Simply Nirvana

The future is way better than humanity can imagine!

nirvana — Mon, 02 Apr 2012 17:17:50 +0000

Abundance: The Future Is Better Than You Think; Peter H. Diamandis (Author), Steven Kotler (Author)

Humanity, please! Olly Olly Oxen Free

nirvana — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 16:58:24 +0000

May 2, 2011 Urban Word of the Day

“Olly olly oxen free is a phrase used in children’s games, which is generally used to indicate that people who are hiding (in a game of hide and seek, for example) can safely come out into the open.”

For who we think we are, poverty “will always be with us.” For who we have become, poverty is so yesterday.

Daughters as bookkeeping entries…

nirvana — Tue, 04 Oct 2011 14:31:56 +0000

I’ve trained Kenyan youth to hold crucial inquiries. A Masai community in Kenya invited us to address them at one of their monthly gatherings. During the conversation, one of the fathers justified selling his daughter into marriage because he was too poor to send her to university. Turns out this one mzee (elder) owns 200 acres of land! It had never occurred to him that his land was a resource. The only resource he was accustomed to counting is livestock.

The main resource the community is trained to see during the dry season–when livestock is dying from lack of food and water–is their unmarried daughters. During this time, daughters occur as bookkeeping entries. They can replace lost livestock with unmarried daughters’ dowries and get their “bank” balances reconciled.

As we led the mzee in this conversation, the entire community began to see their attachment to the belief that they are poor. Once they actually inquired into their resources, they started organizing their resources in ways that would allow their daughters to go to university. That day, daughters escaped forced marriage. Several are headed to university.

Context is decisive. Change the context and behavior changes accordingly.

Satisfaction of a job well done

nirvana — Sun, 19 Jun 2011 15:15:01 +0000

Hi Nirvana,

I hope that you have been doing good for the last 31 weeks we have not been in communication.Am doing really GREAT. I wish to share with you the achievements, deliverables, miracles and personal goals I have achieved and accomplished. Welcome!

On December last year I spend sometime in Ruiru estate east of Nairobi before I moved to Yatta my home constituency. My thoughts were dancing all over the universe trying to figure out where and what to start.I spend three days in the homestead. On 6^th and 7^th Jan this year I made my 1^st appearance to the two community organizations I had formed the previous year. What was impressing is that people had changed their approach to live from the training I had conducted before I left for the Kilifi trip.The old men made my day when they shared with us how they accumulated money through savings and seedlings sales they made on the onset of the rains.They told us that they paid themselves and out of the dividends they made wonderful christmas parties for their respective families.They went further and presented to me forty different seedlings to plant in my farm.I was this time prepared a speech that I had to deliver.Members of all ages attended this meeting.We addressed the community development agendas and formed task force committees to follow up with the government offices concerned and other local organizations working in alignment with our agenda.Todate they have savings and they are registered by the Ministry of Gender and Social services.This month they are in the process of applying for the Poverty eradication loan a program run by the ministry in the office of the Prime minister.

I knew now I needed support to bringing the youth together and form a youth network that would wake up the whole constituency.I shared with James and soon he joined me from Nakuru.We spend few days with him and brought the idea of having a supporting business while we do this.Soon we started digital photography and editing.We also did online registration for candidates examination on the government`s wesite.We made good money that kept us moving.I was the marketing personel while James was busy demonstrating and training the community on ICT and how it can potentially change their lives.The youth were interested in the whole idea but the challenge was that everyone was busy running his/her business.So we thought of a new strategy of bringing them on board soon it was available for us.I had to join the sand harvesters union which has 80 youths working for it.I registered myself in the union so I got nice access to all of the 80 youths and the entire organization of 300 members.As this was happening I was making discoveries about success and achieving.I realized that when you take action people to support and events in alignment what you are doing will come along and more importantly on your favour.To be sincere all this time I never lacked.

I love this!The NYC elections comes along.I knew that was the greatest opportunity for me to know how much the community believes in me.So I walk to Chief`s office and picks the nomination papers.After I got the 20 nominee needed by the ministry I return the papers and launches my campaigns officially in Kwa-ndolo Sub-location.James designed and produced my posters 48hrs to election date.Infact I was the last one to put posters(13 posters).On 18^th May I hired a motorbike to the polling station.I was ready for big battle of Sebastian and Josephine who were going for the top seat with me.Good for me I had taken 15 minutes to meditate and visualize myself as the overall winner that morning.I was going for nothing less than victory.Mary and Princess Nirvana came with the morning bus accompanied by her ladies squad.After the whole process the presiding officer announced me as the overall winner with 51.8% of the total cast votes.I had two times the votes that Josephine had who came second.I made it through the delegate election upto to the Division level.The good news is that Josephine has made it to the national level through my heavy campaigns I did on her favour.The Yatta Youth Movement is going to kick off on 25^th of this month and am invited to join the steering committee courtesy of Josephine.After the electionsto date I have two youth groups working.One does horticulture and the other does goat and poultry keeping coz the climate of the plateau are so favourable.They are all now in the process of getting the youth enterprise fund loans to expand their business.They are no more afraid of trying new things.

To end,I would like to let you know that I`ve been in action.I made a decision to keep myself away from the internet,Tv,Radio and all sorts of Media.I was receiving calls and reading text massages but not returning. I avoided all toxic conversations and made it clear what I really needed.The law of attraction has been working for me.I know the importance of good naming and positive thinking.Am now a computer expert without a college degree.My wife despite of her not joining school on time,she is also clear with what she wants.She is more confident and can address a group of people.Now she leads the Girls cadet in our local church.Dennis the Great is now going school,I wish you could see him in the school uniform.He is an amazing instrumentalist who wants to be with all the musical instruments.The Princess is now standing with objects and there is nothing big for her.She is light than her brother used to be.Mary and Dennis have been favoured by the climate and she gets more beautiful everytime.

Finally,thank you so much for bringing this attitudinal software in Kenya.I have mastered the game Nirvana. Abudance is my birthright and having my fare share is becoming a millinionare [around US$12,000] by December 20^th this year. I live and alternative thinking lives in me. Forward my love to your family,Sussie,Dieane and whoever you are working together in the Western world in making sure this is reaching all and transforming peoples lives.

Love,

George Kilonzo Sr.

SO WHAT DO YOU DO?

nirvana — Sat, 04 Jun 2011 13:36:14 +0000

The New World versus the Old World: Are You Being Left Behind?

The second or third question in virtually any introduction is, “So, what do you do?” What’s your answer to that question? For most people it has something to do with their career, job title, or the company they work for. It makes sense. Our identity is tied to the value that we bring into the world and historically that value means our profession.

Back in the day our profession was actually a part of our name - George the Barber, Bob the Builder, Dora the Explorer…that’s how a lot of last names were first created.

In earlier generations, people tended to have the same profession and work at the same company for their entire working life. For many people, their profession and company weren’t just a huge component of their identity, but also a real source of pride.

But that was the old world. Things have changed.

Are you Familiar with the New World?
In the new world it doesn’t really matter where you went to school, what your major was, what your profession is, what company you work for, or what job title is on your business card. Seriously. Unless you’re a doctor, college majors mean less then ever. People switch careers more frequently than ever. People change companies about every three years. Everyone has an impressive-sounding job title (“Account Executive” can mean anything from entry level telemarketer to an executive in charge of a major business account). No one really takes resumes at face value…they tend to be meaningless.

Even though everyone knows that these things basically mean nothing, it still winds up being the main way we introduce ourselves and communicate our value. Whether we want our identity to have a lot to do with our job or not, we still introduce ourselves as “I’m [name] and [description of job].”

There is a disconnect here because in our hearts we don’t want our value to be tied to something so uncertain and meaningless as our company or career. We want our value to be tied to something that we own. Something that can’t be taken from us. Most of us don’t want someone else to hold our identity hostage…we want the freedom to define ourselves and the control of our own identity.

But many of us are stuck in the old world thought process.

The New World is Full of Risk and Opportunity
A special few have noticed this new world and taken full advantage of it. They recognize that careers and companies have limited security and give little real value. They’ve decided that they need to make their own value, their own identity, so that the “what do you do?” question takes on a completely different meaning.

As the world is moving toward this intense individualism, the barrier to entry in business and mass communication has almost disappeared. A guy with a laptop can build a multi-million dollar business with nothing more than high quality advice and really solid marketing skills. A girl with a desktop can deliver news, information, and advice and build a following without having to climb a corporate ladder at a newspaper, magazine, or television station. An actor can produce a show watched by millions without getting a television deal.

This combination means that anyone with motivation has the means by which to create their own value and their own identity. Everyone has an ability to create proof of their talent, knowledge, and skills. We no longer have to rely on our resumes, references, companies, or work experiences to define our value. We can set off and create something that offers tangible proof of it.

That idea can be a bit scary. Many of us actually rely on the fact that no one really knows what anyone is actually worth. If no one really has proof then corporate success is up to the person who talks a good game or networks the best. If we were required to prove our worth we wouldn’t even know how to do it. We’d probably fall back and describe a past work challenge that we may or may not be exaggerating. If you actually have to put something out there to prove your value then what happens if it’s not good enough? Putting yourself on the line in that way can be terrifying.

Because it might not be good enough…yet.

The artists have the right start in this new world. For an artist it rarely matters where you studied or where you’ve worked, it matters what you can create. Resumes mean little. Portfolios speak volumes. The conversation is less “this is what I will be able to do” and more “this is what I’ve done already.” That’s how artists have to demonstrate their value because people demand visual proof.

Good salespeople have the right start in this world. They can point to sales data to show results in graphs and percentages that aren’t easily exaggerated. And of course those with successful online businesses or blogs can point people to their website and traffic/conversion data to demonstrate their value.

What These Changes Mean For You Today
Now this isn’t just a call to arms about becoming an online entrepreneur or a blogger (although both those things are certainly strong starting points), but I am saying that if you cannot easily prove your value to the world and to the marketplace by pointing to something that you’ve created or accomplished, then the new business world is leaving you behind.

If you do have a blog, or a business, or a portfolio, or anything like that then you should have the mindset that it equals your value. It’s not enough to put out interesting articles or optimize your opt in rate or any of that kind of stuff. What you do is your value. What you say is your value. Your impact in the lives of others is your value. It is no longer just a hobby or a side project or a money-making scheme. With Google, Facebook, and the rest of social media connecting everything to everyone, what you put out there defines you.

Now this article is a pretty heavy/serious one, which I typically avoid. In fact, I’m normally the guy who shows people how to stop taking themselves so damn seriously when it comes to their online business or blog or life. But I feel strongly that anyone who is not actively proving and improving their value in a public way will be missing out in this new world. I also feel strongly that anyone already out there who isn’t looking at their venture as, at least partially, a demonstration of their value to the world will be left behind by those who do.

I am very curious to learn your opinion on all this. Please tell me how you see this Old World/New World dynamic taking place in the world around you.

Written on 5/02/2011 by Joey, an online business guy who shows folks how to stop taking themselves so damn seriously when it comes to building an online business, starting a blog, or making big changes in their lives. His current project at http://findyourdamnpurpose.com/ shows how you can avoid the #1 mistake people make in business, blogging, and making life changes. Click to see the 100% free video course to find your purpose and set yourself up for success.

Perfect for African Rural Villages!

nirvana — Wed, 30 Mar 2011 19:59:33 +0000

Global_Village_Construction_Set is a set of 50 tools/ technologies for building post-scarcity, resilient communities. This innovation truly puts the tools of development into the hands of communities anywhere. Exciting innovation! The founder, Marcin Jakubowski, is now a TED Fellow and received much support at TED2011.

USEFUL TRAVEL SKILLS

nirvana — Mon, 21 Feb 2011 15:53:31 +0000

Chris Guillebeau regularly serves up inspired blogging in his Art of Non-Conformity: Unconventional Strategies for Life, Work and Travel website. From today’s entry:

Second, learn to accept that not everyone has the same logic as you.

You might assume that logic is universal, since it is supposedly based on facts instead of opinions. But you would be wrong, as travelers inevitably discover, and the sooner you learn that logic is inseparably tied to culture and context, the easier your journeys will be.

In some countries people will give you the wrong directions to a place rather than tell you they don’t know how to get there. Does this make sense to you? To me, it doesn’t. If I don’t know how to help someone, that’s what I’ll say. But not everyone thinks like me, and in some cultures, it is embarrassing to say you can’t help someone, so better to give the wrong answer than none at all. [I’m thinking, “World Bank.”]

Speaking of help, in some cases people will offer to help you because they want something from you; other times people will go far out of their way to help you while repeatedly refusing any reward. In some cases you may think a problem is small only to find out it is insurmountable (and naturally, the opposite is true). In some cases “no” means “ask three times first.”

How do you learn to interpret different situations and relate them to what is true to you? Well, experience is the best teacher. Unlike waiting, interpreting culture does get easier over time. But first you must understand that logic is hardly scientific.

Cleansing moment of clarity - ID Statesman Commentary

nirvana — Mon, 17 Jan 2011 22:55:21 +0000

Foreign aid won’t help Haiti change its course

Jonah Goldberg Commentary
Idaho Statesman
January 16, 2011

Ninety-five percent of the debris from the Haitian earthquake one year ago hasn’t been moved.

In other words, billions of dollars later, with none other that Bill Clinton serving as the foreman for a massive international cleanup and reconstruction effort, most of the country pretty much looks exactly the way it did when dust and screams still filled the air.

Except of course, for all of the tent cities.

More than a million people remain homeless. The good news? The Red Cross is building 300 semi-permanent wood homes. That would be sufficient if they could each serve a family of 3,300 people, semi-permanently.

To get a sense of Haiti’s dysfunction, Fox News’ Steve Harrigan reports that some 64 brand-new trucks donated after the earthquake by the Unites States to be used by aid organizations remain parked at the airport. Apparently nobody will pay the steep import tax on the vehicles, so they sit idle, overgrown with weeds.

Even before the earthquake, Haiti was not only the poorest nation in the Western hemisphere, it was one of the few nations in the world to get poorer over the last 50 years. And this is despite the fact it has had some 10,000 international aid organizations working there for decades.

As I’ve written before, one of Haiti’s biggest problems is that it has a culture of poverty. Some cultures add value, some don’t. For instance, a low-skilled Mexican worker becomes 10 to 20 times more productive simply by crossing the border into the United States. It’s not that there aren’t entrepreneurs or hard workers in Haiti, but the system holds them down rather than unleashes them.

Most of the wealth of any society rests in what economists call “intangible capital”–not the stuff of gold mines and factories, but the laws, knowledge and customs that define a given society. Social planners love to invoke the Marshall Plan, whereby America helped rebuild Western Europe after World War II, as proof that foreign aid can create prosperity almost overnight. What is left out of the discussion is that while Europe’s roads and bridges may have been smashed, its intangible capital remained relatively intact.

You can hardly say the same thing about Haiti, which has seen its storehouse of intangible capital devalued for generations. Many ambitious Haitians of means leave the country. Worse, those who stay home are thwarted when they try to break through the cycle of indisputably well-meaning agencies.

In a reported essay for Slate, Maura R. O’Connor asks, “Does International Aid Keep Haiti Poor?” That’s a tougher question than it sounds, but it’s sure as hell clear international aid has done nothing to make Haiti rich.

Aid seems to be a tourniquet on a mortal wound. Take the tourniquet off and the bleeding will get dangerously worse. Leave it on and the would can never be treated.

O’Connor writes that Haitians increasingly see the foreign-aid industry as exactly that, an industry. “There is a vicious paradigm to it: If everything is OK, the NGO has no mission. Maybe that begs some questions,” George Sasine, a businessman and president of the Haitian Association of Industrialists, told Slate.

For instance, American agricultural aid keeps millions of Haitians from starvation or malnourishment. But thanks to the “Bumpers Amendment”–named for former Arkansas Democratic Sen. Dale Bumpers–we forbid any agricultural aid for crops that would compete with those of our own farmers. So Haiti, which could grow rice or sugar quite easily, grows mangoes and lettuce. Never mind that sugar subsidies in the U.S. are an economic, environmental and political scandal in their own right.

O’Connor writes that the overwhelming sentiment among Haitians themselves, according to surveys, is for the country to break free of the international aid community’s embrace. They will still want help, but they’re sick of having the aid “process” run out of New York treat Haitians like minor variables in a spreadsheet.

It is tempting to argue that benign neglect alone is the answer. But benign neglect amidst such chaos, including a cholera epidemic, probably wouldn’t be all that benign.

Still, you have to ask: How many more decades of “help” making things worse do we need before it’s time to take off the tourniquet?

JonahsColumn@aol.com

Barefoot Entrepreneurs and Social Change Agents

nirvana — Mon, 20 Sep 2010 17:17:30 +0000

The following is a Tweet from today’s TEDxChange hosted by Melinda Gates. The speaker, Mechai Viravaidya, gave one of the most inspiring talks about large-scale behavior change:

@ideasforafrica #TEDxChange - “Poor people are business people without business training & access to credit.” Mechai Viravaidya

Ten Great Ways to Crush Creativity

nirvana — Sun, 14 Mar 2010 20:36:12 +0000

Written by Paul Sloane

How to Create or Destroy a Culture for Creative Thinking and Innovation

Business managers have much more power than they realize. They can patiently create a climate of creativity or they can crush it in a series of subtle comments and responses. Their actions send powerful signals. Their responses to suggestions and ideas are deciphered by staff as encouragement or rejection. If you want to crush creativity in your organization and eliminate all the unnecessary bother of innovation then here are ten steps that are guaranteed to succeed.

1. Criticize

When you hear a new idea criticize it. Show how smart you are by pointing out some of the weaknesses and flaws which will hold it back. The more experienced you are, the easier it is to find fault with other people’s ideas. Decca Records turned down the Beatles, IBM rejected the photocopying idea which launched Xerox, DEC turned down the spreadsheet and various major publishers turned down the first Harry Potter novel. The same thing is happening in most organizations today. New ideas tend to be partly-formed so it is easy to reject them as ‘bad’. They diverge from the narrow focus that we have for the business so we discard them. Furthermore, every time somebody comes to you with an idea which you criticize, it discourages the person from wasting your time with more suggestions. It sends a message that new ideas are not welcome and that anyone who volunteers them is risking criticism or ridicule. This is a sure fire way to crush the creative spirit in your staff.

2. Ban brainstorms

Treat brainstorming as old-fashioned and passé. All that brainstorms do is throw up lots of new ideas that then have to be rejected. If your organization is not holding frequent brainstorm sessions to find creative solutions then you are not wasting time on new ideas. Instead you are sending a message to staff that their input is not required. If people insist on brainstorm meetings then make them long, rambling and unfocused with lots of criticism of radical ideas.

3. Hoard problems

The CEO and senior team should shoulder the responsibility for solving all the company’s major problems. Strategic issues are too complicated and high-level for the ordinary staff. After all, if people at the grassroots knew the strategic challenges the organization faces then they would feel insecure and threatened. Don’t involve staff in serious issues, don’t tell them the big picture and above all don’t challenge them to come up with solutions.

4. Focus on efficiency not innovation

Focus solely on making the current business model work better. If we concentrate on making the current system work better then we will not waste time on looking for different systems. The current business model is the one that you helped develop and it is obviously the best one for the business. After all, if the makers of horse drawn carriages had improved quality they could have stopped automobiles taking their markets. The same principle applied with makers of slide rules, LP records, typewriters and gas lights.

5. Overwork

Establish a culture of long hours and hard work. Encourage the belief that hard work alone will solve the problem. We do not need to find a different way of solving a problem - rather we must just work harder at the old way of doing things. Make sure that the working day has no time for learning, fun, lateral thinking, wild ideas or testing of new initiatives.

6. Adhere to the plan

Plan in great detail and then do not deviate from the plan regardless of circumstances. ‘We cannot try that idea because it is not in the plan and we have no budget for it.’ Keep to the vision that was in the plan and ignore fads like market changes and customer fashions - they will pass.

7. Punish mistakes

If someone tries an entrepreneurial idea that fails then blame and retribution must follow. Reward success and punish failure. That way we will reinforce the existing way of doing things and discourage dangerous experiments.

8. Don’t look outside

We understand our business better than outsiders. After all we have been working in it for years. Other industries are fundamentally different and just because something works there does not mean it will work here. Consultants generally are over-priced and tell you things you could have figured out anyway. We need to find the solutions inside the business by working harder.

9. Promote people like you from within

Promoting from within is a good sign. It helps retain people and they can see a reward for loyalty and hard work. It means we don’t get polluted with heretical ideas from outside. Also if the CEO promotes people like him then he can achieve consistency and succession. It is best to find managers who agree with the CEO and praise him for his acumen and foresight.

10. Don’t waste money on training

Talent cannot be taught. It is it a rare thing possessed by a handful of gifted individuals. So why waste money trying to turn ducks into swans? Hire our kind of people and let them learn our system. Work them hard, keep them focused on our business model and do not allow them to fool around with crazy experiments. Workshops, budgets and time allocated to creativity and innovation are all wasteful extravagances. We know what we need to succeed so let’s just get on with it.

Paul Sloane is the author of The Innovative Leader published by Kogan-Page. He gives talks and workshops on innovation and leadership.