Adeolu Morawo
White House photo by Eric Draper via
https://georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov/news/releases/2008/08/images/20080808-3_d-1142-515h.html
Key points
Proximity factors (PF) are preexisting circumstances that determine how close you are to or far away from an opportunity. In many cases, you have no control over them
Proximity factors (PF) can confer real advantages or constitute real barriers to accessing and harnessing opportunities, but they are not all-powerful
When proximity factors put you out of range of your opportunity, it is time to start from where you are using what you have
An American Champion
Lopez Lamong is an American long-distance track and field athlete with national and international acclaim. Marching ahead of his peers in the 2008 summer Olympics, he was the American flag bearer in the opening ceremony. Here, he is pictured with President George W Bush in Beijing during the Olympics. Not every American in their lifetime gets to take a picture with a president of the United States. However, this picture and Lopez’s presence on the world stage are far more remarkable because of Lopez’s background and life journey leading up to that point.
"Running for my Life"
Lopez was not born an American. In fact, he only became a naturalized citizen in 2007, one year before the Beijing Olympics. He was born in Buya village in South Sudan on January 5, 1985. His life became complicated at the age of 6 when he was abducted along with many other boys while in church during the second Sudanese civil war. His fate was to become a cannon fodder as a child soldier. Banding with 3 other boys in his captor’s camp, they literarily ran for 3 days until they crossed into Kenya where he spent the next 10 years of his life in a refugee camp. In the camp, they had a rusty black-and-white TV from which he caught a sight that began to change his life. He saw Michael Johnson, the legendary sprint runner, dazzling the world in the 2000 Olympics. Lopez was inspired by this sight, but what would a 15-year-old Sudanese refugee in Kenya do with such an inspiration? We all have pipe dreams every now and then!
However, one year after that ‘pipe dream’, Lopez’s life story took a dramatic turn when he became one of the Sudanese children resettled in the US by Robert and Barbara Rogers’ Unaccompanied Refugee Minor program. This amazing couple later adopted him as their son. Released into an environment rich in opportunities, Lopez unleashed the skill he had needed to survive in life-and-death situations to thrive and shine on the world stage. All that potential would likely have been wasted if he was not able to come within striking distance of his destiny. In his 2012 book, Running for My Life, Lopez details his “journey from the killing fields of Sudan to the Olympic games (1)”.
The Proximity Problem
Although David was likely the youngest on the battlefield and he had just come to deliver food to his older warrior brothers, he was the most qualified to take on Goliath. Years of defending his sheep from wild beasts while tucked away in a wilderness had built in him the requisite confidence and skill to challenge and defeat Goliath (2). There was only one problem: How would he get within striking distance of the giant? David essentially had what I call the Proximity Problem.
This photo by Unknown Author is Licensed under CC BY-SA
Just Get Me Closer Please
David was not asking for a rank in the army; he was asking for an opportunity that would challenge him immensely and put him in danger of death (2).
There are many people asking not to be handed their dreams, but to be given the chance to stand within striking distance of their opportunity. There are many talented people not asking for automatic sponsorship but asking for their skills to be noticed by a potential sponsor. There are many around the world, not asking to be handed bread, but for the opportunity to make bread in quantities enough for them and their households. There are many young people, not asking to be treated specially, but for the opportunity to compete favorably with their peers. There are many people not asking to be handed a job, but to have their applications among those that would be reviewed. They are not asking for the door to be flung open before them, all they are asking is an opportunity to approach and knock.
Proximity Factors Defined
I define proximity factors (PF) as external baseline circumstances that position us closer to or farther away from opportunities to realize our potentials. Positive proximity factors (+PF) place us closer to opportunities while negative proximity factors (-PF) place us farther away from them. Proximity factors come in many forms. Examples include race, gender, nationality, socio-economic status, educational level, reputation, past accolades or criminal records.
For example, being born into a rich family, eating nutritious food in sufficient quantities, having access to quality preventative and therapeutic healthcare, growing up in a safe and decent neighborhood, and attending good schools are factors that confer a clear advantage of future success to children. Children who fit this profile tend to have positive proximity and access to the tools and role models they need to compete favorably in their world.
Poverty also runs the same way wealth runs in families. Both can run for generations without significant deviation. Even health and diseases run in families, and it is not all just about genetics.
Proximity Factors Compound Over Time
Proximity factors are responsible for jarring disparities throughout the world. This is because advantages and disadvantages tend to stack up over time and across generations. Barring dramatic interventions and circumstances (and of course with exceptions), cumulative advantages and disadvantages also become more difficult to undo with time. This is compounded by powerful historic and systemic factors that set up, perpetuate, and even increase disparities in our societies.
Where we find ourselves on the continuum of advantage or disadvantage sometimes are due to factors that predate us and/or lie outside our spheres of control. As such, we are not responsible for and cannot modify many proximity factors. There are proximity factors that are consequences of our past actions. Many times we cannot undo those past actions, too.
This photo by Unknown Author is Licensed under CC BY-SA
We Get Constant Reminders
Not only do you have to fight your -PF, but you also often need to navigate around people with +PF who actively block you from approaching the challenge they are fearful to take on. Despite no one wanting to confront Goliath, David still faced significant hurdles from people who were better placed than him. For example, Eliab (David’s eldest brother) made a point of reminding David he was just a shepherd boy. He even suggested David was being negligent of his sheep and nosy about the battle (3). Saul also made a point to remind David of the wide age and experience differences between him and Goliath (4).
But when others are not reminding us, we also often do a good job (or should I say a bad job) of reminding ourselves of our -PFs. Whenever we think of getting more and becoming more, we may often hear that voice reminding us of how we are not in a position to make a move or succeed if we do.
These external proximity factors have a powerful tendency to become internalized and create formidable inertia. It is often easy for us to accept labels imposed on us by proximity factors and act in conformity with those labels.
While one’s potentials are independent of one’s proximity factors, the mind is easily tricked to conflate the two.
Proximity Factors Have Real Impacts
When well-managed, +PF can give a higher return on effort. It can free up resources that would have been tied down pursuing survival goals so those resources can be used to pursue loftier and fancier goals. When you must struggle and expend a lot of effort to even to get the basic things in life; food, shelter, clothing, basic education, fair and equitable treatment, you are already at a disadvantage in competing for the ‘higher level’ goals. Conversely, if the basic things are guaranteed and you are already close to where you want to go, that puts you at an advantage. Not only that, but our ability to recognize, access and harness certain opportunities can be greatly affected by proximity factors.
This photo by Unknown Author is Licensed under CC BY-SA
Confronting the Proximity Problem
When David arrived on the battlefield that day, he had a number of -PF latching on to him. He was very young, inexperienced militarily, and was not even kitted up in an armor like the others. He was also literarily well outside of striking distance of Goliath- with the keeper of baggage, behind the rank of the Israelites (5). How did he end up getting ahead of the Israelite rank, face-to-face and one-on-one with Goliath?
An essential lesson David’s journey to Goliath teaches is this: When proximity factors put you out of range of your desired opportunity, it is time to start from where you are and use what you have (check out The Bottom-up Counter-Narrative). While this may sound obvious and even banal, it is often not very easy.
I do not intend to diminish the difficulty of any external circumstances anyone may be in, but it is often the case that proximity factors are not all they make themselves out to be. It is always worth probing negative proximity factors for weaknesses and loopholes and you may be surprised they are not all-powerful.
When proximity factors put you out of range of your desired opportunity, it is time to start from where you are and use what you have
For Lopez, a talented, dogged, and dedicated man who was hungry for success despite his limitations, a series of fortunate events brought him within striking distance of his opportunity. However, if despite all your preparation and potential, no one offers to bring you close to your big opportunity, what would you do?
In the upcoming blog posts, I plan to unpack how David started from where he was and used what he had, and how we can do the same to beat our negative proximity factors!
References
2. 1 Samuel 17:1-37
3. 1 Samuel 17:28
4. 1 Samuel 17:33
5. 1 Samuel 17:22