Mind power or manpower?

I passed by a team of field workers this week. They were building. Most of them were doing the risky part of the job. They were climbing at a dangerous height. They could fall, you know. Others were carrying extremely heavy weights that could give them spinal problems later on in life.

One of them, obviously the boss, was looking on… almost unconcerned. He only gave orders. He was fidgeting with his phone and intermittently shouted at them as a direction.

The boss would be paid much more than those who risked their life to get the job done, I knew. They might not take even half of his salary. His risk allowances sarcastically may even be more than those who were indeed at risk.

Such is life. Mind power will always rule over manpower. Man power may get whatever done. But… mind power is the driving energy behind that manpower. Without mind power, manpower is rendered useless. Thus, mind power will always be rewarded more than manpower!

Was I surprised when the debate of what we used our head for lingered on for so long? Maybe I was. Probably I wasn’t. What do you use your head for? You use it to carry ‘things’ (whatever that means)? Really? You do?

Until we change our thinking pattern, woefully we can’t change as a people. If we would want any significant change in this nation, it starts with our mindset; our education.

As little children, we are taught that the head is used for carrying ‘things’ with the apparent reason that that’s what the child sees, thus, would understand it better. Does that mean if the child is coming from an abusive home and his/her mother is always slapped, the cheeks are used for receiving slaps?

We need to think right. We have been indoctrinated with thoughts of manpower… not mind power. How about teaching our kids, right from the onset, that the head is never used for carrying weights but for thinking!? How about we causing a paradigm shift from manpower to mind power!?

Some of our young men, as I predicted, are growing with the ‘manpower attitude’, even in university. There is one trend I have noticed recently; lifting weight to build big muscles. You see these young men flaunting their virility in the form of big muscles because they probably think the key to their success in life lies in their muscles… not heads.

You may argue that you need big muscles to succeed if you indeed want to be a wrestler or some bodyguard. Beyond that, why would one waste all their time and resources wanting to look like some Jonny Bravo!? Anyway, Jonny Bravo was my favorite macho cartoon hero back then. Haha.

Mind power, I emphasize, will always rule over manpower. Don’t build your muscles to supposedly attract a future wife.

Girls would be attracted to your big muscles. Women will be attracted to your big brains. A woman will always choose a great mind over a great physique so don’t only build your muscles. More importantly, build your mind!

Invest in books… not body building supplements. Invest in having a great mind. Develop your mind capacity. Develop your skills. Develop your talents. Spend some time in the gymnasium but more importantly, spend most of it sharpening your skill set. A sharpened skill will always cut through the toughest of challenges. We need big brains to run this nation… not big muscles.

All the great inventions we are enjoying today were as a result of mind power… not manpower. All the solutions to our challenges, as a people, is a thing of mind power… not manpower. A six-pack can’t, for instance, solve dumsor! Developed nations invest in mind power. Developing nations invest in manpower. It’s interesting to note that mind power will always drive manpower but manpower cannot drive mind power the least.

We need young, great minds which can project into the future to change the story of this beautiful country. We need generational thinkers… not generational body builders. We need visionary minds to take over the reins of this nation. Our nation is in dire need of mind power… not manpower! We need heads that will think instead carrying weights.

You need to have a vision, my dear. You need to challenge yourself. Challenge the status quo. The only vision some people have ever had is tele-vision. Chai! Can you imagine!?

I have always stressed that we can’t live beyond how far we think. We can’t live any differently from our mindset. If you think you need big muscles to get to the top, you might only be living in a fool’s paradise. The world is run by thinkers, not body builders.

Ponder over this. As a worker, am I being paid for my mind power or manpower? Am I contributing only my muscles to my firm… and not my brains? Don’t agitate for a salary increase.

Agitate for an increase in your thinking capacity! I am off to the gymnasium. I’m on a mission to transform my one-pack (pot belly) to something close to a two-pack or more. Bear me in prayers. Haha. Great weekend folks.

The writer is a playwright and the Chief Scribe of Scribe Communications, a writing company in Accra. (www.scribecomltd.com)