There’s a hilarious piece that does the rounds on Facebook titled, ‘You know you have an African Mother when…’
It is a stark reminder that most of us grew up with very similar set of rules. The does and don’ts did not vary too much. These then went on to form our corporate belief systems years later.
By that article, and certainly by experience, one of the typical answers if we questioned why we should do something mum said should be done was, ‘because I said so’. This invocation of the infallibility of the authority of ‘mum’ was stated with such finality, that even the young mind would not find any further creative genius to pursue an alternative option. Mum said you do it, she is the authority – enough said. With that, the institution of ‘mum’ was elevated to infallibility.
It is no surprise then that we often grow up to take mums guidance as ‘holy writ’ that should not be questioned nor subjected to scrutiny.
Now in a nation where the general income levels are fairly low, it makes perfect logic for mum to have brought us up on the belief that the options are limited. She really was not lying, it was her daily reality. Besides, if the idea is to reign in a troop of children, options is not the reality you want to bring them up on.
Trouble with that is, most people do not bother to increase their knowledge base even long after they have come out of the season where the institution of ‘mum’ is all you had to go on.
It served the child mind to limit variety, but it certainly does not serve you the adult anymore. It serves you even less when what you need is a job in Kenya. It is now time to generate your own reality.
There are very many options in life. Options are only as limited as you choose to make them. There are numerous ways of getting the results you desire in life. The only thing that is limited even in finding a job in Kenya where jobs competition is extremely high, is your choice to utilise a personal plan that can outdo that competition.
I have a strong aversion to the common statement in Kenya that there are no jobs. It is an atrocious lie. Anywhere there are as many as the possibly 38 million people, surely there cannot be a ‘no jobs’ situation.
The challenge we have is our definition of jobs. A job, (in the Paula Thayrow dictionary, smile) is any endeavour that you engage in for a fee that causes the lives of the people around you to be more comfortable. It is about serving others.
Once you establish what it is that you can do to make people’s lives more comfortable, then you will start to see opportunities for jobs in Kenya coming at you.
Will I get paid? Yes! Figure out what you can do, the way to get that service to people, and they will pay for it. Now that is what variety is about.
By Paula Thayrow – 14th December 2009
