How are you my people?

Thank God it's Friday! Make una enjoy the weekend o

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WVfqr3z4vIs


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RVatpJ0c9Yc


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F9a9SsSNhMc


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wHImv9a_rfo


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=14U_j4TWyRc


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ExEsXREnedU

isale_gan2: THE MAKING OF AN EDO PHILOSOPHER FROM IGBARA-OKE
Ulli Beier talks to Dr. Sophie Oluwole

U: There are not many people who have tried to study and define Yoruba Philosophy. This is surprising, because you might say that those of us who study the art, the literature, the religion of the Yoruba people are studying various manifestations, symptoms perhaps, of the basic Yoruba interpretation of life. And yet philosophy was introduced rather late into Nigerian universities and most Nigerian philosophers seem more interested in Greek or British philosophy than in African philosophy. I am curious therefore to hear from you how you became interested in the subject and what problems you faced on the long road towards becoming a leading authority in Yoruba philosophy. First tell me something about your background.

S: Well, I was born in Igbara-Oke, a town that lies on the border between Ilesha and Ondo.

U: I know the place well. In the fifties and early sixties it was a favorite stop-over for truck drivers on the way to Benin city. The road side restaurants sold the best pounded yam and the best bush meat in the whole of Nigeria. I enjoyed many wonderful meals there.

S: Yes, that is true. Unfortunately our people lost that trade, when the shorter Lagos-Benin road was built further south. Nowadays that market has almost disappeared.

U: What did your father do?

S: He was a trader. He first went down to Lagos in 1910, buying clothes. Then, in 1912 he established his trade in Igbara-Oke and he would walk to Onitsha ...

U: ... walk all the way to Onitsha?

S: Yes, in those days there were no trucks. Traders used to trek with a group of carriers. So for many years he would walk between Igbara-Oke an Onitsha which was even then the largest market in West Africa. My mother was trading on the market of Igbara-Oke - but she was also a dyer and a weaver. She must be close to a hundred years old now, because her first child was born in 1918. She had eight children altogether. Four of them died and four of us remain. I am her last born. My mother was a very short woman, that is why she married rather late. She still looked like a child when her age group was getting married. She told me that she married about four years later than the others.


U: Did you still know your grandparents?

S: Yes, my grandfather came from Benin. My father was born in Igbara-Oke, but my grandfather came from Benin in about 1850. He was already a married man then, with about five wives. He had been a high ranking official in the Oba's palace in Benin. Igbara-Oke was part of the Benin empire then; in fact it belonged to the Oba's mother, because the Oba divided the empire among members of the family. So when there were reports that Ogedengbe was raiding Igbara-Oke ...

U: ... you mean Ogedengbe, the famous Ijesa warrior?

S: Yes ... and so it became necessary to send somebody to keep watch ... somebody to act as a kind of resident or governor looking after the interests of the Oba. In those days the Chief of Igbara-Oke could not make any decision without consulting my grandfather.

U: What about your father's mother. Was she a Yoruba woman?

S: No. As a matter of fact, she was the daughter of another Benin ‚governor' who resided in Ogotun, a few kilometers away, because the Oba of Benin had these residents all over the place ... My father married the daughter of a man who had come with my grandfather from Benin. Only my maternal grandmother was Yoruba. So actually I am an Edo woman - except that I was born and bred in Igbara-Oke.

U: Did your father speak Yoruba or Edo?

S: My father grew up speaking Yoruba but he made sure that he went back to Benin to learn Edo. My mother could not really speak Edo. She was a very shy woman. She could understand it but did not speak it.

U: Did you consider yourself Yoruba or Edo as a child? Or didn't you really think about that?

S: I did. I thought of myself as an Edo girl. Because until I left primary school the Oba of Benin used to stop in Igbara-Oke, whenever he traveled to Ibadan. You remember that Benin was part of the Western Region of Nigeria then, and the Oba of Benin had to attend the House of Chiefs in Ibadan. So whenever he was to travel on that road he sent a message some days ahead to my father, and as from seven o'clock in the morning all the Edo people in Igbara-Oke would wait on the road side, drumming and dancing, with a banner, saying: "Welcome, Oba of Benin!" There were about ten Edo families in the town and the local people referred to us as Ado Igbara.

U: Ado meaning Edo?

S: Yes, that's how they pronounced it. And even the local people would come and gather on that day, because we had different drumming and different dancing ... So many of them were curious and they would not go to the farm that day.

U: Were you singing in Edo? S: No, we were singing in Yoruba. The Oba would not leave his car. He would remain seated and talk to my father and then drive away. He did not stop in Igbara-Oke on the way back.

U: Was That Akenzua II?

S: Yes, it was Akenzua. So I was calling myself an Edo girl when I was small, but I never learned the language. I can hear a little, but i cannot speak it. My sisters speak Edo very well and my only brother who was a very well known journalist with the " Daily Times" in Lagos has now retired in Benin. You know him well. His name is Ebenezer Williams.

U: What names were you given by your parents? What does the initial "B" stand for? Is it a Yoruba name or a Bini name?

S: It is Yoruba: Bosede - "A girl born on a Sunday". And I was also named Olayemi, which is Yoruba again, Meaning: "I fell comfortable with dignity."

U: And how did you get Sophie? It is unusual in Yoruba country.


S: My parents didn't think of such a name, of course. But we had a headmaster then, who was a friend of the family. I suppose he came to the house often because there were several beautiful young girls and he was unmarried. I was very tiny then. He liked me, he gave me biscuits and I followed him around everywhere. I ended up living with him at the age of eight. It was after I had started school that I was to be baptized and he told my father that he should name me Sophia. My father didn't know what it meant. But the headmaster thought that I was a clever girl. It is funny, but many years later my supervisor for my PhD thesis at the University of Ibadan said to me: "Why should you call yourself Sophia, just because you have decided to become a philosopher?" And I said to him: "I was given that name long before I knew what it meant." We used to even write it with an ‚f' like the capital of Bulgaria.

U: What kind of naming ceremony would you have had? Was it like the Yoruba one, where you give the baby various things to taste - kolanut to teach him that life can be bitter, pepper to teach him that life can hurt and honey to teach him that sweetness always follows pain in life?

S: It would have been similar; only some of the items would have been different. For example, in Benin we can hardly do anything without coconut or snails. Snails are for peace. The snail moves slowly. It is soft. It doesn't fight, it doesn't harm. And when you break the shell there is that beautiful blue water. The snail is harmony. There used to be plenty of snails in Benin. In the olden days, when you cooked food and the meat was not enough, you would just go behind the house and pick a dozen snails. They would be everywhere. But today they have gone. The Binis buy snails from the Yoruba.

U: So you were not given any Edo names?

S: No, my brothers were given Edo names. By that time there was a nostalgia to go back to Benin. All my father's grandchildren were given Edo names. All of them. At that time he would have loved to go home, because he was not fully accepted in Igbara-Oke. He reminded them of the ‚colonial' rule of Benin. There was an incident that nearly forced my father to leave the town. My brother went to Government College Ibadan and during the first term, when he was asked, he said that he was a Benin boy. The people in Igbara-Oke got angry and said: "Why should he call himself a Benin Boy? Was he not born and bred in Igbara-Oke and was not his father born here also?"

U: I gather that your parents were both Christians.

S: Yes, they were Anglicans. My father was baptized in 1912, my mother in 1915, just before they got married. In fact you could say that Igbara-oke was a Christian town.

[b]U: That means, I suppose, that you grew up without knowing anything about Yoruba religion.

S: Since my grandfather had come from Benin we had Olokun in our compound and all the traditional dances were still being performed for him. And the worshippers of the other Orishas would come and celebrate with us. For us children it was very, very interesting; and in the evening, when nobody was watching, we would imitate them. We would dramatize the ritual with all the songs and dances. But my father was always worrying us not to go and watch the ‚pagan' ceremonies. As Christians we were supposed to stay clear of all that. to him it was like worshipping the devil. We would be sneaking out whenever there was an Orisha ceremony somewhere, but when we came home we would deny we had been there. One morning during our prayer session my father said to us that he had warned us several times not to worship Orisha, but we had refused to listen to him. He was not going to warn us anymore. But we would have to remember that on the day of judgment, God and the devil would pick their children among all the human beings. Then some of us would say that we were the children of God, but the devil would say: "No, you are mine." Then there would be an argument. God would say: "They are my children" and the devil would say: "They belong to me." And then the devil would have to prove his case. Then my father said: " Do you know that each time you are watching the Olorisha the devil is there with his camera, taking the picture of all the worshippers ... and on judgment day, when there is an argument, all the devil will have to do is to bring out his pictures. When they have identified you on the photographs, you will be asked: was it a ceremony for God or for the devil? And you will have to answer: it was for the devil." From that day on, we never went to see the Orisha dancers again, and for years after that I was so afraid. And at night I wondered how I could recapture those Photographs from the devil, because although I had stopped going to the ceremonies - what of the pictures he had taken before?[/b]

U: Did you go to school in Igbara-Oke?

S: Yes, I finished my primary school - Standard VI. Than I went to Ile-Ife to what was known as a ‚Girls School'. It was only a two years course, but it was so intensive that you could come out with a Class IV certificate. In those days the full secondary schoool was six years. But you could leave with a Class IV certificate and find a job fairly easily. Or you could go back to school and work for your Class VI. I went on to Ilesha to the Women Training College. It had been set up by the British, when they were on their way out of Nigeria. It was wholly financed by the British government and thirteen out of fifteen teachers were British. Every single thing we used in that school was imported from Britain: biros, paper - everything. Even our uniforms. I trained as a teacher and began to teach first at Ogotun then later at Ibadan.

U: But your teaching career didn't last that long. When did you go to university?

S: I went to Moscow in 1963.

U: You went to Moscow to study philosophy?

S: No, no. My husband got a scholarship and I went with him. I wanted to study economics, but at first I had to do a year of preparatory classes. Mainly Russian language, but also some other subjects. But after one year my husband decided to leave the Soviet Union, so I never had a chance to do the proper course.

U: Why didn't he like it? Was it the life style? The politics?

S: He found the language too hard. He wasn't a language man. As for me I could pick it up quickly.

U: What was life like in Moscow on campus? Did you have Russian friends?

S: We lived in what they called Cheriomushky: a whole house full of foreign students. Maybe I was biased coming from a completely free country, but I found everything terribly regimented. You could not, for instance, freely listen to the BBC. If you wanted to visit somebody, you had to deposit your passport with the porter of the house. You had to tell him which room you were going to and whom you were going to see. They recorded the time you entered and the time you left. Another fundamental problem was food. Rice was a rare commodity. Sometimes you saw people queuing in front of a supermarket. They told you that rice was going to be sold. After Queuing for three of four hours, somebody would come out of the shop and say: "What are you waiting for?" We said: "We are waiting for rice." Then he would say: "But I don't have rice!" and everybody would go away without saying anything. In 1964 I went to the Studienkolleg in Cologne while my husband went to the United States to continue his studies. I didn't have A levels so I couldn't enter a German university straight. I had to do another preparatory year. It was more or less like what I had to do in Moscow, except that this time I studies German. I did well, but I didn't enter a German university, where I had been offered a full scholarship in philology; I went to the US instead. But after three months I decided to return home, because all my children were at home. I already had three children then. I had made sure I gained admission to the University of Lagos, before I returned home.

U: You went on a long Odyssee abroad, that in the end didn't get you anywhere. But I suppose that it was all to the good: if you had stuck it out overseas and completed one of those courses you would never have become a philosopher.

S: That's right. And when I returned home I was still not thinking about Philosophy. I had been admitted for a BA Education an my main subject was to be English. But in those days the University was very relaxed about things: as long as you had a letter of admission you could go around and shop for subjects. You could do anything, as long as the Department was willing to have you. I did not really want to get back into school teaching. I first decided to do English, but some of the students said to me: "Madam, you better be careful. Because if you want to do English you may never end up with a degree from this university." I said: "Why?" They said that Wole Soyinka was their teacher and he had passed only two students that year! So I ran away. I didn't want to waste my time, because I already had three children. I was looking around for subjects I could do. I had O levels in history and geography and I needed a third subject. Philosophy was the only department that was willing to take me, because they were the only ones who had no prerequisites. The system was that after the first year you dropped one subject and carried on with two. Then you did ‚Combined Honors' in the remaining two subjects. Or, if you did very well in one subject, you could even end up with ‚Single Honors'. I had intended to drop philosophy. But at the end of the first year my worst subject was history. I discovered that I didn't have the retentive memory that an historian needs. So I dropped history and decided I would try to aim at ‚Single Honors' in geography. If you could score more than 60 % in one subject, you would be allowed to do ‚Single Honors' in it. At the end of the second year I qualified to do geography, but I also qualified to do philosophy. I got 62 % in geography and 64 % in philosophy. It was difficult for me to make a choice: geography was willing to take me. At that stage I had already discovered my love for philosophy, but the problem was, that they had only three lecturers and the professor said they couldn't accept a ‚Single Honors' student until they got another lecturer. But the new member of staff wasn't expected for some months. So I decided I was going to run two ‚Single Honors' courses concurrently. I went to geography and I went to philosophy. But as soon as the fourth lecturer arrived in the Philosophy Department I dropped geography. I became very embarrassing, because the geography professor said: "She is my student!"

U: So you got into philosophy almost by accident. Or was it Esu blocking all the other roads on which you attempted to travel - until you hit upon the right one? What finally attracted you to philosophy?

S: It was my nature. I found it so easy. I wasn't good at learning facts. But I could look at critical issues. I could take a sentence and pull it to pieces. So I was at home. I was comfortable ...

U: What kind of philosophy did they teach you at the University of Lagos? I suppose it wasn't African philosophy.

S: No, no. The first year we did Greek philosophy: starting with Thales and down to Plato and Aristotle. The second year we did British philosophy: Hume, Locke, Hubes - all of them. In the final year we did British philosophy again with the one exception our English head could not ignore: Immanuel Kant Hat was the only German philosopher we studied. came out top of the class: second class Upper Division-Which was thee best you could hope for in any honors subject those days.

S: It was Dr Danquah who first got me interested in African Philosophy. But he was on that Egyptology thing, trying to trace the origin of African philosophy to Egyptian religion.

U: Another Detour!

S: Yes. Although his father had written The Concept Of God, he had not actually stressed that point. The grand old man was not interested in proving to the west ,that Thales had borrowed the concept of god or mathematics or whatever from Egypt.

U: It still fashionable. Cheikh Anta Diop and so many others still claim that there was a west African civilization from which the Greeks derived their ideas.

S: Yes, but I had a feeling right from the start: if it is true that the Greeks came and stole African Philosophy-what happened to the Africans? You can steal my ideas, but you cant steal the brain from my head. Forget the borrowings. I do not mind what they took. But do we have anything left today-which I can show? So my first concern was to find records of Yoruba thought. I went to the Yoruba Department and asked them wether I could have access to records of Yoruba thought before colonialism. There was an Egba poet called Sobo Arobiodu. I had heard of him even as a small girl. My father had been quoting his poems and his proverbs. I was so excited to find that Prof S. A. BaBalola and Moses Lijadu had recorded him and that I could listen to this material. But I was so disappointed to discover that he had been a Christian! He was talking about Jesus! He was a hardly a Yoruba thinker! But the Yoruba Department told me they had no other records predating him. So I decided to look into Ifa oracle Texts.

U: Now tell me one thing: are you still the only one trying to establish Yoruba thought as a philosophy? Are there others now working in this field or do you still come up against a lot opposition?

S: There are now quite a number of lecturers and students who wants to establish African philosophy. But the fundamental difference is :what basis for the basis for their claims? If you look at my book "Witchcraft, Reincarnation and the God-head, "my claims are based on what people are saying in the street. How they describe a witch or what reincarnation means to them-for example Christian ideas have influenced peoples thinking people are not even aware of such influences.


Dr Sophie Oluwole is a Senior Lecturer in Philosophy at the University of Lagos {Nigeria}. She is currently National President of the Nigerian Philosophical Society. She is the editor of "Imodooye"-a journal of Yoruba philosophy. In 1993 Dr. Oluwole was visiting lecturer at the the University of Bayreuth under the auspices of a special research program {"SFB214"-Identity in Africa}.

This is an excerpt of an interview Dr Oluwole had with Ulli Bier at the Iwalewa House,University of Bayreuth.

http://www.edofolks.com/html/pub70.htm

Thank you for posting this Isale!

One of my favorite Oyinbo person (RIP to Ulli Beier) and of course mama Sophie Oluwole is probably my favorite living female intellectual. Good read.

Sophie Oluwole is now retired. I pray Olodumare and the Irunmoles will grant more of us the wisdom to continue building upon her foundational work. I'm hopeful.

Shrine of the Black Madonna
Jennie Sykes Knight, Emory University

The Shrine of the Black Madonna in Atlanta was founded as the ninth congregation of the Pan African Orthodox Christian Church in 1975. The denomination was originally founded in the 1950s by the Holy Patriarch Jaramogi Abebe Agyeman (born Albert B. Cleage Jr., the father of writer Pearl Cleage) in response to the theological, spiritual, and psychological needs of the African American people of Detroit, Michigan.

The church's central theological belief is that God supports the freedom of African Americans from all forms of oppression. Jesus is called the "Black Messiah." The Hebrew nation of the Bible is understood to be a black nation. While Jesus is viewed as the savior of black people, he is also seen as the savior of all humankind. He who supports all struggles for liberation.
The congregations were named after the Black Madonna to emphasize the point to members that the mother of Jesus was black, to recognize other images of the Black Madonna that are worshipped around the world, and to honor black women. Belief in a black savior and madonna helps to counteract the damage of what the denomination calls AMBI: acceptance of the myth of black inferiority.

In 1975 around forty members (all between the ages of eighteen and thirty) left Detroit to found a new congregation in Atlanta. By 1996 Shrine 9 had approximately 500 members. After leadership changes during that year, and the death of the founder in February 2000, the membership declined to approximately 200 members by 2001. However, the membership is still very active and committed to maintaining its traditions and the vision of their founder.

Worship services combine elements from Roman Catholic, charismatic, and African traditions. The congregation observes eleven sacraments. The Eucharist is practiced as the "Sacrament of Commitment." The emphasis of this ritual is upon committing oneself to serve sacrificially and to walk in the steps of Jesus.

Training in the arts of Pa-Kua, which includes such ancient practices as meditation, yoga, and tai chi chuan, helps members of Pan African Orthodox congregations to integrate their minds, bodies, and spirits. This integration is deemed necessary in order to heal the long-term fragmentation in the black communities resulting from the traumas of slavery and oppression.

Social services and the education of children are central to the Atlanta church. The shrine operates the West End Learning Center and the Shrine Cultural Center and Bookstore. The West End Community Services Center, which opened in September 2001, offers referral services to doctors, lawyers, and other volunteer professionals, as well as direct aid to residents of Atlanta's West End. The learning center teaches children about their cultural and religious heritage, as well as computer skills and other academic subjects. Similarly, the goal of the bookstore and cultural center is to promote knowledge of African and African American heritage and art.

One of the shrine's main concerns is the Beulah Land Farm Project. The goals of this Shrine-owned farm in Abbeville County, South Carolina, are to provide food for urban communities and to open a retreat center and a boarding school on the land. The Beulah Land Farm Project embodies the shrine's values of self-sufficiency and communal living for African Americans.

Suggested Reading:
Marsha Foster Boyd, Self-Help in the Shrine of the Black Madonna #9 in Atlanta, Georgia: A Study of a Congregation and Its Leadership (Ph.D. diss., Graduate Theological Union, Berkeley, Calif., 1995).

http://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org/nge/Article.jsp?id=h-1630

The Importance of Being Extraordinary

Several years ago I was giving a speech at a law school that I think is ranked about number 25 or so in the United States. I was the only speaker and at least 100 law students had turned up to hear me speak to them about the job market.

At the time the legal job market in the United States was doing very well. Law school applications were up and lots of people coming out of law school were doing very well.

However, as I looked at the kids in this audience I could see a high level of arrogance. People were leaning back in their seats and appeared very confident for the most part: They seemed to feel as if they had already made it and would do very well no matter what occurred.

Because I was a full-time legal recruiter at the time, I knew that the opposite was likely true. Despite the fact these kids were going to a good school, I knew that only 20% of them would ever get jobs with large prestigious law firms. I also knew that of those, only a small percentage would stay more than a few years. Regardless of the state of the legal market, my assessment of the prospects for most of them was not pretty.

In your life, unless you are truly extraordinary you are not going to get the big rewards. The highest levels of success are only reserved for those who are the absolute best at what they do. You can be average, or above average and get along just fine –but you will never do that well. The highest rewards go to those who are extraordinary.

Being extraordinary is more than being just gifted. Once you are gifted in something you need to keep pushing yourself to do better and better. You only become extraordinary when you push and develop every muscle you need to in order to be successful. . .


. . .If you are average, you will probably not get a job. If you are good, you will not get a job at a large prestigious law firm, you will get a job at a smaller law firm. If you are extraordinary, you might get a job at a large law firm. However, once you are there you will need to continue being extraordinary to keep your job. You will need to be extraordinary compared to those you are working with who are extraordinary as well –somewhere in the neighborhood of 5% of you who are able to get jobs with large prestigious firms will probably ever be a partner in one of these firms. You will need to work harder and be smarter. If you do not think you can be extraordinary, you should stop doing what you are doing right now and do something you feel you can be extraordinary doing.

When I was in college I knew a few math geniuses. These were the sorts of kids who finished all the calculus classes in their high school when they were in ninth grade and then spent the next couple of years taking advanced classes at local colleges before they finished high school and formally enrolled in a college. Since I was in a dorm room with these guys and remembered them, I looked a few of them up recently.

One is a math professor at a good sized college and this is sort of what I would expect. He could probably have been a lot of things and he chose something that I am assuming was up his alley. After college he kept going to school and finished a PhD program at a prestigious school somewhere.

The other guy has been a journalist with a small town paper for several years. I looked up some of his articles and they do not appear that in depth or good. I am not saying there is anything wrong with being a journalist –what strikes me about this is that he is in a job that probably is not making the most of his skills. While I hate to say it, just about anyone with a high school education can put together a short article about the local gas station closing. Very few people have the ability to understand complex math and do it at such a high level.

If you’ve been doing math problems at a higher and higher level for a decade or more and spent thousands of hours doing this, it is probably not a good idea to do a 180-degree turn and do something completely different altogether. This is not going to make the best use of your skills. If you want to be incredible at something, you should continue down the path of your greatest skills.

I wonder what would have happened to this math genius if he kept pushing himself in the direction of his natural gifts. My thought is that he would probably have continued to get better and better. Instead, he has chosen something where he probably does not have the same level of innate ability.

In everything you do, you are going to get the best results if you choose something based on your strengths. The reason for this is that the rewards in life generally go to the people who are not good, or even excellent – but extraordinary. If you are going to be truly successful at something you need to be extraordinary. . .


. . .If you go to a law school that is not in the top 10, you are going to need to be in the top 50% of your class in most cases to get a job with a large law firm. There are numerous exceptions to this; however, this is the general rule and had been for some time. Some people who are not in the top 50% may be very at good interviews, good looking, have connections and so forth that enable them to get into the best firms. These are things that ultimately set them apart and make them extraordinary.

If you are coming from a top 10 law school, there is a whole pecking order of law firms as well. For example, there are very few attorneys who will get jobs at the top 5 most prestigious law firms. Certain jobs will require that students from these top law schools be at the very top of their class. Other jobs will require that students be near the top of their class. If a student from a top 10 law school is at the bottom of their class, they will likely not get a job with a large prestigious law firm –and may not get a job at all.

In life, the largest rewards go to the people who are extraordinary. You need to be truly extraordinary if you are going to get the rewards.

In the Olympics, there are gold, silver and copper medals. Everyone remembers who got the gold medal. Notwithstanding, very few people remember who got the silver and copper medal. If you are not in the top 3, you get NOTHING –no rewards whatsoever. You do not get a reward despite the fact you have to be the best in the world to even be competing in the Olympics.

One of the saddest things out there is that many people are doing the exact opposite of what they should be doing. Because they are not doing what they should be doing they tend to get the worst results possible. You should only do something where you have the chance to be extraordinary. If you cannot be extraordinary, then you are likely wasting your time.

Why pursue a career doing something where you are never going to be the best? The odds are you have some sort of skill that is truly extraordinary that the world recognizes. Why aren’t you doing that?

Life will pay any price you ask of it: If you ask intelligently. Asking of life is more about choosing what to ask than simply asking. If you are a poor writer and ask to be a Pulitzer Prize winning journalist life probably will not give you this. If you are a gifted mathematician and ask to be a noble prize winning scientist you probably stand a better chance.

Life is about focusing your efforts where you are likely to be extraordinary.

If you do a poor job you will get pain. You will lose. The world will not recognize you and you will have a hard time.

When you do a good job you get poor rewards. A copper medal in the Olympics is not something that people thrust above their head with a great deal of joy. This is a poor reward.

When you are really excellent you get good results. You may get a silver medal.

The most rewards come when you are at the level of outstanding. When you are outstanding you get all the rewards. The rewards for being outstanding are completely disproportionate.

The difference between excellent and outstanding is not that great.

The people who are outstanding are constantly demanding of themselves just a little bit more. They are able to do this because they push themselves and do things they do not want to do. The athlete practices harder. When they are competing, they reach within themselves to get even more out of themselves.

Outstanding is when you raise the example for everyone. For example, Thomas Edison raised the standard for everyone. Because he kept pushing and pushing, he was able to discover how to successfully light a room with electricity using a light bulb. Due to what he achieved everyone now has electric light. A new standard was born.

Many people in Edison’s position probably would not have continued despite all the failure he experienced. The story is that it took him 10,000 attempts before he was able to perfect the light bulb. Notwithstanding, instead of accepting that he failed 9,999 times, Edison is quoted as saying: “I have not failed. I just found 9,999 ways that do not work.”. . .


. . .I saw a 60 Minutes segment about the swimmer Michael Phelps recently. The story was incredibly interesting and talked about how at one point Phelps did not miss a daily 6:30 am swim practice for several years. Here is someone who is a naturally gifted swimmer already and yet he never missed a practice. He just kept trying to get better and better at this skill.

Could someone who was good at ice hockey suddenly switch gears and compete with a guy like Phelps at swimming? No. It would be impossible.

You need to do what you are really excellent at and then work like hell to be extraordinary. There is no other way. All the rewards go to the person who is extraordinary.

http://www.aharrisonbarnes.com/the-importance-of-being-extraordinary/

edited for size; follow link to full article.

Interesting!



Good effort Isale, for keeping the thread going.

Americans and feel-good pep talk sha.

AjanleKoko: Americans and feel-good pep talk sha.

Isale, how'ya?

Ola one:

Yes now.
You have to be outstanding, yammer yammer yammer. Na Yam?
I have met many Americans, and worked with quite a few. None of them were outstanding jare. Most were just riding their luck, with some strong talk thrown in between

AjanleKoko: Americans and feel-good pep talk sha.

AjanleKoko:

Yes now.
You have to be outstanding, yammer yammer yammer. Na Yam?
I have met many Americans, and worked with quite a few. None of them were outstanding jare. Most were just riding their luck, with some strong talk thrown in between

AjanleKoko: Americans and feel-good pep talk sha.

Baby boomers don't get feel-good pep talk na

naijababe:
Baby boomers don't get feel-good pep talk na

In short I be baby boomer, abi?

AjanleKoko:

In short I be baby boomer, abi?

Na lie? Brother mi agbalagbi gbi gbi!!!

naijababe:

Na lie? Brother mi agbalagbi gbi gbi!!!

Badt gurl.

Mushin for life, abi?

OAM4J: Interesting!

Good effort Isale, for keeping the thread going.

Hmmm. Baba Omo Epetedo for the win!
BTW, whattheheck is going on with the Romance moderators? I am mad at myself for reading that awful nomination thread in its entirety. It's a train wreck! Anyway, I nominate MsDarkskin, (provided she is no longer keeping company with miscreants like 190). That Jamo chick writes better pidgin than i speak. Is there any thing that prevents them from having 3 or 4 mods mods in a busy section like Politics or Romance? It might (temporarily) solve all these madness. I also noticed that Muki is seriously suffering withdrawal symptoms since Arsenal/Premier league season is over. Bless her futbol-fanatic heart. She's banning folks left and right. Lemme shut it sha.

AjanleKoko:

Yes now.
You have to be outstanding, yammer yammer yammer. Na Yam?
I have met many Americans, and worked with quite a few. None of them were outstanding jare. Most were just riding their luck, with some strong talk thrown in between

Cogent observation about Americans there, hound-dog. They are almost always mediocre on the job. LOL. But, true to form, they're given to superlatives and self-promotion. . .

Ola one:

Isale, how'ya?

*waves* I'm peachy! Where's our new forum? Or is Seun behaving himself now?

Kilode?!:



Thank you for posting this Isale!

One of my favorite Oyinbo person (RIP to Ulli Beier) and of course mama Sophie Oluwole is probably my favorite living female intellectual. Good read.

Sophie Oluwole is now retired. I pray Olodumare and the Irunmoles will grant more of us the wisdom to continue building upon her foundational work. I'm hopeful.

Dadgun it! Is there anything you don't know?! Talk about attending skrool when Naija still taught school.

Now, what's my excuse?

Nah. I don't know nothing o. I just google.

This "PAC" thing, Can't we? Given that we are broke people is a negative though, well, speaking for myself that is.

I know you can sell a few Omo onile properties and bankroll us sha..

I'm currently 'broker' than a church mouse. But I will pretend otherwise, if need be, to get a whiff of what you're cooking up, our beloved saint Kilode?! You can ask oamj or Aja or oga Kats for some mullah. I hear that Bushido adherent is so loaded, he set up a philanthropic foundation to assist indigents such as us - no need apply.

FYI, we can't sell land anymore; we must keep it in the family. Legacy and all that. . .

Hmm, I'm not sure about Oga Aja, but I strongly suspect Katsumoto is very stingy abi na prudent?

But I'm often wrong so . .

OAM4J? I will be shocked if that man still has anymore lands to sell. You have to be very idealistic or very broke to moderate that crazy politics section for nothing

And I know Seun ain't paying anybody anything.

isale_gan2:



*waves* I'm peachy! Where's our new forum? Or is Seun behaving himself now?

Seun is a jolly good fellow. 'Our' new forum? Meaning, please as I never wanted a rival for NL

Ola one:
Seun is a jolly good fellow. 'Our' new forum? Meaning, please as I never wanted a rival for NL

no worries, ola ola. we know you're solidly behind seun. but, i'm still scheming to take him down!

isale_gan2:

no worries, ola ola. we know you're solidly behind seun. but, i'm still scheming to take him down!

Hmmmmmm. I think this is about your blog.

Do you want me to inform NLanders about it?

It is innovative. But, you need to post more articles on it - and regularly.


Do you want me to promote/market the site ni?

isale_gan2:

no worries, ola ola. we know you're solidly behind seun. but, i'm still scheming to take him down!

ola ola is known as pounded yam in UK

dense you are crazy

isale_gan2:

Hmmm. Baba Omo Epetedo for the win!
BTW, whattheheck is going on with the Romance moderators? I am mad at myself for reading that awful nomination thread in its entirety. It's a train wreck! Anyway, I nominate MsDarkskin, (provided she is no longer keeping company with miscreants like 190). That Jamo chick writes better pidgin than i speak. Is there any thing that prevents them from having 3 or 4 mods mods in a busy section like Politics or Romance? It might (temporarily) solve all these madness. I also noticed that Muki is seriously suffering withdrawal symptoms since Arsenal/Premier league season is over. Bless her futbol-fanatic heart. She's banning folks left and right. Lemme shut it sha.

[size=3pt]pretend not to see the Arsenal bit [/size]
Sister trusss me that section, can make a nun swear , very very hard to moderate its like trying to make babies act movies. You can say one thing 9 ways they will still do it one way. i got tired , just locked the thread and threw away the key

mukina2: dense you are crazy



[size=3pt]pretend not to see the Arsenal bit [/size]
Sister trusss me that section, can make a nun swear , very very hard to moderate its like trying to make babies act movies. You can say one thing 9 ways they will still do it one way. i got tired , just locked the thread and threw away the key

Ayam going to bring dem here

U can't escape it o! U off bra dey relax here abi?

U go take!

mukina2: dense you are crazy



[size=3pt]pretend not to see the Arsenal bit [/size]
Sister trusss me that section, can make a nun swear , very very hard to moderate its like trying to make babies act movies. You can say one thing 9 ways they will still do it one way. i got tired , just locked the thread and threw away the key

This forum don fall my hand.
You check to see which topic is trending, and it's some half-assed post from the Sexuality section.

People should go out there and get some abeg Typing out your frustrations on here is not on at all.

AjanleKoko:

This forum don fall my hand.
You check to see which topic is trending, and it's some half-assed post from the Sexuality section.

People should go out there and get some abeg Typing out your frustrations on here is not on at all.

You don't seem to know the meaning of trending in Ota language.

mukina2: dense you are crazy



[size=3pt]pretend not to see the Arsenal bit [/size]
Sister trusss me that section, can make a nun swear , very very hard to moderate its like trying to make babies act movies. You can say one thing 9 ways they will still do it one way. i got tired , just locked the thread and threw away the key

You, I will report you to ..... you know who I'm talking about. BTW, I like your bedroom voice

AjanleKoko:

This forum don fall my hand.
You check to see which topic is trending, and it's some half-assed post from the Sexuality section.

People should go out there and get some abeg Typing out your frustrations on here is not on at all.

Or they can even use a good hand in the absence of a significant other
Meanwhile, Oga you've got mail.

mbulela:
Or they can even use a good hand in the absence of a significant other
Meanwhile, Oga you've got mail.

nl no go kill me

denzel2009:

ola ola is known as pounded yam in UK

Haaha.
You are right, though.
We discussed this on her thread last year

AjanleKoko:



People should go out there and get some abeg

Kilode?!:
Hmm, I'm not sure about Oga Aja, but I strongly suspect Katsumoto is very stingy abi na prudent?

But I'm often wrong so . .

OAM4J? I will be shocked if that man still has anymore lands to sell. You have to be very idealistic or very broke to moderate that crazy politics section for nothing

And I know Seun ain't paying anybody anything.

hehehehe

No I dont have any more land to sell. I am keeping the remaining for my children. Any one needing land from me should send his/herself or sister or daughter that is above 18yrs old, soon as she put to bed and DNA test is done, she will get 2 plots of land anywhere in Lagos.

denzel2009:

You don't seem to know the meaning of trending in Ota language.


You, I will report you to ..... you know who I'm talking about. BTW, I like your bedroom voice

hmnnnn... you ran away with one of my wives, now you are already sleeping in Mukina2's bedroom. . . na you o, biko