Towards the end of 2016, myself and a few mates decided to take a hike up to the waterfall in the Matatiele nature reserve. Being the adventurous people we are, we decided to take the scenic route, which meant navigating up the river. Because we had been experiencing quite a serious drought that year, fortunately we did not have much water to deal with, but unfortunately no spectacular sight of the waterfall either.However we did have a few boulders and puddles to jump over, and bushes to navigate around. But unlike climbing a cliff as discussed in our previous newsletter, by no means did hiking up this river bring us to the edge of life and death. This was pretty much a fun outing, which didn't require months of training in advance.
I suppose I could also say this is how our relentless journey at IPPM began, as a fun outing. There was no training in advance, for the type of resolve that would be required in order to maintain our steady march towards success as an architecture practice. In fact, I did not know much about what it took to succeed in business nor was I clued up on the technicalities involved. All I had was an unrealistic dream and a burning desire to succeed. You can imagine how excited my parents were, nope-not really!
One of most important pieces of advice I received, were these words of wisdom said by Ralf Waldo Emerson, “do the thing and you shall have the power. Those who do not the the thing, have not the power." In all honesty, there is not much that can be done to simulate the challenges, the fear, the disappointments and the relentless resolve (mostly Grace) required to keep on track. Perhaps if I had known what it would take to get to where we are now, becoming a bureaucrat would have been much more appealing. On the other hand, if I had been like the optimists; neglected to confront the brutal facts of reality and assumed that adversity would be overcome quickly and easily, I would have been severely disappointed when I found that in reality, it was protracted and would have perhaps died of a broken heart. However, I retained faith that I would definitely prevail in the end, I confronted the brutal facts, but never lost faith!
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