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The pillars and essence of wisdom, By Alex Ogundadegbe

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Alex Ogundadegbe

Everybody needs wisdom. It’s not enough to have a healthy brain and a good mind and healthy thoughts. We must seek knowledge and its proper application in all we do. The first part of it is for us to ensure that we do not become a victim of ourselves. It is possible to become a victim of tragedy, of bad gossip or even of challenging things that happen around us. These are variables we cannot control. But we can control becoming a victim of ourselves if we have the right knowledge and information and we are able to apply it appropriately. It starts from knowing ourselves and what we stand for. Aristotle, the Dean of Greek philosophers, said man ought to know himself and take proper control of his mind. Never let your own fears and thoughts of eventualities bark you into a corner like a mad dog that wants to attack. Do not let doubts on the inside affect your attitude and performance on the outside. Letting your thoughts drive you into a corner of despair and fear will only make you a victim of yourself.

The ability to take action is central to wisdom. Not just taking action, but taking the right action.

Wisdom dictates that you seek solutions to all problems. Your attitude should be: “Nothing is too difficult, I can solve it.” That is the spirit of wisdom. Wisdom is tested in situations and wisdom always has a plan that produces results it finds solutions to problems. A problem not solved is symptomatic of a lack of wisdom. Wisdom recognises dangers and tries to neutralize or avoid them. It all begins with your personal philosophy of life, which are your innate beliefs and often serve as your guiding system as you move about this life. Your innate beliefs are your guiding system much like the apparatus on a U-Boat, a submarine which is run by men who use a consul of sophisticated equipment which ensure that the boat does not crash into rocks, run amid tidal waves or get tracked by the missiles of an enemy vessel. Its sonar, radar and missile alert systems enable it navigate troubled waters even if it is under water. It can detect those dangers and avoid or conquer them when it is necessary. Our philosophy is like that. In troubled times it helps us build a plan of resistance and survival. Beyond helping us prepare for eventualities and dangers, our guidance system reinforces our attitudes.

The truth is we are shaped by challenges and resistance. If you picked up a book or started watching a movie, and everything is okay, going well for too long, you get discouraged. It is not interesting. We get bored. If the first, second and third chapters of the book are all peaceful and comfortable we will put the book down. But if it opens with a little strife and struggle or war we are tempted to read on and find out what goes on next. Jim Rohn asks: “Would it be possible to win if you can’t lose?” No! If your favourite football team heads for its home stadium and takes a rival team to the cleaners in a game without resistance and ends up scoring goals, we do not value it. They did not win.  There must be opposition and resistance. The right attitude is important. If we do not have the right attitude then the actions we will take when we are tried or challenged would be wrong.

The ability to take action is central to wisdom. Not just taking action, but taking the right action. That brings us to six pillars that will help guide our actions within the right attitudinal framework. All these are rooted in leadership qualities that we all ought to have, whether we hold a position or not. First, there is unwavering courage. Now this is not to say that our courage will not fail us. Everyone gets feelings of hesitation or confusion in the face of trying circumstances. But the man or woman who engenders leadership qualities seeks to face situations and solve them. Courage comes from assessing situations and looking for the best way out. That includes tragedies when they occur and the vicissitudes of life: ups and downs and unpleasant situations. Unwavering courage does not mean we will not falter. It just says we will rise up to the state of affairs. Secondly we are also expected to have a keen sense of justice. Napoleon Hill, while mentoring leaders, explained that we ought to always be on the right side of things. This quality means we ought to be blameless and fair. We should not pander to sentiment and preferences when right and wrong are involved. Coupled with that is the third pillar which is the need for temperance, self control. Losing our tempers and talking out of hand can lead to dire conditions. A person who is prone to anger can take irrational decisions and that is linked to the issue of decision making. We must be definite and accurate in our decisions. That could serve as the fourth pillar. The more people we lead, the more destinies and conditions of living are affected by our decisions. Often times, whether a person will live or die, what kind of life he will live and social interaction around him could depend largely on the decisions taken by those in authority. Those decisions better be definite and accurate. Indecision is the thief of opportunity. Dilly-dallying can cost us a whole lot. Sometimes it is better to take the wrong decision than no decision at all. Often times the wrong decision can lead to a plethora of other decisions that can correct the wrong one.

These pillars of wisdom help to determine how far we go in life and how guaranteed our future can be.

The definiteness of our plans is also important. Even though we live in volatile times when climates, economies and health conditions can change at the drop of a hat, it is important that we have plans that would move us forward, help us to improve our lot and ensure that we are developing and achieving the goals and aspirations we have in mind. We should have economic plans: How much do we want to earn over a period, what do we want to build? That is an important point because wisdom is always building something. The wise seek to build businesses and companies, they establish conglomerates and organisations. You might be building relationships, a teacher or mentor helps build character and skill and abilities. We spend our life building or tearing down. Wisdom builds, foolishness destroys or tears down.

These pillars of wisdom help to determine how far we go in life and how guaranteed our future can be. If we seek wisdom it means we have to defy certain voices and opinions that are contrary to our best choices.  These include ignoring and conquering our dark side. Everyone can make wise choices, but everyone is also prone to bad ones. A minister once told a group of children a story about a young boy who had two advisers perching on his shoulders. One on his left, the other on his right. The one on his right shoulder always told him to be good, to make the right choices in life, the one on his left always had evil and wrong advice. The boy was often tempted to go to the dark side and take the wrong advice, but as long as he listened to the right voice and took its advice, he seemed to do good and mostly end up well. Every human being is like that. We all have a dark side in us. Our job is to be the best we can and to do that, we must resist the dark side and the bad advice and listen to the good side. That is the essence of wisdom.

*Ogundadegbe is a renowned management consultant. He trains managers and executives in the arts of Customer Service, Human Resources Management and Management strategy ([email protected]).

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