AMBITION

“Ambition is the force that drives you to greatness. A goal is for a moment, ambition is for a monument.” - Terry Mante

BILL GATES (1955 - )

APRIL 4 1975 – Albuquerque, New Mexico; United States. At the founding of Microsoft, 19-year old Bill Gates declared that his company would place “a computer on every desk and in every home…” This audacious mission was conceived at a time when there was no sign that most people would even encounter a computer in their lives or find the need to even buy or own one.

At the time, Gates’ vision was a castle in the air. It was seen as a hallucination. However, decades later a computer on every desk is not a dream. It is an impending reality. In fact, the craze is now for a computer in the hands of every person, not on a desk or in a home but in the hands of people. Gates did not set out to become the wealthiest man in his generation; his focus was on becoming a significant person. He sought to influence how the world runs.

His quest for influence drove him to make tough choices and sacrifices – such as dropping out of Harvard; which implied denying himself a college degree. The quest for influence fuelled by hard work, passion and sacrifice led Bill Gates to build a formidable business enterprise and became one of the world’s wealthiest men.

THOMAS EDISON (1847 - 1931)
IN JANUARY 1894, a new page of entertainment opened to the world when the first motion picture was produced and received copyright. The film, titled Edison Kinetographic Record of a Sneeze featured a Thomas Edison worker Fred Ott sneezing. The film was produced by William Dickson, the associate who helped Edison to develop the kinetograph and the kinetoscope.

What Edison had in mind when he worked on the technology is marvelling. Hear him as he reflected on the future of motion pictures:

“I consider that the greatest mission of the motion picture is first to make people happy… to bring joy and cheer and wholesome good into this world of ours. And God knows we need it.

Second – to educate, elevate and inspire. I believe that motion picture is destined to revolutionise our educational system, and that in a few years it will supplant largely, if not entirely, the use of text books in our schools…
The education of the future, as I see it, will be conducted through the medium of the motion picture, a visualised education, where it should be possible to obtain a one-hundred per cent efficiency."

Edison wanted to see a more joyful, cheerful and wholesome world; a world where people are happy. He wanted the educational system to be more practical, useful and effective. He was not just interested in becoming a renowned inventor. More importantly, he wanted to achieve something great for the world, just like Gates.
So I ask you…

WHAT IS YOUR AMBITION?
YOU CANNOT have a significant life if you are not driven by a strong desire to be successful and achieve something great. What is driving your life? What great thing do you want to achieve with your life for the world? Why do you want to achieve something great?

Ambition is the force that drives you to greatness. If you want to be great, you need to be ambitious. Greatness is the means by which you make a statement in the world. Your greatness goes beyond your personal success. Your greatness is the representation of your life in the world.

Ambition is not the same as a goal. A goal is something that is rational and achievable within a short space of time. A goal may form part of ambition but ambition is far bigger than a goal. Whereas a goal is for a moment, ambition is for a monument – it is a lifetime commitment. It is a trans generational imprint.
Are you living just so that you can have a huge mansion, a fancy car or designer clothes? No! No! No! Have an ambition – a big one.

DREAM BIG. THINK BIG… IRRATIONALLY
ANYBODY who makes a difference dreams big. You will never be better than your dreams and your thoughts. If you want to be big in the world, you must think big. Dream big! You must rise above little things and let your thoughts be on superior values. Don’t just think; think BIG. Sometimes, rational thinking can limit your ambition and your greatness.

When Thomas Edison suggested to a young assistant that they make a pact not to sleep until they had found solution to a problem, the young assistant complained, “I have tried every reasonable thing I could think of, and no result. Not even a lead!” but Edison chuckled and said, “That’s where your trouble has been. You have tried only reasonable things, you’ll have to begin thinking up unreasonable things to try, and then you’ll hit the solution in no time.”

Don’t be afraid to think big. Dare to think even if there is no box. Be bold. Be ambitious!



© 2012 Terry Mante
PEDNET
Accra, Ghana

STEP BY STEP

“We don’t march forward by taking one huge hop. We do so by taking one step at a time. Big is the aggregation of many smalls.” - Terry Mante

BIG DREAMS AND SMALL TASKS
HAVE you got aspirations that seem bigger than you are? Do you have any destination in mind that appears to be very far? Do you feel that without a huge stash of cash, your ambitions will be impeded? Maybe so…

But if you look at things from a realistic perspective, your perception might change. We don’t march forward by taking one huge hop. We do so by taking one step at a time. Big is the aggregation of many smalls. A million dollars is additions of a million one dollar bills. An hour is the accumulation of sixty minutes. A colossal book like the encyclopaedia is written one word at a time.

You can accomplish your big ambitions if you decide to break them down into simple and small actionable tasks. Don’t wait for big things to happen before you proceed. Move on with the small things that are possible now with focus on the big things that must happen in the future. Small actions connect to produce big results.

PLANS AND PROCEDURES
BREAKING of big ambitions into small tasks must not be done haphazardly. It must be done according to plan and procedure. A plan helps you to figure out a detailed method for pursuing your goals even before you begin to move. If you have a plan, you are able to navigate your life steadily. A procedure helps you to know how to implement your plan. A procedure is the sequence you follow to execute your plan.

If your dream is really important to you, then don’t go ahead without a plan and a procedure. Having a plan and a procedure will enable you to have an eagle’s view of where you want to get to. They help you to move on the basis of knowledge instead of despair.

PATIENCE AND PERSISTENCE
WHEN you break big dreams into a series of small tasks, you are able to embark on a more purposeful pursuit. It makes you patient and persistent. You gain the fortitude to swim against the tide and endure waiting or delay without becoming upset. You learn to endure calmly even when difficulty stares you in the face.

The fact that there is a plan will help you to stay calm when you hit a brick wall. You will not surrender your great dreams to temporary obstacles. Persistence helps you to press through the tough portions of your plan.

POSITIVE ORIENTATION AND PERSPIRATION
YOUR dream may try to overwhelm you but don’t give up simply because you feel overwhelmed. You may not be lucky to have everything work in your favour but that is still not enough reason to cast off your great ideas. If you feel your dream is too big to materialise and you are tempted to give up, you can draw some inspiration from the heart of Thomas Alva Edison (1847-1931). Edison is credited with over a thousand inventions, some of which are the photocopier, microphone, motion picture and incandescent light bulb.

In response to a congratulatory message from one of his employees after pulling through the iron-nickel battery, Edison said:

“I do not believe in luck at all. And if there is such a thing as luck, then I must be the most unlucky fellow in the world. I’ve never once made a lucky strike all my life. When I get after something that I need, I start finding everything in the world that I don’t need – one… thing after another. I find ninety-nine things that I don’t need, and then comes number one hundred, and that – at the very last – turns out to be just what I had been looking for.”

If you are frustrated, don’t give up. Believe that at the very last, you will find just what you are looking for. Again Edison is noted for his intoxication with the idea that “Genius is one per cent inspiration, ninety-nine per cent perspiration.” And if you asked him about how he became that successful with his inventions, he would tell you, “Yes, sir (or madam), it’s mostly hard work.”

© 2012 Terry Mante
PEDNET
Accra, Ghana

ADJUSTMENT

“It is possible to intervene to make your life move in a direction that suits your desires and expectations.” - Terry Mante

WISHES are not horses. Many times, we find that our prevailing realities do not line up with our desired outcomes. If your life is not going the way you desire or expect, will you just put your hands on your head and wallow in a pity party? If your spouse is not happy because of a particular shoe, will you complain or change the shoe? If you desire to lose some weight but you find that you keep gaining more pounds, are you just going to be embarrassed or will you alter your regular lifestyle practices so you could achieve your desire?

You see, there is nothing in life that happens which is not made to happen. Things don’t just happen. If you don’t like how your life is moving, you can intervene to make it move in a direction that suits your desires and expectations. You can alter the circumstances of your life. For you to make those alterations, you must understand the concept of adjustment.

According to the Encarta World English Dictionary, adjustment refers to the act of making “a slight change intended to make something fit or function better.” Sometimes, the steps you need to take to make your life better may not be so big but they could be little actions that produce big results. Nevertheless, you have to learn to take those steps.

Adjustment is an imperative. It is extremely important and cannot be ignored. It is perhaps the only sensible and logical way to change undesirable outcomes in your life. If you don’t learn to adjust, you cannot change your life.

As important as adjustment is, it must be deliberately engineered. Adjustment is an alternative course of action that is pursued to make a desire become real. If you throw a pity party after a bad business deal, it will not necessarily lead you out of indebtedness. Merely wishing that the next semester will produce better grades will not change the grades for you. There has to be a carefully crafted strategy that will help you to achieve the outcome you desire.

In making adjustment, you have to be careful not to allow the status quo to get in your way. Don’t permit the usual to bar you. The purpose of adjustment is to produce new results. New results come when you do things you have never done before. Thus if you are adjusting, you are displacing some current practices with new practices. It implies you are creating new experiences; you are doing things you have never done before. Adjustment requires shifting your paradigm.

Adjustment is a tough call. It is not done lightly. It may be contrary to your senses. It may be unreasonable. But you must see the need to amend your ways. The price may be high but the value could be priceless. You have to be able to defy your senses to make the adjustment necessary for you to reach where you want to be. You have to be willing and ready to resign from your comfort zone. Delivering the keynote address, Anthony Cudjoe remarked at DECISION that “Comfort is the enemy of significance.” You can’t have a significant life if you are not ready to swim against the tide.

If you want to see a change in your life, you must be prepared to make changes. You must live as if you are an engineer. You must design, plan and construct your life. At any point in time, if you don’t like something about the condition of your life, make a move. Initiate a new process and effect a change.

© 2011 Terry Mante
PEDNET
Accra, Ghana