Happy New Year from Eddie Obeng

This article was written by Prof Eddie Obeng for his personal blog.

I'm sure you know the tired old proverb about 'Teaching a man to fish…'  It's a really brilliant but now obsolete piece of 'Old-World' thinking. It assumes that you already know about the existence of fish and that somebody (you) has the skill to catch them. I'm not so sure that is true today.  In our complex, fast-changing world there are few ‘Opportunities’ simply because everyone else recognises them, and by the time you try to get to them they’re probably already gone.  It makes little sense to keep looking for 'Opportunities' that you recognise. Instead the trick is to create and seek out 'Possibilities'… then transform them into ‘Your Opportunities’... and then craft them into‘Realities’. Today, you must IMAGINE A FISH!

Original Proverb: Give a man a fish and he feeds for a day.  Teach a man to fish and he feeds for a lifetime.

A decade ago I added my own two silent lines.  I invented them as mantra to inspire me to keep my quest for New World Leadership and Business Management moving through education & learning-by-sharing...

Teach a man how to learn how to fish and he may also learn how to hunt, farm, produce works of art or cook.

Teach a man how to teach others to fish and you feed the village and then the world. And for you, again for 2013 and onwards I now say - First, IMAGINE A FISH.

eddie obeng ____________________________________________