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

There is an experiment that I read about that opened my eyes to the truth about Fear. I’ll narrate the story to you and guide you into my understanding of the inner workings of fear and how to break away from limiting mind sets. There is nothing that stops living a full and fulfilling life like fear. Fear shackles, holds back, and paralyzes good initiatives. Many of our best ideas have never seen the light of day because of fear. Many of us are living way less than our possibilities because of fear. Many of us are stuck with Jobs we don’t like, relationships we don’t enjoy, dreams we haven’t birthed, desires we don’t express, all because of fear. The fear of the unknown, the fear of being wrong, the fear of failing, the fear of falling, the fear of poverty, the fear of isolation. Fear! If you can break free from the hold of fear, not only will your words be motivating, your life will be inspiring. When we break lose from our fears, we unconsciously liberate others around us to do the same! 

How fear works is quite interesting, and I think this little experiment clarifies it. Imagine a long flat board, 100 meters long, and 1 meter wide (1 meter is a little more than 3 rulers and for 100 meters, think about the track in secondary school) Imagine it lying on the ground, and you are asked to walk on it without moving off it at any point. If the picture of this is clear in your mind, walking along this board for 100 meters should be a piece of cake. In fact, you should be able to almost close your eyes and run on it. Right? Now imagine that this same flat board, was lifted up to the height of a sky scraper and fixed between two sky scrapers for you to walk on? Imagine, it and ask if you would? The truth is, you will be a lot more reluctant to walk, the board has not changed, it was the same board you would have run on confidently a few mins ago. But all of a sudden now, you are afraid, the fact that it is high up is allowing you to be clouded by the possibilities of what might happen, you are suddenly thinking more about the consequences of falling than the prospects of walking or even running. This is the way fear works, it takes your eyes off possibilities into the real of consequences. You begin to imagine things that may and will never happen, and it stops you dead in your tracks. Fear is the greatest road block to success, and except you learn to live above and in spite of your fears you are doomed! Doomed to mediocrity, doomed to average, doomed to live out a frustrated and unfulfilling existence. If you don’t face your fears, it will back you down into the corners of timidity, batter you into cowardice and leave you an underachiever. We need to understand fear and free ourselves of it’s grip, here is how. Continue Reading »

Dante Gabriel Rossetti a poet and an artist was once approached by an elderly man. The elderly man approached him to show him some of his works of art, for the great artist to make a few comments about their value and viability. The story says, that when Rossetti saw the works of art, he could not conceal his assessment of the fact that they were useless. Being a kind man however, he did not make fun of it, he simply explained to him, that he could not lie to him and felt that the works of art were of little or no value. The elderly man as you would guess, was disappointed, but the didn’t let it shake him too much. Before turning around to leave, he asked the great artist for an opportunity to get his remarks on the works of art of a student of his. The artist obliged him, and the elderly man presented the works to him. The eyes of the artist lit up! 

Dante Rossetti, was impressed with the works of art, and generously poured accolades on it. In fact, he told the elderly man to ensure that he did whatever he could to encourage the student. From what he could see, he really has real talent and something unique. Contrary to Rossetti’s expectations that the old man would feel hurt that his student had potentials to be greater, the old man seemed visibly moved, emotionally so! “Is that your son, the great artist asked?” Seeing that there must be some connection. The elderly man responded, “no, it’s not my son, that was me 40yrs ago, I only wished I had heard what you just told me now then, I would have been encouraged to paint.” Continue Reading »

I typically write the title of my post before I start writing, that way it keeps me focused on what I really want to write about. Today however, I’m doing things slightly differently. I’m going to write the title after I am done. What I have in my heart this morning is a theme, and I’m certain that after I have transferred my thoughts and feelings to words, the title will appear.

The strong theme being expressed on my mind this morning is “Adding Memorable Value”. I have been publishing articles online now for a little over 3 years. My articles have moved from total obscurity to some level of prominence. I have also migrated from no comments to as many 10,000 plus comments. I have articles with single digit views, and articles that have over 100,000 views. I have written articles that can be classified as useless, written those that can be classified as moderately valuable, and I have written articles that have added memorable value.  My heart desire from today, is to step up, and provide more content regularly that will enter into the class of  adding memorable value! Continue Reading »

I’m sure this will create different answers in different minds. Is there a game that can be classified as the greatest? Is it football, hockey, golf, cricket or basket ball? Or is it one of those not too popular games that has been discovered to have the capacity to excite and fascinate us the most? Which is the greatest game on earth, and what are the parameters that make it so? Do we measure by the thrills? The population of the world actively engaged in the game or it’s process? The degree by which our lives are affected by them or do we use statistics from opinion polls?

Whatever it is that we chose to use however, certain facts are undeniable. Football is a game that has the capacity to literally arrest a great percentage of the world in front of their television sets. More people in the world play golf and football more than any game. The thrill and the followership of basketball in America and increasingly globally is on the increase. The fanatic support of teams, of stars and of championships is tending towards idolatory. The games have become a rallying point of our social lives, we spend days watching, spend hours talking, minutes updating the scores and seconds rejoicing. These games are great, but none of them qualifies as the greatest game in the world. Continue Reading »

Announcements: The New Nigeria Club online conference will hold on Thursday the 19th of February, 2009 at 8pm Nigerian Time. We’ll be doing the conference on skype, if you are interested in attending send me your skype ID on my deolu@newnigeriaclub.net or write it here as a comment.

I got up really early this morning, I wanted to be ready for 6:30am so I could make the Lagos to Ilorin trip on time and return on time too. My Secondary School (Federal Government College Ilorin) was celebrating their 36th birthday, and I was invited to come and speak to and inpire the students. I had done the same thing last year, so I guess I’m gradually becoming a regular item on the founder’s day celebration . It was a bit stressful for me getting up, as I was truly tired, given that I had an engaging weekend. Over the weekend I had spent about 3hrs of my Saturday in a church I was invited to speak in, a good part of the rest with the organizers of HR MBA. Sunday had also gotten me going from Church to HR MBA, and then to Realty Point office where I facilitated for IFA and then back home late. I eventually went ahead to sleep on Sunday night around 3pm and knew I had to get up for 5:30am if I was going to make the Ilorin trip and be there on time.

It turned out to be a really packed day for me, I’m on my bed now, trying to retire for the night, and I can safely say that I feel really invested (spent) today. My mind casts back at the scenery of  FGC Ilorin, everything still looks pretty the same way I left it 15yrs ago. The assembly hall is still incomplete, the sports pavilion still looks like it’s in development. Save for a few “new” buildings here and there which are actually balanced out by the buildings that have deteriorated, the school is still basically the same. I had given scholarships to a few of the students last year, but looking at their faces today I was motivated to increase the number of students enjoying the scholarship.  I had spent over 9hrs on the road, travelled long distances, risked not making money today, given of my time, my effort and fallen into the risk of being misscontrued. On my way back however, I recalled a thought that stayed with me through the weekend and gave me inspiration. It said “It’s criminal to live cautiously like that! ” – Matthew 25:26b Continue Reading »

Light casts shadows! Does that sound new to you? Well it need not be, everything good has it’s down sides, that’s why there is a need for management. We need to be able to manage whatever good thing we are doing, in such a way that the negative effects of it are not so brutal. If you really think about it, you can locate a downside for any good thing.

The shadows that light casts are a function of the obstacles on the pathway of light.  In the seasons of darkness, when direction is unclear and things are scattered, light brings clarity, brings hope, brings opportunities, but within the pathway of obstacles, the darkness that exists behind these people is hightened. A case study of the shadows that light brings, is what is currently happening in Lagos State Nigeria. Continue Reading »

Yesterday night, I got an sms from someone yesterday that Dora Akunyili might actually be looking for the New Nigeria Club. That I need to get searching and find out exactly how to link up with her.  I took the information in my stride, showed a few colleagues with the intention of getting all the creative juices flowing. I continued through the night and slept, only to be woken up this morning by a phone call from senior officer in the Ministry of Education. 

The question rang clear pulling me out of dream world, the assumptions the same – “Dora Akunyili is looking for something in the perimeters of what you people are doing in the New Nigeria Club!”  That got me to an early start this morning, checking the news and rummaging through the dailies, the TV and all sources of information on what exactly could be happening. What exactly does Dora Akunyili want, and how does it concern us at the New Nigeria Club?  My search was rewarding, but it didn’t leave me with answers, it left me with questions. Questions are not bad however, wisdom is a function of questions, intelligence a function of answers. I’ll like to call an emergency meeting, online and offline of New Nigeria Club members, let’s brainstorm on this together, and let’s see if we need to be invovled with this. Continue Reading »

As much as I try to make my writing simple enough to be digested, it seems I’ll still need to try some more. I’ll start tomorrow though, today’s topic is hot, and I won’t want to dilute it with simple words. I discovered that writing the way I write generates a lot of questions in people’s minds, and that’s fine, the pathway to knowledge and wealth is to ask.  Everything you need in this life, is a question away. You don’t have, because you don’t ask. So if you need clarity on anything I write, please ask questions. I am online most of the time, and really willing to answer.

Someone once told me that my blog made him to start reconsidering his philosophy about the existence of God. He was a very cerebral guy, and had thought his way into believing that God didn’t exist and the spiritual was just an extension of the mind, e.t.c. Somehow without my saying anything directly, he had gotten some questions thrown at him that his philosophy could not explain and moved him into the path of working out a relationship with God. In my little journey on the Internet, I have found out, that he is not alone – many young people have had no experience of God, and are on a journey of questioning, testing and experimenting, and trying to find out for themselves if the world banged into existence or if there is a God somewhere. Is there proof that God exists? Do they need their research? Can it bring results? Is there any research that has been done that they can read and leverage on? Continue Reading »

Announcements

The winner for top commentator last month was Jesus Freak {applause}. He wins his own hosting and domain account. Please contact me to redeem it. I will announce the other winnings with other posts.

I am not sure if I ever mentioned what this year was for me, in case I didn’t, it’s my year of shining. At the time I accepted that as my word for the year, I didn’t have clarity on how much darkness would exist. I was more interested however in knowing what I needed to do so that my light could shine.  It’s one thing to be a light, it’s another thing to shine the light. 

There is no gainsaying that if you have any light in you, this year is one of the best times in the history of the world to shine it. People will move from absolute obscurity to prominence this year. People will rally round carriers of light. This is the year that if you have knowledge, information, the capacity to enlighten or educate, you will be sought after. Darkness is covering the earth, and gross darkness it’s people, but as always, that darkness provides an opportunity for some to shine. So the question today is since we know that there is darkness, how do we shine in these times. Continue Reading »

What on earth is Deolu coming up with today? What is this? Well, I’m extremely sorry if it the picture offends you in any way, it’s there to do exactly what it has done, GRAB your attention! And please be true to yourself, don’t go off prentending on me, we come accross worse pictures on movies everyday, and we don’t go swearing and cursing. Today I want to shock you a bit with the naked truth, some of it will be doom and some of it will be boom, so listen on.

I want to talk frankly today, about some cold naked truths. We love to make each other happy, offend no one, decieve one another in the name of being diplomatic, shy away from what can be offensive. We do these things are lose the ability to connect with each other. We become so cosmetic, covered up and unatural. This was not so in the beginning. In the beginning, we were naked but not ashamed. We knew all there was to know, and there was no reason to hide. Today, we all wear masks, we hide behind our careers, hide behind our degrees, behind our accomodation, behind our busy schedules, behind status, property, toys and behind all sort of things. We don’t watch these types of films, we don’t listen to that type of music, we don’t do bridges, we don’t climb bikes, we are tush, cool and so unreal. Some of us have forgotten our roots, we have forgotten the tough times, the sleepless nights. Where we are going is far, but if we remember where we are coming from, we’ll face the future with humility and not with chips on both shoulders. Be true to yourself, and let’s together, face some cold facts about the future. Continue Reading »