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Opinion: Take Your Place Among Champions
By Tolulope A. Adegoke
“Do you want to know who you are? Don’t ask. Act!
Action will delineate and define you.”
― Thomas Jefferson
You have nothing to worry about, friend. Everything you need to succeed has been encrypted into you through your potentials and personality traits. Even the storms of challenges that you are facing or may face are blessings in disguise. They are your training grounds for unleashing your natural endowments!
As we have already seen, you need the “sixth sense” given by God to discover your purpose in life. Thereafter, you must play your part by activating your potentials and improving in your weak areas. This will help you not to be drowned in the pits of failure and regrets like multitudes who are daily losing out in the battle of destiny.
God’s desire is for you to emerge a HERO in your generation. And you can only achieve this by harnessing your “empowered zeros” in your specific areas of calling.
As we wrap up our exploration of the world of greatness in preparation for individual activation and ultimate elevation, take good note of the following and constantly meditate on them:
· Talents are useless until you put them to use.
· Seeds are useless until you cast them into the ground – not just any ground, but fertile ground.
· You make yourself nobody – no matter how gifted you are – until you activate and harness your potentials for maximum impact.
· You are not alive because you are smart, but because of what you have been called and chosen to do by the Almighty!
· Every seed, talent or potential in you is for a specific purpose!
· Therefore, you must understand your purpose (calling) and deliver your gifts to your world through positive impacts upon lives, corporates and nations! What the world wants to hear are your breakthroughs (testimonies of possibilities), and not mere stories.
· You are Heaven on earth…Your gifts and talents are heavenly deposits inside your earthly vessel (2 Corinthians 4: 7)
· Empowering them all gives you full access into reigning (Heaven) on earth. You are not of this world, neither are your potentials; but you must be on this earth (that is, stay alive) for your talents to function. You are the full identity of the power of God in action. And that is the basis and the peak of all leadership!
· It is your gifts that lead to excellence, which attracts success when empowered (worked upon), then leads to greatness that has posterity.
· While your earthly vessel will decay as a result of expiration of its existence on earth, the hero in you never stops speaking for you even while you are gone!
· Therefore, never stop discovering, empowering, activating and harnessing your zeros. You are the next HERO the world is waiting for!
Here is something to cheer you on from Edgar A. Guest:
“DON’T QUIT!
When things go wrong, as they sometimes will,
When the road you are trudging seems all uphill,
When the funds are low and debts are high,
And you want to smile, but you have to sigh,
When care is pressing you down a bit,
Rest, if you must-but don’t you quit…!
Life is queer with its twists and turns,
As every one of us sometimes learns,
And many a failure turns about.
When he might have won had struck it out;
Don’t give up, though the pace seems slow-
You might succeed with another blow…
Success is failure turned inside out-
the silver tint of the cloud of doubt-
And you can never tell how close you are,
It may be near when it seems afar;
So stick to fight when you are hardest hit-
It’s when things get worse that you must not quit!”
Here is a golden piece, dedicated to everyone building capacity and harnessing it for the deliveries of possibilities in Peoples, Corporates and Nations!
A Teachable Spirit & A Heart of Deliverance!
By Tolulope A. Adegoke
‘When you’re learning how to be humble, you have to be willing to listen, learn, and grow and be open to suggestions and corrections from other people. You don’t know it all, and you can’t act like you know it all, either! Therefore, here is a daily mantra for all seasons: calm, quiet and available is my soul before My Maker, God Almighty!
I shall remain teachable,
I shall not be foolish to be full of Myself!
I shall seat at the feet of my God sent masters to learn, so as to soar beyond the skies,
I shall remain humble for life!
I shall recognize my helpers and glorify God in them, I shall make peace with all men,
I shall keep working on my gifts/potentials with utmost focus of blessing lives globally,
I shall never look down on any man I come across,
I shall keep being at my best for God(Divinity) and people(Humanity),
I won’t give up, until I fulfill my destiny,
I won’t let go, until I am exhausted,
I am simply a tool in the Mighty Hands of my Creator, He uses me according to His perfect will, to fulfilling purposes, all to His Glory!
Through me, the world shall continue see the irresistible wonderfulness of my Maker. He shall continue to increase in and through me… I refuse to be a ‘wander-fool’!
I am not ashamed of these choices I have made, of these steps I am taking…
I shall remain happy and joyful for life! It is not my life, it is my Father’s… God in a MAN (Me); with this, I’m boundless, unchained and limitless.
I am not ashamed nor afraid of this mission, due to this vision…
I shall remain truthful, smart and grateful!
I shall ensure that my impacts are felt across the world, yet, down to earth so as to be launched into the yonder beyond the skies where the realms of impacts continues…
I shall never give up, I shall build my castles in the skies and leave my footprints in the skies…
Yes! There are footprints in the skies… Only visionaries can see them…
The strength of an eagle lies in its flights and vision!
I remain humble, so as not to tumble and fumble!
In humility lies true strength, lies true vision and flights into the yonder!
I shall remain swift and completely obedient to the end… In obedience lies my chances of honor and grace.
I shall ride on the wings of the Holy Spirit to surmount all challenges and oppositions…
I won’t focus on the cross, but the crown… Not the tests but the testimonies, not the price but the prize… Not the grains but the gains, not the hisses but the ease, not the pests but the rest that is to come after all work has been completed…I shall have my crowns of Glory, sitting in Glory and splendor, glorifying my Creator, my Master for keeping me thus far without giving up on me…”
This, is, when a tool becomes ‘The Tool’! We are nothing but tools in the Mighty Hands of the Creator- To fulfil His perfect will on Earth: to love, fix, build, to solve, to touch, bless and impart.
Do not envy the successes, envy the sacrifices!
(…The End…)
Watch out for the Book titled: “The Power of an Empowered Zero” (Awakening the Giant Within You) byTolulope A. Adegoke. Foreword by Dr Yomi Garnett (CEO/Chancellor, Royal Biographical Institute, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania U.S.A., U.K., Abuja, Nigeria.) Edited by Ola Aboderin.
Rivers State Governor, Sir Siminialayi Fubara has extended an olive branch to lawmakers loyal to his rival, Nyesome Wike.
The governor invited the Amaewhule-led House of Assembly members to a peace meeting, following the Supreme Court’s judgement on the state’s political unrest.
The invitation was made through a letter from Dr. Tammy Danagogo, Secretary to the State Government, to Speaker Martins Amaewhule.
The meeting is scheduled for Monday at 10 am at the Government House in Port Harcourt.
The agenda includes addressing lingering issues, presenting the 2025 state budget, and discussing payment of lawmakers’ allowances.
The letter read: “I hereby write in furtherance of His Excellency’s promise stated in my letter dated 5th March 2025 to notify you that His Excellency has received the Supreme Court Judgment, and has therefore directed me to invite you and your colleagues -the Honourable members of Rivers State House of Assembly, to a meeting to discuss:-
“Provision of a befitting space for the Assembly’s sittings. Payment of all outstanding remuneration or allowances of the Honourable members. Presentation of Budget and sundry matters;
“Any other matter(s), as may be necessary, to chart the way forward in the best interest of the State. Sequel to the above, I hereby humbly invite the Rt. Hon. Speaker, and all the Rivers State House of Assembly members to a meeting with the Governor as follows.”
The Federal Civil Service Commission (FCSC) has extended the closing date for receiving applications for various vacancies in the Federal Civil Service to Monday, March 17 2025, to allow more eligible candidates to participate in the exercise.
The announcement, according to a statement by the Head, Press and Public Relations, Mr. Taiwon Hassan, supersedes the previous announcements in various national media on Monday, January 27, 2025 including FCSC website: www.fedcivilservice.gov.ng, where the deadline was pegged at Monday, March 10, 2025.
Qualified Nigerians are urged to avail themselves of the extension opportunity and apply for the vacancies of their choice.
The Commission assures applicants of merit-driven and transparent recruitment.
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
