damiOluwatoyinbo.com

February went by so fast.

I guess it was because I had so much to do.

At the beginning of the month, I had my to-do list.

At the end of the month, I had ticked off almost everything on that list.

That gladdened my heart.

I was in Badagry once.

Abia state on two ocassions.

Different parts of Lagos every week…meetings…seminars…conferences…

What was I doing?

Great question!

I was doing what I was born to do…empower my generation to be all that God wants us to be.

I was preaching…teaching…speaking…training…facilitating meetings…writing…granting interviews…sharing what I know…what I have learned over the years.

Life’s greatest joy lies in our contribution to other lives.

It feels great to make a difference for good.

Are you making a difference in someone’s life?

Just like February, March is flying by so fast.

Before you know it, it’s going to be April, then May…June…July…September…December…2011…

Phew!

What’s my point?

“There’s no time.”

Well, there is time but there’s no time to waste.

I believe that we have enough time for what we NEED to do but we don’t have enough time to do all that we WANT to do.

We have enough time for what we were born to do but we don’t have enough time for all we wish to do.

Everyday, different things and people are contending for your attention…fighting for your time.

So what are you going to do?

You can’t attend to everything or even everyone.

You have to make the right choices.

That’s the struggle I face everyday.

I bet you have a similar experience.

Whatever you do, do what you were born to do or it would have been better if you were never born.

Ouch…

P.S: It’s my birthday this month and I have some special offers for you.Stay Tuned.

I have nothing against college degrees.

I am privileged to have one in Chemical Engineering.

However, it is necessary for us to constantly remind ourselves that what we achieve in life has a lot more to do with education than it has to do with degrees.

It is important that we observe that the people who become the most successful (at least by natural definition are those who follow their passion and not necessarily highly esteemed professions or careers.

The most successful people are those who make their calling their careers

and their purpose their profession.

What you have been given by God has tremendous power to produce significant results inspite of anything you do not currently possess.

I am pleased to present to you a list of globally respected CEO’s who never got college degrees yet went on to build businesses that are changing the world.

Some of them dropped out for some reason.Others never stepped on the soil of a college campus but they all made it against all odds.Today, some of these CEO’s employ PhD holders….hmmmm….food for thought.

Read on and be inspired.

1. Dennis Albaugh

Chairman, Albaugh
Type of Business: Pesticides
Education: Associate’s degree from Des Moines Area Community College
Fun fact: He has a collection of more than 100 classic Chevrolets

2. Paul Allen

Founder and chairman, Vulcan
Type of Business: Media, telecommunications
Education: Dropped out of Washington State College after two years
Fun fact: He persuaded Bill Gates to drop out of Harvard. They later founded Microsoft (MSFT) together.

3. Richard Branson

CEO, Virgin Group
Type of Business: Travel, radio, TV, music, venture capital
Education: No college degree
Fun fact: He became an entrepreneur at age 16 with the creation of Student magazine.

4. Maverick Carter

CEO, LRMR Innovative Marketing & Branding
Type of Business: Marketing
Education: 3.5 years of college at Western Michigan University and University of Akron combined
Quote: “Don’t be afraid if you see an opportunity to go and give it shot. You can finish school later; it’s always there.”

5. John Paul DeJoria

CEO, John Paul Mitchell Systems
Type of Business: Hair-care products
Education: No college
Fun fact: He started out selling greeting cards at age 9.

6. Michael Dell

Founder, chairman, and CEO Dell (DELL)
Type of Business: Computers
Education: Attended University of Texas, Austin; did not finish.
Quote: “When I started our company, it was very much an idea outside of the conventional wisdom, and if there were people telling me that it wasn’t going to work, I wasn’t really listening to them.”

7. Felix Dennis

Founder and chairman, Alpha Media Group, formerly Dennis Publishing
Type of Business: Publishing (Maxim, The Week)
Education: No college degree
Fun fact: He wrote a biography and published a magazine about Bruce Lee; sales surged when the martial arts star died suddenly in 1973.

8. Barry Diller

Chairman and CEO of IAC/InterActiveCorp (IACI)
Type of Business: Media
Education: Dropped out of UCLA after three weeks
Fun fact: He started his career working in the mail room of the William Morris Agency.

9. Bill Gates

Co-chair and Trustee, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation; Chairman, Microsoft (MSFT)
Type of Business: Philanthropy. Software.
Education: Dropped out of Harvard
Fun fact: As a schoolboy, he created a program that allowed people to play tic-tac-toe on the computer.

I had the privilege to speak to hundreds of crazy people last weekend(yeah, they are really crazy).It was the national YWAP campmeeting in the city of Kaduna.People came in from different parts of the country.There were also a couple of attendees from abroad.

It wasn’t my first time in Kaduna.I had been in Kaduna before but that was about eight years ago.I was really inspired by the visible difference between what I had seen on my first visit and what I experienced on this trip-Passionate young people…great atmosphere…peaceful ambience…warm hospitality…broad clean roads…but what i found most inspiring was the “purpose-orientation” of the young people who had come from different parts of the world to seek the face of God, rub minds with other great people and receive new strategies to help them transform their communities.

You could see it in their eyes.You could hear it in their voices.You could feel it in their pulse.You could sense it in their attitude.

These were not YOUTH WITH A PROBLEM…

These were not YOUTH WITH A PREDICAMENT…

These were YOUTH WITH A PURPOSE!

I was very comfortable.It was my kind of atmosphere.I love spending time with people who are going somewhere…people who have a dream and a sense of destiny…people who have a sense of purpose.They get my juices flowing.

Purpose is key to every noble accomplishment.

Your purpose is the reason you were born and if you don’t fulfill it, you’ve missed the whole point of being alive

Every thing has a specific purpose.Similarly every person on earth has a purpose…a unique assignment…

I hope you have discovered yours.

If you haven’t or if you are still in the process, i encourage you to stick close to this blog.One of my greatest joys is empowering people to live life at it’s peak.A good place to start is helping them to find and fulfill their purpose.

I was very excited that I was fulfilling my purpose by empowering them to find and fulfill theirs.It’s one experience I will never forget.My body still aches from the pains of speaking for almost four hours within twelve hours(between friday night and saturday morning) but my heart swells with joy because those people will become effective leaders, great fathers, emulatable entrepreneurs, scandal-free ministers because of one or two of the points I shared.

I’M FULFILLING MY PURPOSE.

THEY ARE FULFILLING THEIRS.

WHAT ARE YOU DOING WITH YOURS?