Who do I see?

 

Who is failing who?

I would like to thank you for reading my blog last week and for giving me constructive feedback. I totally appreciate your calls detailing what you thought needed improving or changing. To summarize all your comments and I believe I have captured them all, you would like me to first introduce myself…as in tell you why I am blogging, where I am coming from and my motivation. You told me that I sounded like an annoyed Kenyan, an irritated headmistress even. You also mentioned that this doesn’t suit me, as I am generally a happy Kenyan. I felt 'Ouch'... but not at all discouraged and will strife to improve myself week after week. You also told me to change my font type, background image and the flow of my story. This is a journey I want to take with you and your comments are totally appreciated. 

I have had a desire that has not faded over the years, to contribute to the academic community. I want to leave a legacy in the form of written material for Leaders in business. I want to do this by intellectually determining the role of Moral Values as a driver to entrepreneurial character and its impact on business growth. To achieve this I should submit a thesis or dissertation often consisting of a body of original academic research, which is in principle worthy of publication. To put it simply, I want to go back to school to put my thoughts together in a structured way that is easy to share with you and the rest of the world. The thought of going back to school has been with me over time as well, but not actualized for two reasons.

One, I was unable to commit the number of reading hours necessary (an average of five hours a day required to succeed).

Two, I had not figured-out a way of ensuring I am kept accountable. Now I have, I am blogging to ask you to stand with me and hold me accountable; I am inviting you to walk with me on this journey that I believe will result in social transformation- a total change in how we do business. In the first few weeks I will be sharing my initial general thoughts on moral values and with five hours of study every day I hope to talk about how moral values affect how we work and more preciously how we do business.

This week I have been thinking about myself, taking a look within. When I look at me, who do I see? Am I proud of who I am? What do others say about me? What legacy do I want to leave?

According to Rescher. N (1969), Values are intangible. They are, in the final analysis, things of the mind that have to do with the vision people have of ‘the good life’ for themselves and their fellows. A person’s values – such as ‘loyalty’ or ‘economic justice’ or self –aggrandizement’ represent factors that play in his personal welfare of functions, the yardstick by which he assesses the extent of his satisfactions in and with life. Values manifest themselves concretely in the ways in which people talk and act, and especially in the pattern of their expenditure of time and effort and in their choices in the marketplace. A man’s values are both clues to guide another’s explanation of his actions and guides to his own deliberations in the endeavor to arrive at decisions.

Judging myself is not easy as I am likely to be biased, I am quick to see all the good and may totally miss out on the not so good. In 2002, immediately after I completed my MBA, and feeling totally ready to capture the world, I decided to do a SWOT analysis of self. Actually, it wasn’t my idea, I had just read a book Walking on the Glass Ceiling that highly recommended a regular self-examination of Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats. To do this as detailed in the book, I chose a few friends and family to help me in this assignment to ensure that the exercise was as accurate as possible. Before I engaged the team of four, I took time to ponder and set some goals to prepare myself for the possibility of learning new insights about myself and to establish a path that would direct my immediate next steps after the exercise. As it turns out, this activity became the game changer, I learnt about some Strengths I didn’t realize I had. My weaknesses some difficult to accept initially, came out clearly and I started working on overcoming them. The best part for me was the Opportunities; I had great opportunities glaring at me that I had previously not noticed.

In summary my life goals changed for the better and today looking back, I can say that looking at self has been a worthwhile practice that I would encourage for each and every one of you. As for my personal values I can say with confidence and no fear of contradiction that I am a born again Christian. I love the Lord my God with all my heart. The bible is the yardstick by which I assess the extent of my satisfactions in and with life.

Will you walk with me? If you do, I encourage you to do a SWOT self- analysis. Pick two or more friends and family to help you and please share your experience with us. This will be a game changer so take time to plan and execute with accuracy. I wish you luck!