Wednesday, February 18, 2015

Who is in charge of your destiny

So recently I read this article and I was totally appalled. For those of you who do not want to read it, I will summarize it for you. The author is basically complaining that he is not revered, and has thus not prospered, despite being above 65% of people in his skills, knowledge and integrity. He attributes this to the fact that with the majority of people being mediocre (in a place he calls the safe middle – 40% to 60%), they prefer to expend their energy on ridiculing him and trying to pull him down to their level so as to feel good about themselves. He was prompted to cry out when @cobbo3, a person he thinks is enlightened and sophisticated, made some comments that seemed to suggest he agreed with the status the world accorded @TimKalyegira. The thing that really got me was when he claims he has been denied so many opportunities that others less talented or less educated or less innovative than him are getting.

I am a big fan of football and many times people have used the expression the table does not lie. This is in reference to the league table and the fact that every team deserves to be where they are in the table at that time. So that guy @TimKalyegira is suffering because he chose a certain path. Other people chose a different path and it worked out for them. He cannot seriously expect the rest of the world to lift a finger to make things work out for him just because they recognize his excellence. We are all trying to get ahead, so it is only logical that some of our actions in trying to get ahead end up pulling others down.

Think about a mid-table team. No real prospects of continental football and no danger of being relegated. According to @TimKalyegira, when that team plays a team fighting for the title, they should simply lay down and loose the game. If that team, because of a natural desire not to loose, actually goes ahead and wins that game or even just gets a draw (night mares of @CPFC vs @LFC in 2013/2014 season), then @TimKalyegira sees that as the mediocre hating on the exceptional.

I consider it the height of arrogance when people insinuate that the world owes them something. I think @TimKalyegira is being self-centered when he asserts that the world should accord him a status higher than where he finds himself. Rather than wait for the world to accord him status, I think @TimKalyegira should take inspiration from other exceptional people, like Steve Jobs and Albert Einstein, and actually take action that will force the world to accord him his desired status. Nearer to home, @KagutaMuseveni went to the bush to ensure he was where he felt he deserved to be (all that other stuff about doing it for the good of Ugandans is hogwash in my view).


We are all selfish beings. We all expend a lot of energy to get to selfish ends. The sooner we realize that our neighbor is just trying to make it better for himself, rather than worse for us, the sooner we shall adjust our strategies to create win-win situations that will make other people our engines, helping us to get to where we want to be; rather than our anchors, slowing us down.

No comments: