Hard Work: A New Year Resolution

It’s another new year and I’m sure we’ve all made one or two resolutions in improving ourselves. As the world advances in science and technology, we should see improvement in living standards but its chaos everywhere. From increased crime and murder rates to terrorism, the whole world is in a mess and its becoming difficult to fit in.

Nigeria is producing many graduates today than ever before but the labour market is struggling to accommodate these many graduates with sound educational records. Well since we all can’t get white collar jobs, entrepreneurship is the new wave. Create the job for yourself and make a living. That’s easier said than done. One big problem Nigerian entrepreneurs have is access to capital funds even I am not excluded from that list. The government has created some programmes in giving grants and loans to assist entrepreneurial development but sadly it hasn’t reached up to 50% of the youths that make up the bulk of Nigeria’s population.

As Nigerians who struggle with everyday living, we are swayed by the success of others who are entrepreneurs. We attempt to copy them but the effort to break even fails. Why is that? It’s very simple: we don’t put enough hard work into our efforts.

Linda Ikeji is one of the pioneer bloggers in Nigeria and today she is a celebrity because her blog is a major source of news and one of the most read websites in Nigeria. Her blog is reportedly worth US$5 million. Her fame has led to many blogs been opened and the surprising part is these random bloggers are styling their blog after Linda’s. There is no way you would succeed. You must have something unique about your blog otherwise you would be blown by the wind. Let’s even assume people are copying Linda’s style, how many people have been consistent with blogging? It comes at the huge cost of sacrificing time and effort which many are not doing.

A blogger by the name Lolade has been blogging consistently for a year every Wednesday, never missing the date. The result is she has been invited to write on other blogs and her name is going all over the corners. It won’t be long when she starts earning a fortune from her writings. If she wasn’t consistent, no one would notice her.

Many youths want to go into music and playing football because it an avenue to make fast money. Recordings of many up and coming artists are terrible because they don’t know the basics and rudiments of music. They are not ready to take time and read books to develop their skill or talent. The likes of Tuface Idibia and P-square are still around after many years because they spent lots of hours in the studio perfecting their tracks and it ends up been a hit across all age groups.

We want to play football but are not ready to spend those many hours watching video clips and training to develop that skill. Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi aren’t the best in world just for nothing. They consistently train ahead of other team mates and that’s why we see one new piece of skill each time. Their consistence in developing themselves has made them the mega stars they are.

A fellow by the name Uchendu always had one company in mind he wanted to work for so he tailored his CV towards the requirements of the company by attending trainings, workshops and doing internship in relevant companies. Today Uche got his dream job by spending money he didn’t have and other resources to get what he wanted. Are you ready to spend and commit what you don’t have to make that dream come alive?

Hard work, getting well informed and showing commitment to what you love doing can make a difference. If you put all effort into what you dream of becoming, you will surely reap the rewards someday. It’s a long road filled with twist and turns but it’s only a matter of time when the breakthrough comes. Take that step to make your New Year resolution in working harder at your passion and you are sure to be on your way to fame and fortune.

I hope you have enjoyed reading this post, kindly leave your comments below. Thanks.

*All photos sourced randomly from Google Images.