#81: The anatomy of courage

A piece about why this year feels hard and nitty-gritty of what needs to change in 2024

My most stupid idea was called TomTV. It was a network of 160 WiFi hotspots in spaza shops designed to do one thing - educate. The design was genius (in its own way). Ten years ago we were amongst the first people in the world to inject unskippable ads above an internet stream. The ads paid for the education. The users got entertainment. Spaza shops got the crowd of kids at their door.

The idea failed dismally though. Dismally. Our mechanics are still being used in shabeens by SAB with new sites added each month, but education was a miserable failure. Of the 100,000 kids on our network less than 1% were like the guys below and wanted to change their life.

This got me asking hard questions about courage. Or hope. Where was it? Why is it? Why do some have it and others not when it comes to pursuing opportunity in the world's most unequal country? Then in 2021, I had a life-altering conversation with the head of the Michael Dell Foundation and funder of UCT Online. He said in their investments they expect a 5% return on free programs. 5%…

Now this is draconian, but I want us to pause… potentially stop skimming, and truly consider the implications of what that means. 1% of 100,000 kids in some of the worst conditions man can comprehend wanted a free education as a tangible solution to help them break the cycle of poverty in their life? And only 5% of participants complete free programs in one of SA's biggest funders of NGOs. That is bonkers! Madness! Unexplainable! Especially given that 60% of South Africans live below one of the poverty lines???

We naively think hope and courage are inherent. Static-ish. Attributes gifted by God, and sadly they’re not. They’re a privilege of mostly our environment.

In 1977 Albert Bandura, a Californian psychologist, published an important model that unveiled the anatomy of hope. Today it is increasingly used in health communication and politics around the world. I’m using it in my work with DA because it explains neatly why humans do what they do (and the shocking trends above).

Hope, and therefore action, are a function of efficacy. Efficacy is that inherent belief in the idea that ‘I can’. But before we get to that illusive and truly inspiring idea the subconscious mind has done a whole lot of leg work. ‘I can’ only comes after any problem or opportunity is run through the subconscious mind’s model of trade-offs. If the cost is perceived as higher than the return you don’t even get out of the blocks to that delicious conscious thought.

While nothing yet can truly pierce the veil of human consciousness, fifty years of application is showing Bandura's model has it more right than most. And he suggests a normal person’s brain asks four simple questions to determine trade-offs when confronted with an opportunity - 1. Are others I know doing it and succeeding? 2. Are others I trust telling me to do it? 3. Have I succeeded in something similar before? 4. Does my mood/mental health have the capacity for this challenge?

If the answers to those four questions add up to an overall no we’re stuck. Our TomTV users didn’t know anyone using online education to become billionaires. No one was telling them to do it. The cost of doing it was higher than bypassing our firewall using a VPN and watching porn which perfectly explains why our 1% uptake was so shockingly low.

But, if our the answer to those questions is yes, conscious thought begins. This is where the magic kicks in. Now we have courage. Hope. We set goals, our behavior changes and we’re off to tackle the challenges sure to come our way armed with reliance.

One of the most consistent words I have heard in the last 30 days is ‘hard’. It has been a ‘hard’ year. The Palestine/Israelite conflict is ‘hard’. Business is ‘hard’. Schools and teachers are having a ‘hard’ time and most importantly it is the ‘hardest’ time in history for teenagers to be alive.

As we approach 2024 and the conflict our coming election escalates along with load shedding, water crisis, and modern complexities of life I am enjoying meditating on Banduara’s model. I’m intentionally turning my attention to efficacy. Pointing my mind’s eyes at people succeeding. Opening my ears to the persuasion of those pushing me in the right direction and making an effort to succeed in the minuscule tasks that dissolve the lie that “I can’t”.

The strange and beautiful thing is as I have done that my mood has shifted. I am hopeful for 2024. Excited even. Proactive in my conscious choices to continue achieving my goal of serving others through stories that unlock the efficacy of others. And who knows, maybe Banduara can help you too?

I hope you have such a good break and I look forward to seeing you in the new year.

PS: Side note, Banduara’s model also neatly explains why as schools you might be resistant to us serving you with content to have hard conversations. The risk is high, I get that. And other video work in schools has been complicated. But the return is compelling (healthier student), yet still, subconsciously the trade-off doesn’t match up? If that resonates and you want to increase your efficacy around our work check out the testimonials on our site - here. Others like Hilton, St Annes, etc have been doing since 2021 and benefitting and that might be all you need to open the conscious idea that these conversations might help you serve those you truly love in 2024 🔥❤️💃.