All posts by : Success Bridge

“The person who admits ignorance shows it once; the one who tries to hide it shows it often.” – Japanese proverb.

We live in the information age, which replaced the traditional industry birthed by the Industrial Revolution. Our generation has an amount of accessible information unprecedented in human history. The information we have in this age has changed the way we live dramatically and continues to do so at a pace that sometimes seems overwhelming. We can now do things more efficiently and faster, most times with just the touch of a button. The easiest way to relate to this is to think of how quickly it is to send a message or make a phone call to another part of the world. Success in the world today depends a lot on what you know and here are some reasons why knowledge is essential.

KNOWLEDGE BRINGS MORE KNOWLEDGE

The more you know, the easier it will be for you to learn new things. The less you know, the harder it will be for you to learn new things in the same vein. Have you ever wondered why you had to learn the English alphabet letters before you learned two letter words? Once you know you know the letters of the alphabet, you can easily add them together to start forming words starting from the easiest. These days, before children even learn the alphabet, they learn phonic sounds, e.g., ‘A’ as in ‘apple.’ The child can pronounce apple because a part of it relates to the phonic sound already known. If you want to know more, you have to learn more, and in many cases, you have to go back to the basics. You can apply the same concept in science, engineering, music, business, or any other human endeavour field. Little wonder why the rich get richer, and the poor get poorer!

KNOWLEDGE HELPS YOU SOLVE PROBLEMS

Whenever you have a problem, you require a solution. For example, if you are not very good at Maths, you will need to master the concepts. If you want to learn music, you will need to master the notes, tunes, time signature, etc. Ignorance hinders you, but knowledge liberates you. If you are sick, you go to the doctor to get well. You have to take the drugs prescribed by the doctor. The difference between you and the doctors is knowledge they have. A doctor’s training is to solve health problems, so when you go to them, they draw on their understanding of the problem and think about a possible solution before prescribing drugs. Do you want to solve the problems in your life? Then seek knowledge in a particular area. The more you know, the more problems you can solve.

KNOWLEDGE HELPS YOU SEE PROBLEMS DIFFERENTLY

Successful people have a different mindset, usually because of what they know. When there is a problem in society, you need a solution. But most people would instead analyse the problem endlessly than proffer a workable solution. For instance, the outbreak of Covid-19 has disrupted the world since 2019. While most people were interpreting the problem, some pharmaceutical companies went to work to produce a vaccine. Today, we have vaccines against Covid-19 in many parts of the world. What was the difference? The pharmaceutical companies saw the problem differently. They saw it as an opportunity to save lives as well as make a profit. You can apply the principle to your life as well. When you have a problem, how do you see it? If you do not see your problems as an opportunity for growth, you need to increase your knowledge in that area.

The world is crying out for solutions to problems in many areas of human endeavour. Identify one and decide to be a solution. But first, seek knowledge and you will not regret it.

I will love to hear from you to know what knowledge you are getting and the problems you are deciding to solve. Let me know your thoughts or questions in the comments section below.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Besidone Ebule is the Project Director at B2SL, where he works to encourage personal development and build success networks. You can contact him at bessy.ebule@b2sl.org.

Have you ever had an idea, and in your head, the idea would work perfectly? And you tell a few friends who discourage you? They give you what you may see as formidable reasons not to continue with your once excellent idea. Suddenly, you concur with them and see your fantastic idea as trash. That is disbelief or doubt.

Disbelief can be said to be the unwillingness or inability to believe that an idea, thought, vision is possible. Many things can bring about doubt. It might be peer pressure, or maybe surrounding situations, low self-esteem (feeling that you can’t just do it), or a life of mediocrity. But one fact is this disbelief always hinders the birth of life-changing innovations.

From our last blog post, we saw that Henry Ford, despite his very humble beginnings (a farmer’s family) he went on to invent low-cost cars. He had many reasons for disbelief. His Mom’s early death, family background, and environmental situation (use of horse-ridden carts was prevalent at that time), but Ford still went on to achieve his dreams. He overcame disbelief. If He did, then you too can, but the question is HOW?

Since one major cause of disbelief is the fear of failure, anyone willing to overcome doubt must overcome fear. One should always have in mind that failure is always a step closer to success. We should see failure as an opportunity to re-strategize and aim higher instead of a setback. Another way is always to have the “I Can” mentality. We should always know that we can achieve anything we set our minds to achieve. Our minds can limit us. The moment we believe that we really can, our brain, by reflex, begins to search for possibilities. 

We can also overcome disbelief by seeking help and advice from like-minded senior friends and mentors. We should learn to discard direction that tends to limit us and always embrace those that give us more reasons to put more effort. 

Lastly, we can overcome disbelief by always aiming for excellence. We should always push forward till we achieve the success we deserve. We must have the determination, concentration, and commitment to get what we want. Of course, by doing this, disbelief would undoubtedly become a thing of the past.

Let’s continue to work, set lofty goals, work on them, and believe that they can come true, and they usually will come to pass.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Noble Uzoagba just finished his senior secondary certificate exam. He is dedicated to success in his academics and future career. He is a member of B2SL Success Hub.

Whether you believe you can do a thing or not, you are right– Henry Ford.

Henry Ford revolutionized the automobile industry in America and the world. Henry believed that middle-class Americans could own a car of their own. He achieved this dream by building the Model T, which most Americans drove by the 1920s. The Model T was $825 in 1908 and was regarded as very cheap then. The car was also straightforward to drive and simple to repair. This revolution took place in an age when horses were still used to pull wheels from one point to the other. Henry Ford sparked a revolution that would replace horses with engines. That was a very daring move!

Ford’s parents were farmers, and his father expected him to take over the farm when his mother died. But Ford did not want to farm. He occupied himself with repairing watches and working on engines. Ford left home after his mother’s death to work as an apprentice machinist. When he returned home, he worked on building a steam wagon, and by 1892, Ford built his first car, which he drove around for over a thousand miles between 1893 and 1996. In his writing, Ford wrote that the machine was going partially to his satisfaction. Ford was able to achieve his dream even though it took some time because he believed. All plans take time to come true in the school of success.

What can we learn from Henry Ford? He had a dream that middle-class people could own and drive their cars. In those days, only rich people could afford horses and carriages. So, Ford was looking for a way to make life easier for other people. Imagine the number of car manufacturing companies we have in the world today. Secondly, Ford was determined to achieve his dream. He could have been a farmer as his father wanted him to be, and there is nothing wrong with farming. But Ford knew that there was something else inside of him that the world needed! That should be everyone’s driving force.

Most people will succeed if they believe, and that includes you. Other people may not think that you can achieve the dream, but it is up to you to continue to fight for what you believe as far as it will positively impact the world. The plan may not be building an automobile like Henry Ford; it could be you wanting to join a local volunteering group or starting something that will impact your community. Maybe you want to clean your compound or water the flowers. Your dream can only become a reality if you believe in it.

No dream is too small to achieve because all dreams require time and effort to become a reality. Remember that successful people extraordinarily do ordinary things!

Identify your dreams and chase them with all your strength. Believe in them, and you will see them likely come to pass. I will be happy to hear the dream you have decided to pursue in the comments section below.

See you at the top.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Besidone Ebule is the Project Director at B2SL, where he works to encourage personal development and build success networks. You can contact him at bessy.ebule@b2sl.org.

“Tragedy strikes when success dies in failure, hope dies in despair, and visions die in the absence of confidence”-Dr. Myles Munroe.

You can excel in life. Successful believe in and capitalize on their abilities, while unsuccessful people do not. You may be thinking that you cannot achieve specific grades, cannot understand some topics, or cannot learn a skill. However, you will be surprised at how many people have come from the other side of failure to success. When I was in primary school, my class girls were at the top for more than three years. We thought the girls were better than us because they were from fairly well-to-do families. But something interesting happened when my friend and I challenged ourselves to improve our grades. We decided to aim for the top positions in the class, although the girls were not aware of this challenge. The following term, my friend took the first position while I came third. I learned that in the quest to succeed, you would be competing against yourself first.

As an African proverb says, “If there is no enemy within, the enemy without can do us no harm”. In this case, the enemy within is the negative voice telling you that you cannot make it. There could also be people around you who consistently make you feel that you have nothing to offer in life. It sucks when your teacher tells you that you are a terrible student or when your brother or sister tells you that you should forget about singing or doing any other thing. You have to believe in yourself even if others do not. Try seeing negative comments about you as a challenge that you have to overcome to succeed. 

Let’s say you are struggling with Mathematics, for example. You can choose to believe whether you want to become better or not. You can challenge yourself to ensure that you go for extra lessons, ask questions, and work with other students to become better. But first, there has to be that belief in you. If you don’t believe that you can succeed, you never will, as no one becomes successful by accident. Remind yourself from time to time that you are qualified to excel, and you will be motivated to pursue your dreams. You will be amazed at what you can accomplish.

Start believing in yourself and make yourself relevant in the world.

I hope to hear your thoughts on your questions and comments in the section below.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Henry Ibrahim is the Content Creator at B2SL. He loves working with young people to help them discover their purpose in life. You can contact him at ibrahim@b2sl.org.

“It always seems impossible until it is done” – Nelson Mandela.

Everyone who has succeeded in this world believed in something that others in the society may not have supported. The belief inspires them to take some very bold actions that put their names on history pages. President John F. Kennedy (JFK) was the 35th president of the United States and had the dream of sending men to the moon and returning safely to earth.

JFK’s conviction was that America could land a man on the moon before the end of the decade. His dream was not easy to accept. The mission would cost $22 billion and hundreds of thousands of people working to achieve the objective. Despite the criticisms, The Apollo 11 mission was launched on July 16, 1969, when Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin, and Michael Collins jetted into space. On July 20, 1969, Neil Armstrong became the first man to land foot on the moon, followed by Buzz Aldrin. Over half a million people watched the epic event on TV, which was a massive step for humanity. Kennedy was no longer alive, but his dream was a success story. 

The story of a man landing on the moon is awe-inspiring, but it took someone who believed it could succeed to start it. If JFK had given up because others did not believe in his dream, perhaps the glory would have gone to someone else.

There is no good vision of success that other people will not doubt or even openly criticize. The painful thing is that sometimes the people who are closest to you are the ones who will challenge you the most. But you do not have to give up on your dream because of other people’s doubts.

I encourage you to start believing in and chasing your dreams. They may not be as big as landing a man on the moon, but they can be little things for a start that you can manage. For example, learning to set daily personal development tasks such as reading and networking, having a routine exercise, or learning a new skill. It may not be easy at the beginning because of incompetence, but you will begin to find things more comfortable as time goes on. When you have achieved your goal, people will have no other option but to believe in you. That’s the way it works in the school of success.

So, what is stopping you? What is the legitimate dream burning inside of you that you need to chase? I think there is no better time for you than now to start because you have time on your side! Go for your dreams whether people believe you or not, and you will not regret them in the end.

We’ll be happy at B2SL to support you with the resources and inspiration you need to achieve your dreams. Take advantage of the opportunity and make your mark in the world.

Do not hesitate to drop your comments or questions in the comments section below, and we’ll respond to you asap.

I wish you all the best.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Besidone Ebule is the Project Director at B2SL, where he works to encourage personal development and build success networks. You can contact him at bessy.ebule@b2sl.org.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][vc_column width=”1/3″][/vc_column][/vc_row]