Break Through Your Limitations

Success is achieved by breaking through every thing we see as limitation to our success. Unless we make up our mind to go beyond our limitation, success will not happen.

The fact is, there are no limitations except the ones we set up for ourselves. And it is these limitations we set up ourselves that are restricting our level of achievement.

The fact about limitation is that when we set up one, we begin to see it as a “no-go area,” a level we cannot exceed. The more we keep focusing on the limitation, the harder it becomes getting up to break through it.

Limitation are Scarecrows

Limitations are like scarecrows. Scarecrows are object set up in the farms to scare birds away so that they don’t destroy crops. As long as birds continue to see scarecrows as human beings guarding farm crops, they will continue to be afraid of invading the farm. But as soon as they discover that scarecrows are not human beings but motionless, immovable objects, they will let go of their fears and begin to invade the farm right, left and centre.

What we call limitations are things – difficulties, impossibilities, obstacles – that we imagine in our mind. In our mind, we conclude that due to one challenge or the other, we may never make it beyond our present level of achievement.

The problem with this kind of negative mentality is that it shuts down our brain, deplete our energy and potentialities and hold us down from striving to be the best that God wants us to be.

Moving Beyond Your Limitation

THE WAY TO MOVE BEYOND LIMITATIONS IS TO BELIEVE THAT THERE IS NO LIMITATION. We need to take a cue from the scarecrow analogy. As long as the birds continue to believe that what they are seeing guarding the farm is a human being, they will continue to avoid the farm. But the moment they discover that what has been scaring them away from the farm is nothing but a scarecrow, they will begin to make incursion into the farm with reckless abandon.

One of the things holding us down from being the best that God wants us to be is the limitation we have built on our way to success. We have thought– though negatively – and have concluded that due to one challenge or the other, we can never make it in life. If we continue to believe that certain challenges are our limitations, we will never go beyond them.

You Can Go Beyond Your Limitations

JESUS SAID: “YE SHALL KNOW THE TRUTH AND THE TRUTH SHALL MAKE YOU FREE.” (JOHN 8:32). One truth you must grab hold of to enable you move beyond your limitation is that no circumstance can erase your stardom. No success story better lends credence to this truth than the success story of Joseph in the Bible.

Josph had dreamt of being greater than all members of his family. In order to prevent Joseph’s dream from coming to pass, his brothers sold him to Egypt thinking that once a slave, he would never rise up to become greater than them.

Ordinarily, slavery status looks like a big limitation. That was the situation Joseph found himself in Egypt. While a slave in Egypt, he encountered other challenges which would have become big limitations to the actualization of his dream, yet Joseph brushed aside these limitations to become a Prime Minister in the same land where he served as a slave!

Dear friend, if you are saying that your own circumstance is the worst, consider this: During Joseph’s time, the status of a slave is so miserable, so deplorable that if someone said a slave could become a Prime Minister of Egypt, the most civilized country in the world, nobody would believe.

If the limitation of slavery and the ex-convict status of Joseph could not hold him back from becoming Prime Minister of Egypt, why are you saying that your own circumstance is the limitation holding you down in defeat?

It is on record that Da Silva, former Brazililian president, began life as a shoe shiner. As a shoe shine boy, there are many challenges one would encounter in life. These challenges are so tough that many would think that a shoe shiner could never become a president of a country.

But as impossible as it seems, Da Silva braced the odds to become the 35^th president of Brazil (from January 1, 2003 – January 1, 2011). Equally inspiring is the success story of a man who had a stroke and was bedridden. Though completely paralysed and unable to get up from his bed, yet because he could think, he hatched a business plan which generated millions of dollars for him and his family, even while bedridden.

The point here is: Do not see any circumstance as a limitation. As far as the fulfillment of your destiny is concerned, those things you see as limitations are nothing but scarecrows. Unless you stop seeing them as limitations, they will continue to scare you away from being the best that God wants you to be.

No matter how discouraged you are, no matter how hopeless you feel, get up again and approach life with the mentality that there are no limitations that can stop you from being the best that God wants you to be.

The way to break through your limitations is to see them not as limitations but as scarecrows. Scarecrows don’t scare birds that discovered the truth about them.

As you discover the truth about your limitations, it is my hope that you will never be scared away from moving beyond them. And until I come your way soon, go and live victoriously!

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Five Business Lessons I Learned from Richard Branson

British multi-billionaire, Richard Branson, is one of the greatest entrepreneurs of all times. He became a millionaire at the age of twenty-one. Presently in Britain his home country, virtually every person there is touched by his branded virgin products.

Talk of Virgin FM Radio (a 1^st class FM station), Virgin Megastore, Virgin Airline, Virgin Cola (Energy Drink), Virgin Finance, Virgin Train, Virgin Hotel, Virgin Brides, Vie products, etc.

Considering the pedigree of this British billionaire, one cannot but conclude that he might have some effective guidelines he follows to run his businesses successfully.

Sure enough, he has! In an interview on BBC Radio years ago, he was asked what advice he would give to young people who wanted to start their own businesses.

In response, Branson explained five rules he had continued to follow since about five decades ago when he started his first business. But before he revealed these five rules, he gave an explanation to the effect that the rules are constant. They don’t change and they work for anyone who followed them.

To buttress his point, he explained further that since about five decades ago, the world has certainly changed and still continues to change. He talked about the changing economic, social and political situation in the world.

He also talked about marketers’ new ability to bypass traditional channels – TV, radio and newspapers – and build strong following online for their companies via Twitter, Google+, Facebook and new applications such as Path and Clout.

Branson went further to emphasize that ALTHOUGH THE WORLD MAY BE CHANGING QUICKLY, THE STEPS TO BUILDING A GOOD BUSINESS HAS NOT CHANGED.

At that juncture, Branson, then, revealed the five simple rules he had been following since about five decades ago, which remain valid and useful to him till today.

Branson’s Five Rules for Running a Successful Business

Now, let us look at these five rules and see how we can apply them in our businesses:

1.   If You Don’t Enjoy It, Don’t Do It

A lot of people are doing jobs or businesses that they don’t enjoy doing. They do these businesses not because they love it but because of frustration. But super successful people know that it is the love they have for the job or business they are doing that makes them successful.

Golf super star, Tiger Woods, was once asked, “What is your passion?”

He said, “Golf.”

He was asked again, “What do you enjoy?”

He replied, “Golf.”

He was asked further, “When are you the happiest?”

He replied, “When I’m playing golf.”

What a great passion! No wonder, Myles Munro said, “THE BEAUTY OF SERVING YOUR GIFT IS THAT YOUR WEALTH IS COMING FROM WHAT YOU ENJOY.”

Dear friend, do you want to be highly successful? Do you want to reach the pinnacle of your career? Then, DON’T JUST DO WHAT YOU LOVE; LOVE WHAT YOU DO. Be interested in what you are doing. Be passionate about it. As Dennis Diderot puts it, “ONLY PASSION, GREAT PASSION CAN ELEVATE THE HUMAN SOUL TO ACHIEVE GREAT THINGS.”

If you are not passionate about the job or business you are doing, please don’t waste all your life doing it. Look for something you will enjoy and be passionate about, and go for it. Once you find you are not passionate about your job or business, simply quit.

If you are a Nigerian, I believe you might have heard that Richard Branson once came to Nigeria and purchased Nigerian Airways. And after running it for several months, he quit the business on the ground that the economic climate in Nigeria was so harsh that the airline would not thrive. He later sold the airline to Barrister Jimoh Ibrahim, a Nigerian multi-millionaire-entrepreneur.   

Although Branson blamed the harsh economic climate in Nigeria, the fact is that it was not really the harsh economic condition in the country that was the problem; it was because he had lost interest in doing business in Nigeria.

To buttress this fact, consider the likes of Jimoh Ibrahim and other persons, including foreigners who are operating their airlines in Nigeria. They are making it. The reason they are making it is that they love and enjoy what they are doing!

Go and do likewise – love what you are doing. Be passionate about it, and you will come to enjoy your job or business.

2.   Be Innovative: Create Something that Will Stand Out

To be innovative is to be creative. Innovation means introducing new things, ideas or ways of doing something. Peter Drucker, an authority on entrepreneurship, is of the belief that what entrepreneurs have in common is not personality traits, but a commitment to innovation.

Presently, we are living in a global village. You can reach people everywhere with your fingertips. Internet has made it so. But you know what? This globalization calls for greater competition. Many products are competing against each other. Many service providers are competing against each other. The implication is that when you live in a world of competition, you will eventually lose to someone else.

To win or be victorious, you should not compete; you should innovate. How do you innovate? Richard Branson gives the answer: “CREATE SOMETHING DIFFERENT THAT WILL STAND OUT.” From Branson’s answer, to win or stand out in the world of competition, you must do two things:

a.   Create; and

b.   Differentiate.

Let us discuss these briefly:

a.   Create

 Whether you are a product manufacturer or you are a service provider, the fact is, you are a creator – creator of product or service. To win or be victorious in this competitive world, you should create and keep creating. Instead of competing, focus on creating more products.

b.   Differentiate or Be different

 Every person is creating products or services, but it is not every person that is creating a winning product or service. The secret of creating a winning product or service is to be unique. Uniqueness makes you indispensable. And an indispensable person has no competition.

To be a market leader in your niche, don’t imitate. Imitation is suicide. Be original. Think your own thoughts. Do things your own way. Add value to your product or service.

Think of the value that you can add to your product or service to make it stand out. Your product or service must be unique and different from those of others. That is the way to win in this competitive world!

3.   Your Employees are Your Best Asset; Happy Employees Make for Happy Customers

The starting point to running a successful business is to treat your employees as your greatest assets. You may have the best machinery in the world. You may have state-of-the-art technological devices. You may have all the resources of the world. As awesome as all these are, they are not as valuable as the human beings – employees – that are using those assets for high productivity.

It is therefore important that you make your employees happy by catering for their welfare. Don’t under pay your employees. Don’t overwork them. Give them incentives to encourage them to work harder. And pay their wages as and when due.

When you do these, you will have happy employees who will be committed to do their jobs and to attract customers to you.

4.   Lead By Listening; Get Feedback from Your Staff and Customers on a Regular Basis

Leadership is not all about staying in the office and dishing out orders to be implemented by the employees. As a leader, more often than not, you may feel that by virtue of your knowledge, experience and qualification, it is your decision, opinion or perspective that is correct. But this is not true. No one is perfect, and so are you.

As far as products and services are concerned, to come up with a winning product or service, you must listen to your employees and customers. You can sample opinion from staffers and customers. Seek to know what they are saying about your products or services. This will enable you produce to meet customers’ satisfaction.

Branson is always a leading entrepreneur because he has cultivated the habit of listening and capitalizing on sound ideas. In 1984 when Randolph Fields, a 31-year old barrister sold him the idea of running an airline, it took him less than 48 hours to jump at it! 

5.   Be Visible: Market the Company and Its Offers By Putting Yourself or a Senior Person in front of the Cameras

Marketing is fundamental to the success of any business. Unless you are running a charity organization (but even charity organizations are doing a lot of adverts to attract donors and beneficiaries), you must promote and advertise in order to create awareness of your products or services.

If you are one of those who hate selling, then, change your orientation today. If you don’t sell, you won’t make money. To sell, you must promote and advertise your products or services offline and online.

To sum it up, let me reiterate that globalization calls for stiffer competition and to win and be victorious, you should enjoy what you are doing, be innovative, make your customers happy, lead by listening and be visible.