Letters: Rewriting History

Dear friend,

In the last email I sent, not the newsletter, I highlighted a scenario for you. Abobi and Henry.

One principle that stands out is detailed research. Almost everyone has an idol or role model. Someone we all want to be like.

Now, there is something I've found people don’t do, and it often costs them a lot of time.

They don’t do research.

“What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun.” -Ecclesiastes 1:9

Some years ago, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala became the DG of the World Trade Organization. Nigerians rejoiced and felicitated with her. She was, and still is, used as a role model for the girl child. I can bet that the majority of the females reading this take that woman as an icon. Same thing as Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (dunno what’s with the Ngozi)

For the males, it's someone like Elon Musk, Barack Obama, Tony Elumelu, or John David Rockefeller.

We all admire these people, right? Now, let me ask you, when was the last time you took up your phone to browse about these people? The majority of us don’t even do it until they start trending…

Friend, history will always repeat itself whether you act or not. You can only determine your role in the repeating history by taking action, and you can't take effective action if you don’t know how the past was.

Those people you admire, ask:

• Where did they go to school? What course did they study?

• Where did they spend their early lives?

• At what age did they begin their careers?

• Who were their parents?

• What was the occupation of their parents?

• Who is their spouse?

• How did they meet their spouse?

• How was their career?

• Did they make any major transition?

• What friends did they have in their early lives?

• How did they spend their early lives?

• What major event happened in their lives?

These questions might not make sense to you until you begin to look at them with the eye of a homo sapiens and not of a pedestrian human.

Take Elon Musk as an instance; he was born and raised in South Africa, but the moment he finished high school, he left South Africa and Africa itself and went to North America. Why?

Take a look at Bill Gates: his parents were elites, he attended one of the few high schools with a computer presence back in the day, and he spent a lot of time on computers. Can you see the dynamics that allowed him to have such a crazy insight that made and kept him at number one on Forbes for over a decade?

These things may not make much sense now, but you can easily find these resources on Wikipedia, biographies, interviews, podcasts, and even reputable blogs.

Don’t be an "attain success quick" person. Do your due diligence! Don’t just jump; look, think, ask, ponder, and replicate the path.

Your destiny is in your hands; create your own HISTORY!

Rooting for you, and I hope you too are rooting for me!

Best Regards,

Joseph Chisom Ofonagoro.

Till I write next, Goodbye!