Hunt for Greatness
Milton Kamwendo
WE all can use some inspiration, information and insight in our journey to greatness.
Every mind is sharpened by other minds.
It is when we stop reading and learning that we dig our own graves and stunt our own growth.
Leaders are readers, and they seem to always find other readers.
You can usually tell when trouble is looming. It is usually when you do not have a friend who recommends a good book.
When all your friends are not readers, you need to change your friendship circle because it has no new idea flow.
Some good books have helped me along the path of my growth and development.
Dale Carnegie
It was in 1986 that I came across Dale Carnegie’s book “How to Stop Worrying and Start Living”. I found the book engaging and devoured it like a hungry man.
As I came to the close of the book, I could feel that I had found a man who was doing what I wanted to do with my life.
He was helping people face their challenges, tame their fears and overcome their worries.
I kept looking for his books and a few years later, I found a tattered copy of “How to Win Friends and Influence People”.
I meticulously restored, rebound and covered the book.
It inspired me to be more relational. It underlined that the art of leadership is influence.
Norman Vincent Peale
It was his book “The Power of Positive Thinking” that fired me up and motivated me. Later, I was to read another one of his books — “The Power of Positive Living”. Dr Vincent was an incurable optimist, who helped many people. He believed there was always a positive view to anything. His work underlined the significance of framing.
Most of our problems can be traced to the way we frame and think about an issue.
Dr Peale testified of literal miracles that came when people changed their way of thinking.
Reading his books today, his thinking is fresh and relevant for our times, where the sky always seems to be falling and clouds seem to have no rain. How easy it is to look for the worst in situations, things and people!
The power of positive thinking is available to all of us.
Negativity is a social hypnosis that we have to fight off all the time. It was years later that I learnt about the power of appreciative inquiry.
Napoleon Hill
Many people desire or at least wish to get rich.
Many look everywhere around them and travel to distant lands in search of their missing link to wealth.
This is akin to Santiago’s journey in Paulo Coelho’s book “The Alchemist”.
Hill, urged by his mentor Andrew Carnegie, who was one of the richest men of his time, went on a 20-year study into the science of wealth and achievement.
He interviewed great people of his time and how they got rich. At the centre of it all was one cog: the mindset.
He went on to write the ageless book “Think and Grow Rich”.
In it, he summarised the fundamentals of thinking to get rich.
His book has been read by many generations that have gone on to make their own wealthy marks.
I remember attending a workshop once and talking to the facilitator. He had just been to Japan and one of the things he had observed was that in a progressive family, the members are required to read “Think and Grow Rich” at least twice every year.
Robert Kiyosaki
Kiyosaki is the author of the book “Rich Dad Poor Dad”.
In 1999, my mentor came back from an overseas trip with a copy of this book.
He could not put it down or stop talking about it.
I had to wait for some months before I could also read the book.
The book is written very simply — no accounting jargon; no technical details that usually make the subject of money look complex.
He just plainly goes to the heart of the issue. Most financial suffering is because people do not know the difference between an asset and a liability.
They collect liabilities they think are assets and soon are in problems.
In this book, Kiyosaki says the key to wealth is understanding cash flow and the direction in which it is flowing.
Assets cause money to flow towards you and liabilities cause money to flow away from you.
He says the key to wealth is to accumulate cash-flow-generating assets.
Reading the book was a major turning point for my life.
Myles Munroe
It was in the late 1980s that I heard of this man from The Bahamas, who spoke like an American and talked about purpose.
In those days, we would go to the Jesus International Library in Bulawayo to watch some videos of the man and other inspirational speakers and preachers.
I then came across his writings on the subject of purpose.
They inspired me and challenged me.
He wrote that we are all born with a purpose — a vital seed, and the death of a seed is the burial of a forest.
He said graveyards are full of great men and women who never became great because they did not give their ability responsibility.
I was cut to the bone when I read: “The greatest tragedy in life is not death, but life that fails to fulfil its purpose.”
Again, Munro emphasised: “The release of personal potential demands that you refuse to be satisfied with your latest accomplishment.”
Hearing that there is something I was born for, which I was supposed to discover, inspired me to live purposefully and make my life a positive force.
I knew I was not just some wind passing through an earthly experience for a few years. I had a purpose that this world could not do without. His books spoke to my heart and challenged me to see value in myself and to give value.
Reading good books has shaped my life.
In time, I came across many other authors whose work has inspired me and moulded me.
My learning and reading journey is not yet complete. With every book I read, I become better and wiser.
Committed to your greatness.
Milton Kamwendo is a leading international transformational and motivational speaker, author and a virtual, hybrid and in-person workshop facilitator. He is a cutting-edge strategy, team-building and organisation development facilitator and consultant. He can be reached at: mkamwendo@gmail.com/www.miltonkamwendo