I don’t regard myself as particularly brave, but what I am struck by, is the impact that just 5 lousy seconds of courage can have on one’s life for the better.
Let me illustrate the point with 3 short examples from my own life that were “game changers” for me.
Campus Carnival
While at Rhodes University in Grahamstown, in the Eastern Cape of South Africa, a friend phoned me up one day, to announce that he was not going back to University as he had gotten his girlfriend pregnant!
He had the responsibility of running a fund raiser called Campus Carnival. Would I take over his role? My first reaction was to say “no” and to give some feeble excuse! This sounded like “responsibility” and that was the last thing I wanted to interfere with my “easy street” existence – doing the minimum of work to pass exams and drinking far too much at the weekends.
Something, however, made me say “yes, ok” and those 5 seconds did change my life.
Campus Carnival – turned out to one big lesson in event marketing. On the Saturday of the event we had woman’s rugby, a parachute drop, “slippery-pole” wrestling, a treasure hunt & the big event – mens inter-varsity rugby, followed by relaxation after the game with a beer garden and barbeque. All the food and booze had to be donated, town council permission had to be granted for the parachute drop, the local schools had to be canvassed, posters displayed & money collected at the gate. A crowd of about 5000 showed up apart from students & the event was a success, breaking all previous records for attendance and funds raised.
Bottom line, this was not an earth shattering marketing success! Sufficient however in that those 5 seconds in fact changed my life. The experience opened my eyes to the fact that I appeared to have some skills in marketing & it seemed a lot of fun. So while I graduated as a social worker and practiced in that profession for 2 years – I started taking a marketing course at night and on emigrating to Cape Town from Zimbabwe was able to make the transition to a career in marketing & ultimately management.
The next Sugar Ray Lenard!
Two other examples continue to make the point that 5 seconds of courage is all it takes sometimes.
Also while at University I was going to the gym to keep fit and used to work-out on the speed ball that the gym had set-up for boxing. One day the boxing coach, seeing me work out – said why didn’t I come & I try out in the ring. Another 5 second moment! The result – I finished-up as boxing captain for the University and won the inter-varsity light middle weight division. It’s hard to describe how good that felt! No more bad dreams of “bully boys” kicking sand in my eyes on the beach!
A new life and language in Brazil
And then there was the opportunity to go miles away to run a music company in a far off country called Brazil, in the great city of Rio de Janiero, a city of 12 million, the city of samba, music and ceravesa! Sounds good I’m sure – but how about having to give up a very good job in Cape Town – learn to speak a new language in a country where only 10% of the population could speak English & try and flog music to which at that time, I had absolutely no affinity. Yikes! – this ultimately took more than 5 seconds to make the decision – but it took just 5 seconds to be open to the idea of such a move.
Conclusion
First of all let me say – the yellow streak down by back is just the same as most people – I’m no hero!
There’s also a lot too, to be said for the adage –“look before you leap”. I’ve just as many stories where I wish I had thought a bit more before acting!
That having been said – the 3 examples I gave were very significant “game changers” for me. In the case of the first 2 examples – perhaps the biggest thing I had to lose was my pride and too often we don’t act because of that.
One final rather profound thought from Nelson Mandela who said – “I learned that courage was not the absence of fear, but the triumph over it. The brave man is not he who does not feel afraid, but who conquers that fear”.