On November 25, 2013, our post focused on The Wisdom of Africa.  We reflected on a simple but powerful proverb: 

If you want to go fast, go alone.

If you want to go far, go together.

In our write-up, we noted that it doesn’t say that one way or the other is right; instead it suggests that the more you can make a conscious choice about how you move in the world, the more likely you are to get where you want to go.

 

Since that time, we have received countless responses from people in our Monday Morning Business Coach community about how helpful they found this post and the various ways they have used it.  Unfortunately, we can’t include all of your amazing input here, but we want to share a few:

 

“I love this proverb and find myself referring to it as I am making planning decisions in my organization.  It has highlighted to me that I tend to go with my introverted leaning and go alone.  I like that it’s faster and I often find dealing with the complexity of human relations challenging.  But, and this is a big but, I want us to go far and I want us to keep going far long after I am in this role, so I need to go together more frequently.”

 

“I am the father of two teenage boys.  They are at the stage where they love their mother and me but they believe they have to go alone on everything.  I shared this saying with them and we had a wonderful discussion about the times when they really do need to do it on their own and the times when having support and allies could really help them go farther.  We also talked about the various people who can help them go far, so that they don’t just have to rely on their mother and me.  It has really changed the way we are relating to one another.”

 

“This is great!  And it both literally and figuratively applies to my hiking group.”

 

“This is a wonderful proverb and is supported by the research on aging . . . if we want to go far – to live long, healthy, successful lives – we need to go together.  We need to make connections, we need to build allies, and we need to be part of something larger than ourselves.”

 

Thank you all for your responses, together we have the power to go very far!