It's Not Over Yet!

Kentucky Fried Kitchen - KFC. It used to be called Sanders’ Café, a modest gas station kitchen in Kentucky. Sanders’ Café was the baby of Harland Sanders. When his business was burnt into flames by fire, his resilience was brought to bear. He rebuilt the spot with a hotel and a restaurant that became extremely popular with travellers – until a new interstate highway diverted traffic away. Then in his 50s, Sanders hung up his apron and prepared for retirement; but he did not retire in his retirement. For Sanders, retirement is just another phase of active living. In this new life, he armed himself with confidence; that there was a larger market for his secret-recipe chicken. He set out selling it to restaurant owners door-to-door. The uniqueness of the KFC-Sanders’ story is embedded in how the successful fast-food chain made the quick leap from homegrown restaurant to international franchise.

SANDERS’ RETIREMENT EXCUSES

Harland Sanders had every reason to go to bed. First, fire outbreak. When his first business was doing quite well, fire set in. The fire interrupted everything and brought the business to a standstill. But Sanders did not standstill. Instead, he stood up and bounced back stronger; this time building a full-blown restaurant and a hotel.

If your landlord ejects you, what will you do? If you get fired, what will be your line of action? If you lose your parents who have been your lifelong benefactors, will that be the end of your life? If you graduate from college without a job, how will you respond to such a scenario? When you are kissed by a misfortune, it should not be the beginning of the end. You must see it as the beginning of a new and purposeful life. An unemployed graduate should not sit down with their arms in the air simply because nobody is willing to employ them. If your landlord serves you eviction notice, it may be an indication for you to consider owning your own house through outright purchase, new construction or mortgage. When your employer disengages you, it does not necessarily mean you should be out of job. It may be an unequivocal announcement for you to get entrepreneurial and start your own business. Don’t stop when the unexpected happens; press on.

Sanders had another reason to declare the finality of his venture when the new interstate highway diverted traffic away from his base. He could have blamed the metropolitan authorities. “Things were going fine until the new road was constructed,” he could have said. “If I had not been sick, I would have passed my exam,” some of you would say. “I would have been better off if I had come from a good background.” Yes, certain things that are outside your control have derailed you. But you can move on. Sanders moved on when his business began to ebb. And he did so big time!

IT’S NOT TOO LATE

Many people will not start a new enterprise after a major flop especially when they are advanced in years. For Sanders, age could not bar him. He started his franchise business in his 50s. Yes, you may be late but you can catch up. You didn’t begin early but you can start. You may be behind time but you are not behind life. This may be November but the year is not over yet.

In 2006, when J. H. Mensah appeared before the Appointments Committee of Ghana’s Parliament to be assessed for a cabinet role, a member of the committee raised concerns about his age. The octogenarian remarked that, once he still had strength and life, he will not retire from politics. Even if he was not a minister of state, he would continue to function as a politician. J. H. Mensah would not allow his age to dictate the direction of his life. You don’t have to give up simply because ‘time is not on your side.’ If you are not attaining your personal goals timely, it doesn’t mean you should abandon them. You are not too old to upgrade your educational status. It’s not too late to get married. You still have life ahead of you. Live it!

Guess what! At age 87, somebody appeared before the United States House of Representatives to testify against compulsory retirement. Who was that? Harland Sanders.

You are as late as you think. You are as defeated as you interpret situations. You are as successful as you decide to be. Even if you are 50, you can go back to school, you can find a suitable partner, you can realise your dreams.

FROM SUCCESS TO SIGNIFICANCE

If you can't feed a hundred people, then feed just one. - Mother Teresa of Calcutta

CALCUTTA IS the capital of West Bengal state and one of India’s largest cities. In this city lived a woman who was well-known and highly-respected, both within India and across the globe. She was not known to be rich but she made a lot of impact; Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu (1910-1997)! You probably know her as Mother Teresa. From 1948 until her death in 1997, the Albanian-born nun devoted her life to helping the poor and the sick of Calcutta and other parts of India and the world at large. She founded Missionaries of Charities and opened shelter for dying people. Teresa lived for the under-privileged in society. Her life counted for the worn out, weak and weary. She was not wealthy but her life brought a wealth of hope, joy and inner peace to millions of people.

Now you! How will your story be told when the time comes? What meaning have you ascribed to your life? Are you just living to be successful? Success means getting what you desire out of life. So if a politician desires to win an election and goes on to win, that could be described as success. A student who passes an examination may be described as successful. But you see, the problem with success is that it is too narrow – if not selfish.

More than becoming successful, we’ve got to make our lives count. We must aspire to be significant. Instead of seeing the world in terms of what we can get, we must see the world in terms of what we can give; how many people we can touch. I see Ben Franklin’s reflection that "I would rather have it said 'he lived usefully' than 'he died rich'" apt and witty. More than just words, it was the way Franklin lived his life. One example of his useful nature was the invention of the Franklin stove. Instead of patenting it and keeping it to himself, Ben Franklin decided to share his invention with the world. Leadership expert John Maxwell also posits that, “If you are giving, loving, serving, helping, encouraging, and adding value to others, then you're living a life that counts!” A life that counts is a significant one that flows into the lives of others.

We can all become significant in various ways. Here are three brief pointers on becoming significant.

• Discover your purpose. No one is on earth just to wander about or to add up to the numbers. We all have an assignment to fulfil, an answer to a question, a solution to a problem and a provision for a need. Every person on the face of the earth has a contribution to make. We make that contribution when we fulfil our purpose. Discovering and fulfilling our purpose is the vehicle by which we impact our world and add value to other lives.

• Develop your talent. A talent is an inborn ability that inclines us to perform certain tasks without necessarily being taught. To be able serve people with your talent effectively, you must find ways to sharpen it. This can be done via reading, regular engagement, mentorship and collaboration.

• Deploy yourself. You make great impact when you step out with confidence in what God has given you. If you don’t step out you can’t give out. Decide to release yourself unto your generation and you will have moved beyond success to significance.

Significance is attained when we allow what is inside us to come out to benefit others. Nelson Mandela’s conviction that South Africa could be free led him to fight for his country’s liberation. Thomas Edison’s quest for significance ushered us into the modern age of electricity. Jesus Christ’s passion for significance led Him to sacrifice to attain redemption for the entire human race. Those guys who offer assistance when the traffic light breaks down are expressing their significance through public spiritedness. Success is good but it is largely personal and could get selfish. Significance, on the other hand, goes beyond success and is driven by the public good and it is selfless. It is better to be significant than to be successful. Success is great but we need to share our success with the world in order to be significant.

© 2010 Terry Mante
Accra, Ghana

CHILDISH POLITICS

The first shock I experienced in my Politcal Science class at Legon sprang from the explanation J. R. A. Ayee rendered about the essence of politics. The respected professor of Public Administration stressed that politics offers a mechanism through which ideas are exchanged and decisions that serve the interest of the wider community are made.
I’m convinced that many Ghanaian politicians do not know this. To them, politics is about winning elections. It’s about denigrating opponents. It’s about opposing policies simply because they are being professed by other political parties. Why do I say so? The facts will speak for themselves.
In the late 1990s, government of Ghana under the leadership of Jerry Rawlings made a decision to purchase a Gulfstream to facilitate the travels of the president and other officials of government. Hell broke lose! “Ghanaians are hungry,” “This is not a priority,” “The President doesn’t care about the masses,” “The government is insensitive,” “Why should we buy a jet when people are hungry?” These were some of the statements made by the opponents of the Rawlings administration. Guess what! A few years later, these opponents found themselves in power under John Kufuor. President Kufuor never used the aircraft and eventually traded it away for some military equipment from Russia. Oh la laa! At the tail end of Kufuor’s government, his government also made an order for two (not one) aircrafts for executive use. On this occasion, Kufuor and his people argued that the jet would facilitate executive travels. Rawlings and his NDC colleagues barked at Kufuor and his men that they were being ostentatious and insensitive to the concerns of ordinary Ghanaians. Now NDC gets back to power and realising that executive travel is hampered by the lack of a presidential jet, they are arguing in favour of one of the aircrafts Kufuor ordered. This is what I call 180⁰ politics. It is politics that is not premised on the objective principles of human development but it is characterised by power-centeredness, geocentricism and narrow-mindedness.
Look at the economy. Kufuor’s government prided itself with macroeconomic stability; reduced inflation, relatively stable currency, lower interest rates, on and on. And what did the NDC folks say? “It does not reflect in our pockets,” I recall. NDC wins elections under John Mills. Almost 18 months down the road and the NDC boys are singing the same macroeconomic song Kufuor and his boys sang when they were in power. And today, Kufuor’s boys and girls are saying, “Ghanaians can’t feel it.” Is this a situation of same script different casts? Is it a game of musical chairs? Do these guys know what they are about? I’ll keep my answers to myself.
In Ghana when a politician says something that is below the belt, we hear things like, “Oh don’t mind him he’s just doing politics.” Is politics about making despicable statements? If a President comes out to accuse someone for plotting to overthrow him without any substantiation, should we brush it aside and say “it’s politics.” Why can’t we say that improving the economy, expanding educational opportunities as well as facilities, making healthcare delivery mechanisms efficient are the real politics? Is road construction not politics? What about water, electricity, human rights, security, etc? Are these not the real issues of politics? Why then is it that when we are dealing with issues of national interest, we make statements like “Let’s not politicise the issue,” “This is a national issue, let’s not do politics with it.” In the light of these statements, I ask, “What is politics?” Does it mean that politics is about making irresponsible statements, lying to the electorate, ignoring our intellectual capabilities? I guess I’ll need a politician to explain it to me. I don’t see what my professor taught me in the class room being practised on Ghana’s political platform. Or is there a difference between textbook politics and field politics?
Did I hear the NPP parliamentarians demand that the erstwhile Kufuor administration should be given credit by the Mills government for projects executed by Kufuor when he was in office? And oh! The Information Minister comes out to say that, “we will not give you any credit because when you were in power, you also did not give Rawlings any credit.” Woaa hwe! This is how we used to behave when we were in lower primary; “If you don’t give me some of the groundnut, I won’t let you ride my bicycle.”
There is the need for a new paradigm. Somebody must teach our politicians that politics is not about bickering or winning elections but it’s a tool for fulfilling our national aspirations.

OH! ELLEN

3:36am on Tuesday January 26, 2010. I was just about retiring to bed when I heard a BBC report about Liberian President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf’s intention to run for a second presidential term. I have always been a great fun of Johnson-Sirleaf but this particular report troubled me. “Why,” one may ask.

By that report, Ellen has settled into the mould of a typical politician. The same BBC did a playback of November 2005 campaign address in which the Liberian leader unequivocally remarked that she was not interested in a two-term presidency. And now in 2010, she says something that goes like, “I know where the country is, where we need to go and how we can get there.” Yes, it may be true that with the benefit of experience, she has a better appreciation of the issues confronting the nation. But my question is, “Didn’t she campaign with an agenda?” If she did, it is my unsolicited view that she should just focus on that and bow out gracefully.

Why are politicians (especially those in Africa) like that? Is Ellen saying that she wants to solve all of Liberia’s problems? She campaigned with a one-term message and now that she’s got it, she wants another. And hey, don’t get me wrong. It is her constitutional right to seek re-election but my beef is in the betrayal of faith. She should either rescind her decision and stick to her pre-election promise or apologise to the Liberian electorate.

After a 14-year civil war, Liberia does not deserve 180-degree leadership; leadership that says one thing and do the other. If President Johnson-Sirleaf really wants to serve the Liberian people, she could continue to do so when she leaves office. Here, I have to mention Nelson Mandela. After a first term presidency which was characterised by good governance and gracious leadership, Mandela still had enough grace to step down – even when the ANC and the South African electorate wanted him to stay on. Mandela gave up power. And he is an idol, the most respected African.

Politics is a noble endeavour but the likes of Mugabe, Bongo, Tanja, Eyadema and to some extent Kufuor (remember the ex gratia saga?), Sirleaf and Obasanjo (hope you haven’t forgotten his failed attempt to amend the constitution) make it ignoble. African leaders must give their people the best. They should show Africans some respect and stick to their word. Our leaders seem to have solutions to all our problems when they are in opposition, they forget the problems when they get the power and when they are supposed to step down, they all of a sudden remember the problems. Oh my!

Why is it so difficult for them to step down? Is it because of the chop chop? What happened to all the governance lectures they receive at Harvard (that’s where Ellen schooled) Oxford (Kufuor), etc? Barbara, a colleague in my MBA class said that “Whatever is there that keeps them in power must be sweet.” Sweet indeed!

Ellen must come clean and treat the good people of Liberia with some respect; Apologise and move on or step down when her first term ends.