MARKETING AFRICA MAL 18/17 mal 18:17 online | Page 31

This is where the problem lies. Life
rarely ever follows a logical sequence
otherwise everyone who went to
school would be guaranteed a great
job where they will make money and
live happily ever after. We all know
this never happens. If things followed
a logical sequence then all those
who do well in IQ tests will be the
movers and shakers of economies and
societies.
The truth however is that the fact
that you do well in an IQ test does
not give a guarantee that you will
do well in life. In fact, it has been
discovered that some people who do
well in IQ tests do so because that is
their special gift – logical tests.
In the book Smart Thinking by
Art Markman, there is a very
illuminating revelation on IQ
tests from none other than Lewis
Terman who was one of the
foremost researchers in the study
of IQ. Terman gave IQ tests to a
large number of students and those
with very high IQs were admitted
to a select group whom he called
Termites and he followed them for
years observing their performance in life.
In fairness, some of these children
did do very well but not everyone
did spectacularly well. In fact, quite
a number of them fizzled out after
school and lived simple normal lives
just like anyone else despite the fact
that they had spectacularly high IQs.
Of major interest however was a
student called William Shockley.
He participated in the test by Lewis
Terman but was not selected to the
prestigious team of Termites. Why
not? His IQ was not high enough
to be part of the elite team. Years
later, when many of the Termites
had settled into an average life in
spite of their high IQs, Shockley
went on to win the 1956 Nobel
Prize for physics and is the co-
inventor of the transistor.
So, we see a very interesting scenario
here. A student was not bright
enough to be in a select group as
a child but he selected himself
regardless of what the experts said
about him and he did not let what
they said deter him. It does not
matter what experts may have said
about you. The important thing right
now is what you are saying about
yourself. leads to the death for the person
who runs off the cliff hoping to fly.
However, there is a level of rebellion
that can inspire creativity but this
also has context. The same rebellion
that works for the visionary will not
work for the person in the employ of
the visionary. The visionary has the
big picture to rebel against.
No external voice has the power to
shape your destiny if the voice inside
you is louder than the voice outside
you. People will call you arrogant
and full of yourself. Trust me, it is
better to be called that and prove
the experts wrong than to be called
humble and prove them right. That rebellion has created smaller
pictures. It is within the context of
these smaller pictures that the team
under the visionary can rebel in their
various fields but their rebellion
must bring the whole body closer
to the big picture. This is called
constructive rebellion.
So, training is crucial but the truth
is that no amount of training can lift
up a person whose mind is down. The
best of teachers cannot open closed
minds so for training to work, for
training to have the much desired
effect, your mind MUST be open. In conclusion a very apt model of
training that births leaders and
not followers can be found in the
Eagle. The eagle pushes its young
ones off the cliff when teaching
them to fly. It allows them to free
fall and then just before crashing
onto the ground it lifts them up
again. Eventually the baby eagle
will discover that it has wings and
will realize that the wings were
meant to enable it to fly just like
its mother.
It is one thing for training to
happen. It is another for learning
to have taken place. One of the
big assumptions of today is the
assumption that training and learning
happen simultaneously. It is the
responsibility of the trainer t