Success is a marathon, not a sprint. But many of today’s youth do not know this, or they know but not make it a maxim in running their life race. If we take things easy, and act as purposely and positively as we can, success will surely come our way.
There are rules for success, and one of them is: ‘Never rush’. If you look around you, you will discover that those who have made it to the top are not only those who inherit wealth, fame or name. Yes, wealth, fame, and popular name can open door of opportunities for some folks, but the lack of them, ab initio, does not lock such doors and windows of opportunities either.
If you want to make it in life, as we all make efforts to achieve greater potentials and accumulate better aspirations of life, the rule , ‘never rush’, applies. What do you want to make in life: intellectual progress or social mobility? The best and possibly easiest way to make it in life is to make it slowly but surely.
With this recommendation, I am not saying we should be lackadaisical about life, or that we should sleep off all the twenty-fours and expect miracles to come, what I am saying is that we should organise ourselves, and see our dreams come true one by one.
Remember the scriptural axiom that the battle is neither for the strong nor the race for the swift, but that time and chance happen to them all. In the year 2006, I gave a speech at the orientation event organised by the Student Leadership Development Programme, SLDP, at the University of Ibadan, Nigeria. The coordinator of that novel student programme, who read my modest citation on that day, is today the Chief Economic Adviser to the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. I am talking about
Prof (Mrs) Precious Kassey Garba, a woman of substance; respectful, respected, and respectable scholar and teacher.
Prof. Garba always told us to believe in ourselves, and that no matter how big a challenge could be, determination can melt it. At the event mentioned above, I spoke about why and how the youth can take their destiny in their own hands. I said the youth should always plan their time and time their plan. I said the youth should always choose their friends and make library one of their friends. I reminded the youth about what Prof Adedoyin Soyibo used to tell us, that when you add value to yourself, the distance from your success is reduced by miles. We can make it slowly but surely. Nothing is worth-worrying or worth-rushing about in life.
The biggest god most people worship is money. Money is good but money is not god. How you get is more important. Remember Napoleon Hill, who wrote in Think and Grow Rich that ‘Quick riches are more dangerous than poverty’. What we need most of the time is organised planning, faith, hope, and action, and slowly but surely we shall make it.
I think it is this principle that Solomon also captures in the ‘Obama in You’.
let the world see a new African in the young men and women of our day.
Great material
This is simply a masterpiece! It encapsulates the submission of the archetypal character, the man, in Ayi Kwei Armah’s “The Beautyful Ones Are Not Yet Born” that “Those who are blessed with power and the soaring swiftness of the eagle, let them go. I will travel slowly and I too will arrive”. This is the kind of message that should be drummed into the ears of those that want to travel through the fast lane.
If we follow what Tunde is saying here and not follow our leaders who wanted to own the whole world overnight, then we can work to lift our continent up. We have to know that success is a progressive accomplishemnt, it’s not a one-shot at it and it’s over
there’s a saying in my local language that translates to english as ‘easy come’ easy go’. that’s exactly what Tunde is describing here
Great one. Pursuing success one step at a step is the surest way to achieve it. the reason we have so much corruption in africa is that everybody wants to make it overnight which leads politician to amass money meant for community developments
This is inspiring. I love it.