The late Kofi Annan: Just as this deadly rifle was turned into a guitar,
people can be inspired to create change for the betterment of society.
PHOTO | AMUEL KUBANI | AFP
Two great motivators for human beings are the motivation towards
the avoidance of pain and the motivation of gain. As long as there is
no threat of pain or promise of a greater gain, people will stay just
where they are.
When a person has worked so hard to get
into the comfort zone and the zone has no threat or pain there will be
no motivation to leave, hence the reason why a lot of people stay there.
We
live in a society where conformity is programmed into our minds as we
grow up. Right from when we were children, we were taught to conform.
We
had to wear school uniform because we all had to look the same. We were
told how to do our hair, the colour of socks to wear and even the type
of shoes to wear.
We all had to have the exact same
answers for the teachers’ questions for us to be right. Anything other
than what the teacher told us was wrong.
In essence, we
were conforming to the teachers’ level of thought. There is no way on
earth that a person who grew up in such an environment can become a
natural disruptor for to do that would mean rebelling against the system
of conformity. Rebellion was the ultimate crime of my youth.
We had this huge black and white television set. And of course, there was nothing like a remote control.
You
had to walk to the TV to do anything you wanted with it. The concept of
raising the volume or changing channels from afar was foreign.
Tell-tale white spot
There
was actually no alternative channel. We had only one station, which
began transmission at 6pm, starting with the national anthem, and closed
at midnight with the national anthem.
When you
switched on the TV, you had to wait for a few seconds before it finally
came on. The same thing happened when you switched it off.
I
got into a lot of trouble for this very reason. My father did not
understand the concept of play. We were allowed to watch television only
for short periods on weekends. We had to read (or pretend to read) all
day, every day, even when he was not around.
Of course,
being the rebel that I was, I did not find that a very attractive
option and so when he was out of the house, I would watch television.
However,
I was very attentive and so the minute I heard the sound of his car
driving in, I would quickly switch off the set; but then there was
always a tell-tale sign — a white spot at the centre of the TV which
would linger for a few minutes after it was switched off.
As
soon as my dad came in and saw that white spot, he would immediately
know that I had been watching television instead of reading. I would
then endure the beating of my life.
The television set
of today bears no resemblance to that of yesterday. Similarly the phone
of today bears no resemblance with that of yesteryear.
However,
when we look around our schools, we will discover that the classroom of
today is not too different from the classroom of many years ago and
therein lies our problem.
Have you noticed that some of
the greatest inventors of our time had the same thing in common: Many
of them had to pull themselves out of that system of conformity.
People
whose thinking have been shaped by the past cannot raise people to
think differently. A people who have been conditioned to conform cannot
suddenly become disruptors and they will not survive in the world shaped
by disruption.
Globally acclaimed
Faith
does come by hearing and people who have heard of the virtues of
conformity will automatically have faith in conformity. They need to
begin to hear new things and even do them differently.
A Kenyan company called BRCK was named among the TIME
50 genius companies of 2018. Quite a number of globally acclaimed
innovations have come out of Kenya. How many students schooling in East
Africa know about this? These are the things that should be taught to
inspire the next generation and show them what is possible on the world
stage.
Those who do not open their minds to see a comfort greater than the present levels of comfort will be prisoners of comfort.
Those
who do not dare to open their minds to feel the potential pain of
irrelevance will also be prisoners of comfort. Being a prisoner of
comfort is not a, so to speak, a comfortable situation. Prisoners of
comfort are also easy targets for disruption.
When you are a prisoner of comfort your disruption is imminent and you will eventually be blown out of relevance into oblivion.
The choice ultimately is yours.
Wale Akinyemi is the chief transformation officer, PowerTalks
No comments :
Post a Comment