Source: SuccessHub Naija ( post edited).



#1. HOW TO SOCIALIZE AND MAKE FRIENDS:
A quote from the Six Degrees of Separation theory, “Every person is a new door to a different door“, precisely captures the essence of this point. You must cultivate the habit of making quality friends and the skill of nurturing the friendships. This is a formidable skill to have. Seriously, this is one skill that will bring you success quicker than you think. And the good thing is that it is a very learnable skill. Even as an introvert, you can make a conscious effort at expanding your circle of quality friends. The benefits outweigh the discomfort of having to leave the calm, noiseless niche of your comfort zone to the beehive of social gatherings. Personally, it was not until I got to my final year in college that I realized the importance of socilaizng, making and nurturing quality friendships. Right now, I can walk up to any random person and start a sensible conversation without scratching my head. But truth be told: if you are just starting out, it will take some time before you master it. That said, you can kick-start the development of this skill by getting and reading a copy of the book “How to win friends and influence people” by Dale Carnegie. That’s the book I started with.


#2. HOW TO KEEP TO TIME:
This is another extremely vital skill to master. From experience, majority of college students are notorious for not keeping to time. They exhibit this casual nonchalance towards stuffs. May be it is of my medical background, there is always that urgency in me to keep to me. Being 5 minutes late is enough to cause a patient his or her life. I didn’t know how invaluable this habit was until I graduated and started hustling.
And really, millolionaires, billionaires and successful people, generally, despise lateness. They are just too be busy to be kept waiting. If they tell you 9am, be there by 8:30am. Seriously. You will be amazed how mastering this skill will help your life even before you graduate and much more after you graduate. Of course, the Lagos traffic can occasionally mess up things for you, but still try to find a way around it. I usually set aside a minimum of 45 minutes in anticipation of traffic. So I leave for meetings earlier than expected.


#3, HOW TO GIVE A SINCERE APOLOGY:
If you are the type who never says “I am sorry” or finds it painfully difficult to apologise when you are wrong then you have a serious ego problem. It is a terrible disease that blinds you to potential pitfalls and risks. Even if your father is the the King of Saudi Arabia or the sultan of Brunei, you must cultivate the habit of offering a sincere apology when you have erred. It will do you more good than the useless pride that ego brings. This is what I do: whenever I realize I have done some wrong, I quickly reach out to whoever the person is, and I apologise, sincerely, even before the person calls my attention to the error. I don’t wait for the person to ask me to apologise before I do. I apologise long before some of them get to know what my apology was meant for. And from my experience, no one is immune to the power of these 3 words “I AM SORRY”. Believe me, a sincere apology is always a trump card!


#4. HOW TO DRESS WELL AND LOOK GOOD:
Give me a group of 1000 undergraduates pooled from all the universities, polytechnics and colleges of education across Nigeria and I will pick, with startling accuracy, the students from Unilag and Convenant University! By their dressing you shall know them. Mind you, the emphasis here is on dressing well. In fact, I think CU students are the best dressed students in Nigeria. Be it casuals or formal dressing, especially. You may think dressing well doesn’t matter and is just a sheer waste of time, but really, it matters…a lot.There is a popular saying that “You are addressed the way you are dressed”. This is most times true- especially when the people you are meeting don’t know much about you, or don’t have an inkling of your estimated worth.
If you are a Mark Zuckerberg for instance, you may necessarily not give a f**k (pardon my French) because you are a billionaire and every soul on earth knows that. But even the real Mark, apart from his morbid obsession wity casual wears, dresses formal on some occasions. A lot about your personality can be inferred from your dressing. Now, you may have only just two shirts, a black pant with a pair of shoes. But with proper packaging, you can always look like brandnew even with the little you have. Learn to polish your shoes. Starch your shirts if you can, if not wash them and have them ironed. I ALWAYS go to business meetings and official gatherings with my blazer on. It gives me a feeling of importance and confers on me that money look- and seriously, if you can get someone to listen to your business proposal just because they think you are an important person? You got sauce!


#5. HOW TO GIVE A KICK-ASS PRESENTATION:
If you didn’t or are not majoring in a course like medicine or law, you may never get the opportunity to learn how to make presentations until your project defence day (and really, that is not learning, because you get to do the defend just once). Although most courses don’t teach it, it is an incredibly formidable tool for success, especially in the world of business. All walks of life make use of this skill. Even billionaires are often called upon to give speeches at the UN assembly at some point in their lives. Except you want to devolve back to the Adam and Eve era where you get to roam the forest unclad with crude spears and bows, you will be required to do a presentation at some point in your life. And let that be enough motivation to encourage you to learn this skill.
Also learn some new words and enrich your vocabulary. Make a conscious effort towards it. Believe me, you will be called upon at some point in your life to pitch an idea, sell your brand or whatever else you can think of. You will need words with which to pitch those ideas.


#6. HOW TO WAIT/BE PATIENT:
Don’t be quick to underestimate the stupendous importance of patience. Like they say, patience is a virtue. And really, in today’s world where everybody wants to make it sharp sharp, this virtue is a powerful tool in the hands of whoever learns and masters it. Everything takes time. It takes time to grow a business, learn a new skill, raise a child or do whatever else that’s worth doing. In fact, it took me hours to have this write-up ready for your digestion. So it is imperative that young people understand this truth. When I started my first business, I expected that in a couple of weeks time I would be a millionaire. Lol. But I soon realized that that was never going to be the case. I would have to do some solid ground work and then wait for theseeds to germinte and the fruits to ripen.
Success will come eventually, believe me. When you understand and accept this truth, you will be able to maintain your cool and not become easily depressed because you are constantly bombarded with news of your equals or juniors who are driving posh cars and touring the world like Carter family. Find happiness in your labour while you wait for success.


Please leave your comments, questions and suggestions, and I shall attend to them as soon as I can.

Thanks!

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Nice and concrete points...
* Also i think as a grad., one has to learn and understand the reason for the Behavior of fellow individuals {concept of Behaviourism} so as to be able to cope easily in the outside world..