Teamwork
Intro
Can one achieve anything significant alone? Yes, I think so. But can one achieve sustainable progress alone? No, I doubt. The concept of Teams become very important when you consider the second question asked. Hence, I’ll be sharing my experience around individual (solo) efforts and Team efforts in this piece.
Solo-Jack
In my secondary school, there was a slang: ‘Solo-jack’, which meant ‘to read alone’. Many people, including myself, practised this sparingly. Not always but of course on the mornings of ‘Stint Tests’ (a very tough twenty- subjective and four theory- questions test that constituted 30% of the term’s score for each subject), you’ve got to find some corner to squeeze in some last-minute buffer content that may just earn you two more marks. Oh, Stint Tests. The overall result of this was that some students excelled in flying colours while others may have rock-bottom grades that make Open Days (the day parents come to collect the Stint Test results) exciting or dreadful respectively. Well, I don’t blame myself for this so much, we acted based on the knowledge we had on how to study properly, which was at the time rather vague.
Team-Jack
During my undergraduate studies, we took full advantage of team studies. Luckily, we had a willing set of folks who understood the strength of togetherness towards success. Tutorial teams, study teams, football teams, debate teams, project teams, leadership teams, church teams, etc. were some of the avenues we had to leverage on collective energies. Whenever I reflect on these, I’m overwhelmed with joy that we took this approach.
Team Play
The concept of Teams however extends beyond confined systems. Life itself appears to be a game of Teams. You’d need to team up in families, relationships, politics, governance, leadership, entrepreneurship, spirituality, career, and personal development amongst other avenues. My teammate, Fatima, drags me into office meetings and engagements that I could have missed. Together with Ruqayya, we share knowledge on what needs to be done, and even when I stray (which happens many times, lol), they pull me back to the business. These but surface examples, there are lots of colleagues that relate in a similar team spirit. The Church is also there.
The Team Philosophy
Teamwork is not an option but the only way you can deliver substantial results that are sustainable across generations. Anyone doing things alone will burn out without passing anything tangible on to the next generation. Thus, as an individual, when you make personal progress, have it in mind that it is to bring it in as Value for a Team. For humanity.
Cheers Team Mate🥂
