I am passionate about talking to fellow youth about my journey thus far, about my 4 years of experience since I completed the bar course, and one may wonder what a young man might have learned in the few years.
“you must have 10,20,30 or so years of experience in order for you to inspire and speak of life experiences they say,” they say, but yes, I am here breaking the odds and hoping that you will learn a thing or two from my somewhat few years in this practical world.
A wise man once said that “to live a good life, we all have the potential for it, if we learn to be indifferent to what makes no difference”
There is no doubt that we all want to make it in life, and everyone wants to be successful. The dream and the desire and fire of material things will never cease as long as our hearts keep beating.
I am not here to say the usual read or work hard, study this or that, be excellent, be professional, and all, not because they are not important, but because there are two values that every person is expected to uphold in order to pave way for a successful and happy life, which are; “BE GOOD AND DO THE RIGHT THING”.
Being a good person, “not perfect” but a good person, and doing the right thing coupled with having a purpose in life will take you to places and meet people that you never imagined to
To do the right thing, demands you to be good, good to your family, friends, Country, and colleagues but above all good to strangers. For you to be a good person, your intentions must be good and you must mean well to others
Good people are honest and true to their word, they never wish bad for others, and always look out for others whenever they can in the simplest of ways, forget those that you have seen, heard of, and/or noticed making it in life by/or regardless of being bad (whatever bad you may think of). I am talking of generational success that arises from the good and doing the right thing, above all the inner peace and ability to sleep at night knowing that you have hurt no one, or wished bad to anyone, that feeling is priceless, you need to aim towards it if you haven’t and those who have it, please cherish it.
In my few years of labor, I have come to notice that how you deal and relate with others defines and shapes a lot about you, within your environment and future, you lose nothing by being good to your colleagues, friends, and family nonmatter your status or position, doesn’t it even feel great to be good and do the right thing while successful or when you have made it?
What does doing the right thing mean? one may ask, many argue that right is subjective, “what is right for me may not be right for the other person, they say”, but I submit that, “right is right, you will know right when you see it, and the beauty with it is that we all know it.”
Be consistent with your goodness, and do the right thing, don’t be good simply because you have a target and once you achieve it, your goodness changes too and becomes selective, which means that it wasn’t part of you. Practice goodness and do the right thing until it becomes part of you, you never know who is watching
Once the world realizes that you are a good person and you do the right thing, you become attractive, people feel free to talk to you and open up, they end up trusting you, that leads to conversations, conversations lead to opportunities, and definitely opportunities and more opportunities lead to success/happiness and peace of mind
If you realize it, thus far, being good and doing the right thing has nothing to do with your profession, papers, or what grades you got, which institutions you studied from, or who you know, it’s all about who you are.
You may, know the right person(s), come from the “right family”, studied from the right institutions, have the best grades (in the practical world, high grades don’t matter it’s what you do), but still be regarded to as toxic, hardly approachable, people find it hard to work, associate or engage with you, they say you are unteachable; hence you jump from one place to another with all the good grades and connections. “Social capital and inter-personal relations is king in the practical world”
Once you have made being and doing good but of you, then the only thing you will be left with shall be to find your purpose in life
To have a purpose in life, the diagram below helps to explain
In everything we aim to achieve or pursue in this life, be it Mission, Vocation, Profession, or Passion, you must ask yourself 4 important life questions
- Do I love it?
- Does the world need it?
- Am I paid for it? and
- Am I great at it?
Once you answer all the foregoing questions in the affirmative, you will have found your purpose in life, and success/happiness shall be your portion
Do the best you can until you know better and when you know better, do better and remember, believing in yourself is the first secret to success.
Being good makes you powerful
The author, Obadia Ismail is the Company Secretary and the Chief of Legal and Regulatory Compliance Officer @Next Media Services Limited, and all its subsidiaries including; NBS Television Limited, Next Radio Limited, Sanyuka Television Limited, Salam Television Limited, Nile Post, Next Communications, Afro Mobile Media, Hillcom East Africa, and Next Productions.
He is also the Legal Counsel for the National Association of Broadcasters of Uganda, handling all the legal obligations and responsibilities of the Association.
He speaks in various youth forums on the leadership and success of the youth. He is currently the Patron of Forum for Ideas, a platform of Intellectual growth (that he founded while at his University days with colleagues).
In a research conducted by ICSA in 2020, Obadia was recognized as one of the youngest Company secretaries at a level of a multi-million Dollar Holding Company.
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