JANUARY is gone. 2018 is in a hurry to get somewhere and I hope you are too. I see lots of people complaining about jobs being unavailable; on the other hand, I see many persons who are creating work for themselves and others. While some persons — not only here at home — are complaining that things are bad, others are thriving. The persons creating work and thriving are those who’d rather see the glass as half full. Perspective in life is everything.

I’m thrilled by the fact that entrepreneur Dason Anthony is expanding his business 592Tees, diversifying his offerings to the public. And I admire the courage of Nirvana Mahase venturing into the service industry with Café Bellvana, which has become one of my favourite cosy spots in the city.

With equal pride, I welcomed the news that Jubillanté Cutting copped the Nelson Mandela-Graça Machel Innovation Award for her activism with the organisation, Guyana Animation Network. I’ve also been very impressed with strides by Dr. Rosh Khan, while I’m wishing success to his second installment of the Digital Wealth Creation Summit. But what is your success depending on this year?

Like on social media’s Facebook, leadership expert John Maxwell believes your success depends on what your ‘status’ is right now. He says, “It’s not where were you or even where you’re going, but in the present, who are you and what are you doing?” Dr. Maxwell says, “We can’t live off of yesterday, it was yesterday and it’s gone forever. We don’t have any guarantees of tomorrow and where we’re going to be. He believes, ‘the secret of success is dependent on our daily agenda, your status, what you are doing right now, what’s happening to you. It’s either positive or negative.

It’s either helping or hurting’.
Patricia Bacchus, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Caribbean Container Inc., said to me a tool of success is to “continue to learn”. “It’s what will set you apart from others. Continue the acquisition of knowledge. Desire to learn more, to understand more. How else do you make decisions? Everything is data-driven.

If you can’t measure something, you can’t manage it. It doesn’t only relate to the small sphere in which we are operating; but the wider your acquisition of knowledge, the better you’re able to analyze any situation.” Patricia’s life and career trajectory has always fascinated me, and I take her advice to heart.

Additionally, I also have a healthy appreciation that there might also be setbacks. Again, how you view failure can be instrumental to your success this month, this year. My friend and CEO of Action Coach, Vishnu Doerga, suggested to me, “Whenever there are enough people complaining about something, there is money to be made.”

Vishnu asks, “Do you take your energy and focus on the things you can’t change, or do you take your energy and do something positive?” He says, “Do not use your energy in a way that doesn’t help anyone or yourself. The things we are complaining about, more times there are other people complaining about them as well. If there is a volume of people complaining, it means there is a demand, there is a need to be served. We are taught that when an alarm sounds, you run from the sound, but as entrepreneurs we look to where the problems are, because we get paid to solve problems. Be happy that you have problems to solve, because that is how you can get paid.”

Finally, I noticed in our National Budget 2018, that government has set aside over 1.7 billion dollars in programmes that address the needs of young people. Finance Minister Winston Jordan in presenting the budget stated, “In Guyana, our young men and women are calling for meaningful civic, economic, social and political participation.

In response, government has crafted a multi-faceted, multi-tiered and multi-agency approach to create the enabling environment through which our youth can express their multi-talented capabilities, capacities and values in a wide and varied cross-section of endeavours.”

I keep wondering how many young people will seek out the opportunities in the suite of programmes available to them, such as The Youth Innovation Project of Guyana (YIPoG), Youth Entrepreneurial Skills Training (YEST), and the Sustainable Livelihoods and Entrepreneurial Development (SLED) programme, among others.

In 2018, I hope that you find what motivates you and pursue it. Refuse to complain, but instead seek out those persons, those opportunities that can help you get to where you need to be. And continue to be inspired.