Uchendu Talks: 2013

A professor was talking to his class about the lessons in life, when he took out a dollar note from his pocket and asked if anybody wants it. The entire class put up their hands eagerly without a moment's hesitation. He folded it once and asked again, and as expected everyone raised their hands once more.

The professor then folded the dollar note into a small square and asked, "does anyone still wants this dollar note?" The entire class was waving their hands in the air by now, clamoring to be the lucky recipient of the money.

He unfolded the note carefully, and crushed it tightly into a small ball. "How about this? Everybody still wants this lump of paper?" The students shouted, "yes! We still want it!"

The professor dropped the note on the floor and stomped on it with all his might, while the class watched on in silence. "How about now? You guys still want it?"

Before the class could react, a student shouted, "yeah I want it! It's still money!" The professor picked up the note and handed to the student. He turned back to the rest of the class to explain the moral of the lesson.

"Many times in life, you'd be crushed and stomped upon by others. Without a strong sense of self worth, you might end up feeling small and worthless like a lump of paper. But no matter what I did to the dollar bill, all of you recognized its worth as a dollar, so it retained its value even as I abused it to the core."

"Never depend on others to determine your value - know your own worth. No matter how much others try to crush you, you will always know what you are capable and worthy of. Just like the dollar bill, the outside appearance will never diminish your true value."

July 16, 2013

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

July 11, 2013

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?

July 2, 2013

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,

6 Facts: My Lame Attempt at Humour

1. There are more sane people on facebook than on twitter
2. There are more brutally blunt beings on twitter than on facebook
3. Most hyper active twitter users hate facebook
4. Most hyper active facebook users don't understand twitter
5. Many people don't realise it, but Google Plus is better than facebook or twitter
6. The five facts above are totally useless

June 23, 2013

Nigeria 0 - 3 Spain: My Thoughts

Nigeria 0 - 3 Spain

We lost.

But not entirely.

This competition has shown us which pockets in our team have holes.

1. Attitude: We have that. The boys have spirit and will to struggle. 7.5/10

2. Team Spirit: We have

Getting People to Work with You

I learnt this from Malcolm Gladwell's book,Outliers.

An important skill essential for success is this ability to "draw people into your goal". It is so fundamental to success that its almost unheard of that a person succeeds without it.

How do we do this? Simple. We get

It Pays To Write Down Your Goals

I was pleasantly amazed this past week.

I took a little time to go through my journal, and starting at the most recent entry, I saw a notes which I took down after reading a book, notes from a seminar series I attended earlier this year, a few quotes and a bunch of other stuff.

I kept flipping back until I got to my entry on 23rd December, 2012. I read through it and I smiled. You remember when Brian Tracy said – and this is from SOLID research – that the act of writing down a goal increases your chances of achieving it by a whopping 1000%? It’s pure truth.

I read my income goal for the first half of the year 2013. I found that at present I had already exceeded that goal

The "STAR BOYS" - Brand New Gang in Lagos

As I walked out of church today, I saw buses – commercial coaster buses – with smashed windows and wind screens. As I looked, I was certain that whoever smashed those windows intended to vandalise, not steal.

I walked closer and saw some men discussing. I saw another man trying to fix the window of one of the buses with his friend. They looked like drivers of the buses. I walked up to one of the men. He had a look of sadness and anger on his face. I asked him what happened.

He told me – and let me try to get some of the exact words he used – “all these small boys….14, 15…18 year old boys….dem dey call themselves “STAR BOYS”…..dem fight here….around 2am…..like 200 boys….boys who dem parents still dey give food…..come dey break glass…..no be only buses oh…..one jeep and one car for front…..dem break all the glasses…..and that barbing salon wey dey there…dem break the glass finish…”.

Well. If what he said is accurate, I think we have a problem – a very serious problem.

I don’t want to go into the rhetoric of the problem of the youth and parents and media and violence and government and all the usual talk. It’s just blowing hot air.

What I want to say is this: If you have a young person in your area, boy or girl, who has any measure of respect for you; please try to be a mentor. Call him or her as often as time permits and ask how they are doing, give a word of advice or tell a life-changing story with some lessons. Do what you can to influence them positively.

Just do what you can.

Peer pressure is getting stronger and it’s all about influence. I personally believe that if those boys were actually 200, less than 80 of them personally chose to come. The rest were ‘pushed’ to come, directly or indirectly

I urge you not to fold your hands and do nothing or just merely post on social media and just talk. DO something, especially if you stay in Lagos.

And let me tell you why.

Consider this: What if these kids actually get guns and come to rob homes. They’ll shoot without conscience, thought or pity. It would just be like shooting in a video game.

And worse – it could be my house – or maybe yours.

DO something.

I wish you GREATNESS.

Uchendu is a Speaker, Entrepreneur and Writer, who loves teaching young people. You can follow him on Twitter or Facebook or circle him on Google+.

February 10, 2013

THE SUPER EAGLES ARE CHAMPIONS!

WARNING: THIS POST IS DEFINITELY GOING TO CONTAIN SOME ERRORS.

I'm just too excited. WOW! We finally did it.

The Super Eagles have given this tournament what it takes. Cheers to Stephen Keshi and the boys. Unbelieveable!

The boys definitely deserve it. From the first match, I saw something. The discipline of the defence. That was the most consistent part of all the games of the Super Eagles.

We did it. We really did it.

And I'm absolutely proud I'm from the same country as these players.

They had what it took to win, but more importantly, they did what it took to win.

This is what I learnt from the Super Eagles: People don't need to believe in you for you to succeed. Work hard, and when you're successful they'll believe.

Up Nigeria! Up Super Eagles! Up Keshi! Go! Go! Go!

I wish you greatness.

February 3, 2013

Mikel Obi and The Fight of the Super Eagles

I watched the Ivory Coast versus Nigeria game while updating my résumé. And, I’m sure you won’t be surprised I never finished updating it.

What an amazing game! The Super Eagles showed their fight in this match. From the start of the match to the final whistle, they pushed for victory. And they got it in spectacular fashion. A thunderbolt by Emmanuel Emenike the first half and a deflected shot from Sunday Mba in the second half gave us the victory.

However, that was not all.

If you remember clearly, in the 85th minute Traore of Ivory coast had a chance to take the game to a 2-2 draw from the 6-yard box. But Mikel Obi dashed from behind him and put the ball away for a corner kick. That’s fight.

Mikel is a midfielder; he didn’t need to be there. But he was. And he did what he needed to do. And it was worth it. The sheer determination to win, to give it all it takes, to do everything within your power to win. That’s fight.

And sometimes, that’s all it takes. Determination. Grit. Tenacity. Doggedness. Fight.

For many reasons, I think that kick by Mikel was the single greatest moment of the match for Nigeria. Mikel Obi was not as evident in this match as he was in our past three matches at AFCON 2013, but I believe he was most useful in this match.

Fight. Fight. Fight. Never give up. That’s all.

I wish you greatness.

Uchendu is a Speaker, Entrepreneur and Writer, who loves teaching young people. You can follow him on Twitter or Facebook or circle him on Google+.

January 22, 2013

I Have Learned Things that could Blow Your Mind

Well, not exactly blow your mind, but surely blow you away.

This week has been rather hectic, but this amazing poem brings it all together. I believe it was borne out of the experiences of the author Omer B. Washington. It simple and profound.

The poem is titled I've Learned.

I’ve learned-
that you cannot make someone love you. All you can do is be someone who can be loved. The rest is up to them.

I’ve learned-
that no matter how much I care, some people just don’t care back.

I’ve learned-
that it takes years to build up trust, and only seconds to destroy it.

I’ve learned-
that no matter how good a friend is, they’re going to hurt you every once in a while and you must forgive them for that.

I’ve learned-
that it’s not what you have in your life but who you have in your life that counts.

I’ve learned-
that you should never ruin an apology with an excuse.

I’ve learned-
that you can get by on charm for about fifteen minutes. After that, you’d better know something.

I’ve learned-
that you shouldn’t compare yourself to the best others can do.

I’ve learned-
that you can do something in an instant that will give you heartache for life.

I’ve learned-
that it’s taking me a long time to become the person I want to be.

I’ve learned-
that you should always leave loved ones with loving words. It may be the last time you see them.

I’ve learned-
that you can keep going long after you can’t.

I’ve learned-
that we are responsible for what we do, no matter how we feel.

I’ve learned-
that either you control your attitude or it controls you.

I’ve learned-
that regardless of how hot and steamy a relationship is at first, the passion fades and there had better be something else to take its place.

I’ve learned-
that heroes are the people who do what has to be done when it needs to be done, regardless of the consequences.

I’ve learned-
that money is a lousy way of keeping score.

I’ve learned-
that my best friend and I can do anything or nothing and have the best time.

I’ve learned-
that sometimes the people you expect to kick you when you’re down will be the ones to help you get back up.

I’ve learned-
that sometimes when I’m angry I have the right to be angry, but that doesn’t give me the right to be cruel.

I’ve learned-
that true friendship continues to grow, even over the longest distance. Same goes for true love.

I’ve learned-
that just because someone doesn’t love you the way you want them to doesn’t mean they don’t love you with all they have.

I’ve learned-
that maturity has more to do with what types of experiences you’ve had and what you’ve learned from them and less to do with how many birthdays you’ve celebrated.

I’ve learned-
that you should never tell a child their dreams are unlikely or outlandish. Few things are more humiliating, and what a tragedy it would be if they believed it.

I’ve learned-
that your family won’t always be there for you. It may seem funny, but people you aren’t related to can take care of you and love you and teach you to trust people again. Families aren’t biological.

I’ve learned-
that it isn’t always enough to be forgiven by others. Sometimes you are to learn to forgive yourself.

I’ve learned-
that no matter how bad your heart is broken the world doesn’t stop for your grief.

I’ve learned-
that our background and circumstances may have influenced who we are, but we are responsible for who we become.

I’ve learned-
that a rich person is not the one who has the most, but is one who needs the least.

I’ve learned-
that just because two people argue, it doesn’t mean they don’t love each other. And just because they don’t argue, it doesn’t mean they do.

I’ve learned-
that we don’t have to change friends if we understand that friends change.

I’ve learned-
that you shouldn’t be so eager to find out a secret. It could change your life forever.

I’ve learned-
that two people can look at the exact same thing and see something totally different.

I’ve learned-
that no matter how you try to protect your children, they will eventually get hurt and you will hurt in the process.

I’ve learned-
that even when you think you have no more to give, when a friend cries out to you, you will find the strength to help.

I’ve learned-
that credentials on the wall do not make you a decent human being.

I’ve learned-
that the people you care about most in life are taken from you too soon.

I’ve learned-
that it’s hard to determine where to draw the line between being nice and not hurting people’s feelings, and standing up for what you believe.

I’ve learned-
that people will forget what you said, and people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.

I've learned....

Uchendu is a Speaker, Entrepreneur and Writer, who loves teaching young people. You can follow him on Twitter or Facebook or circle him on Google+.

January 15, 2013

INVICTUS: The Wallpaper

I like graphics. I remember when I was about 13 years old, I would tinker with Corel Draw just trying to make something look ~~unbelievably~~ nice. Later on, I began designing other stuff. One of my favourite hobbies is using motivational quotes to create very simple wallpapers for my computer.

I'd like to show you one of them. The It's titled Invictus, by William Ernest Henley. This is an amazing poem about confidence and courage to go through the hard times we all go through.

Now this is an experiment. Check out the picture and tell me what you think in the comment section. Just right click on the picture below and select "Save Target As" or "Save Link As". Try it out as a wallpaper.

Uchendu is a Speaker, Entrepreneur and Writer, who loves teaching young people. You can follow him on Twitter or Facebook or circle him on Google+.

January 5, 2013

Why All Copycats Should Be Beaten

Happy New Year!

Its been so LONG since my last post. I've been putting some additions to the blog, and being a perfectionist it took a while. And yet, it isn't finished. I thought, what the heck? Let's do it anyway. So, without further ado, I'd like you all to read something special. This is one of my first write-ups ever. Its totally unedited in its content, but the title is different. It was initially written 31 July, 2009. Here it is.

A lot of things could cause an unhappy family. But I personally believe that for our generation the scenario you are about to picture will be one of the main reasons.

I have a roommate. For the purpose of this story, lets call him John. John is an excellent student he is the third best in his department (petroleum engineering). Both the best and the second best come to him a lot for academic help. Many times, they copy his assignments and do their best to study with him. The same thing goes for the rest of his course mates John on an occasion in which i was present read from about 8pm one night till 4am the next morning, nonstop.

Ever since John was in year one, a particular group of people in his department copy his work in tests, practical reports, exams, quizzes etc. Therefore, their GPs are not below 4.0 . John as a good friend tells them regularly to read those things they copy from him, but we all know the C-P-F principle (i.e Cram>Pour>Forget). Which means they do not read those things or if they do, they read very little. They therefore do not know much.

Now when these 'copycats' (please pardon my language) eventually get jobs in big oil companies with their 'glossy' credentials, a lot is expected of them. But they eventually perform far below expectations. This is where the problems begin. But by now the young 'copycat' man is happily married with children and wants to do his best to provide for his family, love and care for them, be close to his children, and the list goes on and on. Perfectly good intentions, i must say.

But his under performance cannot stay unnoticed for too long. Eventually, his supervisor notices and calls his attention and makes him understand that he must perform, else he would be relieved of his duties.

The 'copycat' by now is sacred stiff and begins to make frantic efforts to contact John, his friend, to save him. But by now, John is a very busy man. John then advises the 'copycat' to go back to the university to find the text books to get the necessary knowledge. The desperate 'copycat' eventually does this and gets the books. He then begins studying them with such enormous concentration that his family becomes secondary.

Because he is angry at himself for not studying in school he beats his children unnecessarily when they play. He wants them to study always and they therefore develop a fear for him and cannot confide in him anymore. His wife loves him truly, but cannot understand why her husband shouts at her a lot and rarely eats. He does not give her attention and also ignores her in bed and this drives her nuts.

But this is the same man who was once loving, considerate and caring. This is the man who was once very close to his children. This man never wanted this to happen, but it was a direct consequence of his 'copycatism'.

His children now seek external sources of happiness because both mom and dad are always irritable. They begin to learn evil things from peers. They become 'champions' outside, but 'angels' at home. Daddy and mummy must not know.

His wife too is not left out. If the woman cannot endure, an occasional 'away match' is the way out.

Before the 'copycat' realises what he has caused, his family becomes a byword on the streets. And all this because of one thing...he was a 'copycat'.

Let us understand that the future is governed by day to day decisions in the present and good decisions make for a good future. You cannot eat your cake and have it. Take care of your today, so that your tomorrow will be better.

Now that you know this, what are you going to do with it?

Uchendu is a Speaker, Entrepreneur and Writer, who loves teaching young people. You can follow him on Twitter or Facebook.

Tell me how this inspired you. I wish you GREATNESS.

Pages

September 4, 2013

Weird Photo: Face Made By Hands

August 31, 2013

How Did Globacom Increase Its Internet Subscribers 25-fold In One Month?

August 29, 2013

What Are You Worth?

July 16, 2013

SUCCESS - A Poem by Berton Braley: The Wallpaper

July 11, 2013

Horrible Things a Teacher Did

July 8, 2013

Mummy, "I want to be a Wizkid"

July 4, 2013

Is Democracy Actually A Good Thing?

July 2, 2013

How I fell in love with Unilever

June 26, 2013

6 Facts: My Lame Attempt at Humour

June 23, 2013

Nigeria 0 - 3 Spain: My Thoughts

March 30, 2013

Getting People to Work with You

March 17, 2013

It Pays To Write Down Your Goals

February 18, 2013

The "STAR BOYS" - Brand New Gang in Lagos

February 10, 2013

THE SUPER EAGLES ARE CHAMPIONS!

February 3, 2013

Mikel Obi and The Fight of the Super Eagles

January 22, 2013

I Have Learned Things that could Blow Your Mind

January 15, 2013

INVICTUS: The Wallpaper

January 5, 2013

Why All Copycats Should Be Beaten

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