My Africa Today

In Africa, the paradigm of a united Africa is spreading like a veld fire. People are being made aware of uniting forces that they believe can benefit us all here in Africa.

The principle of synergy teaches us that 1 and 1 doesn’t necessarily make 2. I heard a story told to me by a farmer that one of his workhorses could haul a wagon with a load of three and a half thousand pounds (one and a half thousand kg), but when he uses two horses the weight doesn’t double - it triples. With two horses he couldn’t only haul double what one horse could do, he could haul triple - a wagon with a load of ten thousand pounds (four and a half thousand kg). This is synergy; one labouring with another brings about a result higher than the sum of the two working separately.

Many circumstances should be in place to accommodate any paradigm shift successfully. One of the circumstances that would contribute to assisting the paradigm of the African renaissance to succeed is economical sustainability. Economical sustainability is a very scarce idea in Africa. In Africa, we either live for the here or now or we are simply ignorant of the way we should think economically.

A paradigm most definitely worth our earnest consideration for successful transition to African renaissance is the paradigm of entrepreneurship. Entrepreneurial thinking frees people to embrace their autonomy and take charge of the future they want to create. Entrepreneurial thinking elicits in us the willingness to embrace responsibility that motivates us to participate in creating economical sustainability.

One wonders which one came first – poverty or a scarcity mentality? I know for certain a scarcity mentality can lead to (physical) poverty. I also believe poverty created by natural or external circumstances, like drought or dictatorial leadership, can eventually cause a scarcity mentality in people. In Africa we had our fair share of these external and natural circumstances that inhibited us to live in abundance.

Now if it’s true that we have to change our thinking, even our thinking that was formed by external and natural circumstances, how are we going to do it? How can we embrace a paradigm of abundance, like entrepreneurial thinking, to lift us up from the scarcity mentality that has made ingrained roads on the creases of our brains?

A quick answer added to this article will simply not suffice to give a clear picture of what we should do to embrace the entrepreneurial paradigm of abundance. I suggest you frequent this blog over the next couple of weeks in order to follow a line of thinking that will empower you to take hold of yourself. A line of thinking that will empower you to embrace the entrepreneurial paradigm of abundance.

I will show you, thought by thought, how we can get up from the dust, shake it from us and start to live the way we were meant to live!