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Principle Three

The Law of Courage

Courage is rightly considered the foremost of the virtues, for upon it, all others depend.

—Winston Churchill

The development of courage, self-confidence, boldness, and the will to venture into your dreams in the means of uncertainties and unpleasant circumstances are perhaps some of the most important quality of success anyone should aspire to obtain. This is one quality that separates winners from losers. We live in a very competitive generation; there are a lot of discoveries and innovations going on in different fields of endeavors. It will, therefore, take the development of courage to compete favorably with the challenges that lies ahead in business, academics, politics, even in our day-to-day family decisions. We need courage to navigate our way successfully through life challenges.

In other words, anywhere you see significant success, someone must have been taking some courageous decision to obtain it. The Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary defines the term courage as the ability to face extreme danger and difficulties without fear, that is the ability to maintain a positive mind-set in the presence of pain or adversities.

Courageous people are those kinds of individuals who never accept that something is impossible. They never take no for an answer. They are always ready to go the extra mile to try one more time, to push beyond limits. Throughout history, our world has continually been shaped by men and women who dared believed that something inside of them was more superior to their circumstances.

Dr. Viktor Frankl was incarcerated in the Nazi prison camp during World War II. They killed his family and burn his manuscript on logo therapy. But he said to himself, “I can still lead in something. I cannot determine when I will be beaten, but I can decide to maintain a positive attitude. I cannot determine when I will be kicked, but I can still determine the direction of my life after I have been kicked.” That’s the spirit of courage expressed by Dr. Viktor Frankl.

It takes the power of courage to stay focused on your goals in the face of pain and difficulties. The question is not whether you are going to be knocked down by challenges on your way to realizing your ambitions in life, you will; the big deal, however, is refusing to stay down. It was Les Brown that said, “When life knocks you down, try to land on your back. Because if you can look up, you can get up.”

Two men are short down in Vietnam and imprisoned in the infamous Hoa Lo prison. They were isolated, chained to cement slabs, and continuously beaten by rusty shackles and tortured for information. Yet although these men are receiving the same torture and abuse, they formed radically different beliefs from their experience. One man decided that his life is over; in order to avoid any additional pain, he commits suicide and die.

The other remained calm in courage and pull himself out of the brutalizing experience. This story once again is a demonstration of the power of the human spirit. I like the old English proverb that says, “Where there’s a will, there’s a way.” In other words, it takes the will, persistence, and courage to surmount any obstacle that is facing you right now. It makes no difference how small or big it may seem, if you can persist and stay in courage, you will triumph.

Here is my point, make a courageous commitment today to stay positive and consistent in that dream you are pursuing, not minding how many times you have been rejected or denied, not minding how risky or impossible it may appear to you right now. It all depends on your mental pictures. If you persist in faith, your fears will give up their holds over your mind. You have to understand that you are stronger than whatever challenge that is facing you right now; all it takes, however, is the belief in yourself and the momentum of courage to overcome.

I want to challenge you to step out with boldness toward the direction of your highest goals. It makes no difference how many times they have said no to you or how many times you have had the word impossible. There is this story about my college years that has inspired my perception about life and my progress for the last six years now; it thought me that the word impossible is only an opinion, not a reality. Sometime six years ago, I finished my graduate program in philosophy from my state university back in my country of Nigeria.

I started doing my final clearance to enable me to qualify to go for a compulsory one-year service for my country, Nigeria, which is basically known as NYSC. It is a one-year program that is set aside for all university graduate who have completed their degree program in various universities around the country. Normally on the process, the school have to screen all your documents, making sure you have paid all debts and academic fees that have not been paid to the school and that you have the right credentials that will enable your successful graduation by the school registrar.