Luck is an event, positive or negative, brought about by chance rather than through one’s own effort. I have heard stories of how a lucky individual won millions in a lotto, or how an unlucky passerby got struck by stray bullet, of how a family picked a winning ticket in a visa lottery. I have heard so many stories.

In a football match in Madrid, Cristiano Ronaldo scored the winner after an intense battle with a rival team when he intercepted a low cross from one of his team mates to score a tap in that gave them the needed maximum points. It was so easy, so effortless but yet so crucial. Football fans reacted by saying that he only scores out of luck, that his goals have got nothing to do with brilliance, that he only cashes in on the efforts of his team mates; but in all these,  only a few bothered to ask,  why Cristiano Ronaldo?

With over 600 career goals and more than 100 outside the 18 yard box, it means he has scored more goals within the penalty area than outside. The region where goals are more likely to be by luck.

Is he just lucky or is his power of anticipation and positioning high?  I attempt to solve problems by asking a lot of questions and breaking the problem down.

Let me continue by breaking down the steps towards scoring an easy goal. First there has to be a cross from a team mate, Secondly Ronaldo has to anticipate and intercept. I can now separate this into two parts:

1.That which depends on him (Anticipation and positioning) D

2.That which depends not on him (The cross from his team mate) N

I can then at this point say that luck (L) is the product of that which depends on you and that which depends not on you, all happening at the same time. D•N=L

If this equation is true, as basic as it is, then the interesting part of it is that if D is (0) then Luck is also (0). Also, luck approaches zero (0) as D approaches (0). In other words, the smaller the effort which depends you, the smaller the luck.

My emphasis will now be on what to do to increase the factors dependent on you. I can list 3 itemS that attempt to do that:

• Anticipation and Timing
• Frequency or Repetition
• Presence

In the first, a typical analogy that helps is what elite football strikers do following a cross or volley. They fix their gaze on the ball which is in midair, often ignoring the presence of defenders and the goal keeper. Which is why it is common to see strikers slamming their bodies against goal keepers while going for a header because they can’t afford to remove their gaze from the ball even for a second. In one match in the EPL, Liverpool scored a free-kick after the technical department gave them the hint that the players in the opponent wall always jump very high when free-kicks are taken. The taker slotted the ball under after the players in the opponent’s wall must have all jumped up. After the match the Manager gave the credit to the technical crew. That’s a typical example of increased anticipation.

Outside football there are ways to increase anticipation, one way is by having the relevant information on the field in question. Gather enough data. In other words, be informed.

For the second, a typical analogy that can help you understand it further is this. To score as many goals as possible, a footballer needs to be in the18 yard box as often as possible. The more he is there, the more his chances of scoring. That’s why centre forwards whose position is in the opponents penalty box always outscore defenders and midfielders. To do this they need to build their cardio respiratory endurance so as to have the energy to always run in as often as they can.

Outside football you can increase frequency by say sending out as many Resumes as you can, attending as many networking events as you can, always using a particular road until you meet that man or woman you want to meet who uses the same route.

As for the last, you need to be present for the said event to take place. For example, what are the chances of a stray bullet hitting a journalist if he or she is not present at the scene of a violent protest? If the scene is avoided, the incident is avoided.  What are the chances of someone getting involved in a plane crash if he doesn’t fly at all? And what are the chances of passing a test if you don’t show up at all?  I believe you know the answers.

In the end for any event to take place, all these factors must come together at the right (same) time. It is then also  important to note that events are unpredictable, that despite all calculated efforts ,events could go either way. Nevertheless, let the odds be on your side.

We have so many motivational speakers. I love them, and I listen to them sometimes, when I’m a little bit discouraged about what I’m doing to fire up my spirit.

However, I would never recommend a motivational speaker to anyone who plans on starting an idea.

To be honest with you, the number of motivational speakers around the world is increasing. By the way, let me not go too far. Let me talk about my country Nigeria.

I know we all are aware of the daily problems we face in the country. Matter of fact, new problems arise every day. These problems have birthed problem ambassadors who herald the problems and pull crowds because of them.

Here’s what I mean, poverty is on the rise in the country, so also is youth unemployment. There are lots of people who have taken advantage of this to venture into motivational talks.

Here’s what they do most times: They amplify the problem. They make you feel like you’re at the edge of hell as if you’re not aware of the problem. They make you feel like there’s a big disaster coming and that you’d suffer from the problem.

They give statistics for unemployment rate, they give statistics of poverty rate and make it look all real to you. You realize you are unemployed, you realize you are poor, or your job pay is less; you then look up to them for a solution.

Now here’s where there’s a plot twist. They fall back on a simple solution and they prescribe this solution to everyone. We all know what it is;

JUST BELIEVE

WHATEVER YOU PUT YOUR MIND TO, YOU’D SUCCEED

CHANGE YOUR MINDSET, YOUR MIND THIS, YOUR MIND THAT

There’s a big problem with such pieces of advice and I tell you such a piece of advice can ruin you.

You can bear me witness that many of us have changed our minds about success a long time ago. If you haven’t, I did a year ago and I’m still very far from it. Mind you, I have not said these pieces of advice are harmful. I am just saying that they are incomplete.

Here’s what I mean: The best way to kill a novice by drowning is by convincing him that whatever he believes in his mind, he’d get it done. Then take him to a 9 feet pool and throw him in telling him to swim the length while leaving him alone.

You may probably return to meet a drowned man or woman who had the greatest belief in the world. Whose mindset was the strongest. Who had faith in his abilities more than any other thing, but yet now drowned.

Did such person not believe in himself and was so optimistic? Such person did!

But did such person know the process in swimming? Absolutely NO!

Now here’s the reason why I feel you shouldn’t attend motivational meetings if you’ve got nothing doing. A lot of them do not talk about the process.

Matter of fact, they make money from the meetings they organize or got lucky in some ways. If you amplify the problem for people, please talk about the solution and the process in the solution.

Process matters more than the motivation. I’d rather listen to a speaker who simply talks about the process than the other who does the opposite. And if you’re lucky, you get a speaker who does both.

Mr. Speaker, now that you’ve told us there’s a problem with unemployment, what should we do? We should learn a skill, right? What skill? Any skill?

Really? Any skill?

Did I just hear you say any skill sir?

Now, that’s ridiculous

I personally believe that if I am motivating you to succeed, I should tell you what to do and how to go about it. I will be very candid with you, motivation is short lived. It doesn’t last more than a few days.

Unfortunately, it may last few hours if you get motivated then return to the problem you were trying to figure out. You lose motivation when it doesn’t still work out.

I have been there, I have had days of serious motivation only to cry at nights. Countless times!

The problem was that I still repeated the same process, I did not know how to go about a working process and the speaker only spoke about the problem, not the process. That is why people jump from one entrepreneurial event to another, then to another and another. They don’t get answers, they don’t know where to start.

There’s this saying: If you’re consistent with something, you’d eventually succeed. I agree with this statement to an extent after considering a lot of things. I think it needs to be restructured.

Consistency sometimes might be the key to poverty and failure alone. For example, if you keep selling Tom Tom in a place where they don’t need it. If you’re consistent with it, you might still die poor.

Or you’re consistently learning coding in a village in one area that still lives in the stone age. You’re the only one with laptop, and you follow that advice, you might die as the poorest coder that ever lived.

This statement needs some extra information added. I have seen lots of people who are consistent with an idea I know will never scale

Or they just keep learning a skill and they are consistent. It’s possible to be consistent and not still get a job.

If you’re consistent without knowing the roadmap, strategies and process to follow, your consistency might ruin you.

More like if you want to be a very proficient writer. Sorry to burst your bubbles, you can consistently write yet not be known to the point of having jobs.

At least you need to know some strategies and processes to follow. Most people do no pay attention to this crucial second part. This crucial second path requires being deliberate about the process.

The fact that people need to be motivated is true but when motivation does not acknowledge the reality of getting process right, it might be dangerous.

When my WAEC result came out and I found that I miraculously made a P8 in Mathematics, I was so happy. But my parents thought otherwise – they wanted me to go back to school and re-register WAEC. Even though I sat for GCE and its result hasn’t been released, my parents didn’t want to take chances. Hmmmm. Me, go back to school, no way. My parents complained to people around and I started receiving admonitions and advices like “You want to end up a hairdresser?”, “You want to go and learn tailoring?”, “You want to fry akara?” (this last one always makes me laugh each time I remember it), and so many other funny and derogatory statements.

This same thing happened to my elder brother when he was struggling with JAMB. His own ‘advisers’ came with “You want to be a barrow pusher?”, “You will only end up a mechanic or a vulcanizer”, “At least you can become a taxi or bus driver”. All these came because he had to sit for JAMB twice before he was able to gain admission into a federal university. And to think that these statements came because he spends his spare time at a mechanic workshop where my father repairs his cars makes me feel bad each time I remember that period.

 I know a lot of readers may be conversant with this type of situations. Funny thing is, it doesn’t end after graduation. Mine taught me that.

When I got a job in a private school, after my NYSC and several months of jumping from one interview venue to another, it all started again. This time the comments were things like “Why are you working here? Aren’t you a graduate?”, “Did you try so-so and so bank? They are collecting CVs now”, “Someone like you shouldn’t be wasting away in a school teaching children and being used bla-bla-bla” The morale-killing comments were just too much. 

The truth is that our society has made it difficult for people to go into businesses and jobs that would have made them shine. We constantly hear things like – “So after wasting money going to school he ended up driving a taxi?” “So after all her shakara in the university her brain could only allow her do tailoring?” “There is no job so he/she went into business.” “He couldn’t find a job, let him manage teaching for now.” The society has actually chosen the works that are fit for graduates, secondary school leavers and illiterates. It has also decided on the right job for men and women. And we are all complaining of unemployment. What an irony.

Now, what do we mean by unemployment? One of the entries in Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary defines it as “a state of not having a job.” But if you ask me, I’ll say that unemployment is a state of not having the desired job. What this ‘desired job’ is should be left at the discretion of the person concerned. No one is in a position to tell people what is the best for them.

So I’ll ask. If I want to own a beauty salon where I can make both men and women look good, and I didn’t go for that dream because the society thinks it is too low for my status, should I still be complaining about the high rate of unemployment in the country? If I can make good and delicious akara but was uncomfortable opening an akara and pap joint because of what people will say, do I have the right to point an accusing finger at the government for the unemployment status? What do I really need to be employed, going into what I want to do or doing what the society dictates? These questions call for deeper reflections.

Let me motivate us with the story of two people I know so well. 

There’s a friend of my sister. She loves to draw. During her university days, she found out that she loves drawing ladies in their different outfits. She started making funny sketches of ladies wearing new designs. These were her pastimes. During her NYSC, she decided to take her hobby to the next level. She went to a roadside tailor to learn the art of clothe-making. She found out that sewing didn’t catch her fancy so from there she went to a fashion school where she was taught pattern drafting and all. That was where she was sure that she doesn’t like sewing. But then, she can create new designs. So, she combined her knowledge from tailoring shop and pattern drafting training to go into fashion business. Because she doesn’t want to sew, she partnered with other tailors who sew her designs – both for custom-made and mass production. Today, she has a thriving fashion house in Abuja and she is an employer of labour.

Then, there’s my brother who loves cars and wants to find out how to keep them in good shape. You remembered what I said about his visits to a mechanic workshop during his waiting days? Well, he started this earlier than we know. We, his siblings, found out much later that his days of disappearing and re-appearing during his primary school days were spent in the workshop. But my parents knew all along and did their best to discourage that, which didn’t work because when he then turned their own cars into his own experimental specimen they had to let him go (lol). However, due to lack of proper guidance, he didn’t go for science subjects so ended up studying political science in the university. His love for fixing cars did not go. Like he told me, he doesn’t have to study mechanical engineering to learn how to fix cars only that he won’t be able to work in an automobile company. That’s true because currently, he’s working in a good legal firm but his side hustle is still car fixing – he diagnoses with car scanners, repairs minor problems and deals in Peugeot auto parts. Sometimes I wonder if he would have gone into full time car repairs and servicing if the society doesn’t think the way it does.

These stories are just a few among the numerous success stories I’ve heard. Look at Peace Transport company for instance. I heard he started his business by being a bus driver for someone else. Today, see where the company is. 

Dear Nigerians, let us for once stop pointing fingers at the government. We have been doing that for a long time and nothing is coming out of it. Let us look deeper inwards and find out how to solve our problems. Find out what you truly want. Don’t worry about what the society will say, it won’t take care of you when you hungry, trust me. Go for that job or business which will keep you out of the list of the unemployed in Nigeria. You never can tell what will make you shine. Let your talent, knowledge and aspirations work for you. Remember the three E’s (efficient, effective, and easy – story for another day) and use them now to think of how to make them bring joy to you.

Dear Nigerian Society (I guess that means all of us), stop derogatory comments about occupations. No occupation is low. None is substandard. None is bad (except illegal ones). Let us encourage our youths to go for that which they love and can do best, even if the ‘money’ isn’t coming in yet. Remember, live isn’t all about white-collar jobs.

Let’s keep the hustle real. Team Heal Nigeria.