Opinion and Analysis
‘‘I was fascinated by the intellectual debate aroused when I questioned the fading lustre of MBA degrees’’. Photo/FILE
By MARVIN SISSEY
In Summary
- Readers’ comments have offered invaluable insight and made me a better writer.
This is my 100th Business Daily column. Two
years. That is how long it takes to pen 100 weekly opinion articles. Who
said time flies, again? Go ahead and award her a medal. She was right.
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I sincerely believe that having your opinion on whatever
trite matter you consider vital published by respectable press and
disseminated to the masses week in, week out, is not a matter that
should be taken for granted.
It is a privilege and you, the writer, should
remain forever grateful to your readers who spare their time to care
about your opinion. Harlan Ellison said, “You are not entitled to your
opinion. You are entitled to your informed opinion. No one is entitled
to be ignorant.”
Not until I started penning this column did I get
to understand the significance of Ellison’s remarks. There is a world of
difference between your opinion and your informed opinion.
This is especially the case if you intend to
broadcast your opinion. Thankfully, there is one person who shall always
be quick to let you know when you cross the line – the critic.
As Aristotle said, “To avoid criticism, say
nothing, do nothing, be nothing.” Another great thinker, Norman Vincent
Peale, best known for his book, The Power of Positive Thinking, famously remarked, “The trouble with most of us is that we’d rather be ruined by praise than be saved by criticism”.
Today, I’ll dedicate this column to the critics
who, through their mostly constructive feedback, have nourished this
column by challenging my style as a writer, my thoughts as a scholar and
my practises as an entrepreneur, and in the end shaped me to be a
better person.
I’ll be honest from the onset and admit that every
opinion piece I write, and I believe I write for my fellow writers when I
say this, is nothing but a sales pitch where I am attempting to
persuade you the reader to consider and adopt my line of thought.
In the end, however, it never ends up as
successfully as was intended. Instead, it becomes a negotiation. Because
no sooner are my thoughts published than I get an array of
counter-opinions or “qualified support”, some of which are in the public
domain.
Ultimately, I have found it a pleasure to consider
each and every feedback I get and whenever possible, at the very least,
acknowledge receipt.
Let me go down memory lane to reflect on some of my
most memorable pieces which created some level of admirable debate. I
will take you back to August 31, 2012, when I questioned the wisdom of
hiring employees whose grammar was found wanting.
I reckoned that if the job in question was one that
required keenness and attention to detail, hiring grammar miscreants
was akin to shooting yourself in the foot.
The feedback was quick and fast. I noted a general
trend where sticklers who agreed with me tended to be the more senior
members of society while the younger generation was more forgiving of
the occasional mix-up between “there” and “their”.
I still care about grammar, but I am not as
judgmental as I was when I wrote that piece. Fast forward almost a year
later to July 19, 2013, and my article headline screamed, “Let hotel
owners ban tipping, it is not a Kenyan culture”.
As it turned out, Kenyans care deeply about their
food, and anyone who touches it! I had opened a can of worms— this one
even found itself as an item of discussion on various morning radio
shows – and God knows that the Business Daily barely makes the
cut for the kind of topics that are covered on these shows! The feedback
was fast and furious, and sharply divisive.
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