YOU DON’T NEED TROPHIES [HOW TO MAKE IT IN LIFE AS A YOUTH]7 min read

A few years ago, when I was still in secondary school, I remember my Uncle visiting one night. He was in the living room with my Dad discussing. I remember him telling my Dad how he was in a debt of roughly two million Naira. The price was so outrageous to my ears that it made my tiny brain freeze for a while.

Those words never left my head, though I can’t vividly recall how he said it, what stuck with me all those years was the manner he said it. He was calm and even afforded the luxury of laughing about it. Back then, I couldn’t even phantom being in a debt of a thousand Naira.

How could he have laughed about such an issue?

Like you, I wondered how to make it in life as a youth. And like you, it wasn’t always clear to me. If it was, everyone would have been successful, right?

P.S: There is a video at the end of this article that explains how to become a billionaire

Donald Trump is worth billions today (as of the time of writing), but there was a time when he lost it all during a real estate crash. He once said: “I passed a beggar on the street and realized he was worth $9.2 billion more than I was!” Yet, before long, Donald was back on top. Why? It is because of who he was

The point is, you shouldn’t focus on the statistics; people’s current level: the certificate(s) they own, or how much they are earning now, the number of children they have, or if they even have a partner. Those things are not the correct measurement of success. In fact, success is abitrary.

The true measure of success is how happy you are about it. And a better metric would be how much it improved the lives of those around you. Being a successful person is way more than trophies. It lies within you – invincible.

Bringing the issue to education, it should be noted that a lot of factors come to play when it comes to coming first in class, and although I agree that focus and dedication play a huge part, sometimes things get out of control or beyond the control of the student. That’s to say, that a student didn’t come first, doesn’t mean that student is a failure. What matters more isn’t the student’s score, but the student’s attitude towards that score.

You want to ask: did the student give their best? do they feel that their result match their effort? are they proud of their accomplishment? can they do more? do they want to do more?

For an “F” student, getting a “C” might be all that they need to be happy and consider themselves successful. To an “A” student, that same result spells tears and lots of cursing.

Success is arbitrary and successful people are those who are better than their previous selves. Click To Tweet

You want to be someone with the right mindset. Someone who is becoming better. Someone who is putting in the effort.

You should never shame someone for failing. In fact, a huge part of success is failing. Failure is the path to succes.

we fail on our way to success Click To Tweet

But this should not be taken as an excuse to fail or be reluctant, it is quite the contrary. When a person develops a positive and broad mindset about life, they begin to realize that they need to put in maximum effort in whatever they do. This on its own is better than any trophy you can ever get. Not even a university degree beats this.

This is the kind of attitude that gets people to the top. This is what should be praised and put on the spotlight.

Parents should dance and throw parties when their kid moves from E to a D. It’s truly a miracle. In fact, it is tiny improvements like this that my philosophy of life is based on. and not just me, but many successful people as well.

“I can accept failure, but I cannot accept not trying.”

– Michael Jordan.

“If you've never failed, you've never lived” Click To Tweet

SUCCESS IS A MIRAGE – How Successful People Think

It is true that the socio-economical system requires a certificate to filter out those who are not competent, but if a person doesn’t develop the mindset to continually learn and improve they would be found wanting, even if their certificate suggests otherwise.

How many times have you seen miserable-looking adults working jobs? or celebrity abusing drugs? One can try to coat all those with words that may appear deep on the surface but reality doesn’t care what anyone says. Is your success really success?

Although it is nice to be a pro, or party and celebrate, it is quite crazy to think that poverty, dysfunctional relationships, and substance abuse are part of “the life” – the “good life”.

A certificate or some other measure of success is good for taking care of a few things, but if the right mindset about life is not developed we might just as well throw our money and happiness into the abyss.

What is a money when you’re living in misery, with no happiness nor fulfilment?

Almost all you’ve been told is important, it isn’t. They are all what people thought was important. And although I realize that you need to dance to the music of society, I also realize that you – the dancer – is more important than the music.

Realize that the world is beyond school or certificate. It is beyond money or having babies. It is beyond all those. In fact, it doesn’t care about any of that

You should consider the pursuit of anything as one of your several other pursuits in life. You must learn to be like a tree that grows multiple branches to capture the sunlight in all directions it stretches. This entails desiring to be better for the sake of being better, rather than for trophies.

A tree grows because it is in its nature to grow. Its fruits and magnificence are all a product of its constant striving for growth. Be like that tree. Find the things that would nourish you – read, exercise, set, and pursue your goals. Don’t do it for the trophies, do it for you.

This is life, and not a race to see who finishes first. It is about growing, it is about living.

You don’t want to be the person who grows old and starts regretting how they wasted their lives trying to please others. You want to be happy

I know you probably wanted to read How you can achieve your wildest dreams through social media or something like that. That is cool. But first, get your definition of success right: Be you. Be happy. Be proud

THE SECRET SAUCE OF SUCCESS – What Makes A Person Successful

To be successful you want to

1. Decide what is important to you.
2. Learn about it
3. Practice it and fail
4. Practice some more
5. Become good at it
6. Get the trophies
7. Ignore the trophies
8. Get better at what you do
9. Get more trophies
10. Ignore all the trophies
11. Drastically improve on yourself and become a master
12. Get so many trophies you won’t know what to do with it – I’m talking about the ranks of Jeff Bezos
13. Ignore all the trophies.
14. Tell people that money is not everything

I hope you found this very useful. as always: Grow up, Level Up, Step up.

You might also love to watch this video: How To Become A Billionaire. It’s really enlightening