Call me old school if you like but I have discovered that there are rules of engagement in the game of life that are sacrosanct. You may try to circumvent them but you will eventually be checkmated. To the man with a bad attitude, the half-filled glass is half-empty but to one with a positive attitude, the same glass is half-full. The story is told of a wealthy man who had two sons. One of them was so cynical about everything that there was hardly anything he did not find fault with. Even though they lived on a farm, when rain was about to fall, he complained about dark clouds. When the weather was sunny, he considered the day too hot. The other son was the exact opposite. He never seemed to be upset about anything. He would always see something positive in every situation no matter how terrible it appeared. Naturally, their father was worried. So he decided to do something about it. He sought the counsel of a wise man who advised him on what to do to at least get each of them have a middle of the line approach to things. The pessimistic son was locked up in a room with lots of good food and sweet-tasting things. The optimistic son on the other hand was locked up in a room filled with horse dung. After the stipulated period, the rooms were opened. When the room with the pessimist son was opened, he had not touched a single food item. He was all grouchy and angry as he blurted out about how anyone would have expected him to touch those foods that were fattening and bad for health. On the other hand, when the room with the optimist son was open, he was found sweating and covered in horse dung with a shovel in his hand digging into the pile of dung. For a while, he was oblivious of the fact that the door was opened. He was overheard saying to himself, “With all this manure here, there must be a pony somewhere here and I intend to find it!”
Life is hardly rewarding to a person who only parades a high aptitude. To attain any meaningful altitude in life, you must have a positive attitude. Statements of impossibility and difficulty must get out of your vocabulary.
I have written a number of articles on the power of relationships on this column in time past. The R at the heart of success stands for Relationships. Relational dynamics operate at three levels; up, sideways and downwards. The upward dynamics involves our relationship with our Maker and those in authority over us as superiors. Success becomes meaningful when an individual can find a definition in his source. Spirituality is not weakness and it does not spell vulnerability in any form. In actual fact, it is the foundation of inner strength which forms the bulwark of true success. Without the God-factor, success rings hollow. Success without godliness is emptiness. Mentors are God’s tools for shaping destiny.
No man is an island. No one fails or succeeds alone. When God wants to bless anyone, He uses people. And when the devil wants to mess up a person’s life, he also uses people. The sideways dimension has to do with relationships with family, friends, colleagues and contemporaries. The downwards dimension affects our relationships with people who are our subordinates. Everyone that comes our way will either empower or disempower us. As someone has rightly said, all our friends make us happy; some when they are around and some when they leave! Seek significant relationships in your life. The quality of your network will ultimately reflect in your net worth.
Finally, if you want to significantly succeed, you must take risks and massive action. Waking up and getting out of bed every morning on its own is a risk. Risks entail taking responsibility. Too many dreams die at the level of intentions. Life does not reward intentions. It rewards decisions and subsequent action. You cannot spend the money you make in your dream in real life! Every day that life affords you the opportunity, when you wake up every morning, get up, dress up, roll up your sleeves and get to work. There is no land where there is a river called River Honey or River Milk. If God has promised you a land flowing with milk and honey, you will have to raise the cows for the milk and bees to get the honey. The actual spelling of Canaan is W.O.R.K! I meet people every day who desire a future that they are not willing to embrace in the present. One scripture I love so much indicates that a slothful man puts his hands into a plate but is too lazy to put the food in his mouth!
Recently, I threw an invitation on social media and on my weekly TV program in Ekiti State to undergraduate students resident in Ado-Ekiti but who are currently staying idle at home as a result of the ongoing ASUU strike to be part of a mentoring program that I designed for them. Forty-one people expressed interest and I personally sent them an invitation for a meeting. On the day of the meeting, only six people showed up. One of them was not even an undergraduate but a practicing engineer who had chosen to attend because he wanted to learn! None of the other invitees bothered to even send a text to explain why they could not attend. A day after the program, a lady called only to tell me that when she wanted to come, it started raining; so she stayed back at home! I asked her what she would have done if the same thing had happened on the day of an examination. She said she would have gone for the examination nonetheless! I gave her another chance. She arrived thirty minutes before we started but did not wait for the meeting to start before she left!
True success comes at a price. You will either pay now and play later or play now and pay later. But whichever you choose, pay you will!
That, is the HEART of the matter!
Remember, the sky is not your limit, God is!
and then