My
Life...
In the past 12 odd years of the 16 of his professional life, he
has been covertly involved in the personal social responsibility (PSR) of
giving back to our society in his own little and modest way.
1999 it was when he accepted the first offer to be a‘destiny
guide’(a mentor; while in the noble service of his great country Nigeria as a
youth corper in the beautiful city of Uyo in Akwa-Ibom state, Nigeria) to a
youngster who felt she could learn from his very little experience at the time
in personal and professional life. Ever since then he has had the privilege of
being asked again and again by young, talented and visionary youngsters who
have professed verbally and in writing, their admiration of his budding success
in personal and professional life to mentor them.
He has over the years gladly accepted such offers again and again to a win-win end.
He has over the years gladly accepted such offers again and again to a win-win end.
At a stage when he was persuaded that this growing ‘movement’ and program
should be better structured and having been (earlier) so divinely instructed
also, he established a School of Mentorship (First of its kind in Africa as confirmed
by fact based research) on September 14,
2001 with 13 protégés of his being the premier students at the time. Every
second Saturday of the month in Lagos, Nigeria, they had a School of Mentorship
seminar, bringing to his teeming protégés (mentees) contemporary but
proven-with-results unconventional insights on charting a sure way to their
destinies in life. Soon due to the recreatable solutions that these teachings
brought these youngsters in diverse aspects of personal and professional life,
the School of Mentorship (S.O.P, as it was famed, soon became a household name
within their locality; hosting an average of 150 young people monthly.
Afterwards, he had set aside till date every of his Thursdays of each week
between 9am and 7pm to attend to (mostly young people between the ages of 18-
50) on various issues (personal and professional ) where they need counsel or
guide on issues such as personal discovery, discovery of potential, starting a
business, pursuing goals to logical conclusions, convincing their parents to
allow them to study or pursue a particular career, transiting from one
business, career, job to another, finding a direction for life, succeeding in a
chosen career or business etc. Thursdays of his every week is his NOT-FOR
PROFIT days in which he doesn’t speak, train, facilitate, coach, write, act,
compere etc. anywhere in the world for money but counselling, coaching,
guiding, strategising on projects etc with and for young people. The summary of
his transformational message at the School of Mentorship was (and still is, as
captured in his favourite saying on the subject of mentorship) -
"If
you know where you are going your journey is short. If you know how to get
there your journey is shorter. If you know who has got there your journey is
'shortest'. If you are willing to submit to who has got there by
apprenticeship, and he or she is willing to take you on by mentorship?
Congratulations! You...are...there!“
Ever
since then, he has seen (and still see) to a humbling and (oftentimes)
tears-inducing state, how the personal and professorial lives of 160 (a mix of
individuals and corporate orgranisations dotting 3 continents; this refers to
his regular or consistently-following protégés or mentees) have positively
turned around for the better and progressively too. The Creator alone be
praised for these feats. Due to this result oriented (may be surprising to know
for you) NOT-FOR-PROFIT program he has received tonnes of offers over the years
and they have not stopped coming to speak, facilitate, groom, strategise at
seminars, conferences, workshops in tertiary, corporate and spiritual
institutions in addition to the starter of all these...being asked to mentor
individuals, and now corporate organisations.
Because
this ceaselessly coming and mounting offers any time he speaks, trains,
coaches, mentors, comperes (MC), presents, facilitates or acts (theatre), at
any event and seen, listened to, watched, or his inspiring articles are read in
magazines, by youngsters, peers, or even those older than he is who
magnanimously admire his (personal and professional) results, and because he
considers that he is fast becoming unsatisfactorily ineffective (by his own
‘steep’ standard of leaving nothing to chance in the bid to achieve excellence)
in attending on time/real-time and adequately to every individual or
organisation’s needs he accepts to mentor, he has hence put up a blog captioned
“Mentor Me For Destiny” (through which he publishes inspiring and
instructive articles weekly to help people located, pursue and fulfil destiny)
and a Facebook public page to attend to your needs (as many would require
this).
“Why
is he doing this?” You may ask. Does he know everything in this world? Is he
the smartest? Most brilliant? Most intelligent? Or anything else you can think
of why he is doing this? Far from it, as he is NOT a “YES” answer to any of
those earlier stated curiousity-kill-the-cat questions. So why is he doing
this...how be it NOT-FOR-PROFIT?
1.
He believes, practices and teaches that: "True living begins with
living for others to live. That is, serving others."
2.
"What you know will only grow if shared.” (He
is a living example of this and the route by which he got to where he is today.
His unflinching belief also of the wisdom to where he intends to get to
tomorrow.)
3.
Buried in the graveyards around the world are bestselling books that were never
written buried with their dead potential authors who never put pen to paper,
multiple Grammy winning songs that were never composed or sung, multi-national
and multi-trillion dollars worth of businesses that were never started
let-alone staffed, multiple Oscar winning movies that were never produced . The
graveyard is perhaps the wealthiest place in the world; at the end of his time
here, he has vowed: “I DON’T want to
contribute to that humonguous wealth of the graveyard for it (the wealth in the
graveyard) has never fulfilled, it is not fulfilling and will never fulfil what
it was meant for .” Hence his about 2 decades-long decision to ‘die empty’
of ALL he can do that he is yet to do! Through this medium he believes he can
reach more, do more, help more, (thousands, millions) real-time.
My Lessons...
1. “Give
and it shall be given unto you...” – The Holy Bible.
2. Your
true influence and affluence in life is directly proportional to the degree of
lives that you and your life impacts (directly or indirectly).
3. The
fatness of your life account (of impact on others) is more valuable than the
fatness of your bank account.
4. Biographies
don’t account for expensive fleet of porsche cars, trendy clothes, latest
shoes, master piece mansions etc. but only ‘expensive’ impacts made on the
lives of others.
5. True
living begins with living for others to live. That is, serving others.
6. “Life
answers to contributors and not consumers.” – Dr. David Oyedepo.
7. What
you know will only grow if shared.
8. Only those who ‘die empty’ (doing all they could to impact others) truly lived
life to the full.
9. Your life matters more from what you give to
others than what you get from others.
10. Legacy left for others is more important than inheritance got from
others.
I therefore welcome your questions or
issues of concern (remember NOT that I know it all) but with the little I know
I believe I can contribute my little to make our world a better place. That I
can’t do everything does not mean I won’t do anything of the little I can in
the little way I can.
I seize this opportunity to also urge my friends in 7 continents
and 196 countries of our world to offer to be of help to that youngster who
looks up to you, admire your success or perhaps is already modelling after you.
Your success, influence, progress, clout, affluence, riches, wealth, age,
experience, position, loses its worth the moment it DOES NOT benefit anyone BUT
YOU!
Thank you for joining me in this destiny moulding journey as we
help each other to live more fulfilling lives. Shalom!
