There’s
a popular saying that goes “THINK BIG” whenever it comes to matters of setting
goals and aiming for success. In fact, there’s a book titled “THINK BIG AND
GROW RICH” by Napoleon Hill. So, we see that whenever it comes to the issue of
success in our today’s world it is always associated with something enormous in
a manner of speaking. So, is success really in just getting to the end point of
our goals? One thing worthy of note though is there is never truly and end to
our pursuits as human beings. Check your life’s journey, at different points in
time SUCCESS has been represented by different goals, results, accomplishments.
All which seemed to be more challenging and celebrated than the last. Notice
how you shelf your last success the moment you got it, to the extent you might
even forget the story behind it. (Try thinking about your last success story if
you can really point it out and put it together)
Now
what brought us here. I started a career accelerator programme recently and one
of the assignments we were given was to write a success file and send to our
cohort facilitator. When I saw it I was like no biggy. So, what exactly was the
success file supposed to contain; results, achievements, milestones one had
accomplish that may not necessarily be tied to your job (generally may not be
work related. Although job achievements were included too). Now when I wanted
to write mine, I struggled to even put down five sentences. Then it dawned on
me that if my job was taking out of the picture, I really didn’t have a lot to
say about myself, not because there wasn’t but because in this stage of my life
I had been so engrossed in my job, trying to do meaningful work and what
matters that every other thing I did along the way up until now didn’t count as
success because it didn’t align with the bigger picture.
Now let share a little bit of my story, finished secondary school a little before I was 15 years old, in 2014. Got into the university at age 18, not because I failed jamb but it just wasn’t coming. My least score was 212. In the university I became a member of the Institutional cadet corps of Nigeria, Unilorin command. Served for 4 years; held appointment as the ADC to the commanding officer after my recruitment, next became the public relations officer in the following regime before becoming the commanding officer myself in my final year, 2023. I started propeller consults in my final year, with managing 4 of my friends’ businesses in different capacities. Started my project management training in that same year with the International Association of Project Managers Nigeria network, got certified and became a registered member, all while maneuvering the challenging requirements of final year (we know how it is in our Nigerian universities). Not to mention, I was still the leader of my project group. Post-graduation, during my NYSC in 2024, In camp I was a corps camp director, a member of the camp court, my platoon parade commander; had less than two weeks to put 32 people in shape for the parade drill competition (something I spent 4 years of life mastering), praise be to God we went home with the trophy. Where I was posted to serve I basically my bosses’ PA, orderly and driver. They literally called me “Oga’s PA”. Got a job immediately after my service as a project manager with a real estate company where I was working. Up to present I have closed a little over #80,000,000 (eight million naira) in sales in the last one year I started working. But like I said earlier none of these felt successful enough to add in my success file because I was so caught up in wanting to become a top project manager handling big construction project (by the way propellers consult has been running still 2023, fully registered I’ve even had people reach out to me to come help them market and sell their properties), so everything other thing felt inconsequential.
You
see everything listed up there only a few made it into my list, I only stopped
to recount them after I mailed my list to the facilitator. Now this is the trap
most of us fall into today that makes us be and act ungrateful to God and to
ourselves. We are so focused on the bigger picture that you fail to see the
smaller ones. Remember the scene for “Avengers: Age of Ultron” with Ultron at
the church and Wanda and her brother comes to meet him there and she asks’ him
what he wants and he says to save the world and end The Avengers and then he
takes them to Strucker’s lab where he was operating from and starts giving a
grand speech of how they would end The Avengers and then Wanda’s brother
(Quicksilver) says “not everyone wants to kill them(The Avengers)” and Ultron
replies “you need to see the BIG PICTURE” and Quicksilver responds “ I
don’t see the big picture, I have a LITTLE PICTURE and I take it out and look
at it everyday”. Then goes further to explain how they had survived a
disaster that set them on the path they currently were (you can watch the video
to get perspective).
So
am I saying don’t have a big picture, by all means do but don’t forget the
little ones too. The event, circumstance or motivation that prompted you to
having that big picture. The choices you’ve made along the way, the sacrifices
you’ve had to make, the little wins that has brought you to the point where you
are. One thing this would give you is flexibility to navigate every phase of
your life. Like you will go on to see in the movie earlier mentioned, the twins
who started out helping Ultron to end The Avengers would later help The
Avengers to kill Ultron, when they found out is inhumane plan of wanting to end
all of earths existence. So, imagine if ultimate success for the twins was the
death of The Avengers, of which their major beef was with Tony Stark (Ironman)
and they were ready to see through with it at the cost of 8 billion lives, I
wouldn’t call that success now, would we? sometimes the need of the many needs
to outweigh the need of the few. Now I know they say you need to be daring, be
a little bit crazy to get remarkable things done, but then you might also want
to add caution. Don’t be on the boat of “getting things done at all cost
no matter the consequences”. One thing I learnt as a cadet was; “Always
plan for your plan not going according to plan”. Be flexible, be ready
to pivot and make ample use of every opportunity that presents itself even on
your way to “SUCCESS”.
So,
we see that success inherently is not a destination. Because no matter what you
achieve today there’s always something more than it. So, enjoy the JOURNEY,
make the most of it and live your best. Be grateful to God and yourself, you’ve
come a long way.
