05/24/2026
The Environment You Stay In Will Either Grow You or Bury You.
A mentee of mine — Sifuwe Happyson — recently asked me what he should do after graduating with his bachelor’s degree from a Zambian university.
Without hesitation I told him: do everything reasonably possible to pursue graduate studies in the USA. Not China. Not India. Not Russia. The USA.
Run for it. And when you arrive — pour everything you have into your studies and your work. Respect the law. Fear the law. A few years down the road, the sacrifice will pay off in ways you cannot yet imagine.
He was shocked. So I walked him through my reasoning — and slowly, he saw it.
Your success in life will largely be defined by your environment.
The USA is not perfect. But it is a land of unparalleled opportunity. If you are willing to work hard — regardless of your background, your last name, or where you started — the doors are real and they are open. That promise still holds.
Now let me be honest about something.
Zambia is a nation sitting on extraordinary wealth. Copper. Cobalt. Emeralds. Some of the most fertile land on the entire continent. But wealth beneath the ground means nothing if what sits above it is a culture of envy, corruption, and learned helplessness.
Spend five minutes scrolling Zambian social media and you will see it. Vile, cutting commentary. People talking down to each other. Attacking the successful. Some even directing their anger at Elon Musk — as if their words will make him a dollar poorer. As if crabs in a bucket pulling each other down is somehow a survival strategy.
They miss the lesson entirely.
Instead of asking “what can I learn from this successful person?” — the default becomes “how do I tear them down so I feel less alone in my own stagnation?”
And here is the irony I have seen more times than I can count —
The very same person leaving vile comments beneath your success post will be in your inbox by morning. Asking for help. Asking for money. Bitterness and entitlement living in the same chest.
What breeds this? Environments stripped of hope. No social amenities. Neighborhoods in disrepair. No visible path forward. When a person sees no future for themselves, they begin to resent anyone who dares to have one. They stop dreaming. They stop building. And they wait — scrolling, surviving — until the Lord calls them home.
That is not living. That is slow disappearing.
So if you are young, gifted, and reading this —
Your potential is not the problem. Your proximity to the wrong environment might be destroying it silently, every single day.
Fight for your education. Fight for your exit if you must. Protect your mind from the noise of people who have already surrendered theirs.
And if you cannot leave physically right now — leave mentally first. Curate what you consume. Guard what you allow into your spirit. Surround yourself with people who are building something, even if they are far away.
Envy and jealousy are not just emotions. They are environments. And environments shape destiny.
You were not born to be reduced.
You were born to rise — and rising sometimes demands the courage to move, to leave, and to never look back.
🌾 The harvest does not fear the wind.
— McM
