Many years ago, I was coming from my place of work in the city of Lagos. Beside a road, I saw a lot of women selling—tomatoes, onions and vegetables. You needed to see hundreds of people patiently waiting to buy all the mentioned items and more, but about 50 seconds walk from where all those market women were was a man selling books—cheap-good-books. He was there with those books he wanted to sell, screaming on top of his lungs, advertising them. While screaming and shouting, he said, “Come and buy good books that are capable of transforming your life. A copy is N100naira.” To my chagrin, no one was standing before him, wanting to buy from him!
Many have been consuming food for decades without consuming a book and they are wondering while they are leading an unproductive life. Also, many people have not read through a book since they left their varied places of learning years back. They have graduated out of both school and learning but little do they know that successful people are lifelong learners!
In the school of success, you can never graduate out of learning. When you listen to those who constantly read through good books, their thoughts are usually mind-boggling. But when you listen to those who have neither attended a conference nor read through a book in decades, you would know, because nothing enlightening and stirring comes out of their mouths. When you are looking for liberating counsels, you do not look for haters of good books, but lovers of food!
In futility, many people are anticipating and expecting a new year that will be different from the old—without having any plan to attend brain-shifting and life-transforming conferences and reading through good books. There are millions of Nigerians, who are in this category and class. They hate knowledge, but love success. They hate to pay to attend life-changing meetings, but they want to climb to the top of life and business. To become successful, you will have to be very deliberate about it. No one truly becomes successful accidentally.
Not long ago, I was speaking at a religious meeting and I did ask those under the sound of my voice on how many books they had read through this year and I was amazed when it became clear to me as water that about 98 per cent of them hadn’t read through even a book this year! They have bought expensive wrist-watches, clothes and bags, but they have not bought a book, let alone read through it. This is the major reason many people are not living as they should live in the midst of the earth today.
As busy as Barack Obama was when he was the president of America, he still created time to read through good books. The latest book he published a while back sold close to a million copies in a day! In Nigeria, you do not need to be a seer to know that most of our politicians here are not smart readers. It shows in their thoughts and the way they talk. Nigerians are expecting so much from people who are devoid of knowledge.
Expecting so much from those who are devoid of knowledge is a waste of time. Nigeria is not going to rise beyond where she is until her leaders begin to value knowledge—relevant knowledge and those who value knowledge. No serious nation jokes with those who are knowledge-driven. And only unserious people do put people who are devoid of knowledge in varied positions of leadership.
One of the biographies of great men I read through very early in life was that of Abraham Lincoln. You cannot read through his biography and not fall in love with books, good books. An unusual man who developed himself as an effect of his undying love for books! He would trek for hours because he wanted to go borrow books from those who had them but did not value them. Today, strong minds are very scarce because folks prefer borrowing your shoes and ties to borrowing books. No one wants to suffer again for knowledge. No thanks to our politicians. They have been able to demonstrate to Nigerians that one can become rich without falling in love with knowledge. There is cheap money in the corridors of power, so no one wants to read through good books again.
Also, it was a burning love for books that changed the life of Frederick Douglas, an ordinary slave who ended up becoming a very great man on earth. Knowledge made his neck to become too fat for the yoke of slavery. He rose from slavery to become an articulate public speaker. No slavery can contain a man who consistently devours good books.
The major reason politicians in Nigeria have deliberately destroyed our education is because they know that when our people become knowledgeable, it would be very hard to deceive and oppress them. Now, if you do not have what it takes to go study abroad, start buying and reading through good books! Personal development is strong enough to make your neck become too fat for oppression, poverty and stagnation!
Lastly, there is no one, who is truly successful on earth today—who is not completely sold out to buying books, reading through them and applying the knowledge gleaned from books into his life, business and family. You desire to have a beautiful future? Then become very passionate about knowledge. This will help you a great deal in life, business and leadership. Till I come your way again next week Monday, see you where men and women who love good books are found!
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