Scrubbing the Furious Walls of Mikuyu

Jack Mapanje reading "Scrubbing the Furious Walls of Mikuyu", the most powerful of the poems he composed and kept entirely in his head when he was imprisoned -- "without charge, without trial" in the poem's refrain -- for three years, seven months, sixteen days and more than twelve hours:

Chinua Achebe on the Power and Purpose of Stories

In Anthills of the Savannah, Chinua Achebe's fifth major novel, one of the characters, an old man, explains the power and purpose of stories:

To some of us the Owner of the World has apportioned the gift to tell their fellows that the time to get up has finally come. To others He gives the eagerness to rise when they hear the call; to rise with racing blood and put on their garbs of war and go to the boundary of their town to engage the invading enemy boldly in battle. And then there are those others whose part is to wait and when the struggle is ended, to take over and recount its story.

The sounding of the battle-drum is important; the fierce waging of the war itself is important; and the telling of the story afterwards--each is important in its own way. I tell you there is not one of them we could do without. But if you ask me which of them takes the eagle-feather I will say boldly: the story. Do you hear me? Now, when I was younger, if you had asked me the same question I would have replied without a pause: the battle. But age gives to a man some things with the right hand even as it takes away others with the left. The torrent of an old man’s water may no longer smash into the bole of the roadside tree a full stride away as it once did but fall around his feet like a woman’s; but in return the eye of his mind is given wing to fly away beyond the familiar sights of the homestead…

So why do I say that the story is chief among his fellows? The same reason I think that our people sometimes will give the name Nkolika to their daughters--Recalling-Is-Greatest. Why? Because it is only the story that can continue beyond the war and the warrior. Because it is only the story that outlives the sound of war-drums and the exploits of brave fighters. It is the story, not the others, that saves our progeny from blundering like blind beggars into the spikes of the cactus fence. The story is our escort; without it, we are blind. Does the blind man own his escort? No, neither do we the story; rather it is the story that owns us and directs us. It is the thing that makes us different from cattle; it is the mark on the face that sets one people apart from their neighbours. […]

So the arrogant fool who sits astride the story as though it were a bowl of foo-foo set before him by his wife understands little about the world. The story will roll him into a ball, dip him in the soup and swallow him first. I tell you he is like the puppy who swings himself around and farts into a blazing fire with the aim to put it out. Can he? No, the story is everlasting…Like fire, when it is not blazing it is smouldering under its own ashes or sleeping and resting inside its flint-house.

Mere Anarchy: The Life and Work of Chinua Achebe

    Turning and turning in the widening gyre
    The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
    Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
    Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
    The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
    The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
    The best lack all conviction, while the worst
    Are full of passionate intensity.

     -- W. B. Yeats, "The Second Coming"

Chinua Achebe died this week. He was 82. At 28, he loosed "Things Fall Apart" upon a completely unsuspecting and unprepared world. It was a cataclysmic event, but only his first and most famous act of mere anarchy. Achebe had a habit of doing that: totally changing the world's thinking with gracious nonchalance. He did it again in the 1970s with his critique of Western conceptions of Africa and Africans, of which Joseph Conrad's "Heart of Darkness" just happened to be the unfortunate literary example. No one has ever read "Heart of Darkness" in quite the same way since. A deeply principled and thoughtful man, Achebe has left an indelible mark on world literature. Several commentators have invoked a fitting West African proverb: A great tree has fallen. Indeed: a great tree has fallen, but it will continue to nourish the earth with its substance.

From Massacres to Miracles

A conversation with President Paul Kagame of Rwanda.

Holistic thinking on innovation and entrepreneurship

Most thinking about innovation and entrepreneurship tends to be atomistic. And for good reason: such is the breadth and depth of the subject matter that mastery of any one aspect requires considerable specialisation. However, this does not obviate the need for holistic thinking. Indeed, it increases the need for it. Prof. Calestous Juma of Harvard University and Prof. Daniel Isenberg of Babson College are two of the world's leading holistic thinkers on innovation and entrepreneurship, respectively.

The Square Kilometre Array

Design and construction of the Square Kilometre Array (SKA), the largest and most powerful radio-telescope in history, is about to begin very soon. Most of the SKA will be deployed in Africa.

(The?) Engineering Prize

It's ironic that there is no universally recognised prize, equivalent to the Nobel Prize in science, for breakthroughs in engineering. Ironic because, of course, Alfred Nobel was an engineer himself. Perhaps the newly inaugurated Queen Elizabeth Prize will remedy this situation. 

Mobius on Templeton

What Dr. Mark Mobius learnt from Sir John Templeton.

Misfiring Economist

Africa made the cover of The Economist last week, as it does the cover of many a magazine these days. And lately the news, or more accurately the views, have been largely positive. I don't mean to be churlish towards our good friends at The Economist -- and one should never take these things too literally -- but is a giraffe with an abnormally elongated neck really the best visual depiction of "Aspiring Africa" that they could come up with?

If the aim was to dispel stereotypical (and wrong) notions about "Africa", doesn't representing the continent by this abnormal giraffe achieve the exact opposite? (And giraffes are wonderful creatures, I hasten to add.) Sadly the first thing that springs to the minds of many outside Africa about Africa are wild animals, not aspiring people. So when people think about Madagascar, or more recently Zambezia, for instance, they think of talking animals and almost never of the remarkable people that populate those African locations.

Just a thought.

When Hope and History Rhyme

 

The memoirs of Amina Cachalia, a prominent South African political activist, who died recently. She was a longtime friend and ally of Nelson Mandela. The title comes from some verses of Seamus Heaney's wonderful translation of Sophocles's tragic play Philoctetes:

History says don't hope
On this side of the grave.
But then, once in a lifetime
The longed for tidal wave
Of justice can rise up
And hope and history rhyme.

Kierkegaardian (adj.)

Life must be understood backwards, but it must be lived forwards.
- Soren Kierkegaard

Mama Africa

On what would have been her 81st birthday, the late great Miriam Makeba was honoured with her own Google doodle:
 

The Straits Master

A Favourite Building

Designed by the Ghanaian architect David Adjaye, the Skolkovo Moscow School of Management is one of my favourite works of contemporary architecture:

Flip Magazine Zambia

Zambian satirical magazine:

The Pickens Leadership Plan

The Start-Up of You

The slideshare visual summary of the book is now available.

Inspirational Words

It's my birthday today! I got two beautiful cards, one from my wife and one from our kids. One of our kids wrote this in their card:

To the world you're just a dad, to your kids you're a hero.

Wow. That made my day, my week, my month and my year. In fact, it's enough inspiration to last my whole lifetime.

Reids shaking in the wind

Reid Hoffman is one of the best commentators on the contemporary tech industry. I always find his writing insightful and thought-provoking. He writes short(er) blog posts for LinkedIn and long(er) essays for his own website.

Alternative Finance

The BBC's Evan Davis recently interviewed the co-founders of three technology-based services that are disrupting conventional banking and financial services: M-Pesa (mobile money), Zopa (peer-to-peer lending for individuals) and MartketInvoice (auction-based online marketplace for unpaid business invoices).

Masterpiece

From the King's Singers, 400 years of classical music in less than 10 minutes:

From Indignation to Indifference

The Economist (13 May 2000)

The Economist (3 December 2011)

I can still remember my immediate reaction to The Economist's now (in)famous "hopeless continent" cover back in the year 2000: indignation. How dare they pass judgement on an entire continent and its millions of individual citizens?

My response to the magazine's "Africa rising" cover over a decade later was not one of elation, rather it was one of indifference. Why? What had I learnt in the interim? It was this: Ultimately, it doesn't really matter what "they" think, whether good or ill, and whoever "they" may be. What really matters is what Africans themselves think (about themselves and about their continent) and, more importantly, what they do -- or don't do -- about it.

Who is African?

"We are Africans not because we are born in Africa, but because Africa is born in us."
- Chester Higgins Jr. 

Africa is People (Chinua Achebe)

Fair or Fowl?

Having just finished reading The Hobbit (a most enjoyable experience), the boys and I were in need of another bedtime reading companion. And so, foraging in the children's section of our local bookshop, I came across the latest Artemis Fowl novel prominently displayed at the top of the shelf. The eighth in the series. The eighth! Successful then, very successful, but are they any good? We shall soon find out. Being new to the series, we have begun at the beginning:

Rwanda, Inc.

Instant: The Story of Polaroid

Hear, hear!

I agree fully with the following comment by President Paul Kagame of Rwanda made at yesterday's World Economic Forum panel session on "De-risking Africa" (Don't all investment destinations and opportunities necessarily come with some form of risk? The whole notion of "de-risking" an entire continent seems misguided at best...):

The major problem is that Africa's story is written from somewhere else and not by African themselves. That is why the rest of the world looks at Africa and wants to define it. They want to shape the perception about Africa. The best we can do for ourselves is to own our problems, own our solutions and write our stories. That will also give us the right definition about the level of risks, real risks and the perception part of it will also be put in its right place.

The African Investment Story

This short interview with Larry Seruma published in the The Wall Street Transcript back in 2010 does a great job of telling the African investment story (well, part of it anyway) in a clear, concise and compelling way.

New discovery

http://www.longreads.com/

Generation of Greatness

Courtesy of Hal Abelson: Edwin H. Land's classic 1957 address on inspiring and educating young (and old) minds.

The Second Bounce Of The Ball

Some say the world will end in fire

Prayers for Arsenal

Like any self-respecting -- and these days, it has to be said, long-suffering -- Arsenal fan, I've read (and re-read) Fever Pitch, Nick Hornby's funny and beautiful homage to football and Arsenal Football Club. Indeed, I own a copy, which I happen to be looking at right now. It's one of my most prized possessions. How could it not be? The first line alone is priceless: "I fell in love with football as I was later to fall in love with women: suddenly, inexplicably, uncritically, giving no thought to the pain or disruption it would bring with it." (He was 11 at the time.) Fever Pitch was published exactly 20 years ago (in 1992) and was this year elevated to the rarefied ranks of the Penguin Modern Classics. Hmph. Took them long enough. Mr. Hornby recently revisited his old hunting ground in Pray: Notes on the 2011/2012 Football Season, a much shorter work (50 pages, as opposed to 239). He's lost none of his touch: "Arsenal's catastrophe at Old Trafford [an 8-2 drubbing at the hands of our arch-rivals, Manchester United], however, the worst defeat of my lifetime -- the worst defeat in the lifetimes of any Arsenal fan under the age of 115 -- could only partly be explained by money..."

Ba Captain

Ba Captain ("Ba" with a soft B is the Bemba honorific) aka Christopher Katongo, captain of Zambia's national football team, was voted the 2012 BBC African Footballer of the Year this week.

What is Potential?

Potential is:

• Dormant ability.
• Reserved power.
• Untapped strength.
• Unused success.
• Hidden talents.
• Capped capability.
• All you can be but have not yet become.
• All you can do but have not yet done.
• How far you can reach but have not yet reached.
• What you can accomplish but have not yet accomplished. 

Potential is unexposed ability and latent power.

-- Dr. Myles Munroe

Who's The Master?

2013 will see a battle royal for supremacy of the global smartphone and tablet markets. Should be interesting.

The Bible On Management: An Excellent Spirit

"Then this Daniel was preferred above the presidents and princes, because an excellent spirit was in him; and the king thought to set him over the whole realm." - Daniel 6:3 (KJV)

A Day with Drucker

In December of 1994, Jim Collins pulled up to Peter Drucker's house ...

The Tapster

Recently reviewed by Bill Gates:

 

Noblest Nobel

My favourite Nobel prize this year was in the category of economics. It was awarded, in part, for empirical work on market design by Alvin E. Roth, an engineer turned economist (fittingly enough).

The tide of leadership

"Everything rises and falls on leadership" - John C. Maxwell

The Bible On Management: Recruiting A Players

"These be the names of the mighty men whom David had: ..." - 2 Samuel 23:8a (KJV)

2 Samuel 23:8-39 lists 37 "mighty men" who helped King David achieve great success. To achieve great success, you have to recruit A players to your cause.

Design Lessons

Steve Jobs and Philippe Starck collaborated on the design of the recently launched superyacht Venus.

Apple 4.0

Just published: Bloomberg BusinessWeek interview with Tim Cook, Apple's CEO in the fourth major phase of Apple's life.

It's a tech thing

From Bonkers World by Manu Cornet:

The wealthiest spot on earth

"The wealthiest spot on this planet is not the oil fields of Kuwait, Iraq, or Saudi Arabia. Neither is it the gold nor diamond mines of South Africa, the uranium mines of the Soviet Union or the silver mines of Africa. Though it may surprise you, the richest deposits on our planet lie just a few blocks from your house. They rest in your local cemetery or graveyard. Buried beneath the soil within the walls of those sacred grounds are dreams that never came to pass, songs that were never sung, books that were never written, paintings that never filled a canvas, ideas that were never shared, visions that never became reality, inventions that were never designed, plans that never went beyond the drawing board of the mind and purposes that were never fulfilled. Our graveyards are filled with potential that remained potential." -- Dr. Myles Munroe

The Bible On Management: Succession Planning

"And the things that thou hast heard of me among many witnesses, the same commit thou to faithful men, who shall be able to teach others also." - 2 Timothy 2:2 (KJV)

Dear Bill Emmott

On 1 October 1994, The Economist published a profile of Peter F. Drucker as part of an ongoing series on seminal management thinkers. On 12 October 1994, Drucker responded with a long and enlightening letter to Bill Emmott, the then editor of The Economist.

OPM

An African Start the Week

On the 19th of March 2012, Andrew Marr hosted an African Start the Week (BBC Radio 4) with Nadine Gordimer, Jack Mapanje and Richard Dowden.

Etonian Elan

The Bible On Management: Delegation

Moses' father-in-law replied, "What you are doing is not good. You and these people who come to you will only wear yourselves out. The work is too heavy for you; you cannot handle it alone." - Exodus 18: 17-18 (NIV).

The New Tycoons

The Art (and Science) of the Start

Excellent meditation by Paul Graham on the art (and science) of generating start-up ideas.

The Checklist Manifesto

Explanations

"I don't understand," said Thorin, and Bilbo felt he would have liked to say the same. The explanation did not seem to explain.

-- J. R. R. Tolkien, The Hobbit

The Bible On Management: The Key to Productivity

"You will eat the fruit of your labor; blessings and prosperity will be yours." - Psalm 128: 2 (NIV)

The key to a productive life is work.

2012 Word of the Year

My 2012 word of the year is "pivot". My earliest recollection of encountering this word was in primary school science lessons mumblety-mumble years ago. The topic, as I recall, was simple machines and "pivot" was used synonymously with "fulcrum". And it was invariably a noun. This year I've heard the word "pivot" being used in various contexts, including tech entrepreneurship and politics. And always as a verb.

Fault Lines

Men at some time are masters of their fates:
The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars,
But in ourselves, that we are underlings.

- Shakespeare, Julius Caesar

The most important thing in communication

"The most important thing in communication is to hear what isn’t being said.'' - Peter F. Drucker

Manage It Like Fergie

Prof. Anita Elberse analyses some of Sir Alex Ferguson's management and leadership secrets.

The Bible On Management: Wealth Creation

"For it is [God] who gives you the ability to produce wealth."
- Deuteronomy 8:18 (NIV)

Wealth is not a naturally occurring phenomenon; it must be produced or created, not merely acquired of accumulated.

Magnanimous In Defeat

Whatever your political views, you have to admire the grace with which Mitt Romney publicly conceded defeat in this week's US presidential election. It's far easier to win with grace than it is to lose with grace, to be modest in victory than it is to be magnanimous in defeat.

Bravo.

Reaching Out To Meet Human Needs

At the May 20th 2012 Commencement of Morehouse College, Strive Masiyiwa, one of Africa's most distinguished entrepreneurs and philanthropists, was conferred with the honorary degree of Doctor of Humane Letters. In his address to the graduating class, Dr. Masiyiwa spoke on the secret of true success:

That Africa [the emerging Africa] reminds me of what a great man of God [T. L. Osborn] once told me. He said: "You know, if you really want to be a success, identify a human need and reach out to meet it." [...] In 1994, 70% of the African people [...] had never heard a telephone ring. I didn't say had used one, I said had never heard it ring. That was a human need. I knew as a young engineer, not long since my college days, that we had to change that. We had the technology to do it, the resources were out there, it was a human need. We didn't wake up and say we want to make billions of dollars; we said we want to extend telecommunications to all the peoples of Africa. And I wrote it on our boards and I told our people and I said: "Our mission is to provide telecommunications to all the people of Africa."

Today, I can report to you that nearly 70% of the African people have a telephone [...] You have a charge [...] to meet [human] needs. Perhaps you'll make money along the way, but I know something: If you reach out to meet the needs, you will wear the crown."

See 1:40:50 - 1:53:40 in the commencement video:

 

How Mo Ibrahim built Celtel

From the October 2012 issue of Harvard Business Review:

How Mo Ibrahim built Celtel from scratch into one of the largest mobile operators in Africa.

The best way to become a millionaire

The best way to become a millionaire is to start off as a billionaire and start an airline.

- Sir Richard Branson

The Bible On Management: People before Processes

And [Jesus] said unto them, The sabbath was made for man, and not man for the sabbath. - Mark 2:27 (KJV)

Ronnie Chan: Seeing it and telling it as it is

I enjoyed Susan Li's recent interview with Ronnie Chan. For me, the most outstanding executive quality Chan exhibited in the interview was intellectual integrity: the ability to see it and tell it as it really is.

A general theory of tech start-ups

Eric Ries's general theory of tech start-ups.

The Bible On Management: The Power of Vision

"Where there is no vision, the people cast off restraint." - Proverbs 29:18a (ASV)

Quantum Africa (Guest Post by Chanda Chisala)

This guest post is an essay by my friend Chanda Chisala, Founder and President of Zambia Online. It was written for and first published as the preface to G. Pascal Zachary's latest book "Hotel Africa: The Politics of Escape". It deserves the widest possible circulation.

QUANTUM AFRICA By Chanda Chisala

Sometimes when I feel like I need to stimulate my brain a little bit, I read some of the latest confusions in the field of quantum mechanics. Or, if there's nothing twisted enough there, I pick up a long article on Africa by Gregg Pascal Zachary or some other Africa expert, such as James Ferguson, the Stanford University anthropologist.

The reason is simple: I believe "African Studies" is the most complex (if not most daring) subject of study ever invented by the social sciences, and I know that anyone who is crazy enough to choose this as his subject of major interest for the rest of his life has to be somewhere on the border of genius and insanity. Their intellectual writings thus carry a feel of genuine art at times, as they focus their minds with passionate intensity on a subject that refuses to yield to easy generalizations, and hence their explosive, energizing value!

Before Zachary diversified into the intractable Africa question, he had reached the top of the journalism world in the United States, having been a senior writer for The Wall Street Journal and a columnist for The New York Times, in large part covering that most complex of subjects: technology, innovation and the interplay between these and political economy. His talent was to simplify such complex forces and interactions for the general public. He even wrote a book about the life and times of the most significant electrical engineer in American history, Vannevar Bush, and another book describing in human language the development of the Windows Operating System by Microsoft engineers. It seems that when Zachary had no greater challenges in the world of journalism, when there was no harder story for his razor-sharp mind to understand and simplify for the general public, it was natural for his insatiable mind to drive him to attempt demystifying the one world that has shattered the most analytical egos: Africa.

What afflicted Zachary, it seems to me, was similar to what befell Microsoft's Bill Gates when he finally left the world of solving hard technology problems, after reaching the peak of that world, and then decided to dedicate the rest of his life to the depressing world of (trying to solve) African health problems. The paths of these two adventurers – refugees from the cosmos of Silicon Valley – even crossed once when Zachary was consulted by the Gates Foundation on various research projects on Africa to help with the communication aspect of their foundation among the people of this continent. That's how I met him in Zambia (as one of the small players on the local media scene).

Although Gates and Zachary are connected to generations of Westerners – in Africa we just call them "whites" – who have always felt some moral compunction about living in a world of material abundance amidst the indigence of other people on the same planet, they have differentiated themselves by taking a radically new approach: they actually want to understand Africa first. That apparently obvious idea is in fact an unprecedented innovation. Other whites thought (and most still do) that it was enough to simply throw money at Africa, because there is really nothing complex about that poor "country"!

This old approach assumes that "Africa" is just one monolithic culture, and if there are any cultural differences among the Africans at all, they are too few and too insignificant to make any difference on how to deal with them. This is probably true about most places of the world (it is even quite true about African American communities), but it is definitely not true about this particular continent. The depth of cultural complexity can be seen from the sheer number of unique ethnic groups (72 in Zambia alone) and the shocking differences among the languages (even among ethnic groups that originally migrated from the same places). Google Translator has not made any steps in codifying these languages to help foreigners understand African tongues (or Africans to understand other Africans), because it is a task that would be too expensive for the multibillion dollar company. This is why a person who seriously throws himself into studying African societies has to be – how should we put it – interesting.

The only equivalent in complexity I can think of in the natural sciences is an area of physics called quantum mechanics. What kind of person dedicates his life to such a convoluted subject that it confused Professor Albert Einstein? It has to be a very "interesting" person indeed.

And this reference to quantum mechanics is not a random analogy. Whereas classical physics looks at normal objects and can establish their specific measurements and motions with simple formulas when certain forces are applied on them, quantum physics decides to look at these objects at a greater level of detail – the level of sub-atomic particles – and finds that all that formulaic certainty suddenly disappears. A crisis of confidence among scientists ensued from the discovery that the best they can say about where such an object will be is just a probability – which is a respectable way of saying that physics had pretty much become (at best) intelligent guesswork. Albert Einstein, the godfather of the classical physics world, was concerned that his field could lose the objectivity of mathematical predictability it had held since at least Isaac Newton. Up until his deathbed he was still trying to find a simple classical formulation that would restore the infallible confidence of physicists even at that level of detail, because "God does not play dice."

In Africa, God does apparently play dice. When one goes on the ground to study African people, they soon discover that there is no such thing as "Africa." The concept they held in their head suddenly disappears. Every place is different. And even places within places are different, sometimes in very fundamental and surprising ways. The people may think differently, behave differently, value different things, and so on, not just from country to country, but even within each country. Africa is diversity on steroids: it is diverse diversity.

And like our quantum physics problems, this is not limited to space alone, but even extends to time. When you return to that place after you publish your book about it, you might not recognize it. Or you might. Some African societies are very susceptible to external influences and changes, some are not so malleable – and yet even that can change (are you still with me?)

When Catholic missionaries first arrived in the Great Lakes region of modern-day Rwanda in the late 19th century, their message of salvation was wholeheartedly embraced by the Hutus. This probably gave the missionaries a nice little formula on what to say to "Africans" and what to expect. But when they went among the Tutsis in the same area, they were baffled to see the same message (and method) totally rejected. Before you make a conclusion about the atheistic personality of Tutsis from this historical fact, you should also be informed that today Tutsis are among the most religious people in Africa (at least the last time I checked, that is!)

So does this mean that no one can ever make any general statement about Africa at all? I think that someone can make sufficiently general statements about Africa as long as they have enough experience among Africans to know the limits of their generalization, both in space (where it is true) and time (whether it is still true). It is here more than anywhere else that some sort of Popperian humility is imperative.

But it is ultimately like any other area of expertise. Those with the most experience are likely to make the most correct judgments (and yes, judgment is ultimately about probability). Following Malcolm Gladwell's rule on expertise, there has to be a certain minimum number of hours (years) spent spent among a certain minimum number of African groups that should enable someone to become more proficient in their judgments (and predictions) of Africans in general, while keeping in mind that it is also a continent of many black swans (no pun intended). What has been underrated in the past is just how complex this subject is and how much experience is required before anyone can say something intelligent about Africa.

The real experts on Africa have spent many years of deep interaction with different societies of Africa (even I, an African living in Africa, do not really qualify). When you meet this rare group of humans with such ample experience, it is always astonishing to witness the level of accuracy with which they constantly explain aspects of your own (African) country. Of course they are not always perfect, but like a grandmaster of chess (whose level of play also resembles art), their intuition has been honed into lightening-quick judgment calls from the endless number of questions they have asked in their African peregrinations.

Gregg Pascal Zachary comes from that endangered species of journalists who sincerely ask questions because they really do not know the answer. Many modern journalists start with an answer – "the" answer – and then devise the questions (and sometimes the "sources") that are likely to confirm it, a trend that is probably as culpable for the slow death of traditional journalism in the West as Google is. These modern journalists could not possibly do proper African field work because the first rule in the manual is that one has to check his own ideology (whether conservative or liberal) at the airport, especially if one is not psychologically prepared to witness events that will certainly eviscerate some important tenets of that neat ideology.

In Zachary's work you see many times when he has to bring out a fact that you know does not support a conclusion he holds, but he reports it anyway, and then wrestles with its meaning. He even exposes the misinformation reported by some other lesser journalists who happen to falsify aspects of a story in order to sell a neater conclusion, and one that he would actually love to be true. It is this brutally honest, “scientific” approach to journalism that has qualified him for this arduous task of subjecting Africa to traditional investigative journalism at the quantum level.

Enjoy his art.

Advise, Sir Richard

Sir Richard Branson writes a weekly column for Entrepreneur magazine in which he provides advice and answers to entrepreneurs.

Creative Capital

Be the best in the world at SOMETHING

[We] must head out to do our jobs so well that nobody could do them better. No matter what this job is, you must decide to do it well. Do it so well that the living, the dead, or the unborn can’t do it better. If it falls your lot to be a street sweeper, sweep streets like Raphael painted pictures; sweep streets like Michelangelo carved marble; sweep streets like Beethoven composed music; sweep streets like Shakespeare wrote poetry; sweep streets so well that all the host of heaven and earth will have to pause and say: “Here lived a great street sweeper, who swept his job well.”

If you can’t be a pine on the top of the hill,
Be a shrub in the valley—but be
The best shrub on the side of the hill.

- "Some Things We Must Do", Martin Luther King, Jr.

Born in black and white

This is an actual conversation Your Humble Servant (hereinafter YHS) had with His Son (hereinafter  HS) recently:

HS: Dad, was I born in black and white?

YHS (puzzled): What do you mean?

HS: I've seen on TV how in the past, the world used to be in black and white.

YHS (amused and relieved): Well ...

The Bible On Management: Interpersonal Skills

"A soft answer turneth away wrath: but grievous words stir up anger." - Proverbs 15:1 (KJV)

Nobel Pursuits

The 2012 Nobel Prize Winners

The Corner Office

Corner Office is a weekly feature in The New York Times in which a different chief executive is interviewed each week by Adam Bryant; he started the feature in March 2009. It's a fascinating set of interviews and interviewees from all sectors of life.

Why are you here?

In February 2008, Steve Jobs gave an extensive interview to Betsy Morris in Kona, Hawaii, where he was on vacation with his family. One of the topics he discussed was his approach to finding talent:

"When I hire somebody really senior, competence is the ante. They have to be really smart. But the real issue for me is, Are they going to fall in love with Apple? Because if they fall in love with Apple, everything else will take care of itself. They'll want to do what's best for Apple, not what's best for them, what's best for Steve, or anybody else.

"Recruiting is hard. It's just finding the needles in the haystack. We do it ourselves and we spend a lot of time at it. I've participated in the hiring of maybe 5,000-plus people in my life. So I take it very seriously. You can't know enough in a one-hour interview. So, in the end, it's ultimately based on your gut. How do I feel about this person? What are they like when they're challenged? Why are they here? I ask everybody that: 'Why are you here?' The answers themselves are not what you're looking for. It's the meta-data."

Jobs, Jobs, Jobs

Just out: The World Bank's 2013 World Development Report. The theme is Jobs. The report is full of fascinating facts and insights. It has already been elevated to my list of classic texts.

Old dogs, new tricks

So: what can a bunch of middle-aged guys possibly know about newfangled cloud-based applications and services? Quite a lot apparently: Workday.

2012 IIAG

The 2012 Ibrahim Index of African Governance (IIAG) was launched today.

Seasonal Inspiration

Question: Which entrepreneur and creator of what iconic brand inspired Steve Jobs in his development of the Apple Retail Store?

Answer: The Jewish Canadian entrepreneur Isadore Sharp, creator of Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts. Carmine Gallo tells the full story.

Biko and the Tough Alchemy of Africa

Ben Okri commemorating the 35th anniversary (12th September 2012) of the death of Bantu Stephen Biko:

Yeh!

Adventures in Capitalism / Adventures in Everything Else

There Was a Country

Just out by Chinua Achebe:

Strength and Adversity

If thou faint in the day of adversity, thy strength is small.

- Proverbs 24:10

Snowballing

Reading:

"Life is like a snowball. The important thing is finding wet snow and a really long hill."

- Warren E. Buffett

Bond, Zambian Bond

Zambia sold its first ever dollar-denominated bond to international investors last week. It was a stunning debut.

Ascendant

The Descendants is the best movie I've seen in a very long time.

A simple self-management technique

The single most important task of an executive is to manage himself. But how, exactly, does one manage oneself? Peter F. Drucker gave us some guiding principles and a few practical techniques.

I recently discovered a very simple, practical self-management technique that, for want of a better term, I call auto-consultation. It means, as one might guess from its composition, to both consult with and consult for oneself. In other words, you are both the consultee and the consultant. Here's how it works in three simple steps:

Step 1: Describe the problem (consultee perspective)

Step 2: Design the solution (consultant perspective)

Step 3: Take/apply your own advice (combined perspective)

Try it.

The Decider

Michael Lewis has just published a fascinating portrait of Barack Obama's management style.

Measuring Your Life

I was already aware of Clay Christensen's new book, but a friend recommended it to me so strongly that it went right to the top of my wishlist:

Great Scot!

At long last:

Keep on Dreamin'

It must be borne in mind that the tragedy in life doesn't lie in not reaching your goal. The tragedy lies in having no goal to reach. It isn't a calamity to die with dreams unfulfilled, but it is a calamity not to dream. It is not a disaster to be unable to capture your ideal, but it is a disaster to have no ideal to capture. It is not a disgrace not to reach the stars, but it is a disgrace to have no stars to reach for. Not failure, but low aim is sin.

- Dr. Benjamin E. Mays

This is an ex-parasite

Malaria, that is.

Transcendent

That's the only way I can describe this:

The Age of Insight

Eric Kandel has lived a long and extraordinary life. He began his career as an intellectual historian and, via various fascinating stops along the way, including medicine and psychoanalysis, became one of the world's leading neuroscientists. Now he has written a long and extraordinary book which weaves together many of the (apparently) disparate strands of his life. It's on my wishlist:

Physics and Finance

Never the twain shall meet? Perhaps not.