Kenya’s most profitable company Safaricom, a telco, that has been making billions of shillings in profits, probably is the leading person to have exploited the brouhaha around marathon record holder Eliud Kipchoge’s attempt to run the 42km race in under two hours.
Safaricom changed its cash machine M-Pesa logo to Eliud-1:59 for a whole seven days. Incredible, is it not? The telco says they are making the runner the M-Pesa brand ambassador.
Of course, they will benefit from the publicity around this goal in Kenya and around the world before, during and after the race on Saturday, October 12.
They will also secure a good name as a company that sacrificed its product identity to place the country on the map of glory and fame. Call it patriotism.
Others are also making a beeline to gain from the Kipchoge war.
Newspapers and magazines, including ‘A Plain’ , are writing about the occasion with aplomb and finesse while expecting juicy sales and a following tied to an individual’s act of commitment, courage, focus, and risk-taking.
Companies are promising the runner all manner of goodies, not as freebies, but to get a piece of the greatest of all time, call it the GOAT. These firms know the athlete has offered a hard-to-get market that happens after years.
What can the educated and professionals learn from Kipchoge’s resolve to give this goal a try?
At university graduations, the graduands are fired up — perhaps to no avail, sadly — to read and do all that involves their specialisations, from Bachelor’s to PhD.
Graduation ceremonies are important events that draw huge crowds to celebrate success of their daughters and sons. Without a doubt, universities also get achievers to put the graduating class on the path of greatness.
However, there is evidence that after leaving the graduation squares and the gowns are removed, many graduates forget about reading and only do a small bit of their professions, firming them up as quacks while claiming they are looking for jobs and promotions at work.
But, Eliud, the GOAT, is an athlete on a mission, telling himself “no human is limited” especially for the 1:59 dream.
Of course, it’s only when you go an extra mile and throw your heart over the bar can you give the world and self new possibilities.
Athletes train, practise, and literally throw their hearts and bodies over the hurdles to get the much needed shape, frame of mind, and focus.
“You can be an ordinary athlete by getting away with less than your best. But if you want to be a great, you have to give it all you’ve got – – your everything,” said Duke Paoa Kahanamoku, a Hawaiian swimmer.
If you want to be a great!
Why would somebody go to school, attain qualifications, and then pick below-par performance?
Kahanamoku’s assertion addresses the usual excuse of ‘Everyone is doing it’. It pays to set yourself apart, especially when everyone thinks you can’t do it.
Kipchoge is already a great. But he is not relishing the feat just yet, he is setting new heights and goals to leave a legacy. He wants to compete with the clock. Mind-boggling, to say the least.
It will be remembered that Alex Ferguson, the Manchester United great manager, once said that immediately after winning, he focuses on the next league. So, like author Jim Collin says in his book, good people should aim to be great.
That is what is cited at graduation ceremonies in efforts to give graduates the desire to keep bettering performance. Raising the professions bar would mean that the 21 Century accountant, doctor, journalist, and mechanic would have the wherewithal to stop the most sophisticated crooks and unravel the tightly woven engine problems.
Not the case, sadly. And, a few good people remaining cite the 70s case how professionals and technicians gave consumers and taxpayers peace of mind as the in-charge.
A school of thought may claim Kipchoge is training himself lame motivated by cash promises and other goodies. Very wrong.
No one showed the athlete wads of crisp notes, fat cheques, and big-engine vehicles when he was starting off. Everyone starts as a nondescript. Every fresh graduate is a rookie, must make self available for guidance and train to rise to the occasion.
What are you reading now, Madam Professional? Which trainings are you pursuing, Mr Auditor? At what time are you waking up or going to sleep, made alert by your trade and profession?
May we ask professionals, companies, and schools of all types to learn from top athletes like Eliud Kipchoge to set the pace and make people happy by delivering the best of the best. This is a case worth studying deeply in the endeavours of saving the world. It’s more than a marathon.
