In the past month, I have run into an unnecessarily small headwind. This is in connection with my avid support for a young Kenyan woman who is planning to reach the summit of Mt Everest in April.
The headwind is why bother with a small bit of “self-actualisation” by this young woman? Her motivation is: She wants to be the first African woman north of the Limpopo River to achieve this incredible pursuit. She is under 40 and her name is telling in a strange way.
Faith Mwende was born in the hilly part of Makueni County in the Kamba country in a village called Kilungu.
Out of curiosity, I tried to find out what Kilungu means. I was informed it means “a piece of a mountain that is very cold and full of trees”. Her name is Mwende which means “the loved one”.
On the other hand, her Christian name is Faith, presumably based on the Bible’s Hebrews chapter 11 which states: “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. For by it, the elders obtained a good report.”
You can read the rest of the 40 verses of the chapter to see what those elders did. A truly beautiful choice of name.
This brings me to the question of why would any rational person want to support anyone who is in pursuit of her own self-actualisation. I will give two world-famous examples.
One, Tiger Woods who is the best golfer in the world, started his quest for greatness in the dry state of California when he was only three years old. His father, a black American soldier married to a Thai woman, decided to make him great.
He gave him the necessary training as a child until he was able to do it on his own by breaking every record except one in the golfing world. He is now 47.
The second one is our own Eliud Kipchoge. At age 19, he decided he wanted to become a marathon champion. So the young man born in the little village of Kapsisiywa (the land of foretellers) in the Nandi Hills set about punishing himself by running more than 20km every day.
All in pursuit of a dream which he achieved when he broke every record in the 42km world marathon and became the first human being to run it in under two hours at a special race sponsored by Ineos, a British company. A truly remarkable achievement. He is now 38 years old.
Which leads to the question: Why punish yourself when there are so many other things that you could do?
Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs
The answer is found in a theory developed by an American psychologist Abraham Maslow (1909-1970) titled “Hierarchy of Needs”, ranging from satisfying basic needs to self-actualisation.
This is an unconscious condition programmed into our genes that keeps reminding us that, with determination, you can achieve even the impossible. Like a young woman climbing Mt Everest.
As you cannot do it alone, learn how to seek suitable help where you may lack the capacity to do it yourself. Just like Tiger Woods and Eliud Kipchoge.
My final word to Faith Mwende is: If you can get a DBA in finance when under 40, there is nothing to stop you from summiting Mt Everest at the same age.
Keep walking. Like Jeffrey Archer says in his book Paths to Glory, you too can achieve glory where others only see obstacles. With God on your side, nothing is impossible.
For our youth, learn from these cheerleaders. You may also realise your full potential.
JH Kimura, PhD, is formerly Professor of Accounting and Finance, University of Nairobi.
