Becoming who you are Afraid to Be by Sihlangule Siwisa (An Undelivered Speech)

The Chancellor Designate, His Excellency Kgosi Leruo.

Prof Ntate Daniel Kgwadi, the Vice Chancellor of the University of the North West

President Kgalema Motlanthe; in your absence Sir, on the occasion of your birthday;

I pay my respect to you by saying ~ Phila Ngonaphakade Mongameli!

Dr Khulu Mbatha ~ our keynote speaker and distinguished guest

Mr Tlolohelo Mohlatle, the Head of the SOMAFCO Trust

Esteemed members of academia from various faculties of thought

Members of the broader business and social community of the North West

And Young People of the beautiful province ya Bokone Bophirima

I greet you!

My name is Sihlangule Siwisa and the title of my address is:

BECOMING WHO YOU ARE AFRAID TO BE

Dr Mbatha ~ as a scholar of philosophy ~ I am certain you are familiar with the opening lines of Jean-Jacques Roussouw’s Social Contract wherein he writes, “Man was born free, yet everywhere he is in chains. One man thinks himself the master of others, but remains more of a slave than they are.”

The theme for today’s gathering is leadership. But, before we can begin to look at leadership; we need to examine the context within which we are seeking to lead and be led. As the offspring of generations who were in physical chains and fought to unshackle themselves from being slaves to colonialism and apartheid, we need to examine areas in our thinking that are still held back by limiting beliefs we have internalized about ourselves that holds us imprisoned with spiritual, intellectual and emotional chains. 

So, the questions I would like us to examine are:

What would you do if you were unafraid?

What is holding you back from being the person you were created to be?

What is stealing your joy?

Why are you afraid of greatness?

But, before we answer these questions, I would like to first tell you a quick story:

There is a friend of mine named Bertrand from Cameroon who once said to me that although he lives and works in South Africa, he would never allow his kids to study in South Africa. When I asked him why, he said that our education system is not designed to create free-thinking, innovative and entrepreneurial individuals who are able to start their own enterprises after university. Rather he said, even at its best, our education system is designed towards producing people who work in offices, where they are enslaved by the false security of a corporate paycheck which creates dependence on borrowed structure rather than self-generated value.

What Betrand said was difficult to hear, but I believe that he has a point.

Our education system is designed in a manner where one acquires knowledge by memorizing facts and figures, rather than developing skill by doing. For this reason, we reward the ability to recall information that is freely available on Google, instead of cultivating a mindset that seeks to understand the world’s challenges and then identify the unique gift within each of us that was created to solve a particular problem in humanity.

I put it to you today that our challenge is not that as a nation we are incapable of producing bright young minds, but we have not created an ecosystem where we allow curiosity, learned enquiry and guided experimentation to lead a process of education that is driven by the scholarship of discovery.

For this reason, we channel our children from a young age to submit to the dictates of a curriculum based on a stale blueprint of who we were rather than a living breathing expression of who we can become. This then forces children to suppress their natural artistic, musical or any other gift that does not fall neatly into the confines of a specific subject matter that is available. In the process, our children are forced to betray their dreams and believe that the best they can ever be, is a hired hand to fulfil someone else’s dream.

This is a form of self-enslavement, where we aspire to be the supervisors rather than the owners of factors of production.

As a result, our progress as a country is delayed because the minds of game changers who are meant to be disrupting industries by challenging accepted paradigms of thinking and turning old business models on their heads have their minds held captive like hostages on guard. Those of you who read protest poetry will recognize that the last part of that line was borrowed from a poem by Mzwakhe Mbuli.

What I have defined thus far is a structural problem with the design of our education system which needs to be addressed starting with early childhood development that first equips children with the capability to articulate their thoughts in a language they are comfortable with. German children learn in German and they can thus be literate in their own language. The same is true for the French, Portuguese, Chinese, Spanish and the Nordic countries.

So, as a long term goal with a 100 year timeline if needs be, we have to have in mind the goal of enabling African children in their own languages.

But, beyond language and curriculum which is a long term solution, in the short to medium term, we need what is currently taught in our schools as Life Orientation to have a focus on Self-Discovery, Self-Understanding, Teamwork, Leadership, Entrepreneurship, Innovation & Managing Money.   

I therefore applaud the SOMAFCO Trust for the bold step they have taken to create a leadership program for young people that is based on the latest thinking around innovation, entrepreneurship and being of service to society.

This program forms part of a multiplicity of initiatives that seek to disrupt the mindset that holds us captive and slaves to fear, doubt, despair and disbelief.

It is rooted in that clarion call that was made in 1906 by Pixley Ka Isama Seme when he wrote, “The African already recognizes his anomalous position and desires a change. The brighter day is rising upon Africa. Already I seem to see her chains dissolved, her desert plains red with harvest, her Abyssinia and her Zululand the seats of science and religion, reflecting the glory of the rising sun from the spires of their churches and universities.”

So, then what is leadership?

According to the Leadership and Strategy Communications framework, a leader is assessed on two aspects; competence and character.

Competence refers to the accumulated body of knowledge, skills and talents that enable the leader to display leadership competencies such as organizational leadership, public leadership and personal or self leadership.

This is complemented by professional competencies which define technical depth in one’s functional area and technical breadth in terms of being able to appreciate areas outside of the leader’s immediate functional scope.

Character on the other hand refers to the philosophy of leadership that the leader subscribes to which encompasses his or her understanding of human nature, process of enquiry, ethical compass and the values that are a source of authority for one as a leader. This is at times referred to as the soul of a leader.

The heart and mind of a leader on the other hand refers to the degree of humility, sense of caring, level of courage, discipline, focus, integrity and adherence to a code of justice that the leader displays.

These twin disciplines of character and competence are the lens through which one evaluates leadership.

In evaluating a leader, one cannot forget the context and the time or era within which one leads, which we have discussed.

What is Entrepreneurship and how is it related to Leadership?

An entrepreneur is a person who has a rare skill to trade in the open market through mutual exchange of value OR a person who is able to identify a problem in society for which they can tailor a solution in the form of a product or a service or both in a manner that enables them to brand the solution.

What is the Mindset of a Modern Entrepreneur?

The mindset of a modern entrepreneur is cultivated by an approach to problem solving that seeks to first understand the person or people who have a problem before attempting to solve the problem. Solving a problem without first understanding the person, people or community leads to solutions that fit like borrowed clothing (“,). They may work in Europe or the West, but not necessarily in Africa or India or Brazil.

This approach is referred to as the user centred approach to problem solving.

The next quality in the mindset of a modern entrepreneur is a design approach to solving problems which is based on collaborative problem solving. In simpler terms, once you have understood the community that has a problem; do not walk away into an underground laboratory to create a solution by yourself, but rather form a team that is made up of both subject matter experts as well as members of the community or target audience so that you can co-create the solution.

Co-creation leads to communities taking ownership of the solution, which makes the possibility of sustaining the solution even after you are gone that much more possible.

Secondly, the design approach to problem solving encourages moving from the person to the problem and then idea generation that is open to the possibility that there may be more than one way of solving the problem.

This is in stark contrast to the reductionist approach we are accustomed traditionally that moves from the problem and reduces ideas down to a single solution.

Thirdly, a design approach to problem solving is geared towards doing rather than merely producing a ‘policy’ on paper. Thinking without doing is the equivalent of consulting a Doctor for a problem and once the problem has been diagnosed and a prescription issued; going back home and hoping that the prescription rather than the medication will heal you. You have to act by going to the pharmacy, fulfilling the prescription and taking the medication.

So, after understanding the consumer or customer or community, forming a team to co-create the solution and brainstorming all possible solutions, the next step is to create a prototype of the solution.

For instance, if the community has to walk long distances in order to fetch water because there is no drinking water and research reveals that this results in girl children missing school while carrying buckets of water from the nearest water source; a possible solution may be to create means of carrying water in a manner that is faster and makes boy children want to help as well. This is actually a real life case study and the prototype that was created was a strong water container in the shape of a drum with a handle that enables one to push the container while it rolls on the ground.

This is an example of prototyping.

Prototyping leads you to piloting the solution in the identified community or target market, where you can use feedback to tweak the original design until it meets the required specification.

Once the usefulness of the prototype has been proven, we then have a proof of concept which strengthens our case when we seek funding to produce the product or service in massive scale.

Now, you may ask yourself, Sihlangule if you know this theory so well, how come you in your personal capacity have not created a product or a service that solves problems and creates jobs?

The answer is simple. I too have areas of my mind where I am still held captive:

The education I have received and the ten years I have spent in corporate South Africa has made me over reliant on pre-existing structure and where there is no structure I have identified a weakness that I struggle to create value.

So, for as long as I continue to believe that my current endowment of talent and experience cannot be converted into a skill that I can trade in the open market or towards solving a problem that exists in society, I too will continue to be a willing slave; a well dressed and well spoken slave perhaps (“,), but a slave nonetheless.

But, today we are here to change that akere!?!

Today we are here to say; turn to the person next to you and echo these words with me:

I am gifted.

I am skilled.

I can craft solutions to solve problems.

I can monetize my gift.

Today, is a turning point in my Life.

Give yourselves a round of applause.

Now, when I was driving on Rivonia road recently I came across a billboard advertising Play energy drink that posed the question:

What would you do if you were unafraid? (Choose 4 audience members)

Ok, having articulated what you would do, my next question is:

What is holding you back to being who you were created to be? (Choose 4 audience members)

My last question is:

Why are you afraid of greatness? (Choose 4 audience members)

I put it to you today that perhaps the reason we are afraid of being exceptional is that the moment you display your gift, you have a duty to hold yourself to a higher standard.

What do I mean by this?

Our country and our continent loves heros & heroines; the moment we identify something heroic about someone, we not only celebrate them, but we also evaluate their personal and professional lives by a higher standard than that which we use to measure ourselves.

As a result, people are afraid of being exceptional because they cannot handle the pressure of being judged by a higher standard.

Secondly, I believe we are afraid of being exceptional because we are afraid of raising the bar to a level which we cannot live up to in the future.

So, we get by with 50% effort and results because there is strength and social acceptance in numbers.

But, are we happy? Are we fulfilled? Or are we shortchanging ourselves and humanity.

The last fear we have is that of trying to be great and failing.

I am not going to answer these questions for you, but I want to tell you a story that will perhaps change your understanding of greatness:

There was once an old man in a village that had a road that was filled with potholes. The elderly gentleman could not read and write, but he felt that it was wrong for school children and university students to travel on such a delapitated road.

So, he decided that a week before school and varsity holidays he was going to take it upon himself to shovel sand onto a kirriewae and then walk all the way up the road filling the potholes with sand.

Now, in the urban areas it’s illegal to do this, because roads are state property, but in the rural areas there tends to be more leeway.

So, holiday after holiday the community would watch this old man sweating, doing what they regarded to be ‘govt work’. But he persisted.

Interestingly enough, there were no members of his own homestead who were students of higher learning, so he literally did this for children of other families in the community and there were no members of his homestead that owned a car, so there was no personal accumulated benefit.

The day that old man passed away, the local school principal organized for the school kids and the children who had graduated from university to line up that street and form a guard of honour for utatomkhulu and the guest speaker at his funeral was the Vice Chancellor of the regional university in the area.

A man who had no primary school education, was buried by graduates and spoken off in glowing terms by esteemed scholars.

What does this mean?

Greatness is the ability to demonstrate what you hold valuable through the consistent output of your labour; day in day out. UTatomkhulu demonstrated his value for education by a small solemn act of kindness.

My question is what are we – who have been entrusted with so much – doing to demonstrate what we hold valuable?  

As I conclude, the biggest lesson I have learnt thus far is that intent without motion reduces the best of intentions to zero. One can have the best intent, but without motion ...there is no progress.

uTatomkhulu had all the reasons in the world to doubt whether his actions could make a diffirence, but he did not allow limiting beliefs to hold him hostage. Instead he elevated his thinking to a plane where he understood that the best way to start is to begin.

Let me leave you with what I have discovered to be guiding light for me as a I pursue greatness by demonstrating how I value scholarship and leadership in Africa:

1. Dream 

- Let your mind lose and consider what you'd do if you were unafraid

2. Imagine 

- Picture yourself living in your future state & describe what you see in all senses

3. Desire

- Create within your Spirit a deep longing to one day live in your dream space

4. Possibilitize 

~ Map Out A Plan on How to get from Current Reality to Dream State

4. Initiate - Dare to DO. You've planned the work; now work the plan

In order to accomplish the results, one will need to:

5. Focus ~ concentrate on your goal relentlessly

6. Set Short Term Goals ~ My cousin Sinqobile Vilakazi likes to say, “I don't want to go fast, I want to go far”.          So, modify your stride and take short deliberate steps.

7. Create Measures ~ 

devise key performance indicators in order to calibrate & thus be able to demonstrate progress 

8. Be Disciplined - be steadfast and unmovable in the pursuit of your dream. Be clinical when it comes to identifying and eliminating habits or people that steal value or introduce negativity or any form of toxicity in your life

9. Hold yourself to a Higher Standard

10. Be Humble when you Win and Study your failures for Lessons when you fail

11. Celebrate What is Right With the World

This will form the foundation of my next book entitled:

    OUR DREAMS ARE BEAUTIFUL 

the courage to become who you are afraid to be

   & creating a new reality in our world

     By Sihlangule Mmiselo Siwisa

So, often we miss out on achieving our dreams because we are waiting for permission from other people to chase our dreams. Yet the world is full of dreamers whose dreams were initially misunderstood by the world. In a world that measures success by popularity or the number of followers on has, we at times make the error of assuming that our ideas have no potential to succeed simply because they currently resonate with only a small crowd and the rest of your potential audience pays you little or no attention. BUT

Have you ever considered that perhaps your ideas may be ahead of their time?

Or that the reason why nobody is following you is that you are so far ahead of the field in your area of expertise

that you literally have to wait for the rest of the industry to catch up before your earlier material is understood?

The secret to unchaining your dreams lies in knowing and being secure in the knowledge that even if the results of your hard work may only be appreciated after you are long gone, there is no substitute that will come close to replacing the thrill of knowing every day, that you are living at the centre of the Creator's plan for your life.

So, dream big and be unafraid of failure. Because betraying your dream is not an option.

It’s time to Create a New Reality in Africa!

If you believe this, please stand on your feet and Say it with me: IT IS TIME TO CREATE A NEW REALITY IN AFRICA

While you are standing. When I say fired up, say ready to go:

#FiredUp! #ReadytoGO! X 2

While you are still standing. When I say forward always, say backward never

#ForwardAlways #BackwardNEVER x 2

Now raise your right fist and in your loudest voice say:

#PhambiliMzantsiAfrikaPhambili (Phambili)

#GaanAaanSuidAfrikaGaaanAaan (Gaan Aan)

#PhezuluAfrikaPhezulu (Phezulu)

I thank you