CHAPTER ONE
HISTORY IS HISTORY
If you pick up a history text, what you’d read from it isn’t current exploits. You’d read about the past, all the things that had being done by those who have gone before us. What you would have observed is that however the exploits of those persons, it’s gone and this generation have gone ahead to surpass what had being in history.
History is history and champions redefine history by their present acts. No champion wants to repeat history, what had happened. They want to create it and recreate it because they are also aware that once history is made it becomes history almost immediately.
Champions don’t dwell on a made history however groundbreaking their achievements. They understand that however big the history, the future presents possibilities for bigger. There is always a chance to surpass.
If you are a fan of soccer, you’d be familiar with the legend of Maradona and Messi. Maradona played in the seventies and eighties while Messi is currently mesmerizing the world of football. They both are legends from Argentina.
There have being huge comparism amongst fans of the two. Maradona was great, and that’s history. Messi is great and he is in the present. For Messi to have being compared with Maradona, he certainly has surpassed the latter.
Maradona wouldn’t be doing anything close to what Messi is doing today breaking all the soccer records, all the records that Maradona created. Messi is being measured on a higher scale than Maradona was. The scale Maradona outdid was a lower one than Messi is doing now. That scale is history. Messi is today’s champion and Maradona can never compare himself with Messi.
You don’t want to repeat history, champions don’t have to. They create it by breaking history. We hear people say “history will repeat itself”. history never repeats itself, it will never.
What champions do is they use history as the benchmark for the new achievement they have to achieve. It will be a big mistake to think you want to recreate history. You can never become a champion by repeating history. Champions rather make and create history. They kill history and define history by their new sets of current achievements. Don’t hope to repeat what has being done. It’s being done, look to improve it.
When the wright brothers Wilbur and Orville built their plane, they made history becoming the first to fly with a mechanized system. No one was ever going to make that type of history. The Wilburs had taken all of it. Those who worked and developed on the creation left by the Orvilles also made their own sets of history, men like Boeing. It’s amazing that in the aircraft world Boeing seems to be ahead of the game when the Orvilles started it. Who then can be described as the champion? Is it Boeing or Orville? Boeing is, with all the jets and planes. Orville is history and that’s long gone, only being remembered in history books of science. Boeing is present history and they haven’t stopped producing safer and better aircrafts just to remain ahead in the aviation industry.
It’s amazing how people think or wish they could do it the way Mr. A has done it. You can’t be a champion by doing it like A. A is history. Do it your way, that’s how champions think.
The mindset of champions is to look for the records in history that has being made and tell the history that it is actually history without thinking twice.
I love track races. I started running the 100m and 200m since I was 8. I was a pupil at my primary school when I began to challenge for medals in inter house competitions and interschool competitions. I’ve watched international races and I’ve noticed that records are only created from challenging the historical record.
Don’t try to do what someone else has done. Rather find a way to outdo what someone else has done. That’s the champion mindset.
I remember once an acquaintance challenged me to a rap concert. He was known around the community because he could rap. I’d laugh it off because I knew I could rap better than he was. I didn’t just want to be known for rap music but I always challenged him that I could do the rap stuff better than he was doing.
One day, I saw a group of young men gathering so I went towards them to see what was happening. They were actually celebrating my acquaintance. When this acquaintance saw me, he asked that I challenged him since no one around could. I refused initially but then I thought this was a challenge. I asked the other boys to judge between my skills and his as I released rhythms, metaphors and rhymes to the delight of the crowd that had gathered. I just made my friend history. People didn’t look at him as being too good. I was now the too good guy.
If I have to do anything, I look at those who have made history at that thing then I look out to do better than they have done. That’s the psychology of a champion. A champion will look for the best when he enters a place and then he goes ahead to challenge that best. His goal is to make the present best future history.
I’ve said it already that the moment you get a task done, that task becomes history. Don’t wait to repeat what someone else has done. Lookout for what you can on what has being done and become the new history.