To The Younger Generation And Upcoming Leaders -By Zarah Abdullahi Izge

The word “success” holds different meaning to different people. For some, it could be excelling at everything while for some, it could be achieving a lifelong ambition that one holds. Though such meanings meaning could be affected by factors such as family, race, background or upbringing, location and also various social or societal factors.

But the important factor most people and the society miss is “For success to be achieved, must one be the first at everything or must a person be better than others to be successful?

Can the dream of being first at almost everything without really considering where one fits in be considered “success”.

The reality is success in its ideal meaning is excelling in what one does best.It could be in arts,poetry,writing,acting,carpentry,shoe-making,designs, photography, braiding,business and much more and being proud and happy about it.

To be successful does not necessary call for following trends set by society especially those set by family in order to get high pay and respect.

Some might be wondering why?

There are many people in the society people feel are successful but are not really happy about such success because they were pushed into such professions by family, friends, and so on in order to be considered successful and be respected.

This calls for a collective action from education, family/parents and Government. Parents needs to consider their child’s opinion and assess the capacity of a child and give room for choice for success to be achieved. Society needs to avoid stereotyping success as having high pay or having material things only and government needs to put more effort into vocational skills and others.

For the young generation choosing a career path, pause and think about if you will consider yourself successful be happy after ten years in the profession you want to choose before making a choice.

 Zarah Abdullahi Izge Department of Mass Communication Borno State University