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Food for Living: Success and the Wilderness Experience
Greetings Destiny Friends,
The journey of life is such an arduous and challenging path. It’s filled with roses and torns. If truth be told, nothing good comes easy, because the price of success comes with pains, and among which is what I will call the wilderness of success. This is because sometimes you will be forced to remain alone in the ‘desert’ in search of understanding and direction.
Everyone of us has been in this kind of wilderness on several occasions. This wilderness is experienced in relationships/marriage, academic pursuit, spiritual evaluation, personal life and politics. The period of wilderness however, helps to prepare one for the task ahead.
To understand how the wilderness of success works, consider that before a gold is processed, it must pass through the furnace. The same applies to any genuine success. Let’s take the case of marriage for instance, most couples who celebrate a successful marriage must have worked on their marriage for many years. During the process, both parties might have hurt each other, understood each other, and tolerated each other in order to understand each other, especially how their temperament and personality work.
This principle is also applicable to every business or organization. Most big companies the world celebrate today were at one time in the wilderness, working on their businesses. Even students have stayed up late at night and early mornings to read. Most anointed men of God are not left alone in the search for blessings of God. Some of them have sacrificed their body and lifestyle through fasting to receive special anointing and grace from God.
So, if you want to succeed in life, you must develop your capacity and stamina to withstand the stress, challenges and vicissitudes that comes with success. You must be willing to come early to the party which can be any social-networking event to enable you network with the right people.
Let’s take a case study of a student in a school. Do you know that most of the people who sit in the front rows in any event or classroom, always come with great expectations? Yes, most times, they are very intentional and strategic because they want to be visible. These set of progressive individuals usually come prepared to learn, and they take good notes and listen with rapt attention. In reality, these are the real winners of life because they not only come to win, but they are also prepared to win and expect to win.
There are many lessons one will learn while in the wilderness. On a personal note, during my formative years in New York, I worked as a security officer for a substantial number of years even as a graduate of New York Law School. Life was truly challenging for me. I was inspired to write a book while working as a security officer. It wasn’t an easy process because I can remember when my security license got expired and my late mother was wondering how we’ll survive, I remember telling her this book will fly.
Why am I sharing this? I was in my wilderness trying to discover my path, and still discovering my path which eventually aligned because same book got me first international television appearance, which opened numerous television appearances, and took me to New York Times, United Nations and opened doors to many corporate organizations, Captains of industries and numerous opportunities and exposures just to mention a few.
I have always shared some of my top secrets to some of my close friends. One of the best things that has happened to me was working as a security officer because it enabled me to network with the high and mighty. Assuming I had a corporate job like I have now, I doubt if I would have been able to publish this book in addition to meeting the people I have met so far in my life.
Moral: Appreciate your wilderness experience because it will enable you to have a story. Remember, there’s always pain before gain.
I don’t know your storyline, but I’m here to encourage you to stay strong because this too shall pass. Just be strong and continue to build your craft.
There are stories of great people who have gone through similar process. A case of interest is Steve Harvey, who slept in his car for three years before fame and stardom located him readily comes to mind.
In conclusion, there will always be a wilderness before success is celebrated. So, continue to work hard in silence, and allow your success to not only announce you, but also make the noise. By the time you come out of the wilderness and narrate your story, it’ll resonate with people because people love inspiring stories that are relatable.
Henry Ukazu writes from New York. He works with the New York City Department of Correction as the Legal Coordinator. He’s a Transformative Human Capacity and Mindset coach. He is also a public speaker, youth advocate and creative writer 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.
