Shackleton – A Model of Optimism and Forward Thinking

During my recent trip, I got the chance to read a book called Shackleton’s Way by Margot Morrell and Stephanie Capparell. This is a book about an explorer named Ernest Shackleton who some have argued was the greatest leader that the world has ever seen, but he was broke, he failed at almost every goal he ever set, and he never lead more than 27 men. That definitely challenges our perception of what a successful leader looks like.

Shackleton was one of the early explorers to Antarctica. His third expedition was on a ship called Endurance, and his goal was to cross the continent on foot. Before the ship even made it to their landing site on the Antarctic, their ship got frozen in the icepack and they were unable to move. Eventually, they had to abandon ship and camp on the nearby ice and after being frozen in the ice for nearly a year, the ship was crushed and sank. At this point, Shackleton’s goal was no longer to reach the pole but to return to safety with all 27 of his men. After watching their ship sink, they spent the next four months trying to make it off the ice to solid ground. Some days they would drag their lifeboats across the ice only advancing an average of half a mile. How discouraging that must have been! They finally made it to Elephant Island, but they were still 800 miles from the nearest civilization, so their leader, Shackleton, set off in a lifeboat with five others to cover 800 miles of unforgiving ocean in hopes of hitting a small island where there was a whaling station. Against all odds, they made it to the island then his team trekked for 36 hours straight across glaciers and merciless terrain and collapsed at the whaling station. Then, Shackleton turned around boarded a boat and went back for his men. In all, the crew was lost in the Antarctic for two years and not one man died! This summary hardly does justice to the incredible feat of leadership that he accomplished, and I recommend that everyone pick up a copy of this book.

Hope of crossing the Antarctic was lost

I think what most amazed me about Shackleton’s leadership was his unwavering optimism combined with his ability to move past negative events and failures. It was integral to his success as a leader in circumstances that always looked dire and impossible to overcome. He knew that hope could dispel discouragement, desperation, and even mutiny. So, Shackleton fed his crew warm meals during particularly hard times, held regular concerts on the ship, but most importantly, he never let his own morale down. Everyone watches the leader! As he watched the ship Endurance break apart in the ice, a ship that he had taken on much debt to purchase, spent a year of his life living on, and might have been his last hope to achieve a great victory in exploration, he said, “Ship and stores have gone, so we’ll go home now.” It would have been much harder for me to cope with a setback of that magnitude.

A characteristic of great leaders I have observed is their ability to forget about the things that they can no longer affect and focus on what can be done. It is what allows leaders to turn obstacles into opportunities. Many people have a very low tolerance for failure, and it only takes one to put them out of the game. No one ever achieved anything great without experiencing some degree of failure. So, once we can accept that it is a natural part of leadership and is necessary for progress, we can move past failures in healthy and productive manner.

The rescue after two years

I have often struggled with the fear of failure in my own leadership, and it can be paralyzing when it comes to making decisions about vision, strategy, investments, or hardest of all, people. I am inspired by Shackleton’s example to always maintain an optimistic outlook despite challenging circumstances, to be bold but discerning in my decision-making, and when failure does occur, to learn from it and move on.

This is not the last you will hear of Shackleton. I look forward to unpacking more of his leadership with you in the months to come.

It is always good to be home!

This does not mean that I did not have fun in America. For sure I enjoyed every bit of it, in fact if I am told that I will not be able to go back to America, maybe I will protest. It is good to be home, because I have the opportunity to see the woman I love most the first thing in the morning and the last thing before I go to sleep. Playing with my children daily rejuvenates my heart. I enjoy being around my family because it reminds me of the agape love. The most notorious one is my last born Sherry; she wakes me up in the middle of the night after a long day of work. But I have never been tired of her because God has never been tired of me despite my mistakes. That is why it is good to be home.

I enjoyed my time in America. First I will not forget that we had the opportunity to spend time with the text book drive leaders. I was so blessed to see people who are committed to supporting CARE for AIDS no matter what. I love all of them because for the ones I had one on one conversation with; I could tell that they were all very passionate about CFA. If wishes were horses, I would be happy to see all of them in Kenya and show them what they labored for. They would be overwhelmed to see the lives they will change because they raised a book. One thing I am sure about is that God will credit something into their heavenly account.

My heart also goes to all our hosts this year – they made our life in America very comfortable. I always thank God for them. All these homes we went to, they always made us feel at home. This means that you are helping us cut down cost on CARE FOR AIDS, therefore maximum dollars are directed towards people who are suffering here in Kenya and the Gospel is furthered. Some of them also made us walk back home as giants. We thank you for all that. I will also have to apologize following my last blog. I thought some young ladies were not taught how to cook by their mothers.  I was totally wrong. They cooked one of the best meals I did not expect! Surely I enjoyed the food. We will never go for hunger strike again. It was just that we went into their homes on a Sabbath day when they don’t cook at all and I made a very harsh conclusion about them. Please forgive me.

I began by saying that it is good to be home.  Allot of things were waiting for me here.  First, I spent a lot of my time trying to help my family who were all suffering  from different sickness. Thank God the battle was won, and they are all doing well now. The other major decision I had to make when I came back was to let one of the employees go.  I struggled with this, but I came to realized from the leadership books I am reading that it was time to let him go. This was because I spent a lot of valuable CFA time solving problems related to him. I tried to convert these times into money; I realized that we were losing a lot of money on this one person who was not ready to change at the moment.  It was painful for me because this person was one of my good friends. The wound is healed.  I realized that God had been waiting for this decision. He replaced Mr. X with a very nice person – a true man of God.  I also hear feedback from our clients too, and they are very happy with the decision.

Lastly, we are now busy planning for Christmas and all that it entails. I will conclude by telling everyone not to forget the reason for Christmas. Christ is the reason for the Season. The most important thing about CHRISTmas is the first six letters!

Did you know? #1: Babies

This entry is the first in a series of posts in which I will try to pass on some of the unexpected truths that I learned while in Kenya. If you learn something, please leave a comment and let us know!

Did you know two HIV-positive parents can give birth to an HIV-negative child?

I realized quickly upon arriving in Kenya that I had a lot to learn about AIDS, and this was of the truths that most surprised me. It stood in contrast to my understanding of HIV/AIDS, but it turns out to be completely true. Mother-to-child HIV transmission occurs in one of two ways:

1.  The virus is passed through the mothers’ blood into the child’s bloodstream.
2.  The virus is passed through the mothers’ breast milk into the child’s bloodstream.

Both the mother’s blood and breast milk carry the HIV virus, but the child is not born with the virus already in his bloodstream. In many cases in a place like Kenya, though, the mother will give birth in their home with a midwife because she can’t afford a visit to the hospital. This usually results in a longer birthing process with more bleeding and a great chance of blood contact between the mother and child, leading to infection. If the child makes it through this process without contracting the virus, though, they will often fall prey to the second scenario listed above. For poverty-stricken mothers without a healthy or regular diet, it is often difficult to produce enough breast milk to support the baby. This leads them to feed the baby solid food while breastfeeding, which creates tiny cuts and tears in the digestive system and allows the HIV virus to pass from the breast milk into the bloodstream.

The good news is that both of these scenarios are entirely preventable! If a woman gives birth in a hospital, the process is shortened considerably and the risk of infection through blood drops dramatically. If she breastfeeds exclusively for a period of time before switching entirely to other food sources, breast milk poses no threat to the child. Ensuring these things take place requires education and resources. Mothers need to know that going to a hospital and breastfeeding exclusively can prevent a lifetime of challenges and sickness for their child. They also need the resources to pay for a hospital visit and feed themselves enough to breastfeed exclusively – resources that seem small to us, but could be enormous barriers to a woman facing sickness, poverty, and rejection because of their HIV-status.

By the grace of God, CARE for AIDS is able to provide both the necessary education and resources to all of the pregnant women that come through our program. To date, we have seen over 60 babies born to HIV-positive parents, and 100% of them are currently testing negative. This is one of the most exciting parts of our ministry to me! Through simple teaching and basic resources for hospital delivery and food, we get the privilege of granting a baby the shot at a life without HIV/AIDS. These babies are the entirely innocent victims of the HIV/AIDS crisis, and we praise God for each one that doesn’t have to live his or her life under the shadow of sickness and stigma.

This baby, Emanual Gordon Odhiambo, was born to one of our staff in Kisumu last week. He got his middle name from me!

Did you learn something? Have questions or thoughts? Please leave us a comment and we’ll get back to you! We would love for you to share this with your friends, and you can also enter your e-email address to the right to have future posts delivered directly to your inbox.