Above Critique
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Allan Gerh
Feb 28, 2011, 11:45:33 AM2/28/11
to STEVE WASONGA, judith nosiphiwo, NDUKU MAKAU, NHTHAMBI MAKAU, Nyareruj, lucy biketi, burning-...@googlegroups.com, milkam...@yahoo.com, mizizi...@googlegroups.com, VOmo...@yahoo.com, wakesh...@yahoo.com
A friend this week shared a horror story of innocently going to pick up a
parcel with 2 books from the post office. What should have taken ten minutes
ended up taking 11 stops and over an hour and a half! [only fortunate that it
was 11am on Monday] As he told me this story, I realized I have finally figured
out what to do if I have an enemy in Kenya; mail them a package!
We continue in our sermon series called CREATE – Don’t Vent, Invent.
The biggest reason why Africa continues to underperform despite being perhaps
the most well endowed continent is because the most educated citizens have
failed to provide creative, practical solutions for the rest of the continent.
In the previous weeks we explored the challenges that keep many of us from
being people who CREATE. We found that…
1. Our upbringing – both education and parenting methods have hindered our
development as innovators
2. Our instant-success mentality -keeps us from going the long haul to provide
sustainable solutions-feelings
3. Our inadequate systems – keeps any solutions we generate small, inadequate
and unsustainable.
Today we shall address a fourth and final challenge to our quest to provide
practical and sustainable solutions for our continent & that is – Overcoming
Mediocrity. Have you recently had an encounter with mediocre services or
products? It is sad how easy it is find such examples of mediocrity.
* Receptionists in company receptions talk loudly on a private call in their
mother tongue, and then notice you after fifteen minutes and ask, ‘eh,
umesaidiwa’?
* Roads have potholes within a six months of being re-carpeted; and thank God
we’re not on an earthquake fault line because 30% of most buildings would come
tumbling down! Some collapse even without earthquakes as recently as last year
in Kiambu. In some parts of our city, developers build sewer overflows to the
open roadside ditch!
* It sometimes feels like you’re begging banks to keep your money! A few years
back, some even wrote letters to their customers closing their accounts because
they didn’t have enough money.
* School shoes bought at the largest Kenyan shoe shop only last one term!
* People constantly dilute product quality to cut costs… buy a brand of brown
bread that takes great and in a few months it’s just food coloring! A mosquito
repellent that works so great but then in a few months its diluted and
mosquitoes buzz happily in the room!
* In hospitals, you’re guaranteed to wait hours in lines and many doctors will
prescribe a more expensive procedure simply to make money.
* Let’s not even talk about our police and politicians; I don’t even want to go
there!
* This one is painful but just as true; the Church no different; many
landlords in the city refuse to take churches as tenants because they are known
to be some of the worst defaulters on rent. Often it’s said if the church did
it or if a Christian planned it, you can expect it to be uncreative,
unrehearsed, out of touch, and badly finished! For many of you, that’s what
kept you out of church for a long time!
No wonder our continent continues to stumble along, under-developed and
pitiful! What can save us? I believe the scripture has a prescription for us.
Read Daniel 6:1-9
At the time of our story, Daniel was an old man, perhaps in his eighties. He
had served in government for around 60 years. Throughout that time, there was
something unique about him that made him stand out. When he and his friends
joined the civil service at 18 years old, 1:20 tells us ‘In every matter of
wisdom and understanding about which the king questioned them, he found them 10
times better than all the magicians and enchanters in his whole kingdom’. For
60 years in leadership, from the time he was an intern to his years as a senior
statesman, Daniel’s excellence and integrity at work made him stand out among
his peers. And so at the time he should be retiring, Daniel’s boss was planning
to promote him! And try as they could, his political enemies could find
absolutely nothing to bring him down! This is what it means that an excellent
spirit was in him.
From Daniel’s life, I learn an important lesson; if it’s not worth doing well,
it’s not worth doing at all.
Interview with Joram Mwinamo, who is CEO of Wylde International (a training &
consulting firm that helps set up systems for large firms and SMEs)
Why is mediocrity such a big problem for us?
* We are used to the mediocre – we don’t expect better and in fact we get so
shocked when we receive excellent service
* We are unwilling to pay the price – excellence is costly, not just money but
especially time, energy, and thinking. For Christians, we even spiritualize
mediocrity… Some students attend CU meetings instead of reading exams. We fast
and pray for success in business but we do not put in the effort to give
service that speaks for itself.
* We have no internal standards – our standards are not based on an internal
frame of reference but rather on what others are doing – we have become masters
of ‘copy paste’
Author Malcom Gladwell in his book ‘Outliers’ studied individuals in sports,
music and the creative arts who are known for their excellence. He found that
the key factor that generated excellence was not gifting but hard work. He
figured that it takes 10,000 hours of consistent practice to become an expert
in the thing you’re talented in. The greatest athletes all trained harder than
people who were less gifted. Michael Jordan was said to been the first at
practice and the last to leave. As Albert Einstein said ‘genius us 1%
inspiration 99% perspiration”. If it’s not worth doing well, it’s not worth
doing at all.
Let me share three things I learn about excellence in our passage.
1. Excellence requires a deeper motivation – v.5 ‘Finally these men said, “We
will never find any basis for charges against this man Daniel unless it has
something to do with the law of his God.”’ Excellence is not something you can
put on for show. It’s not something you can do for money or promotion. Daniel
was not after external rewards to be better than those around him. It came out
of knowing what God expected of him. We too must have our excellence coming out
of our understanding about God and what He requires of us. Excellence is our
act of worship. Perfectionism is different from excellence; perfectionism comes
from wanting to be better than others. This leads to either pride when we are
or bitterness at those better than us. Col.3:24 ‘Whatever you do, work at it
with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men, since you know that
you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord you
are serving.’
2. Excellence Opens Doors –Daniel served 4 kings all because of his
excellence. Pro 22: 29, says “do you see a man skilled in his work? He will
serve before kings; he will not serve before obscure men”. Your gift will open
doors for you, but it is your excellence that will keep them open. It is
important to note that excellence can easily threaten others not just because
it opens doors for you but because it also exposes their mediocrity! You will
find resistance and the push to conform. But if we read on we see that Daniel
never changed his game plan to accommodate what others thought; he just
continued being excellent as he had always been. And it’s no surprise that he
succeeded despite his opponents schemes. When you focus on godly excellence, you
don’t have to worry what your competition is up to; people will come looking
for you!
3. Glorifies God! – Ultimately at the end of the chapter, we see that the king
ends up honoring Daniel’s God. He declared that everyone in his kingdom God
should fear and reverence the God of Daniel. I’ve come to realize that we are
God’s brand representatives. Our excellence glorifies Him and draws others to
him. 1Cor.10:31 says, ‘whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all
for the glory of God’.
I believe we have what it takes to not only change Africa but to change the
world in this generation. But changing Africa begins with changing me. What is
one place lacking excellence in your business, workplace or community? Begin
to work on them. Make a commitment that at the end of the year you will have
made changes and people will give a testimony of your excellence and glorify
God. I pray that none of our children will regret being an African because we
are known for mediocrity.
parcel with 2 books from the post office. What should have taken ten minutes
ended up taking 11 stops and over an hour and a half! [only fortunate that it
was 11am on Monday] As he told me this story, I realized I have finally figured
out what to do if I have an enemy in Kenya; mail them a package!
We continue in our sermon series called CREATE – Don’t Vent, Invent.
The biggest reason why Africa continues to underperform despite being perhaps
the most well endowed continent is because the most educated citizens have
failed to provide creative, practical solutions for the rest of the continent.
In the previous weeks we explored the challenges that keep many of us from
being people who CREATE. We found that…
1. Our upbringing – both education and parenting methods have hindered our
development as innovators
2. Our instant-success mentality -keeps us from going the long haul to provide
sustainable solutions-feelings
3. Our inadequate systems – keeps any solutions we generate small, inadequate
and unsustainable.
Today we shall address a fourth and final challenge to our quest to provide
practical and sustainable solutions for our continent & that is – Overcoming
Mediocrity. Have you recently had an encounter with mediocre services or
products? It is sad how easy it is find such examples of mediocrity.
* Receptionists in company receptions talk loudly on a private call in their
mother tongue, and then notice you after fifteen minutes and ask, ‘eh,
umesaidiwa’?
* Roads have potholes within a six months of being re-carpeted; and thank God
we’re not on an earthquake fault line because 30% of most buildings would come
tumbling down! Some collapse even without earthquakes as recently as last year
in Kiambu. In some parts of our city, developers build sewer overflows to the
open roadside ditch!
* It sometimes feels like you’re begging banks to keep your money! A few years
back, some even wrote letters to their customers closing their accounts because
they didn’t have enough money.
* School shoes bought at the largest Kenyan shoe shop only last one term!
* People constantly dilute product quality to cut costs… buy a brand of brown
bread that takes great and in a few months it’s just food coloring! A mosquito
repellent that works so great but then in a few months its diluted and
mosquitoes buzz happily in the room!
* In hospitals, you’re guaranteed to wait hours in lines and many doctors will
prescribe a more expensive procedure simply to make money.
* Let’s not even talk about our police and politicians; I don’t even want to go
there!
* This one is painful but just as true; the Church no different; many
landlords in the city refuse to take churches as tenants because they are known
to be some of the worst defaulters on rent. Often it’s said if the church did
it or if a Christian planned it, you can expect it to be uncreative,
unrehearsed, out of touch, and badly finished! For many of you, that’s what
kept you out of church for a long time!
No wonder our continent continues to stumble along, under-developed and
pitiful! What can save us? I believe the scripture has a prescription for us.
Read Daniel 6:1-9
At the time of our story, Daniel was an old man, perhaps in his eighties. He
had served in government for around 60 years. Throughout that time, there was
something unique about him that made him stand out. When he and his friends
joined the civil service at 18 years old, 1:20 tells us ‘In every matter of
wisdom and understanding about which the king questioned them, he found them 10
times better than all the magicians and enchanters in his whole kingdom’. For
60 years in leadership, from the time he was an intern to his years as a senior
statesman, Daniel’s excellence and integrity at work made him stand out among
his peers. And so at the time he should be retiring, Daniel’s boss was planning
to promote him! And try as they could, his political enemies could find
absolutely nothing to bring him down! This is what it means that an excellent
spirit was in him.
From Daniel’s life, I learn an important lesson; if it’s not worth doing well,
it’s not worth doing at all.
Interview with Joram Mwinamo, who is CEO of Wylde International (a training &
consulting firm that helps set up systems for large firms and SMEs)
Why is mediocrity such a big problem for us?
* We are used to the mediocre – we don’t expect better and in fact we get so
shocked when we receive excellent service
* We are unwilling to pay the price – excellence is costly, not just money but
especially time, energy, and thinking. For Christians, we even spiritualize
mediocrity… Some students attend CU meetings instead of reading exams. We fast
and pray for success in business but we do not put in the effort to give
service that speaks for itself.
* We have no internal standards – our standards are not based on an internal
frame of reference but rather on what others are doing – we have become masters
of ‘copy paste’
Author Malcom Gladwell in his book ‘Outliers’ studied individuals in sports,
music and the creative arts who are known for their excellence. He found that
the key factor that generated excellence was not gifting but hard work. He
figured that it takes 10,000 hours of consistent practice to become an expert
in the thing you’re talented in. The greatest athletes all trained harder than
people who were less gifted. Michael Jordan was said to been the first at
practice and the last to leave. As Albert Einstein said ‘genius us 1%
inspiration 99% perspiration”. If it’s not worth doing well, it’s not worth
doing at all.
Let me share three things I learn about excellence in our passage.
1. Excellence requires a deeper motivation – v.5 ‘Finally these men said, “We
will never find any basis for charges against this man Daniel unless it has
something to do with the law of his God.”’ Excellence is not something you can
put on for show. It’s not something you can do for money or promotion. Daniel
was not after external rewards to be better than those around him. It came out
of knowing what God expected of him. We too must have our excellence coming out
of our understanding about God and what He requires of us. Excellence is our
act of worship. Perfectionism is different from excellence; perfectionism comes
from wanting to be better than others. This leads to either pride when we are
or bitterness at those better than us. Col.3:24 ‘Whatever you do, work at it
with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men, since you know that
you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord you
are serving.’
2. Excellence Opens Doors –Daniel served 4 kings all because of his
excellence. Pro 22: 29, says “do you see a man skilled in his work? He will
serve before kings; he will not serve before obscure men”. Your gift will open
doors for you, but it is your excellence that will keep them open. It is
important to note that excellence can easily threaten others not just because
it opens doors for you but because it also exposes their mediocrity! You will
find resistance and the push to conform. But if we read on we see that Daniel
never changed his game plan to accommodate what others thought; he just
continued being excellent as he had always been. And it’s no surprise that he
succeeded despite his opponents schemes. When you focus on godly excellence, you
don’t have to worry what your competition is up to; people will come looking
for you!
3. Glorifies God! – Ultimately at the end of the chapter, we see that the king
ends up honoring Daniel’s God. He declared that everyone in his kingdom God
should fear and reverence the God of Daniel. I’ve come to realize that we are
God’s brand representatives. Our excellence glorifies Him and draws others to
him. 1Cor.10:31 says, ‘whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all
for the glory of God’.
I believe we have what it takes to not only change Africa but to change the
world in this generation. But changing Africa begins with changing me. What is
one place lacking excellence in your business, workplace or community? Begin
to work on them. Make a commitment that at the end of the year you will have
made changes and people will give a testimony of your excellence and glorify
God. I pray that none of our children will regret being an African because we
are known for mediocrity.
Dora Wakesho
Feb 28, 2011, 12:48:17 PM2/28/11
to burning-...@googlegroups.com
Thanx for the article:it's really worth thinking about.
From: Allan Gerh <gerh...@yahoo.com>
To: STEVE WASONGA <steve....@gmail.com>; judith nosiphiwo <ijudithn...@yahoo.com>; NDUKU MAKAU <nduku...@gmail.com>; NHTHAMBI MAKAU <nnth...@gmail.com>; Nyareruj <nyar...@yahoo.com>; lucy biketi <LBI...@YAHOO.COM>; burning-...@googlegroups.com; milkam...@yahoo.com; mizizi...@googlegroups.com; VOmo...@yahoo.com; wakesh...@yahoo.com
Sent: Mon, February 28, 2011 7:45:33 PM
Subject: Above Critique
From: Allan Gerh <gerh...@yahoo.com>
To: STEVE WASONGA <steve....@gmail.com>; judith nosiphiwo <ijudithn...@yahoo.com>; NDUKU MAKAU <nduku...@gmail.com>; NHTHAMBI MAKAU <nnth...@gmail.com>; Nyareruj <nyar...@yahoo.com>; lucy biketi <LBI...@YAHOO.COM>; burning-...@googlegroups.com; milkam...@yahoo.com; mizizi...@googlegroups.com; VOmo...@yahoo.com; wakesh...@yahoo.com
Sent: Mon, February 28, 2011 7:45:33 PM
Subject: Above Critique
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