25 things you must have before age 25 (Preface)

UNDERSTANDING THE TIMES AND SEASONS

“All great achievement requires time”

-         MAYA ANGELOU Celebrated Author and Poet

You can’t be a successful farmer without understanding the mystery of times and seasons. For everything therefore, there is a time and season. We must be very conscious of the season we are. Time is a very important factor, there is time for ideas, time to think, time to plan and strategize, time to prepare, time to work, time to readjust and reassess, time to see result, time to harvest that which has been planted, time to profit. The time you’re supposed to reap, you can’t start planting. You can’t start planting when the planting season is gone. There is a season of planting and a season of reaping.

We have only 31536000 seconds

525600 minutes

8760 hours

365 days

52 weeks

12 months in a year.

WHAT YOU DO WITH YOUR TIME DEPENDS ON YOU

You must take 100% responsibility for your time. What you do with all these time and the seasons that comes along depends on your understanding of the times and seasons. A student who scored ‘F’ in a course read for that course (Obafemi Awolowo University students know this better). It doesn’t mean the student failed to burn the midnight candle or take night classes. The effort wasn’t just enough. On the other hand, if the student has started reading maybe two weeks before he started, he might have scored a ‘C’ or a ‘B’ or an ‘A’. The result for adequate and effective time use is limitless but first you must understand the times and seasons. Some track athlete actually starts preparing for a marathon 9 months before the games. That’s a reflection of the understanding of the times and season.

BECOMING A STAR

Becoming a star is a process. Everything is a process. Life is a process. A couple just got married and the Husband was without the knowledge that his wife knows nothing about cooking. In their new house, they had a visitor and it was time to cook so the new wife got into the Kitchen and poured all the ingredients she can lay her hand on in the pot. She poured water into it and placed it on the cooker. She wondered what next and remembered her mom use to clap her hands over the pot when the food is cooking so she started clapping her hands too. You know the rest of the story. Becoming a star cannot be rushed. It is a school everyone must pass through to become a star. Don’t think God is slow to make you a star because he isn’t. God is not slow, don’t be angry with yourself because it looks like among your mates you are the one who seems not to be doing well.

Persist and persevere in that department, in that faculty, in that project, among your classmates, on the field, among your team, in that business, in that studio.

ACT LIKE YOU ARE A STAR

“All you have to do is act as if. . .”

-JACK CANFIELD Phenomenal Bestselling Author of “Chicken Soup for the Soul”

It’s all about acting, think of how successful people work. People like Pastor E. A. Adeboye, Aliko Dangote, Bishop David Oyedepo; nobody has to tell you they are busy working day and night. A recent interview of Aliko Dangote revealed that he has a plaque with “Nothing is Impossible” written on it on his table. That means he’s just getting started to becoming one of the richest of all time. Ask yourself what does the message on the plaque does? It inspires him to act like he’s just getting started. You might be living in the project, i.e. the ghetto. It doesn’t matter. All you just have to do is act like that person you want to become. Don’t think about what other people say, live your life like the star you want to be and you’ll start attracting the right set of people, resources and everything you need to get to the top.