Ridwan Oladimeji Ojo

THE CIRCLE: What You Need to Understand to Be Successful - ​Ridwan Oladimeji Ojo Obviously, we do not need a dictionary to understand the meaning of a circle or what it looks like. Simply, we will say it is a shape of a drawn round line without a breaking point. Like, I can just pick up anything with a round shape, grab a pen or pencil and trace the shape out. Then, I will call out that it is a circle. Good! I did not check a dictionary for that simple definition anyways. Meanwhile, our focus will not be of it being a shape. Rather, we are focusing on something greater than its shape definition. Though, in its essence, it sharpens one's life. This discourse will basically deal with a greater perspective of the circle which always involves the becoming of an individual. The days which an individual will claim he achieved success. It plays a vital role in setting an individual in a pace to make a mark, which not the whole world may be aware of but his immediate surroundings will feel the impact. Often, people do not invest much energy in defining it because they feel every shot will make a goal. They forget so easily that a great team makes a great shooter. Wherein, there need to be tactics to adhere too. Even, if you do not want to be a good shooter, you will learn to be insofar you believe in the great energy pumping through the team. The circle. 2 It is not new again to your hearing for decades or some years now. You hear the word everywhere; be it on the street, in the transit, at school, at work, at religious gathering, at local or international gathering, from a friend, family or acquaintance, at the restaurant, on radio, TV set or any other places you might have been. The word rings a bell every time. The bit of difference is the name ascribed to it at different places. Some call it a clique, a group, a band, a team, a company, an association, a sect and some other names. In all, it has a single and simple concept running through it. Individuals of the common interest. The single line above might be confusing. It is a complementary statement to the paragraph before it, explaining that irrespective of what name the circle might be called, it revolves around the ideology of a group of persons having the same interest - regardless of age, skin colour, tribe or race, religion, height, family background and other distinguishing factors. Just one thing rooted in them, a common interest. That is, if they gathered to play football, they are there as players. If it is for business, they are there as associates. If it is for a meet-up, they are there to share knowledge for improvement and broadening one's scope. Those are their common interests. The main discourse. Your circle can constitute people from different facets of your life. Your family, relatives, friends, co-workers, friends of friends, a network from a meet-up, among others. What is important is keeping it on a low to be able to maximize the potential energy in existence rather than having a crowd without a definite purpose or a definite course. Not everybody will fit into your circle. People in your social life are different from those constituting your circle. At times, we tend to create a solid relation with those in the circle. Refer to the analogy I will be citing now in order to understand the discourse in-depth. Assume you are the head of a company or the CEO of your company and you are having a meeting with heads of other departments in the or your company wherein you want to discuss the next line of action to make the company prosperous. They await you in the boardroom. Everyone is there for 3 about 10 - 15 minutes before the scheduled time but you walk in a few minutes before the time. Before your entry, they sit appropriately round the discussion table, papers and other materials right in front of them, ready to give the best of every bit of their expertise in making the company or your company prosperous. Once you walk in, their minds are at work already. They assume every possible question and provide great answers to it. Once you pose a question, you are met with a satisfying answer which makes things possible. You request for accountability and they provide you with what charges you. After a few hours, the meeting ended, everyone smiled at each other while shaking hands and left. The meeting was rigorous but you are certain of its productivity. You allow the system to work out the productivity and everyone goes on vacation to enjoy the benefits from it. Maybe not everyone wants to spend from their profits. Some understand the law of delaying gratitude. That will be for another day to discuss. That round-table discourse is a perfect example of what makes a good circle. It explains that for whoever you plan to associate with before rooting deep in them, you should clearly envisage your future together. It explains that those that will be in your circle should be individuals that will serve a great course for your forge. That is, people that will help you build your future together. Certainly, you need to take charge of your life but you will need a team of people to offer you help in doing so. You will need people or friends that when you toss an idea onto them, the idea multiplies. You need people that understand the concept of greatness emanating from knowledge, information and are ready to support you in whatever way they can. This way, you forge ahead easily. However, you should be ready to do or be the same for them. Life is a reciprocating system. If you do not do that, they will leave sooner than you know and it might be costly for you. Either you want to agree to this or not, "You belong to someone's circle and that person is a member of your circle." What is required of you is your choice of people that will be initiated to the circle. Do not get me wrong. Mentioning initiation here does not imply going through ritual rites or sort of things but the process of assessment and evaluation in order to be able to decide accepting such individuals into the circle. Remember I said understanding this will make you decide who you attract and who you keep. You do not need to have too many friends. That can make an individual live a confusing life. You only need people that will align with you in the realm. Be mindful here. I am not advocating against you having 4 friends. You can have as many but be careful not to assume they all fit in the circle. When you understand that your circle plays a great part in who you are becoming, you decide who to attract. One basic thing you should look out for in making people your circle members is getting to know if you share a common interest. Be it in career, financial terms, family life, religious life, social life and others. Ask yourself the question of alignment. When you can recognize that and attract those set of people, you will find yourself living and leading a wonderful life. In the realm of who to be, ask if you and the person align in your paths to defining success or accomplishment. When you are able to answer that question affirmatively, the individual in question will be a great potential in the circle. Keep him in the circle. Do not think twice again. What definition will you give the sense of having experts around you always? Certainly, they may not always be experts in certain fields but whatever thing you want to embark on, they have good information to share which will guide you on that. That is what is derived from the circle. A golden rule here is that you do not just be a beneficiary from the circle. You should be a contributor too. If you are not, others in the circle will leave you to seek another set of people to fill in their roles which will cost you a great deal and make you regret in days. Like I said, "You belong to someone's circle and that person is a member of your circle." Hence, I will advise that you seek to build your circle now. There is no time to procrastinate. Start recognizing what you want to be and work towards being it. Then, seek to attract those who will help you in the process. That is one of those things you will look back upon and explain what defines you. Your circle plays a critical role in defining your success.