Passion, Purpose & Pursuit

“Whatever you can do or dream you can, begin it.
Boldness has genius, power, and magic in it”
-Von Goethe

According to John Ruskin: “No one is without a divinely appointed task and the divine means for getting it done”. The problem with most people however is lack of passion to pursue their task, vision or purpose to a conclusive end. Passion will enable you to keep your daily focus. Passion will enable you to stay committed to the task that will make you bring your vision to reality. Passion for success will help you keep your eye on your predetermined end-result despite the challenges that might come up, which must be surmounted.

Real Life Examples
Thomas Edison (1847-1931), one or the outstanding geniuses in the history of technology tried ten thousand time before he could come out with the right formula that make the electric bulb. There was a famous story about him that after he tried nine thousand, nine hundred and nine times to perfect the light bulb and not succeeded, someone asked him:” Are you going to have ten thousand failures?” He answered “ I did not fail: I just discovered another way not to invent the electric bulb. He passionately committed to achieve a breakthrough. If you can hold on long enough, you will definitely break-through! Whatever you want to achieve in life; don’t give up, your success is on the way.

The wright brothers (Orville and Wilbur Wright) persisted with their experiment to invent a machine that could carry human’s beings and still fly, despite the fact that scientists at that time could not accept such possibility. In 1903 they achieved the first powered, sustained, and controlled flight of an airplane, thus ushering in the age of heavier –than-air flight. They were also the first to build and fly a fully practical airplane in 1905. And because of the pioneering efforts of the Wright brothers, we now have aero planes flaying across the globe and other sophisticated machineries like rockets conveying scientists to the moon. Scientific facts surrounding the issues confronting you can change, if you have the passion and the belief to persist long enough on your task. The Wright brothers did, and the result is evident to all today.

The legendary Greek Orator; Demosthenes, who was born with a speech defect, but later became (albeit arguably) the greatest Orator of all time, cultivated the art of public peaking by going to the shore of Aegean sea in ancient Greece to strengthens his voice by shouting into the wind for hours at a time. To improve his diction, he practiced speaking with pebbles in his mouth. To overcome his fear, he practices with a sword hanging over his head. To clarify his presentation, he studied the techniques of the master communicators of his time. Today, more than two thousand years later, the name Demosthenes is synonymous with oratorical eloquence.

Benjamin Disraeli (1804-1881) was a British Statesman and novelist. The first time he made a speech in the House of Commons he was booed of the stage. His maiden effort was such flops that even his best friends prophesied he would fade from politics. But Disraeli was determined not to be disgraced, so he practiced to master the art of public speaking. He then trained his mind to memories facts and figures and vowed; “I ‘will make them listen to me. When next I talk, they will glamour to hear me again.”
And actually the other politicians did listen to him, for he became a great speaker with convincing power and one of the best known British Prime Minister, a friend of Queen Victoria and was raised to the peerage. For many years, he was one of the most influential men in the world, because he had the passion to change his fortune.

Nelson Mandela and his freedom fighters committed their life to the struggle against apartheid i.e. racial segregation in South Africa. They preferred to suffer incarceration because of the course they passionately pursued, than to be a free men in Apartheid South Africa. And they were justified as the wall of apartheid could not stand the resoluteness of the freedom fighters. They had passion for freedom.


The challenges and the eventual success of Abraham Lincoln is another classic example of passion at work. Abraham Lincoln persisted with his vision and political aim despite many defeats, until he became the president of United State of America. At age twenty one, he failed in business. He lost a legislative race at age twenty two. He had another business failure again at age twenty four. He lost his wife at age twenty six and had a nervous breakdown at twenty seven. He contested and lost congressional election at age thirty four and thirty six. He lost senatorial race at forty five and forty nine, having failed to become vice president at forty seven. Finally, my brethren, because he refused to accept failure as final, he emerged the president of the United State of America at age fifty two. There is power in the passionate pursuit of vision!
Brian Tracy is regarded today as a distinguished and accomplished speaker and writer worldwide, yet he still devotes ten days a year to improve his already prodigious speaking skills. He has the passion to maintain his top level performance despite being one of the best is his field. It takes passion to maintain top level performance for along time.

Finally, Helen Keller (1880-1968) despite her visual and hearing impediments helped and inspired many handicapped people. She once said “it is better to have no sight, than it is to have no vision”. Vision is the number one catalyst needed to turn your daily activity into productivity. If a blind woman had vision in her lifetime; what is the problem with you that you cannot wake up to face reality and surmount your challenges?


All the people in the above example have successfully been able to combine passion with their vision and hence they have successful result to show for it. You are not a failure unless you stop trying. It is not over, except you accept failure in your mind. If you don’t what to fail, keep working it until it works. The truth is you have the “will” to do all that you really need to do, you will be as successful as you want to be. The power of possibility is in you. You are a creature of incredible and enviable value. You are designed in the exact image of God Almighty as stated in Genesis 1 vs 27. since God is not a failure, you can never be a failure! The seed of success and prosperity is already in you. All you need is to activate it. You don’t need to pray too long for success, rather, pray for the strength to activate the seed of success that is already in you. All the people in above examples did not just seat down and prayed for success; they simply did what they needed to do and success became evident in their lives. It is not by mouthing prayers that success will come to you, but by working on your vision passionately with a sense of purpose and direction.


Success is passionate pursuit of vision to a conclusive end. What is your vision? What single thing are you passionate about? What are you doing to bring about the delivery of your desires? Where are you headed in life? What plans do you have in place to reach your glorious destiny? These are the pertinent questions we need to ask ourselves as we journey through life. Human life is so short that it is only passionately purposeful individual like the ones mentioned above that will leave their names on the sand of time.
You have an option whether you are man or woman to leave the world quietly like you came or to make a name for your self by pursuing your vision with purpose. How do you want to be remembered when you have gone to the great beyond? You can answer that question by starting now to do what you want people to remember you for passionately. Anybody that leaves this world without impacting other people’s life has wasted the enormous resources God loaded in him. There is so much creative power in you yearning for expression. Let it not die! Think right and work your thoughts. Be determine and do something to advance your course in life and you will be surprised with the kind of result you will achieve. Success is inside of you, you most bring it out.
Get motivated and start working towards your goals in life. If you don’t have any vision apart from resuming work at 8 am and closing by 5 p.m create one and begin to pursue it with vigour. Your problem is not lack of time, but lack of direction. If you can decide on where you are going, your problem is half-solved. But if you have not decided what you want to achieve in life, another person will carry you along with his vision. There is nothing wrong in that, especially if you are the Joshua behind your master’s (God) Moses, or if you are Elisha behind your master Master’s God’s) Elijah.

The seed of success is in you. You are destined for greatness. All you need do is work out your success with passionate service delivery and your vision will manifest in full. You must succeed.