MEMORY: The Perspective You Never Knew You Needed!
‘You guys must study hard so that your children will be intelligent’ these were the words uttered by my Economics’ professor one Saturday during an Economics’ lecture. I don’t remember quite well as to how the lecture went from the circular flow of economic participants and production factors to that statement, which I found quite controversial at the time.
I pondered on it for quite some time until I eventually decided that the old man (an Economics’ genius with a remarkable ability to simplify some of the most complex concepts) was being just that, OLD.
This was in 2020, when Covid was still a scary phenomenon that was still far (or maybe not) from this part of the world.
A couple of years later while watching one of his prolific, wisdom-filled videos on YouTube, I heard the sarcastic, humorous and ever-so-enlightened Sadhguru speak about the concept of MEMORY.
Memory is a very familiar word, so much so that it is sometimes used interchangeably with wisdom/intelligence and just about any word synonymous to intellectual prowess.
The common use of the word errs to the mind/brain (insert eye rolling emoji here for all those who are against the interchangeable use of these two words). [The Brain] As a key component of the Central Nervous System, responsible for many vital activities, chief among those is intellectual prowess, the ability to record and retain information through all the 5 senses, it is befitting for this organ to bear the full rights to the word memory.
But (and I know better than to start a sentence with a conjunction) on this specific episode, Sadhguru gave a new [at least to me] context to the use of the word memory. He argued that every cell in the body had memory, that a single cell has memory multitude times more than the brain as it were. In his words, ‘you do not know your great-grandfather 5 generations down the line, but his nose is sitting on your face right now’ (or something along those lines).
What he was saying was that every single cell in our bodies has genetic [recorded] data from all our ancestors in our lineage, MEMORY. That no lifeform comes from absolute zero, we are formed from the blueprint of all the memory that was collected from literally all those who came before us.
After hearing this then it dawned on me that Prof was on to something. That by learning we are not only feeding our minds for the recollection of the content we consumed but we are simultaneously encoding this into our cells as genetic data we will pass on to our descendants.
Not the specific course content that we may be studying at the time (you are not going to give birth to a child knows what photosynthesis is or can spell chlorofluorocarbons duh!) but the nature or passion or interest in studying. The ability to consume, decipher and retain information faster. The enthusiasm towards finding answers and solutions to problems. This is what my lecturer meant.
Even some skilled fighters like Michael Jai White make reference to muscle memory. That after a fighter has a trained for some time their muscles become so in sync with their routines that they can kick in at convenient times. This is the same reason why armed forces have their training structured that way, to heavily drive in the training to muscle memory so that it becomes almost second nature.
The more I pondered on this concept it began to make sense as to why people who go into careers in lines of work where there were some members of their families in a similar line of work are more-often-than-not at the peak of their respective careers.
Look at Floyd Mayweather Jnr. for instance (my most favourite boxer). His father, Floyd Mayweather Snr. was a professional boxer, his uncle and trainer, Roger Mayweather was a professional boxer. They all had a similar defensive boxing style.
I know what this sounds like, I am reaching aren’t I? For a moment, let us agree that I am.
Granted, Floyd Mayweather is a good fighter because he works really hard and that is very true (I once heard that he would get out of a night club in Vegas and jog all the way back home in his jeans all the while his driver escorts him in the car) and I do not take away any of that, one of the reasons why I love the Money Man is his sheer determination and hard work.
The fighting style could very well be learned and mastered too, couldn’t agree more! (like any other skill with sufficient time and dedicated practice) especially given that his trainers are related to him by blood, they are accessible to him at all times.
One thing that many people do not quite know about the Money Man is that he has always had a problem with his hands, majority of his fights you can always hear him speaking to his corner during end of rounds recesses complaining that his hands are hurting, and this would be the 2nd round in a 12 round fight. Yet he gets back on that ring and own the fight, beat the daylight out of his opponent sometimes knock them out too [with those hurting hands].
I once [during a fight] saw Floyd curled in on a defense stance while very close to his opponent and the entire time he was facing down, not even once looking up at his opponent, the opponent stayed on the offensive until he decided to step away from Floyd for a better shot. Just as he stepped away, Floyd (without even once looking up at his opponent) ducked back and he released a mean straight left hand right to the opponent’s temple and swiftly moved out of the way as if nothing happened, leaving the poor guy with wobbly feet.
You do not achieve such swift instinct, precision and timing from just talent and practice alone.
Another thing that people do not appreciate enough about the Money Man is the chin of steel that he has. During the second round of his fight with Shane Mosley, Mosley came crushing down on him hard like the walls of Jericho! He realised a mean combination of heavy punches, punches that would put even the toughest boxer down. Floyd ate all those punches, had a bit of wobble and just shook it off and went on to dominate the remainder of the fight and won by unanimous decision.
Am I reaching?
Another beautiful story that makes for a compelling case study to look at which I think strongly depicts this context of memory is the life and lineage of the current richest man in Africa and also the current richest black man in the world, Aliko Dangote.
What many people may not know that is that Aliko is actually the 3rd member in his lineage to be the richest in the whole continent.
The story begins with his maternal great-grandfather Alhassan Dandata, born in 1877 in the Kano Emirate. It is said that his family had ties to the Hausa people who were renowned for their trading prowess.
Alhassan Dandata lost both his parents at a very tender age. Care for Alhassan fell to Tata, a loyal servant of the family. Honouring this guardian, Alhassan adopted the name, ‘Dantata’ which means, ‘son of Tata’.
With his family’s wealth seemingly dissipated, Dantata was forced to fend for himself, saving his earning in traditional piggy banks known as ‘Asusu’.
Dantata used his savings as a capital injection to finance his entrepreneurial pursuits. He started traiding in Kola nuts and groundnuts.
Long story short, at the peak of his career he was the richest man in the content, I believe the year was 1955.
After him emerged one his sons, Sanusi Dantata, who started out as an elementary school teacher until the magnetic pull of familial trade drew him in its orbit. At the peak of his career, he was the richest man in West Africa if not the whole continent.
The union of Mohammed Dangote (one of Sanusi’s business associates) and Mariya Sanusi Dantata (Sanusi’s daughter) is what resulted in the birth of the current stalwart of the Dangote family, talisman of all Africans and many people of colour and the epitome of black excellence, Aliko Dangote.
Looking at his lineage, it is clear that Dangote benefitted a lot from his long lineage of prolific entrepreneurs and chief among those is business acumen, MEMORY.
The idea I put forward with this article may sound a bit too preposterous, granted. But the gist of this article is this, you may be going through life pursuing something that is of utmost interest to you but you seemingly cannot crack it…
With this article I hope to conscientize you to this simple fact, that what you are doing is literally carving a new path, taking the road less travelled. No one in your lineage has attempted to achieve what you are setting out to, there is no memory of such in your entire genome hence the friction. Your entire existence has no recollection of what you are taking on.
Get this though, as you are going through the peaks and troughs, trials and tribulations, you are writing a new code in your memory bank and that will be passed on to your descendants, they will most definitely cruise through what you are currently struggling with.
So, every time it gets hard, torturous, and downright unbearable come back to this article and remind yourself of just how far and deep your efforts and impact goes.
IT IS BIGGER THAN YOU!
