Hello Nigerians! Forget About the Past, You Have Potentials for the Future

Hello Nigerians! Forget About the Past, You Have Potentials for the Future

Often times when you listen to Nigerian politicians and the citizens talk about Nigeria, all you hear them say is lamenting and complaining about the past and why the country is in the state it is. They complain about all the errors of the past and how negatively they have affected the nation’s progress.

However, you don’t hear them bring solutions and way forwards to reviving the nation and setting it on its toes again. It seems to me that all we are interested in is our past mistakes and shortfalls. We are almost always looking backwards to the past. Not many of us know that we are making a grave mistake by doing that.

If you make the mistake of looking back too much, you aren’t focused enough on the road in front of you -Brad Paisley

Permit me to say that such attitudes will in no way make us a better nation, neither will it prepare us for the great future that lies ahead of us though unseen by a greater percentage of our populace. If we spend all our energy and time talking about the past mistakes and looking backwards, we will soon be heading in that direction. It simply shows that we are not focusing on the road in front of us.

We often forget that the past is gone and that we still have the future in front of us. We still have the ability to create the future that we want for our nation. We still have potentials for the future.

The same is true for your personal life. If you keep looking backwards to your past mistakes or past achievements, you lose sight of the potentials you still have for the future. The past is gone, the future is ahead of you. It is what you do with your potentials today that will determine how great your future will become. So let’s stop looking backwards. We will hardly move forward if we don’t stop looking backwards.

It is not possible to go forward while looking backwards -Ludwig Mies Van der Rohe

Nigeria is a blessed nation. Just look at the potentials and natural resources that we have. Nigeria is one of those countries in the world that has a wide variety of different natural resources. We are richly endowed with a variety of natural resources ranging from precious metals like gold, lead, zinc, Iron ore, manganese copper etc. to various stones like limestone, Gemstone, cassiterite, etc. to industrial resources such as Barites, Gypsum, Kaolin, Marble etc.

Unfortunately, most of these resources are yet to be exploited. Statistically, the level of exploitation of these minerals is very low in relation to the extent of deposit found in the country. What about our crude oil and natural gas? What about cocoa, cassava, palm oil, rice and all other agricultural products that we could harness and export to other countries. Nigeria also has large human resources with a population of about 180million people. It is my belief that we are too blessed and potentially endowed to be an economically recessed nation. All we need is to recognize and convert our potentials.

If we could just harness the potentials of our agricultural sector alone, we could develop our country twice faster than it is now. What if we could get all our refineries to function and build more refineries so as to refine our crude oil by ourselves and not having to import finished products! Can you imagine how that will boost our economy?

What about our taking advantage of our large population and tapping into the potentials of every citizen through skill acquisition programs, agricultural and scientific research schemes, small and medium scale entrepreneurial coaching, academic workshops etc. harnessing potentials and encouraging human capacity development, wouldn’t we raise the likes of Cornelius Vanderbilt, wouldn’t we raise men like JP Morgan, Rockefeller, Henry Ford and Andrew Carnegie who will through the power of their potentials specialize in building various sectors of the economy, from railway industries, to oil industries, to steel, to automobile and even the banking sector.

I appreciate what our own economist, entrepreneur, and philanthropist, Tony Elumelu is doing to raise young and upcoming entrepreneurs in Nigeria. I also recognize the work our industrialist Aliko Dangote has done in the industrial sector of the nation. If we could get more people who would recognize the potentials we have as a nation and who will work hard to convert those potentials into industries, businesses, processes of production and schools, etc for the benefit of the entire nation, we would soon become a great nation.

It is my belief that we have more than enough potentials to develop our nation and make our nation a praise in the earth. We, therefore, have potentials for the future. That is why we must forget about the past and focus on our potentials for the future. Marilyn Ferguson got it right when she said:

“Your past is not your potential. In any hour you can choose to liberate the future.”

All we need to do is to recognize our potentials, believe in ourselves and convert those potentials into industries and processes of production that will engineer the economic growth and prosperity that our nation needs.

Believe me, friends, we can liberate the future of our nation. We have the potentials, all we need to do is to work on those potentials and use them to build a nation that will become the envy of the world.

To learn more about solutions and way forward to making Nigeria the envy of the world, read my book by clicking the links below.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B077S8T55C?ref_=pe_870760_118561140 and https://www.okadabooks.com/book/about/your_potentials_the_source_of_your_greatness/16892

AUDIOBOOK 1-YOUR POTENTIALS-THE SOURCE OF YOUR GREATNESS

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AUDIOBOOK 1-YOUR POTENTIALS-THE SOURCE OF YOUR GREATNESS

MY BOOK INTERVIEW WITH DR.VICTOR BAMISAYE

Hello friends, if you missed my life-changing interview with Dr. Victor Bamisaye, you can watch it by clicking the link below.

INTERVIEW WITH DR. VICTOR BAMISAYE

Without Self-Discipline, You Can’t Maximize Your Potentials

Without Self-Discipline

 You Can’t Maximize Your Potentials

Dearly beloved, why do you think most people die with their potentials unused? Why do people discover their potentials and yet fail to maximize them? What is the main reason why people don’t fulfil their potentials and live their other lives(achieve their goals, dreams and ambition)? The answer is simple, Self-Discipline, the lack of it. You limit and resist yourself by your lack of self-discipline.

I will like us to start this discussion using the words of Daniel Goldstein:

 If you set goals for yourself and you are like a lot of other people, you probably realize it’s not that your goals are physically impossible that’s keeping you from achieving them: it’s that you lack the self-discipline to stick to them…

Looking at the quote above, you will realize three things: the first is that people set goals for themselves, come up with dreams and visions of what they want to achieve. That is, they have a picture of how their second life(future goals, dreams and ambitions) should be like. Fortunately, the second thing is that all these dreams and aspirations are possible to achieve. They are not beyond reach, they are not impossible. Yet unfortunately, the third thing we notice is that people don’t always achieve those possible dreams, most people never fulfil one-tenth of their goals and aspiration.

 In order words, though we have the potentials to enter into and fulfil our second life, we, however, don’t always enter. We waste all our potentials in the first life wishing and wishing and never acting. We often die with our potentials unused and unfulfilled not because we are faced with any external resistance but because we limit ourselves by our own lack of self-discipline. 

Without self-discipline, you will never be able to maximize your potentials. Without self-discipline, your dreams will never become a reality. Without self-discipline, your goals will only remain on paper and never be realized. Without self -discipline, you will discover all the potentials you have to become the best of yourself, but you will never use them to your advantage. If you lack self-discipline you will only see from afar the beautiful future that awaits you but you will never get to enter into it. 

Without self- discipline, people die with all their discovered potentials unused and all their foreseen dreams unfulfilled. Without self-discipline, you will have the potentials for becoming a king but you will die a slave. Without self-discipline, you could be so gifted and talented to become a champion and yet die uncelebrated and unheard of. Self-discipline is a kingmaker, self-discipline is the midwife for birthing greatness. Without self -discipline, potentials are useless and mediocrity becomes the plague of life. No wonder Theodore Roosevelt, the 26th president of the United States proclaimed the following:

“The one quality which sets one man apart from another- the key which lifts one to every aspiration while others are caught up in the mire of mediocrity- is not talent, formal education, nor intellectual brightness - it is self-discipline. With self-discipline all things are possible. Without it, even the simplest goal can seem like the impossible dream”.

If you must be numbered among the achievers of our days, the great names that history will never forget, you must cultivate one habit, and that is self -discipline. If you want to live an exceptional life, a life worthy of emulation, a life of influence and positive impact, you must first learn self-discipline. 

The difference between people who fulfil and maximize their potentials and those who die with their potentials is self -discipline. The difference between those who die wishing and those who fulfil their wish before they die is self-discipline. If you don’t want to live a life of mediocrity, you must above every other thing, put on the virtue of self-discipline. 

The problem is not that your dreams are not achievable, the problem is not that you don’t have the potentials to maximize your purpose, your primary problem is that you lack the self-discipline to work out your dreams and maximize your potentials. Your dreams and visions are very much possible but without self-discipline, you will hastily conclude that they are not a possibility. Without self-discipline, you exempt yourself from greatness. Without self-discipline, greatness will elude you.

What then is this self-discipline? The answer is found here:

“Self-Discipline is doing what needs to be done, when it needs to be done, even when you don’t feel like doing it”

                                                    -Anonymous

You promised to read one leadership book per week, are you sticking to that?

You promised to study six hours per day, are you doing that?

You promised to author one book every month, how far have you kept your promise?

You promised to put in three hours of practice every day on the Piano, has that been fulfilled?

You said you were going to do a voice training every two days, are you doing that?

You said you were going to start up a blog and write articles every week, what is happening with that?

You proposed to train five hours every day on the football pitch, the basketball court, the swimming pool, etc. are you doing that?

You see, I could go on and on asking similar questions, but that will produce an unending list. People are quick to make resolutions and write down goals but are very slow and lethargic when it’s time to fulfill them. The problem is not that it is bad to have goals and dreams, but one must also be ready to fulfill them. There is no difference between a man who died with his goals and dreams unfulfilled and a man who never had one. Both will die with their potentials and as mediocre.

Most people often come up with excuses why they don’t maximize their potentials or live a great life. Some blame witches and enemies, others blame circumstances and backgrounds. The truth, however, is that it is not because you are troubled by some family witches that you are not successful in life. It is not because you were born into a poor family that you are not living a life of greatness. Neither is it because your country has corrupt leadership that you are not fulfilling your potentials, it is for the singular reason that you lack self-discipline. Your dreams are far-fetched because you lack self-discipline. Your goals are not accomplished because you are resisting yourself by your lack of self-discipline. If you must reach your goals and fulfill your potentials you must have self-discipline. The reason is that:

Discipline is the bridge between goals and accomplishments

-Jim Rohn

 To get the complete book on how to turn your potentials into greatness click here  YOUR POTENTIALS- THE SOURCE OF YOUR GREATNESS OR OKADABOOKS

WHAT LEGACY ARE YOU BUILDING?

WHAT LEGACY ARE YOU BUILDING?

What will you be known for after your death? What will the world say about you? The world only celebrates those who maximize their potentials to create and leave legacies behind for future generations to come. These ones, though they die, continue to live in the hearts of those they impacted. They live on because of their principles, their products, their inventions, and their achievements. One generation after another testify to the legacy that such men have left behind.

 To learn how to build a worthy legacy for generations to come, read my new book by clicking this link YOUR POTENTIALS- THE SOURCE OF YOUR GREATNESS

Without Self-Discipline You Can’t Maximize Your Potentials

Without Self-Discipline

 You Can’t Maximize Your Potentials

Dearly beloved, why do you think most people die with their potentials unused? Why do people discover their potentials and yet fail to maximize them? What is the main reason why people don’t fulfil their potentials and live their other lives(achieve their goals, dreams and ambition)? The answer is simple, Self-Discipline, the lack of it. You limit and resist yourself by your lack of self-discipline.

I will like us to start this discussion using the words of Daniel Goldstein:

 If you set goals for yourself and you are like a lot of other people, you probably realize it’s not that your goals are physically impossible that’s keeping you from achieving them: it’s that you lack the self-discipline to stick to them…

Looking at the quote above, you will realize three things: the first is that people set goals for themselves, come up with dreams and visions of what they want to achieve. That is, they have a picture of how their second life(future goals, dreams and ambitions) should be like. Fortunately, the second thing is that all these dreams and aspirations are possible to achieve. They are not beyond reach, they are not impossible. Yet unfortunately, the third thing we notice is that people don’t always achieve those possible dreams, most people never fulfil one-tenth of their goals and aspiration.

 In order words, though we have the potentials to enter into and fulfil our second life, we, however, don’t always enter. We waste all our potentials in the first life wishing and wishing and never acting. We often die with our potentials unused and unfulfilled not because we are faced with any external resistance but because we limit ourselves by our own lack of self-discipline. 

Without self-discipline, you will never be able to maximize your potentials. Without self-discipline, your dreams will never become a reality. Without self-discipline, your goals will only remain on paper and never be realized. Without self -discipline, you will discover all the potentials you have to become the best of yourself, but you will never use them to your advantage. If you lack self-discipline you will only see from afar the beautiful future that awaits you but you will never get to enter into it. 

Without self- discipline, people die with all their discovered potentials unused and all their foreseen dreams unfulfilled. Without self-discipline, you will have the potentials for becoming a king but you will die a slave. Without self-discipline, you could be so gifted and talented to become a champion and yet die uncelebrated and unheard of. Self-discipline is a kingmaker, self-discipline is the midwife for birthing greatness. Without self -discipline, potentials are useless and mediocrity becomes the plague of life. No wonder Theodore Roosevelt, the 26th president of the United States proclaimed the following:

“The one quality which sets one man apart from another- the key which lifts one to every aspiration while others are caught up in the mire of mediocrity- is not talent, formal education, nor intellectual brightness - it is self-discipline. With self-discipline all things are possible. Without it, even the simplest goal can seem like the impossible dream”.

If you must be numbered among the achievers of our days, the great names that history will never forget, you must cultivate one habit, and that is self -discipline. If you want to live an exceptional life, a life worthy of emulation, a life of influence and positive impact, you must first learn self-discipline. 

The difference between people who fulfil and maximize their potentials and those who die with their potentials is self -discipline. The difference between those who die wishing and those who fulfil their wish before they die is self-discipline. If you don’t want to live a life of mediocrity, you must above every other thing, put on the virtue of self-discipline. 

The problem is not that your dreams are not achievable, the problem is not that you don’t have the potentials to maximize your purpose, your primary problem is that you lack the self-discipline to work out your dreams and maximize your potentials. Your dreams and visions are very much possible but without self-discipline, you will hastily conclude that they are not a possibility. Without self-discipline, you exempt yourself from greatness. Without self-discipline, greatness will elude you.

What then is this self-discipline? The answer is found here:

“Self-Discipline is doing what needs to be done, when it needs to be done, even when you don’t feel like doing it”

                                                    -Anonymous

You promised to read one leadership book per week, are you sticking to that?

You promised to study six hours per day, are you doing that?

You promised to author one book every month, how far have you kept your promise?

You promised to put in three hours of practice every day on the Piano, has that been fulfilled?

You said you were going to do a voice training every two days, are you doing that?

You said you were going to start up a blog and write articles every week, what is happening with that?

You proposed to train five hours every day on the football pitch, the basketball court, the swimming pool, etc. are you doing that?

You see, I could go on and on asking similar questions, but that will produce an unending list. People are quick to make resolutions and write down goals but are very slow and lethargic when it’s time to fulfill them. The problem is not that it is bad to have goals and dreams, but one must also be ready to fulfill them. There is no difference between a man who died with his goals and dreams unfulfilled and a man who never had one. Both will die with their potentials and as mediocre.

Most people often come up with excuses why they don’t maximize their potentials or live a great life. Some blame witches and enemies, others blame circumstances and backgrounds. The truth, however, is that it is not because you are troubled by some family witches that you are not successful in life. It is not because you were born into a poor family that you are not living a life of greatness. Neither is it because your country has corrupt leadership that you are not fulfilling your potentials, it is for the singular reason that you lack self-discipline. Your dreams are far-fetched because you lack self-discipline. Your goals are not accomplished because you are resisting yourself by your lack of self-discipline. If you must reach your goals and fulfill your potentials you must have self-discipline. The reason is that:

Discipline is the bridge between goals and accomplishments

-Jim Rohn

 To get the complete book on how to turn your potentials into greatness click here  YOUR POTENTIALS- THE SOURCE OF YOUR GREATNESS OR OKADABOOKS

WHY ARE THERE MANY CHURCHES IN NIGERIA?

We have many churches in Nigeria because churches are profitable.

Those who recognize this and play “the game” are enjoying millions of dollars today by milking many Nigerians dry. Sadly, those being sucked dry remain faithful pawns to any willing smooth-talking, bible-toting criminal. I could return to Nigeria today as a “Daughter of Miracles” and I’d be on my way to claiming a million dollar empire. God! That sounds GOOOD!

We have very few Christians in Nigeria. We’ve all become churchgoers!

There are 2 reasons why the church-culture is growing in Nigeria.

1. Persistent desperation (see the roads I shared below).

When you travel on roads like this, you pray to God (of course through your pastor/church, after sowing seeds) to keep you safe. Let’s not ask the Nigerian government to give us better infrastructure. Let us continue praying because God will NEED to touch the hearts of the Nigerian government before they do the right thing or come down himself to give us our basic amenities.

Pray harder!!

2. Get rich quick scheme

Both the pastors and their congregation are guilty of this. The pastors steal from the members, and members are deluded into thinking that if they sow enough “seeds” they’d become millionaires overnight. Who has this ever worked for?!

What actually happens when you sow “seeds” is that your pastor would become an overnight millionaire! You get poorer!

---

The only thing many Nigerians understand is MIRACLES. We don’t understand hard work or common sense. We understand MIRACLES, even when it does not make sense.

When I was in Nigeria, I would follow some of my friends to some night vigils, and some miracle prayer houses. As events unfolded in the church, I always felt like I was at a car dealership. This is what many of the pastors look(ed) like to me.

I perpetually felt patronized. I would roll my eyes to the heavens seeing how pathetic and desperate many of these pastors were. I felt sorry for them. Hunger is a bastard! It’d make you eat your own legs to stay alive. Haha! It made me sad that my friends could not see what I saw. I kept my thoughts to myself because you don’t waste your time reasoning with the lost ones. When I tried, I lost!

I don’t know why I was like this. Maybe my Catholic upbringing is just used to the idea of accountability. I do not trust any man who runs a show by himself, and remains accountable to no one. Maybe I was the devil himself or my Catholic upbringing is just used to order, not chaos in the form of praying against witches and wizards who might not even be interested in us.

I mean, if I was a witch, I would be too busy flying all over the world on my broom, passport and visa-free, to worry about paranoid Christians who don’t even have constant electric power. They’d bore me to death so I think I’d party differently. I’d go to Norway, which is currently ranked best country to live in.

If I were the devil, I will not be in Nigeria. “Isn’t that country in recession? Aren't they a developing country? I’m outta here!”

I will go to other developed countries and either chill or bring them to ruins!

If you ask me, I think Nigerians need to invest the same level of energy we give to prayers to ensuring our elected officials keep their word and utilize public funds to make life easier for everyone.

About my church, I think “Mother of Miracles Ministry (MMM)” sounds better. What do you think?

ARTICLE BY Uche Metuh, Invested in Nigeria's MindShift

To find out how to develop a nation through the power of potentials, see my new book here YOUR POTENTIALS- THE SOURCE OF YOUR GREATNESS

The Need for Knowledge

F

or wisdom is a protection even as money is a protection,

But the [excellent] advantage of knowledge is that wisdom shields and preserves the lives of its possessors. (Ecclesiastes 7:12 AMP)

My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge: because thou hast rejected knowledge, I will also reject thee…. (Hosea 4:6a KJV)

Dear friends, I would like you to analyze the two very important verses of scriptures above. The first one says that the advantage of knowledge is that wisdom shields and preserves the life of its possessor. In other words, knowledge leads to preservation of life. Knowledge is a shield.

The second verse in Hosea says that people are destroyed because of lack of knowledge. Simply put, people die when they lack knowledge, people die with their potentials when they lack the knowledge of how to use or fulfil those potentials. This will mean that a man could have the potential of becoming a billionaire and yet die in poverty. Another man could have the potential of producing and supplying an entire nation with food products and yet die of hunger if he doesn’t know that he has that potential. You could actually have the potential to create the solution to a problem but because of lack of knowledge of your potentials, that problem will linger for many years and negatively affect you and many others.

 Therefore, man’s major problem is not that he lacks potentials, neither is it that he lacks solutions but man’s major problem is that he lacks knowledge of what he is truly capable of.

Therefore, knowledge is key. Knowledge is power. Knowledge is a life saver. That is why you must arm yourself with knowledge.

Knowledge will forever govern ignorance and a people who mean to be their own governors must arm themselves with the power which knowledge gives.

                                                      -James Madison

A man cannot be greater than his level of knowledge, society cannot be more advanced than its degree of enlightenment because, at the end of the day, it is our knowledge that determines how far we go in life. The more you know the higher you go, the more you know the more you invent things, the more you know the more potentials you convert into greatness and success in life.

There was a time when we, humans didn’t have cars, but the ability(potential) to produce cars was hidden in man. That ability was in man but until man knew he had the ability to produce cars until man discovered that potential and went ahead to produce cars, we didn’t have cars. We suffered the lack of cars for so many years before cars were invented. So, you have a car today only because someone had the knowledge of how cars could be made and converted the inbuilt potential, that ability, into producing cars.

 Unfortunately, as important as knowledge is, most people detest it. We live in a generation full of young and old people who are not interested in knowledge. A multitude that has rejected knowledge. They would rather have TV’s than have libraries. They would prefer watching soap operas than reading books about knowledge and understanding. They would choose to play candy crush instead of attending a leadership training class. An ignorant generation that thinks they know, yet are void of understanding.

Whereas even the scriptures recognized the importance of knowledge and understanding and it says in the fourth chapter of proverbs:

Do not abandon wisdom, and she will protect you; love her, and she will keep you safe. Getting wisdom is the most important thing you can do. Whatever else you get, get insight. Love wisdom, and she will make you great. Embrace her, and she will bring you honor. She will be your crowning glory.”(Proverbs 4:6-9 GNT)

This generation is acquiring everything else except knowledge when in fact the most important thing to acquire is knowledge and understanding. We would buy phones, iPads, designer’s clothes and shoes, cosmetics, cars, etc. but never buy knowledge and wisdom. The Psalmist further broadens our understanding of the need for knowledge when he wrote in his twenty-third chapter and verse the following words.

 Buy truth, and do not sell it; buy wisdom, instruction, and understanding. {ESV}

Dear friends, the worst thing that can happen to you is to live a life void of knowledge. You will never discover your potentials without knowledge. You will never convert your potentials without adequate knowledge and you will not be able to maximize your potentials without knowledge. Without knowledge, you will perish alongside all your potentials. Without knowledge, you will never be successful in life. Without knowledge, you cannot be numbered among the great.

If you look at the world today, you will notice that even though all men have been given potentials for greatness, not all men are actually great. There are only very few great and successful men in our world today. What is the problem with the remaining lot? Why are they having so many potentials and yet living in poverty and mediocrity? The answer can be found in this “they have refused to buy wisdom and understanding, they have rejected knowledge”

 Those who are great have a well of knowledge and are constantly buying wisdom and understanding, whereas those who are mediocre think they already know so much yet they are void and empty knowledge-wise. Those who are great know that knowledge elevates, they know it preserves but the poor and unsuccessful are ignorant of this truth. You are where you are not because you lack the potentials to grow and progress in life but because you lack the wisdom and understanding to do so. If you must be as successful as Elon Musk, you must know as much as he knows. If you must be as rich as Bill Gates or Jeff Bezos, you must acquire as much knowledge as they have. If you want to be as proficient a doctor as Ben Carson, you must accrue as much knowledge as he has. 

Therefore the only thing that separates people in life is the gap between their level of knowledge and their ignorance. Though we all have potentials for greatness, yet the majority of us are limited by our lack of knowledge. Without knowledge, potentials are useless. Without knowledge, people die with all their potentials undiscovered and unused. Without knowledge, it is impossible to discover your potentials and convert them.

 GET MY NEW BOOK HEREYOUR POTENTIALS- THE SOURCE OF YOUR GREATNESS