How to Change the World

My first week at Wits Business School is "in the books". See what I did there? An Accounting reference? Not funny? Oh okay, fair enough - It's been a long week!

My first set of lectures in Marketing, Economics, Accounting and Human Resources was extremely interesting. I feel blessed to be learning about things at university that are aligned with my interests in real life. I have been reading many books concerning business and leadership recently, and to be able to learn in depth from world class lecturers with vast experience in their respective fields is a privilege.

However, the greatest aspect of my course is my fellow students. These are students from various academic backgrounds, including arts, architecture, health sciences, law, psychology and engineering. Whenever you get a selection of people from different fields discussing the same topic, you get different insights, and thus, fascinating conversation. We have had this in abundance over the last week, and with group work being a significant component of the course, I am looking forward to many intriguing discussions and debates in the months to come.

This notion of people from different fields discussing a common topic is nothing new; any dinner table conversation or family get-together involves people from a variety of occupations with different insights. However, I believe the instance in which there could be real value, is when harnessing the varying perceptions into solving a social problem.

For example; suppose we were to take one student (with leadership potential, or the desire to be a positive change agent) as a representative from each of the respective aforementioned art, architecture, health sciences, law, psychology and engineering fields. Suppose we put them in a room together with bottomless coffee and some free water (people enjoy free stuff). Suppose we then gave them the topic of 'food insecurity' to not only discuss, but come up with practical solutions for. I firmly believe that within an hour of discussion, this group of students would produce further questions surrounding the issue, answers to those questions, idealistic solutions for the problem, logical challenges to implementing the solutions, improved solutions, and finally - plausible practical solutions for the problem. Each student will have a different knowledge sphere to draw from, with creative idealism balanced out by pragmatic logic.

I truly believe that 'Think Tanks' of this nature can result in positive change in our country and Africa - all we need is passionate people with diverse perceptions to discuss social problems with the goal of coming up with innovative solutions. Then, the most important part, to have the conviction to implement the solutions. I am very excited by the prospect of this, and I know there are many platforms already out there taking advantage of this concept; the first to come to mind on a global level are One Young World and Sandbox. On a South African level, Brightest Young Minds are doing something similar. We need to support these initiatives, but also seek any opportunity to create our own. We can emulate those think tanks at a coffee shop outside university, take notes from our discussion, and vehemently seek to execute any exciting ideas that are conjured.

To quote Thomas Edison; "Vision without execution is hallucination". Felix Dennis said "I think having a great idea is vastly overrated. I know it sounds kind of crazy and counterintuitive. I don't think it matters what the idea is, almost. You need great execution". While I disagree that great ideas are overrated, I strongly agree that great execution is always needed.

I am excited by the upcoming think-tank-esque discussions with my peers, friends and colleagues in the coming months and years, and God-willing, I look forward to conjuring some innovative ideas matched only by the high quality of their execution. If we want to make a difference in the world, we need to think of ideas and take the step out of our comfort zone to implement them!

Have a great weekend!

Bring on 2014!

Firstly, happy new year!!

I arrived back in Johannesburg from Brazil 4 days ago. It was truly the experience of a lifetime; the lessons from those 6 weeks alone could fuel several blog posts. And they will, in due time. For now, it seems more appropriate to simply share my goals for 2014.

I don't like the term "New Year's Resolution"... perhaps because of the generally accepted notion that they don't last beyond a few weeks, or simply, that resolutions are nothing more than folly adopted by people needing to make a change in their lives but don't have the discipline to do so (I know because I was that person for approximately 19 years!). I like to look at them as goals, rather than simply saying I will "never do this" or "stop doing that" in 2014. I try to make them quantifiable so that I can keep track of them, although that is not always possible. Unfortunately this year, very few of my goals are quantifiable, but I will try my best to monitor them as the year progresses.

My goals for 2014:

(1) Improve bold decisiveness (nurture the habit of making fast decisions, and being slow to change mind) [Challenging to monitor quantitatively]

  > Make instinctive decisions in all situations to build the habit; fight the use of "maybe" and "I don't know"

(2) Commitment to being up to date on current affairs and world news

  > Watch the news at least 3 times a week

  > Read daily news blog as part of morning routine

  > Form opinions on current affairs

(3) Say nothing bad about people behind their back [Challenging to monitor quantitatively]

  > If there is a conflict with someone, discuss it with them personally and not to others

  > Try always look for the positive aspects of people and look to learn from them, even when difficult (Emerson's: "Every man is my superior in some way, in that I learn of him")

(4) Commitment to daily productive morning routines

  > Bible reading

  > Prayer time

  > Read

  > Blogs

  > TED Talks

(5) Continue learning Portuguese

  > Finish Duolingo course

  > Read 2 Portuguese children's / teenagers books by June

  > Practice with Portuguese friends

(6) Read 20-24 books

  > 2 books per month

Last year was the first year in which I adopted a goal-based mentality to new year’s resolutions, and it worked well. Having personal goals on a daily, weekly or monthly basis give greater context to the everyday rat race of life; no matter how busy things get, there are still personal challenges we can seek to become better people and grow in areas we may be weak. Our goals for this year should be seen as an exciting challenge to grow as people, and an opportunity for us to nurture our discipline. We will almost certainly slip up along the way (I know for a fact that I will), but that's part of the fun challenge - we can always restart and try again :) Let’s do this!