Last weekend, I did two seminars at the Revolution (Youth) Conference in Sheffield. It was a great conference and I would like to thank the organisers of the event for inviting me for the second time in two years. This blog post focuses on the main theme of the first seminar: The 2E’s of Success. Can you guess what they are?
Nigeria is a rich country blessed with both human and natural resources. She is the eighth most populated country in the world with over 150 million citizens and has one of the largest oil and gas reserves in the world. Despite these advantages, Nigeria is struggling and a lot of her people are suffering. Why has a country with so much potential failed to maximise it?
A lot of people are experience rich but theory poor. They lack the theoretical framework to contextualise and understand their daily experiences and are therefore, likely to repeat the mistakes of their experiences because they lack the tools to reflect upon it. The theoretical framework provides the prism to view and understand their experiences. It also provides the words to adequately describe their experiences to others.
I got a text from a friend a few days ago in which he asked me for the difference between mission statement and vision statement. These are two terms usually used interchangeably. I must admit that I did not know the difference so I did a quick Google search. The result was interesting and it got me thinking about the importance of these statements.
The swan that gracefully moves on a lake is a picture of elegance in motion but what is hidden from the eye is the activity going on beneath the water’s surface. We don’t see the hard work conducted by the swan’s webbed feet which propels the graceful motion we see and admire.
Photo by Lucas Dawson/Getty Images AsiaPac
The 2012 Australian Open Men’s final between Novak Djokovic and Rafa Nadal started at 7.30pm Sunday evening on the 29th of January and it didn’t end until about 1.30am Monday morning. It lasted for 5 hours 53 minutes. Tennis fans witnessed the longest grand slam final match in history and saw a test of endurance as the top two seeds in the world slugged it out on the court. Djokovic was victorious and he also took Nadal’s unofficial title as the toughest man on the tour. Barely 40 hours before the final, Djokovic overpowered Andy Murray, ranked world number 4, in a five hour marathon thriller. Some doubted he would have the mental and physical strength to challenge Nadal after a demanding semi final match.
This post builds on the last post which was about strengths. I believe we all have natural abilities that can be developed into strengths if we are willing to invest the necessary time, resources and effort. I would like to examine strengths and weaknesses through two lenses and discuss a key difference between them. These two lenses are competence and character.
A lot of people fail to maximise their strengths because (a) they don’t know their strengths and (b) they erroneously believe that their strengths will take care of themselves and focus their attention on their weaknesses. The late Peter Drucker stated that a person can only perform from a position of strength. One can’t build performance on weaknesses, let alone on something one can’t do at all. He argued that you should waste as little effort as possible on improving areas of low competence. This is because it usually takes far more energy and effort to improve from incompetence to mediocrity than it takes to improve from first-rate performance to excellence.
Indianapolis Colts is the worst team in the NFL and the Green Bay Packers is the league’s best team. The Colts are on a losing streak while Green Bay is undefeated this season. But why is one team flying high and the other caught in a death spiral? I believe that there are two reasons for this:
If you are not into American Football, you have probably never heard of Tim Tebow. He is the most talked about player in the National Football League at the moment. This is because he is winning with his team, the Denver Broncos. Critics, however, argue that he is winning the wrong way.