Development Solutions Consulting Africa

13/01/2025

Celebrating my 2nd year on Facebook. Thank you for your continuing support. I could never have made it without you. 🙏🤗🎉

05/11/2024

11/01/2024

Everyone is playing a role in life, everyone is playing a part. In Meditations, Marcus Aurelius reminds himself that everyone is working on the same project, even if they don’t realize it. In fact, we sometimes don’t even realize it. Sure, we want to believe that a world without selfish or shameless or dishonest people is possible, but it isn’t.

Even the people who obstruct us, who fight against progress are playing a role. Certainly every historical period has had those people, so why should our moment be any different? That’s the role the play of life picked out for them, that’s who their character happens to be.

When we understand that everyone is playing a part, that we’re all involved in the same big, messy project that is the world, we can be more understanding. We can be more patient. At the very least, we can be more tolerant and accepting and stop expecting the impossible.

It also a reminder to be grateful for the role we seem to have been assigned. The fact that you’re reading this, the fact that you’re thinking about these things means you dodged a bullet. You aren’t an idiot. You aren’t an evil villain. You aren’t a fool. At least right now…

As Marcus Aurelius points out, yes, we all have a job, but we should make sure that “it’s not the job Chrysippus speaks of: the bad line in the play, put there for laughs.”

​We all have a role, as we said recently. Let’s just make sure it’s a good one.

09/01/2024

You do a lot. You try hard. You hold yourself to high standards—higher anyway, than most people. You’re not exactly a reincarnation of Cato but still, you’re doing great.

But do people appreciate this?

Not really. Not nearly enough.

But as we’ve said before, appreciation and recognition is not a thing we control. It’s not something that’s up to us. The line from that play about Cato, the one the Founders were so fond of, reminds us that we can’t demand a good reputation but we can deserve one. So it goes for appreciation.

Besides, Marcus Aurelius would remind us that this appreciation and recognition is “the third thing”—the thanks on top for a person simply doing what needed to be done, as a parent, as a leader, as a human being. We don’t need that. It’s extra.

So let us strive to be worthy of appreciation but indifferent to whether we get it. Let’s keep trying. Let’s keep holding ourselves to those standards. Let’s make Marcus and Cato and ourselves proud. If anyone notices, great. If not, well, that’s not why we were doing it.

Daily Stoic

23/11/2022

Beautiful view from HQ Clubhouse Freetown
Lumley Beach Road 🏝️
Edge Works Africa