Have you ever imagined the work of a driver in a bus? Turning the steering
wheel, engaging the gears, ensuring smooth movement of the vehicle, the
task is essentially the same for a pilot and a sea captain. Smooth journey, sail
and air safety point to the same goal of efficient and effective movement
from place to place and safety of lives and properties. Can you now imagine
a fast speeding bus, train, ship or plane without a driver? What comes to
your mind? Accident, disaster, loss of lives and properties. The same is true
of a life that is not taken control of; such a life is heading to no where but
disaster.
We must learn to take control of our life, of our destiny. We must utilize
every resources of nature within us to realize our dreams, our goals and
aspirations. We must learn to do one thing and that is to take personal
responsibility for how our life turns out. Often times, we gave the control of
our live to external people, we surrender our lives to them and when we fail
to live up to the expectation of our dreams, we blame those we surrender our
lives to, for their failure to realize our dreams for us. Citizens blame their
government for bad roads, lack of electricity, poor standard of education and
so on. Husbands blame their wives for their failure and bad luck, wives,
blame their husbands for promises of heaven on the earth that refuses to
materialize. Workers blame their employers for low wages and unfavorable
working environment, organization blame their staff and management for
low productivity and returns to stakeholders. Friends, we must learn to take
personal responsibility for our lives whether good, bad or ugly. We must be
ready to bear all the praises and the blame for our life.
Most people we depend upon for help also have a litany of their own
headaches. They do not have enough room on their heads to bear other
people’s headaches. It is your personal efforts that really count. Man is
designed to stretch himself by all means.
We live very close to nature and we could see that the elements are dynamic
and in constant motion, working around the nucleus and vibrating eternally,
working in harmony with the law of nature. Man, being part of the nature is
supposed to join the dynamic motion of the elements. If he can not fly, he
should run, if he cannot run he should walk, if he cannot walk, he should
crawl and if not, he should roll on the ground. The rule of the jungle is to
wake up and start running less we are consumed.
The law of nature recognizes not the weak; the weak are destined to
extinction. Life is about the survival of the fittest mentally, spiritually,
physically, financially economically and so on. Man, due to freedom of
choice and freewill, often choose the least path of resistance, he wants peace
and ease. We choose to believe contrary to the universal law and act
contrary to the law of nature itself. We act by the law of belief and hope that
some how, someway, through some mysterious and miraculous our goals
will be realized, our needs will be met. We erroneously believe the word of
the master out of context, that the bird of the air neither sow nor reap yet
your heavenly father feeds them, forgetting that the bird must leave its nest
and fly in search of food, locate the best field and watch out for stones and
other predators, before they can partake of the food provided by the master.
We have also forgotten that the intelligence that created our world worked
six days and night before resting on the seventh day.
Most of us believe that we do not have the right tools or the necessary
capital input to create or take charge of our lives. But nobody has capital to
start with in the first place. The capital you need is your brain that has
billions of active cells, your two hands and two legs. What capital did the
infinite intelligence have in creating the heaven and the earth? What capital
did the pilgrims have in creating the United States of America? What capital
did Henry Ford have in creating Ford Motor Company? In fact he was
working double shift in the morning with Edison Electrical Company and in
the night in his garage. What capital did Bill Gates have to create Microsoft?
Friend, nobody starts with capital. The only capital is you. All you need is
refinement. Refine your speaking and writing ability, become more
persuasive so that you can impress people to buy into your idea. Refine your
language, refine your intelligence. What capital do you need to refine
yourself? All you need is time, discipline, books, cassettes, tapes, teachers,
mentor, Pastor, Imam, Priest, Internet and so on.
You are the epitome of the creation, the envy of the celestial being, the
crown of the creation with a divine mandate to dominate. When I consider
what man has done, what he is still doing and the possibility of future
accomplishments, I marvel at possibilities in man. In the last century, man
has been able to travel to the moon thousands of Kilometers away into the
space, he has succeeded in placing countless satellites into the orbit that
beam telecommunication waves to the earth and weather satellites which
now forecast rainfall, sunshine humidity with precision. Man has been able
to shrink time through the internet, email, text messages, GSM and so on.
Man can now travel at a speed faster than sound. You can eat breakfast in
Lagos, Nigeria, Lunch in Heathrow, London and dinner in Tokyo, Japan.
Man has been able to harness the power that is in the atom both for good and
for evil. No wonder David Jesse said we are fearfully and wonderfully made.
Friends, why are you crying, why are you fearful, if mere mortal men have
stepped on the surface of the moon, designed supersonic jet, conducted brain
surgery, then you are powerful beyond comprehension.
Having realized the stuff you are made of, it is high time we stand up and
take charge and take control of our lives, by taking personal responsibility
for our success and failure. We must know that things don’t just happen.
Remember Sir Isaac Newton’s Law of motion “Every object continues in a
state of rest or uniform motion in a straight line”. Are you static in one
place? Move to action; take a personal responsibility for your life thereby
starting a uniform motion in an up line direction. Not doing something
everyday means that you are in a state of rest. Let this message serve a law
of momentum to you, an external force acting on a stationary object, forcing
it into motion.
This can be simply done by having a purpose like Henry Ford whose
purpose is to make cars for the people from best possible materials at a
reasonable price which is affordable to all men, earning average wages. Like
Andrew Carnegie, the organizer of United Steel, whose major purpose is to
make money for the first part of his life and invest it in people for the second
part of his life, which he did. What is your own purpose, your dream, your
aspiration? Make a goal out of it, break down the goal to weekly, monthly
realizable goals and start working round the clock to achieve your goal.
Never wait or complain for lack of tools, for better tools will come your way
when you effectively and efficiently use the tools that you have at hand.
Remember that many people are in your shoes, who do not have the
opportunity that you have but with the little opportunity they had they are
self reliant today. For you to be able to read this write up means that you are
literate to a level. Some can neither read nor write but they have millions of
money at their disposal. With your own more than twenty years plus of
education you are still a weakling, needing help from your parents who have
fend for you for so long. It is time to severe that tie and launch into the
world by taking personal control and charge of your life.
Olukunle Alabetutu is a teacher by gifting he love to read, teach, think and
write. He can be contacted at alben2002@gmail.com

For the above in pdf see the attached file