I watched a segment of Fox News several days ago called ‘Freeloader’. It was the first time I had seen this show because it was several wrong clicks away from ‘History Channel’, the cable tv I regularly watched if I can afford the time. The man on the show made a compelling statement. He said the Sioux, a group among the Native American Indians, is the poorest ethic group in the US. They live in reservations that receive a lot of federal financial assistance. He was interviewing this lady-lawyer who said the Sioux was a neglected community and she advocated for a strong lobby to force government to provide more.
However, for each argument the lady-lawyer made, the host would show a small video clip of a successful Sioux individual of the community who made it big in business. And there were several of them. What they said was startlingly consistent: they attained success by not depending on the dole-outs to the reservation. They scratched and scrimped to buy their own lands and set up their own businesses, and resisted freebees of government.
One guy owned a big, thriving farm in a plush area. His neighbor had a decrepit, unproductive farm in another part of the reservation. He said the difference comes from the confidence in investing money and labor to what is truly your own. And most importantly - knowing that you cannot and should not be dependent (on dole-outs) for your survival.
I have been president of the association of private tertiary-level schools in my province for several years now. I have witnessed through the years some member-schools fold up and close shop. This made me take a hard, cold look at what ails our industry.
You could say things were bright for them at the onset. They were established by wealthy families. They had the right connections. But they started with one intrinsic, fatal defect: they believed that their endeavor would succeed because they could depend on this state subsidy or that state grant due to the fact that they had the right government connection here and there at one time or the other. Wrong.
Well, this leads me to try and coin the wisdom of these events, not in the most eloquent of terms but in the most dramatic, the better for all of us to remember: “Survivor’s Law: Do not be dependent on others if your survival is at stake.” I know you can improve on this concoction to suit your own taste and experience. Let me know.
How true Perry. The challenge for one is to transform himself from his initial stage of dependency to a situation of becoming independent. It is only when you are independent that you are really able to make things happen for yourself. Independence then allows you to effectively be able to interdepend with others, and that is when you add more value, empowering yourself further to a level where you can synergize, and create added value in what you can do through equitable link-ups with others who are also in a position to interdepend. One cannot play the game of Interdependence when one is dependent. Norman Nacpil
ReplyDeleteNorman Nacpil's words are as thought-provoking as they are powerful. As I was coming in from travel, I read the comment several times already just to appreciate the full value of it's wisdom: "One cannot play the game of Interdependence when one is dependent". Therefore, dependence is not interdependence. Interdependence is a situation where an independent person tries to accomplish more "through equitable link-ups" with other achievers like him. Thanks for the new idea, Norman.
ReplyDeleteStephen Covey in his book “The Seven Habits…” outlined distinctly the stages of dependence, independence and the empowering interdependence phase and I quote:
ReplyDelete“The habits are designed, when you put them in practice, to help you mature as a person. This process of maturing is described below:
Dependence >> Independence >> Interdependence
We all start out life as babies completely dependent on our parents or other person to take care of us. This is a state of weakness and powerlessness.
As we grow up we work to become independent, moving out of our parent's home, earning money for ourselves, etc. A person at this level is able to do things for himself and does not need anyone else to survive.
The greatest human achievements come from people working at the third level, interdependence. This is when people work together to achieve a common goal, and is the level of maturity of many people in a mature society or organization. This is how mankind has achieved things together that no single person could do alone. Interdependence is the state of human development of greatest maturity and power.
As we develop our character as people, we grow in each of the seven areas described by the seven habits. In this process we move up the chart from dependence to independence to interdependence.”