The Power of Dream – Lesson from Mandela

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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