One of the ways to succeed in life is to be
talented. If you are talented, it will open doors of opportunities before you
thereby making you succeed faster. But you will agree with me that to succeed
in life, you need more than talent. If talent is all you need then why have all
the talented people not succeeded? We have talented and educated
derelicts who have not been able to use their talent and education to better
their lot. We have so many talented people roaming the streets and who have not
been able to achieve anything for themselves.
Can a talented person who is not
passionate about his talent achieve anything with such talent? Have you ever
seen a lazy talented person succeed just because he is talented without working
hard to accomplish such talent? Success is achieved not merely through talent
but through a dint of hardwork. If you've got talent without hardwork then
you've got nothing. If you've got talent without an optimistic mindset and
perseverance, then you've got nothing. The fact is that you need a combination
of all these to succeed in life and not just talent.
Then comes the big one: courage! With
courage you can do anything to accomplish your dreams. With courage you will
achieve success faster than you can ever imagine. A courageous man can move a
mountain with his courage! It is not for the feeble-minded but for those who
have the heart to dare and to dream big. All great men you hear their names
today have at one time exhibited acts of courage that helped them accomplish
their dreams.
Born on July 18,1918, Nelson Mandela
grew up to behold the segregationist Apartheid regime in South Africa where the
white rulers held sway against the blacks who were not only perpetually
politically oppressed but were also haunted, brutalized and relegated
into second class-citizens in their own country. The political landscape in
South Africa was tense for decades and it seemed as if nobody could
successfully challenge these white oppressive rulers to their game until the
advent of various Black Activist Movements one of which was spearheaded by
Nelson Mandela. Having lost his father at a tender age of 9, he was entrusted
unto a distant relative who ensured he got the right leadership training which
he harnessed in later years. He was so courageous and fearless in everything he
did because he knew from the onset that talent alone could not see him through.
Having read Law and qualified as a
Legal Practitioner, he floated South Africa's known Black Law firm in 1952
through which he fought the cause of several oppressed Black South Africans at
relatively cheaper rates. His political activism became well known to the
government and having initially started out with peaceful activism, he later
had to deploy armed struggle and guerrilla warfare having realized that
peaceful activism did not work in achieving his goals. He fought the
South African government to a standstill and in 1963, he was arrested alongside
other activists and charged for treason. Despite having been tried and
initially jailed for five years, he was later retried and sentenced to life
imprisonment.
While in prison he did not give up. He
enrolled for and obtained a degree by correspondence while in prison. In the
80s, several overtures were made to him by the government that he would be
released from prison on the condition that he renounced armed struggle but he
blatantly refused and stuck to his guns. That is courage! If not courage, how
could a man who had spent close to 20 years in prison as at then refuse to
renounce his activism and belief in the struggle for the emancipation of his
people? In a twist of fate, he was later released from prison on February 11,
1990 after having spent 27 years behind bars!
In 1993, he won the Nobel Peace Prize
and in 1994 at the age of 76, he became the first black President of South
Africa being the first time in over 300 years a black man rose to power in
South Africa. If this feat is merely achieved by being talented then every
talented person out there would have achieved it. No matter how talented you
are, don't rely too much on your talent and ignore other vital elements that
can enable the talent materialize such as passion, courage, hardwork and
perseverance. Talent alone cannot do the magic. You must harness all other
elements to drive the talent in order to achieve your dreams. God bless you.
By Tayo Demola
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