Self-Motivation, Personal Growth and Entrepreneurship Development on DeoluAkinyemi.com

There is one comment I heard in a place that I went to speak 3 weeks ago that has not left my mind. When I finished speaking, a professor of the university was implored to give awards to the speakers. When he got to my turn to recieve my award, the Prof spoke for about 10 minutes. He said a lot of things about the quality of my presentation, he spoke so passionately so much so that at a point he switched over to Yoruba language. There was one thing however that he said. He said “Ah, If you were a white man and you did what you today, the world will fall in love with you (won a gba ti e), ah but you are a black man! because you are a black man you may need to struggle a bit more, but you will make it, I am happy you are a Nigerian and I am proud that you schooled in Nigeria”. He said a lot more than these…but that line about the black man has been a topic for ponder in my mind.

Some days back I wrote an article saying that we forget. The world might have forgotten the principles that moved them from 3rd world to 1st world, while they might no longer remember the equations that took them from developing to developed, Africa however is in the heat of it’s development and is at the point where you must listen to her. The spotlight is on Africa today, tomorrow’s African leaders have big visions ahead of them and their bloods are steaming with passion. They (we) are in the center of our pains and at a time when the quality of our presentations cannot be at par with when we get satisfied.

I remember a training I went to in Poland some years back, in this training there were nationals from over 50 different countries. We all interacted together in an intensive programme for 5 days. After 5 days we signed autographs for each other and shared feedback about each other. The consistent feedback I received from co participants and facilitators was about my Passion! They were all amazed at the energy and passion with which I spoke and carried myself. One particular facilitator described me as very charismatic. Listen, it is time for the Black Man. Right from within our messes are strong messages, in the middle of our pain is our potential for gain. Our position as 3rd is not a disadvantage it just means that we have an opportunity to learn from the 1st.
The solutions developed for the western world will not work as cut and paste in Nigeria! No! You will need to leverage on the knowledge, but the least you will do is edit. Some of the strongest voices in the world today are in Africa. They are pregnant men and women, their reality is far from their dreams. When they speak to you, it’s out of the depth of what they need to tell themselves daily to move on. In a few more years, they would have get the satisfaction that only now is a dream. Then, had they not documented the travails of their heart would find it difficult to instruct the next generation.

Are you black and discouraged? Are you in a third world country? Don’t give up, it’s time to listen to you. It’s time to do case studies on your success, it’s time to hear your story.

Have you ever tried listening to a successful man before? I don’t know about you, but I have one observation I have made. They always make it sound so simple! Here you are racking your brain and seeing if you can get a fomulae for success, you ask this old wiser man, what he did that gave him the great break, and what he tells you sounds so simple, and when you try, it doesn’t look quite as easy. Do you know why?

Now I know why! It’s because we forget! We forget about the nights of toil once the morning breaks with rejoicing, we forget about the pain once the beautiful babies are born, we forget about the struggles once we cross the line and hug our trophies, we forget!

I came to the conclusion that the best time to talk to a successful man is the night before success comes, the best time to talk to a hero is when he/she is still a wannabe. The best time my friend, to listen to me, is NOW! Cos I’m still work in progress.

I remember last year, when I went all out to get the 15yrs ago tape of a now successful man. Many wondered why in particular I was interested in those years. I didn’t understand it well then, but I had observed that his speeches were more forceful then than now. There was a cry in his voice then that is missing now, the pains have died, and somehow, we all forget.

Three weeks ago, I ilistened to an industry leader tell us about the story of his success. His openning line was, “I won’t tell you what and what made me succeed, I’ll just tell you my story and hope that you’ll find the nuggets therein”. He wasn’t trying to hoarde the information, he simply had forgotten.

I’m on fire now! I’m in the midst of the heat. I hear thunder bolts, see lighening flashes, the night is dark, but the motivation is high. I’m in the nights before final arrival of dawn. Now is the time to hear me out, now is the time when the commitments are being made, now is the time when I’m bargaining hard, now is the time.

5yrs down the line, except you have written them down now, you probably would also have forgotten. Let your life be instructive, write things down…start writing your own psalms, we all forget!

Imagine that Thomas Edison stopped his attempt at making the electric bulb on the 9,999th time? You probably would be reading this in the dark (funny enough I’m writing it in the dark-Power Holding)

Suppose for a moment that Colonel Sanders stopped at the 999th place he went to present his receipy for Kenturky Fried Chicken, then the world would never have had it’s taste. The over 100 countries where the franchise exists would not have had the opportunity.

Can you also imagine what would have happened if Sylvester Stallone, gave up after being turned down the 999th time. The world would never have gotten to watch “Rocky”.( I can imagine how many dogs will suddenly loose their names)

The halls of fame are littered with the stories of greatness that required perseverance. No matter what you want to give up at, tell yourself -”Why don’t I try one more time?”

The struggles will not last for ever, the night will give way to dawn,

Don’t give up, hold on…help is on the way!

The world forgets the struggles, your audience will not remember the details. They’ll remember the victory, the crown the celebrations. Nobody remembers 5yrs down the line how long it took you to get a job, they rejoice with where you are. No one remembers the nights before the big break, they celebrate the big brake. Just like in a penalty kick, all the spectators have their thoughts and eyes on the goal post, but not the player. The player’s eyes must be fixed on the ball, he must make the decision that determines their joy or shame.

If what you are doing is not worth giving all the effort it requires and a little more, it’s probably not worth it.

Our passion and purpose will get their trials in the fires of perseverance. Nothing good ever came out of fire without staying in it long enough. The only things that die in the fire are the weaknesses you needed to identify.

Give it one more trial!

You’ve probably heard it before and wondered, is that not psychic? Do I sit down, cross my legs , close my eyes and hum to a particular boring music? Is this what meditation is about? Of what benefit is it? You probabably haven’t meditated before and it doesn’t make any difference. Or does it?
hâgâh
haw-gaw’

The word meditate has a greek origin, hâgâh. This means to murmur with pleasure or anger. Meditation can hence be defined as muttering words laden with emotions. These emotions would come from actively imagining the words that one mutters as one meditates.  Meditation is a benefitial activity, as the mind controls the reality of a life. What you think about you eventually become, your life moves in the direction of your most predominant thought. Meditation is a time tested activity for creating desired experiences.  The tongue has the powers to kill and to bring to life, and mediation serves as the medium to sharpen the tongue and to give it expression.

Why not try to spend 15 minuites everyday meditating on something you want to become reality in your life, and let’s see if in 30 days you won’t be much closer there than you are today? I started some while back, but you too can join some people and start this habit here. Remember, start and don’t stop equals finish!

There was this museum laid with beautiful marble tiles, with a huge marble statue displayed in the middle of the lobby. Many people came from all over the world just to admire this beautiful marble statue.

One night, the marble tiles started talking to the marble statue.

Marble tile: “Marble statue, it’s just not fair, it’s just not fair! Why does everybody from all over the world come all the way here just to step on me while admiring you? Not fair!”

Marble statue: “My dear friend, marble tile. Do you still remember that we were actually from the same cave?”

Marble tile: “Yeah! That’s why I feel it is even more unfair. We were born from the same cave and yet we receive different treatment now. Not fair!” he cried again.

Marble statue: “Then, do you still remember the day when the designer tried to work on you, but you resisted the tools?”

Marble tile: “Yes, of course I remember. I hate that guy! How could he use those tools on me, it hurt so badly.”

Marble statue: “That’s right! He couldn’t work on you at all as you resisted being worked on.”

Marble tile: “So???”

Marble statue: “When he decided to give up on you and start working on me instead, I knew at once that I would be something different after his efforts. I did not resist his tools, instead I bore all the painful tools he used on me..”

Marble tile: “Mmmmmm…….”

Marble statue: “My friend, there is a price to everything in life. Since you decided to give up half way, you can’t blame anybody who steps on you now.”
There is a price for your dreams! Count the cost, give it all you’ve got. It’s better to try and fail than to be numbered with the numerous souls who know neither failure nor success because they haven’t tried. Remember you will fail 100% what you don’t try and you will have no chance at succeeding at what you have given up on. There are things you must give up on, but don’t give up on your dreams.

I’m starting a series today titled Answers!

Background

The Concept of Answers is to create an opportunity for people to ask questions and have them thoroughly answered. These are questions on a different range of topics, from Career, to Motivation, to Attitude, to Skills to History, to Jobs to whatever! Whatever bothers you, or whatever topics you think can be shared and talked about. Place a comment and ask, I’ll together with the help of the people that have volunteered to assist on this portal, post detailed answers to life’s questions.

Experiement Day 5

If you were following these page closely, you would have observed that I restarted my 30 day trial. I did! It’s an integrity statement for me, I forgot myself and took a bit at a meatpie – I remembered after and made up my mind I can start again.

Will you start again? There are many things we have given up on, let’s start again. Trophies are not for starters, they are for finishers. Awards are not given for rehearsals, they are given for performances. Let’s strive to finish what we start. No matter how rough your start, the world is consitently intruiged by happy endings.

Start again!

Special Opportunity 

“A leader, once convinced that a particular course of action is the right one, must….be undaunted when the going gets tough.”-Ronald Reagan

“When you get to the end of your rope, tie a knot and hang on.”-Franklin D. Roosevelt

“The heights by great men reached and kept were not obtained by sudden flight. But they, while their companions slept, were toiling upward in the night.”-Thomas S. Monson

You might have read this quotes before, I have too. You might have passed through times before, when it seemed that the logical thing was to give up and give in, to throw away your dreams and embrace existense, I have too.

One of the the greatest lessons I’m learning today is that pereseverance is a greater percentage of what is needed for success. I am a student of success, I study people, companies, history and events, for traces of principles that can make any mortal reproduce success. I have studied it in books, and I have handled it in life. Now I understandy why one of the greatest speeches in the world had just four words – “Never, never, never Give Up!” Perseverance is a crucial ingredient in the making of a champion.

Miracles do happen, People do get lucky, Serependity is a real phenomenum, but what we fail to focus our attentions on, are the activities that had led to the night of the miracle, the events that birthed luck and the factors governing serependity.

We must all develope the attitude of the postage stamp – We must stick to it till it gets there. The walls of Jericho will not crumble gradually, they will crumble suddenly, but not until the 7th day. Albert Einstein said it correctly when he said that Genius is 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration. Even when you are doing the right thing, you need to keep doing it until you get lucky!

There are those times in every life, when it seems that your lack of clarity is at its peak, when the dark night lingers as you await the dawn, and it seems your sun will not arise, when you eagerly anticipate the end of your journey and your last turn leads you to a bigger maze, when fear has held courage ransom, when your soul stands in solitude and loneliness choking on its tears of isolation, when all those around you have betrayed you, when love has left your heart and refuses to return, when the questions on your heart are too bitter for you lips, when you go to bed at night in anticipation of lifes exams, when giving up seems logical, and giving ,right. There are those times, those times are the times when perseverance makes the difference between documentable history and mere history. Don’t give up!

It is in times like this, that you must believe in yourself-even if all those around you doubt you, and in your ability to rise from within the insanity in which your life now finds itself and to stand tall against the obstacles and challenges within your life-and you will conquer all recover whatever you thought was lost within your life.

It is from the darkest hours of our lives, from the depths of our despair and pain and in our greatest hour of adversity that we find an inner strength, an inner courage and an inner meaning so vast that it enables us to rise from our knees and stand tall and fight that which has made us weak.

It is after the darkest hours of our lives that we see the first glimpse of light. People of mediocre ability sometimes achieve great things because they don’t know when to stop. Don’t stop my dear, hold on to your dream.

Special Opportunity 

Like I was writing…I got two calls for good things that required me to move in different directions. It occured to me that life was what we made of it. It’s a function of choice!

I also forgot about my 30 days trial for the brief moment I was to speak. I was given a meat pie which I ignored for a while, only to nible off a corner of it later. I had started speaking when I realized that my trial had been affected. I made up my mind that even though I had dodged fantatic meals, I was going to start again. Today is day 3!

That’s what accountability does to you, it makes you responsible, and disciplined!

I left Katsina at 4pm, if I was ever going to make my flight for 5:05pm the driver needed to have an helicopter. I actually negotiated for him to make it in 1hr. I also prayed that the flight would be slightly delayed. I got to Kano at 5:30pm and the plane had not arrived, it was delayed for 1hr.

Key highlights that made the events really interesting – I saw afresh that we have a role to play in the options we choose. Our options determine our future. No matter how rough things are today, make up your mind what you want to stand for, and stand for it! It’s only a matter of time.

There are times when you doubt the authenticity of what you have, if you really believe in what you have, keep believing still. Every creation started first as an idea that was believed. If you don’t have the appeal you think you should have, it’s because it was you are presently doing it for the wrong people. If you are not seeing the results you expect to see, it’s because there is one element in your process that is missing. You can get back on track.

Special Opportunity

Today has been one of the most interesting days in my life! I don’t know if I can actually capture the full story of this via this medium, but I’ll touch it in bits and hope that perhaps you’ll learn a thing or two.

Yesterday ended in high spirits, I had gotten a life time priviledge of speaking in the same event with one of the men I respect most in Nigeria – Tayo Aderinokun (MD-GTBank). When I finished speaking I felt like one of those “eureka” moments. That moment when your hardwork finally gets recognised. It is said that behind every “eureka” moment lies nights of struggle and preparation. Believe me, there were many things said about my speech then that if I wrote here would make me look too good – So i won’t (Maybe some day later). A good part of the rest of the day was spent reminiscing about the event in Ife, and preparing for the one for today, in Katsina.

I’m writing from Katsina at the moment. The aircraft was delayed for 1hr – Thank God! I came in late. It’s 6:39pm now, and we are expecting the plane anytime from now.

I headed for Katsina in the early hours of today, to attend a corpers seminar and speak to them about building leverages for the next level. I had spoken about two hours when a call came in that my flight was one hour earlier than I planned. I was touched when I discovered that all the faces went sober, they wanted me to continue. I love such thirst for knowledge. To the corpers in Katsina, that waited a day behind to hear me speak, I’m excited on your behalf about your futures.

On my way to katsina from kano this morning – I got two calls. Two calls that showed me very clearly that my future is mine to choose. I won’t go into the details of these calls, but they were both good calls but in opposite directions, not one positive, and the other negative, but  both positive but requiring different things….to be continued…the flight just came in.

You can Now Get your Dream Job!

Our list of clients is growing, and we are gradually fulfilling our promise of helping people and businesses succeed. We presently have a database of full details of 15,000 applicants, and if your name is not on the database, you are not doing the best for your career.

Companies are gradually migrating from spending expensive amounts advertising for people to send tons of irrelevant CV’s, the best practice these days is targeted advertising, where people are sourced for vacancies that directly interest them. To partake in the possibility of getting a new job with our growing client database which includes all sectors, quickly get on the fast track and send your details today! All your details are held with highest confidentiality. You can check my profile and Generis Solutions profile to be sure.

How do you get your details to our recruitment database?

It’s very simple, all you need to do is to send SMS in a format we will describe to the following number – 08066422268

#Firstname#Surname#State of Origin#Age#Sex#course#Class of Grade#Institution#Degree#Phone#Email#Skill1#Skill2#Present Employer#Immediate Past Employer# Experience#Classification#Present Role#1st choice#2nd Choice#Preferred Industry#

Remember to separate each of these items with the “#” sign, don’t use any other sign. If you do this correctly is should not exceed 160 characters – 1 text message!

Below are the details of what can be filled in each category and a sample of a correct entry.

First Name: Your first Name e.g. Yakubu, chinedu or Obinna, preceeded by ash “#”
Surname: Your Surname.
State of Origin: Your state of origin
Age: Your age in numbers, e.g. 25
Sex: M for Male, F for Female. Use abbreviations only.
Course: First 3 letters only and first 3 letter of each word if in combination spaced. E.g. Medicine will be Med. and Mechanical Engineering will be MecEng.
Class of Grade: 1 for First Class, 2.1 for Second class upper equivalent, 2.2 for second class lower equivalent, 3 for third class and 4 for pass or equivalent.
Institution: Please abbreviate. Use popular abbreviation or 3/4 letters from compound name. OAU, UNIJOS, ABU, UNICAL, OGUNPOLY, IREPOLY, YABATECH e.t.c.
Degree: HND, BSC, MBA, MSC, MBBS, LLM, OND, PHD, SSCE, e.t.c
Phone: Type phone number here
Email: type carefully, use underscore for underscore. e.g. yakubuchinedu@yahoo.com, titi_yaro@gmail.com
Skill1: Choose one of the following- Leadership, Innovation, Analytical, Communication, Computer, Self confidence, Integrity, Teamwork, Customer Service, Selling, HR, Planning, and Project Management. Pls abbreviate
Skill2: Choose one of the following- Leadership, Innovation, Analytical, Communication, Computer, Self confidence, Integrity, Teamwork, Customer Service, Selling, HR, Planning, and Project Management. Pls abbreviate
Present Employer: Abbreviate if longer than 6 letters
Immediate Past Employer: Abbreviate or write “none” as applicable
Experience: No of years post NYSC.
Classification: Intern (I) Entry Level (EL), Experienced (EXP), Management (M), Director (D). Please don’t use other abbreviations.
Present Role: Use this format, Dept-Role. Abbreviate. E.g. HR-T&D Mgr
1st Choice: Sales, Marketing, HR, Finance, Production, Logistics, Procurement, IT, Engineering, Medicine, Pharmacy, Business Development, Quality Assurance/Control, Administration, Secretary, Personal Assistant, Risk, Consulting, Law, Education, Technical, Customer service, Brand Management, Graphic Designer, Writer, HSE, or any other. Use first three letters if one word, or use one letter from each word if two words. E.g. Adm for administration or BD for Business development.
2nd Choice: Sales, Marketing, HR, Finance, Production, Logistics, Procurement, IT, Engineering, Medicine, Pharmacy, Business Development, Quality Assurance/Control, Administration, Secretary, Personal Assistant, Risk, Consulting, Law, Education, Technical, Customer service, Brand Management, Graphic Designer, Writer, HSE, or any other. Use first three letters if one word, or use one letter from each word if two words. E.g. Adm for administration or BD for Business development.
Preferred Industry: Aviation, Advertising, Manufacturing, Consulting, Education, Medical, Pharmaceutical, Agriculture, Publishing, Oil and Gas, Banking, Financial Services, Hospitality and Tourism, Logistics, Energy, Construction, Legal, ICT, Consumer Goods, Fast food, Any. Use first 3 letters or first 3 of both words. Pls abbreviate

All written as follows

#Firstname#Surname#State of Origin#Age#Sex#course#Class of Grade#Institution#Degree#Phone#Email#Skill1#Skill2#Present Employer#Immediate Past Employer# Experience#Classification#Present Role#1st choice#2nd Choice#Preferred Industry#

For Example
#Chinedu#Udoh#AkwaIbom#28#M#BusAdm#2.1#IMT#HND#
08037345322#chinedu2002@gmail.com#Lead#Comp#GS#
VNA#5#EXP#Sales-Supervisor#BD#Log#Man#

Or

#Titi#Gowon#Kano#34#F#MicBio#2.2#UNAD#BSC#
08073344772#titi_gowon@yahoo.com#Ana#Inn#
P&G#Nestle#8#M#QA-Mgr#QA#HSE#O&G#

The first example is 132 characters, while the second is 116. Send yours in quickly and print a copy for your friends. Let’s see how far we can push this with word of mouth. Don’t send the information by mail, do it by SMS.

Please note that you can only send these messages between 8am and 6pm daily during weekdays. We will keep this open free from today till the end of November. You can volunteer for us by spreading the word. All the best!