By Henry Ukazu

Greetings Destiny Friends,

No doubt, we all have dreams and desires. Each one of us has a desire to be great, do something the world will remember, be successful and even reach the peak of our career. Nobody ever desire to be a mediocre.

As human beings, we love to be loved, admired, appreciated, approved and accepted for who we are and what we represent, in addition to being respected. These are the cravings of the human soul. Naturally, these feelings make us feel good. In this digital era, where social media has become the new kid on the block, everyone wants to be regarded as a celebrity with huge followers or influence. Some people don’t really care about the content of information they put out provided it attracts followers to them. A handful of creative minds, on the other hand, are not concerned about their followership base; their interest is how they can create content that will add value and impact humanity. This set of creative minds also want to be recognized as a man/woman of repute. To me, that’s the virtue and characteristic of a great mind.

Either way you look at it, everybody wants to be great. The question now becomes how do you become great? What kind of greatness are you aspiring to? It should be noted that greatness comes in different forms. A leader views greatness with one eye of the lens while a Priest/Bishop views greatness with the other lens of the eyes. In the same vein, the President of Country, Chief Executive Officer of any organization or even a General in an army views greatness in another form. The list is endless. What one party may consider great, may be considered trivial by another party. However, one fact is indisputable, when you accomplish a task which ordinarily has made a huge impact and difference in the lives of people, it will be fair to consider you as being great.

The path to greatness can be very rough and challenging. One will have to persevere, network, sacrifice, read, work hard, fail, experience disappointments amongst other factors. These are simply the paths to success. There’s no secret or defined road to succeed in life. One just has to do the needful at any point in life and hope for the best while preparing for the worst.

In order to appreciate this article, imagine you are driving a car; as a  driver you will experience traffic signs or occasional delay due to bad road or construction. You’ll also see green light which symbolizes moving forward, the amber light tells you to be cautious while the red light tells you to stop. All these road experiences and traffic points to one direction; there’s no perfect journey to greatness.

Just like success comes with its own challenges, greatness has also its challenges. As mentioned earlier, before you embark on this journey, you have to define yourself and what you really need with respect to how you can become great. It’s instructive to note that you can become great in simple ways without having millions or billions of dollars in your bank account. Let’s take a case study of someone who died for a worthy cause he/she believes in; or health care workers and first respondent workers who are daily risking their lives to save humanity during this Coronavirus pandemic. These are some of the examples of great people distinguishing themselves in simple ways. Irrespective of the kind of greatness one is aspiring to, however, there is the need to aim for the accolade that will outlive you.

According to Alexander Graham Bell, “before anything else, preparation is the key to success.”

The first step to being great is by being yourself and doing what you love. You can hardly distinguish yourself in your career if you don’t love what you’re doing. It should be noted that great people are people who do ordinary things in extraordinary ways. If you love what you are doing, the tendency of giving it your best is very high. You might even go over and beyond to add value to the work.

You may have heard of the term ‘run your race’. That’s very symbolic of greatness because if you don’t define yourself, people will define you. In the race of life, you must choose your own path, as opposed to the path other people may have chosen for you or may want you to follow.

In order for you to be great, you have no choice but to step out of your comfort zone. You have to set goals and stick to them. Besides, you have to strive to be better every day. Nobody will do this for you. According to Edmond Mbika, ‘Don’t be discouraged if the people around you don’t see what you see in your dream. Most great people were doubted in the beginning of their journey to greatness.” This is normal. Isn’t it true that the whole world sets apart for the man who knows where he/she is going?

If you have an idea or business plan you are either trying to conceive or pitch to a potential investor, it is very normal for you to get a lot of rejection in addition to failing. Whenever you feel this way, “hang in there because this too shall pass. Winston Church once said, ‘If you’re going through hell, keep going.” It is this sacrifice, perseverance and die-hard attitude that the world will reference when writing your history.

Becoming great does not entail running alone. Greatness comes with an attitude mindset. It’s instructive to know that you’ll get what you want faster when you help other people to achieve what they want. A popular saying among Americans goes thus “do what you have to do’. Society makes you feel you have to step on somebody toes, put people down or even betray someone to get a particular position. This set of myopic minds are merely concerned about themselves that they fail to think of other people. When we help people, we rise higher. Try looking for how to help people and see what will happen to you. Don’t be selfish. Society will say, stay busy, but try to take time out of your busy schedule to hear what someone in need has to say. Moral:  Take time for others.

The true path of greatness is helping people to achieve what they want. There’s no other blissful feeling than to hear someone testify that you are very instrumental to their success. Don’t think about the position and opportunity others will get if you help them. The universe has a way of compensating you. Be creative in your approach to life. If you’re looking for a job, people say network. However, the better approach should be what can I do for others and not what I can get from them.

In conclusion, I charge you today, dare to be great by going out to help people who might need your assistance in any little way you can.

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: