DR KEVWE'S BLOG

As a teenager, he was always fascinated when he listened to presenter son radio. Hence he began to nurture the dream of becoming an irresistible on-air personality. This dream continued to steam inside him like steam engine until it became an obsession –the obsession needed expression. However, his conservative and overprotective parents wouldn’t allow him exposed to the public. The way out? He had to improvise!

As Abraham Lincoln declared, “I will prepare and someday my chance will come,” this boy started to PREPARE for his opportunity in the future – at night, he’d listen to radio presenters he admired via his phone. He created an imaginary radio station in his room – a torchlight served as his microphone, his earpiece as the studio headphone, his laptop as the console/monitor. He practised by imitating his hero presenters – talking to inspire, reading news, interviewing his imaginary guests, and introducing programs to his ghost listeners.

When he got admitted into the university, he was then free to experiment his presentation practices. He went to his university’s campus radio station but wasn’t given opportunity. However, he believed “it’s better to try something and fail than not to try at all.” He went to three radio stations around his university’s environs, but was rejected because he lacked experience. So, he gave up? Not at all! He PERSEVERED. He remembered Robert Collier’s assertion: “No tyranny of circumstances [rejection] can permanently imprison a determined mind.”

After he graduated from the university (with a BSc Microbiology), he went for his National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) in Lagos. He continued with his practice of presentation as well as searching for opportunities at different radio stations –only one auditioned him but said he didn’t meet their standards. He was about to quit but Thomas Edison’s quote popped up: “Many of life’s failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up.” This rekindled his hope and he continued to persevere with PATIENCE.

One fateful night, while musing about his ambition, a voice within him whispered: “Leverage your status as a Corp Member –create a program's Hour’, and sell your idea to a not-too-popular radio station.” This got him excited and unconsciously shouted, “EUREKA!” He convinced two of his friends –Kevwe and Timi, on the idea. The next day, the three friends met with the station manager of a radio station.

Guess what? The manager accepted their Program Proposal! She assigned a producer and a presenter to the program –to guide them for three weeks. Thereafter, one of them would be the anchor –who else than the ‘Dream Carrier’? The program was to be aired on Saturdays. The three friends started to publicize their new-born program on their NYSC WhatsApp group and other social media platforms.

The D-day came –the maiden edition of the program hit the airwaves with the topic ‘The Beauty of the NYSC’. Expectedly, ‘he’ stole the show –He mesmerized both the listeners and the staff of the radio station! After the program, the manager invited them to her office and congratulated them. However, she was curious to know if this ‘boy’ had been on radio before. “I’ve been practicing radio presentation on my own since I was 13,” he replied with a wide smile.  

This was the Launchpad for ASEY ABEL’S path to greatness. Over time, ‘NYSC Hour’ became a household program not only to Corp Members, but also to the general public because of Asey’s creative and inspirational style of presentation. He was gradually becoming a popular On-Air Personality, nicknamed ‘A-SQUARE’. This little achievement was largely attributed to his mastery of 3P’s –Preparation, Perseverance, and Patience.

After Asey completed his Service, the radio station retained him as a freelance presenter with a monthly stipend. For the next fifteen years, Asey constantly improved –he gained valuable experience from other bigger radio stations, obtained a Diploma in Broadcasting, and attended seminars to refine his presentation skills. He also expanded into emceeing events and public speaking –becoming a celebrity with large social media followership.

Someone said, “When you make a decision [with passion], the Universe conspires to make it happen.” Finally, after nearly 20 years of ‘labour’, FAVOUR visited A-Square –a multinational company contacted him to emcee its 3-day event that earned him FIVE MILLION NAIRA! He later became its BRAND AMBASSADOR for three years. This opened the floodgate for his Brand Ambassadorship deals with bigger brands. 

For the next three years, invitations for either emceeing or speaking engagements poured in like Niagara Falls that he had to decline some of them. Every week, A-Square travelled to different cities in Nigeria and abroad to emcee events and/or inspire audiences. (Meanwhile, he quit his radio job to host his own talk show).

Yes, from that humble beginning, Asey Abel rose from being an 'unrefined’ ‘NYSC Hour’ Presenter to an irresistible Radio/TV Personality; from Corporate Emcee to Brand Ambassador, International Speaker, and CEO of A-Square Media Consult. Yes, indeed, one moment of favour will quench twenty years of labour!

Dear Friend, if your life seems stagnant, and looks as though you’re 'not working hard enough’ –and you’re now feeling demoralized and discouraged, Asey‘s story should be an inspiration and encouragement to you. If he could progress from Good to Greatness within twenty years, you, too, can Elevate Your Life by mastering the 3P’s! Abraham Lincoln aptly observed, “That some achieve great success, is proof to all that others can achieve it as well.”

To move from Good to Greatness, first, learn to depend on God. PREPARE for opportunities before they become obvious. Remember, “Opportunity is a haughty goddess who wastes no time with those who are not prepared.” Put on the boot of PERSEVERANCE to smash stumbling blocks on your path. “The miracle power that ELEVATES the few,” said Mark Twain, “is to be found in their…Perseverance, under the promptings of a brave determined spirit.” 

While Preparation positions you for opportunities, and Perseverance sustains you on the way, PATIENCE calmly WAITS for your TIME of Breakthrough. Benjamin Franklin expressed it best this way: “He that can have PATIENCE can have everything he will.”

By Shadrach Boussa

Shadrach Boussa is an Inspirational Writer, Speaker, Teacher (Academic), a Youth Development Advocate, and a Health Enthusiast (certified in Occupational Safety & Health, OSHA).  

There’s hardly anyone who hasn’t had a taste of stress in this present chaotic and ever busy world. Because the myriad of our daily activities are time-bound, chances are, you’d always feel there’s never enough time to do the things you wanted to –we become overwhelmed. Hence, stress is so often the result of feeling ‘stuck’ in a particular time-frame. This state of feeling ‘not having enough time’ to carry out all your tasks in a given time-frame is caused by POOR TIME MANAGEMENT cum Time Wasters!

Time Wasters in Our Daily Life

There are activities –Time Wasters that seem harmless but are mercilessly ruthless in stealing your precious time, sap your energy,and plunge you into chaos. Some of such Time Wasters are Misplaced Priorities, Procrastination, Unproductive Telephone Conversations, Excessive TV Watching, Excessive Pleasure-seeking, Social media Addiction, and so on.

Let’s briefly discuss the three common and dangerous ones and how they trigger stress in your life.

Procrastination

Procrastination is the most subtle and dangerous Time Waster of all time. This is because procrastination will make you feel relaxed, and you tell yourself, “There’s plenty of time, after all. One of these days I’ll do the task.” But you never did! When you postpone what need to be done today till tomorrow, you’re only postponing the evil days!How? Because you’ll pile up task upon task until they form Mount Everest that’d be too much for you to handle. Of course, stress will take a heavy toll on you…you’ll break down! 

Excessive TV Watching

Television is a very powerful tool through which we learn about lands and people we may never see or visit. But when you stay glued to your TV set on a daily basis like a sticky postage stamp –you’re not only killing time and your productivity, but also short-changing your life! How? Research has shown that on average, people watch TV for four hours per day. So, the most important things in your life –producing, creating, family time, and so on you ‘suspended’ for 4hours will definitely multiply like the binary fission of bacteria.Before you realize it, you’ll suffer Time Suffocation and get stressed out.

Social Media Addiction

The social media and the new technologies have connected people together who have been separated by distance.  But sadly, mostpeople, especially youngsters, are now enslaved to it –they can stay glued to their mobile phones…chatting on social media for long hours.  This is a wrong use of their time at the expense of the most important things in their lives –learning, creating, recreation, and so forth. 

Consequently, LESS and LESS is get done by them…and MORE and MORE important things are deferred to be done later –often under self-inflicted stress. Someone captured it well when he said, “One of the very worst uses of time is to do something very well that need NOT to be done at all.” 

How to Beat Stress with Better Time Management

You can kiss your chaotic life of stress goodbye, and welcome a CALM and peaceful life by mastering Time Management skills. Here are two powerful, tested, and proven strategies you can apply to beat stress…hands down.

Focus on Your Priority Areas

Your Priority Areas are the MOST IMPORTANT THINGS in your life. It could be in your personal life, career or business, education –if you’re a student. Before you carry out any activity, you need to put the most IMPORTANT things first before others.  What is of priority to you is determined by the four ways in which we spend our time. Your time could be spent on activities that are:

Both Urgent and Important: These are activities that deal with SIGNIFICANT RESULTS and require immediate attention. In other words, they are activities/tasks that if you don’t carry them out, they’ll present dire consequences. Such activities are crises, emergencies, pressing problems, deadline-driven projects.

Urgent but Not Important: These are activities that are urgent, and are assumed to be also important, but in reality, they are urgent matters that are often based on the expectations of others. Examples are some… calls, mails, unnecessary meetings, delegated jobs, social activities, and so on.

Important but Not Urgent: These are HIGH-VALUE activities in your life, career, and even to others. They are Preventive Activities – you know you need to do, but not under pressure to do them. Such activities are reading, writing, planning, relationship building, exercise, attending seminars, and so forth. Yes, the priority you place on your priorities determines your superiority over your time and stress levels.

Neither Urgent nor Important: These are LOW-VALUE activitiesthat are mostly pleasure-driven with no consequences at all. Examples of such activities are partying, unnecessary phone calls, unguided TVwatching and social media chatting, gambling, and so on. You can ONLY do them when you choose to relax, but not at the expense of your most important things.

Learn to Say No!

One of the most powerful words in Time/Stress Management is…‘NO’. Saying no is the BEST TIME SAVER in the world! It saves you your valuable time, energy, resources, and helps you beat stress. Listen, say NO! to anything that’s low-value. Say it early and say it often, when the situation demands. Don’t allow the ‘attractiveness’ of low-value activities –excessive TV watching, social media chatting to plunge you into the sea of chaos! Learn to say NO! to get more done in less time, and transit from chaos to calm.

If you apply those two surefire time management strategieseffectively, I guarantee that not only will you become more productive, organized and focused, but also beat stress hands down…and enjoy a calm and peaceful life you never thought possible.

Remember, you can beat stress only by changing the way you INVEST your TIME, and deal with the never-ending stream of responsibilities that flow over you each day.

By Shadrach Boussa

Shadrach Boussa is an Inspirational Writer, Speaker, Teacher (Academic), a Youth Development Advocate, and a Health Enthusiast (certified in Occupational Safety & Health (OSHA).