INSIDE OUT; ACHIEVING EXCELLENCE FROM WITHIN

On the 20th of September, I was privileged to receive a Nigerian Dream Personality award at the Congress Hall, Transcorp Hilton, Abuja at the Nigeria Rebirth Conference for the impact we are making through Motivators International.

At the event, the Ooni of Ife, His Imperial Majesty, Oba Enitan Adeyeye Ogunwusi (Ojaja II) spoke passionately about how we could maximize what we have as a nation. He charged the participants at the conference to start looking inside to unleash their potential. He talked about Nigeria's unexplored gold deposits, he spoke about the quality of our crude oil deposit, he epitomized the heritage of our people.

I could see in the Ooni's eyes, truth mixed with courage; confidence blended with an equal amount of passion. I could see a man who was first a King on the inside before being anointed on the outside.

In that hall, I saw the importance of adapting our greatness #insideout; that we only publicly become a reflection of our inner personalities. If the truth be told, if we focused on the real things that matter in our country, if we worked to fix our educational system, if we supported our start-ups, inspired our young people to dream, there will be no limit to what we can achieve. We will live out our fullest potentials.

Ladies and Gentlemen, to join us in the robust discussion that will characterize this year's Motivators International Youth Conference, at Bolingo Hotel and Towers Plc, on 15th of October by 10 am, you can now register through our website:

www.motivatorsinternational.org

(Please note: Only 300 spaces are available)

We look forward to welcoming you at the event.

TAKE YOUR BURDENS TO THE LORD

Today, I am sharing this old song that tells us where to cast our burdens. In life, you'll be faced with high times and low times. At high times, be thankful, be merry, celebrate and at low times, do not despair. Sometimes, you'd need to breath some deep air into your lungs and encourage yourself in the Lord. Sometimes, you need to remind yourself where God has brought you from. Momentary challenges are not permitted to stop you. You are wired to prevail and in the end, you'll be holding in your hands, the keys to your next level with a new song in your mouth.

Whenever you find the clock ticking against your courage, remember these lines: 

"If the world from you withhold of its silver and its gold,
And you have to get along with meager fare,
Just remember, in His Word, how He feeds the little bird—
Take your burden to the Lord and leave it there.

DO YOU LIKE RAP?

Sometimes I imagine I can rap, good quality rap; that is in my dream life. But whenever I start rapping real time, the words are usually deceptive. They refuse an already agreed accord. So in my mind I rap so well but in reality it is just blah. I'm tired. I can't deal.

Whenever I listen to rap music, it sounds like electrified poetry with the healthy capacity of shocking; of naked words running after each other trying to put on some clothing. Sometimes, I just shake my head to the rap's fluid sensation,
Ti, KaTi, TiKa, TiKa, Ti KaKa, TiKa...
The rise and fall of the springy beats can heal the sick and make the lame walk. But that is story for another day.

In the wake of this my new found love, I have come to notice how my generation has witnessed a surge of domestic creativity in Nigeria's music industry; not just rap. Gone are the days when western music stripped our indigenous music of its massive potential. It's something that makes me proud of being Nigerian. And when you hear good rap music calibrate your ears, you thank the Lord for the gift of creativity.

Phyno is the current rave of the moment when secular rap is concerned. If you don’t know him, he is a Nigerian rap sensation that uses Igbo language to slice through his music. The first time I saw Phyno was at Farafina 2014 final event at Eko Hotels, Lagos. He was looking fly with the microphone going up and down with chants of
'Alobam, Alobam...!'
Wetin konsain mi, eh? I no send.
I did not even sing along. Who's this one

DEWDROP TRAINING FOR PROFESSIONAL CAREGIVERS

In Nigeria, the Caregiving profession has such a massive market with a huge potential for growth. It has become one with a rising need but few competent hands to meet expectations. The field is saturated with demand yet many people roam the street unemployed without the proper qualification to set them apart for the kind of life they seek.

Many busy people who seek the services of Caregivers prefer to employ untrained hands, people popularly called House helps to work in their homes. Sooner or later, they find out that the caregivers in these homes do not possess the needed expertise. This can constitute a major harm to both children and the safety of the family.

Whether you’re looking to hire someone for your 0-5 children or to take special care of your aging parents, Dewdrop trained caregivers make it easier for you to joggle your other tasks while they deliver efficient Caregiving attending specifically to the unique of your tender children or aging parents.

To further equip more persons with professional Caregiving skills, the Dewdrop Institute training for Caregivers offers intensive three months course to students, exposing them to world class skills in the Caregiving profession. Students who graduate from the school receive a City and Guilds certificate from London and can work anywhere in the world. You can take advantage of this training to make yourself globally marketable in the field of Caregiving.

To participate in the classes, call Judith on 09080161319 or visit our website on www.dewdropinstitute.org

TRUST YOUR STRUGGLE

Hello my people, it's been a pretty long time since I posted here. So today, I'm thinking about you, dear reader. I've missed you and I feel like sharing this with you; things I've been thinking about. You know sometimes, you want to see the end of all the trials in your life at a glance but still see them stare at you when you look in the mirror. Well, you're not alone in this. Trust your struggle. God is working things out for you.

Let me tell you a story.

Surrounded by towering soldiers of high repute, a young man stood at the crossroads of destiny. David; this fine faced shepherd boy stumbled upon a national assault upon his people; a defining contest where older siblings and country folks were hiding under one another’s skin, rolling their eyes and asking “who will go for us?”.

Who wan die?

For that fragile moment, fear turned men into boys and small boys had that flash of opportunity to graduate into men if they had the slightest courage to face Goliath.

You see, Goliath, Israel’s at-the-moment nightmare, is just life. With its height of challenge and confrontation, it’s always calling men for a fight. And too many are scared because they have no experience with small victories. Too many depend on their strength and are failed too often. But real men have back up. And they brag with the source of their confidence.

So David appeared on the stage, full of guts. “What shall be given to the man who kills this uncircumcised philistine?”

But the thing is this.

Something had been giving him confidence.

It was his ANTECEDENTS.

The things he had passed through, his previous  

WHEN WE WERE CHILDREN

When we were children, daddy always bought newspapers. Like many children look forward to Suya and Ice cream, newspapers were an incredible delight. We devoured the content of each day with childish innocence and we would struggle for the fleshy pages, to be the first person to lay hold on this 'encyclopedia everdaynica' that was Daddy's everyday gift.

As a child, I wanted much more. So I began to dream big! Why read a single paper a day when I could own the whole newspapers and then read as much as I wanted. Ladies and gentlemen, this was how I began dreaming of becoming a newspaper vendor. I loved them, with treasures piled up on the head or somewhere around them, they were my momentary heroes. I would look at them with immense love and reverence and fantasize about owning the whole papers and then reading everything from headlines to cartoons to interviews to love stories.

But growing up has changed the colours of the rainbow in my eyes. I have been fed with something stronger than milk. Now, what used to be an incredible delight has gone through an unbelievable demise because I've learnt that ownership is not the same as possession. You can own a phone but not know what to do with it, you can own a laptop and not know what to do with it. You can even have access to the internet and know only of Naijabet. So my drive to become a newspaper vendor waned when I found out that it's not everyone that owns a book that actually knows what's in them.

There were many other things we wanted to be while growing up. One of my friends said he wanted to be an Ice Cream seller, so he can devour as much Ice cream as he wanted because his mum thought Ice cream was a luxury. I don't know what has happened to his passion. How endless imagination and sometimes, ignorance, can circle around the world in in the corners of our teething minds.

But you see, life happens to all of us. Priority changes with time. I remember many many years ago, the day I chyked a girl for the first time, how the world suddenly turned soft and shaky when my proposal was turned down with a staccato of confusing grammar. Certainly a bad day for democracy.

For me as it is for many people, life is stepping on a fast lane. Yet, it is important never to lose the potency of childhood brilliance. How everything was possible, how you could catch a Lion with one hand, how you could snatch a star from the sky, how you could slap a monkey and send it on an errand and it will come jumping back to you with results. Incredible, endless possibilities. Childhood.

Well, even though I did not get to become a newspaper vendor, the NGO I run publishes a magazine, Motivators International Magazine. Dreams can actually come true in bigger dimensions.

So never stop believing in yourself and in the fact that you were born to be amazing, to glow, to make a difference. Never cower because you're old or because you think time is no longer on your side. Childishness may be naivety but it carries with it a catalyst that stirs endless possibilities.

While you think you have no money, some broke ass nigga is winning the war against poverty. While you think you're too old, some older person just started a new business.

Till today, the world is still fresh for the people who will see through the glittering onyx of their minds, that impossible is nothing.

MEETING WITH THE MINISTER

Hello dear readers of Inspiring World. I know many of you didn’t like the point I left off my last post. Radiant, one of my commenters wondered what happened when the meeting with the minister finally commenced. Well, let me tell you about it.

After the arrival of the minister, we were ushered into this board room with an oval table, a slightly choky space, with seats gracious enough to contain a few persons. Yours sincerely was observing at one corner with many others. We were all asked to introduce ourselves. Some names like mine were feather weight ( who sabi me sef except my Motivator people and of course my village people?) compared to names like Amb. John Fashanu, Asu Ekiye, Amb Rachel Bakam, Abiodun Oyediran (MD of Abeysteph), which were of course, heavyweight.

Mr David Ibrahim was the spokesperson of the Nigerian Rebirth Art Project. He sincerely apologized for the lateness in the commencement of the meeting. His speech, laced with compelling candour talked about the Nigerian situation and why the perception of Nigeria must change for good in the international community.

He handed over to Captain Balami, President of Cabinet X Africa, who I was meeting for the first time. Captain Balami looked dapper in a dark blue suit and spoke with an air only found around the entitled. Needless to say how much I’ve admired him through the stories I’ve heard about him and for him to be driving a noble project such as Cabinet X Africa, you can be sure of his quality.

Some of the heavy-weight young people spoke before the minister began his speech, I was taken aback by his incredible sense of humour.

These were some of his initial words,

“Where ever people see me, they’re quick to say that I am a youth because I look young. Look at me very well, I am fifty-one years old. What will a fifty one year old person be doing as the minister of youth in a normal society?”

When he said this, I heard the sound of a pin fall down and die. His words unsettled normal thinkers looking for something to preempt.

Then he continued,

“But in an abnormal society, I have every business being a youth....
With men aged over 80 sitting at the board of companies, it will be criminal to think that at 51, I am not a young man.'

According to him, “The greatest challenge of the Nigerian nation is to liberate itself from ethnicity and religious differences. What is the religion of hunger, of love or of poverty? It's more preferable to be materially poor and spiritually rich. The only thing that can live after you is a good name. Every other thing ends with may your soul rest in peace.”


By the time the event ended, I was thinking more about the positive energy generated in that room, how much young Nigerians were committed to building a greater nation than on any other thing. I was more than excited to be in that small space with people so full of greatness. We were given a book titled A New Nigeria Is Possible written by Chris Nwani. (Good book by the way)



During his speech, the minister promised to be available in Dubai for the event in February, 2016. 

Believe me, Nigeria has a great hope in the midst of her young people. 

Are you one of them?

African Time.

Three days ago, I attended an event where I met some young Nigerians drawn from various fields. Come and see faces bristling with brilliance, some accomplished, some in-between, others wearing faces that symbolize hope for the Giant of Africa. These are those selected by a panel for Nigerian Dream Personality Award, an award to be given at National Rebirth Art project in Dubai in February, 2016. When I arrived at the meeting, I met some of the organizers, decked in Nigeria Rebirth T-shirts.
Naija get beta hope.

This meeting was scheduled by 10 am and I came about 10:20am, afraid that traffic must have played a fast one on me. But alas, I really wasn't late as we stood up for like an hour, waiting for the Minister's Boardroom to open. While I waited, I met a new friend, Micheal, of Skydev Global resources and also Sonia, an interesting young woman who tutors school children .

While we were standing, the minister came in. I apparently didn't know he was the minister judging from his attire. I thought he looked like some smart security personnel assigned to the Ministry of youths, the type that are quick to roll their eyes and ask 'Oga, anything for your boys?' If you've never met him, you would hardly know he's the minister, particularly with his blaring red beret. Behind him, I could see about four or five mean faced Policemen with disciplined smile perched at the edge of their lips for the sake of courtesy. I was taken aback when I learned he was the minister. He passed I and my new friend and noticing that we did not quite recognize him, he asked us, 'Where is the minister nah, hasn't he arrived? ' Such an interesting personality he is.

 But my friend asked me an important question. "Why are we so sold out to African Time? I searched my mind for answers. I pondered on moments when African Time had affected me badly. When I arrived for programmes early, only to wait a long while before it starts. I remember when we organized an event in our organization, Motivators International, where we started way beyond schedule even though the event was very impactful in the end.
I don't know who to blame, nature or nurture, Africans or just Nigerians.

What exactly is African Time? Or better still Nigerian Time? What is it with us to think that 10 am is actually 11 am, 1pm is same as 2pm and 3pm sits comfortably at 4pm? Do these things happen in Europe, Asia or America?

Are you wondering what later happened when the minister came? Don't worry, tomorrow I will write about how the meeting with the Minister went.

I have since decided to take it personal with African Time. To start keeping to time strictly this 2016. Let's call this D-Motivator's Time. Hehehe. Do you have any thoughts to share on African time? Have you ever been affected or infected by African time?

REMEMBERING THE ARMED FORCES.

Every 15th January, Nigeria remembers a special set of people. Generally, the armed forces refers to the military force of a nation. Today, in remembrance of our fallen heroes, wreaths are laid, fallen soldiers are remembered and we  seize the moment to better appreciate what our armed forces do in maintaining out nation's integrity.

I think it is a special responsibility to be part of the armed forces, to be more concerned about your country's protection from external aggression and all forms of insurrection, to be awake when others are asleep, to be faced with immense dangers in times of confrontation.

Uncountable number of soldiers have died in times of war, fighting for the nation's course; they represent an embodiment of courage, resilience and doggedness. They are trained in such ways as to enforce law and other. This is why when a soldier slaps you, depending on his level of annoyance, you will be tempted to explain to your ancestors, because they are trained to inject a level of force to every civil disobedience.

Soldiers are indeed a special group of people, yes, the good ones who believe that they have been called to serve. But just like every other profession, sometimes having one Judas in every twelve, there are some military people who are easily driven to exalt their ego before law abiding civilians.

I think today is a special day we could learn from what it means to be a soldier. It means to fight to the very last, it means not to look back in the face of confrontation, it means to bring a winning strategy, to bring result to the table and not story. How mean can we be in the face of challenges?  How much do we pet what we should battle - habits, wrong association and anything that threatens who we were born to be?  What about the enemies that crumble our inner peace, worries that war against our soul?

As we remember our armed forces today, remember, you are armed to the teeth with every arsenal to be the best God has called you to be. Look within, you will find it.

May the souls of all our fallen soldiers rest in peace.

RETHINKING EXCELLENCE

Hello Friends! Let me first of all welcome you to my blog for the first time this 2016. I've been away from here for a while and I'm back now. The way new year resolutions have been flying around, I hope they have enough fuel to reach the end of the year. Anyway, we'll get to interact more here.

So recently, I've been thinking. What is it that really distinguishes people? What makes a person leave a legacy and another just passes through like the wind, covering distance in no particular direction?

There's a thought perched at the roof of my mind. I chew it for a while, break it into morsels of meditations and spread it out to dry. I am thinking of the price of excellence. That factor that defies race and prejudice, that fragrance everyone wants to taste and embrace. That word that when given the benefit of definition, is the quality of being outstanding or extremely good.

Oftentimes, people are quick to string excellence to academics alone but a life of excellence creates a hunger for the best in business, leadership, innovation, relationship and other aspects of life. It is what forms the foundation for one's ability to stretch.  

Because excellence doesn't dwell long in the city of Everybodies, where everyone spreads tent, it answers to people who are willing for an extra walk; who ask the right questions, connect with the right people, read the right books and set sail at the break of dawn while others wait for the stainless sea.

The first thing to consider in excellence is Vision. How far can you see? How willing are you to reach out for it? The difference between people who leave lasting legacies and those who don't is often what one sees that the other cannot see, what one feeds on that the other despises, what one feels is enough that the other thinks is just the beginning.

As the Sun rises today, let us ponder on the words of Martin Luther King Jr. "If a man is called a street sweeper, he should sweep streets even as Michealangelo painted, or Beethovan composed music or Shakespeare wrote poetry. He should sweep streets so well that all the host of heaven will say, 'Here lived a great street sweeper who did his job well.'

Meanwhile, #FirstThingsFirst, whatever your hand finds to do, give it your best shot.

Wishing you all the best as always.
D-Motivator.