I am a great big bundle of potentiality

Following is an address I gave to the Rotary Club of Kingston today.

A year ago, at my son’s graduation from prep school, the graduating class sang the song “I am a promise”. There is a line in that song that I particularly love “I am a great big bundle of potentiality”. On that proud day, when I looked at my son, I didn’t see my precious baby, now all too quickly 11 years old, and about to leave prep school – I saw all the wonderful things he could be, all the possibilities facing him, all his potentiality!

When I was invited to address you today, I knew that I had to choose my topic very carefully. Here I am, following 3 very significant events in the life of our nation – a hurricane, 10 medals at the World Athletics Championships, and a general election! I certainly had a lot from which to choose.

As I reflected on these three events, this thought came to me: Jamaica is a great big bundle of potentiality. We are unlimited in our potential.

And so you may ask, if Jamaica is such a bundle of potentiality, why are we not achieving it? Why are we poor? Why do we fuss and fight over every little thing? Why are we so violent? Why do our people suffer so? Why is economic growth so elusive? Why are we not achieving the massive potential that people like Bob Marley, Sean Paul, Asafa Powell, Veronica Campbell, Merlene Ottey and numerous others in numerous fields of endeavour, have demonstrated that we can?

The answer is simple: because we do not believe it. We have bought into the notion of limits. We have bought into the notion of reality. We have bought into the idea that what we have experienced thus far is the limit of our possibility – for that is what reality is – the past. Possibility and potential is about the future, the unknown, the as yet unthought of and unmanifested. Someone once said that nothing is impossible and added: unless you think it is. And that is the only limit to our potentiality – our belief that things are possible or impossible.

Added to this is the way we speak. There are certain words that are possibility-killers – CAN’T, NEVER, SHOULDN’T and of course IMPOSSIBLE! Many of you here will have heard them, whenever you have had the temerity to float an idea that was different, out of the box. You are quickly shot down with these words. But ask yourself, how many times have you used them to shoot down someone else’s idea, someone else’s possibility?

I go further – have you noticed our approach to “failure”? I almost flipped hearing our commentators and pundits speak about our athletes who consistently placed in the top 8 in the world “failing” to get a medal! What is the thinking of people who lambast their athlete who came 3rd in the world in the 100 metres? And who mock one of our own, who at 47 years of age is running a sub-12 second 100 metre race? Which one of us has done that lately? For, dwelling in a world of potentiality means trial and error, or rather, trial, learning and trial again. In this world, there is no failure, only learning.

People often ask me why I am always happy, smiling and upbeat. It’s because I dwell in a different place to most people. I am a possibility thinker. I dwell in a world where nothing is impossible. I dwell in a world of limitless possibilities, where every moment is one of infinite choice.

And I believe that each and every one of us is a promise, a possibility and a great big bundle of potentiality. This is the world in which I am raising my children, in which nothing is impossible for them. So, Shane, my son the athlete, wants to be the fastest man in the world. My response? Yes Shane. You can and you will. After all, who would ever have thought even up to a few years ago, that a Jamaican WOULD be the fastest man in the world! And he still is, panic or not!

It is said that a thing is created twice – once in the mind, and then in the physical world. If that is so, then once we can think of something, it is possible.

Remember when we were growing up that a telephone had to have a wire? But even then, there was a comic strip character called Dick Tracey and he had a watch that was a telephone! It went everywhere with him, for it did not have a wire. Someone had already created the idea that a phone did not have to have a wire, and could be mobile! And look at what we take for granted now!

Today, I would like to put before you two of my infinite possibilities:

A few years ago, Nicholas Negroponte of the MIT Media Lab articulated a vision, or a possibility, of closing the digital divide by giving every child in the developing world his or her own laptop. It’s called One Laptop Per Child. At the time, and even now, there are people who said “That’s impossible”. But Negroponte knew that it was, and is not. Having thought it, having created that idea, he knows it’s possible. And so, as we speak, the prototype has been designed, a manufacturer identified and orders are being taken! Some children in Brazil, Nigeria, and East Europe already have their own laptop!

Can you imagine every child in Jamaica with their own laptop? Can you just see all the lovely little children going to school, proudly toting their laptops? And after school, groups of children in yards and playgrounds, sharing, networking, communicating with children throughout the world? Can you imagine Jamaican children having access to the largest collection of information in the world? What a world it will open for them! Can you imagine for example, Hurricane Dean passing, and each child in Jamaica with their own laptop, able to track the hurricane, communicate what’s happening and perhaps even warn others of what’s to come?

Impossible, many say. Why? Well, we don’t have the money. Oh yes? Here’s the math: one laptop for each Jamaican child will total approximately US$75 million. Jamaica just spent US$116 million on Cricket World Cup! Hmmmmm. Let me hear this again: we don’t have the money?

Or, how will they learn how to use it? The other day I bought a new cell phone. The salesman in the store was trying to explain to me all the features. I tuned out and bought the phone. I took it home and gave it to my son who within 5 minutes had got it started, downloaded a Sean Paul song, and was playing games – without once consulting the manual! Our children live in a world of technology – they will figure it out before we do.

It is possible for every Jamaican child to have their own laptop – and I am asking you to hold that as a distinct and doable possibility in the very short term. This one simple act will really have each of our children singing and knowing: I am a promise. I am a possibility. I am a great big bundle of potentiality! Stay tuned over the next few months for the Jamaican One Laptop Per Child initiative!

The second possibility is one of national unity. Yes, it is possible for Jamaica to be a land of love and unity. Yes, it is possible for Jamaicans to work together. Yes, it is possible for Jamaica to be a land of abundance and prosperity, where each Jamaican is able to live joyous, peaceful lives, achieving their full potential.

We have a great opportunity now to embrace our potentiality. One of the things will be vision – not just our leader’s vision, but OUR vision. Remember, our national anthem says: Give US vision lest we perish. Let us each consider and articulate a strong, bold vision for Jamaica, not based on the past, our reality, but on our future, our possibility. Let us speak about that vision wherever we go – let us avoid the possibility-killers – the NEVER, BUT, CAN”T, SHOULDs and SHOULDN’Ts. Let us each focus our energy on this possibility.

And then, the other potentiality is that such a vision BECOME our reality! What’s needed for that is for us to come together and craft a strategic agenda that articulates what the vision means, how it is to be achieved, and how we will measure the achievement. It is a tool for accountability and performance. We do not need to wait for anyone to do this. We can each embrace this possibility and make it a reality.

I remember watching Mission Impossible. At the start, the mission was always posed thus: Your mission, should you decide to accept it is: Today, I am asking you to accept a mission impossible. It is simple. I am asking you within the next 24 hours to write down 3 answers to this question:

What impossible thing would I try if I knew it were possible?

Write one answer for Jamaica, one for your organization and one for your personal life.

Once you answer that question then you will have already made it possible!

One of the things I love about possibility thinking is how much fun it is. Walt Disney, that great possibility thinker, once said: It’s kind of fun to do the impossible. It is a blast to explore the unknown, to think wild and crazy things, to push yourself beyond limits, to see what has never been seen!

And so I will close with thoughts from one of the greatest possibility thinkers, Dr. Seuss:

Think left and think right
Think low and think high
Oh the things you can think up
If only you try

You have brains in your head
You have feet in your shoes
You can steer yourself
Any direction you choose
You’re on your own
And you know what you know
And YOU are the one who’ll decide where to go