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Food for Living: Build Your Success
By Henry Ukazu
Greetings Friends,
You may have heard of the word “overnight success”. If I may ask, is there here anything like overnight success? Does it really exist? In reality, there’s nothing like an overnight success. Genuine success takes time. Real success can be likened to being organic. It has to take time and lots of strategies and mistakes. The question we need to ask is, how do we build true success? It should be noted that nothing is achieved without taking action, consistently and frequently. Achieving goals requires a fervent focus on taking action, regardless of the barriers or obstacles that present themselves.
Success means a lot of things to different people depending on what you define and see success to be. In one of my articles which I published a couple of years ago titled: The Relativity of Success, I stated that success means different things to different people. This is because, according to some people, if they attain a particular academic qualification, have a particular amount of money in their account, attain a particular level or even reach the peak in their professional career, or even get married and being able to train their kids, they are successful. In all these instances, they are right, but one thing is certain, they all built their success to make it what it is.
Each and every one of us wants to be successful, but are we doing the needful? Most times, we wait for other people or organizations to support us forgetting that we have to do our part first. Take, for instance, you want to gain a better shape, lose weight, gain muscle, but you go to a gyms instructor to train you, but you don’t spend time to take care for of you eat of even exercise on a daily basis. Most people fail to hit their fitness goals simply because it becomes too difficult to get to a gym. You can literally get into shape without an instructor because they are merely facilitators.
In order to attain true success, the question now becomes how do you build your success? Building success entails creating time for what you truly value and believe in. It can be your business, academics, organization, association or even yourself. However, the best way to build your success is by investing your time and resources into it. During the course of this article, we shall be discussing various ways we can build success.
Lets’ explore avenues we can build our success
1. Define your success
If you don’t define it, you will keep yourself subjected to confusion about your success and your failures. Find out what’s important for you in your personal life, career, and health and then focus your energy on it. Remember, you’ll only be excellent and extraordinarily on what you are naturally good at.
2. Invest Time:
Do you truly and really want to build your business? If yes, you must invest time in your business. You must spend precious time for whatever you need in life. If you want to learn a new language, a new trade, learn how to speak in public, communicate, or even lead, you must invest t your time in learning the secrets. Desire is not enough to acquire the skill and knowledge, you must dedicate your time to the task.
Time is the most important converter of time to whatever you desire to acquire. This is because everything you get will come back to you if you give your time to it. For example, if you invest your time in a family; relationship; or even school, you will get the commensurate result. It should be noted that you can spend money on anything you like, but you’ll only spend time on anything you love. Time is the most valuable asset we have in our passion. No success has ever be recorded in life without the application of time. Your ability to make use of your time is very critical and to your success. Time is life and life is time. This is because when you waste time, you commit suicide, but when you waste your time you commit murder. Nor matter how intelligent, skillful, and talented, you are, if you don’t use your time wisely to build/invest in your business or study well, nobody is going to pay you. Time also involves learning, networking, reading, researching and adding value to the work you do.
3. Set goals
Based on the three basics of life: work, relationships, and health. Maintaining a steady balance on these three areas will ensure that you minimize the pressure and that comes with working hard.
4. Find Inspiration and Motivation
Take your time to find strength and passion on what motivates and inspires you, it can be good friends, music, books, mentors, etc. As human beings, we are wired and composed of different genes and as such, we need the right energy to focus on the needful.
5. Create habits surrounding your goal
If you’re not habitual about doing things that are needed for achieving your goals, your motivation levels will deplete more quickly. You must be intentional about your purpose. Habits are what we do on a daily/continual basis in order to maintain consistency. Create a routine around your habits. Successful people have one noticeable thing in their lives: they live their success, whether anyone notices them or not. Make it a routine to commit yourself to that habitual activity, and demand exceptional performance from yourself.
6. Stop Procrastination
Stop looking at success as a distant. Procrastination is the killer of success. You cannot succeed in life when procrastination is your middle name. In this era of social media, a second post can be the turning point in your career or business. As a rule of thumb, never leave for tomorrow what you can do today.
In summary, build your success because, at the end of the day, no one is going to build it for you. You are the architect of your life and the best version of your business.
Henry Ukazu writes from New York. He works with the New York City Department of Correction as the Legal Coordinator. He’s the author of the acclaimed book Design Your Destiny – Actualizing Your Birthright To Success. He can be reached via henrous@gmail.com
Nigeria’s former Minister of Petroleum Resources, Mrs. Diezani Alison-Madueke, has reacted to her acquittal by a London court after bribery charges brought against her were dismissed.
The Southwark Crown Court in London, United Kingdom, on Wednesday acquitted the former minister of all charges, including five counts of accepting bribes and one count of conspiracy to commit bribery.
Reacting to the judgment, Alison-Madueke expressed relief and said she and her family had endured years of emotional distress over the case.
Speaking to News Central, she said she has remained in the United Kingdom since the legal proceedings began 11 years ago.
She said: “I’m just thankful to God, it’s been arduous, almost 11 years. It’s been traumatic not just for me but for my family, friends, my 93-year-old mother in Port Harcourt and for my son.
“It has been a hard journey, but I tell you this, God will always do as He will. God will be God and God is not a man that He should lie; when He promises you something, He will see it through.
“For almost 11 years I have been here. I did my job to the best of my ability.”
The lawmaker representing the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), at the Senate, Ireti Kingibe, says she did not see any report that led to the suspension of Kogi Central Senator, Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan.
Kingibe made this disclosure on Wednesday when she featured in an interview on Arise Television’s ‘Prime Time’.
She said she was at a retreat with Edo North Senator, Adams Oshiomhole, when she heard about the report.
“I never saw the report that led to Natasha’s suspension. I was at a retreat. I had earlier stated that I was there with three or four other senators who are members of the committee.
“We attended the Committee on Petitions and Public Complaints, signed the attendance register, and I later left for the tax reform retreat, which I considered more important at the time.
“It affects my constituents much more than disciplining a senator, and I figured that the other people who were not part of that committee would take care of it.
“I even complained to other Senators, specifically to Senator Enyinnaya Abaribe. I complained to him very bitterly that I had not seen that report. I didn’t see it then. I have not seen it till now,” she said.
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has asked the Court of Appeal in Abuja to stay the execution of the judgment that ordered the deregistration of the African Democratic Congress (ADC) and four other political parties.
The Commission also threw its weight behind a notice of appeal lodged by the political parties.
Addressing a three-member panel of the appellate court on Tuesday, the electoral body said it was shocked by the decision of Justice Peter Lifu of the Federal High Court in Abuja to deliver the judgment despite an order that stopped him from doing so.
INEC, through its team of lawyers led by Mr. Haliru Mohammed, decried that it was not notified that the judgment would be delivered, saying it only heard about the court’s decision through media reports.
“My Lords, we are aware of an order that this court made on May 22, which stopped the delivery of the judgment of the lower court, which was initially reserved for delivery on June 5.
“We were not aware of any notice from the court regarding the delivery of the judgment. We only saw it as breaking news in the media.
“We therefore do not oppose the application of the appellant to stay the execution of the judgment.”
Likewise, counsel to the ADC, Mr. Shuaibu Aruwa, SAN, told the appellate court that Justice Lifu notified the party of the delivery of the judgment via WhatsApp.
Insisting that the decision of the high court was an invitation to anarchy, counsel to the ADC urged the appellate court to invoke its powers and sanction Justice Lifu for disrespecting the judicial hierarchy.
“Sincerely, my Lords, a lot has happened to the judiciary and this profession. What the trial judge did was dare this Court of Appeal by insisting that no one could arrest his judgment, even after his attention was drawn to the stay order from this court.
“The action of the trial judge calls for swift and extraordinary measures from this court. We have come to the stage where this court should press the reset button.
“We are calling on this court to exercise disciplinary jurisdiction under Section 6 of the 1999 Constitution, as amended.
“We urge this court to take disciplinary steps by immediately suspending that judgment. This court has the power to protect its own integrity. We pray this court suspends the judgment immediately without further delay,” ADC’s lawyer submitted.
The other parties also drew the attention of the appellate court panel to the fact that on June 20, INEC would conduct by-elections across six states of the federation.
They contended that if the judgment were not stayed, it would create problems across the country, maintaining that the Court of Appeal has inherent powers to act in a supervisory capacity and not allow its orders to be disregarded by lower courts.
The appellate court is still hearing submissions from the other parties in the matter.
It will be recalled that aside from the ADC, the other parties the high court directed INEC to deregister are the Action Peoples Party (APP), Action Alliance (AA), Accord Party (AP), and Zenith Labour Party (ZLP).
According to the court, the five political parties failed to meet the constitutional requirements to warrant their continued existence and participation in future elections.
It barred INEC from further according recognition to the parties, accepting nominations of candidates from the affected parties, or giving effect to their activities for the purpose of participating in the 2027 general elections.
Moreover, Justice Lifu ordered the defendants to stop parading themselves as registered political parties in the country.
He held that there was merit in a suit filed against them by the National Forum of Former Legislators (NFFL).
The group, in the suit marked FHC/ABJ/CS/2637/2026, prayed the court to determine whether INEC has a constitutional obligation to remove political parties that fail to meet the electoral performance thresholds set out in Section 225A of the 1999 Constitution (as amended), as reinforced by the Electoral Act 2022 and INEC’s regulations.
It was the position of the plaintiff that the five political parties listed as defendants had persistently failed to meet the constitutional benchmarks required to retain their registration.
The former legislators stressed that the requirements include winning at least 25 per cent of votes in a state during a presidential election or securing at least one elective seat at the national, state, or local government level.
They told the court that the ADC and the four other parties performed poorly in both the 2023 general elections and by-elections conducted by INEC, thereby failing to win seats across key tiers of government.
