Let me quickly go off on a tangent and speak to you on a very crucial area that I believe is capable of changing your life forever. Over the years, I have met with more than a few men and women of purpose. They are very clear on what they have come on earth to get done and they are passionate about it, but as years roll by, they are fast becoming discouraged—because of lack of finances. They are men and women on clear different missions, but they cleanly do not know how to make money.
Sweetheart, please understand that folks do not buy purpose, no matter how majestic it appears, they only buy either products or services! Purpose does not pay bills, only money does! In our beautiful country, Nigeria, there are quite a lot of men and women of purpose—who cannot pay their bills, simply because they do not know how to convert their purpose to either high-value products or breathtaking services.
As a man on an assignment, do you have at least a hobbyhorse and brainchild that you can exchange for money? What value can you carve out of your purpose that you can exchange for money? If you can solve the purpose conundrum, then you are going to start making money. And paying your bills becomes so easy. Ultimately, you’d begin to find it so fulfilling, running with your purpose, because purpose that is devoid of money does cause an acute pain. I will write some more on this pertinent issue in the days to come.
Back to the life-changing information I am giving out today. The first question I am asking you is: can you go above and beyond to stand out of the crowd? The pack starts to dwindle when extra effort is required. Over the years, I have come to understand that most people will stop working, toiling and take the easy exit, when their journey to excellence requires them to go that extra mile. Just one mile beyond “easy,” and most people do not go there. This is the major reason why many people’s dreams have remained unfulfilled for years. Run of the mill men and women do love to travel along the “easy mile”, but men and women of excellence consistently do travel along the extra mile. Most folks do travel along the easy mile, but only a few people do travel along the extra mile. It is always crowded along the “easy mile”. A lot of little-minded people do go there. A lot of insignificant people do go there. A lot of poor people do go there… You want to become successful and significant? Then leave the “easy mile” for the extra mile!
You cannot love to travel along “the easy mile” and live a successful and significant. Best-selling authors don’t travel along it. Best actors and actresses detest it. Leaders of giant companies don’t go there. Movers and shakers of our beautiful country—Nigeria do not go there too. Outstanding musicians do only travel consistently along the extra mile. Renowned men and women in different walks of life are “extra mile walkers.”
If you want to be special, it will not be by running with the rest of the pack; it will be by rising to the top and doing a bit more in order to stand out from others. The road called the extra mile is not jam-packed. Very few people are willing to do more than is required of them. On the 15th of March, 2017, I invested some hours, training the workforce of a reputable Local Government in one of the States in Nigeria on how they can develop unimpeachable and impeccable work-ethics and a very strong emphasis was placed on the issue I am raising today.
The legendary Vince Lombardi used to tell his players that Fatigue would make cowards out of them all! As a professional football coach, he knew his players were tired, but a major part of his job was to skillfully push them to go the extra mile in order to achieve greatness. His success in doing that is exhibited in his winning record and the fact that the super bowl winner each year is awarded the Lombardi trophy. His name is synonymous with doing more than is expected.
I was speaking somewhere in my city, Lagos, a few days ago and I bawled: “You all will become great, significant and successful!” and everyone under the sound of my voice responded: “Amen!” And I said to them: “we have been saying “amen” since only God knows when, but we are still here in the woods in Nigeria and Africa as a whole…” To stand-out as a people, we would need to start learning how to do more than is expected of us. If a people are consciously, transparently and sincerely putting 24hours daily into developing their country, traveling along the extra mile and we are daily putting almost nothing into developing ours, traveling along the easy mile, no amount of religious prayer will cause us to become successful as they are.
Lastly, in this century, in the world of business, on the condition that you cannot go the extra mile while rendering services to your customers, you would not be able to keep them. The major reason you probably have not been able to keep your customers isn’t because of witches (you know we hardly accept responsibility for our own mess in Nigeria and Africa as a whole. We are fond of blaming the devil for everything that goes wrong in our life), the major reason may be because you are traveling along the easy mile while rendering pedestrian services to them. To attract and retain customers in this day and time, you’d need to learn how to consistently render wow services to them.
See you where great leaders are found.
and then