8. DO NOT LET YOUR INFERIORITY COMPLEX BE THE ROPE WITH WHICH TO HANG YOURSELF – OVERCOME IT

The Unreliable Exotic Roses

Decoration business has increasingly become a favourite cash earner for many people.  In fact, for some time now, ‘decorating’ continues to attract employees such as Teopista, who work full time from Mondays to Fridays, since it offers an opportunity to earn some extra shillings from events that usually happen on weekends and public holidays. 

Teopista’s ‘decorating’ brainwave was conceived during a seminar for aspiring micro-entrepreneurs.  She had always wondered how one could get a feasible business idea.  Fortunately, the facilitator had ironed out her confusions when he explained that it was best to start an enterprise in your area of strength.  This revelation had been an eye-opener for Teopista, as she had never realised that her gifted ‘green hands’ coupled with her love for ornamental plants could be the answer to her family’s long battle with poverty.  Using the wisdom from the seminar, she could grow flowers, and do two things: decorate halls for functions such as weddings and the like; and supply the surplus flowers to reputable florists.    

Soon after that seminar, she had proceeded to invest in flowers; and her talent had worked wonders.  She now had a long list of impressed clients, especially those that loved unique, rare plants. 

In order to differentiate her business further, she had imported some exotic rose varieties for planting.  The plan was that by Easter, the roses would be in bloom, in good time to handle the ‘festive season’.  She was satisfied that everything was running on schedule - the transplanting, the weeding, the spraying, the pruning…, and all the usual steps that are commonly followed when growing a flower.  

However, something unusual happened.  After the roses had reached flowering height, she noticed that the exotic plants were failing to bring buds.  This was strange, as the local roses had budded already.  Disturbed, she called a friend of hers, Esteri, a Botanist, to have a look at the exotics.  On checking the flowers, Esteri immediately diagnosed the problem - the roses had very short, thin, weak roots.  “For this kind of plants, you should have applied a ‘root stimulator’ when the rose seedlings were being transplanted”, she advised; adding that the stimulator would have helped the roses to grow firm and long roots which were necessary for the plants to flower. 

Teopista was very disappointed since the roses would not be able to bloom in time for the Easter season, which definitely meant losses.

A shallow root system can have devastating consequences on a plant’s yield; just like shallow knowledge can negatively impact someone’s work performance during service delivery.

I communicated this fact to my friend Waka recently, narrating Teopista’s story and how a poor root system let her down.

Waka, a Director in a certain public organisation, had visited my office, complaining that Petero, a new employee, had become ‘hard to manage’.  He recounted how their relationship had turned sour when Petero churned out brand new proposals for improving Waka’s department, in a meeting where the CEO and other members of management were present.  “He is a show off… it seems he wants to take over my department, forgetting that those of us who have been around for ages understand things better than him!” Waka complained, bitterly.  “Moreover”, he added, “even the CEO seemed to like his contributions”.

And as he went on and on, it was obvious that Waka had developed an inferiority complex, which was causing him to lose self-confidence.  My fears were affirmed when I discovered during our discussion, that unlike Petero who had just graduated with a Masters from the University of Dar, Waka had left school several years ago, and since then, had not bothered to learn anything new in his profession.

I warned that it was Waka’s responsibility to make sure that he continuously acquires sound up-to-date knowledge in his profession.  This would enable him to be deeply rooted, and thence more confident.  In addition, his performance would be enhanced.

“Moreover, I recommend that you get into the habit of reading journal articles, text books and any other quality literature you can find.  After all, there is a library at your place of work”, I added. 

As I escorted him to his car, he promised “I will definitely work on this”.  And, in his eyes was a look of relief, a faint sign that his confidence was beginning to return.