It has become a box

I want to first of all thank you for coming to this life-changing space throughout last year to read through all my articles for the year 2016. Here comes a pristine and untouched year, 2017! And I do wish you a memorable and successful New Year. Buddy, in this year, you are going to become more effective and productive than last year! Your company is going to become better and bigger. Your ministry will expand. Your voice is going to get clearer and louder. Your life will become more eye-catching. And you are going to make more money this year!

This year 2017, I do have a lot of mind-stretching principles and values that I do want to pass on to you. They are going to help you a great deal in life, leadership and business. So, I appeal to you that you should not miss out on any of the proven and verified values that I am handing down to you in the next 51 weeks. Also, talk about this column to other upward thinking men and women you do know.  Let’s corporately burst into flames a revolution of values in Nigeria. Now let us move to the business for this day.

Every good thing that you did last year has become a box! To do better things this year, you will need to think out of the box of it! Pull back a little and list every good thing you did last year. Have you done that? If yes, then start thinking on how you are going to think outside the box of all of them. If you do not do this, what you did last year will become a box this year and you will not be able to move forward in life, leadership and business.

Good becomes an enemy of better when we cannot think outside of it. Why do people fail in business after coming up with a great idea that gushed out the water of success? They fall short—when they cannot think outside the box of an idea that has become stale. Remember, every unsullied idea today will become past its sell-by date tomorrow, so you’d need to keep thinking outside the box. This is one of the reasons companies do either lose part of their market shares or they completely get kicked out of the business.

Over the years, I have found out that when either a man or woman cannot “keep pouring from vessel to vessel”; he or she is going to lose relevance. Becoming relevant is not the gist, but staying relevant is it. There are too far many people who were relevant to this generation in the past, but who are not relevant anymore. They are still breathing, but what they are doing has become dead! This is the most tragic and awful thing that can happen to any man or woman who is on an assignment on earth.

An author writing a good book is not so much a problem, but to write a better one is where the huge task is. If he cannot think outside the ‘success-box’ of the first book he publishes, he will soon lose relevance as an author. Success becomes a box when we cannot think outside of it. And to move from success to significance, you will need to think outside the box of success.

The truth is, in every generation, most folks do not usually move from success to significance. When they become successful, instead of them to move to the next stage, they’d ‘camp’ around their success and in the long run die there. How successful are you today? This is not the last stage. You cannot afford to die as a mere successful man or woman. Think outside the box of your success today and move on to the next stage, significance.

I published my last book two years ago. It was adjudged by all who did read through it (across the planet earth) as a first-rate book. Now, I am striving hard to think outside that box. Why? If I do not think outside it, to write a better book will be impossible. Thinking outside the box of your last success is one of the most difficult things you’d need to do while you are still breathing. Remember, the day you stop thinking outside the box of your last success is the day you’d start losing relevance.

Henry Ford came from the ‘back-seat’ of life to change the way everything was being done in the midst of the earth during his time! He invented Model T cars and they were only painted black in those days. What a mind-blowing invention! But when Henry Ford refused to think outside the box of his black Model T cars, he lost a huge part of the market-share to those who were willing to move on from where he was.

The reason you are losing out in your field of business today may not be the devil. You know in Africa, especially in Nigeria, everything that happens that we do not like is always done by the devil. It may be because you have refused to think outside of the box of your own black Model T car (your last success). I am here to tell you today that every “exploit” you did last year has become a box! What?! You heard me right. And to do more “exploit” this year, you shall need to think outside the box of the entire “exploit” you did last year.

The foremost reason I decided to address this issue today is so that you can set yourself free from the prison of your last success and stay successful. Remember, it is one thing to become successful, but it is another thing to stay successful. The most disastrous and tragic thing that can happen to anyone is to be a success in the past and be a failure in the now. If you do not want this to happen to you, start thinking outside the box of your last success, so you can birth a new one!

See you where great people are found!