Opportunity check: YES or NO

Permit me to quickly blow your mind for the next couple of minutes u will spend in reading this piece....

I'm too happy with the life I'm living right now because I know I touch lives daily!

Day by day I'm getting closer to the actualisation of my dreams and I thank the Lord God Almighty for helping me thus far.

I was on a Virgin Nigeria flight on a Sunday evening, leaving Abuja for Lagos on the last flight for the day and I guess very few persons travel at that hour because the plane was almost empty. In their usual fashion, they had to upgrade some persons from economy to business class just so the aircraft can maintain balance...so the flight attendant approached a particular couple and the following conversation ensued.

"Excuse me, are u both travelling together?"

"Yes"

"We would like to upgrade ur ticket to business class, so if you don't mind can u come down with me"

"NO, we are okay here"

Did someone just say NO to a flight upgrade?????? This is no terrorist move right?

It really hit me and I've been meaning to teach a lesson from that incident but no inspiration has ever come from that area up until now.

That day I didn't know what to conclude on...it was either 'contentment' or 'pride'

It had to be one of those two things, the latter looking more like it.

But right now, I'm not seeing it as pride anymore because I did not in anyway lose respect for that guy, infact they earned my respect big time.

There are two words that guide our existence, YES and NO

Who u are today, they say, is a product of the choices u made yesterday; life is all about choices; and ur choice is either a YES or a NO....so that validates my postulation.

I keep saying that there's nothing CU graduates will come across in life that Papa has not prepared us for, there's no situation in life that  u cant link to something Papa has said or that we might have learnt from him, this is what qualifies him to be my most revered mentor.

"Be very careful, it is not every opportunity that comes your way that is meant for you"

-Dr David Oyedepo '10

Lemme back this up further with a self-example.

A couple of weeks back as I was preparing for my book launch and one of the persons on the event management crew introduced me to a socialite, a fashion person, popular blogger and a successful lady; she had a concept she had always wanted to pull off and she was going to need 30mins of my event time to do her own thing!

Sincerely I never felt right about it from the on-set, but I trust my team members anyday anytime....d offer started out as juicy, a socialite will definitely come around with classy guests, celebrities..they will drop good cash to launch my book and even if they dont. they are celebs, their presence is enough reward.

So I opened talks with her after I had discussed a strategy with another team member, I gave her a good deal only to discover that all she was gonna offer in return was her Socialite ratings and a book review....no cash? no fixed reward!

But again, she sounded convincing...I was a young boy looking for recognition....I hope I'm not missing out of this rare opportunity...bla bla...

and while I was in the middle of this, it just occurred to me that 20mins of my event time is actually not that cheap, the time wasnt even there in the first place. I just picked my fone, typed the SMS and I cut off the deal

GBAM!!!!!!

But u know, when u cut off and u actually don't cut off

I was filled with fear, at some point I would feel bad about the decision, at other times I was just okay with it, at some point again I would feel like a bad guy that just dropped a capital NO.

Post-decisional emotional roller coaster ride!

It is actually no beans saying NO yet we need to say NO on a daily basis

The lesson of this experience is this

"Be very careful, it is not every opportunity that comes your way that is meant for you"

-Dr David Oyedepo '10

That virgin flight experience leaves me to conclude that people actually respect u more when u say NO the right way to whatever it is u dont feel right about

Giving off that 20mins would have been the worst decision of my life, and I would have known that if not because I said NO,

Why am I sayin this?

We planned a 2hour program for the launch. 

We kicked off at 6:20 and by 7:55 I was called up to give the vote of thanks!

Meanwhile, all along I had it at the back of my mind that the event was ending 8:30, so instead of giving the vote of thanks at 7:55 thereby ending the event for 8:00pm...I decided to hold my guests to ransom, I didnt let them go

I spent 20mins entertaining questions from the audience, and if u were around for my book launch, u would agree with me that the 20mins Q&A session was the most important, interesting and entertaining moment of the book launch, because that was the only time I was able to sell myself to the audience as a confident public speaker; for everyone who was seeing me for the first time and even those who knew me before, that was the moment I stole their heart convincing them beyond doubt that I'm not just a word smith on paper but I roll pretty good on the mic as well.

I wouldn't have known what I had missed if I had given out my precious 20mins!

You never can tell what you are missing by not saying NO to that thing you call 'opportunity'

Check it!