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Food for Living: Striving for the Success You Desire
By Henry Ukazu
Dear Destiny Friends,
Nothing that brings joy to the heart more than success. Success is an enabler, a tranquilizer, an encourager, and comes in various forms vis a vis academic, business, family, spiritual, personal, and professional. One thing however, is certain, and that is in all these, one must work it out because none given on the platter of gold. Even if you accidentally stumble unto to success, you must manage or develop it, otherwise, it will easily slip off your fingers.
According to a accomplished researcher and administrator, Abdulakeem Sodeeq Sulyman, “You need to be deliberate with your life. Create time for yourself to grow towards the person of your dreams because nobody would do that for you”. In the journey of life, there’s no free lunch anywhere, you must work for your success. My late dad, Chief Anthony Lazarus Ukazu, once told me that “any name you want to bear, you must work for it”.
What most people don’t know is that success starts from little beginnings in the same way little drops of water make an ocean. Success is not accidental, it’s an intentional and strategic step that involves smart and hard work. In every sphere of life, one must understand what is needed to succeed whether they are working in the entertainment, academic or even political environment. To work for your success, you must have a positive attitude, a good personal relationship, ability to work with people, and must be willing to go the extra mile.
In striving for your success, one must make their own career choice. It’s your life and nobody will live it for you. Your friends, parents, family, and the world’s expectations are all opinions. You know yourself and know what makes you happy. In doing this, one must identify his strength and weaknesses. He must focus on his strength and work on his weakness. Your ability to know your strength will give you an edge on where you should focus on.
When you take the initiative of putting yourself out there, it will be easier for people to support you. Imagine if your car breaks down along the road, and you are waving at people to assist you in fixing it, few people are likely to support you, but if you start pushing the car, people are likely to stop to assist you. That tells you one thing, people are always willing to help those, whose efforts are visible.
Nobody ever achieved success with a smiling face. There’s always a story behind every success. In your search for success, there are bumps along the way. There are red, yellow, and green lights, all giving signals on the vicissitudes of life. Again, according to Abduulakeem Sodeeq Sulymna, “Even if things are not going as planned, as long as you are on the right side of the fight, be courageous to keep fighting”. The question now becomes, how will you know you are on the right side of life? You will know you are on the right side when you have peace of mind.
To work for the success you desire, you must first make a mental preparation by imagining it, and what it entails. The more you prepare for it, the harder you practice, and the more your practice, the luckier you get, and invariably the more successful you become. In a nutshell, you must plan, prepare, and practice.
Three essential keys progressive minds need to work out their success are communication, confidence and character. Among these three, the most important is character. Even if you have confidence and can communicate well, people will still find it difficult to do business with you if you don’t lack character. Contrast it to when you have a good character but lack confidence and communication skills, your goodwill is likely going to attract the necessary opportunity you need.
To work for your success, you must take the initiative to be your own cheer leader, and self evaluator. At periodic intervals, you need to assess your performance by your own standards as opposed to other people’s opinion and rubric. You know yourself more than other people do.
In conclusion, one must make an intentional effort to overcome any challenge preventing them from achieving their set goals, dreams and vision, which will ultimately give them fulfillment in life.
Henry Ukazu writes from New York. He’s a Human Capacity & mindset coach. He’s also a public speaker, youth advocate and creative writer. 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 and President of gloemi.com. He can be reached via info@gloemi.com
Rivers State Governor, Sir Siminialayi Fubara has extended an olive branch to lawmakers loyal to his rival, Nyesome Wike.
The governor invited the Amaewhule-led House of Assembly members to a peace meeting, following the Supreme Court’s judgement on the state’s political unrest.
The invitation was made through a letter from Dr. Tammy Danagogo, Secretary to the State Government, to Speaker Martins Amaewhule.
The meeting is scheduled for Monday at 10 am at the Government House in Port Harcourt.
The agenda includes addressing lingering issues, presenting the 2025 state budget, and discussing payment of lawmakers’ allowances.
The letter read: “I hereby write in furtherance of His Excellency’s promise stated in my letter dated 5th March 2025 to notify you that His Excellency has received the Supreme Court Judgment, and has therefore directed me to invite you and your colleagues -the Honourable members of Rivers State House of Assembly, to a meeting to discuss:-
“Provision of a befitting space for the Assembly’s sittings. Payment of all outstanding remuneration or allowances of the Honourable members. Presentation of Budget and sundry matters;
“Any other matter(s), as may be necessary, to chart the way forward in the best interest of the State. Sequel to the above, I hereby humbly invite the Rt. Hon. Speaker, and all the Rivers State House of Assembly members to a meeting with the Governor as follows.”
The Federal Civil Service Commission (FCSC) has extended the closing date for receiving applications for various vacancies in the Federal Civil Service to Monday, March 17 2025, to allow more eligible candidates to participate in the exercise.
The announcement, according to a statement by the Head, Press and Public Relations, Mr. Taiwon Hassan, supersedes the previous announcements in various national media on Monday, January 27, 2025 including FCSC website: www.fedcivilservice.gov.ng, where the deadline was pegged at Monday, March 10, 2025.
Qualified Nigerians are urged to avail themselves of the extension opportunity and apply for the vacancies of their choice.
The Commission assures applicants of merit-driven and transparent recruitment.
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
