Transcript - 10 Lessons to an Undergraduate

8/8/2019 Transcript - 10 Lessons to an Undergraduate

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Letter to Idris – 10 lessons to an undergraduate student

Hello Idris,

You have asked for no small advice. Succeeding as an undergraduate is extremely a relative thing.

To most people, succeeding means you graduate with your desired degree, but then the totality of

your life is not about what you have acquired in degrees; the university is just one of the phases

you will pass through in life. The totality of life is about who you have become, what you have

contributed to the society, to humanity and to God. Therefore it is important to ensure your life in

the university contributes to what you become and contribute in life. This is the heart from which

my advice comes to you.

The things I will be telling you are not because I read books and acted within the confines of

advices; they have come from my own very sojourn through the murky and shiny corridors of the

ivory tower. I have enjoyed the pleasures of passing exams with distinctions and have experienced

the pain of failing. My experience has spanned every sphere of the university life – from the

academic, to the political, social, economic and the spiritual spheres. I do not just remember those

moments as the next phase to fight for after secondary education, they were the critical chapters,

decisions and events that have continued to redefine my life and it will for you too – either you like

it or not.

Know thyself

This is the first rule of engagement. Out here as you will find out in your school, the world is full of

too many people trying to become someone else. They dream of becoming like someone, they

study because others are studying, their subject scores will determine their happiness, they get

involved in activities their friends are doing – they never realize and become who they are simply

because they are too busy trying to be someone else. If you get you acts together they will soon try

to be like you.

The element of success is in you and not in the university, genius is in you and not in the library,

the power to succeed is in you and not in the criteria set for you by the subjects you will do. You

are greater than that and you must discover the element of greatness in you to overcome them. Iwill not emphasize this enough; understanding yourself will not let you get lost in the crowd.

Understand your unique strengths and weaknesses, understand how best you read and

understand - in short, understand what works for you. Understand the university is just another

phase in the huge script of life. Make sure you are able to balance your academics and your

primary assignment – find and discover your life calling.



Your genius is within, it is the fountain of your greatness, and it will never bubble up if you never

dig. If your teachers are asking are you smart, keep asking yourself, how are you smart?

Q: there is no law by which you can achieve success without expecting it, demanding it, assuming

it.

Get out of the box

The first advice I have for you is to stop being the traditional student – in your mind. Sadly, too

many people have come into school to continue to receive instructions. So much more have

rushed into school as another stage in the rite of passage – birth, nursery, primary, secondary,

university, employment, marriage, children and death. The traditional rite of passage alone will not

allow you make a difference in school or in life. Too many people live life through the box – they

struggle for admission, then struggle to pass. Their life is a straight line between two points – their

class and room. They occasionally have time to go to church – to pray for their classwork androommates. Most times some even get a space in class where they will sweat for the grades that

will be the passport to the good things of life. That kind of life will put you in the class of people

who eventually join the army of applicants. Of course, they will later struggle for jobs.

The picture you see is not a convention neither is it a political rally. It was the massive amount of

people who responded to INEC’s call for an aptitude test. Two people fainted while standing and

waiting for the examiners to finalise arrangements to accommodate the population. They startedby living in a box and were told three things were important in school – a good class of degree, a

young age and a great university. Now with long faces, they discovered everyone was told the

same thing and competing for the same thing - they now have first class, but no first class jobs are

available for them. If you do things the way everyone does it, expect the same kind of result. Your

academic pursuit is a fraction of the different facets of your life.



FINANCIAL.EMOTIONAL (EI).SOCIETAL.SPIRITUAL.PHYSICAL (Fit).RELATIONAL.PROFESSIONAL

It is the season to begin to define every facet of your life. Live life to the fullest and enjoy it.

Please don’t forget, your pedigree is more important than your degree. What you did outside theclassrooms, what you will do with your time after classes may just be your life occupation. That is

your pedigree, it is your fall back plan when there are no jobs, and it may be your passport to

greatness before you graduate if you are smart enough.


The real world doesn’t begin outside

I always heard this while being a student – there is a real outside world. I then began to learn as

fast as could so I could execute when I graduate until I met a millionaire blogger who was a

student. The world will not wait for you. I also discovered - that people we called genius in our

classes were not, they only started ahead of us. I can be a genius in my field of endeavour if I start

early – they have been lying long before now and they will lie to you that the real world is outside.

Your competition is not that boy or girl clinching the best grades in class, it is someone else –

receiving lectures in another school, maybe another country, and may challenge your competence

on a project tomorrow.

The academic environment is sheltered and structured; money comes in from home, it didn’t

matter if you read or not; the school authorities regulate light and water if you choose to live within

the halls of residence, classes and curriculums are prepared for you to become a good employee

after school.

Perish the thought! It is the season to begin living. Live as though you had a stake in the outcome

of your life, because you do. The popular student mentality which make students approach life

irresponsibly, posting lack luster performance and wanting everything free and without

consequences won’t benefit you - it will some people to spend holidays in frivolities and approach

internship or industrial training with poor conduct – from those kind of people stay away.

Start now and start early. Define what you want out of life and pursue it. You might have thought of

living a great dream, follow it now. As a student, people will give you a chance to prove yourself;

they will even excuse your failure. It is your opportunity to lay hold on greatness.



How are you smart?

I know all your life you have been asked ‘how smart are you?’ You have tackled exams in a

struggle to prove that you are good enough. You have tried living up to expectations of your

teachers. You have tried and succeeded. Ok, well you tried. But then begin to ask again…

Asking ‘how are you smart?’ is a way to encourage you to live life from your key strength and skills.

In my final year, I was privileged to conduct a questionnaire for final year students and out of the

two hundred and thirty people who were asked if they were going to choose their course of study

of they has a second chance, you know how many? – six. More and more people are rushing to

school only to find out they only came to improve their competence outside classes. Some are

gifted commentators, designers, diplomats, writers but they are struggling their way trying to

become lawyers, doctor and engineers. Most of them have those degrees hung in their homes –

that was how far it has gone. They have found their core skills while chasing degrees they never

know they would never use.

You will gain great leverage if you discover your genius and begin to live your dream now.

Don’t study to pass

I know by now you would have checked if the letter was actually meant for you. I have no

apologies. Imagine you were travelling on a journey with a friend who had left few hours ahead of

you. Every time you call to find out the traffic situation, you are taking a peep into the future to aid

your journey. I write as someone ahead of you on a journey of life.

Most times we are so busy passing we forget the real reason for studying. Most times it is

convenient to begin studying close to exams in a bid to pass examinations. Most times it works.

Study like you are being prepared on a mission. Study like the application of the study is just after

the class. Yes, you’ve been told the curriculums are archaic and useless, but you still have to pass.

You are not competing with your other classmates – they are the least of you problems. You’re

your course materials have been compiled and prepared for lectures; chances are that they are

already archaic, irrelevant and fit for the trash can.

Please forget this not. Study and be abreast of current events and trends in your field of study. Lest

I forget, read newspapers, journals and magazines. It not only broadens your mind, it empowersyou to be the best at what you do.

In short, study to impact the globe.



Leadership is not necessarily positional, it is an attitude

I just came from one of those kind of meetings you feel you needn’t be in the first place. The man

kept telling the people about what they can accomplish when they get into leadership positions in

the country. That sort of mindset presupposes there comes a time when you will be called to

mount the rostrum of leadership. Leadership is not a spatial quantity; it has magnitude as well asdirection. Leadership is an attitude, a man who will effectively function as a positional leader must

first have succeeded in leading himself.

Leadership is not about positions, it is about shaping awareness. Shaping awareness helps

redirect your energies, reinforce your focus and attitude. Personal leadership gives us direction,

shapes our character and moulds destiny. Personal leadership is the quality that ensures you are

able to guide others because you have guided yourself well. Get involved in leadership on campus

and embrace the responsibilities with passion. It is your training school for greatness.

Lead with the heart of a servant and serve with the heart of a king

Build strong friendships, it is the foundation of great marriages

You will almost assume I will stay silent on this one, didn’t you? lol. I know you must have begun to

have ideas about whom you want to get into a relationship with. That is to assume that you have

not begun or broken a marital relationship already.

It doesn’t matter that people say a broken relationship is better than a broken marriage, neither is a

good thing to experience. Anything broken is not nice to look at. It leaves behind a broken mixture

of painful and pleasant experiences, and that kind of pain hardly ever leaves the heart. it shows upin our relationship with our later partners, they show up when we take out our past on our children

of family. Most times these problems began from the beginning of our relationship. If I had just one

thing to say to you on this issue, I will say that if you must fall in love, fall in love with your friend.

The principles that sustain lasting relationships and marriages and that of friendship are the same.

Build strong friendships with the person you will fall in love with, it will make your relationship less

complicated.

The challenge before our generation is huge. It is the business of leading the generation after us

away from the chaos that defines a confused people. It is the fight against being depressed lovers,

and dysfunctional dads and moms. It is the fight against sparing partners who should have beenlovers.

It is more difficult for a dysfunctional parent to raise normal children.




The dots will connect

I must warn you, it is a smart thing to have a plan for your life, but it is also smarter to know that no

man’s can run exactly according to the plan they have. Any war General will tell you they’ve had

plans but their plans were only as successful as their ability to adapt it to their prevailing

circumstances. You will fail at some things, something will happen which you have absolutely nocontrol over, learn from them and move on. All men fail, some fell, stood and moved on others fell

and wailed until life passed them by. The difference was their attitude. You must respond right in

every one of your circumstances. I’m not kidding, things will happen.

Never allow anyone, any exam, any circumstance to become strong enough to shake your

confidence in yourself, to distort your self reliance, for this is the foundation of anything you will

ever achieve in life. It was Benjamin Disreali who said that men are not the creature of

circumstances, but that circumstances are the creatures of men. It is how you handle your unique

circumstances that will define how your future will be.

Spiritual intelligence is not necessary – it is critical

What do you see yourself becoming in 5 years? Your mind will probably wander and focus on

projections and permutations. Life decisions are made from three major perspectives – one, our

perspectives of the past. We make decisions based on our experiences and opinions from others

and you know we have a lot of that, which is what I am giving to you; two, you can make decisions

based on prevailing imperatives, some people studying courses they do not want will tell you when

the desirable is not attainable, the available becomes the desirable, we have partial knowledge of

the present realties in which we live in; finally we like to impress people with our plans for the

future, but you know you do not have a hold on the course your life will take.

America’s first astronaut to orbit the earth, John Glenn, compares these guiding forces to the force

that runs the compass. Although you can’t see, feel, hear, smell or taste the electromagnetic force

that guides the compass, we know it is there, and we stake our life on the guidance of the force

when we navigate upon the seas, in the air or in space. This same source of infinite power can be

tapped to be our guide in a manner filled with happiness, peace of mind and direction.

If at anything you are graduating, graduate with double honours - your degree and spiritual

intelligence.


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Transcript - 10 Lessons to an Undergraduate