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Food for Living: The Price of Success
By Henry Ukazu
Greetings Dear Friends,
It is a well established fact every success comes with a price. You may have heard of the saying “Rome wasn’t built in a day”. Just like the building of a house has a foundation, every worthwhile project must have a foundation. In the same way, true success comes with a price. Per B.C Forbes, “A price has to be paid for success. Almost invariably those who have reached the summits worked harder and longer, studied and planned more assiduously, practiced more self-denial, overcame more difficulties than those of us who have not risen so far.”
In the journey of life, we are all bound by the decision/choice we make regardless of the consequence. That’s why it’s always important for one to critically evaluate every direction he decides to take. For instance, if you are driving and you miss an exit or a particular route, you’ll surely pay the price by taking the next available route/exit in order to get back on track. That said, it’s fair to say that every action we take comes with a corresponding reaction. In whatever you want to do in life, you have to pay the price for it. Just like parenting comes with responsibility, so also education, business, and success come with a price.
During the course of this article, we shall be addressing various component/price of success.
Success asks for Commitment:
It’s worthy to note that the level of success that you achieve will be in direct proportion to the depth of your commitment. You must invest time and resources. It is the dedication and perseverance that you bring every day that will make all the difference in the end. Each and every one of us desires success, but the reality of the day is that only a few persons are ready to commit to the work. Just like relationship demands commitment from both parties, you have to pay the price before you can reap the fruit of your labor. When you decide to commit to a project, the whole world sets apart for you. According to Mario Andretti “Desire is the key to motivation, but its determination and commitment to an unrelenting pursuit of your goal — a commitment to excellence — that will enable you to attain the success you seek.”
Success demands hard work & Smart Work
The ultimate price that comes with success is hard work. You need to put in the work because nobody will do the work for you. Just like a farmer who plants crops with the hope of harvesting it, he/she must continually water and remove the weeds in order for the crops to mature very well. If he/she fails to do so, it will be hard to harvest the crops. According to Vince Lombardi “The price of success is hard work, dedication to the job at hand, and the determination that whether we win or lose, we have applied the best of ourselves to the task at hand”.
Sacrifice:
In the words of Napoleon Hill “Great achievement is usually born of great sacrifice and is never the result of selfishness. One of the greatest prices every progressive being must pay to get what he/she needs is sacrifice. Sacrifice is seen as the dues you have to pay to get what you don’t have. In law, sacrifice is likened to consideration, which is the detriment or loss a party may have to forgo in order to gain/benefit. In some social parlance, sacrifice is seen as love a party must show for the significant other. Just like success is relative, sacrifice is also relative. You must continually ask yourself what you need to sacrifice to get what you desire.Ask yourself: What specifically must I sacrifice to achieve my goal? What habits and rituals must I sacrifice to attain this goal? What habits could actually sabotage me from attaining my desired outcome? Finally, the ultimate question is: Am I willing to make these sacrifices to obtain this goal? You simply cannot have your goal without making some necessary physical, financial, emotional, mental, and social sacrifices. As a word of advice, spend your time instead on other areas that will provide you with a greater return on your time.
Success requires you to Continuous learn
Sometimes we fail to get what we want because we haven’t learnt enough. According to Brian Tracy “Those people who develop the ability to continuously acquire new and better forms of knowledge that they can apply to their work and to their lives will be the movers and shakers in our society for the indefinite future.” Constant education is necessary in order to be successful at anything. Therefore, you need to continually ask yourself if you need a piece of specific knowledge, skills, tools or resources.
Fear Elimination
Fear is something that is likely to consistently hold you back from your desired objectives. Success demands that you overcome your fears and develop the necessary courage you need to pursue your goals with vigor and passion. Success demands that you have no fear if you want to achieve any kind of success in your life, When you are fully committed to something, nothing will sidetrack you. It doesn’t matter whether or not the sun comes up tomorrow, or whether or not the earth stops spinning on its axis. You must believe that no matter what happens no matter how badly you fail and how horrible this might make you feel — that failure is never an option.
Success Demands You Make Difficult Choices
As you make progress along your journey towards your desired outcomes, success will demand that you make difficult choices about what you will do and about what you won’t do. It demands that you choose what you will and won’t sacrifice. It demands that you decide what’s the most important thing to focus on at any one time. Success demands that you choose who you will spend your time with, most importantly success demands that you make difficult daily choices about how you spend your time, energy and money. You must consistently invest your energy into meaningful tasks and goal congruent activities that will provide you with the highest long-term benefits. Spending your time on the wrong things could very well spell the difference between success and failure.
Let’s conclude by sharing some habit of success
Identify your core values
What is important to you? Finding your core values may seem a bit off-topic when it comes to success, but creating goals that are in line with your values is key to creating intrinsic motivation. Sit and reflect on what you value most. Pick a handful of things and actually write them down. Remind yourself of your values every day, and reflect on whether you are honoring those values through your work.
Build the right mindset and have a plan
Visualize yourself having completed your goal in the exact time-frame you have chosen and the breakdown goals by week and by day, setting up a plan to reach your overall objective. Keep the number of tasks per day as low as you can, and focus on completing only your planned tasks for each day. Do the hardest things during your peak energy level.
Take risks
You must take risk to succeed in life. Push yourself. Go out of your comfort zone. This is the best way to learn, and the best way to make progress quickly.
Finally, there’s a general saying that the price of success entails the following:
1. Staying up late at night to do some extra work.
2. Waking up early morning to do some work.
3. Having very few friends who understand & share the same values and vision with you
4. You’ll definitely be misunderstood and that’s okay.
5. You’ll be definitely feel overwhelmed., and that’s okay
6. People will continually question your sanity and that’s okay.
7. You have to be your own cheerleader.
In conclusion, if you want to go from where you are to where you want to be, you need to identify the price that needs to be paid and then proceed to pay it. Everything has a price to pay. Are you willing to pay for it?
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
A federal judge in the United States, on Thursday, put a temporary block on President Donald Trump’s attempt to restrict birthright citizenship.
The ruling imposes a 14-day halt on the enforcement of one of the most controversial executive orders Trump signed hours after being sworn into office for a second term.
It comes after lawsuits were filed by a total of 22 states, two cities and numerous civil rights groups.
“This is a blatantly unconstitutional order,” senior US District Judge John Coughenour was reported as saying during the hearing in Washington State.
“I’ve been on the bench for over four decades, I can’t remember another case where the question presented is as clear as this one is,” said Coughenour, who was appointed to the bench by a Republican president, Ronald Reagan.
Birthright citizenship is fundamental to America’s national identity, with the 14th Amendment to the US Constitution decreeing that anyone born on US soil is a citizen.
It says, in part: “All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside.”
Trump’s order was premised on the idea that anyone in the US illegally, or on a visa, was not “subject to the jurisdiction” of the country, and therefore excluded from this category.
AFP
The Court of Appeal sitting in Akure, Ondo State capital has upheld the death sentence of Ramon Adedoyin, a prominent businessman and hotelier, for his involvement in the murder of one Timothy Adegoke, a former postgraduate student of the Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU), Ile-Ife, Osun State.
Delivering the judgment on Thursday, the court affirmed the earlier verdict of the Osun State High Court, which had sentenced Adedoyin to death.
“The judgment of the High Court of Osun State stands. Adedoyin’s appeal is dismissed in part,” the court declared in part.
The Court of Appeal, however, set aside some aspects of the lower court’s orders, including the forfeiture of the Hilton Hotel and the order for Adedoyin to pay for the education of Adegoke’s children.
Furthermore, the court ruled that it had no jurisdiction to impose penalties outside the statutory provisions
Adegoke’s death was reported in November 2021 after his corpse was found at the Hilton Honours Hotel in Ile-Ife, Osun State, where he had lodged.
The hotelier had travelled from Abuja for an examination at a distance learning centre in Moro, Osun State on November 5 of that year.
He had checked into the hotel but was reported missing after two days. However, Adegoke’s body was found days later, leading to a probe that linked his death to Adedoyin and others.
In May 2023, Adedoyin and others were sentenced to death after they were found guilty of murder and conspiracy to murder.
But dissatisfied with the judgement, Adedoyin approached the Appeal court to dismiss the sentence and conviction.
The court of appeal, on Thursday, however, upheld the conviction and death sentence of the hotelier.
The Nigeria Police have announced that their operatives have rescued Mrs Folasade Odumosu, the wife of a former Assistant Inspector General, Hakeem Odumosu, who was last Thursday, kidnapped at the entrance of her home in Arepo, Ogun State.
The Force Public Relations Officer, Muyiwa Adejobi, confirmed this in a statement on Thursday in Abuja, noting that two of the kidnappers were killed while four others escaped without their weapons.
Adejobi said with the support of the Force Headquarters technical intelligence platforms, the Ogun State police operatives engaged Odumosu’s abductors in a gun duel and neutralized the criminals in the swampy area of Ikorodu on Wednesday.
The police spokesman added that Mrs Odumosu is currently undergoing a medical evaluation and has since been reunited with her family.
The statement read, “In a commendable display of teamwork and swift action, police operatives attached to the Ogun State Command have successfully neutralized the kidnappers of Mrs. Odumosu, wife of Retired Assistant-Inspector General, AIG Hakeem Odumosu, and rescued her unharmed.
“On January 16, 2025, at approximately 9:45 PM, four masked gunmen forcibly abducted Mrs. Odumosu from her Lexus Jeep outside her residence in Arepo, Ogun State. The abduction sparked an immediate response from the anti-kidnapping unit of the Ogun State Police Command, who commenced a thorough investigation and targeted pursuit of the kidnappers.
“With the support of the Force Headquarters technical intelligence platforms, the Ogun State police operatives engaged in extensive surveillance of the creeks surrounding Arepo, gathering crucial information to track down the assailants. Their efforts culminated in a raid on January 23, 2025, at around 06:45 AM. The intelligence-led operation took the police to a creek in the swampy area of Ikorodu, where the kidnappers were reportedly planning their next attack.
“Upon arrival, the operatives encountered the kidnappers, who opened fire. In the ensuing confrontation, two of the gunmen were neutralized, while four others fled the scene, abandoning their operational weapons.”
Adejobi said the police operatives recovered N10m initially paid to the kidnappers, four Ak-47 rifles, three locally made single barrel rifles, and ammunition of various calibres.
He added, “The victim, Mrs Odumosu was rescued within the swampy creeks during the operation, unharmed. She is currently undergoing medical evaluation as a precautionary measure and has since been reunited with her family. The police also recovered 4 Ak-47 rifles, 3 locally made single barrel rifles, ammunition of various calibres, and the sum of N10,000,000 ransom previously demanded by the kidnappers, further ensuring that justice is served.”
Adejobi said the Inspector General of Police, Kayode Egbetokun, commended the police operatives and the Ogun State Commissioner of Police, Lanre Ogunlowo, for the rescue operation.
He asserted that the Police Force is committed to safeguarding the citizens and combat kidnapping and other violent crimes.
“The Inspector-General of Police, IGP Kayode Adeolu Egbetokun, Ph.D., NPM., has commended the Ogun State Commissioner of Police, CP Lanre Ogunlowo, and his operatives for their displayed gallantry in this successful operation.
“This operation exemplifies the dedication and resilience of our Police officers. The Nigeria Police Force remains steadfast in its mission to combat kidnapping and other violent crimes, providing safety and security to all citizens,” he added.
