DURING the weeding season, I have seen people in rural Zimbabwe tie their goats to a tree located in patches between fields. Initially, when the goat is tied it strains and tries to wriggle its way to freedom but soon it learns its limitation is the length of the rope. Its area of freedom is defined by the circumference of the rope.

After the goat sufficiently gets used to its condition, and the rope is then removed, the mindset of the goat remains limited by the circumference of the rope. It is amazing to watch an untied goat browsing on bushes just a few meters from a lush maize crop.

Many of us have been victims at one point or another in our journey of life. Some have been victims of colonialism while others have been victims of the post independence political dispensation. More may have been victims of geographical location, educational level, personal upbringing and in some cases history.

Even in their new inclusive dispensation, our politicians still maintain the victim mentality. We have on one hand Zanu PF groveling to be economic victims of China and the east and on the other side the MDC formations fawning to be the darling of the West. We perpetually think someone somewhere must do something about our situation.

Some in government naively believe if we get more loans from friendly countries and global institutions, then our situation will suddenly improve. As a nation, we already owe a stupid debt of over US$7 billion and in the minds of the politicians, more debt should do it.

I have never seen a nation that has been made successful by the efforts of others. If we do the correct things ourselves, investment and money will flow into our nation not because the investors love us so much but because they would see the opportunity to make a return. The key is to stop behaving and thinking like victims and believing that non but ourselves can lead us to the economic victory state we so desire.

At individual level, unfortunately many of us have imported the victim mentality to the Diaspora. It is important to realise no-one can make you a victim without your permission. If you are sick and tired of being surrounded by negative people that whine and complain about anything ranging from crime to politics to the potholes in the road, then you must do something about it. You can develop a new circle peer group of winners that is positive and pro-active individuals that believe in the power of taking control and taking action.

I have no problem with people who insist on being paupers, but to travel really far from your homeland and still maintain a pauper mentality when the means are available to escape from it is unacceptable. Picture this, you are on your death bed in Kayelitsha, Cape Town, and the last words you can whisper to your last friend is you want to be buried in the land of your ancestors where your umbilical cord is located more than 2,600 kilometres away.

Since I will not be able to ask you then, I will ask you now. Have you made any arrangement for that fateful journey? If not who do you expect to arrange it and why? You may say kunzima, it’s hard, but nothing will change unless we do something about it now.

Napoleon Hill wrote in his landmark book ‘Think and Grow Rich’: “Every adversity carries within it the seed of an equal or greater opportunity” to develop a strong, focused mind and identify the opportunities in your adverse circumstances. We are all assets in our family and work environments, let us broaden our horizons, expand our minds, share our knowledge with others.

It is true we will not all become successful investors and highly skilled and well paid professionals but we have to speak against any of us dwelling too long below the poverty line.

We are three months into the year. Do not sit on new ideas too long before implementing them. If you have a challenge, you have to be able to see it accurately for what it is, not better or worse. Only once you fully understand your situation then can you develop a battle plan to overcome.

I have been struck by how Japanese people do not show too much panic in the face of a disaster of an apocalyptic scale. We ought always to stay calm, develop a pragmatic battle plan and implement it in a systematic way.

We should not tolerate or encourage mediocrity in our Diaspora communities. To achieve your objectives, you have to overcome temporary failures, criticisms, rejections, and ultimately you have to believe in yourself, if you do not who will? It is important not to finance a superficial lifestyle with borrowed money. If you are staying far away from home, you should have at least three months equivalent of your earnings stored in high yield but accessible account.

They say there is a difference between what is important and what is urgent. What is urgent is seldom really important in the greater scheme of things and more often than not, keeps us from doing what is really important. Is it financial security? Building wealth? Spending more time with your family? Protecting your health?

Creating wealth is not complex and complicated if you simply identify and focus on what is really important to you, find the simplest and most efficient way to create abundance, and improve incrementally, every day. You don't have to strain, suffer or reinvent the wheel - simply use the systems that have worked to achieve your unique objectives.

The key to creating results in life is the realisation that only you can change your life. The responsibility to create wealth, health, happiness, or anything else you want to achieve, rests solely on your shoulders. Only you can translate the knowledge you have into action.

I end with a quotation from Jim Rohn who says, “I wish for you a life of wealth, health, and happiness; a life in which you give to yourself the gift of patience, the virtue of reason, the value of knowledge, and the influence of faith in your own ability to dream about and to achieve worthy rewards.”