2017 started three months ago!

Not long ago, I blew off the roof of the minds of those under the sound of my voice while speaking at an event in the City of Lagos, when I said: “2017 started three months ago!” It was an audacious statement that caused many folks to throw scores of questions at me. The truth is, those who are going to lead in 2017 started planning and working hard for it—three months ago, while those who are going to follow in 2017 are going to start on the 1st of January, 2017!

I journeyed to the City of Lagos about a decade ago. When I landed in the beautiful city of Lagos, I could not find anyone to mentor me on how stuffs are done in the market-place. I would start the year on the 1st of January and during the course of it, I would not be able to get anything done. In those days, I would take my proposals to companies and they would say that I was late. I continued like this for about two years until it began to dawn on me how things are being done in the market-place. Today, I do know better and as an effect of this, I am doing better in the market-place.

Starting from every September of each year, I do have an idea of how the following year is going to look like in my field of business. If you do not understand the terrain of your own field of business, you will continue to follow while those who understand it will continue to lead you. If I were you, I would pull back and study the terrain of the field of my business. Remember, you cannot become a major player in your field of business on the condition that you do not understand its terrain.

To win a war, it is non-negotiable to plan and work-hard to put flesh on it long before the war begins. You do not get to the war-front and start planning on how you are going to win it. If you do, you are going to fall flat on your face as Goliath. Many folks want to win the war of life, but they do not understand how to win it. You know it can be so exasperating and maddening to desire and crave for something and not know how to get it.

Buddy, you do not win a war in the field; you win it in the strategy room. Once you fail in the strategy room, you are certainly going to fail in the field. It is in the strategy room that you are going to count the cost. It is in the strategy room you are going to evaluate the strengths and weak areas of the enemy…You cannot just wake up one day without doing your homework very well and expect to become successful in your field of business. And it will be impossible to hit the ground running in 2017, on the condition that you have not done your homework well in the strategy room.

Ours is a very religious country! Over the years, I have seen the futility of New Year resolutions and varied long lists of what folks want God to do for them in the New Year. Year in and year out, folks have been doing the same thing while expecting a different result. And it is being said that it is psychosis to keep doing the same thing over and over again while expecting a different result. To truly lead a productive life, you do not just design a long list of what you want God to do for you and go to bed, sleeping and expect that all you have written are going to come to pass on their own.

Please understand that I am not saying that it is wrong to write a long list of what you want God to do for you, I am only saying that if you live your life without well-structured and realistic plans and a consistent life of hard-work—you are not going to become successful in life. Even those who you have been submitting your long lists of what you want God to do for you do not live their own lives as you do live yours.

The question is: since you have been writing long lists of what you desire God to do for you, without backing them up with well structured and realistic plans, and leading a consistent life of hard-work, how successful have you become? Successful people do not go to bed after writing long lists of what they want God to do for them only for them to wake up again on the 31st of another December. If wishes were horses, beggars would ride. You do have 11 more days before this year goes to bed. Sit and come up with realistic plans for 2017 and make sure you back them up with assiduous and persevering work. Designing realistic plans for the New Year would help you to hit the ground running from the 2nd of January while others are still trying to climb out of their varied beds.

On the 14th of December, 2016, I spent about twenty minutes with a youngman, who is trying to find his way from the back-seat of life. I simply asked him on what he was doing and he responded this way: “I am actually waiting for 2017 before I begin to make moves…” I said to him: “You do not wait for 2017 before making moves. The best time to make moves for 2017 was three months ago. If you wait till 2nd January, 2017 before making moves, you shall be four months late and you will not be able to achieve anything significant in the coming year…” When I finished with him, he was ready to fly!

The youngman I did counsel represents a sea of faces of the emerging generation of Nigerians, who are waiting for 2017 to come before they begin to make moves. I have come to say to you today that 2017 started three months ago! Those who are going to dominate the coming year began to plan for it three months ago. They have designed different tailor-made proposals for different corporate organizations and government agencies. And they have submitted them. Some of them have been approved while they are awaiting the approval of others in the coming year. When you take your own proposals to those companies and government agencies in January 2017, they would simply tell you that you are already late for the year.

Lastly, most people are already late for the coming year because they are getting this high-valued information so tardy, but this pertinent information will unquestionably help you a great deal to plan for 2018. See you where great people are found!