HOW TO BECOME SO GREAT BEFORE AGE 40

HOW

Greatness is the dream of almost every living being, but one of the reasons while majority of humans and especially Africans seems far away from achieving greatness is simply because of lack of information and knowledge on how to achieve it.

The age 18 to 40 is known as the youthful age, it is the age gap that signifies strength, vigor, work etc. the rate of success of man is determined by how he spends his youthful days. Most of our fathers that lived and ended up with nothing to show for their hard work was not because of the government of their country, neither was it because their parents couldn’t nor refused to train them in school, but because of how they made use of their youthful days. Your success is not in the hand of your parents, neither is it in the hand of your country, nor in the hand of your tradition, or corrupt politicians in your country nor religion nor university degree nor height, nor race, nor background, nor continent, nor your inability for you to get funds for that great business idea but its dependent on how you make use of your youthful days. Age 40 is a very significant age in life, if at age 40 you are still poor then you need to do some rethinking.

A wise man ascribed the youth to a wolf that hunts for its prey during the day and devours them at night. But its unfortunate that the youths especially Africa youths have resulted to spending their youthful days in partying, drinking, smoking, fornicating, gallivanting, stealing, and wishing rather than working. It does not matter whether you are 38 or 39 which means that you just have 1 to 2 years before you reach 40, all that matters is your willingness to apply all these teachings to your life.

There is a young man in America that I love and admire so much in the area of greatness and his name is Mark Zukerberg. He is the founder of facebook which is the world’s fastest growing social networking site at the moment. One of the reasons that made me fall in love with him is because of his willingness, zeal and confidence to life. A young man who could quit school for what he has passion for and believed in is worthy to earn my love and respect. He didn’t quit school because of his inadequacy to pay his fees neither was it because of the downgrading state of America education system but because he wanted to be great and he went after it not by wishing but by sacrifice.

I want to give you a little list of ways that greatness does not come through.

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GREATNESS DOES NOT COME BY WISHING

Wishing for greatness is wishing for nothing. A wise man said “if wishes were horses beggars will ride”. Having a wish list is like having a death list. Wishing is for lazy men not for would be great men. In the system of greatness wishes is not a core course and it is not even an elective. It is a throw away course. A lot of youths have wished for greatness even on their death bed until they eventually gave up the ghost. I have never wished for greatness, I have only envisioned greatness.

The fastest way to die poor is to wish so much until you are left with nothing else to wish for.

GREATNESS DOES NOT COME BY DREAMING

Dreaming is good, but it is better to be dreaming and be working something out. Those who dream while sitting down always end up poor. I have heard some youths say that Joseph was a dreamer in the Bible and dreaming took him to the palace. Wow that’s good but Joseph was dreaming and working. Because the bible says that when Joseph saw the other two prison with muddy appearance, he went asked them the reason for their muddiness and also ASKED them about their dreams. And another thing was that Joseph gift or expertise was in interpreting dreams. What’s yours? Stop dreaming when you don’t interpret dreams. Only do those things that you can do. How can you be dreaming when you are good in music? Sing don’t dream.

GREATNESS DOES NOT COME BY CRYING

Your tears can only attract your mother who has a sympathetic heart or some one who love you.

Greatness does not come to you because you can cry. Have you not heard of the saying that the world is not fair? The world has never been fair to anyone. Don’t envy those born with silver spoons; it’s just that their parents or grand parents who made the wealth found a way to make the world fair to them. If your tears cannot draw rain then it can’t make you great.

In fact, greatness is not meant for babies but for adults. So if you are fond of crying whenever you think about your life and where you should have been by now then you are not a candidate for greatness. Children cry for food while adults cook their food. A lot of youths especially the females think that greatness will be attracted to them only when they cry, but the secret is that nature wants to see you cry. And that’s the truth.

GREATNESS DOES NOT COME BY MURMURING AND CRITICISING

It’s so unfortunate that Africa has so many youths with great future that have relegated themselves to murmuring and criticism. I always get some funny look from friends whenever I tell them that I don’t care about the government. I have found out that those who claim to love their country and people by murmuring, protesting and criticizing actions of their government don’t actually love them. If they do, how come they end up traveling abroad for greener pastures thereby leaving those they claim to love behind? While those of us who they think don’t love our country ends up in Africa thinking of how we can improve the lives of our people and developing our country.

 I have thought of almost everything, but what I have never thought about is traveling out of the country just to earn a living. You can’t be great when all you do is criticize and rubbish those who are or are trying to be great.

Everybody can be great but not everybody will be great. It’s all about a will. I have seen and heard a lot of people who prefer to be poor, while some prefer to be in the middle class, while some just want to have a company with a nice office, a beautiful wife and some numbers of children and to them that’s greatness. The question that I want to ask you, are you willing to be GREAT? Just like the university system here in Nigeria, you must be a candidate before you are qualified for greatness.

QUALIFICATIONS FOR GREATNESS

Everyone wants to become great but only very few are qualified for greatness:

1. YOU MUST HAVE GENUINE LOVE FOR YOURSELF, FAMILY, YOUR COUNTRY,

    YOUR CONTINENT AND THE WORLD

2. YOU MUST BE HUNGRY FOR SUCCESS

3. YOU MUST HAVE GOOD ATTITUDES TOWARDS PEOPLE.

4. YOU MUST BE TEACHABLE

5. YOU MUST BE HUNGRY FOR KNOWLEDGE

6. BE READY TO SACRIFICE A LOT FOR THOSE YOU LOVE ETC.

Love is the number one qualification for greatness, since greatness deals with people which are quite different from success which deals with a particular task. It is foolishness to hate those that can make you a billionaire. If your reason for wanting to be great is so that you can take care of yourself and you alone then you have not met the requirement

The height of your greatness is determined by the level of your hunger for greatness. If you are not hungry for greatness you will end up vomiting. Your attitude towards life is what will determine you altitude in life.

Greatness is not meant for those who are not ready to learn. A man who has stopped learning will start dying. Don’t be too big to learn or you will be too big for greatness. Learn from anybody or anything, you never can tell which learning you will need to apply when the time comes. I always tell people that even the poorest man on earth can teach you. He might not be able to tell you the 7 secrets to success but he will be able to tell you the 7 things to do in order not to be poor like him.

Knowledge is what will give you an edge over others. The more you know, the more you are known. It is a pity that most youths in Africa can spend up to 10hours reading books in order to pass their exams and earn a good degree just to start looking for jobs after graduation. And can hardly buy a book on success that will motivate and teach them the principles to life success.

  I can remember growing up as a teenager, I use to laugh when I hear people especially those that have authored books say things like “ readers are leaders” I thought they were just saying it so that people will buy their books. But as I began to grow and my hunger for success began to grow, I discovered that I couldn’t do without information and that these information’s only come from

books on success. That doesn’t mean that you can’t get informed from reading textbooks provided

By universities or other tertiary institutions, but note this that Africa educational system has been programmed to give people the employee mentality. No wonder a friend of mine in Nigeria wrote a book titled “what my professor didn’t tell me”

       Sacrifice is compulsory for anyone that wants to be genuinely great. Haters look for business opportunities while lovers look for problems to solve. As an entrepreneur, you must be ready to sacrifice a lot like having to cut down the profit that you should have earned in or order for the poor among you to afford it.

HOW TO BECOME GREAT BEFORE AGE 40

Now lets talk business, we have talked a lot now lets outline 7 secrets of becoming great before the age 40.

1        CHANGE YOUR MENTALITY. Listen, the truth is you can’t be successful when you still carry a mentality of poverty and nothing works here in Africa. The reason while despite all the government efforts to industrialize Africa have seemed futile is simply because the Africa governments are busy teaching the youths various skills when their minds are no longer in Africa. You have to change your mentality about life entirely. Greatness is possible in Africa, and you have to carry an “I can” mentality.

2.          CATCH A VISION. Vision is the picture of the future to see if you will feature in the future. That’s the definition of vision by a great man I respect so much (Dr. David Oyedepo). Vision is what will keep you in focus; vision is the basis of life. Where there is no vision the people will surely perish. A leader without a vision is a directionless man. Vision is the eye of greatness, vision is that thing that you hope to accomplish, and it is what you live for and what you can die for. For instance, my vision is to see poverty and unemployment totally eliminated from Africa. That’s my vision, what’s yours? Vision is in various kinds which are: 1. vision for your life 2. vision for your business, or venture

3.      HAVE PEOPLED ORIENTED PLANS OR VENTURES. If your vision, projects or company is not rooted in love for people then you might only end up a little bit rich and not great. A lot of people think business is all about looking for an opportunity and exploring it. That’s the business for those who will end up limited or end up exploiting people just to be rich. But if you want to be great, then you need to stop looking for business opportunities and start looking for problems in your community, state, country, continent and the world in general to solve.

4.      GET KNOWLEDGE AND INFORMATION ABOUT YOUR VISION. You can’t excel in an industry that you don’t know. Do research on the industry that you have decided to venture into. As for me, I have decided to venture into the communication industry because I have caught a vision for my life which is motivational speaking, authoring and entrepreneurship. I have seen sleeping very late at night as a normal thing in my life because I have to do research, gather information for my books, prepare for speaking engagement etc. I am not saying that I have gathered a lot or known enough, NO, but what I am saying is that at least I have been able to create a hunger for knowledge.

4. MAKE YOUR VISION PLAIN.        A plain vision is an understandable vision. You must understand your vision in order for you to make people to understand it. You can have a great vision or idea but until you are able to make it plain to others then it will remain stagnant.

5.      GET A MENTOR. There is nothing new under the sun; you need a bigger eye that is someone that has been there before. Someone who had ventured or who has some unusual insight about what you are about to go into. Mentors are those who have seen the rough edge of the industry you are going into. You can have up to a thousand mentors all from different field. A man without a mentor is a man that will not be made a mentor. I have never seen a man succeed without a guide. If you want to succeed quicker then you need a mentor. Mentors are those you follow with all your heart, when they succeed more then you are happy, if they fall then you are crying.

When I heard that one of my mentor SAM ADEYEMI has bought a private jet I was so happy because I knew if he could do it then I can also do it.

6.      FORGET THE NOW PLEASURE. There are a lot of youths in Africa that have cut short their great destiny because of the pleasure of the now. What are you doing in the club when you should be planning for your great take off? Some will say I just want to go there and take some time out. Every where you go to take some time out automatically takes some time out of your life. Planning for the pursuit of my vision as a motivational speaker, I had to spend most of my time inside thinking in preparation for my great destiny. There were only three places where you could find me; School, Home and Church for spiritual preparation. I read the story of the founder of Microsoft (Bill Gate) how he was sitting in the basement of his father’s house and the mum started calling him when he didn’t respond, the mum went to the basement and saw him there. The mum asked what he was doing there then he replied her and said “I am thinking don’t you think?”

You can’t see a man that is preparing for greatness gallivanting around the community; from one party to another, from one friend’s place to another, from one boutique to another etc. for get them now when you are successful then they will come on their own accord without you pursuing them.

7.      TAKE RESPONSIBILITY. Taking responsibility is on of the signs in a man that will end up great. When I discovered about taking responsibility, I stopped blaming people for my failures rather I started blaming myself for everything. It is foolishness to still be living with your parents at age 30. Show me a 40years old man still living with his parents and I will show you a man that will end up a failure. When I took responsibility for my life, I stopped borrowing from people because I was so drunk with my vision that I knew I was too big to borrow. These are 3 ways to take responsibility for; 1. Take responsibility for your life 2. Take responsibility for your decisions 3. Take responsibility for your actions.

8.      BE KNOWN FOR INTEGRITY. Greatness that will last and be enjoyed is greatness rooted in integrity. It’s so shameful when Africa youths say things like there are no genuine riches anywhere. This is one of the reasons that a lot of youths have started indulging in crime because they have carried the mentality of no genuine success anywhere. The reason while some of our fathers despite their integrity records still died as paupers were because they stayed put to their integrity in their poor states. If they had changed their mentality and move a step forward, they would died so great.

9.      START SMALL. You are permitted to think big but start small. Even if you have $1m in your hands still start small. Don’t despise a small beginning. When you start small, you expose yourself to learning as you grow up. There is always something to start with, don’t say that you don’t have capital for that great idea of yours. The capital you need is right in your hand. I am privileged to be a co-founder of jobozone.com; a new social networking site with a unique approach. A company with a future of $640m in the next 4years. When we started, it all came like a great idea and we were so passionate about making a statement that anybody can make it in Africa. We started small and the rest is history.

10.  STEP OUT. You can’t succeed just sitting at home with their great vision of yours. There need to be a pursuit of the vision, stop looking at the business plan of yours every morning when you wake, business plans don’t work out themselves it needs you.

Almost everybody can think up an idea but not every one ends up pursuing it. The difference between a poor man and a rich man is pursuit. The hardest thing to do in order to succeed is to do. Go and do it.

HINDRANCES TO GREATNESS

1.                    MEDIOCRITY

2.                    MINDING CRITICS

3.                    PROCASTINATION

4.                    WAITING FOR PEOPLE BEFORE YOU START

5.                    OVER CARING ABOUT WHAT PEOPLE WILL THINK

6.                    PRIDE

7.                    UNFORGIVENESS

8.                    LAZINESS

9.                    UNDERESTIMATION OF ONE’S SELF

10.               SLEEP

11.               EXTRAVAGANCY

12.               TOO BIG TO ADVICE AND SEEK ADVICE

13.               DOING OTHER PEOPLE’S BUSINESS

14.               THINKING ABOUT THE PAST ETC

15.      NOT REVERENCING YOUR CREATOR AND THINGS ABOUT HIM.

PLEASE NOTE: that your age does not matter. It doesn’t matter whether you are 12, 17, 21 or 39. You can still be great if only you will abide with these few principles.

          

FOR MORE INFORMATION ABOUT MORE ENTREPRENEURIAL TEACHINGS OR TO INVITE THE AUTHOR FOR A FREE SPEAKING ENGAGEMENT IN YOUR CHURCH, SCHOOL, ASSOCIATION, GROUP ETC PLS CALL +2347088997427 OR EMAIL yioafrica1987@gmail.com.