In my previous article, I dealt with ‘How to break new grounds; the essence of having a formidable kick start’. As a visionary, I know that a lot goes into a person’s beginning in life, business, career, education and much more. Therefore, I feel that I should dig more into the beginning of a vision, so that whoever is encountering some challenges at inception would realise that challenges are all part of the road a person must go through before reaching that enviable place that every visionary admires.

Due to ignorance, a lot of folks have abandoned their lifetime dreams when they had head-on collisions with unforeseen obstacles. I must be emphatic in saying that every vision has ready-made challenges ahead of it. Until you realise it, you will keep sobbing like a baby. You must understand that there is no one who has stood out in the past or present that never went through hell before reaching heaven. The truth is that the only road to the paradise every vision offers was constructed through the pit of hell. So, if you’re willing and ready to succeed, you must also have the mentality to endure the pains that come with success. I’m not trying to scare you; I’m only trying to be honest.

The challenges visionaries encounter are both intrinsic and extrinsic; the intrinsic challenges are the ones that emanate from the visionary while the extrinsic ones are external variables outside his control. Whether internal or external, challenges come to either strengthen or dampen a vision. The strengthening or dampening of a vision by challenges is dictated by the response or responses of the visionary; the attitude of the visionary determines the direction a vision goes when it is blown by the storm of challenges.

What is a challenge? A challenge is something that by its nature or character serves as a call to battle, fight, contest, or special effort. A challenge demands that you justify your call for a vision. Bluntly speaking, a challenge is a confrontation, provocation, ultimatum or objection to your qualification for that thing you call a dream. So, if you cower in front of challenges, it means that in the first instance, you were a wrong choice for the baton that was handed over to you. You need to prove that you’re up to the task by standing tall when deliberate potholes are dug on your route to the place where that picture you’ve always seen in your heart resides. Don’t always bend to cross over; sometimes, you must leap because bending may either break your back or head. Either way, you get hurt; a hurt might impede your movement to your vision. So, face the challenge and deal with it, if you really want to get there.

Thanks for your company and please keep a date next fortnight – Wednesday, August 14, 2013, when we’ll discuss the first and major challenge a visionary encounters and how to overcome it. Till then. God bless you.

•SUCCESS FACTOR appears fortnightly on Wednesdays. The Columnist, Kenneth Nkemnacho, is a popular London-based motivational writer and YAHOO Contributor. He can be reached via kenneth@kennethvisionmedia.com or publisher@newsexpressngr.com

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