This seems to be a blog post I started sometime last year...and since the book I am reading is right up this alley I think I just might finish it today...........Okay so the other day I was packing lunch in the wee hours of morning - lets say 5:45 - yeah the perils of a morning shift and as I had the cars rush past - yeah my house is like right near the road it hit me wow I am as good as the workers in the industrial revolution.... I have become number one fan of Seth Godin -subscribe to his blog follow him on you tube, twirrer you name it.... he is one of the best inspirational speakers of this century - esp on matters that are enterprenural related.so anyhu...Seth - yeah am on first name basis is on a quest to get peopls mindset away from the industrial revolution mindset and realize *in a flavor Flave accent "What time it is!!!So anyway back to my little morning prep so as I got ready I begun thinking of how Seth talks of the era of industrialization was characterized by mass production of the same good, people doing the same routine only with specialized tasks (read as job description) and as I packed my lunch this morning and heard the cars zoom by as people went to work I had a Seth lightbulb go off.I instantly remembered the days going to primo stuck in traffic on Mbagathi road and crowds of people from Kibera would walk past in groups going to Industrial area to look for a days pay for a days work doing menial labor for minimum wage.It hit me that right there defines the age of the industrial revolution where hoards and hoards of workers would go to the industries work from dawn to dusk and get cash money at the end of the day.You dont show up you dont get paid simple...So anyhu for me I feel that so many of us are industrial workers and yet we do not even know it...I think thats a reason I LOATHE punching in and out of work - it reminds me that I am working on a clock if I dont punch in I dont get paid.I remember the first time I went to Six Flags with my good friend Priscie and I told her "wow I would love to be one of these people running the machines. it seems like such a fun job," and she told me "yeah but after a while I think it gets monotonous you doing the same thing over and over again - strapping people in giving a smile and saying enjoy your ride over and over again..." I think my gal Priscie figured it out long time ago - I see on her Linkedin she is the founder of a food retail company...ok I am sooo digressing let me get back in focus...where was I yes....so what was I saying there was a friend of mine we went to college together after high school well one semester before we both dropped out (yup my name is Penny and I am / was a college dropout) yes we both dint finish the CPA course...so anyway the other day I saw he mad the top 30 under 30 enterprenuers in Kenya he started an online financial advising service called Pesa Talk.So I checked out the webpage - you can check it out here http://pesatalk.com/ and damn the brother has done over and above what school taught him. And this is one of the two prinicipals I will touch on....The first is seeking job creation as opposed to job description.I feel a description limits us in terms of the things we can do and limits our going over and above anything we set out to do....And that is why in so many "work" places especially in this great nation of America I often hear the phrase "Its not my job" and trust me that makes me want to gag!!Reminds me of the British sitcom Whose Line is it anyway? Why limit yourself to just that little cubicle and computer you have been assigned to?My family was in the States for six months and one thing my mum said is that the American system can/ has made you people zuzuz i.e dumb lol(said with love) .Reason being there are "jobs" left right center you go to Mc Donalds we are hiring you go to Macys we are hiring and guess what you will get hired to do the same thing that Mr X who was fired last month was doing...and as long as we have "jobs" we get comfortable as long as we are paying our bills we are comfortable forgetting that The world has changed Governor!!One of Seths quotes from his book Linchpin is once someone is hired and given their description the presumption is " follow these instructions and you dont have to think.Do your job and you dont have to be responsible for your actions.In every corporation in every country in the world people are waiting to be told what to do..."
However for me I think The difference between here and Africa is that jobs are not handed to you on a silver platter instead there are "opportunities for job creation" - startup companies are everywhere - people are using the little they have to trade (read as Soko Kuu) , invest in the stock market...So anyway I can go on and on and on but I think we are living in a society / world where things are changing so rapidly - where knowledge can be deemed useless unless applied to figuring things out and creating new ideas and inventions that can change people lives.And the interesting thing is that we are all born with this innate ability to be curious - dont you remember as a little child how you would crawl into things open things - want to know whats inside this box but as we grow older society has a way of "tricking" us - for lack of a better word into conforming to the status quo by giving us a map - do this, go to college, graduate get a job settle down and just be quiet in your role....However I can say with full confidence that the changing world belongs to those who are not waiting to be handed a road map by anyone - but instead are braving their own paths that others may follow.Those creating new projects - like the Chariots of Destiny Adopt a chair project - brilliant idea to raise funds to donate a wheelchair to a disabled person each month.(mini sales pitch)..Okay thats my welcome 2013 blog post with a bang as you can see...I hope its not a blog post thats made you go like huh whats all this???
One of my fav quotes from the amazing book I am reading
Stand up and be remarkable.Be human.Contribute.Interact.Take the risk that you might make someone upset with your initiative , innovation and insight - turns out you may probably delight them instead.
No comments:
Post a Comment