I hope you have had a good month so far. Mine has certainly been interesting. Even more interesting is the fact that summer has fully kicked in here and people have replaced grey dreary looking winter jackets for bright coloured summer outfits. I have even had the pleasure of viewing some bare-chested blokes who find the 20 something degrees Celsius temperature as a bit too much to handle. What can I say? Life is beautiful.

I watch a lot of TV series from Greys Anatomy, Big Bang Theory, to Suits. I can’t seem to get enough. Also, on those nights when I find myself awake, I go on YouTube to watch music videos. Sometimes I even watch really old ones just to reminisce about those days. Last night, after watch The Apprentice Finals, I did the same and somehow I found myself hooked on “Pretty Wings” by Maxwell; there is something about the song that makes me smile…

I digress…

So after what must have been the 20th time, I finally stopped myself from listening to Maxwell and decided to search for a song I used to play while doing my Saturday house chores back in Nigeria. As I settled into bed, my thoughts wandered back to those days when life was just about getting good grades and making my parents proud. As I gradually let myself fall into sleep’s warm embrace, I briefly opened my eyes one last time to look at the computer screen and to my pleasant surprise, I recognised the man playing lead male character in the music video as the same actor who plays a popular and one of my favourite characters on Greys Anatomy. I was surprised mainly because I know the video I was watching was old. I pushed away the covers, moved closer to the laptop screen just to make sure my eyes were not deceiving me, pulled back the progress slider, watched for a while, and there he was again.

Now fully awake and excited, I embarked on the task of watching other videos just on the off chance that I would spot some now famous TV personality and sure enough, I found them. People who we now recognise as famous were once a little more than extras in old music videos. Those must have indeed been the days of humble beginnings.

I marvelled as I pondered about this. Surely anyone looking at how popular these actors are now, and how much they make would not realise that they for many years had to take on relatively irrelevant roles on their road to success. Rather than quit, they carried on doing what they believed in and were eventually rewarded with success and the fame that comes with it.

The truth of the matter is that there are very few successful people who have made success on their first attempts. Most have had to keep trying and trying and even become involved in endeavours that have not quite been at the same level they desired, but never lost sight of the dream until they were finally rewarded with success.

This principle also applies to other industries and various other aspects of life. Sadly, majority of people only recognise successful people only after they have succeeded and automatically want to be identified with that level of success without realising that before the success were many tries and tears, a lot of time had been spent behind the scenes.

Just as a seed doesn’t the instant you put it in the ground, it first has to die and survive the elements of weather before it germinates and eventually becomes a tree, in the same vein, lasting success never comes overnight. You have to try and try again, keeping the dream alive even when your immediate surrounding suggests otherwise.

Let this be a source of encouragement for you, no matter what situation you are currently trying to succeed in, be it a business, landing a better job, a health issue, family issues, losing weight, whatever it is, know this;

Success doesn’t always come at the first try, you just have to keep trying and getting up after every apparent failure. Chances are you could only be one more failure away from the success you dream of.

I hope you have a very pleasant weekend ahead.

Love,
Chika

Image credit: businessinsider.com