SUCCESS - A Poem by Berton Braley: The Wallpaper

Strangely, the most viewed post on this blog so far is this post I made about the poem Invictus. It is a powerfully inspiring poem about confidence and courage. The most interactive post is this other one.

So, I decided to put up a few more poems starting with the poem Success by Berton Braley. The poem is simply awesome. If you're not used to reading inspiring poems, you're going to get a heavy jolt from this one. Put up the wallpaper on your laptop and get motivated every single time you turn it on.

Right click on the picture and select "Save Target As" or "Save Link As".

SUCCESS

If you want a thing bad enough 

To go out and fight for it, 

Work day and night for it, 

Give up your time and your peace and your sleep for it 

If only desire of it 

Makes you quite mad enough 

Never to tire of it, 

Makes you hold all other things tawdry and cheap for it 

If life seems all empty and useless without it 

And all that you scheme and you dream is about it, 

If gladly you'll sweat for it,

Fret for it, 

Plan for it, 

Lose all your terror of opposition for it, 

If you'll simply go after that thing that you want, 

With all your capacity, 

Strength and sagacity, 

Faith, hope and confidence, stern pertinacity, 

If neither cold poverty, famished and gaunt, 

Nor sickness nor pain 

Of body or brain 

Can turn you away from the thing that you want, 

If dogged and grim you besiege and beset it, 

You'll get it!

- Berton Braley

Horrible Things a Teacher Did

You see that picture to the left? Left to me, I would GLADLY do that. These kids can be so ANNOYING.

Alright. I'm an NYSC Member, teaching at this school in Lagos. I teach two classes, SS1A and SS1C. In SS1A, there are about 230 students. In SS1C, there are about 170 students. So I teach approximately 400 students. And, each class is packed beyond what the chairs and tables can bear. (Please take a moment of silence for the state education system.)

Anyways, I was in class yesterday, teaching them the only subject I teach them--Maths--and it was the penultimate class for the term.

Before I go further, I would like to emphatically state my wholehearted affection for teaching. I love teaching,

Mummy, "I want to be a Wizkid"

I was in a Keke NAPEP on my way back from my classes on Telecoms and networking last Saturday, when I got into a thrilling conversation with a 4-year old boy who spoke like he was 7.

We talked about a man sitting to my right whom he hit in the face by accident, debating whether or not he should say “sorry”. We discussed cartoons—he liked Power Rangers which was my best cartoon after Bugs Bunny and Spiderman. We talked about his 2-year old brother that had the annoying habit

Is Democracy Actually A Good Thing?

I was reading the book Boomerang by Michael Lewis where he talks about the crazy financial decisions that were made in countries like Iceland, Greece and Ireland, when I read this quote and thought I should share it:

Democracy destroys itself because it abuses its right to freedom and equality. Because it teaches its citizens to consider audacity as a right, lawlessness as a freedom, abrasive speech as equality and anarchy as progress.

- Isocrates (436-338 BC)

Kind of true....right?

How I fell in love with Unilever

She speaks with a loud voice. She’s smart. She’s hardworking. She treats her subordinates with respect. She loves her family. She is Tolulope Agiri. She is the HR Director for Unilever Nigeria. She made 26 June, 2013 one of the best days of June for me.

Sometime ago at our weekly Community Development program at the NYSC secretariat in Lagos, we were called together and informed that Unilever was organising a “Tea Party”, and youth corps members were invited. A number of us wrote our names down, not knowing what it was all about. It was worth it.

The Tea Party began as an interview, the interviewee was Tolulope. Tolulope talked from her heart. She told us about some of her experiences in leadership. I’ll tell you one that struck me.

She told us she used to be “quite autocratic” in the way she dealt with her team, and she was comfortable with it up till a certain point. She had left Nigeria and gone to work in South Africa,