admin
Nicholas Bhero
A trip to the Kalahari desert, a place where thorns and thistles are not a curse but a blessing. Where trees do not yearn to be leafy and green, never hesitating to shed any extra leaves. This a water retention strategy mastered out of necessity, the place is too dry to look green and pretty. For one to survive, few yellowish leaves are required.
Every environment calls for character and persona from its occupants. The personification of the prescribed character is a means to survive and hardly a choice. We are what our environment makes us, therefore, if you want to become, seek the environment that is. In all of us there is a successful economy waiting to hatch, but the environment in which we incubate will determine the quality of the outcome.
I grew up, looking at the failed projects in our community or rather high potential individuals who simply disappointed Mabvuku. One such person was my high school crush, who to me deserved to be Miss Zimbabwe, if not Miss Universe.
She mesmerised the whole community of local schools with her beauty, and made more sense by having a head between her shoulders. Whether it was just looking at her or listening to the unbound logic which forever precipitated out of her brain. For Lynn (real name withheld), it was either she was to be successful or she was going to be very successful, nothing promised otherwise in her journey.
I remember when we were enrolling for college, I had to find excuses to switch universities just to be at the same institution with Lynn. Among my friends, I was famous for the ‘First Eleven’, which was a list of the 11 girls I considered the prettiest on campus. On that list, Lynn was always my first choice goalkeeper, for those who don’t understand soccer, she was always number one.
My boys used to say, “pamapango ndepa Lynn”. Whilst everyone else took it as a joke, for me Lynn was a real definition of a turnkey billion-dollar project. Winning the tender to her heart would be a fortune on its own.
Fast forward, but still in the days of the famous UBA and NABA acronyms, the days when modern day ‘mbingas’ were referred to as ‘maboss’ or ‘mabozida’. A circle of friends encircled Lynn and my whole imagined empire got threatened. She was pretty, so I don’t blame those who sent their new circle of friends to befriend her and shower her with a new type of rain.
The economy was already shaking and the colour of money was slowly getting shiny. I saw the mighty locomotives of Lynn derailing right before my eyes to the shattering of my heart.
She had been introduced to a new environment in which the brilliant Lynn would not thrive. Her beauty suddenly became the stronger currency and the brain followed the dollar wherever it was going.
It was at this moment when the words of a certain woman became true right before my eyes; “In all of us, there is everyone, it just depends on whom we are nature’” The loose woman in Lynn had found the perfect environment to thrive and she did unveil herself to the demise of the Lynn we all knew.
She started jumping from one luxury vehicle to another till we were all sure whose car had come for her. This was before the influx of the ex-Japanese cars, so in those days the visitors’ section was hardly in use. Even staff parking had more designated parking signs than the audience. Lynn had been pulled out of her success- bound flight, and lured into an imminent crash. Sadly, for Lynn, the only thing I can say now is Rest in Eternal Peace.
The environment in which we exist has a way with us, the nation in which we exist, the communities we live in and the circle of life we keep around us will eventually determine how we end. Whilst it is more difficult to control the nation you live in, it is much easier to nominate those who can fit into your mutual friendship list. The network you maintain has a huge bearing on who you become.
This is not only true for individuals, but it’s true for institutions and communities as well. The brands you integrate with, vertically and horizontally will determine how your product will position in the market.
Do not be quick to sign MoUs without interrogating the message which the other brand maintains in the market. You can easily sink a good brand vision by association.
Even as an economy, our environment should matter more than the outcomes. We cannot easily predict the outcomes, but we can try as much as possible to create the environment in which our desired outcomes can thrive. It is one thing to set an array of objective outcomes, not another to facilitate the incubation of those outcomes.
Making sure the operational environment is feasibly fit for purpose. Whilst countries may not have power to decide where they may physically exist, individuals and institutions can decide where to reside and do business. Individuals can choose what to learn and who to listen to, knowing very well how the outcomes will eventually testify of the environment in which they were natured. Our environment can either call the armed robbers in us or call the doctors and astrophysicists to come out.
You will realise that even external influences, when they want to sabotage your desired outcomes in a subtle way, they target the environment. They don’t pull an outright “Russia-Ukraine”, because everyone will know, but rather they will push an environmental manipulation agenda. When a country is placed under sanctions or its key decision makers are assigned certain restrictions, the creators of those targets are not merely aiming at the headlines but the environment knowing the outcomes will take care of themselves. Sanctions are more of a constriction than venom, they may seem harmless on face value but eventually their instruction will show. Such is a manipulation of the environment simply aimed at causing an intended effect.
As a response, when external forces capture your environment, like the Kalahari, thorns and thistles will begin to emerge, sadly the blame will lie where it falls. However, you have power over who or what makes your immediate environment. When choosing schools for our kids, a neighbourhood to rent or buy a property for residential or commercial purposes, signing MoUs or making international alliances with other nations, the question should always be, which environment will make our lights shine brighter and allow the seeds of our intended outcomes to thrive.
Nicholas Bhero is the founding chairman of the STIR Zimbabwe Trust and Senior Consultant at Fincorp Advisory he can be contacted on +263 783184726 or [email protected]
Online Reporter