great ideas is their ability to gain traction
against all odds and against the opinions
of the experts.
Many people watched in shock as the
numbers rolled in during the last US
elections and it became obvious that
Donald Trump was going to be the new
President of the United States. Around
the world people did not understand how
it could happen. How could someone who
had so many scandals around him, who
was caught on tape saying unprintable
things and who was not even a politician
in the first place emerge from defeating
all the big names in the establishment
and become president.
His message was that if America was a
ship it was the titanic and headed for an
iceberg. He blamed Americas impending
doom on the fact that there was a huge
social security bill which the government
would never be able to pay. He then said
that the key to fixing this was to bring
jobs back to America so that Americans
can generate more money internally. He
promised to cancel any and every treaty
that was not in favor of the American
people no matter how the allies felt about
it.
He also said illegal immigration was
putting more weight on the system and so
immigration had to be fixed by deporting
undocumented immigrants no matter
how long they had been in America and
no matter the roots they had established
in the country.
Apparently to the many who did not
approve of Trumps personal life and
scandals, this message was too good to let
slip by. He had of course also positioned
himself as the only one who could fix
America. The result? The message was
relevant and it resonated strongly enough
to bypass all his apparent shortcomings.
That is the power of relevance. There are
few things as powerful as an idea that
resonates.
For an idea to resonate and become
relevant, it must be solving a problem.
The problem may not even be obvious
to the people that have it. For instance,
Mark Zuckerberg had an idea to connect
people. Now the truth is that we did not
know that we wanted to connect with
each other. We did not see the problem.
We did not know that people would
52 MAL24/18 ISSUE
Salt has no value on
its own. Its value is
not intrinsic. That is
why you never hear of
a meal of boiled salt
or roasted salt. The
value of salt comes
out relative to what
it is added to. Jesus
taught that we are the
salt of the earth thus
implying that our
value as people will
come out as we give
ourselves to mak-
ing our world better.
Your value will em-
anate from the solu-
tions that you bring.
be interested in seeing what we did on
vacation or what we were eating or our
new car.
Zuckerberg saw a problem we did not
know we had and brought a solution we
did not know we needed. His idea passed
the relevance test and in the process he
built a half a trillion dollar behemoth
called Facebook.
The ability to identify a problem that
people do not know they have and develop
a solution that they do not know they
need is nothing short of sheer genius. The
question therefore is that is this a skill
that can be developed by everyone or is it
just reserved for a few geniuses?
I subscribe to the idea that everyone is a
potential genius at birth. After all we have
been told by the experts that the things
that augur well for greatness are boldness,
not worrying about failure, not worrying
about what people think and the ability
to be inquisitive. Every baby has these
qualities from the time they are born.
The qualities that lead to failure such as
fear, failure averseness and worrying about
what people will say are things we learn
as we grow older. No child was born with
these attributes but they are developed
and influenced by the information and
exposure that they get as they grow up.
But then, is information really king as we
are told? How come the greatest solutions
do not come from the people with the
most information? Your exposure and
information is limited by your thought
process. When you are exposed to a
situation what goes on in your mind? Do
you accept what is or ask questions about
what can be? And, when you ask what can
be, do you see yourself as a provider or
contributor to what can be?
Only those who question the present
and see themselves as contributors to
the future can develop solutions for the
future. You may be intelligent and you
may ask the right questions but as long as
it is not settled in you that you are part
of the solution you will have a passive
attitude and once you arrive at this point
of passivity your irrelevance in the future
is guaranteed.
Why do we have very intelligent people
who fizzle out with their intelligence over
time and on the other hand there are people
whose genius transcends generations.
What is the difference between the two?
All things being equal you will discover
that the one word that aptly captures the
difference between these two is the word
relevance - the quality or state of being
closely connected or appropriate.
Being intelligent does not guarantee
relevance. This is one huge pitfall that a lot
of intelligent people slump into. They are
deceived into thinking there is a notion
such as once intelligent, always intelligent.
That is a fallacy.
Skillset
Then said I in my heart, As it happens to
the fool, so it will happen even to me. And
of what use is it then for me to be more
wise? Then I said in my heart , This also is
vanity (emptiness, vainglory, and futility)!
- Ecclesiastes 2:15 (The Amplified Bible).
What gives intelligence value is relevance.
Many intelligent people get to a place in
their lives where they ask the question the
wisest man who ever lived, King Solomon,