As I write this post, today, it is July 1st. In just 8 days, my daughter Petra makes 5 years. As I calmly had a chat with my best friend – Charity K. Bakutana – this morning, we agreed not to talk about it until that day comes because once we talk about it in her hearing, birthday celebrations will have to begin immediately – TODAY! A huge success lesson is hidden herein as I will expose down this piece.
In fact, yesterday, our friend Estar Chozen came home and asked Petra about her birthday to which she responded, “9th July.” Good enough (to me the one to foot the celebration bill!), she doesn’t know WHEN that date will be. But just after saying that, she started a movie-like imaginative narrative of what she will do on that long-awaited day: “I will get a big cake, a big knife, and a big plate. Then I will count 3 and cut it. I will put the shining thing in my head and celebrate. I have grownnnnnnnnnnn! I am no longer a baby. I am a big girl. Not so daddy?”
Of course, I had to bow and agree that she was now a big 5-year-old girl, not a baby – at least for the sake of peace in the home! Well, at the end of it all, 3 powerful lessons for a life of success pop up – lessons I have personally learnt and are happy to be practising as often as possible:
1. KNOWLEDGE: The only way not to get what you want is to keep ignorant about it.
Blessed are the ignorant for they don’t know what they are missing! I have taught her to be a reader already and she knows very well… Just ask her the next time you meet her: “Petra what do you get when you read books?” I bet she will answer: “Power in your head!” That is it indeed! Leaders are readers and readers end up becoming leaders.
2. QUESTIONING: The best way to tickle your imagination is to face questions.
Questions – whether from people or yourself – create a knowledge gap which triggers all the creative buds in your mind to start the process of discovery and creative thinking. Petra is heavy laden with questions. Every now and again, she has a question about everything – questions about the bulb on the ceiling, the cat in the compound, and the motorcycle by the roadside; questions about the chair in the sitting room, the pillow on the bed, and the paper bin near daddy’s study table; questions about the purple tie, the blue flask, and the white plates; questions about the big book, the tall pen, and the huge stamp. She will ask and ask and ask until you are dried up of every type, colour and size of answer! (I am only worried that school may suffocate this curiosity… but I will keep arousing it as much as I can).
3. PASSION: The most effective way to have words flow from your mouth is to talk
about what you love. It is like when you do what your heart enjoys; you will no longer complain about additional time, fight for a salary increase or think of going for vacation. The very work you do becomes more of a hobby and a vacation all the time. When Petra starts to dance or sing or play her guitar (she saved 36,000 and I donated 3,000 to make it 40,000 with which she bought her small beloved guitar), she does so with a height of passion that even Mt. Everest cannot rival. When she starts to write, she can show you that she is able to write with both hands at once in the same book and produce writing worth giving attention to. That is passion!
So, ask me what the formula for success is… and, while I may not give you a full equation, I can kick-start you with the “KQP Approach”:
a) – Knowledge: Be as informed in your field of interest as a woman is informed about what goes on in the home of her co-wife… and jealously yearn to get more information, for “My people perish because of lack of knowledge” (Hosea 4:6);
b) – Questioning: Don’t evade questions; instead face them to make your mind salivate with imagination, for listening and asking questions are two greatest hallmarks of the wise.
c) – Passion: Do what you are already enthusiastic about or else throw enthusiasm in what you are already doing.
And of course, when you find Petra with her dolls and everything she uses to write, read, and play, that is when you know how serious she is about her own type of success!
To Your Success,
“Inspiring transformational, exemplary and authentic leadership worldwide.”
