The Power of Dream – Lesson from Nelson Mandela
By: Okpara Chijioke Anthony Twitter: @okparachijioke
What is dream?
According to the New Lexicon
Webster’s Dictionary of the English Language dream ‘is an idea or image present
in the sleeping mind’. Dream is a medium to tell the future, more importantly
it makes the present a reality. What this implies is that the first time an
idea comes to you it stays in the state of rest until an active force is
applied. So dream is that vital part of your life that you are called to
fulfill here on earth. Dream can be impeded by perception - the way you think
or see life, or preserved by a preceptor - a teacher, role model or mentor.
Martins Luther King Jr. had a dream
that one day his four little children will live in a nation where they will not
be judge by the colour of their skin but by the content of their character. To
achieve this he became a leader in the African-American Civil
Rights Movement. Nelson Mandela also had a dream of a free state where both
blacks and whites would have equal opportunity.
It is very
important to understand that perception plays a vital role in achieving your
dream, a negative construction of your personality could distort the
implementation of your dream what I call optical illusion. If you know the
‘why’ the ‘how’ will be lot easier. Whatever you cannot define you cannot
use, so get to understand your dream, its mission and objective before you set
out to implement it. Remember, everything on earth response to the law of time and
process.
The three key questions to ask yourself will be:
i.
What
am I trying to change?
ii.
What
competence do I have to change that problem?
iii.
How
will the change affect me and others?
For the sake of this lesson “The
Power of Dream” let us consider the life of Nelson Mandela
Nelson Mandela (1918 – 2015) was born
in a tiny village called Mvezo on the banks of the Mbashe River in the district
of Umtata, the capital of the Transkei. At birth he was named Rolihlahla by his
father which literally means “pulling the branch of a tree”, but its colloquial
meaning would be “troublemaker”. His father who was a wealthy nobleman by the
standards of his time, lost both his fortune and his title. He was deprived of
most of his herd and land, and the revenue that came with them. Because of
this, his mother moved with him to Qunu where she can get the support of
friends and relations. He attended the Wesleyan college in Fort Beaufort and
later the University college of Fort Hare where he obtained his B.A. He recall
a visit of the great Xhosa poet Krune Mqhayi to his school, and how that visit
will forever change his thought, his life and his perception about life.
Mandela would later run away to Johannesburg with his nephew Justice. The
prospect of Johannesburg was so exciting that no matter their traveling
difficulties it was nothing to be compare to seeing the beautiful city, for
this was the very beginning of a much longer and more trying journey that would
test him in ways that he could not have imagined. After several back lashes, he
was able to get a job with a law firm where he met Walter Sisulu who will later
become his mentor, friend and prison mate. He also met Oliver Tambo his future
partner, Dr. Lionel Majombozi, William Nkomo, David Bopape etc all members of
the ANC. They will later move on to form the ANC Youth League.
In 1946 the mineworkers’ strike
begun, about 70,000 African miners along the Reef went on strike for a week and
maintained their solidarity, and this event will later shaped his political
development and the direction of the struggle. There was as many as 400,000
African miners working on the Reef, most of them making no more than two
shillings a day. The union leadership had repeatedly pressed the chamber of
Miners for a minimum wage of ten shillings a day, as well as family housing and
two weeks paid leave. The Chamber ignored the union’s demands. Although the
strike was later crushed but it left a foot print. Later on, protest after
protest followed suite, some were moderately or poorly stage managed, some went
out of control. In all of these public protest there was mass arrest and
illegal detaining of people especially members of the ANC. To the ANC, the
major event facing the country was the inability for blacks to vote or be
represented in government and the income and opportunity gap between the two
groups.
On the 5th day of December
1956, Mandela was arrested and charged for High treason. This arrest happened
in front of his children and wife. These will eventually lead to separation and
later divorce with his wife Evelyn. Finding Winnie will awake a new sense of
hope, although by this time the new couple would only have little time together
as the struggle became stronger in Nelson’s heart. Mandela was given the task
of starting an army, although he had never been a soldier, or fought in battle,
or fired a gun at an enemy, he would lead the newly form Umkhonto we Sizwe (The
Spear of the Nation) a herculean task indeed! He made some foreign trip to other
African countries to gain more training and support. After a long period of
staying underground and carrying out assault on government properties he was
finally arrested together with six of his colleagues. They were to stand trial
for treasonable offences. Thank goodness, the chief judge De Wet, after cross
examination decided not to impose the supreme penalty of death but instead
sentence them to life imprisonment. Mandela was forty-six years old when he
began to serve his sentence at the Robben Island, a small cramped spaced was to
be his new home for another 26years.
Hope against hope he had the courage
to fight on, an encouragement that came from his friends, in his autobiography
“Long Walk To Freedom” he wrote about their days at the Robben Island and their
determination to keep hope alive. Concerning leadership and leading people he
has this to say “As a leader, one must sometimes take actions that are
unpopular, or whose results will not be known for years to come. There are
victories whose glory lies only in the fact that they are known to those who
win them. This is particularly true of prison, where one must find consolation
in being true to one’s ideals, even if no one else knows of it.”
Mandela regarded the struggle in
prison as a microcosm of the struggle as a whole, with this understanding, he
kept fate as he did outside. He knew that no matter the arena the fight has to
continue, it is a fight to finish. Mandela was later released in 1990 after
twenty-six years in prison at the age of seventy-two. He went on to become the
country’s first black president.
Time and again, I have seen men and
women risk and give their lives for an idea; I have seen men stand up to
attacks and torture without breaking, showing a strength and resiliency that
defies their imagination. I learned that courage was not the absence of fear,
but the triumph over it. I felt fear myself more times than I can remember, but
I hid it behind a mask of boldness. The brave man is not he who does not feel
afraid, but he who conquers that fear” – Nelson Mandela (Reference: Long Walk
To Freedom – Nelson Mandela Autobiography).
KEY LESSONS
-
Self-Discovery: discover what you have been called
to do, this will guide you and help you maintain your focus. Doing too many
things at the same time will drain your energy and deny you valuable
opportunity. Ones you know what you want out of life channel your whole energy
and resources to accomplishing it.
-
You Are A Product of Influence: you become what you hear, let me
put it this way – you’re rewarded in life by your influence, if you don’t like
the kind of growth you are currently experiencing in your life, change who
talks to you. You must understand that where you draw your inspiration matters
a lot. It is the very height of stupidity to believe that you will make any
change with the same people who influences your life, the end result will be
the same. Nothing directs the life course of a man as influence – if you desire
anything enough, look at for someone (a mentor) who has the required ability to
coach you – my mentor will always say “mentorship is the only legal short cut
to success”.
-
Value Learning Over Money: this is very important in mastery.
It is quite unfortunate that our culture promotes affluence than influence.
People tend to believe what they see – so the get-rich-quick syndrome is fast
eating up the younger generation. Many of us wants a faster way instead of a
better way. Mandela knew money and firm will come, but to achieve that he has
to learn and develop himself. Take up community volunteering job; go work for a
mentor for no salary; volunteer to be part of the organizing committee – in the
long run you will learn so much to help you start and run your own projects.
Focus on learning – read and listen to people (mentors, role model, leaders
etc.) whose work inspire you, learn from their experience and accomplishment by
reading their books or watching a documentary about them. Listen to their tapes,
understudy them until you know everything about their life. Lastly on this
point – apply the length and breadth of knowledge i.e. know something about
everything and know everything about something.
-
Talkless And Do More: You know the old saying “action
speaks louder than voice” yes it is true. People want to see result – so spend
your time doing more than talking more. The law of progress does not celebrate
success or failure, it simply ask you what next. Assuming you failed - it will
say to you what next; the same if you succeed. More tellingly, as you conquer
one stage to another you will meet people whose vision and idea do not align
with your dream sometimes they will persuade you to abandon yours and follow
them – celebrate them but move forward. You cannot afford to be here and there
– give no thought to small thought – maintain your focus. Always remember,
result deletes insult.
-
Avoid The Less Resistance Path: there is no short-cut to achieving
any worthwhile venture. Nelson Mandela and every great leader have this at the
back of their mind. Go through the process there are lessons to learn. Don’t
try to be smart – the desire to seem clever often makes us commit grave errors,
there is no man really clever who has not found that he is stupid. Learn from
your failure and move on – more importantly delay gratification. See the next
point.
-
Don’t Abort the Process: everything that happens to you is a
build up to where you are going to. Just because you encounter some tough
challenges does not mean it is over. Like I have always say – life has a way of
throwing out us real life punches, sometimes we dock, sometimes we run,
sometimes we’ve got to stand and take it. There is no real story without a real
pain. Don’t abort the process go through it. For Nelson Mandela to wear the
crown of victory - he lost his son, had
a divorce, became a fugitive in his country, spend twenty-six years in Robben
Island and eventually when he was released from prison and had thought it was
time to go home lo, there was no home, his family will never be the same again, he
was forever separated from his wife that gave him strength and joy all through
his days in prison – what else can a man pray for, yet he hold on to his dream.
Great people have great stories, they refuse to give up or abort the process –
they paid the ultimate price to get the ultimate prize.
-
Team Work: John C. Maxwell simply puts “Team
work makes the dream work”. The right people plus the right information will
enhance the right connection that will facilitates the right promotion in your
life. Mandela wrote about his days in Robben Island and the team work within
his circle, he says “our survival depended on understanding what the
authorities were attempting to do to us, and sharing that understanding with
each other. It would be very hard if not impossible for one man alone to
resist. I don’t know that I could have done it had I been alone. But the
authorities’ greatest mistake was keeping us together, for together our
determination was reinforced. We supported each other and gain strength from
each other. Whatever we knew, whatever we learned we shared, and by sharing we
multiplied whatever courage we had individually”.
-
Forgive and Move on:
Henry Ward Beecher puts it this way “I can forgive, but I cannot forget,
is only another way of saying, I will not forgive. Forgiveness ought to be like
a cancelled note – torn in two, and burned up, so that it never can be shown
against one.” Mahatma Gandhi once said “the weak can never forgive. Forgiveness
is the attribute of the strong.” Like Nelson Mandela will later learn – you
cannot not be absolutely right, in every circumstances seek a better way to
resolve any issue. He will further apply this timely truth during the peace and
reconciliation days. Forgiving others mean you are ready and capable to lead
them. Leadership is not showmanship; it is finding a better way to do it best.
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