Stop saying you can’t; build your capacity

A sick man was once asked if he wanted to be healed. He replied by saying that he had no one to help him. Note that the question was not if he had anyone to help him.

So many people are today giving the wrong answers to the questions of life. These answers are called excuses.

Governments use them; like a Nigerian government spokesperson blaming the refusal by America to sell Nigeria certain equipment as a reason for failing to contain Boko Haram.

Businesses use them; like blaming the government for their losses despite the fact that similar ventures in the same country made huge leaps of success.

Individuals use them; like blaming their employers for their failures, or blaming God for their frustrations.

Excuses have been very valuable allies over the years. They are quick to be found and they give people a much need feeling of justification.

HOPLESSNESS

The great depression of the 1930’s was a major landmark in global history. In one year alone, over 20,000 people committed suicide. They had reached the limits of their hopelessness. They could not see beyond their prevailing state.

During the same period, companies like Walt Disney, Sheraton, Hewlett Packard and KFC were born and are today global giants.

While not trying to downplay the reality and the seriousness of the great depression, the question in my mind is: Why did some lose hope while others birthed greatness in the same place during the same time?

The statement that all birds are red becomes invalid at the sight of one blue bird. One big problem that we have as people is the natural tendency to use failures as benchmarks.

More people will tell you stories of what did not work during the depression than what worked.

Similarly, more people will tell you stories of what is not working in Africa rather than tell you about what is working. As long as we are naturally programmed for the negative, then excuses will be our most valuable partners.

GROWING YOUR CAPACITY
Bugatti Veyron is a super expensive car. It costs about $2.5 million dollars. Now to most normal human beings, that is very expensive, but to a man worth $86 billion like Bill Gates, who can buy 34,400 Bugattis, he probably would not consider it a very expensive car, taking into account that it represents only 0.003 per cent of his wealth.

This is like you having a million shillings and spending Sh3000 on a car.

At a time in my life, if I found a place where the price of a pack of chips and sausage was just one shilling cheaper, it meant everything to me. Today, that is not the case.

The message here is that the problem is never with the price. It is always with capacity.

There are things that you consider inexpensive today that at some point in your life you considered unnecessary luxuries. The prices may not have changed. What changed was you.

Stop complaining about prices and start growing capacity. When you see a thousand dollar suit and you want to buy it, what stops you from buying is not the price. Others buy it. It’s your capacity.

PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT
If there are things you want today that you do not have, the problem is not the price but your capacity to acquire them. You can render your concerns voiceless by growing your capacity.

Excuses are therefore diplomatic attestations to the fact that there is no capacity. If you want to do something, you will grow your capacity for it. If not, you will find an excuse.

Capacity building is the price we pay for achieving our goals. When I shared this with my children, my second son Ola said: “Dad you have simplified the world. You have simply said to us that everything we want is a possibility if we build our capacity for it.”

There you have it. You have a choice either to join the complaining majority or to build your capacity for your goals. No one can do it for you. Remember that personal development is, well, personal.