{"id":1782,"date":"2022-03-02T12:26:23","date_gmt":"2022-03-02T10:26:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/amandamathule.co.za\/wordpress\/?p=1782"},"modified":"2022-03-02T12:26:24","modified_gmt":"2022-03-02T10:26:24","slug":"own-your-sht","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/amandamathule.co.za\/wordpress\/2022\/03\/02\/own-your-sht\/","title":{"rendered":"Own Your Sh!t"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>In his opinion piece <em>The trouble with Africa &#8211; economic attitudes and a poverty of the mind (Daily Maverick 27 February 2022)<\/em>, Anotida Chikumbu explores how we Africans have \u201c&#8230; disengaged from civic responsibility, particularly abstaining from activities like voting and becoming educated on political systems and government functionality \u2026\u201d, he calls it <em>political disengagement<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>To explain our lack of participation in political activities Chikumbu introduces the concept of \u201c&#8230; diffusion of responsibility, the thinking and feeling that someone else is responsible for the problem and that someone else will fix it \u2026\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Diffusion of responsibility is also the enemy of the African family.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>My message is consistent. African families must stop looking to government to solve their economic problems as they fight for survival at the bottom of the pyramid.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>We are responsible for our own problems and we must fix them.<\/p>\n\n\n<style>.wp-block-kadence-advancedheading.kt-adv-heading_6aa189-ba, .wp-block-kadence-advancedheading.kt-adv-heading_6aa189-ba[data-kb-block=\"kb-adv-heading_6aa189-ba\"]{font-style:normal;}.wp-block-kadence-advancedheading.kt-adv-heading_6aa189-ba mark.kt-highlight, .wp-block-kadence-advancedheading.kt-adv-heading_6aa189-ba[data-kb-block=\"kb-adv-heading_6aa189-ba\"] mark.kt-highlight{font-style:normal;color:#f76a0c;-webkit-box-decoration-break:clone;box-decoration-break:clone;padding-top:0px;padding-right:0px;padding-bottom:0px;padding-left:0px;}.wp-block-kadence-advancedheading.kt-adv-heading_6aa189-ba img.kb-inline-image, .wp-block-kadence-advancedheading.kt-adv-heading_6aa189-ba[data-kb-block=\"kb-adv-heading_6aa189-ba\"] img.kb-inline-image{width:150px;vertical-align:baseline;}<\/style>\n<h2 class=\"kt-adv-heading_6aa189-ba wp-block-kadence-advancedheading\" data-kb-block=\"kb-adv-heading_6aa189-ba\">Take a look in the mirror<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Self help is the only option for the African family in our current environment of business. But first we need to look in the mirror.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>As painful as the tweets of Tracy Zille may be there is certainly an element of truth in what was written.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"520\" height=\"560\" src=\"https:\/\/amandamathule.co.za\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/twitter-image-e1646216466600.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-1787\" srcset=\"https:\/\/amandamathule.co.za\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/twitter-image-e1646216466600.jpg 520w, https:\/\/amandamathule.co.za\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/twitter-image-e1646216466600-279x300.jpg 279w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 520px) 100vw, 520px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Start here<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>So how does the African family help itself?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li><strong>Call a family meeting and clear the air<\/strong> &#8211; Maintaining petty jealousies and continuing to squabble is a choice. Dump the baggage and move forward. Your survival depends upon it.<\/li><li><strong>Identify the family leader<\/strong> &#8211; All organisations require a leader. Select the most appropriate family member and entrust them with the leadership of the project.<\/li><li><strong>Unite the family around a common goal<\/strong> &#8211; Transform the imperative of survival to the imperative of creating a family business. No family business and you\u2019ll remain in the welfare line.<\/li><li><strong>Identify and commit to pooling family resources<\/strong> &#8211; It\u2019s not just about money. Time, knowledge, experience, networks and contacts are equally valuable.<\/li><li><strong>Match resources to a business idea<\/strong> &#8211; Brainstorm business ideas that can be started with the resources you have available, or resources that can be acquired realistically in the short term. Rank the ideas &#8211; realistic and feasible, to fantasy. Choose one.<\/li><li><strong>Develop a plan and allocate responsibility<\/strong> &#8211; Write down the steps you must take, completion date, the resources required and the person responsible to do what is required.<\/li><li><strong>Execute the plan <\/strong>&#8211; Monitor and course correct.<\/li><li><strong>Repeat if it doesn\u2019t work the first time<\/strong> &#8211; Build resilience into the process.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Diffusion of responsibility, while comforting, won\u2019t solve our problems.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Stop blaming others. Look in the mirror. Act now and take control of your future. No one else will do it for you<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1784,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_kadence_starter_templates_imported_post":false,"_kad_post_transparent":"","_kad_post_title":"","_kad_post_layout":"","_kad_post_sidebar_id":"","_kad_post_content_style":"","_kad_post_vertical_padding":"","_kad_post_feature":"","_kad_post_feature_position":"","_kad_post_header":false,"_kad_post_footer":false,"_kad_post_classname":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1782","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-leadership"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/amandamathule.co.za\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1782","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/amandamathule.co.za\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/amandamathule.co.za\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amandamathule.co.za\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amandamathule.co.za\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1782"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/amandamathule.co.za\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1782\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1791,"href":"https:\/\/amandamathule.co.za\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1782\/revisions\/1791"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amandamathule.co.za\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1784"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/amandamathule.co.za\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1782"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amandamathule.co.za\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1782"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amandamathule.co.za\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1782"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}