Greetings Destiny Friends,

The journey of life is such an arduous and challenging path. It’s filled with roses and torns. If truth be told, nothing good comes easy, because the price of success comes with pains, and among which is what I will call the wilderness of success. This is because sometimes you will be forced to remain alone in the ‘desert’ in search of understanding and direction.

Every one of us has been in this kind of wilderness on several occasions. This wilderness is experienced in relationships/marriage, academic pursuit, spiritual evaluation, personal life and politics. The period of wilderness, however, helps to prepare one for the task ahead.

To understand how the wilderness of success works, consider that before a gold is processed, it must pass through the furnace. The same applies to any genuine success. Let’s take the case of marriage for instance, most couples who celebrate a successful marriage must have worked on their marriage for many years.

During the process, both parties might have hurt each other, understood each other, and tolerated each other in order to understand each other, especially how their temperament and personality work.

This principle is also applicable to every business or organization. Most big companies the world celebrate today were at one time in the wilderness, working on their businesses. Even students have stayed up late at night and early mornings to read. Most anointed men of God are not left alone in the search for blessings of God. Some of them have sacrificed their body and lifestyle through fasting to receive special anointing and grace from God.

So, if you want to succeed in life, you must develop your capacity and stamina to withstand the stress, challenges and vicissitudes that comes with success. You must be willing to come early to the party which can be any social-networking event to enable you network with the right people.

Let’s take a case study of a student in a school. Do you know that most of the people who sit in the front rows in any event or classroom, always come with great expectations? Yes, most times, they are very intentional and strategic because they want to be visible. These set of progressive individuals usually come prepared to learn, and they take good notes and listen with rapt attention. In reality, these are the real winners of life because they not only come to win, but they are also prepared to win and expect to win.

There are many lessons one will learn while in the wilderness. On a personal note, during my formative years in New York, I worked as a security officer for a substantial number of years even as a graduate of New York Law School. Life was truly challenging for me. I was inspired to write a book while working as a security officer. It wasn’t an easy process because I can remember when my security license expired and my late mother was wondering how we’ll survive, I remember telling her this book will fly.

Why am I sharing this? I was in my wilderness trying to discover my path, and still discovering my path which eventually aligned because same book got me first international television appearance, which opened numerous television appearances, and took me to New York Times, United Nations and opened doors to many corporate organizations, Captains of industries and numerous opportunities and exposures just to mention a few.

I have always shared some of my top secrets to some of my close friends. One of the best things that has happened to me was working as a security officer because it enabled me to network with the high and mighty. Assuming I had a corporate job like I have now, I doubt if I would have been able to publish this book in addition to meeting the people I have met so far in my life.

Moral: Appreciate your wilderness experience because it will enable you to have a story. Remember, there’s always pain before gain.

I don’t know your storyline, but I’m here to encourage you to stay strong because this too shall pass. Just be strong and continue to build your craft.

There are stories of great people who have gone through similar process. A case of interest is Steve Harvey, who slept in his car for three years before fame and stardom located him.

In conclusion, there will always be a wilderness before success is celebrated. So, continue to work hard in silence, and allow your success to not only announce you, but also make the noise. By the time you come out of the wilderness and narrate your story, it’ll resonate with people because people love inspiring stories that are relatable.

Henry Ukazu writes from New York. He works with the New York City Department of Correction as the Legal Coordinator.  He’s a Transformative Human Capacity and Mindset coach. He is also a public speaker, youth advocate and creative writer Design Your Destiny and Unleash Your Destiny.  He can be reached via info@gloemi.com