Yusuf Olanrewaju

 SUCCESS HACK FOR STUDENTS & GRADUATES COUNTERINTUITIVE GUIDE TO A SUCCESSFUL CAMPUS LIFE By: Yusuf Olanrewaju www.campussuccesscoach.com Copyright Copyright © 2020 by Yusuf Olanrewaju, campussuccesscoach.com Qualified rights reserved. This book may be distributed freely, by any electronic or mechanical means, in print or online. But no part of it may be altered, plagiarized, sold, loaned or otherwise used for any other commercial purposes without the express written permission of the author and copyright owner. For more information and questions, contact- The Genesis6 The Power of Perspective9 The Game Changer12 Is this book for you?14 What is learning to you?16 Talent Discovery21 Mentorship23 You’ve got no idea where/how to start25 It always sucks when you multi-task26 You hate to be noticed30 When you got the top grade, the sky is the limit31 You lack Experience37 You said co-curricular activities gulp a whole lot of time.39 Take Action41 Read Books to be ahead42 The Success Formula45 About the Author49 Warning This is not another book that will teach you how to regiment yourself to score the highest mark in every subject or top of the graduating list of your school. If that is all you are looking for I can direct you, go to google. Type on the search column “How to graduate with the top grade in school“ You will find them all littered there. This is a thought-provoking guide and personal experience to help you harness your potential, average opportunities, and improve your chances of success in your study and career life. I hope this book will benefit you in ways I never imagine. The Genesis Once upon a time… While growing up, I admired smart students. Students who scored the highest in every subject and have those comments like “Excellent”, “Brilliant”, “Intelligent|, “He is dedicated and takes his studies serious” and other beautiful words written at the foot of their report sheet. I envied the status of being an excellent student, the wits, the confidence… and influence. The status of being an endless reference cited by teachers, parents, and colleagues. I wanted to be one but I just could not. To become one was a nightmare, I could only wish I was smart. Why was this so? 1. I wasn’t born smart 2. My parents were not well educated 3. Some of them have a rich parent, my parents were petty traders 4. Some of them have a private teacher or older siblings who trained them, I had none 5. Some of them were specially gifted, I lacked such talent. Those were my thinking, my secondary school teachers would cheer me on. They sometime even would encourage me to come to them whenever I found a topic difficult to understand. “You are trying” was their sincere lie. They all failed, I wouldn’t argue with them. But I was just not born smart, I couldn’t be smart, and for so long I wasn’t. How did my story change? All my fears were real, so how my status could have changed, what turned my pain into gain? Mindset! Before: I saw challenges… and I concluded I can't cross over them to anywhere Today: I see them… and I am thrilled to the opportunity of turning everything around to my advantage. The Power of Perspective Everything starts from your viewpoint. Henry Ford rightly captured it… “Whether you think that you can, or you think that you can’t, you are usually right” The moment you focus on a particular thought, the more powerful it becomes, and the more it translates into your physical behavior. Maybe you don’t know - you are what you think you are. Now, read it again this way and let it sinks into your mind “I am what I think I am” Wait! Let’s take an instance: there is a story of two men who went out to mine gold at a gold mine, both of them began to dig deep the earth in search of gold, at a point, one of them said, "look at how deep we've dig, I don't think there's any gold here" he hurriedly left. The other man said, "It could be that we've not dug to the point of the gold" he continued and eventually saw lots of gold. I give you the excuse, take 2 minutes off reading this piece … just to ponder on the story. You are back? Great! That’s the decisiveness of the mindset, I was a victim too, for so long a time. I looked at the railroad, it was empty. I was very correct in my observation. But my judgment was completely wrong. The Game Changer Sometimes in 2004. I found out about an after school coaching center “Success Point” a friend and senior colleague, Lawal Ibrahim who always tops his class had registered. "I wanted to get registered too, I wanted to improve my grade in school", I lamely claimed. Any good friend would have encouraged it. He could have seen a boy who wanted to better his grade and be the smart student everybody want him to be. He did not. He saw a young smart boy with potentials … slumbering and snoring. But he believed the boy was a goal-getter in embryo so he woke him. With an overdose of personal coaching and motivation, he made me understand that learning should be fun, not to be forced. He carelessly tossed into my mind, the idea of learning to know, as against learning for the top grade. I went ahead that year not to become the top grader of my class but to become the student every smart student of my school wants to hang out with. And that made the difference. I have since then taken lead, running co-curricular activities, top or be among the top of my class, always being appointed for a leadership role, and achieve whatever I put my mind into. Everyone learns to know or do something but, not everyone learns how to win at what they do. Now ask me "how is the railroad?” I will tell you – it’s never empty, that the train is not there, doesn’t mean it’s not coming. Is this book to you? Chances are you are an always-motivated student, you never procrastinated your idea, and you never stab your passion in the eye because you are busy trying to become the smart students who top every grade. Please stop now, and go do what you know how to do best. But if you are a struggling student, or better still a graduate, who still think something is missing irrespective of your grade or class of degree. Then, you are in the right place. You are about to read what will trigger you into taking action, and makes you realize that, dreams are not what we see while we sleep but, what makes us lose sleep because that is the only way dreams come true. This book won’t teach you how to make the top grade in school. For only when you are motivated to succeed against all odds, you will learn and design your tactics and strategy that work. The first step is your mindset and that’s what this book will teach you. What is learning for you? Do you love learning at all? Is it your aspiration to become a graduate who would wear the robe called academic gown, pose with his degree certificate, and everyone takes a picture with him in share celebration of his success? Foolish questions, right? Yes, they are stupid and nauseating they are insane things to have someone ask you. Of course, everyone loves to learn and loves to achieve success in learning. Even those who had amass wealth without formal education, and would not open up but, they envy people who had gone to school. But don’t you imagine those questions prove a point. That you love to achieve success in your life not solely in your studies. They prove a point that you really want to achieve academic success, while being confident that you are an inevitable talent in your chosen career because, you have amassed lots of skills and experiences, or you have discovered what your passion is, and have laid the foundation to grow it immediately. Oh! You reason it too. That’s exactly the point I’m trying to prove. I have not seen life to its tail – just a bit part of its eyes. But believe me, I’ve met and interacted with people from varied backgrounds, orientations, and interests. I have not found for once – or heard of anyone who would say, you can’t start counting your stars while in school and still come out well in your study, or turn around your poor academic performance, and become the new reference of inspiration. Or one who would proclaim: “I do not wish to have my career life/ business settled while in school” I bet you have not too. All you will find everywhere are dreamers and wishful people who are too reluctant to give their idea a starting shot. They wish to have their idea manifest but wishes aren’t horses. You are one with the same challenge too, aren’t you? Here are some of the voices you hear in your head if you dare to act. 1. Have you discovered your talents are? 2. Have you got the idea of where/how to start? 3. Are you sure you can handle two things at a time, and none of them won’t suffer? 4. Do you have a mentor/Capital? 5. What experience have you got? 6. Do you think you like being noticed? 7. Who would take you seriously? 8. Can’t you wait till you graduate? You will figure out everything after school. 9. And many other crazy excuses … you know them best. If one of these is your situation, I’m sorry, you are living in a dreamland. Attaining all these before you start living your desired life is Shangri-La. The above excuses are enough reasons to trigger you into taking active control of your life and explore the learning adventure. They are not to make you relax and expect divine success. They are dream endangering questions, I didn’t take them with a slippery hand, and I recommend should be protested and stylishly tackled. Talent Discovery You probably would want to ask “how do I discover my talent” before I answer, let me tell you what talent is, talent is anything you are enthusiastic and excited while doing it. That thing that sparks you up, that if you are at it, you never get tired. It always comes to inform of hubby. And most time people either criticize you or give you positive commendation. Oh! Do you now know what your talent is? Great. If you can’t figure out what it is that sparks you up, and you could spend all day doing it without feeling worn out, you can either take a survey by asking your friends, and family. Ask what they think you do well and feel happy doing it. Or think of what people give you unsolicited commendation upon doing it, and tell you how good you are at it. Wait, let me tell you a sincere lie when you are like, Eureka! I've discovered what my talent is. Quickly know that you are in for big work because your talent can never be enough. Talent alone can’t give your desire success, you’ve got to fuel it with lots of effort and determination. Mentorship Before we talk about mentorship, let’s know who a mentor is. A mentor is someone more experienced, more accomplished in your area of interest who inspires you, gives you an upfront idea, shares with you their wisdom and exposure, and guides you with step by step strategies to avoid mistakes, and brace up quickly to accomplish your desired goals. Having one is cool, isn’t it? While you cannot over emphasis the difference a mentor can make in your life, you must not be oblivion of the importance of picking yourself up first for success, before someone would see your struggle and determination, and be willing to offer his expertise for you to leverage on, to reach your desired goals. Think it this way, no matter how much you try to pick up someone who is not ready to pick up himself, you will always meet a dead end, that's why a mentor is not the first thing to look for. I love the ways this Chinese proverb puts it. "When the student is ready, the teacher will appear”. Ask yourself, how much effort have you put in picking up yourself that would make someone willing to pick you up and share in your success story? So don't just give an excuse, take action. You’ve got no idea where/how to start So you need I clue on how to launch your idea and manifest your dream? Yes, I agree with you, having clues on how to do something makes your work a lot easier, but can I ask you if a child would need a clue to where and how to talk before he starts talking? Chances are that you’ve laughed at a child who is just starting to talk. I’m pretty sure, his incoherent and nonsensical blab, blab, blab he uttered amuses you. This is how he will go on, and eventually say something that would awe you, and left you thinking where and how he had managed to say that. That’s just how and where to star. You must start from where you are with what you have irrespective of who will take you seriously or not. It always sucks when you multi-task There are many stories that people have used to brainwash you that, you can't use a stone to kill two birds, it is true, a stone can't kill two birds at a throw, but it is also true that a stone can kill a bird not well targeted sometimes. You can't be sure of what is not certain until it is proven. At the time I was in my final year in the university, my GPA had dropped drastically behind the first-class grade race, as a result of my multiple co-curricular activities engagements. As the then president of my prestigious college, I wanted to make a difference. I have executed about 15 highly impact projects, and I needed to round off my tenure by organizing a memorable students’ week and symposium, which would later become the template other colleges, and my successor would emulate. A lecturer invited me to his office, I had scored low in grade in the assessment test of three subjects out of five. "You use to be one of the best students in the class. This is your last semester if you fail to pass any of your five courses, the students you are sacrificing your future for would gossip about you when you don't graduate. There's light at the end of the tunnel only if you could limit your extracellular activities and ace your exams" he said. I thanked him for his concern and left his office. It was only two weeks to the examination and I was disturbed by the reality of what he just said, but I went ahead to do what I believe I must do not what I have to do. I achieved the recording-breaking students’ week and symposium, and went ahead to get a job offer even before graduation, and also graduated among the top 3% of my class. That’s rewarding and more fulfilling, you say? Yes, it is. What I learned was that, when you try to do multiple things at a time, with a sincere purpose and well-established self-assessment. Your brain will adjust itself to accommodate each thing with its responsibility. You don't need to be too sure of what the result would be, but you will be grateful you learn to multi-task. You hate to be noticed There are things we love to do, but won't do because we hate to be the subject of discussion, or fear people would notice our struggle and gossip about us. I've met smart students and people who could not seize their breakthrough moments, just because people would notice them and probably laughed at them, get green-eyed, or feel intimidated by their smartness. So, there would be a problem they know the solution, or have an idea that can transform their life but, they will choose to be silent. Sometimes they passed it to someone next to them or kept it until someone who's not as smart as they figure it out, and go on to take the glory. You have to be confident in choosing yourself for success you can't afford to trade your confidence for what people would say after all no one cares how you did it until you made it. When you got the top grade, the sky is the limit This is not always so for people who graduated with the top grade. Although, it always seems they are closer to the light at the end of their tunnel. They could easily land opportunities such as scholarships or job offer in the department they graduated from. But no, not all the time. Your top grade could be a thing of deceiving for you. Not every light at the end of the tunnel is light, it could be the light from a burning fire and I bet you wouldn't want to go near it. So as good as it is to have the best grade, it is not wise to invest your all into it alone. It is important you do not wait until you get to the end, start moving other stones the little way you can. "The man who moves a mountain begins by carrying away small stones” Confucius. The richest people in the world are school dropouts Many poorly performing students quickly find a hiding place behind examples like this. After all, Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg are both Harvard dropouts. People with the wrong success mindset are quick to cite the reference and lean on the false hope it brings. Little did they know that their perception of such examples is wrong. Every successful people who dropped out of school are people who have found their purpose or identified a solution to a problem, then quickly leverage the opportunity school has offered in terms of resources and talents. Steve Job, Mark Zuckerberg, Bill Gate, and many others will never advise you to drop out of school because they all leverage on the opportunity school had given them. Why haven’t you find the example of other rich people, who had made fortune without dropping out of school? Indra Nooyi, Chairperson & CEO of PepsiCo. and one of the most powerful women in the world. She holds bachelor's degrees in Physics, Chemistry, and Mathematics from the University of Madras. Later, she earned a Masters in Management from Yale, which she attributes to her success. She was paid $26.4 million (€21.75 million) in 2016 alone. Where would you place such woman, and many others like Julie O’Neill, who first earn a Bachelor of Science in Pharmacy and went on to earn an MBA at UCD Michael Smurfit Graduate School of Business, She now leads the US Company and has her own dedicated page on Bloomberg which lists her earnings at around $4 million (€3.2 million) per year. Michael Bloomberg, CEO of Bloomberg L.P and former mayor of New York He has a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering from John Hopkins University and an MBA from Harvard Business School. He's now worth an astonishing $5.2 billion. Doug McMillon, Walmart’s CEO, made $22.4 million (€18.4 million) in 2016 alone, He has a degree in Business Administration from the University of Arkansas and an MBA from the University of Tulsa. I can go on and on, but who will tell you about this? You wish you studied so, so, and so course or had a top grade. This is one of the excuses for wishful achievers. They always wish they have something they think is better than what they have instead. They blame not taking responsibility for their life to the lack of one thing or the other. Though, somethings have obvious opportunities but, the fact is that we don't necessarily need to have them before we could accomplish our goals. There are people with what you wish for, yet have not been able to turn a stone. You need not attach your life at the bottleneck of a means or necessity, your success is more important than being clouded by a mere wish. Don't let what you think you don't have held you back, that you don't study the course of your choice, or graduated with the grade of your dream doesn't mean you can't turn thing all round for good. All you need is to stop being a wishful achiever and start living your passion and purpose. You lack Experience One of the things they have successfully used to imprison your mindset is the word "experience". You either give yourself the excuse, or people give you the excuse that you lack the experience to do a particular thing, and you give in because you believe them. An experience they say is something money can't buy, and you can't learn your self into it, but you can walk yourself into it. To have prior knowledge of any subject matter, you don't need the approval or permission of anyone. All you need is to start doing it by carving a niche for yourself by leveraging opportunities in every way possible. What other excuse do you have? Friend, I’m sorry I have murdered all your flimsy excuses. Oh! Pardon me, I forgot… You said co-curricular activities gulp a whole lot of time. Many students always complain of having more than they can accomplish in little time. The slogan always is so much work, so little time. Friend, time management skill is what you lack, admit it. I'm not judging you, but the fact that lack of time management is the problem of a huge number of students makes it obvious to be denied. I have met and interacted with many students that would lament "not having time is my biggest problem". But the truth is no one does have time, we only can create time for what we prioritized. Believe me, you are ready to start unleashing your dream if you can shun those excuses in your head, and take action. For so long you’ve ignored the act of developing and expanding your potential for success. Now is the time to act on it. Get me right, I did say all your excuses are not real, I have said challenges shouldn't burden you, picking yourself up for success all alone isn't a bed of roses. Personal development could be burdensome, a much daunting exercise. But consider this your clarion call Take Action Take the first step to start from where you are and then leverage other opportunities. If you want to experience in leadership, stand up to volunteer in helping people and taking lead, if it is on a career or profession, write an organization to work for them for free (Volunteering) or write to-do internship with them. That will benefit you a great deal. For anything, you really want to do, you have to understand that your experience is the permission you give yourself to do it first before others will endorse you. So take that first action, correct your mindset, and believe you can. Then watch how other steps and opportunities will begin to show up. Read Books to be ahead When I say read, I don’t mean those social media gossips or zealous struggling for certificate and cramming to ace your exam only to say “may we never meet again”. That alone won’t take you far. I mean reading books of high impact with positive values, books that will challenge you, give you smart advice, and dare you to challenge the status quo. Books on creativity, career, personal development, business, prosperity consciousness, leadership, biography and autobiography of successful people, and many others. You need to read, to learn, relearn, and unlearn, The award-winning writer and novelist – Haruki Murakami put it right. “If you only read the books that everyone else is reading, you can only think what everyone else is thinking.” So read… based on your talent, passion, and goals. Reading is the easiest way to dodge mistakes and leap over several failures, it is a smart way to achieve in days what the author had achieved in years. Be deliberate about reading, make it a passion, absorb the information, act upon the ideas you derive from it, and put them into action. Do it every week if not every day, soon you'll be ahead of your peers, you will think and look smarter, and you will amass a wealth of idea and experience to get ahead in life. Invest your money in paper books, read value-added blogs, or go the way of e-books, you can check Amazon Kindle. Today, anyone who is doing something extraordinary and influences people would tell you “reading has taken them this far”. This is true because I’m enjoying the impact of reading in my life. The Success Formula You want some success formulas, don't you? I mean some real almighty formulas that you can apply and become someone that turns everything he touched into gold. You want them, don't you? I know you do, and I won’t disappoint you. But wait a minute! What’s your definition of success? You are still thinking about it, right? Let’s look at my definition of success may be, it is the same as yours. Success, in my opinion, is freedom: freedom from anything that could hinder my growth as an individual, and takes away the happiness that would be derived through creating value, wealth, and riches, or having a positive impact in the life of others” Maybe, success to you is the popular belief of amassing wealth and properties, irrespective of being legal, ethical or not, “Ki nsa ti lowo”, anyhow way to riches syndrome. Whatever it is that is yours, there is only one formula to it. And it’s simple. Just look around, and find someone who already had achieved the kind of success you crave, and copy his formula. Only that, the fear of failure, and scrambling for miracles has crippled many promising talents, it has slaughtered the growth of many potentials businesses, and dreams ever before they even manifest in the skull of those who possessed it. I've always questioned myself what could be the one short sure system to reach one’s goal. But one thing always come back to me, that there is no one unique system, many people have deployed several tactics and strategies which work for them, to reach their dream or desired success but no one particular, unique hands-on formula than to follow religiously the step of someone who had already achieved the kind of success you want and believes it works. That is the only fundamental formula for success I have known. Right before you go. I have generously made this book FREE, not only because I have also received lots of generosity in my life, but also because I want more people to benefit from what I've gotten, perhaps it will touch their lives in positive ways. So, if you love the idea I’ve shared in this book and would love to have more of it from me. Kindly share this book with your friends and family, and subscribe to my newsletter at www.campussuccesscoach.com to receive more actionable idea every Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, right in your inbox. About the Author Yusuf Olanrewaju is the Founder and CEO of Campus Success Coach. A polytechnic lecturer and entrepreneur. He loves to help the student find their confidence and achieve their dream without going hungry. As a student, he landed two jobs just by approaching the organizations and tell them what he could do differently to better their service. He holds HND, B.Sc, and M.Sc degrees in Physics, and has coached several students to become best in their studies, take leadership responsibilities, builds a career, start a business, and make money all right from school. He shares his topnotch tips about overcoming challenges, becoming confident and his inspiring stories of failures and frustrations at www.campussuccesscoach.com