By the Lionesses of Africa Operations Dept
January, just the mention of that month brings high hopes and expectations of greater things. Given the low base that was 2020 (although as we pointed out in our last Blog, 2020 was a year of such incredible opposites, not only of terrifying lows but also for many Lionesses, incredible highs), 2021 for the entire world from a health perspective has to be better!
January comes from the ancient Roman god called Janus. He had two heads - one looking back (at the previous year) and one looking forward. One young, the other older and (one assumes) wiser. He was the god for the Romans of beginnings and transitions, also of gates, doors, doorways, endings and of time. Transitions.
This weekend’s picture is of Janus and Bellona, the Roman goddess of war in a sculpture by Johann Wilhelm Beyer, 1773-80, in the Schönbrunn Garden, Vienna…and yes that is a Lioness head on her chest. HAH! As if we ever doubted!
Having looked last weekend at the past, we now look deep into our crystal ball to see what is ahead and in store for us in 2021.
Sadly we have to admit we have no crystal ball, but what we do know is that CV19 has no appreciation of Janus, a new year, or a new beginning. As we saw over the holiday period, numbers tragically in South Africa exploded. This is being replicated across the continent and the world, with the USA as well experiencing a huge hangover that just seems to keep on giving in a terrifying way. The race between vaccine and illness has just begun, the battle of light over dark…
At the end of 2020, we wrote of the light amongst the dark. One of the darkest places in 2020 was the town of Bergamo in Italy. It was as if Dante had placed one of his stages of hell in the Town centre, such was the overflowing of the hospitals, the death and suffering from CV19. The townsfolk of this beautiful town must have often thought they had been placed in the middle of a huge wilderness and simply left there to die. It was globally the epicentre of the pandemic. When asked how they managed to push through, the answer was simple: "The people of Bergamo are known in Italy as one of the most hardworking and passionate people, one of the mottos here is 'Mola Mia' (never give up) and the people and community of Bergamo have worked together and not given up.”
It is this ‘Mola mia’ that is central to being a Lioness. Having fought through 2020 (and it was indeed a battle), the urge to just curl up and retreat to the warm embrace of the duvet was indeed strong, but this ‘call to entrepreneurship’, the call to have purpose in one’s life is now stronger than it has ever been before. It is this call, similar to the call experienced by artists to the natural world, this magnetic pull that creates a blur of activity around us whilst we in our cocoon are like a top sport’s star, ‘in the zone’. This calling will not change but if embraced, if handled like a dear close friend, as we have seen from many of our inspirational Lionesses, it will gain strength as we drive ourselves forward for our employees, for our customers, for our communities and for our purpose.
Last weekend we wrote of Beethoven, also driven by an unseen purpose, who would seek solace, energy and inspiration from the wilderness (on one occasion being arrested because following his death defying illness he was mistaken as a tramp whilst regaining his energy walking in a forest). This basic idea of drawing energy for one’s purpose from Mother Nature has been present in human society for thousands of years and written, sung and painted by those all drawn beyond the comfort of their home, often called to and tested by the great wilderness of Mother Nature.
In the early twentieth century, Robert William Service, a British-Canadian poet, was pulled by the same idea. He knew the wilderness, although dangerous, gives such energy, just as our Lionesses recognize that entrepreneurship, never easy at the best of times, has that incredibly strong magnetic pull that is so impossible to ignore for many and has such energy.
Robert was drawn to very much this idea, when he wrote ‘The Call of the Wild’ from the most wild place he’d lived in his entire life (and he’d lived in a few!) and to all of those who have experienced the ‘wilderness’ of entrepreneurship and importantly, the pull of ‘purpose’, this poem speaks.
“Have you gazed on naked grandeur
where there's nothing else to gaze on,
Set pieces and drop-curtain scenes galore,
Big mountains heaved to heaven,
which the blinding sunsets blazon,
Black canyons where the rapids rip and roar?
Have you swept the visioned valley
with the green stream streaking through it,
Searched the Vastness for a something you have lost?
Have you strung your soul to silence?
Then for God's sake go and do it;
Hear the challenge, learn the lesson, pay the cost.
Have you wandered in the wilderness, the sagebrush desolation,
The bunch-grass levels where the cattle graze?
Have you whistled bits of rag-time at the end of all creation,
And learned to know the desert's little ways?
Have you camped upon the foothills,
have you galloped o'er the ranges,
Have you roamed the arid sun-lands through and through?
Have you chummed up with the mesa?
Do you know its moods and changes?
Then listen to the Wild -- it's calling you.”
Family, friends, bankers, customers, international buyers, have all at some point suggested to Lionesses either in words or deeds that the home fire may well be an easier place to rest one’s weary limbs, but as Robert finished:
“They have cradled you in custom,
they have primed you with their preaching,
They have soaked you in convention through and through;
They have put you in a showcase;
you're a credit to their teaching --
But can't you hear the Wild? -- it's calling you.
Let us probe the silent places, let us seek what luck betide us;
Let us journey to a lonely land I know.
There's a whisper on the night-wind,
there's a star agleam to guide us,
And the Wild is calling, calling. . .let us go.”
Although knowing the journey will be difficult this magnetic pull to build your own business, to employ, to wonder at the joy of watching your employees grow in ability, stature and grace, to lift up your local communities - this is the incredible power and hold that entrepreneurship has over you, and in spite of the wide expanse ahead, you know are not alone. You have a huge community around you in the Lionesses of Africa.
When we called out early in 2020 as CV19 broke, for Lionesses to write of their experiences, their helpful hints, their solutions, they as one heard the call and reacted. Business Unusual was launched and weekly we would hear of Lionesses who had called others within the community for advice, some even in different countries. A great example was on one occasion a Lioness desperately needed Hydrochloric Acid for her plant, the call went out and supply from another Lioness (previously unknown to each other) was quickly found. It is these ‘little things’ that make all the difference, that make the community.
We were approached by some Lionesses who simply could not break into certain ‘western’ companies, we made calls and opened the doors, through our contacts, or through another Lioness we knew that had already walked that route. This is what community is all about. When the chips are down the Lionesses rally. It might seem to many that the entrepreneurship call is one that will take you only into solitude and my goodness it sometimes feels like that, but your community is here, willing and able.
We shall see more Lioness community growth in 2021; we shall see more Lionesses buying from Lionesses in 2021; we shall see more appreciation of that fickle friend ‘Cash Flow’ (if ever there was a lesson in the power of Cash Flow, 2020 was it!); we shall see more recognition from the ‘west’ of the great work you are all doing in 2021; we shall see more Multi-National Companies work with us to open their huge supply chains to Lionesses in 2021; we shall see more finance houses recognize the power of women led businesses in 2021; and finally we shall see less polarization and more community across the world, and of all of that we are absolutely certain.
So embrace 2021 like a dear close friend, learn from 2020 and come back like Janus a little older and wiser, remember ‘Mola Mia’, use your community of the Lionesses and then draw strength from the energy created by this community to drive forward your purpose.
2021 will be your year, of that we have no doubt!
Stay safe.