The world and everybody inhabiting it craves and cheers for a character that embodies courage, benevolence and martyrdom. These certain characters have themed movies, books, magazines and any platform that interfaces people because there is a certain form of truth that transcend time that these characteristics represents. I remembered how my adrenaline shot up just watching William Wallace, the star character of Brave Heart, as he stood for his passion in the face of death. Today, I woke up to the inspirational DVD of Stephen Covey’s 8th Habit and the story that caught my attention was that of Charles Dickens Discovery of a Character.
Charles Dickens reached a dark point in his life where advances on his royalty were cut back because his last publication was not doing well. Therefore, he was troubled about the impending bills and ways of rising above his present predicament that he murdered sleep and took long walks in the night to think through this situation. During one of these long walks he was confronted with his past of living in poverty when he saw juveniles taking the role of the bread winner. This phenomenon piqued his attention that he forgot about his worries and concentrated on helping these ones by writing a book and distributing it around the world.
Through out my studies of great men that have institutionalized themselves, I have discovered a recurring character that factors in their lives. This character, though recognized by all, is always less traveled. The ability to live beyond your present predicament and communicate such through maximizing innate talents towards benevolence activity has always been a fulfilled direction. There have always been the hindrances of how to survive but I have yet to see one who follows this direction and begs for bread. The normal man receives before he gives while the superman gives and then receives an abundant reward of self fulfillment, abundant wealth, abundant recognition and lives that outlives time. Which direction would you rather pick?
If you decide to follow the road less traveled then I must expose you to some points. The reasons for avoiding this choice include the pains that go along with it. The pains may be excruciating but they expose you to a deeper knowledge of yourself and eliminate vices like fear, self-doubt and selfishness from your being. It brings you to a point where you know that you know; these steps start with a daily habit of self to giving and ends with God permitted time on earth. It becomes very easy to understand the reason why Bill Gates left commerce for social development and avoid ending like the Rockefellers of the 20th Century, why names like Gbenga Sesan is associated with Youth Development in Nigeria and why Ghandi was referred to as Mahatma translated Great Soul.
If you still don’t know how to put your gift to work for humanity, let me share a story with you that gave me a great understanding into this character. I finished school with relatively good grades with the hope of getting a job but was I shocked after failing about 5 entry level test into companies. So I decided to examine myself deeply and found my flaws. I dedicated my service year towards Aptitude Test research and I became an expert in all aptitude test solution after sleeplessly night of reading and meditating. I was ready for any test that came my way. It did not take long for an opportunity to present itself; it was the First Bank Test of 2002 held in Trade Fair complex. I got there that morning confident of my speed and accuracy and was I shocked when I saw more than 20,000 candidates vying for about 100 positions. My entrepreneurial spirit was revived that day as my desire to write the test dampened. I had two choices; write the test and be a First Banker or use all my expertise to empower and educate these lost souls who do not know what to encounter in an aptitude test. As we waited for the test to hold, I saw myself walking out of the Trade Fair Complex thinking deeply of how to distribute a dream manual to this helpless Nigerians. I had totally forgotten about my promise to my fiancée to get married immediately I get a job, my desire to gather money to do my masters and my desire to move out of my father’s house. It was when I got home, that the enormity of the task became clear to me and I felt like running back to test center. All I could remember was sitting down in the living room watching the clock ticking me to my new found future……………………………………….
