What will the next ten years of my life look like?
I know… I know…
“Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.” – Matthew 6:34 (KJV)
I know that folks use that as grounds for not planning. However, I think God demonstrates planning and thoughtfulness. God has plans, his plan for Father Abraham’s descendants included a four hundred year slavery phase for example. Four hundred years! He had several centuries planned in advance.
Didn’t God give Noah an assignment that must have required him to plan for years in advance as he executed?
In fact, that scripture actually said: “no thought”. No thought in this context would mean do not worry, not permitting anxiety of any kind. I do not think that planning violates my relationship with God. I can plan but I should not plan out of worry…
So… I had this question in my head for a while: “What do I want to do with the next ten years of my life?”
My first breakthrough came early in 2019, when I realised that 2019 was a pivotal year because it could directly position me for the next decade. If I could learn the right play, it could define and setup the next decade.
Life changed for me. It was no longer about what needed to get done in 2019 as I speculated in my 2018 checkpoint, it was now about what needed to get done over the next ten years.
I realised that I would be short-changing myself if I planned for a single year. That is how I had to learn about how to think and plan in longer cycles.
This new mental shift was not easy, I wiped out my entire plan for 2019 and had to change gears quickly. I cancelled a new business venture or two; speaking engagements got cancelled, I cancelled all my seminars and workshops. I needed to design a new master plan.
I ended up designing an eighteen-month plan which spans from June 2019 to November 2020. I am about six months into the plan and I am really learning a lot.
The biggest lesson for me:
“Think long term, we can accomplish things that we wouldn’t otherwise accomplish” – Jeff Bezos
I am on a mission to shape Society, influence national economies and BUILD formidable institutions that will take Africa to the next level.
This cannot be achieved if we continue to think, plan and execute in single year cycles. There is something funny about having a vision; a vision can seem defined and yet, vague at the same time, it only the power of planning (especially, long-term planning) that can help us re-define a vision and express it in terms of milestones to hit.
You Need TEN Years
I have been preaching this gospel of you need ten years to become successful for a while now.
Internet or not. Digital marketing or not. Mentoring or not… you will need ten years to develop expertise and build up real wealth. I have learnt the hard way that unless one is willing to get into that mind-set that success might take a while, you will keep making very poor decisions that actually hamper your long term goals.
So, I have humbled resigned to fate and now ready to plan out the next ten years of my life and lay a foundation for what I consider to be my life’s work.
I see a clear path to focus properly on execution of the vision set before me over the next ten years.
It turns out that the first part of the work is sensitization. We need to get on the road and do a lot of re-orientation. Folks have lost hope and are “too weak” to do anything meaningful or impactful with their lives. That is the first thing that must happen in order for our vision to become a reality.
We need an army of formidable people, only then do we have a chance to build formidable institutions.
The most scalable way to do that is by writing books. Write a good book and aggressively promote the book. If the books go out and people get to read them and implement what they teach, they will transform their life and be ready for enterprise development.
I have always dreamt about writing books. A vague, undefined hope that one day, I would wake up and have a manuscript of 50,000 words waiting on my computer, ready to forward to a publisher.
Dreams. Dreams. Dreams…
Once I switched my mind-set and started thinking ten years, I was finally able to stop thinking of month-end deadlines, quick fixes to my revenue generation abilities, and other mundane stuff and realised that I needed books in my near future.
I would have never developed the discipline, work ethic and integrity needed to write a book if I did not start thinking, planning and executing long term.
My eighteen month plan earlier referenced is to deliver at least seven books (I have published three of them already over the last six months), build out a new tech platform I have had in my mind for a while now and continue to grow our business and tech communities. That is the story so far, that is also the next chapter.
Russell Brunson, one of the voices in my head at the moment helped me set a high bar for my books. You know books are everywhere these days? Everybody and their cousins, cats and dogs are all writing books. If I want to command attention, Russell says these books must be so well written that they should be relevant in a hundred years’ time.
My father-in-the-Lord, Rev Olufemi Ogundare once asked: have you written a book or merely done literature review?
That is why I literally poured myself into my task. I have given the first three books my best shot. I do not know if they will pass the hundred year test or not, but then I remember the words of Henri Cartier-Bresson (1908-2004) “Your first 10,000 photographs are your worst.” (Give him a break, how could he have known that with “AI” camera smartphones, some people can reach that mark in no time at all…)
So, maybe my first couple of books will not be so good, but I have committed to continuously improve my writing, keep publishing the books and to aggressively push the books OUT! I have done my best possible at this time, it is up to the target audience to decide.
To do things like this, you need a hell of a good team. In this regard, I feel blessed.
I have the FULL support of my wife, that has made the past few years waaaaaay better. Gone are those alone days, no matter how strong a man may think he his, having support makes things better. Every day, as we advance, it always looks like I am pushing the boundaries and trying to see the limits of her support.
So, far… we are good.
My inner crew have also been very supportive and honestly, it is impossible for me to succeed without them. No joke. I cannot even imagine life without them. When my laptop’s battery went bad, they gave me theirs to use freely as I needed. When the work increased from one book to three books and then to at least seven books, they kept cheering me on and looking for ways to make life easier for me.
I see the confidence and tenacity in their eyes every single day, and I realise that they truly believe in our mission and we are ready to work it out.
It is time…
Times and seasons define us.
I have certainly spent a lot of time—most of the last decade, learning, building capacity and getting ready for serious things. I see a lot of things coming together now in a nice manner.
The next decade is a period of building. I want to build out the foundation for what is coming.
It is time to leave childish things behind.
It is time to kill the boy.
It is time to do serious things.
It is time to figure out how to reach the first thousand people with the published books.
Then, figure out how to get to ten thousand people.
2019 was a real game changer for me. I end the year as an author with multiple books in print. If someone had told me I would finish 2019 with several books in print, I would have laughed it off…
It is time to take the formidable business movement to the next level. I want to do my job so well, that the failure of anybody to build a serious business will be due to refusal to implement and not due to not knowing what to do. It is time.
My next phase also includes digging back into my roots as a digital platform builder as I will be building out a new tech platform.
I am so grateful to God for this year, and I am even more excited because we are just getting started. There is so much the grace of God can make possible for as many that are willing to tap in.
I will just remain cool, calm and pressing forward with greater determination. Taking it one day at a time.
I am Ade – kankun – mola – nrewaju Morebise
Happy Birthday to me! The Inveterate Schemer!
P.S.
The three books released so far are:
- Transform Your Life: Quick Notes On Turning Failure And Poverty Into Success
- Unleash Your Invention: The Secret Origin Of Creativity And Inventions
- Power Of The Mastermind: The Driving Force For Faster Success In Life And Business
If you would like to get your hands on them, please read this post on Facebook for the complete breakdown.
Thank you!
