SECRET TO GREAT SUCCESS? ONE SOLID TIP BY THOSE WHO SHOULD KNOW



FEMI ONASANYA (AUTHOR) FLANKED BY
CHIEF E.A.O. SHONEKAN (CHAIRMAN),
MRS. ADENIKE ADENIRAN (CHIEF LAUNCHER)



(L-R) MRS MORONKEJI ONANSANYA, FEMI ONASANYA
(AUTHOR), CHIEF E.A.O. SHONEKAN (CHAIRMAN),
MRS. ADENIKE ADENIRAN (CHIEF LAUNCHER),
MR. ONASANYA & PA ADE OLABODE

LAUNCHING TIME WITH MRS. ADENIRAN

(A review of Femi Onasanya’s “One Missing Ingredient”, launched on Tuesday, April 24, 2012 at the Function Hall, of The MUSON Centre, Onikan, Lagos under the chairmanship of Chief Ernest Shonekan)

   Perhaps because of their fluency in thought and speech, the Yoruba people sometimes confuse me in the expression of their wisdom.

  In one breath, they declare: “Omode o’le l’aso titi, k’oni akisa to agba…” (The child cannot outstrip the elder in his catalogue of old disused clothes). Before you can run too far with that, you are stopped with this: “Omode gbon, Agba gbon lase da ile Ife…” (Ife, the cradle of Yoruba land was created with the combined wisdom of both the young and old). And then this; “Agba okan ogbon”… (Literally meaning wisdom is not necessarily synonymous with advanced age).

  It’s through the tainted glass of that seeming confusion or constellation of thoughts and sayings that I approach the review of Femi Onasanya’s One Missing Ingredient (OMI).

  The booklet is a cornucopia of simple statements, ordinary ideas, common thoughts that when properly and fervently internalized will produce an extraordinary personality.

  The book is all of seven chapters in stature, and a mere 63 pages in continuous flow of motivation. However what One Missing Ingredient lacks in volume or caressing aesthetics, it more that justifies with the persistent and pertinent desire of the writer to connect with his audience in a manner that is long-lasting and character-retooling.

  From the sympathetic to the profound; from the common-place of time-worn anecdotes to the arcane historical personages and their iconic heritage, the author appears genuinely concerned and enamoured by the incredible wastage his generation is constructing for its future… and like a voice in the wilderness calling men and women to out-reach, and surpass the limitations and passivism of their environment… to reach for heights seemingly unattainable.

  Onasanya’s One Missing Ingredient is well defined, consistently descriptive in colourful shades within the first two chapters. With copious fictitious anecdotes, and biblical characterizations, the author fleshes out ‘Persistence’ in many remarkable hues.

  So we do not mistake the easy-to-say; hard-to-walk ingredient, we are introduced to insistence, patience, consistency and madness. With calm, deliberate persuasiveness, the author drags us through variants of emotional quotient, which though are admirable and useful in different degrees, pale in connected significance to the almighty ingredient.

  Chapter three reflects on the reverse extremity of persistence – the Delilah treatment. Who says wisdom is found only in positive robes?  Samson and Delilah’s famous love-to-death story is upturned; not in celebration of the prostitute’s larcenous treachery, but more significantly, to underscore how penetrating the claws of persistence can go when unleashed on any task.

  Yes, it can change the course of history; it can lead to complete destruction of the entire leadership of a country; Oh yes, it can provoke the first “suicide Bomber” in recorded history.  

  To keep us rooted in the here and now, the author performs a SWOT analysis on Samson – and believe me, it makes good sense.

  However, every enterprise has its obstacles and nay-sayers. Chapter four records sundry road-blocks to the stockpiling of Persistence fuel of success; Lack of vision, lack of commitment, pessimism, lack of self-esteem, past painful experience, lack of faith, discouragement, improper evaluation and investigation, inflation, family commitment and so on.

  Conversely, the shortest chapter gives immediate hope. Entitled "Helps to Persistence”,  Chapter 5 briskly identifies planks that can help us across the tides of obstacles: Emulating progressive actions of past heroes, the pursuit of Noble causes, ferreting for Alternative sources of replenishment and tapping from the peculiar growth pattern of the Chinese Bamboo trees.

  To the delight of students of biographies, glimpses of greatness tease us throughout the seven pages of Chapter Six. “Stories of Persistence” involves stunning excerpts of 10 incredible human beings who attained super success through extravagant deployment of this peculiar ingredient – until they all arrived at the same extraordinary destination (world-acclaimed success)… men like Henry Ford, Walt Disney, Colonel Sanders (of Kentucky Fried Chicken), Soichiro Honda, Thomas Edison, etc.

  The final chapter is a mélange of time-tested truths and gilt-edged nuggets spanning different ages, peoples and places… One, in particular, lures me to endless repetition, with its commanding purity: “Nothing in the world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent” (by Calvin Coolidge).

   It is obvious that the One Missing Ingredient has worked well on me, and

hope it will do so on many who will come across it, what with its simplicity of its literary style, the urgency of its focus and the nobility of its cause… yet One Missing Ingredient could be much better. The grammar is near flawless. Only one error each of mixed verbs on pages 13 and 36. Typos and proof-reading mistakes are strangely and pleasantly “missing ingredients” in this booklet. While the text (fonts and sizes) would have been better if consistently stable, fluctuating between one font for general text and the other for quotes., the overall package (layout, typesetting and printing) would also have been more appreciated if produced as a cuter 100-page, hard-cover, 7-incher that can survive years of constant re-reading, amplification and shelf-life.

  Well, the little matter of aesthetics apart, One Missing Ingredient as complied and delivered by Femi Onasanya is a worthy beginning; an intelligent addition to understanding humanity’s drive for success, and a compelling precursor to the next intellectual obsession for the author: When we learn, live and drive our vision with persistence; when we meet, embrace and dwell in success; what next?