We Have to Admire our High Achievers

We have to admire our high achievers

Reza Hossein Borr

There is nothing more dangerous for a society than when the culture of low achievement has been established in it. 

 <a onClick="javascript:pageTracker._trackPageview('/outgoing/article_exit_link');" href="http://www.rezaaa.com/blaming-expectations.html">Low achieving and blaming societies</a> are societies in which everybody is expected to fail.  The members of the society become generally underachievers.  And low achievement becomes the general expectation from the members.  The actions and reactions that happen in the low achieving society perpetuate this characteristic.  When one member of the under-achieving society achieves something exceptionally well, he will be isolated and even blamed for it.  His success will be attributed to the help of foreign forces and not because of his own inner abilities and talents.

The culture of low achieving societies is self-consuming and self-undermining.  The individual members of such a society allow themselves freely to undermine each other in order to keep each other under- achievers.  People usually try to perpetuate this culture rather than challenging it.  Failure becomes normal and acceptable.  Success becomes very surprising and abnormal.  High fliers become estranged and alienated.  In fact, low achievement becomes so rampant that everybody thinks there is no way out of it unless you betray your people and begin to work with the extraordinary powers outside the society who are usually blamed for the failing society.  The people in such a society usually compare themselves with each other and say," If I could not make it, nobody can make it.  Since I can not make it, if somebody else can make it, then he must be the agent of our enemies."  People become very judgmental.  And when they judge others they in fact attribute their own inabilities to others.

In a high achieving society, people say," if he did it I can do it too."  In low achieving societies, people say, "if I cannot do it, nobody else can do.  Since nobody has been able to do it in our society in the past, nobody can be able to do it in future.  There is now anyway that anybody from within our society can break the barriers and begin to achieve tasks that others have not been able to achieve."  These societies usually blame the authorities for their own failures.  The authorities welcome such an approach and find themselves as the source of power and authority and therefore, treat that society as if it is inherently incapable of achieving greater tasks and therefore, it must remain the low achieving society it was and if somebody has exceptionally succeeded in becoming a high achiever, this has been just because the authorities had wanted that.

The low achieving societies are usually the victims of their own failing culture which has been partly created and established by the members of the society and partly by their enemies who intend to keep them controlled with low expectations.  They bring up the members of society to have low expectations as this way of bringing up of the children and students suits all.  The teachers, the parents and the authorities join hand in convincing the children and students that they belong to an under achieving society and therefore, they have to be contented with this state as it is.  This understanding suits the three sides of the problem.  The teachers would not strive to secure professional skills for bringing the best in the students and therefore, they feel just comfortable in teaching whatever they think can be enough for children with a future that is already determined by ready-made conditions and circumstances.  The parents accept this state as the fact and would not invest sufficient time and energy and money for teaching and coaching children; expecting them to just follow their steps and become happy with whatever they can earn in a closed and failing society.  The authorities are also happy with this situation as they can easily manage and lead people with low expectations without investing sufficient funds for their training and education.

Gradually under achieving becomes so clear and popular that nobody can challenge the established culture.  If one member of the society becomes motivated to move over the limitations that have been established for his society, that will generate a great upheaval among the friends and relatives who had expected him to fail as they failed before him and become one of them.  The absolute majority of people who live in cultures of under achieving would not want to become estranged from their own people.  They want to be one of them and whenever they strive to achieve something out of ordinary, they would not be anymore one of them and therefore they will be the target of different insinuations.

What we see today in Baluch society is a failing group of people that expects its members to fail on all areas of life.  There are two accepted options open for them: one to fight and die, and one to fail and live in poverty and misery.  The culture of failure does not allow the people to become high achievers and if somebody becomes a high achiever, his high achieving would be attributed to betraying his own people and working for Pakistani intelligence services.  This is how the culture of failure is getting perpetuated in Baluchistan.  Baloch people expect each other to fail or fight.  There is now another third option which is option of succeeding.

When we see a group of volunteers who have bravely organised a school in the streets of Leyari, we admire them.  We celebrate their contributions, but, yet we do not do anything just like what they did.  We do not volunteer to do similar projects for the public or engage in enterprises that bring us success.  The prize always goes to those who fight and die to save their people.  A nation has different options.  An individual has different options.  As and when a group of people are part of one country, they are entitled to, according to human rights charters and all other United Nations rules and regulations, to have equal access to all opportunities ,good education, high positions, and succeeding in businesses.

If we  I admire the teachers who set up the school we have to admire those Baluch people who have succeeded against odds in Pakistan or  Iran.  It is their basic right of every Baluch to have access to the highest positions in the countries that they live in.  We must not blame the high achievers of our society as collaborators.  The Baluch people can succeed without the help of intelligence services or any other authority.  They have the talents.  Those who have not been able to make it must not blame others for being able to have made it.

We have to celebrate the success of every Baluch in every area of life.  We have to create a new culture of success in our society.  We have to make success our greatest value.  We have to teach the skills of success.  We have to individually and collectively break the barriers of the failing society in which we live.  We have to admire those who have already succeeded.  Dying is not the only thing we have to appreciate.  We have to appreciate life and we have to appreciate the efforts of those who make a decent living for themselves and their families.  As much as we despise those who betray Baluchistan, we have to praise those who have done something in whatever they have been able to do so.  We have not to only praise the teachers but also praise the employees of an office that delivers services. We have to praise the shopkeeper that supplies what we need. 

We have to create a new culture of success and achievement.  Despising the successful Baluch people has become so far very popular.  This is a very destructive approach.  It must be replaced by the culture of admiration.  If we continue despising the successful Baluch civil servants, entrepreneurs, teachers, businessmen, and other professionals and attribute their success to their collaboration with the intelligence services, we will destroy the foundation of our advancing society.  We will promote failure and failing.  We will discourage other people from competing with other people and becoming better.  We will discourage success and encourage underachievement.  People love to be loved especially when they succeed.  If they know that they would be hated when they succeed, they will prefer to be poor but loved.  People cannot take backbiting and character assassination for a long time.  Character assassination is equal to a nation assassination.  When we discredit somebody who has been able to climb the ladders of advancement, we would not only bring the person down to our own level of under achievement, but we damage the spirit of those who are looking for ways to get out of the present deplorable situation and find ways to a better and higher standard of living.  We must remember that our society is a rising one in all areas.  This is the rise that we have to celebrate.  We are in the process of changing over society from an oppressed nation to a rising nation.  This begins with the rise of individuals.

We must encourage our people to go for high positions.  We must encourage entrepreneurs to set up more businesses, to create more wealth.  We must encourage civil servants to get better jobs and more financial rewards.  At the same time we have to encourage all of them to serve their national interests in whatever position they may be.  Baluch people can serve their national interests better when they are in high positions.  A nobody cannot offer any services.  We must try to encourage the Baluch people to go for continuous self-improvement.  We must encourage them and give them the confidence they need to assert themselves among their colleagues and opponents.  In a country that there are thousands of top jobs, the Baluch people must be persuaded to go for higher level of professional skills to advance naturally and become the holders of top positions.  It is only from the top positions that they can serve their nation.  We have to support the Baluch people in their struggle in the commercial world to reach new heights and celebrate their success.  We must be pleased to see more names of the Baluch people in the board of directors of more companies.  We must stand firm and support every Baluch people who has motivated himself to break the limits that has been imposed on him to reach his destination.

A nation can succeed when its individual members begin to succeed.  If we succeed one at a time, we will all succeed together one after.

Reza Hossein Borr is a leadership consultant and the creator of 150 CDs and 14 Change management models. He is also the author of Manual Success, Manual of Coaching and Mentoring, Motivational Stories that Can Change Your Life, and a New Vision for the Islamic World. He can be contacted by email: balochfront@aol.com