PRESCRIPTIONS - by Mbimenyuy Marius Kongnso

Let’s talk about prescriptions.Prescriptions are “how-tos.” They are hacks and they are techniques and methods, various methodologies to get somewhere. When we talk about something from the standpoint of a mechanical behavior such as turning on a computer or riding a bicycle–prescriptions are useful. The problem is that whenever you venture into the realm of art in any form, be it in business tech, sports or even in finding peace in your life or freedom or arriving at enlightenment, those things cannot be prescriptionized. If you attempt to prescriptionize them, what happens is: the prescription becomes the new god. You begin to try to live up to the prescription. For instance, In the beginning, you have a place to go. “I want to go to X.” Then you introduce an intermediary: the prescription. “This is how I will get to X.” Then what will happen is that your mind will begin to focus upon the intermediary and it will enter into a deal, which it never signed up for. That deal is that for the rest of your life you will attempt to satisfy the intermediary- the “how to get to X” In all domains, you have many people who have done great things. The Buddha attained enlightenment. You have Samuel Etoo and J.J Okocha who did amazing things in football. Aliko Dangote and various individuals who do great things in business. If you take what those people did and you write a book and say, “These people did X.” If you follow that “X” you will not become them. You will not! Business biographies are very useless for building a great business. They’re good for inspiration. You can read Tony Elumelus’ bio and be inspired, but you can’t be Tony Elumelu. And if you want to be amazing at something, then you have to find your own way there. For mechanical things, how-tos work, but when you’re trying to to operate at the top of a field or when you’re trying to do something creative, how-tos don’t work beyond the most extreme basics. When you’re first starting something, it is actually a mechanical endeavor. You’re just figuring out how to drive a car, but when you’re trying to figure out how to race it around a track faster than anyone else, then all coaches and techniques and prescriptions have to fall by the wayside and you are at the edge of the art. If you want to be the best in the world at anything, you cannot follow prescription. If you want to be “okay” at it, then sure you can follow prescription. If you want to learn how to lose a pound a month and get in decent shape, then you can follow a calorie counting worksheet. But if you want to be a shredded bodybuilder or an olympic athlete, you’re not going to get there through how-tos. You’re going to have to create and forge your own path that is unique to you. Take the person who “made it” and become world-class in whatever he did. If he went back and retraced his steps and did everything again the same way, but this time he did it by mimicking himself, he would fail. Even he wouldn’t be able to do it. where greatness comes from is a very murky affair. It is nonlinear. It is unpredictable. Perhaps nature and the universe set it up this way that you have to jump in. And once you jump in the soup and you’re being bombarded from all sides and you live in confusion and you have no idea which way is up, if the obsession is there, then what happens is, through a messy process you find a way. You see light at the end of the tunnel.

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