Posts in category: Blog

I think that my biggest attribute to any success that I have had is hard work. There really is no substitute for working hard”. – Maria Bartiromo.

Over time there has been misconception and out-of-context explanations about hard work and ‘smart’ work. Some people try to shy away from the fact that you need hard work to succeed. Unfortunately, no successful person got there by not working hard and still making progress by the same hard work.

There is no such thing as ‘smart’ work without hard work, but there can be hard work without brilliant work. After working hard, you seem to be working smart because of lots of experiences from working hard. Innovative work is simply putting your hard work effort in the right direction of success. On a lighter note, we now have smartphones everywhere because we have people who worked hard on several phones to get us to where we are today.

In 2002, Elon Musk, one of the world’s richest men, founded SpaceX with one of his goals to decrease the cost and improve the reliability of the access to space, ultimately by ten. The first three launches of the rocket to achieve this between 2006 and 2008 all resulted in failures. These failures almost ended the company as Musk planned financing was to cover the costs of only three launches. Tesla, SolarCity, and Musk personally were all nearly bankrupt at the same time as well. Musk was reportedly “waking from nightmares, screaming and in physical pain” because of the stress from the hard work to turn around the failures.

After putting so much effort and failing, it felt as though he was not being clever. However, things started to turn around when they achieved the first successful launch on the fourth attempt on 28 September 2008. Years later, after the success achieved from much effort, Elon Musk is now being seen and talked about as one of the most intelligent persons alive today.

By now, this should be clear that it’s not just enough to have clear goals like Elon Musk, but you must be ready to put in the needed effort to achieve them. Never think you are not being smart enough when you are failing. If you keep putting in the required consistent effort, you will eventually become someone the world will count as bright, just like Elon Musk.

I look forward to hearing from you in the comments section on your current journey working hard on one goal or the other. You are also free to ask questions where you need clarity.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Charles Adimah is an entrepreneur and the Project Manager of B2SL INITIATIVE, where he manages the vision. He is a great believer that a prosperous Nigeria is a product of successful Nigerians. You can reach him via email at charles@b2sl.org.

There is a world of difference between a person working hard and the one who hardly works. We often find ourselves lost amid activities that we wonder whether we are yielding the desired result. If you are not careful, you sometimes spend hours, days, and even weeks truly busy, but at the end of it all, you will realize that you have just been wasting your time doing nothing. Here are some of the strategies for developing the spirit of hard work below.

Specify tasks to do and allocate time for having them done. Don’t be a victim of multi-tasking and over-commitment beyond your capability. Always isolate one to do at a particular time, then proceed to the next. When you complete tasks one after another, it helps you keep track of your achievements and the pace at which you accomplish them.

Avoid procrastinating. Never put up for later what you can do now. One thing with shifting responsibility is that you will always find out that the same reason that made you postpone a particular task still exists at that future time which you pushed it. So, whatever is worth doing, is worth doing now and perfectly.

Ensure you make adequate provision for rest. You can’t feel good and do good if you don’t have good health. Rest allows us time to generate and replenish the energy we expend at work or any task our body needs to complete. There is a saying that people who don’t sleep because they don’t want to fall sick will surely fall ill because they failed to sleep. Your body is the vehicle that will carry you through this experience called life. So, make sure you have a good time for rest and make sure that you eat well if you have the means. It is also important to note that overfeeding and addiction to food have the psychological tendency to make you lazy. So, your health (physical and mental) determines your productivity also whether physical or mental.

Also, to develop the spirit of hard work, ensure you have accountability partners. By this I mean, you have some person(s) that will always remind you of your commitments, assignments, engagements, and projects. Your accountability partner can be your mentor, your friend, your parent, and your elders. You can also use To-Do-List, where you itemize all your schedules in order of preference and urgency and attach a dateline to each item. Above all, be intentional about anything you find yourself doing. Avoid time wasters and unnecessary chats or conversations. Follow these steps, and we will surely meet at the top to do business because you will undoubtedly be successful.

You can tell us your thoughts or questions in the comments 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.

“Luck is great, but most of life is hard work” – Lain Duncan Smith.

It is the beginning of a new month, and who can believe that we are in the 11th month of the year already. We have just about 61 days until the beginning of another year! This year has been a challenging year for most people worldwide, especially with the Coronavirus pandemic and the attendant social and economic consequences. We have shown remarkable resilience in staying afloat up till now, and we can only hope for better days ahead.

Our value focus for November at B2SL is hard work. Without a doubt, you cannot succeed in life if you do not work hard. Many people get scared at the thought of hard work because of the connotation of stress, discomfort, and sustained effort associated with it. Hard work is just like a bitter pill to swallow, yet if we want to succeed, we must work hard just as we swallow bitter pills if we’re going to get well.

So, what is hard work? The online dictionary defines hard work as a great deal of effort or endurance. Merriam Webster’s dictionary defines hardworking as constantly, regularly, or habitually engaged in earnest and energetic work. We can learn from these definitions that everything in life requires effort, from walking to talking, reading to writing, exercising, playing, etc. The second thing we can learn from the definition is that we must put in extra effort if we want to succeed. The extra effort is the game-changer.

One common trend with all successful people is that they put extra effort into winning the prize. For example, throughout the term, you learn different topics in different subjects. At the end of the period, your success will largely depend on how much extra effort you have put into mastering the exercises and examples so you can answer the questions correctly. If you do not put in extra effort to master the topics and answer the questions correctly, you will fail.

How you get your grades in school is not different from how you get your reward in life and become successful. When people want your service or product, they want to see how much extra effort you have put in to satisfy them. The level of effort you put into what you do will determine people’s satisfaction and their willingness to patronize you repeatedly.

As you build yourself up for success, try to imbibe a mindset of hard work into what you do. Think about how you can put in extra effort to improve yourself. Whether it is in your writing, singing, coding, studying, or whatever career you choose. Hard work will not kill you; it will only ensure that you are successful.

As we start the month on a high note of hard work, we would love to hear your experiences or questions in the comments section below.

We wish you all the best.

Knowledge is the treasure of a wise man – Anonymous.

The dictionary defines knowledge as facts, information, and skills acquired through experience or education. If you know how to swim, you would probably have learned how to float, breathe underwater, move your whole body in a coordinated manner forward or backward, etc. If you did not learn by yourself, someone must have taught you. If you go to a pool, you can immediately differentiate the people who know how to swim from those who cannot. Those who cannot swim will not know how to float, breathe underwater, or move their body in a coordinated manner. In life, before you can do anything, you must know something!

If you look closely at those who excel in their fields, you will observe that they know something more than others. Professional singers know how to pick the right key and pitch, just like experienced teachers know the correct information to provide to their students in a stimulating way. Professional cooks know how to mix the right ingredients for the right taste; doctors diagnose illnesses and prescribe the proper medication. In all the professions mentioned, you will observe that the difference between them and the average person is their knowledge over time. I will highlight three benefits of expertise below.

KNOWLEDGE IMPROVES THINKING

The knowledge you have about a subject serves as raw materials for thinking. I once had an experience in a paint factory where a small fire broke out. We use a lot of chemicals in making paint, and most of them are highly flammable. A small fire caused by a bit of carelessness can cause damages worth millions of dollars. A lady in the factory who knew the suitable fire extinguisher to use put the fire off. Why was she able to put the fire off and avoid heavy financial loss? She knew the correct extinguisher to use. She was able to put the fire off because she knew what to do in the circumstance. Just imagine if she did not know what to do at that time. Once your knowledge increases, your thinking capability will improve.

KNOWLEDGE EMPOWERS YOU TO SOLVE PROBLEMS

Knowledge is expensive because it empowers you to solve problems. As far as humans exist, there will always be problems to solve. And as far as you can solve problems for people, your pay cheque is guaranteed. All you need to do is empower yourself with the required knowledge to continue to be a solution provider. People will be willing to pay you if you can help them save time or money, take care of the things they cannot, allow them to be more organized, etc. Once you know this, you can investigate an area where people need help and provide solutions. You can start from the immediate environment. What are the challenges that people face? What knowledge can you get to be of service?

KNOWLEDGE BREEDS HOPE

Knowledge inspires hope in you because your perspective will be different from those who do not know. Have you ever wondered why people go to doctors when they are ill? Because doctors know about diseases, illnesses, and cures, people run to them when they are sick. What are they doing? They are hoping that the doctor will give them some medication to get well. Notice that the patient does not have to know the cure. But knowing a doctor who knows the treatment inspires hope of getting better.

What knowledge are you acquiring now? How will it benefit you and those around you? Let me know in the comments section below, or feel free to ask any questions you may have.

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_row][vc_column width=”2/3″][vc_column_text css=”.vc_custom_1634284220941{margin-bottom: 0px !important;}”]

“All our knowledge begins with the senses, proceeds then to understanding and then ends with reason.” – Immanuel Kant

You will agree with me that you and most people around you believe they need knowledge, understanding and wisdom to accomplish great things in life. So the problem most times is not whether we know that we need these things, but how much of them we really need. Your need for knowledge, understanding and wisdom will forever be on the increasing order as you progress from one stage of life to another.

For example, when you were in primary one you were taught simple addition and subtraction. But as you progressed to primary two through to six, the way the same addition and subtraction were taught seemed to become more complex as you made progress from one class to the other.

With knowledge being the starting point of everything, understanding is simply getting used to the knowledge you are interacting with while wisdom is using the knowledge you have mastered to guide your reasoning in solving problems or delivering results. This therefore means that without knowledge and proper understanding you will not be able to demonstrate wisdom when it’s time to make decisions.

In looking at the life of the world renowned neurosurgeon Ben Carson, we will see how he was able to move from knowledge to wisdom in creating a successful professional career as a medical doctor.

In the University of Michigan Medical School Carson struggled academically at first, doing so poorly on his first set of comprehensive exams that his faculty adviser recommended he drop out of medical school or take a reduced academic load and take longer to finish. He continued with a regular academic load, and his grades improved to average in his first year of medical school. By his second year of medical school, Carson began to excel academically by seldom attending lectures and instead studying textbooks and lecture notes from 6 a.m. to 11 p.m. 

Studying so hard means Carson was acquiring the needed knowledge that will help him stand out later in his professional career.

Much later as a medical doctor Carson was the lead neurosurgeon of a 70-member surgical team that separated conjoined twins Patrick and Benjamin Binder, who had been joined at the back of the head. The separation surgery held promise in part because the twin boys had separate brains.

We can see wisdom in action here as the knowledge acquired over time and well understood was used to carry out such impossible surgery.

This is why you need knowledge, understanding and wisdom. With these three acting as one, you can also do the impossible like Ben Carson.

I look forward to seeing your comment on the comment section so I can know if this article was helpful or not. You can also ask questions if you have any.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Charles Adimah is an entrepreneur and the Project Manager of B2SL INITIATIVE, where he manages the vision. He is a great believer that a prosperous Nigeria is a product of successful Nigerians. You can reach him via email at charles@b2sl.org.

[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][vc_column width=”1/3″][/vc_column][/vc_row]