SUCCESS IS NOT AN EVENT
A friend of mine who is a father and more than 50 years old
came to me last year and told me that he wants something tangible he will do in
order to become an instant hero. I looked at him, considered his age and wanted
to tell him outright that he has lost the battle to become a hero after more
than fifty years but I did not want to spoil his happiness. I encouraged him to
have faith in God and work hard believing that with God all things are
possible. But deep inside me, I knew that the chances of anybody, who is weak,
lazy, without courage, without drive, without focus, without goals, and without
plans, becoming a hero is very, if not impossible.
A chicken that will graduate into a big cock is known right
from day one. Nobody makes it into the world series overnight. Success is not
an event. It is a lifelong journey. You cannot possess what you are unwilling
to pursue. Success comes to those who plan, prepare, those who are persistent
and those who endure. The world is not interested in the storms you encountered
but they want to know: Did you bring the ship home safely?
When I started Restaurant Business in 1989, I told myself
that I will just do it for four years and then move to higher ground. In 1993 I
moved into the business of selling cars in Western Avenue. I did not have the
money to travel overseas to buy vehicles to sell but rather, I depended on
people who have cars to sell but have no place to display them. I had a place
to display cars, so I sell other peoples’ cars and take my commission. It was a
nasty business to do especially if you have no money to invest. You could stay
for three or four months without selling anything and yet you have a family to
take care of. I really suffered and my family suffered too. You just sit down
from morning till evening without selling anything and by 6pm I will go to my
brothers and friends begging for money to eat. The June 12 1993 presidential
election crisis did not help matters. I borrowed money from people that I should
not go to at all. I suffered humiliations, I suffered rejections and I suffered
insults. I became an object of ridicule. I went to those I should not have gone
to because I was helpless, hopeless and down and out.
By 1994 I began to pray to God to change business for me. I challenged
God that I’m not a lazy man. I told God that I started feeding my mother at the
age of five. I challenged God I was the one who cultivated lands and planted
for women in my area when I was in the primary school at Uruagu Central School
Nnewi. I told God I climbed all palm trees in the village bringing down palm
fruits for families. I challenged God that I went to Agbo Edo to fetch firewood
for sale just to feed my mother. I reminded God that we gathered sands for
builders and carried all the moulded blocks for them. I told God I joined
others to go to Akwu Okwenu in Uruagu Nnewi to dig and break stones for a
particular man for sale even though the man ate our money after working from
6am till 5pm every day. I told God that I am not a lazy man!
I usually woke up by 12 midnight when my little children and
my wife would have slept to face my creator. Looking through the window and
into Heaven, I cried unto God to remember me. I laid my hands on my kids and
wife after praying, asking God to remember that He put them in my care. I was
consistent and I never gave up!
In 1997 God just put the National Vision Newspapers in my
hands and since then I have never looked back. I became too busy that, I never
had all the time in the world to visit clients to solicit for adverts. I got
connected to the right people in my town, Nnewi. National Vision became the
mouth of many prominent people in my town. Adverts began to come. And it is
still coming till date. We have since moved from a local newspaper in Nnewi to
service the entire South East and beyond. One thing led to another, and today
the world knows my story. The God Almighty I cried out to for four years before
He answered me has raised me up to more than I can be, from the lowest valley
to the mountain top, from rags to riches, from poverty to affluence, from the
lowest rung of the ladder to the highest rung of the ladder, from grass to
grace.
True leaders do not carry medals on their chests they carry
scars on their backs. The world sees Joe Igbokwe as a success story but I know
where the scars are on my body. I may be happy today but I have not forgotten
the pains of the past. The success of today makes me to forget the pains of the
past. You cannot change your past but you can choose to have an overcomer’s
attitude in facing the future. That attitude is the beginning of your success
in every area.
Pastor Mike Awoyinfa of the SUN Newspaper once taught me a
lesson in 1st Timothy 6:12 where Apostle Paul tells us to fight the
good fight with all our might in faith. Here is Mike’s interpretation: “The interpretation is that Christianinty is
not a passive religion with advocates waiting for God to come down and help. No,
we must help first ourselves, armed with active Faith in God. We must fight for
what we believe and know is right and it is our right. Fighting does not
necessarily have to be physical or violent. It can be spiritual, it can be
intellectual. Whatever it is, let us fight a good fight and a good cause so
that in the end we would wear the crown of life as conquerors”
A school of thought says there are two kinds of people in
this world, the Mediocres and Winners. “Mediocres seek the calm and comfortable ground of shelter, safety and security. They
merely talk about change, they do not get involved in it. Their concept of
achievement is not losing, their concept of fitness is being fit to survive. They
are always people who explain success as being lucky. They do no think of
striking it rich and making success of their lives. They are losers who ascribe
losing to others. Winners have decided that mediocrity is not for them. Winners
seek to test ambition on the toughest climbs. They know that there is a sweet
satisfaction in reaching the pinnacle of their professions and they are ready
for the fight that is needed to get there. Winners live for the test of change
and enjoy the resilience required to bounce from bruises in the fight for
success. They talk and deliver change. They take the risks of winning because
to them there is no such thing as losing. It is people without training, practice
and initiative who lose in business, sport or life.”
Joe Igbokwe
