1. Nelson’s Machines
There was a lawyer called Nelson who had a passion for machines. Anytime he saw a machine and the price was within his means, he would purchase it. With time Nelson acquired various machines such as pay loaders, generating plants, excavators, compactors, and compressors among others.
Then Nelson started asking himself if there was something went wrong with him. What was the purpose of his machine acquisition?
One day, as Nelson was in his bathroom and reflecting on this “mad machine acquisition”, a thought dropped into his mind. While he would keep following his passion for acquiring the machines, he would start hiring them to those who needed them for their construction jobs. His only condition was a guarantee that good care would be taken of the machines by those who hired them.
Eventually, Nelson’s passion for machine acquisition virtually turned into business, relegating his legal work to number two position.
The key word of note in this story is – Passion.
- Definition
- Passion: A strong feeling of enthusiasm or excitement for something or about doing something. (English Language Learner’s Definition).
- Passion: Love, drive and ambition for something that makes you do it effortlessly. (Anonymous)
- Passion: The engine that drives people towards their desired goals and help them prevail however difficult or rough the path might be. (Anonymous)
Great guys always emphasise passion as the key that leads to success. Passion serves as a tool for future guidance. It is worth focusing on your passion to develop self, because it helps shape future choices. Passion leads to real and extraordinary expression of oneself. It helps conquer obstacles with ease. Passion led a guy like Morgan Freeman to choose acting over being a clerk typist, and he never regretted it. Kwame Nkrumah loved words and used it to galvanize his audience. This easily floated him to chalking political successes, which culminated gaining independence for Ghana. The CEO of Afe Lotto in Ho-Volta Region, loved gambling right from his school days. After the Ordinary Level examination, he had a few years banking stint at Ghana Commercial Bank then he moved into the lottery business. He is now arguably one of most successful businessmen in Ghana.
“Passion is a fantastic gift for you because it gives you direction and purpose. You can have your job, a career or you can have your calling and that is the best thing.” Jeff Bezos-CEO of Amazon.
- Question: How do you find your passion?
- What you have out there that you love doing.
- Ask your childhood friends what they observed about you and what you told them you loved doing when you were young.
- Listen to yourself often
- Observe yourself
- Search yourself
List in descending order five things you are passionate about.
Photographs
- Passion helps to:
- Flow skillfully with what you do. (My childhood story). I was just about ten years old in class five. Five weeks into the third term of that year all the teachers of the school, except the head teacher went for a two-day seminar. The school was a new one then and had up to middle form two. The head teacher asked all the prefects from Class Five to Form Two to take charge of their classes. He then selected the best pupils in those classes to supervise the pupils in classes one to four and I was among those selected. The classes were ‘A’ and ‘B’ streams and I was asked take care of the pupils in class one ‘B’. I loved it! Being a new school in the locality, some of the pupils in the class were almost my age but they obeyed me when I gave them instructions. I guess they did so, because the whole school recognised me as one of the brightest students. I gave them exercises to do but also gave room for play as children. They loved it and I loved it! On the third day when their teacher came back, they did not want her. It took a lot of persuasion from the head teacher before they accepted her back. Thus, I found my interest in youth development.
Korsi who is now domiciled in the United States stopped going to school at the beginning of his primary six at Anyako. No amount of persuasion from his relatives could make him change his mind about school. Four years later he moved to stay with his aunt in my area at Keta and we became friends. I persuaded him to go back to school and he did.
Wilson left secondary school without a certificate. He was going to be a fisherman. I stepped in and Wilson is a director of prisons in Ghana today. Now I do programmes on youth development, a passion I flow with naturally and with ease.
- Continuous learning pushes you to work towards mastery.
- Better your leadership in business because leading business without interest or purpose may not stand the test of time.
- What is your passion? Look for it. Live it!
The topics are inviting and inspirational. This is just the beginning, continue to challenge yourself.
Thank you