By Henry Ukazu

Greetings Destiny Friends,

Man, by nature, is insatiable. He is endowed with the tendency to always crave for more, especially the good things of life. And when he gets one, he immediately desires another, and the circle continues. That’s simply human nature for you. Progressive minds always set a target for themselves, and once they meet the target, they move to another target. Entrepreneurs are not left out in this struggle, in fact, they top the list in this category.

Entrepreneurs work day and night to develop a product, and in the process they experience challenges which makes some of them give up. According to Aditya Roy Kapur, “what we normally see is the finished product, someone’s performance on screen, but behind the scenes, a lot goes into it’. This is just the lifestyle of any entrepreneur or great mind who has been able to succeed. However, it is our human nature to always feel downcast whenever our demands are not met.

With the innovation of social media and technology, a lot of people have given up on life. The internet is awash with stories of people who have committed suicide just by watching other people’s lifestyles on social media. They had come to the conclusion that other people are living their best lives and exploring opportunities while they are merely existing. Some people have been pressurized to be what they are not; please relax, you’re on a different path and lane, everybody has their own race to run. According to Jesse Eisenberg “I don’t concern myself with thinking ahead to the finished product. I focus more specifically on what the character is experiencing. Once you relieve yourself of the very arbitrary and always punishing pressure of what an audience is expecting you to do, acting becomes a lot more fun and pure”. Moral:  You’re a product in the making, so maintain your lane.

Nobody, country, business, etc has it all figured out completely; they are all work in progress. Most people think some have figured it out completely either because they are rich or have life working smoothly for them. A typical example is the United States of America. Most people think USA has no problem. But that’s not the case, the USA has its own challenges. In the words of one of the most cerebral US Presidents, Franklin D. Roosevelt, ‘I do not look upon these United States as a finished product. We are still in the making”. That goes to tell you, daily, the USA seeks for better ways to improve their technology, health sector, business, and political environment.

It’s a well-established fact; nobody has overnight success, real success takes time and effort, just like the saying, Rome was not built in a day. As humans, we like finished projects because it looks attractive. When a product, car, food, cloth, or even education is not completed, it always appears unattractive and no one likes to be associated with such persons or product.

Even as humans, sometimes we feel the whole world has left us behind. If we are honest with ourselves, we have one secret frustration which the world wouldn’t even notice. We are the ones secretly having the pain. The pain/feeling can be not being married, not having money despite having a huge fan base on social media. It can also relate to medical challenges. Despite these challenges, I have good news for you; it’s not over until it’s over. You’re a work in progress.

Succeeding in life entails a lot of sacrifice, hard and smart work, a bit of luck, great networking, knowledge, wisdom and understanding amongst other skills. It may seem so painful when we do what we are supposed to do and still don’t get the desired result. If you have an ambition or desire to create a product, you may want to ask yourself, what’s your why? What’s your vision; and most importantly, what’s your passion? I say this because most people engage in business, academic endeavors, and even marital engagement without having a good foundation or understanding of what is required, and when they experience misfortune or have challenges, they begin to give up.

A practical way to succeed in an endeavor is by knowing yourself. Self-discovery is one of the hardest things we can do in life. When you know yourself, it will be easy to figure your path. When you figure out your path, the next thing you want to do is to maintain your lane. Focusing on your lane helps to build expertise in a particular field or industry. You may be wondering how to create a path and build expertise on a particular lane. A medical or law student may after graduation from college decide to specialize in a particular area of his profession. It can be surgery or internal medicine for a medical professional or civil right or criminal law for a law graduate.

What most people fail to understand is the difference between profession, vocation and ministry. Your profession is what you are trained to do, your vocation is what you are paid to do, your ministry is your calling and what you should be living for. Understanding these concepts will go a long way to figure out how you live your life because they’ll help you to finish your race and finish well.

As you forge ahead in your craft, try as much as possible to be at peace with yourself, trust the process, appreciate the mistakes, disappointments, failures and betrayals if any, because they are all parts of the success story. When you reach a crossroad, listen to your inner still voice and trust your gut/intuition. Don’t force or try to change what you cannot control or change. Let nature take its course because you are work in progress.

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 and President of gloemi.com. He can be reached via info@gloemi.com