A lot of
people attribute their failure in life to where they were brought up. It is
true that there are many crime ridden environment and growing up there and
following the right path is usually very difficult. Other environments are
underdeveloped and full of deprived, poor and economically handicapped people.
Growing up in such environments is no excuse for not dreaming.
Such environments should rather challenge you to rise up above every limitation and all odds to become great. Using one's environment as an excuse is just another excuse for being purposeless and uncommitted to positive change.
Such environments should rather challenge you to rise up above every limitation and all odds to become great. Using one's environment as an excuse is just another excuse for being purposeless and uncommitted to positive change.
A strong successful man is not the victim of his environment. He creates favorable
conditions. No matter how bad your environment is, you can create your preferred
future and work towards achieving it. If we look closely there are people who
lived in hash environments but they still rose above every limitations, got
some level of education and worked to position themselves for greatness. Today
such people are celebrated as success.
I know of a
lady who didn't have any form of education. She was dating a guy who later on
left her because he felt the lady was not in his class and would make him a
laughing stock if he ever got married to her. The lady was heart broken and she
came to me for counsel. I asked her to calm down and see a lesson in what had
happened. I told her that in our country no educated man would like to marry an
uneducated woman - love or no love.
I also said,
no uneducated man would like to marry a woman who is like him. They'll strive
to get someone who is a little bit more educated than they are, and with some
form of luck, they succeed. I said education gives you the advantage in
anything. I asked her to enroll in an evening adult school in order to get the
elementary education. At this time She was 19 years old and from a poor family.
No member of her family could assist her financially.
She took some
money she had saved up and purchased the enrollment form for the adult evening
school and brought it to me. Her condition of illiteracy was so bad that she
knew her name but couldn't spell it. I helped her to fill the form and gave it
back to her for submission. That was how she began her journey from nothing to
greatness.
She finished
the basic elementary class at age 22, got into secondary school at age 23 and
finished at age 28. While she was in basic elementary school and secondary
school she was working in a fashion house as an apprentice in order to earn
some money to support herself. She gained admission into the university at age
29 and graduated at age 33 after spending 4 years in the university studying
economics. Today, she owns her own fashion house and she is very successful.
Against all odds, she challenged herself to rise above every limitation and
become what she desires most to be.
Don't ever
allow the condition you find yourself to be your conclusion. Did anyone ever
say you won't amount to anything in life? Prove them wrong. Create your preferred future by pursuing it.
Don't allow
the negative talk from people corrupt your mind.
Don't allow
the conditions you find yourself in corrupt your mind. You've got to win in
your mind before you win in your life.
Being a
success is not about having the money to spend around towards achieving your
goals. It's about having a vision and working, and working, and failing
sometimes, rising up again and continue working and working until you achieve
your dreams.
On the journey
to success no one ever starts out with practically nothing. We all start with
all there is. It's how we use it that makes the difference and makes things
that were seemingly impossible possible. Start out with what you have.
If you still
claim you don't have anything, start out with yourself. Apply yourself to
something worthwhile, something useful and that will develop your person. Get
some form of training. Do something with your hands. The idea is to apply
yourself to work and personal development and as you do, you will begin to
gravitate towards your dreams.
As you embark
upon this journey, several opportunities would be presented to you. Make the
most of them because success of life depends upon keeping one's mind open to
opportunity and seizing it when it comes. The opportunities you seize and
maximize is what lifts you to the top.
Kites rise
highest against the wind, not with it. Rise against your environment. The road to success is always under construction. It's time you get up and start constructing yours. Don't allow the negative life style, the deprivation, the poverty, and
the backwardness in your environment hold you down. Don't be limited by it.
Rise above them - and resolve to be better, to do better and to excel.
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