CROSS FIRE
CROSS FIRE
THEM OF UNSOUND MIND AND THEIR UNREALISTIC GOALS !
By Herman Githinji
They say we all have a degree of madness . But there are some things we may do that make us move to a higher quartile of that degree , hence making us obviously insane .
In law , McNaughton came up with a rule to determine insanity . The rule defines a mad person as one who does not know what they are doing , and if they know what they are doing , they do not know what they are doing is wrong .
Non-compos also means ‘ out of it ’ or ‘ of unsound mind .’ It is two thirds of a Latin phrase - non compos mentis - that for long served as a legal term meaning ‘ not of sound mind .’
The broader meaning appears in
The Conventicle of 1692 in this statement : “ These men are sure non compos mentis , and Bedlam ( the lunatic asylum in London ) must sure be enlarged .”
Other significant signs of insanity are when people talk of things that are not there , and when they believe they can do things that are obviously impossible in the context .
A man in our village used to talk a lot about how he will buy an airplane with a twenty bob ; how he has just flown back from America . The dude had lost it !
Ambition and urgency are good virtues in business , but you risk being declared ‘ of unsound mind ’ if your ambitions and goals are
‘‘ In law , McNaughton came up with a rule to determine insanity . The rule defines a mad person as one who does not know what they are doing , and if they know what they are doing , they do not know what they are doing is wrong .’’ completely out of this world .
In recent past , I worked with a Kenyan company that had committed itself to a huge investment based on projections that sales will grow to a certain level . Just after I joined , a management meeting was called where the accountant explained a huge gap in revenues that needed to be met to break even .
We needed to grow sales from 30,000 units to 150,000 units in a month . Around the room everyone was nodding heads with a small downward curve on their lips and raised eyebrows in affirmation .
I immediately felt something warm , then cold , sweep my stomach . I was shocked . Are these guys of sound mind ? How can you grow sales from 30,000 units to 150,000 units in a month ? I knew the product was not new but at the same time it wasn ’ t popular . Its annual growth trend was about 5 percent .
I knew , from the last time I checked , that Kenya ’ s GDP growth rate was struggling at a single digit . I knew
04 MAL 12 / 16 ISSUE