Inside Life.
I was given this colorful and wonderfully packaged book by a Nigerian author one Saturday morning. I could only hold on to this book for a few days so I started reading it the same night it was given to me. Little did I know, it was filled with hard facts that I needed at this point in my life.
A few pages into the book, I saw the tendency of being stuck as a “boy-man” at 25, I saw the tendency of being tagged as the “most likely to succeed” and the tendency of being asked later in life “what happened?”. I saw myself, my past and present mistakes in only the first few pages of the book. At the same time, all I needed to do to avoid these tendencies becoming a reality were clearly stated in practical terms.
It would be impossible to explicitly put down all these action points in this article, at the same time it would be selfish to keep this to myself. I could as well just help someone who does not have access to such a resource.
Minding your Business was written about 13 years ago and for the packaging it has and the print quality, you’d think it was written early this year. The book is in parts with each part broken down into chapters. Part 1 created a lot of thoughts in my head and I would share some hard facts from there.
I encountered my first Call-to-Action on page 3, Line 1: “She wasn’t supposed to turn out this way” and you’re probably wondering why? This is why, She was young, confident, firm and sure of what she wanted at such a tender age so you’d know she was definitely going places but then she lost that sparkle, became afraid of taking risks, aimed low and within her grasp. She took decisions from fear of failure. All of these were due to her experiences in life. She had her fair share and let fear eat deep into all the potentials she showed earlier on. The author tagged Fear “a pedophile” — feeding on young ones and destroying great futures.
So here’s the first Call-to-Action: Take at least one bold move a year. It must be really bold and beyond you. What matters is the attempt to achieve, not whether you succeed at it. Face your fears, you’d never know what works out until you try.
On page 8, I came across the tag “most likely to succeed”. It was not my first time of hearing the tag but I saw it in retrospect this time. According to the author, we tend to give people this tag early in life and then 10, 20 years down the line, that tag becomes “What happened to you?”
He attached this phenomenon to the law of the tunnel. You’d have to read the book to gain perspective. But most importantly, the same way a mother and baby are strongly connected via the umbilical cord is the same way our thoughts are strongly connected to our future. So unless I maintain the same thought and conviction all through the day, my future at 5 am could differ from my future at 7 pm. This means the future itself is dynamic, there is no certain future unless the same thought process is maintained. And this is why you can have high hopes early in life and somehow down the line, you just begin to settle for what’s within your reach. You have the ability to feed on positive thoughts in order to alter the future. Life will definitely give you troubles along the line but unless they are seen as tutors, you’d never transform or even become stronger. It’s the same way one woman comes out of a bad marriage, fearful and battered and another comes out tougher. No man comes out at the end of a tunnel the same.
Finally, according to the author; Vision is not futurology. It is more of a quality and most times one is considered visionary after the facts, after seeing their achievements. On the other hand, one without achievements yet can also be considered visionary based on his potential or drive. The fact that he’s working hard towards something is however not enough. He has to prove himself to the world. At the end of the day, a good start does not necessarily guarantee a good finish so it’s important to remain extremely focused, proving yourself from one level to another.
However, to remain an UNDERACHIEVER according to the author, you just have to do about 20 things which I’ll mention just a few;
- Do nothing, this is the shortest route.
- Make indefinite plans.
- Put in half effort into every job.
- Always wait for perfect conditions before you start anything.
- Wait for the perfect contract.
- Love process very much and don’t focus on productivity.
- Be a gentleman and always take NO for an answer.
- Blame something, blame your dog, blame your girlfriend, blame the government, just blame something.
- Wait for inspiration to do your work.
- Don’t work hard, work smart.
- Always depend on external stimuli.
- Desire the best of everything but depend on luck.
- Sleep a lot and don’t forget your siesta as well.
- Don’t read or study further, rely on what you learnt 10 years ago.
Asides from my thesis back in Uni, this is probably the longest I have written and most likely my longest article on medium. The sole aim of this article is to spark something similar to what was sparked after a few pages into the book — A drive to keep us all going and never give up.
Minding your business was written by the ultimate beast of knowledge, LEKE ALDER. You should be able to grab your copy by visiting www.lekealder.com.
Stay safe guys.
