IDEAS DON'T RULE THE WORLD; ACTORS DO

"Go and bring 100K" he said to me.

This was in the year 2001. I wanted to learn music production. I had seen some of the best producers of those years at work and I was so inspired and excited that I really wanted to become one myself.

So, I had approached one of the producers for training, and that is what he demanded for; 100K.

But I was just a jobless youth awaiting a university admission. 100K was too much for me to raise - that would be like N1M today... I wasn't a yahoo boy and nobody was interested about my music ambition. My people just wanted you to go to school and get good grades... They wanted me to be "normal". Lol

Yet, I was so determined to become a music producer. My reason was that, after getting some of my songs produced by some producers, I realized that they couldn't really interprete my ideas the way I really pictured them in my mind.

I was sure that becoming a music producer myself would give me the freedom to be able to express my ideas without any form of dilution and, of course, I could always produce as many songs as I like for myself without being worried about paying anybody.

I approached a couple of other producers and they were all asking me to go to the moon and bring them the man sitting up there... Lol... Somebody else could have been discouraged to give up on that dream and look for something else to do. But that wasn't me...

You know that thing about being youthful and the confidence it gives you that you can do and undo...

Hehehe

So, while many of my friends would be at the cybercafe trying to catch another maga, I would be there too, but for something else; to dig for information about how to become a professional music producer...

Someday, a computer engineer hinted me about a software that can be used to produce music even if all you have is a computer; you don't need all the other big gadgets in the music studio. You don't even need a piano... That was the game changer for me. That happened in 2002 and I was already in 100 Level.

So, the second year, I simply used my wardrobe allowance for the whole session to buy myself a computer and have that music production software installed on it. Then, I started spending about 6hours per day on the system; teaching myself music production... I continued going to the cafe every once in a while to dig for more insights...

Even though I couldn't dress as "posh" as I would love to be, it didn't really matter because I kept learning voraciously and getting better day after day; what could be more exciting than that?

Then about 4 months later, many of those who heard my productions started offering me money and begging me to make beats for them... They started spreading words about me and that was how I became a music producer.

One year later, one of the producers I had approached for training listened to my productions and he marvelled. Lol... I was already playing 7th chords in my productions while the majority of the producers in Naija were still playing "doh fah soh" because I was well grounded in music theory (I was learning from the oyibos) though I couldn't play any music instrument.

So, I became a music producer because I kept taking consistent disciplined action towards my dream everyday.

And No! it wasn't easy. It wasn't easy at all to be on the computer most nights while others were sleeping. It wasn't easy to have to sleep less than 4 hours everyday. It wasn't easy to stay glued to the computer on an empty stomach for hours trying to understand how this trick or that trick is being achieved or why my kick was not sounding as heavy as Dr Dre's...

But I was hungry! I was hungry to give it whatever it would take to become a music producer. I was hungry enough to take actions!

The lesson I have learned from this personal story of mine is that we can truly get whatever we want in life if we start taking consistent disciplined actions towards achieving it everyday and refuse to quit until we get what we want.

I have been schooled that Life rewards actions. Not ideas, not intentions, not wishes, not dreams. Life rewards actions! No matter how great a thinker or philosopher or a dreamer you are, if you don't take action to turn your ideas into realities, I wonder how you are going to produce any results.

I know that many of us have heard about that famous sweet line that says "ideas rule the world"... But my friends, let me tell you something; that, is an half-truth! Lol. Do you know how many ideas that are now stinking in the graveyard simply because some "muguns" were not smart enough to realize that it is only ideas that are backed up with actions that can truly rule the world. Yes, it starts with an idea but it doesn't stop there. It. can. not!

I believe we all know about the David and Goliath story from the Bible (1 Samuel 17/18).

"Whose son are you?" That was King Saul asking David... He was wowed!

He was wowed by David's act of bravery... From that day king Saul kept David with him at the palace and wouldn't let him go home.

In other words, David became very relevant... Because he took initiative; because he took action! Not because he "wanted to", not because he "intended to" but because he took action!

An idea that you don't act upon is as good as "no idea". Thomas Edison had the idea to invent the light bulb, that was a very fantastic idea but it could have become one of those stinking ones in the graveyard if he didn't take action.

As a matter of fact, he didn't just take actions; he took super massive actions! Imagine what it would mean for someone to have kept trying and kept failing over and over again before he finally got it right about the 10,000th time.

Many of us here, when we want something but encountered a couple of glitches after one or two attempts, we will simply sit back and relax and say "wo, I cannot come and kii myself jare; I have tried..." But wait.

For how long exactly have you tried? 100 times? 1000 times? I think it is a bold sign that you don't believe in yourself or in what you want or that your reason for wanting it is not strong enough.

If you believe in your dream or idea or whatever you choose to call it and believe in yourself; that it's possible for you, you will never stop fighting for it until you get it; you will be hungry. Thomas Edison obviously believed so much in himself and in his idea, why would somebody keep trying up to ten thousand times to get what he didn't believe in or if he didn't believe it's possible for him?

It is understandable that some of our goals or ideas may seem so big that they begin to scare us. But I have heard over and over from some of my mentors that if it is not big enough to scare you, then it might not yet be a goal.

And many things that are now being done over and over were once considered as being impossible until some Davids stepped forward and took their deliberate actions of faith towards defeating the Goliaths.

Who knows what might have happened if David hadn't been a man of action. What if he had only thought about the idea in his head and simply went back home; afterall he was not one of the soldiers. It wasn't really his battle...

But he was courageous and his faith in God was potent enough to make him believe that it was possible for him to finish the seemingly impossible Goliath. Arrrgh, imagine the small civilian David begging the king to allow him to go and deal with the giant that even the well trained soldiers were scampering away from.

And when Goliath mocked him apparently for being so suicidal enough to approach him (and his sword and spear) with an ordinary sling and stones, David simply let him know that he had come in the name of the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel... Obviously David understood and believed that truly there is nothing we cannot achieve if we have enough faith in God and keep taking deliberate and brave actions of faith towards any Goliath.

God definitely wants us to produce good results, but like David, we've got to man up, step forward and "do the do ...

Some of us will go out there and throw some weak shots at our targets and then come back home to sit down and expect God to help us finish the rest. Oh no, that's so unlike David. David did not just shoot his shot at Goliath and run back home like a coward to let God do the finishing for him...

He followed through; he approached the fallen giant and finished what he had started completely.

I don't think there is any need for delay in as much as you have clarity about what you want, why you want it and what you need to do in order to get it. I believe it is necessary to get to work with immediate effect. Almost all the time, when we allow too much go slow, the law of diminishing intent gets activated.

The Law of Diminishing Intent says, “The longer you wait to do something you should do now, the greater the odds that you will never actually do it.” The law says we usually have a 48 hour window of opportunity to act. And if we don’t, we will often derail from our ideas and miss our chances to accomplish something important.

So, I don't know whatever dreams, whatever ideas, whatever mission or whatever vision has been gifted to you... I don't know what that thing is, that you've been sitting on a loooooooong thing about.

But I surely know one thing, and that thing is the fact that "Now is the best time to take action!"

Remember, ideas don't really rule the world; actors do.