Driving from Voi on the Mombasa
highway at over hundred kilometers per hour I suddenly hear a mild thud as
something hits the windscreen and then there is blood splat on the windscreen.
It happened again. A bird in an attempt to ‘cross’ the road had been hit and
killed by the car.
While the urge to feel sorry for the
bird is valid I cannot but wonder – and wonder very seriously. What was a bird
that is equipped to fly high in the air doing at a level where it can be hit by
a car? Was it drunk? Was it crazy? Was it deceived or was it just an over
bloated show of confidence? Whatever the reason, the truth is that birds that
were made to soar high above the ground should never be hit by cars that are
driven on the ground.
Many people like the bird are being
hit today by things they have no business being hit by. The big question for
today therefore is, ‘what is your altitude’? Are you flying low when you should
be soaring high?
As a little kid in a school in
England I was once called a Pakistani Bee by a schoolmate. I went home crying
to my mother. When I told her why I was crying she asked me two questions.
First she asked if I was a Pakistani. I said no even though I did not at that
time know what the word meant. Next she asked if I was a bee to which I said
no. ‘Why then are you behaving in a manner likely to suggest that you are one
she asked’. Of course each word was synchronized with a slap. I got the message
and I never forgot. You descend from your high altitude every time you pay
attention to things that you should not pay attention to. When you engage in an
argument with a fool, no one will know who is who and you obviously cannot win
because he has more experience than you at being a fool.
I used to be very conscious of
critics but then I realized that if you do not want critics in your life then
stay small and do nothing significant with your life. If you are always looking
for approval before moving on in life then you have assumed that people must
always be on the same thought frequency as you. This is not true. People will
always try to talk you to align with their level of thought. If it is lower
than yours then you will be operating at a lower altitude and you increase your
chances of being hit.
Whatever your vision might be, do
not reduce the vision to accommodate resources. Rather increase your capacity
to execute the vision. A wise man once said it was evil for princes to walk on
foot while servants rode on horses. The English language has an expression that
people should get off their high horses. My question is, why? Be graceful and
humble but if your vision is what makes people call you proud then you are on
the right track. While we learn from the wisdom of others we need to be careful
so we do not allow our visions to be diluted by people who cannot see what we
are seeing.
Most of the time the people who will
tell you to get off your high horse are on foot. Do not lower your thinking to
accommodate low thinkers or non-thinkers. Rather change your networks to
accommodate your thinking. Remember that insecure people always interpret the
actions of confident people as arrogance. If you are too concerned about people
liking you then there is a strong possibility that you will descend to the
average level of thinking and there is a stronger guarantee that you will not
accomplish much
Never forget that the only way a
bird gets killed by a moving car is when it ‘gets off its high horse’ and flies
at an altitude it had no business flying at.
Wale Akinyemi
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