Olukunle Abayomi Abolade – Assessments – International Institute for Global Leadership

As A Man Thinketh

Assessment by Olukunle Abayomi Abolade (Nigeria)

1. What is the main idea that the author is trying to convey in the book?

The author is trying to convey that a man’s thought is very essential in the quality of his living.

“A man’s mind may be likened to a garden, which may be intelligently cultivated or allowed to run wild; but whether cultivated or neglected, it must, and will bring forth. If no useful seeds are put into it, then an abundance of useless weed-seeds will fall therein, and will continue to produce their kind. A man is literally what he thinks and his thought is equivalent to his character. Human alter their life once they alter their way of thinking, character and attitude. Every man is where he is by the law of his being; the thoughts which he has built into his character have brought him there, and in the arrangement of his life there is no element of chance, but all is the result of a law which cannot err.”

Thought Has Effect On Character and Circumstance.

“Man is buffeted by circumstances so long as h believes himself to be the creature of outside conditions, but when he realizes that he is a creative power, and that he may command the hidden soil and seeds of his being out of which circumstances grow; he then becomes the rightful master of himself. That circumstances grow out of thought every man knows who has for any length of time practiced self-control and self- purification, for he will have noticed that the alteration in his circumstances has been in exact ratio with his altered mental condition. So true is this that when a man earnestly applies himself to remedy the defects in his character, and makes swift and marked progress, he passes rapidly through a succession of vicissitudes.

The soul attracts that which it secretly harbors, that which it loves, and also that which it fears. It reaches the height of its cherished aspirations; it falls to the level of its unchartered desires, and circumstances are the means by which the soul receives it own. Every thought-seed sown or allowed to fall into the mind, and to take root there, produces its own, blossoming sooner or later into act, and bearing its own fruitage of opportunity and circumstance. Good thoughts bear good fruit, bad thoughts bad fruit.”

2. What were the seven ideas which were personally most important to you and why? List these seven ideas followed by an explanation after each one as to why it was important to you. Use personal examples from your own life.

– Thought in the mind hath made us. It is important to me because before now I never knew that my thought would have got effect on the way I have been living. Example: Before now, I have never thought I could rein to prominence across the global. Many times I have dropped the most important thought in my heart that could take me out for success for some less important things and I have never pay attention to my thought at any point.

– Thought and character are one. It is important to me because before now I never imagine that my character could be what I think. Example: Many times I feel hurt because I think a particular person or action would hurt me

– You will be what you will to be. It is important to me because before now I give-up when I am close to success. Example: I often feel it is getting difficult and I lost the will of being out of my mind, which eventually make me loose in the circumstance.

– If you would perfect your body, guard your mind. It is important to me because before now I never knew my mind has anything to do with my body and that I could have balanced health if my mind is right. Example: Sometimes I get upset and I eventually get hurt of being upset.

– Until thought is linked with purpose there is no intelligent accomplishment. Before now, I plan without setting out time to accomplish the plans and I found out my plans often remain in black and white and never accomplished. Example: I plan to always be the best in all my endeavors, in fact I came up with strategies but I never observed the strategies. I planned to read for at least four hours every day before my exams so as to get myself familiarized to the subject structure but I didn’t eventually got disciplined to do that.

– A strong man cannot help a weaker unless that weaker is willing to be helped. It is a statement I found that it is practically truth because many time one need to be helped and does not pave is way to being help, he definitely find out that he is meant to help himself first otherwise he will be left unsorted. Example: In the course of filling First degree (BSc.), I had to go through a lot and also saved a heavily while going hungry. I tried several opportunities to ensure that I made it there. At a juncture, I got hooked and have to call for help of my siblings who are doing well as at that period. Eventually I found out that I wouldn’t have being assisted if I had not started anything at all.

– Calmness of mind is one of the beautiful jewels of wisdom. I never knew before now that being calm is not a mistake neither is it the level of one’s foolishness. Example: I am always the calm type, very slow to reactions but sharp in actions and often time I will prefer staying in-door to research to going out for a show or to shop. I solely love a very much serene atmosphere, privacy and good appealing environment.

3. How will these ideas or lessons help you in a practical way, both in your daily personal life and in helping you to create a better world? If so, how?

– These Ideas will get me to the state of prominence I ought to be throughout the globe in my career, finances and education. These ideas will make me become prudent in my thought and make not to negatively have impact on myself. With these Ideas my intellectual ability to think, reason and decide right will be more enhanced and I will be having greater fulfillment in whatsoever I found myself doing. By networking people to benefit in the world fastest growing leadership Institute, so that we would all make a good living to attain wellness of mind. I will be creating a platform where people will find opportunity to books at no cost and give their assessment via a free subscribed internet because I found out that the greatest limitation to the spread of great mindedness in the world and my country especially is less availability of good resource to work with. e.g PC, Internet connectivity, serene atmosphere and material (books).

4. Quotes: Are there any statements which the author made that particularly got your attention? If so, please quote them and comment as to why they were important to you.

“Those who are not prepared for the apprehension of a great purpose, should fix the thoughts upon the faultless performance of their duty, no matter how insignificant their task may appear. Only in this way can the thoughts be gathered and focused, and resolution and energy be developed. Once this is done, there is nothing which may not be accomplished.” Comment: It important because I have in the past planned without purpose to accomplish them and many times my aim are not being accomplished which I eventually never got happy with and I often feel that I have better go for something at my reach as an underdog rather and aspiring beyond my background, skin color and environment. Now that I know this, I got a renewed heart to plan my life to the greatest. Work with purpose according to my plans and be more prudent to my thought.

“A man can only rise, conquer, and achieve by lifting up his thoughts. He can only remain weak, abject, and miserably by refusing to lift up his thoughts.” Comment: By this statement I believe that I can make success in any circumstance if my thought is right with my actions.

5. Is there anything in the book that you do not understand or are unclear about, or are there ideas which you disagree with and, if so, why?

6. Did the book contain exercises for the reader to complete? If so, did you complete all of the exercises and did you find them helpful?

7. Was there anything you read in the book that you would like to comment on that was not covered in the previous questions? If so, please comment.

Please rate the following questions on a scale from 1 to 10. Ten is good and one is poor.

A. How interesting was it to read? 8
B. How helpful were the contents? 10
C. How easy was it to understand? 9
D. Would you recommend it to others? 10
E. What is the overall rating you would give it 10

Jonathan Livingston Seagull

Assessment by Olukunle Abayomi Abolade

1. What is the main idea that the author is trying to convey in the book?

The author is stating that for one to attain excellence, one must step away from the normal way of doing things, the expectations of everyone else and focus on their goal so as to be elevated. The author also states that for one to achieve their dream, they must first of all enjoy what they are doing and not see it as a means to an end. he then goes on to state that when one has achieved what they set out to do, they then must look to helping others with love, kindness and understanding instead of looking for glory. The author also conveys the idea that we are all unlimited beings who have to look past our limitations and understand that we have unlimited power and abilities.

The seven ideas that were personally most important to me were; to love the work that I do, I must follow my dream, enthusiasm, willingness, time management, commitment and persistence are vital for me to achieve my dream, I must be patient with those that don’t support me to follow my dream, with excellence I will attain the benefits and luxuries that come with it, I should have a mentor to assist me and lastly, I should share my love for all.

The first idea was that I must love the work that I do and not its result because then it would be tiresome, boring and cumbersome to me. This love will give me the drive and devotion to carry on greater amounts of work and achieve more results. Instead of seeing my work as a burden, I should see it as an opportunity to better myself and become perfect at what I do.

Secondly, for me to achieve excellence and success, I must not give in to the pressure from peers and family to fit in with the rest and value what they value and must simply follow my dream. For me to attain excellence, it is vital for me to look for my truth and not others.

To achieve my dream, I have to be enthusiastic and willing to learn new things and ways of doing things; I should utilize my time well and should be willing to stay committed and persistent in the trying times when discouragement and failure step in temporarily.

I may not always gain the support and understanding of the people who are closest to me when pursuing my dream and should be patient with them when this happens. In most cases, the people who one thinks love and understand him the most are the ones who will discourage him from moving forward with his life as seen by Jonathan’s parents who tried to make him fit in with the rest. With time those who share the dream with me will come along and in harmony we will exist.

A mentor is necessary for me to develop and achieve all I have set out to. One with experience, understanding and knowledge of where I am heading would be best so as to guide me to achieve my goals. I should also mentor others with kindness and love after I have achieved my set goals because this will enable me to enhance their learning and improve their skills and capabilities.” In a nutshell, do for others what you would like to be done for you.”

Love for my fellow man is very important for one who has managed to achieve a lot because one is thus able to give back to the society after becoming successful for example by mentoring and teaching others how to achieve their dreams. Choices determine how elevated we get. When I choose kindness, gentleness and love for others instead of glory, it will all become mine. Actions one does out of love and kindness for fellow man usually elevate individuals unlike those actions done just for one to receive glory and praise.

3. How will these ideas or lessons help you in a practical way, both in your daily personal life and in helping you to create a better world? If so, how?

When I love what I do as work, I will be able to carryout vast amounts of work with less effort and for a longer time because with love comes commitment, persistence and resilience in the hard times. This lesson has taught me to choose work that I love to do so that I can carry it out with more enthusiasm and creativity. This will help me to become more effective and efficient in all I do in my personal life and thus make success easily achievable. This will enable me to create a better world by carrying out my part in its development.

In order for my dream to come true, to achieve excellence and success I must follow my dream. I must not give in to the pressure from peers and family to fit in with the rest and value what they value. For me to attain excellence, it is vital for me to look for my truth and not others. Practically, this means that I must endeavor to choose a path I want for myself and not follow one that my peers and family think is best for me. This will help me be my own individual and become self reliant.

Enthusiasm and willingness to learn new things and ways of doing thing will enable me to become more diverse and thus more efficient and willing to utilize my time well and should be willing to stay committed and persistent in the trying times when discouragement and failure step in temporarily. This will improve the way I carry out given tasks in my daily personal life.

I may not always gain the support and understanding of the people who are closest to me when pursuing my dream and should be patient with them when this happens. With time those who share the dream with me will come along and in harmony we will exist. Patience and understanding of those people who fail to support my pursuit of my dream will enable me to become self reliant and independent and thus allow me to stand on my own and succeed. This in my personal life will enable my growth and development into a mature individual who can make decisions on their own. In helping me create a better world, this will enable me to understand people better and support others dreams.

When I follow my dream, I will no longer need to settle for less or just enough or for what is available because I will acquire more skills and capacities that will now enable me to attain the benefits and luxuries that come along with excellence. These benefits will enable me to better impact the world I live in so as to create a better world. My personal life will also improve as I will serve as an example to all those who are following their dreams that they are achievable.

Love for all is very important for one who has managed to achieve a lot because one has to give back to the society after becoming successful for example by mentoring and teaching others how to achieve their dreams. Choices determine how elevated we get. In my personal life, this will enable me to treat others with more kindness and consideration and understanding. Love will enable me to create a better world passing it on to others one person at a time.

4. Quotes: Are there any statements which the author made that particularly got your attention? If so, please quote them and comment as to why they were important to you.

(‘To fly as fast as thought, to anywhere that is, you must begin by knowing that you have already arrived…’

‘Perfect speed is being there.’

‘I am a perfect unlimited gull!’)

All the above quotes got my attention because to me they all state that we are all perfect and unlimited beings and in order for us to progress and attain the success and achievements we aim for, we must see ourselves as perfect , free and unlimited and look past our perceived imperfections, doubts and fears.

5. Is there anything in the book that you do not understand or are unclear about, or are there ideas which you disagree with and, if so, why?

No there is nothing in the book that I do not understand or are unclear about, nor is there anything I disagree with.

6. Did the book contain exercises for the reader to complete? If so, did you complete all of the exercises and did you find them helpful?

There were no exercises for me to complete.

7. Was there anything you read in the book that you would like to comment on that was not covered in the previous questions? If so, please comment.

No there was nothing for me to comment about that was not covered in the previous questions..

Please rate the following questions on a scale from 1 to 10.

A. How interesting was it to read? 9
B. How helpful were the contents? 10
C. How easy was it to understand? 9
D. Would you recommend it to others? 10
E. What is the overall rating you would give it? 9

Keys to Success

Assessment by Olukunle Abayomi Abolade (Nigeria)

1. What is the main idea that the author is trying to convey in the book?

The main idea the author is trying to convey in the book are the points to success using the 17 tested and working principles over years from the experience of the authors. The author Napoleon Hills affirmed that everyone in the world on the planet earth have equal chances to success irrespective of the backgrounds. The authors, through the illustrations in this book make much emphasis definiteness of purpose as a major principle to success for anyone.The book contains principles that are the essence of the action of everyone who had ever had a lasting accomplishment. If anyone makes principles his/her actions and attitudes, one will realize every of his/her worthwhile goals.

Seven most personally important ideas to me and the reasons are;

A. Develop Definiteness of Purpose: This is important to me because I discover that apart having a plan in life, there is another most important aspect of one’s plan which is “Definiteness of Purpose”. With this idea I have been made to understand that definiteness of purpose is the starting point of all achievement, and its lack is the stumbling block for nine-eight out of every hundred people simply because that never really define their goals and start toward them. With this idea, I understand that apart from having a plan to reaching your goal, one must devote the greatest part of his or her thoughts and efforts to that end. I also discover a valuable secret of what to work on periodically during ones aim to success.

B. Assemble an Attractive Personality: Before now, I have very shallow understanding of how my personality could speedily change my entire life. The concept of assembling an attractive personality helps to understand how important my attitude towards the success is. Positive Mental Attitude as the right mental attitude in any situation I found myself is most often composed of the plus characteristics symbolized by such words as faith, integrity, hope, optimism, courage, initiative, generousity, tolerance, tact, kindliness and good common sense. PMA is the most important aspect of attractive personality. Flexibility: Being able to adapt yourself to changing circumstances and emergencies without panic or loss of temper is the best skill as one struggle towards success. Decision – Promptness at decision also is very essential to lead one to success.

C. Go the Extra Mile: From this idea, I discovered that going the extra-mile might seems as if one is doing too much than necessary but it have got the way it pays back going the extra-mile. Going extra-mile is not a sort of principle that can be put into practice in a few easy steps. It is a state of mind that one must develop, so that it will become a part of everything one does. This has so much helped me to rethink the way I have been working since I read the book.

D. Thinking Accurately: I discovered that all plans, purposes and achievements are created by thought. One can direct thoughts wisely or unwisely. I also learnt the thinking processes of – Induction and Deduction. I also was able to find a good idea at this point called Technique for Evaluation to help me through my academic works at the University.

E. Controlling Attention: This Idea let me think about how to focus my attention only on those things I want to happen to me and succeed appropriately. Concentrating on a particular single idea at a time and getting it working and successful to the end will cause increase in specialization and increase success after being specialized. Controlled attention and other principles of success work hand in hand to bring about the goal to reality. Diversion of attention could be interpreted to be distraction.

F. Learn from Adversity and Defeat: Here, this Idea let me know how I can benefit from every defeat I have gone through in the past and might still go through in the future. Every defeat in life has seed of an equivalent benefit. I learnt how to turn every situation to a success especially when I am faced with challenges and adversities.

G. Cultivate Creative Vision: This idea established a known fact that I know that assumption is the lowest level of knowledge yet it is form of knowledge. Every success starts from imagination and creative vision of the mind.

3. How will these ideas or lessons help you in a practical way, both in your daily personal life and in helping you to create a better world?

These ideas are currently helping to rethink some of the shallow principles that I have been engaging into my daily activity and my personal plans. The idea illustrated above will change my entire life success within the next six months. Making sure that I accomplish my goals by focusing my attention of the definiteness of purpose in every activity I carry on with. As I need my worldly as well eternal life to be the happiest, i have to switch on the Positive mental attitude and turn off the Negative mental attitudes within me, avoid cobwebs of my mind, and try to benefit from the surrounding circumstances with PMA.

To the World, it will help me to be able to mentor, encourage and train people to the way they could change their mentality which will at the long run begat a good success in their life time and the entire world. For this purpose, I will also be recommending that everyone I meet get on with IIGL and read this book with major emphasis on the above points. In this book, I have read the history of many personalities who achieved what they want in life by using their PMA, Motivating them, making others happy from zero ground. And if the principles of success, wealth and happiness have been applied to everyone’s life, our world will be full of inspirational and motivated personalities who dream of change alone. This is because a willing and hopefully devoted mind will always think of the positive future.

4. Quotes: Are there any statements which the author made that particularly got your attention? If so, please quote them and comment as to why they were important to you.

* The Extra Mile Formular Q1 + Q2 + MA = C got my attention which I read for three times after the first reading to understand it. Q1 = quality of service rendered

Q2 = quantity of service rendered, MA = mental attitude in which it is rendered. C = your compensation.

“No one wants to feel as if he or she is merely a cog in a wheel. Your job as a leader is to see that everyone has a role in your group or organisation and that he or she recognizes the importance of that role” This statement is important to me because it will change the form at which I have been leading people before now and let me exercise a better leadership skill and get everyone involved in the success of every team I find myself.

Sex and Sublimation: “Sex is completely natural desire. Do not fear of deny it. But realize that you must direct it, like all desires, to definite ends instead of letting it become an end in itself. The intimacy of sex is gained by constructive work at building a committed relationship. If you channel your moral standards.” This comment caught my attention and became important to me after I read it again because I never imagined the major reason why some men succeeds after their marriage and why marriage could bring about success. Now I realize that men committed relationship seldom succeed faster than those not committed.

The Ego: The seat of your will-power is the most valuable thing the body possesses. I made this another important statement because I never knew before now that ego could be important part to ones success control. I used to mistake ego with pride. I learnt here that some egos are weak and lacking in courage. Some are overinflated. Don’t let a weak ego hold you back.

Sleep: The aspect of sleep here made me ensure that my daily schedule is well planned for me to go to bed for rest. Sleeping it what I have not been observing so much before now. I never really understood the concept behind good sleeping before now. With this reading of the message passed on sleep in the book, I am meant to understand that good sleep is very important to good success for anyone.

5. Is there anything in the book that you do not understand or are unclear about, or are there ideas which you disagree with and, if so, why?

I did not understand the chapter “USE COSMIC HABITFORCE” because it is a mix of lots of natural laws that I cannot describe relating to some existence and human ability. I have read it several time and discovered that I will need a much convincing explanation that will help link it up with the human ability.

The Charts on pages 116 and 117. The diagram of the structure of the mind is not well understood by me. I need to understand the diagram better on how it relates to a practical life. Where is the starting point on the diagrams?

6. Did the book contain exercises for the reader to complete? If so, did you complete all of the exercises and did you find them helpful?

Yes. The book contains exercises for the reader to complete and I find it so much useful and I will be faithful to what I have written from it.

7. Was there anything you read in the book that you would like to comment on that was not covered in the previous questions? If so, please comment.

The application of the content of the book was not asked in the previous questions. The book is a fantastic one that describes how everyone can make a good success in due time without going through illegal process. The book is a mind power that when followed critically will increase the success rate of the individual practicing it.

Please rate the following questions on a scale from 1 to 10. Ten is good and one is poor.

A. How interesting was it to read? 9
B. How helpful were the contents? 9
C. How easy was it to understand? 8
D. Would you recommend it to others? 10
E. What is the overall rating you would give it? 9