THE BIG FIVE
The Kenya Tourism Board uses the concept of the BIG FIVE to brand the country offering in the tourism sector around the world. Tourists are easily able to evaluate the quality of their safari experience by measuring it against whether they saw a lion, leopard, elephant, black rhinoceros, and African buffalo (BIG FIVE) during their visit. It is both a star attraction and benchmark of the tourism package. The beauty about the BIG FIVE concept is that it easily fits in one hand and is uncomplicated by the clutter of “interesting” details and easy to remember. However, the truth is if you get to see the BIG FIVE, you will have passed through and experienced every aspect of the national tourism ecosystem in the process of you journey. You will have passed through grasslands, seen birds, rivers, hotels… and been exposed to the whole offering of the safari experience. The BIG FIVE concept, just like a good slogan, is not to explain everything, but rather to capture the main idea making the experience attractive, impressionable and unforgettable. As you journey through this book you will see and experience the BIG FIVE, listed below, over and over again in different settings and contexts. They will make reading this book a memorable experience.
1. Setting valuable goals
The first is setting valuable goals. Though smart goals may be clearly defined and precise, they may not be valuable. Valuable goals are not only smart, but they must be aspirational inspirational, motivational and to some extent impossible set on the border of doability. Like my high school moto; Nothing but the Best is not only aspirational, but personal and challenging, engaging both accountability and integrity, emphasizing virtue and setting a minimum standard of character that propels one to seek out and pursue a just cause and not just reward. Valuable goals resonate with the words of Ellen Sirleaf Johnson, the First lady President of Liberia; If your dreams don't scare you, they are not big enough. A “value-able” goal is a call to action.
2. Progress is to pursue the impossible.
As Nelson Mandela, the first post-apartheid president of South Africa, said; it always seems impossible until it is done. Anyone in leadership has a standing duty to make progress. Progress is usually marked by a quantum leap, impracticability and a “never been done before” agenda. Whenever you reach that point, know you are on the frontier of human advancement, discovery, innovation and excellence and opportunity to make a permanent difference in the history of your organization or service to mankind. At this point the onus fall upon you to expand the boundaries of human existence. Roger Bannister ran the mile in under four minutes in 1952 Olympics. In 2019, Eliud Kipchoge ran a marathon (42 kms) in under 2 hours (1:59:40.2). There are many more such events with great teams supporting them including Neil Armstrong’s visit to the moon in 1969. These publicly celebrated achievement inspire hope in many other unpublicized areas of human endeavor and help direct human destiny. But everyone has the potential to make progress in whatever circumstances they are.
3. People are more than followers!
People are much more than followers, they are leaders, inventors, teachers, students, implementors... fathers, mothers …. capable of so much more than you imagine! They are gods with the power to create. They are people first, not numbers of inventory. Befriend them, deploy them wisely and they will do for you what you could never do for yourself. As a leader you can do very little without them. Submission and loyalty are follower virtues without which leadership is powerless!
4. Taking action: it is not enough to dream, think or even plan without taking action.
Brain Tracy reminds us that “Amateurs discuss strategy, professionals arrange for logistics”. Miracles are good things, they happen occasionally, but you will be surprised how they often come about after substantive work. Winning the lottery happens infrequently to a very small number of people. However, accomplishing anything, on the main, is not a guessing game or a past time, it is a full-time engagement. Throughout history kingdoms have been built by effort, service and sacrifice; Nonetheless, they are brought down by pleasure, ease and vice. The moment leisure takes prominence over effort the end is near.
5. The little finger of ethical success
The little finger of ethical success is a bothersome, but essential component to attaining celebrated success. There is a moral component to every achievement. They do not sin against humanity. Success should never be a crime scene. We learn from the life of Mahatma Gandhi that; “ethics makes it right”.
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