This is Why You’re not Getting Ahead (& Might Never Ever)

Peter Kisadha
Jul 28, 2017 · 3 min read

Those that have followed my write-ups for the past month have come across the sentence ‘Expanding Your Comfort Zone’ on a daily a lot of times.

This is something that means so much to me. I truly believe you can never get ahead in life unless you’re willing to do things that make you uncomfortable.

Yet, expanding one’s comfort zone means doing things that we are not familiar with. It means willing to step into the unknown more often than we step in the known.

Yesterday, I was having a sit down at Cafe Javas with one of my Old Boys from Namilyango College who recently returned from the US and now scouting for Startups to Invest in.

What I told him at the end of our conversation was simple; If we step into the unknown now, by the time we hit the 30s, we shall be helping the likes of World Bank and Governments to put deals together.

What we are doing is something 100% unknown to us. But we have nothing to lose if we give it a try. We have nothing to lose if we do it before other Africans get to think of it. Instead, we have everything to gain.

One of the things that hold most people back is the spirit of perfection. They want to first figure out how they’ll handle a legal problem they are likely to face two years after launching their product or service.

People want to first build a ladder before they can start climbing. They want to make sure all the traffic lights on their way to work are green before they set off.

There’s a quote i really like. It is from LinkedIn co-founder, Reid Hoffman, and he says ‘an entrepreneur is a person who jumps off a cliff and tries to build a plane along the way down.’ And that’s it. There’s nothing else.

May be you think you’re not an entrepreneur. Things have changed and as long as you don’t have an entrepreneurs mindset, you’re not going to survive in this Fourth Industrial Revolution.

As long as you’re looking to go ahead, you should be willing to jump off the cliff even when you have no plane or parachute prepared. Naturally, you will be forced to build one along the way down.

Let’s desist from the habit of thinking that we shall quit bad jobs when we have other jobs secured, marry when we have enough money, start a business when you have saved enough or start enjoying life after reaching a certain stage.

Make the decision now. Remember, if you don’t like something, you can change it. You have the power to do so. You should also avoid people that feel sorry for you. Keep them as far as you can. Stop feeling sorry for yourself. You can do a lot than you think.

You can accomplish far much more than you can ever imagine. The problem? You’re feeling sorry for yourself. You’re keeping people that feel sorry for you too close.

Yes, the pain will be there. Yes, the uncertainty will be there. And yes, you’ll no longer have the security and comfort that your previous position granted. But, it is worth it.

You will never get ahead of everyone else until you take a leap of faith. Decide now, to JUMP. Even when you’re not sure of what awaits you down. Even when you’re not sure whether you’ll have enough time and resources to build a plane on your way down before you hit the earth’s surface and crush.

Want to know something interesting, I started writing this article with no topic in my head. I just started typing what came to my head at 2.39 and by 2.53 it was done. So, just start!

Follow me on twitter: @Malinz_ #Malinz

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