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Superpreneurs Are The Master Key To Development

By Dr. Nicholas Okoye
19 September 2015   |   12:20 am
In paper 5 I gave a deep insight into the benefits Superpreneurs and Masters of the Universe get from going the extra mile. I gave my personal experiences of how going the extra mile has profited me in life.

nicholas-okoyeIn paper 5 I gave a deep insight into the benefits Superpreneurs and Masters of the Universe get from going the extra mile. I gave my personal experiences of how going the extra mile has profited me in life. I made it clear that going the extra mile is a key strategy all businesses, entrepreneurs and professionals need to adapt in order to guarantee that you will get ahead. It works trust me and I have used it several times in my professional and business life. I have also sent it being used to great effect in politics and in business and for some people, even those that do not know that are using this strategy, have demonstrated a great understanding of the laws of the Universe which in my opinion guide our actions and reactions.

I remember when I was in secondary school, I studied at the Federal Government College Enugu and then went on to Federal Government College Okigwe, and I will never forget the activities of those who would later become our prefects and bosses. My now good friend, Amarachukwu Nwokedi, ( we were not so good friends when we were in school) would always be there for every teacher, he would make sure the class was in order, clean and he would take it upon himself to write down the names of noise makers and even supervise the punishment the noise makers got. You can guess whose name was always on the noise makers list. Yes you guessed it yours truly. I was always making noise in class when there was no teacher around and my name would always end up on Amarachukwu’s list which meant that I would be punished. I was not alone as all my close friends would always be on the noisy list as we would be talking about one movie or the other, or how much fun we had back at home during the holidays. In fact it got so bad that that as soon as the class became free and there was not going to be a teacher for say an hour or two, Amarachukwu would pull out his pen and paper, write down a heading titled “Names of Noise Makers” and go ahead to put my name as number one, Chima Nwana as number two and Emeka Osuji as number three. He did this because he knew that you could not have the three of us in one class without a teacher for five minutes and we would not set about providing the class with the jist on the latest movies by Stephen Spielberg.

This circle went on from our year one all the way up to fifth year. We would make noise in class and Amarachukwu or his evil twin Maculey Atasie would volunteer to write down the names of noise makers and when the teachers got back we the noise makers always got punished. We made fun of the guys writing the lists, we called them names, Teacher’s Pet, Teacher’s spy, etc, the names did not stop the name writing. Well in the end guess what, when we grew up a little and got to forth year and list of the School’s prefects came out. That list was to us what the like a list of Ministers is to Nigerians today. There was always major anticipation about the list of Prefects as it would mean that you joined a new elite group of students that could get extra food from the dining hall, you could stay up at night and you got to tell all the other students what they could and could not do. I thought the list would be made from the accomplishments you made as a student over the years. I was very accomplished. I was the fastest 100m racer in school and subsequently the entire Imo State, as I had beat every school runner. I was the best in Imo State at long jump and triple jump, and I led the four by 100m and the four by 400m relay team to championship races every year for three straight years in a row, meaning from my form two. I was also the President of Press Club, Vice President of Debating, Vice President of Cultural Club and so on. So I felt that if I did not get to be Sports Prefect I should at least be Cultural or Social prefect that is if all things are equal. However as have learnt all things are not equal. So when the list finally came out everybody was in high spirits. The principal called all students out to an assembly and then he took out a list from his pocket and then said, “if you hear your name you should come out”. You have probably guessed by now that Amarachukwu and Maculey become prefects. I think Maculey became Zebra house captain and Amarachukwu became Zebra house perfect, and Zebra just happened to be my house. This meant that officially these two chaps (we called them twins, but they were not related) were now my bosses. I think it was at that moment, more than twenty five years ago that I realized the value of going the extra mile. I told my friends that we had been taken. And that the joke was on us. These chaps were positioning themselves all along for these titles and they guaranteed themselves the title as a result of their dedication to keeping the class clean, keeping the noise makers in check and offering themselves to do anything the teachers wanted them to do. I was grateful that I did not have to wait too late in my life to learn this key lesson. And I pledged to myself that this would never happen to me again. In the future I would always be the one that would go the extra mile, in addition to be the best achiever, I felt that if I could combine achievement with going the extra mile then I would be a winner in life.
If you want to be a Master of the Universe then you really must be someone that goes the extra mile. There are so many benefits for you if you do. The most important one in life is that there will always be a job for anyone that can say the words “I will take care of it” and goes out and gets the job done. People just love a doer. Even the lazy people among us will never use a lazy hair dresser or a lazy taxi driver or a broken down restaurant. We are always looking for the best even if we do not have much money. We still want the best our money can buy. Well you should consider your services in that same way. If you offer services to an employer or you offer services directly to customers, always commit to excellence and just watch how they will keep depending on you and coming back to you until you become the boss or the leader in your field.

In the real World I ask questions all the time of my students, what is it that you do and do it so well that whenever people hear your name they will think of that service or when they need that service they will think of you? The only way you can position yourself in this respect is if you have been going the extra mile with the few customers you have will carry you far and wide.
The World is full of average people we do not need any more average people trust me. What we need are champions, super achievers people who have dedicated themselves to being the best they could possibly be and ripe the rewards from that experience. There is no Super Achiever out there in the World that did not get to the top by going the extra mile, in some cases the extra 100 miles. They are probably still doing it at their work place or in life. You must also commit to be a Super Achiever and so be on your way to becoming a Master of the Universe.

In Nigeria we have had quite a few heroes that have gone the extra mile at their job and have been able see the rewards. One person I will always remember is my loving big sister and Auntie Prof Dora Akunyili. She was appointed the Director General of a (at that time) sleepy agency which was responsible for the certification and the regulation of healthcare based medicine drugs and food in Nigeria, the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration (NAFDAC). Not long into her leadership the agency underwent a transformation. Prof Dora went not just the extra mile she went the extra one hundred miles. She went way above and beyond the call of duty and even put her life on the line in order to get rid of fake drugs in Nigeria that were killing young children. She fought the syndicates and they fought back. Eventually they actually made an attempt on her life and failed. She was not deterred and she went on fighting. In the end she became the most decorated Nigerian both in public and private life, in the international community receiving thousands of awards and recognition in almost every major country in the World. She became a Minister of the Federal Republic, even though I think the Yara ‘dua Administration made a big mistake making her the Minister of Information and Communications. If only they had made her the Minister of Health, I believe we will still be talking about the health legacy of Auntie Dora in the same way we are talking about her legacy in the fight against fake drugs.

Prof Dora is no longer physically with us; however I believe that Prof Dora Akunyili will be with us forever. She has written her name in stone and Nigeria will never forget. Recently Anambra State Government named a few monuments after her. However even though she is from Anambra State, the truth is that she worked for Nigeria. And it is Nigeria that must immortalize her name. She is a great case study for younger Nigerians on drive for peak performance, excellence and going the extra mile.
The fifteen golden rules of Superpreneurship are just getting started. I have discussed two of the rules and in the papers ahead I will take you into a World of Peak performance and Super Achievement the type of which many of our people have never seen. I strongly believe that Nigeria can be saved but it needs an army of new thinkers the kind of which I am talking about. If we do not commit to excellence then anything goes and trust me our Nation will eventually feel the weight of mass failure. Nationhood is about development and growth and producing an environment in which our people can support themselves. I see that we need to encourage more of our people to think about themselves as change agents, as super achievers and as Superpreneurs.

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