Happy Guide: Mashatu Game Reserve
Top 3 Survival Tips for Your Career
After spending five days at the Mashatu Game Reserve, I walked away with three (3) survival skills that will help guide your career development in the management consulting industry. It took no time at all to see how various animals competed and co-existed for survival. Felt exactly like life at PCG for the past 30 years. Let’s go to work. (photo cred: @KelliDarlin @tony-mclean-brown )
Located in the Northern Tuli Block Game Reserve, this beautiful wildlife refuge is named the "Land of the Gaints." Within just a few minutes of entering this sactuary, the justification for their name is self-evident.
TOP 3 SURVIVAL TIPS
Number 1: Relationships Matter … a ton! You can’t make it as a consultant in any industry without strong relationships with your clients, co-workers, partners, suppliers, and family. The idea that you can “do it on your own” is complete bunk and building the skillis for long-term professional relationships is key. My 2 cents ... here's what it takes to get along with folks:
Kelli Hull Tony McLean Brown Happy Guide Flow
Let’s start at ground zero: your family/friends. The lion pride is absolutely analogus to your family as you start, maintain, and end your own “circle of life” as a consultant. It starts with appreciation and gratitude. Taking care of each other during the day-to-day grind.
Next up: your clients. The people you serve. Just like the baboons care for the impala … you are a critical aspect of your clients’ success. When the baboons are in the trees shaking down the fruit to be enjoyed by the impala, they are always shouting out warning and alarms for potential threats and opportunities to their old world monkey friends.
Also: your co-workers. No they aren’t family and no you are not all the same … by design. However, it’s critical that each of you support, encourage, and protect each other. Collaboration, communication, cooperations, consistency, caring, creativity, and courage all come straight off the African safari.
Without each other …
working as a team …
with a diverse set of characteristics and assets ...
a complex project team
(just like giraffes/elephants/pumbas)
will struggle to compete/survive.
Number 2: Don’t Kill More Than You Can Eat. Nature will not tolerate gluttony. It is critical to grow, learn, and serve with a very controlled and balanced approach. At PCG, we have always strived to grow at 20% per year. It is critical that an organization (and you) grow faster than the market/inflation. It’s equally important to NOT grow faster than you can build the infrastructure and skills for accepting higher work loads and stress.
When a pride of lions kill a giraffe, they maticously manage the consumption of their prey. Managing blood loss, removing internals, and keeping the meat from rotting in the sun. It takes time, proven approach, and teamwork to extract all the value from the kill. No need to take on more than you can handle. Leaving the parts for the jackels, hyenias, and vultures to clean up.
We too must have respect for the industry/eco-system that allows for sustainability and mutual survival for all that participate. It is critical that you treat all participants in your consulting markets with respect and appreciation. If there are no clients, you can't consult. If there are no competitors, there are not RFPs/projects. If there are no co-workers, there is no progress and shared success. We are all in this together.
Number 3: Adapt to Change. Truth is … change is going to happen in your career and in the wild. Some of it will be your doing but most of it will be outside of your control. New competitors, increasing interest rates ( or rivers), and the “circle of life” demands that throughout your career … you must adapt. Some of what got you here will also get you down the road.
But … just as assuredly … old dogs better learn new tricks. Think AI. Think global climate change (yeah I know, humans have had litte to no impact on climate … and the earth is just doing it’s natural heating/cooling cycle. A quick look at a 6' tall termite mound and you get a pretty good idea of the impact of volume on the earth. Imagine in my life time the global popultion has gone from 3b to 9b. #flatearther #nomoonlanding)
Rivers dry up and technology grows old. Adapt and move on. Learn new ways to find water and keep finding a competitive edge. Imagine if you were this tree ... and you just couldn't hit your stretch goal to find water for your leaves?
THIS IS A PUBLIC SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENT
If you wanna see first hand what I’ve written about, please check out: Mashatu. If you are lucky enough to find the time and energy to pay them a visit, make sure your request our professional guide Judas and his tracker Onks. The chef at the Main Lodge is Maggie … and you’ll never eat better. They are absolutely wonderful ambassadors for Botswana and Mashatu.
Tony McLean Brown Judas and Onks and KELLI DARLIN
I get pretty pooped out when I hear my fellow Americans saying, "We are the greatest nation on the globe." Not that we don't have a ton to be proud about, and our messy form of government seems to be produce some world-class results. I think the USA needs to show more compassion, empathy, humility, and tolerance for the other 8.5 billion humans with whom we share this increasingly tiny planet called Earth.
Here's why ...
- Most folks I know haven't even traveled outside of the USA. Hell some of my cowboy buddies haven't been outside of Texas! Best case they went to Cancun and couldn't tell the difference from their all-inclusive resort and Chili's on Exit 25 in Huntersville. They hollar about stopping the influx of immigrants without considering that everyone is an immigrants. Well except the Native Americans. Normal folks looking for religious freedom, free speech, and the opportunity to work hard. #PullUptheLadder #CauseImintheBoat?
- Many folks I know think America's military might and commerical/industrial/tech success are the only KPI's for the "greatest nation" blue ribbon. Maybe so, but I might suggest there are other criteria worth considering such as natural beauty, environmental protection, and kindness for thy neighbors. Living simple and close to the land surely warrants some consideration? We must come together as #OneHumanFamily to address the population growth and environmental impact of an increaseingly overweight, statistically older and sicker, less productive, under-educated, under-employed, and politically uncivilized population. #MTEGA
- Some folks I know are so damn ignorant/close-minded/uneducated that they never considered the value of life on a planet that has no clean water, pure air, or open space to enjoy community. I'm pretty sure this crowd gave up on Happy Guide blogs back in 2007. Who don't love Guns&Ammo magazine? #HatersGonnaHate
IMHO, Botswana might just be the OLDEST and greatest nation on earth. Go there and have a look around. Consider the very first humans on earth came from this little country with less than 2m people ... thousands of years before bibles were scribbled on scrolls, edited & re-edited by King James and other scholars. The folks in Botswana were living in harmony with nature for 100,000s of years before European imperialsim and the invention of the printing press made the Bible the most popular book on the globe.
We might have a ton to learn from the land, people, and animals that have co-existed since the beginning of human life.
"It is estimated that hominids lived in Botswana during the Pleistocene. Stone tools and animal remains indicate that all areas of the country was inhabited at least 400,000 years ago. It was claimed to have been the birthplace of all modern humans from around 200,000 years ago." ~ Google Search without AI
Here's Today's Vid-Clip:
Tony McLean Brown
A Western NC hillbilly through and through, Tony McLean Brown was born in the small town of Enka-Candler outside of Asheville. His parents re-named him when he was 3 years old to Tony (a nickname provided by his grandfather) McLean (middle name of his Uncle Michael) while retaining his legal surname Brown.
Throughout his career, Tony McLean Brown worked as a farmer, computer programmer, and management consultant – in his adventurous years – author, song-writer, bass player, poet, pilot, mountaineer, certified scuba diver, and competitor in professional bull riding, NASCAR late model racing, Toughman boxing, Crossfit Open, Ironman, pole vaulting, marathon and ultra-marathon running, as well as parenting.
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