Suddenly it happens,
after overcoming obstacle after obstacle, we come falling down and hit the dirt to taste reality. Achieving our goal
won't be as easy as we thought. As the dawn of reality sets in, it's easy to see
why many projects seem too daunting and are left unfinished. The passion, drive,
and overall enthusiasm gives way to stress, fear and sometimes depression.
"Why won't this just work?!" we ask ourselves, as the world seems set
on keeping us down with each added task to our list of growing to do's.
What we don't
realise is that this is part of the process, and that these obstacles aren't what
they seem to be, road blocks. They are in fact clear markers for navigating to what
we have set out to accomplish. More like sign posts or foot holds. Looking at every journey
we embark on, A-Z, we can be overwhelmed by the sheer distance we need to cover
to get to our destination. What if we just look at A-B and forget the
rest, what about B-C? It's all about framing and perspective, so make it work
for you not against you, which is our natural tendency. Here is another question, did you ever think you could just hope straight from A directly to Z? I hope not, we need to accept that there is always going to be ground to cover to get us from where we are now to where we want to be. So be thankful if you are facing new challenges, these serve as street lamps on what would have been a very dark and arduous journey.
"Nothing
worthwhile ever happens quickly and easily. You achieve only as you are
determined to achieve… and as you keep at it until you have achieved"
-Robert H. Lauer
So now if we think
about the difficulty of the task, and the time it will take to achieve it as a
sign that what we are trying to accomplish is in fact worthwhile, how do we
feel? I'm pretty excited.
Enter the 4 P's of
entrepreneurship Patience, Persistence, Perseverance and Passion.
We need patience
because MOST things don't happen overnight like all of the success stories in
the media would have us believe. There needs to be a willingness to accept when
we mess up, and to accept every added challenge we are given. Look at it more like
"don't put your foot here" and "this is a possible place to put
your foot" respectively. Need I remind you how many light bulbs Edison
designed before getting it right?
We need persistence
and perseverance because we often won't get it right the first time.
Persistence and Perseverance are the equivalent of being willing to go through
the process of re-evaluating our decisions and actions. It's all part of the
cycle in taking that next step to our final destination. This definitely does
not mean charge ahead blindly, it means learning from our mistakes and
successes. We need to do more of what works and less of what doesn't. Looking
at our journey this way makes it a much more rewarding experience. "Look
at all I have learned" instead of "look at how much I've messed
up".
Finally we need that
passion. It's unlikely that we will be passionate all of the time. We need to
think back to the early days of our journey, our why. It helps down to write
down your original vision so you don't lose track of what you're working for, and
always add to it. Re-visiting this often will keep you on track and full of the
grit needed. Don't just read it, visualize yourself in a world where you're
living your vision. Play a song that really gets you pumped up, close your eyes
and see it. What does it look like? How do you feel? How has the lives of your
customers changed? How has the world changed? Who are you to stop this from
happening? If you don't make this happen who will? Now look at A-B, what is it
in the scheme of things now?
Stay present, focus
on what is directly in front of you, laugh at every challenge you're given with acceptance as you realise these are just getting you closer to your goal. Remember no mountain has ever been too tall, no ocean too wide, to stop our
species from achieving our dreams. Now let me see your war face!
Once
we have our vision it's time to start thinking about how much time and what
sort of skills will be needed to achieve it. While it may be fun to
think we can just learn up on a skill to avoid the need for asking for help,
the truth is that achieving any goal is going to require you to interface at
some point with another person. It is much easier to make progress by finding
the right people who want to help, and recruiting them. They could be friends,
family, or similarly minded people at a meetup, so long
as they share you vision, have an interest in helping, and relative skills and
or experience.
Before
you actually invite them on board you need to ensure they are the right person
for the job. People, especially myself, get caught up in the excitement of our
project and end up recruiting anyone that wants to help. Unfortunately what
this means, is that you run the risk of setting up obstacles for yourself in
the future. Recently I had to ask my vice-president to resign from the board,
we had a conflicting vision on how to move forward with the project. Asking for
his resignation was a very painful process but was required for progress, and
worse, it was completely avoidable! Had I calmed down during our first meeting,
I would have realized the value he saw in this project was vastly different to
mine and the rest of the members.
So how
can you avoid this problem? Communication! While we all want progress, making
sure we are progressing in the right direction is imperative. A failure to
communicate properly could lead to doing a lot of backtracking. Ask potential
board/committee members how they view this project, or why they think it's
important and see if their views match up with yours. In addition you want
people who want to help, or in a single word, have initiative. Trying to chase
up everyone to see how they are going with progress should not be required
unless your tasks rely on the progress made with their tasks. Our time is
limited and so wasting precious hours trying to get a hold of people who don't
have a keen interest in seeing things progress should not be tolerated.
Lastly,
we will come across people who will want to help, have initiative but may not
have the relevant skills to help you make the progress you need. This doesn't
mean they can't help, but when running a company or board, less is more. There
is nothing from stopping you getting them to help from time to time, but when
it comes to making decisions, you want people who are either agreeing with you
or are being objective about things from an experience/skills context, not
because they are excited about the same things you are. That is your job as the
leader to spread the excitement!
Be
patient, getting things right the first time will save you a lot of pain in the
future. This doesn't mean to be hesitant, follow your gut when it comes to this
process and over time your intuition will evolve into a valuable asset!
We all have them; ideas, dreams, visions. After we have our grand vision like the ark for Noah, where do we go from there? We'll lets take Noah for example. He put pen to paper (Quill, charcoal, I don't know I wasn't there), and started to draw it out. Then he enlisted the help of those around them in the construction of his vision and presto, life on earth was saved!
Unfortunately, in modern times, going from vision, to planning, to execution is not as simple as badabing badaboom.
Noah didn't have to worry about validating his vision to his peers and the public.
Noah didn't have to worry about the pain of bureaucracy from his team, and other key partners
Noah didn't have to worry about raising venture capital.
Noah didn't have to....
Unfortunately we rarely hear about the trials and tribulation of the successful entrepreneur today. This can lead to people becoming disheartened after hitting the first obstacle.
I'm a serial "failer" in that I have tried and failed numerous times with a variety of projects and in life in general, but perhaps that is for another blog post.
Initially I would have a vision or a drive to complete a certain project, but unfortunately it wouldn't go much further than that. These ideas would just sit in my head, pop up in conversation and rinse and repeat until they were lost. It wasn't until I was trying to draw up dimensions for a desk I was designing did I realize the power of putting pen to paper. Even easier is using a note taking application like Evernote to quickly capture your ideas. The other great thing about writing down your ideas is that you can re-visit them and alter them. When you only use your brain, we spend so much energy recalling the idea, that we aren't able to add to them. We also run the risk of forgetting parts of the idea and this associates a negative feeling to the idea because it's now an incomplete representation of what it once was. So write them DOWN.
The other great thing about having a notebook full of your ideas, is that it empties your head of the random ideas that fill it. The first idea I had was to start selling custom electronic cigarette juices, the next idea was collapsible high heels. While there wasn't much similarity between these two projects, over time, emptying my mind of these random ideas started leaving room for new ideas that were more focused around what I am passionate about. Sharing the understanding and appreciation for life I have gained through Science to the rest of the world.
The final thing I want to talk about involving your "visions", is food for thought. Having a notebook that you can look back on, filled with your ideas is a great resource to turn to in a time of need or during a block. Often the obstacle that we face in a current project only requires a change in perception to overcome, observing the problem in a different way. Having a notebook with your ideas in it will link you back to the need that inspired those ideas as well as any headway you made on them. It is doubtful that we would think of all of our projects that we have under the same emotional and mental state. Linking back to these states through past ideas can help get you out of the current emotional and mental state. It may remind you of someone who could have insight into how to solve your problem. Or it could give rise to a completely different idea altogether. To each their own.
One of the most pleasurable moments in life is when we achieve that "aha!" feeling of understanding. Many of these moments occur when taking a look into our past experiences with a newfound perspective. My new perspective was after reading The Practice of Adaptive Leadership, specifically a chapter titled "experiment and take smart risks smartly" (Heiftetz, et al., 2009). Within this chapter, decision making when we think we should not be making any decisions is discussed. Many believe that we can only make a confident decision if the odds are in our favor. From this confidence, we are then able to put our heart and soul into carrying out our decision. The tolerable level of risk for this decision may be 90-10, or 80-20. The analogy used in the Practice of Adaptive Leadership is “getting married” (Heiftetz, et al., 2009).
Photo credit high achievers network
When you get married you are as close to certain as possible that you are about to wed the "one", almost 90-10 certainty. The 10 percent could be the belief that somewhere out there you know, there is another person you could love more than the one you are about to marry. Would someone still get married if the ratio was 60-40? This situation may be more common in our lives than we realized (Heiftetz, et al., 2009).
Adaptive leadership requires us to take an almost “experimental mind-set”, so we do not get too attached to our decisions (Heifetz, et al., 2009). It takes bravery and courage to be confident in our actions when the odds aren't favourable, while holding a competing idea. Thinking experimentally also allows us to be open to failure, which allows the decision maker to learn, and gain valuable experience and insight into the situations they are faced with. This means negative emotions will not get in the way of taking the course of action with the highest chance of success (Mather M,. 2006).
Looking back on my time in the US Navy, I now realize I have witnessed this first hand on an almost daily basis. The military is an organization built upon following orders without question. Those who carry them out correctly are rewarded, while those who don't follow them are punished. This may seem pretty obvious at first, but after dwelling on this subject for a while, an emerging pattern began to arise.
In the military there are two tiers of authority, officers and the enlisted (grunts). The officers were trained to lead, and the enlisted were trained to carry out the requests of officers. Problems occur when the enlisted rose in rank. The higher ranking you were in the enlisted tier, the more you were accountable to the officers for the enlisted who ranked bellow you. Unfortunately there was never much in the way of leadership training provided for the enlisted as they rose in rank. Rank was normally decided purely on what you knew and your time in service. Moving up in rank with the mentality of never doing anything wrong begins to cripple many in certain situations (Mellers, et al.,1999). For example, decisions had to be made often while officers were not available to give guidance. Many supervisors would prefer not to make a choice until the officer was available to provide more insight, this often led to groups falling behind schedule in maintenance. Their level of certainty in their actions was not great enough for them to avoid getting in trouble and so they would not act.
A supervisor of mine, Nathaniel Hathaway, was a natural leader (or made it look easy). He was confident with every decision he made, even when the choices he made seemed as likely to fail as they were to succeed. He was used to it, and after a while, so were we. We became more confident in his approach, which indeed was experimental like. When things did not go as planned, he would remain impartial and immediately make alterations where necessary. Acting to the best of his knowledge at the time was imperative, not taking any action in a time that calls for action, is bound to leave you worse off than you were. We don't always have time to wait for the risks to lessen, but when we treat our actions as well planned experiments, the worst case scenario is that, you'll know what not to do next time.
Heifetz, R., Grashow, A. & Linsky, M., 2009. The Practice of Adaptive Leadership. Boston: Harvard Business Press.
Mellers, Barbara; Schwartz, Alan; Ritov, Ilana., 1999, Emotion-based choice, Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, Vol 128(3), Sep 1999, 332-345. doi:10.1037/0096-3445.128.3.332
Mather M., 2006, A Review of Decision-Making Processes: Weighing the Risks and Benefits of Aging. National Research Council (US) Committee on Aging Frontiers in Social Psychology, Personality, and Adult Developmental Psychology, National Academies Press ,Washington DC, USA, Available from: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK83778/
MAKE NO MISTAKE, tweets and their hashtags can be an effective tool for online activism. Whether it be spreading the word for campaigns, or raising awareness to important issues, saying they can't, would be denying
what’s right in front of you. The fact that some governments are trying to introduce complete bans to Twitter in their respective countries is proof that an impact is made.
A recent example includes China banning search requests regarding
the Tiananmen Square in order to
erase this tragic history.
Twitter, the tool that your government would
appreciate you only using to talk about fun stuff like the world cup, or cats.
Our focus and concern then should not be if Tweets get the message
across, but if we really understand what the message is. Tweets, a string of words limited
to 140 characters, are trying to communicate a point by cramming as much
information as possible into a small sentence or two. So it's quite understandable that this can lead to some misinterpretation, but would you blame a hammer for hitting your thumb?
Power to the Tweeters
"I've always had mixed emotions about what's been coined as "hashtag activism," and that term has definitely been thrown at this hashtag over the past few days. I've openly pondered before how much good social media hashtags to "raise awareness" actually does, and how slapping a hashtag on something is more often a quick way to pat oneself on the back for being moral than it is a true way to take action...
But #YesAllWomen is truly beyond awareness and hashtag activism..."
On their own, tweets are quite harmless, but when there are enough
tweets, people notice. Especially if the subject is addressing serious issues.
#YesAllWomen, still on-going, was sparked by the tragic shootings in California
targeting women by Elliot Rodgers. This served to open the floodgates on a
topic that was seemingly invisible to people around the world, unless you are a
woman. The hashtag campaign #YesAllWomen has now become a voice for women and
has steered public opinion on feminism From this
“The feminist agenda is not about equal
rights for women. It is about a socialist, anti-family political movement that
encourages women to leave their husbands, kill their children, practice
witchcraft, destroy capitalism, and become lesbians.” - Pat Robertson
To this.
Still, people have their doubts on the effectiveness of tweets and hashtags. For many it is a challenge to understand what the root cause is for many of the issues behind the hashtag on their screens.
Concerns
Like a game of telephone (or Chinese whispers), tweets distort the original message.#BringBackOurGirls was in response to the mass kidnapping of over 200
girls in Nigeria by the terrorist group Boko Haram. Many thought the issue was about Boko
Haram.
"Domestically, the #BringBackOurChildren
campaign isn't aimed at the perpetrators of the attack: Boko Haram seem
unlikely to be swayed by tweets (remember, their name literally means
"Western education is sinful"). It's aimed at the government who have
appeared inept the Boko Haram problem for too long. Critics of Goodluck
Johnathan's government are quick to point out that Nigeria's army has left
hundreds dead in its fight against the militant group, many of whom were
civilians. Economic factors are at play too: while Nigeria's economy may have
been declared to be the biggest in Africa recently, living standards are still
low, glaringly so when compared to those of the Nigerian political elite."
Tweeting in response to these controversial topics is doing nothing more than giving yourself a pat on the back.This may be true, but
the problem is not that someone is just doing it for a quick feel good. If
this were the case, then the pros of
spreading awareness would far outweigh the cons of somebody getting off on
"feeling" good about themselves. The real problem is that people
may not even know what they are tweeting about when they choose to get
involved for this reason! eg. #Kony2012.
The result of the viral Kony campaign
may have helped chase Kony out of the country, but in doing so, international demands
to capture Kony eased pressures on other more dangerous rebel groups,
like M23. Since the Kony
Campaign, these other groups have had more freedom to operate in a similar
region. Resources were diverted away from them and towards capturing Kony. Granted, the video's purpose was indeed to motivate people to speak out against Kony and raise awareness, which it achieved. Unfortunately, this didn't address the climate which allowed for the rise of someone like Kony and others like him.
This reminds me of a saying carpenters use "measure twice, cut once". Before you tweet, make sure you check the facts, twice. Many people have been caught out believing something that a quick query on Google could have given them a better understanding on. Always check for both supporting information and objective information, then decide on what to tweet.
Tweets lessen the severity of the issues.Not true, without the use of hashtags and tweets, they may never have been recognised on the global stage. The real cause for our lapse in empathy or compassion isn't due to Twitter, its part of being human.
Unity
Many philosophers and researchers, like Peter Singer, believe that as a
species, we've always been more concerned about matters that are closer to our
families and communities.
"Our species has spent millions of years
evolving as social mammals with offspring who need their parents' care for many
years. For most of these millions of years, parents who did not care for their
children during this period of dependence were unlikely to pass on their genes.
Hence our concern for the welfare of others tends to be limited to our kin, and
to those with whom we are in cooperative relationships, and perhaps to members
of our own small tribal group."
How does one challenge a trait that was instilled in us by nature
itself? One idea is to change our perception of the planet we live on. Billionaire and philanthropist Bill Gates
said something similar to Forbes when he was asked what advice he would give to the next US president to improve American Competitiveness and innovation. Bill said
'I tend to think more about improving the entire
world as opposed to relative positions. Otherwise you could say "Hey,
World War II was great because the US was in its strongest relative position
when that was over.""
This idea of a globalized state of empathy is of course no small task, and it won't happen overnight.
There are many other factors that affect why we care more about one topic over the
other, but at the end of the day, we are one race, and we have one Earth. We are much closer to one another than you would like to think. Carl Sagan reminds us of this with his timeless essay "The pale blue dot".
#ThatsAWrap
Yes, Twitter and hashtags make for an effective tool in online activism and communication in general. The internet
and social media has given us a powerful medium for communicating to one another, and so our
challenge is to learn how to use these tools better. Don't be afraid to speak out for what you believe in or what you think, but it doesn't hurt to check the facts. In fact it may hurt NOT to check them. What, how, and to who you decide to tweet to could support the militarization of a foreign country, OR, it could support a change for the better.
You could argue, that activism is as old as the human race itself. The way individuals chose to spread a message to those around them, has largely remained unchanged. Messages, signs, posters, rallies were all created by hand or carried out in person by the activist.
Enter the dawn of the Internet and more importantly, social media. A very unique, easy and some times, powerful way to communicate, none can dispute that social media and the Internet has connected billions. Now the very traits that make the Internet so powerful, are also the centre of criticism in how they effect activism. Campaigns like #Kony2012, #Bringbackourgirls, #YesAllWomen , Stop shark culling, tweeting, liking pages, donating, even changing your
profile picture to support a cause all fall under the umbrella of online
activism, or as some call it, "slacktivism". There is even an online activism, against online activism called "snarktivism".
Campaigns fill our news feeds, inboxes and phones with requests from family and friends, urging us to support causes we have never
heard of. We take these limelight issues at face value and make quick
decisions based on how we feel in the moment, but do we really understand the
lasting impact?
This process takes no more than a couple of minutes. All you have to do, is send a tweet, or share/like a page and you can stop a bad man on the other side of the world, even save a forest from deforestation.
Due to how easy it is to show your support and how little effort is needed to actually support the cause, a detachment of the consequences from the action occur. Spurred on by an overwhelming sense of righteousness that you feel in the "heat" of the moment, you suddenly make a massive difference with the click of a button...or did you?
Online activism works, but not always like you imagined
There is no doubt in my mind, that there can be strong
positive effects when we get involved online, but it can also be ineffectual.
In some cases, even causing more harm than good, as campaigns fail to target
the underlying issues that brought what we see to the spot light. Outlined in this article, and this article, and this one too, are examples of different issues that were ignored when some of their corresponding campaigns surfaced to our attention.
Still all these articles prove one thing.
Online activism often succeeds in bringing important issues to our attention.
So why, in some cases, is the outcome not what we envisioned? Probably because our aim is off when directing our time and energy. I feel it is not only necessary to inform you that online activism works, but feel it is equally important to stress the need for people to be efficient, and knowledgeable when it comes to online activism. Re-tweeting without knowing or understanding the message you're passing off is like being a lemming. You don't want to be a lemming do you?
Your voice, no matter the medium,
makes an impact and if you're not careful, it might not make the one you
intended.
For the first part of this four-part series, I’m going to give you an overall
breakdown of online activism. What it is, the concerns, different tools of an
online activist and some quick tips.
What is "Slacktivism"?
Slacktivism or slacker activism, was a term coined to describe micro
activism/passive activism. You’ve got it, small activism, or smaller forms of
activism that didn't need much of an energy commitment like bumper car stickers, even planting a tree. It was actually meant in a positive manner.
In today’s context, it is used with a negative connotation towards
people who only get involved if it's easy, gives them some attention, and/or
because it makes them feel better about themselves. It has fast become
the go-to word to describe all forms of online activism.
With the birth of the Internet, so much has become easier, in some cases a lot
easier than we realise. Ordering your groceries, earning money,
communicating with others, educating, even backing the militarisation of Africa, can all be
done by you, the Internet user, with the click of a mouse or a tweet.
The concerns of slacktivism critics are outlined by Henrik Serup Christensen,
2011 in a paper he published on "Political Activities on the Internet",
and include:
"Slacktivism damages actual activism", or progress towards any real
and tangible outcome. A concern also expressed by this blog.
Activists, who once concentrated on off line
forms of activism like going to rallies or to town hall will
"regress" to the much easier form of activism online because
it's...well...easier."
"Slacktivism (when it refers to all forms of
online activism) doesn't achieve anything."
Despite these concerns, even slacktivism
has its merits. After all, bad publicity is still publicity and can still
raise awareness. Furthermore, its been shown in multiple studies that these concerns are in fact, wrong, and the reality is closer to the opposite. I'm not entirely certain if online activism is to blame for oversimplifying issues, or if the campaign manager should be to blame. Equally the activist could be to blame.
Is all online activism, slacktivism?
First, I'm going to acknowledge that there is undoubtedly a category of people
out there who are, in fact, slacktivists. People who want to feel important,
and matter. It's true, for some the buck stops with the like of a page or a
retweet, and it may never go beyond that.
Now evidence suggests, and backs, that online activism can lead to a stronger
interest in issues that effect society (Christensen, 2011).
"It seems fair to say that most evidence in recent years points to the internet having a positive effect on off-line mobilization..."
Not only can slacktivism turn into more effective, online activism, but online
activism can also turn into offline activism. There is no evidence from
current studies to support the opposite.
What is online activism?
Activism:consists of efforts to promote, impede, or direct social, political, economic, or environmental change, or stasis. The term connotes a peaceful form of conflict
The main difference between a slacktivist and an online activist is the intent
or motive behind the choice of being an activist. Getting involved because you genuinely care
about the issues that effect your community and the rest of the world are what
motivates an activist, not personal gain. Still, for many it would be hard to distinguish between the actions of a slacktivist or online activist. They are essentially doing the same thing. Real activists though, (online or offline) tend to be more knowledgable. Like any passion or matter you care about, you will naturally invest more time and energy, ultimately acquiring a better understanding.
While there are many forms of online activism, the main forms we see are online
campaigns run, shared and organised through social media platforms
like Facebook, Twitter, Blogs,
signing ePetitions, Videos, emailing, Campaigning websites and
more.
Addressing concerns for online activism
"How can anything bad come from people who genuinely care about what’s
going on around them?!". *Insert cliche about good intentions
here* Yup, sad but true, getting involved without doing your research can lead to undesirable outcomes.
Caring isn't enough on its own. We need to make sure we care for the
right reasons, for the right people. To do this we need to learn more about the campaign or movement we care about.
We should never assume we know better than the people who are actually
struggling. If it's their message we want to fight for, it's their
message we need to pass on, not our interpretation of it. So whether it be working with a community overseas or locally, don't assume you know what the problem is at first glance. You need to work with and alongside the people you want to help. "Help" does not mean, "do everything for me!".
Perception
is everything! Kony2012
Joseph Kony, leader of the Lords Resistance Army
What tends to happen when issues come to our attention, is that we take them at face value.
Case in point, Kony 2012. What did we see? A really touching video
that went viral and accumulated over 90 million views. Unfortunately
experts agree that the reason this video went viral was because it
unintentionally oversimplified many of the issues.
The #Kony2012 campaign spread, causing an uproar around the world, to the point
where the US interfered militarily, and still are, to help catch Kony. Whilst it bought the
issue of child soldiers to the attention of many people, it was unsuccessful at
bringing the right kind of attention.
Kony is on the run and he needs to be brought before the ICC and dealt with. Unfortunately the chase has caused much of his army to splinter into many smaller groups. It was hard enough to chase Kony when the LRA was a larger singular force, but now instead of chasing a large group they, have atomised into many smaller ones. Small 2-10 man groups, once part of the LRA, now roam LRA's old area of operations acting like bandits. Doing what they know how to do committing atrocities for food and supplies. Not only this, but the increased attention on Kony has allowed other rebel groups, like M23 (seen as a bigger threat than Kony) to rise.Additionally, it turns out MANY
governments already knew about the atrocities and crimes Kony conducted well
before the campaign started.
No one wanted this outcome, but its what happened.
even more unexpected was the reaction the video received from the people of Uganda. They were hurt and confused by what they saw, and
at the very first and last viewing, threw rocks at the screen.
Why did this happen? The movie oversimplified the issues, and didn't bring much help to the real victims of the LRA, the child soldiers, who were shunned by their communities
for the horrors they were forced to commit. Re-integration was not as
easy as it looked.
Its sad to think it took so much for us to finally cast our gaze on this small spec in Africa and it turns out Kony was only the tip of the iceberg.
For whatever reason, like lack of publication, these underlying issues just don't make it to our news feed. There is no war, but business meetings. No blood, just people in suits. No grenades or guns, just people with documents and briefcases. It doesn't look like a battlefield, but it is.
"If Americans want to care about Africa, maybe they
should consider evaluating American foreign policy, which they already play a
direct role in through elections, before they impose themselves on Africa
itself."
-Teju cole
Author Teju Cole writes a very compelling article that goes to the depth of this
issue. Read it with an open mind and you won't be disappointed.
Also remember that incidents like #Kony2012 and #Bringbackourgirls aren't
isolated, they happen every day.
While it feels good to look for the short-term fix, like sending the military
in, this doesn't give that country a lot of help in the long run. Look at
Iraq, Afghanistan and Libya. Can we really say they are better off?
Sending in the military often has a destabilising effect.
A quick wrap up
Get involved with your countries politics, read those petitions, understand what that #campaign is about. Ask yourself "what is going on in places like Uganda that could give rise to someone like Kony?". While we would all love to hear that Joseph Kony has been stopped, the issues that put him there are what we need to focus on.
Plain and simple online activism works and has had amazing success. #Kony2012 and #Bringbackourgirls may be oversimplifying the issues, but to say all online activism does is wrong. Check out change.org or getup.org.au for some great examples of online activism that have worked.
When you come across a campaign online ask yourself
What is the campaign for and what is it trying to achieve?
Why is it important?
Have they covered all the issues?
Research arguments for and against this campaign.
Is it important to you?
Get Involved
Ask around, share your opinion and ask others for theirs.
Never criticize some one for having different views from your own, criticize the views, but never the person.
If you feel you have anything you would like to add to this list please let me know in the comment section and I'll add it. The crux is to have an open mind.
Ideally you wont just stop with the click of a mouse. The more you get interested, the more you will do your homework, and you'll have a better understanding of how to direct your time and energy.
Online activism yields results
Online activism, when paired with offline activism produces the strongest results
there is a strong need to be informed of the issues when getting involved regardless of how easy it is to actually be involved. (how can we better address this?)
So stay tuned, I want to take you through some examples of the good, the bad,
and the ugly when it comes to online activism.
If a society won't accept failure it wont understand what progress is. Society has an overwhelming obsession with the word "SUCCESS", but is this justified? Why is there such a large emphasis on success, but not on what comes before?
The way success is portrayed and communicated to us, the people, is without a glance to what supersedes all successes, failure. The result?
People become disheartened when they fail, they lose self esteem, they go from a "can do" attitude to "never again". They say to themselves..."well I guess it was just not meant to be." They think the only right outcome is success.
Eduardo Zanatta says in a TED Talk, "We fail at something and quit because we create this story that says, this is going to happen again if I try again, so why try?"
I've stated in a previous post, this isn't our fault for thinking like this, a lot of this comes from our development at an early age. Our success used to be measured by the outcome, not the effort, but its changing.
Denis Waitley-
"There are no failures or mistakes, only lessons and successes."
I find myself very fortunate to be part of an educational "experiment" at the age of 29 at Monash University Clayton. Part of a program that is designed to depart on its students a very important trait, Self-actualization.
We are even more fortunate, to be the audience to Politicians, Leaders and entrepreneurs alike. One speaker, our first speaker, Sam Prince, was among my favorite speakers, but before he mentioned any of his failures I felt as if he were a god. Something I could never become, standing on some precipice far beyond where I could reach. I was dwarfed and intimidated by his successes. Until he talked about his failures.
Failures are something we can all empathize with, because we all encounter them. The second he showed he was not perfect, my respect for him rose exponentially, we all have our flaws. What made him cool, was that he wasn't just cool talking about his flaws, he accepted them.
In a world where people stop after the first failed shot on goal, who are our leaders? Those, that have succeeded. Yet most of us only focus on the shots they made, ignorant to how many they took to get where they are.
"I've failed over and over and over again in my life and that is why I succeed."
-Michael Jordan
Today, do you think people are hired based on their failures or their successes?
Maryling Yu, wrote for Forbes and said
"...Failure, however, offers ample opportunity for growth, self-awareness, and personal development. Those who do take this opportunity emerge as better employees – they are humble, teachable, thoughtful, and more likely to succeed the next time they try something..."
Michael Powell, President and CEO at NCTA, wrote for LinkedIn and said -
"The ability to learn from failure, not pure talent alone, is the greatest predictor of success."
Failure, and our leaders
Think of who you consider a leader, past or present, and I'm positive their successes will be the reason why you remember them. I guarantee they have failed and the lessons they learned from those failures, were more important than any lesson they got from succeeding.
Einstein; Failed at school constantly, now recognized internationally for his reasoning and intellect. Henry Ford; Started a motor company before Ford Motors, and it sucked. Then he made Ford Motors and his vehicles dominated the nation and parts of the world.
I hope I have redefined what success is to you, to me, it is turning any outcome into a win win. Either victory, or a lesson learned. Hopefully we can empower those around us in society to feel this way.
I'm going to leave you with a question, Feel free to answer it in the comments below.
Is it possible to be a good leader without having failed?
I think you know my answer, but what do you think?
