“Why sit we here till we die?” – Fola Daniel Adelesi, ASM

The issue is not whether we are less privileged or not. The issue is not whether somebody in town wants us or not. The problem is not whether they like or faces or not. The battle that everyone is concerned about is not even our major concern right now.

Brothers the issue is that we have always been rejected and despised. Everybody thinks we cannot amount to anything so nobody has a security provision for us. The chiefs don’t even think about us when they are planning the social amenity to be made available to the people of the town. Don’t you even think their heads are too sophisticated to allow their minds be bothered because of people like us?

We are outcasts of the society and are left to survive by chances. Unfortunately they think we are so ugly that we are not even fit to sit at the gate of their town. Nobody needs to talk to us about any hell anywhere because we are going through more than enough hell right now.

We are at the mercy of the “miserly-generosity” of some mean citizens who are just a little better than we are save for the fact that they have not been banished from town. The rich folks who can afford to give us “life-transforming crumbs” don’t even get to pass this place.

I am trying as much as I can to picture the conversation of these lepers who were deliberating the most heart rendering issues as far as they were concerned. The most important thing is that somebody was wise enough to ask, “why sit we here till we die?”

This leper in his proposition did not deny the fact that they would die but he just wanted to know why they would not do anything until they die. Sometimes you need to get up with an attitude of “what am I going to lose after all?” and give it a shot. You have nothing to lose writing that business proposal. You have nothing to lose making the right attempts. You have nothing to lose trying out what other have not tried because you will end up learning what others have not learnt! You can’t keep waiting for things to happen while you are doing only what others are doing.

You cannot even focus on the odds that are against you as an excuse not to do anything. The guys who woke up to say, “why sit we here till we die?” had all the odds against them because they were outcasts in their own town. You are not yet an outcast so why will you sit there and not do anything. Even if you think you are an outcast we read about an outcast in the Bible who had to settle forcefully outside his town but at some point his people got into trouble and they didn’t have a choice other than to go back to him. You still have something that is useful to another person in life so get and go out. Go looking for that person or those people and those nations who need what you carry. You have been sitting long enough who no results so do something.

It is even more honourable to do something with little results than to do nothing. As a nation because can’t even afford to sit here for to long. We have to put our minds to work and get something out so that we can move forward. When we have problems we need to always realize the solution is not always in sitting down!

I fell in love with this guy when I heard the question because asking “why” puts your brain to work and the outcome is usually an outstanding success. Many Christians have problems and are looking for opportunities but they sit where they are exoecting opportunities to come. They think if they prayed to God about it then it must come in some kind of big way. They think God’s opportunities are always in some kind of complex and inexplicable advantages brought together to be called a miracle.

Don’t sit there till you die! Get out and grab opportunities! Many of you pray opportunities into place then you allow them slip by you because you want to pray them into action again. These folks who asked themselves , “why sit we here till we die?” were physical lepers but their reasoning reveals that they were not lepers in their minds. Many today are not physical lepers but the leprosy on their minds is horrible, disgusting and nauseating. Why sit you here till you die?

Financial Culture – Fola Daniel Adelesi, ASM

Some people think it is hard to make money but they say it is easy to spend it. My response to that in this present time is that we have a society that does not understand financial culture, though we all have it. For any society to succeed it must understand that it has a financial culture that it has either neglected or is not paying attention to at all. All the nations that prospered have a great culture and it is not just a culture that explains the way the people live. After all you cannot explain the way a group of people live without talking about how they spend money or how they make money.

It used to be a great thing to talk to young people about money and allow them understands how money is made. Today in every home the leaders talk about money but the unfortunate thing is that some people will grow up leaning the wrong lessons about money and only very few will learn the right lessons about money. The reason we have a society where people in government mismanage money is because some of them grew up in homes where they learnt the wrong lessons about money. Imagine the mindset of a young man or woman whose father or mother is a spendthrift! What do you expect from that person when you are discussing money or when money gets into their hands? Many homes unknowingly thought their children how to spend and to wait for another money to come if it ever comes from someone else who seems to have the right to be blessed and be rich.

There are only a few homes where the parents ‘teach and show’ their children what it means to have money and to multiply money. We have so many things that have gone wrong in our financial system because we already have a defective financial culture. A few examples will include:

1.) A lot of people think everybody cannot be an entrepreneur because they are asking who will be the co-workers? Before the industrialization age was everybody not an entrepreneur? You either owned a farm or something else that produced what other people needed and you were simply paid for your service rather than being paid to slave out for someone else. If you didn’t own any tangible substance for exchange you still were not slaving out for someone else because you were going to negotiate with someone who wanted to engage your time for that day and you could go somewhere else the following day.

2.) The belief that money must be spent is killing the society because people make money and the first thing they are looking at is what to spend the money on and not what to invest the money in. we are beginning to have a poor investment culture in the mist of hundreds of ‘seemingly worthwhile’ ventures. What this does is that the majority of the society that spends will keep sending money into the hands of a few who do not think about spending a lone. At the end of the day those few will be controlling the society because they are custodians of more than 80 percent of the society’s wealth.

3.) More than 80 percent of the society is thinking about where to get (looking for job) rather than thinking about what to create. As much as it is not wrong to think about where to work, it is important to note that you can work for someone and still be your own boss by creating leverages where you find yourself. There are people who see challenges everyday and all they do is lament because of a poor financial mindset. In a system where the financial culture is strong the people will always think about leveraging on challenges to create a financial future for the people.

4.) So long as we have people who want to live in houses they cannot afford and drive cars that they cannot afford the financial culture of the society will still be weak. I have seen people who will in houses where their annual rent is enough to build a house for them at their level. There are people who do not own houses but drive cars that can build a house for them. There are people whose wardrobes can start the companies they have been craving to start. I know about bus conductors whose chains can register a company and make them entrepreneurs. All these things get me crazy because I see people who keep trying to impress others that are not paying attention to them!

5.) Only a few people can explain how the money they make leaves their hands. This is about the worst thing in our financial culture. People know when money comes but do not know when it finally exits. The reason they know when the money comes but do not know when it finally leaves is because they are always thinking spending rather than thinking multiplying. This is why they will buy something before realizing it will cost them more money now that they have it. They have to spend more than the cost price of the goods bought trying to maintain it.

6.) Most of these people who know next to nothing about money and just think about how to spend rather than how to multiply are the people who move into the government of our countries. We have spendthrifts and a host of others who do not have a financial vision in government and you expect that nations will prosper.

7.) The financial culture and only be built when we begin with a conscious observation of how we spend and pay attention to little things like how much we spend in a day and why we spent that amount in a day.

To build a strong financial culture some of the questions we need to start asking and answering include:

1.) Is there a way I could have spent less to achieve more result?
2.) Is it wise to have cut cost and have inferior products that will warrant losing more money at the end of the day?
3.) How much were we earning and how much are we earning?
4.) What’s the difference in the earning today and what justifies the difference?
5.) Do I have an improved skill to earn more or will my experience earn more?
6.) How much of my earnings are my multiplying?
7.) Do I always buy things I will soon forget about or things I can see for a long time?
8.) Why do I always get broke?
9.) What else can I put money into that will bring more money WHEN I need it?
10.) Do I really have a banking culture or I just take money to the bank?
11.) Do I have a rapport with my bankers or I just talk to them when I go over the counter to drop some cash.

With all these questions we can begin to build a strong financial culture and put things right in our society. Don’t just earn money! Multiply money!

Can we control tomorrow – Fola Daniel Adelesi, ASM

Do you really think you have a control over your future or do you think you can control tomorrow? Do you think there are just too many circumstances around you that will not allow you control the future or you also think only God can control your future? Do you think a witch has the capacity to turn things around or you think that a herbalist also has the power to turn things around?

Sometimes I look at people who seem to be helpless because they think they are disadvantaged and they think all of their lives are dependent upon some forces they probably cannot control. For those who think God controls tomorrow and everything about their lives I only have something that differs from your religious belief without sounding hypocritical or heretic. From the study of my Bible I know so well that that there are two things God will control and we probably have about 8 things left to ourselves to handle.

The first thing God will control is to give you a “pre-destination” and the second thing God will control is to give you a “chance to see tomorrow.” God controls your predestination because he decides your purpose here on earth and decides what you look like as it best suits your purpose. He also decides your temperament as it can best help your purpose in life. Let me be quick to say that as much as God decides your destination in life he stays back to let you “WALK THE WALK.” He tells you what to do and does not force it down your throat. He shows you where to go but still gives you a choice. He became so vocal about it when he said, ‘I have placed before you this day life and death.’ He wants life for us but he told us the other option. It is HIS responsibilities to design our lives but it is our responsibilities to match the design.
God also gives us a chance to see the next day and the day after and the day after that one. He keeps giving us that chance to match into the picture that he has for us but he will never force some daily routines down on us. We choose the daily routines that we observe despite the fact that we cannot choose to wake up on that day.
The decisions that will determine your destiny are the decisions you will make. The little habits that will lead to your destiny or destruction are the habits that you have cultivated over the years. God does not choose for you the books you are reading or have read that can shape your perception of life. God can show you where to go but not so many people have gone there to do exactly what God expects them to do. A professional field may be suggested to me as the field that can help me achieve my purpose in life but it is my responsibility to go into that field and also understand that I am not going into the field just to make money. It is my responsibility to ensure that I go into the field and make something out of the field and still impact people.

From all that you have read you will see that God will predetermine what you can become and allow you live to become it but all the little things that lead to becoming it are things that you can choose to follow or choose not to follow.

Do you have a choice? – Fola Daniel Adelesi, ASM

Do you have a choice when you live in a country where things don’t work the way they should? Do you have a choice when you live in a country where mediocrity is applauded? Do you have a choice when you live in a country where merit is discarded and familiarity with the person who should ensure merit is more important? Do you have a choice when you live in a country where you live with the promises of the leaders rather than their visions and actions?

I may not be able to deicide for you but I think I have a choice just as you do. I have seen a number of people who say they do not have a choice but at the end of a review of the situation you find out that the person really had a choice but went for the choice that was made unconsciously. When we find ourselves in some situations and we think we do not have a choice what we often run away from is the consequence of the choice that we could have made.

Don’t ever assume you do not have a choice in any situation because you will be faced with situations that are meant to puncture your ego and bring you down to the lowest part of your emotion. When you admit that you do not have a choice then you are defeating yourself before the situation defeats you. You need to stand tall and look at what can be done in any situation rather than looking at how many things have gone wrong! I remember going for an audition and something was not done properly. Just then another person who was there for the audition said, ‘you don’t have a choice.’ ‘I have a choice,’ I retorted. Many of us never make a head way because we think we do not have a choice. We think when someone does not give us a chance to do something we do not have a choice. When the people who are dealing with you already know that you think you do not have a choice then they are given the chance to continually oppress you.

The reason some people will always be defeated is because they think they do not have a choice. The reason some people will always be oppressed is because they think they do not have a choice. The reason some people will never improve their standard of living is because they think they do not have a choice. The reason some people will groan for the rest of their lives is because they think they do not have a choice.

When you start thinking that nobody has the capacity to limit your choice then you have more freedom. Don’t ever think you do not have a choice in your place of work even when you are being mistreated. You have a choice to hold on to your integrity and walk away. You have a choice to endure for a while, though many people do not want to, and eventually hold your head high that your success is not limited to someone’s choices.
We have a choice in any nation that we live in if things do not work the way we expect. We have a choice to make changes in our own little way. We have a choice to put up the right attitude until every other person has the right attitude. We definitely have a choice if only we are willing to take the responsibilities that come with choice.

Probation to Ovation! – Fola Daniel Adelesi, ASM

“I do not want to remember whatever happened because there is a winning that supersedes winning. It is the winning attitude. I believe you can bounce back from probation to ovation” Those were my words in ‘The Debaters’ TV reality show of Inspire Africa when I landed on probation in the 7th week of the show that was to last for 13 weeks.

Something in me was not accepting the fact that I could land on probation because I was trying to be very positive. On the other hand probation kept coming back as a thought so I decided to deal with it by preparing for what will happen after the probation if I ever landed on probation. I thought of a few things but more importantly I ‘prepared my attitude’ for that time of probation.

I eventually landed on probation when we had a debate on whether the population of Nigeria is a blessing or a burden. In my opinion I landed on probation because the judges didn’t like the fact that I had too many physical materials – props – to explain my points. For the most part, they came up with their comments and I prepared for the probation so when it came I was able to handle it very well.

Many of us are in a situation in our lives that we probably saw before it happened but we were trying to be very positive so we did not entertain the thoughts of those things happening. Recently I realized that being positive at times does not mean not entertaining some thoughts. Being positive in some contexts really means preparing your mind for the things you probably cannot change so that you will handle them well when they come!

It is important to be positive but don’t remain “negatively positive.” My idea of being negatively positive is to land into trouble because you were trying to reject something that was bound to happen rather than preparing for how you will handle it when it happens. In some cases I had rather prepare for an obvious trouble than trying to reject the trouble because when put in perspective the kind of trouble you are avoiding may just be what you need in life.

Being positive in some cases may mean not entertaining some thoughts but in some other cases it is about preparing for what can happen so that when it happens it will not put you off balance. There are situations that may make you feel like you are on probation. You may be on probation in your finances. You may be on probation in your relationships. You may be on probation in your academics. You may be on probation in your place of work. Your entire life may just look like probation.
As I told the presenter, ‘I don’t want to remember whatever happened.’ When we cultivate the habit of look forward to what will happen rather than focusing on what has happened we are most like going to become better people because of the attitude. A lot of people say life is hard but they still do not want to experience what is hard about that same life! What you need to do is to make your mind tough in preparation for a tough situation.

If you are prepared for the tough situation the reality is that you can bounce back with an ovation from the probation!

Sleeping for 360 minutes! – Fola Daniel Adelesi, ASM

We may have come this far with the resources available to us. We may have explored what seems to be the best of technology. We may have been to the best of schools on earth and we may have the best of the lastest information.

All that is good but what is the best today is only good enough for today. We cannot survive tomorrow with the best of materials available today. We cannot survive without innovation. If you sleep for 360 minutes which is the equivalent of six hours, i guarantee there would have been 360 new things in the world. so when you wake up you must always ask, ‘what’s new?’ If you don’t, you will soon be obsolete!

Fola Daniel Adelesi, ASM
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Success: A product of work or luck – Fola Daniel Adelesi, ASM

I was involved in a national debate that was televised in about 46 countries of the world and I can Imagine the thoughts of the audience running wild as we were debating on that stage in Inspire Africa studios, Lagos, Nigeria.

I must register my belief that there is luck but it must be noted that fortune only favours the brave. You cannot wake up one morning and expect that everything will happen for you just because you believe in luck. You can only say that you are lucky after working at something and it works out the way you expect it or it has yielded more result than you planned for. I remember saying in a sarcastic manner during the debate, ‘if my co debater really believes in luck he shouldn’t have shown up for this debate, hoping to be lucky.’

If you are expecting to be lucky with something you have to work at it and know so that that you have put in your best. I cannot say that I expect to be so lucky with job opportunities without an educational background. I cannot study communications and expect to be so lucky that the president of the nation will say I should come over to serve as the Accountant-General of the Federation. I am simply trying to say that luck will often come as a result of your attempt to succeed at something by putting in your efforts.

Your work is very important but I need to say that the way you work is more important than the work you do. I have said repeatedly that some work hard and others work smart but only those who work smart get more reward for the work done.

Take a look at all the hard works around you and you will agree that the hardest worker will never end up among the richest people. Take a look at the guy who works on a construction site. He goes there daily and works hard till there’s no light to work again and is still paid peanuts. There is this other guy who only goes to supervise what is done and the one who is supervising what is done is making more money than the one who is really doing work.

With this you will understand that it is important to work but you have to work in a smart way. The richest people in the world today are people who make money from being smart workers and they are mostly trading information all over the world.

You can be very lucky but you must work and work very smart so that the rewards you get will be far more than the efforts put into the work.

Mindset and Precept – Fola Daniel Adelesi, ASM

When your mobile malfunctions you sometimes have to reset because there is a precept that determines the “mindset” of that mobile phone. Precepts will form a mindset but it usually gets to a level where mindset begins to kick against the precept that is needed for the next level of our lives. If you are ever going to keep succeeding in your life you must understand when to allow your mindset give in to a new precept so that your mindset would be ideal for the next phase of your life.

It’s amazing to see how close people are to their big breaks in life and the only thing that’s just not allowing the available precept launch them is their mindset. It may now be important to take a look at the other words that explain the word precept for a clearer picture of the message here. Precept means teaching, principle, rule, guideline, instruction and law. The last few words from Thesaurus are not words that a lot people like to hear anymore and those are words that can help a man create a shape for his life, maintain the shape and as well continue to adjust where necessary so as to continually fit into the society.

On the other hand, mindset means state of mind, frame of mind, attitude, approach, way of thinking or outlook. Of all the synonyms that I got I must confess I am surprised to see outlook as a synonym for mindset. What that means invariably is that what we think like will eventually determine what we look like and what we look like is determined by the things that we have been taught, the guidelines that we have abided by so far, and the instructions that have confined us to a structure or taken us out of one.

Now that you have a better picture of the two words compared I think I can boldly speed up to the point where I was supposed to have begun. We all have come this far by the precepts God gave us and those precepts have formed into the mindsets that we all carry but it’s amazing to see that today a lot of people are beginning to kick against the precept that is needed for the next level. They have stuck to the precept in their minds right now and they are not will to renew their minds or reset their minds.

Remember I started with a mobile phone being reset. If the phone will continue to be relevant to you there may be need to ‘restore factory settings’ or better still ‘reset.’ What you are resetting in the mobile phone is the instruction that you have given to the mobile phone. There are instructions that came with the phone to make it usable for anybody and there is the opportunity for you to add your instructions for personal use. Human beings are like phones with basic instruction from the manufacturer (GOD). The basic instruction determines how all human beings behave in certain conditions but the good news is that there is the opportunity for additional instructions just like that of the phone. This additional instructions are not the same for every human being and that is so because we do not all have the same purpose in life. Just like different mobile phone users will have different purposes for their mobile phones, human beings have come to achieve different things here on earth and what they have come to achieve will inform the kind of precept they must not allow.

From time to time you must you must reset your mind because the precept that brought you this far will not be the precept that will take you to the next level. From time to time you will need a new mindset for the next level. A few years ago your current mindset was absolutely necessary to bring you to this level but it will not be good enough to take you to the next level.

Lessons:

1.) We need a mindset – state of mind, frame of mind, attitude, approach, way of thinking or outlook – to succeed in life.

2.) The mindset will be shaped by the precepts – teaching, principle, rule, guideline, instruction and law –
that we accept or reject.

3.) The mindset must be flexible – don’t pick a precept and expect it to be a multipurpose precept applicable in every situation. There are no multipurpose rules. That is why there are exceptions to rules.

4.) You must constantly remember there are exceptions to rules and other rules will make up for that exception.

5.) Adopting the appropriate precept for every phase of your life is the meaning of the “right mindset”

6.) The mindset that brought you this far will not take you as far as you need to go!

If we were Orphans – Fola Daniel Adelesi, ASM

If we were picked on the streets of Nigeria
And brought into a home as orphans,
Nobody would be Hausa!
Nobody would be Igbo!
Nobody would be Yoruba!
We would simply be Nigerians
Speaking one one language,
As thought by our custodians.
Nobody will be son of the Minister!
Nobody will be daughter of a civil servant!
Nobody will be children of farmers!
Nobody’s devil will be bigger,
Nobody’s angel will be smarter!
we will just know we are Nigerians
United by diversified complexity.
We will dream of a world
Where we all form a chain
And the long lost love will be the link.

Fola Daniel Adelesi, ASM
05/10/2009
From the Talk Academy of The Debaters.

“Opportunities are rude” – Fola Daniel Adelesi

One of the ways to live life is to consciously remind yourself that opportunities will not book appointments before they come and when they come, they may not look like the visitors you want to see. If opportunities were properly dressed everyone will recognize them so you need hindsight, insight and more foresight to recognize the fact that what is in front of you is an opportunity and not disaster.

Many of us have dreams but the bitter truth is that we honestly do not recognize the opportunities that were meant to birth those dreams so there are times when we all have walked past the opportunities we were looking for. Opportunities are very rude.

Just like that rude young man or the saucy young lady you would have sent out of your office or house, I hope you have not sent opportunities away like that. Some people ignorantly send opportunities away in the name of setting their priorities right but a closer look reveals that they did not really set their priorities right. What they did was to set their priorities upside down by sending Mr. Rude Opportunity away.

I remember a time in my secondary school days when I was expecting the results of promotional exams like every other person but what I got was an advice to repeat the class. We all probably think that we have very strict parents but I can start a debate at this time that my parents were stricter. I didn’t know what to expect but I obvious didn’t contemplate suicide though I wished I could disappear. Let’s leave the story for my biography but I didn’t enjoy that holiday and the Christmas that followed because I was returning to school to seat in the same class with my juniors.

The irony of the situation was that just as I was beginning to settle down in class the class, the class needed to appoint leaders and I was appointed as one of the captains of the class. Here was a class where more than 70 percent of those seating in it were retaking the class so I thought, ‘well you are now a captain over repeaters. A captain of the so-called ‘dullest.’’ Going by the visible situation that was true but going by the way Mr. Rude Opportunity behaves that was not true. That year became my best year in school because that was the year that I improved my speaking and writing skills so much. It gave me the opportunity to build rapport with my teachers and build confidence in myself. By the time I bouncing back fully I was already the Senior Prefect of the school. Becoming the Senior Prefect of the school was my dream as a first year student but it looked as if the hope slipped into the tunnel. There was no light in that tunnel until I had gone through that phase where the thick darkness was almost touchable. The hope was rekindled after I had failed. When I reminisce those days I can smile and say thank God I failed that session because it was the session that brought to limelight the leadership potentials in me and I bounced back academically. At least I got the award for the best Literature-in-English student before I graduated.

Every new phase of my life in one way or the other has been ushered in with what looks more like a rude interruption of my plan. My success in life so far can be referred to as opportunities that first interrupted my life disguised as failures.

If the only challenge is that opportunities will not book appointments before they come that would have been okay because you sometimes accommodate the people you were not expecting but it does not just show up without notice, it will put you off balance if you are not careful. When I listen to the stories of some young people the only thing I can deduce is that they did not know when Mr. Rude Opportunity came to their house or office. He obviously came disguised like the masked Nigerian Musician whose real identity is not known but adopts “Lagbaja” as stage name. Interestingly this man has been to several places without masks and has spoken with the people who know his works but don’t know his face or any other thing that can reveal his true identity.
Many people know what opportunities can do for them but they are sincerely ignorant about the characteristics of opportunities. There are people living inside opportunities and they are looking for it. There are people looking for opportunities and they seat on it on daily basis. There are people looking for opportunities and it just follows them around. I remember visiting a friend of mine who was, at the time we were both undergraduates, a graphic designer because I wanted to publish a magazine. My “planned mission” was to get the quotation for a publication but when I got there I realized that there was the “original mission” as presented by Mr. Rude Opportunity. I remember it was 9pm on a Sunday evening and examinations were starting the following day. I was also supposed to be preparing for two papers so those papers who have preoccupied my time.

The student union president of Olabisi Onabanjo at the time who was referred to as ‘AWO’ just said, ‘tell this guy about it. He does stuffs like this.’ In that moment I didn’t know what was presenting itself to me. All that mattered at the moment was that the group of young men who were there were looking for a few people who would represent the university in the Nigeria International Model United Nations’ Conference held annually at the International Conference Centre, Abuja. They wanted me to write an essay and it must be submitted by 12 noon on Monday. My first paper was scheduled for 9am to 12pm and my second paper was scheduled for 3pm to 6pm and now I have to produce an essay which must be submitted in an interview at 12noon.

As I stepped out of my friend’s house I thought about nothing else but the essay till I got to my residence on campus. I needed to set my priorities right. The bill board in my head had a sign like, ‘Two papers tomorrow! They are not elective courses! One opportunity here for you!’ Before my fears could get hold of my reasoning I had taken a decision. As far as I was concerned the exams and the opportunities were important so I settled down immediately to start writing the essay.

There was a twist the following morning after deciding that the exams and the essay were important to me. I took to my essay to a typist before going for the first paper so that the essay would have been typed by the time I was done with the paper and I could confidently walk into the interview room with my essay. I could barely think about another thing during my paper. I just wanted the examiners to come for their script as soon as possible. I probably was the happiest student when they eventually started collecting the papers. I dashed off to the typist’s office for my essay but I got ear-itching news rather than my essay. The typist had not typed my essay when it was already a few minutes past 12noon. I could take consolation in the fact that they were fast at typing so they started looking for the essay and then there was another news. The typist couldn’t find my essay. I could have raged and just go back to the main campus for my second paper. If I had done that I probably would not have been able to concentrate on that paper but I decided to try the interview without my essay.

Amazingly I was allowed to do the interview without my essay and the panelists never asked for it. That was how I was selected to represent the university but I would have narrowly missed that opportunity. Today as I write I have had the opportunity to represent the university three times and the last time I did I was the secretary General of the Nigeria International Model United Nations’ Conference.

I went to a friend’s place with a plan in mind but Mr. Rude Opportunity was waiting to interrupt my plan. If I had not allowed him to interrupt my plan I would still be struggling with some of my personal projects right now. The last time I spoke at the Model United Nations’ Conference I shared the platform with the Japanese and Botswanian ambassadors to Nigeria. There are other leverages I have enjoyed that I will not talk about because the message is not supposed to focus on me. I only want to draw lessons from telling you personal stories.

Another person in my shoes who, by divine orchestration, needs the same leverages that these conferences have provided would have chosen just the examination and the person would have been right going by logical reasoning to do that. The most important lesson here is that opportunities force you to go beyond logical reasoning and if you choose to stay within the confines of logical reasoning you will never get what Mr. Rude Opportunity has to offer you.

December 2008 was another time when I was visited by Mr. Rude Opportunity. He came to my house without an appointment and entered my living room without knocking. He was right there beside me in front of the 21 inch size television as I pressed the power button. For the first few minutes I didn’t know I was watching a programme that would eventually change my life but I was able to switch because I recognized the whispers of Mr. Rude Opportunity. I heard him whispering into my ears, ‘go and talk to that lady about your book and I followed all the instructions. Again I would say let’s leave the details for my biography but as the time I decided to write this for you I had done 50 presentations on television week after week without paying a dime. There were times when I had a presentation in a week and there were times when I had two or three presentations in a week. If I did not recognize the whispers of Mr. Rude Opportunity I would have been looking at how much it would cost to be on television for 50 presentations but he was there telling me but to do. When I started out with the presentations there were a few voices that spoke against what Mr. Rude Opportunity told me to do. There were times when I walked for two hours to the studio to make a ten minute presentation that Mr. Rude Opportunity told me to do. It didn’t sound reasonable but I learnt my lessons.

Lessons from leveraging opportunities

1.) Opportunities show up in the least circumstances and are only visible to those who do not just “look” but make deliberate efforts to “see.”

2.) Opportunities will stand outside the spheres of your logical reasoning and will beckon you to step out but will leave you to relish your mediocrity if you are not willing to.

3.) Opportunities whisper so that only those who have trained their ears can hear what Opportunities have to say.

4.) If you always want to verify what Opportunities tell you with people you may never follow what opportunities say because in the world of opportunities logical things are presented in illogical manners. There are certain things Mr. Rude Opportunity will tell you that must not be shared with anyone.

5.) Mr. Rude Opportunity will guarantee a safe trip but will not guarantee a smooth trip so you must be preparing for a serious business and not a roller coaster ride.