Why Cecil the Lion's story works so well-what we can learn

It has been brought to the (largely deaf) attention of a world preoccupied with a story as to why Cecil the Lion's story is receiving more attention than other issues that result in human death/disappearance. Check here and here for examples from Zimbabwe and the rest of the world. Not withstanding the use of media to promote a story that times well with a UN resolution on illegal wildlife trafficking there are a few reasons why Cecil the Lion resonates with us so strongly. Firstly the story has a clearly identified protagonist- the martyred, innocent lion Cecil who has no voice for himself; any other lion without a name and I doubt people would care as much. There are clearly identified antagonists who we can vilify, antagonists who have admitted to their part in the killing. And there is a clear violation of moral principle being told in the story-the taking of a collared Cecil from somewhere he was safe and luring him to an area where, without him realising it, he was a suitable candidate for a hunt. It is the clarity of the elements of the story that make it so powerful. Add to it a couple of horror details like bleeding for 40 hours before death and you have what is clearly a best seller. There is also created in the mind of the reader an identifiable pressing problem to be filled-that of justice-justice ably dispensed by the internet community on any platform associated with the 'villains'.


Unfortunately a dreadful and shocking abduction without a clearly identified antagonist is unlikely to grab our attention as much. Likewise a unnamed, dead, migrant we cannot identify with does not make a good protagonist in our minds as readers.


The best story wins.


(Please note that this post is not a commentary on the relative morality of these topics, rather it is simply pointing out what make the elements of a great story. Any story we tell; be it as a business about our product, in the news, or as individuals needs to have similar clear parts for it to resonate as well with the hearers.)

Setting the New Industry Standard.

If you are anything like me you are probably a bit of an information junkie, you are always looking around to see what is trending, what is happening, what the new standards are in business. Here is a question; what is stopping you from becoming the industry standard in your field? What is stopping you from becoming the person who is setting the trends?

In reality probably nothing but fear. Step up and step out. Start putting your ideas and thoughts out there. Start a blog, a YouTube channel, create a Udemy course, do what you need to do to get your work out there. Thoughtfully and conscientiously get started on building your reputation.

Creativity: The response to pressure

I have a coffee addiction. There, I’ve said it. The confession is finally in print. A day without caffeine is sad and gloomy. As a result I spend a large amount of time in coffee shops imbibing java infused beverages. Last week I walked into the restroom of one of my favourite venues, Freshly Ground in Harare, to be confronted by a larger than life print of a man wearing sunglasses on the wall. Someone had carefully cut mirrors into shape and placed them where the lenses of the sunglasses would be. How creative! How innovative! How different!

Pressure fosters creativity. Right now with economic pressure on creativity needs to come to the fore in order to stand out. The stress will either crush you, causing you to shrink back or it will provide the impetus to explode out in a burst of creative excellence.

The coffee shop with the restroom decor had renovated a few months before but I never noticed the glasses because I had not needed the facilities. It made me question what else I was not seeing. That is the essence of creativity; throwing out the preconceived and asking ‘What else am I not seeing? What is my conditioning stopping me from seeing?’ I strolled back into the main section of the coffee shop and deliberately studied the artwork. There were a dozen details I had taken for granted-from the upside down cups used as lighting to the larger description of coffee on the wall. The details all creatively add to form the vibe that the coffee shop wants to maintain. Your creativity needs to work to create an end result. Your ideas need to say something to you clients about you, or facilitate the transactions behind the scene in a way that makes things better.

The decor will not work in any other coffee shop; they will have to come up with their own furnishings that work for their unique system. Uniqueness that people will not copy because it will not work for them will get you ahead. Now there are some things that everyone will copy and that is okay if you are the first in with the idea. Take cupcakes in coffee shops. Cupcakes became fashionable around the world a few years ago. It took Zimbabwe a little while to pick up on it but someone started it here and then suddenly every cake shop was selling cupcakes of varying sorts. Suddenly cupcakes are no longer unique on the menu. What are unique are the beautiful, state-of-the-art, intricately decorated cupcakes, more than just a blob of icing on dry confectionary, that only one or two places offer and that people will order in lieu of wedding cake.

The temptation right now when the economy is tough is to try differentiating on price, to be the cheapest. While there is a long way for people to go in reducing prices from the level of ‘rip-off’ to ‘reasonable’, simply cutting prices is not a creative way of generating clients and revenue streams. Creative price cutting would be the auction type system that low budget airlines utilise where the earlier you purchase the cheaper the ticket, but as the demand for tickets increases the price goes up the closer to the fly date you buy. Their pricing structure has been an industry game changer. Tried and tested will still work to a degree, but add to it the new innovative. Budget airlines will not compromise on the backbone of safety but you are not going to get a meal on the plane either.

Break out of the nonexistent box that you have put yourself in, refuse to shrink back. Do not remain static and comfortable. Think ahead. Look for that uniqueness that will put you ahead of the game without compromising what you stand for.

Levels of Thought: There is always a better way

Sunsets in Zimbabwe come in three types: spectacular, incredible and amazing. There is no getting away from the fact that we are blessed with a truly beautiful evening sky. If you are stuck in Harare though you may not fully experience the magnificence of the experience due to trees and buildings that get in your way. In order to appreciate it you need to seek higher ground. Domboshava, just outside of Harare, allows you a short climb to obtain a spectacular view of the surrounding area. If you wish to be truly wowed then a little further on is Ngomokurira, higher, harder to climb but the elevation allows access to a panorama that will amaze. This is not an article on tourist attractions around Harare though, it is about levels.

There are different levels of thought that a person can operate at (that is one of the reasons we have different levels of degree program at universities). These levels impact their behaviour in life and in business and how they interact with others. There is always a better way available to do things, low level thinking limits you to a less than efficient way of operating.

Let us imagine for a moment that you have access to vegetables that you wish to sell. You can choose to set up a self made stall and wait for someone to pass by and see your wares. This makes you a vendor. The problem with waiting for people is that they may not come, or they may go elsewhere or pick the vegetables that the person next to you is selling. The next option is to start going door to door in a neighbourhood and offering your goods to people answering the door. This makes you a salesman. You could however go door to door with a sample of your best goods and tell people that for a monthly fee you will supply them twice a week with similar produce. Now you are a distributer and make sure that you consistently supply only the best possible product that people rave about and tell their friends. Level of thought matters, how you see yourself matters.

How do we learn to operate at a higher level of thought when everything in the world is consistently striving to keep us a little dumber? Higher thinking, having better ideas takes effort. It often takes effort to implement the actions that follow. Our natural, lazy tendency is to avoid the hard work and take the lower path. Be prepared to do the hard work.

Firstly expose yourself to ideas, not just openly but with an analytical mind and a slightly sceptical filter. Be sure of your morals and values so you do not compromise them. I have an old friend, Stan, who I follow on social media who consistently annoys me with his writing. The annoyance comes because I just do not agree with a lot of what he says. He writes well, operates at a high level of thought but his world view is different to mine. I could switch off his posts, stop following his newsfeed, but I don’t. I choose to continue engaging with him because he challenges me to think. There is a mistruth being perpetrated around the globe today that because I disagree with someone’s behaviour that I should hate them. We have forgotten what dialogue looks like, the sort where it is okay to not agree with someone but still be able to find a way to go forward.

Read, learn, discuss. Technology has made learning and exposure easier than ever. Udemy offer courses, some of which are excellent. Podcasts, blogs and even books are plastered across the internet for free. This should not be sponge type learning though do not just soak everything in as some of it is not the best level possible. Seek out the better way; ask what would work in your business. Figure out how you can apply an idea to your specific brand and industry.

Finally be careful about making high emotion, reaction type decisions. High emotion tends to lower the level of thought. That is why the guys in the car park offering you a ‘lucky day deal’ start their pitch with the chance of you having won something-it heightens your emotion and stops you thinking. While some reactionary decisions can be good ‘spur of the moment’ stuff, it is better to calm down, re-examine the process and then proceed. There is always a better way.

Building a Business

Often new business owners have this idea that magic will happen and they will end up with an instantly successful company that runs itself and makes you enough money to afford a new Mercedes within the first month. New entrepreneurs who set up a business to create and sell an idea they have may severely underestimate the time and effort it takes to build a company. Building requires energy. It is a process.

Like building a house, building a business requires a solid foundation and while you may be able to build a house from scratch on your own it is far easier if you get some reliable help.

The foundation will be a clear vision and the ability to cast direction for others. There is a small but significant difference between vision and planning. Vision allows you to plan. Plans shift on top of the blueprint of vision. The vision is what you are building, the end product or desired outcome. ‘We provide affordable telecommunications to rural Zimbabweans’, ‘We provide simple yet effective payroll solutions for small businesses’, or ‘We make your information easy to handle’ and examples of condensed vision. The plan is based on that. Plans can change, vision will probably not. I started a business on the cusp of the hyperinflation era that characterised the later part for the 00’s. Investors wanted a 5 yr cash flow projection and a plan. So I popped one out for them. We all know how that ended up. Within a year I had to seriously revise any plans and projections frequently as inflation blew any ideas out the water. The vision though stayed the same throughout the period.

Regardless of your vision there a point where you have to outsource or hire for skills. I would suggest that a great time to start is when you have to begin dealing with ZIMRA (the Zimbabwe tax authority) because even if you can do it on your own you really do not want to get your taxes wrong. Outsourcing avoids the costly overheads of a salary. You pay per project or per unit time to get a job done and only use the person when you need them. It avoids office space, company cars and packages. In the long term though you will probably have to get your own team of people. There are trust issues that outsourcing may not fully resolve. Jack Cator, the creator of HMA, a web service that provides virtual proxy addresses, was profiled by the BBC recently. He recently sold his company for 40 million British Pounds. He started off outsourcing, but made the switch to hiring when a contractor tried to steal his idea and start a rival company.

When he began getting people on board he had the fantastic benefit of being able to pull in his free lancers as full time staff. Because he had worked alongside them and knew what they were capable of he avoided the whole murky interview process that is involved when hiring. You know exactly what you are getting when you bring someone on board using this approach.

Cold hiring is a whole other board game. You have to get the interview process right. It is worth a trial period with the successful candidate for the same reason that converting a freelancer into staff succeeds. If you get it wrong you are saddled with someone you may regret for a long time.

The other option is to head hunt-to recruit other people who already have a job they are happy with and make them a better offer (not just financially but in the work and experience they will have) that they are willing to jump ship to join you.

Letting go can be hard, especially when you let someone else take some of the bigger roles. You need to balance between operating as a dictatorship micromanaging everything or being so hands off that you wake up to a company flying without a pilot. Decide which areas you need to hold onto that will give the greatest growth and impact for the organisation and hand over the others. Clearly define expectations. Paint the vision and its accompanying values in a manner that they can be run with. Inspect the work being done, call things to account. At the same time allow the flexibility for employees to achieve the goals that are set in a creative manner and the freedom to bring ideas to the table.

The process of building may vary in the length of time it takes. Take the time and effort to make it work. Do not cut corners on it or in the long term the roof may fall off the ‘house’ you are creating.

Commitment

Commitment: a word that with it carries the ideas of faithfulness, and of grit and determination to see through the hard times. One of the problems with commitment is that we often do not learn to make our own decisions on it until we are well out of school. The benign dictatorship of many school systems where subjects and sports are compulsory is not true commitment as there is only a limited decision by you to stick it out. Your parents and the system often determine that you will finish the time allocated and overrule objection. Commitment, for many, is a late bloomer in the formation of our world view. Then it gets tainted by a media that portray a casual attitude towards relationships as acceptable. No wonder we struggle with it.

There is a difference between being committed and being merely interested. A committed owner (or employee, entrepreneur, leader) dedicates himself to learning and taking the risk regardless of the potential outcome. They fling themselves wholeheartedly into a cause. Be that cause a marriage, a business, a charity, a sport there is a complete dedication to it and increasing the success it has.

Commitment to a cause is rare. Sometimes I feel that it was easier to have a cause a few centuries ago when big armies still marched out under the banner of a king. A cause could grip a nation and rally it to greatness. Having a cause to commit to is a motivator unlike any other. You can be good at something if you choose to be. With few great causes available, the individual cause becomes more visible. You can champion your company, commit to being a sports champion, produce a better world, all you have to do is make the decision and stick it out.

Choose your level and be content with it. You determine if you wish to be content with mediocrity or become a champion. If you are happy with mediocrity then that is your call, just do not complain. If you wish to become a champion then train like one. If you wish to be a rock star then practice like one. There is a price to greatness that separates the committed from everyone else.

Do what it takes. The first step is showing up. I began a martial arts training last year, since I started a number of people I know have expressed an interest but never made it to class. The second step is showing up again, even when it hurts. US politician Mike Rounds once said “We can do things the cheap way, the simple way, for the short-term and without regard for the future. Or, we can make the extra effort, do the hard work, absorb the criticism and make decisions that will cause a better future.”  The minute you commit there will be a host of adversaries, naysayers including the mental one in your own head. The amazing thing about the critics is that many of them are not making an impact with their lives either.

The first time you may not win. The World Champion may only win on his third attempt. Commitment outlasts outcomes. It stays focused until you’ve formed yourself into the leader you need to be in order to handle the outcome you desire. Stay focused. Don’t wait until you discover you’re good at something to commit. A world changer never knows she’s going to change the world when she starts.

“Only one who devotes himself to a cause with his whole strength and soul can be a true master. For this reason mastery demands all of a person” Albert Einstein

The Myth of Working Smart

It is amazing how sometimes a little phrase can sneak into your mind, take root there and grow in completely the wrong direction and meaning. One of those mantras is ‘Work Smart not Hard’. The problem with the expression is that it is easy to look at it as an ‘either-or’ option as if you are faced with making a choice between working hard and working smart. Somehow people equate working smart with not working much at all which is an excuse for sheer laziness. You still have to work hard; you just work better at it.

The primary difference between just working hard and working smart is productivity. It is easy to work hard and produce nothing concrete at the end of the day. The aim of what you do is to have something that you can ship at the end of it; a product delivered, a goal achieved. Smart workers ship and ship fast because they work hard.

Do not mistake being busy for working hard. I can be busy on Facebook, Twitter and every other social media platform I can think of. I can be busy in meetings that do not really require my presence or input. I can be busy on the fluff of the day that actually does not matter. Let us be honest with ourselves we can all think of an occasion where we have avoided a task and managed to get ‘busy’ doing other stuff in order to evade the actual task.

In order to work smart you need to work for a reason with a clear vision and objectives. Productivity is enhanced by having small ‘victories’ during the day. This is one reason why a daily ‘to-do’ list is an effective tool to generating positive momentum. Each item ticked off the list creates a small but powerful emotion of achievement inside you which fuels the drive to do more.

Declutter your life, delegate tasks, and outsource that which others can do better. Get rid of the fluff that hinders your productivity. Unless your role is to monitor the social network no Facebook during work. Aim for high impact tasks, those which have the biggest effect on what you do. As a writer this means I have to write, not spend hours answering emails. It does not mean I will never answer emails, just that I will set the task of writing a priority. Delegating does not mean that you do less work; it merely allows you to do more of the work that matters.

Structure your life and business to maintain flow. One way for this is to set aside time that is uninterruptable for key tasks. No phone calls, no emails, no visitors, just you and your work.

Work when most effective for you to do so. A friend of mine wrote a book by setting aside a minimum of twenty minutes dedicated writing every night before bed regardless of how the day had been. Some days he wrote more than others, some nights he would take longer, but he was diligent at doing the hard work of writing. The project took him 18 months, but he shipped.

Set your iteration cycles and feedback loops correctly. Do not double your workload by stupidly asking for opinion at the wrong point that sends you back to the drawing board for unnecessary changes. Get the key deliverable points from the person who signs off on the project before you start. Then when you need that final approval point out exactly how you have fulfilled what they asked for. Get mass opinion early in the project while you are still brainstorming, then trim the number of voices down to a few key, select individuals that matter and have solid wisdom.

One of the questions people ask of hard workers is ‘How do you get balance in your life?’ Usually this refers to keeping time for family, friends and vacations as well as managing a crazy 18 hour a day schedule during a start-up. Firstly I am not sure that balanced people change the world. Passion and unrelenting drive to a goal are necessary to getting there. There are phases in life when balance is just not realistic. Studying for a degree? Then believe me come exam time balance goes out the window temporarily. Remember that life is not an ‘either-or’ scenario but a ‘both-and’ and set the goals for your family as strongly as you set the goals for your work and then you will not treat them as fluff.

Getting the hard work done, paying the price, allows for success. Do not be afraid of putting your hand to the ploughshare in order to reap results later. Perhaps the mantra should read ‘Work Smart and Hard’.