20th January, 2012
Mere mention of the word ‘beginning’ evokes fear in most people. It’s a lot easier to continue on an old path than dare breaking new grounds —this could be one reason we resist change vehemently.
Starting a new thing comes with an air of uncertainty and unpredictability. The day you started a new job, relationship, business venture or moved to a new city would always be part of your memory for life. If starting a new thing on its own births fear, how much pressure would one expect when not only starting but also faced with the challenge of starting small?
In our jet age, telling people about the joy of starting small or not despising small beginnings makes you sound ‘old school’ but in it is embedded the secret of true happiness, motivation and fulfilment as you watch your idea/endeavour grow to a massive tower of success. Yes, I agree it’s a lot of hard work but you can make it —it’s doable.
Most great men of old did not have great beginnings but they would have had great faith and zeal in whatever they wanted to accomplish and followed through to a successful end.
It is your belief in the vision that gives it life not the greatness of its beginning. In most cases, it is your interest and focus that create the power/tenacity to invest more time, resources, knowledge and zeal needed to pull through to victory.
You might be amazed to hear that the first thing needed for a successful business venture, relationship, etc is not necessarily money but idea. Ideas managed effectively would deliver profitable results despite a small take-off.
Do you love that ‘small idea’ springing in your mind? Pursue it, in it may lay seed of greatness. The more passionate you are about your dreams, the easier it is for you to succeed. Having a picture of where you are going makes you want to defy all obstacles; when you persist, not even the strongest hurricane can stop you. People who complain of boredom simply do not have a vision or what they’re passionate about.
A really busy mind treasures every second of the clock and acknowledges the power of breaking down great jobs into bits. Each accomplished segment is a step toward the goal. The journey of a thousand mile they say begins with just one step.
Small steps could be in the form of meeting someone in a gathering, asking the person out for lunch, proposing/agreeing to marry even when the person is not exactly what others would have wanted you to, starting a small business with little or no popularity, accepting a job with little pay, just name it. If you have ever found yourself in any of these situations or other similar ones, you’ll agree with me it’s not exactly the best time you’ve had with people around you.
Making a choice to start something small challenges even your very belief in yourself, exposes the real value of people for you and shows you what life is all about in the face of trying to gain support from others- they literally tell you to ‘forget the idea, it won’t work’. Man is so quick to identify impossibilities and would do everything to recruit you into that thinking of fear/uncertainties. We all know life itself is a form of uncertainty, no one is absolutely sure of being here till next year yet we make plans up to five/ten years to come. If we make it, fine, if not, life continues for others. Why don’t we borrow this same approach and just go ahead to do that thing we’ve always wanted to do? You might not complete it or have the whole answer at hand from the beginning but as you progress, events and people cross your path and make the vision simpler than you could ever imagine. I remember some years back when I first started anchoring this column in P.M.NEWS, I didn’t have a hundred articles ready for publication; there were times I was not sure of what to put up two days to the deadline; all the same, I worked and came up with one but with time, articles came with ease; the column has become part of my life that anywhere I go, my eyes would be on the lookout for things to pick for ‘LOVE & LIFE’. Today, running the column comes naturally and with experience too, there is always something to share.
Small beginnings can be in the form of association —that person you saw and said hello to ended up being the one to lead you to a job you’ve been waiting for over time, change of career turned out to be the open door you never expected, picking a book/magazine while waiting for someone gave you an information that transformed your entire life, etc.
If you look around, there’re lots of things to do and kick start a new experience. People are bored all over the world because they have refused to explore new or small things. If you have a big picture or taste about life but not ready to start small and grow, even when you eventually get big or some kind of luck make you big, the ability to sustain the greatness might be missing because you can only give what you have.