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What Do the Most Successful People Have in Common?

Are The Smartest The Most Successful?

Of course YES! That is what the conventional wisdom says. As kids in primary school, our teachers instilled this belief in us. Spend more time with your books, learn, learn and learn if you want to be successful in life. 

That was what I was taught and I held onto that from Primary school through University. Fortunately, today I don’t have any formal examination to write, even though I learn every day, so that gives me reasonable space and time to pause and ask:

 

“It is true that the smartest are the most successful in life?”

 

 I’m not going to explore the philosophy of what is success and what is failure because there can be as many definitions of success and failure as there are stars in the sky. Nevertheless, regardless of how I define success, I come to the same conclusion; the smartest academically are not necessarily the most successful. That kind of hurts, but that was the only honest conclusion I could arrive at. I try to look at every group of students that I was part of home and abroad and then sample a section of people I can call to mind and follow, not on twitter but in real life. These are the folks you would call successful, and of course you have the liberty to define success anyway you want.

 

 After completing this exercise, the picture that emerges is a scarily a mixed bag: few of the people who made my list were very smart by the conventional definition of the word, some were average, and some were passing throughs, that is those who felt too school was not their thing but were just passing though to make mom and dad happy, anyway.


 

While classroom performance was not the common denominator that puts these folks in one class, there are certain factors that I identified common to all of them. In the coming weeks, I would be discussing each of these qualities in detail. This is not going to be ’14 Steps to be a Millionaire in 14 Days’ kind of stuff. In fact if I knew any secret like that, I would be in Jamaica on vacation at this hour. What I hope to accomplish is to share with you powerful qualities I have learned by observing a number of people in diverse fields and perhaps to attempt to convince you that the race is not to the smartest.

 

 As a summary for today, in my assessment, the men and women I could describe as successful shared some traits which are also shared by some of the most successful people everywhere. Prominent among these traits are:

 

  1. The propensity to break rules: It’s unfortunate that this quality comes out first, but I can identify it in almost all the people that made the cut
  2. Passion: They just do something for the love of it
  3. Making connections: they just want to be noticed and known for reasons no one knows and sometimes makes no sense
  4. Curiosity: They desire to explore and ask stupid questions
  5. Risk taking: they do the things mom dreads of
  6. Persistence: they never take no for an answer
  7. Focus: they get fixed on their strengths and passions. Nothing else matters.

 

In the coming days and weeks, I will be discussing each of these success factors in detail with specific examples.  Please check back and join to share your views and experiences.

 

 Next on this series

Part 1: They Love to Break Rules

Please check back


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The AGOA Problem: Africa’s Hidden Secret

Atim Oton

Designer and Co-Founder of Black Design News Network

For the last seven years in my travels across the African continent, I try to pay attention and listen to what things are troubling some African businesses and traders in retail and exports. AGOA is the one word that keeps coming up with excessive groans. In English and French, small African traders are complaining about it.

Created by the Clinton Administration, “the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) was signed into law on May 18, 2000 as Title 1 of The Trade and Development Act of 2000. The Act offers tangible incentives for African countries to continue their efforts to open their economies and build free markets.” The U.S. Government intended that the largest possible number of Sub-Saharan African countries would get trade benefits of AGOA. The proclamation was the result of a public comment period and extensive interagency deliberations of each country’s performance against the eligibility criteria established in the Act.

My African exporter friends in West Africa usually give me an earful about AGOA — one called it an unpleasant experience and even came up with an expression Americans Getting Over on Africans, again. When I first heard about AGOA, I was attending a conference run by the Corporate Council of Africa in Washington D.C. At that event, I met Nigeria’s Minister of Agriculture who wondered why I was interested in crafts and not oil, as he put it, after all, I was from an oil state in Nigeria. I went to that conference to learn about the craft sector and because a design colleague of mine was speaking. Continue reading “The AGOA Problem: Africa’s Hidden Secret”

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Western Black Rhino Of Africa Officially Extinct, Conservation Group Announces

GENEVA — The Western Black Rhino of Africa has been declared officially extinct, and two other subspecies of rhinoceros are close to meeting the same fate, a leading conservation group said Thursday.

The International Union for Conservation of Nature said a recent reassessment of the Western Black Rhino had led it to declare the species extinct, adding that the Northern White Rhino of central Africa is now “possibly extinct” in the wild and the Javan Rhino is “probably extinct” in Vietnam, after poachers killed the last animal there in 2010.

A small but declining population of the Javan Rhino survives on the Indonesian island of Java, it added.

“A lack of political support and willpower for conservation efforts in many rhino habitats, international organized crime groups targeting rhinos and increasing illegal demand for rhino horns and commercial poaching are the main threats faced by rhinos,” the group said in a statement accompanying the latest update of its so-called Red List of endangered species.

About a quarter of all mammals are at risk of extinction, IUCN said, adding that some species have been brought back from the brink with successful conservation programs.

The Southern White Rhino numbered just 100 animals at the end of the 19th century, but has since flourished and now has a population of over 20,000.

The Przewalski’s Horse, a type of wild horse from Central Asia, has come back from extinction after a successful breeding program in captivity.

The Red List now contains almost 62,000 species of plants and animals, whose status is constantly monitored by conservationists.

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Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi Resigns

ROME — Italy’s presidential palace has confirmed that Premier Silvio Berlusconi has resigned, setting in motion a transition aimed at bringing Italy back from the brink of economic crisis.

Cheers broke out in front of the palace by the hundreds of people who gathered to witness Berlusconi’s final act in office, ending a 17-year political era.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP’s earlier story is below.

ROME (AP) – An Italian news report says Premier Silvio Berlusconi’s political party will conditionally support a technical government headed by economist Mario Monti.

Italy’s president is expected to ask Monti to try to form a new government once Berlusconi’s resignation is confirmed Saturday night. Monti will be tasked with trying to bring Italy back from the brink of a Greek-style economic crisis.

The LaPresse news agency quotes a statement issued after Berlusconi chaired a meeting of his People of Liberties Party, saying the party would tell President Giorgio Napolitano that it would back Monti. But it said the party would meet again to ensure that Monti’s Cabinet, legislative agenda and the timeframe of his government meet its requirements.

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A New Test to Help Predict Pre-eclampsia During Pregnancy

A test carried out during pregnancy could predict which women will develop a potentially fatal condition called pre-eclampsia, scientists say.

Presenting their study to the American Society of Nephrology, researchers said the test detected specific kidney cells in patients’ urine.

Out of 15 women who developed pre-eclampsia, all tested positive for the cells.

Experts say a simple, predictive test during pregnancy would be valuable.

Warning sign

Pre-eclampsia is a disorder which appears in the late stages of pregnancy and is characterised by high blood pressure and excess protein in the urine.

Researchers at the Mayo Clinic, who presented their work to the annual meeting of the American Society of Nephrology, tested 300 women

Dr Vesna Garovic assessed a test which detects the shedding of kidney cells called podocytes in the urine. The team had previously found podocytes present in patients with pre-eclampsia when they gave birth.

In this study, all the women who went on to develop pre-eclampsia had podocytes in their urine, while none of the 15 who went on to develop high blood pressure or the 44 healthy pregnant women did.

Although carried out on small numbers of women, the researchers say the test is highly accurate for predicting pre-eclampsia and could alert doctors early to the problem.

Ann Marie Barnard, chief executive of Action on Pre-Eclampsia, said an accurate test would help many women.

“A large number of the 1,500 women who call our helpline each year are terrified of becoming pregnant again because they have suffered pre-eclampsia, often with tragic results. Many do decide to go ahead with a new pregnancy anyway.

“Any test which can predict whether they are going to get it again has to be welcomed – while it cannot stop the disease occurring, it would enable services to be more closely focused on them and more alert to signs of the disease developing.”

And Andrew Shennan, professor of obstetrics at St Thomas Hospital in London, said: “Being able to use a simple accurate test in pregnancy, such as from a urine sample, would be valuable in identifying those women to watch closely.

“Current tests are not reliable enough, and further work is needed to confirm these promising findings in larger groups.”

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Hope for Malaria Vaccine After Blood Entry Route Discovered

By James Gallagher Health reporter, BBC News

The route all strains of the most deadly malaria parasite use to enter red blood cells has been identified by researchers at the Sanger Institute in Cambridge.

The scientists involved said the finding offered “great hope” for the development of a vaccine, which had the potential to be hugely effective.

Other experts said they were surprised and impressed.

Malaria affects 300 million people each year.

One million die, mostly children in sub-Saharan Africa.

There are many malaria parasites. Plasmodium falciparum is the most deadly and researchers at the Sanger Institute acknowledge it as a “very complex and cunning foe”.

It is exceptionally good at evading and bamboozling the immune system. Within five minutes of being bitten by a malaria-carrying mosquito, the parasite is already hiding inside the liver.

It then emerges from the liver at a different stage in its life cycle and infects red blood cells, where it starts reproducing.

Difficulty

The human immune system struggles to build up resistance to malaria and researchers have struggled in the laboratory.

There is still no approved vaccine against malaria. Large scale trials of the most advanced prototype – RTS,S – showed it halved the risk of getting malaria.

This study, published in Nature, looked at the moment the parasite infected a red blood cell.

They were looking for proteins on the surface of Plasmodium and red blood cells which were necessary for the parasite to identify its target and invade.

Others had been found before, but none were universally used.

The team at the Sanger Institute discovered that “basigin”, a receptor on the surface on red blood cells, and “PfRh5”, a protein on the parasite, were crucial.

In all strains of Plasmodium falciparum tested so far, interrupting the link protected the blood cells from attack.

One of the researchers, Dr Julian Rayner, said: “We were able to completely block invasion using multiple different methods, using antibodies targeting this interaction we could stop all invasion of red blood cells.

“It seems to be essential for invasion.”

The plan is to develop a vaccine which will prime the immune system to attack PfRh5 on the parasite

Fellow researcher Dr Gavin Wright said a vaccine would have great potential as the target was so essential.

“As a starting point for developing a vaccine you couldn’t hope for better,” he said.

Prof Adrian Hill, director of the Jenner Institute at Oxford University, said that after 25 years studying malaria he was “surprised” and “intrigued” by the findings.

He said textbooks and academic research suggested that if you blocked one pathway into the red blood cells, the parasite would choose another.

He added: “It remains to be seen how easy it will be to translate into a vaccine, but [for blood stage vaccines] PfRh5 is now at the top of the list.

“Vaccine candidates will come. If I had to bet, I’d say you’d get some partial efficacy from it.”

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Africa Mobile Market Is Fastest Growing On Earth

Africa is the world’s fastest growing mobile phone market and soon poised to have 735 million people using their phones for everything from transferring money to tracking animals for wildlife studies, an industry group said Wednesday.

Mobile penetration in Africa is now second only to Asia, according to the report by the industry group GSMA, or Groupe Speciale Mobile Association. Its report found that subscriber levels have grown by almost 20 percent for each of the past five years, and the total is expected to hit 735 million by the end of 2012.

Mobile phone users in South Africa can receive text messages anytime there’s activity on their bank account or credit card. Gertrude Kitongo also uses her phone as a radio, library, mini cinema, instant messenger and bank teller.

“I use my phone for everything,” exclaimed the 24-year-old Kenyan-Ugandan, who says she cherishes the link to family and friends – from her grandmother in a Ugandan village to her former schoolmates in Zimbabwe.

When she has a spare moment, Kitongo downloads and watches movies, or catches up on her Oprah magazine subscription. She makes payments and checks her bank balance using her smart phone, and her bank sends her a text message when she receives a payment.

Many African consumers, particularly in rural areas, often lack easy access to bank branches. Earlier this year, global credit giant Visa paid $110 million for Fundamo, a South African company that helps mobile companies and banks allow their customers to instantly transfer money between phones.

“It’s cheap, it’s a one-on-one relationship, it’s fast, it’s secure,” Fundamo senior vice president Reg Swart said in an interview Wednesday.

Cape Town-based Fundamo has taken mobile phone banking beyond Africa into the Middle East, Asia and the Americas, tailoring technology to work on the most sophisticated phones as well as those that can handle only text messages.

Peter Lyons, a GSMA policy expert, said that there will be more “mobile savvy citizens” like Kitongo in Africa who will demand better coverage and affordable service. Already Lyons estimated that at least 5.5 million Africans are directly or indirectly employed by the mobile industry.

GSMA called on governments to allocate more mobile broadband spectrum, and to cut taxes on operators to further spur expansion.

For all the convenience and opportunity, Kitongo questions some of the changes mobile technology has brought to social interaction. When friends get together for a coffee, she finds they’re often paying more attention to their phones than to the people across the table.

When she was in high school, she said, boys used to write letters to ask her on dates. Now, she said, no one takes time to do more than dash off a text message, or SMS.

“Now, people break up by SMS,” she said.

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CDC Abstinence From The Presidential Election: A Strange Democratic Scenario in Liberia

Too many times in our political history there is always a strange scenario that many countries in the world cannot experience. The Liberian people organized themselves properly on November 8, to execute the mandate of democracy without any opposition contestant in the second round of the Presidential Election. The people demonstrated one of the cardinal virtues of democracy through a peaceful and well meaningful process. The National Elections of Liberia (NEC) has made some progress during the first round of the election despite some mishaps and controversies. Many of the International Community members like the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) congratulated the Liberian people for the level of maturity exhibited during the course of the election. There were sixteenth Presidential aspirants that participated in the election.  President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf of the Unity Party had 530,020 votes with 43.9% and Winston Tubman of the Congress of Democratic Change (CDC) accumulated 39, 4370 votes with 32.7%. Every well meaning citizens and foreign nationals are concerned about stability of the nation-state which is the focus for such a fragile country.

Strangely, the opposition Congress for Democratic Change refused to participate in the election stating that the entire board of Commission of the National Election Commission must step down. But whatever must be their demand, the party abstained from the electoral procedure which is very good for our democratic process. Liberia has again made significant political history. The process of engaging in a political process left with the personality or institution to participate or not. The leadership of the CDC has chosen to avoid participation. Many will like to wonder why this process is so strange when in democratic process any candidate or institution can abstain from a process. This pattern exhibited by CDC is completely rare in many societies. Notably, Liberia is noted for creating strange history. For examples, Liberia had not been colonized by any foreign forces and we have produced the first female president in Africa. Liberia is remarkable for making significant history but the country is dearly suffering from poverty and other vices.

Substantively, the new government needs to work severely on illiteracy, decentralization, social order, work ethics, and religious tolerance.

  1. i. Illiteracy:

Ironically, the Liberian citizens were so jubilant about the democratic process but there is challenge of illiteracy in the society. Can you imagine out of 1.288,716 that marked 71.6% of the total registered voters, there were 82,074 (6.4%) of invalid votes.  It is so difficult to allow rationality to persist in the country because bulk of the people level of understanding is not good. Many times in some urban and rural communities people have conceptualized that once the information come from media institution it is always correct. The Liberia poverty reduction strategy has to be restructured and well defined to tackle the illiteracy rate in the country where every sector of the country can have some sampling of reading and writing skills. When this problem is not thoroughly tackle or improve, it could jeopardize the peace process or hinder the developmental pattern in the country.

  1. ii. Decentralization:

The question of decentralization is not settled. The concept is wrongly applied in some quarters in the country. Many times deconcentration is being used by present government apparatus. The type of decentralization some of us are speaking of is when the government completely devolves some of the powers to the local authority. This kind of decentralization has not been implemented and addressed. The National Policy on Decentralization and Local Governance has been developed by the stakeholders throughout the country with support from the national and international partners especially the Governance Commission, United Nations Development Program, Open Society Initiative for West Africa and the European Union.  The Government of Liberia will have to ensure the National Policy is strictly respected where it can be enacted into law and subsequently set for constitutional referendum. What is amazing is that the executive branch does not necessary need referendum before it can surrender some of the powers to the local people, it just need to be proactive and committed to put the decentralization issue into action. This is the new government challenge.

  1. iii. Social order

Social order is a cardinal virtue for building any vibrant nation-state like Liberia. It is true that we have come out of twenty five years of conflict ranging from political uprising to deadly civil conflict. There are so many learned and shared socialization processes that are detriment to the peace of the state. Some of those who are national leaders grew up through the process of deadly conflict and there is no other way for them to survive except of being gimmick in every practice. They have become the burden of society. It is so unfortunate to note that some Liberians will take the lid of the manhole out thereby creating the chaotic condition for drivers or pedestrians. The young traders used the lid to sell to iron dealers and there is no government agencies who have regimented those who are exporting iron like materials from the country. This is social disorder. It could create the condition where somebody will fall in the hole or a driver car could have terrible accident which could lead to some parts of his car to damage or so on. Today, most of the teenagers who are in secondary schools have become adult. Most of them have kids or living with friends who cannot even manage themselves. The election should not be the only point to show supremacy in the political realm of the country but rather it should serve as the means through which Liberia can be better than many countries in term of social order.

  1. iv. Work ethics:

The Liberian society is so volatile when it comes to people attitude for work. Many Liberians enjoy spreading their hands to beg for money other than getting to work on time and ensuring serious work is done. Most Liberia civil servant just work sometimes for thirty minutes and the rest should be lecture on political issue. It is so discouraging for a country that needs to be developed. I was once told by an elderly man that President Tolbert ensures that his cabinet members were at work on time. Can you imagine a Liberian public official goes for lunch and will not easily come back but will demand for his salary at the end of the month as though he has worked severely for it. For instance, sometimes the excuse for work in the month can enable the public servant to work even for ten working days. Work ethics is a serious problem for our country. In this strange history making country, where history making is peculiar, work ethics must be enhanced to make sure that civil servant or public servant comes to work on time and work seriously.  There are lot more need to be done to make our development visible. We must develop the spirit to work at all times.

Religious tolerance:

In a country where Christianity is the most dominant religion coupled with other religious affiliations and there is no trouble of religious practices, this kind of practice should be respected until the country vanishes from the surface planet. There should be no other religious holiday except for Christmas day and other Christianity holidays.  I hope this is not subjective but it has been shown that Christian religion is more peaceful and democratic as compared to any religion in the world. This is why the biggest in the world, the United States of America does not have no other holiday other than Christmas day which everybody including pagan worship and celebrate. To the incoming legislators or government, please don’t temper with religious holiday. Who can ever go in Indonesia and ask for Christian holiday? We must concentrate on substantial issue rather than Muslim or other religious holiday. Liberians are enjoying living peacefully with other religions. For instance, during the Ramadan season, every Liberian respects the loud noise in the early morning created by our Muslim brothers. They deserve the right to practice their religion. It is true that the country is a secular nation-state but it does mean that all the religions will have holidays. The practically of these religions make it germane and set into motion the issue of secular state. There are many Muslim state in the world where no one can stand up to practice their religion. Can you imagine the Christians allow their daughter to marry any religious group of people? But, it is so difficult for the Muslim and other religion. In deed, Christianity itself is democratic. I know we are noted for making strange history, but please be mindful in granting another religious holiday especially Muslim holiday.

Conclusion:

These analyses once considered as the new plan of the government of Liberia will help put the country in the right perspective. Let me congratulate those who participated in the electoral process of our country. Sorry to those who have fallen short of the bad history during the course of one of our democratic processes. Special congratulation to the Congress for Democratic Change for making Liberia to produce another unique history that many countries have not realized in their political process. Democracy is about participation, abstinence and other unique virtues.  Apart from those factors examined, Liberians must be committed to build their country and forget about creating confusion, living in the United States of America and other parts of the world because Liberia is the only country that they belong to. We must not be phantom bourgeoisie, which is taking our resources to other countries and allowing poverty to engulf our home land. Let me tell the new legislators that Liberia should be the first priority not the other way around. We are finding it difficult with those who are carrying the resources across the Atlantic ocean what’s more of creating law for dual citizenship. I hope that dual citizenship ideal should not be accepted and endorsed. In essence, in no way must the new legislators accept dual citizenship. It will not help the country. Liberians must make their country viable and accept a virtue of abstinence as a democratic value. The time is now!!!