19 replies
Barrack Obama became the first African American to become The United States President. Adams Oshiomole became the first Nigerian to become a State Governor in NIgeria after contesting the April 2007 elections, without any rerun of elections. This was after the ruling of the Election Petitions and Appeal Court Rulings that upturned the supposed election of the former Governor.

What lessons can we learn from these two people on their road to success?

Success does not come overnight
They both have come a long way. Barrack Obama came to limelight in the year 2004 after delivering a speech during the period John Kerry was running for Presidency of the US. Adams Oshiomole made his mark when he was the Nigerian Labour Congress President some years back. They both did not achieve success overnight.

Hardwork is rewarding
Barrack Obama, during his campaigns, worked very hard going from place to place and delivering what you might refer to as World-Class speeches. Adams Oshiomole went right into communities during his campaigns as well. They were not lazy people who just sat down and did nothing.

Diligence, doggedness and determination are essentials of success
Barrack Obama was an African American and naturally people were opposed to his candidacy, but he was determined to do and achieve what no other African American had done and achieved before. He faced the challenges before him with doggedness and he was diligent. Adams Oshiomole was not one you will refer to as a natural politician. He was not even a long standing member of the platform he contested in. However, with diligence, doggedness and determination, he scaled through all the challenges to become the Governor af a State in Nigeria.

Tough people last longer than tough times
If you ask these two people some questions about their rise, you will surely hear about some tough times that they went through, but they outlasted the tough times.

Confidence comes before success
Both of them were very confident. Barrack Obama had so much confidence that he had already prepared a place so to speak for the victory celebrations even before his announcement as President-Elect. From the way Adams spoke, you would have noticed the confidence in his voice or speech. He was so confident that he contested the initial results of the elections and eventually won.

Integrity is a necessity
Barrack Obama and Adams Oshiomole never had a period of controversy during their sojourn to success. You never had that any of them was involved in one scandal or the other. You never had that they committed any crime and trust me, if there was any such situation, their opponents would have capitalised on that.

Failure is not an option
If you had asked them what they would do if they failed, they, most likely, would have told you they were not going to fail.

The above lessons can be imbibed in our Internet Business. We should not expect to succeed overnight. I have been on the Internet since 2006 and I never got money from the business until 2008. Of course, with a Mentor, you can achieve success faster, but definitely, not overnight. Hardwork, diligence, doggedness, determination, toughness and cofidence are also ver essential if we are going to make it. Integrity is also very important. I read a post (not on this forum) about somebody who asked for the google ads on his website or is it blog? to be clicked. That is not a sign of integrity. We should also not take failure as an option. We may fail one way or the other, but, that does not make us a failure.

Let me borrow a leaf from Barrack Obama's speech, can we learn from the above lessons and become a force to reckon with in Internet Business? Can we conduct our business with a high level of integrity to the point that we can begin to be trusted? Can we begin to create world-class products and sell at premium and competitive prices? Can we begin to contribute towards the well-being of newbies by taking through the right track instead of just selling stuffs to them and expecting them to do all the work by themselves? To all these questions, I say a resounding "Yes We Can". Again, I say "Yes We can"
#yes we can
  • Profile picture of the author Imran Naseem
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    • Profile picture of the author micksss
      Originally Posted by Imran Naseem View Post

      Great post. I think Obama has inspired and will inspire many people from
      wall walks of life
      Absolutely My Friend.
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  • Profile picture of the author challenging boy
    Good post.
    God don't give fame to every one. any one can get the fame and be a hero with his own efforts and hard work. Men are not great their thinkings make them great.
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    • Profile picture of the author Ian Jackson
      Mr. Obama is not mixed-race then?
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  • Profile picture of the author Mike McBride
    First of all, it's "Barack" - as in the old saying, ""I don't care what the newspapers say about me as long as they spell my name right."

    Mr. Obama is not mixed-race then?
    Yes, he is. Here in the U.S. that is still considered "African-American." Your point?
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    • Profile picture of the author Floyd Fisher
      Originally Posted by Mike McBride View Post

      First of all, it's "Barack" - as in the old saying, ""I don't care what the newspapers say about me as long as they spell my name right."


      Yes, he is. Here in the U.S. that is still considered "African-American." Your point?

      You're both wrong....it's Mr President.
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    • Profile picture of the author Ian Jackson
      Originally Posted by Mike McBride View Post

      First of all, it's "Barack" - as in the old saying, ""I don't care what the newspapers say about me as long as they spell my name right."


      Yes, he is. Here in the U.S. that is still considered "African-American." Your point?
      Passing curiosity.

      ...Just be thankful you aren't governed by the control-freak morons we have here in the UK
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      • Profile picture of the author Mike McBride
        Originally Posted by Ian Jackson View Post

        Passing curiosity.

        ...Just be thankful you aren't governed by the control-freak morons we have here in the UK
        I hear you, Ian, and feel your pain. Don't forget, we're just getting to the end of 8 years of Bush-league demagoguery and utter disdain for the U.S. Constitution, Bill of Rights, and the sovereignty of the rest of the nations of the world.
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    • Profile picture of the author willies
      You are right. It is "Barack" not "Barrack". My apologies to Barack Obama.
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  • Profile picture of the author Takuya Hikichi
    When I read "YES WE CAN" title, I knew you would be quoting it from the speech.

    I don't like reading political discussions in Warrior forum, so I was wondering what I would be reading by clicking this thread, but liked what you posted -- I took it motivational instead of political.
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    • Profile picture of the author willies
      I am glad you liked my post.

      My main intention in the post is to draw some lessons from these people's road to success and apply them to our internet business.
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  • Profile picture of the author jazzyjeff
    Willies,

    Man, this is great stuff. Very inspirational.

    My personal favorite is the short paragraph on "failure is not an option." I believe that people who never give up, will get rewarded in the end sooner or later. I'm just glad I'm not a quitter and I will at least die trying vs. the people that don't try and would rather work for money.

    Jeff
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    • Profile picture of the author willies
      I like that spirit.

      It is better to keep trying and failing than not to try at all. At least, borrowing from a statement I read sometime ago, you would have known the several ways that what you are trying to do does not work.

      However, I believe that with more effort, success will come
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    • Profile picture of the author willies
      Thank you all for your replies and I believe as we apply the above principles to our different businesses, we can all succeed.
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  • Profile picture of the author Steve Faber
    Actually Obama did experience what many would term almost instant success in terms of presidential politics. He went from state senator to U.S. Senator to President elect of the U.S. in only about 2 years. If you count his experience in the Ill state senate, it took him about 6 years. That's pretty much instant as far as these things go.
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  • Profile picture of the author matthewd
    I think we can learn more about putting on a good front and only saying what people want to hear... not marketing tactics I would use personally, but 2 things that the President (elect) did a great job of.

    We may learn a great lesson in making huge promises that we can't follow up on... this dude may be full of lessons!

    As for your paragraph about controversy: Just b/c CNN or MSNBC doesn't cover the controversy does not mean the President (elect) did not have any controversy... there was more stuff popping up all the time.
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    • Profile picture of the author willies
      That's interesting. I never really heard about one.
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  • Profile picture of the author athena08
    Willies,

    Fantastic post and great examples for us all to look at and model ourselves after for our online businesses. My favorite, I gues you'd call it, business philosophy has always been " Failure is NOT and option!".

    Your post was also very timely as we approach the end of a year and look forward and plan for 2009.

    Thanks,
    Chris
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  • Profile picture of the author willies
    Please, let's not focus on the political point of view. We are not here as politicians, but marketers. So, let's focus on the lessons and apply them to our online business.

    Thank you athena08. We really need to gear up for 2009.
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