NOT A DOPE MOVE, LANCE

I know a lot of people are going to hate me for joining the chorus of criticism swarming around American cyclist Lance Armstrong.  The sad reality is that if you want controversy, if you want to shock society and if you want to get people talking, nothing does the job like a fall from grace.

The fact that this man can go from being arguably the greatest cyclist of all time to suffering the most severe stripping of titles and accolades the sport has ever seen, is definitely going to get people talking.

In his prime Lance Armstrong was more than just a sporting hero. He was a human inspiration as a resilient survivor prostate cancer. His victory over the life-threatening disease made him an icon among many young people who saw his perseverance, grit and determination and as the attitude to adopt in order to get out of their own troubles.

But for years Armstrong had been dealing with allegations that he had been taking performance enhancing, doping drugs through the peak of his career, which saw him win the Tour de France race seven years in a row.

But my problem is more with Armstrong’s recent response to the allegations rather than the allegations themselves or whether he in fact did dope during his career to win races.

Last week Armstrong announced that he would no longer dispute or fight the accusations against him of taking performance enhancing drugs to give him the edge in cycling races. He did not say he was guilty nor did he imply it. He was simply saying “say what you will, I give up”.

As a result he was stripped of every title and accolade he had won over the past thirteen years and banned from the sport. This would be heartbreaking moment for any athlete who has worked hard for years to reach a position of prominence in their sporting code. In his heyday, Armstrong was to cycling what Schumacher was to F1 or what Jordan was basketball. The best. The epitome of greatness. All of this was dashed by his jaw dropping surrender last week.

I know the cliché of not concerning oneself with what people say has a lot of truth and relevance to it but in life sometimes your name is all you have. What do you have, if not your ability to hold your head up head up high in the world knowing you have your integrity intact?

I will not speculate as to whether Armstrong is guilty or not. I don’t believe that’s my place. But I will say his giving up the fight to clear his name, no matter how long and hard that fight may have been, flies in the face of the don’t give up mantra that he demonstrated in the public eye over the year.

We all remember what happened to Tiger Woods when his extramarital scandals were exposed. The world was shocked and social commentators ate it up. This seemed to cause considerable damage to Tiger’s name, which carries with it a brand worth hundreds of millions, and dropped in the world rankings close to number 60 after his bedtime shenanigans were made public knowledge.

If I knew I was innocent of such serious charges as those face Armstrong, I would fight to the grave to make sure I do away with them. But that’s just me. For anyone who has been passionate about anything in their lives, Armstrong’s announcement was a disappointment. But the stripping of the cycling titles, awards and banning Armstrong shows that there is something to be lost in giving up – your good name.

President Nzumbi

A Sleeping Lion Won't Stand For Itself

*Disclaimer: The title of the column is not a direct reference to the song or the writer of the song The Lion Sleeps Tonight, but rather just a pun used as a column title. Not in anyway intended to disrespect the memory of Solomon Linda (RIP)*

MUSIC is a beautiful thing. The food of life can provoke emotion, alter a mood, change an environment and bring memories to mind. Another powerful gift of music, as much as some might disagree, is its ability to make a lot of money…

Solomon Linda is one of the greatest musical minds South Africa and, perhaps, the world has ever seen. He was one of the founding fathers of the traditional African music genre Iscathamiya, which has won international awards for one of the most successful musical acts in SA music history, Ladysmith Black Mambazo.

Linda wrote an iconic song called Imbube, which was the original song that inspired a song that has been known around the world for decades. This song is called The Lion Sleeps Tonight. The credited original performers of this song were The Tokens, an otherwise forgettable doo-wap vocal group.

But the song The Lion Sleeps Tonight eventually became an all time smash hit and has to date made well beyond $15 million from its use in the animated film The Lion King alone.

What happened to Solomon Linda after his great creation became a success? His quality of life improved very little relatively and he died and was buried a pauper.

Why am I talking about a song that is more than half a century old in this column, you ask? Well, the story of Solomon Linda’s life is a glorious and tragic one indeed. He was a creative genius who never got what he deserved while he was living, but instead passed away without the millions that his song made.

This is a story of exploitation and being sidelined. And how common is that even in this day and age? How many times to others get to bask in the brilliance of another person’s efforts and talents?

I once had a conversation with a friend who told me that in life there are no guaranteed happy endings and that what some people might view as negative from you is critical to positive outcomes in your own personal life.

In simple English, he was saying that one needs to guard their gifts so carefully and regard them so highly, that it might appear to others to be arrogance, self-centeredness and narcissism.

I don’t know if I totally agree with him, but to a degree he was on to something. There are some people who fare better than others if a particular discipline, area, profession or craft than all of their peers. However, no matter how well they do, that discipline does not reward them as their work deserves.

Is this because they are bad? Not at all. Such people have just devoted all of their effort into creating quality but simply neglected to take care of their futures and ensure the craft and passion they love loves them back, so to speak.

The Beatles are the biggest selling musical act of all times selling and excess of 1billion records worldwide with twenty number one albums. But because they neglected to ensure that they had sole ownership of their enormous library of monumental music, other people got to cash in on rights to their music, including the King of Pop Michael Jackson (who reportedly had the rights to about one hundred Beatles songs at some point), and boy did they cash in big!

Of course, the loss for The Beatles was not as severe as it was for Solomon Linda (Paul McCartney is still among the richest musicians in the world each year) but money lost is money lost.

I am not at all saying that money is the most important thing in whatever one does. However it is important to surround oneself with positive energy where one’s passion is concerned and the best way to ensure that is make sure they energy you give to you work comes back to you in the form of rewards and results.

The universe and the laws of physics won’t do this for you. In fact, many will try to own part of something they see a lot of worth in it. It is not a matter of money but recognition and self affirmation.

President Nzumbi

The power of Faith

Be weary of your innermost beliefs

You know, one thing I now know is that I don't know all that I would love to know (I know I know....lol) . This is one of my innermost beliefs. This powerful belief is what drives me to wanna learn more and more about everything. (I mean, if I told myself I know everything I need to know about anything, like most humans, I would stop learning immediately)

This is just one of MY PERSONAL BELIEFS, the question is, what are yours?? (More like, DO YOU EVEN KNOW YOUR OWN BELIEFS?) Believe it or not, most human beings are not consciously aware of their own beliefs. The problem with this is that they apply faith in things they don't even know :-/ (WTF???). I've met people that tell you that they were not born to be happy, this is a belief. What happens is that this person will hold this deep in their heart, apply massive amounts of faith to make sure this is realised. When it is, and they are unhappy they start complaining (And that's that BS right there). 

According to me: FAITH IS BELIEF IN SOMETHING WITH NO PROOF !! (I mean, I have no proof I'll be successful and rich. But I believe it deep inside my heart, that is faith)

We all have faith, some of us are consciously faithful, some of us a puppets of our faith. The second you realise that your life is shaped by your smallest and closely held truths, you will then be living a life of conscious faith. I am not talking about religion or GOD. I am talking about things like "Life is a B***h" "Life is hard" "I will never be rich" "I will never be happy" (And believe me, this is the dumb stuff that these depressed humans feed their subconscious daily :-/). These beliefs HAVE TO BE MET. That's how faith works. As you believe, so it will be!!!!

I challenge you (Let's see if you got the balls to be happy !!!), right now, think of the last negative " I can't " statement you said to yourself, now flip it. (eg If it was " I can't approach her, she's too hot and outta my league" now flip it and say " I'm the shiiiiiiit, she wants me B-)"...). Now do this daily until you develop nothing but positive beliefs!! 

Do you believe that you will be happy for the rest of your life? or do you believe that happiness is shortlived?

Do you believe that you will be successful and live your dreams? or do you believe that your life will be determined by your background?

Do you believe that happiness is your right? or do you believe that it is a privilege that is scarce?

Be honest with yourself and answer these belief questions, and ask yourself more challenging and more personal ones, there is no other way to grow :)  

My most important belief is HAPPINESS IS MY CHOICE : SUCCESS IS MY HABIT !!! I live by these words. And in turn, my pure faith is granted to seeing these statements realised. I am consciously faithful to happiness and success :) (That's just me mayn, most humans are unconsciously faithful to unhappiness and stress :-/). 

SO in closing. Be sure you are aware of your beliefs, and choose the beliefs that will serve you best. Nurture your beliefs, and give them your blind faith. Now watch them change your life (**p)

KingNzumbi(**p)

PS: Do yourself a favour and get one the best books on this subject ever!!!! "The power of your subconscious mind" by Dr Joseph Murphy. Any self respecting book store should have this book. It will teach you concepts such as "scientific prayer", I love this book and the timeless concepts inside it. It will be worth all those hours of reading (**p)

BE CURIOUS: AIM HIGH AND LEAVE THE CRITICISM TO THE EARTHLINGS

WHAT an amazing planet we live on. It’s quite bizarre though that as wonderful a world as this is, and we do live in a wonderful, complex and vast world, human curiosity always pushes us to go further and aim higher.

The events of space exploration science and technology in the past week are proof of this human drive.

The National Astronautics and Space Administration of the United States of America, also known as Nasa, have successfully landed the space exploration rover, Curiosity on the planet Mars.

This machine is not assigned to the red planet to find a civilisation of little green men living on the surface. In fact Nasa bets are firmly against the chances of their rover being abducted and sodomised by Martian nomads anytime during its intergalactic quest.

No. Curiosity was assigned to Mars on a mission to find evidence that the planet once had conditions similar to earth, ideal for accommodating life, whether sophisticated creatures or simple micro organisms. Not life. Just evidence that says it wouldn’t be crazy to think life was once there…

Now, I know what some of you readers might be thinking at this point. Nasa spent $2.5billion building a remote control go-kart and sending it to Mars, and they don’t even think they’ll find life there? Doesn’t sound so revolutionary, does it?

This event made world news, and most people witnessing it in newspapers, on television and the web weren’t all too sure why.

I didn’t get the point of it all myself, until I did some research of my own. And the innovations of far-reaching sci-tech actually play a much bigger role in improving everyday life for human beings than one would have originally thought.

From canned foods to GPS systems, some of the “simplest”, and I use that as a term to describe common innovations we take for granted daily, inventions and innovations came about as a result of people setting out to accomplish grand and seemingly “over-the-top” feats.

But people don’t get that immediately. In fact I believe a lot of people find themselves and their purpose being misunderstood by the rest of the world, much like our robotic ambassador up on planet Mars.

When a person learns of Nasa and Curiosity and shrugs, saying “what will it do to solve world hunger”, I can’t help but be reminded of the plight of passionate people who are told by their parents “I don’t see how you will make a living off of something like fashion design”.

I believe being overly proverbial is sometimes a dreaded bore, but I think this metaphor is quite relevant.

Many of us have had to learn the hard way that some people will not be supportive of what we are passionate about, no matter how talented, dedicated or diligent we are at it. Many people find themselves living out their parents’ failed dreams or expectations that society has of them.

It’s such times when one will have to take a page out of Curiosity’s book and distance themselves from the negativity and criticism that flies in the face of their aspirations. The rover is on Mars 56million kilometres away. Other than the orders of a dedicated Nasa team, Curiosity can’t pick up a thing from here.

I understand why we are often told to reach for the stars. Not just because that is where we want to be, but also because it’s as far from negative energy as a person can possibly get.

So, reach for those stars. You could land on the moon, Mars or even head straight for the sun. At the very least, eventually you will succeed in getting away from “those people”.

President Nzumbi

WHAT THE OLYMPICS TAUGHT ME

This is a very proud moment for SA. Cameron van der Burgh and Chad le Clos along with Matthew Brittain, John Smith, Sizwe Ndlovu and James Thompson have done justice in representing us in the London Olympics this past week, seeing our great nation win three gold medals in the water.

But pride is a powerful emotion, or should I rather say, a powerful force. Pride can take us down a positive or a negative outcome depending on how it influences our view on others.

Before I continue, I need to stress that I have no problems with Americans or the nation of America. But the country is truly an example of how pride can take one down a negative path if it’s channelled negatively.

When Durban’s Chad le Clos accomplished the great feat of winning a gold medal at the tender age of twenty, he instantly became an international sporting darling, the international sporting world congratulating his hard work and raw talent for what it was.

The most an American news site could say about the very same swim? Oh, nothing but the fact that Michael Phelps won a silver medal. A twenty year old swimmer from Durban beat Michael Phelps in the water but still struggles to break out from under Phelps’ shadow.

Needless to say, this kind of patriotic arrogance was quite embarrassing for the United States as their reporters couldn’t even bring themselves to acknowledge that they were beaten.

London as a city is also not completely innocent in this. People have already expressed concern around whether the organisers of the Olympics understand that they are hosting an international event.

The saga of empty seats continues all while tourists keep camping outside of the venue asking to get access to purchase tickets.

It’s all very strange. But one thing that has become very clear in these two examples surrounding one global event is the negative impact when groups of people (not nations, per se) cannot see past their own noses.

It’s important in life to remember that we are each made for the world and that the world is not a luxury sofa custom designed to our specifications. A very important step on the journey to success or happiness is an acceptance of things as they are.

Too often as young people, we are ignorant of harsh realities and want to air-brush the truth in our own minds about our challenges and our failures. This is dangerous, not only because a person could set themselves up disappointment, but also because when we think like this we are of no use to the society and world around us.

Today, I would like to challenge anyone with high hopes and dreams to push those aspirations to the limit. If it doesn’t work out be honest with yourself and use that as a lesson to make you better when the second chance comes: and believe me, the second chance will come.

But what do I know? I’m not that great at water sports anyway.

President Nzumbi