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Farming demands hard work, industry demands hard work, and academic success demands hard work. It is through hard work that we can transform our livelihoods to become an advanced and sophisticated nation.
Through hard work, we become real and respectable to other nations, and those nations will also become more real to us, increasing our connectivity.
When we are a hard working people, we stop envying and imitating other races, and begin to believe in ourselves, in our own processes. We cease to pontificate on praise-singing individuals whose preoccupation may be to seek personal glory.
With a distinct work ethic, we refuse to be deceived by the uncouth and self-centred who manipulate processes to pursue self enrichment at the expense of national development. Hard work wipes out the cynical gamesmanship of the corrupt, greedy and disingenuous.
It exposes clandestine networks formed to benefit rent seekers and their appendages in state institutions and business. Through a well thought out work ethic, citizens are able to differentiate right from wrong, good from bad, and moral from immoral. Hard work teaches people to be real and never leave beyond their means.
The intrinsic value of hard work is manifest through accelerated economic growth and changing patterns of the people’s living standards.
Look at those in the developed world of the north, and in South-East Asian countries. They work long hours, and work very hard. The culture of hard work drives their industries, their businesses, and their public services.
Look at the Chinese, their construction and manufacturing industries. Like ants, the Chinese work twenty-four hours a day, and this has helped to turn the country into the world’s workshop. The Chinese provide the world with every bit of consumer goods from mere needles to the latest range of luxury vehicles.
China has in a short space of time transformed itself from an impoverished Third World country to a miracle economic giant envied by all nations.
Let’s change our mindset and turn Zimbabwe into a nation of workaholics. Let us reinvent ourselves. Our skilled human resource base is a powerful tool upon which we can anchor this transformation.
Through hard work, the whole nation must be stirred to build intelligent communities that exert an independent and powerful voice that plays a part in shaping national development processes. We should move from focusing on the “here and now” to focus on the future. The country must have a clear work ethic that inspires all and sundry to reject the status quo and embrace processes that transform our industries, our farms, our mines, and our public service processes to ensure equity, efficiency, effectiveness, and hard work.
We need a work ethic that captures our calling, and a work ethic that rallies all citizens to put the nation before self. This is what we should do, what should define who we are, and what we should all become known for.
A distinct work ethic founded on hard work will destroy a life of misplaced value systems that are mere caricatures of the outside world to stimulate amongst us the spirit of collectivism, originality, and knowledge sharing. Through hard work, we face up to the realities of our lives without hiding our heads in the sand like ostriches.
Hard work is not denying oneself a good sleep devising ways of stealing from state institutions and businesses. Hard work is not engaging in clandestine and corrupt dealings that destroy the nation and the people’s living standards.
Hard work is not about perennially finding someone to blame except ourselves for our own mistakes. Hard work is instead, a belief in the moral benefit of work and its ability to transform societies and the people’s livelihoods.
Corruption in the country has mutated to become an adored “philosophy” that dictates how riches can be amassed thus demeaning values such as hard work, honesty and integrity. This is so because the country lacks a unifying vision articulated through a collective work ethic.
Where a work ethic is absent, citizens tend to look elsewhere for cues on how to behave. And where the national vision fails to send the right signal, even honest citizens end up becoming vulnerable to self-deception and rationalisation of wrong doings.
Zimbabwe needs a distinct national work ethic that must give direction on the way we conduct business and on how we relate to each other.
A national work ethic premised on hard work will unmask thieves and fraudsters who hide their transgressions in false claims of loyalty and patriotism, and in exaggerated claims of persecution by the state in order to attract donor funding.
The culture of living off the hard work of others must cease in the country. Let us become like other hard working nations. Once we start working hardest all the time and believing in ourselves, we will soon be like those that we envy.
It is as well important to recognise that national leadership has a tremendous influence on the behaviour of individuals in the country. People tend to act in a way that is consistent with the behaviour exhibited by those at the top.
The tone at the top is paramount because once the leadership shift into the right gear, the whole nation follows suit. The present inspiring call by the State President to shun violence as we herd towards elections has clearly set the right tone, and the seriousness of this call is best exemplified by the peacefulness with which the 2nd All stakeholders conference was conducted last month which clearly had the potential to be turned into a circus through sponsored violence and intimidation.
We don’t want leaders who go bed hoping giving a lame excuse of looking for a life partner, and leaders who intimidate and instill fear in others as a way of cajoling them to do as they wish.
Bradwell Mhonderwa is an Ethics Coach and Trainer with the Business Ethics Centre. Send feedback to [email protected],or visit www.businessethicscentre.co.zw, or call 0772 913 875.
Online Reporter