Coming to a standstill...

In deep crisis when basically everything in a corporation is going down the drain, there are only two options available; one is to give up and let it sink, the other is to come to a complete standstill.

Standstill is defined in many ways, depending from each angle you are looking at. It could be a standstill for Lenders where you freeze the accounts with interest and principal payments to the Lenders, or it could be a complete standstill, where the management puts a halt, and takes a step back to assess the battle field.

Imagine yourself driving behind a truck; you are so close you cannot see anything. So why do not put your foot on the brakes, and just slowly decreasing the speed to increase your ability to see?

Personally, I do brake, but I make a full stop when assessing a crisis and then I walk myself through the following steps.

Retreat; taking the step back to be able to see

Analyze; what is it I am actually looking at

Break down; take the big picture and put it into smaller batches to understand the core

Analyze; profound analysis of the batches

Rebuild; clean out the non-core elements and start rebuilding the structure with new bricks

Advance; take a step forward with the new rebuilt structure

This loop can be repeated as many times as needed or whenever you find yourself behind a truck or in a crisis, or even used in your daily life.

Though I bet that JWH never used the above method, or maybe he did, maybe he walked through the steps faster than lightning inside his head, and when he swung his revolvers he was already in the Advance stage.

On a personal level, I am at standstill, being home and cleaning out my Mom’s apartment with my brother. It is like a time machine in her apartment, she was indeed a collector; my baby shoes when I was 6 months old, her father’s love letters to her mother, my Grandpa writhing to my Grandma 1915, in the middle of the First World War, books from 1928, movies from 1959 in the Italian Alps where my brother took his first stumbling steps. But since she was a ”crossdrawer”, unconventional, she was of course up to date with the current state of life; latest DVDs, a lot of action movies by fact. She liked real hard core actions, especially when there were killing involved, killing of the bad guys. I remember one day years back, me and Mom had a full day of Steven Seagal movies. Amazing. When Skyfall premiered, I took her to the Theater, and there were two things going on in that movie saloon; One, a great action movie on the screen, two, my Mom highly commenting what was happening on the screen, shouting out ”watch behind you” ”shoot him”..And popcorn was flying everywhere. That was my Mom in a nutshell.

When you are in a standstill, you have to be ice cold. Nothing can disturb, you have to “close” yourself out from external factors that might affect your decisions. There will be ”opinions” flying around you like a hail storm, everyone has an opinion believe me, and they all want to make themselves heard.

When you really feel that you are on the right way, just do it. Do not change. Make the move, ask the question you know everyone would like to ask, but they do not dare, because they are streamlined to fit in, to be political correct.

Political correctness dictates our lives, what we can and cannot say and do. Instead of moving forward, everything has come to a real standstill, everything and everyone is paralyzed, and meanwhile everything around us, things and matters we all want to change, are still there, disturbing and ruining settings, environments, structures, lives.

I have stopped being and probably never was political correct. Call things what they are, and do not tiptoe when you know you are right. Do not consume yourself in trying to save the mainstream ones. They are mainstream for a reason, and you are right for another reason.

I came to a standstill at one of the international airports I frequently use the other day, when I went through the security check. Following took place; 6 employees, all busy with their phones, even when I put my stuff through the scanner, the woman who supposedly should check my bags, was TEXTING at the same time. So me being me, wishing I could be back in the old West, cross drawing and take ignorance down, once and for all, went through all the above steps and Advanced in one second. I had to ask her, what is out there, in cyberspace or wherever she was, that is so more crucial than to check what I might carry on board.

I know what is out there: Ignorance and constant and immediate confirmation of the individual. Personally, I hate smart phones, or maybe should I correct myself, by saying that I do not hate them, I hate what they have become in our lives and what we have chosen them to become.  

In a standstill, the focus needs to be on the core, the engine that is needed to restart the corporation. When a person is about to die, the functions slowly goes down, the color of the legs is changing, temperature is going down in hands and feet, so all power is diverted to the heart, the engine. It is the last survival instinct in the human body; it is our brain who steps into the “reptile” stage, pure survival.

It is the same in a deep crisis with standstills, focus on the core, the fire that will ultimately take you down. That is the fight to go for, the rest can be lost, and you will lose arms and legs but save the heart, and restart the engine. You want to win the war, and by that you can lose some battles.

Focus on cash and your order book. Cash is the blood that will refuel your engine; Order book is the back bone on where you will rebuild the structure.

I would be back in the Wild West, the street empty in front me, people standing behind me. A slight wind stirring up some dust, have to wipe my eyes. All silent, a dog barking, and I would shout; “Pull” and as a glimpse coming from the above, a phone is flying through the air over my shoulder and suddenly one more. I yank my revolvers in a cross-draw and by a split second I shoot the devices out to outer space. The dog is still barking when I hear a movement behind my back, and suddenly I feel a hand on my shoulder. I turn around and I am finding myself starring into the blue eyes of JWH and he smiles.

And No, I am not political correct, but I tend to deliver a result, even when everything seems to be hopeless.

Now back to my Mom’s time machine.

The John Wesley Hardin draw

Doing things unconventional might bring you onto a path where you find yourself walking alone or only a few walks with you. Being unconventional makes you become somewhat of an outsider, though not in your eyes..It is in the eyes of the beholder.

In the streamlined beholders view, the unconventional walker is something strange, unknown or even dangerous. The unknown is something that most people fear, the unknown is the unpredictable factor where you will never know what is coming around the corner.

JWHs draw was unconventional, he had developed an unusual cross-draw method of pulling the guns. With one swift move, he crossed his arms and yanked out his revolvers, shooting in the motion, high accuracy, always lethal. It was considered to be the fastest and most lethal draw in the West. Known as the Hardin’s draw.

Yesterday I met a woman who has been traveling within Africa for more than 15 years, over 24 countries. She was determined to give Africa solar power before she died. She had been in Tanzania to sign one deal, and then off to Entebbe to sign another one. Determined. She told me she would rather live one day as a Lion than 100 as a lamb. Once she uttered the words, flashbacks came over me. That was my mother talking to me when I was a kid; ”Robertino, meglio un giorno da leone che 100 da pecora". Meaning, better die a hero than live a coward.

My mother was a ”crossdrawer” herself, unconventional.

Swedish Ebola aid workers returning to Stockholm, are treated like something that the cat dragged in. Their kids has been banned to return to the schools. Landlords wants to evict them and so forth. Education anyone?

The streamlined beholders show their fear. It is OK to be afraid, but it is not OK to be ignorant. With brains comes common sense, with common sense comes knowledge, with knowledge comes responsibilities, with responsibilities comes obligations. Obligations to use your brain.

JWH was not a psychopath or mentally unstable, he was a gentleman, well educated, literate and intelligent. Gifted with an abnormal ability of fast reflexes. Calm, cool and  collected when it came to stand offs.

Leaders has to be unconventional and ice cold, collected when the moment has come. The moment where you need to make a difference.

You can spot a ”crossdrawer” yourself. There a few out there, unconventional in their draw, yanking their revolvers in one motion, and firing at the same time, never missing their target. You spot them by watching how their hands are slightly leaning towards the body, thumbs inwards, always ready to draw, a dreamy look into their eyes, a look beyond the horizon.

To one ”crossdrawer” to another; in loving memory of my mother and  JWH, fastest man in the West.

Attention

Dear readers, let me introduce myself.
A lost sheep in Africa, to be more precise, East Africa. Today Kenya, tomorrow Tanzania, Uganda etcetera.

So what do I, a Mzungu, do here? Well, I do everything that I need to do to make a living.
My profession? A problem fixer, a genuine trouble shooter. Been doing it more than 20 years now, and have become quite savvy. Been doing it in Europe, Middle East and now East Africa.

Do I like it? Yes, the kick when you have cut the deal, solved the problem is an adrenaline rush that can't be described by words..it's a feeling of being on top of the world. Invincible!

Most men have have a secret dream, whether they admit or not;

To always be the ”right one” in ”the right” moment, to be the one who puts order in place, the one who makes the correct decision, the only decision. The one who has higher goals in life, to lead and support, the one who plants seeds for other to harvest. True leadership.

The Real Man who men seeks to be, women crave for. The lonely hero who rides off in the sunset.

Lonely is the correct word; who can a hero be married to, who can marry a hero? Movies are full of these characters, they are drowning us in the movies about the gender roles, and we walk out from the theaters, full of hormones, back to home, doing your woman, imagining that you took her to heaven..her own hero, even if it is over after 4 minutes, because you just want to get off.

It is lonely in the middle of the night, when you wake up in another hotel room, and there is no one to call, no one who will comfort you, when you are suddenly doubting yourself; "will I make it or not?" Then you wake up in the morning, looking yourself in the mirror and getting a minor shock..but then, as a miracle, your face changes, the glow in your tired eyes comes slowly back, the pale skin starts shining..and then you utter the magic words, as you have done the last 20 years, looking yourself in the mirror; "Who is the king? Looking good today". 

The inner strength that makes you stand up, the inner strength that makes you forget about "why" you chose this career, the inner strength that makes your blood rush through your body like nuclear power. The daily come back, the 7 am routine.

To change, to make a change, also means that you have to follow a path and be taught the most important of all wisdoms: to follow your heart, to read the signs of the path of life, and first and foremost, to follow your dreams.

Signing off from a steamy Dar Es Salaam.