Stick with it!

I left his office inspired. All I could immediately remember were those softly spoken words, “STAY WITH HER.” They were from no less than a person like Rev. Sam Adeyemi of Success Power fame, whom he had come to pay a courtesy call on. The first time we met was two years earlier when he came to my campus to talk to students about success. So I was a college student with a fledgling media team and, more naturally, the privilege fell to me to interview him for a story for my readers.

“How time flies,” he began. “Only two years ago you were a student. Now you’re out…on your own.” Thus began a nearly 20-minute pep talk culminating in the use of those encouraging words, “STAY WITH IT.” In characteristic candor of hers, she acknowledged how early in her career she kept planting and uprooting her efforts seedlings, all in an attempt to find that “golden spot.”

But unfortunately, in hindsight, such wandering only served to drive him further and further away from his desired goals of true success, until he decided to focus. And today the results of his progress could not be more evident. But it all came when he decided to “stay with it.”

Ironically, those softly spoken words have become marble in my thoughts as they have continued to guide me in my endeavors, especially in the context of the increasing tendency to laziness associated with youth. It has been my observation that this tendency is so strong in men that it requires a committed sense of discipline to properly checkmate.

Look around you and you’ll see what I mean. The average young man today thinks that if he could get a visa to leave our shores for Britain or the US, or if he could go to South Africa, Dubai or just about anywhere except where he is, he might succeed. But isn’t it surprising that all the time and energy invested in developing oneself up to this point is suddenly lost and wasted, as he will have to start all over again? Why can’t we just keep that? right where we are with what we have and give our efforts and resources the necessary time to build up to the threshold of victory?

Sydney Bremer Newton commented that “it’s a sad day for a youngster who can’t see opportunity where he is, but believes he can do better elsewhere.” We need to understand that our future is at home with us, close at hand. I’ve seen people start private businesses only to switch the next year to what they were told was the “next big thing” and then another, and another all within five years. The result: nothing to show for all those years, but wasted resources and time.

Were these people poor in ideas or incapable of making a great success of their efforts? Certainly not! They just lacked that sense of discipline and focus. That is why it is so important to close your ears when you start your peculiar path of success, in which you believe so strongly. Because as soon as you’ve started, everybody’s going to come calling you and say, “Hey, it’s happening backwards, come over.” And if you are not careful, you will leave incomplete the path you began to create, to join these beaten men on their beaten paths.

Don’t be “here” today and be found “there” tomorrow because many bright young people have developed such a wandering disposition, such a habit of running around, that they have ruined their ability to ground themselves. They can’t stay in one place: plant a tree today, uproot it tomorrow, and put it somewhere else the next day. The consequences of this errant attitude are serious and worrying. According to Dr. Orsen Marden, “This wandering habit is dead to concentration. It ruins the ability to focus on one thing; it destroys the goal; it develops the habit of discontent. It ruins the continuity of purpose, so that there is no thread running throughout life, it is fragmentary rather than a continuous fabric.

“No life can be very successful if it does not have a strong, constant and persistent purpose running through it. There must be a goal, and all power must be applied to this goal to carry it out: widen, deepen, widen and widen. life along the line of purpose. Piecemeal work little by little never amounts to much.”

Just 2 years ago I was bombarded with numerous tips to stop publishing my dream magazine, the Achiever’s Manual, for an “apparently more lucrative” science text/magazine for senior high schools. My advisors, probably speaking from experience and observation, provided ample evidence of a mass market waiting for the sickle. Also, my bachelor’s degree in the field was on hand to add credibility to the entire project. Besides, he also needed the money. Who does not?

It was tempting though, but I remembered those words: “Keep with it.” They came to my rescue and I knew I had no choice but to continue; to maintain the current course. I told my well-meaning advisors, “Sorry, I’m here to stay.” Looking back, I wonder: What would have happened to the, then, more than a year of efforts already planted and now emerging as seedlings if I had budgeted? It would have all been wasted. I feel better today and it is getting better every day. Now I see the horizon gradually emerging.

I tell you, when you reach a point of full persuasion about your dreams and activities, staying with them becomes fun and natural. Your miracle is always at hand. So be careful not only to sell yourself too soon, but to sell yourself in the first place. If only Ali Hafed, the rich farmer in “Acres Of Diamonds” had known, he would not have left his farm and his family to travel to faraway lands in search of diamonds. The man who bought the farm from him, together with one of the wise men from the East, discovered “acres of diamonds” on the same farm.

If Ali Hafed had been content to stay at home, if he had dug in his garden instead of going abroad in search of riches and reaping poverty, hardship, hunger and death, he would have been one of the richest men in the world, by the the whole estate abounded in the richest gems. Just put; If Ali Hafed had STAYED WITH HIM, he would have hit him BIG and turned out better because of him. This is a great lesson that I have learned on this journey of success. I tell you friends, I’m not going anywhere. I’ve taken Sam Adeyemi’s words for “STAY WITH IT.”

You also should. So find out what your “IT” is and then STAY WITH IT!