Buffet faith

When dealing with religion issues, one has to be very careful not to say anything remotely offensive. So before reading past this paragraph, please be aware that I am referencing to certain religions and it might offend you. Do not read this blog entry if you get easily offended.

Now to the rest of you brave and adventuress individuals out there, let me begin this rambling of what I call buffet faith.

It really does not matter what religion you practice or are affiliated to, all religions have their rules and boundaries. The structure and regulations is what makes them unique from one another, or are they unique. I believe that religion should not tie you down and define who you are.

I will give two examples from two mainstream religions.

The first one is an example from the Islamic faith. You all might have heard stories about the countless women who was prosecuted because she was caught driving a car, or women that got raped and was sentenced for committing adultery. Some women are not even allowed to sit next to their husbands in a restaurant without a sheet dividing them. These examples are extreme but they do happen quite often in the Arabic countries. There are many examples in the Holy Quran where women are told to cover themselves in order for men not to be lead into temptation. Women in the western worlds wear short skirts, sleeveless tops, but yet they won’t eat pork. How can you do the one thing but not the other?

The second one is Christianity. Although it is more relaxed than the latter religion, people still get quite staunch when it comes to following the Holy Bible.  Since Christmas is a big event in the Christian calendar let me try an appropriate example relating to it. Most Christians go out and put up a tree, they tell stories of Santa clause to their children and buy gifts for each other, but beware, you are not allowed to watch harry potter, because he is evil. Once again I have to point out the double standards here. Isn’t Santa clause also riding on something like harry potter does. What keeps the reindeer in the air? Magic just like harry potter, in fact it is the Christmas spirit that keeps Santa alive. Isn’t this contradicting to what Christmas is all about? They teach their children about flying reindeer, a magic fat man and creatures called elf’s (who looks similar to some creatures in harry potter), but it is acceptable. 

People are fast to judge to what they themselves perceive to be the truth whilst compromising on the religion. I call this buffet faith. They select from the table only what they like and the rest gets ignored. Simply put as double standards.

If you really look closely, you will find that all religions are riddled with these double standards. I detest people that practices buffet faith. It is a shame that they themselves do not realise just how detrimental their actions are towards their own religions. This is another classic example of people that do not think outside the box. Lateral thinking is a myth within most religions and it breeds generations of blunt people.

Money makes the world go round

None the wiser word have ever been spoken than this. Money makes the world go round. Think about it, now nod your head up and down in agreement. Without money, you cannot survive. It is a commodity that we all need just like air. Just to prove my theory I would like you to think back at the countless beggars asking for money. So with that in mind, even people that have no overheads and that is living on the street, needs money.

This anomaly that we created made us all dependant on itself. We basically exchanged a perfectly working model of trading goods for goods into a corrupt and sometimes immoral system of trading goods for paper. I think the idea of money is novel but in reality we actually have flawed with this one. I suspect that if we had not created it, then we would have been living in a total different world, granted that technologically we would not have evolved half as much as we are at the present moment.

Money causes allot of problems. Let me correct myself...the wrong application of money causes allot of problems. I think that amongst all the great evils that stems from money abuse is corruption. Corruption of the system and corruption of good entities seems to be the result at the end of the day. It leads us to steal from the poor, vulnerable and enrich the rich. We all have experienced the evils that come with money.

Money can’t buy happiness, but it can put a smile on my face, food in my tummy, a roof over my head, a car to drive in and peace of mind. It is true that we are slaves to the system but what about breaking that bond and free the impoveraged. Charities depend on people handing them money and empowering them to uplift those without money. We all owe it to society to pay back to those who have to go without. All of us have benefitted from their demise in some way or another either directly or indirectly, regardless of colour or creed.

Do not let the pursuit of money make you greedy. Do not hold your hands closed towards fellow man. If someone asks you for food, then feed them. Greed is a viscous cycle and it is unfortunately one of the unavoidable evils of money. It changes people. This is where your character plays an important role. If you had to win a multi-million dollar lottery, how would you change? You will eventually be affected by money. You as a person need to establish how money is affecting you. Whether you are poor or rich, it affects us all. Do not let money be your guide to forming who you are but rather measure yourself worth against your moral standing and tolerance for one another.

I think that if you can conquer the influence that money have over yourself then you have achieved what many people will never achieve.

Hubris

Sitting on his throne denying all guilt, he reacts with a hubris notion that cause hate to grow inside the hearts of his victims. This might sound melodramatic but let me simplify this and clarify my statement.

Pride was many a man’s downfall. The simple denial of factual proof laid down at his feet proving him wrong.  A wise man will acknowledge when he made a mistake or when he is defeated. The denial of the latter simply spells arrogance and pride. To be to proud to admit your downfalls is foolish and will lead to your demise. These actions are the negative side of pride. We can accelerate pride and not only deny your demise but shift the blame unto some one else. We can rather pour our humiliation and anger unto anther and thus act hubris towards another. This I deem to be one of the most selfish things anyone can do towards another human being.

It is however not always a bad thing to be proud. Pride in your work and in who you are is a cornerstone to success. You have to tie your pride into what you do to enhance your success rate. Be proud of what you have achieved and who you are. Don’t let another person’s hubris acts defecate your self pride. The most important thing to remember is that a positive act of pride trumps a hubris act of a selfish individual.

Either way we can look at pride as a determining factor of who you endeavour to be. Just be careful not to commit suicide, because if you swallow your pride too late it might just choke you.

The 6th sense

1 + 1 = 2                 

I tend to think that this sense is a special gift to certain individuals. I do not want to discriminate against any person. Sometimes I think that intelligence is linked to this sense.  I fail to describe this but let me attempt to try again.

Perhaps I should start by stating the name of the sixth sense. It is mostly known as common sense.  Despite its descriptive name it is actually very misleading since it is not as common as most people might want to think it is. Simple things like indicating before changing lanes, or simple logic that would instinctively follow after an action performed.

It is almost like reminding some one to breathe every now and then or else they will die. I do not understand how the human race can be so ignorant at times.  People tend to forget about the basics in life and these basics are potentially the things that could just swing a situation into a positive or negative result. I am sure you know what I am talking about when I am talking about common sense.  The lack of this all important survival skill is even more prevalent as you go up the corporate ladder.

I am absolutely amazed at the incompetence of managers just because they do not have common sense. It is an essential tool in order to breed logic thinking. To me it seems like the percentage favouring individuals engaging their 6^th sense is dismal. I fear that it is getting worse, or perhaps Im only starting to realise this because of requiring competent people to work with me in my social life as well as my professional career path.

We have managers, CEO’s, directors, governmental bodies and all kinds of high paying leadership positions that are just utterly and astonishingly missing this basic skill.

It is not something we can teach another person. It is a pity that people that lack the skill, does not even know that it exists. I tend to assume that those people do not even phantom the meaning of common sense. They do stupid things and get surprised when it all goes horribly wrong.

I like to hammer on the driver not indicating because we all can relate to this. If you want to change lanes because you need to catch a turn off, you need to indicate so that people may grant you an opportunity to get in front of them in order to be in that lane. But some people get upset when cars swoosh past them and they miss the turn off, whilst failing to indicate. Now all of a sudden it becomes the fault of all the cars that drove past him. He calls them selfish and idiots, but in essence they were oblivious to the guy’s intention to change lanes.

Life is intimately tied to common sense. We just have to embrace and accept that it is a requirement. I get unbelievably frustrated with people that do not have this. I simply cannot accept that people do dumb things and gets amazed that they are in the situations that they are in, because of the repercussions of doing stupid things.

If i stepped on a few toes, then perhaps just think hard and engage some common sense. It is truly an essential tool for survival and achieving greater heights.

Tongue in cheek I will bid you farewell till the next post.

All work and no play...

It is that time of the year where people go to year end functions and get to celebrate a whole year’s hard work with laughter, good food and friendly company. This is all good and fun and presents a much needed token of appreciation from the directors to the workers.

I do not wish to put a damper on anyone’s holiday season cheerfulness but I do somehow think that too much play can also end up in disaster. The keyword here is moderation. Few people actually practices moderation.

I love to sit and stare at the people at functions like these. Its almost like they evolve. Some people are uptight and get a bit merrier and talkative and might meet new people and then go home. That is all good moderation. I am mainly focussing on the party animals. Yes the creature that walks in all dressed up and walking the walk. I would like to think that some people have the intelligence and common sense to act accordingly. People start consuming alcohol and within a blink of an eye jokes go from witty to dumb stupid actions performed in front of a drunken crowd.

I have never found it very amusing when someone dances like they act in footloose or scratching like a chicken in its own back yard.  The most amazing act that i will never understand is the drunken person’s lack of judgement in front of the colleges they have to work with every day. They brake glasses and dance on stages. They laugh at who is the stupidest. This does not make sense to me at all.

What I do find the worst is when people compare their drunken state with each other the next day. It is almost like comparing who was the utter most useless person alive. They complain the whole day about their hangovers and headaches, wishing every fifteen minutes that they can go home.

They say stupid phrases like “never again” and “I hate alcohol”. They seem to want pity and when you do not give it to them they accuse you of being grumpy or even comparing you with them by assuming you were drunk as well, but of course when you are drunk, everyone seems a bit tipsy.

I might sound a bit judgemental and snobbish but I do believe that you should behave responsible when you are dealing with something as important as your career. If you plan to get drunk at a function, then please re consider. It might be advantageous to you to rather do some networking than drinking and talking to the toilet.

Do not iron on print

I do not iron my clothes. Yes it is true, I confess to this bad behaviour. My approach regarding this task is why should I? It is a waste of time, money and energy. Valuable resources that could have been applied better, but instead we waste it. I know I am not preaching to the choir because almost all of us iron our clothes or care to look acceptable. I often end up at crossroads like this one. Why would I want to look presentable to people?

This is where I require your full attention. Let us take an example. You are an architect that created stunning designs and produced amazing buildings. Your portfolio speaks for itself. You are waiting to pitch your ideas in order to seal the deal. Because of time constraints and certain Monday morning blues you did not get to iron your clothes and comb your hair. Your competition has just emerged from the board room and with his flashy new jacket and well styled hair he smiles as he walks past you. Now it’s your turn to dazzle them with your design and brilliance. You pitch the best design of your career yet. They look at you funny from the start. That afternoon you get informed that you lost the deal. The opposition (a newly qualified student) clinched the deal. The building goes up but costs the company double the amount because the architect lack the experience to spot the bugs hiding behind inexperienced mistakes.

Now from above example you may already have gathered what I am aiming towards? Your appearance should never become who you are. People judge you on your looks, and I absolutely hate that notion. As true as it is I must break that faulty trend. Since when does an ironed shirt make you the right man for the job? Your appearance should be the last thing on a professionals mind when evaluating whether they should hire or not.

I would like to encourage everyone to start seeing people for who they are and not how they appear. There are millionaires walking in torn clothes, just because they do not care about the standard set by people. We all can behave so shallow at times and I cannot help but think that we are still stuck in the stone ages. Who are we to judge a book by its cover?

We created a multimillion dollar industry just to look acceptable to other people. Imagine how much energy and money we would save on a simple thing as not ironing your clothes... This might sound trivial to you but it is actually a much deeper thought. How many things can we apply to this logic? If you are confident about yourself, then why do you care what other people think? Live your own life and not someone else’s.

I dare you... do not iron your clothes.

Quit quitting..

I give up. Throwing in the towel. Calling it quits... sounds familiar? As far as I know, and I stand under correction, the human being is the only species on earth that knows how to quit and give up. In the animal kingdom, animal’s will fight to death to stay alive.

We quit in many different ways in life and it is not always a bad thing. The crutial element that differentiates a bad decision from a good decision when quitting is, when your motivation for giving up outweighs the benefits of steaming ahead. We as human beings are superior when it comes to intellectual thinking. Perhaps the latter is not a fact that applies to all of us but we can assume I am not taking those individuals here.

If I look introspectively and evaluate the likely hood of quitting, I must say that there is a probable chance that I always quit reluctantly and calculate the benefits from it before even speaking the word and taking action. I hate the thought of giving up without exhausting all resources and discovering all avenues that could be used.  I tend to be a bit stubborn and steam ahead when others would most likely just give up.

There is a fine line between giving up while ahead and losing it all. Quitting applies to all facets in life.  Quit smoking, quit drinking, quit any bad habit or addiction before it is too late. This is called quitting while you are ahead, when you stand to lose it all but did not lose it yet. There is a saying that it is never too late, but I disagree with that statement. When you lost your family due to alcohol or drugs, then it is too late. Too late for getting your old life back, but not too late to start a new life.

Choose wisely when you ponder about quitting. Playing with the idea in your head is a dangerous place to be when you risk losing it all. The pursuit of obtaining your goals should never lead to throwing in the towel but rather using defeat as your foundation to build on.

Quit, but never regret. If you regret quitting then learn from the mistakes and focus on the right goal at hand.

Passion

The one subject that is close to my heart. Often misconstrued and watered down as being used as something that depicts random sexual acts. I take great offence when a word as powerful as this is used as a meagre description for something other than its indented context. I often find myself reminiscing upon what I see as my desires in life. When I talk about something as powerful passion I do not refer to something that is close and dear to your heart, it is a lot more than that. It is your heart, the force that drives you. It is what you live for. If you do not agree with the latter then I doubt that you have found your passion in life.

To me, passion defines a purpose in life. We all have different desires and goals in our lives but that may not always be what your passion is. 90 Percent of people do not live their passions and I would estimate that about 60 percent of those do not even know what their passion in life is. I cannot help but feel sorry for them because they might not achieve to be all that they can be in life.

For all of us to be successful in life we need to know what our passion is. Passion breeds perfection. Many companies, religious institutes, academic facilities and sports use the word passion to describe the prerequisite to excel in the respective areas. How do you determine whether or not you have said needed passion? Simple... you know it, you feel it and you crave it. It is a fire burning and consuming you and your mind often wanders to a place where you practice your hearts desires.

It is a damn curse as well. I find it impossible to contain my passion at times and it can de motivate you at the worst of times due to its nature of consuming you. The trick is to harness this to power your actions to steer your future towards it. You need to be the champion of your circumstances and overcome the hardships and hurdles that prevent you from living your true passion.

When looking at business owners and relate their business success directly to them, you will often find that the richest ones have their success contributed to their passion and their dedication. It came with a big price tag.

Passion is something you have to look for and discover on your own. It can be a heavy burden to bear and thus should be summoned with respect and dedication. Once you come to realisation of what I speak of then you would understand that is actually a mystery that cannot be described.

Think about your hearts desires and distinguish them from the emotional desires. Look closely at what makes you want to sacrifice without anything in return. What do you hunger for? Now go and get it.

The price of living Life

It is not often that I get to just wander around in a shopping mall or go catch a movie on a weekday during business hours. It almost feels surreal and as if I am bunking school. I look at the other people hard at work and I get a glance of their day to day jobs.

Having the day off is something that I cannot explain. Yes I can have it really bad and be confined in a factory having to do hard labour every day, but I am not so I really should already be happy to go to work every day and sit in an air-conditioned office.  However I actually do have a point to make here and I am not just rambling some nonsense.

Have you ever just thought about what life is about? No, no.. Not the whole meaning of life speech, but what is it all about? We work our whole life’s and only get to live it when we are retired (average retiring age is about 65 – 70). We can’t go climb Mount Everest then, we can’t go on that crazy hiking expedition. What is the use of living your entire life working and not really living?

We have so much to see around us in everyday life. How nice is it not to just take a drive to the beach late morning? Or waking up early and enjoying a picnic until 9am and then go have a nap.

These might sound stupid little things but it is different for each person. I am trying to prove a point here and that is that we are all slaves. The real price of living life is only paid in full when we are too old to enjoy it. We have to put aside our desires to want to break the endless routine of working sunrise to sunset and missing out on OUR life’s just so we can stay breathing. Most of us enrich other people and those people actually retire young, or they can afford to live their lives as they want.

I always think of just how I can break free from this heavy price tag, but alas... we all have to pay it. So unless I invent a new best selling device that makes me an instant millionaire, my price for living life is unfortunately my life. We shall eat our daily bread by the sweat of our brows.

Sorry if this was not very motivating, it was not my intention to dishearten you but rather to open your eyes and see that there is so much more in life. Instead of always just going to work and earning a salary, try to aspire to become greater that your current circumstances. Never give up on rising above the price you have to pay to finally live life.

The ugly duckling

If I had to create myself, I would have perfect teeth. I would have a balanced metabolism and have the right muscle definition. From head to toe, I would maliciously sculpt every part. No more faulty tonsils or wisdom teeth. Would you pass up the opportunity to re sculpt yourself if you were presented with an opportunity?

I think that unless you are attractive and stunning, most would jump at the opportunity. Now why do I want to promote having a bad self image? Well truth be told, I am not. It is quite acceptable these days to want to change who you are and how you look simply because you do not conform to what the world perceives as appropriate and normal.

I do not state that you should just let go and become unhygienic and obese. Not at all, I would like to pose a question to you, the reader. Are you happy with the way you look? Are you satisfied with what kind of person you are? If your answers were yes then I am really preaching to the choir. I want to bring my viewpoint across to the crowd sitting in the corner at the back of the hall. Life to me has so many facets that it is inconceivable to be happy in all of them.

I am by no means a mean lean body builder. I am just an average Joe. Now with the latter sentence I would like to mention that I am by the law of averages, average. I had to accept that age does affect your looks and sometimes life experiences does change who you are. We all have a certain piece in ourselves though that is to you like your DNA. We never lose it but we do lose sight of it. It defines your unique traits.

We want to look appealing, it’s natural. But where do we draw the line? My thought on this is that we cannot be appealing to everyone. Who are the most important individuals in your life? Do they love you unconditionally, and if they do not, why are they still that important? We have people in our lives that are like the fat we would love to get rid of. You will find that once you rid yourself of that "fat", that you are halfway to accepting you for you. I am finished with trying to please people at my own expense.

Stand up for yourself. Become acquainted with yourself and embrace your inadequacies. Re discover that piece inside you that makes you who you are. The real essence of why you are they way you were born. We all are pieces of a puzzle and if everyone look the same way, then we will never fit together.

We are who we are and when you decide to accept that, then you can start to live life with confidence. Remember that your flaws are only as big as you allow them to be and most definitely can become your greatest asset.

Passion

For me there are few words that accentuate it like passion does.

I do realise that there can be various connotations tied to this word but let’s concentrate on a select few. I assume that the first thing that comes to mind when people mention this word is commitment. For fear that I sound like a walking thesaurus, I will not elaborate on the meaning.

One thing I do however want to talk about concerning this word is my perception. I love this word. If I could envisage it as a mental image, I would depict it as a red round cherry in the blue sky. Yes I know it is not exactly very spectacular nor what you would expect, bearing in mind that it is one of my favourite words.

I tend to think that the most successful people are extensions of passion. To me personally I would define it as the endless pursuit of perfection to fulfil ones heart desires. Passion can lead a person to take uncalculated risks. It leads to rash decisions that can change lives. Whether it is to enrich one or to uplift the fellow man, it is what drives most people to push boundaries.

A man filled with passion is not just an unstoppable force but a weapon that can devastate. It is a force to be reckoned with when placed in the wrong hands. I do think that more people use this driving force to enrich themselves. I wish there are more charitable individuals that harbours a strong degree of passion towards the poor, the social failures, the fallen and the aspiring. Passion is a drug that will consume you.

Decide what you want to apply it to because it will envelop you and change you. I hope and trust that anyone who digests these words will reverberate with love and compassion towards an equal benefit to all.

Damn those feminists!

Allot of hate gets focused against women who stand up for women rights. Yes of course there are extreme cases where people exaggerate the situation by overstating the facts.

Let me begin this conversation by stating that I do not wish to discriminate towards any gender or creed by writing this blog.

Now with the formalities over and done with, lets dig a bit into this phrase that gets misconstrued as a swear word. I do see myself as a feminist. I feel that not enough gratitude is given towards the fairer sex. Women are for most of the gender gracious and intelligent beings. We are surrounded with male fascism. Businesses have the attitude that if you can’t play a man’s game then you better not play at all. How can we ever accept this standard? I find that we accept too many unwritten laws as standard practise and we bottle ourselves into a space which limits our thinking and forces us to react in a certain manner. Why is it that businesses always have to play a man’s game.

Women are most of the time intelligent and calculated beings. They are emotional, but they are also more cunning. I tend to go with the saying that men are dogs and women are cats. Notice how cunning and agile cats are. Women adapt to their surroundings, they tend to be stronger in many aspects when compared to their male counterparts. They can endure more pain and when it comes to revenge, well “hell has no fury like a women’s scorn”.

I look at different cultures and what I have noticed is that men tend to always dominate over women. Why is it that we educate our girls from young to obey the man and to be their servant? What happened to equality? Why is it standard practice, that the man must lead and the woman simply serve and follow? Men are allowed to wear what they want but in certain practises the women are not even allowed to display their nose. This is an absolute discrimination towards women. I know that there are several reasons as to why it is justified but I do not buy these excuses. If the man gets into temptation upon seeing women, then he should be the master of his own desires and harness his will power to steer him away from it. It is called morals and self control.

I feel that too many women gets beaten up, used and pushed down in order to make man look good. Women have flair and certain elegance in everything they do. They are the fairer sex and I must admit that they do grace our world with beauty.

Do you as a man spoil the woman in your life and celebrate their beauty? Do you as a woman allow to get pushed down by man? I fear I might have made a few enemies by accentuating the brilliance of all women, but just for once, try to view this objectively and envisage the message being portrayed.

Leaders

As president I promise to create Peace, Work opportunities and Housing for everyone! Vote for me and I will be part of the people for the people! No its not election time nor is this some political column to punt some idealistic world for some elite people. 

It is happening all around the globe, Politicians making promises and never keeping them. Why is it that around election time, we discover all these obscure parties? Not only does the small parties come to light but the bigger parties are all of a sudden hard at work providing what they were suppose to do every day. As long as the parties swoop them off their feet a month before the elections, all is fine.  

I get irritated with people falling for the same trick every time. People are impoverished and barley can afford to eat one meal a day, but yet they vote for the same party. I am not just talking about my country but about all of the political parties across the world. We give them the power to rule over us and govern our countries. This is quite a big responsibility but yet people hand this responsibility over at a whim.  

I always ask the beggar on the street who he/she voted for. I do this not to punish or reward them but to see just who keeps on voting corruption and total lack of governance into power. These days there seem to be a huge issue of race and religion all across the world. Qualifications that are much needed to rule over a country seem to be of no relevance.  A grade 4 certificate is sufficient to be in office. You obviously need to sell your mouth and be able to charm the crowd, whether it be by dancing or chanting absolute rubbish just to keep them happy. 

Once you are in office, you are set for life. One term can ensure that you have an early retirement. You will be amongst the rich and famous. You can delegate and basically pretend your intelligence right through the term.  

I am amazed how people that are placed so far out of the reach of reality make ground level decisions that in effect do not have any impact on their lives at all. How do we justify democracy when the poor still suffer and the rich get richer? How do we quantify a person’s moral standing upon his race and charm? I do not believe that people are educated properly to commit their vote to the right candidate.

Some governments keep the uneducated and poor where they are in order to secure future votes. Think about a donkey running after that carrot that he just never will have while the passenger gets a free ride.

 All across the world people are standing up against the rich and merciless. Taking back what they were cheated out of. Retrieving what the governments stole from them because they are a certain religion or race. I believe in equality and honest hard work to get where you want to be.

This piece was just something I thought about while watching news and seeing some clowns jumping around entertaining the crowds. Remember:  fame is short lived when you do not have talent. -Werner van Tonder

Robotisim

Go to university, get a degree, get a job, climb the corporate ladder, get married, buy a house with white picket fences, get a baby, get another one, send the children to university, retire....DIE.

We are pre programmed to perform a rhetoric life. It is always assumed we will all follow a chain of events in life that forms the norm. This method of thinking is referred to as robotisim. Yes it is not a word in the dictionary but I just coined it. We are full of potential but we allow ourselves to be dictated to and programmed by other people.

Look at kingdoms. The people allowed themselves in the Middle Ages to get dictated to by a single person called a king. The only reason why the king had such immense power was because the people allowed him to have the power. We have plenty of kings amongst us in this day and age. We see ourselves as inferior and not worthy of being our own kings, thus we get dictated by individuals.

I call upon all robots to dethrone the monarchies and embrace humanity. Why do you have to have 2 babies, and retire at 65? There is a glitch in this logic. Take for example people who cannot support themselves. They are married and because they are programmed to have 2 babies, they do exactly that. Thus their children inherit poverty and the same flawed logic that is passed on by their parents.

I trust you can appreciate my point that I am bringing across here. I cannot see much logic in life today. It is almost like we live to die. How much of the world remains unseen because we work our whole lives? We all basically have the same goals in life and the same structures in life.  This is true robotisim. Why is it that the pattern repeats itself over and over? Live work die, live work die. We have to re-invent ourselves. I have mentioned this before but Perhaps we do not look introspectively at ourselves to explore other ventures. My career is programming, but yet my desire is writing and exploring different facets of life. I earn a living with programming, but that does not have to be my source of income for ever. I have the power to change my live to how I want to live it. If I do not challenge myself and these unwritten norms that everyone conforms to, then I am suffering from Robotisim myself. I like to be an individual. A unique person that stands out from the rest.

Perhaps you have a flair for something but do not phantom it to be part of your life due to circumstances.. what is stopping you to get closer to living your dreams? Finances, time? Work on it.. become an inspiration to yourself and try to better your situation. Use your mind and stop following the rest of the robot clan. One step at a time. Eventually you will be who you want to be.

Of superheros and villans

Isn’t it sad how we slave away at work while life passes us by? I was sitting and reflecting on how fast my first 30 years flew by and just what I achieved in that time span.

The majority of people are really very helpful and eager to help other people in need. Some people like to help the less fortunate, some endeavour to enrich our life’s just by supporting us and some make a tangible change in our futures. Unfortunately there are the villains in life that just could not care to help anyone. The only person that comes to mind is themselves. I do not want elaborate  on these people as I do not think that they need any exposure.

I want to celebrate the real heroes in life. Our sponsors. The ones who helped us get where we are. If you are someone who are proud of just how hard you had to work to get where you are, then you would know who I am talking about.

I thank my parents, my school teachers even though they gave me so much homework. I salute my first boss who gave me a chance to cut my teeth in the grown up world. My friends who listened and just hanged out with me. I cannot forget to mention all my ex girlfriends. If it was not for them, then I would not have known what not to look for in a woman. I thank my wife for all those long evenings that she had to wait for me to come home from work.

I am sure there are plenty more to mention but you get the just of it. We seldom think of how the closest people are our recipe to success. We always salute the great minds of science and freedom, but we should really thank our closest of friends and family.

One last gratitude goes out to all my enemies and people that wanted to cheat me out of a better position at work or life. If it was not for them, then I would not have learnt to push ahead no matter what. We are all potential waiting to be exposed. Noting should stop you from achieving what we aim for.

Your goal is limited by your persistence.

Self Control

Focused liberation or Self restraint?

Something we all heard of is self control. This clichéd term is often taken out of context and thus its value is lost. I discovered that there are various times that we have to practise self control. Have you ever just stood back and took a look at people in a casino? Did you notice a few of them pushing money into the coin slots or forcing the notes into the reader, as if their lives depend on it? I can almost for certain tell you that these are gambling addicts.

When people are under pressure due to an addiction or even work, they tend to either lose or gain self control. In order to be a compulsive gambler you need to take risks, thus the need to lose self control and give in to an addiction controlling you instead of common sense and logic. Work pressure can lead you to lose self control but that is not always a bad thing. We have to lose a degree of self restraint in order for us to open our minds to lateral thinking.

Self control is our accelerator pedal. I find it hard to practice self control when I am upset. I see people totally losing it when they get mad. Love and anger, these are emotions that can be detrimental to our ability to practise self control. It is what makes us human and not animals. We are the masters of our own futures and self control is just another tool to aid us in obtaining our hearts desires. By controlling your emotions, actions and thoughts, you can achieve great things.

I think most people see self control as a restraining method rather than a focused liberation. I seldom see the qualities of self control in impoverished areas. Look at most top businessmen. They all had to master the art of focused liberation in order to achieve the unthinkable. Some of the richest people came from the worst conditions imaginable, but they persisted and instead of lashing out at the world that rejected them, they used SELF CONTROL and focused on getting out of their situation.

We all have the ability to lose it or use it.

If I could do anything for anyone then it would be to teach them about self control. Master that and you have discovered the key to success.

Follow the leader

This piece might seem a bit boring to some but I do feel that there is something missing in our daily dose of news being fed to us via the different mediums.

7pm... Switch on the television and you are sure to find the news airing. Switch to other free to air channels and they most likely have the news showing as well. One thing that irritates me beyond measure is the lack of originality in the news. You can literally switch between the channels and follow the same stories word for word. Scripted and ineffective in promoting an objective view of what is happening in South Africa.

I yawn and wonder if anyone actually would change this pattern. The lack of lateral thinking makes for a nation with eye flaps. Who decide to orchestrate the series of stories that are aired? I feel personally that broadcasting companies are stuck in a trench of bad habit. Plenty of people die in South Africa every day, but rarely do we hear about the man who is killed for his watch, but yet when a political member utters a few racist words or spew out some unintelligent ideas of how to enrich the rich and impoverish the poor, then it makes for headline news. The sensationalism that is our news have more resemblances to a tabloid than actuality captured to inform the masses.

People are influenced about what they read, hear or see, and thus the media is such an important propaganda machine for any cause. I wish that a channel in South Africa would just re-invent media in this country. Go down to grass root level and explore what is happening with the REAL people in South Africa. The rich and the famous get too much attention while the real gears in the machine runs without oil. It does not take a rocket scientist to think laterally. Go interview people and get their opinions on stories in the news. Don’t follow mainstream news stories just like all the other channels, become story seekers and not just reporters.

As a nation that is becoming more and more divided, I think the media has a vital role to play in re-uniting the nation. Reporting on how blatant corruption is might be important but reporting on things that changed people’s lives for the better can actually entice more people to become involved and thus emanating some positive vibes.

I challenge everyone to become more diverse at thinking about things. Everyone does things because they follow. Become the leader and change life’s every day. Remember we are not just citizens but partners. We have the power. If Julius can.. Then so can YOU!

It pays to be Ignorant

Intelligence is a conscious form of common sense. – Werner van Tonder

Incompetence is capacious!  They appear on the radio, on the TV and we might even see them in our daily lives. I am referring to the ceo’s, directors and managers of today. In fear of stereotyping let me narrow the target group down.

Upon an interview on the radio, a certain CEO of a large corporation struggled to string two sentences together without either saying “ehhh” or stumbling over his own words while trying to think of the next word to place in the sentence. Another manager might always be on a permanent holiday not knowing what is happening in his department. While the staff works hard keeping the machine well oiled.

I always get amazed at how some people get to the top by selling their mouths. I know a lot of people that can do the job allot better than their superiors but yet somehow they always end up being the work horse. There is a logical selfish explanation for this. The people in most cases that are more capable of performing the tasks are kept at a grassroots or mid level because they do the actual work. Without them, the top will surely come crashing down?

I get irritated when I see a fat cat earning a big salary, and his I.Q. is smaller than his shoe size, and it makes me wonder just how hard you have to work to get there when the ignorant did it without breaking a sweat. I call these people the unobservant ignorant because they are actually unaware of their incompetent state.

Let me give you this example without sounding prejudice. A person gets the post of MD or Directorship because the company need to become compliant to the affirmative action laws in place. The only qualification needed is skin colour. How can this be an informed and intelligent decision in a business world? Or the person gets transferred from a division that was closed but because of the salary he/she earned, they have to place her as a manager in another totally different division, even though that person does not have any skills in that field. All the deadwood drifting on the top is what I call career killers. They stunt the growth potential of an organisation by demoralising the actual intellectual workers by not rewarding the right people for hard work.

Unfortunately this epidemic is a global threat to all companies and it is difficult to rid the organisations of this disease. I inspire to not let this get to me. I used to be the victim of a career killer and it affected me both at work and at home. It created a sense of being not worthy and not good enough. I was even told by my superiors at one stage that because of my lack of tertiary education, I will never earn a decent salary without working for peanuts at least for 10 years. I have proved them wrong because its not where or what you studied but your determination to learn and grow.

Money can’t buy you intelligence but intelligence can earn you money! – Werner van Tonder

No matter who you are, do not let anyone ever push you down and keep you from where you want to be. If you work hard enough and do it with passion, then you can achieve it.

The set rules of dictated by population is certainly not the recipe for success. Only by doing the extraordinary will you get to extraordinary heights.

Get out of the grove

Just another ORDINARY day


Sometimes I find it hard to obey rules. We all heard of the saying that rules are there to be broken, however, it almost seems like society does not like to break rules.

Take for example the morning coffee ritual. You might have heard people say that they have not had their morning caffeine fix or that they have to have that cup of coffee to get started. Is the coffee really a miracle drink that invigorates your body into a state of rejuvenation? I doubt it.

I tend to think that 90% of things we do to make us feel better is all in the mind. We tend to forget that our brains are very powerful. It is also strong enough to force people into a habit. Take for instance the monotony of everyday life. Some things we have to do... like sit in traffic, or to get to work and stick to the work hours.However some things are just a bad habit fooling you. The myth that If you don’t follow a certain sequence of events, then your day is going to go horribly wrong, seems to be the general rule of thumb amoungst most people.

We associate our days to be dull and boring because we already know how it will play off before we even started it, and thus we are already de-motivated. This is what I call falling into the grove. We are stuck in a grove and it is really not necessary. Just because everyone else says you have to do something at a certain time and in a certain manner, does not mean you must. These unwritten laws are things that make for a boring life.

We need to get out of the grove that we wedged ourselves into. Re-discover your day. Instead of following the exact same road to work, be more daring and take the alternative road. Eat your lunch for breakfast or compliment everyone for a day. Do something different every day. You will notice that the day you dread in the mornings becomes a little better.

I love to do things differently. People tell me that I can’t do certain things and when I ask them “why not?”... They can’t answer me or they tell me that well that is not how it is done. They condition their minds to stop thinking laterally.

I wish more people could get out of the grove, and live life.

Repetition

Repetition is part of the human anatomy

Repetition creates perceptions

Repetition blunts intuition

Repetition creates perfection

Repetition stunts progress

Repetition breeds monotony

Repetition is the gateway to death

Repetition is the lazy mans pillow

Repetition turns men into parrots

Repetition repeats until it becomes obsolete

Repetition usually gets replaced by repetition

Repetition forms a circle

Repetition is Dynamic’s worst enemy

Repetition will forsake you

Repetition is only as good as its previous repetitive cycle

Repetition is our success and our downfall

Arrogance

Arrogance emits the pungent smell of failure. – Werner van Tonder

It’s amazing how some people can actually boast how great they are when they actually just have a mask on to hide the failures that’s eminent to be exposed sooner or later. I often encounter people that are blinded by their arrogance. I think it is prevalent in all walks of life but I found that there is a common denominator amongst all the types of arrogant people. They all believe the lie.

They all know in the beginning that whatever they stand for is not the best stance to take but in order to achieve their goals they need to convince themselves that it is the best thing since sliced bread. Let’s take for example a CEO or owner of a company. In order to promote their company, they have to have faith in the product that you sell. Even though their product is antiquated and overpriced, they become blinded, and thus start believing that there is none better. This could be a fatal type of arrogance. Their empire will slowly come falling down and in the worst cases they would still question why it has failed amidst the absolute failure of their product.

I think what I want to get to is that some people just do not see their blatant failures. We all have failures but what makes a person arrogant is that they denounce it and they would rather steer clear of their failures and do the opposite and promote themselves as something better than what they could ever expect to be, this type of “ignorance is bliss” mentality is the stench of society.

It is an absolute failure to correct your mistakes and better the future for you and the people it affects. You might not be aware of your failures due to your friends / family being too scared to tell you about the big splinter in your eye. I would prefer to hear the truth, and better myself than be the arrogant fool that everyone despises, just because you are in a position that you do not deserve.

My encounters with arrogance were numerous. Managers that only got where they are because of people they knew and not the knowledge and reward of hard work, people that get paid for services only because they fooled the person into believing that they need them. We are often surrounded by these arrogant bigots but that should not let you get disheartened from your own potential. You might feel that you are in a situation where your arrogant boss/manager or senior actually does not deserve the pay and position to be above you...I know how that feels but we have to focus on our own strengths and abilities. We must rather learn from them and see where we can improve ourselves as not to fall into that cesspool of self righteousness.

We will only get to the top by being bigger than the biggest, taller than the tallest and humbler than the smallest.

Success

Success is when being content and achieving perfection reached a balance – Werner van Tonder

Walking past two people chatting away, I couldn’t help but to hear them using the words:” then he must be successful”... Did you ever stop and think that maybe your perception of success is totally different from another person’s perception.  We use it in sentences to state how we perceive the status of someone or the outcome of a situation or event.

When an event is planned and the outcome of the event was that profits were made or enough people attended or that it all went without a hiccup, does that mean that it went to perfection? Some might say that just that it went without a hiccup, it was successful but others would not regard it as a success because it was not perfect and thus falls short of being a success.

It has to be said that a balance must be struck between how happy you are with how good it was. Imagine you are retired (maybe you are), and you have enough to get you by for the rest of your life. Would you say you were successful in life? Most people would say yes. That is because they are happy where they are in life and they feel that they achieved their goal to a point where they are satisfied. They might not have perfected anything in life, but perfection can be sacrificed to be successful.

We often try to substitute our perception of success to accommodate other people’s perception. Why must you be rich and good in everything to be seen as successful? Why is it that the general population decide what your success is? Who gave anyone the right to determine your success in life?

Pressures of life, work, relationships and money push our boundaries. We run the wrong race. The goal should not be society’s success but your own personal success. People fall victims to drugs, alcohol or even work because they do not even know when they are happy. Keeping up with the Jones’s is not success. Your own happiness and the rate at which you are willing to compromise your lifestyle for that happiness dictate where your success lies.

Be an individual. Don’t let people dictate what your success should be. You alone have the right to reserve your success goal post. Never let another man’s race become yours. We all have different needs and potentials. It is so easy to get depressed comparing your life to other peoples successes.

Decide what makes you happy and go get it. Forget all the little nuances that wont contribute to YOUR success, because success is all you will have to show when you die.

I need you

We all need a person at the right time. I am not just referring to the emotional need. Take advertising for example. As I drove past billboards this morning I realised that you only notice certain billboards at certain stages in your life. We see advertisements the whole time. I find myself asking the question: How could some people make money. The services that they advertise seems like it could be the last thing any person needs, but then this would be very biased of me.

We all have different needs and just like advertisement we only see what we want when we need it. Our needs dictate where we are in life and what we want at that specific time and point. If your car won’t start, then you would need a mechanic. You will page past the garden services as you do not need them. Just like that I fear that the truth be told... we all use each other when we need something.

It is hard to believe that anyone has done it before. We attempt to create bond with those we see that can fulfil our needs. Some professionals call it networking and some might call it contacts. This is not a bad thing as long it is mutual. The problem i have is the notion that some people think they are too big to acknowledge that they need other people to ensure their independence.

Let me explain this. A boss needs his staff and equally they need him. This is symbiotic. But when the needs of one of the parties exceed the mutual agreement, then we might be pushing the relationship past the safe zone. An employee for example cannot expect to be paid the rates of a professional if they he cannot perform the same standard of services. An employer can also not expect the employee to work over and above the agreed terms that they established. We find ourselves compromising and sometimes sacrificing for the future benefit could end up to be a gamble.

The human race however does always overstep that boundaries and use people for a selfish purpose. We do not realise that we are selfish by nature and most times we only need one another in order to gain what will benefit ourselves even at the cost of someone else. I can understand this and I’m even tempted to say that is justified given the climate that we find ourselves in. Success is not an option and we step on one another to get where we have to be.

Just know that next time you complain that you do not get paid enough or you hate people that use you, and then look at how you treat everyone else. A culture of change is driven by opposites. You cannot fight hate with hate. We should strive to become a culture of helping and change the “I need you” to become “I want to help you”.

A species of luck

Luck is the euphoria of an unexpected result purely by participation of an event. We regard someone as lucky when they beat the odds. Unfortunately the human being also base critical decisions in life on this superstition.

I have observed people in all walks of life and came to one conclusion, and that is no matter how educated or rich you are, you can be the victim of luck. Yes you read it right, the victim.

Luck is actually a myth that destroys many peoples life’s. Instead of dispelling the myth and analyzing the facts, we base rash decisions based on an emotion created by adrenalin. We get excited by the idea of playing against the odds.

Take gambling. The people that play it are all just hoping on a little bit of luck. But it is actually a mathematical game. If you sat and thought rationally, then you would never attempt it. We should veer away from luck and place our hopes in hard work.

People are fast to part with their money when they feel lucky but they are hesitant to part with it should it not retain any financial gain for them. The beggar in the street would come and ask you for enough to buy food, but yet instead you would rather take your chance in the lottery. Do we trade our social responsibility for luck?

Just for today take a look at luck and re-evaluate how much of an impact it has in your life. How many times do you refer to luck and how many times in your life have you made uninformed decisions against the mathematical facts?