Skip to main content

The Eagle in a storm (Part 5)


__You need to develop relationships with people based on trust.

By Dr Strive Masiyiwa

The other day I was in New York and decided to attend a church service with a dear friend of more than 20 years, Dr AR Bernard of Christian Cultural Centre. During the service they showed a video called the "Marshmallow Test." Young children were put in a room with a marshmallow (a type of sweet) and told that if they didn’t eat it, they’d get an extra one when the adult returned.
Left alone, the children then had to manage their impulse to simply grab the sweet and eat it. Many of them managed to control themselves and so earned the extra sweet. However, experts found that those children who’d previously been let down by an adult ate the sweet immediately.
__Some of the children in the Marshmallow Test just didn’t value the promise made by the adult because they’d been betrayed by adults before!
So what has this got to do with our theme about surviving tough times… the Eagle in a storm? Everything. Getting through tough times will depend on how many relationships you have built up, based on trust!
When people trust you, it’s possible to get a helping hand during tough times. Some children were willing to wait because they trusted the adult who’d made a promise to them. Asking other people to wait or make sacrifices depends to a great extent on how much people believe they can trust you, based on previous conduct, particularly when you seemed to be the one with the upper hand.
As a matter of principle, you must build relationships with employees, partners, investors, and customers based on trust. It’s important to be known as a person of integrity. I’ve already written a great deal about respect for the rule of law. This is about respect for yourself as a person of moral character.
You must establish your track record as an honourable person when times are good. There’s no point in showing humility only when things get tough; you must be trustworthy when you’re flying high!
# If during the good times you and your family were splashing money around like there’s no tomorrow, you’ll find it difficult to call on others to make sacrifices.
# If you were never willing to pay your creditors (there’s never an excuse for this!), you’ll find it difficult, if not impossible, to secure credit during the tough times.
# If you broke agreements with impunity because you were powerful, no one will stand with you when it’s you who needs help.
__Who do you know who really trusts you?
__Who is out there that will stand up for you?
Real trust transcends your ability to go to members of your family, your clan, your tribe, your religion, your nationality or even your race. When you sit down to reflect upon this issue, consider how many people from outside your "comfort circle” of family, clan, tribe, race, religion, would consider you trustworthy? This is the "marshmallow test" for each one of us, everyday. In Christianity, it’s the real interpretation of the Parable of the Good Samaritan.
Personally, one of the greatest testimonies of my life is the number of people who have stood in my corner when I needed help. It never ceases to amaze me how far people are prepared to stand in my corner. It's called "unmerited favor" and a blessing for which I am deeply grateful.
There are also people out there who I’ll try to give almost anything to help out when they are in trouble!
Do all you can every day to reach out to other people and build trust. Be a person of your word. Your character as a person of integrity is far more important than any money in the bank, fancy car or anything material in your life.

Image Credit: Pennsylvania Game Commission /Hal Korber

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Starting a Business in Ugand PART 1-COMPANY REGISTRATION

Below is a detailed summary of the bureaucratic and legal hurdles faced by entrepreneurs wishing to incorporate and register a new firm in Uganda. It examines the procedures, time and cost involved in launching a commercial or industrial firm with between 10 and 50 employees and start-up capital of 10 times the economy's per-capita gross national income. This information was collected as part of the Doing Business project , which measures and compares regulations relevant to the life cycle of a small- to medium-sized domestic business in 190 economies. The most recent round of data collection was completed in June 2016. Standardized Company Legal form: Private Limited Company Paid-in minimum capital requirement: UGX 0 City: Kampala No. Procedure Time to Complete Associated Costs 1 Submit the Name Reservation Form to the assessment window of t...

10 Daily habits of most successful entrepreneurs.

“You will never change your life until you change something you do daily. The secret of your success is found in your daily routine.” ~ John C Maxwell How many of these top 10 entrepreneur habits do you have today? What good habits can you start and what bad habits can you stop to change your results tomorrow? 1) Create a routine - Set a rhythm to connect to the big 5 P’s every day: Purpose (why?), Products (what?), People (who?), Processes (when?), Productivity (how?) 2) Keep the mornings for the toughest projects - Start with what’s most important, not what’s most urgent. Make yourself 80% proactive, 20% reactive. 3) Work out & meditate - Richard Branson says the #1 thing he does to improve his business success is exercise. The universe will only look after you as well as you look after yourself. 4) Give a head start to tomorrow today - Design each day ahead of time and ask the same question Steve Jobs asked: "If today were the last day of my life, would I want t...

The most successful African entrepreneurs of the future __Think beyond borders of all kinds.

By Dr Strive Masiyiwa Amongst the many things I wanted to achieve with this platform was to get young African entrepreneurs to reach out and start talking to each other, doing business deals, and partnering to find solutions to Africa's many other challenges. I'm not sure if you saw this comment I made during our discussion on partnerships a while back: "Afterthought: Here is a secret! The most successful Africans in future are those who master the ability to partner with Africans from other African countries... Shhhh! (Keep this secret to yourself, because there are many enemies out there who will try and stop you from believing this.)" As an entrepreneur, there are huge benefits for you if Africa can shift its economic narrative to what I sometimes refer to as "Africanization." We as Africans need to open up this continent to development by Africans. However, this should not be to the exclusion of working with partners from other parts of the worl...