SYLVESTER FADAL
For almost 10 years, I spoke to captivated students and professionals about the “Lost or Found” analogy that covers critical everyday life-changing issues on leadership, relationship, management, and the complexities of dealing with change, personal growth and self-restoration.
One of the commonality of concerns raised by those surveyed for this book was why “most employees joined their corporations with a high sense of commitment, enthusiasm and satisfaction and over time, lost their motivation and focus and literarily functioned as non-inspired employees driven solely by financial needs and/or dependence?
Over the years I observed how some of these professionals took on increasing levels of stress and anxiety over problems they couldn’t control. To assist with strategies of addressing stress and change, I began to discuss a concept known as “peaceful anxiety.” Peaceful Anxiety simply means,
If you do not have the ability to change events and situations that impact your life, do not overreact to such situations.
As we develop the ability to control our reactions to problems or issues outside our realms of control, we begin to develop a higher sense of peace.
In 2002, a set of questions were developed and over 1500 undergraduate and graduate students with professional careers ranging from mid to executive levels were surveyed. My overall findings lead to this book being titled, Are You Lost or Found?
Ever Wondered:
· The percentages of women who prefer male bosses?
· The percentages of men who prefer female bosses?
· Why 62% of professionals are Lost?
· If you are Lost or Found?
Dr. Sylvester Fadal embraced business optimization and efficiency building within corporations, years ago. His published doctoral dissertation study on Fortune 500 corporations titled “Employee Empowerment as a Business Optimization Strategy” was widely received by training and organizational development professionals. A synopsis of his findings was published by the American Society for Training and Development. Dr. Fadal was invited to speak by various refereed journals and institutions on the subject of performance optimization, organizational capacity building, efficiency and productivity and individual growth.
As a professor of business he has shared the information in this book with his students for almost 10 years. With a strong passion for the world disadvantaged that lead to the formation of Fadal & Associates 501 © 3 non-profit that reaches out to low income individuals in the greater Bay Area and Africa, he continues to galvanize support for the world poorest people.
His goals are spiritual, family and philanthropy. Some proceeds from this book will be used to support his not-for-profit foundation that seek to feed the poor and open doors to those whose lives are being destroyed by AIDS, poverty, child slavery, abandonment and starvation among others. A stronger act of kindness is to give to those that can’t give back.
Dr. Fadal is married with three children and resides in Northern California, USA.
ARE YOU LOST OR FOUND?
Deep in the valley of an African Country is a cultural trend that has transcended generations. Young girls are married off at the tender ages of between 12 and 15 depending on their level of physical development. To avoid possible early marriages or rape of their young daughters based on traditional culture, concerned mothers resort to breast ironing or flattening.
Breast ironing is a form of body modification or unnatural sculpting practiced in parts of Cameroon, Africa. Mothers flatten pubescent girls’ breasts in an attempt to make them less sexually attractive to men. This practice is believed to help prevent rape and early marriages. Tools such as grinding stones, pestles, wild leather belts, or heated objects are used to press or beat down the forming breasts. Local non-governmental organizations have over the years made plenary efforts to call attention to the practice in an attempt to put a stop to it. Despite the efforts and sporadic outcry against it, the practices remain. As crude and archaic as it sounds, most mothers practice the painful act of breast ironing out of love and protection for their young daughters.
This precaution sometimes does not stop some of these young girls from being forced into situations they can’t prevent. In cases where pre-arranged early marriages can’t be avoided due to early puberty and fast physical development, these young girls become unwilling spouses at very tender ages. In no time and with limited experience, they become mothers of new babies. As young mothers, they tackle the responsibilities of caring for their babies and husbands. Of importance though is the way these young girls learn to develop a commendable level of resilience in the long run.
With limited resources these young mothers would sometimes have to walk over two miles for basic amenities up to and including water that is fetched from a stream. With babies placed on their backs and wrapped up firmly with a piece of approximately 2 yards of plain cloth to ensure a balanced grip in an old-fashioned way of the modern day baby pack, the cloth is then tied into a knot in front of the mothers’ bellies and repositioned to ensure a solid grip.
These young, feeble mothers ... despite their seemingly difficult experiences and lifestyles are the happiest set of people based on their learned and ferocious volitional desires and willingness to succeed.
