Two things happened last week. One is the feedback I got
about the length of my blog from a fellow blogger. He felt they posts are
generally too long even for a faithful reader. The second was about the content
– someone felt it was misplaced since the underlying message was one of
pessimism in the African capacity for change and acceptance of diversity. I
will take advice on length.
But I will continue with the metaphor framed in the language
of business and finance, because it has a mainstream nature that lends to easy
understanding. In addition it is helpful to add the context for these posts is
from Prof. Wangari Maathai perspective of the hummingbird. The story of the
hummingbird is so captivating hence I have posted it below - it’s only 2 minutes.
Last Friday’s post was about Transferred Patriotism, which
is about matching one’s personal aspirations with the patriotic aspirations. Many
people may be uncomfortable with this metaphor because at its core, it recognizes
rejection from the society of one’s birth – we would rather live with the hope
of change than face this reality. Yet Transferred Patriotism presents
opportunity to realize personal aspirations despite this rejected identity.
By observing mergers and acquisition processes one can learn to build
on ones talents with a view to raising their value to become a target firm –
or the business that is bought off. Target firms; generally tend to have desired
characteristics (valuations) to the acquirer. Often the acquiring firm will
value the target much higher price than the market.
To effectuate transferred patriotism, then, there is need to
build on the “valued” characteristics – which are often skills or resources
that will of necessity be undervalued by the local society – on account of
sexual or gender identity. In essence, a society that creates policy and legal
strictures for enforcing heterosexuality will arrive at different valuation of
a non-heterosexual person from another society that does not have legally
enforced heterosexuality.
In our previous post, we looked at valuation of financial
contribution – where a society such as Kenya’s such an individual represents a
costs, in lieu of costs associated to jailing while others would notice the
positive contribution in terms of tax.
There are interventions that we can take at individual level
to enhance this valuation well beyond tax considerations. In the first
instance, non-heterosexual people in non-accepting societies should interrogate
how they use their resources – regardless of how much that is. Take an audit of
every single penny spent, to ensure that it is supportive of your goal to
enhance your value.
The starting point has to be with the use of time – one of
the most valuable resources all of us have. The other potent area in need of an
audit is the amount of time and resources spent on alcohol. While it is easy to
understand the need for a quick escape, time and resources spent on it,
undermine your long-term value.
It would not be helpful to be prescriptive of different
options one can take to enhance their value – but adding a new skill, or
expanding on the bottom line are time-tried options one can take. There are now
many free online courses – e.g. courseara, where one can progressively build on
their internal capital to broaden their life options.
I am just but a hummingbird…
