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Food for Living: Giving Up is Not an Option
By Henry Ukazu
Dear Destiny Friends,
Life’s trials will test you, and shape you, but don’t let them change who you are” – Aaron Lauritsen
There’s no doubt life can be extremely challenging, and these challenges can come in form of financial instability, desire for a child, unemployment, accommodation, health, and even personal and professional issues. All these are capable of making one give up as it’s not easy to push through when life pushes one around.
It is a known fact that everyone experiences one form of secret frustration or another; the differentiating factor is how each manages his own. How we manage these challenges speak a lot about our maturity, understanding, and attitude to life. While some people vent it out, others smile through it knowing fully well they can’t change the situation.
It is worthy of note that everyone needs inspiration to forge ahead. It can be internal or external inspiration; when the inspiration is external, it can limit our impacts because we are depending on external force to forge ahead, but when it is internal, the force is unlimited because one don’t literally need other people to forge ahead. Don’t get me wrong, external inspiration is great, but what happens if the external inspiration is no longer available? That’s why the best form of inspiration we need is internal and personal inspiration.
When you have internal inspiration, giving up in life is not an option no matter the challenge encountered along the way.
It’s generally easy for one to give up when life is not adding up. Imagine having a passion without corresponding support; imagine business without patronage; imagine having a vision without support to actualize it. It can be traumatizing.
However, I have good news for you; giving up is not an option, no matter how nasty and distasteful things might appear. When you are passionate about a cause, or have a vision about something, your patience will be tested. It’s your persistence to preserve that will determine how passionate you are about the cause.
Most great people who invented great products didn’t have fun doing it. They had their own challenges and experience, so why do you think life will be relatively easy for you?
It’s instructive to note that nothing comes easy. One will have to continually explore options to make one’s idea come to fruition. These ideas can be learning from resourceful people, paying to learn a trade, exploring mentors both online and in -person, using social media to network strategically, producing contents either with video or writings to showcase to the world what you do and where you need assistance. You might occasionally get direct and constructive criticisms, don’t take it personally, just learn from it.
According to Uche Okorie, a maritime lawyer, “When you are criticized objectively, examine it. If it is untrue, ignore it. If it is unfair, resist the temptation to be irritated. If it is ignorant, just smile. If it is justified, then it is NOT criticism, LEARN FROM IT!”
One may be experiencing pain which can vary from different factors, but if you believe in yourself, believe in your product, believe in your passion and vision, it will add up. One day, the right person(s) will locate you or somebody might even recommend you. Nobody literally had it easy. According to Roy T. Bennett, “If you don’t give up on something you truly believe in, you will find a way.”
The fact that you may have failed in your education, business, marriage, career, etc., is not enough reason to give up. As you walk through the journey of life, never give in to failure, until you have made your last attempt and never make your last attempt until you succeed. You just need to see life from the bright side and see the negative part as experience.
According to Roy Bennett, “It doesn’t matter how many times you get knocked down. All that matters is you get up one more time than you were knocked down.” It’s the time you get up that counts for your determination.
Furthermore, Andy Warhol stated “It does not matter how slowly you go so long as you do not stop.” So, you are encouraged to push through your mistakes.
It’s just like an accomplished public speaker. Before you can connect with people, you must have stories and experiences which your audience can relate to. Imagine speaking without any personal or practical information, it will be hard for your audience to connect. Do you see why challenges and experiences help people to attract value? In most cases, it’s the experience people pay for when they engage you. Aaron Lauritsen informed that “without struggle, success has no value”. So, it’s your pains, setbacks, mistakes, and trials that give you value which makes you relevant and valuable.
On a personal note, I have failed more than I have succeeded. I have lost count of my mistakes and numerous opportunities I missed due to not knowing better. I have been mocked and insulted numerous times for being a horrible writer, I have been jobless, I have had accommodation problem, I have had marital challenges, I have experienced financial instability, l have felt like giving up, the list is literally endless, but giving up was never an option for me because my inspiration is internal.
Just to encourage you; your desire for success should always outweigh your fear of failure. No matter what you may have experienced or is experiencing, please use this writer as your case study never to give up. Just imagine graduating from New York Law School and working as a security officer with your colleagues seeing you. Imagine being mocked by fellow security officers who barely had a high school diploma saying, how come you went to Law school and still work as a security officer?
Now imagine the fellow who was mocked for being a horrible writer now the author of two trailblazer books; imagine the security officer being interviewed by New York Times and profiled by News12 several times on topical issues; imagine the security guard being recognized by United Nations Development Programme as a partner for Youths Development. The list can go on and on. If I was told I will get this far, I may not have believed it, but one thing is certain, I always have a feeling, I will make it big, but I don’t know how it will happen, neither did I know when, where and how it will happen.
So, this is me telling you, your test will lead to your testimony, your pain will lead to your pleasure and your disappointment will lead to your appointment if you don’t give up. Note, I’m not where I want to be yet, I’m still pushing despite challenges.
I can go on and on, but I’m just sharing this piece to let you know nobody had it easy. What made it easy for me was the influence of mentors and a strong support system, but more importantly, I believe in myself, and I know this too shall pass. I believed in the words of Aaron Lauristsen, which states “There is a strange comfort in knowing that no matter what happens today, the Sun will rise again tomorrow.” I don’t know what your storyline will be, I’m just here to encourage you to stay strong.
In conclusion, I will like to leave you with the words of Roy Bennett ‘Your hardest times often lead to the greatest moments of your life. Keep going. Tough situations build strong people in the end.”
Remember, tough times never last, but tough people do. If you keep hope alive, I see you celebrating in the nearest future.
Henry Ukazu writes from New York. He works with the New York City Department of Correction as the Legal Coordinator. He’s the founder of Gloemi. He’s a Transformative Human Capacity and Mindset coach. He is also a public speaker, youth advocate, creative writer and author of Design Your Destiny and Unleash Your Destiny. He can be reached via info@gloemi.com
By Henry Ukazu
Dear Destiny Friends,
The importance of timing cannot be overemphasized. Timing is everything in life. It is critical to one’s success. You can lose your money and get it back in many folds. You can even lose your health and get it back all things being equal, but when you lose time, you can hardly get it back again.
The importance of timing can be seen in crops. Every crop has a season, a good farmer won’t plant maize when it’s time for oranges, nor will he plant pears when it’s the season for mangoes.
Time is very instrumental to the success and failure of anyone. Imagine having a meeting or interview at 9:00am and you arrive at 10:10am, it will take the grace of God to be interviewed. As an employee, apart from one not being able to diligently do his job, one of the fastest ways for an employee to lose his job is by being late to work.
When I was in New York Law School studying Taxation law, I did a course titled, the Problem of Timing. During the semester, I learnt about cash and accrued income. Let me do some academic exercise here. In cash income, just like the name entails, one is paid in cash as soon as the work is completed. It’s just like going to the market to make a purchase. One can either pay directly with cash or with debit or credit card. But Accrued income refers to revenue a company has earned by providing goods or services, but for which payment has not yet been received, one will have to do the work first before getting paid. This is applicable when one works in either a public or private organization where one is paid either weekly, bi-weekly or at the end of the month depending on the stipulated mode of payment.
It’s important to note that before the money is paid either in cash or accrued, one would have earned it. It’s just like one learning g before earning, and one will have to update to upgrade. These are just the practical principles that will work with life.
In the same way, in life there’s a seed time and harvest time. It’s a universal principle of life. Whether as a parent, entrepreneur, student or employee. As a parent, if you don’t train your kids very well, they will grow up to reflect the opposite of what you desire. As an entrepreneur when you invest in your business, you will get the reward in due time. As a student, if you take your studies seriously, your grades will improve, and as an employee, you stand to get promotions and opportunities when you add value to your work. In summary, one will have to put in the work before recognition comes on.
To understand how seedtime and harvest work, imagine where parents tend to like one child more than others just because they see potential in him, or he’s smart, hardworking or even creative. They fail to understand that every child is different and as such their timing can be different. Some kinds take time to develop.
I personally believe there’s something so unique about each individual which God has deposited in everyone of us. It’s just a matter of time for it to manifest. Your timing of manifestation is different from your siblings and colleagues.
Personally, I didn’t mature fast with my contemporaries. Overtime, I have seen much improvement in my personal and professional life. Maybe because I have added value to my work with the assistance of mentors and good friends, or God had to humble my colleagues and mentors . Why do I say this? During my formative years, I had little or nothing to show for it. I was looking at my contemporaries as mentor and seeing my mentors as small gods whose feat is unattainable, but now, the reverse seems to be case as I have developed capacity some of my colleagues are yet to attain, while I have even surpassed the achievement of my some of my mentors in some quarters.
In all these, they are all surprised how it happened. Some are yet to comprehend or articulate the feat. It’s just like watching a film where everyone slept and woke up to see the game and tides have changed. The secret behind it is the seed time and harvest time. I was probably learning the trade while in the wilderness, and when the training season matured and ripe enough to be harvested, I became attractive to almost everyone who loved the seed I was producing.
There are litany of examples of people, who have been in the wilderness during the seed planting season. Let’s take a case study of Joseph in the Bible, his journey to stardom took a little twist. Despite the travails he experienced in the hands of his siblings who sold him, his experience while in the jail, and with Portiphar’s wife, who tried to seduce him; they were all set ups for success. The moral here is Joseph seed time and harvest time was quite different, it wasn’t a smooth journey. Ordinarily, one would have cursed his siblings or his friends who were with him in prison and forgot him after they were released. But at the end of time, everything worked out for his favor. Joseph’s seed days were his dark days while in the wilderness.
Another inspiring story of note was that of Pastor Ibukun Awosika, the former board Chairman of First Bank of Nigeria. She once shared a pathetic story during her formative years of being in business. According to her, she sojourned for about 15 years. She cried because lines were not adding up for her and she wouldn’t do what her contemporaries were doing to get opportunities. At a point in her business, it appeared like she was in a race of own life because everything seemed to be against her, but at the appropriate time, lines began to fall in place for her. Appointments, business opportunities, favours and goodwill began to fall in place for her. Again, she had a fair share of seed time.
An interesting question I would like to ask you is, what’s your seed time? Have you ever been in the wilderness when you appeared to be fixed? It’s unfortunate many people are not willing to pass through the storms or experience seeds and harvest time. Amidst all these, one must do some work before they get opportunities. However, before such opportunities will come up, one will have to plant the seed.
In conclusion, seed time and harvest time is critical in the journey of life. Take a seat and determine what seed you would like to sow and what you’ll like to harvest.
Henry Ukazu writes from New York. He works with the New York City Department of Correction as the Legal Coordinator. He’s the founder of Gloemi. He’s a Transformative Human Capacity and Mindset coach. He is also a public speaker, youth advocate, creative writer and author of Design Your Destiny Design Your and Unleash Your Destiny . He can be reached via info@gloemi.com
By Eric Elezuo
The Senate has suspended Senator Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghen for six months over her sexual harassment accusation and other disputes against the Senate President, Godswill Akpabio.
The Senate also withdrew her salaries for the period of the suspension, as well as her security details.
The chamber however, soft-pedaled on the salaries and allowances of her aides, who it was argued would not have any source of livelihood within the period.
Globacom is welcoming new customers on its network with the introduction of the e-SIM. The e-SIM activated in any Gloworld shop or Dealer outlet comes with an introductory free 5GB data when the customer buys a data plan of N1,500 or more.
Customers already on other networks can now join the Glo network with e-SIM as an additional SIM. Existing Glo customers can also enjoy this “SIM-less” freedom.
With the e-SIM, customers no longer have to worry about space for a physical SIM on their phones. The e-SIM is a software-based digital chip built directly into smartphones or wearable devices, thus eliminating the need for a physical SIM card for customers.
The use of e-SIM enables customers to have seamless switching between phone numbers without a physical SIM. It is ideal for upwardly mobile people who travel frequently. The e-SIM also guarantees security, as unlike physical SIM, it is harder to remove from devices. It is also eco-friendly and reduces plastic waste.
Globacom’s launch of the e-SIM enables enables it to cater to high-net-worth individuals and enterprise customers, and it also reinforces the company’s commitment to providing seamless and future-ready services to its customers.
A customer seeking to activate the Glo e-SIM needs to check the compatibility of the mobile handset by dialling *#06# on his or her phone. If an EID number reflects on the mobile screen, the device is e-SIM compatible.
“The customer can then proceed to the nearest Gloworld shop or Glo Dealer outlet to migrate to e-SIM. The process takes only a few minutes and the customer can thereafter begin to enjoy the use of an e-SIM”, the Marketing Department disclosed.
