Impossible is NOTHING

Day 18 #AugustChallenge
A few months ago, my younger brother brings my old notebook I used in my polytechnic days and I decided to flip through and see that crazy academic stuff I was so carried away with back then. Right at the back of the notebook, I came across this phrase scribbled on a small tiny corner amidst other information. It’s the words of Mohammed Ali. See the quote below:
“Impossible is just a big word thrown around by small men who find it easier to live in the world they’ve been given than to explore the power they have to change it. Impossible is not a fact. It’s an opinion. Impossible is not a declaration. It’s a dare. Impossible is potential. Impossible is temporary. Impossible is nothing.”
I cannot remember the circumstances under which I wrote those words, but they ring true for me even now than ever before. Especially given the fact that this has become my trademark closing remark when I give talks or presentations in any forum. It was nostalgia seeing those words scribbled, I said to myself my journey to where I am today started a long long time ago. Though there seemed to be no pathway or knowledge on how the journey would turn out but somehow a lot of progress has been made. In my past articles, we have discoursed on the power of the human mind, how what we believe eventually becomes what we experience. Whether docile or active our outcomes in life would be the sum total of our beliefs. I believe there are no Impossibilities and that’s how I live my life daily without impossibilities. So how did I come to believe IMPOSSIBLE IS NOTHING.
Here’s a brief of my story. Born in humble beginnings and trained to be fiercely independent, I did not have all I would have loved to have as a kid. But I watched my very first mentor in life, My father place premium on the benefits he could not have growing up as a child in Rural Delta State. The benefit of the very BEST EDUCATION even beyond his means. There are cases where we got thrown out of class for school fees but he never reneged or dropped the standard for us to attend cheaper or substandard schools. It was his resilience to give his children the best that put fire in my bones.
So as a child with an independent mind I started applying myself from about the age of 10, I became an entrepreneur, I started by selling cold water for 1 Naira then, migrated to pure water for 5 Naira, during festive seasons I foraged with a close friend for parts to make local fireworks and sold to other kids. Water was a scarce commodity so I would get a ten-gallon truck that was bigger than me to get water for our family but not before I have gone on several trips and sold them — Yes I was a truck pusher like the Mallams you see on the road. One day I strolled into the mechanic village known as Kofar Ruwa in Kano to my neighbor’s workshop and that’s how I became a mechanic. Later I abandoned my mechanic duties and went into rearing pigeons, in the process of getting the cage constructed for birds I picked up some carpentry skills. I have been many things in my lifetime, a painter, a welder, a laborer, a technician, a bread seller and much more. I slept on the floor, in peoples sitting rooms, on sofas, someone even squatted me with his gatemen, and on one occasion on a hospital bed chasing my dreams. As long as my grade remained good, my whereabouts were accounted for and I was not hanging out with the wrong crowd my dad was ok.
I was blessed to be a very bright kid. All I needed was to be in the classroom to come out in flying colors, I barely read my school books, instead, I was intrigued by my elder sisters textbooks. I became a fan of literature especially the African writers series. My imaginations are pretty vivid, I think in pictures When I pick an Achebe book “things fall apart” I immediately find myself in Umuofia watching Okonkwo and his family do their stuff. Soon I got drawn to self-help books like “Rich Dad, Poor Dad”, “The Richest Man In Babylon”, and inspirational books like “Think Big” by Ben Carson, “7 Habits of highly effective people” by Stephen Covey (Never Completed that book till today). These forged my early years and I still draw from the insights of those early formative years.
So when I read those words by Mohammed Ali, to me it was not strange that I wrote them down some 13 Years ago now. That’s because for over 20 Years my mind has consistently been programmed not to see limits but possibilities. A friend asked me to write on how I got to where I am today, This is how I got here. I have had many mentors to look up to all through my years but the one ingredient that sparked the fire in me I learned from my very first mentor, My Father and that’s the power of RESILIENCE. Though I have never said this to him once, this is for you DAD. IMPOSSIBLE IS NOTHING.
Dear reader, whats your story? Who’s your greatest Inspiration? Please share below or tag someone to share their story.
J|D