A six year old asked me what success meant to me? He said his teacher always said they should be successful. He was told Wole Soyinka Nigeria's literary genius is a very successful man. The teacher gave other worthy examples and he shared them with me. Everyone you want to be your child's mentor was listed by this brilliant boy. This got me thinking and set the tone for this post. I was unusually quiet for over 5 minutes, he just kept staring hard at me, waiting. I had to come up with an answer fast enough to keep his interest, he wanted to go watch Lady Gaga on MTV. I managed to find the words and said " success is what you achieve based on your personal goals, in the face of limited opportunities". As expected he did not understand what I meant by limited opportunities. I had to look for the words a nine year old would understand and I said success is believing in yourself and studying hard to be the best you know you can be in school and at home. He laughed and said okay, I would try and beat Bisola to first position this time round. That was is goal, he smiled happily and left to follow his preferred music.
I have given "success" some thought lately. How much is enough? When people say they want to be as rich as Bill Gates or Aliko Dangote what exactly do they mean? Maybe that is the goal for many and I suppose it is okay. However, I strongly believe that success is what we want it to be. It is okay to be happy with owning one car, one house, one bicycle and one motorcycle. It is okay to own one of a few things or nearly everything. Personal success should be defined by us and not society. This is one of the hardest things you learn as an adult. The tough decisions you must take to stay sane and enjoy inner peace. Do you want to buy a Range Rover because Nigerians cannot get enough of it or because it makes you happy and you can afford it? Would you be bothered about perceptions positive or negative that come with not following popular culture?
There are many things that make life an enjoyable journey, one of them is a strong sense of self. This means that like my little friend we must start to question issues that affect us early enough and find ways to live a life that makes us happy whilst affecting others positively. One of the ways, is to define what personal success is and what will be enough in the face of limited opportunities. This does not mean you stop working hard to achieve set goals but rather a commitment to appreciating your best efforts even when the results are not overwhelmingly positive. We will not meet every definition of success out there but we will satisfy our minds based on our efforts.
Success is your personal story and all your positive efforts to tell it in the best possible form. This may make you similar to Bill Gates or another regular Joe, but hey you alone can tell your story and in the end it will be a successful one. At least you know so, you wrote it and produced it. No matter what anyone thinks, it is authentically yours, you can be happy with
this.
