Hello again, I trust you all had a glorious festive season with lots of family and friends. I began a new chapter in my life as well. It has given me a new perspective on all sorts of things we take for granted each and every day. From a simple sandwich at lunchtime to how we view a future for ourselves.
My inspiration for this article came on Sunday while out riding my bicycle around Rustenburg. I once lived there when it was just a small mining town many moons ago.
I have many good memories of the town and have watched it blossom over the last 20 years or so. I can remember in the late 80’s how people fled from the town as the mines were going to close down soon. Well, we all know what happened to the platinum trade. It went bigger and bigger in that time.
With all these thoughts of how things change and people move around looking for new adventures in new towns or cities even a new country now and then. I came to realize that we can be the cause of change where we are instead of looking for it. We should be the source of change in our lives. Yes, it is required from time to time to change location in order to grow and realize simple things in life.
It is becoming more and more apparent that we need to encourage our children to be more steadfast in where they want to settle down. Don’t worry about public opinion as it will change, don’t worry about the things you can’t change. However, if you have a dream and you want to make it happen, don’t ever think you can’t make it happen from your home town. Once we have chosen our place to live because we love the people the area the landscape. We need to have a vision or dream to follow. Steve Jobs started in his mother’s garage. He also never moved far from his origins in America for a very long time. His dogged determination and vision with a whole lot of good ideas and hard work paid off.
So getting back to my original thoughts, be the source of change. You don’t need to leave to become part of change. I chose to make JHB my home about 14 years ago and I am very proud to be called a Jo-burger now. I have lived in many places around the world and I chose Johannesburg to be my home.
I chose to be the change in how people view self-storage around 10 years ago and today I have people from all parts of the self-storage industry following my articles and watching what we do at Cedar Storage that is new. We introduced several new sizes of locker into the SA market and people are starting to expect the rest of the storage companies to have them too. Thank you to all the people who have ever stored with us or are storing their goods. We introduced the 3m² storage unit, 12m² storage unit, 6m² storage unit and the 18m² storage unit. All the standard sizes are covered as well in our modern storage complex in Kya Sands. We have them all. From 3m² to 36m² in one storage complex. With the support of an amazing team of people around me we have changed the face of self-storage in SA forever. Gone are the days when you had the choice of chicken or beef (9m² or 18m²) only. We have also introduced online booking (still the market leader there), we have also developed online management systems to manage our customer base better.
So when you look to being part of change, look to yourself see what you love and try to make a change for the better. If at first you don’t succeed, try again and again. This will be my 5th attempt at self-storage (finally getting it right) we also need to accept that when we want to change things, we will be ridiculed and frowned upon. Don’t worry, they will work for you one day or even better, pay you for the change.
I am going to make 2015 the next big change year for me. As I said, I have embarked on a new chapter in my life. I don’t believe it will be easy all the time, the reward will be phenomenal for the next 50 years of my future, when I get it right. “If” is for those who chose to lose. “When” is for those of us who have zero room for failure.
- Believe in you
- Have a vision
- You can’t do it alone
- Be patient with those who can’t see your vision
- Have patience with yourself while you learn
- Stay where you want to be, you can change your world from anywhere
- If you have a dream, dream big you never know how high you can go until you try
So some basic rules for change.
Thanks to the people who have made me who I am today, I feel strong mentally and physically simply because I had to become a better me each attempt at realizing a dream.
PS: should you choose to play a supporting role in another-persons dream because you share a common goal? There is no better feeling than knowing you played a vital role in the change.
Love life, love what you do.
Anthony
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