(Personal Philosophy paper – originally written/e-published on 2nd March 2003 by Tayo Solagbade – Founder SDAc)

As can be seen from the above, this was written over nine years ago. I remain as committed to the ideals outlined below, as I was back in 2003. To me, that’s an indication that I’m on the right path.

The personal growth and fulfillment I have benefitted as result has been invaluable. Every person who wishes to achieve his/her full potential as a human being, will find it useful to prepare a personal philisophy statement of this kind.

And that’s why,. at the end, I ask : Why do YOU do what you do?

Those who accept the need to seek assistance from successful persons, and/or be religious in order to achieve success, in my opinion sometimes tend to assume that’s ALL they need to do. Which is why they neglect to do the most crucial thing necessary to achieve the success they so fervently desire. They fail to take personal action !

Too many people think all they need to do is DESIRE success and express that desire to anyone they believe can help them, who will then help them! Maybe it happens that way at times, but it won’t be often!

My objective is to show people how they can apply tested and proven SD principles to achieve their personal goals in life.

I hope to help them realize they can do more for themselves than they currently believe. All it takes is for them to STOP being fatalistic and LEARN to accept life’s challenges as pre-requisite for achievement of their set goals.

I have chosen this approach because I found that methods employed by many others to effect socio-cultural change in Nigeria/Africa have not really worked well.

I have chosen NOT to be a Social Critic or commentator because even after criticizing or commenting, one will suggest alternatives, which then have to be implemented by others (or with the cooperation of others).

The problem with that method is that any resultant plans could be easily frustrated via bureaucratic processes, and other extraneous influences prevalent in our developing societies etc.

I have chosen to be a Social Change Agent who advocates, and propagates, Self-Development Education (SDE). I strongly believe SDE can stimulate people to take PERSONAL ACTION to create changes that enable them achieve their personal goals consistently and repeatedly.

Spontaneous Coaching™ Makes It Possible

The technique I use (Spontaneous Coaching™) ensures that I can carry on – day and night – preaching SDE wherever I go, with or without the cooperation of decision makers or “authorities”.

How?

Through influencing others by my actions and also by sharing my thoughts, ideas, failures and successes (some people wrongly interprete this as an attempt to boast or show off).

I developed this concept myself, and have used it successfully for over 10 years. I have testimonials from many individuals confirming how I helped them greatly, using this method.

People with mental attitudes that enable them take control of what happens to them daily, are unlikely to be seriously (if at all) affected by vagaries of their country’s socio-economic circumstances.

They are more likely to make the best of them, rather than fall apart.

It is my conviction that knowing how to ADAPT to inevitable changes that could make your survival skills obsolete, is of crucial importance(SDE will equip anyone with the requisite preparation to do the foregoing).

The Solution To Unemployment

For example, graduates unemployment statistics would drop if they acquired income-generating skills while still in university! SDE if started early, will get young Nigerians/Africans thinking about ALTERNATIVES to traditional employment much earlier on in their lives.

The Self-Development Academy for instance aims to expose them to low startup capital vocations they could venture into, and even facilitate “entry” for those of them who indicate interest.

The foregoing is one of my motivations for being a Muiltpreneur. To succeed more frequently, one needs a multiple-career strategy.

Acquisition of a variety of skills to generate income and capture opportunities in today’s fast-changing marketplace will boost one’s chances of achieving prosperity and fulfillment independent of economic fluctuations.

This concept has been used in developed societies since the early 90s. My article titled “How To Be A Jack Of Many Trades™, And Why It Can Make You Succeed More Often” elaborates on how anyone with the necessary interest and motivation can successfully adopt it for use wherever s/he is.

I should add though, that it can be more difficult in some societies than others. And you’ll be tested the limits of your endurance in places where merit may not readily be recognized.

As explained in Tom Gorman’s book on “Multipreneuring”, one can develop multiple sources of income and pursue multiple careers( in paid, or self-employment).

A key suggestion made in the book, is for the individual to continually acquire new learning, and also take advantage of opportunities that appear in the market place as they become apparent.

I successfully employed this technique while in paid employment for seven(7) years, and earned significantly rapid career advancement ahead of people with higher qualifications, and years on the job.

My earlier mentioned article on Multipreneuring gives details. This is what I want to share with other young (and not so young) people in Nigeria/Africa – and beyond. They can also achieve similar successes by diligently practicing Self-Development . All that is required is adoption of the required mental attitude.

Sadly, many people are instantly biased against anyone who ventures into multiple vocations. They belong to the “traditional school”, which insists a person must specialize. Such sentiments betray a scary lack of exposure to 21st century trends in skills acquisition now crucial for successful as opposed to existential living.

Success Through Versatility

Robert Kiyosaki advocates becoming a generalist first, before specializing. Herman Holtz, the late legendary Consultant’s Consultant, acknowledged that certain individuals can find success through their versatility(learn more about his interesting revelations in my article on Multipreneuring).

I have frequently suffered discrimination because I “wear many hats”. In my former workplace, it initially earned me criticisms, but later got me recognition and career advancement opportunities because my versatility became an asset to every team I worked in! Since I became an entrepreneur, the story has been the same.

Some people erroneously think that their “schooling” will be adequate to cater for them through life. Technology has made that a thing of the past.

Today, without diligent practice of Self-Education, one stands a chance of becoming suddenly obsolete or extinct – virtually overnight!

In summary, my message is that through SDE, ANYONE can be empowered to become the best s/he can possibly be in life. Maybe I won’t change the world. But for those few people who will appreciate it, I certainly intend to try!

What about YOU? Why do you do what you do?

Using the recent Biafran war debate as a case study, this article illustrates the important role played by a healthy reading habit in building critical thinking skills, which in turn can improve the quality of interpersonal interactions in societies. Note that by "reading", I refer not just to what happens in learning institutions, but even more specifically to that done by adults to inform and educate themselves on current affairs, history, politics etc.

Many Adult Nigerians Lack Critical Thinking Skills

Whenever I read or hear people make blanket declarations based on tribal or racial sentiments I often feel sorry for them. The recent uproar regarding comments by Chinua Achebe in his latest book (There Was A Country) about some of Nigeria’s past leaders of non-Igbo extraction is a case in point.

As I explain later in this piece, it takes a deep knowledge of the history of the war, and of Nigeria, to fully appreciate the perspective from which Achebe has written his new book. Far from being tribalistic, Achebe is a man who seeks to add clarity to how we treat each other as different nations co-existing as one in the geographical entity called Nigeria.

Unfortunately, some people with tunnel vision have simply turned it into a revival of tribal rivalry – claiming Achebe, an Igbo, had insulted or offended Yorubas by accusing Chief Obafemi Awolowo who was no longer alive to defend himself.

Some of us cannot afford to be narrow in our thinking. For instance, I I’m married to an Igbo woman – from Anambra state. Which makes my kids half Igbo. This gives me a unique opportuntiy to see things from both sides (more on this later)!

It takes a lack of critical thinking skills to assume that everything can be seen in terms of either black or white. The truth about life is that a lot of overlapping will often happen between the white and black we see.

Our ability to intelligently navigate those grey areas in life is often determined by the quality of thinking we are capable of. Reading can help any interested person develop critical thinking skills that will equip him/her to view issues from a balanced perspective.

To Comment Intelligently, You Must Study The Subject!

In many discussions, both online and off, young Nigerians who were either toddlers or not yet born when the war happened condemned the author for his unflattering comments about Awolowo and others.

Yet, from their comments it was often obvious that they had a poor grasp of the subject they challenged Achebe on!

I just don’t get it. How can you intelligently comment on a subject you have not studied?

Achebe wrote a personal account of his experiences and observations during the the Biafran civil war. He experienced it as a young man, in a very personal way – losing loved ones including his own mother!

The young people who criticised him should have done their homework by reading books written on the war. And possibly interviewing older persons who survived it. If their sources were reliable, that would have equipped them to comment more intelligently, and from an informed perspective.

Sadly, they chose to simply jump in and play in the mud like others!

How many Nigerians know what a “Pogrom” is?

According to Wole Soyinka in his book titled “The Man Died”, that was what the Igbo were subjected to in most parts of the country as a result of the war. Innocent citizens of Igbo/eastern origin suddenly became targets of attacks, with some fellow citizens from other tribes that they’d lived amongst for years turning their backs on them.

If you were not a conscious adult when the Biafran war happened(I was born the year it ended), there’s a good chance that most of what you know will have come to you via hear-say. If you’re lucky, your sources would have been authentic and truthful.

Some of us had no willing/reliable channels to learn from. So, we turned to the few books we could find.

It was in Nobel Laurete Wole Soyinka’s book titled “The Man Died”, that I first encountered the word “Pogrom” – and I had to consult a dictionary for the meaning. If your vocabulary is anything like mine was back then, you’ll probably want to do the same…now

The book provides graphic accounts of how many ordinary Igbos who remained behind in non-biafran states were hunted down, to the extent that it became risky for persons belonging to other tribes to openly associate with an Igbo person.

The author – Soyinka (a Yoruba by tribe) had expressed outrage at the treatment meted out to Igbos. It is noteworthy that he did not simply stand aside and watch. Indeed he was an active participant in mediation efforts, to the extent that he eventually got thrown in jail by the Nigerian authorities after visiting Biafra (and foreign organizations) in an effort to broker peace, to stop the war from happening.

Who better to tell you the truth about what really happened, in a book!

Reading Helped Me Bridge The Gaps In My Knowledge

A few years ago, I personally undertook a journey of self-education about the early history of Nigeria, with particular interest in the Biafran war.

My motivation derived from a need to understand the origin of the palpable distrust that persists, especially amongst the dominant tribes in this country.

I also needed to unravel the mystery, for a number of other more personal reasons…

You see, like I said earlier on, I’m married to an Igbo woman from Anambra state. And I’m Yoruba from Ogun state. Every now and then I have heard phrases like “Yoruba people always do this or that…” and I would wonder how any of that described me…:-) That told me there was apparently a lot I needed to learn!

In addition, I got curious about our history, when I read that 6th July 1967 was the day the Biafran war began…and that it ended on January 1970.

Get this: I was born 6th July 1970. In other words, the war began on (what would later be) my day and month of birth, and ended in my year of birth!

Strange coincidence I thought. And that made me even more resolved to learn about the war – especially what happened to the Igbos.

As you can imagine, I chose to do this not just for myself, but also for my kids – who have Igbo names, and Igbo blood running through their veins. I wanted them to know the truth about their past.

And Soyinka’s book has provided some useful insight. So did a few others I bought, though I was not as convinced of some of the other authors’ objectivity, or the reliability of their “sources”.

Summary

The above is why I intend to read Achebe’s new book in full as well, to continue my education.

If you are anything at all like me, as described above, I suggest you get a copy of Soyinka’s “The Man Died”, and that of Achebe’s “There Was A Country”, so that you can educate yourself better about what truly happened during those formative years of the nation we call Nigeria.

Then, and only then, will you be able to make useful contributions to the discussion about the way forward!

In this article, two true stories are narrated to illustrate the amazing power of self-belief and desire, backed by dogged persistence. With those 3 ingredients alone, any person CAN successfully apply simple self-development principles, to achieve valued goal(s) despite the perpetual presence of adverse conditions. I say this with every sense of responsibilty – based on VERY personal experience. Read this post to learn how to discover what Napoleon Hill referred to as your other self!

(This article is one of twenty-five(25) contained in Tayo Solagbade’s Ebook titled "25 Articles/True Stories On Self-Development, Entrepeneuring & Web Marketing To Help You Succeed More Often")

First published online: June 2006

Story 1: A Mother Who Knew How

Adrenoleukodystrophy or ALD for short. That was the name of a terrible disorder that afflicted the child of an American woman in a film (based on a true story) I watched some years ago. It was an ailment the child’s doctors believed could not be treated. The mother of the ALD afflicted child was however not like most others and refused to sit back and watch her child waste away while she hoped for a miracle.

Through relentless personal efforts, she practically created the “miracle” that saved her son(the disease affects only boys – usually between ages 6 and 10). She went from doctor to doctor, specialist-to-specialist and visited libraries, reading all manner of books, articles, research reports etc that had even the slightest relevance to the subject of ALD.

She remained undaunted in the face of repeated discouragement from those she approached for help.

Instead, she chose to empower herself by becoming as knowledgeable as the medical practitioners themselves, on the subject of ALD and its treatment etc. It was this focus, determination and perseverance that eventually paid off, resulting in her helping to discover a viable treatment for her child – and by implication, those of others.

(The National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS) maintains an information page on ALD).

The foregoing narrative illustrates how an individual, through self-help/belief, can achieve what – before then – would have been considered "impossible".

Michael Angier – in one of his SuccessNet.org articles(titled "Leaders are readers") – once wrote that Abraham Lincoln used to walk miles (from/to his house) to borrow and return library books, which he read, by candlelight.

That the knowledge he acquired from reading all those books made a significant impact on his ability to succeed is certainly not in doubt today. I once read somewhere that "books strengthen the mind". In Lincoln’s case, his healthy reading habit apparently gave him the mental stamina to carry on, (DESPITE failing repeatedly in pursuing many important goals he set out to achieve in life) UNTIL he achieved noteworthy success.

As pointed out by Angier: in Abe’s case, the phrase “Leaders are readers” could not be more appropriate.

Story 2: An Employee Who Knew How

Consider another true story of a 29 year old brewer in one of the Nigerian plants of a multinational blue chip manufacturing company.

He decided to attend a 3-month practically intensive French Language course in his spare time (which wasn’t much). During this period he would close night shift at 7.00am on Monday for instance, get home by 7.30am, sleep till 10.30am then rush out to resume French lessons by 11.00am for 4 consecutive hours.

Many times after classes, he would insist on staying on with his Cameroonian teacher to practice speaking/writing fluent and grammatically correct French. He kept this up till the 3 months expired – and continued afterwards to visit the teacher to consolidate his learning.

The latter, being very impressed, arranged later that year for the “student” to spend 3 weeks in Cameroon living with his (the teacher’s) family. During this period, the young man went out daily to interact with people in different places and practice carrying on everyday conversations in French with a view to achieving fluency.

As the end of his three week stay approached he was pleased to note – based on comments from his hosts and friends he had made, that his fluency had improved noticeably. The trip had served useful purpose after all.

A Run Of Bad Luck?

When it was time to return to Nigeria, things did not however go exactly as he had planned. As a matter of fact, his trip back home turned out to be most traumatising, due to an unexpected failure of a friend he had made on arrival in Cameroon, to return an amount of money he(the friend) had borrowed. In order to get back to Nigeria and resume shift duty on schedule in the brewery, he was forced to travel 12 hours overnight, by sea, under heavy rainfall, in a leaky boat from Douala Cameroon to Oron in Nigeria.

NB: Read the full story of that harrowing experience in next Wednesday’s Self-Development Nugget’s post. TO GET THE NOTIFICATION IN YOUR E-MAIL CLICK HERE TO JOIN MY MAILING LIST (You get multiple gifts – instantly!)

Reaping The Rewards

That was in July 1999. In April 2001(almost 2 years later), this young man was nominated by his company along with 3 others to attend a 1 week International Course in Douala, Cameroon (note that the company/most of its managers had no idea at this time that he could speak/read or write French).

It was just a day after the course began, that the expatriate MD of their Cameroonian sister company visited, and joined the Nigerian delegates in their hotel bar.

For some strange reason, the MD singled him out and asked him “Tu parle Français?”(“Do you speak French?”).

The young man naturally responded “Oui, je parle un peu”(“Yes, a little”) a bit surprised at being taken up so directly. Both men went on to converse fluently for about 15 minutes in the same language while the other Nigerians looked on in amazement.

One of them was to later say to this young man “Ol boy, so you can speak French!? I knew you took some classes, but I didn’t know you could speak it so well. Man, I’m impressed!”. Another said ”You’ve really demystified this language for me now – I must learn to speak French too”.

While they were still at the bar, the MD called another Cameroonian, a senior manager, and said (pointing to the young Nigerian) “Il parle Français comme un Camerounais!”("He speaks French like a Cameroonian!").

Needless to say, he subsequently became very useful as an interpreter for his Nigerian colleagues, whenever they visited their choice restaurant to eat – since the steward there could barely manage a few words of greeting in English. The same thing happened whenever they had to ask for directions when they went out on their own.

But most importantly, you can imagine the high regard in which his colleagues began to hold him for his ability to speak a foreign language they wished they could speak, and so fluently too. Of course he got noticed for that many times afterwards, and made friends much more easily as a result. In fact, after the course, one of the Cameroonian delegates invited him to spend a number of nights with his family at Yaounde – and even went out of his way to help locate the family of the young man’s teacher in the Francophone capital.

The significant recognition and high profile that his French-speaking ability brought him served to make the pains of learning to speak the language well worth it.

Now, Let Me Ask You A Question

What if his company’s management had later decided to send someone on secondment to work in the sister company in Cameroon? And what if they had to choose from amongst a large number of qualified managers – which included our young friend?

Do you think he would have been one of those to be given very serious consideration/possibly chosen?

I do. And by the way, that young man was this writer. And it did happen that during the course in Douala, the idea of having an international mix of facilitators to implement the roll out of the course within each country was muted. A suggestion made by one of the expatriate course facilitators was that our young Nigerian, being already French speaking, would be well placed to help the Cameroonians with the implementation in their country.

Were They Just Lucky?

It could be argued, that the individuals I have described above, were just lucky to have been in the right place at the right time.

My response would be that anyone who thinks so, has probably not heard the very apt saying that goes something like this: “Luck is often what happens when preparation meets opportunity”. In other words, a person can ensure that he becomes perpetually lucky (successful) by simply preparing himself ahead of time for possible experiences (or opportunities) s/he might be exposed to in the future.

This can be done first by reflecting on previous experiences – and current happenings – as well as carefully evaluating signs or signals of likely future occurrences. Having done this, the individual can then proceed to prepare –against the backdrop of the reflections – by acquiring the relevant skills and/or knowledge needed to effectively tackle the challenges that the future brings. By the time s/he actually encounters the challenges or undergoes the experiences, it would likely be with a feeling of having done it before – what is sometimes called “Déjà vu”.

"Luck is the residue of diligence"

Summary

People in different areas of human endeavor sometimes complain that they can’t succeed or achieve advancements in their personal/work lives. Their reason is often that they lack the needed resources or enabling environment for them to do so. (An example is the case of employees working in an organization).

The truth however is often that within that same environment, working alongside those same complainants, are some individuals who – despite the lack of resources/favorable environment – are continually achieving the desired successes.

By this I do not mean individuals who have godfathers making things happen for them from behind the scenes, regardless of their actual abilities or workplace performances. I also do not refer to persons who employ crooked means to achieve their "success(es)". No.

Those I am concerned with here are persons who by dint of sheer hard work, diligent preparation, perpetual self-education, and rugged perseverance, continually overcome (perceived) limitations in their environment, to achieve practically ANY objectives they set for themselves.

Final Words

In saying the foregoing, I must emphasise that sometimes, one may have to (as Jim Rohn said) change the environment(s) in which one seeks to succeed. This can be especially relevant to persons engaged in activities outside paid employment. In following Jim’s advice however, some people may need to improvise(like I have), as not everyone will be able to "re-locate" physically to another environment.

Thankfully, technology and the Internet have today made it easier to increase your chances of achieving success. They do this by affording you convenient access to more favourable environments that are physically beyond your reach, while you remain where you are. One example: A freelance writer based in Nigeria or India for example, can get betterpaid – than s/he would at home – to do work online for clients in the US, Canada etc.