The last time I wrote an examination in School I wasn’t
surprised about my results. As a student of Microbiology I knew I was slipping
behind my mates. My friends who knew me from Secondary school days could not
fathom what was happening. Most are still surprised, well I don’t blame them
for that, at least back in those days I use to be very good academically but
now? What is the problem? Why is it that the more I read this Microbial jargon
the more it won’t just stay in my head. It was late in the evening one day when I met
one of my friends on the way that told me “Hey, I’ve you checked your results? All
results I’ve been pasted” Since I was walking along Academics I thought I should
just go confirm what I already had in mind. As I walk through Moremi Hall on
the way to White House before I reached my Department in Microbiology, I went
into a deep thought. That day of examination, what did I write? What am I expecting
as results? Hmm….. I knew my answers already.
I kept on walking in deep thought, from White House I got to
the Library, to Humanities. Did I attend any classes that semester? No. Why? I was
in Ibadan. Doing what? It was the first edition of Winners’ Business School’s
MILLIONAIRE SCHOOL and I couldn’t
miss it for anything. We were all working towards it. From getting sponsors,
booking the venues, getting advertisements ready, working with the team and I could
only see myself travelling and travelling from Ife to Ibadan, Ibadan to Ife,
almost every day and I loved it. I remember I used to be so thrilled
travelling, till today, am always travelling and I love it. By the time I was
facing my department, a little smile came to my lip, I was thinking about a
restricted elective I took. It was MAC something, I forgot the code for it but
it was a course Management and Accounting
(MAC) department handles. I knew I was going to have an A in the course. It
was just so natural, maybe because I love reading about Business and am so attuned to anything in the world of Entrepreneurship.
Here it comes, I was standing in front of my academic
results in Microbiology department
and I just kept on searching for where the MAC result was pasted, no need
checking the MCBs I told myself, when I saw what I was searching for, Yeah! That’s
it, A, it’s so cool. I tried checking one or two of my MCBs courses, just like I
expected, F, I turned around and walked away, I already knew how it’s going to
turn out.
What do you think about this?
In your mind, you might think
am not serious, like some people will say, why can’t you just try, finish this B.Sc.
and then do whatever you want with your life?
I started getting different
sermons like;
B.Sc. is the first thing in life. You must have a B.Sc. at least.
Finish B.Sc. then you’ll see doors opening for you. If you finish with
Microbiology, God will provide the people who will help you. There are some
places you can’t enter without a B.Sc. Even 2face can’t enter into the
Presidential villa, why? Because he doesn’t have a B.Sc. Dangote is limited in some areas of his life because he doesn’t
have a degree.
Okay, I’ve heard everything.
As for me, getting a degree is a good thing but the way
people take it, is what I don’t like. In my own case, my heart is not there, it’s
not my fault I found myself in that department, and since I found myself there
and I later discovered that the best thing for me is to follow my passion, that’s
just exactly what I’ll do and since I made up my mind concerning that, automatically,
I started losing it for Microbiology, that was in my part two, and before I know
what’s happening, I can sit down and read the thing from morning to night and I
won’t remember anything. It’s not about learning anything when it comes to
Academics, it’s mostly about what you can put into your head and remember at
the time of exam, at least that’s the way it is here. My friend who had a first
class in Physics/Engineering Physics
stunned me when he said when he’s through with service, he’s going to work with
a Network Marketing Company where we both do business.
Now, you have to get me right, I am not saying that getting
a degree or B.Sc. is not good, there is nothing wrong with it. In fact it is a
good thing for those who want to follow it. For those whose passion falls into
what they are studying and they didn’t just find themselves in a department
where they don’t like.
So if I can’t do well in class, there has to be a place
where I know am making an impact, where I know I’m doing something that I love
doing and am doing it so easily that people are marvelling at the way I do it.
Yesterday, my friend was talking to me on this topic, PASSION when I got the inspiration for this topic “THE INVOCATION OF PASSION” which is
going to be a series of teachings on passion.
From the example I gave above, I love anything that comes in
form of Business education, entrepreneurship and Financial Intelligence. I read
it every day, different textbook on Business. I go to seminars every now and
then just to go and learn about something in business. And it is something I’m
also into. I teach Business,
Entrepreneurship, Financial Intelligence and Personal development and since I have my own personal businesses in School,
it came so natural to me to answer any question coming from that angle so in
that examination I knew what to write to get my A, in fact by the time i was
describing the way I answered the questions to a friend, he said I was going to
fail the course because the lecturer didn’t teach them that way.
But what is
truly my passion?
I found out early on that we human look at ourselves most of
the time and say we have more than one passion, some say two, some three, some
will say multiples. What I have realised is no matter how many passion you
think you have, there’s always one, I mean just one that is the superior. This one,
you have attached so much love to it that you just do it so easily, it keeps on
disturbing you, it keeps on giving you headache, if you don’t do it for a day,
you’ll know something is missing somewhere. Everyone has this feeling, it is
just that most of the time we neglect it. We focus on something we say is most
important, we focus on something we think is what is most important at the
time, meanwhile this passion, this
little feeling of joy inside you is
calling out for help and we keep neglecting and neglecting, most time by the we
realise, it is too late for us to make enough impact in it.
When I asked a Professor this question during an interactive
session last year in one of our Winners’
Business School’s program where he was one of the participants, am so sorry to tell you he hasn’t found his
passion. He wants to go into Agriculture and talked about it often during the
interactive session but instead of him doing this, which is what he loves, what
he loves doing, he studied Geology and became a Professor. Yes, a professor. That
is the peak of academics abi? But that is not the peak of education, which is
the funny thing about Academics vs. Education.
Now he is above 70 years, retired and he still wants to go into
Agriculture, what do you expect me to say? I gave him the example of Colonel
Sanders at 65 and made him see he can do it but as I look at him, I wished her
started earlier on, like maybe in his 20s, that’s even too early, let’s say 40s…..
Even Colonel Sanders has been in the business for long before he went bankrupt.
When you go for what you love, you’ll be happy, not only will
you be happy, you’ll be filled with a vibrant energy and creativity will soar
out from your nerves. You will be the best in that field or among the best, you’ll
experience true freedom, and when I say true freedom, I mean total freedom when
you sense this inner joy, you won’t care so much about criticism or whatever
people have to say about you, you’ll just see yourself moving up the ladder every
day in that field….. Follow your passion today, do what you love.
Shalom!
N B: I’ll continue with my story in the next
teaching.
