You are Created for Impact – with Yaya Rudo

By Yaya Rudo

Dr Oliver Mtukudzi took impacting lives to the next level. Like most of his fans, I never had the chance to meet him one on one, but I watched him perform many times from the audience and yet his death felt like a personal loss to all who followed his music. The positive impact of his music in every house-hold made him a relative to everyone. May his soul rest in peace.

It is important to remember that regardless of how much we messed up or how much we have been messed up; we were created for positive impact. Yes, you may feel like you are so broken there is nothing to come out of you. Maybe your self-esteem is so over drawn it is difficult to picture yourself being of any use to others. Boy! are you wrong, even broken people can positively impact others.

We are meant to positively impact our families, communities, the workplace- pretty much everyone we come across. When we meet I must learn from you and you learn from me. By the time we go our separate ways we must go with a spring in our step because of renewed hope, energy and courage all because of our encounter.

When I think of impact, Sisy Gloria Boka comes to mind. Sisy Gloria took me on my very first shopping spree a few weeks before I left home for college. Raised by a widow with six kids there was no chance of having such luxury. I will never forget the experience of trying out clothes, shoes and all the girly stuff. It was my first time to try out clothes that I had a real chance of taking home.

Once again I do not have the right English adjectives  to describe the way I felt when I saw the Edgars Red Hanger Sale signs. The experience was simply priceless. By the time I went to college there was absolutely nothing disadvantaged about me. So yes,  it was a big deal to have new clothes after relying so much on hand-me downs.

What makes Sisy Gloria extra special is the fact that she is not remotely biologically related to me. She was just a community member who saw a need and stepped in to close the gap. Twenty-five plus years after college, I take every opportunity I get to write and talk about Sisy Gloria.

I have a long list of people who impacted my life but Sisy Gloria stands out simply because I was a stranger. Yet I can never talk about my childhood highs without mentioning her name. I often sit and wonder if I am being sisy Gloria enough to those around me. I have a permanent yearning to be just like her to a stranger-that ladies and gentlemen is real IMPACT. 

Real impact has a long shelf life, it lives on way after we are gone and the impacted people have a deep desire to impact others thus creating a chain of an unbelievable avalanche of love, hope and pure goodness.

Look at us in 2019, we are a more exposed generation with technology to back it up, yet our impact is often very little or none existent. Why? Why are we failing to even impact those right next to us?

I have a theory about our below average impact – I believe it is all because we are a generation obsessed with numbers. If you think I am lying look around you. We want five thousand friends on Facebook, a million followers on Twitter, five hundred likes on Instagram. We have taken our love for size and big numbers into everything we do. Even our kindness and generosity is now being measured in numbers!

As I write this article I bet you, someone has this big vision of building an orphanage for 100 kids, as I write this someone has a vision to start a Sports Academy for 80 disadvantaged kids. Yes, someone dreams of launching a business that will impact all of Southern Africa. Big dreams, big plans, nothing wrong with that. The problem is when we fail to do the small things, the obvious, the everyday stuff, because we are waiting for an opportunity to do big things. That is just sad. 

Impact is not numbers, it is all about leaving a positive, lasting, impression in the people around us.

Yes, it would be great to help the Albino Society, but for now how about just making sure one kid with albinism has enough sun block and sun hats for the rest of the summer. We need to fully accept that it is ok to start selling your products from your car boot or kitchen office.

Helping an orphanage is a brilliant idea but how about starting with the boy who sits right next to your son in class? Are you even aware he is an orphan? How about making sure the orphan nearest to us has books and uniforms for the year. Find the widow in your extended family, the one in your apartment building even the one in your township or village.

Go ahead buy her groceries for just one month or pay her electricity bill. Identify a gifted kid who cannot afford soccer boots, hockey sticks, soccer balls, tennis racquets, whatever is needed to take their game to the next level. How about impacting one sports kid’s life for now, just one , your pick .

We have all had a Sisy Gloria at some point in our lives. Granted maybe you did not need clothes or shoes like I did, but the confidence and leadership qualities that you ooze today – someone encouraged it. The boldness and authenticity that we admire in you today – someone believed in you .

This column is read by 8000-35 0000 readers which means we have a chance, a real chance to step in and impact 35 000 people this week . Small acts of kindness by all these readers. I am blown away just thinking of it .Can you imagine 35 000 people experiencing this kind of impact that has a tendency to reproduce? Stop focusing on the lemons thrown at you. We can change communities, we can change the world we just have to learn to do it one person at a time!

Forget about numbers focus on good old plain kindness. Who are you going to be a Sisy Gloria to this week? I raise my glass to Lemonade Makers who are committed to creating positive impact regardless of their own brokenness. 

2019 Powered by his grace and mercy.

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