The Changemaker

"You’ll go far in life” has got to be one of the most rendered prayers by Nigerian elders when blessing a youth. An average Nigerian receives this blessing each time he satisfies an elderly person. Yet, I believe that its not only the rendering of this prayers alone that will take us far in life. If it were, we would not have any youth wandering aimlessly around Iwo Road Motor Park, neither would we have any girl on the queue that forms on Premier Hotel road every Friday night, in readiness for their nocturnal businesses.  There are certainly a lot of factors that will contribute to the making or marring of one’s life. Let’s take a look at six of these factors, shall we? MINDSET “The more you let a single belief define you, the less capable you are of adapting when life challenges you.” - Paul Graham You are what you think you are. No man can ever be greater than his thoughts. The Holy Bible, attests in Proverbs 23:7 that “as a man thinks in his heart, so is he.” Going...

“It is really wonderful how much resilience there is in human nature. Let any obstructing cause, no matter what, be removed in any way, even by death, and we fly back to first principles of hope and enjoyment.” ― Bram Stoker, Dracula   You might be wondering why I love to talk about resilience so much. Well, as it is said, "experience is the best teacher." Throughout the few years I have lived, resilience is one virtue that I have had to imbibe in order to survive. In fact, this blog is a product of resilience because I wrote it despite the fact that my body was threatening to succumb to malaria. So you see, we live and breathe each day by resilience. We all have stages in life when things seem to be going against us, when life issues seem not to be going our way. People often try to give us reasons to doubt ourselves, or pull out of life’s game. What you do with such people will determine what you'll actually turn out to be. Gever Tulley once said “persistence and resili...

THE DEVIL CALLED COMFORT “You never change your life until you step out of your comfort zone; change begins at the end of your comfort zone.”   ― Roy T. Bennett I met a girl from Spain two months ago, Jade (fictitious). We met on Facebook and from our interactions; I got to know of a massive idea that she had. It had to do connection with web designing and to lift the idea off the ground, she had to enroll for any training that would give her the skills needed for her vision. But Jade had a problem; she couldn’t find any training centers close to her home – the nearest being about ten kilometers from her house. Being a teen from a wealthy family and having had all she wanted within her easy reach, Jade felt that she didn’t need to go that far to learn an “ordinary skill” when she could simply watch some videos on YouTube.   However, when the frustrations started creeping in, she was forced to abandon her big idea. Jade began to believe that she was working on ...

QUIT THE AIMLESS JOURNEY “There is no greater gift you can give or receive than to honor your calling. It’s why you were born and how you become mostly alive.” – Ophrah Winfrey Every action taken by a man must be backed by purpose. The evidence of man’s existence is in the fulfilment of his purpose on earth. Most people go through frustration in various aspects of their lives because they have not discovered their purpose in life. One of the reasons why Nigeria is experiencing major setbacks in major areas of her economy (e.g. education, commerce, e.t.c.) is lack of purpose by many of her citizens. Most students do not have a drive that propels their desire for education. Many are riding on the wings of “normalcy”, in that their reason for education is to “fulfil all righteousness”. What we fail to realise is that normal actions produce normal results while extraordinary actions produce extraordinary results . Benjamin Disreali once said, “The secret of success is consta...

THE PLACE OF RESILIENCE IN SUCCESS “I can be changed by what happens to me, but I refuse to be reduced by it.” – Maya Angelou The rate at which young people are springing up with ideas of change and societal development increases with time. Many youths are finally catching the vision of much needed change that their society needs, and have begun to rise up to the challenge of being change makers. However, while some have been able to lift their idea off the ground, some have sadly been unable to do likewise. I have spoken with many teen girls and guys who have told me at different times of their decision to let go of their dreams, because of setback which they encountered while trying to lift their “big idea off the ground.” In the words of Woodrow Wilson, the difference between a strong man and a weak one is that the former does not give up after a defeat. Many times, the setbacks we experience are not a result of our inadequacies but our unpreparedness. Sometimes, failure is li...

AIM BIG, START SMALL! “Great things are not done by impulse, but by a series of small things brought together.” - Vincent Van Gogh The greatest quote I have ever heard on goal actualization would probably be that of the Raphael Stephen, founder/CEO of FAME Foundation, in an online seminar. He said, “have big dreams and split them into small goals.” I have constantly pondered on these words and I have realized that these words did not just come out of the void. They are words that were spoken as a result of deep understanding of the prevailing challenge of young people when it comes to starting out an idea. Everyday, the world throws at us new challenges that often test the intellectual capacity of this generation. Of a truth, the world needs minds that can think deep and proffer lasting solutions to these challenges. While this generation has proven to be up to the task in creative thinking, the inability to birth these ideas has always served as a stumbling block and the reason fo...