Saidi Mdala – Profile

Botswana
Saidi Mdala
Gaborone, Botswana
Email: smdal@yahoo.com
Website: www.thebusinessdiary.co.bw
Birthday: 12 December 2011
Education: B A Media Studies/Personal & Professional Leadership Dev
Occupation: Journalist/Personal Development Agent

Please describe your vision of a world that works for everyone.
A world where everyone discovers his or her overriding life objective and pursues it ruthlessly and relentlessly with the sole intention of giving others maximum advantage. A world where everyone is going someplace great and they and their pursuit is a facilitator for many others going to their own great destination.

What do you see as the most pressing problems facing the world today?
Lack of focus at individual level because the individual lacks enlightenment as to why s/he is here in the first place. In my part of the world, especially, the inheritance of a useless educational system that over many years has decayed even more and continues to churn out subordinates who religiously serve the establishment and cannot equip its beneficiaries with leadership inclination.

Second is our (Africans) pathetic regard for life. We do not regard life as sacred and often do very little to ensure every human being is accorded the respect and attention they deserve. Conflict resolution has to be invariably preceded by bloodshed after a long period of suffering by the ordinary folk.

Thirdly, the world continues to breed selfishness and insensitivity that perpetuate poverty and more conflict. Leadership is often mistaken for power and not a responsibilities for unlocking possibilities and endless options for fellow humanity.

Lastly, and perhaps most important, the inability by many to think owing to a learning system that has neglected to teach learners thinking as a subject just like mathematics, geography and chemistry; from elementary school.

How do you feel these problems could best be solved?
First they need to be acknowledged, interrogated and a conscious decision taken collectively (by governments, commerce and civic society) to address them as a foundation for correcting the mess that has been growing over decades of years.

Educational curriculum must be revised and all agents of socialization re-informed to compliment the new thrust. A simple example is that of introducing such critical life concepts as, leadership, thinking, management and entrepreneurship, as subjects of study, at preparatory and primary schools, and continue buttressing them as the mind evolves. The current barren system that introduces these critical life skills at high school or tertiary level is extremely
counterproductive.

The liberating mentality of contribution to humanity must be hammered home continuously as the foremost and noblest reason for ever walking this God’s green earth.

Profile
I grew up in a small town of Karoi, a small boy with many talents and aspirations until my parents sent me to school. School and a mediocre environment did a great job of divesting me of my zest for great things. Four of secondary education at a Mission School reinforced all the shortcomings I had acquired and this continued until one day, at 34, a corporate culture transformation expert and inspirational leader challenged me to answer three questions that stopped my roller coaster, happy-go-lucky eventless life informed by no particular purpose: “Who Am I?” “Why Am I Here?” and “Where Am I going?”

It refocused me to what I believe I had been unconsciously growing into – a personal development agent with a vision to: Become a world class personal development agent, inspirational leader and bestselling author, and a mission: To give others maximum advantage using everything I have acquired, am acquiring and have influence over.

After completing a degree programme in Media Studies, undergoing a management development, it was apparent my time was up. I chose journalism as a launch pad because of its pervasive influence and worked very hard to grow through the ranks to become our publication’s Country Manager, a responsibility that not only allowed me to give others maximum advantage, but influence others to do the same.

I reach a groups of beneficiaries through my opinion columns in publications, active citizenship through Junior Chamber International (JCI) membership, and as a professional speaker at Toastmasters International.

I am in the process of establishing Focused Living International (FLI) a personal development initiative which is part of my big dream to build an international personal development centre that will have exciting tailor made non-conventional learning programmes aimed at bringing out the leader out of every beneficiary of ours.

Over the past 18 months I have been working on five signature modules for FLI, three of which I have decided to develop into my first PD book, all of which are almost ready now.

My hobbies are reading, writing and volunteering and my greatest passion is the development of the fellow human being. I dream that one day I will be so wealthy as to facilitate and human cause I set my mind upon.

I am inspired by the selflessness of such historic figures as Abraham Lincoln, Andrew Carnegie, Nelson Mandela and Mohandas Gandhi.

Growing up, I was socialized into a fear for trying out things I continue to struggle with this demon and every endeavor I make in life is to counter it. I can’t even ask for a raise from my employer and find it more convenient to create my own means of production so that I can have everything I want.

I listen to inspirational music and have a soft spot for comedy and inspirational motion pictures.

I am family man with two great daughters (16 and 9) and they are my biggest fans, growth buddies, favourite learners and an amazing source of knowledge and wisdom. I wish for them nothing but the very best as I prepare them to take up the very noble vocation of service to humanity.

I would like to be an exception and point of reference in my area of specialty and I would smile in my grave to look back and see that many have breathed easier because I have lived.

Click Here to read My Book Assessments

Books Completed:

As A Man Thinketh
Jonathan Livingston Seagull