You are a coward if you give fear and self- concerns a permanent home in your mind. This means you have forgotten the reason why the Master of the Universe created you for. He created you to succeed in life through hard work and determination. There is no reason whatever for you possessing hands, legs, eyes, ears etc. unless they are for facilitating you for work. Cowards will not swim across a river in order to reach their destination. They will not handle fire even if they know its importance in lighting and cooking for fear being burnt. Cowards fear to come face to face with pain and suffering for self –concern reasons.
Cowards only love dreaming of success without taking action. They forget success is a reward for those who have achieved their mission through hard work. Cowards cannot succeed in life for a number of reasons including the following;
Pessimistic about success
Cowards have a lot of doubts in their mind on whether they will succeed in life or not. They cannot make any decision or choice on their own because of fear which has colonized their mind. They maintain their doubts even if they see someone succeeding in life. A few years ago I attended business rejuvenation training in Mount Kenya Safari Club in Kenya which involved a team building activity of walking on burning charcoal spread on ground. We all walked through fire except one colleague of us who was so terrified about the exercise. He did gain confidence even when he saw us walking through the fire. He later joined us in the celebrations but still insisting that he could not take reckless risks. I concluded that cowards would rather die than take any action.
Sitting on the fence
Cowards like sitting on the fence to watch other people either succeed or fail. They consider successful people as being extremely lucky. They think success cannot be achieved through deliberate effort. They laugh at those who fail as for being reckless in taking uncalculated risks which has resulted in their failure.
They count their misfortunes
I have had a chance to coach a number of young graduates to succeed in life. I can say many have successfully gone through my hands but also a number have failed to achieve the success. I have noted that the successful ones in life have tended to count their blessings and those who have failed tended to count their misfortunes. The minds of those who choice to fail are colonized by fear and self –concern. They justify their failure by counting their misfortunes which they imagine led them to fail. They often justify their failure in life by blaming their poor background which did not give them a sound base to succeed in life.
Scared to do what is right
Cowards cannot act on anything as they are afraid to take any action. They cannot look for opportunities to exploit for their success. They will not take action even if they know the opportunity in front of them is 100% right. Their mind is blocked by fear from taking action as they think action will lead them to failure in life.
I have worked with people who are too afraid to call on clients to collect company cheques required to pay their salaries. They would rather stay without salaries than going to clients to demand payment for work done.
I have mixed with people who are scared in following up opportunities. They would rather sit idle in the office instead facing potential clients to request for work.
They cannot demonstrate their potential to handle business
This reminds me of a CEO of a bank who was a good friend of mine about twenty years ago. He would invite friends and potential customers on a monthly basis to his home to entertain them but would not dare talk about the capacity of the bank to handle their business. He would talk about the good wine, the meat and the beers but not his needs for new accounts. The entertainment went until he left the country. The bank was later on acquired by another bank.
Complaining and comparing
Another problem with cowards they waste too much time on comparing themselves with others and complaining about anything. They can spend the whole day complaining about and comparing anything with the aim of justifying why they are not as successful. They will not shut up until you confront them with a request to take action on what they are complaining about.
One time while I was a CEO a team of managers confronted me with a complaint that they were being underpaid when compared to the competition. I actually told them they were right to complain about the unfairness and I promised to act as soon as they produce evidence to the effect the competition was paying better than the firm. That was the last I had of them on the subject. I later learnt from them that they found it difficult to get evidence to support the complaints. They were therefore complaining about something they could not substantiate.
Author
John Muhaise Bikalemesa
Director: Big Drum Advisory Services Limited
john.muhaise@bigdrumassociates.com
