Day 1
Ezra 7:23
Whatever the God of heaven has prescribed, let it be done with diligence for the temple of the God of heaven. Why should his wrath fall on the realm of the king and of his sons?
I want to say a few more things on the issue of critical success factors for anybody who intends to realize his full potential. Let me just start by saying what is potential. Potential is the capacity placed into you, or total capacity placed in you by your creator. Who has placed it? God.
However, Many of us do not operate with our total capacity, we operate below capacity. Are you aware that an average car is supposed to drive at certain maximum speed?If you look at the speedometer, it might go up to two hundred and eighty kilometres an hour. Have you seen that? But have you ever seen a car move at that speed? No.
Okay, on TV, but have you ever been in a car that went at that speed physically? It tells you that the manufacturer made the car able to move at two hundred and eighty, but in Kenya the maximum speed allowed is how much? What speed is allowed by your government? It is a hundred km flat in Kenya. The only place you are supposed to go at one hundred and ten is if you are in a dual carriage way.
You can ignore the few dual carriage ways and be aware that the average speed allowed in a Kenyan road is a hundred km per hour. Look, the manufacturer has said two eighty, the government says a hundred. So, most cars do not operate at their full potential. Are you getting the point? And many human beings operate in a similar way. They have a certain potential but they have decided to do speed control. Are they having internal speed governors? They have put a speed governor on their lives.
not discovered your calling.
There are several things that cause human beings to put speed governors on their lives. Number one is, as we saw earlier if you have not discovered your calling. You have no idea why you were created. In the end, because you don’t know your calling or purpose in life, you try this, you try the other, you try yet the other, in the process you are operating where you are not gifted, and by operating where you are not gifted, you cannot realize your potential. No.
So, one critical success factor is to identify your life’s calling. Unfortunately, sometimes, even our own parents do not help us to operate within our calling? Why? They will tell you, science is the thing to do in Kenya. So, even if that cannot help you in your area of calling, you are being pushed to do science. In the end you don’t get good marks, not because you are not bright but because you are doing the wrong subjects.
Some parents argue We cannot waste an A on small things like biochemistry. Of course, they have limited knowledge because biochemistry is what takes people to KEMRI to do medical research such that although you are not a doctor you are still contributing to the health of the nation. KEMRI is a research station for medical issues and many of the people who are researchers have PhDs in subjects like biochemistry.
We are discussing operating at full capacity, realizing your full potential. It will not be possible when you don’t go to your life’s calling. So you will end up frustrated and struggling all your life because you went to the wrong thing and that way you cannot operate at the highest potential. Now, the reason I am talking to you at any age is because I would not want to see another young man go through what a young man I know went through. I am telling you the critical success factor is identifying your calling in life early.
As we saw When you do so, three things will happen; number one, when you operate within your calling you are likely to be working within your gifted area. You therefore are likely to do very well in that area.
Day 2
Job 42:2
“I know that you can do all things; no purpose of yours can be thwarted
Number two, when you operate within your calling, you will enjoy whatever career you are taking, whatever subjects you are doing. They may difficult but you enjoy them. I am not suggesting you go to an easy subject, I am saying go to the subject of your calling easy or difficult. And let me just pause there to tell you, there is no such a thing as an easy subject and a difficult one. I went through Alliance high in the days when the A level exam was required. In A level we used to have one classes of what we call arts and two classes of what we call science. At no time, did the art students never did as well as the science ones. The science students always did better than arts.
But when you go to other schools they keep telling you, I didn’t get good marks because I was doing science. I say, it doesn’t make sense because at Alliance the people who do science are the ones who do better. Why? When the school offers everything and you go to your area of calling, you will end up doing well. Just give somebody with a scientific, mathematical mind, give him history to do. He finds it boring and he finds it very difficult to remember 1920 this happened, 1930 this other thing helped. He tries to cram but he can’t remember. But somebody whose calling is in history, he enjoys discovering and retaining dates.
So, the facts is when he is in an exam he will do well because when he was learning he was enjoying it. Are you getting the point? Therefore, history is hard for people whose calling is not in history. Mathematics is hard for people whose calling is not in mathematics. It will be important to understand there is no such a thing as a difficult subject.
Also, there is no such a thing as a bad career. Every career is needed to meet a human need. I want to deal with this thing that science is better than art. Just produce scientists and find out whether you will not miss people to do administration. Administration is critical to organizations like KEMRI, you cannot even have your lab without an administrator. Am I right? So, it will be important that some people are learning how to administrate so that the scientist can concentrate with the lab work.
Everybody requires everybody else. Every career will take you places. Recently I read a book called The Element. If you are able to Google, just Google up the book called The Element. It says that everyone of us has been created with an element. When you operate within your element you do well. And so in the book he has listed great men out of every area; a great artist, a great theatre person, a great scientist, a great biologist, a great theologian, a great etc… You can become great in whichever area of your calling.
Day 3
Genesis 1
29 And God said, “See, I have given you every herb that yields seed which is on the face of all the earth, and every tree whose fruit yields seed; to you it shall be for food. 30 Also, to every beast of the earth, to every bird of the air, and to everything that creeps on the earth, in which there is [i]life, I have given every green herb for food”; and it was so. 31 Then God saw everything that He had made, and indeed it was very good. So, the evening and the morning were the sixth day.
I like giving the example of prof Wangari Mathai who was a lecturer by the time I was a student in the nineteen seventies in the University of Nairobi. What was she teaching? Would you know what professor Wangari Mathai became a professor in? What was she a professor in?
Environmental studies? That’s what I wanted you to understand. Everybody assumes that Wangari Mathai became a professor in environmental science. Unfortunately, I will disappoint you; she was a vet. She was a teacher in Kabete campus, teaching veterinary science. But her calling was not in veterinary science, her calling was in organization in protection of the environment, which she knew little about. And when she moved away from her area of training to her area of calling, that’s how she got the Nobel Peace prize winner. Because it is important to understand she was a bright student and she was able to clear all the subjects until PhD. But she discovered her desire was to protect the environment. And so, she started organizing women in groups and planting trees. Moi made fun of her running around with women instead of teaching in the campus. But when she did what her calling is, she died as a world known person. Everywhere you go you are asked, when I go to other countries you are asked, oh, did you know she is the only woman in Africa to have gotten a Nobel Prize to date. Am I right? Now, you need to understand clearly, when you operate within your calling, don’t be surprised if you get a Nobel Prize.
You need to understand the critical success factor is are you operating within your calling? I said because it shows you are gifted but also because you will enjoy what you do, and because you enjoy what you do, you are likely, very likely to become an expert in the area because you are happily operating within an area.
So, don’t work on the basis of money. Which one earns more money than another should not be your concern? However, when you become good in your area, money will follow. But Don’t go for the money, follow your calling, then money will come. Because you will be so good, promotions or clients will follow. People will want you because you are operating well to their benefit as you work within your calling.
So that’s the thing I wanted to mention as the first thing we need to be aware that if you don’t operate within your calling it will affect your ability to be successful to operate at the full potential.
Day 4
John 15
5 “I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing. 6 If anyone does not abide in Me, he is cast out as a branch and is withered; and they gather them and throw them into the fire, and they are burned.
Number two,the second critical success factor is understanding that you were not created for yourself, you were created for human kind. All of us are created not for ourselves but to help Gods created mankind. Now, you need to understand your life’s mission will have something to do with other people not yourself.
Let me give you an example; have you ever seen a tree that eats own fruits? You went to, around November/December as you are going towards Limuru in Kenya just outside Nairobi,there are a lot of fruits. What are those fruits called on the Limuru Road? Plums. Now, have you ever seen a plum tree eating its own when ready? No. When the plums get ready, if nobody picks them they just fall and rot. They are useless to the plant. The plums are for our use by others.
So, you need to understand that for you to succeed you must not be the center of what you are doing, other people must be the center. There is a book that is very popular called, Poor Dad Rich Dad. It is Very popular with parents, giving the wrong message to children. Let me tell you three things that are wrong with that message.
Number one, it seems to tell you, work hard and invest so that by the age of forty you can rest as your money starts working for you. Then what do you then do after forty? I can tell you however rich you are, the moment you stop working you become bored and you will soon be dead. We do not work to get money, we work to get fulfillment then money follows. Why? God is active as a creator and He created us in his image. We only get happy when we become creative, and work is opportunity to become creative.
When your money is doing the working and you are sleeping, you soon suffer from boredom. I worked for Shell for many years, and for about six years I used to cover about ten countries of Africa. And so I was flying and staying in hotels, not as a tourist but as part of my work. I discovered something. When I stay in a hotel beyond one week, by the end of the week I have tasted everything in their menu. The following week I don’t enjoy the food. So if you thought that now that your money is doing the working you will be going to hotels, you will soon commit suicide out of boredom. You need to understand we were created to serve each other not just make money. However, as you earn money you are encouraged to invest wisely but continue working however rich you become.
Then what makes somebody like Prof Wangari Mathai remembered? It is not that she had a huge forest she owned, she doesn’t even seem to have any forest of her own, it is that she helped many people all over Africa to end up with forests and to restore the rain in Africa. We remember her because she never lived for herself, she lived for others.
So, you need to ask yourself, what problem on earth were you created to solve, because everyone of us is created to solve a problem? And when you solve my problem I feel obliged to pay you. I pay you because of solving my problem not charity.
So What human problem were you created to solve? When we talk about calling, calling is to be solving other people’s problems.
Day 5
And let us consider one another in order to stir up love and good works
Thus the second critical factor is to identify a problem of human beings which you are going to sort out and work on it all your life. And when you sort it out we will give you money, but beyond money it gives you a sense of enjoyment.
For example, may be for you every time you see a child crying, you stop what you are doing, for you feel it touches you. Do you know there are people like that? Others when a child cries, they just ask where is the mother? You do not want to get involved because you say that is the mother’s problem. But there are some of us,if in a supermarket if a child is buying, we stop buying, we go to help the child. That might be indicating your area of calling.
My friend, in your career you think up ways where you can sort out the problem of children, and there are many ways you can sort them out. You can become a pediatrician, that’s a doctor who treats diseases of children, or you can become an academician, who fights ignorance. A person like the founder of Makini Schools, is helping to remove ignorance out of children, so that they are bright and they are able to face life.
There are many areas but for you concentrate on all of them to do with children. When your calling is to do with children, when you do something that makes the children happy you just feel a sense of joy. The parents still pay you.
It is important to understand this second point, that we are called to serve each other and that our joy comes out of serving each other. That when you do something good for someone, it makes you feel a lot of joy, and makes you enjoy your life whether they pay or not. That’s why almost 20 years ago Shell said I was old and so they called me a pensioner… I don’t sit down and do nothing because I am earning a pension.
Even in retirement years the Lord has opened many doors for me to speak to groups .For example in one week I remember in the morning I was in Upper Hill speaking, the previous weekend I was in Machakos University etc. I talk to young people because it is within my life’s calling and you don’t retire out of your life’s calling.
So it will be important for you to ask yourself, in which area, or which kind of problems on earth is it that you are supposed to be dealing with. And when you do, it will help you to live a life of fulfillment.
The third success factor is living without fear.
Fear is one of the most difficult things because when you live in fear, what happens is that you can’t accomplish much. For example, as a student have you done your end of term exams yet? If you are afraid you can’t accomplish much in the exam. Let me tell you something; if you go to do an exam and you look at the first question, and you feel like the first question shows you will fail, rest assured you are going to fail. Fear determines your success or failure.
You need to understand you cannot operate from a point of fear because if you do so, you will not be a success. And just to pick that one of exams, I think it will be important to understand that there is no reason to fear exams. May I tell you three reasons why?
Number one, the exam, a good exam only tests things you have learnt. So, when you go you should not go assuming you will not understand. They are not asking strange things, they can only ask things that are in the syllabus. So, the government does not allow anybody to examine you an area that is not part of the syllabus. It means if you have covered the syllabus you can go there aware that you can do well.
Number two, if you discover that the question is very difficult, it is not just difficult to you, it is difficult to everybody, isn’t it? And then the whole class doesn’t do well, when the whole nation doesn’t do well, they do something called moderation. Ever heard of it? Where the question required four points, you only got three, you tried the fourth one you couldn’t get, but you still got an A. Why? Other people got two, you, you got three. You need to understand as you go to an exam, it is the same difficulty for everyone. So there is no reason for being afraid.
Number three why you need not fear when you face an exam… is because God is not in the business of making junk. Nobody is a fool reading this. It means that all of us can do well.
Day 6
Hebrews 6:11
We want each of you to show this same diligence to the very end, so that what you hope for may be fully realized.
Lastly as long as you can do your best, whatever grade you get, it will certainly take you somewhere God has chosen for you. I did my form four exam in 1971 and I still remember somebody who could not afford a success card, sent me a decorated message in an exercise book page. You know what the message was? He said,
John, may the Lord give you the marks to take you to the career of his choice.
What is the person really saying? If you require a B to go to that career, why do you need an A? God will give you the marks adequate to go to the career of his choice. And He cannot allow you to get less yet you studied your best. If you need an A He will not allow you to get a B because then you cannot go to his career.
The next requirement for success is diligence.
However, the critical issue is God does not bless laziness. There are more bible verses against lazy people than there are against drunkards. Yet in an average church, when a drunkard enters, the ushers will get him out. Am I right? Is that true of the church? If a drunkard came they will get him out. Yet seated next to you is a lazy person and you are just accepting them, as if it is okay. You know, lazy people will also go to hell because God is against people who are lazy. When you are lazy, you are not only sinning against yourself but you are also sinning against God. You need therefore to understand that laziness is evil.
In fact, He says in the book of Thessalonians, if you don’t work don’t eat. It means that there isn’t any issue about being a student and you are not doing your best. You can cheat your parents that you are doing your best, but you see it is because your parents are not in your school. But God knows the truth about you and He knows you got a B because you are lazy, you could have gotten an A.
However you need to understand clearly, the important thing is not the grade you get, the important thing is, did you do your best. That’s why, the grade should not bother you because even an A minus will still send you to hell if the capacity He has given you is for a straight A but due to laziness you got A-. Are you getting my point?
Day 7
Many are the plans in a person’s heart, but it is the Lord’s purpose that prevails
It is important to understand that when you go to an exam, all God is asking you is not to get an A, all He is asking you is to do your best. And if you do your best, whatever grade comes you will accept it…
Number two, He is not asking you to be better than so and so. You are not in school to compete against each other, you are in school to compete against yourself. That means the grade you got in form two should not be the grade you get in form three. You should be working and improving so that every term, every year you are doing better and better. So instead of competing against others you compete against yourself. And when you compete against yourself you will still do well in life…
When I was in form one to four, I still remember the teacher removed positions in our report forms. And he told our parents they should not bother with our marks for this term, they should bother with the comparison against our performance the previous term. There was always a third column, because there would be three columns; one column the end of term test, the other one column, continuous assessment for that term, the third column was percentage improvement, comparing last term and this term.
Our parents were told that is the column to bother about. Why? If somebody had an A previous term and B this term, his grade for improvement will be a D. That should worry you as a parent. Now, if you had a D and now you have got a C, your improvement grade will be an B because you are improving. And parents were told what matters is not the grade he has this term. Even if he has a B which looks good, if he started with an A and is on his way down, he might end up at E. So, the parent should be very worried not about the grade you got but whether you are improving.
You know, I was in school for four years without knowing whether I did better or not against other people. I only knew about myself. Do you know I was thoroughly surprised after we finished high school? Our results those years, in 1971, used to appear in the Nation newspaper for all candidates throughout the country. So now you could not hide because your village, once the results were out the village went looking for what their boys got. There were very few of us in high school those days, so the whole village knew us.
And I discovered out of a class of a hundred and five I was in the top five to my surprise. That is why Iam telling you that you do not have to bother whether you are better than others or not. What should bother you, are you doing better than yourself previously. And as long as you are better than yourself, don’t allow people to discourage you. Talk like you got only a B, look at my A! Don’t let them discourage you. Say, I had a C last term, and now I have a B. You should rejoice and celebrate.
So I have shared a few things about things that can help you to operate at your potentialbut there are more. Work on them and you will realize you highest potential in life