world is moving away from the traditional paperwork sort of mailing and taking it cyber. No one should be left behind on that. Actually many people do have e mails nowadays so that is not something we have to waste time on. The issue here is about using and checking e mails.

I happened to attend a meeting involving members of staff of some organization and someone suggested that the ideas discussed be shared over the organization's e mail network. Ideally that was supposed to be a good idea but I learnt that it wasn't when someone shed a light on what happens in the organization. So according to the gentleman people there were not used to the e mail checking culture. He talked of how he had gone to follow up on the progress of a proposal he had sent over mail only to be shown the e mail address with 1000+ unread e mails. The excuse? "If I can't read all these e mails, how special is yours that I should open it? Just bring the hard copies." Typical example of someone living in 1960. If you are in the same world, you better up your cyber game because this is 2015. Surprisingly some of these people who do this have a laptop, iPhone 5s and a Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.0. Still can't check mail. You tend to wonder what they are for. Watching Chris Brown or the Great Angels, probably.

Another thing that we have is the wide array of social networks. Ideally we had Facebook and it was all fine. We used to do many things on it; speaking our minds out, showing photos (of spouses, six packs, material possessions and everything), criticizing the government, finding jobs and loved ones, campaigning for our political parties and everything that we used to do then. Now most of those tasks have been divided among new networks like Whatsapp, Twitter, Viber, WeChat, Instagram, Skype, Linkeldn and many other networks (I only remembered those I am on). It is interesting to see how people use these networks but one thing I have noted is that most of these are grossly underused because people are not flexible.

Most companies or government offices have internet access and modern computers now. It is easy to do online conferences but you would be surprised at how many find excuses to keep away from this cost saving intervention.

Among the youth we have this outbreak of Whatsapp groups which are created based on interests. You will be surprised at how resistant people are to Whatsapp groups in the workplace setting all because of formalities. Ati zomakambirana za ku ofesi pa Whatsapp ndizibwana. Well. You may as well stick to the e mails, which people don't check and not have results while others are moving forward with these simple measures that are not formal but produce results.

Computerizing our systems is another vital element that we need to consider if we are to be more efficient. There are simply many registration, voting, payment and monitoring systems that could benefit from computerization to avoid queuing up and loss of information due to paperwork issues. I have heard of a couple of cases where bosses have been shunning computerization for various reasons from protection of positions from the innovators, avoiding of exposure of malpractice or protecting the loopholes through which they defraud government or companies to just mere resistance to change. The world is moving fast and we do not need such. Solution? Everybody needs to up their cyber game.

I could talk more and more about this but here is the point. The world is changing and we cannot ignore that fact. We need to move with time and use all the resources that are at our disposal. Being computer literate and being able to use the internet are basic things nowadays and they are vital in all sectors including education, agriculture, medicine... Well. Pretty much everything.

A little on the smartphone. Most of us do have these but only very few use them to their full potential. So someone would splash out having bough an iPhone 6 only to be using Whatsapp there. You send them an e mail and they would not respond saying that their dongle is having issues. Again, unacceptable. In my view, having smart gadget you can't put to use is a waste (someone is frowning at this) otherwise you might as well have a Samsung Galaxy Young if you want the Whatsapp that everybody is on nowadays. In short we don't just have to buy gadgets for the sake of buying them. Anyway. Probably a code for people who are not swimming in money (yet) like me.

A lot of talk, but if I am to summarize it in one sentence or two, here is what I would say. The world is advancing and so is the information and communication technology. If we are to advance we probably need to be thinking of how some of these technologies (not just ICT) can fit in into our various fields to help us operate more efficiently.

Otherwise, this is not 1960 and everyone need to up their cyber game.