IMPETUS TO ACHIEVE: ATTITUDE TRAMPS APTITUDE

Sat, 20 Jan 2018 10:09:12 +0000

I HAVE a very good friend that would always tell me in the past that attitude is the only word in the dictionary that when you sum up the count of each letter constituting the word out of 26 being the number of letters in the alphabet, you will get the number 100.

My friend would make this point to emphasise that it is your attitude towards something, more than anything else that will give you 100 percent marks; that will give you success.

I do not know if attitude is the only word in the dictionary whose individual letter count comes to 100, but I do know that indeed it does come to 100, full marks.

It has been analysed a million times in the history of mankind as to the contributing factor of intellect to one’s success. I believe that there is general consensus that the higher your intellect, the more successful you are likely to be in life.

There is also the school of thought that has over the years chosen to distinguish between intelligence and wisdom saying the latter is far much more precious than the former.

Each school of thought tends to have valid points. Today my article is about attitude versus aptitude.

The friend that I alluded to earlier was not renowned for his intellect in school. From his days in high school to his days at university, his performance was consistently below par.

He was well known as a weak student. Yet, there was something about him that I always liked, and continue to appreciate to this day – his ambition.  This is what brought the two of us close.

It is always interesting to see the idea that friends – one way or another – tend to have a thread in common binding them together. It was the element of dreaming of a big future that brought us together.

Interestingly enough, my friend had that presence of mind to know that he was not the brightest in class. And he would always tell me that one way or another, he will make it in life.

He’d keep his mind focused on the things that he wanted whilst paying little or no attention to the nonsense that fellow students would say about him.

I remember him saying to me that Richard Branson has dyslexia yet he built himself an empire worth billions of dollars. He also said something similar about Theo Paphitis – the UK retail business magnate.

Without saying many words, it’s like he had accepted that he had some kind of dyslexia yet he was not willing to give up but fight to be successful as other major global successes had set a precedent for him to follow.

Today, my friend is doing just fine. He has put himself together in line with his aspiration and all is well in his life. He is a classic example that attitude tramps aptitude.

Whenever, I think about the concept of attitude versus aptitude, my mind drifts to the Zambian version of intellectual. Unfortunately, these are the ones that tend to be the poster boy representing the notion that Zambian education is too theoretical.

I mean no disrespect when I say this but a friend is always telling me how he cannot believe how university lecturers in Zambia tend to go on strike from time to time grinding operations to a halt yet these are the same individuals lecturing students in economics and business studies among others.

Is it wrong for one to think that if somebody is a lecturer of business studies or economics, he/ she should be in the forefront coming up with solutions to the cash flow problems of any given university as opposed to going on strike and threatening the existence of that very institution?

I don’t know about you but I find it ironic that one can teach people economics and business studies yet the best solution they can come up with to their organisation’s cash flow issues is to go on strike.

I know that these strikes come about as a result of so many complex factors but the question is once again asked in the midst of the same: are you here with the solution or are you part of the problem?

Ironically enough, some of these lecturers teach crisis management in some of their courses. Another thing that puzzles me in Zambia is how learned people always like to talk about their educational accomplishments as achievements. There is no doubt that some qualifications will earn you admiration from people and you will generally be viewed as an authority in your field of expertise, but having certain educational credentials does not in itself mean you are adding positive value to your environment, to the Zambian economy.

In a country as productive, industrialised and advanced as America, people will be recognised for having started this search engine, or that software programme or such and such board game, the list is endless.

Some of these people may even be college dropouts but they have added value to society and because of that they are celebrated.

Here on the other hand, someone wants to be praised simply because he has a masters degree. Nobody even knows what value that masters has brought to him let alone Zambian society.

What’s more, you get these same individuals passing disparaging and condescending remarks about certain people that have worked their socks off to build businesses – sometimes in the manufacturing sector – which employ and empower our fellow citizens simply because the proprietors of these businesses have humble education. That is absurd!

It is only in Zambia where you who does nothing for your economy can say something disrespectful about someone that employs hundreds of people and further empowers many more through the value chain simply because he is of humble education. We need to change our attitude. For in life it is often those that are humble enough to learn from everything and everybody around that go far, those that are too pompous with their degrees tend to get shocked in the long run.

Even when you have a setback in life that involves having to eat some humble pie, it is important to take it as it comes and correct wherever you went wrong.

This business of thinking you are never wrong because you understand things better will not do. There are some people that you try to do one or two small things with but the approach they come with is such that they know it all and they are in charge of the whole operation.

Suddenly, you the pioneer of an operation are expected to take a backseat role and pave way for the person you invited in just for some assistance. That sort of attitude is backward and nonsensical, it is always better to be humble.

Examples abound of many people, including in our families, that have been talked about as having been brilliant but because of their attitude, they made poor choices and did not go far in life.

When you are naturally gifted with intellect way above everybody else around you, it is a blessing, but it is also not enough to see you make something useful of yourself.

That’s why we call it immense potential. You must have the right attitude to go far in life. Always bear in mind that attitude tramps aptitude.

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