Why You’re Shooting Blanks!
We all go to the same war. Discover what we’re good at, get better at it, apply it somewhere to make enough money that we can save to help our family bury us with dignity. Ok, this opening was dark. Sorry about that.But the point I’m making is that while we’re all pursuing a respectable living, we’re doing it with different artillery and armies.
Let’s start with your surname. Does it ring a bell in any circles? Is it a brand surname or another one of those on the NRCs of bus drivers, bricklayers, poultry workers, welders and security guards?
We have to be honest with ourselves. You can’t use aspiration to chase the same goal as a man using his father’s powerful surname. This is like taking a red velvet cake to a knife fight.
We set ourselves up for failure when we try to replicate the success of another man. And that’s why, more than any other time in history, we’re shooting blanks.
It’s not for lack of ambition that some men are struggling to educate their children or keep a roof above their head.
Sometimes it’s that they’re aiming for a target that they don’t have the trigger for. Every one of us has a unique upbringing, parentage, education, temperament and tenacity that got us where we are.
Every man has his own path.
Think of the man carving his own surname to open doors to rooms his father and grandfathers have never been. Fully loaded, that one.
There are days spent in isolation, questioning your sanity, selling your possessions, sleeping hungry to fund a dream. Others see the same dream as attainable simply because their father was a cabinet minister or CEO of a multinational.
It’s when you step into the arena and discover that your MBA from Germany is getting eaten for breakfast by a street smart Matero Boys drop out. We’re all moving with different packages.
So it’s a surprise that men still sit and assess other man’s deals, marriages, careers and assets purely based on the number of drinks they’ve had that day.
The reality is that many of us are aspiring for the things that took more than ambition to achieve. Some used their masters degrees, others their father’s surname, the university they went to, the name of the republican president, their wife’s family connections, corruption, fraud, as a Mario. Name it. We’re not using the same tools.
To come along and think you can replicate that success on the premise that you’re also a man is to walk around with somebody else’s dream.
We’re shooting blanks when we don’t know why we want success. Some men achieved what they did out of desperation. You might not be doing it for the same reasons and it shows.
