We’re in the twilight of 2015. Motivational experts suggest that at this point we should work even harder so as to finish the year strong. Truth be told, most of us have given up on whatever targets we had set ourselves at the beginning of the year and are already planning for 2016. Midway through 2016 we will give up and wait for 2017. I want to take this advice from motivational experts seriously. We’re roughly three weeks away from 2016, and I’m not wasting the three weeks. Every day for me will present a new beginning. So, there is a lot to be achieved on my plate before the end of the year.
There is always a need to improve things, to improve ourselves, and to improve our processes, and we are orientated to use time marks on when to initiate these changes. For example, beginning of a New Year or quarter or decade would be used as a start off point to roll out whatever changes people want to effect. For me, that time marker will be every waking day. Think simply. Think entrepreneurially. To get the ball rolling, allow me to share a few illustrative scenarios.
A friend of mine works in Gaborone and he really fancies standard Setswana cuisine; pap and pound beef (seswaa) and mokwetjepe (Boiled beef cuts mixed with offals) with fat cakes. Now, there was this restaurant which he liked very much in his business district. It was a mid-level restaurant with beautiful décor and nice ambience. He had all his meals there; breakfast, lunch and sometimes hung around for a drink and a light meal after work. The downside, the restaurant only served continental cuisine. It came to a point where patrons of the restaurant bought mokwetjepe and fat cakes from the enterprising vendor downstairs because they had had enough of lasagna, and went back upstairs to continue with their cocktail drinks and dance to the sophisticated House music.
My friend had once made suggestions to the restauranteur to include what the vendor was serving on the menu, sprinkle a bit of parsley on it, triple the price, and ‘bon appetit’. But, no, rather, the restauranteur found ways of getting rid of the vendor downstairs. As Gaborone and Francistown City Councils would ably tell you, you just cannot get rid of vendors. It’s hands down impossible. Guess who ended up closing shop? The restaurant of course.
I have a good number of friends who are practicing theatre artists. They decry tough conditions in their sector: lack of sponsorship support from the corporate sector, theatre audiences not buying show tickets fast enough, etcetera. I argued in the contrary that the City of Gaborone, at least, has a sizeable theatre audience. There was an age when Maitisong Arts Festival presented sold out shows. There are shows which have run at the same theatre for an excess of six weeks, funded by the same corporate sector, and they were sold out.
So, don’t pause and say you will start out strong in January. Salvage whatever can be salvaged in the remaining three weeks. Bill Gates says he never took time off between ages 20 and 30. So, work at that dream, don’t give the pursuit of it a break. What you should keep adjusting should only be your strategy as you learn every day and establish what works and what doesn’t. And don’t wait until the beginning of the year, quarter, or week. Start now.