Staying positive in a negative environment

Chad Chawanda
One of the biggest challenges is staying positive in a negative environment. If it is true that we are all a product of our environment, then everyone should be negative.

I have looked at how many businesses were set up in a negative environment or better yet, survived a negative environment. In Zimbabwe, we have several companies that have been operating for over 50 years now.

One would say they were privileged but when you get a chance to speak to the people that have history of how those businesses survived, you will realise that we should never judge anything based on face value. On Sunday December 2, 2018, there was a huge concert in Johannesburg, South Africa, themed the Global Citizen Festival. It highlighted the need for humanity to be united and work together to create a better place to live. This leads me to the topic of United Nations sustainable development goals. If one looks at the 17 Sustainable development goals, you would realise that we are living in challenging times world over, and if the whole world has identified these 17 goals, the majority of them relate to the challenges we are facing here in Zimbabwe, is unity and love not our solution? I have learnt that there are many businesses that started in tough times.

As I keep worrying about the future of our young generation and how negative our people have become, which is understandable, I keep on looking for ways to remain positive. I found an article written a few years ago in the Huffington post that looked at some of the businesses that started in the recession.

Surprisingly, they are some of the greatest businesses of our time, they are the likes of, GE, IBM, GM, Disney, Burger King, Microsoft, CNN & Apple. While I agree that it is a challenge and it is a pain to go through what I imagine most of us are going through in the country, we are going to go through tougher times, as was indicated by the finance minister.

I think it is important to look at ourselves as individuals and work on ways to best survive the challenges we are facing. If learning from others is of any value, then we could learn from those American businesses that started in tough times. Countries are different, yes, but the will to survive can be the same in any environment. Let us review our year and see if we can tick any boxes as far as our goals are concerned.

It does not matter what the year was like, but if you had not set goals you are highly likely to be in a worse off state than what you were when the year started, but it is not the end of the world. Now is the best time to set personal developmental goals, set life changing goals, drop your bad habits and focus on you.

Make 2019 the year for you, commit to improving your life, it is true that you are what the top five people you spend your time with are, “you are the company you keep”. Look and see if the people you are spending your time with represent what you wish for, if not, it is OK to change your circle. Create a circle of influence, it doesn’t matter how old you are.

Colonel Saunders founder of KFC started his business during the Great Depression. If you are running a business or starting one, align your business to the right values. If you have not read about sustainable development goals, I suggest you read about them, they are good to align your business with, have a business with a purpose and the money will come.

Live a life with a purpose, the money will come. You have great chances of surviving if you are positive but remember bad planning is bad planning in any environment. A good service is a good service in any environment. Focus on you in 2019.