INITIATIVE OF A SUPERSTAR
Creativity and initiative is the hallmark of superstars. When there are challenges that every other person has tried hands-on to resolve without headway, he seems to have that extra knowledge that arrives from anywhere and supplies a solution to the problem. This marks him out for attention.
To have initiative means to be able to make decision and act on your own without waiting for some person to tell you what to do. Most persons want to be told what to do before they do it. You may say “I wasn’t told” even in a task you know should be done. The average thinking man wants others to decide for him. He wants to be led by a boss and he accepts the irresponsibility of not being able to define his goal and orientation by himself.
You however have to choose always to dictate the game. Be the boss, first over your life and then over others. Define your start point by yourself and define the endpoint and choose not to go further however hard some person caused you to. Refuse to be controlled by the whims and caprices of others.
You have to develop a clear thinking ability and make personal decisions especially about your life and how you relate with others. Dictate the pace at which you intend to run, run not because others are running but because you have winning in mind.
Choose not to follow the crowd. There is this bandwagon that everyone likes to follow because every other person is on it. Get of it. Superstars don’t follow the crowd, they rather walk alone in the direction of their personal destination than go towards where everyone is heading because they know everyone don’t become superstars. The crowd is too excited that the average man is caught in its ecstasy. You have to see beyond the ecstasy to becoming the cause of the ecstasy.
See opportunity ahead before every other person see it. Look out for slim opportunities and jump at it. Expect questions like “how did you do it? We were all there together”. Have your independent vision, find a way to create an edge and keep the edge.
When an opportunity arrives, don’t sleep on it. Don’t spend all the time thinking on it too. Get working while pondering over it. Be the first to get at its benefits before it gets into the popular arena. You can even be the one to introduce it to the popular sphere. The superstar always gets the gist first, before others rally around him to hear it.
Once you get over an opportunity, begin at hunting for another opportunity. Don’t sleep while everyone is sleeping. Get at researching for one next idea, skill or talent that could continue to make you the center of attention. Sacrifice your sleep for the benefit of a future where you can sleep for the whole day.
Everyone looks in amazement at the superstar who knows how to obtain solutions to problems and challenges when the need arises. When there’s a need that’s barring solutions, that’s an opportunity to shine. Go about finding a way around it. Research, tinker and soon a solution will arrive. Even when everyone is doing great, there is still more that can be done. Look to do greater and be the greatest.
Always think out of the box. Everyone believes that everything needed is in the box. As an engineer, I had my tool box that contained all the tools needed for my work. While working on heavy weight trucks, I’d use all the tools at my disposal, however there is always a situation when I don’t find the right tool for the task even when I had a complete box. I had to create a tool some way from outside the box. You have to go far away from the box and find answers to probing problems.
Society is filled with numerous problems which arrives everyday posing a threat to the existence of the human race. Many of todays’ superstars arrived because they decided to act against these problems. They took action when no one was taking action and became defined by their actions. Because only a few take action, you become easily defined by what you act against.
The blank check society offers is for those who will write their names on it, the amount they want and get to the bank to clear it. Society has need for superstars, but the men like you who will jump at this opportunity must decide to look away from their fears, act boldly and who knows?, the opportunity for fame and stardom will arrive.
When we allow societal ills continue to plague us, we leave the chance to be renowned. Abraham Lincoln may be known as a great leader not because he didn’t make mistakes like every other leader before his time did, but it was his courage in-spite of his failures that placed him in a special place in history.
If you choose to do nothing, you get nothing. When there is a need around, there is also an opportunity around. Act. People may not see it the way you do and don’t wait for them to see. They are always blind. You will be opening their eyes when you act.
When there don’t seem to be a possibility of the opportunity you want coming through, take initiative and act. Possibility only arrives after you have labored to come through when it wasn’t there.
The men and women who became superstars were not superstars until they acted in the direction of their impossibility. Take initiative.