Dear Editor,
GOD has a plan for each and every one of us. Man cannot alter another man’s fate! Sometimes a door can be closed in front of your face by evil people. Don’t despair. That is God showing you the direction to your real destiny.
The current President of Tanzania had no idea she would have almost a full term as President of Tanzania without going through the difficult CCM primaries. She was chosen running mate and the rest is history.
Who knew President Rupiah Banda would be President? He didn’t have to form a political party, didn’t have to campaign for many years.
What Levy Mwanawasa did was to only call him from the farm. Mwanawasa himself was called at midnight and told he was going to be President.
President Edgar Lungu was not adopted for the Chawama parliamentary seat. He waited. Had he left the Patriotic Front in frustration to go and stand as an independent or joined MMD, he would never have been President today.
The same applies even in our lives. Life has setbacks. Never be discouraged. I believe that each person was born for greatness. It just depends on what level in society we plan to occupy. It starts just in childhood. How we are determined at school. The choices we make in life etc.
Zambia unfortunately has a lot of haters. The more potential a person shows, the more haters they have. Because of that, a lot of people’s destinies are destroyed by people who have nothing to show for in life.
But God always reverses things. Today you are the manager and tomorrow the managed becomes the manager. We should never forget this fact so let’s treat everyone as our potential manager!
People ask that with all the educated people this country has, why don’t we progress? The answer is simple. We don’t utilise talent. We frustrate talent until talent goes to serve other countries. We don’t know how to utilise human resource.
Bosses in our companies hate energetic and innovate youngsters and love the status quo. Energy and innovation is mistaken for ambition to replace the boss.
When companies don’t perform we always have a scapegoat. Blame it on government. The reason why foreign companies perform in Zambia is that they have a different work culture!
They have targets! All that matters for them is the ability of an individual to meet their targets. In Zambian institutions, they will even downplay the achievements of an employee lol. Pretend that those achievements don’t exist. So when staff is demotivated they go and blame it on the exchange rate forgetting they need to produce so as to create the exchange rate because they are part of the bigger economy.
It really feels sad to look at the potential for growth that is being suppressed in this country. Much of the failures of the country can be attributed to work-related politics. I have seen projects fail because of egos and politics amongst staff. The more petty the people, the more the failures. It’s very easy to be drawn in that pettiness because if that’s the order of the day, you get caught up in it.
Therefore professionals need to remember that they are professionals. We don’t go to create friendships in companies. We go to deliver for the shareholders, stakeholders and other interested people!
If we just rise above pettiness and also go back to discover our purpose in life, we can succeed.
DR LUBINDA HAABAZOKA.
