Author: Conquestlane

Author of many inspirational books, among them are - 'Conquest in Adversity: the mystery of another spirit', 'Success unplugged, powered by conquest' and 'The Threshold of Life'. He is a techpreneur, Success enthusiast, and a senior partner at Conquestlane Global Services. A freelance web-developer, and a Google certified Associate Cloud Engineer (ACE). He is also doubles as programme Coordinator and @ bringbackourglory.org. He holds a bachelor of science degree from the University of Nigeria Nsukka. He is of the view that we can dare the impossible if we can imagine, and believe it is possible. This view informs his philosophy of life "imagine, believe, dare the impossible". He is happily married with children.
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Bursting the Fear Bubble: How to Unmask the Monster Called Fear.

demystifying fear

She would hold my hand and lead me through the thick darkness by the lonely path beside the three tomb epitaphs under the big mango tree. Graveyard silence pervades the serene atmosphere while the owls and the crickets sing their dirge. As if being led through the valley of the shadow of death I would follow her with a panting breath, while my mind raced within me. Then she would say ‘Don’t fear, nothing is here’. After she had ferried me across then would I be free from the torture of fear? Free from the fear of the imaginary monsters that would come out of the dark and swallow me. The fear bubble burst that night.

The above passage is an excerpt from my book ‘Success Unplugged, powered by Conquest’. As a little child, I was always afraid of the dark. It happens that whenever I visited my granny and she asked me to wait for dinner, after dinner when it was time to go I would feel reluctant to go because of the dark night. This happened on many occasions, and I did not know that she has been observing me. So on a fateful day holding my hand in her right hand and the lantern in her left hand, she helped me burst the fear bubble. She taught me the best lesson of life I have ever received as she led me along the dark and lonely path.

Within a few seconds, I received one of the most valuable tutorials of life which many would pay heavily to receive in this present-day world. It was a lesson about fear, that dreadful phenomenon that has left unmitigated damage to the psyche of many individuals. Many dreams have been battered, many visions have been blighted and many destinies truncated, all because of fear.

The Scourge of Fear

The scourge of fear is in its torture. Fear once it captures your mind puts you in the prison of torture. Just like my granny would say ‘Nothing is here’, there is nothing in fear. It is like the imaginary hot air balloon which can burst at the slightest pinch. Fear really is nothing other than the figment of our imagination. It is a creation of the negative imagination. It is the ‘monster’ we create out of our own imagination. Fear is inimical to our happiness and satisfaction in life as it puts a limitation on our potential and frustrates all our efforts in life.

Fear has a subtle means of caging men in the dungeon of mediocrity by taming their potential. Its torture infringes on the freedom of people to express their potential. Fear makes people not unpack and tap into the creative content of the baggage of life. However, not until you burst the catatonic fear bubble you can ever express your potential. And you will remain redundant as far as success is concerned. In other words, you cannot achieve success and fulfillment in the atmosphere of fear. This explicitly captures what I have termed the ‘infidelity of fear’.

Failing the Moral Obligation

Infidelity in this regard is not about unfaithfulness to one’s spouse or partner, rather infidelity in this context is about unfaithfulness to a moral obligation. Every one of us is under a moral obligation to succeed in life. Remember we have the mandate of success. Hence success or fulfillment is not the exclusive right of a certain class of people. It is open to all and sundry irrespective of their background provided they meet the requirements.

There is nothing we cannot achieve including fulfillment in life since we have the capacity and the wherewithal to succeed. But we are stripped of all our abilities to fulfill this moral obligation and confined to the dungeon of mediocrity when we live in fear. Fear has a demeaning effect on the individual worldview. And looking through the prism of life tainted with fear all we could see is impossibilities, doubt, and unbelief.

Ignorance of Fear

Under the worldview of fear, you will be ignorant of your self-worth. Basically, you don’t know what you are capable of until you give it a try. In other words, your self-worth is defined by your capability, and when you are in doubt of your abilities your self-worth will also be in doubt. Moreover, you cannot develop your potential without giving it a try. Fear makes you rusty. A life of fear is replete with low self-esteem, self-pity, and self-defeat. Then a situation arises where you eventually lose faith in your abilities.

 There is a need for you to burst the fear bubble if you want to make a maximum impact in life. A toddler taking its first stride must first overcome the initial fear of falling down if it must succeed in walking. There is an adage that ‘the fear of death does not stop a warrior from going to war’. At least testing his might in a battle will enable him to know his self-worth, if not he will be ignorant of his capacity even though he may have great fighting skills. Bury your fear not your potential or talents. It is either you bury your fear or your fear will bury your potential.

Don’t Let Fear Suppress Your Talent

Don’t allow fear to place a lid on the treasure box of your potential. Let’s say your mind is the treasure box, and inside it are great potentials, (treasures) which you must freely express or trade with for you to be happy and satisfied in life. Now what fear does is that it closes this treasure box, put a tab on these wonderful potentials, and makes sure you don’t express them. This is one major reason why many lack fulfillment today. Not that they don’t have what it takes but because of fear of expression of their talents.

What are you afraid of?  What are the things that infringe on your ability to express your potential? Is it fear of failure, fear of death, fear of the unknown, fear to take off a business, fear of infection, or heartbreak? Whatever it may be, take a bold step to burst the fear bubble. Who knows your next gold mine of success may lie in that thing you fear most. The truth is that you can overcome your fears just like I outgrew my childhood fear of darkness. But you must, first of all, identify your fear in life. And until you do that you can never find fulfillment in life.

Imagine, believe, and dare to succeed.

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The Eagle Philosophy: How to Retreat, Renew, And Relaunch

eagle philosophy

To retreat is not a sign of weakness rather it is a high mark of bravery. The ‘retreat, renew, re-launch is an eagle philosophy. It is a very powerful success philosophy that one must crave. Check out this story. Arnold had just shown up at his office. He had been down with bouts of fever and had been away for the past seven days.

 “Good morning, Arnold”, one of his colleagues greeted him. “Hello”, he replied, as he headed toward his desk clutching his briefcase. He sat down, bowed his head, and muttered a little prayer, thanking God because he is back on his feet. He had barely finished when his colleague came over to his desk to ask him about his health.

“How are you today, Arnold?” he asked. “I learned you were sick.” “Sick?” Arnold asked griming, his face beaming with an innocuous smile. “I was not sick; instead I retreated, renewed, and came back stronger.” And just as he began to explain, his colleague listened with keen interest. “For your own very consumption, I retreated like the eagle and I have renewed my strength.” It is the eagle philosophy, called the retreat, renew, and relaunch philosophy.

The Eagle Philosophy

Now, let’s examine eagle philosophy, one habit of the eagle that helps it to succeed as a bird of pride. One important element of the eagle philosophy is retreat. Everyone who is nursing the ambition of succeeding in life must learn to retreat. The eagle has this very useful habit of retreating when its strength is fast deteriorating and it has become a threat to its survival. Once the eagle notices weakness and a diminishing flight speed it retreats to the solitary mountaintop. It goes into hiding. What does it do? It plucks out all the old feathers until its body becomes bare. Also, it knocks off its beak by hitting it against the rock. The eagle also plucks out its talons. Then it will await a renewal process which takes about five to six months.

Hence, within this renewal period, the eagle awaits the feathers, beak, and talons to grow back. And when the renewal process is over it launches back to the scene with improved speed and maneuvers, full of strength and energy. The eagle philosophy is very important with regard to success. Hence, you must regularly, retreat, renew, and re-launch if you want to be a high-flyer like the eagle. That is why in offices workers go on leave and off. As an entrepreneur or self-employed you must individually make out time for your own retreat. This philosophy helps us a great deal to succeed by;

Renewing Physical Strength

Retreating helps you to conserve and enhance your strength and energy. In one of my posts, I did say that physical strength in the face of challenges suffers ‘from wear and tear. Always ensure you evaluate your energy level, and make sure it is at an optimal level as optimal energy equates to optimum output. Whenever you notice a drop in your strength level, be sure to retreat and renew your strength. Renewal of strength through retreat is important as it results in improved performance.

Mental Strength

Apart from the renewal of physical strength, the eagle philosophy also improves our mental strength as it enables us to think clearly. Retreating ensures mental stability. It improves the ability to focus, think and innovate. It helps us explore new ways of doing things without distraction. This action increases creativity because when you retreat you become open to inspiration. And inspiration is the source of creative ideas.

Stress Management

The ‘Retreat, Renew, Re-launch’ philosophy helps in stress management. Stress is inimical to success because if it is not well managed it could result in depression. Depression is a situation where you lack excitement about life, a situation where you give up on everything in life. This could eventually lead to suicide. So retreating is a better way to deal with the problem of depression as it takes your mind off the tortures of failure and the bug called fear.

Long Life

Do you want to live long? Then take time off to rest and relax. Highly successful people make out time to rest. The human body is a physical machine that is so fragile that it can break down with excessive workload. So in the midst of your very busy schedule make out time to retreat. Engage in extra curriculum activities that will take your mind off the workload. Go on vacation, to concerts, the gym, and sporting activities. You can as well stay indoors with loved ones, read your favorite books, or do some drawing or painting. Retreating helps the eagle live longer than many birds. It can add about 20-30 years to its age just by retreating.

These teasers will help you evaluate yourself and prepare you for better performance;

  • Have you ever retreated in life before?
  • When was the last time you retreated?
  • What did you do during the retreat?
  • What was the impact of that retreat on your career and/or business?
  • Was the impact positive, or negative?

Remember, be inspired, be determined, and dare to succeed.

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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.