Take a Quantum Leap to Success!

When You get to the other side you
become a different person!

Taking the leap felt appropriate. Only it wasn’t just a short hop. It was a full plunge off a cliff. ­– Maya banks, Rush

Success depends a lot on how you see yourself. Your self-image, or personal mind picture or personal definition – whatever you call it – determines how far you go in life and the quality and quantity of goals you achieve in your lifetime.

          We all have a mind picture of ourselves in every area of life. The way you see yourself determines the extent of your success in an area. For example I consider myself a very good inspirational writer – not the best – just very good. Because of this self-image I write good articles – if the responses I get from my posts are anything to go by with. On the other hand I consider myself a horrible dancer. When I am anywhere around dances I immediately look for something else to do to take the attention away from me.

          Your self-image is developed over several years and through various experiences and environments. It grows so strong that it more-often-than-not keeps a strangle hold on you. It ensures you don’t become anything contrary to the image – you see why I may never be a renowned dancer? The same can keep you sick, sad, poor, or an all-round failure for the rest of your life.

There is some hope for folks like me. If you want to do greater things in the area your self-image cannot permit, you need to shake things radically. You need to set and accomplish a goal you could never have imagined in your most wildest of dreams. The type of step I mean is the glutton going on a forty days fast, or the lazy woman joining the marathon race, or me registering for a highly publicized dancing competition.

When we set such goals and are able to achieve them, something happens within. The image changes! We suddenly see ourselves differently and will be more able to accommodate more possibilities.

       {To order for my new book, Do it Like Kids, click here}

If you take this seriously you will have set yourself up for huge accomplishments. It will happen as such because your boundaries of limitation will be expanded with every goal achieved.

Goal Formulation Stage: ALLOCATE MILESTONES

I love the scenery while travelling but when there is nothing else to see I put my thoughts on the milestones next to the highway.

So let’s say I am on a journey to Lagos from Kaduna – a distance of about 1000 kilometers. The first milestone I see is, “ABJ (Abuja) 200 kms”, then “ABJ 199 kms”, and counting down as the journey progresses. When I get to Abuja, I see, “LKJ (Lokoja) 300 kms”, and counting down. I don’t see, “LAG (Lagos)” until I get to Ibadan, which is the last major city before Lagos – and I am glad about that because imagine how discouraging it would be if I saw, “LAG 1000 kms”.

Milestones help us know where the road we are on leads to and the distance we still have to cover to get to that destination. Now, the fact that I am travelling to Lagos but see a milestone that says, “ABJ 170 kms” does not mean I am on the wrong road. This is so because Abuja lies on the way that leads to Lagos from Kaduna. If, on the other hand, I see “KN (Kano) 180 kms”, I am certain that something is wrong because Kano does not lie on the road that leads to Lagos from Kaduna. Milestones are then the same journey broken into sub-journeys, and for them to be of any relevance you must have an idea of the cities that lead to your destination.

As it is with milestones on the highway so it is with milestones in our success journeys. A person that has the goal of being a doctor knows that he must have good secondary education, university education in human medicine, internship in a good hospital, and employment. These are the major milestones that must be on the road that leads him to becoming a doctor. So, when a secondary school student with the dream of being a doctor wakes up in the morning, his focus is on getting all the credits required to get into medical school rather than on medical  practice. If he thinks only of the practice and not on his first milestone he will be discouraged and will eventually fail or give up. Also, if he gets admission into the university to study Geology, he would know that he is certainly on the wrong road.

For a goal to succeed it must have clearly identified and allocated milestones. This simply means that it must be broken down into smaller parts. The whole will be too big to handle. When it is broken down it becomes more achievable. 

Thought Line on Success

I know the thoughts i think toward you ... thoughts of good and not of evil. - God

I often pride myself with the following tagline: “I am a writer.” By this I mean I write or something like that). There were many times I make this statement and pray my audience don’t get bold enough to ask what I have written. A friend once told me, “Leinge, a writer writes.” Well that went a long way in sinking into my mind that he intended to say, “Leinge, you are not a writer!”

I have learned that public opinion is very important. It is just not as important as personal opinion. A songwriter said of Joseph, “Until his (Joseph’s) opinion of his future became a reality, God tested him.” Joseph’s family’s opinion was not near as important as his own and the opinion that God would have of him after he tests him. Successes listen to understand public opinion of them but they do not meditate on them until they become crippled by external opinions that have become internalized.

It is fun to say you are something. We hear, “I am an Engineer,” “I am a Pastor,” “I am great person (as though that were a goal),” daily, but the problem really comes to bear when we try to actually be “Engineers,” or “Pastors,” or “Great persons”. This is where the cliché, “Talk is cheap,” applies. Luke (M.D.) wrote a letter to his friend Theophilus, and he said, “I once wrote to you about the things Jesus began to do and to teach.” Notably, doing came before teaching because it is important, indeed more potent, to proclaim what you do.

Young folks should learn to begin small. My pastor, Chris Olamor, once said, “God never starts small things in a big way but rather starts big things in a small way.” How true! Zachariah (a prophet) once noted, “Do not look down on small beginnings, for the Lord rejoices to see the work begin, to see the plume line in [your] hand.” So you want to be an actor, or a singer or a movie director, or a writer, or a doctor? Begin! Start! Do something – anything – that etches you closer to your goal! It is far better to do it wrongly than not do it at all.

Finally when you get yourself to start something, do not stop. Keep at it. You will get tired – possibly as tired as I get posting daily in my blog – but do not stop. It is in stopping for a rest that you fail.

The ME Trap

“Then he said, ‘This is what I’ll do. I will tear down my barns and build bigger ones, and there I will store my surplus grain. And I’ll say to myself, “You have plenty of grain laid up for many years. Take life easy; eat, drink and be merry.”’ - A Rich Farmer

         “Why should you have to sweat the small stuff?”

     “Why should you get bogged down in someone else’s antiquated notions of morality?”

       “Times have changed.”

       “You've come a long way baby.”

       “You've got to get out of there and forge your own destiny!”

       “Make it happen!”

       “Fulfill yourself!”

       “Pull your own strings!”

       “Do it your way!”

     Have you heard those phrases before? No doubt you have. They come with some sort of fuel to spur you to greatness right? Now let’s consider some other phrases.

       “You shouldn't be hungry, tell this stone to become bread.”

       “All the kingdoms of the world will be yours if you worship me.”

       “Throw yourself from this cliff and the angels will save you.”

      “Do you want to remain in the trappings of your knowledge? Eat this and you will be like God.”

         Similar voice?

       It is very easy for us to get trapped in the “Me syndrome”. Here, me, myself and I are the most important people on the earth. Things are only as important as they help me get to my own desired destination. Family is expendable, Divorce isn't unthinkable, commitment in relationships is optional, yea isn't yea and nay isn't nay unless it helps me attain my goals.

    This is what our system teaches but this attitude will certainly lead to our downfall. Instead, think cooperation. It is in cooperating with others that ability is multiplied geometrically.

     Seek win-win at all times. Nobody needs to be the loser for you to win. We sure have the desire to feel like winners when others have failed but this injures more than it fulfills  Quit the competition. It is possible for your counterpart to win together with you at all times.

     Finally remember what Paul (the apostle) said: “I am self-sufficient in Christ’s sufficiency”.

You Are Not Limitless

Cross to the country I’m giving to the People of Israel. I’m giving you every square inch of the land you set your foot on—just as I promised Moses. FROM the wilderness and this Lebanon east TO the Great River, the Euphrates River—all the Hittite country—and then west to the Great Sea. It’s all yours. – God speaking to Joshua Nun

It popularly proclaimed by many that human life comes to full expression when it becomes unlimited or unrestricted by anything. So in order words when a person is unchained, boundless and unleashed then he can begin to write his own story and live the life he was meant to live.

In truth, the opposite suffices. Contrary to what is popularly accepted, life becomes less and less maximized the more and more boundaries are compromised. I believe humans were created to function with boundaries. When people have no boundaries they fall short of being the best they could have been.

I read of a study carried out on children in a school playground.  They were initially allowed to play in an open field and it was noticed that they continually congregated toward the middle of the field. Subsequently a fence was erected around the field and from then on the children utilized the full extents of the playground, running from one end to the other. They were free to exploit all that was available for them now that they have boundaries.

Every one of us has an area of relevance and it is the extent to which we are relevant to ourselves and the world around us. It is important to recognize this area and take full advantage of it. Beyond its boundaries we have little or no relevance. There is nothing wrong with not being relevant in some areas. Someone else will be. Rather than waste time bickering about someone else’s relevance, concentrate on yours and be the best you can be in it.

There is also a limit to our abilities. We cannot do it all. We may be multitalented but we are never all-talented. Abilities, more often than not, stem from our experiences. We all have different life experiences and that means that we all have varying abilities. A three-year-old Chinese girl can do something you may never be able to do – she can speak Chinese! That fact that she can do this does not mean that she is better than you. It simply means she had a different experience.

In addition, our spheres of influence are and will always be unique to us. The people we know, the contacts we have, the influence we exert on them will always vary one from the other.  Beyond this sphere your influence ebbs. Stay within this sphere.

Growth and success then comes not in out-stepping our limitations and becoming persons we will never be but in pushing the bar upward within our area of relevance, limit of abilities and spheres of influence. 

Get Your Creative Juices Flowing...

Others have seen what is and asked why? I have seen what could be and asked why not? - Pablo Picasso

A human’s mind is a vast machine (for lack of a better word). Its horizons are broad and open to pictures and ideas. Creativity is the ability to use this vast machine to make changes. It has nothing to do with money, education, age, I.Q., sex or any of the other ‘important’ things. Rather, it has all to do with imagination, ideas, personal perception and garbage.

Worthless things are the primary fuel for creativity. Your imagination being the father of your creativity makes what it wants from the things available- and the most available things usually are seen as ‘worthless’. Everyone who achieved anything worthy in life had to do it out of the seeming nothing that existed when they set out to do it. Anything can become anything. It is all a function of what your mind makes of it.

Think! There must be something you can create to make your life better than it is right now. Refuse to be among the ninety percent of people that don’t think- I mean really think. Every problem submits to sustained thought. Think until that which is nothing becomes something. Think until you become a creator.

Some people seem to be more creative than others. Many say, “I am not as creative as the guy next door”. That is the same as saying “I am not as fit as the guy next door”. The latter may be evident from your present physique in comparison to the guy next door. The truth is that being fit is hinged on your exercises and workouts. Once your muscles stretch daily, they grow larger and stronger. It is the same with your mind. You are not as creative as your contemporaries because you have not stretched your mind in creative thinking enough. You receive every streamlined, finished work from your environment and tell yourself “It can’t get any better”. This is the popular misconception. Contrary to it, everyone and not only a select few are able to unleash a steady flow of creative genius.

In order to consistently give out great results, the muscle of creativity needs daily exercise. If you don’t practice harnessing creative thinking, the creative ability in you will very much shrivel into nonexistence  However, keep working and the creative genius in you will keep growing with great results as proofs.

(Culled from: Do it Like Kids by Yusuf Leinge)

Whispers of God

Therefore when he ascended ... , he gave gifts to men. - Paul (The apostle)

Paul (the apostle) once noted: “For all creation, gazing eagerly as if with outstretched neck, is waiting and longing to see the manifestation of the sons of God. He was talking about us! He was saying that the world outside the church earnestly awaits our manifestation. So, it seems in the heart of God there is something we have to offer to the world that has left them in earnest expectation.

But, have you noticed that it seems we are not manifesting enough for the world to stop its expectation? Have you noticed that sometimes it seems we are the ones that await the manifestation of the world?

I think of it as a father that has taught his five year old child to perfectly recite a poem. He then boasts to his friends that his child can recite the poem without help from him. What do you expect? The friends will certainly ask for prove, in other words, the child should recite it in their presence. Then the father, to prove a point and save some pride, calls up the child and requests, “Recite the poem you learnt yesterday so your uncles can hear.” Now if the child stammers or stands looking awestruck and dumb, what do you think the father will think? Will he conclude the child does not know it? No! He is sure the child can recite it, the uncles are waiting for the child’s manifestation but the child is dumb! The father then begins to whisper, “Come on remember the tune? Remember the words? Remember the…”

As it is with such a situation so it is with us and the world. Our heavenly Father has given us all that is needed to manifest in the world and has gone ahead to boast to the world that we have all it takes to manifest but we stand dumb! So what does he do? He whispers to us hints so we can remember what it takes for us to manifest. And what are those things he whispers to us?

Talents and natural gifting: God whispers to us, “You have the talent to manifest son, you have it daughter- I gave it to you”. What are the talents and gifts you have? Are you tall? Are you short? Can you sing? Can you dance? Can you speak boldly? Can you do anything? “Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning.”

Marvelous Pain

Pain is temporary. Quitting lasts forever. - Lance Armstrong 

It is normal, almost natural, for folks to cringe away from whatever causes them pain. Pain killers and related analgesics are probably the most widely used drugs in the world. We numb ourselves with sex, alcohol, narcotics and noise in frantic measures directed at preventing the experience of pain. But then pain can be a good, indeed great, thing to have in every area of life.

Imagine for a moment life without the sense of pain. You would put your hands in fire and burn to death without realizing what was happening. Pain then serves as our warning of things gone bad and gives us the opportunity to take a different path or course of action. Madeleine L’Engle in her book, A Stone For a Pillow, wrote: 

The most terrible thing to happen to a leper is the loss of pain. The hands and feet of the leper become useless stumps not because of leprosy, but because the leper feels no pain. If the leper loses fingers or toes, as so often happens, it is not because of the disease itself, but because the leper is not warned by pain that the fingers and toes are being hurt, and therefore damage or infection are not prevented. Pain is an angel to tell us that something is wrong. The body which cannot feel pain suffers terrible and often fatal injury.

In our success journey, we need the feeling of pain all too well to tell us when things are not going according to plan. Pain in this case serves as our inner warning system and we are able to take redress.

The pain will come in various ways. It may be in lost deals, or attainment of non-relevant things, or exhaustion, or depression. Whatever way it presents itself, identify it and take proper actions to address whatever the cause may be. Do not numb your senses with pain killers such as turning a blind eye to it or stubbornly continuing on your journey because that may mean, like the leper, losing far more than you bargained for. 

To survive gallantly the pain phase it is important that you know that pain is, more often than not, a temporary experience and will fade away if you act in a decisive way to curb its cause.

Success Now: Take the Initiative

They always say time changes things, but you actually have to change them yourself. – Andy Warhol (Philosopher)

In the most popular, I think, story Jesus told to illustrate life issues, he spoke of a king who distributed gifts of money to three of his most trusted servants. The first and second invested their monies and acquired profits. The third, which was given least, hid the money and returned it without profit. While the first two were praised and given more the third was rebuked and punished.

One interesting thing to note in that story is that though the monies were given to them, they were not told what to do with them. The king did not hint exactly in what areas they were to multiply what was given. No bar was set to determine a standard for success. They were left on their own to take initiative and multiply what they had. It is of this I write.

To succeed in life you must develop the habit of taking initiative. Resist the temptation of waiting for instructions from someone else before you take all actions. Do not be afraid of taking the blame of trying and failing. Rather dread the failure that comes to a cause due to your inaction – irrespective of if others see you as the cause of failure or not.

All leaders take initiative. They think for themselves, identify what need be done in a situation and take the necessary action. It is this attitude of taking initiative that stand them out of the crowd of mediocre folks and anoint them leaders.

To develop the attitude of taking initiative you must develop a healthy self-esteem. If you think you can’t, you probably can’t. If you think that the solution of a problem cannot come from you, you will fold your hands and watch. If instead you think that you have the capacity to solve a problem you will rise up to the occasion.

Also, you must see yourself as responsible. When there is a task at hand, have an attitude that says, it is not somebody’s responsibility, it is my responsibility. The work at hand must be done even if it means you add it to yours. When responsibilities are assigned to people it should be to enhance effectiveness. When we insist on keeping strictly to segments, not considering if one part of the work is pulling the whole lot down, we are not taking initiative.

Positive Influence: an ingredient for certain success.

I hold that a strongly marked personality can influence descendants for generations. - Beatrix Potter (Author)

Success is desired by virtually everyone that has some sense. Every person I have met wants to succeed – even if they have not defined the areas they want to succeed in. This desire to excel is a universal denominator that transcends gender, age, social status or knowledge.

Success though is best achieved when it involves people. The point in which you can begin to consider yourself successful is the point in which you have succeeded with people. This is so because people, not things, make the world worth living in.

A positive influence on people is a very important ingredient in the success recipe. Some people in their pursuit of success fall back on intimidation, fear, or manipulation to get people to respond to them. These factors though may have an appearance of producing the desired outcomes, are very negative. You cannot boast success with people until your influence releases positive energy.

You begin to influence people positively when you learn to listen to understand and listen empathically to them. Folks generally seek for people they can share their lives with. You must desire to understand them by listening intentionally and carefully. Do not interrupt. Do not proffer immediate solutions. Just listen. In addition, your listening must be with empathy. Folks sense when you are listening out of a sense of obligation and without emotion. If you do that you can be sure you have lost the person.

It is said that people do not care how much you know until they know how much you care. You can have no positive influence on folks that you care little about. If you would have people submit willingly to your influence you would have to care genuinely over what concerns them.

You will achieve every goal of yours if you would help others achieve theirs. This is a principle of achievement that is worth abiding by. When you make the achievement of other peoples goals your priority, all you need to fulfill yours will fall in place.

No You Can't!

Others may but I can't because of destiny. - Joseph Onilede

The world watched just a few years ago as President Barack Obama (then Democratic Party presidential candidate), of the United States of America, popularized the phrase, “Yes we can”. With it he led a vast majority of the people of the United States of America to self-belief in their personal capacity. Just saying those words brings along with it loads of motivation. More recently, in the just concluded British elections, the same cliche was brought into use.

For our lives though, the reality of what those words are capable of are more far-fetched than what merely uttering them can bring. Rather than saying “Yes I can”, I would rather we said “No I can’t”!

The word “Yes” is effective in bringing about great changes to anything or place but for you to effectively harness the power embedded in one “Yes”, you must be able to know how to say the opposite, “No”. When the power in a “No” is harnessed, the unlimited power in a “Yes” can be unlocked.

You must say, “No I can’t procrastinate another hour if I would see my dreams become reality.” Procrastination steals the future today. As we postpone what we should do for a later hour we short circuit how much we can accomplish in life.

You must say, “No I can’t conform to the crowd anymore.” The crowd is always wrong. Conformity to it will make us lose our uniqueness and hence remain stagnated to the spot the crowd is at.

You must say, “No I can’t go another week without reading a book.” It is true that readers lead all the time. If you will unlock your leadership potential you must read your way to it.

You must say, “No I can’t be one of my nation’s destroyers.” Your birth in your nation was not a mistake. There are some people that do not care about this and prove it by their destructive actions. Decide you will not be one of them.

There are obviously several things we must say “No we can’t” to. Only when we learn to say a firm “NO!” to all these vices we speak so much of but act little to change, will we begin to give ourselves the audacity to say “Yes we can”

Excellence

If a man is called to be a street sweeper, he should sweep streets even as Michelangelo painted, or Beethoven composed music, or Shakespeare wrote poetry. He should sweep streets so well that all the hosts of heaven and earth will pause and say, "Here lived a great street sweeper who did his job well." - Martin Luther King (jnr)

 How much boast can you make about your works? Can you boldly speak about the works of your hands and demand they speak for themselves? Can you append your name on your work if you knew it would be placed side-by-side with the best in your field?

If you would be tremendously successful you must have a spirit of excellence. This spirit will give you the boast for your work anywhere in the world because it dots the “i’s” and crosses the “t’s”. Noah had this spirit and so we read of him that, “Noah did everything exactly as God commanded him.” To develop the spirit of excellence, consider the following:

Make every work a masterpiece. It is important you take every work you do as an extension of your life. People considering your works are not merely meeting a piece of work but are meeting you; what first impressions are you leaving?  If you have this in mind you will handle each task as a masterpiece work of art set with intent for the audience.

Develop skill. It is also important you develop skill in every detail of your works. The archaic definition of the word skill means to “make a difference”. In view of this, decide to make a difference in every area of your works. There is always something else you can do to improve your work. You do not need to do it the same way you have done it before neither do you have to do it the way others do it.

Learn from others. It is important to keep an ever- learning attitude in all you do. Don’t get to the point that you feel you know it all. If your heart is open there is always something you can learn from just about everyone.

Innovate. Innovation is the icing on creativity. It means to effect a change. Do not strive endlessly trying to do something nobody has done before. Simply change what has been, making it better.

Excellence is reserved for a select few – follow this and you will be one of them. 

Awaken Your Dreams!

Then he had another dream, and he told it to his brothers. “Listen,” he said, “I had another dream, and this time the sun and moon and eleven stars were bowing down to me. – Joseph (the Prime Minister of Ancient Egypt)

There is a part I love in Disney’s Alice in Wonderland, and it is the point Alice tells of how she believes in six impossible things. "Why, sometimes I've believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast,” she says. I like that statement because it summarizes the life of a dreamer.
The dreamer believes. He or she believes in some ideal that is non-existent at the moment – that is what makes it a dream! But what makes it interesting is the fact that many dreams dreamers believe in appear impossible.
Impossibility - this is what ensures that many sermons are not preached and many songs remain in song book and countless inventions remain in the mind and many ideas remain unheard of. It is the thought of impossibility that introduces fear in us and shuts our capacity to believe the dream-words we once boldly proclaimed. It is the attitude of impossibility that has left our multi-blessed continent centuries behind leading world economies.
The thought of impossibility must be killed! We must be like Martin Luther King (Jnr) who proclaimed in the face of grave impossibility that, “I have a dream…” Or like Eleanor Roosevelt who said, “The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams,” Or reason like Walt Disney when he said, “No matter how your heart is grieving, if you keep on believing, the dreams that you wish will come true,” Or be like old Jacob and reawaken the dying dreams that once burned in our hearts, with the question, “What is this dream you had?”
Dreamers move the world. They are the Noah, who dreamed of a holy world, and the Abraham, who dreamed of a land that milk and honey flows, and the Moses, who dreamed of liberating a whole nation out of bondage of the most powerful authority of his time, and the Joseph, who dreamed of becoming a great man, and the Jesus, who dreamed of saving us all.
We cannot live without dreamers. Are you one? I conclude with an excerpt from Alice in Wonderland:

Door: Why it's simply impassible!

Alice: Why, don't you mean impossible?

Door: No, I do mean impassible. (chuckles) Nothing's impossible! 

Identifying God's Help in Your Success Jouney

Be strong. Take courage. Don't be intimidated. don't give... [it] a second thought, because GOD, your GOD, is striding ahead of you. He is right there with you. He won't let you down; he won't leave you. - Moses (The Prophet)

I read a story of an old man who lived by a river. In the rainy season the rains were heavy, and the river rose. The Police Chief came by in his jeep, and said to the old man, “The river is going to flood, and I want to evacuate you.”

The old man folded his arm confidently, “I have faith in God. God will take care of me.”

The Police Chief shook his head and drove off.

The river continued to rise. It lapped about the old man’s house, rising up to the entrance. The Police Chief came by in a canoe, and said, “The river is continuing to rise. I really need to evacuate you.”

The old man looked at the river which covered his steps and lapped across the entrance. He folded his arms. “I have faith in God. God will take care of me.”

The Police Chief shook his head and rowed away.

And the river inched higher. At last the old man was clinging to his roof. The Police Chief came by in a helicopter and hovered above the man. “I really must evacuate you. You’ll drown if I don’t.”

But the old man repeated, “I have faith in God. God will take care of me.”

Frustrated, the Police Chief left.

And the river rose even higher. And the old man drowned.

In heaven, he was very upset. He went to God and said, “Why did you do this to me? Why did you let me drown? I kept telling the Police Chief that I had faith in you, and that you will take care of me.”

God said, “You ninny! I sent you a jeep, and a canoe, and a helicopter!”

When we ask God for help, we can’t insist that help come in the way that we have decided. Some things to note about God’s help are:

1. They will come through people. Do not look far when seeking God’s help. He will lead people to you to help you accomplish your worthy goals. Do not isolate yourself from people because they are an extension of God’s hands.

2. They will not contradict the Bible. The help that will come to you will not stand against God’s word for ethical living. People that will offer immoral or unethical help are not an extension of God’s hands.

The Question of Purpose

He who has a why to live for can bear almost any how. - Friedrich Nietzsche

For every worthy venture there come questions that challenge its efficacy. These questions come through various means. They primarily will flood your mind, debating every decision and plan you have. They will also come through people – loved ones and the like – would challenge every phase of every venture. Finally through the project itself – debates of whether you are achieving as you planned. These questions are of several forms and getting an answer for them, rather than running away from them, would go a long way in ensuring that the venture is a success.

The first question is that of PURPOSE. You will be asked to what purpose you are pursuing your dream. This question and its answer, or answers as the case may be, is of utmost importance. Why are you doing what you are doing? Why are you trying to achieve what you are trying to achieve? Why are you not doing something else with your time? Why have you chosen this time and this location to pursue this venture?

Many young folks don’t bother to consider the various “whys” of their pursuits and so falter and fail seemingly without reason. Myles Munroe famously stated that, “If the purpose of a thing is not known abuse is inevitable.” This is true in every venture of life. When you consider the “whys” you will get deep in thought and expand your idea beyond its possible shallow stand.

In addition, the answers to the questions you ask will unlock many angles of what you really need to do. For example, if a student asks himself why he is in school, he may come up with the answer, “To get a good paying job.” Further questioning of why he may want a good paying job may get the answer, “To help my parents with finances.” At this point he is discerning a purpose for his studies. From this point he may switch questioning to. “How then can I get good grades?”

The question of purpose should not make you give up. It should not make you abandon ship. Though unnerving, it should make you succeed in your venture. Every young folk should adopt the question of purpose in approaching every project.

YOU: the Genius...

Give and it shall be given unto you; good measure, pressed down, and shaken together, and running over… - Jesus (The Christ).

Have you wondered what makes some people geniuses in their chosen fields? They seem to know what to do to wow everybody that watches. They do what they do with such ease and precision that many find it difficult to believe they act only with their human abilities. Such people are found in virtually every field – sports, politics, clergy, - of human endeavor.

It is easy to fall to the thought that they are simply more talented than their peers and so their excellence but the truth is far from that. In every field, talent is never all it takes. It is one thing to be talented while it is a completely different thing to harness your talent to genius status.

The difference lies in a simple thought – the genius gives himself or herself to the field while the “normal” folk do not. Because the genius gives himself totally to field, the field gives back to him, hence the birth of genius.

To give yourself to a field may mean a thousand and one things but I will highlight three. First, you give yourself to a field by practice, practice and practice. There is no genius that has not invested thousands of hours to practice.  Many would-have-been geniuses are too lazy to invest their time and energy to such high demand for practice and so end up falling short.

Second, understand that many have trodden the path you are on right now. Get them to help you. You need guidance, counsel, mentorship. King Solomon once advised that, “…victory is won through many advisers.” Never think you can go it all alone and that advisers will lead you to ruin. There is something about having done something in the past that helps you see the pitfalls way ahead of any other person on the same path. Seek for and enjoy mentorship on your path to genius.

In addition, you need to – for lack of a better phrase - give room for instincts. There are things that practice or classes or the best mentorship won’t give you. They lie deep within you and only you can unleash it when it beckons. I am talking about those thoughts that flash in and out urging you to get out of convention. Harken to them and act immediately.

Setting Up Your Team: (How to Make YOU a Team Player)

The strength of the team is each individual member. the strength of each member is the team. - Phil Jackson (Author)

It is sometimes easy to get into thinking the success and failure of a team is all-dependent on the team members other than you. In essence what that means is that you may think that you have attained to the state that the team needs but others need to grow. This is never true. You are a team player too and must play according to the set rules of the team. here is how you can be the right team player. 

Admit your need for help: I generally assume, correctly or otherwise, that the fact that I often look small as compared to my vision is my mind telling me that I need help. Not many people like to admit their inadequacies, interpreting it as weakness. Nothing can be further from the truth. There is strength in vulnerability and the radiance of this strength is often exposed when you let it be influenced by other people in a team.

Make “you” desirable: in team play, the people involved work with each other and not for each other. People do not want to work with an undesirable team head and team players. Make yourself someone people want to be around. Cut anything that limits your ability to get people around you involved with you. Search for things about you that make people draw close to you. Focus all your energy on bringing out these traits.

Look out for like-minds: the whole idea of teamwork is bringing your visions to fruition with the help of others. You need people that can think in line with your visions. There are people I do not dare tell a word about what my visions are all about. There are people on the other hand that I literally search for so I can share my next project with them. The difference between these two classes of people is the fact that one party kills the dream and the other party builds it.

Seek fun-people: do not work with people who show signs of disinterest in your vision or who will not derive pleasure in the process of accomplishing the vision. Everybody you are to form a team with should enjoy the process from start to finish. Success comes faster if everybody derives pleasure from the work. Failure or the inability to reach your goal also is easier to take and more easily seen as temporary if such people are on board with you. 

Setting Up Your Team: (Performance Goals)

I will now write on the unifying factor of performance goals. Goals are the life of team play because they are the aim, the “something” that teams want to achieve in a specified period.

          The unifying factor of performance goals: A performance goal is a goal that specifies the performance required of a team. If this is lacking, progress cannot be measured and if progress is not measured, there is no way the team can say if it is successful or not. So every team needs to set goals to help move it forward. Here are some ways to set performance goals-

       
  Write it down in clear terms. Any performance goal that is not written down is no goal at all. Make sure your performance goal is written in specific, clear, unambiguous terms so every team player can understand and agree without much effort. Many times folks think they understand a thing only to see it in written form and discover the contrary is the case.

-                         Set a time target. All performance goals must have a time tag. Any goal without a time tag is a mere wish. “The vision will …happen at the appointed time. It hurries toward its goal. It won't be a lie. …wait for it. It will certainly happen.” A time tag pushes team players. With a time tag, each player knows that he or she does not have all day.

-                    Plan. Plan what the process will be for your team to reach its target. A plan is a sequential list of activities outlined with high-priority actions coming first. A plan is actually the map you and your team will follow to reach your destination. What decisions and actions should come before others? Outline them all in your plan and follow them.

-                         Review often. A team’s performance goals should be reviewed as often as possible. This makes room for changes that may arise in the course of time. This means the team players have to be versatile enough to accommodate these changes. It is worthy to note that every review should be approved by each team player before it is adopted. You do not want a situation where some team players are ready to move while some others stand back and watch.

Setting Up Your Team: (Common Purpose and Mutual Accountability)

A body of men holding themselves accountable to nobody ought not to be trusted by anybody. - Thomas Paine (Author)

If you have followed the articles on teamwork then you should have started considering how best to put your team in place. Today I shall discuss two other unifying factors. Without these unifying factors every team eventually goes to disarray.

The unifying factor of common purpose: Every team must have a single reason why it is doing what it is doing. Every member of the team must share that ideal. This is the purpose of the team. Myles Monroe in his famous quote said, “If the purpose of a thing is not known, abuse is inevitable.” This applies to teams when team players do know the purpose of the team.

When a common purpose is recognized and understood, a team’s effectiveness sky rockets. It is a sorry thing to see a team with differing purposes. Any sports team with such would easily fall to a team with a better sense of it’s purpose. This applies to businesses, families, classes and the like.

A common purpose is built, first, by clearly communicating it. Indeed a team leader should be able to articulate the intent behind his or her team but beyond one-way articulation, team players should be able to understand and produce performance that clearly shows their understanding. Only when this happens can we say communication has occurred.

Also, team players should be willing to submit every action to the purpose of the team. Contradictory actions that obviously create a division in the team should not be entertained.

The unifying factor of mutual accountability: who is responsible? Whose fault is it? Who is to give account? These are questions all groups have to answer at one point or the other and therein lie where many groups fall short of being teams. Note this; in a team, nobody is accountable, everybody is. It is nobody’s fault; everybody is at fault. Nobody is responsible, it is everyone’s responsibility. The moment this is missed, the cords that bind team play are broken. The whole point behind team-play is mutual accountability. This is when every team player feels as much responsible for the team and its progress as everyone else. You don’t get this in hierarchy where responsibility clearly lies on the people at the helm of command. Every player in team-play learns responsibility. When one falls, all fall. When one is up, all are up, none is left behind. Accountability is demanded from every player at all times. 

Teamwork: The Assurance for Your Success

Two are better than one, because they have a good return for their labor: ...though one may be overpowered, two can defend themselves. A strand of three cords is not easily broken. - Solomon (Third king of Israel)

I will be writing a series of articles on the need for teamwork in your success journey. This is important because ability, strength, capacity, and eventually success is multiplied geometrically when you work with a team as opposed to individuality.

Not many folks think they need help. I am sure you have heard the phrase, “self-made millionaire”, used to describe people that supposedly “made” themselves whatever they became.

Learn to work as a TEAM

Nothing can be further from the truth. None of us is completely self-made. I admit that there is a lot in your success journey that you and you alone can make happen but to say that everything you have become, you self actualized is to over state it.

Every one of us is summary of many other peoples contribution. Someone breastfed and catered for and educated you else you would not have even had a chance in life!

The fact that you need people does not make you a weakling. Interestingly it's an assurance for your strength. Every individual has personal limitations. There are things in your person that serve as limiting factors to your progress. They may have arisen from family and environmental background, societal influence, peer group associations or the media. Irrespective of the source, the main issue is that they exist and a denial of their existence does not eliminate their presence. The only way you can break personal barriers and limitations is by teamwork. You need someone who will walk and work with you, pat you on the back when things go well, encourage you when things don’t go as expected, rebuke you when you do wrong - If you are a person that cannot handle a rebuke but take offence at every instance of it, then your progress will be rather slow.

You need people with the ability of polishing your ideas and expanding them. King Solomon once noted that, “Just as iron sharpens iron, friends sharpen the minds of each other.” The greatest minds need sharpening. Irrespective of how revolutionary your ideas might seem to be, you need people who will do some polishing on them.