The mindset of greatness, By Sunday Adelaja

Before I go into the other secrets of what makes great people great, let me first elucidate more on our topic today – THE MENTALITY OF GREATNESS. Every greatness, all forms of greatness, whether it is financial greatness, political greatness, social greatness or spiritual greatness are as a result of a mindset, which I call mentality here. Everything depends on mindsets, worldviews and paradigms.

Recently, the first mail I read from my inbox came from a young man, who according to him has been graced by God. He has had the rare privilege of working for three families who are billionaires, listed on the Forbes’ list of the richest people in the world.

For a young man less than forty years old to have been so privileged, is indeed a rare opportunity. Many of us were not so much graced. As a matter of fact, a lot of us have never met or sat down in the company of a billionaire before. Worst still, most of us will never have such an honour.

There might be various reasons for that. First of all, these billionaires are far and in between in our world. There are just too few of them. There are less than one per cent of people who attain that status of been called a billionaire. It is, therefore, understandable why only a few of us will have the privilege of meeting one of these people.

Billionaires are great people by all standards, which is why there are so few of them. There are actually only about two thousand billionaires in the whole world. This article is not about billionaires though, but about greatness and the mentality that leads to it. Before I go ahead to expatiate on the subject of greatness in general, I wish to first complete my story of this young man who had the opportunity to study and learn from three Forbes billionaires.

As I have said above, there are various reasons why we would not have such a rare opportunity as this young man. The fact that billionaires are few is one of such reasons. Apart from the fact that it is rare to come across billionaires, even if you are opportune to come across them, they hardly have time for you. Billionaires, like most great men, are busy people. Some of us will have the opportunity to meet with great men such as billionaires, but only as a short stint.

“Nothing great will ever be achieved without great men, and men are great only if they are determined to be so.” ― Charles de Gaulle

If you are like me, by now you should be asking: What did he come out of those meetings with? Did their greatness rub on him or not? What were his greatest discoveries? What really makes these people tick? What are their main attractions? Why the difference? What really differentiates them from the rest of us? I think it would interest you to learn what this man says at the end of the day.

Some of those might be in settings such as excursions, visits, interviews, accidental interactions, etc. In the business world though, highly successful people have come up with a way of bridging the gap between the haves and have-nots by organising seminars, symposiums and town hall meetings, with men and women who have already attained some form of greatness in society.

For example, I am aware that to attend a private or open seminar with some great men of business and commerce, at times people pay up to $1,000 for an hour of meeting or even more. This is all an attempt to get the chance to be in the presence of greatness. There are whole companies which are in the business of organising the meeting with great people, selling tickets to seminars, lunches and symposiums, where these men will speak.

Make no mistakes about this, people buy this tickets en-masse. The point I am trying to make is that greatness is attractive. It attracts us to its glamour. Now, come to think of it that you have an opportunity to meet with not just one billionaire in your lifetime, but with more than one. Or like in the case of our friend who I started the story with. He had the opportunity of not just meeting or attending the seminar of billionaires. He actually was opportune to work with and alongside not just one, but three billionaires on the Forbes list.

If you are like me, by now you should be asking: What did he come out of those meetings with? Did their greatness rub on him or not? What were his greatest discoveries? What really makes these people tick? What are their main attractions? Why the difference? What really differentiates them from the rest of us? I think it would interest you to learn what this man says at the end of the day.

“Keep away from people who try to belittle your ambitions. Small people always do that, but the really great make you feel that you, too, can become great.” ― Mark Twain

…this lesson about time that my friend pointed out as his main lesson from the lifestyle of the three billionaires he worked with, is only just one of the different mentalities and values that make great people great. Great people are great because they relate to time differently from ordinary people. Again, I wish to say, this is just one of the values that make people great.

In his own words “My mind has really been stretched as I witnessed their lifestyles, right before my very own eyes. What we always pray and fast for, they have it without any prayer and fasting. I have come to conclude that the distance between where they and where I currently am is the usage of my time. I can climb right to the top and have extraordinary achievements, only if I make every moment count. I have seriously cut back on the time I spend sleeping. I have cut back on friends and now most of the time; I am indoors sitting behind the computer, till the early hours of the morning, if I am not at work.”

Dear friends, this lesson about time that my friend pointed out as his main lesson from the lifestyle of the three billionaires he worked with, is only just one of the different mentalities and values that make great people great. Great people are great because they relate to time differently from ordinary people. Again, I wish to say, this is just one of the values that make people great.

“I never knew a man come to greatness or eminence who lay abed late in the morning.” – Jonathan Swift

In this series, we are going to dig even deeper. We are going to be talking about the mentality of greatness in general. One of their mentalities is what we have seen above. They relate differently to time. But that is not the only thing they do differently from ordinary mortals.

Before I go into the other secrets of what makes great people great, let me first elucidate more on our topic today – THE MENTALITY OF GREATNESS. Every greatness, all forms of greatness, whether it is financial greatness, political greatness, social greatness or spiritual greatness are as a result of a mindset, which I call mentality here. Everything depends on mindsets, worldviews and paradigms.

Sunday Adelaja is a Nigerian born leader, transformation strategist, pastor and innovator. He was based in Ukraine.