My acquaintances and I debate fiercely about a perspective I strongly hold on the definition of success. My definition of success derives from or is informed by the dual-context of the history of our country as well as the formidable challenges our society currently faces.
Among the conventional theories that are peddled by people about success is that success, like beauty in the age-old fable, is in the eyes of the beholder. As I have intimated already in the opening line, I do not agree with that view at all. My approach is that society has to have its standards that it uses to guide and encourage successful behaviour in its people.
I recognise a lot of the anti-social behaviour in our people today as being a result of ignorance and the general poverty created by decades of institutionalised racism. But I am also aware that there is a type among our people that celebrates mediocrity and will do everything in its power to take our society with it on its path to nowhere.
We do not need to be historians to know how much pain went into creating the modern, democratic South Africa. And we also do not need to be experts of any kind to appreciate the risks and uncertainties our society still has to negotiate. The one mistake we dare not make is to allow the development of a culture in our society where nobody takes responsibility for production but everybody insists upon their right to consume.
Our freedom was founded on the principles of discipline, self-sacrifice and substance. It will take nothing less from us to advance the course and achieve its historical goal. Steve Biko said the following about freedom:” Freedom is the ability to define oneself with one’s possibilities held back not by the power of other people over one but only by one’s relationship to God and to natural surroundings.”
The new lifestyle where people divorce their own parents, desert their own neighbourhoods and practically deny their own identities so that they can look better than they really are is both deplorable and dangerous. Poverty is a problem that is going to be part of our lives in this country for a very long time. We need quality plans and strategies to deal with it. We cannot afford the mass masking and masquerading currently taking place. We must reject utterly the sub-culture of people living in ill-affordable luxury when their parents are homeless and hungry. We must reject unequivocally the sub-culture of criminals and other sorts wanting us to celebrate their material possessions without the details of how they came to own them.
Thanks to the sacrifices made by generations and generations of our people, freedom has come to our country and with it the space to apply individual ingenuity to the challenges of our lives. I am not suggesting, by any stretch of the imagination, that everything that was difficult or wrong has become simple or right.
On the contrary, my personal experiences in Moletlane in Zebediela, Khutsong in Carletonville, Kokosi in Fochville and Kanana in Orkney, to name a few places of my familiarity, demonstrate that there are still many serious challenges that make it difficult for the custodians of the future of our country, our youth, to impose themselves upon life and manifest their full potential. But the truth is that conditions have improved significantly from what they used to be. What we need to do is to identify and effectively exploit the available opportunities.
It was the consummate soldier and leader Chris Hani who said the following words of wisdom: “As a soldier, you cannot wait for an opportunity to shoot. You must create the opportunity to shoot and take it immediately when you have it.”
Something dangerous that I sometimes notice among our people in the context of the need to exploit and extend the benefits of our liberty is the tendency towards self-glorification and false heroism. Life teaches us that the first step towards self-reform is self-criticism. It will be extremely difficult for the formerly marginalised people of our country to make any headway if they are not willing to engage in the process of meaningful self-criticism in order to analyse and plan their lives. Self-criticism is neither self-hate nor self-denial. It is a tool used to take stock of your performance, identify shortcomings, make corrections, forgive yourself and return to the road.
Our capacity to look ourselves square in the eyes and answer tough questions about our own performances instead of complaining endlessly about the conduct of those we know to be our adversaries will determine the success or failure of our poverty alleviation project. Our adversaries benefit from our incompetence and their interests would be hurt by our empowerment.
We will only be able to deal effectively with poverty in its many manifestations if we find within ourselves the desire and courage to raise the performance bar. Currently we are slanting more in the direction of trying to corrupt the definition of success so that we can achieve it without having either a plan or making an effort.
I believe in a society where responsibility is kept high so that risk can remain low. The lower the responsibility we allow individuals and institutions to take, the higher the risk we force the collective society to take. If indeed that is the way we want to produce our new heroes, then I am sure I do not want to be a hero.
Gibson Sakong
Executive Chairman – Montshepetja Academy
1 Comments until now.
SUCCESS IS MORE THAN REACHING GOALS, ACCORDING TO MY INTERPRETATION OF THE TERM. TO MOST OF US SUCCESS IS REACHING YOUR GOALS AND OBJECTIVES, TO SOME IT IS BUYING YOUR MERCEDS BENZ, BMW AND LIVE IN A MANSION NEXT TO THE COAST. THIS IS TO ME VERY WRONG AND SENSELESS.
SUCCESS COMES FROM THE MAKE OF YOUR ACHIEVEMENTS AND THE SIGNIFICANCE OF YOUR ACHIEVEMENTS. IF YOUR ACHIEVEMENTS ARE WHAT IS NORMATIVELY REFERRED TO AS CRIME AND SO FORTH OF THE KIND, YOU AREE NOT SUCCESSFUL AND IF YOU ARE NORMATIVELY SUCCESSFUL, BUT RESERVING ALL THE SUCCESS FOR YOURSELF YOUR SUCCESS TURNS TO GREED AND DISPONDANCE. HIGHLIGHT IN THIS COMMENT IS NEGATIVE AND THAT IS BECAUSE PEOPLE WE MOSTLY REFER TO AS SUCCESSFUL ARE OF THE ABOVE-MENTIONED CHARACTERISTICS.
IF WE TURN AWAY FROM THE INTRA-SPECIFIC SUCCESS THEORIES AND PRACTICES WE ARE MORE LIKELY TO ATTAIN, IF NOT CREATE, SOCIETIES WITH POSITIVELY SUCCESSFUL PEOPLE AND ULTIMATELY A COUNTRY DERIVED FROM OUR SOCIETIES. AS A MATTER OF FACT A REASON WHY OUR SUCCESSFUL PEOPLE ARE OF NO USE IS BE CAUSE OUR SOCIETIES ARE DERIVED FROM OUR COUNTRY, THAT IS WRONG.
THE SMALL PARTS OF A CAR ARE THE DETERMINANTS OF THE BIG CAR, AND IN TURN THE BIG CAR DETERMINES THE USE OF THE SIGNIFICANCE OF THOSE PARTS, THE SMALL PARTS MAKE THE BIG CAR DETERMINE THE PERFOMANCE OF THE CAR AS A WHOLE. OUR SOCIETIES ARE THE SMALL PARTS AND OUR COUNTRY IS THE BIG CAR.
LET US MAKE OUR COUNTRY WHAT WE WANT IT TO BE AND THAT WILL ONLY HAPPEN IF OUR SUCCESSFUL PEOPLE ARE THERE FOR THE COUNTRY THROUGH OUR SOCIETIES.
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