Merry Christmas to everyone and joy peace and love in the coming year

Merry Christmas

Christmas is not about being drunk or eating until you can’t zip up or fasten your belt. When you eat so much that  you become uncomfortable or you party so hard that you don’t know where you are or how you got home. But needless to say, that summarizes Christmas for most. So what is Christmas? Of course a lot of gifts are given to people that we care for and about or love. Sometimes people go out of their way and give to less fortunate people who are not as materially privileged.

It is of course a time when spending skyrockets to accommodate the above mentality.

Trips are made to and fro, to nearby and far off places.

For some it is a time of loneliness, sadness and isolation. So what is Christmas?

Christmas is a time when we should re-open that door within us. It is a tiny door and only we have our keys to that door. Behind that door secretes are kept, hurts, deceits, pride and so on and so forth. Without forcing one’s belief system on anyone, it is the time to enter that backroom that only we know about and take stock and ask what would Jesus have done over the past twelve months, or since we came to know about the TRUTH? How could we have done differently? Have we heard the voice crying out in the wilderness calling us to repentance? Have we repented and turned our backs on our sinful nature?

Are we ready to welcome the infant Jesus into our backroom, our homes and our conscience? Is the backroom ready? Did we rid it of pride, arrogance and spite? Is there room for the saviour?

For others, it’s been twelve months of hard work and clearly getting a new car is just about what Christmas means. Performing a ritual & such is just about it for others.

For me, receiving even an e-mail attachment card from someone I didn’t expect would or was thinking about me in this busy period, brings Christmas back to the fore. It brightens my day and makes me happy to know that to someone else, Christmas means sending a card to me. As we fast and feast, let’s not forget about the baby in the manger. HAPPY BIRTHDAY JESUS!!

There are a lot of ‘sugarman’ in the world

I am sure when half the people see the word sugar and man they suppose that I have made a mistake and am trying to talk about ‘sugardaddy’. But no I got it right, it is a documentary I watched on a man by that name.

I believe that the man’s name is Rodriguez.

In Africa I feel sad that we had not exploited our talents as we should and so I lament on that in this particular article.

Rodriguez, who is based in Detroit somewhere in North America, is a person that wanted or had at some point a career in music. Being of Spanish decent or Mexican he never got anywhere despite singing the rock music in English.{Listening to his lyrics I too agree that he was spot on}.

The lyrics had a message but after two ‘failed’ albums he went on to do what everyone else was doing or expected him to do and did odd jobs for a living- which in my opinion is very sad indeed.

However, in South Africa his music was loved in the seventies and onwards and his music helped steer the direction amongst the conservatism. The story, within the story is that he never knew he was appreciated somewhere else on the continent and carried on to live a ‘poor life’ until he was rediscovered in the late 1990’s by his fans in South Africa. {the story is he still lives the modest life his known all his life} Clearly by then he was older, so to speak, but had a chance to sing his music in live concerts- which had been his passion growing up.

It is a touching story and one wonders perhaps how many Africa’s have kept their talents ‘hidden’ so to speak since there is no sponsorship or money and the list goes on. Or how many people have feared to pursue an innovative career since it simply won’t pay the bills initially perhaps?

The story of Rodriguez resonates reality. What we need to compete internationally is to produce quality products and support our local industries. There is no need in reinventing the wheel.

It is indeed my deepest desire and hope that no matter how hard and long it takes one should not hide one’s true talent because of perceived failure. As we all know our fear of failure is what traps us to remain in positions we should not really be in. As the year comes to an end, don’t look as how you have not achieved anything but how much effort you put in trying- as Thomas Edison once said after failing to make the light bulb several times- ‘I have not failed, I have just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.’

These are my words of encouragement to you. Pick up your pen and writing pad and write a report to yourself  recount how many ways, events, trips, interviews or sales calls you made that did not materialise and with a smile find out why not and try and establish a new marketing attempt, a happier persona and with renewed determination if you feel it is worth it, start all over again to try and achieve what you were set out to do. Remember your strengths and weaknesses and remember that your deepest fear is failure. Happy holidays.