HARD WORK: THE PRICE FOR SUCCESS AND THE LEADER’S REWARD

We should build a new generation of leaders that will believe in the principles of hard work in the pursuit of their goals, writes Linus Okorie

Success is never without a price. To succeed there is usually something you must give in order to get success in return. The kind of price you pay depends on the nature of what you want to achieve but generally you cannot achieve success without investing in it. The greatest investment for success is hard work. 

When you set a goal for yourself, it is your responsibility to do all you can to achieve it. It is your duty to stay awake and work when others are sleeping, the candle light is yours to burn to succeed academically. The greater your goal, the greater your requirement to achieve it.

Vince Lombardi was right to state, “The price of success is hard work, dedication to the job at hand, and the determination that whether we win or lose, we have applied the best of ourselves to the task at hand.”

You cannot hope to succeed by doing nothing. Hard work and dedication to the task at hand is the key to success. Most importantly, when you set a goal, you must think like Lombardi who does not use perceived chances of failure as an excuse to back down.

Everyday people set up businesses, enrol in schools, people are born who turn into millionaires and others become outright failures. As a leader you must learn to do all that it takes to achieve success. If success didn’t cost a lot, everyone would have achieved it. Success is expensive yet it is affordable.

You need discipline. Train yourself to never get discouraged when you have set a goal. Put in all your energy, your zeal, your passion, your ingenuity. Think creatively. Ask questions, never relent and always be proactive. These are ways to become successful.

Success does not find you. You seek it diligently and you may find it. Have you set goals and did not achieve them? Have you set up businesses that crumbled? Are you seeking for things that seem farther from you each passing day? Maybe you are not just putting in as much effort as is required. You will achieve success if you can tell yourself that it is possible and work harder and harder to meet your goal.

Get up, aim for the sky and begin the climb. That is the price to pay. The price oftentimes is forgotten when success is achieved. The pain, the sleepless nights and exhaustion give way to gleeful smiles and a deep sense of fulfilment. You need to do all that it takes to be where you ought to be. You can succeed in that career or business. Just wake from your slumber and act swiftly until you get the desired result.

The most interesting thing in this life is that you will get your reward for every hard work you invest on this earth. There is a reward for every price you pay in building yourself or your business. As a leader, your reward is not in the amount of money in your bank account, your reward is not the encomiums you receive from sycophantic praise singers, your reward is not the satisfaction you get when you subject others unduly to inhuman treatments for inconsequential displeasure.

Your reward should stem from your conscience. Your reward is that feeling of satisfaction you get when you know that you have delivered justice to the people, provided the dividends of democracy to those whose votes got you where you are, and the joy of knowing that your actions and inactions have yielded positive outcomes that are changing the lives of people across your area of influence.

Your mandate as a leader is to show the way by not only pointing the way but also going the way. When those ugly situations arise and are threatening the peace, when turmoil engulfs your influence space, when the organization you are leading is heading to bankruptcy, when there is national crisis and everyone is restless, when everything seem in disarray and there is panic, it is the time to show your leadership competence and get the ultimate reward of leadership.

In such a time, your reward should stem from the valuable contribution you made in the area of providing solution to that lingering national, organizational or family problem. Let it be said that you were instrumental as a leader to bringing the solution that revamped the Nigerian economy, or restored peace in the family or revived the company or organization through conscious effort.

If you truly want the reward that will give you true happiness, it is time for you to begin to think of creative ways that you can affect the lives of others in remarkable ways. The reward for Mandela is the name Mandela. Today, that name stands as an icon of African leadership. The dividends of that name continue to extend to the South African people first and then to the lineage and unborn generation of the great leader.

The name Mahatma Ghandi lives on long after the great Indian leader. So also are the names Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King Jnr who kick-started the liberation struggle for the entire black race.

The reward of writing your name in the sands of time and in the heart of humanity is the reward that all true leaders should seek. Meyer Lee warns, “When money becomes your number one priority, re-evaluate your priorities.”

You are not a leader to acquire wealth. You are not a leader for self-aggrandizement. 

You are a leader to affect the life of society positively. The right starting point is to become a better person first from within. If you don’t have the general good at heart, you need to stay away from leadership.

Imagine if every leader in Nigeria focuses on delaying gratification and working very hard and smart towards turning around the fortune of others and our country. Just imagine the possibilities of what would become of our country; imagine the possibilities of the influences those individuals will wield in transforming society. Anthony Bourdain Kitchen Confidential said “No one understands and appreciates the American Dream of hard work leading to material rewards better than a non-American.” Most immigrants get into America and decide to succeed through hard work and in most cases, they experience material reward in ways that are truly inspirational. We must prioritize hard work and the concept of delayed gratification as very important element of achieving success and recognition.

If we want other countries of the world to begin to respect our country, we must put in the work so much that we can bring about the relevant reward of respect for us. We must build a new generation of leaders that will believe in the principles of hard work in the pursuit of their goals.

Jim Rohn Said “If you go to work on your goals, your goals will go to work on you. If you go to work on your plan, your plan will go to work on you. Whatever good things we build end up building us. It is time we build this country for the good of all.

 Okorie is a leadership development expert spanning 27 years in the research, teaching and coaching of leadership in Africa and across the world. He is the CEO of the GOTNI Leadership Centre.