Month: July 2022

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Mentorship and the Entrepreneurial Spirit

creative content

One basic truth about mentorship is that it is very beneficial to every entrepreneur who hopes to fly high and make a maximum impact in business. It brings out entrepreneurial skills in you. And it does not only make you successful but teaches you how to handle success when it comes. Mentorship inculcates in you the classical entrepreneurial spirit to effectively organize and optimally manage resources.

If you ask most smart or successful people where they learned their craft, they will not talk to you about their time in school. It’s always a mentor, a particularly transformative job, or a period of experimentation or trial and error – Ryan Holiday.

Someone once said that the apprenticeship scheme has produced more millionaires than the university system or education in Nigeria. To borrow a leaf from this statement of fact the mentorship scheme has produced more successful entrepreneurs than our universities. This is because the university curriculum as it were lacks the rich entrepreneurial content in it. Except for a few new-generation universities mostly privately owned which have included some entrepreneurial courses in their curriculum.

Consequently, the universities are busy churning out job hunters whose employability is in doubt and bloating the already saturated unemployment community. In fact, these products of our University system must first undergo mentorship to meet the requirements of the workforce.  On the other hand, the mentorship scheme has produced successful entrepreneurs and job creators who have been able to absorb as many as they can. Socrates captures this situation in his words;

Education is the kindling of a flame not the filling of a vessel – Socrates

Education at its best should kindle the fire of entrepreneurship. In other words, education should prepare us to make a change and not make us readily adapt to change. It should empower people to be creative and not the other way around. It should encourage an enterprising spirit. Rather what we have today is an education that fills us with all manner of garbage to pigeonhole us to a particular inclination. It is an education that suppresses our freedom to explore and unleash our creative talents. Also, it is an education that quenches the fire of entrepreneurship and enterprising spirits. It is tailored to fill us with this wrong mentality of studying to work instead of studying to create. This mentality is inimical to the entrepreneurial spirit.

The entrepreneurial spirit is an attitude and perception about the world around us that stirs up the desire to do and achieve more. It is a mindset of success. It is the mindset that dares you to succeed. In clear terms, it is the passion that fuels the fire of success. It is the spirit of creativity and an enforcer of change. And once you stir up the spirit, it changes the way you think, or the way do things with the sole aim of bringing smart solutions.

Major attributes of the entrepreneurial spirit include vision, curiosity, value creation, innovation, ideas, solutions, and change. The entrepreneurial spirit thrives best under the mentorship process. Mentorship makes one think big, and aim higher. And also instills the owner mentality, a mentality that every entrepreneur must possess. It is all about being proactive and exploring new opportunities under the guidance of the mentor.

Who is your mentor?

Once you embrace the absolute truth that every leader needs a mentor, you can begin to achieve the massive growth and success that you seek – Clay Clark.

Without mincing words, if you want to unlock this entrepreneurial spirit and experience massive success you need a mentor. In one of my posts, ‘unleash your talents’ I did say that for you to unleash your talents and succeed you need a mentor. Your mentor is someone who is ready to help you go beyond your limits. And I did say that the elastic band when it is under pressure or overstretch does not return to its original state. Likewise, you can never remain the same under the tutelage of a mentor.  Your mentor will help to guide you to break new ground and frontiers.

My writing skill was developed because I was able to go beyond my limits courtesy of my project supervisor. Each time I go to him for supervision he would ask me to write more, to elaborate on my points, and expand my work. Then I would go back to research more and increase the write-up. My ability to write was overstretched and I later came up with a finer work that fetched me a nice grade. But today I have so much developed my writing skills and I can write with so much ease.

How do I choose my mentor?

Hence, for you to receive the much-needed push that will help you go beyond your limits you need mentoring. You need the advice and wealth of experience of a mentor to guide you into the mainstream of the entrepreneurial spirit. Through the advice and guidance of this mentor, you will be able to discover, develop, and unleash your entrepreneurial skills. You must tap into his wealth of experience if you hope to discover your own entrepreneurial qualities. Back then in school, my project supervisor was my mentor who helped me discover, develop, and unleashed my writing skills. But your question might be, how do I choose my mentor?

 It is very simple. Who is that person that has done what you want to do? Or who is that person that you aspire to be like? He or she must be someone, who inspires you to greatness in any sphere of life. It must be someone whose method or approach to success appeals to you. It may be someone from the academic, professional, entertainment, creative, tech, or business industry. You must choose, follow and understudy such a person. The good thing about mentorship is that you can have more than one mentor depending on your need for development, be it personal, career, business, or professional development. But the crux of the matter is that you need a mentor to awaken the entrepreneurial spirit in you. That is a major import of mentorship.

Be inspired, be determined, and dare to succeed.

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Mentorship: Meteoric Rise to Success

mentorship

Mentorship escalates success and is instrumental to the meteoric rise of many on the ladder of success. It produces the finest de la crème in any field, career, or profession. The products of mentorship are qualitative and exceptionally successful in life. When it comes to success there are gateways that one must follow to access the realm of success, and mentorship is one of them. It is very crucial to becoming successful in any chosen field. Mentorship is fundamental to success. Such that you need the guidance and direction of some experienced personalities to reach your full potential and rise to the summit of success.

Power of Mentorship

Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John and perceived that they were unlearned and ignorant men, they marveled; and they took knowledge of them, that they have been with Jesus – Acts 4:13

Hence, it is very pertinent that we understand the importance and power of mentorship, that;

  1. Mentorship instills self-confidence which is an attribute common in highly successful people. It boosts self-worth. It is also the antidote for very low self-esteem. During escalating success it deescalates fear. These were fearful men initially but mentorship inculcated boldness in them. They were able to defend themselves before learned and noble men. Mentorship empowers you for problem-solving, and also to handle challenges as they come.
  2. Knowledge acquired by mentorship is a highly specialized one and so is superior. Mark these words ‘unlearned’ and ‘ignorant’ men. It dispels ignorance. So when it comes to mentorship academic background or records amount to little. I have seen people who ventured into daring and challenging fields different from what they studied in school become successful by reason of mentorship. Here what matters most is your passion and willingness to learn.
  3. It is ideal for the unveiling of talents. One key target of mentorship is the discovery, nurturing, and unveiling of talents. Mentorship helps in the fulfillment of dreams and aspirations. It is an outlet for the expression of latent potentials. It brings out the best in people. Hence, mentorship is ideal for professional, and personal growth and development.

However, for us to understand the concept of mentorship, we must first understand who a mentor is.

Who is a mentor?

A mentor is an experienced instructor or a guide. Such an individual must be someone who takes a personal interest in your success and is committed to helping you reach your full potential. It must be someone who doesn’t only point to the way to success for you but is willing to take you “by the hand” and lead you to your destination. Also, it must be someone who inspires you to succeed, someone who has done what you want to do and you aspire to be like him.

And in my own words, a mentor is someone who gives you feathers to fly high even more than him through the impartation of specialized skills and knowledge, and wealth of experience. Your mentor is the connecting bridge to your fame and stardom.

What is Mentorship?

According to the Oxford Dictionary, it is guidance provided by a mentor, especially in a company or institution. One important feature of mentorship is that it is relationship-based. It is a relationship between a person with vast experience (a mentor) and someone who is eager to learn (a mentee). And one important tool of operation in the process is communication. The process thrives on good communication to produce an enormous and positive result.

Hence, mentorship can be advanced as a relationship in which a person with a wealth of experience in a specialized field helps to guide a less experienced or less knowledgeable individual. The aim of mentorship is to discover and unlock potential. The products of the process are highly successful in their chosen fields.

The purest form of mentorship

In one of my posts, ‘the eagle success story’ I enumerated the success attributes of an eagle. One such is mentoring her young ones. The mother eagle takes out time to tutor her young ones. She shows this mentorship trait in guiding the young eaglet in the flight process.

At the right time, she takes the young eaglet and put it on her back ready to coach her on how to fly. She then flies so high spreading her wings. And in a swift swoop, she allows the eaglet to fall off her back. As the young eaglet descends it will spread its little wings by natural instinct to balance and prevent it from crashing. Then the mother eagle at a certain point of the descent expertly swoops in again under the eaglet. Balancing it on her back once again she flies it to her nest. This process she intermittently repeats over a period of time until the young eaglet learns how to fly. This is simply mentorship in its purest form.

Find a good mentor who believes in you and your life will change forever – Bill Walsh.

Finally, if you want to make a massive positive impact in life find yourself a good mentor. Mentorship is the gateway to the meteoric rise in life. You must leverage the specialized skills, and knowledge it provides to rise to fame and stardom.

Be inspired, be determined, and dare to succeed.

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Eagle Success Story: These SuccessTips Are For High Flyers.

eagle success story
Eagle Success Habits

The eagle, yes,” I would like to be an eagle,” I answered them. Hello, I know you are very curious to know why. Now, let me let you in. The place is Lagos Nigeria, and the event is the People-Prime Graduate Recruitment Fair. Like every other fresh graduate in town, I and my friend had the lofty ambition of landing the best Job. Hence, we went job hunting. We had a thrilling adventure applying for limited or non-existent jobs. This took us so many graduate fairs, talk shops, workshops, and seminars because we wanted to enrich our resumes and somehow get connections. That was how we landed here.

Sincerely, this particular graduate fair was so unique. It was so unique in the sense that it involved big-time major players from the oil and gas, banking, communication, financial, and manufacturing sectors. The private sector, multinationals, and government establishments were in full representation. After the introduction, keynote address, and talk shop by the who-is-who in the corporate world, it was time to go around the various stands of prospective employers.

Funny But Technical Question

It was in one of the stands for a popular multinational name withheld for personal reasons, that we were bombarded with one of the funniest albeit technical questions. For those of you in the human resources terrain, the question will be familiar. The question goes like this; in relation to your career, if you were to be an animal which one will you be, and why?

They took time to ask each and every one of us. Then they asked my friend what animal he would like to be, he said a sheep. When he was asked why he said he would sheepishly follow the management’s decisions and orders. He added that he would abide by the company’s rules and regulations. I then got my turn and I was asked which animal I would like to be – the eagle I answered. 

There are success lessons to learn from the eagle. The eagle as a bird is a symbol of strength, courage, and bravery. In this post, we shall look at five (5) distinctive features of an eagle.

Vision

If you are an eagle that means you have a good vision. Heard about Eagle-eyed? It means being very good at seeing or noticing. A strong vision is one of the eagle’s greatest assets.  It can see farther about 50 miles away from its present position. Vision is very important and necessary if you must succeed. In my book, I said that you cannot succeed beyond your vision. You can only succeed when you operate within the ambit of your vision.

Vision in this regard is the ability to see and explore opportunities. Your vision is your compass and blueprint in your quest for success. It answers the question of what to do. Hence, it breeds ideas. It is your vision that makes your success a reality. So like the eagle, you must have a vision in life if you intend to succeed.

Bravery

The eagle is not afraid of challenges. The storm does not intimidate it. It remains calm in the face of the daunting storm. The eagle by its bravery is able to face and overcome the turbulent storm. It graciously and effortlessly rides on the wind current gliding through the storm where no other bird dares to fly. In the face of challenges, you must be brave as the eagle. Your ability to confront and overcome your challenges defines your success. Don’t let your challenges intimidate you, you can make a piecemeal of them if you persevere.

In one of my posts, I did say that success is all about conquest. The more challenges you conquer or overcome the more successful you become. Like the eagle, you must dare to succeed by confronting your challenges headlong.

Eagle Soar

Eagle soars higher than any other bird. They can fly up to an altitude of 10,000 ft which no other birds can reach. Eagle has pride such that all its businesses are at the summit of very high trees, cliffs, or mountains. So, at such a great height, it can only mingle with other eagles. In one of my posts, see it here; I said that you must indulge in selective association. You must work with like minds, and high flyers. These are people that will motivate you to soar and also soar to greater heights with you. Work with a team of fellow eagles if you want to succeed in life.

If you associate with eagles, you will learn how to soar – Major Collin Powell.  

Eagle retreats

The eagle has a habit of retreating when its strength is fast deteriorating, and it has become a threat to its survival. It is a period of a renewal process and can take about five to six months. This will help the eagle to renew and launch out in full strength. It improves mental strength and enables us to think clearly. This action increases creativity. Retreating also helps in stress management. It elongates life. Do you want to live long? Then find time to retreat. Just by retreating the eagle can add about 20 to 30 years to its age.

The eagle is a good mentor

Jn fact, mentoring in its purest form is a habit that is common among eagles. The eagle mentors her young ones. This mentorship trait can be detected in guiding her young eaglets in the flight process. At the right time, the eagle will take the young eaglet and put it on her back ready to coach her on how to fly. This process is intermittently repeated over a period of time until the young eaglet learns how to fly on its own. A mentor is an experienced instructor or guide. Someone, who takes a personal interest in your success and is committed to helping you to reach your full potential, and if you must soar and succeed in life like the eagle you need one.

Finally, in relation to success, if you were to be an animal which animal would you be, and why? Let’s have your opinion. God bless you.

Culled from my book “The Threshold of Life “. Get your Copy and Learn more about Success tips for successful living.

Be inspired, be determined, and dare to succeed.

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Power of Foresight

foresight

Are you envisaging success? Or are you seeking to reinforce or add energy to your quest for success? Then you need foresight. In fact, you must possess this essential quality for you to have a fair share of the bounties of success. It is a veritable tool and is very crucial in facilitating success. Consequently, any project or business that is not powered by foresight is as good as dead on arrival. Hence, the possession of foresight is a plus to success. It has a very strong impact on success.

What is foresight?

Foresight is the act or power of foreseeing future events. It is the ability to look forward in life. According to the Collins dictionary, foresight is the ability to see what is likely to happen in the future and to take appropriate actions. From the foregoing, we can deduce that the concept of foresight is a fusion of three important elements of success, namely vision, judgmental prowess, and action. Hence, with foresight one can clearly see his future; take bold steps to actualize his goals in life by making daring decisions that will have far-reaching effects. These are long-range decisions that will lead to an incredible quest for success.

For instance, Sam a young graduate has just landed a job as a software programmer. Now he has a glimpse of his career path for the next five to ten years. Even though Sam is not yet where he wants to be in his career, he understands that he is on a journey. From the level where he is at the moment, he can see the ‘promised land of his career. Basically, with foresight, he can plan and take actions that will enable him to reach the incredible end of his career. That is the beauty of foresight; it serves as a guideline on the journey en route to success.

In my own words, foresight is having insight into your future. It is binocular through which one can see far into the future from the present.

Have four eyes

I have four eyes but I am not a witch – Chief Olaka Agwara

The above statement is credited to my father-in-law of blessed memory. A great philosopher of life, gifted with the power of foresight. Now in line with this statement of fact, I assert that you must have four eyes for you to exercise the power of foresight. In other words, to have foresight is to have four eyes. When I say have four eyes it does not literally mean having two extra starry eyes on your forehead like a monster. Rather having four eyes by implication means exploring the extraordinary eyes of the mind. Apart from the physical eyes, we can as well explore the mind’s eyes. The mind has eyes with which you can visualize and imagine things. With the mind’s eye, you can vividly see, beyond your present, into your future. That is the eyes of understanding Apostle Paul once talked about which can help us visualize or imagine the glory that lies ahead of us.

The eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that ye may know what is the hope of his calling, and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints – Ephesians 1:18

Engaging the mind’s eyes equates to foresight. Sam the young graduate in the above illustration could only see his career’s incredible end using the mind’s eyes. The mind’s eyes are not limited by distance nor by circumstances. It is wider in scope than the physical eyes. Therefore, for you to experience the power of foresight you must engage and maximally explore the mind.

Benefits of foresight

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Planning and strategizing

Planning is very crucial when it comes to success. There is a popular saying that when you fail to plan you are planning to fail. Foresight helps us in planning for success. It helps us plan, and strategize on the methodology we will adopt in achieving our enviable dreams and reach the incredible end in our quest for success. Planning then becomes your blueprint, your compass to guide you in the journey of success. it serves as a framework for decision-making.

Foresight helps in decision making

Prudence is foresight, and foresightedness is the ability to make immediate decisions on basis of their long-range effects- John Ortberg

Decision-making in any venture is very crucial. Foresight helps a great deal in making decisions. Not just making decisions but making the right ones. Through foresight, you can make smart decisions and our goals within reach. Making the right decision will always put you on the threshold of success. Decision-making entails making choices among alternatives in a bid to achieve set goals. Decision-making is the crescendo of planning. It is the execution of plans. And to execute these plans we must choose between options. Decision-making tests our judgmental prowess. Hence the power of foresight in decision-making is that it helps us to eliminate or reduce prejudice to the barest minimum. It engenders sound judgments in decision-making.

Foresight is good for business

Patience and foresight are the two most important qualities in business- Henry Ford.

When it comes to business, it is a very powerful quality one must possess. The power of foresight is that it gives insight into business trends. In order to succeed the entrepreneur must have it. It will give you insight on whether to invest or divest in any business portfolio, how to invest and the right timing to invest or diversify and make a profit based on the prevailing trend. Based on these trends you can project or forecast the growth of any business. Want to succeed in business? Then, have foresight. It helps you to cleverly define your business model for easy actualization of set goals and objectives.

It demystifies the future

Another power of foresight is that it helps us to see the future in the present. And any future we can see becomes no longer a mystery. Hence by it, one can demystify the future. The good news is that with foresight you can possibly dictate what direction the pendulum of life will swing in the future. Check out my post on the mystery of tomorrow for more details.

In addition, it helps you to prepare and to brace up for the challenges of the future. With such preparation, you are not in any way overtaken by the events and demands of the future. Nor are you in doubt of the future. Adequate preparation for the future is a function of foresight.

What is your take on foresight? Let me have your opinion. Remember to like and share the post if it has added value to your life

Be inspired, be determined, and dare to succeed.