I once watched a movie starring one of my action heroes, Jet Li. It was called The One. Besides the fact that I found the movie very entertaining, I made a very curious observation right at the end.
But first a little background to the plot. Two sides of the same person are required to maintain balance in the universe; one personifies good and the other one, bad. Both of them can’t actually die; they can only be banished through some transportation technology that takes them to a different time zone in a different universe. As expected, the bad guy with his devil-may-care attitude loses the final epic battle to the good guy and is banished by the powers that be to a place best described as an otherworld wilderness. There he meets millions of people lazing around in relatively peaceful co-existence.
There is a hill with a platform on top and whoever thinks they should rule this lawless but relatively peaceful world has to climb all the way to the top. When this guy arrives, no one is even making an effort to climb this hill. So he decides he is going to climb it instead. It looked very harmless because everyone was going about their business. The moment he took a step up this mountain the most amazing thing happened. All hell broke loose. Literally everyone abandoned what they were doing and started fighting this guy. It was a vicious fight to the death.
It didn’t make sense. As long as a no one dared climb the mountain there was peace. The moment a visionary stepped onto the platform there was war. You know why? Because they did not want anyone to rise above the societal norm. They fought him until he gave up and if he wouldn’t, until he died of sheer exhaustion. They themselves had no ambition, no drive, no vision, nothing but they couldn’t stand another person, at no personal cost to them, trying to achieve something with his life based on his vision, drive, ambition and principles. They Pulled him Down!
I could not help compare this strange behaviour with a phenomenon that has come to be known as the PhD Syndrome (Pull him Down) by my pastor, Dr. B.V Gamedze. And it’s one of the most lethal assassins of progress in life because it normally comes from people very close to you or who are in authority over you such that you take their words to heart.
My first experience with the PhD Syndrome was when I passed my Math final exam but not well enough to enrol for medical studies at university. I could have gone and done another degree but at this point I wanted to be in the medical field. So I decided to enlist a private tutor, very convinced that this time I would get total points, until my dad said something. He said he didn’t think I would make it studying privately since I had failed to get the total points when full time at school. I felt like a burning sharp knife had been driven into my heart. I was pulled down. But thank God for grace, I proved him wrong and he admitted so. I felt so proud when he said that!
The PhD Syndrome can also be likened to the crab mentality. Have you seen how crabs keep pulling each other back into the cooking pot each time one tries to escape? There is no escape and the result? They all die. That is the ultimate aim of the PhD Syndrome; to kill dreams.
The other day I was chatting with a business partner and he told me the most amazing story that scared the living day lights out of me. His company was offered deals in the millions and it seemed things were going very well. That is, until he told his other business partner about the success he was having.
After this conversation, he received an email from his client saying that all the deals had been put on ice for no apparent reason. On further investigation, he learnt that his friend had gone on ahead and contacted very influential people within the organisation with reasons why the appointed company should not be allowed to proceed. And he lost the deals. I was incredulous.
As it turned out, the business partner had fallen on hard times and was broke. Instead of asking for work from his business partner, this guy chose to block his friend totally so that they could all be the same, penniless and broke. PhD Syndrome.
The PhD Syndrome is pervasive among us Africans and I know every African will say amen to that. Now I can’t change the thinking of a continent in this one article but I can change a few minds.
The PhD Syndrome is very evil in that it is anti-development, is a poverty mentality and costs both the perpetrator and the victim. It refuses to allow others to flourish because it does not realize that the success of others most likely uplifts everyone as well. It is predicated on the thinking that there is not enough and operates on a siege-mentality paradigm.
If Africans, as a race, are to progress well we need to shake off the PhD Syndrome. It’s okay to let others prosper, really. It’s okay to give our support to those who are at least trying rather than relegate ourselves to the role of armchair critics. How draining must it be to live a life based on the principle that says it’s me or no one else? It saps your strength, clouds your vision and you are none the richer after the fact.
The sad thing is the crab mentality is everywhere; at work, home and even church. How many times have you seen a well known prostitute deciding to seek salvation and church veterans are the first ones to spread the word? Or how many times has a sister lacked discretion or done something that went against established norms in the church and instead of getting assistance, they get crucified.
Someone said that the church was the only army that killed its wounded.
And that is why I love God.
They brought a woman to Jesus who had been caught in the act of adultery and according to the Law of Moses they were permitted to stone her. They felt so righteous. They had the ammunition from God Himself. But Jesus said to them, “Let him who has no sin, be the first to cast a stone on her.” Then he wrote in the sand. And they all began to leave, from the greatest to the smallest. When Jesus finally looked up, there was no one left. And he said to her, “Where are all those that were accusing you?” When she answered that there were none left, he said to her, “Neither do I condemn you.”
Wow! What a story! So next time before you Pull him Down, remind yourself that his Creator does not. He seeks to heal not to destroy, to love and not to abandon, to uplift and not to discourage.
And should you ever find yourself dealing with a PhD, remember to retreat to a place of quiet and get your inner balance right. It’s okay to admit that you are not handling criticism well. It’s okay to admit you are hurting. As long as you don’t end there. After the pity party, you must get back on your feet; dust yourself up and resume your work. If you were building before, continue to build. If you were studying, resume your studies with new vigour remembering that “Let God be true and everyman a liar.” Man does not define you. God does. You can’t prevent birds from flying over your head but you can prevent them from building a nest.
People will talk about you and say you will fail. The reason they do that is that in most cases, they are not really bad people. They just have a certain frame of reference they operate from based on their experiences and which they then extrapolate and superimpose on the rest of society. If you wear blue sunglasses, to you everything will have a blue tint. But not everything is blue.
I believe that working together we can surely achieve more. That is why we should choose to see the good in people rather than the bad. A true leader finds any reason; any reason at all to unite people while a PhD finds any reason; any reason at all to divide people. And we all have a choice; to be a PhD or PhU (Pull him Up). And we also have another choice; to allow PhDs to pull us down with them or to fight for our dreams.
“When people cut you down or talk behind your back, remember, they have taken precious time out of their lives to think and talk about you. They stopped whatever they were doing to focus on You. You are having an impact. Someone is noticing you. Someone is saying, Hey that brother… Hey that sister…! Keep doing your thing. More Power to you! “~ copied and adapted from Crystal Ayers by Bruce Tendai Mubayiwa
igamechanger 