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From Zero to Hero: A Noble Transitional Reminder!
By Tolulope A. Adegoke
“I need to reiterate here that, when it comes to this noble task, nothing is impossible! Only change is constant in life. Everyone can improve at anything and at whatever level, provided that he or she is willing enough to undergo the required processes of development. My point is that your life can experience a revolutionary change, as long as you are ready to learn, follow the footsteps of champions and apply other essential life-changing principles from the Holy Scriptures and other relevant sources.” – Tolulope A. Adegoke
The example of Japan is pertinent here. In the aftermath of the Second World War, Japan’s two largest economic cities, Hiroshima and Nagasaki, were bombed to the ground. Several lives and properties were lost. To put it simply, Japan was reduced to nearly nothing, economically and politically.
Yet, because the Japanese believe so much in their individual and national potentials, they have rebuilt their economy to be one of the best in the world. In fact, in the early 2000s, a Prime Minister of the country, while speaking at the anniversary of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombing, said that even if Japan were to be placed in a desert, the Japanese would rebuild their nation to become the second largest economy in the world in a short time.
The truth of that statement can be seen all around – especially with the quality and quantity of products manufactured in Japan. In fact, even though Japan currently does not have enough steel to produce vehicle bonnets, nor does it have enough silicon to produce side-mirrors or even enough rubber to produce steering-wheels, yet the country is the highest exporter of cars in the world.
My point is that Japan rose to be an economic giant from being reduced to zero. Despite the odds and pains, it ascended the ladder of greatness among the nations of the world. This teaches us the power of resilience. Every zero status can be reversed if dutifully worked upon.
The wealth of any individual or nation is not found under the feet but in-between the “ears” – that is, the contents of their brain and character. Let’s apply this to Nigeria as a nation, especially to re-orientate its leaders and citizens, the young ones in particular. The real wealth of Nigeria is not in the creeks of the Niger-Delta or anywhere else in the country. It is neither in the abundance of crude oil nor in the vast mineral resources all over the country. The real wealth lies in the country’s heterogeneous population. Yes, let me repeat it – It is the very citizens of the Nigerian nation that are usually considered the least of its resources (the zero resources) that are its hope and future. This is because right in them lie the ability, acumen and determination to harness and utilise the various natural, mineral and petroleum resources of the nation in line with God’s purpose for its existence.
In truth, the so-called valuable resources that people often jostle and sometimes tussle to get from the ground are not the real resources of any nation; the true resources are the citizens – the often overlooked treasures who have several divinely-endowed potentials in them. Sadly, many of these die daily, before their time, and go the grave with their potentials in them. No wonder the late Myles Munroe said that the richest place on earth is the cemetery!
Pertinent Reassurance
Before proceeding to the next phase in which we shall be exploring detailed principles on positively empowering our zeroes, I need to reiterate here that, when it comes to this noble task, nothing is impossible! Only change is constant in life. Everyone can improve at anything and at whatever level, provided that he or she is willing enough to undergo the required processes of development.
My point is that your life can experience a revolutionary change, as long as you are ready to learn, follow the footsteps of champions and apply other essential life-changing principles from the Scripture and other relevant sources.
Let me illustrate this truth with the experience of D.W Ghent who was said to have participated in Dale Carnegie’s public speaking programme in Philadelphia. Shortly after the opening session, Ghent had invited Carnegie to lunch with him in the manufacturers’ club. Ghent was a middle-aged man and had always led an active life; he was head of his own manufacturing establishment and a leader in church work and civic activities. While they were having lunch that day, he leaned across the table and said: “I have been asked many times to talk before various gatherings, but I have never been able to do so: I get so fussed, my mind becomes an utter blank: So I have side-stepped it all my life. But I am now on a board of college trustees. I must preside at their meetings. I simply have to do some talking…Do you think that is possible for me to learn at this late date in my life?”
“Do I think, Mr Ghent?” Carnegie replied. “It is not a question of my thinking. I know you can, and I know you will if you only practise and follow the directions and instructions.”
Mr Ghent wanted to believe what Carnegie had said, but it seemed too rosy, too optimistic. So he said, “I am afraid you are you are just being kind; you are merely trying to encourage me.”
After Mr Ghent had completed his training, he and Dale Carnegie lost touch with each other for a while.
Some years later, however, they met again and lunched together at the Manufacturers’ Club. They sat in the same corner and occupied the same table that they had on the first occasion. Reminding Ghent of their former conversation, Carnegie asked him if he really had been too optimistic then. Ghent took a little red-backed notebook out of his pocket and showed him a list of talks and dates for which he had been booked. “And the ability to make these,” he confessed, “the pleasure I get in doing it, the additional service I can render to the community – these are among the most gratifying things in my life. Not only have I given countless public speeches, but just recently I was chosen from all the community leaders in this city to give the introduction when David Lloyd George (then the Prime minister of Great Britain) addresses a mass meeting in Philadelphia.”
Yet, this was the same man who had sat at the same table less than three years before and solemnly asked Carnegie if he would ever be able to talk in public!
We find another amazing proof that nothing is impossible when it comes to transiting from a zero to a hero in the case of the biblical David. The inspiring story of his rise from a despised shepherd boy to a renowned warrior and revered king begins from I Samuel 16. Here, we are told how God, who had seen his commitment to duty and passion for service in the loneliness of the mountains and valleys where he cared for his father’s sheep, sent Samuel to anoint him Israel’s next king, following the rejection of Saul. Being the family’s zero, however, nobody had initially considered presenting David as one of the sons of Jesse – yet the Almighty God who rewards enthusiasm for greatness found him out and he was anointed. It was after this that he killed Goliath before the Philistines and the Israelites. He became a military general of Israel at the very tender age of 17.
David eventually ascended the throne, despite various attempts by Saul to kill him. He started as a zero but eventually emerged a hero! He diligently went through the rough but refining and toughening process of his transition through his strength of character, fear of God, unwavering courage and undaunted self-belief.
I tell you, friend, you too can rise from your present level to an exceedingly glorious and influential one. This is the will of God for you.
By Tolulope A. Adegoke
“You need a plan to reach your goals. It is your plans that take or get you to a place, not just your dreams. Dreams without an active plan will take you to nowhere. It is a plan that empowers and exposes you to the discipline and responsibilities required to achieve your dreams or set goals. A plan teaches you “HOW” to get there, it is your blueprint. This is your time to set in place some plans that lead you to an ‘expected end’. By the time you get to the ‘end’, you shouldn’t be surprised, because success is intentional; it is deliberate. It is plans that takes you to success, and it is planning that helps you succeed for greatness. Therefore, set it up and step it up!”
– Tolulope A. Adegoke, PhD., FIMC, CMC, CMS, MNIM, CIV
There should be synergy between your actions and ambitions. You should be able to look at your actions and tell your ambitions. From your ambitions, I will be able to tell where you are going by what you are doing. If what you are doing doesn’t tell or prophesy where you are going, then you are doing the wrong things. Since you are a limited resource, then you are not enough to go round; that means, you have to choose where you have to expend your energy. You cannot tackle everything at the same time. What you are doing must reveal or prophesy where you are going.
A plan is important, not just a dream. A lot of institutions teaches about dreams and vision, but they tend to dish the real deal in parts or halves. You need to understand that getting your plan lined up (to align) with where you are going is far more important. You need a plan to reach your goals. It is your plans that take or get you to a place, not just your dreams. Dreams without an active plan will take you to nowhere. It is a plan that empowers and exposes you to the discipline and responsibilities required to achieve your dreams or set goals. A plan teaches you “HOW” to get there, it is your blueprint.
This is your time to set in place some plans that would lead you to an ‘expected end’. By the time you get to the ‘end’, you shouldn’t be surprised, because success is intentional; it is deliberate. It is a plan that takes you to success, and it is planning that helps you succeed.
The Book of Life says: “write the vision, make it plain, so that whosoever that reads it may run with it.” Somewhere in your life, there ought to be a perfectly Mission Statement: your Vision, Purpose and Goals. That’s what is done in business, and you are in a business to earn a living. What’s your vision? What’s your purpose? What are your goals? With the aforementioned, you are able to choose what is yours wisely. Such that when people offer you things that are not in your Mission Statement, you can say NO because that’s not what you do. A lot of things can be very good, but if they are not in alignment with where you are going, you just have to let them go because you are a limited resource, which is specifically wired for a purpose or calling.
The Book of Exodus 25:1-9 unveils so much: “And the Lord spoke unto Moses, saying, speak unto the children of Israel, that they may bring me an offering: of every man that giveth it willingly with his heart ye shall take my offering. And this is the offering which ye shall take of them; gold, and silver, and brass, and blue, and purple, and scarlet, and fine linen, and goats’ hair, and rams’ skins dyed, red and badgers’ skins, and shittim wood, Oil for the light, spices for the anointing oil, and for sweet incense, Onyx stones, and stones to be set in the ephod, and in the breastplate. And let them make me a sanctuary; that I may dwell among them. According to all that I shew thee, after the pattern of the tabernacle, and the patterns of all the instruments thereof, even so shall ye make it.”
Could God have designed a tabernacle? He is a Master-planner, but He invited His people into the process and planning, and gathering the raw materials. You can quickly tell or deduce by what they are gathering that they are getting ready to build something. Also, one of the most profound statements spoken by God to Moses in the above verses is “Build according to pattern”. In other words, you should have a pattern for living. What God meant by the above is that: “I want you to build according to what I have showed you, do not build outside my plan.”
What you need is that you should get your vision from the Lord; this is simply the vision of where you are going, and this is “WHY” I put you on Earth; this is the purpose I have for you to do. Your job or duty on Earth is to build on Earth what God has already shown you. So what has God shown you? whatever God has shown you is your purpose and vision. A plan simplifies the process of tasks for an easy accomplishment of set targets. Pattern helps you grow; it builds you and gives you a niche. You are here to build on Earth as Man according to purpose and pattern which has been revealed by God.
Most people have no pattern. This is where mentoring comes in to lead you to act according to a designed pattern or system. Mentoring is about giving somebody a pattern to operate with; it is about giving or revealing and availing to somebody what they can see: walk the way I walk, step the way I step. Ask yourself, genuinely, “do you have a pattern?” Do you have a pattern for a successful career, marriage, business or ministry? Have you ever been around someone who is succeeding? You cannot imitate what you have not seen! People who don’t just hear the word, but do the word prospers and keep going up, challenges notwithstanding, but they continue to succeed because they are obedient and attentive to a laid out pattern of success.
A plan is a clear strategy which is usually documented for the purpose of succeeding, leading, conquering and achieving set-targets or goals in any facet of human endeavours. If you must prosper, then you must not fail to plan!
You must understand that success is always intentional, though many people act as if it isn’t, but it really is. You do not graduate from College and be surprised how it happened; you don’t lose weight by accident; you don’t run a marathon and say you do not know how you did it! The authentic truth is that nobody succeeds by accident.
The next thing you must not fail to understand here is that, you need to forgive yourself for making mistakes. You may have done something so foolish. Success isn’t a magic pill, but an intentional act for a change to occur via the renewing of your mindset, it is a process, it is going to take a little time, but it will work if you work it.
Invest Extra Income
Any unexpected income that is beyond your budget is the kind of money you should invest. Stop engaging in lavish spending. Understand that you do not need to buy what you do not need at all! Other people are investing in the idea that you will spend; that’s why they built a mall; that was their investment, expecting you to spend your money in it so that they can save it. You open up streams of income by investing your extra income, and you don’t start spending like the prodigal son (a fool). Don’t spend beyond your limits again. Now, you have understood that there is need for added investment pockets. In the Book of Matthew 25:14-30, Jesus Christ taught the same concept about investment. Even if He didn’t teach it, you still need to know these concepts of investment because you need to do it for your own good!
One of the biggest errors or mistakes we make is that whenever we a get a lump-sum of money, the first thing we try to do is to pay off all our bills, and what you do not realize is that when you are trying to pay off all your bills, you have bills again. You need to maximize opportunities. Gradually continue to pay your way out of debts by using the measure called DISCIPLINE. Keep the money by saving it; Grow the money by investing the money!
The Book of Life says, “you should bring forth fruits, so that your fruits may abide.” God implies that: “I am interested in getting you to a place that you stop losing everything I am giving you. What you know now will change the next five years of your life.
How can you love somebody and not have a life insurance? So you leave them struggling, evicted and uncared for? It isn’t about the luxuries or the expensive gifts or items. I charge you to convert them into assets, and get an insurance! Set your priorities straight in-line with what makes sense!
Stop accepting what keeps depreciating, and stop ignoring what keeps appreciating. Stop paying for your emotions! Even if you love a thing or luxury or property, don’t buy it if it is beyond your financial means or budget. Quit the emotion, where motion is required for your legs to step back. Stop spending too much on what is not necessarily important for you. Buy the basic needs and invest the rest so that as you rest, the profit yields!
A plan makes you a planter (sower). The idea is the seed; the plan makes you the planter. Every planter (sower) is eligible for the harvest of whatever he or she sows or plants! Ensure that you update your plan on a regular basis, because things change, so that you can make this year your year of effective and sufficient productivity. You must have things in order. Every of your steps must count! Are you positioning yourself in the line of your dream? You need to get ready to do it before you do it! You need to look like it before you are it! Remember, God anointed David to be king while he was still a shepherd boy. God was gradually positioning David into Royalty. God told Samuel in the Book of 1Samuel 16:13 (paraphrased), “I have got a Man in the House of Jesse, find him, I want you to anoint him to be king.” At first, after David was anointed to be king, he was still a shepherd boy, but rumour heard it all across the territories in his time that David was going to be king. You need to realize and understand that God is much more interested and focused on “WHERE” you are going than where you are, at the moment; and He is committed to plan and ride with you, if you will be reasonable enough to take responsibilities and endure the processes required to arrive at the successes that leads to greatness through a PLAN or pattern (strategy) that is well detailed for shifts and positioning to prosper and prevail in your areas of calling or purpose.
…to be continued.
Dr. Tolulope A. Adegoke is an accredited ISO 20700 Effective Leadership Trainer
By Henry Ukazu
Dear Destiny Friends,
Knowledge, without an iota of doubt, is very critical to success. This concept is backed by the Holy Book, which states that ‘my people perish for lack of knowledge”.
One of the major reasons people pay for services, or products is simply because someone has invested knowledge to solve a problem. The constant use of this knowledge, therefore, can metamorphose into vision.
Note that one of the ways knowledge works is through vision. Did you know that understanding leads to vision, and vision leads to realization. When you understand what you want in life, you will know how to get there. This is because vision paves the way to clarity.
Vision is not about having ‘eyes’, because many people have eyes, but can’t see.
Vision is the ability to use your eyes to see and interpret the world around you.
As a Human Capacity Coach, one of the key areas of my training is focus on vision for every progressive company and individual. Any company, business, family, relationship, or association without vision is merely existing as opposed to living. It is the vision that sustains the company.
But what is vision? It is rather unfortunate that many people don’t understand what vision is. Vision can mean several things to several people. Some see vision as what they want to be in the nearest future; some see it as the change they would like to implement in the world, while others might see it from the angle of prophecy.
Just like every organization, company, government has a vision, every human being has a vision. It is the vision that separates every organization and human being. This vision is encapsulated in the values they hold dear to the heart. The vision of Mr. A is quite different from the vision of Mr. B. When you have a vision, it’s important for you to hold it close to your heart. Your vision is meant for you to implement. If you share it with the wrong person, you might get discouraged or the vision might be stolen from you, and implemented in a different way.
This is how the dynamic aspect of vision works. Every leader works differently and many have different visions for their citizens. In school, all students might be in the classroom, but their learning and understanding might be different, and a group of people might be walking, but what they are seeing might be different.
The power of faith works with vision. According to Dr. Yomi Garnett, “to really succeed, you need real faith, which is simply an inner vison of great spiritual laws. This faith allows you to see what you desire even before attaining it, much like the farmer who holds seeds in his hands and sees the stalks of corn that fill his fields at harvest time. All great men and women of have this type of faith”. This simply tells you vision works with the principle and spiritual laws of success. If the farmer don’t see hope in harvesting, he/she won’t bother to plant crops.
Again, if Martin Luther King Jnr, Nelson Mandela, Barak Obama, Henry Ukazu and other great visionary leaders who have make great impact in the world didn’t see ahead and believe in the vison they imagined, they wouldn’t have been able make great impact in the world.
Vision comes in different ways; it can come from directly God, via inspiration; it can also come due to the prevailing societal ills you’ll like to change. It can also be because of an impact one would like to see in the world.
When God gives you a vision, that vision is for you to implement, it’s not meant for another person. If it’s meant for another person, it will be revealed to that person. That’s why vision is not meant to be shared to everyone. This is how vision works. God might show you a vision, but he won’t give you everything you need to fulfil it. He also needs your input to bring it into existence. That input might be faith, understanding and skills/talent to execute it. For instance, God will give you wood, and you will use the wood to manufacture a chair or furniture.
Furthermore, vision is the difference between where you are and where you want to be. In between where you are and where you want to be, you must have a plan. This plan doesn’t have to be figured out. All you need is to believe in the vision and what you are feeling and seeing. This plan comes with a process. This process is what will lead you to your destination. It is during the planning that one’s faith is tested, and skills harnessed. Your plan must come with preparation, it must be concise, clear, and compelling. The plan is the process that will take you to your destination.
In conclusion, if you have a vision, believe in it, and get back to work to fulfil it by preparing for it. The world is rooting for you.
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
In furtherance of enhanced synergy between security agencies in the country, the Commandant General, Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps; Abubakar Ahmed Audi, P.hD, mni, OFR has directed the immediate handing over of three suspects and two hundred and ninety two bags of smuggled foreign rice to the appropriate authorities for prosecution.
The suspects were arrested by the commandant General’s Marine monitoring team, western command unit, Eleko Beach, Lagos based on credible intelligence made available to the monitoring team.
The three suspects who were coming from Cotonou, Benin Republic aboard three wooden boats were intercepted by operatives of the NSCDC marine operations who were on red alert patrol.
The Commandant General vowed that the corps will continue to pursue its statutory functions of protection of critical national assets and infrastructure, fight against vandals and vandalism and economic saboteurs in the country and will continue to; in collaboration with other security agencies intensify the fights against crime and criminality in the country.
He directed that the suspects and exhibits; who were arrested on the 18th of September, 2023 be handed over to the Nigeria Customs Service for prosecution in line with the extant laws of the land after preliminary investigations are concluded.
To this effect, the Lagos state Commandant of the NSCDC, Comd’t Usman Ishaq Alfadarai has on the 20th of September, 2023 handed over the suspects and exhibits to the appropriate and prosecuting agency at the NSCDC’s Marine Operational base, Ijora, Lagos State.
The commandant General reiterated the corps’ commitment to continued proactive and tactical patrol both on land and sea to forestall all forms of smuggling, make the country’s waterways safe and enhance economic prosperity of the country.
