you're welcome to complain

Isn't it interesting how at the core of every life there is a deep dissatisfaction with how things are; at the root of every history maker's calling is a complaint. This complaint is their cause, it is their fuel, drive and motivation to push through and accomplish their change, however tough it may get.  

When people have no complaint they become compliant; they do what others tell them, accept the status quo, and sign up to long established traditions. They do what they do because everyone else does; together they comply.  

Compliant people will never become purposeful people or people who want to see change. Compliant leaders cannot be visionary leaders, because compliance is comfortable and comfort has never been the mother of complaint. Martin Luther King, Ghandi or the latest and greatest political activist never fell into a lifestyle of compliance. A comfortable life without any complaints is doomed, even though you may have a clear vision for where you are heading.  

Vision is fuelled from two directions, the past and the future. My complaint about what must change pushes relentlessly from behind and the vision of better things pulls me onwards from the future. The gift this gives me is awesome: It means that on a bad day, or whenever I feel overwhelmed by the size of the challenge of the future, I will always keep going by simply remembering the past. The advantage of this, is that we sometimes feel like war veterans, and the freedoms we fought and suffered for make us just as scared about going back as others are excited about going forward. If we ever have moments of doubt or lack confidence about going forward, we only have to remember the past – which we are determined never to go back to – and going forward suddenly becomes a great option, however great the challenge we face! People who haven’t settled that going back is never better, will always struggle to find a reason to keep going in the face of adversity.


And history is not kind to people who go back.  

It is the complainers in all walks of life that are getting results. Thousands of lobby groups, many of them small in number, refuse to be silent about their cause, whether it is saving the whale, protecting the environment or having better working conditions. Celebrity TV chef Jamie Oliver recently took on the British Government about the poor nutritional quality of school meals. His complaint was that children are being fed junk food at the most formative time of their physical and intellectual development. His outrage exposed the disgrace on national TV and the public protest he provoked resulted in a change in the level of government funding for school meals in a matter of weeks. Many before him had expressed a concern about school meals, but a concern is not a complaint. A complaint fuels a vision to bring change and the consistent voice it becomes makes real change possible.  

When I say complaint, I do not mean whinging! Whingers are people who complain about things that they permit and tolerate. Whingers are everywhere, but people with a genuine complaint, who are willing to become a force for change, are much rarer.  

What you can’t stand is what you were put here to stand up for. What’s your problem? What’s your issue? What can’t you stand? What won’t you put up with? What do you have an attitude about? What bothers you about your world? What keeps you awake at night? What drives you crazy and gets you up on your ‘soap box’ thumping the table in protest?  

Passion rules the universe. Without passion nobody becomes a follower of a complaint. Effective communication is 20% what you know and 80% how you feel about what you know. Where this ratio is reversed, passionate people are viewed as odd or highly strung and told to calm down and chill out. But the last thing some of you reading this need to do is calm down! Don’t try to calm down about things you feel deeply passionate about! Be the change you wish to see, and for want of a better catch-phrase, start the revolution you wish to see!