MEN THAT WILL SUCCEED 11: They are Sensitive

‘There are three keys to more abundant living: caring about others, daring for others and sharing with others’ - Bill Ward

Thick-skinned people go through life half-dead. Being sensitive allows others to get to you. And that’s when you can get to them too. To manage success is to manage people. No man is an island. There are people around who have to do with your success. Your success in dealing with them determines how success will deal with you.

Dealing positively and effectively with people is built on sensitivity, alertness: knowing what the other person is feeling, knowing when there’s a word out on you, knowing when and where to speak or keep quiet. The extent to which you will enjoy others depends on how sensitive you are.

A sensitive man hardly ever overlooks potentials. You can’t see potentials in someone or something unless you are alert. Josh Billings said it all when he said that learning sleeps and wakes in libraries but wisdom is everywhere wide awake on tip-toe. No one will give you the things you need most on a platter of gold. If anybody does that, he’s either a Good Samaritan or he didn’t know that’s what you need, otherwise he would not give you.

Everyone wants something in return for what they do. That is why someone said that whatever God can get through you He can get to you! So, feel!

‘People don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care’ - John Cassis

MEN THAT WILL SUCCEED 10: They are Diligent

‘The plans of the diligent lead surely to abundance but everyone who is hasty comes only to want’ (King Solomon*).

Diligence refers to steady effort and careful hard work. In other words, it means using your head and hands. Life does not generally respond well to sudden impulses. If you want the best out of life, then you’ve got to put in steady, consistent efforts. Work hard carefully. Careless hard work amounts to foolishness. Work hard to produce results and not for the purpose of being seen. The efforts that yield the greatest results are often the ones that are not conspicuous.

The essence of diligence is found in the old saying, ‘slow and steady wins the race.’ Diligence minimizes errors because the chances of doing things right the first time are higher. Remember, haste is waste. Successful people are careful people. Diligence is the father of great skill. Diligence produces lasting results.

The most celebrated works of the great artist, Michelangelo are his paintings in the Sistine chapel in Rome. Everyone who has beheld this work first-hand or has seen photos of it has saluted the skills of the artist. Very few people, however, know that the work took Michelangelo two years to complete, many times painting with his back down and face up for days. Steady effort, careful hard work.

‘Seest thou a man diligent in his business? He shall stand before kings; he shall not stand before mean men’ (King Solomon§).

* See the Holy Bible; the Proverbs 21:5
§ See the Holy Bible; the Proverbs 22:29

MEN THAT WILL SUCCEED 9: They have High Standards

‘The roots of true achievement lie in the will to become the best that you can become’ (Harold Taylor).

High standard is synonymous with excellence. According to Booker T. Washington, excellence is to do a common thing in an uncommon way. This is something you must strive to achieve if you want to be a success. Having high standards means that the bases with which you make comparisons are the best that you can find. People of high standards don’t believe in joining them if you can’t beat them.

You don’t have to be like anyone else. Why must you be among when there is mass failure in your class? Is anything wrong if only you passed? Why must you cheat because everyone else is doing it? ‘Keep yourself clean and bright; you are the window through which you must see the world’ (George Bernard).

Remember this on your road to success: Any buried grasses you leave behind will surely grow again. It’s just a matter of time. Former House of Reps speaker, Salisu Buhari and his Toronto saga should teach everyone a lesson*.

‘Elevate your personal standards of quality … If you want greatness, then forget greatness and earnestly pursue what is right. Then you can find both’. (John Mason).

MEN THAT WILL SUCCEED 9: They have High Standards

‘The roots of true achievement lie in the will to become the best that you can become’ (Harold Taylor).

High standard is synonymous with excellence. According to Booker T. Washington, excellence is to do a common thing in an uncommon way. This is something you must strive to achieve if you want to be a success. Having high standards means that the bases with which you make comparisons are the best that you can find. People of high standards don’t believe in joining them if you can’t beat them.

You don’t have to be like anyone else. Why must you be among when there is mass failure in your class? Is anything wrong if only you passed? Why must you cheat because everyone else is doing it? ‘Keep yourself clean and bright; you are the window through which you must see the world’ (George Bernard).

Remember this on your road to success: Any buried grasses you leave behind will surely grow again. It’s just a matter of time. Former House of Reps speaker, Salisu Buhari and his Toronto saga should teach everyone a lesson*.

‘Elevate your personal standards of quality … If you want greatness, then forget greatness and earnestly pursue what is right. Then you can find both’. (John Mason).

MEN THAT WILL SUCCEED 8: They Work Hard

‘None of the secrets of success will work unless you do … often the simple answer to your problem is: GO TO WORK’ (John Mason).

Someone has said that laziness travels so slowly that poverty soon overtakes it. On the road to success, nothing can replace hard work. An American TV game show host, Monty Hall once said, ‘Actually, I’m an overnight success. But it took me twenty years.’ Nobody makes it legally without working hard. Ask any celebrity that you know. They’ve been at it for a long time but no one notices until they pull it off. Work, work, work and work. Nothing in the world can take the place of hard work.

About 500 times the Bible speaks of work. Jeremiah said it is good for a young man to bear the burden in his youth*; King Solomon said, ‘He whose hand is slack shall be poor.§’ Slack here is used in the sense of sloth and negligence. You’ve got to sweat if you want to succeed.

General Colin Powell, US Secretary of State, started out in life as a floor scrubber. John Major, British PM worked as a cashier in Lagos. Bill Gates walked door-to-door to sell insurance. M.K.O. Abiola sold firewood … and the list can go on.

You can’t get anyone to work for you if you don’t work for yourself. There is honour in hard work.

‘All hard work leads to a profit’ (King Solomon).

---

* See the Holy Bible; the Lamentations of Jeremiah 3:27

§ See the Holy Bible; the Proverbs 10:4

MEN THAT WILL SUCCEED 7: They Plan

After the little - but thoughtful - aside that I posted the other day, I believe we're ready to move on with the 8th in our series of thoughts about SUCCESS-MINDED PEOPLE. Today, it's about planning...

‘Praying without planning is playing without knowing’ - David O. Oyedepo

Planning simply means taking a good look at what you want to achieve and deciding how to go about it. Jesus called it ‘counting the cost’ when HE talked about a man wanting to build a tower or a king wanting to go to war.* Failure to do this results in ridiculous failure.

You probably have heard it said before that he that fails to plan plans to fail. Nobody consciously plans to fail but numerous people do it unconsciously when they make no plans for definite achievements. Only planners can achieve.

Big things happen when you do the little things right. When a man does not know what harbor he is making for, no wind seems to be blowing in the right direction. You are not an animal so you are not expected to live on mere instincts. Lay out definite plans of what you want to achieve. If you don’t know what you want then you have to manage with whatever you get.

People with plans are always prepared. They are always ready. They are always doing something positive. They are never caught unawares. And they hardly miss opportunities. That’s the only legal reason today why the rich are getting richer.

‘Order – let all your things have their place; let each part of your business have its time’ - Benjamin Franklin



* See the Holy Bible - Luke 14: 28-32

Just an aside: WHO REALLY MATTERS

The following piece is helping me to redefine success...

The following is the philosophy of Charles Schultz, the creator of the "Peanuts" comic strip. You don't have to actually answer the questions. Just read the e-mail straight through, and you'll get the point.

1. Name the five wealthiest people in the world.

2. Name the last five Heisman trophy winners.

3. Name the last five winners of the Miss America Contest.

4. Name ten people who have won the Nobel or Pulitzer Prize.

5. Name the last half dozen Academy Award winners for best actor and actress.

6 . Name the last decade's worth of World Series winners.





How did you do?

The point is, none of us remember the headliners of yesterday. These are no second-rate achievers. They are the best in their fields. But the applause dies. Awards tarnish. Achievements are forgotten. Accolades and certificates are buried with their owners.






Here's another quiz. See how you do on this one:

1. List a few teachers who aided your journey through school.

2. Name three friends who have helped you through a difficult time.

3. Name five people who have taught you something worthwhile.

4. Think of a few people who have made you feel appreciated and special.

5. Think of five people you enjoy spending time with



Easier?

The lesson: The people who make a difference in your life are not the ones with the most credentials, the most money, or the most awards. They are the ones that care.




Pass this on to those people who have made a difference in your life.


"Don't worry about the world coming to an end today.
It's already tomorrow in Australia "
(Charles Schultz)

That was the way it came into my inbox today...pass it on...and exactly that I'm doin' here...that piece really did touch me...I'm sure it'll touch you too...

MEN THAT WILL SUCCEED 6: They Think

"What you picture in your mind your mind will go to work to accomplish. When you change your picture you automatically change your performance. You cannot consistently act in a manner that is inconsistent with the way you think " - Zig Ziglar

The greatest asset that God has given to mortal man is the ability to think; the power of the mind; the power to imagine; the power to envision. Michael LeBoeuf called it the greatest moneymaker in the world; and I call it the greatest asset of any man. Listen, whatever investment you make in your mind is not too much. Its power is so awesome that it can do almost anything. Yet, this is what some people neglect.

Do you think at all? Plans are born of thoughts. Inventions are born of thoughts. Ideas are born of thoughts. If you can’t think you can’t make it. Money comes to those who think. Success is not far from the thinker. Take time off each day to THINK. Think through on every problem. Creativity is all about seeing what everyone else has seen and thinking what no else has thought. Exercise your mind. Use your mind.

A note of warning, though. Be wary of what you think about. Watch what you allow your mind to picture. In short, THINK RIGHT. Your mind is like a fertile field. If no useful seeds are sown therein it invariably becomes overgrown with weeds. “Our best friends and our worst enemies are the thoughts we have …” (Dr. Frank Crane)

Thoughts lead on to purposes

Purposes go forth into action

Actions form habits

Habits decide character

And character fixes our destiny

- Tryon Edwards

MEN THAT WILL SUCCEED 6: They are Consistent

‘The problem with success is that you have to keep on being a success’ (Anon).

If your goal is to be a one-time success, to do well at one thing and give up in the rest, then you have a thwarted idea of success. Successful people have a strong desire to remain successful. They always believe in improvement. And that is the bedrock of consistency – having that strong faith that you can always do it again and again; and better and better.

According to John Mason, the road to success is always under construction. Men of success keep building but each time on a higher level. When you being to think you’ve had enough, your mind tells you it’s stupid to try more. Then you either reverse or turn around – anyhow, you start going back.

You should know that in this information age, you have to keep moving otherwise, others will move past you at such speeds that you begin to fall back steadily. Keep doing those good things. Keep modifying your ideas. Keep managing your successes and failures. Consistency is the greatest single factor that keeps you on top.

‘Big shots are only little shots who have kept on firing’.

MEN THAT WILL SUCCEED 5: They Like Feedback

‘Feedback is the breakfast of champions’ (Anon.)

Successful people work in closed loops. That is, they operate such that their next input is a function of their last output. An open loop is the direct opposite of this. Take a hunter as an example. If his first shot misses target he adjusts his aim. If he hits target he stops shooting. The information obtained from the last output which affects the next input is what is called feedback.

This is what success-minded people like. Dr. Mike LeBoeuf wrote in ‘The Greatest Management Principle in the World’ that the four most important words in American English are ‘What is your opinion?’ If you think that is not true then you must be a machine or a robot. You can’t ever be the best judge of what you do, observers are. That’s why most corporate bodies hang suggestion boxes in their reception lobbies. Even several authors now ask for feedback.

At times feedback could be cynical or discouraging. Whichever way, make the most of what people say about the things you do. With experience you will discover that most people that make cynical comments about certain things are those that have failed in those things. Or what do you expect a senior that failed a course to tell his junior? It’s either the course is irrelevant or the lecturer is bad!

‘He who can take advice is sometimes superior to him who can give it’ - Karl Ludwig von Knebel

MEN THAT WILL SUCCEED 4: They Cherish Integrity

"Wise men are men of their word. The quality of a man’s life is in direct proportion to the integrity and quality of his word." - Matthew Ashimolowo

You are only as good as your word. Being a successful person is not all about being comfortable or ahead of others. Can you be entrusted with money? Can you be taken at your word? I would rather be poor than live a liar. Honesty and integrity go hand-in-hand. “The test of your wisdom may be your ability to walk in honesty” (Matthew Ashimolowo).

Dishonest men have a problem: they have to struggle to remember what they said sometimes ago so that they don’t say something different now. Recent research has even shown that you burn much more energy when you lie. Your whole body system is also upset. That is exactly what the lie detecting machine exploits.

When falsely accused of extra-marital affairs by a certain woman with whom he had lived in the same neighborhood, Dr. Ben Carson had to depend on his honest way of life to maintain the confidence of his family and associates. Commit this to heart: one day, when the chips are down and everything seems to go wrong, then the strength of your integrity will determine your fate. Woe betide the man who, on such days, is found to be a fake.

"Hold integrity high, your life may one day depend on it" - John Mason

MEN THAT WILL SUCCEED 4: They Cherish Integrity

"Wise men are men of their word. The quality of a man’s life is in direct proportion to the integrity and quality of his word." - Matthew Ashimolowo

You are only as good as your word. Being a successful person is not all about being comfortable or ahead of others. Can you be entrusted with money? Can you be taken at your word? I would rather be poor than live a liar. Honesty and integrity go hand-in-hand. “The test of your wisdom may be your ability to walk in honesty” (Matthew Ashimolowo).

Dishonest men have a problem: they have to struggle to remember what they said sometimes ago so that they don’t say something different now. Recent research has even shown that you burn much more energy when you lie. Your whole body system is also upset. That is exactly what the lie detecting machine exploits.

When falsely accused of extra-marital affairs by a certain woman with whom he had lived in the same neighborhood, Dr. Ben Carson had to depend on his honest way of life to maintain the confidence of his family and associates. Commit this to heart: one day, when the chips are down and everything seems to go wrong, then the strength of your integrity will determine your fate. Woe betide the man who, on such days, is found to be a fake.

"Hold integrity high, your life may one day depend on it" - John Mason

MEN THAT WILL SUCCEED 3.2: TIME IN AFRICA

Not long after posting yesterday’s piece I was engaged in some talks with a colleague in the office. We both wondered why the world seems to know little about success stories in Africa – as if there are none. My opinion was that we, in Africa, do not tell our stories to the world while the west has consistently done that. With that the discussion shifted to the question “Why” and my colleague’s opinion was that we are “shortcut-crazy” in Africa. We seem to want to get everything done “quick and good”. At the end of that discourse, I gained two insights.

First, the future of Africa depends greatly on this generation. It’s going to make a whole lot of difference what we teach ourselves and our children. When I remember Otabil Mensah’s allusion to the fact that the people of the British Isles became what they are by the power of time management: and the obvious gap between Africa and the west in terms of how time is valued, I conclude that perhaps the greatest skill that must be taught to this generation and the off springs therefore is the fundamentals of time management.

To my mind, it is clearly a cultural issue. Except for South Africa where the white people have clearly made a difference, I do not know of any of any of our cultures in Africa that is not hypocritical about the management of time. The Yorubas (South–Western Nigeria) for instance, have a lot of sound and inspiring proverbs about time. They say, for example, “Igba ara ni a n bura, enikan kii bu sango ni eerun”. Literally, this means that swearing is to be done at its right time, no one abuses Sango, the god of thunder during the dry season. The import of this saying is that the right thing should be done at the right time. Yet when you consider carefully the things these people spend their time on, you’ll be amazed: parties, gossip, socializing and excessive leisure.

In fact, one major problem that has plagued the public service in South-Western Nigeria is what people do with office time. And it defies ranks. I have visited offices where the most superior officers are the ones leading the time-wasting efforts. Again, people can leave their own work to burst in on another person’s time. Unplanned and unannounced visits - mostly fruitless and purposeless. ‘Mo kan ni ki n ki yin ni’ (I just thought to see how you’re doing) yet they stay with you for hours, feeling offended if you don’t spare your work to give them attention.

Sincerely, I believe there are certain parts of our beliefs and attitudes as a people that must change – how what we do with our time is one of them. It is time in Africa for a change. Every minute of our time must be made to count. While a few of us have already embraced this paradigm, we still require a critical mass. So much about that.

The second insight is about time investment. The average “shortcut-crazy” African wants to do outstanding things in no time. It does not happen anywhere. We have to learn and then teach our children to give time to all that we do; we need to take time off fruitless efforts and divert it into fruitful ones. It is equally important for us to know that every great achievement is like a tree, first planted then diligently watered till maturity. And that is where delayed gratification comes in. The best books take years to write; the richest people worked hard in obscurity for some time; the gold medalists trained hard for many years. For us to come out of our status quo we’re got to learn to invest our time now, that we may reap in years to come, the fruits of peace.

To the mind that craves for more, I recommend you read The State of Africa. The book, written by veteran journalist, Martin Meredith, chronicles the story of Africa since the 50’s. When I read it, I saw here and there, throughout our history, how we (or they?) squandered the past that brought us this present. Are we (or are you) going to squander this present again to give a poor future? My people, it’s time in Africa…

MEN THAT WILL SUCCEED 3.1: They are time-conscious

‘Dost thou love life? Then do not squander time for that is the stuff life itself is made of' (Benjamin Franklin).

While planning involves prudent allotment of time, time-consciousness refers to the ability to know when time is going. Your destiny may depend on this seemingly un-important ability. Whether or not you will arrive on time for an interview, a contract bidding, an exam or even your wedding is dependent upon your consciousness of the time.

A man that knows when to start and when to stop will surely command respect. If anything bad will be said or written about you, let it not be ‘time-waster’. Let anyone that wants to make it know that life is an aggregation of time units which, once wasted can never be recovered. Athletes, especially sprinters would understand this better. A late start of one second might result in total failure.

In the 2004 Olympics at Athens, Greece, the British 4 x 100m relay anchor leg finished just 0.1s (a tenth of a second, less than enough time to blink your eyes) before Maurice Greene, the US anchor leg. Obviously, the difference between gold and silver could be as small as that! World female 100m hurdles champion lost out in the same Olympiad because she lost some seconds when she tipped and fell over her first hurdle. She just looked helplessly at the others as they forged ahead.

‘The present time is the raw material out of which we make whatever we will . . . Life is not lost by dying; life is lost minute by minute in all the … small uncaring ways’

- Sidney N. Bremer; Steve Benet

MEN THAT WILL SUCCEED 2: They are Passionate

‘Throw your hat over the fence and your whole body will soon follow’ (J. F. Kennedy).

Passion is all about giving your entirety into the pursuit of a cause. It means making commitments such that you can hardly turn back. Your passion determines your motion. Few things succeed that are not pursued with passion. ‘The person who makes a success of living is the one who sees his goal steadily and aims for it unswervingly’ (Cecil B. DeMille).

With passion comes focus; and with focus comes steady aim. Ask the best hunters around you and they‘ll tell you how important these things are. Sir Isaac Newton gave so much of himself to his researches that he left his supper untouched on many occasions. These missed suppers have all gone into the postulation of golden scientific principles as we have them today. Or what is physics without the Newton’s laws of motion?

Little John Kennedy strongly desired to get juicy apples from a tree which everyone considered inaccessible. ‘How do you go over a tall fence without footholds and you don’t even know what’s on the other side?’, everyone seemed to ask. John’s passion overcame him one day and guess what he did? He threw a precious hat of his over that fence and the rest is history. That’s where the quote at the head of this aritcle came from.

Where there is passion, possibilities are not for away.

MEN THAT WILL SUCCEED 1: They are Readers

Hi. This is the first in the series of discourse I promised from my book-in-progress. For now, I will concentrate on delivering the content directly from the book. I welcome and would greatly appreciate your comments.

Reading is to the mind what exercise is to the body (Rick Steel)

One of the greatest assets of successful people is a developed mind. A man’s mind is developed mostly through reading. Men who have attained some high status in our society have constantly testified to the fact that leaders are readers. If any one desires to be an achiever, tell him he has to learn to read a lot.

Let me quickly point out that illiterate people are not half as disadvantaged as you may have believed. Like someone said, “In the twentieth century (and now we’re in the 21st) an illiterate is not necessarily one who is unlearned but one who is not willing to learn, un-learn and re-learn.” How true that is! Reading is not all about being able to decode what is put on paper; rather it involves the ability to make careful observations, meaningful inferences and correct interpretations of what is seen.

While I am not trying to excuse illiteracy or de-emphasize formal education, I am putting it to you that formal education is not equal to reading. “An educated man is not necessarily one who has an abundance of general or specialized knowledge. An educated man is one who has so developed the faculties of his mind so that he may acquire anything he wants, or its equivalent, without violating the rights of others.”(Napoleon Hill). If you despise reading, it’s going to be extremely difficult for you to make it in life.

“Today a reader, tomorrow a leader.” (W. Fussellman)

MEN THAT WILL SUCCEED 1: They are Readers

Hello. This is the first in the series of the discourse I promised to post from my book. For now, I'll just concentrate on delivering the content 'as is' without any additional

UPCOMING

The year 2007 is about halfway through; and I have watched with keen interest a lot of goings-on around me. From the 2007 General Elections to the choice of what my immediate neighbours eat, I have noticed in everything that MANY PEOPLE DO THINGS WITHOUT FULLY CONSIDERING THE CONSEQUENCES OF THEIR ACTIONS.


In the literature on success, one thing that cuts across - which in fact is like the golden rule of prosperity - is the principle of Cause and Effect. The timelessness and infallibiblity of this principle were perhaps the reason why Albert Einstein defined insanity as doing the same old things and expecting different results.


But then, the majority of people in the society live in near-absolute oblivion of this all-powerful principle. I just read yesterday in Robert Greene's Joost Elffers book 48 Laws of Power that you do not judge your enemies by their intentions but by the consequences of their actions. The lesson, for me, in that is to consider an enemy weak , though he looks strong, if his actions bear little consequence; and to consider him strong, though he looks weak, if his actions bear great consequences. In the same way, everything to do or say should be considered on the basis of the long-run consequences and not immediate implications. Regrettably, many people seem not to think like that!


Could that be the reason why the society seems to comprise more vanquished than victors? Might that explain why many work so hard and yet live below poverty line?
In the next few weeks, I intend to share parts of a book I have worked on since 2004. I believe the question of success is more than what we dream, it's more about how and what we think and do: ATTITUDE and ACTIONS. I challenge you, therefore, to look forward to ACTIONS OF SUCCESS-MINDED PEOPLE and put across your comments.

THERE ARE STILL THOUGHTFUL NIGERIANS

I was checking my mails today and I gor this mail from an old classmate of mine. Immediately I read through, one thing kept ringing in my mind: there are still thoughtful Nigerians; people who care what happens to us as a nation; people who are concerned about how we are treated. Take away all personal sentiments, the writer of this article just demonstrated the kind of attitude our leaders should have.

American Embassy Plc (By Sochima Ndu; Published: Monday, 26 Mar 2007)

I was sad when I read the account narrated by Mr. Hakeem Ogunniran, the Managing Director of
MDS – a Division of the UACN Plc, in the Saturday PUNCH of March 17, concerning the appalling, and indeed pathetic, treatment that was meted to his wife by the Canadian Embassy in Lagos. The Ogunnirans are not alone in the saga of ill-treatment of Nigerians at the hands of foreign embassies.

Top on the list of these notorious embassies is the American Embassy on Walter Carrington Crescent, Victoria Island, Lagos. The visa section of the American Embassy is the revenue generation unit of the element and I can imagine that, like any profit-oriented enterprise, they start the year with a target of revenue and profitability which they must generate at all costs. The modus operandi for extracting the targeted sums from Nigerians starts with the invitation forinterview. The embassy exploits the desires of many Nigerians to visit foreign countries while on holiday, broaden their knowledge by attending seminars and conferences abroad and yes, even explore their destinies in other countries, by inviting them for these spurious interviews. It seems that they count the applications and decide how many must come per day and how many must have to reapply for the targets to be met.

In most cases, the letters of rejection have already been prepared in advance of the interviews. The candidates are invited, not to be heard, but for their N14,000 which is vital to the income and expenditure account of the embassy. Does the upfront collection of non-refundable application fees by these embassies not qualify as a definition of advance fee fraud? Can these embassies not collect a lower amount as non-refundable processing fee (say N1,000), while the N14,000 could remain as a visa issuance fee taken only from successful applicants?

I heard the case of a medical doctor whose son gained admission into Princeton and visited the American Embassy for a visa. Apparently knowing the penchant of consular officers to make instant illogical decisions on visa applications, he arranged to be at the embassy on the same day (perhaps to renew his visitor’s visa) so he could lend his voice to his son’s student’s visainterview. The visa official questioned him as to why he wanted his son to study in America instead of in a Nigerian university. What right does that American have to determine where a man wants his children to go to school? The answer is very simple – how many of the staff of the American embassy studied in Princeton or Harvard? It irks them to think that Nigerians aredaring to exceed those mundane limits which they have set for us in their finite minds.

In my few years in the service industry, I have learnt that revenues are compensations for values which have been added to a customer’s life or business. The question that then arises is, what value is the American embassy (our typical example and the worst culprit) adding to the lives of Nigerians to justify the gargantuan amount of money that it milks from them? Is it the number of hours that people must spend in order to attend those grueling interviews? Is it the sheer rudeness of the security personnel at the embassy? Is it the degrading attitude of the insincere embassy staff? Where lies the value addition in all of this experience?
In today’s world of branding, where organizations of different characters are taking concerted steps to develop positive perceptions from the public relative to their brand image, the likes of the Canadian and American embassies are very brazen in their disregard for the views and perceptions of Nigerians. Or is that not the case?

The truth is that what is being meted to the Nigerian citizenry is a direct reflection of the degree ofdisregard and disrespect that these people and their nations have for our country and our governments. They treat this country as a pariah and pay lip service to relationships.

They treat our leaders as clowns and show no modicum of respect for them. It is probably for this reason that even our leaders show no form of concern at the treatment meted to our citizenry. It seems normal to them. It is in this bizarre abnormality that the mystery lies. We have mortgaged every iota of self-respect for a fee and sacrificed our national destiny on the altar of greed and unabridged corruption. The Nigerian high commissions in other countries cannot even dream of conducting business in any manner near what these people do here. Their governments will shout to the high heavens. If our embassies do not crawl in penitence, they will blackmail, arm-twist, and threaten to bring down sanctions or even worse.

I call on the leadership of this country, in the spirit of the national anthem and the Nigerian pledge, to shake itself free from all apathy and protect its citizenry by standing up against the injustices and maltreatment which are handed down to Nigerians by all hostile foreign embassies operating on Nigerian soil.

Ndu writes from 23, Balogun Road, Ogba, Lagos.
Culled from the Punch Newspaper

PURPOSE OF DESIGN

It's been quite some time since I put something up here. Challenges, as usual. I like to start here by re-stating that it matters little what we have achieved on earth, we have not succeeded unless we have fulfilled our PUPRPOSE OF DESIGN. By that I mean to say that the One who made us had something in mind when He did so; and unless we function in that pre-designed capacity, the best we would ever do will be sub-standard. I therefor make bold to say that TRUE SUCCESS EQUALS FULFILLING THE PURPOSE FOR WHICH WE WERE CREATED.

Two key things follow from that. One, there is a Being who created (and still creates). This is only stating the obvious because there can be no pattern without a designer. The intricate patterns observed in creation tells us there is a Master Designer. Two, there is a reason for everything.

UNIQUE THOUGHTS

It’s so amazing that another year is almost quarter way through now. I mean, only 6 weeks ago we all hailed ‘Happy New Year”, and here we are – almost at the end of the second month of that same year. Maybe more amazing is the fact that many folks are still preparing to get started; and more amazing still is the fact that many who have started don’t even know where they’re going. Even more amazing is the apparent confidence with which these folks are getting on JUST FINE – as if they can’t be more right.

I beg you to pause and think
Ø Have you started – on your goals, your dreams, your aspirations, your desires – this year?
Ø Are you sure you know where what you’re doing now will take you?

Or better still, do you know why you want to do what you want to do?

Each time I’ve thought about these issues since the beginning of this year, no better illustration comes to my mind than Zig Ziglar’s experience as described by Tony Jeary in Success Acceleration (that’s the third book I’ve read this year, apart from my academic stuff).
According to Tony, Zig went to his gym one day and found the place so packed that he hardly found a space to park his car. It was even more serious inside the gym as the whole room was filled with people sweating it out on the machines.

Surprised, Zig approached the manager of the place to make enquiries about the sudden rush. The manager’s response was somewhat like this:
“It’s no problem, most of the people you see here are new, they’d be gone in about a month or two. It’s just the New Year resolution crowd.” (emphasis mine)
Two lessons I learned from this bit of experience. One, most people, in fact every average man/woman/child makes good decisions. Two, most people are gone in about a month or two. If you think it’s a fallacy, compare your church attendance figures on New Year’s Eve, New Year’s Day and last Sunday…

… And then the challenge … how many months will it take you to go?


Last year I raised the issue of the determinants of success and started by showing how, like mathematical equations, the value of one’s life is determined by the operator and the operand and not the constant. We’ll pick up from there and go on to see other dimensions of the matter … welcome.