On The Path Of Winners By Bayo Ogunmupe Using Intuition To Create Wealth

On The Path Of Winners

By Bayo Ogunmupe

Using Intuition To Create Wealth

AN actress known to me, who was also a dancer and journalist, became discouraged after years of rejections and occasional unsatisfactory roles.

  She got married, gave up performing for her first child.

  Midway through the pregnancy she had a dream. A winding staircase led down to a cellar where two women were tied to chairs, unable to move or call for rescue. The actress untied them and asked who they were. One said she was an actress. The other was a nurse. Helping the women to their feet, she led them upstairs into the main house.

  The dream became confused after that, and she woke up. Later that night, she fell asleep again and this time dreamed that she was starring in a Nollywood show. The performance was a wild success. Thinking about her dreams, she realized that, as happy as she was in her marriage, there were parts of her that she had not been expressing and that needed to be expressed. The performer in her and the healer were kept tied up in her subconscious, unable to find expression.

  Thus, the task for most of us is to discover the true dimensions of who we are and then to allow that identity to surface. Only in that way can we discover what we want out of life.

  How do you go about discovering why you want to be rich? The simple answer is to ask. Ask yourself, ask the dreamer in you what he really wants out of life. Frequently, the first realizations you have concern what you don't want. You may have assumed, right through law school, and the call to the bar, that you wanted to be a corporate lawyer, just like your dad. But then when it seems absurdly late to change your mind, you realize that was your dad’s dream, not yours, and that you will never be happy in that line of work.

  However, if you have difficulty discovering what you want to achieve in life, it might be because of your cynical upbringing. Many people have negative conditioning to overcome. Who do you think you are? This question is basic because you can never hit any higher than you aim, and you can never achieve more than you aspire to. In order to be a success, I had to change my belief patterns, particularly what I believe about myself. I changed careers, I switched from the civil service to the private sector, moved from teaching to journalism and publishing. Finally, I came to realize that I am my own mentor, that I am able to achieve any world I want.

  Many executives, because of negative conditioning from parents and guardians, hold themselves back from success and promotion. As children they were told: “Half a loaf is better than nothing.” They were told: “Money is not important.” They were told: “Be realistic, don't expect too much.” This attitude and the feeling that there is something morally admirable about poverty, have a way of hanging on in the mind of the public. Really it is not money but the obsession with money and greed for money that is harmful.

  However, the most common reason executives hold themselves back from becoming greater successes is the idea that they didn't really deserve great success.

  You should ask yourself if you fall into this category. Recently, I was counseling a young but retired civil servant who was starting his own business. The concept: a business centre cum cyber café looked promising and yet he could not get it off the gorund. Upon investigation, I got the strong feeling that this ulama had taken a vow of poverty as a monk in a previous life. I know that sounds bizarre in business, but that was his demeanor. He agreed with me that a vow of poverty was not appropriate for an entrepreneur. I then wrote for him an affirmation for wealth. After formally renouncing poverty, he then recited my wealth affirmation. Whether his troubles stemmed from a pessimistic and superstitious view of life, isn’t important. The major issue was that after the wealth affirmation the effect was dramatic. The obstacle in his venture disappeared and now he is a tremendous success.

  If people are not satisfied with their prospects, they should change their careers. Reality is created by thought, and it can be altered by thought. It is my view that what you think about and hold in your heart will sooner or later manifest in reality. Thus, the level of success you are now enjoying is a manifestation of your vision of the past. Before you increase your income, you must enlarge your imagination. Success has to do with permitting yourself to succeed. Affirmations are not wishful thinking. Affirm your own greatness and you will be great in the end. Another way to get yourself psyched for success is to find role models. Each profession has its own heroes. Find one from your profession. Look the part, feel the part. Act the part and soon you will get the part. This kind of rehearsal for success really helps to create the reality you seek. As it says in the Bible, “As a man soweth, so shall he also reap.”

  Our champion for today is John Foster Dulles, the U.S. secretary of state (1953-59) under President Dwight David Eisenhower. He was the architect of the major elements of the U.S. foreign policy in the Cold War with the Soviet Union after world War II. Dulles was one of five children of Allen Macy and Edith (Foster) Dulles. Born in February 1808 in Washington DC, his maternal grandfather was John Watson Foster who served as secretary of state under President Benjamin Harrison. Robert Lansing Dulles, his uncle by marriage was secretary of state in the cabinet of President Woodrow Wilson.

  Dulles was educated at Watertown, New York where his father served as Presbyterian minister. A brilliant student, he attended Princeton and George Washington universities and the Sorbonne, France. In 1911, he entered the New York law firm of Sullivan and Cromwell, specializing in international law. By 1927 he was head of the firm.

  But Dulles, who never lost sight of his goal of becoming secretary of state, actually entered diplomacy in 1907 when, aged 19, he accompanied his grandfather John Foster to the second international Peace Conference at the Hague. He became President Woodrow Wilson’s legal adviser at 30, serving in the war reparations commission after World War I.

  In World War II, Dulles helped prepare the United Nations Charter in Washington DC. President Harry Truman appointed him negotiator of the treaty ending World War II with Japan in 1951. Emboldened by his achievements, Dulles viewed his appointment as secretary of state by President Eisenhower in 1953 as a mandate to originate foreign policy which was normally the domain of the President. He initiated the South East Asia Treaty Organisation (SEATO) pact that united eight nations in 1954, filling the gap left by NATO. He restored Austria to its pre 1938 frontiers in 1955.

  Three factors influenced Dulles’ foreign policy: His great detestation of communism due to his religious faith; his powerful personality which leads public opinion rather than follow it and his strong belief in the value of treaties. He was the originator of Brinkmanship doctrine in diplomacy. He died of cancer a month after he resigned as secretary of state in 1959.