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Adding Value

Adding Value: Be Intentional with Learning by Henry Ukazu

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Dear destiny Friends,

“The illiterate of the 21st century will not be those who cannot read and write, but those who cannot learn, unlearn, and relearn” – Alvin Toffler

One of the beauties of life is its ability to humble anyone. Nobody truly knows it all. We all learn, and need one another to succeed. That’s why it’s important for one to thread softly. It is however, sad to see people who have lost golden opportunities to learn due to pride. Most ignoramus feel because they are mentors, rich, older etc., they can’t stoop to conquer; I have a simple message for them, as Per Michel Legrand, “The more I live, the more I learn. The more I learn, the more I realize, the less I know.”

Still on humility, an energy entrepreneur, Mr. Kola Adesina, once stated that “one thing I like about tomorrow is, you will not know who will truly be relevant, available, alive, bigger, and mostly needed. Tread softly”, and I concur with this quote because life is so dynamic, it will teach you a lesson if you refuse to learn the experience of life.

One of the unique traits of all great men is their ability to learn, relearn and unlearn. Most people who have truly succeeded are great learners. These set of people learnt from their failed businesses, relationship/marriages, personal and professional lives. If you truly want to make an impact, you must be intentional in learning.

Learning is not limited to the four walls of education, one can learn from friends, parents, family members, colleagues, partners, mentors, mentees, social media etc. According to a sage, the wise man learns from his mistake, but a wiser man learns from other people’s mistake.

We live in a digital world, where the internet is the new currency for people who truly know how to take advantage of the opportunity it provides. Everyone is literally on social media. You can connect and learn  from resourceful people if you have a good product, service, skill, gift/talent, knowledge or attitude and seek either mentorship, internship or support.

However, it is sad seeing some uninformed and poverty-stricken minds gallivanting on social media instead of learning from resourceful minds.

The good thing about learning is that it never goes out of fashion, and no one can take it away from you. Whatever you have, lives with you unless you desire to share.  We will continue to learn until we leave this sinful world.

According to Henry Ford, “Anyone who stops learning is old, whether at 20 or 80. Anyone who keeps learning stays young. The greatest thing in life is to keep your mind young.”

The sad thing in our contemporary society is the prevalence of young minds and advanced adults looking for handouts as opposed to looking for opportunities to learn how to fish. Learning is a posture of the heart. If your heart is willing to learn, you will have the eagerness to explore different learning styles to help you discover new things.

Just as life comes with challenges, learning is not an exception. According to Albert Einstein, “Life is like riding a bicycle. To keep your balance, you must keep moving”.

To navigate the tough terrain of learning, one must always improvise new ways of learning-by-learning new skills, techniques, and principles. This is because when you look at most of the successful people in the world, they understand these ideologies. For example, Warren Buffet and Henry Ukazu spend most of their time reading and researching. Today, be motivated to heavily invest in yourself.

It’s instructive to know that knowledge will not come to you, you must be intentional and strategic in seeking knowledge. On a personal note, I spend time to read; I read voraciously on almost anything I find valuable. This is because when you know more, you will be paid more. This is why the “top” is always scanty while the button is crowded. Dr. Seuss was right when he stated that “the more that you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more places you’ll go.”

Nothing will teach you a lesson in life more than life experience. Tom Bodett once stated, “the difference between school and life – In school, you’re taught a lesson and then given a test. In life, you’re given a test that teaches you a lesson.”. The beauty of school is that it will give you theoretical knowledge, provide security for you and maybe connect you to resource persons if you are able to network well, but life will give you the pragmatic and practical answers to apply all you have learnt in school.

Nobody will give you an opportunity to learn or thrive unless you show interest in the opportunity. As the Buddhist will always say, “when the student is ready, the master will appear.”

Below are some of the advantages of learning. Learning will open your brain; it will keep you abreast of recent information globally by keeping your mind young and sharp; you’ll gain new insight and perspective to life. Learning will make you think out of the box; it will make you more creative; learning can humble you when you become aware of what you don’t know; learning will make you have value and respect.

In conclusion, in 2024, and beyond, be intentional in seeking information and opportunity to learn. Remember, if you are not informed, you are deformed, and once you are deformed, you can’t perform because information will lead to reformation and transformation.

In a nutshell, information leads to formation. Regardless of what you have learned, make it a habit to continually develop yourself adding value to the world while practicing humility because life will humble you.

Henry Ukazu writes from New York. He works with the New York City Department of Correction as the Legal Coordinator.  He’s a Transformative Human Capacity and Mindset coach. He is also a public speaker, youth advocate and creative writer Design Your Destiny and Unleash Your Destiny.  He can be reached via info@gloemi.com

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Adding Value

Adding Value: Embrace Excellence, Create Prosperity by Henry Ukazu

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Dear Destiny Friends,

As human beings, our desires and needs can be insatiable. This is because when one task is  accomplished, there’s always the tendency to set our minds for another immediate goal. Even when we get our basic needs, we usually have the urge to get another need. There’s nothing wrong with that however, because it’s only unambitious and docile minds, that would like to dwell in their comfort zones.

In the journey of life, everyone desires prosperity, though not knowing that prosperity is actually a human heritage because everyone is born to win. Prosperity however, doesn’t only mean financial breakthrough, but can also refer to health, academia, family, business, and personal improvement. To prosper in any of these areas, one must understand the basics and the necessary appurtenances that come with similar positions.

Let’s take a minute to explain how these factors play a role in creating prosperity. For instance, to have great health, one doesn’t need to spend more; simple personal hygiene like exercise, good rest, good food, good fruits and more, play a great role. When one engages in all these, they will discover their mental and physical well-being will be in good shape. The same principle is applicable to a student who has done the needful in studying the foundational elements of his major; he stands a better chance of getting a good grade.

If the same principle is applied in personal businesses through creation of excellent product or service, one will never lack clients again. In business, customers love good delivery. When your work is good, people will naturally flow towards you.

The family is not an exception. To build a family, the foundation is very important. The same principle is applicable in our personal and professional lives. When one is intentional in building good values and character, it has a way of robbing off the person in their personal and professional lives.

The symbolic nature of this analysis is that for any great establishment, one must be consistent in building it. It takes a process for someone to be successful. So, whether you are building a brand in business, academic, health, or personal development, every single step one takes is very important in the development or success of that project. When you accumulate all the steps, it has a holistic prospect of making one’s brand unique.

Just to share a practical example of how excellence works – Imagine having an opportunity to meet a legend, who can be a president of a country, Chief Executive Officer of a reputable organization, a Governor of a state, a celebrity of high esteem or even a resource person of interest and you begin to request for money instead of asking questions in order to learn more from them, you might lose them. An intentional being can take time to study the person by building a strong relationship via communication, volunteering for the person, reading the work of the person or even by giving them gifts; all these are proactive actionable steps of creating prosperity, which speak volumes about the person.

Most times, when we want money, wealth, opportunities and prosperity, and we think they are far from us, but the simple truth is that they are within us if only we are able to look deep inside ourselves critically. For instance, if you have a business you are engaged in, no matter how little it is, and is diligent in serving your clients with excellent customer service relationships, it has a potential of scaling up, especially when you deliver excellent service.

Did you know one can build excellence by building the relationship in terms of value with the resource persons? It is the positive work one does that will attract global favours and opportunities. The favour and opportunity will not come one day, but I strongly believe it will come, especially when one is working on purpose.

The mistake most people make in life is that they give up too easily either because the desired returns they are expecting are yet to arrive, or they are not passionate, or vision oriented enough about the cause.

Let me share a practical experience. During my formative years in the USA, then I was still working as a security officer, one of my mentors asked me, ‘Henry, what would you want to do with your life in the near future?’ He advised me to take my time to think about the question before answering it. While I was reflecting on the question, he said, what is one thing you know you can do in life, and you know you won’t fail? I said, I want to be a youth advocate.

He said, you have said this quite a few times, but you need to be engaged in meaningful work before your advocacy work will be appreciated. He further asked me, what’s your passion? I said inspiring youths. He looked at me and said, I know you love youth work, but how do you intend to do this? What will you be teaching them? I said, I will be inspiring them. He looked at me and smiled. It was at this moment; I realized I had much work to do. He finally said to me, before you can inspire anyone, you must have inspired yourself by distinguishing yourself in a particular work which will be compelling to the youths because your work will come with commensurate experience and stories.

Looking back in retrospect, I can definitely relate to what my mentor was saying. Why am I sharing this? Excellence does not come in one day. It takes a process. Over a period of about 15 years, I have directly or indirectly been involved in youth advocacy, and this work has really distinguished and announced me in many quarters. My most recent award was from the White House with President Biden’s signature on it.

Now, you see that one’s work, backed by excellence can create prosperity.

According to Dr. Yomi Garnett, prosperity does not create excellence. Rather, the reverse is what holds true. Excellence creates prosperity. Therefore, from today, start the process of discovering your own personal excellence; your own best path to fulfillment. Then, every day, walk that path.”

The moral of this quote above is that money will not make you prosperous. It is your work that will attract money and prosperity for you, when they are good. Isn’t it true that nobody patronizes a bad product? No customer or client gives tips on a bad service. No good teacher rewards a lazy student, and no great company promotes a lackadaisical staff to an enviable height. Again, have you seen that it is one’s work which is backed by excellence that creates prosperity.

In conclusion, if you desire prosperity or want would like to receive awards and recognition, discover what makes you unique, create your own path and serve humanity by solving problems in an excellent way. Trust me, if you diligently do this, you will understand the meaning of the best form of doing business is personal referral.

Henry Ukazu writes from New York. He works with the New York City Department of Correction as the Legal Coordinator.  He’s the founder of Gloemi. He’s a Transformative Human Capacity and Mindset coach. He is also a public speaker, youth advocate, creative writer and author of Design Your Destiny Design Your  and Unleash Your Destiny .  He can be reached via info@gloemi.com

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Adding Value

Adding Value: Attracting Opportunities by Henry Ukazu

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Dear Destiny Friends,

Happy New Year and compliments of the season!

It’s always a thing of joy to see a new day, new week, new month, new year, new decade, and a new century. The occasion really calls for celebration. At the beginning of each year, we all desire to have new blessings, new opportunities, new successes, new health and more. The big question we need to ask ourselves is how one can we attract these opportunities, and blessings attached.

I will try to be practical in my thoughts and opinions. To attract blessings into one’s life is not difficult, in fact, it is one of the easiest things to do. This is because it costs less to be healthy, and it costs more to be unhealthy. It sounds confusing right? Okay, let me explain a little, to stay healthy, one can take fruits, exercise, do a yearly checkup, sleep, meditate, think positive amidst other activities. Literally looking at it, it might appear expensive and hard to accomplish but imagine the cost it will take to visit the hospital to undergo a medical procedure just because you neglected your health.

It’s instructive to note that the human body system doesn’t ordinarily break down, it takes a little bit of process which accumulates. Imagine if one has taken time to do exercise, eat healthy, and rest, most of the illnesses we suffer will drastically reduce.

So, as already stated, to attract opportunities and blessings into one’s life is not difficult; it’s just a matter of attitude. Like I always say, you’ll get what you want faster when you help other people to achieve what they want. To attract these opportunities is not rocket science, all we need to do is to apply the right attitude.

We are just three days into the year 2025, many of us have made resolutions of what we will do and what we will stop to be productive. Do you know the fastest way to attract blessings into your life is to have a good attitude? Attitude is a currency. Net worth is a currency. Relationship is a currency. Impact is a currency. For one to tap into these currencies one needs to have a good attitude. It’s your attitude that will make people to either like or despise you.

If you don’t have a good attitude, you won’t attract the opportunity that will bless you. Let me share a little secret that has worked for me over the years. I am a very intentional person. Most times, I pay it forward without knowing. I have since discovered that when one pays it forward by helping someone in need, the blessings are usually humongous. For instance, sometimes, just because I want someone to utter a form of prayer or goodwill like it will be well with you; God bless you, you will not lack; may God provide for you and your family, I will intentionally give them money or a kind of support.

Sometimes, I may make a purchase and decide to tell the seller to keep the change if I see the seller is struggling or it will put smiles on the face of the person. This is a skill I have mastered over time. It’s not really easy I must say, but it has over time, worked for me.

So, to attract the blessings of 2025 and beyond, consider offering yourself as a life of service to people in need. Don’t do it with a vested interest. There are many people in need in our society. Find time to see how you can support people financially, academically, spiritually, emotionally and otherwise. Trust me, if you can carry out this assignment diligently, the opportunities and blessings that will come upon you will have a ripple effect.

Again, to attract opportunities and blessings into your life, consider having a mentor with a positive influence, connect with successful people, attend workshops, read voraciously, especially on areas of interest so you can gain expertise, and acquire general knowledge; practice gratitude by showing appreciation and kindness, and most importantly, pray and acknowledge the role of  God as a higher power, depending on the faith and belief you practice.

In conclusion, life is generally about you, but not necessarily about you, it’s also about others. When you focus on yourself, your rewards might be less compared to when you focus on others. So, consider having a disposition of love, genuine affection, kindness, support and appreciation mixed with gratitude, and see how life will smile at you. Trust me, the universe will conspire to support you.

Henry Ukazu writes from New York. He works with the New York City Department of Correction as the Legal Coordinator.  He’s the founder of Gloemi. He’s a Transformative Human Capacity and Mindset coach. He is also a public speaker, youth advocate, creative writer and author of Design Your Destiny Design Your  and Unleash Your Destiny .  He can be reached via info@gloemi.com

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Adding Value

Adding Value: Principles Govern Life by Henry Ukazu

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Dear Destiny Friends,

It’s an indisputable fact that life is governed by many principles, of which their successful understanding and application can set one apart from their contemporaries.

Various principles work for various people depending on organization, business, profession and even personal. Therefore, for one to get something from another, they must know the principles they have adopted.

Principles work like magic. According to Bishop David Oyedepo, “When you read, tap from the principles used in the book you have read. To fly on eagles wing, you must tap on the principles on the eagle. You will have to get on his back and spread out the way he spreads his wings, so as to fly the way he flies. That is why you need to follow the principles of the writer of any book you have read so as to get the results the writer has gotten.”

The significance of this post is that whenever you read a book, work in a company or government, there are certain laid down rules, procedures, or principles which guides the establishment, and one is expected to follow them to the later. Failure to do so will warrant sanctions.

Let me share a practical example with you; a couple of months ago, I attended an event and met a highly successful man who can be called a billionaire. While a lot of people were trying to get his attention, I was seeking for a unique way to approach him, I quickly surfed the internet and discovered he’s an author. With that information, I approached him and introduced myself to him. I began by telling him I was inspired by his work, especially his books. He began to show interest in my conversation. I also told him I am an author with a legal background. He was happy to hear that because he’s also a lawyer, in addition to being an author and entrepreneur. I told him, I would like to have a meeting with him for a minute. He gave me his number and said, let’s keep in touch. What he told me was everything I needed to penetrate.

I followed up with an email and read his book. What’s the moral of this story, I learnt what works for him by speaking his language, especially reading his book to know how the principles that work for me.  I followed up with him via email on summary of the principles in his book and his interviews and his response was positive. I didn’t stop here. I nominated him to receive the Presidential Lifetime Achievement Award and reached out to him to know if he will be available to receive the award. Again, he responded positively. Guess what, when we met at the event, he told me a White House staff reached out to him saying Trump administration is looking for Black person to work in his administration and as such if he knows of any Black person that would like to work in the White House for President Trump.

Now, here’s where it gets interesting, I didn’t show desperation to work in the White House because I didn’t know details of the positions they are looking to fill, and also the location of the jobs. In a week time, this man invited me to the Bahamas for a family end of the year gathering where only close friends and associates will be present. That to me was huge. Even though I couldn’t attend because I already had plans to be out of the country as the said time, I was glad an opportunity of recognition was accorded to me by a billionaire.

One may be wondering what’s the significance of this story. Well, the moral is that one will have to take the extra effort to know what works for any person in order to work with the person or receive any favor. If I have not taken the opportunity to do some research about this man to discover the guiding principles and ideologies that work for him, trust me I doubt if he would have accorded me that level of respect and recognition, in addition to taking me very seriously.

This principle is applicable to everyone. Whether you are married, in a relationship, in business, seeking financial support for a business, writing a proposal, or working with anyone, your ability to apply this principle will usher you into a new reign. Even if you want to get something from a little child, one must condescend to their level to work with them.

It’s instructive to note that there’s no problem without a solution. The only problem without a solution is the problem the person with the right solution hasn’t appeared. Isn’t it true that when the student is ready the master appears.

As a human capacity development expert, I have discovered that everyone is literally different because as dynamic human beings, we are all unique. This is because what works for Mr. A might not work for Mr. B, and so, your ability to know what works for each individual will go a long way to achieving your desires.

Jus to put this into perspective, every living being has a temperament which can be sanguine, melancholy, choleric and phlegmatic. Again, while some people are introvert, some are extrovert. As a rational being, your ability to use discernment to decipher what works for each individual will go a long way to enable you work with them.

In conclusion, if you would like to get anything done, endeavour to do some background research to know the guiding principles of that person or organization. You can do a S.W.A.T analysis to discover their strengths, weakness, action and time. This will enable you to know how to approach them. You can also do online research on social media to know if they have any book to their name, any speech, any song, or any article they have written just to get an idea of how their mindset works. It might not generally give you a full picture of who they are because they might be engaging in a professional capacity, but at least it will give you an insight into their objective being.

Henry Ukazu writes from New York. He works with the New York City Department of Correction as the Legal Coordinator.  He’s the founder of Gloemi. He’s a Transformative Human Capacity and Mindset coach. He is also a public speaker, youth advocate, creative writer and author of Design Your Destiny Design Your  and Unleash Your Destiny .  He can be reached via info@gloemi.com

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