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

Today is the last day of this month, by tomorrow, the last month of the year will start, and before we all know it, the year would end. This year has been the best year of my life so far, and somehow I’m persuaded beyond any doubt that the last days of the year are going to be crowned with goodness. I know that in the last month of this year, many expecations are still going to be met, many people’s prayers will still be answered, many unfinished goals will be achieved and dreams will still come through and true! I’m about to embark on a 30 days journey of success, and I want you to come with me.

When I say this year has been good, it’s on all counts. Just this morning for example, I had the privilege of giving out a gift of an all expense paid vacation to two people, and not the first time this year. This year, I have gotten to meet and built great relationships with fantastic people, people I had never met have become my friends and partners. This year  I have also enjoyed financial progress, enjoyed freedom, enjoyed a number of vacations, watched my kids, family and friends make progress. This year I have heard a lot of thank yous, a lot of God bless yous and so much gratitude has filtered into my life.  This year, my mum stepped up to glory, and even though not here, I feel peace when I draw inspiration from her life. Very importantly too, this year, I have experienced God’s grace, guidance, protection, leading and wisdom in ways too amazing and numerous to describe.  As this year wraps up however, I have a mandate to help a few more people achieve their goals and dreams, meet their future partners, attract wealth, be a blessing to someone else, whatever it is that’s going to crown your year with goodness. All you need to do is simple and brief. Continue Reading »

As you read this article I am writing, I’ll like you to think about your life, and ask yourself questions that will move you from where you are to where you are capable of being.

I remember vividly an event that occurred about 11yrs ago back in OAU -Ile Ife. We had invited this preacher to school to come address students, his name if I remember correctly was -Taiwo Adelakun. We had a great session, I guess, like all sermons, we forget! There was however one statement he made that day that I have never forgotten and interestingly a number of my friends back then have also not forgotten. While he was preaching he started talking about how some of his friends were on fire, they were extraordinary, they were gifted, they had big dreams, but most of them had settled down to the complacency of life and of staying average or good. They had settled down to having jobs, having families and following routines. Their fire had gone down, their talents were not in use, their dreams discarded, they now worked with this and that, and live here and there. He shouted a prayer from the podium, and all of us found it difficult to respond with a resounding – Amen!  His prayer was strange and shocking. The prayer was, “You will Never Settle Down!”

Today I marvel at how long and how far, I wonder if most of the ears that heard those words haven’t settled down. Even you, my friend and reader, have you settled down? Can you be classified as on fire and on the cutting edge of your talent? Have you bought into the worlds philosophy of can’t, impossibile and “make do with what you have”? Did life offer you something to fill your stomach with rather than a sumptous meal? Have you settled down to what is good at the expense of what is great? While my mind easily picks out the people we would have said were exceptional, my mind painfully sorrows over those who were not even able to discover their uniqueness back in school and had seemed to settle down since after secondary school. I’ve heard great stories that have a backdrop of a fantastic childhood and the current features of  dull artwork. This morning, I’ll like you help you address and attack a few major good ideologies that prevent us from being great! You must not settle down! Continue Reading »

Once upon a time a team of young people came together to have a discussion about their future. They were in their early teens, and they seemed in a hurry to know what their future held for them. The imagined and postulated on what was possible and what was not, who will likely become what and all what not. While they rambled and rumbled, an elderly woman passed by and overheard their discussions and arguments about the future.

The old woman slowed down until they noticed her and kept quiet. With a shrill voice slightly more than a wisper, she looked one of them in the eye, and asked them a question that got them all puzzled, “Is your future bright?” Not knowing whether to answer for himself, answer for everybody or not answer at all, the silence gradually grew to wispers and and sign language. Haven gotten them where she wanted them to be, she went ahead to ask them which of them was willing to look into her crystal ball to see his/her future. The reaction that ensued reminds me of about four years ago, when I was presented with a similar opportunity in Poland, questions within a wide range fly around in your head, let’s not go there. After a while, they joked and heckled and they brazed up and decided to take a peek into their futures. 

The Old woman brought out a crystal ball, but first asked them a few questions. “What do you want to become?”, “What is your dream?”, “What have you done about your dream?”, “What do you plan to do?” After they answered the questions, he showed them the crystal ball, and explained to them what she could see. Continue Reading »

{Sightseeing should start tomorrow. You can keep up with the interesting things in Egypt as I try to give daily updates on my twitter section here or on facebook. Should see the pyramids closely tommorrow, then go for a 3 days cruise on the Nile. Tomorrow, I might be interviewing an inspirational South African Lady I met here… just thinking out loud )

We all grew up as young children full of dreams. We wanted to become this, to have that, and to go everywhere. When we saw an aircraft on TV, we wanted one, when we saw a big house, we dreamt we would own it, we even fantasised about the definition of beauty that the media had sold to us. If every anything we were dreamers, our imaginations ran ahead of our realities, we wanted more from life than mere existence. We had big dreams, and somehow in our minds, we were unstoppable.  As a child, I can’t remember ever worrying about how I was going to ever study Aeronautics Engineering.

As we grow up however, our dreams grow with us, but somewhere along the line, many of us lose the youthfulness to dream. We are so caught up in waking up early, spending quality time in traffic, coming back late, that we have lost our dreams. We have become realists, we face the facts rather than the possibilities, we live the lives of drugged zombies, repeating the same routine day in day out, and hoping for the “one day”. If it is true, that repeating the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result is insanity, then we might indeed need to submit ourselves to some counselling. Some of us however have dreams, we still nurse them, we still hold them dear and are working towards them. Continue Reading »

It’s very depressing observing people in my environment everyday. Right now as I write, I am on the road, and I’m writing and staring out the side glass, I see different people, different shapes and sizes, different classes and at different stages. Sometimes I look beyond what I can see, and try to ask myself what some people could be thinking? Many people are so bothered about the basics, that they are clearly stuck in the present. The immediate gratification of our basic human desires, kind of mortgage our future possibilities. It’s either that our quests to satisfy the immediate that blinds us from the ultimate, or the fact that we haven’t set our ultimates is what makes us slaves to the immediate. Even I am inclined once in a while to stray and think in the line of our regular excuse, the fault of our leaders, the lack of accountable leadership, the lack of systems that can bring to office people that have visions and the capabilities to drive us to achieve. My mind strays, but not for long. Leaders are men like you and I. They were not born with crowns, nor with leadership tattooed on their butts. They were born like you and I, crying and wailing, wondering why they had to come to this world at this time. If we must get a better life, we must stop looking outside ourselves but inside. We must know that to fix the king, we must train the child. Yes we need great leadership, much more we need a system that will make it impossible for mediocre leadership to reach the throne, but most importantly we need to be a people that deserve a better life. We need to be an enlightened people, people that are easy to govern, difficult to rule and impossible to enslave.

I’m in the office now, I made it through the car park, lift and corridor of the office without closing my laptop. Yeah, every morning that’s my routine, I always keep the laptop opened. I wonder what my neighbors at home and at work think J. So back to the quest for a better life. My assumption is that I want it, and some other people do too. We need to get a few things right. We know some of these things already, but few of us put them to practice. In the cause of last weekend, I spent a considerable amount of time with an Australian friend, and it occurred to me that there are many things I know that I don’t practice, yet this guy knows a few things, but practices them like a religion. I got challenged to take some things more seriously, and I consider it a privilege to remind you about a few of them. Continue Reading »

Development is one of the segments of my yearly goals. I usually try to have something that covers every part of my being- spirit, soul and body. In case you don’t I suggest you plan to have that this year. Make sure that your goals touch every area of your life and focus on specific areas, I’ll recommend that ordinarily spiritual goals ought to be priority. When we seek first God’s kingdom, all other things are added. Today for example I am just completing my 365 days fast, that’s a spiritual goal that I set and the purpose was to keep me in tune with God’s direction for my life and keep me involved and active. I might not be able to justify the reasons to you, but the fruits of a consecrated life are evident – now and in time.

Today however my primary focus will not be on your spiritual goals. By all means set them. Have a commitment to fellowship with God, to have daily devotion, to be kinder, more impactful to others, to add more value, to be a blessing. These are by far the most important things in my life. The ultimate test of faith is not “what does my faith do for me?”, but what does it make me do for others?” Your spirual goals set the pace, but it’s your developmental goals, which are partly spiritual but largely soulish are the things that get you equipped to deliver your spiritual goals more effectively and efficiently. As you advance into the year ahead, here are a few things you must strive to achieve, and do not forget!

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The world cup is probably the most attention grabbing event in the world today. It happens once in 4 years but is unrivaled by the olympics, despite the fact that more sporting events are featured in it. To what event can we compare the World Cup? The swearing in of a new pope does not carry so much world interest, neither does the election of any of the worlds presidents, nor can you compare any one country’s independence day celebration with the global attention this one sport commands. Football!

Does it amaze you like it does me? That 25 grown up men (including the referees and their assistants-linesmen) spend a good part of 90 minuites running around chasing a leather ball? Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy the game, in fact, my first audible word as a growing child was “ball” – Evidenced by my carefully filled out baby book Continue Reading »