I just returned from a project in Benin and Rwanda with a bit of time in Ethiopia. During my 10 day trip we interviewed dozens of people ranging from Ministers and executives to people with booths in the local markets. While there I was able to get out into the rural areas and talk to people. It was an exhilarating experience.
Without exception everyone we talked to was energized about the opportunity in front of them. While cataloguing a variety of problems starting with the need for more electricity, education, and internet infrastructure they invariably ended with stories about good things to come.
I was struck by how it didn’t matter whether they were those with great economic resources or those without, they were excited about the future. On the flight back I got thinking about the difference in mindset between the business people and government officials in these countries from that of so many I meet in the United States.
In Benin and Rwanda I found a feeling of opportunity, an unwillingness to let current conditions or situations cause them to despair. In the United States I so often hear a feeling of defeat, that things are bad and won’t get better.
The culture of opportunity versus the culture of defeat.
Think about the companies you know…and yours. Some are filled with people putting in time and keeping their heads down. It’s a job and nothing else. The energy is low, excitement is non-existence. They can’t wait to leave the place at day’s end.
Other companies are filled with people excited about the future and their place in it. They can’t wait to arrive in the morning and see what the new day will bring.
A culture striving to create a better future versus a culture that sees nothing in the future.
The thing that most intrigued me was how it all came from the top. The leaders of Benin and Rwanda, both government and company, are upbeat, excited, enthusiastic, and paint a picture of a better future. The leaders of the United States too often are depressed, boring, and without any vision of the path to a better future.
What happens? Exactly. People see the energy in the walk or the hunch of the shoulders. They hear the words and notice the actions. And then they follow the culture that these create.
And so goes the company, or country. Moving forward together to build a better future for all or at each others throats’ trying to get their piece of what exists today.
Walk with energy.
Some years ago, when the Phillies were having a particularly poor season and everyone was blaming the pitching, the fielding, the batting, the players in general, one fan, in a “letter to the editor” wrote “I’m an old fisherman. And one thing I learned is that a fish rots from the head down”. I never forgot that. Holds true for business too. I know, I’ve worked for a “fish” or two.