An Op-ed from DUCT

The guidelines provided by Margo Paterson have been invaluable in crafting this article. I’ve drawn on personal reflections, observations, and stories shared by fellow beneficiaries to convey our message.

Word Count: 720

• Reading Time: 4 Minutes

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George Clason, in his classic book The Richest Man in Babylon, wrote:

“Work well done does good to the man who does it. It makes him a better man.”

It makes him a better man because it takes him out of his head, which tends to default to negative thinking, and gives him something to look forward to. After the work is done, that sense of recognition for having contributed to the betterment of a company, or society, or nation brings satisfying sleep after a long day. Many of us joined our SIPS with little-to-no job experience, but today our résumés elicit self-esteem and a track record of being useful and valued. Indeed, many have attracted better jobs precisely because of these few months of work experience and/or funds to pursue better opportunities.

One thing you instantly realize when you work for the betterment of a society is how often you yourself had previously contributed to its decline — such as mindless littering in public, wasting of natural resources, and being indifferent to wrong doing. It gives you a chance to be ‘responsible’ for positive change and uniting members in communities. And this is very hard, because you begin going against the tide and rouse ridicule from peers — but as we subconsciously know already: The hard way is often the right way.

Time defines our lives. We are not shaped by the space we occupy but by how we spend the time we have in that space. And for a number of our participants, I can confidently say they understood the assignment. It’s less about on-site training and more about the vision each carries in their heart. Funders and strategic partners can only do so much. Ultimately, participants are ‘responsible’ for the bulk of the effort in managing and elevating their livelihoods.

A number of participants have moved on to permanent jobs, others now afford college fees, others have been promoted to bigger, Admin responsibilities, and others, — they are still the same people they were before this project. Why is that? Perhaps Leonardo da Vinci answered it best when he wrote in 1500: “O God, Thou sell all good things to men at the price of effort.” For positive actions often yield positive reactions. Those who show the desire and effort to improve, who raise their hands to opportunities, who yearn for knowledge, and those who, though challenged and vexed, do not give in to despair — but wake up each day optimistic about life. Yes, they tend to attract better circumstances.

One profound social value reinforced by SIPS is the return to simplicity in a society overwhelmed by media and FOMO. We are reminded to protect our natural resources, to stand against illegal dumping, and to appreciate the earth by deliberately transforming what’s neglected into thriving, profitable spaces—particularly community gardens. Our DUCT teams have embraced this and generated promising profits. On November 1st, we held an internal market day to sell produce nurtured by participants, securing R2,600 that day. The motive was to help our participants create a track record of sales and inventory management so they could pursue commercial stores for business. We are still surveying the impact these gardens have within neighboring households.

In closing, I began this journey last year in September as an Enviro Champ for DUCT. Thank you, SEF. Over the past few months, I’ve been moved to several different roles, such as M & E Data Collector and now Project Administrator. What I truly admire about the SIP that hired me is the management team. They are truly rare—loving, compassionate, and wholly invested in protecting the Duzi River, preserving natural resources, and providing employment and skills to participants. I can proudly say my bosses are professional and hardworking. In their little corner, they raise the South African flag with pride. I’ve joined them, and my key role is mentoring and collaborating with all the star participants we work with.

I am eager to find more such participants through sustained support from IDC, SEF, partnering sponsors, and the government—because in developing the mind and heart of the individual lies the hope of Africa.

More articles:

The Trials That Shape Us 

Transforming Your Reality 

Written by:

Samkelo Madlala

DUCT, SEF Project Administrator

Creating the Conditions for Success

 

Am I Putting Myself in Good Positions and Creating the Conditions for Success? — James Clear

It’s difficult to know what a ‘good position’ looks like if we haven’t exposed ourselves to diverse information, possibilities, lifestyles, and beliefs beyond our immediate environment. Our first duty, therefore, is to explore—to be curious about the world and step beyond our confines. While much is said about asking questions, I strongly recommend this habit throughout life, directed both inwardly to oneself and outwardly to reality. However, there is another practice I deeply admire: learning to trust yourself to take action without always seeking permission.

Permission often serves as a safeguard against harm, both mental and physical, and its importance is undeniable. Yet, in this vast and mysterious world, there are countless opportunities waiting to be explored. Seeking permission can sometimes hinder discovery by creating unnecessary hesitation.

Consider a student in school who decides to investigate the differences between A and C students. She discovers that A students tend to sleep eight hours, eat nourishing breakfasts, and engage in afternoon sports. Meanwhile, C students might face challenges like divorced parents, lack of stationery, or spending time in unproductive environments. Through this exploration, she gains valuable insight into what contributes to academic success. With this knowledge, she can make informed choices about positioning herself for success in school and beyond.

Similarly, an entrepreneur must explore, study, introspect, and experiment to understand why some companies thrive while others fail. Through this process, they learn key truths: luck favors those who are prepared, effort is the price of rewards, and knowledge is as crucial as action. They come to understand that customer needs are as important as the product or service offered and that success often stems from providing something scarce and valuable.

Ultimately, creating good positions requires preparation, curiosity, and courage. It means having the right information to guide actions and the trust in oneself to take bold steps when opportunity arises. So, explore boldly, question deeply, and take action without waiting for permission—this is how you create the conditions for success.

Cancelo Alvarez 

Opportunities Are Everywhere

 "It's not about the space you're in, but what you do with the time you have in that space.”

Just as Seneca, the Stoic philosopher, wrote more than 2,000 years ago: "It's not how long you live, but how well you live."

Become a strong believer in efficiency—the ability to fully utilize opportunities. Throughout life, you will encounter countless unique situations. Not all will be positive or negative, but they are all opportunities. Let’s drive the lesson home:

• It’s not which country you are born in, but what you do with the time you have in that country. Moving to another city or country can be an option, but for many, moving isn’t always feasible. Often, we find ourselves settling into routines and standards that feel familiar or confining. The challenge is to make the most of where you are, whether or not you move elsewhere.

• It’s not which school you attend, but what you do with the time you have in that school. In school, if we’re not taught early on to choose friends wisely, we may struggle with social acceptance and even face rejection. Nevertheless, those we spend time with profoundly influence our attitude, work ethic, and overall experience. Surround yourself with friends who inspire you to grow and stay focused.

• It’s not which job you start in, but what you do with the time you have in that role. If you dislike your job, improve your skills during breaks, after-hours, or on weekends. If the pay is low, consider which of your skills are most marketable and seek ways to enhance them. If the environment feels toxic, take a moment to reflect. Are you contributing to that negativity? Self-care practices like exercise, reading, and meditation can foster a more positive outlook and potentially influence your surroundings.

Remember, “Readers are leaders.” You can handle almost any circumstance or environment if you understand that most situations are temporary and are designed to reveal your true character. Positive or negative, each experience is an opportunity for growth.

A Summary of The Lord of the Rings: A World of Power, Purpose, and Perseverance

 

Introduction — By Cancelo

The Lord of the Rings is a world of Friendship, Strength, Burdens, and Boundless Hope. It’s a story of companionship that endures through unimaginable temptations and challenges. Danger is constant, lurking in the shadows; uncertainty lies at every turn. Nostalgia and desire pull on the heart, and courage is tested at every step. It's a novel for the soul.

At 1,210 pages, it’s a journey that can take months to read—but here, I’ve distilled its essence to offer you a glimpse in under four minutes.

In the style of Lucius Seneca, Dr. Brett Steenbarger and Morgan Housel:

In the world of The Lord of the Rings, we find a reflection of the ceaseless struggle of the human heart with ambition, power, sacrifice, and love. Frodo’s journey, arduous and deeply personal, reveals the weight of burden and the nature of resilience. His task is not just to bear the Ring but to resist its pull, a near-impossible feat because power, even when resisted, insinuates itself into the bearer’s mind. In our world, this dynamic plays out in our handling of money, relationships, and influence; each offers a temptation that can make us either resilient or enslaved, depending on our choices.

“Only when there are things a man will not do is he capable of doing great things.” - Mencius

Seneca would say that Frodo’s burden is a meditation on how often we fail to resist what ultimately harms us. But the Ring isn’t simply evil—it is the embodiment of potential greatness and destruction alike. This is the paradox of power. Gollum, drawn to the Ring, shows how deeply we can be compromised by our desires; for him, the Ring is life itself, a reflection of his self-worth and his ruin. He serves as a lesson in how the unchecked pursuit of something external—something meant to enhance but never define us—can consume us entirely.

“Nothing in life is as important as you think it is when you are thinking about it.” – Kahneman

The Ring’s journey across Middle-earth is the trial by fire for each character that secretly wants it for themselves. Just as Morgan Housel teaches that true wealth lies in having control over time, so The Lord of the Rings shows that true power lies in relinquishing control over others. Gandalf and Galadriel, offered the Ring, reject it because they understand that real strength is not in possessing the power to dominate but in exercising restraint and wisdom. This is perhaps Tolkien’s most powerful insight: the path to freedom is marked not by taking but by letting go, a principle as timeless as wisdom itself.

“Extraordinary flexibility is required for successful living in all spheres of activity.” - Scott Peck, The Road Less Travelled

Dr. Brett might observe that the mental and emotional endurance displayed by Frodo, Sam, and others mirrors the internal battles we face when striving for meaningful change or mastery. Frodo’s physical endurance and Sam’s unwavering loyalty are less about heroism and more about a disciplined, relentless effort to reach the end, even when the end is uncertain. This commitment to the journey above the outcome is the hallmark of resilience. Frodo’s ultimate failure to destroy the Ring alone speaks to our limits. He couldn’t resist the Ring’s influence without Gollum's intervention, and in a sense, even failures serve the purpose of the mission. It’s a reminder that the strength of any journey lies not in perfect success but in accepting help and grace, which can appear even in unlikely forms.

"The secret of all victory lies in the organization of the non-obvious." — Unknown

As Seneca might say, the trials of Middle-earth serve as a reminder that adversity is often the burning, tempering flame in which our truest virtues are forged. Aragorn Son of Arathorn, having lived as a ranger, hidden from his royal birthright, represents the path of patient preparation. True leadership doesn’t come through inheritance alone, but through understanding sacrifice, humility, and patience. Likewise, in life, the call to leadership often requires that we spend years honing ourselves in obscurity so that we are ready for the responsibilities and weight that come with it.

“Unless a person has trained himself for this chance, the chance will only make him ridiculous. A great occasion is worth to a man exactly what his preparation enables him to make of it.” — J.B. Mathews

Ultimately, The Lord of the Rings teaches us that the most worthwhile endeavors are rarely completed alone. Frodo’s survival, as much as his victory, depends upon the friendship, loyalty, and strength of others. Whether it’s Gandalf’s wisdom and guidance, Aragorn’s courage & protection, or Sam’s love and integrity, Tolkien’s world shows us that there is no true success in isolation. And even if we are left altered or scarred by our journeys—as Frodo is upon his return—the essence of our achievement is not in returning unchanged but in having ventured forward with courage.

"What you become is far more important than what you get." — Jim Rohn, 7 Strategies for Wealth & Happiness

Thus, The Lord of the Rings concludes with the message that life’s journey is not about claiming greatness or defeating others, but about the courage to face both the light and dark within oneself. It’s a wisdom that echoes in our world: we can strive, we can win, we can lose, but most importantly, we can endure—if we remember that no journey worth taking is traveled alone, and no power worth possessing is sought for its own sake.

“To those human beings who are of any concern to me I wish suffering, loneliness, illness, mistreatment, and humiliation— I wish that they should not remain unfamiliar with profound self-contempt, the pain of self-doubt, and the misery of defeat. I have no pity for them, because I wish them the only thing that can prove today whether one is worth anything or not – that one endures.” –Friedrich Nietzsche, The Will to Power

Thank you for reading.

A series of the Lord of the Rings is also available at: The First Series: 1/3 or any online movie website.

Cancelo

Seize the Day

 You grow every time you get rejected.

You need stress and urgency to express more of your potential. It’s only too common for people to spend weeks and months not getting much done at all.

Oh yes! You will see many waking up every morning rushing to and fro - making calls, making plans, talking big. But the truth and the glaring reality is that very very few people actually contribute to the big things that change and influence the trajectory of our lives; economically, politically, industrially, etc. At least in my country.

Another fact to observe is that of poor time management — office workers do not spend 8 hours doing meaningful work. The fact is that you can finish your work is less than two hours, if you do not multi-task. The question is what do you do with the rest of the time you have in the day.

The average, ordinary, uninspired person will take out their phone and distract themselves, or they will get up and look for people to distract, or they will eat away their anxiety and frustrations, or they will take out their phone after putting it away to distract themselves some more.

I propose to you, my dear, that life and time are exceedingly precious raw materials — a blank page waiting for you to paint and draw your whole life plan. If you don’t pick up the pen and the paint — the blank page will not complain and shout at you. It will sit there and wait, sometimes forever, until your dissolution back into eternal darkness.

Yet while you sit and postpone your life — the politicians you criticize are out there getting things done, the entrepreneurs who sell you products are out there getting rejected and fighting for their vision, the athletes are out there sweating and recovering from defeats, the writers are out there learning about the history and the future of the human kind — enriching their minds and souls. Appreciating and recognizing the magnanimity and grandeur of the Universe, of God the creator.

Good people are busy getting better and getting things done for others, they aren’t living in their mind, they aren’t overthinking everything, they aren’t victimizing themselves.

It’s a beautiful and exciting universe for the optimists and the hard workers. A heaven on earth.

Cancelo Alvarez

The Other Side of Hardship

 “Difficulty is what wakes up the genius.” — Nassim N. Taleb

Maybe we should begin with a lesser term than genius — How is maturity developed?

It is developed through a prolonged lack of comfort and privilege — which, depending on the stuff the individual is made of — can either break or build his spirit. By spirit I refer to hope for better things, the will to overcome bitter times, and the courage to absorb reality as it is — without running away or crying for mercy.

All the people I know who enjoy a pleasant life as a result of bold, unusual choices, had a lonely, painful, difficult past, where they had to learn how to quickly get smarter, wiser, mentally stronger. You naturally become self-driven once you realize no one is coming to help. People often assume you are cheerful and positive because you had a comfortable past. It’s precisely the opposite. You had to deal with the worst, and now understand the wiser way to handle the difficulties of life.

Difficulty is what wakes up the genius — yes indeed. But it is also difficulty that wakes up the worst in us — which leads us to crime, addiction, and suicide.

Constant and unwavering self-awareness and the curiosity to understand this large and mysterious world — accompanied by a slow burning fire within our hearts which just refuses to die regardless of the storms and winds that attack it from every side, a mind that realizes the glory of human kind - the intelligence and willpower bestowed into every child of the universe.

These are the requirements to turn problems into opportunity, pain into lessons, defeat into strength.

Cancelo Alvarez

Emotional Awareness: The Key to Resilience

 Every great story happened when someone decided not to give up.

From personal experience, giving up often stems from negative emotions. These emotions not only go untrained but are also given room to grow until they’ve eroded the will and drive needed to pursue something meaningful, courageous, or impactful with one’s life and resources — both internal and external, physical and mental.

Why emotions? Because we experience them continuously. Every waking hour, we encounter a range of emotions, which we label differently as moods, excitement, annoyance, hope, doubt, poise, confusion, and so on.

Our choices and actions largely depend on the emotions currently influencing us. The longer and more frequently we feel a certain emotion, the more it shapes our decisions. For instance:

A moody person — often linked with negative traits — may find every reason to withdraw from others, building walls at the slightest hint of misunderstanding or disagreement. Similarly, a doubtful person might consistently look for evidence of their inadequacy. While they may start by challenging these thoughts, trying new things here and there, repeated disappointment can strengthen the habit of doubt until it becomes second nature.

In the end, persisting through life’s inevitable defeats and disappointments requires continuous self-awareness. By recognizing and curbing negative emotions, we can create space to cultivate positive ones.

Positive emotions help us see opportunities in problems, growth in losses, self-discovery in disappointments, and joy in small wins.

“It’s a learning process, and mistakes made in one year often contribute to competence and success in succeeding years.” — Warren Buffett

Remember, “Until death, all defeat is psychological.”

Negative emotions distort setbacks, isolating us from the way the world actually works — for everyone.