From the Manger to the World!

“And she brought forth her firstborn son, and wrapped him in swaddling clothes, and laid him in a manger; because there was no room for them in the inn.” (Luke 2:7)

A merry Christmas to you and happy New Year in advance! “For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.” (Isa 9:6).

 

The journey of a thousand miles begins with a step. Life begins from the cradle to the grave and even beyond the grave to heaven. Getting to heaven was an impossibility because of our sinful nature. And to make heaven a possibility for us, Jesus has to come to save us from our sins. 

Born in a manger somewhere in Bethlehem, a little town in Judea, in the middle east country of Israel, Jesus grew to become the manager of the whole world. He’s got the whole wide world in His hands. He is the arms that hold the universe.

Jesus began life from the manger and was later unveiled to the world. The lesson we can grab from Jesus’ life is that it is not where you are coming from that matters, but where you are going. There are people who believe that to make it in life, you must come from a wealthy background. Although coming from a wealthy background can help, it is not the determining factor for great accomplishment in life.

The determining factor for success in life is FOCUS. As early as age 12, Jesus already knew that He had to be about His Father’s business. What He had come to do was to accomplish His Father’s business. And He never yield to any temptation to make him lose focus.

Dear friend, FOCUS is the key to great accomplishment! We live in a world that is filled with distractions. If you will rise and shine in this world, you must be ready to confront every distraction that comes your way. 

Again, never use your background as an excuse for failure. Remember, Jesus was not born in the best hospital in the world, He was not born in the palace; He was born in the manger, yet He rose to become the MANAGER of the world! Yes, He is aware of everything that is happening in the world. And since He has given us the freewill, he is watching to see that we turn over a new leaf.  

Dear friend, you are a mega super star yet to be unveiled! If you will achieve great success come 2017, this is a fact you must hold tenaciously unto: YOU ARE A MEGA SUPER STAR YET TO BE UNVEILED!  In fact, you need to repeat the following affirmation to yourself constantly:

“I AM A MEGA SUPER STAR YET TO BE UNVEILED.”

 It does not matter where you are coming from. It does not matter how many failures and defeats you have recorded. It does not matter the size of the opposition or enemies. The key to achieving mega super star status is FOCUS. As long as you remain focus, as long as you don’t allow distractions and temptations to make you abandon your aspirations in life, NOTHING can hold you back from becoming a mega super star in your own area of pursuit.

Stay focused and stay glued to this blog and you will be empowered for victorious living!

Once again, CFVL wishes you a merry Christmas and a prosperous New Year!           

 

Four Lessons from the Success Story of George Opong Weah

Years ago when he first declared his intention to contest for the presidency of  Liberia, his country,  NTA (Nigeria Television Authority), Africa’s largest television network, packaged video clips of George Opong Weah’s exploits on the soccer pitch. As I watched Weah’s soccer artistry with rapt attention, I said to myself: “This is one of the greatest soccer players that ever walked the face of the earth.”

If you had watched this video clips or watched Weah in action during his playing days, you would not wonder why he was crowned the world footballer of the year, 1995, the same year he was voted the African footballer of the year.

During his playing days, he played virtually all positions on the soccer pitch in world cup qualifiers to qualify Liberia for the world cup, but he never achieved that feat. This is not to say that Weah failed in this regard, but the lesson here is that football is a game of teamwork and a tree cannot make a forest. Lamenting his plight, Weah once said: “I wish I were a Nigerian so I could play in the world cup.” His wish did not come true.

Weah retired from active soccer with wealth, fame and reputation. All these, he brought to bear in his foray into the field of politics. He contested the presidential election and lost to Eleen Johnson Sirleaf. He later contested a senatorial seat in the Liberian Parliament in 2015, won the election and served as a senator before he eventually contested for the presidency against Bokai (Sirleaf’s former vice president). In the election, Weah won by a slim margin. Consequently, a re-run of the election was conducted, and he won by a landslide.   

Prior to winning the presidential election, Weah was bitterly criticised that he was not competent to contest the election, that he was uneducated, that he knew nothing about politics and governance, and that he would never be voted as Liberian president. But Weah proved them wrong. Today, Weah is the president of Liberia, the oldest independent state in Africa.

Lessons from Weah’s Victory

There are many lessons to learn from the victory of Weah in the Liberian presidential election. Some of the lessons are:

1.     Never Be Held Down By Your Background

Weah was uneducated and had no knowledge in politics and governance, yet he became the president of Liberia. As far as your destiny is concerned, your background is irrelevant. There are people who believe that if you are not from a wealthy family you can never be rich. This is absolute fallacy. Read the biography of stupendously rich people in the world, and you will realise that your background does not determine how far you will go in life.

Abraham Lincoln was not born with silver spoon in his mouth. He was born and raised in the wood forest in the US. He worked as a farm labourer, trekked miles upon miles to the city library to borrow books and read. He never went beyond first year of elementary education, yet he taught himself to read and write.  Later, he bought law books, read them, took law exams, passed the exams and was called to the American Bar to practice as barrister and solicitor. After years of practice as a lawyer, Lincoln went into the troubled water of politics. Despite the trials and tribulations, he eventually became US president. Lincoln remains one of the most famous American presidents.

The lesson here is: DON’T ALLOW YOUR BACKGROUND TO HOLD YOU DOWN FROM ASPIRING FOR GREATNESS. YOUR BACKGROUND DOES NOT DETERMINE YOUR DESTINY. YOU CAN START FROM ANYWHERE AND GET TO THE TOP.

2.     Don’t Be a Reactive Person; Be Proactive

If we should classify people into two categories, we can safely classify them into Reactive Persons and Proactive Persons, or put it in another way, ineffective persons and highly effective persons.

Reactive persons are persons who are controlled by external influences. If they are criticised, it gets on their nerves. If they are insulted, they become bitter and want to fight back. Anything that happens affect their feeling and emotion.

Proactive persons, on the other hand, are persons who have learned to control their emotion and feeling. It is not that they cannot be hurt emotionally; it is just that they have learned to control their emotion and thus are able to respond positively. They don’t allow external influences to control them. Instead of reacting against anything done to them, they respond positively.

Weah was criticised that he was incompetent, uneducated, did not understand politics and the art of governance. He did not allow the criticism to get on his nerves. To make himself competent, he travelled to the US and acquired the necessary education.

After losing the presidential election to Eleen Johnson Sirleaf, he later contested for senatorial seat in 2015 and won. This gave him the opportunity to learn politics and the art of governance. The fact is: It is not all criticisms that are destructive. Some are constructive. Even if criticisms are destructive, they cannot destroy a proactive person, because the proactive person has cultivated the habit of controlling his emotion and feeling.

In his bestselling book, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, Steve Covey wrote that if you want to be a highly effective person, you must be proactive rather than reactive. You must learn to control your emotion and feeling. According to him, it is this ability to control our emotion and feeling that makes us superior to animals. Animals react on impulse and cannot control their emotion and feeling. The lesson here is: To be highly successful, you must be proactive and never allow anything done to you to hurt your emotion and feeling. Eleanor Roosevelt once said: “No one can hurt you without your consent.”

3       Be Focused

One of the characteristics of highly successful persons is that that they are focused. They have a long-term goal and they make effort every day to achieve the goal. They are not running after many goals to achieve and even if they do, they pursue their goals one at a time. Weah’s long term goal was to become Liberian President. During the Liberian civil war while he was coaching Monaco football club of France, he always cried over the killings and atrocities being perpetrated in Liberia.

People wrote him off, but he did not write himself off. He remained focused, kept doing the best he could, and eventually he became the president of Liberia. This is the stuff that winners are made.

4     Believe in Yourself

During the re-run of the presidential election in December 2017, Weah spoke confidently to the press and to the people: “I don’t associate with losing. There is no way Bokai can defeat me. What happened in the earlier election will never happen again.  To be highly successful, you must believe in yourself. It is this belief that gives you the courage to stand up and pursue your ambition. It is this belief that will keep urging you to persevere and do the best you can to realise your goal.

Dear reader, what is your goal in life? What is it you want to achieve in your life time? The word of assurance for you is that you can achieve any goal you set for yourself. You can break any record that is yet to be broken. And there is nothing any person has achieved that you cannot achieve.

All you need do to achieve your goal are:

•     You must not let your background to hold you back from pursuing your vision. It is not where you are coming from that matters; it is where you are going.

•      Don’t be a reactive person. Be proactive. To be proactive means to master your emotion and feeling to the extent that you don’t allow any external influence to hurt you or cause you to break down.

•    You must be focused. You must not allow anything – distractions, obstacles, difficulties, failure, defeat, discouragement, etc, to make you lose sight of your goal.
• 
  
•      Believe in yourself. It is this belief that will ginger you to do the best you can to achieve your goal in life.

As you put these lessons into practice, it is my hope that you will soon achieve the goal you have set for yourself. Until I come your way soon, go and live victoriously!

A New Beginning: How to Turn Failure to Success!

Dear reader, happy New Year! As we step into this year, It is my hope that you will receive inspiration from this article  that will enable you to turn your failure to fortune.


Failure is not final but a steppingstone to success. Failure can be turned into fortune when you realize that failure is not an end but an opportunity for a great comeback.


Years ago, I read the story of the man, Paul Galvin, who had a setback in his business and his company was wound up and auctioned. On the day his company was to be auctioned, Galvin came around. He used the last $750 dollar he had with him to buy back a department of his auctioned company.


With great determination and a fighting spirit, Galvin grew the department into what is now known as Motorola Corporation, one of the largest and most successful companies in the world. Galvin thus demonstrated that failure can be turned to fortune if you make up your mind to do so.


Dear reader, if you are down today and you think it is all over, I want you to understand that it is not yet over. Right where you are, you can turn that failure to fortune. Below are six salient points you should master if you must turn your failure to fortune.


1.    Failure is Not Final


The problem is not that you failed. Any person can encounter failure at any time. There is no person that is highly successful today that has not encountered setbacks. But what is important is your ATTITUDE and what you DO with those setbacks.


If you must turn your failure to fortune, you need to understand that failure is not final. The fact that you are down today does not mean you are out. Galvin went down to the bottom. The company he labored to build was wound up and auctioned, but Galvin did not lose hope in life.


The way some people react to failure is terrible. Some people take failure as a crime and inflict punishment on themselves. They regret ever making the attempt. Some people would not do anything because of failure.


Dear reader, how do you react to failure? Do you react negatively or positively? If you react negatively, you are not likely going to summon up the courage to turn your failure to fortune. You need to realize that failure is not final but an opportunity for a great comeback. WHEN YOU ARE DOWN, DON’T THINK YOU ARE OUT. START THINKING AND STRATEGISING FOR A GREAT COMEBACK.


2.    Failure Is Not An Excuse


When some people fail, the common thing they normally do is that they use the failure as an excuse for not trying again. Dare Dean said, “I realize that there are two kinds of people in the world – those who look for a way and those who look for excuse.”

   
If you must turn your failure to fortune, you need to realize that failure is not an excuse. No matter the devastation the failure has caused you, you must not allow it to frighten you from trying again. Failure should be an opportunity for you to look for a way rather than for an excuse.


Philip Adams once told his team of engineers, “Unless you are willing to fail miserably and have another go, success won’t happen.” Instead of using failure as an excuse, start looking for a way out of that failure. Remember the Sorneo proverb: “Where the heart is unwilling, it will find a thousand excuses; where the heart is willing, it will find a thousand ways.”


Never use failure as an excuse for not trying again. Paul Galvin came out of bankruptcy stronger and victorious because he never used his business failure as an excuse for not trying again. Get up and try again. The failure of yesterday has come and gone. Get up again and have a shot at success.


3.    Be Optimistic


When you expect the best, you will get the best; but when you expect the worst, you will get the worst. Nothing causes frustration and discouragement as failure or setback, but if you desire to turn your failure to fortune, you must get up from the ground and step upon frustration and discouragement so that you can see clearly the greater opportunities that you can capitalize upon.


Galvin was optimistic. He knew that failure is never final. He knew that using failure as an excuse would not make him to try again. Consequently, he was optimistic that if he tried again, he could bounce back and achieve greater success.


To turn your failure to success, you must be optimistic. You must believe that despite the setback you have encountered, you will succeed when you get up and try again. One thing optimism does for you is that it activates and gingers you to see opportunities or to look for ways of stepping out of failure and into fortune. Optimism enabled Galvin to take positive steps out of failure and into fortune. When you start expecting the best, soon, you will start walking out of failure and into fortune.


4. Have a Fighting Spirit


Only those that have a fighting spirit can get up and fight again after being beaten. You are not a failure because you failed; you are not a loser because you lost; you become one when you refuse to get up and fight again.


Galvin failed in his business. He went down. But he did not remain on the ground. With his fighting spirit, he got up and fought his way through to victory. When you have a fighting spirit, you will be able to deal with frustration and discouragement. The duo are the negative forces that hold people down in defeat. The way to overcome them is to force yourself to get up and try again even when you don’t feel like doing so.


5.    Pick  Up a Fragment


When you are down but not out, you can still do something. You may not be able to gather the whole fragments, but you can at least pick up a fragment. The fact about life is that you are not immune against failure. But life gives you the opportunity to pick up at least a fragment of your chattered business, life, venture or relationship. And this fragment is more than enough for you to launch a great comeback.


For Galvin, life granted him the opportunity of salvaging only a fragment of his auctioned company. Though a fragment, that was ALL he needed to achieve incredible success. LITTLE MEANS MUCH WHEN YOU ARE WILLING TO TURN YOUR FAILURE TO FORTUNE.


Dear reader, what do you do when you are down. Do you remain on the ground whining and complaining? Do you contemplate quitting?

But why should you keep whining, complaining and contemplating quitting when all you need to rise to greater height is with you right in the midst of the failure? ALL YOU NEED IS A FRAGMENT. YOU DON’T NEED MORE THAN THAT. Start looking for the fragment now. The fragment can be anything, just anything you can capitalize upon to launch you back to limelight.


6.    Invest All You Can


To turn your failure into fortune, you must invest ALL THAT YOU CAN. God is not asking you to do the impossible before He can bless you. God does not expect you to amass millions before He can prosper you. IF YOU WANT GOD TO HELP YOU TURN YOUR FAILURE TO FORTUNE, WHAT YOU NEED TO START WITH IS WHAT YOU CAN AFFORD TO INVEST.


It could be money, your talent, possession, potentialities or any resources that can be put to use. The important thing is: you must not allow failure or setbacks to frighten you from investing all you can afford. It is true that when a person suffers setbacks or fails, he is likely going to be afraid of taking further risk. It is this fear of taking further risks that makes people to remain as underachievers. Galvin did not allow setback to frustrate him from taking another risk. If he had got frustrated, you would not have heard the name, Motorola Corporation. Motorola is a product of failure turned into fortune.


Like Galvin, don’t allow setback or failure to stop you from investing. Every failure you encounter gives you a better opportunity for greater success. If Galvin’s initial company had not undergone the process of dissolution, Galvin would not have discovered the bigger opportunity of launching Motorola Corporation.
WHENEVER YOU ENCOUNTER FAILURE OR SETBACK, REALIZE THAT IN THE MIDST OF THIS FAILURE OR SETBACK LIES THE BIGGER OPPORTUNITY THAT YOU CAN CAPITALIZE UPON TO WALK INTO FORTUNE.


All you need do to take advantage of this bigger opportunity is to invest all that you have. Invest your energy, money, time, etc on the bigger opportunity that the failure or setback provides. Look diligently for the bigger opportunity right in the midst of your failure. It is there. You will find it. And when you do, invest ALL you can with all your might on that bigger opportunity.


Dear reader, you can turn your failure to fortune. Don’t look at the mud; look at the stars. Don’t look behind; look ahead. The fact that you made it successfully into this New Year, 2018, is an indication that God has given you another opportunity to put everything right.
This year is a year of new beginning! All the failures and setbacks of last year have gone forever. Now, you have the opportunity of beginning anew. You can make all things new. You can turn your failures to fortune.


Sure, it is not going to be easy. It has never been easy nor will it be easy anytime in the future. But it is not impossible. The life of victory in not a rosy one, but like Galvin, when you follow the success principles expounded in this article, you will surely emerge victorious at the end of the day!