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!
