Greetings my good friends,

I will begin this article with a quote most of you are quite familiar with. It says “the journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step in the right direction”. Achieving success is not an easy task as most people think. A lot of work is required. To achieve success, you need to be focused, work hard and smart, sacrifice your time, network, and research just to mention a few. Since we are interested in achieving success, we shall be discussing an interesting topic which can enable you to attain success if you play by the rules of the game.

It’s imperative to note that for you to succeed in any task, you must know the right methodology to approach depending on what you are looking out to achieve. For example, if you want to learn any art or skillful work you are expected to get training in the work, if you want to be a doctor, lawyer, teacher etc. you must go to school to attain the required training. It’s quite unfortunate a lot of people want to succeed in life without doing anything. They simply want to go to heaven without dying. Funny indeed.

To achieve success, you must be engaged, you must be busy doing something productive. You can’t expect to get something worthy without doing anything. In latin, it is said Nemo dat quod non habet which literally means, you can’t give what you don’t have. Getting busy doesn’t really entail spending time and resources on one activity or the other, you must be productive in addition to knowing what you really want at the end of the day. This is because you can be busy doing nothing.

The hardest task in life is getting started, once you can surmount the courage to start, you can be sure of victory all things being equal. Isn’t it true that the whole world sets apart for the man who knows where he’s going? Once you begin a task, there’s a probability you will make mistakes which can make you to learn, relearn and unlearn. There’s also a probability you will get assistance down the line when you remain focused. If you are passionate about a cause, the best thing you can do is get busy, identify with people doing the same work you are passionate about, take a bold step and leave your comfort zone.

Let me share a personal experience with you, when I had the inspiration of writing a book I didn’t know where and how to start. Despite reaching out to friends and mentors, I was still confused on how to proceed with the work. After much consultation, I realized the best thing I can do is to get started. Even when I hit the ground moving, I was still wondering if I had the right information and methodology to approach the work. During this process, I learnt, relearn and unlearnt valuable information in addition to making mistakes which at the end of the day shaped my work to be very resourceful. The moral of this story is that I was smart enough to go through any door that opened and learned from it. The message here is that I didn’t just relax and believe everything will work. I had to leave my comfort zone and got busy and along the line, I learned a lot to be a consultant in book publication.
We live in a society where some people have an entitlement mentality. These set of individuals feel like the society owes them a lot of favor which ordinary isn’t the case. When you get busy and positively engaged, there’s a high probability you stand a great chance of meeting people who will assist your vision to succeed.

Getting busy can mean working as an intern, networking with the right people, attending events of interest, learning or researching information of interest that will position you for the next big opportunity. It should be noted that there’s nothing like luck and miracle in the real world, rather luck and opportunities meet prepared minds. If you really want to know more about a person, just observe what the person spends his/her time on. You can literally know or tell more about a person by what he or she does. Great men and women spend time on projects they are passionate about, they have no time to engage in frivolity. They are too busy thinking of the next project to accomplish.

When you get busy on a task, you might make mistakes, but mistakes shouldn’t be used to define you, rather it should be used to see how far you have come in life. In the real world, it doesn’t really matter where you are coming from, all that is important is where you are going. When you succeed in your business, you are bound to attract a followership base who will not only believe in you, but will be inspired to learn from your success stories.
Getting busy involves determination and courage. An African adage says if you want to go fast, go alone, but if you want to go far, go with a team. According to Robert Collier, “your level of success is determined by the level of belief you have in yourself”. It doesn’t matter what people are saying about you, all that matters is what you feel about yourself.

According to the Book of life in 1 John 4:4 “He that is in you is greater than he that is in the world”.

Finally, getting busy involves taking a risk. Any rational being knows that risk is an important part of business. Most great people are risk takers, they took risk and discovered more opportunities. I don’t really know what you are working on, but I do know that per Jim Rohn “If you are unwilling to take the risk you will settle for the ordinary.

Henry Ukazu writes from New York. He’s the author of the acclaimed book Design Your Destiny- Actualizing Your Birthright to Success. He works with the New York City Department of Correction as the Legal Coordinator. He can be reached via henrous@gmail.com