THE 10,000 HOUR PRINCIPLE

Book Tittle: OUTLIERS
Author: MALCOLM GLADWELL
Reviewer: MATTHEW UJAH-PETER 

Is there such a thing as innate talent? The answer of course, is yes. But Malcolm Gladwell in Outliers reveals that opportunity and preparation, not talent, are chiefly responsible for top performance. According to Gladwell, findings show that when one puts up to 10,000 hours of practice into any endeavours that lies in the path of his innate talents with a view to becoming better in it, he would doubtless become a world class performer in it. An experiment that was carried out in Berlin Elite Academy of Music proved this, according to Gladwell.

The students were separated into three groups according to their level of skills and quality of performance. The elite performers were found to have put in enough hours of practice and rehearsals and had totalled at least 10,000 hours of practising with their musical instruments by the time they were 20 years of age. These were regarded as highly talented world class performers. The second group made up of those regarded as very good instrumentalists were found to have totalled between 7,000 to 8,000 hours of practice. The third group was made up of those who would later become instructors in schools and were studying with the view to becoming instructors in schools and were found to have totalled over 4,000 hours of practice with the view of improving their skills.

Researchers have settled for 10,000 hours as the magic number of hours of practice that guarantee true expertise. To truly be a top or world class performer, 10, 000 hours must be invested into learning and practice in any field of endeavour. To pound home this truth Gladwall takes the reader on a trip into the lives of well known outliers such as Bill Joy, Bill Gates, The Beatles, etc.

According to Gladwell, it was Bill Joy (sometimes referred to as Edison of the Internet), working in collaboration with a small group, who rewrote UNIX, which was originally developed by AT & T for mainframe computers. Joy’s version was said to be so good that it became and remains the operative system on which literally millions of computers around the world run. As Bill Joy himself said, ‘’if you put your mac in that funny mode where you can see the code, I see things that I remember typing in twenty five years ago.’’ (at the time of publishing outliers). And do you know who wrote much of the software that allows you to access the Internet? Bill Joy did. It was he who rewrote the computer language called java, and in Gladwell’s words, ‘’... his legend grew’’.

But Bill Joy’s success was not just because he had talents by the truckloads. When Joy was learning programming, computers were the size of rooms. Those were the days of mainframe computers when computers were rare and programming was extremely hard and tedious, and that is, if you were fortunate to find a computer and gain access to it. If you managed to gain access to one, it would cost you a fortune to rent a time on it.

The year was 1971, the same year that Joy was admitted into the University of Michigan. The computer centre happened to open in the same university that same year. Joy was only sixteen and was voted ‘’the most studious student’’ by his high school. He was not at the university to study computer or programming. But when he stumbled across that newly opened computer centre in his freshman year, he became attracted and in Gladwell’s word, ‘’he was hooked.’’ From then on he buried himself in the world of programming and computer software. By 1975, Joy enrolled in graduate school of the University of California, Berclay. He even got a job with a computer science professor so he could program any time he could.

These were the opportunities that greeted Bill Joy. He found himself by the happiest of accidents in the few places in the world where, as a teenager, he could have enough access to the rarest of machine and work with it for as much time as he wanted. ‘’I lived in the north campus, and the computer centre was in the north campus’’, Joy revealed. The computer centre opened 24-hours and Joy stayed there all night to programme. ‘’In an average week in those years, I was spending more time in the computer centre than in my classes,’’ Joy said. ‘’At Michigan, I was probably programming eight or ten hours in a day. By the time I was at Berclay I was doing it day and night. I had a terminal at home. I’d stay up until two or three O’clock in the morning...programming.’’ When he paused to do the math, he concluded that he must have put in ‘’so, so may be...ten thousand hours?’’

If we scratch below the surface of other great achievers, do we always find the equivalence of the Bill Joy’s experience? First, let’s again look at the stream of opportunities that came Joy’s way. Just as in the game of basketball, for instance an aspiring pro must first have the height and then other things such as skills, discipline, etc., Joy had the talent to give him the head start. He was a maths wizkid. But all maths wizkids don’t end up going to the University of Michigan at a time when the computer centre was opened and had a bug in it where someone could figure out that if you put in ‘’time equals’’ and then letter, like t equals k, they wouldn't charge you, then you could sit there forever learning programming.

 Since the school was willing to spend the money to keep the computer centre open twenty four hours, he could stay up all night and put in as much hour as was needed to become a skilful programmer. He was able to pay the due - the number of hours required to come top as a renowned programmer. And he was ready and up to the task by the time the opportunity to rewrite UNIX came his way. Thus his willingness to learn and gain mastery in the art of programming helped him along with his innate talent to prepare him for the big brake ahead.


Let’s turn to another outlier whose history Gladwell  ties to the 10,000 hour rule along with the gifts of opportunity and legacy: Bill Gates. Gates undoubtedly towers above Joy in fame. But both share a common thread that run through their stories. Bill Gates too, started out as a brilliant, young maths wizkid.  Then, he dropped out of Harvard, founded Microsoft with his pal, Paul Allen, and through sheer brilliance, vision and plucks built Microsoft into a multinational software organisation from the scratch and went on to become a world richest man. Wow! Now, those are lines you probably must have become bored with. But, let’s scratch below the surface of Gate’s history and see if those lines fit well into the underlining factors of this outlier’s resounding success.

‘’Gate’s father was a wealthy lawyer in Seattle, and his mother was the daughter of a well-to-do banker’’, says Gladwell. Just like Joy, Gates had stream of opportunities lined up ahead. He was taken out of public school and sent to a private school that catered to Seattle’s elite families. There midway through his second year, the school started a computer club that was sponsored by the mother’s club. This was 1968 and most colleges did not even have a computer in those days. But here is a high school with a state-of-the-art computer facility.

Amazingly, the type of computer installed in that high school club was what was called ASR-33 Teletype – a time sharing terminal with direct link to a mainframe computer. This was totally different and a world apart from the computer Bill Joy used which was a far more laborious means of learning programming back in those days. Now, while Bill Joy learned programming by time sharing system right in 1971 as a sixteen year old freshman at the University of Michigan, Bill Gates  was already learning programming via real time  as an eighth grader back in 1968. Gates lived virtually in the computer room from that moment onwards. But buying time on the mainframe computer was expensive. Thanks to the Mother’s Club who put up 3,000 Dollars. When that amount of money ran out, the parents raised more money. Again the students spent it.

At the time a group of programmers at the University of Washington formed the Computer Centre Corporation (C-Cubed) which leased computer time to local companies. Fortunately for Gates, a student in his school happened to be the son of one of the founders of C-Cubed. Monique Rona, the parent of the boy wondered if the Lakeside School (Gates’ school) computer club would like to test out C-Cubed’s software programme on the weekends in exchange for free programming time.

Gates jumped at the offer. He would take the bus after school to the C-Cubed office and programmed long into the evening. Well, eventually C-Cubed went bankrupt and Gates started hanging around with his friends near the computer centre of the University of Washington.  Before long, a door of opportunity opened at the Information Science Incorporation (ISI). ISI agreed to let them have free computer time in exchange for working on a piece of software that could be used to automate company payrolls.

‘’It was my obsession’’, Gates said. ‘’I skipped athletics. I went up there at night...it would be a rare week that we wouldn’t get twenty or thirty hours in. There was a period when Paul Allen and I got in trouble for stealing a bunch of passwords and crashing the system. We got kicked out....This is when I was fifteen and sixteen. Then I found out Paul had found a computer that was free at the University of Washington. They had this machine in the medical centre and the physics department. They were on twenty-four- hour schedule, but with this big black period, so that between three and six in the morning, they never scheduled anything. I’d leave at night after my bedtime. I could walk up to the University of Washington from my house or I’d take the bus. That’s why I’m always so generous to the University of Washington, because they let me steal so much computer time.’’ Gates narrated.

Malcolm Gladwell

Again, fortune smiled on Bill Gates when one of the founders of ISI, Bud Pemboke was called from TWR, a technology company which had just signed a contract to set up a computer system at Bonneville Power Station in Southern Washington. Programmer familiar with the particular software the power station used was desperately needed. This was the early days of the computer revolution and programmers with that king of specialized experience were difficult to find. But Pemboke knew that those high school kids from Lakeside who have being running up thousands of hours of computer time on their mainframe would perfectly foot the bill. Bill Gates and his friends were contacted. Gates was now in his senior year and somehow managed to convince his teachers to let him decamp for Bronneville under the guise of an independent study project. There under the supervision of John Norton, and with Norton’s help he wrote codes.

Gates, as it turned out was presented with even greater opportunities than Bill Joy. When Gates started programming at an even younger age-three years before Joy, Joy probably don’t even know what programming or computer was. So by the time Gates dropped out of Harvard, he had already put in hours and hours non-stop, programming for at least seven consecutive years. He was able to pay the 10,000 hour price. How many kids in the world back in the 1960s and 1970s had so much opportunities such as were piled on each other along both Joy’s and Gates’ ways? As the saying goes, ‘’Luck is when preparation meet opportunity.

OUTLIERS -The Matthew Effect

THE MATTHEW EFFECT

The author of this classic expose on success argues that extra-ordinary achievement is less about talent than it is about preparation, opportunities and legacies. He digs deeper into the Canadian Hockey League and other sporting leagues across Europe to tie in factors that engender success in the players with what he termed ‘’The Matthew Effect’’. As alluded to in the gospel of Matthew 25:29, those to whom legacies and opportunities that favour success were given cannot but stand out from the pack. The legacies and opportunities bequeathed to them indeed aided them and offer smoother sails to success when combined with preparation.

Conversely, those we regard as non-performers or mediocre, are the ones whom by the virtue of their circumstances such as birth dates, had the odds stacked up against them. The system favours some people more than others. When all is said and done at the end of the day it all boils down to one truth. People don’t become successful in spite of their circumstances. They become successful because of it.

As Gladwell analyses the histories of hockey players, famous musical groups like the Beatles, ICT experts such as Bill Joy and Bill Gates, as well as other geniuses and outliers, a good picture of the path to success emerges. Lucky breaks no longer appear as the exceptions. They are the rules.

BOOKS: A Collections of Quotes on Books

These are not books, lumps of lifeless paper, 
but minds alive on the shelves. From each of
them goes out its own voice... and just as the 
touch of a button on our set will fill the room 
with music, so by taking down one of these 
volumes and opening it, one can call into range 
the voice of a man far distant in time and space,
and hear him speaking to us, mind to mind, 
heart to heart. ~Gilbert Highet

That place that does contain
My books, the best companions, is to me
A glorious court, where hourly I converse
With the old sages and philosophers;
And sometimes, for variety, I confer
With kings and emperors, and weigh their counsels;
Calling their victories, if unjustly got,
Unto a strict account, and, in my fancy,
Deface their ill-placed statues.
~Francis Beaumont and John Fletcher

IS THERE SUCH A THING AS TIME MANAGEMENT?

By Matthew Ujah-Peter

Food is enjoyable so that we would want to eat it for our own good. Food, while enjoyable is not primarily for that purpose. The primary purpose of food, of course, is for our bodily well being and growth. But it has to be enjoyable and pleasing to us, else most of us may not eat. Imagine if all foods are either bitter or tasteless! Not many people will eat three times a day. If we do it will be under compulsion and reluctantly and we will definitely not eat enough quantity for our bodily growth and strength. How terrible will life be, then? Have you ever wondered? 

Most children's medicines such as baby syrups are sweetened and I'm sure it was so designed to encourage babies take them. Adult's drugs need not be sweetened. They are made for adults and adults know what is good for them - bitter or sweet. That pharmacist made most baby medicine sweet is not an indication that they want babies to reach for them each time they feel like taking something sweet. Sleep is enjoyable. But the primary purpose for sleep is not for that. It is for rest and recuperation. Even, if you hate to sleep. A time will come when you won't be able to hold it. You will fall asleep without warning if you proved stubborn and goes without it for days. Sleep is wired into us to help us rest and be refreshed and to start again. Though, one can sleep any time one wants to, we sleep mostly in the night because that is the time when we cannot do many other things. It is the time when everyone was suppose to rest. And when you wake up in the morning, it is another day and you can start (afresh) again.

Over-indulgence is an abuse. Abuse means abnormal use. When you use sleep for the sole purpose of 'enjoyment' and not necessary for rest you are abusing it. Why should you sleep from 10pm to 7am when you are not ill? Under normal situation, that is an abuse much more sleeping all day or all night for an upwards of 12 hours.  Sleeping time must not be allowed to eat into our work time. When you check it very well you will find that there are a lot to do for which more times should be created. Everyone of us is given 24 hours a day and nobody have 25 hours. But that 24 ours must be used judiciously. The time we throw into the so-called enjoyments or 'good times', be it eating, drinking, sleeping, partying, etc, can take a lot out from our lives. Time is an expensive capital and nobody has more of it, save the ones who 'create'  more out of his daily schedule.

The people referred to as 'having time' for something either deliberately 'create' the time or have no other more important use of the time. Idleness is simply having no use for your time. There are people in this world who have money but have no use for it. Others have house but no use for it. Still many have other material things but have no use for them. But the worst of it all is to have time but have no use for it. It is a tragedy to have no use for one's time.

CREATING TIME

No, you can't, in reality, create time. Time has already being created and given to you. It's your daily 24 hours. It's yours. Though, technically, no one can really create time, when we use the word 'create', we actually mean doing away or foregoing other things that take up our time space in other to devote such time space for more important things and activities. You can't manage it either. It's not time that need being managed, but you and your activities. Any time I pass by a place and see people sitting down doing nothing for a long time,  realising that it is not that they're resting, I often wondered why people could be so idle. 'At least they could get a book and read', I would say within myself. Don't get me wrong. There is nothing wrong with hanging around playing with friends. Spending time with friends is part of good investment to which one can put time. But even that can be over done or wrongly done. Time can be invested just as money is invested. Time wasted is lost forever. Time is an intangible asset. You may not be able to see and feel it but it's a powerful and one of the most expensive resources given to every one of us. Those who value it pay for it. They buy other people's time. While people who don’t value time could just throw it into useless activities and idleness.

Don't you know that your failure in something is actually your success in another? Check it and see every one is a success at something. Beggars, rubbers, thieves, cun artists, drunkards, medical doctors, the handy man, carpenters, footballers, everyone is a success by the name they are called. They succeeded in becoming the names you called them as a result of the time they throw into the practice that turn them into that thing you called them. If they had invested that same amount of time into other things than what they are now known for, they would equally be called that. What you put the greater chunk of your time into will finally define you. What you spend more time in is what you become.

TAKING CHARGE

Have you noticed that when you arrive late for a meeting or even into an examination hall as a student, you hardly get properly composed for that meeting or exams? To get properly composed you must arrive early, sit down and get into the mood of the environment. It's the same with our daily living. When you wake up early enough each morning you will be properly composed to get a proper handle of the day from its beginning. Especially if you create time for and meditate, plan and pray about the day. This helps you take charge of the day and come prepared to meet every opportunity or challenge that the day presents. When you are prepared like this you seem to gain the mastery over the things that others loses control about. When you do not come into the day like this, just like arriving late into an exam hall and unprepared you are likely to lose your control and composure and miss where you should hit the target.

Success is the achieved every day. The polite greetings, the prompt replies and the help you give to people as you go through the day adds up to score your success ratings for the day in even in life, generally. When you fail to prepare for the day hurries into your activities, you're not relaxed and that can translate into being unfriendly with people. The thing is that we are too used to such an unprepared style of daily living that we do not know their negative effects and how much we are losing out in life and the things and heights we have failed to attain because of that. We must learn to manage our lives and activities and to practice to handle each day from its beginning through waking up early, meditation, prayer and planning. Herein lies the victory. When every day is handled well they add up to a successful life over time.

The elements and social circumstances that make up our atmosphere and environments are there to help us not to pamper us. We are however designed to conquer, tame, manage and have the mastery over them. The cold weather, the rains, the heats, the mosquitoes, the lack of electricity and other social amenities in this part of the globe and so on, will never bow to laziness. They will control you and your circumstances if you fail to subdue them. People say 'what is mine will come to me.' Not true in every case. There are lot of things that you deserve or need that will never come to you where you are unless you get up and go for them. Others will come to you only if there are efforts on your part to get them. If you don't, remember other people are. Nothing is really physically having your name labelled on them. You are the one to get up and go get your name engraved on them. This means work. Work means discipline and self management.

MAXIMUM RESPECT!

LIVING INTENTIONALLY - A BOOK BY TOPE POPOOLA

Book Tittle: LIVING INTENTIONALLY
Author: TOPE POPOOLA
Publishers: HERITEK SUPPORT SERVICES
Pages: 170
Date of Publication: 2009
Reviewer: MATTHEW UJAH-PETER


This book reminds me of a story I once read about a boy who asked his father,
''father, when a person sleeps he can wake up, right?''
''Right'', replied his father.
''But, what about if he's awake, can he still wake up?"

The answer to that question lies within the pages of Tope Popoola's Living Intentionally.
 Popoola posits in the prologue of this  timely book that ''...you can only be said to have succeeded when you are consistently working in line with your Maker's original design and blue print for your life.'' 

''...and David, after he had in his generation, served the counsel of God, fell asleep and was laid unto his fathers...."
 - Acts 13:36.

In the word of Harold Thurman Whitman, as quoted by the author,  ''Don't ask yourself what the world needs - ask yourself what makes you come alive, and then do it. Because what the world needs is the people who have come alive.

As I read the story of Joseph in Genesis chapters 39 through 48, my attention is drawn to Tope Popoola's Living Intentionally - which I read about 3 years earlier.  Due to the way this book had impacted and challenged me, I decide to weave my own personal thoughts into this review.

 Needless to bore you  with Joseph's story, I realized in a deeper sense of the word that his special gift - his ability to interpret dreams - was the major factor that gave him the energy to ''come alive.'' Unless, he did not realize how much his brothers hated him already, ( for without the dreams he was already hated for being their father's pet ) how in the world could he have faced those terrifying eyes, looking them  straight in the eyes and telling them that in his dream their sheaves did indeed bowed down to his. There was an obvious note of excitement in his voice, and more than that was the energy and boldness with which he spoke. 

"...all his brothers, they hated him and could not speak peaceably with him... . Now, Joseph had a dream and told it to his brothers and they hated him even more.....so, they  hated him even more for his dream and for his word.....then he dreamed still another dream and told it to his brothers...'' (Gen.37:4-11).

But for divine intervention and arrangement, his ''running mouth'' would have earned him a trip to the  great beyond. His brothers did not know what was in motion - that their envy would become instrumental to the fulfillment of the dreams they so hated to hear.


WHAT IS ''IT''?
''And when he was fully forty years old, IT came into his heart to visit his brethren the children of Israel.'' (Acts 7:3).

''Everyone dreams of making 'it', even if they can not define what the 'it' is", says Popoola in the first chapter. "We can see the so-called successful people with fleet of cars, designer's wear, big house and we say he has made 'it'".

'IT' entered into Moses' heart to visit his brethren...'' 'IT' is that thing that keeps you awake at night while others sleep. 'IT' was what kept Joseph telling his brothers his dreams in the face of oppositions. 'IT' gives you joy even in the middle of oppositions. 'IT' took Jesus to the cross. Popoola  argues that 'it' is not about  acquiring cars and designers wears. 'IT' is your number one investment capital to provide answer to questions and cries of many.

Immediately 'it' entered into Moses's heart, he was no longer the same person again as he became willing to forsake the luxuries and comforts of the palace to go after 'it'. So, 'it' is your assignment in life. ''the best cure for envy is to discover your own 'it''' Popoola says.

God did not place man in the garden of Eden to toil in it. God's intention for man is not toils. Man began to toil when he left Eden garden. When you find your Eden, your toils ceases. The author challenges his reader to embark on the journey to discovering his or her own garden of Eden and stop  blaming Eve or the serpent. He further show his readers how to embark on this journey of discovery of Eden. Among the several questions you will answer to help you discover your Eden, according to the author, are :
- what problem do you notice in the society or community that others don't seem to notice?
- what pain of humanity do you feel?
- what kind of discussions gets your adrenaline pumping?
- etc.

Living Intentionally is one book that is sure to put speed into your life walk and help you pulsate with life. It will help give a sense of accountability for every moment, opportunity and privilege at our disposals. This, perhaps is a book written for Africans having in mind the peculiarity of our environment and circumstances because will help open the readers eyes to the treasures and opportunities around rather than only seeing the lacks in the society.

Popoola says that life is not a rehearsal, it is the real thing. ''Wake up'', he says, ''the play has started. ''Every new born baby enters this world with a clenched fist as if to announce to the world, ''I brought something for you.'' Conversely, all men die with their hands wide open as if they were saying, ''I left it all here.''

He challenges his reader to rise above a life style of excuses saying, ''if you are willing to pay a price and then turn around to name your wages, life comes up with the resources to pay.'' He further says that every life has a story. Every man has a history. The unfortunate thing is that many people have come to accept their biography as their future, their experience as their destiny. Know this for sure: you cannot succeed beyond your story! Success has story, so does failure.

Successful people are those who have learned to build a platform for motivation from their stories while failures are those who have turned  their stories into an excuse, a crutch, an unfortunate support system that validates a crippled mind. when  the looser  sees a rose, he complains about the thorns. When a winner sees the same thing, he admire the beauty of the rose.
      
THE SABOTAGING STORY
The author talks about the sabotaging stories about our past failures that affect our thinking, forming a mindset that further affect our outlook on life and by extension give us a wrong estimate of our own ability, worth and potentials. This in turn impede our progress thereby creating a vicious cycle of failure. The perfectly scripted sabotaging stories that most often totally eclipsed our desire for the real things that we want out of life compound the whole thing in combination with what he called ''the fall back position'' which gives our stories a soft landing. This comfort zone which provides our stories the cushioning pad becomes our ultimate limitation.

The sabotaging stories could range from anything like ''my boss doesn't like me'', or '' I have no money'', or ''I'm from a poor background'', or '' I grew up in a village'',  or ''I have no connection'', or ''the government has not provided the necessary facilities, and so on. Popoola says you can't achieve beyond your best excuse. This reminds me of the saying that ''excuse limits a man.'' He urged the reader not to pick up an excuse when he/she finds one. one great reason to succeed dwarfs twenty reasons not to.''

The truth be told,  all of us have one or two sabotaging stories and we can not pretend that there's isn't one in our lives. But walking past it is the key. How do you do that? Think about how long you have being telling yourself and others that same story over and over. Has that helped? Look for and find a compelling WHY for the attainment of your dreams. Tell yourself that story for the last time but don't put a full stop this time around and realize that you have a far more noble reason for living than the sabotaging story. This will help give you the energy to walk past that story.

The author listed questions that you can ask yourself to help program your mind which will turn you into the kind of person that you need to be to be able to truly walk past the damaging stories that have kept you back for too long.

BUILD RELATIONSHIP
''Nobody succeeds all by himself'' This is the tone and message of this chapter on relationship building. The author believe that we must build relationship to a level of friendship rather than mere acquaintances. Friendship according to him is ''being naked without being ashamed in the presence of the other. Friendship, as he posits is sincerity. faithfulness, enduring, nurturing, dependable, nourishing, sacrificial, inspiring and purpose centered.

There will be ''friends'' who will challenge you to greater heights. It is not only those friends that wish you well and give you positive feed backs or who are careful not to offend you that will help push you up . But even those  that love or hate you enough to tell you things that even though will hurt you, that will dare you to do things you never would have ventured into out of your comfort zone. There are people who will tell you to your face that you are a none-entity, a never do well and worthless individual. These may be seen as the ''enemies'' but will dare you to prove yourself - to prove a point not necessary to them but to yourself.

THE EVIL OF ENVY
Envy, according to the author, is admiration turned upside down. What envy desire and cannot have, they despised. He further said that if you always belittle others, you will always be little. The envious person believes he is more qualified for something, even when he is not willing to pay the price. Envy sometimes creeps into our hearts unnoticed. The envious person most times do not realize that the force driving him is the venom called envy.

What is the cure for envy? Contentment. Contentment is not being  satisfied with the status quo ''it is about learning to enjoy where you are on the way to where you are going'', says popoola. We must learn to genuinely celebrate the success of other people. This will not only contribute to your own happiness and contentment, but boost your hope and give you the ability and humility to learn the ropes from successful people.

Contentment is the quality of being grateful for what you have and the place you are, now. ''It pays to realize that your present level of frustration is another man's level of aspiration'', says the author. Arrest every tinge of resentment, envy, against any one due to what they have and realize that ''God is no respecter of person, but  of Principles''. If you see something in someone that you admire, do not be ashamed, afraid or hesitate to ask them to show you the ropes. A key to happiness is to celebrate others in their accomplishments.

THE POWER OF ROUTINE
''...and as His custom was, he went into the synagogue on the sabbath day, and stood up for to read'' - (Lk4:16)

'' I have discovered that champions do regularly what ordinary men are only willing to do occasionally.'' Popoola writes.
There must be something you must be doing regularly towards the achievement of your dreams in life. A successful actor must be involved in regular grueling hours of rehearsals and memorizes his lines until he assume that part.  Bestselling authors write every day: world class musicians play their instruments every day. Great singers rehearse songs every day. Sport stars train every day even in the face of contrary weather conditions.

You must have a private routine that prepares you for your public appearance. The Olympic medalist we celebrate did not start yesterday. Years of  routine practice went into those medals. The soccer stars we celebrate as highest goal scorers in fact had missed far more goals than they scored. There are no accidental success. Over night success took so many nights to manifest. Succeed is a results of constant, persistent, continuous hard work with many failures in between.

In reality, nobody likes routines. Routines are boring. But when the routines are within the path of your inner natural born abilities and potentials, the passion that is embed in that natural ability will provide you with the catalyst to overcome the boredom. And over time, that routine will metamorphose into a winning habit. Another way to surmount the boredom of routine is to see clearly what is at stake.

Another component of Power Routine, according to Popoola, is the practice of keeping notes. Record important events. Quoting Anthony Robinson who said that ''if your life is worth living, it is worth recording'', Popoola pounds home the truth and the efficacy of record keeping. He urges the reader to keep record of appointments. Plan your daily activities. Put them priority list for each day, each week,  and each month. Learn to return calls. Finally, be sure to stick to your routine and success is guarantee.

KILL PROCRASTINATION BEFORE IT KILLS YOU
 We often hardly ever get around to do eventually those things we procrastinate in many cases. Never fall to the temptation that you will be less busy tomorrow. May be you will, but does it always happen? Do not be involved in the practice of giving to tomorrow what belongs to today, tomorrow has its own challenges and issues that you are not aware of today. The time space you think you have tomorrow may already have other things gunning for it and will probably rise up to take up that space.

Most things worth doing are not usually convenience at the time. Procrastination is a monster that must be fought off on a daily basis. A major victory you must be sure to win every single day is the one over the monster called procrastination. You see, whenever you do not feel like carrying out a task, or want to do something there will be a thousand and one reasons to postpone them. Procrastination do not announce itself. It comes as 'tiredness', bad moods, 'inconveniences', etc. But the moment you snap out and get to doing the task, it flee with its tail tucked in between its legs like a frightened dog.

Habits - both good and bad ones - are products of routines. Acquiring the right habits takes the discipline to stick to your routine. It is the right habits that leads to success. You will become more perfect at what you do regularly. The most important thing in life, according to Popoola, follows routines:
 - breathing
 - our heart beats
 - transition between night and day
 - season of the year, etc.

David had being practicing his slingshots in the wilderness before it attracts divine backing at the time it mattered most. Popoola asserts that your chance of doing the wrong thing diminishes when you constantly do the right things. ''Your consistency will attract attention to you'', he says. He challenges the reader to exercise staying-power by  turning our act into an art and our art into a science through what he called ''stick-to-itiveness'' for you are recognized for  what you are celebrated for.

He also challenges the reader to create his power routines around relationship too. In other words, while you are busy with your routine, time should also  be created for relationship development and your relationship should be three facet:
 - with God
 - with family and
 - people relevant to your life assignment

Routine must also be created with time management / time consciousness, financial management, as well as one's core values - you must live by a higher sets of moral standards. You must also create a routine around your physical health and well being through regular exercise, rest, etc.

Also, you must learn the art of documentation. Document agreements / dealings. Creating structures for wealth is not convenient.  Sticking to your routines is not convenience. Most people who have great ideas think it is for tomorrow and they lost them for the tomorrow they wait for never arrived.

TIME IS PRECIOUS
Popoola says that '' losers wastes time. Mediocre spends time. Winners invest time." ''When you 'kill' time you are committing suicide. As long as you have time there is no need to complain about what you  lack. The people that are giving great responsibilities are those who are already busy with important things. Great responsibilities are not given to loafers and idle people. Jesus called twelve disciples to follow Him for a new and greater responsibility. All twelve were already engaged in something else before He called them. Idleness is a crime against success. The Scriptures say that ''For whosoever hath, to him shall be given, and he shall have more abundance: but whosoever hath not, from him shall be taken away even that he hath.''

LESSONS FROM THE PAST
While the memory of the past can haunt and hurt us, imagination and dreams of the future can project and propel us beyond present pains and the status quo. Every body has a past - good and bad - while there is no denying the fact that the past is like a movie replaying on the screen of our minds to either spur or stop us,  we can choose to create a newer and more powerful paintings and movies for the future on the canvas of our minds to help pull or push us towards the desired future.

To avoid repeating history, the wise thing to do is to learn from them, especially if they are negative. If we carry on with the past it is possible to re-enact it or repeat its occurrence. It is like putting one foot on the break and another one on the throttle and wonder why you are not moving. The past is a weight. It is safer and faster to travel light. Rather let the positive past feed you with the feed back for better performance. The victories and medals of the past are worth reliving to help put more energy to our resolves for better tomorrow. But it must not get us relaxed.

Easier said than done. But you see, it was not the memories of the  negatives that helped David shot into lime light but the memories of the positives. There were a host of negative experiences in the dessert. So it is the memories you choose to record and recall that determine victory or failure. Take a look at these two Bible texts:
“Do not remember the former things,
 Nor consider the things of old. 
 Behold, I will do a new thing,...''
                      -  Isaiah 43:18-21 (NKJV)
This is telling you to forget the negative past and not let it hinder your  new efforts.

 "Remember the former things of old,
 For I am God, and there is no other;
 I am God, and there is none like Me,
 Declaring the end from the beginning,
 And from ancient times things that are not yet done,
 Saying, ‘My counsel shall stand,
 And I will do all My pleasure,’...'':  
                    - Isaiah 46:9-10(NKJV)
This is telling us to remember the past victories and be encouraged in our new efforts.

We don not count the numbers of misses, but the numbers of goals scored. You can not tell how many contracts and business the today’s successful business man has missed or lost in the past. You can not tell how many manuscripts the today’s successful author had written without being published nor can you tell how many books he had written before becoming a best selling author. You cannot tell the numbers of cuts an editor must have made to a blockbuster.

If you choose to, your pains and lost can become the manure for your success. In the same token we must not let our past successes form a roadblock to how far we can go.

FOLLOW THE PROCESS.

I once read a quote that says ‘’anything born big is monstrous and dies....’’ Great things are born small and then grows big. Life is designed to function alone the chain of process and process  takes time. Progress is woven into time and process. Process gives birth to progress. To every thing there is time and season It is easy to look at successful people and label them as ‘’lucky’’, but as the saying goes, ''luck is opportunity meeting preparation''. And preparation means taking time to follow the process. Those who are successful today paid their price yesterday through process. Life does not answer to those who refuse to obey the principles of process.

The truth that the black race must pound home to itself is that of willingness to follow process. We have the most of the world's resources yet remain poor because we are not able or willing to follow process. We can't wait. We prefer to sell our resources crude and unprocessed. Cocoa, hide and skin, petroleum,... you name it.We enjoy the extractive economy. Our young men lack the patience that comes with learning the ropes for business. They prefer to play ''the fast one''. But the truth is, short term solutions will only alleviate poverty only long term solution will eradicate it.

Most successful businesses and business people had had to at one time temporarily ''go out of business''. They recognize that that too, was part of the process. But if they had stayed out permanently they would not have bounced back. Esau's undoing was his impatient. Impatient is the number one enemy of process.

THE PRINCIPLE OF EQUIVALENT ADVANTAGE

This principle, according to the author says that every problem that has the potential to draw you back also has the potential of moving you forward.

LIFE IS MEANINGFUL WHEN LIFE IS GIVING
the art of giving is one that we must learn to acquire. All else makes no meaning if giving is absent. Your life is a gift from God to mankind and to other creations. If you have no money, you have time, love, energy, talent, skills, hope, words, and encouragement to give.

FREE OFFERS MAKES YOU CHEAP
As the author puts it, ''all over the world, successful people know that there is  no prize won without price paid''. You will be at the mercy of others if you always do not pay for what you get. The people who give you free things will ride over you. You will not be bold to demand for what you want if what you get is free. Don't built your life around free offers. This does not mean that you should not  accept gifts or accept anything that comes to you free. But living for free offer deadens your creativity. Seeking to pay for a value obtained places demand on your creativity. Be ready and willing to give back value for any value you get. This is the path to elevation and wealth in life.This is not to say you must seek to pay for everything that is free.

THE GOD FACTOR
True riches, wealth and success come from God. We can only access them by His help. The fear of God and faith in Him in your business and quest in life will pay you handsomely at the end. Don't use people, don't oppress people. Don't short change people. This is in direct violation of God's intention for man's existence. Put God's own principle to your life and business.

''If we know the source of your wealth, would you be able to walk on the street with your head high? Does your means of success leave  tears and sorrows in its wake? If you can not trace your wealth and success to God you are poor indeed.

GOD IN A TRUNK OF A CAR?

The story is told of how in Campinas, Brazil a group of drunk friends went to pick up one of their friends. The mother accompanied her to  the car. Worried about the drunken state of her friends, she said to the daughter who was already seated in the car – holding her hand, ‘’My daughter, go with Go and may He protect you.” Her answer: ‘’Only if he (God) travels in the trunk (the boot) because it’s already full in here’’. Hours later, they were involved in a fatal accident. Everyone in the car died. The car was so badly wrecked that even its make was hardly recognizable. Surprisingly, the trunk, (the only place offered to God) was intact. Everyone who saw the sight wondered how that could have happened, considering the enormity of the damage. Inside the trunk was a crate of eggs. Not a single one of the eggs was broken!

CONTESTING FAME WITH GOD?

In 1966, at the peak of the Beatles popularity, John Lennon in an interview with an American Magazine said: ''Christianity will end, it will disappear. I do not have to argue about that . I am certain. Jesus was okay, but his  subjects were too simple, today we are more famous than Him.” Not long afterwards, Lennon was shot six times. The Beatles later disintegrated and ended. Faith in Christ is still waxing stronger.

THE MAN THAT CLAIMED TO BE MORE POWERFUL THAN GOD

During a Presidential campaign for Brazilian presidency, one of the candidates Tancredo Neves, declared that if he could get 500,000 votes from his party, not even God could remove him from Presidency. He got the vote alright, but he took ill a day before being made President, and  subsequently died.

At the end of it all we will all find that outside of God everything else is meaningless.