Unpopular side with Thomas Oti
Email: thomasoti@qed.ng
The only thing limiting you is your mind. Overcome that and everything else is easy peasy.
Our mind is the only limiter we have. But it’s the only limiter we need. And it’s a powerful one too.
If you believe you can do something, you will do it.
If you choose to not believe you can do it, you won’t.
Your mind is your enemy number.
Enemy number two is comfort. If you are comfortable, you are not ready to move or to make progress. Get out of your comfort zone. Or better still, zone out of your comfort zone. If you are where you should be, you are like the proverbial shithead who’s stayed too long in the toilet. Don’t complain when different flies come to keep you company. If you are comfortable, you attract fly.
The third enemy of your progress is lack of passion. Connect to your passion point; everything becomes extremely easy and simple. Find your passion point and you’ll be passionate about it and everything connected to it.
You need a good team. People are your fourth enemy. Find a good team to work with. Find people of similar passions, ideas, ideologies and convictions. When you find a good team, you can focus on your core strengths and be certain they’ll focus on theirs and you all will work in absolute harmony like the notes of a beautiful piece of music.
Sleep is a key enemy too and that makes it enemy number five. Conquer the mental laziness of your mind and you will wake up. Get up and do it. The Chinese say the journey of a million miles starts with one step. Take that step. If you don’t get up and start, you are dying on your bum. Go, go go.
Fear is the key enemy of your progress. But you must embrace her. Fear is a good thing. The fear of the unknown is much better than the fear of the known. The fear of the unknown is the raft foundation of all religions. The koboko that religion of all types uses to whip us all into shape is the cane of the unknown. “They” claim to know what lies beyond death and therefore use that to advantage. Except you want to go to a place where you will suffer forever and ever. I have often said that given the suffering in the world today, why would anyone be afraid of any more suffering? I mean we should fit into the next suffering perfectly like gloves to a hand. I am a Nigerian. I survived the British. I survived the war. I survived all thieving leaders. I survived no light, water, road, food, no this, no that. What in hell can I be afraid of again? Why be afraid of somewhere else? Is fire really so bad if it refines gold? I’ve stopped asking. Or I may be sent to “hell”. Anyway, “they” manipulate our fear. Some say to very good end. But that is very debatable. Be that as it may, it is important to embrace your fear. If you are afraid of it, do it. Fear is enemy number six.
Lack of a network can stunt you before you start. Who are you rolling with? What’s your circle? Who’s in your network? I once learnt something quite profound: the same effort you’ll use to pursue N10k is the same you’ll use to pursue $10m. Friends that are poor riff raff vs. friends that are rich riff raff. Choose your circle well. And wisely. Iron sharpens iron. But stone sharpens iron too. Choose your circle of influence wisely. Messed up circle is enemy number seven.
Erm…erm…I had some other enemies in my head while driving home just now o but this hunger has made them disappear. It’s true what the Yoruba say ebi o ki n wo nu k’oro mi o wo. Dat is, nuthin wey you fit tell a hungry man wey im go understand. Hunger and comprehension simply don’t go together!
But that is the next enemy; food! Stay hungry. Have a hunger for what fuels you. If you are not hungry for it, you are wasting your time. I like that one a lot. Stay Hungry. Steve Jobs. Food is another enemy of your progress. If you have “enough”, you need to expand your appetite. You need to eat more and burn it off by going to the gym and building up muscles or six-pack. If six-pack isn’t your thing, make the money and give it away. If you’re no Bill Gates either, make the money and plant it in your farm. We Nigerians have now given a new meaning to the term “cash crops”. Ok, so that’s it then; food is enemy of success number eight.
Books are a terrible thing if you have them and don’t open them. Read. Read. Read. Study. Study hard. A wise man once said study to show thyself approved. I’ve always thought it was Aristotle that said it. But Google says it’s Timothy 2:15. Oh well, Google knows best. But study. Not necessarily because you need anyone’s approval anymore but because knowledge is power. Iconoclasts blaze trails by attacking existing opinions and all that jazz. But they do have to know something before they can break or change it. Learning is lifelong. Choose to learn as you go on in life. An “I know it all attitude” is bad for business and bad for life. Your ninth enemy is ignorance.
One question: what are you guys doing together beyond being “best friends” in the office and having fun and hanging out and all that jazz? Are you helping to contribute to yourselves in any way? So, who is in your team? That’s not the question? Should the question be; apart from tinrinrin, taranran, tiranus and taranus, who are other members of your team? Yoruba say it is the person that you sleep with that you jarunpalu. That is, it is the person that you sleep with that you scatter body on top during the night. If you don’t like someone, don’t sleep with them. Well you can sha, just don’t stay all night. You may consider a cover-the-face-and-fire-the-base scenario. If you guys think you are cool together, then come together and work together on projects. You all bring something to the table; contribute to it in aid of each other. Don’t end up being sad people who are united in friendship for a stupid cause like competing to see who hates their job the most or who hates the boss the deepest (lol). Let whatever you find unpleasant about others drive and propel you to want to do more. Work together more. Especially on your personal projects. Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak started working on Apple from Steve J’s father’s garage. They both had separate day jobs but worked on their passion in their spare time. As much as you can, if you can, don’t waste your spare time. Aha, that’s enemy nine! Don’t waste your spare time!
That’s it. There are maybe tonnes more deep words of wisdom that the internet is suffused with. Go Google. These words of mine are my own. Find more words. But don’t get sucked into the beautiful world of Google. Don’t stay researching for too long. Maybe check out a few things. And then leave and go and do something. Ultimately, doing something is better than doing nothing. Go and do something. Start today. And 10th and just as important as the rest is procrastination! Don’t do it. No I mean don’t procrastinate. Just do it! Today is a good day to start!
