You must come out of a Swan’s egg: Tips for Success to Rule your World

Being a paper delivered on Motivational Seminar Presentation at the Department of Computer Science, Crown Polytechnic, Odo, Ado-Ekiti, Ekiti State of Nigeria on Friday,30th May,2014. By Femi Alufa When I was a young boy, apart from the Yoruba folklore of Tortoise told in our oral and written literature, my boyhood favourite story is a fairy story titled, The Ugly Duckling, children's story written by HANS CHRISTIAN ANDERSEN, (1805 - 1875), Danish writer of the 19th Century. It is a story in which a cygnet raised by a duck is considered ugly until it grows into a beautiful swan. “The Ugly Duckling,” is the story of a young bird that is scorned and ridiculed because he looks different, is perhaps the most famous fairy tale told by 19th-century Danish writer Hans Christian Andersen. When even his own family turns on him, the unhappy “duckling” leaves home and encounters loneliness and hardship over the next year. But when spring arrives, the outcast bird sees his reflection in the water and realizes his true identity as a beautiful swan. My favourite quotation from that fairy story is: It does not matter being born in a duck yard, as long as you come from a swan's egg. What is the literary meaning of the Ugly Duckling: the Encarta English Dictionaries defined it as: 1. undervalued person or thing: somebody or something originally considered ordinary but whose true beauty or value is later revealed or appreciated; 2. unattractive person or thing: somebody or something regarded as physically unappealing in comparison to others. [The Ugly Duckling, children's story by HANS CHRISTIAN ANDERSEN in which a cygnet raised by a duck is considered ugly until it grows into a beautiful swan is an allegorical autobiography.] If you want to succeed in life, or You want to live your dreams and rule your world; Don’t settle to be an Ugly Duckling. Life will not give you easily what you bargain for, but you must never say die to life. A winner never quits, and a quitter never wins in the game of life and of success, but you must quit being an Ugly Duckling. Don’t stay in a position, embrace CHANGE. Remember, Newton first Law of motion: Every object will be in a state of rest, until an external force impressed on it. The principle of changeability helped the ugly duckling to discover his purpose and realize his true identity. I will digress back to the Holy Bible, the book of books, on my honour as a Christian, God created man in the Genesis, He created us to have dominion over all the living and non-living things in the world. (Genesis1:26), even after the fall of man at Eden, and the great flood of Noah, man used his power of imagination to built the first skyscrapers at the tower of Babel (Genesis 11:1-6).The Bible is full of stories of great men and women who did excellently and performed extraordinarily in their times because they don’t settle to be an Ugly Duckling. There was an Ugly Duckling in the Bible, his mother named him Jabez, because she bare him with sorrow, but Jabez refused to be an Ugly Duckling when he prayed and changed his destiny for better and he became more honourable than his brethren when he called on the God of Israel; (1 Chronicles 4:9-10).I will encourage you to have faith in God, and in particular you must be connected to Him, without God you are nothing. Don’t be restless in the journeys of life; have your rest in Him, you will succeed. Remember what God said in the book of Jeremiah 29:11; For I know the thoughts I think toward you, said the Lord, thoughts of peace, and not of evil to give you an expected end. The life of 90 percent of the successful men and women in the world is like the story of the Ugly Duckling but they came out of a Swan’s egg; Ask Bill Gates, the richest man in the world today and a computer guru, he was drop out of school. He was ridiculed like the Ugly Duckling but he comes out of a Swan’s egg. Nelson Mandela spent 27 years in the Apartheid prison before he became a legend; African first man of the millennium; he now belongs to the ages. Another Ugly Duckling is Barack Obama, you all know him today as a global role model, and I like his story as that of the allegorical ugly duckling; he was born in Honolulu, Hawaii. His father, also named Barack Obama, belonged to the Luo tribe of Kenya, where he grew up in a small village. His father won a government scholarship to study abroad and was the first African student at the University of Hawaii. There he met Ann Dunham, a fellow student originally from Kansas. She had moved to Hawaii with her parents in 1959. The young interracial couple married in 1960, when miscegenation was still illegal in more than half of the United States. When Obama was 2 years old, his father left to pursue a doctorate at Harvard University on another scholarship and eventually returned to Kenya, where he worked as a government economist. Obama and his mother stayed in Hawaii until her second marriage to an Indonesian man brought a move to Jakarta when Obama was 6 years old. There, Obama witnessed the extreme poverty of a developing country. His mother strongly encouraged his education, personally teaching him English lessons from a U.S. correspondence course to supplement his Indonesian schooling. At the age of 10, Obama returned to Hawaii to attend a prestigious college-prep academy, the Punahou School, and live with his grandparents. Obama would later recall that his admission to the academy “heralded something grand, an elevation in the family status …” for his working-class grandparents. In 1999, after only three years in politics, Obama made an unsuccessful bid for the U.S. House of Representatives, running against the incumbent Democrat from Illinois, Bobby Rush. Obama tried for Congress again in 2004, this time setting his sights on the U.S. Senate seat being vacated by Republican Peter Fitzgerald. He believes there is “a set of core values that bind us together as Americans.” This philosophy stood in stark contrast to the divisive politics of his opponents. The Democratic Party noted Obama’s success, inviting him to be the keynote speaker at the party’s national convention held in Boston in July 2004. His speech at the convention catapulted Obama into the national spotlight, giving television viewers nationwide a first glimpse of the charismatic “rising star” from Illinois. In his keynote address Obama offered his personal story as an example of the American dream, stating: “My parents shared not only an improbable love; they shared an abiding faith in the possibilities of this nation. They would give me an African name, Barack, or ‘blessed,’ believing that in a tolerant America your name is no barrier to success. They imagined me going to the best schools in the land, even though they weren’t rich, because in a generous America you don’t have to be rich to achieve your potential.” Obama became a United States Senator as a Democrat representing Illinois in 2004. In early 2007 he announced his candidacy in the U.S. presidential elections scheduled for 2008, entering the field of contenders for the Democratic Party nomination. Obama’s autobiography, Dreams from My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance (1995), became a bestseller during his 2004 campaign for the U.S. Senate. Obama’s second book, The Audacity of Hope: Thoughts on Reclaiming the American Dream (2006), expounds on some of the themes in his 2004 keynote address. In November, 2008 Obama won the American Presidential election and became the first African-American to become the President of the United States, the world most powerful nation. The Story of Obama is like that of the Ugly Duckling but he comes out of a swan’s egg; A black man who rules his world in spite of all odds. Finally, As students you must THINK BIG, If you want to be successful in your academics, don’t settle for average, only the best is good enough for you; it is by thinking big that you can rule your world. Dr. Benjamin Carson (Ben Carson), the world renowned Neuro-surgeon and motivational author in his book, Think Big, wrote this acronym for THINK BIG, which I will recommend for you as a formula for Success: T-Talent, H-Honesty, I-Insight N-Nice, K-Knowledge, B-Book, I-In-depth- Knowledge, G-GOD. I will also recommend that you buy the book, THINK BIG and read other motivational books by great authors, because it is by Thinking Big that you can rule your world. Do not stop learning, even when you leave school, Read-Read-Read; Readers are leaders. The late sage Chief Obafemi Awolowo said: Education remains the best and finest to give to an individual. Education is a weapon of liberation from ignorance, poverty and disease; today we are talking about the knowledge economy and information and knowledge-driven world which is at the heart of education, science and technology. The poor man is not the one who has no money but the man who stop learning and who refuse to change his world. If you want to succeed in life and become what you want to become; you must be the change to see in your world, you must come out of a Swan’s egg like the Hans Andersen’s Ugly Duckling. Rule your world. May God bless you with anointing to rule your world. It is anointing that breaks the yoke, ridicules life obstacles and change destiny for better. God anointed Jesus , the carpenter of Nazareth and the greatest Ugly Duckling that come out of a swan’s egg, he was born in the manger in Bethlehem of Judea, he later become the center figure of history, his story is the greatest story ever told, and you know the rest of the Good News story. Be connected to Him today. You will succeed and your life will be change for better, forever. Amen. Remember my favourite quotation from the Hans Andersen’s Ugly Duckling: It does not matter being born in a duck yard, as long as you come out of a swan’s egg. Thank you and God bless you all. About the speaker: Femi Alufa is an ICT administrator and digital journalist. He is the CEO of Herald Edumedia Services, the promoter of EKITI NET TV (an online media project in Ekiti State, www.ekitinet.com). He can be contacted via: Tel: 08030475828, 08099313793, E-mail: femialufa 2011 @ gmail.com, facebook name: Femi Alufa, facebook page: Ekiti Net TV.