Surviving My Serengeti . . .as a giraffe.
In "Surviving the Serengeti: 7 Skills to Master in Business and in Life,
author Stefan Swanepoel offers a fascinating fable of life on the Serengeti plains of Africa and the lessons it holds for a struggling economy and the folks who make up that economy." Or so I was told in the introduction to Surviving your Serengeti: An Active Rain Challenge
Though, I was going to let this challenge pass, I couldn't resist taking the quiz. I answered the questions as honestly as possible - but all the while hoping NOT to be a crocodile, lion or anything with sharp teeth. Quiz One - Yay! I was a giraffe! But just to make sure I hadn't subconsciously skewed the results, I took the quiz again, nervously pressed the last button and lo, and behold - I was, indeed, a giraffe!
Yippee! Then I read the attributes of a giraffe - compassion, generosity, appreciative of what we have, kindness, doing the right thing even when it is not required.... Hmmm, even though I'd realized long ago I was more easy going by nature than others, I didn't necessarily regard this as a positive thing. If fact, I always thought that this and my other giraffe attributes were the very ones that hindered my ability to move ahead in real estate world.
The way I figured it was that my ability to make others feel important made them regard me as of no use. Deep down I'd worried that my firm stand on not taking away from someone else to get ahead meant that I wasn't competitive enough. I'd even decided that my ability to quickly adapt and re-frame after adversity only meant that I didn't have that fire in my belly.
Even though, I have always regarded these things as my weakness in the business world I knew I had no plans to change. This is who I am and I've always just wanted to find a way to make who I am work for me.
Today, I found out that there might just be a way...maybe I'm surviving my personal Serengeti better than I thought!
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