SEEING DIFFERENTLY

In the previous week, the news of 'mysterious'  water gushing out from a tree in Federal University of Technology, Owerri (FUTO) filled the internet. The most amazing thing about the whole event is not the almost impossible source of water(a tree), but in the disposition of most persons who witnessed it.

Now, here's what happened.

At about 10am on Thursday, a tree in the school premises suddenly began to let water out from its sides. As expected, everyone was surprised. "what could this be?" people asked themselves, expecting no direct answers though. In a very short while, the scene was filled up with observers that it was difficult for many others to see what was really happening.

The crux of the matter: many people started fetching the water in volumes as they believed it is magical, some attached importance to the tree and concluded that the spirits that live in the tree are out on display of powers. Others began to bring so much religion into it. Funny.

I am not trying to disregard our religion and faith in the Almighty one who made the universe (as a matter of fact, I have experienced His realistic being...). But our 'thought-system' will really need to change for the better if the we are actually heading somewhere close to the future we desire for ourselves. In this age of information and discoveries, the world isn't waiting for a university undergraduate who will conclude without deep reasoning that anything that deviates from the normal is always supernatural or unexplainable.
If we must get ahead as a nation, we think ahead of our past generations. Comparing Nigeria with developed countries in the world, and then blaming our leaders would make no sense if we don't think differently. It's high time we started thinking logically, analytically and started devising solutions to our problems ourselves. And, I think I should let you know now that 98percent of the strange things we see around us are not caused by 'the old woman in the village'. The era of finding some persons to always blame should be done with. If that was how those who invented the telephone were thinking, they would praise one god of communication somewhere. ( I know some people still believe that the phone was made by 'Oyinbo witchcraft'...lol. Please wake up and make sure you dont tell that to your kids now or later)

For your information, at about 3pm that same day, the 'holy water' from the 'tree of life' stopped flowing. And that was about the same time the persons on duty at the school's water services switched off the water pumping machine. That was when it was discovered that one of the water pipes around the tree had bursted, and the source of the 'mysterious' water became obvious.

When they say, "the Youth are the leaders of tomorrow", many young persons are 'gingered' to aspire for political offices and to quickly have their demands met. Whereas, the reasonable explanation of that statement is this: what the older ones have not known yet, the youth will discover and better their nation's economy, education and health sectors with it in their time. It is with this knowledge that those who will lead will lead. In 20 years' time, there will be a new set of leaders doing greater exploits than 'Fela Durotoye, Aliko Dangote, Mike Adenuga, Asa, Dora Akunyili, Kenny Ogungbe and stars who would be world leaders in entertainment, fashion etc. I want to encourage you to be a part of it and not like some persons always cricizing and blaming the government, the gods etc ( some even blame other countries).

We all won't be politicians, but we can choose to so excel in our career paths and consciously build the Nigeria we want. Let us all begin to look inward and see the possibilities and not mysteries.

God bless.



Mayowa Williams.

COSTLY ASSUMPTIONS (1)

A very happy new year to you! I hope it isn't too late to say that anyway.

I want to assume you are reading this because you feel it may add to your wealth of knowledge and turn helpful in sharpening the quality of man/woman you're becoming. If that's it, good. My assumption costs me virtually nothing. Assumptions aren't always costless though.

I've come to realize that many people, when they have their destinies in their hands and all the cards up to them, they make costly assumptions where they're supposed to take critical decisions followed by calculated actions. More often than not, what we commit to chance takes us aback with unexpected results. I'll take a few of the costliest of assumptions one can ever make.


1. ASSUMPTION OF PURPOSE.

Purpose. It is so much a broad topic to write about, but simply explained, purpose is that which we are where we are to do.

Many a time, as young people, we are tempted to start our aspiration statements with the phrase "I want to be... a doctor, an accountant, a teacher(most rare though.. smiles*), a lawyer, an economist, a pastor etc. Whereas the question that purpose seeks to answer is...'What are you here to do' and not to be alone. So to talk to yourself as a man/woman of purpose is to say "I want to liberate my nation from light out problems, so I will take up a course that will help me be an expert at hydroelectric power engineering".
There's also another temptation to think that what you always want to be is your purpose for life. Or that the path you are walking or the course you are studying in school as a product of chance will lead to what you are destined to do. It certainly may have to do with it, and as a matter of fact, may be a pointer to purpose but it is not the purpose in itself.

Purpose is too big and important a thing to be based on an assumption. To assume is like to be sent on an errand to buy a toothpaste and then you walk all around town, come back sweating profusely  with a pack of toothpick in hand. No matter how much the items are related and how much all the sweat amount to, It is a failed mission.

In conclusion, Purpose is not meant to be coined, it is meant to be discovered. We all have a mandate to fulfil before we were born; it could be to liberate the world from malaria infection completely by your medical researches and not just to be a usual doctor. It could be to bring sanity into the world's economy and not just be another regular economist who will only criticize. It could be to save a million kids that think they aren't just smart enough to amount to anything in life, and not just be another teacher always scolding students.

The summary is this: Make Your Life Count! Better the world by your existence. You have been programmed to do so. Not doing so is a minus to the world. So, go ahead and discover your purpose and fulfil it. I know you want to, and I pray you will.

For step by step ways to discover purpose, you can get resourceful books on the subject by renowned authors e.g Rick Warren, Myles Munroe, David Oyedepo and others.
Never assume. You need to be sure so you don't buy toothpick instead of toothpaste.

Have a Fulfilled week.






         ~ Mayowa Ola Williams

Rebranded Resolutions

Just before you venture into a new year with a new set resolutions (or maybe not, if you haven't made any). There's this whole lot of buzzing about this resolution of a thing that it has almost become a routine every year ( if not even 'ritual').

When someone asks, what are your new year resolutions, two things come to my mind. One, and certainly the fairest, that the person cares enough to know if I'm prepared for the year ahead of me, or two, the person is just caught up in the spirit of the season.

Well, I don't think resolutions are necessarily made only in December. Really? Yes! I just can't wait until the end of a year to change my course of steer if need be. I'm not saying there's something wrong about making December resolutions. As a matter of fact, a lot of people see the end of the year as a period to reminisce and reposition. Then, good.

My point is, you can push the restart button anytime in the year ahead when you feel you're doing things or taking decisions that will definitely not take you where you really are going. So just get in the mood for another December period when you need new resolutions whether the calendar says March or August. The only difference will be that you aren't sacrificing a chicken ( as it is in December)

More importantly, to help yourself stick to your personal commitments for the time frame, it is important to do frequent reviews to ensure, in the end, that you get what you bargained.

A true resolution is more than a pen-paper deposition, but a resolute goal imprinted in the mind that causes you to take actions.

Wishing you a year of fulfilled goals ahead.


   

                                          ~Mayowa Ola-Williams

Stand Out For Us!

As I write this piece, I feel very hot on my inside, my heart beating a little faster than normal ( the way you would feel when you are taken advantage of, and told not to speak). It's just crystal clear as a plain glass on a sunny day, that there is a fault in our thinking system, on the average, as a nation.

'We cannot innovate anything!' One of my lecturers just spilled out a few minutes ago. 'Thank God you're reading medicine, you would have been victims the more' he said. The students cheered him with laughter and chuckles in a unanimous agreement, except for myself and another female student who was even bold enough to defiantly defend Nigeria, at least, the future.

This is how it all started. An inquisitive student raised his hand to ask a question in the Anatomy class. 'Sir, is it true that over-usage of the brain can cause Parkinson's disease? Then the lecturer, who I respect for his  academic prowess, gave an analogy to address the question. "If Thomas Edison, Abraham Lincoln and others who we consider as those who really used their brain did not develop Parkinson's disease, then it's not likely that over-usage(if there's anything like that) of the brain can cause the disease. Then he went a step further to say, "Even if it can cause it, it will never occur amongst us blacks because we don't use our brains!" I just got startled and wondered if I had heard him right. To worsen the case, a 95 percent of the class thinks same.

 In an attempt to further substantiate his claim, he mentioned that the whites invented phones, made cars and the jets. And how you'll definitely get a job for yourself if you travel abroad unlike here in Nigeria where a greater part of the populace wallow in abject poverty. The claims are objectively true until he said; "and we don't have what it takes, talking about mental capacity, to stand our  Caucasian counterpart". That was when a strong electric field of repulsion grew within me. "We cannot innovate anything!" He concluded.
I could only imagine. How would an older man implant into the next generation a feeling of inferiority, incapacity and make us feel a little less than mediocrity by saying such words!

Well, for me, I am of the view that nothing is new anywhere. The US didn't come to be a place every of our children dream to be until some persons stood up to defend their country. People who were not so careful if they be the one to take all the glory for causing the change but were more interested in living in  the change they want to see.

I don't see myself as being inferior to anybody! My skin? I think we need to see the advantage in being dark-skinned because it is actually an edge of protection from harmful rays.

You see, with this experience and other things that have come my way, I have truly realised that failure is not is getting scores below average, it not in having a poor background, not in being physically challenged or even having bad leaders, failure is to disrespect yourself so much by thinking you don't deserve a place  among the best ones.
I believe Nigeria begins from me and from you. The way we see ourselves and how we act thereafter. It is not necessarily going into politics, it is the way we respect law and order. The change begins  like this: next time you have finished taking water from a sachet, you would look for a waste bin to drop it in , and if not available, you would keep it until you find one. That you wouldn't litter!

 Finally,let me add that, no one would come and change this nation  for us. As you don't leave your parents and siblings to join another family automatically, same way it is for you as a Nigerian. We just have to stand for ourselves.

Hmmmm....

Thank You.



                                          ~Mayowa Olar Williams

All Waiting For You

I was walking past one of the halls of residence in a top Nigerian university and I heard a male student saying to his friends " When I go make am ehn, I go first go my village go build house there, buy motor for my papa make the man dey proud of me." Its not the first time I heard something like that and in fact I must have spoken in a similar way in times past. There's absolutely nothing wrong about having such aspirations to make your family proud of the man or woman you'll become. Its indeed a good way to start out.  By thinking you can get there alone makes you a good candidate for the journey of excellence ahead. But take note, fantasy alone won't take you there. And that's where the challenge is: What do you do to take yourself there?

What you must put in your mind is that people who live 'average' lives today had the same dreams when they were growing up, but somehow, they just found themselves where they are today. And the truth is this, you can't keep doing the same thing all over and expect a different result. You must break out of conventionality and do something differently.

And now, I think I should remind you that as a young person, and perhaps a student, people who have invested in you are waiting for you to bring returns. In fact, you'll desperately not know how much they need you to do until you finally make it.
In a parable of the servants Jesus told, the master entrusted his wealth to his servants without stating expressly that they should go into business and make more money and bring him returns. But that was what he expected from them by default!

So you should know that in every way someone invests in you, whether by aiding you financially, giving you their time, advice, tolerance and so on, they expect returns, or better still, they deserve returns. The world is waiting for you to make it. Your family anticipates that moment you'll be presented with an award of excellence whether in your academics or otherwise and then dedicate it to them. Many nations await your resounding financial exploits that you may give to them in their hard times. And I believe you wont let them all down.

So you see, you just can't sit down there doing the same thing others did all over again. You need to ignite your dream. And you know what? A plan becomes a goal when you take practical steps towards its accomplishment.

So whatever you do, dream big but the reality of the dream is in the steps you take after the dreaming.



                                                                    ~Mayowa Williams

Dream Beautifully

 Your dream is a vivid representation of your greatest desires. It is what we love and want to be and how we want to live at a later or sooner time. A dream is what we hope to see come to fruition in our lives.
This kind of dream is not what we see in our sleep, it is that which takes sleep from our eyes.

Be Careful When You Dream

I used to have a friend while I was in my early teens. I had a very humble teenage. One Sunday afternoon as we gallivant around fantasize, about 4 or 5 of us, we talked about what delicacies we wished to eat at that instant. As some of wished to eat fried rice and chicken with five alive as a drink to usher the food down(as was the best meal we could think of in the part of the world...lol), just then my friend said "I wish to eat 'concoction' rice and take plentiful water" (I just hope you understand what concoction rice mean... you can ask a Nigerian if you don't). At once, the rest of us just burst into laughter, in that the meal he desired was what wasn't so hard to come by then.
In essence, like someone said, 'if you must dream then, dream big.'

At the peak of your dreams, do you see yourself living in a rented 5-bedroom apartment and probably having a car to yourself? Or you see yourself having a real estate and probably being the CEO of an automobile firm or similar things?
The truth is that some persons don't  see the need for these things and choose to live as humbly as possible. Don't get it wrong, I don't mean living a lousy living when I say dream big. For persons who don't see the need for big dreams, its just their choice! But I believe there are only a few.
The choice of
your dreams, whether big or small determines, potentially, how far you would be able to go.
 So, dream. And when you do that make sure your see big things.

What Do Not Matter When You Dream

1. Your Background:
   The greatest of people we see today were originally not from influential families. They made their families influential. Just have the right prospects and follow through consistently, and there you are!

2.  Your Locality:
    Your immediaenvironment have little to do on where you'd be in 10years time. Just ensure you keep devising ways to advance. A good example of this is Jesus Christ of Nazareth. Nobody at that time believed any good thing could come out of Nazareth.

3.   Financial Status:

     Money is a slave to knowledge. If you don't have money, then your dream should be bigger. Simply go for its master knowledge its master and you have both.


Finally, one proven thing is that, it on your way to reaching the land of your dreams that you get the elements and opportunities that'll get you equipped for the goal. Statistics have shown that the most successful people in the world learnt what propelled them into succeeding when they set out to take practical steps. So the next big secret is DOING SOMETHING.
But first, make sure you dream and see beautifully.

                                                                                                    ~  Mayowa Williams

Welcome To Mayowa Williams' Blog

Hello!

It's from my heart that I write to specially welcome you to Mayowa Williams' Blog. I strongly believe that it's not an error or by mistake that you're reading this now.  And to that end I say a big congratulations for here's a place where matters that regard ushering yourself into greatness by being exposed to elements of finding real success and how to become the successful person you aspire to be.

Do you want to make a significant difference in your community?  Do you want to stand out for greatness?

Welcome to Mayowa Williams'Blog!