Stop complaining about the Nigerian environment; create your own environment

“Champions make adjustment, not excuses” -Anonymous

The best way to live in Nigeria is to create an environment around you that is not Nigerian. If you live in a Nigerian environment, you will ALWAYS obtain the Nigerian result.

I have learnt the secret of creating my own environment. This way, I find it very easy to get my desired result. Though situations and environment can stop us temporarily, but we are the only ones that can stop “us” permanently. No situation must be the reason why you fail in life; rise above the challenges.

I have come to realise that until we cultivate the habit of living above our excuses, we will continue to live an inferior life.

Why do you keep complaining about the educational system in Nigeria when you are living in a global village, where educational opportunities abound everywhere?

We now have numerous free online programmes with which you can improve yourself and further enlarge your curriculum vitae. There are various scholarship programmes in many foreign universities that are easily accessible.

Two young men went to India to invest their resources. They both saw the Indians walking barefooted, some did it out of tradition and others out of poverty.

The two friends pondered deeply on the prevailing situation and eventually, they made their choice. One said: “Business will be bad here, let’s change location.” The other gave it a thought and said: “No, let’s change the situation.”

The more optimistic young man started producing cheap plastic shoes that the Indians could buy. This young positive man, Thomas Jacob Hilfiger, became a multimillionaire in dollars and owner of lifestyle brand, Tommy Hilfiger Corporation.

In Bill Gates’ time, there was just only one computer in his high school. Sometimes he did some menial jobs in school then, just to have access to the computer.

Today he has pioneered a revolution that ensured virtually everyone in a family has a Personal Computer (PC) or a laptop or a tablet. Gates didn’t wait for the perfect condition; he created his own.

Steve Jobs made up his mind to redesign mobile phones in such a way that they would be able to perform the work of a PC. He once said that his mission was to put the PC in phones.

Today, there is virtually nothing that your PC does that you can’t do on the mobile phone.

Gates and Jobs weren’t complaining about their environment, instead they designed a better one.

The change we are seeing in the world today didn’t come from people that were complaining about their environment; it came through people that decided to create theirs.

We really need to understand that we can’t create while we are complaining. In fact, complaining drains innovation and initiatives. Stop whining and start winning. If you keep complaining about the Nigerian environment, you will always be frustrated by your result.

I implore Nigerians to take ownership and responsibility for their lives through the following points.
Create/Design Your Own Environment

Abraham Lincoln once said: “The best way to predict the future is to design it.” Instead of complaining about your situation, why don’t you create one?

See Opportunities Instead Complaining
Benjamin Franklin said: “Every problem is an opportunity in disguise.” Personally, I don’t see problems in Nigeria; I only see opportunities.

What keep people ahead in life is simply the opportunity that they seized. The real genius of the richest man in Africa, Aliko Dangote, is in his ability to transform challenges into opportunities and opportunities into wealth.

When other entrepreneurs termed the Nigerian environment unfavourable and uneconomical, Dangote surmounted the hurdle to open economical doors where hitherto there were walls.

Do you really know why Dangote is the richest in Nigeria? It is because he is the one that least complain in Nigeria. Have you ever seen Aliko Dangote complain about the Nigerian situation? The man is so busy looking for solutions that he forgot to complain.

And you sit there every day complaining. No wonder you are so poor. Dangote just listens to people’s complain and looks out for how to solve it- this is the secret of his wealth. Your complaints actually are his own inspirations.

Excuses and complaints will always be there for you; opportunity won’t.

Limit Your Limitations
No matter the limitation you are going through in the Nigerian environment, you can limit your limitations. Circumstances do not limit a man; they only reveal him to himself.

Victor Frankl once said: “Our lives depend on decisions and not conditions.”

Though there are so many limiting factors in the Nigerian environment, but we must aggressively work towards limiting their effect on our aspirations.

Always Be Positive
Tom Ziglar said: “Negative people don’t want solutions; solutions mean they have to work to find something else to be negative about.”

Some people are so negative about the Nigerian situation that they have become blinded to the possibility of a better and new Nigeria. The way Nigerians talk negatively about Nigeria is actually one of the things that have perpetuated the decadence in this nation. I have never seen any country attracting much vituperation from her citizens like Nigeria.

The major problem that we need to overcome in Nigeria is our myopic and negative views about the state of things. It is apparently true that you can’t feature in a future you can’t picture. The future belongs to those who see possibilities before they become obvious.

Don’t Wait For Perfect Conditions
The Bible made us to understand the fallibility of human environment, when it said: “If you wait for the perfect condition, you will not get anything done.”

If you really want to achieve greatness while still living in Nigeria, never wait for the perfect condition. The reason is that it simply doesn’t exist.

Be Part Of The Solution And Not The Problem
Steven Covey said: “Be part of the solution, not the problem.

When the only thing one can see is problem, then one cannot see the solution. In life, you are either part of the solution or part of the problem. Don’t find fault; find remedy.

Stop The Victim’s Mentality
People with victim mentality always believe that their problems are not their fault and always see themselves as victims of life’s situations.

They believe strongly that someone, something or a government is responsible for their predicament. They are not capable of being honest with themselves and accepting responsibility for their lives. They are unable to see how their own steps, actions, inactions and negligence have brought them to where they are presently.

Most of our youths are thronging out of the country for the wrong reasons because of their victim mentality. The Nigerian environment has nothing to offer to people that see themselves as victims.

Be The Change
The world is changed by your example, not your opinion. I have realised that with a change of perspective, what we are really complaining about might just be what we have been called to change.

Nigeria has become a country where everybody is desirous of change, but nobody wants to be responsible for that change.

Barrack Obama once said: “Change will not come if we wait for some other person or some other time. We are the ones we’ve been waiting for. We are the change that we seek.”

John Fitzgerald Kennedy (JFK) inspired a whole nation with one of his awe-inspiring quotes: “My fellow Americans, ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country.”

We must intervene in the Nigerian situation and stop leaving everything to the government.

Mahatma Gandhi said: “Be the change that you wish to see in the world.”

Albert Einstein said: “Problems cannot be solved by the same level of thinking that created them.”

We are in serious need of youths that can think differently, youths that will proffer solutions to the avalanche of problems that have beleaguered the nation.

I want to emphatically encourage the Nigerian youths to have a major shift in their approach to national problems, as the problems that abound around us are invitation for us to be creative, dynamic and impactful.

Let us all join the revolutionary march for the evolution of a new Nigeria. Our greatest opportunity will ultimately come from our nagging problems. Our problems are not meant to stop us, but rather give us direction.