On The Path Of Winners By Bayo Ogunmupe The Kamikaze Route To Riches

On The Path Of Winners

By Bayo Ogunmupe

The Kamikaze Route To Riches

THE Kamikaze route is an unfailing road to wealth in this money crazy Nigerian society. It is characterized by the adoption of Kamikaze methods used by the Japanese in World War II. Kamikaze is any of the Japanese pilots who made deliberate suicidal crashes into enemy targets, usually ships.

  The term also denotes methods, aircraft used in such operations.

  The Kamikaze practice was most prevalent for World War Two’s Battle of Leyte Gulf in October 1944 to the end of the war. Kamikaze means “divine wind” in Japanese, a reference to a typhoon that fortuitously dispersed a Mongol invasion fleet threatening Japan from the West in 1281 AD.

  Kamikaze attacks sank 34 ships and damaged hundreds during the war. Kamikaze inflicted its greatest losses ever suffered by the American Navy in a single battle. It killed more than 5,000 men at Okinawa in a single combat. Thus, you will be inexorably rich by adopting Kamikaze methods in your road to riches.

  However, success isn’t something that can be packaged, bottled or captured in a simple formula. But there are certain areas and skills you must continue to study and master if you want to be rich. Becoming a winner is a lifelong challenge. Certainly, I am not anywhere near where I would like to be in practicing these Kamikaze principles. But we are making progress, and can see a real difference in the quality of the experiences that hang together in the continuing puzzle we call life.

  Wealth cannot be gained by reading books alone. It isn’t that simple. I have learnt from life to abhor putting winning methods into a neat set of steps. But we believe, there is need to plan for and take action in certain ways, if you are going to convert theory into practice. Which is why we are going to look at nine areas that I prefer to call skills to success rather than steps to success. You must learn these skills if you want to be a Kamikaze winner.

  In this exercise, I will concentrate on helping anyone aspiring to become a winner by putting theory into practice. Winners enjoy and reinforce past successes. They learn from past mistakes, make decisions in the present, setting goals just out of sight but not out of reach, for the future. Here are the first two skills in getting on with this process of Kamikaze winning. One, decide to take action, two: set reachable goals. In our previous encounters, I discussed some aspirants as spectators who show up to watch the game of life being played. They are puppets caught in the habit of letting life happen to them.

  Your skill area one is your deciding to take action. Action is the seed of greatness, sow it today. I am an ardent admirer of the Reverend Robert Schuller, author of many books on self mastery. One of his favourite lines is,” Beginning is half done.” Let me modify this slightly to apply to our subject. My new label is, beginning is half won. Just by making the decision to get in the arena, you are half way to victory. People who refuse to act suffer from inertia. Victims of inertia lack the skill or will to change. But the science of physics recognizes two kinds of inertia. One, standing objects tend to remain stationary. Two, moving objects tend to stay in motion. This simple illustration goes to show us as passengers in a car. When the car accelerates, we are in a state of stationary inertia.

  Thus, the people we should blush for are the ones with stationary inertia.

They are the procrastinating type who resist change because they are afraid of the perceived costs of success. And the costs are there: one, taking responsibility to give up bad habits. Two, setting a good example. Three, distancing yourself from a peer group that isn’t helping you to succeed. Four, leading yourself and others down an unfamiliar path. Five, delaying self gratification as you work hard to reach your goal.

  And finally, facing criticism, ridicle and jealously.

  These and other costs of success are why people decline the present by occupying their minds with past memories or future expectations. Kamikaze winners, who are bent on succeeding or dying, are not dismayed by the cost of success. They are always on the go, building positive inertia. Winners get going and build momentum, pursuing their full human potential and looking forward to an endless dialogue between their talents and the claims of life.

  To be a winner, you must assert yourself by taking responsibility for making the best use of your talents, your experience. On the skill arena, the winner must take the decision to take action now. And always carrying with you the motto: beginning is half won. However, in attaining your goals, you need to set the right goals, goals that mean much to you. Success that others can benefit from is the true success. And the greatest hindrance to success is habit. You beat habit by setting personal goals, set them with deadline, commit them into writing. Know that you cannot succeed in isolation, you need helpers or fellow travelers. The Kamikaze winner is a goal minder, who becomes a goal miner who shares his wealth with others. You can never succeed and be happy alone.

  Our champion for today is Desiderius Erasmus, the Swiss Humanist who was the greatest scholar of the Renaissance and the first editor of the New Testament Bible. He is an important figure in classical literature. Born in Rotterdam in October 1469, he died in Basel, Switzerland in July 1536. The son of Roger Gerard, a pastor and Margaret a physician’s daughter, Erasmus was reared in schools in Holland. Later he became an Augustinian canon and ordained as a priest in 1492. Studies in France brought him into contact with humanist groups. He visited England (1499-1500) (1505-06) (1509-1517), lectured at the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge and became acquainted with Sir Thomas More and John Fisher, who inspired him to study the Bible. Erasmus studied Greek, visiting Italy where he widened his humanist contacts.

  The writings of Erasmus, covering a variety of topics rank him the greatest scholar of his time. The Adagia (1500) published in Venice and containing more than 3000 proverbs from the works of classical authors, established his reputation and The Praise of Folly (1511) and his edition of the New Testament (1516) assured him the greatest thinker of his day.