Abundance Mentality:The Driver of the Next 50 Years Journey
Having turned fifty, it makes sense to visualize the Kenyan journey of the next half century. Indeed, it is visions that guide progress. Without them, people may have little to inspire them, as they continue into the future. They could end up living for the day or just whiling away time, especially in the absence of expectations. Â Still, people are kept dreaming and longing for promises of the future when visions are embraced. The situation is even better, when people have been involved in crafting that future.
Conceptualizing the journey of the next 50 years may mean looking beyond Vision 2030, which seems quite close. More still, we may all need to contribute towards the formulation of this journey, for it to be enjoyable and meaningful. But, something more drastic needs to happen, if we expect to take control of the desired destiny. That destiny may obviously need a properly crafted roadmap that is preferably owned by all. But as we plan ahead, we may need to understand exactly where we have come from.
In the beginning of the recently celebrated Jubilee, Kenyans were united by the clarion call of fighting disease, poverty and ignorance. Though much has been achieved since, the three dragons still keep raring their ugly heads. Child mortality is still 42 per every 1000 births, which earns Kenya a global rank of 149. Poverty levels too are not fairing any better considering that about 45% of the population is surviving on income of less than one dollar a day. On the other hand, somebody may argue that illiteracy levels have been reduced to something like ten percent, especially driven by the free primary education. Whereas that may be so, the extent to which ignorance has been reduced is debatable.
If ignorance levels have been reduced substantially, we could certainly not be having some of the challenges that we are continually experiencing. One of them is our work ethics. This work ethics has become subject of societal degradation of our societal values. Courtesy of modernity on the other hand, it has been assumed that anybody can do anything with regard to vocations. Worse still, anybody can pursue any career the orientations notwithstanding. In fact, some careers such as engineering, medicine and pharmacy are lucrative for those who excel in academics, without any regard for matching of the orientations.
Relegation of talents for whatever objectives leads to disastrous effects. Author Steven R. Covey takes us through the global evolution. He outlines how the world ventured into the information/knowledge era in the last decade of the 20th century. He further narrates how this information era is constantly being overtaken by the talent age.
Ideally, proper alignment of work ethics with orientations increases the people’s chances of being largely guided by what is known as abundance mentality. This paradigm advocates that with the right principles, there is enough for everybody. People strive to pursue their passion and end up becoming the best in what they do. Over time, they almost effortlessly achieve their desires.
The contrary is scarcity mentality. Here, opportunities are perceived to be limited and must be exploited as fast as possible. The situation becomes akin to the struggles in the animal kingdom. It is about survival for the fittest as people scramble for scarce resources and/or opportunities. That now becomes the source of graft, favoritism, bribery and all other malaise bedeviling the society.
The journey through the next 50 years could be bumpy if pursued under the influence of scarcity mentality. Moreover, the world continues evolving in numerous dimensions, some of which gravely threaten the welfare of humanity. Global warming that yields environmental degradation is one of them. The effect is sometimes mind boggling questions on how to meet food, energy and health needs of the continually increasing population. In that light, we need to learn some lessons from the animal kingdom.
Many years ago, there lived a mammal known as dinosaur.  It was remarkable for being endowed with a large body supported by a very small head. In fact, it was the largest animal on land. In the meantime, the science of nature indicates that the members of the animal kingdom are endowed with a brain of 900 grams maximum, compared to the 1400 grams associated with human beings. The difference accounts for our ability to engage in thought process about today, tomorrow and the distant future too. Impliedly, animals have no capacity to see beyond the now. The dinosaur’s case was even worse; it could not visualize how to feed its huge body.  The end result was obvious – extinction.
Compare this with the case of the lion, which is a strategic hunter. Lions hunt in a pride. Once they spot their prey, they position themselves strategically within a comfortable circumference that blocks the prey’s escape route. Thus, the lions easily overwhelm their target without exhausting their energy.
Clearly, continued adoption of scarcity mentality does not auger well for posterity. Further, being alive goes beyond just meeting the basics. It calls for decent and enjoyable lives for all of us. If that is to be achieved by the majority, we all need to be more strategic, as we envision the journey of the next 50 years.
More particularly, we need to re-align our work ethics and more preferably our entire value system. We need to have the right people in the right places not only in organizations, but also the social fabric. Actually, talent alignment may no longer be optional, especially in a highly competitive and border-less world.
Above all, we may each have no choice, but to embrace ambulance mentality. Indeed, everybody is good at something that needs to be done for our organizations and nation too. That is what we should strive to realize, and harness right from the formative years. Our efforts will eventually be rewarded abundantly as we continually add value to the market place. Ideally, envisioning and embracing the journey of the next 50 years will be worth every effort, if we can all put abundance paradigms into focus.