No excuse, really

It's about 5am and I've not slept a bit since last night. Doing what? Studying, reflecting and thinking. My attention was also partly on the TV - CNN precisely. The news of the Tucson, Arizona mass killing that took place yesterday had lingered almost all night. When I heard the name of the suspect for the first time at 5:09am, I typed it into my search engine and got hundreds of thousands of hits - from the relevant to the downright nonsensical. One of the top hits had a profound effect on me. There was already a full-blown wiki page complete with detailed references! 

'How could anyone have done this so quick?' I asked myself. 

'Well, it's the information age,' I answered myself.

And that is really true; that wiki page demonstrates the power and speed of information in this age that we live in for two important reasons:

1. On most interest websites or information portal, someone is responsible for updating content for some pecuniary gains. On Wikipedia, to the best of my knowledge, that does not happen. It's an 'open day' so if something comes up on wiki, it must mean that an interested person simply put it there.
2. Considering that the event occurred at about 1700hrs GMT (and I am writing this approximately 12 hours later), the wiki page came up in record time, kind of.

So what am I getting at? Whatever information you need to move forward this year, believe it or not, someone has put it out there. And every piece of knowledge you require is readily available because now people talk about things as they happen. If you did not realise it before, well, I am now telling you that 'thou art inexcusable, o man.' Just look around and you'd get all the knowledge you need. But like I did with that piece of news, you've got to look; things don't just happen, people make them! So if your typical excuse is still along the lines of 'I don't know...' then my news for you is that 'you have no excuse, really.'

 

As the year begins...

'...a deadly blast, just after midnight. Nearly 72 were killed and many more were injured...'

Did you hear that? It took place in an Egyptian church! In Nigeria on Christmas eve and New Year's eve it also happened. Remember the words of Jesus in Luke 13:2,4. No one is better than anybody...'but time and chance happens to them all'

As the year begins, thank God for where you are - wherever that is - and stop complaining!

If you're dissatisfied then do something and don't just stand there whining like a kid!!!

MEN THAT WILL SUCCEED 16: They serve

Hi. As the year 2010 draws to a close, I believe you will also be taking stock. Taking stock of the things you did and did not do, the thinks you thought and did not think, the things you said and did not say and the places you went and did not go. I am doing that and in my thinking I ask my self one critical question: For how many people did I make things happen?

I can count a handful of those but as I reflected further, I came to the conclusion that making things happen for people is probably not the most important thing. Of much greater importance is making people! How many dreams have I helped to realise? How many people have I slowed down? How many people have I inspired or discouraged?

I am still taking stock and I reckon you want to do the same. For that reason I have put up the 16th part in my series on personal success. I have chosen this time for this because I strongly believe that it's all about service, whether we will find fulfillment or not. So I charge you to look back and see how well you've served and take a decision to do better in the coming year. 

What follows is the post MEN THAT WILL SUCCEED 16: They serve. In it I have placed a few books that helped me and that I think might help you too. The quotes in the post do not necessarily come from those books but they are by/about the same men whose quotes I have used. Feel free to leave your comments or questions. See you on the other end!

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‘None have one chance in a billon of being thought of as really great a century after they’re gone except those who have been servants of all’ 

(Harry Fosdick)

True success is in service: Being for others what you want others to be for you. Your willingness to serve others determines how much others will be willing to do for you. You will never find anyone who will do anything for you if you never do anything for anyone.

‘Life is a lot like the game of tennis. Those who do not serve well end up losing’ (John Mason)

Believe it on not, the more you desire to serve (and the more you actually serve) and serve well, the more you will be served.  Whoever you are, you must put others before yourself if you want to amount to something.  Imagine a manufacturer thinking of profits from the sales of his products before thinking of what his consumers will like.  You know as well as l do that his business is headed for disaster. 

Happiness and satisfaction come from knowing that you are making someone better.  Albert Schweitzer got it round when he said that the only ones who will really be happy are those who have sought and found how to serve.  Greatness, according to Martin Luther King, Jr., is truly measured in servant hood. ‘

' The measure of life is not in its duration but in its donation,’ says Peter Marshall, ‘everyone can be great because everyone can serve.’

‘The greatest secret of success is to find a need and fill it’ (Robert H. Schuller)

So long? Yes. Too long? You decide...

"In his overall 53 years in broadcasting, King amassed 50,000 interviews, 6,120 shows in CNN's archives, 10 Cable ACE Awards, an Emmy, a Peabody and an entry in the Guinness World Records for having the longest-running show with the same host in the same time slot."

-Michael Martinez, edition.cnn.com (December 17, 2010)

This is like a story and a commentary. In 25 years, this 77-year-old man interviewed thousands who - in the words of one of his last guests - 'made us laugh, made us cry and made us think'. He said himself that 'I never thought it would be last this long or come to this'. He announced in June this year that he was going to be stopping his award-winning interview show this month. And true to his words, his last show was aired on December 16, 2010.

I hoped that someone would talk to him about how he got to where he is but I really didn't get it. Looking at his profile, I realised that Larry King is where he is today - with the awards, the niche, and the style - simply because he wouldn't quit!

I'll tell you why.

He was born to a Jewish-American man and a Belarusian immigrant mother. Not with a silver spoon. Neither of his parents wore a blue or white collar. King was young when his father died and his mother had to support him and his brother. Partly due to his father's death, Larry stopped wanting to go to school, and occasioned by the family hardship, he had to start working after high school to help support his brother.

Having been always interested in radio, he saw an opportunity when a CBS announcer told him about openings in Miami. And the rest is history; but it is from that history that the morals of my story lies. Take time to read through.

1. In my experience, many times we know we have big dreams but given our circumstances, we are compelled to start small. Does that sound like you? Please don't quit. Most people do not know that he had to change his surname because his General Manager thought his original name, Zeiger, was too ethnic. What does that mean? Larry was too low on the 'food chain' that he had no choice but comply for him to keep the job! Of course we could also talk about personal interests and all but under the circumstances, it was hard for him to resist. And what was that job that took his name away? He was hired to clean and perform miscellaneous tasks in a Miami radio station for 55 USD a week.

2. If we stay on long enough, a break will come one day. Larry got his first airtime when an announcer resigned. Same station, same pay! That was on May 1, 1957 when he was DJ from 9am-12noon, cast the news twice in the afternoon and later did a sportscast. Little, isn't it? But it was still an opportunity, isn't it?

3. Larry's first interview was done for another radio station in Miami. What he had to do was to take on anyone who walked into a particular restaurant. Guess who was his first guest? A waiter at the restaurant! He did that job conscientiously until one day, a famous singer who had heard Larry's interviews on radio walked in...and that was the first celebrity! If you do that little thing well enough, one day a celebrity will come visiting. It may not be a singer or a public figure. Your celebrity could be the woman you should marry or the job you should do or anything that is to move you forward. For Larry, it was Bobby Darin the singer. It is said that it was that radio show that turned him into a local star.

4. He did many things thereafter but I'd only focus on my morals, the last of which is his consistency. When a man consistently performs high, it is only a matter of time before he rises to the top of his world. I am rolling two things into one here: Consistency means that you do the same thing for a long time and you don't give up (make sure that thing is right because the longer you do a wrong thing, the more confused and unhappy you become); and consistency means that you perform well all the time. That describes Larry, the man that would not quit. At the age of 52, Larry King Live started on CNN. And that is what we celebrate today. Most of what I have written in points 1-3 you probably did not know, but you will most likely know Larry King Live. At 52, most of us would already be dreaming of retirement, believing that it's too late. Today Larry is 77 and he is a name that will stay on the screen and in the air for a really long time.

If I have to say everything in one sentence, it will be: Why would you quit? It may be so long, but do you think it could ever be too long?

Finally, I make an important caveat: Please quit immediately once you realise that what you're doing is not right for you; but be careful how you determine what's right or wrong because THINGS ARE NOT ALWAYS WHAT THEY SEEM.

PS: A new programme anchored by Piers Morgan will take the place of Larry King Live from January but I have a feeling that for many months after now, many will still tune in expecting to see Larry!

MY POWER WORKS BEST IN YOUR WEAKNESS 2CORINTHIANS 12:9

At 19 months, Helen Keller contracted the illness that eventually left her without hearing and sight. Back then those labelled deaf and dumb were classified as idiots. But Helen’s parents didn’t agree. They hired teacher Anne Sullivan to work with her and eventually she learned to read and write using Braille. Amazingly, in 1904 she graduated with honours from Radcliff College, and then devoted her life to helping others. Philanthropist Andrew Carnegie paid her an annual income; writers Mark Twain and Robert Louis Stevenson praised her and almost every President of her day invited her to the White House. When asked if there was anything worse than being blind she replied, “Yes, having sight but no vision.”

At 12 Thomas Edison developed such severe hearing loss that his teachers recommended he be taken out of school. Instead, Edison used his handicap to drown out distractions and focus on his work. As a result, the boy who was labelled a slow learner gave the world over 1,000 inventions, including the light bulb, the phonograph and the motion camera.

Who gets to define normal anyway? Is it being short versus tall, or rich versus poor? The truth is God’s given all of us unique abilities that He expects us to explore. And interestingly, the real handicaps don’t belong to those who are born with physical and mental challenges. No, they belong to the so-called normal people who’ve accepted lethargy and limitation as part of life.

God said, “My power works best in your weakness”; so you can let your difficulties impede or inspire you. Which will it be?

courtesy Grace So Amazing Foundation

YOU TOO CAN MAKE IT!

Dearly Beloved, I got this message in my e-mail from Pastor Bayo, host of spiritual digest via e-mail. I'm sure you'll be inspired reading it. The message is simple: YOU TOO CAN MAKE IT!

"We want each of you to show this same diligence to the very end, in order to make your hope sure" -Apostle Paul(Hebrews 6:11, NIV).

"But you, dear friends, build yourselves up in your most holy faith and pray in the Holy Spirit. Keep yourselves in God's love as you wait for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to bring you to eternal life" -Elder Jude(Jude 20-21, NIV).

I read a story of a popular Yoruba dramatist recently in a national newspaper that touched my heart. It is about a 60-year-old dramatist who, with his second son in the same lecture room, got his first university degree at age 49, but now a doctorate degree holder and lecturer in one of the leading universities in Nigeria. He was able to have primary education because of the compulsory free education in the then Western Region of Nigeria. Apart from a kind of post-primary education then known as "modern education," the man could not go to secondary school because of the poverty of his parents. With determination after acting as dramatist both on stage and in movies for over three decades, he becomes an academic and an authority in his choosing profession - the theater. His life is indeed a challenge to many of us.

Have you lost hope that you can no longer make it in a particular pursuit? Do not lose hope! Continue to persevere with determination that, one day, you will make it. Are people looking down on you because of your humble background or your seeming failure in your endeavors? Do not worry yourself about them. Continue the struggle. Remember that old proverb, "Aluta continua, victoria acerta," meaning "the struggle continues, the victory is sure." Victory is sure if you do not give up. Another popular saying goes thus, "Winners never quit; quitters never win."

Paul the apostle admonished, "Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up" (Galatians 6:9, NIV), and "Therefore, my dear brothers, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain" (1 Corinthians 15:58, NIV).
You also can make it!

In His service,
Bayo Afolaranmi (Pastor).

If you were blessed reading this and would like a consistent supply, contact Pastor Bayo (spiritualdigest@e-mail.com)