Growth Dynamics
When people talk
about growth most people struggle to wrap their mind around this term, in other
people's imaginations they see a skinny little fellow who swells up into a
bulky man like the Incredible Hulk or a struggling man who starts off small and
eventually becomes a rich multimillionaire. In whatever scenario you visualize
in your mind guess what? You are right.
All growth is
characterized by change; if you don’t change (at least for the better) then
there no growth occurred. Two years ago my friend Carole gave birth to a little
boy name Charlie. When Charlie was born, like every baby he was frail, week,
vulnerable he was just a little adorable fellow. He depended on his mother for
food, warmth and protection and if he felt nature calling his nappies were his
toilet. I went visiting two weeks ago just to see how my old friend Carole and
her son were doing since they had just came to town, when I saw her I was
amazed to see Charlie was now walking (in fact running around), very talkative
and surprisingly he was now aware of the importance of the bathroom. “Oh
my God Charlie is grown now" I said to Carole as we sat down at a local
fast food outlet. Carole laughed as she place he handbag on her lap, took a
seat and began to tell me about all of Charlie's exploits. We had pizza and
after two hours of catch up we went our separate ways.
After a while I
thought to myself when I said Charlie is grown what exactly did I mean and it
occurred to me that growth is characterized by change. I could comfortably say
that Charlie is now grown, why? All because he was now doing things that he was
unable to do when I last saw him one week after birth. Likewise in order to be
successful in any arena of your life you have to grow and that by I mean be
able to do more than what you are capable doing today. This principle applies
to academics, athletics, politics, science or even finance.
There are
two ways to increase your growth curve:
- increase your knowledge
- increase your responsibilities
In simple terms
in order to grow and advance in your sphere of influence you need to increase
what you know and increase what you do or at least how you do them. It is
impossible to realize lasting success without growing your current stature. Like
it is impossible for you to lift a fifty kilogram bag if you don’t increase
your capacity until you can lift it with less effort. This can be achieved through
regular training.
When you increase
what you know you ultimately increase your possibilities. People do things
because they believe that whatever they want to do, that thing is possible
because they have read about or heard about someone who successfully did it
before. What is belief? Belief is an inward persuasion that is supported by a
corresponding action to bring to fruition what you are convinced you can
accomplish. If America had not highly publicized the journey to the moon by
Armstrong and his band of astronauts most of us in the developing world might
still be in awe of the moon and say. "Wow, the moon is so far I wonder
when man will ever go there?" however, because we know that this feat was
accomplished already we are positive that man someday can land on Jupiter if we
so desire. If Australia wants to send people to space they don't need to invent
the rocket ship anew. No not at all. They only need to start off from where
NASA left off and they just build a model that suits them. Increasing what you
know will open up your mind in that you become aware of the unlimited
possibilities that are in the world. It also teaches you that if someone else
has done it before successfully you can also do it successfully if you work as
hard as they did and if you sacrifice as much as they did. For instance, I
didn’t know that someone could buy, build and own a hotel by using other people’s
money until I read Donald Trump’s account of how he did it. As result, I now know
that I can do the same if I do it the same way Donald Trump did it. It might
not be on the same scale as the Trump deal, but because I increased what I knew
it has broaden my thinking as well as my possibilities.
Second, you grow through increasing
what you are able to do. The surest way you can grow is by taking on more responsibilities.
The reason why this is important is because it enriches you in experience and
it enriches you with the knowhow of how to do something. Volunteer to do more
in your workplace and field, be content but refused to be satisfied with where
you are and then keep learning and doing new things. In the late seventies Sir Richard
Branson had a flourishing Music business that had grown from their first
musical store. Whilst on holiday on route to Puerto Rico all flights were
cancelled instead of complaining about it like everyone was doing he chartered
a plane and made people pay for the flight at a profit to him and that is when
the idea of Virgin airlines was born. Although he had no prior experience in
running an airline it still didn’t stop him from trying and because he tried he
succeeded. Why people stop themselves from engaging into new businesses or new
careers whilst hiding behind the excuse of them lacking experience in that
field truly boggles my mind. When you a baby learning how to walk although you
had no prior walking experience you still took your first steps. On your first
attempt to walk you stood up took your first step and fell on your bum but you didn’t
quit that is why now you can run and even run backwards.
It’s not
guaranteed that because you take the initiative to learn and start new things you
are guaranteed to succeed, but I will guarantee you that you might fail at some
point but if you learn the lessons in the failure and change your approach you
will succeed. Sometimes it’s better to try and fail than fail to try at all. When
Thomas Edison was asked how he felt after succeeding in making the light bulb
after two thousand attempts Mr. Edison said I dint fail two thousand times I just
learnt two thousand ways not to make the light bulb. When you try and fail you
learn the things you were not supposed to do the next time when you make
another attempt at greatness, that is why in boxing they are rematches because
often than not the beaten party reckons they have learnt the mistakes that cost
them the match and are willing to make changes so that they don’t repeat the
same mistakes in their rematch and hopefully win the match that they lost
before.
In closing, don’t
throw in the towel when you fail learn from your mistakes, change your approach,
try again and you will fare better than you did the first time you failed. Increase
your knowledge and the possibilities you can attain are endless. Increase what
you are able to do and I guarantee you that it will enrich you in ways that you
never knew were possible.
Until next time
be more, learn more, do more and you will have more.
Regards,
Clive K Gweredza
