Nikki’s Tip of the Week – week-ending 1st October 2016 & Upcoming Events
Over the last few months, (and I suspect for the next few years), many damaging stories have been coming out about corruption and bribery and coercion. I’ve made amusing comments about the ‘wiggly worms’ coming out to play, as I grapple with the extent and magnitude of the damage that is being done to this beautiful country that I call home.
We’re supposed to look up to our leaders, for guidance, for truth, for integrity, but it is those leaders who are under question and who, instead of stepping up to the plate to take responsibility for their actions, now hide behind more lies, more deceit and more manipulation.
I can only be responsible for my actions, my words and my truth, but I can also be an example and hopefully from that example other’s will also take responsibility for their actions, their words and their truth.
I guess time will tell . .
Here’s the deal . . .
Please feel free to engage with me, or not. Please feel free to send me your own snippets of information, early warnings, appropriate funnies and what have you, to share with other like-minded individuals, entrepreneurs and start-ups.
I hope and trust that you will enjoy the journey with me.
This weeks’ Blog:
MOTIVATION – IT’S YOU!
By Nikki Viljoen of N Viljoen Consulting CC
The quote today comes from Jeffrey Gitomer, who says “It ain’t the rain, the snow, the boss, the competition, the spouse, the money, the car, the job, or the kids – It’s YOU! And it always has been.”
Now to me that makes perfectly logical sense, but having said that, I often hear people complaining about whatever using the above excuses! Come on now, be honest – I am sure that you have too.
It’s all about taking responsibility and being accountable for your own actions (and thoughts too) and how many of us actually do that?
I was chatting to my friend Rachel Van Doorene of Woman Inc the other day and we were discussing morals and so on and she asked the question “how do you teach children what is right and what is wrong and responsibility?”
Well, that for me is an easy one – you see, I believe that we as individuals know somewhere deep inside of us, even as children whether what we are doing is right or wrong. How we act on that knowledge is of course a whole different discussion and one that we can perhaps have another time.
Think about it for a moment – when we are late for an appointment and speeding down the road, we know for sure, that what we are doing is wrong and that should we be caught, that there is a consequence. Yet how many times, when we have been caught and issued with the consequence, being a ticket – we say “Bloody traffic cops, have they got nothing better than to trap. . . . !” Well actually daarrlliinngg – it’s our own fault and we have no-one else to blame, but ourselves! Yet the last person that we seem to blame is ourselves! Bit of a cop out don’t you think!
I grew up on a huge farm in the then Rhodesia, my parents died when I was quite young, but I remember many of the lessons that my father taught me.
One of them was responsibility. We hunted ‘for the pot’ and fished ‘for the pot’. Animals were killed quickly and humanely and their carcasses were treated with dignity and respect. Let me explain. When I was about six years old, it was deemed that I was now old enough to go on the hunt with my father – a rare treat I might add. At that point I was already used to handling guns and was quite a good shot. I could also drive the ‘willies’ jeep (blocks were attached to the pedals and I sat on a wooden box on the seat) and the tractor (again wooden blocks) pulling a long trailer on which the tobacco and maize was transported to the barns. Anyway I digress.
Off we went at dusk, and I very excitedly followed my fathers lead – I was very clearly warned that whatever I killed, I would have to carry back to the jeep, I would be responsible for skinning, gutting and cleaning the animal and I would be responsible for cutting it up. You see, if I took the life of an animal, it was then my responsibility to care for the remains of that animal. I took this warning very seriously, and managed to ‘bag’ a duiker.
I clearly remember my father, placing the animal across my shoulders, as I had to carry it back to the jeep. As we trudged back carrying the various animals that had been ‘bagged’, the trail that the hooves of the duiker make in the earth, remains with me to this day.
I remember the pride that I felt as, when we got home, and I cleanly opened the stomach of the carcass, my father lifting out the still warm liver and rubbing it over my face as I was ‘bloodied’ after my first kill. We celebrated that night (as we did after every hunt) and gave thanks for the food that would grace our table and the animals whose lives we had taken in order for us to have that food to eat.
Yes, I did get to cut the carcass up, under the guidance of my father. We cut the portions and put them into the deep freeze and whenever we ate a portion, a great fuss was made about how it was my first kill, and how I had carried it myself and skinned and gutted it myself and how I had cut up the portions myself, and even how I had taken responsibility for the life that I had taken.
Taking responsibility is not always a pleasure – as it was in this case. Sometimes taking responsibility can be a very hard thing to swallow – like going to jail, or losing a loved one, but it is nevertheless the right thing to do, the honorable thing to do.
So the next time it is on the tip of your tongue to blame someone else for your action and/or inaction and/or thought – remember, it was your choice to start off with.
The blame, the responsibility, the accountability rests with you.
Nikki is an Internal Auditor and Business Administration Specialist who can be contacted on 083 702 8849 or [email protected]
Look what’s happening at Business Engage
HOT TABLES EVENT : 19 OCTOBER 2016
Business Engage is a membership-driven organisation that promotes opportunities for corporates, individuals and business owners through networking, mentorship, training, collaboration, gender mainstreaming consulting, entrepreneurship development and support.
One of the benefits of the organisation is a successful networking event, the Hot Tables event, which has been running in South Africa since July 2006.
The idea of these evenings is to offer attendees of the event an inspirational discussion with an expert in their field in an intimate small group environment. These events are run as learning and networking opportunities and include 7-10 hosts who are experts in their various fields as well as a guest speaker who speaks for 25-30 minutes.
The invited experts stay at their allocated table and address a topic of their choice or just have free flow conversation but co-ordinated by the host. Before the event brief personal profiles of the hosts are e-mailed to all who will be attending the event. The attendees gravitate to the table of their choice over a 3 course dinner i.e. starters, main course, pudding depending on the expertise they want to gain or the business linkages they want to make.
NEXT EVENT
Date : 19 October 2016
Venue : House of Pharoahs, 1 Gaunt Avenue, Randburg
Time : 17h30 for 18h00-21h30
Cost : R399,00 including VAT (Non-Members of Business Engage); R325,00 including VAT (Members of Business Engage)
RSVP : [email protected]
GUEST SPEAKER AND TABLE HOST 1 : MILES CRISP
B Com CTA Chartered Accountant (S.A.)
Miles is currently Group CEO of Tarsus Technologies Group, a private IT Distribution business serving the African region. Tarsus employs some 1300 people. He is also a Partner at Schuitema Consulting, a consultancy specializing in Care and Growth leadership development.
Prior to that Miles was CEO of SecureData Ltd, an Information Security company listed on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange before being acquired by Tarsus Technology Group in March 2014. Before that he was Group CEO of O’Keeffe & Swartz Consulting (Pty) Ltd, a group of enterprises employing some 800 people in the business of direct sales of simple insurance products to the public and related administrative services.
Miles was previously with Deloitte &; Touche (14 years) where he led various teams and initiatives, in South Africa and outside of South Africa. Miles was member of the Deloitte South Africa Exco for 5 years. He led his division in the EMEA region for 6 years.
Miles cut his teeth before then with a ten year stint at Anderson Rochussen Crisp, a professional practice that he co-founded.
Miles grew up in Harare, Zimbabwe and was a student for four years at Rhodes University.
Other hosts will be confirmed. Numbers are limited and seats are only confirmed once payment has been received.
Kind regards
Col
084-353-9865
www.womencorporatedirectors.com