Dr. Henry Venter's Blog

We live in a world that’s inundated with quantity, but is sadly lacking in quality. As the people on earth multiply it seems as if there’s such a mad rush to supply all their needs that it is easily forgotten to supply quality. Gone are the days where someone took pride in how they made something – it’s now about how fast and how many we can produce in the least amount of time. Three reasons are responsible: lack of responsibility; no accountability, and uninspiring leaders.

• Responsibility and accountability has flown the coup – it’s gone!
The other day I made use of a company’s complaint line in desperation after weeks of not being able to conclude a simple transaction. I received an email that started off with the words: “As our valued customer you are very important to us.” Unfortunately, at the bottom of the email it also stated, “This is an automated message. Please do not respond to it.” Well, I didn’t, but neither did they. To this day no living person has followed up on that message to this “valued and important customer.”

• No one wants to be accountable.
In a recent article in the New York Times a journalist eloquently captured this trend in a piece about who’s to blame for the financial crisis in America (and some other parts of the world). The answer? No one! Experts he talked to hold the notion that no one could see it coming, regardless of the fact that financial analysts now look back and pinpoint where companies started to take ridiculous risks such as selling expensive homes to people without verifying their income. And then structuring the loans to escalate in repayment within a few years way above what the buyers could afford. We live in a world where you can’t even trust your financial adviser to responsibly invest your money. That pipedream went the way of people like Bernie Madoff who fraudulently embezzled billions from his trusted customers, even from his closest friends.

• Uninspiring leaders.
Democratically elected officials turned out to be another disappointment. Often it is those who run their campaigns on the basis of family values that have been shown to be the very people that had no family values and morals. And yet, it seems as if there is no end to the unscrupulous and opportunistic people seeking power. Looking around at business and political leaders today few people are inspired. In fact, looking at voter participation we have given up voting – often less than 50 % of the people actually vote.

How can we save the world?
With new leaders! There is truly a need for a new kind of person, for a new kind of leader. There’s a need for people that can be trusted, whose word is their honor, who are willing to take responsibility and lead in a new way. The world is anxiously looking for trusted visionary and inspirational leaders. Inspirational leaders are people that can transform their world, their school, their city, their state, their country and their neighborhood – wherever they emerge they produce solutions that inspire people. They are people with passion, compassion, and character. Visionary leaders are able to show the path to others, to help people prepare for the future, and bring hope and faith. That leader could be you!

And now I would like to invite you to claim your FREE Ebook, “Six Vital Steps to Develop Inspirational and Visionary Leadership” when you visit our home page! In addition, you will also have access to several audio recordings and Podcasts all free.

From Henry J. Venter, Ph.D., psychologist, university professor, speaker, and author.

Welcome to my blog.

What drives me is to empower people to discover their dream. Everyone of us have a dream, a purpose, a goal, a meaning that we are created to fulfill. However, numerous obstacles, events, and circumstances often prevent us from reaching that point in our lives. In this blog I will process some of the more recent circumstances around us that can potentially prevent you from reaching your dream. I see this as a conversation, so I will throw in ideas and I absolutely want you to chime in, give your opinion, comments, or ideas. We can learn from one another’s experience – a sort of collective wisdom that all can benefit from.

Regarding the present economy I read an article in the San Francisco Chronicle (June 1, 2009) with the heading, “Economy in Turmoil – High stress of recession leading some to depression”. Erin Allday writes that the nationwide recession is wreaking havoc on the country’s mental health. Experts are saying that that nearly everyone feels more stressed these days – people are worried about losing their jobs, homes, and livelihood. Others watched their retirement go up in smoke. Dr. David Spiegel, a professor in the department of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Stanford University School of Medicine are quoted in this article as saying, “We’ve seen people in the ER, suicidal or depressed, because they’ve lost their jobs. They have had a whole change in their sense of their self-worth and they don’t see a way out.” He continues to say, “Much more common are people who are realizing, ‘The life I had planned out carefully is different now’…People are feeling helpless.”

What does this mean to you and me pursuing our dream?

There is a possibility that you might begin to fear, become uncertain and anxious about reaching your dream. Fear opens the door for real trouble…especially the effect it has on what you say.

Fear let you say: “I will never reach my goal,” or “It’s over,” and “It’s not worth it.” Once you begin to make these negative declarations over your life, it indeed becomes your reality.

Your behavior will begin to follow the directions of your thoughts and words. Now, I’m not discounting the effects and restraints of the negative economy on your plans for the future, but once you go into fear and negativity you are going to make the circumstances exponentially worse if you don’t watch what you say.

What looked bleak will begin to look hopeless; what appeared to be a challenge now becomes an insurmountable obstacle; what has been difficult becomes impossible. Indeed, concerning the helplessness that people are increasingly experience according to Dr. David Spiegel, you can think and talk yourself right into a mega-helplessness. And off course, helplessness is one of the main breeding grounds for depression.

So what are you to do?

One: stay the course – don’t give up;

Two: Watch what you say – don’t begin to say a bunch of fearful things;

Three: Adjust your plans if need be – being strategic does not mean you give up.

Four: Remember where you are going with your life and the dream you are pursuing – do not lose your sense of direction. This is the time to remind yourself again what you plan to do with your life, remind yourself of your dreams and hopes and make a renewed resolve to get there.

Remember – poor economic times have been known to also give rise to new inventions and great entrepreneurial feats. Remember, some of the greatest entrepreneurial ventures started during the Great Depression in the 1930s in America, just read the story of Hewlett Packard on my website.