Greetings Friends,

One of the truest fact in life is that we all must be tested in one way or the other. Life itself is a test because it continuously tests you every day. It tests you to know how prepared, strong and matured you are. There’s hardly anyone who hasn’t been tested in life. Students get tested, marriage is always tested, politicians get tested, relationship always gets tested, business is always tested, beliefs in religions is always tasted, and employees also get tested. The list is virtually endless. Despite all the testing, one thing is certain, the test you go through in life can either make or mar you, and it can also define you depending on your attitude or response to it. For example, during the electioneering campaign, politicians are always tested to know their thoughts on social and contemporary issues affecting their society or the world in general. Their response always helps citizens to be informed on where the politicians stand on a particular issue affecting them.

The focus of this article is to showcase how we can be strengthened during the course of building our business, relationship/marriage, personal and professional life in general. The test we all go through comes in different shapes and sizes. It’s just like the saying, the bigger the head the bigger the crown. Nor matter what you are facing in life, it should be noted that there’s no challenge that comes to you that is bigger than you. Every problem has a solution. According to Samuel Johnson, “knowledge is of two kinds, its either you know the answer of you know where to find”. In any situation you find yourself, there’s always a solution to it, the only challenge one will have in solving the problem is locating the right person who is informed in about the problem. For example, if you want to open a locked door, you’ll have a hard time opening it unless you have the right key.

As mentioned above, you’ll have to be bested in one way or the other before you can make a name for yourself. Let’s look at some test we all have to pass through in the journey of life.

The Test of Love

Love is the greatest force in life. I call it the magical wand. It is the reason why most people do what they do. It is also the unspoken reason why some people can’t explain why they do certain things. For example, a lady might like a male just because she likes the way he smiles, or the shape of his nose, eyes, or even because of his voice. Another lady might have another reason, and if asked, what the attraction she sees in the man is, she might opine, she can’t really explain. That’s true love right there. The test of love begins to manifest when a lover begins to sacrifice his/her time and resources for another person in addition to accommodating the excesses of that person. True love is normally tested, it’s beyond infatuation and materials things. Amidst all these, true love is always tested.

The Test of Passion:

There’s hardly any person who has truly succeeded in life who didn’t have an interest in what he/she did to truly succeed. Passionate minds are not concerned about money in their pursuit of happiness and success. Their main goal in life is to succeed in whatever task they have set their minds on. It is because of the passion an individual has in the industry, organization, business, association or even in an academic major will make the person intern just to get experience in that area. Furthermore, passion has made rational minds to work for free. The moral of the points mentioned above go a long way to let you know that the individual is being tested. In one of my articles which was published a couple of months ago, I was of the opinion Passion is Stronger than Power. If you want to know a person who loves his/job, look at the amount of time he/she spends on the project. An individual who loves his/her job might have no problem working and learning about the job in addition to finding any valuable and resourceful information about the job which he/she finds interesting. You can easily know if a person loves his or her job by mere looking at the person’s attitude. An individual who truly loves his/her job will go over and beyond to get the job done in addition to learning more about the job, but an individual who has little or no interest in the job will barely do the least requirement of the job.

Your business has to be tested:

This is one of the best ways to test any creative mind who has an idea to start a business or already started a business.  A new business might have some challenge succeeding in an already saturated environment unless it comes off as a great problem solver. Most business takes an average of 5 years depending on its viability to stabilize. Regardless of what your case is, your product will have to be tested. Apart from being tested, the standard, quality and competitive nature of the business will also be tested to know if it will stand the test of time.

Test of Character:

Character is the sum today of an individual lifestyle. If you really want to know any individual, study how he/she behaves/reacts. Character transcends more than our thoughts, words action, habits, personality and integrity. As humans, we are not infallible, we all have limitations.  At every stage of our life, our character will have to be tested. Just like gold is tested by fire, our character will be tested in order for one to have any opinion of who we truly are and represent.

The Test of Politics:

Politics is one of the most accessible ways to know any being who is grounded and accepted in his/her locality. In a nutshell, politics not only spells out a being, it defines how popular a candidate for an election is known. As the saying goes, every politics is local. If you are interested in serving humanity in any capacity, you’ll have to present yourself as a candidate and once your candidacy is accepted, you’re more than likely going to have an opportunity to serve your people. Most politicians test the water by way of surfing public opinion before contesting for an elective position. If you don’t take the risk of presenting yourself, it might be hard to get an opportunity to serve unless you are given an appointment/nomination to serve.

The Test of Religion:

Deepening on your religion, you will have to be tested.  Hinduism, Islam, Jainism, Judaism, Buddhist all have different religions and beliefs. At every stage, their faith is being put into practice or even tested. As Christians we are taught, sometimes God allows or even arranges for us to go through difficulties in this life because it’s during those times that we grow in our faith and develop more of the character of Christ. 

That said, it’s worthy to mention that in the journey of life, we’ll have to undergo various test in order to be successful. Isn’t it true that nothing good comes easy? Do you have a business? What are you are passionate about? Do you have any creative idea you’ll like to experiment? Will allow you complain, feel upset if things don’t go your way? Do you have any shortfall you’ll want to overcome? Do you have any interest in any sports, academic major, religion, relationship, political interest, etc.? If yes, please bear in mind life you will have to be tested. Life has a way of testing you. There are tests of life we have to endure. Every day we are confronted with setbacks and trials that leave us unguarded, the question now becomes, will you allow fear to take the upper part of you or will you overcome fear? I guess you’ll have to overcome fear by facing every situation and rise from it.

In summary, if you are seeking to make a great impact on the society, the greatest test you’ll ever have to overcome is integrity and in order to overcome the test, you must have the courage to do the right thing by standing on your values and true convictions. By so doing, you’ll be defining not only yourself but your business and life in general.

Henry Ukazu writes from New York. He works with the New York City Department of Correction as the Legal Coordinator. He’s the author of the acclaimed book Design Your Destiny – Actualizing Your Birthright To Success.

Dear Friends,

If you’ll agree with me there are many ways to be successful because success has many dimensions.  All great beings who have truly achieved success in life have one thing in common, they desired and worked for it in addition to having the right attitude. According to Keith Harrell in his book ‘Attitude is Everything”, he opined there’s power in thinking positive. In whatever you do in life, if you have the right attitude, you’ll definitely succeed all things being equal. I liken attitude to having a good personal relation skill. Are you a business owner, employee, entrepreneur, student, job seeker, marketer, leader, etc. you need the right attitude to get work done.

Succeeding in life can be very challenging. It doesn’t matter where you are, though your environment can play a role, If you don’t have the right attitude you’ll definitely hit the rock. One of the true secrets to success is having the right attitude. Whether you are experiencing financial challenge, relationship/marriage, academic or business challenge, if you have the right mental attitude there’s tendency you can overcome and succeed.

 During the course of this article, we shall take a holistic look at how we can succeed by having the right attitude. Attitude can be defined as a “settled way of thinking or feeling about someone or something, typically one that is reflected in a person’s behavior”. In a nutshell, attitude is your reaction to any situation you find yourself. Many people react in different ways when faced with the same situation.

Question: Do you have a dream, vision or goal? If yes, believe your dreams are valid, believe it will come to pass. Don’t look at the odds facing you, rather looking at opportunities you stand to benefit if all goes well. Let me share a personal experience with you, when I was in New York Law School studying a graduate program in Taxation Law, I had challenges understanding the concept of taxation. I had the fear of the unknown to the extent I wondered if I will be able to graduate from the program because the major was very demanding. While preparing for one of my semester examinations, a friend of mine reached out to me and said: “Henry if your exam is tomorrow how do you feel you will perform”? Honestly, I do know the best I can score in the exam will be a D or C+ if all goes well, but because my friend is one of the smartest student in an Ivy League school (Princeton University), I told her the worst grade I may get is a B+ or A-, but am looking towards getting A in my grade. Guess what, the worst grade I scored in that semester was a B+ and the best grade I scored was A-. At the end of the day, I not only graduated top of my class, but I was also given a scholarship of $3,000 by the Dean of my faculty. The moral of this story is to let you know there’s power in the spoken words and having the right attitude.

Attitude is a choice we all have to make. If you experience misfortune in your relationship, marriage, finance, academic or even in your workplace, the choice of moving on with your life is up to you. On a personal note, I don’t allow situations to stress me. I treasure and value my peace of mind and so I tend to eschew from any situation that may want to deter me from moving on. I don’t know the situation you are finding yourself in, however, I do know you have the will power to think straight and overcome any situation facing you. It may be tough, but trust me, if you occupy your mind with the right thoughts, interact with the right people and learn from the situation by seeing it as a lesson as opposed to seeing it as a problem, you’ll be overcome and come out stronger.

How can we practice having a good attitude?

Practice Gratitude:  

As you may know, happiness is a state of mind, having a good attitude is also a state of mind. One of the great ways to have a good attitude is to be grateful. Find something to be grateful for every day. It can be that you are alive, hale and hearty, therefore there’s room for another opportunity, you have food to eat, you have a car, you can afford public transport, you have a loving spouse, you have a job/source of income or even your parents, siblings and friends appreciate you.  Every day you wake up, be grateful and speak into the future and what you want the day to look like. When you speak into the future, the air hears it and carries out, the ground hears you and stamps it and the walls feel and absorb it.

Focus on the bright side of life:

As human beings, most of the times we always have the tendency to focus on what we don’t have as opposed to appreciating what we have. We become too comfortable to the extent we have an entitlement mentality. When faced with challenging situations, always see it like a temporary setback which won’t last. See it like a risk that is poised to bringing out an opportunity of interest. See it like a positive energy that will make you stronger when you learn from the lessons it brings your way. This is because what won’t kill you will make you stronger. A negative attitude will limit your life. You stand to gain nothing when you worry about situations you can’t change. As a matter of advice, always focus on possibilities and not on the problems.

Appreciate Yourself:

Always appreciate every challenge that comes your way. Never wait for everything to get well before you have a good attitude. Many people build their happiness and attitude around material things. Some feel when they have money, build a house, start a new relationship or even get married, get a job, buy a car or even attain a particular status in life before they can be happy, but in reality, that’s not the case because you may not get all this and still remain frustrated. Don’t get me wrong, having these goodies of life is good, but there’s more to life. There are many cases of people who have attained financial, social, marital and social status but are not happy. Having the right attitude will make you fulfilled.

As Christians, we are taught nothing happens without the permission of God, we are taught to see challenges as a test. It should be noted that it is our attitude that makes us sad and not our circumstances. This is because several people may experience similar situations but react differently while having different outcomes. Having the right approach to life will give you the right attitude. Remember you cannot change what’s beyond your control. For instance, you can’t control traffic, rain, and sunshine. In this situation, your best bet is to have a positive mental attitude by seeing the positive side as opposed to the negative side.

When you have a positive attitude, you’ll expect people to be good to you, you’ll cause situations to favor you, and the law of attraction will work for you. In summary, you’ll learn to think thoughts on purpose which might attract opportunities to you.

Henry Ukazu writes from New York. He works with the New York City Department of Correction as the Legal Coordinator. He’s the author of the acclaimed book Design Your Destiny – Actualizing Your Birthright To Success.

Greetings Friends,

The dream of every progressive mentor or parent is for the mentee or child to be greater than him or her. Anybody who wants to be greater than whoever succeeds him/her doesn’t have the interest of the successor at heart. One of the best ways to access the performance of an out-going leader is to look at who succeeds him or her.  If you’ll agree with me success brings joy and fulfillment in life. However, succeeding in life requires a lot of work namely: sacrifice, handwork, patience, connections, God factor, persistence/consistency, determination, and knowledge amongst other attributes which you can add.

We all want to succeed, but the question you need to ask yourself is, are you willing to do the work? If you really want to succeed in life you have to dare to succeed. By daring to succeed, you must be courageous. It takes courage to succeed in life. Nor matter what you are doing in life, it takes courage to succeed. This is because you must get many no’s and a few yes, but all you need is one yes to succeed. For you to truly succeed, it takes courage. It takes courage to be exceptional, rich, knowledgeable, and truthful in the society in which we live.

While in High schools and College we always have the desire to study a particular major in addition to working in a particular industry. While working in a particular industry most times we have a plan of where we want to be in five and ten year’s time. After college, we step into the labor market to get our dream job, sometimes we don’t even get the desired job we need, even at that, we have plans of getting the desired job of interest that will be fulfilling. When these plans don’t go as planned, some of us do give up, while some still forge ahead with determination to get to the peak of our career and passion in life.

In order to succeed, we need to be persistent and consistent because persistency comes from consistency, you need to continuous practice, you need to be focused and you need to learn something new every day. Your determination to succeed must always supersede your fear of failure. Daring to succeed requires risk, you don’t have to wait to see the clear picture before you hit the ground moving. If you are truly hungry for success, you must seek to stand out, you don’t have to conform to the ordinary standard of docile people who sometimes have an entitlement mentality, you must seek to leave your conform zone.

One of the strongest advice I have always given to friends and clients is considering those who have believed in you by sacrificing and supporting them and also looking at those who want to see them fail. You can’t afford to fail your mentors, parents, friends and even your children and mentees who are strongly looking up to you. When you give up, you give cause to people to question your ability to succeed.

Be informed, you didn’t come into this world to conform, neither did you come in to fit in. You must have the courage to go after your dream. The courage to succeed in life can be challenging when you have many obstacles and competition, however, there’s always a room if you strongly believe you are called to be in that industry. Speaking about courage, this is an uncommon inner strength to thread in strange lands. Just like Thomas Dexter Jakes Sr. aka TD Jakes said in one of this messages I recently listened to, “It doesn’t matter how saturated the room is, if God has God called you, there’s room for you.

In my first published book, Design Your Destiny – Actualizing Your Birthright To Success, the cardinal message inherent in the book is you hold the keys to your success. Let me share some insights on how you can dare to succeed in life from Lahcen Haddad, a former Minister of Tourism from the Government of Morocco

1. Don’t be afraid to fail The fear of failure is a hidden fear of success. Take big strides, jump higher, and dare to challenge conventional wisdom and common sense. If you don’t risk anything, you won’t gain anything. As Jack Canfield said, “Everything you want is on the other side of fear.” Mandela spent 27 years in jail but refused to give up the struggle against apartheid, when presented with a fudged compromise. He was not afraid to say no and remain in jail, knowing that behind the indomitable image of fear and failure lies the bright picture of success. 

2. Great success is built on great failures Robert Kennedy once said that “only those who dare to fail greatly can ever achieve greatly.” If you want humans to get to Mars or Venus, you need to be prepared to get space missions to fail, shuttles to never reach destinations, technological devices to explode in the wide space, and obstacles to emerge by the hour, if not by the minute. Because your dream is big, so are your failures to achieve it. See your big failures as great lessons to learn. The Jamaican Usain Bolt, the greatest sprinter of all time, once said, “I don’t think limits,” meaning that his dream to be a hero doesn’t know limits, but only open vistas, limitless horizons. If you think limits, you create psychological hurdles to success. Dream big, fail big and enjoy huge successes all through. 

3. Failure is the mother of inventiveness Thomas Edison said that he had not failed, but had found thousands of ways what he had invented did not work. Experimenting and failing, again and again, is common to the great inventors who have changed our lives forever. Electricity in every home, thousands of planes buzzing in our skies on a daily basis, comfortable cars making far places within our reach in a few hours, smartphones making the world available to us through small screens that we gently tap with one finger, sophisticated machines that scan our bodies for malfunctions or illnesses, and a million other inventions- all of these would not have been possible if the inventors did not accept the rule that “if you don’t fail and learn, you cannot succeed.”

4. Failure is success suspended, until the moment is ripe Sometimes we fail because we are ahead of our time, or because we are getting there but we need to think harder, work harder, and be more persistent. As Denis Waitley said, “Failure is a delay, not defeat.” It is a matter of finding the right solution for the right problem and selling it to the right people, in the right conditions. The recipe to success takes special ingredients, and every minute and detailed dosage when it comes to seasoning. Failure can be intrinsic to the solution itself, but it may be also a problem of packaging, marketing, and communication. Therefore, failure is a matter of time- finding the right recipe to make the solution attractive and sellable in a timely fashion. Timing is key. Try again later but never give up. 

5. You can know success only if you have experienced failure The best perspective on success is through failure. “Its failure that gives you the proper perspective on success,” as Ellen DeGeneres said. Success is built on held assumptions and found solutions. Some assumptions work and others don’t. Therefore, every failed attempt gives you a sense of what doesn’t work and what should work. Failure gives you perspective, it helps you focus and hone in on the right obstacles and the right solutions- things you could not have seen, had you not failed, had you not made assumptions that did not work. 

6. it’s okay to make mistakes, it’s NOT okay not to learn from them Mistakes are the imperfections that push us to aspire to perfection. In fact, they are not mistakes. They are our life lessons about what works and what does not work. That is why it is imperative to study our falls and our mistakes carefully to learn from them, to understand what could be key to success. As Henry Ford said, “The only real mistake is the one from which we learn nothing.” Study carefully what does not work: therein lie the seeds that make you successful.  The secret to achievement is made up of failures understood as warm-up exercises designed to help you learn to jump higher, aim better and get it right. 

Success is a dream. But the road to success is paved with bold moves and brave acts. You have to risk something if you want to get something. In so doing, you are more vulnerable because you are exposed to danger, factoring in failure in a key characteristics of the bold entrepreneurs. Yes, they are afraid; but they know that overcoming fear can only happen when they espouse it and own it; if they fall, their fear does not grow; on the contrary, they become bolder, braver; they are vulnerable to bigger falls but also to greater achievements. Success is a thousand failures turned into a thousand lessons that allow you to overcome fear and catch the dream as it flies by you in a dark night. Don’t be afraid to fail; be ready to succeed. 

How do you dare to succeed: Let’s see what Madanmohan Rad have this to say:

 Dare

Dreaming is essential to make meaning of life, find your inner voice, truly grow up, and show the next generation how to dream. “Dreaming is an inalienable right,” says Johnson. Though difficulties and challenges may take us off course in life, it is important to make meaning of these challenges by daring to dream again.

Dream

You must boldly follow your dreams as well: become the hero of your story; make space and time for your dreams; map and track your competencies; know your beliefs; build on your strengths; and fine-tune your dreams as you align them with current circumstances.

Reflecting on childhood experiences and happiness is a good way to begin understanding your dreams. Through the twists and turns of life, it is necessary to embrace one’s constraints and even tap ‘fortunate frustrations’ by downsizing, re-directing or deferring dreams.

Introspection helps reveal your own innate talents, accumulated competencies, beliefs and identities. Some deeply-held beliefs put boundaries on dreams, others are scaffolding. For people of many faiths, their religion is a source of drive and values.

Do

Having fleshed out your dreams, you need to embrace discovery, explore your domain, create your dream team, bootstrap your dream, and ‘date’ or dabble with your dreams. Making dreams come true calls for support from mentors, experts, fellow dreamers, and cheerleaders. Dreams can also change via serendipitous un-anticipated events

In conclusion, if I ask you, what is the one thing you cannot fail in life, what will be your response? Again, what is the one thing you have always wished to do in life? I encourage you to, therefore, take the bold step and dare to succeed in any dream, vision and mission you strongly believed you cannot fail it.

Henry Ukazu writes from New York. He works with New York City Department of Correction as the Legal Coordinator. He’s the author of the acclaimed book Design Your Destiny – Actualizing Your Birthright To Success.

Greetings Friends,

Life is full of so many challenges and opportunities. At every stage in life, we are always called upon to act or perform a particular task. The challenge and question before you may want to ask yourself are, are you prepared for the opportunity; or you are ready to hit the ground moving. A few years ago, I wrote an entitled Youths and Nation Building – A Case Study of Nigeria,in that article I was able to share some insightful points on how the youths can contribute to Nation- Building. What really inspired that article was theallegation a colleague mention on Facebook that the youths of Nigeria are not prepared to serve in certain committees and positions of authority. According To him, even if they are given the opportunity, they lack the necessary skills and qualifications to serve or contribute to Nation Building.

During the course of this article, we shall be discussing how preparation can be a catalyst to your success.Preparation in life cuts across every barrier namely: academic, business, marriage,economic and leadership. In whatever you do in life, you definitely have to plan if you want to truly want to succeed in life as a progressive human being. According to Benjamin Franklin, “Failing to prepare is preparing to fail”. Just like wesay in some social parlance, organization is the first law in heaven, in the same vein, preparation is the first key to any opportunity. Nor matter how good. skillful or knowledgeable you’re in life in any particular industry, if you are not prepared for the task ahead, you are definitely going to hit the rock. For instance, Anthony Joshua Lost his first-ever boxing battle to Andy Ruiz Jr in one of the biggest shocks in the history of the sport. According to some people who watched the fight, Anthony Joshua Lost because he wasn’t fully prepared for the fight.

When people say they need an opportunity to work or serve in a particular capacity, what really comes to my mind is, are they really prepared if the opportunity becomes available?  What they don’t really know is that opportunity never comes, you create it by working hard and smart. Working hard is different from working smart. When you work hard, you exert so much energy to get the word out there, but when you work smart, you use logistics to plan verywell. It’s funny to know that most people want to achieve success, but at the sametime, they don’t want to do the work. In the voice of one of the most celebrated Nigerian artist in the world Innocent Idibia, aka Tuface, he said, “some people want to go heaven, but they don’t want to go to die”. What this really means is that most people want to succeed, but they are not willing to do the work by preparing. 

The question now is how do you the work? You do the work by planning your life, your study, your business, your family and life generally. You also prepare by volunteering, serving, reading, learning the trade, getting theoretical and practical guidelines and empowering yourself with all necessary skills to succeed in the particular area of interest you are passionate about. For example,if you are a man who wants to marry, it’s strongly advisable to do the courtingin order to know your intending spouse to a reasonable extent. Then you secure a stable source of income to care for the family as the Head of the house when you finally decide to settle down.

 It’s pertinent to note that the journey of a thousand steps begins with a step inthe right direction. If you want to be a doctor, lawyer, teacher, engineer, politician or even artisan, you have to learn the trade in order to succeed in the industry. Failing to do the needful might make you to crash when the opportunity becomes available. In order to achieve success, you must pay your dues. Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity. There’s nothing like luck in life. Most of the opportunities that have come across me didn’t really come as a result of my hard work, most of them came because I created them by preparing myself.

In conclusion, it’s pertinent for you to sit down and evaluate where you are and where you want to be in life in a year’s time, five years and ten years time. Then ask yourself, are you doing what you’re supposed to do? If no, ask yourself again, what you are supposed to do to get yourself prepared for the task ahead.

Henry Ukazuwrites from New York. He works with the New York City Department of Correction asthe Legal Coordinator. He’s the author of the acclaimed book Design YourDestiny – Actualizing Your Birthright To Success.

Greetings Friends,

The desire of every living being on earth is to be successful? If I may ask you what do you stand to gain if you are not successful? If you are not “successful” in life, you may live at the mercy of others. As human beings, one of our primary aim in life is to be successful. This is because once you are successful you will attract opportunities.  Isn’t it true that success attracts many fathers while failure is an orphan? Success in itself is not easy, you must desire it. Success is like money if you don’t desire for it you won’t get it.

 What does it mean for a person to be successful? In my humble opinion, being successful means the achievement of desired visions and planned goals.  During the course of this article, we shall be discussing how we can desire for success while attracting it. In one of my articles I wrote a few years ago entitled “The Relativity of Success, I shared valuable information on what success means to different people. For example, Mr. A’s definition of success is different from Mr. B’s definition of success. This is because what Mr. A likes may differ from what Mr. B likes. This is why most people engage in difference business, disciplines and careers in life. They do this because they have figured who they are, their interest and how they want to be remembered.

 Amidst all this, one outstanding difference among all successful people is that they made a conscious decision and choice to achieve success. They didn’t just wake up and became successful. No, they put in the work while desiring for a positive result.

 Everyone has a desire to be successful. However, with most people, the focus generally tends to be towards career success. Personal life success is also important. For you to be successful, you must plan and works towards it. For example, all successful people ever existed had a burning desire that made them wake up every morning and pursue their dream.
If you are asked, what do you desire most in life, what will be your response? Money, title, children, academic qualification, etc. In order for you to desire and achieve success, you must be passionate about a particular area of life. We shall be discussing how we can desire and achieve success.

1. Find your passion and purpose: This is the starting point of all interest and desire in life. This is where your imagination and subconscious mindset comes in. Whatever you want to do in life, starts with a thought.  Whether you are a student, businessman/woman, career professional, artisan, politician or even comedian you must desire to get to the pinnacle of your career. Let me share a hidden secret with you, just like you can’t serve two masters are the same time and give them apt attention, the same way you can’t have passion for two areas of life and expect to get the same result. Once you distinguish yourself from an area of life, you will have the leverage to engage in another industry. Just like having many streams of income, one of the income may serve as door open opener which brings other business opportunities to you. Hence, as a matter of advice, always spend a considerable amount of time on your passion and then spend a little bit of time managing other areas of interest. 

2. Set your Goals: Once you discover your passion, the next target is to set your goals and work towards achieving it. Goals are very important in life. You can do this by seeking for knowledge as opposed to results. The results will gradually come down when people see how knowledgeable you are.  Your goals help to discipline you by making you focused in your set objectives.  Once your goals are properly set, don’t just look for money immediately, your primary aim should be to provide values and services by solving problems to your targeted audience. Once you do, gradually, resources will begin to come your way. Your goals help you to stay committed in addition to being motivated. Once you are committed to a task, it is easy for people to identify and support you.

3. Surround Yourself with Positive People: You may have heard of the saying, if you are the smartest person in the room, leave the room and if ten of your friends are millionaires, you are next in life. What this literally means is that your network determines your net worth. Good friends help to inspire you with empowering information and mentorship. Once you have a good team you are working with, there’s high probability you will be successful. Isn’t it true that if you want to go fast in life, go alone, but if you want to go far, go with a team?

4. Create a study/ strategic plan: This is by far one of the most resourceful ways of achieving success.  If you are serious about your plan, you must be strategic about by impoverishing new ideas on how to leverage the market. Some of the ways you can achieve this are by learning new skills necessary for business, networking with the right people/associations/organizations; and being educated. 

If you have a burning interest in something or a burning desire to do something, you will make out time to do it. Everybody is busy in life, but we only make out time for what we desire/ want to do and then make an excuse for what we don’t want to do.

In conclusion, do you desire for success? If yes, what are you doing to achieve it?

Henry Ukazu writes from New York. He works with New York City Department of Correction as the legal Coordinator. He’s the author of the acclaimed book Design Your Destiny – Actualizing Your Birthright To Success.

Greetings Friends,

Self-confidence is one of the greatest skills any progressive and productive minded being must have. Self-confidence is truly priceless because it cuts across all levels of life. During interviews, one of the qualities interviewers look for in a candidate is your level of confidence. At work environments, supervisors, Directors look for confidence, capability, and competence in a candidate before any task is delegated to them. Students, athletics, public speakers, sportsmen, actors, leaders, etc. all need confidence to succeed.

The test of confidence is truly a hard one when we try to be practical with our beliefs. This is because there are so many distractions begging for our attention. Confidence is one of the greatest skills a leader must possess because it helps to conquer a lot of fears in addition to conquering new grounds. It’s sad to note that a lot of people have failed in life despite having the background knowledge and information they need to succeed simply because they lack confidence in expressing their thoughts and following their dreams and passion.

Confidence people don’t follow the bandwagon. They walk alone when the world is moving in a different direction. Confident people know themselves, they know what’s unique about them. They know their strengths and weakness and above all, they know themselves. In the journey of life, you must surely go through test for your confidence to be established. So, always appreciate and value your journey.  During the course of this article, we shall be discussing how we can develop self-confidence.

A person with high self-confidence seems to live life with passion and enthusiasm.  People tend to trust and follow confident people. Confident people are not deterred by adversaries. Just to understand how confidence plays a role plays in real life, imagine having a lion leading a flock of sheep for a war versus having a sheep leading a troop of lions. Who will be respected most?

At any point in life, we’ll be required to prove ourselves. This proof might result in us being tested in what we believe in. This can be a test of faith, business, relationship, careers, and life generally. It is this test that will define and probably shape you. Let’s take a classic case of an entrepreneur who feels working 9-5 job is not for him or her. He/she decides to quit his/her job to follow his/her dreams of becoming an entrepreneur. If you’ll agree with me, it takes courage and confidence to quit your job in order to be an entrepreneur. There have been cases of people who left good jobs to follow their dreams. Some of these people relocated to thousands of miles outside their comfort zone just to follow their passion. These are some of the examples of the test of confidence.

We live in a world where a lot of people play to the gallery by trying to impress people. These set of individuals fail to realize the fact that, the best way of living a fulfilling life is by being themselves. Impressing people is like living a fake life and expecting people to take you serious. In the worlds Oscar Wilde “Be yourself, everyone is taken”. Anyone who wants to be part of your success story will support your works. You won’t need to beg for their confirmation. Just so you know, people who truly care don’t matter and those who matter don’t care.

Confident people don’t care what others think about them. They don’t try to impress people with their clothes, money, knowledge, network, and strength because they truly know themselves. Confident people are talented and gifted set of people who know their craft very well. I have seen cases in life where Human Resource managers hire people with less qualified certificates for a position over someone with certificates just because of the skills, personality, attitude and their confidence to learn and grow which the person brings to the table as opposed to a candidate with great “qualifications” with little or confidence or undertaking a new task.

The first test of lack of confidence you can see in an individual is insecurity. Insecure people always have fear and doubt in their minds. Most times our insecurity makes us seek validation from other people, but the truly confident people know that a free being is one who does not care about what other people think about him. In the words of Bill Cosby, “I don’t know the key to success, but the key to failure is trying to please everyone’.

Let me share a true story. During my graduate program in New York Law School, I had fears of the unknown. I thought I wouldn’t be able to graduate from taxation, but when I looked back and see the people looking up to me, I told myself, I will not only graduate, but I will finish strong, which by God’s grace I did. The moral here is that I believed in myself despite obvious challenges. Furthermore, when I was writing my first book, I had fears about how the production will be, grammatical errors and how the world will receive the work, all these fears didn’t deter me from moving ahead despite many voices telling me 1001 different messages on how to proceed and not proceed with the production.  At the end of the day, I followed my inner instincts and dared to succeed. And the work came out almost perfectly fine if not perfectly fine.

If you know who you are, you won’t need to explain yourself to people. Isn’t it true that the whole world sets apart for the man who knows where he’s headed?

If people have high self-efficacy in an area, then they think, feel, and behave in a way that contributes to and reinforces their success, and improves their personal satisfaction. They’re more likely to view obstacles as challenges to overcome, so they aren’t afraid to face new things. They recover quickly from setbacks because they view failure more as a result of external circumstances than internal weaknesses. In general, believing in your abilities affects your motivation, your choices, your toughness, and your determination.

The question now is how do you building self-confidence?  I will list a few ways you can build self confidence.

Mastery experiences – things you have succeeded at in the past.

Vicarious experiences – seeing people who are similar to you succeed.

Social persuasion – hearing from others that you’re capable of.

Emotional status – staying positive, and managing stress.

Three of these sources (the first, second, and fourth) are within your control, so we’ll look at them more closely. However, while we can’t force people to say good things about us (the third source), we can increase the likelihood of receiving positive feedback by being more confident in general.

A few days ago, the internet was awash with the history of  Cori Gauff, the 15-year-old American who set a record by becoming the youngest player to qualify for the main draw of Wimbledon. She was able to beat one of her idols Venus Williams in the first round at Wimbledon. Cori wouldn’t have been able to do this she lacked confidence.

 In order to gain confidence, try practicing these few nuggets: Never try to be someone else;  Always stick to your ideas when necessary; Have a sense of direction in life; Don’t be  easily influenced by what others say; Be comfortable with yourself; Don’t seek approval from others; Groom yourself; Dress nicely; Think positive; Kill negative thoughts;  Get prepared; Know your principles and live them; Speak slowly; Increase competence; Set a small goal and achieve it; Focus on solutions; Volunteer and learn; Exercise;  Empower yourself with knowledge; Work on small things and finally but not the least get to you know yourself because when you do, you will win all battles.

 In conclusion. How confident are you? Are you ready to take a leap of faith to prove your confidence? Remember the words of Henry Ford “Whether you think you can, or you think you can‘t – you‘re right,”.

Henry Ukazu writes from New York. He works with New York City Department of Correction as the legal Coordinator. He’s the author of the acclaimed book Design Your Destiny – Actualizing Your Birthright To Success.

Greeting Friends,

You may have heard of the saying, the joy of life is not how happy you are, but how happy others can be because of you.  In our contemporary society, many people have this entitlement mentality that once you are perceived as being successful or simply because they think they know you, they will always feel you have to support them. As one of my mentors Oloye Akin Alabi, a member of the Nigerian House of Representative will say, “If I see you have an entitlement mentality, I will stay away from you”.

Living for humanity is the best thing we can do for humanity. It’s simply a way of saying, thank you. There are several ways we can live for humanity. We can live for humanity with what God has blessed us with, we can live for humanity with our skills, knowledge, wisdom, talent, compassion and time just to mention a few. The symbolic nature of living for humanity simply means that you are appreciating humanity for what they have done for you. How true is this? During your formative years in your business, academic, family and life, there were people who assisted you to in one way or the other to get where you are today, these people can be your friends, strangers, janitors, teachers, mentors and even the government of the day who made the environment conducive for you. For me, I have benefited so much from my family, friends, and mentors. I call these set of people ladders of success because you climbed on them to succeed. That’s why it’s always good to be good to the people you meet while going up because you might meet them while coming down.

Human beings by nature can be selfish. They always look for what they can get as opposed to what they can give forgetting that there’s more joy in giving than receiving. Even in the cooperate world, the majority of people we come in contact with can be selfish. For example, employers, organizations, employees and even the government always look out for what they can gain from you. They simply look out for themselves. It’s just a hand few of organizations and people who give out their time and resources to humanity.  One major reason why most people and organizations act this way is because they love people who add value to their life as opposed to those with liabilities. Isn’t it true that value has to be appreciated?

 It should be noted that the truly great people are the people who can assist you without asking for anything in return. Wisdom beckons on resourceful people and organizations who have truly benefited from society to give back to society. These can be in the form of Corporate Social Responsibility for organizations that have truly succeeded, and for individuals they can serve as mentors to the younger generation and progressive minds in need of guidance and direction. For more information about mentorship, you can read my article on Mentors Are Life Savers.

Giving back is a thing of joy. It makes you happy and fulfilled. There’s is more joy in giving than receiving. Giving doesn’t really entail giving money or material thing. It can be in the form of your time or probono work; how you treat and encourage people, going out of your way to help victims of natural disaster, being selfless to those who are helpless. It can even be practicing little things like saying, I’m sorry, thank you, please, etc.  According to Albert Einstein, “If you want to be happy, tie it to a cause”.  The question now becomes, what cause, goal or interest are you passionate about?

Let me share a little bit of one my secret. Most of the success I have reckoned in recent times and in life generally was not as a result of my ability, academic prowess or even networks, though, they played a role, but the main secret was because I have invested my time and resources for the progress of humanity. This is because I personally feel you will get what you want faster when you help other people to achieve what they want. When you appreciate humanity selflessly, nature has a way of appreciating and watering your garden. Isn’t it true that whenever you spray perfume on someone, a little fragrance is always on your palm?

Let me share a little bit of information about humanity. Humanity is about maintaining a gracious relationship between one another in the society; it is about building a bond amongst the society with the help of sustainable values. Humanity is about showing passion and empathy to each other in times of need. It is about regarding love in high esteem and kindness in all walks of life. 

Furthermore, the future of humanity lies in this oneness. There is no divide between the poor and the rich. As life is getting hard day by day, it is natural for any human to disregard the needy impoverished; it is natural for us to go with the business of the world every day, not giving enough to the deprived; it is natural for us to forget the fact that it is our obligation to help the destitute. Very rarely we turn to what the others do or want.

Thus, the service to humanity results in the oneness. It brings hope and life to the downtrodden and the disheartened. When peace and harmony become the main cause of every kind of service rendered to the nation and its people, it becomes the service to humanity. When an orphan gets a cuddling hand to light their life, it becomes a Godly gesture.

In conclusion, I will ask you a question, what are you doing for humanity to make the world a better place?

Henry Ukazu writes from New York. He works with New York City Department of Correction as the legal Coordinator. He’s the author of the acclaimed book Design Your Destiny – Actualizing Your Birthright To Success.

Greetings Friends,

One of the greatest feelings in life is to love and be loved.  However, rational minds are of the opinion that the greatest love is self-love. It’s quite unfortunate many people depend on other people to love them for them to be happy forgetting that true love is self-love. True love is sacrificial because it always looks for where to give as opposed to receiving. Isn’t it true that there’s more joy in giving than receiving? If you have really felt true genuine love, you will know how powerful it is..

If you will agree with me it takes a great of strength to love.  Love has many facets and colors. To some it’s bitter and to love it’s sweet. Depending on which area you are looking at it from, love comes with experience and its own challenges.  A guaranteed way of succeeding in life is doing what you love and love what you do. This is because when you love what you do and do what you love, you’ll not only be financially successful if you do it right, you will always have peace and fulfillment of mind.

Before we go into details in today’s article, let’s share little information about love because the foundation of this article is about love and how it can be used as a vessel to empower us if strategically and judiciously used. Love is critical for your mind and body as oxygen. It’s not negotiable. The more connected you are, the healthier you will be both physically and emotionally.

Love is probably the best antidepressant pill. You can’t see it, but you can feel it. One of the most common sources of depression is feeling unloved. Most depressed people don’t love themselves and they do not feel loved by others.

There is a mythology in our culture that love just happens. As a result, the depressed often sit around passively waiting for someone to love them. But love doesn’t work that way. To feel love, you must practice the act of giving and do whatever makes you internally happy. It’s important to know that love is an internal emotional feeling that inspires and strengthens any rational mind to seek for success.

In today’s article, we shall be discussing how self-love and what you do can help you achieve financial and emotional joy when we put our heart into it. Self-love at its core is self-acceptance of who you are the good and not-so-good parts of yourself. It’s about self-respect and self-empowerment. It’s about self-care and looking after yourself and having compassion for yourself when you are going through a hard time.

 Doing what you love and loving what you do has its foundation in self-love. Every living being always desires to be financially successful if they can’t be wealthy, but the question that always comes to mind is, how can they be successful? The fastest and most authentic way of becoming successful in life is by doing what you love and loving what you do. Both must go together. Loving what you do and doing what love is another way of saying  be passionate about hear desires.

According to the book of life, your treasure is always where your heart lies. In the same vein, it will be right to say that, for you to really attain success in life, you must love yourself, do what you love and love what you do.  According to a gallop poll, 75% of Americans don’t love their job. Job satisfaction can be likened to job fulfillment to some extent because it helps to reduce stress.  According to Confucius “Choose a job you love, and you will never have to work a day in your life.When you are happy with what you are doing,  you won’t see it like you are working.  It’s important to state that if you love anything you’ll sacrifice for it.  It is this sacrifice that makes the difference in your career or business especially if people see the amount of time, resources, energy and training you invest just to get the best of out of it.  In the words of Maya Angelou  “pursue the things you love doing and then do them so well that people can’t take their eyes off of you.”

Entrepreneurs are great examples of people who love what they do. If they don’t have passion and interest in their works, they are merely wasting their time.

In conclusion, I will like to leave you with great quotes to keep you motivated in life both in your personal life and business.

Follow your heart. Do what you love. Because I was constantly struggling with that. If it’s in your heart, go for it. Don’t listen to other people. – Maz Jobrani

My philosophy has always been, ‘do what you love and the money will follow’ – Amy Weber.

Do what you love to do and give it your very best. Whether it’s business or baseball, or the theater, or any field. If you don’t love what you’re doing and you can’t give it your best, get out of it. Life is too short. You’ll be an old man before you know it –  Al Lopez

Henry Ukazu writes from New York. He works with New York City Department of Correction as the legal Coordinator. He’s the author of the acclaimed book Design Your Destiny – Actualizing Your Birthright To Success.

Greetings Friends,

If you are asked, what is life, what will be your response? Five years ago I wrote an article entitled: What is life and how can one live through it? In that article, I stressed the importance of having a positive mental attitude regardless of the vicissitudes that comes with it. During my graduate program in New York Law School, one of my professors once said, the only thing that that is constant in life is death and tax. According to him, we must all die one day and as long as we are alive, we must continue to pay tax. If you ask another rational mind the same question, he or she might say the only thing that is constant in life is change. The litany of response continues if you ask other schools of thought their opinion about life. In another I attended, one of my professors said, It’s good to have good grades, but it will pay you more to network while in school and after you graduate school because, in the cooperate world, the A students normally do the brain day to day admiration of office work while the B and C students who network while in school and on the outside are those that hire the A students to be the technocrats. This “A” students bring in the business in addition to calling the shots in the company. The moral behind the statement is that there’s more to success that graduating with first class or honors. This is because there’s a huge difference between being academically smart and street smart.

A few years ago, I once wrote an article Your Network Determines Your Net worth. If you will agree with me, one of the great ways of succeeding in life is by thinking out of the box. Shallow minds always think straight as opposed to seeing life from the big picture. The underlying message here underscores the importance of seeing the other side of life just like its being opined by scholars that the grass is not always greener on the other side.

Having laid a good foundation for this article by way of introduction, I will like to stress that there’s more to life than attaining success, divorce, failing, death, having wealth, etc. Life has to be approached in a holistic manner. In our contemporary society, we have seen a lot of case where many people are depressed; high rate of suicide; business folding up; and families breaking up. You may add your thoughts. If you allow life experience to define us, you’ll literally be failing in life, but if you rise above the challenges life throws at you, you are not only an overcomer but a conqueror.

Great success always comes with great pains. Every true success has an underlying story. It is this story that inspires the world when they read about your success. As a rule of thumb, always appreciate your challenges and disappointment. There’s no great success without a corresponding failure. We all have failed in one activity or the other. One great mental attribute we can use overcome failure in life is by having a positive mental attitude. This is one of the most tested and trusted skill to appreciate failure and life in general.

Many people live through life with a myopic mindset. Some spend a considerable amount of energy on minor stuff and spend little or no time on major stuff. In as much as values are different, it is pertinent to note that family always rank first among work. Some people place work over family and friends forgetting that the day you give up the ghost, it won’t take less than 24hours for your employees to advertise your position for numerous of people waiting to apply. Hence, wisdom beckons on us to know that we can’t be too busy for our friends and family and there’s more to life than work.

In the academic world, grades are important but other factors such as your personal statement and performance at an interview can go a long way towards deciding if you’ll be made an offer. So there’s more to grades and resume. Your skill always plays a great role in the selection process.

One of the most powerful lessons about life and failure was rightly captured by Abraham Lincoln, in a letter to his son’s school teacher. Please permit to share this letter here

“My son starts school today. It is all going to be strange and new to him for a while and I wish you would treat him gently. It is an adventure that might take him across continents. All adventures that probably include wars, tragedy, and sorrow. To live this life will require faith, love, and courage.

So dear Teacher, will you please take him by his hand and teach him things he will have to know, teaching him – but gently, if you can. Teach him that for every enemy, there is a friend. He will have to know that all men are not just, that all men are not true. But teach him also that for every scoundrel there is a hero that for every crooked politician, there is a dedicated leader.

Teach him if you can that 10 cents earned is of far more value than a dollar found. In school, teacher, it is far more honorable to fail than to cheat. Teach him to learn how to gracefully lose, and enjoy winning when he does win.

Teach him to be gentle with people, tough with tough people. Steer him away from envy if you can and teach him the secret of quiet laughter. Teach him if you can – how to laugh when he is sad, teach him there is no shame in tears. Teach him there can be glory in failure and despair in success. Teach him to scoff at cynics.

Teach him if you can the wonders of books, but also give time to ponder the extreme mystery of birds in the sky, bees in the sun and flowers on a green hill. Teach him to have faith in his own ideas, even if every one tell him they are wrong.

Try to give my son the strength not to follow the crowd when everyone else is doing it. Teach him to listen to everyone, but teach him also to filter all that he hears on a screen of truth and take only the good that comes through.

Teach him to sell his talents and brains to the highest bidder but never to put a price tag on his heart and soul. Let him have the courage to be impatient, let him have the patient to be brave. Teach him to have sublime faith in himself, because then he will always have sublime faith in mankind, in God.

This is the order, teacher but see what best you can do. He is such a nice little boy and he is my son.”

This message really captures what it means to live through life. Many people go through depression, have dark thoughts, or hurt themselves, feel hapless, lost and spend gloomy days. The truth is that failure, stress, setbacks, and exam isn’t worth your life if you truly know the meaning of life. Failures don’t define us, rather it opens our eyes to the world of possibilities. If you didn’t fail, maybe you wouldn’t have taken life and business more serious.

I don’t really know what you are going through life at the moment, just know that this too shall pass. Don’t allow the negative energy to get into your subconscious mindset, because when you do, you are more than likely going to hit the rock. So, always know that there’s more to life than any experience you may have heard.

In conclusion, life is what you make out of what it throws at you, that’s what truly defines you if you make a lemonade out of a lemon. As a matter of advice, if you fail or experience a challenge just laugh at it, work towards achieving something better and never lose hope. There is always light at the end of a tunnel.

Henry Ukazu writes from New York. He works with New York City Department of Correction as the legal Coordinator. He’s the author of the acclaimed book Design Your Destiny – Actualizing Your Birthright To Success.

Greetings Friends,

One of the greatest force in the world if not the greatest force in the world is love. I liken love to passion because if you have passion for something, you will put your mind into it. If you will agree with me, it takes strength to love somebody. A couple of months ago, I wrote an article entitled Passion Is Stronger than Power.  It’s worthy to mention that passion, love, and power all starts in the mind. This is because everything we do to make a difference originates in the mind. Once the mind conceives an idea in the brain it sends the desired signals to the part of the body that needs the energy to work on the idea.  According to Napoleon Hill in his people, “Think and Grow Rich, he said, “Whatsoever the mind can conceive the mind can achieve it”.

Each and everyone one of us have this subconscious mind. As little kids in school, we all have dreams of becoming President, Governor, lawyers, doctors, engineers, pilot, soccer player, musician, etc. This dreams and vision will only be valid if we believe in ourselves and work hard towards achieving our set goals. Today, I am going to leave you with a puzzle on what you will like to do if you have everything in the world? If you answered the question in the affirmative, you are a step closer to knowing your passion in life and therefore you’ll have the power and passion to make your dreams come true.

As rational beings with rational minds, one of the greatest power we have in our possession is the power of choice. In everything we do, we make a choice. It is worthy to note that every great success in life started as an idea in the mind which later metamorphose to a product. According to Lao Tzu “Watch your thoughts, they become your words; watch your words, they become your actions; watch your actions, they become your habits; watch your habits, they become your character; watch your character, it becomes your destiny.” That said, one salient point to mention here is that everything starts in the mind be it school business, education, innovation and writing a book. You can also look at the mind like a seed. When a seed is planted, it is watered and it then germinates and bears fruit. That’s exactly how our mind works. We must continuously strive to feed the mind with the right thought.

During the course of this article we shall be sharing shall be discussing how our mindset can act as a catalyst for our success. In order to appreciate the article very well, I will like you to think out of the box. Imagine a scenario where the whole the world is telling you, you can succeed in a particular task and you know within you can’t succeed in it, you’ll fail, but if the whole world is telling you can’t succeed in a particular task and you know you can succeed, you will succeed because he that is in you is greater than he that is the world.

Let’s see how the mind can affect our lifestyle. 

Your thoughts have a powerful influence on your life because it affect and determines what happens to you.

Most of us go through life taking little or no notice of our thought processes or what goes into our mind.  We allow so many information like music, videos, and conversations into our subconscious mind. They can be negative or positive. This information has a relative effect in our lives without us knowing. That’s why we are always enjoined to think and affirm positive thoughts, words, and actions regardless of what you are going through in life. Depending on what you allow in your mind, it will definitely affect how you think, your courage, your fears and how you see life generally. Today, I charge you to live up to your dreams by tapping into the subconscious power in your mind.

You attract what you focus

The law of Attraction is the ability to attract into our lives whatever we are focusing on. It is believed that regardless of age, nationality or religious belief, we are all susceptible to the laws which govern the universe, including the Law of Attraction. It is this Law of Attraction which uses the power of the mind to translate whatever is in our thoughts and materialize them into reality. It is what you focus your time and resources on that attracts what you need. If you focus on success, you will attract success. If you focus on fear and failure, you’ll attract failure.   It is generally said that you attract what you wish. Your thoughts are the primary creative forces in your life.

Train your conscious mind to think thoughts of success, happiness, health, and prosperity.

According to Aristotle “We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit. ” While thinking of success, learn to weed out negativity such as fear and worry. Keep your conscious mind busy with the expectation of the best, and make sure the thoughts you habitually think are based upon what you want in your life. The mind works like a computer, it is what you give to it that it gives back to you. (Garbage in garbage out).

To show you how powerful the mind can be,  think of your subconscious mind as incredibly fertile soil that will grow any seed you plant in it. Your habitual thoughts and beliefs are seeds that are being constantly sown. Just as corn kernels produce corn and wheat seeds produce wheat, the contents of your thoughts will have an effect in your life. You will reap what you sow; this is a law.

In summary, always have the end picture at the back of your mind. Your vision and mission in life should always align with your passion and what you really want to do in life. So if you have a dream, don’t allow it to die, try and pursue it to a logical conclusion. In conclusion, never you relent to failure until you have made your last attempt and never you make your last mistake until you seed.

Henry Ukazu writes from New York. He works with New York City Department of Correction as the legal Coordinator. He’s the author of the acclaimed book Design Your Destiny – Actualizing Your Birthright To Success.