From Kobe Bryant, Basketball Legend, Via Frank H, Lessons For Communicators In Agriculture!


Above, note my source of this essay. Buhay Teacher (A Teacher’s Life, my translation), whoever you are, you have my utmost admiration. You are unique; you are wonderful. 

I was teary-eyed today, 27 January 2020, reading about the helicopter crash in Los Angeles, California, that took 9 lives: Kobe Bryant, 41, daughter Gianna, 13, and 7 others.

Listen, I am not a fan of basketball. So, it is quite surprising for me to read that basketball is not simply physical: it is also or mostly psychological. If you want to be a star. Thank you, Buhay Teacher, for sharing your story: “8 Life Lessons We Can All Learn From NBA Legend Kobe Bryant[1].”

And yes, since I myself am trying to inspire the new Department of Agriculture under the leadership of Secretary of Agriculture William Dar/Manong Willie, I am dedicating this essay to all the communicators of the DA, national, regional, provincial. Yes! We will now try to learn from the basketball legend’s “8 Life Lessons:”

(1)      Rest at the end, not in the middle.

(2)      Everything negative – pressure, challenges – is all an opportunity for me to rise.

(3)      The most important thing is to try and inspire people so that they can be great in whatever they want to do.

(4)      I can’t relate to lazy people. We don’t speak the same language. I don’t understand you. I don’t want to understand you.

(5)      As I sit here now, as I take off my shoe and I look down at my scar, I see beauty in it. I see all the hard work, all the sacrifices. I see the journey that it took to get back to this point of being healthy. And I see beauty in that struggle. That’s what makes it beautiful.

(6)      If you don’t believe in yourself, no one will do it for you.

(7)      The magic in life is finding what it is that you love. That’s the key. When you find that thing that you love, your life makes sense. You wake up in the morning, and life makes sense. And for me, it was basketball.

(8)      Heroes come and go, but legends are forever.

Selecting now, I offer #3 to everyone. Yes, everyone. You thought that Lesson #3 would apply neither to communicators nor to farmers, did you? Instantly, I thought it would.

Here is what to communicate how to be great in farming:

Being great for your family is avoiding borrowing from usurers who rob you of your hard-earned money in broad daylight.

Being great for your family is respecting the soil so that you enrich instead of robbing it of its riches, or poisoning it.

Being great for your family is avoiding technologies or systems that being human prohibits – like growing food with toxins in it, or cheating your customers.

Being great for your family is earning from your labors what you deserve and not allowing the merchant to steal from you.

Duty calls. Communicators in agriculture, cultivate farmers to be great!@517





[1]https://buhayteacher.com/8-life-lessons-we-can-all-learn-from-nba-legend-kobe-bryant/



Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Wizard Of Os

Image
In rethinking Secretary of Agriculture William Dar/Manong Willie’s “New Thinking for Agriculture” with its embedded “Eight Paradigms,” today Thursday, 23 January 2020, I came to the realization that we need to  add  a Wizard of Os if we are to succeed in one of the prime goals of the new PH Agriculture:  Entrepreneurship . Yes! The 5 Os are:  Obstacles, Opportunities, Options, Outputs  and  Outcomes  - proceeding from production to marketing. That is to say, to train anyone senior, adult or young, on entrepreneurship, one must teach and go through the 5 Os.  Obstacles.  What are the problems, complexities, lacks, insufficiencies that may be encountered along the way from old knowledge or new idea to the start of production up to marketing?  Opportunities.  The obstacles must be viewed some other way. They may be re-viewed in perspective so that the opportunities may be discerned. Or, thinking out the obstacles, what are the scenarios, openings, prospects that can be conside
Read more

Redesigning PH Agriculture – Science-Wise, Ilocano-Wiser!

Image
You are looking at The Bridge to Prosperity found in Asingan, Pangasinan – Ilocano-wise.  How do you like it: That your Secretary of Agriculture, William Dar/Manong Willie, is an agriculturist and Ilocano? That your science writer, Frank A Hilario, is an agriculturist and Ilocano? That the Ilocanos are known to be industrious and frugal? I love it! Except: We Ilocanos are not frugal in farming. We Ilocanos have to be taught what we already know! To do that, for my hometown of Asingan, Pangasinan, I have been thinking of an agri-tourism program with our Nagkaisa Multipurpose Cooperative’s 4.2 hectares of land down the Sinapog Bridge (beautiful scene above). Under the bridge, Nagkaisa has authority over those hectares. The other day, I discussed with Nagkaisa Chair Roger Daranciang my proposal for a “Farmer-Friendly Agriculture, Ilocano-Wise” techno-demo program involving Asingan’s 21 barangays. When you find the formula for prosperity, please multiply it! Not
Read more

In Onions, There’s Strength, In P Millions! – How To Make That Ideal Real? Do The IMOD

Image
IMOD. William Dar/Manong Willie as head of the Department of Agriculture, DA, avidly leads his “New Thinking for Agriculture” where an embedded ideal is Inclusive Market-Oriented Development, IMOD. If you want farmers to rise from poverty and stay up there, you must do the IMOD.  IMOD as the ideal for local & national growth was developed at ICRISAT, based in India, when Manong Willie was Director General, from January 2000 to December 2014, 15 years – IMOD as ideal became real. So, if you want your farmers to be blessed with “Masaganang Ani, Mataas na Kita” ( Bounteous Harvest, Bountiful Income , my translation), the current mantra of the DA , you must do the IMOD. With IMOD, the development is real – distributed to everyone, especially the poor farmers. IMOD as ideal: “Find the ideal in something not ideal” – Robert Denning [1] . As a farmer, is it ideal to think rich? You have to think rich; you also have think real. Now, let’s consider Eva Visperas’ 09 Januar
Read more