It
has been five months after my arrival in this simple and hospitable village for
my National Youth Service; my life circle in the village was indeed simple and
predictable as I only had few places to go for an entire day. Hence, aside from
being in the school and the Corpers’ lodge, I should be in the pharmacy were I
charge my phones and get manageable network coverage to make my time to time
calls or the viewing centre. One blessed evening as I was seating at the front
of the pharmacy which happens to be where I spent most of my evenings and free
times, a sales boy came out dancing a particular dance step that I am used to,
this is what he said to me: “This is how I will be dancing when you finish your
service and when you are gone”
Well,
this piece is not to bore you with the story of my adventurous youth service
year, but the statement made by the sales boy that faithful evening was
congruent to a burden I was musing in my heart, which had to do with successful
people raising successors for the next generation. Though it was a mere dance
step, it dawn on me heavily that most people don’t give much thought to the
fact that their words, actions and inactions definitely leave mark on the sand
of time. Thus, after spending that whole evening thinking, two words summarized
my though for that evening; “Successful Failures”.
With
greatness as its closest kin, success is one word that most people want to
associate with, but very few people are ready to pay the price, this is because
every success comes with a corresponding cost. If you are to define success,
what will be your own definition? Simply put therefore, success has to do with
an achievement of ones goals, objectives, or plans in life. I see success as
the concrete and tangible fruition of one’s abstract life’s goals and
objectives; in a broader sense – mission and vision. Thus, people often
quantify and qualify success in terms of
how much one has acquired, the position one has attend and the
accumulative assets one has over the years accrued. I totally align my
sentiment with these descriptions of success, but the summary of my thought
that evening was still an oxymoron – successful failures.
Successful
failure presupposes that there is successful success; an attempt to delve into
the former will give us the true picture of the later (Successful Success).
After a keen observation and analysis, I saw a grievous omission in the life of
most of the people we see as successful in our generation. True, when it comes
to who they are, what they have and who they know, they are repertoire of
success stories, but when it comes to who they have helped, and mentored to
take over from them when they are no more, they are successful failures. This
proves true the popular saying that “a successful person without a successful
successor is a successful failure”.
Taking
a cursory look at our society, one will agree that yes, many people are
pursuing success, only to be successful failures. A father could be seen as a
great and successful father, rich and influential, but when it comes to
ensuring that his children take over form his commendable legacy, he is just
but a successful failure. In our local and advance communities, it is obvious
that our leaders are so traditional and obsessed with power that the issue of
raising successors is not of importance to them; our religious bodies are no
exception. Everyone clamours for leadership, greatness and success, but little
or no thought is given to who is next. More glaring and disturbing is our
national and political leaders who are so immediate, short sighted and careless
about tomorrow, no wonder they kept telling the youths they are the leaders of
tomorrow, tomorrow that never came.
There
are many variables that bring about a success that is a failure. Topping the list
is: greed, selfishness, selfish ambition, the “I, me and myself syndrome” and
other human negative inclinations. People that their time and life will not be
seen as successful failure, men and women that their success story will
resonate in eternity are those who though are successful but daily see
themselves as failures unless they deposit what they have into others, carry
others along and share with them the secret recipes of their success. Such men
care less about leadership but are consumed with the passion of raising
successors, they are men that have come to internalize the true meaning of
success and carry within them the seed of success and cannot afford to die with
it without sowing same in the life of others.
What
is this piece trying to share with you in essence? It was the Holy writ that
said “whatever your hand find doing, do it well”, I humbly add that whatever
your hand find doing, do it well, be a
success story at it and deposit same into a life that will represent and
succeed you when you are gone. Are you a successful father or mother? Don’t be
a successful failure but see to it that you raise and train your children to be twice successful
as you are. Are you a business guru who the society call successful? See to it that others succeed you with
greater measure of success. Are you a leader? Be a success by first being good
through knowing God, then deposit same seed into others to take over from you.
The analogy can go on and on.
A
wise man once told me: “If you have only one rich, educated and highly placed
person in your family, you are not successful. But if that one person learns a
helping hand to other members of his family to be successful, that is true
success”. This is true because if one person succeeds, it is no success, but if
all succeeds at one thing or the other, that is true success. Joel Osteen captured this beautifully when he
said: “True success is when you reach back and bring somebody along with
you”. This should henceforth be your
definition of success less you become another successful failure.
Lack
of successful successors had been the bane of most families, communities,
organizations and nations. We cannot afford to continue in this vicious circle
of being successful failures, we are the change, and we are the answers and
solution to the questions and equations life haul at us every day. Jesus Christ
is the most successful success story that ever toured the face of the earth,
what formed the core of his mission was not power, attracting followership and
all sort of things we associate with success, but his utmost passion was
raising successors, moulding his disciples with enduring uncommon patience,
depositing in them what will qualify them to be his successors. For you and me
to be true success stories, in our little, different unique yet equally
important ways, we must start depositing into the life of others what we are
successful at so that they can take over from us, knowing fully well that we
are all time bound. Any attempt to do otherwise will make us successful
failures. Better not to yearn for success at all than to pursue success and be
a successful failure.
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