CRAVING FOR IMPACT

Life is all about impact, writes Linus Okorie

Life is all about impact. Interestingly, a lot of people crave for power, some for fame, others for different things, but most people hardly know that there’s a concept called craving for impact. Yet, the most important thing to do in life is to decide to crave for impact.

Leaders who lead on a sustainable basis crave for impact, because, again, life is all about impact. Using the analogy of the making of movies, there are majorly three kinds of characters: the protagonist, the antagonist, and the third, who I call the “waka pass.” The first two are the prominent actors and feature in many scenes throughout the movie, but the “waka pass” are simply fillers in the movie. These are people who make no real impact in that movie, but merely feature to fill space in a scene. In other words, the movie could do without them.

Now, in life, who are you? A major player who makes real impact or a “waka pass” who makes no impact? As a leader, the quality of the impact that you generate within a system will always determine how far that you can go and how the people will remember you. When you are not making any difference, not making any impact, you are like the “waka pass.” In that instance, nobody remembers any impact you made, if any. The truth of the matter is that if you do nothing that adds value to society, you risk being completely forgotten when you time is up—whether you leave a position or leave the earth.

Secondly, don’t be the antagonist. The antagonist is the bad guy in any movie. That means his impact is always negative. When the person comes into a space, he exudes only negative energy and mayhem. The only thing worse than not being remembered is to be remembered for the wrong reasons.

Thirdly, we have the protagonists. These are the good guys, the lovable actor, and the influencer. This is the leader, the one who has the capacity to influence and impact the entire system in such a way that they leave a lasting legacy. Are you this type of leader or one that everyone wishes to go away every time, or are you one that will not be remembered at all? I hereby ask you to begin to crave for positive impact, to exude positive energy every time and everywhere, to crave for things that will make you sustainable and remembered for good.

To crave for impact most time requires you getting out of your comfort zone. It was Eleanor Roosevelt who said, “No one has ever achieved something meaningful living a life of ease.” Have you ever seen anyone that has accomplished something significant that remained in his or her comfort zone? I have never seen anyone like that. I have travelled, but I have never seen successful people making a difference by remaining in their comfort zone. Nothing great has ever been accomplished with ease. For you to be outstanding in life or become a great leader, a leader with high levels of productivity and excellence, you must be someone who has mastered the habit of getting out of your comfort zone. The greatest thing you can do in the pursuit of your big ideas is to ensure that you go the extra mile.

Take yourself out of your comfort zone, and stretch a little bit. This is called stretching for impact. As you continue to use your brain to get things done, your mind continues to stretch. Should you fail to keep at this, you might have just failed to bring anything meaningful into the world. Take for instance, a government policy that must see the light of the day, or a bill passed in the National Assembly, goes through a process. This process involves identifying the fundamentals of the policies, or bills. Now, imagine if we had lazy legislators or individuals in charge of policy development, the likely bills and policies that will be produced will be the outcome of laziness and a sense of comfort. However, a different set of legislators who are thorough in the process, who understand the implication of getting things done right, they spend valuable time and resources, going out of their comfort zone, stretching their minds until they bring out the things that will make a bill excellent. In this, the outcome and implementation of each bill or policy, will be for the good of the people and it will be sound.

These days, people are thinking of how to be relevant in the system. How can I be indispensable? If you want to be indispensable, the way to go about that is to think about what could happen in the future, in your environment and the world over. People must move away from laziness, towards a sense of responsibility to get things done. The more people are thinking about getting things done, the more they cease to be in mediocrity. People continue to ask themselves questions like, what else can I do that can make a difference? This motivates them to get out of bed as early as possible. I like to say this, if a man does not have a purpose for waking up, sleeping becomes interesting. The reason behind that is that when you have a goal that is driving you, you’ll never stay at a place. You stretch your mind, you get into the library, and you want to get things done. You want to get something in your mind. And if you do that consistently and at the right time, you get accustomed to delayed gratification. Once you are accustomed to delayed gratification, it is called paying now and playing later. So in the process of stretching your mind, you experience pain and sometimes failure, but it should not deter you because you know where you are going. I want leaders that can stretch a little bit more, and if they begin to learn the stretching game then they will be able to know how they can go the extra mile to make a difference for our country for the sake of the common good. Is there anything you are doing right now that is called stretching?

Nigeria today is in a situation that requires a critical mass who have bought into the concept of craving for impact.  People realize that it is time for Nigeria to elect great and competent leaders who are craving for transformation and getting the people out of poverty. Nigerians will then start making sacrifices and delaying gratifications for the simple idea of making sure only visionary and competent people are elected in all leadership positions across Nigeria. This is really possible. Let us make it happen. Great people of Nigeria, you must remember if a man does not have a purpose for waking up, sleeping becomes interesting.

 Okorie is a leadership development expert spanning 27 years in the research, teaching and coaching of leadership in Africa and across the world. He is the CEO of the GOTNI Leadership Centre. www.gotni.africa