Matilda's Christmas complex

Around December many years ago, I used to go with other curious boys to watch rehearsals for Christmas carols. We would sit at the back of the church and watch hypnotised as the choir went through all the popular carols.

Their leader, Matilda, was a lovely woman with a motherly figure and a belly laugh. Everyone loved her. What a big melodious voice she had, and how passionate she was about the things of God! 

Makerere Full Gospel Church choir

My father always said Christmas was the time to give, and would give us money to buy gifts for the people we liked. I bought Matilda a gift, and waited with longing to deliver it on Christmas day immediately after the carols. 

But that Christmas, Matilda didn't show up. We were shocked, for it was unheard of for her to miss church, let alone Christmas. What had happened? Who was going to lead the choir into carols? 

After a little more waiting, the carols began without Matilda. It later turned out that the tailor had not finished making her new dress, and Matilda decided to stay away because she felt it would be too embarrassing for her to attend Christmas without putting on something new. 

It's flabbergasting how many people today suffer from Matilda's Christmas complex. Christmas pegged on things is cosmetic Christmas and makes us miss the true meaning. It's not the merry hoopla that surrounds the day but the hearts with which we live that matters. 

The story of Jesus who and whose birth we celebrate demonstrates that love in its quintessential form is priceless. No one is rich enough to afford the kind of love that sent Him on the cross to die for the sins of mankind. His birth and death therefore hold more meaning when we walk the love He showed; being kind one to another consistently and savouring the joy that comes from being that considerate, than waiting for one December day and returning to our selfish living the day after.

Merry Christmas.

A vital thing

The will to win is important but the will to prepare is vital." I read that off the wall of the Lugogo MTN arena, and said selah! How beautiful, how true.

Practice makes perfect

It's that time of the year when we look back at the resolutions we made in January, and evaluate our performance. Some punch walls on realising they have done little, others repent, promising to do better the following year.

But here's the thing: everyone desires to win. God wired us that way. We're inherently competitive. Yet the person who stands out at the end of the day is the one who goes beyond the will to win by rolling his sleeves and doing the requisite preparation. 

Preparation is what the greatest boxer of all time, Muhammad Ali, was talking about when he said "The fight is won or lost far away from the witnesses, behind the lines, in the gym, and out there on the road; long before I dance under those lights." 

Opportunities for success are always available and beckoning but only those who are prepared will seize them with aplomb and execute them like geniuses because of their readiness.

Preparation begins with the realisation of the preciousness of time. There are only 24 hours, 1440 minutes and 86400 seconds in a day and the person succeeds who uses his time wisely. It's amazing the order and focus that comes into someone's life when time, including time to play, is planned for.

Preparation also means feeding well: three square meals of balanced diet a day, exercising for fitness and having enough rest (doctors recommend 6-8 hours of uninterrupted sleep) so you can rise revitalised to handle the tasks of a new day.

Go read about the lives of very successful people and you will learn more about preparation as the most vital ingredient behind every great achievement. Then you won't be asking why your resolutions never get fulfilled.

You will get there

It's a common narrative in Uganda. A bright and gifted young man leaves university with great expectations. He's excited to find work in a field he's passionate about, even if he's taken on as an intern with little or no pay at all.

From 8am to 5pm he works, putting a smile on the face of his employer. The capabilities of the young man are evident but for years he works like a horse without the benefits of a full-staff member. He moonlights to make ends meet but nothing seems to change for the better. The boss keeps saying he doesn't know what he would do without you but never backs his words up with action to qualify his appreciation as genuine. 

I started out as a journalist. Now I run my own company.

 Now your family is losing patience. They begin calling you unserious, unambitious, unassertive and uncreative. You don't drive, don't own a plot of land, have no wife. In their estimation you're a total failure compared to most people you went to school with. 

Well, this piece goes out to you. Take a moment to reflect, you will realise that all the struggles you have endured have instead of destroying you actually made you a better person. They have taught you perseverance and given you strength of character that will carry you through other challenges of life.

As long as you have a plan, goal, mission, never write yourself off.  As some people get busy underestimating you, ignore then and get busy learning and planning, praying and growing in wisdom. Without realising it, you will win the war against mental strongholds; all those ugly labels slapped on you will not trip you, rather they will serve as the little irritations that Ambassador Boney Katatumba said are an invitation for us to grow in wisdom, understanding and wealth.

Keep practicing honesty and hardwork even when the financial returns seem but a pittance. Rather than fight back in the same manner as those unfairly treating you, make your small steady moves to your destiny. One day you will get there and there will be no turning back.

A fight for control

Self-employment is not for the faint of heart. That's why many people prefer to stay in formal employment instead of doing something about their long-cherished dreams of stepping out and running their own show. It's not because they lack the resources; often they have all it takes but the underlying fear of failing numbs them from letting go of the security of a reliable monthly salary and related perks.

Use your expertise to lay down your terms

Those who bravely step out of the boat and tread on the waters are immediately confronted by strong waves and must quickly learn to swim against the tide lest they sink before their vision bears any fruits. That's the way it is—that at the centre of every enterprise are two contending forces: the good and the bad. The good is rare in the marketplace, and the evil force is always pulling all the stops to subjugate and control the good to stop them from making headway in the industry and become independent. They want to stay in control of them.

 

The evil force may be that tech guy you pay to fix your computer but never really does. He tinkers with it and makes you believe he has done a fantastic job, but two days later you will be calling him to 'fix' it again. It may also be the big man who brings you projects and gets rich at your expense; never paying you on time, or always paying you in small installments with colourful promises of how the next project will pay bigger and better. These are two examples of tricks used to make you a victim of dependency syndrome whereby you find yourself under the control of another person even if you’re self-employed. 

The contending forces will always be there: one doing everything to outwit and control the other. But know who you are and what you have, and use it to lay down terms those who need your expertise should respect, or have no business dealing with them again.

The computer brain

In the 1930s a neurosurgeon named Wilder Graves Penfield discovered, through electrical stimulation of certain areas of the brain, that people can remember some past events and how they made them feel. Penfield concluded that the brain works like a computer with memory banks; it records and stores specific things we see or hear and those memories and feelings are often replayed and relived as vividly as when they first occurred.

What do you feed your mind on?

The memories and emotions stored on the brain can be triggered back to life by a statement or deed, and can affect the rest of our day negatively or positively. Thus a bad history and unpleasant experiences often influence an individual's attitude towards life. The brains of pessimistic people are full of negative data from bad past experiences. 

But with this knowledge you can change that. As a child you probably had no control over what entered your brain, and you are still struggling to cleanse it of all the negative vibes projected onto it. But as an adult, you have control over what is stored on your mind. If you surround yourself with people who are worriers, or who can't speak three words without cussing, your brain will save sad and dirty vibes and before you know it your speech will be depressing and your disposition sour. If your idea of weekend entertainment is watching pornographic movies don't be surprised when you end up raping  your maid. 

Paul the apostle said we can shield the mind from corruption by thinking only on things that are true, honest, just, pure, lovely and of good report; things that are worthy of virtue and praise. Feeding on such uplifting things by choosing carefully who we interact with daily, what we see, read and generally participate in, will enrich the bank memory of our brain so much that it will store and replay memories and feelings as will only orchestrate success, beauty and happiness in our lifestyles and relationships.

Being free again

I was thinking of childhood friendships that had no inhibitions. We walked together hands around each other's shoulders, laughed together in the sun, and shared everything in comradeship whose roots went deep.

It makes me wonder what happens when we grow up. 

Young, free and happy. What happens when we grow up?

Suddenly the distinctions of race and class emerge from the shadows and dictate how we live and who to welcome into our lives. We stop walking together, laughing together and crying together freely as we did when we were young. We build walls around us and retreat in shells like tortoises only emerging inch by inch; growing more suspicious of one another even when there's nothing to be suspicious about. 

We hoard so much when a neighbour is naked and starving, we employ the unqualified haves at the expense of the qualified have-nots. The poor are ostracized from their little plots of land so the rich can build more mega factories. There's no longer dwelling together in love as a people who all have blood flowing through their veins and who all live to die some day. 

The "poet of enslaved humanity" Pablo Neruda said "things keep on happening" and maybe what he called the "rubble that darkens the stones" and "the blackness of nighttime" has  followed us into daytime and settled in our souls otherwise what would compel us to live so selfishly and insensitively like monsters in a jungle.

In one of his literary masterpieces, Joseph Conrad talks about "a land without memories; a land where nothing could survive the coming of the night, where each sunrise like a dazzling act of special creation, was disconnected from the eve and the morrow." To me this is the land of heartlessness with humans turning against fellow humans like wolves that devour each other.

Yet we are called human beings because we have a heart, a conscience to distinguish good from evil, and a will with which we can rise to the greatness of character that makes us live and love like we were created to live and love.

Be real

A man lived with his wife for three years after which he sent her to the U.S. on a shopping spree. She didn't return. The man followed her there only to find her in another home living with another man. She received him and introduced him to her new husband as her houseboy back in Uganda. 

Be the real you and you'll be fine

The man returned crying and went straight to see a marriage counsellor: "Can you imagine my wife called me her houseboy?"

"That's what you were all those years you lived with her; you refused to assert yourself as a man," the counsellor told him. "She found a real man."

It really is true that when you refuse to be a man, people will turn you into a door man. I've discovered that being firm and unpretentious pays dividends. When you are real you might come off as arrogant and it might push some people away but those who stay will love you for it.

My best friend is one of the realest human beings I know. When we were at Campus there was a looker in class that many guys would fall over themselves to please. She would  simply say, "I need airtime" and a guy would pull out 20k and give her. One day at 1pm, she fixed my friend a seductive smile and said, "Ken, you've never bought me lunch."

Ken turned to me and said, "Look at this fake chick begging for free lunches.”

I'll never forget the shock that came to her eyes. No guy had certainly ever told her off like that. I thought she would never speak to us again. To my amazement, she brazenly started chasing Ken while rejecting all the guys who would do anything to please her.

Free to be me

I met a free spirit on a journey to western Uganda. She strode through the aisle like a model straight to the last row on bus and squeezed between me and a woman with two children. Having sat down, she fixed me a cheeky smile and winked at the adorable children on the woman's laps. 

Life's too short; be yourself and enjoy it

She then opened her brown leather handbag. It was the biggest handbag I ever saw; her arms must have iron weight to be able to carry that bag! Guess what she pulled out of that gigantic handbag? A chicken thigh that must have been a maraboustock's, for it was way longer than a normal chicken's. She made the sign of the cross and tore through it ravenously.  How she moved her jaws and smacked her lips! 

She was generous too; she tore off two pieces and gave the two children who had been watching her like a dog keen for a bone from its master's table.

Having eaten, Ms Free Spirit opened her handbag again and pulled out a green bottle with a long neck. She brought it to her mouth and galloped down its contents with wild relish.

The bus was playing a song by Mesach Semakula, and this lady easily sang along. In fact she sang like a balladeer to every Luganda song that followed, word for word. Some people turned to look at her singing and she didn't mind them at all.

I thought to myself, what a free-spirited woman this is! Then I remembered the words of my philosophical friend that "Life is too short, sweet but hard." This lady seems to know this and makes the most of life from the way she strides into the bus to how she munches her chicken and sings her heart out to the songs pumping from the bus stereo.

The rich vs the poor; theory vs practical

I recently read an article in The Guardian that said half the world's wealth is owned by just one percent of the population. It's an astounding statistic that got me asking the why question again and again. I thought about the schools I attended in my country and was shocked to discover that nowhere was I taught practical enterprise that benefit me in the real world.  I remember in S.4 as we prepared for Uganda Certificate of Education examinations, my friends and I spent days and nights practicing rote memorisation; cramming long essays on  colonialism and such things that have never helped me beyond the distinctions I scored in subjects like History.

If I had powers I would therefore completely overhaul our education system and put in place a system of creative application tailored to rhyme with the interests and talents of students. I would teach things like "how to know what you are gifted in and use it to get to the top";  "how to make money and use it to change the world"; "why intergrity is the most valuable asset" and so forth. 

The books on the syllabus would include biographies of men and women who have applied themselves all their lives and attained inspirational success. The teachers and lecturers would not be those with high sounding academic papers but those mostly who have learned on the job and made it; men like Stephen Kiprotich, Patrick Bitature, Joanita Kalwaya, Boney Katatumba and big thinkers and innovators in sports, business, politics; figures who have defied the odds against them and made it in life.

I think the world is tired of the pontifications of theoretical elites. It's high time they sat down so that the men and women with practical experience can stand up and teach us because they know a real thing about wealth creation that would reduce the shocking global inequality.

A dozen original inspirations from The Optimist

• Make it a point to leave every person you encounter better than you found them. You'll be amazed by the sheer reward of inner joy that will be yours.

•  Count it all joy when you're in desperate need of something and the world says no to you. Experience has taught me that there's always something better around the corner.
• Go  slow on things that are very pleasant to the eye, because underneath the glitter often lies some grotesque secrets.
• People who have knack of finding faults with others, criticising and attacking everything, have a pile of inner wounds that need healing. Run away from such people before they intoxicate you with their toxic  mindsets of negativity.
• What people often call "good luck" is the favour of God shining upon them. So next time something good happens to you, don't say you're lucky. Lift your hands and say thank you Jesus for your favour.
• If you want to be happy and successful quit comparing yourself with others and begin to delight in your distinct uniqueness and applying your potential.
• A truly great person to me is one who has learnt to do unto others as he/she would like them to treat him/her.
• Happiness or non thereof is a matter of choice. You can be penniless yet happy and contented, or have all the money in the world but be miserable.
• The best quest is the quest for  identity where you truly know who you are and why you were created.
• A God-connection should precede a people-connection.
• When you begin make it in life and win some crowns, be wary of human praise lest you get carried away and start throwing your weight around as an important person. That's when the skid to your downfall begins to pick momentum with unstoppable fervour. 



Jotting down spontaneous inspirations that seize me

• A man or woman who has learnt not to squander time is on his or her way to greatness.

Dreams of change

I recently had a dream in which president Yoweri Museveni lost an election, accepted defeat and peacefully handed over power. Interestingly, the man who beat him at the polls was not Amama Mbabazi neither was he Kizza Besigye. The winner was a vocal city pastor who often leads annual national prayers.

I woke up from the dream happy that it answered the million-dollar question most Ugandans have been asking: can president Museveni accept defeat and graciously handle over power? When shall we witness peaceful power transition like our friends in Tanzania? 

President Museveni has been in power for 29 years

They say dreams come true, and as I was enjoying the possibility that my dream might come true, I remembered an intriguing part that cut short my hopes. In the intriguing part of the dream, tears were running down the cheeks of Museveni as he gave his last speech as the president of this country and handed over power. He was literally crying a river! I wondered: was he crying because he didn't want to leave and didn't know how to face the world outside the presidency, or was he crying over the mistakes of his past 30 years in power and the things he could have done differently? 

It's difficult to tell but one sure thing many Ugandans would welcome peaceful transfer of power. I heard one politician say all of Uganda's presidents have had to bomb their way to power and must be bombed out or they will never leave. But that ugly history of violence is one the friendly people of Uganda never want to revert to.

That's why for me this year's Independence Day was less about celebrating and more about meditating and praying that the beautiful aspects of my dream do come true sooner than later. It would be Museveni's best legacy to peacefully pass on the mantle. 

Moreover, change is one of the main constants of life. So the sooner we accept the inevitable the better for the greater good.

A gold ring in a pig's snout

I recently changed barbers because my former barber failed to get the point. He's a star at cutting hair but talks a lot while doing his job plus I didn't like how he would use his bare hands to apply spirit and whatever disinfectant to my head.

This barber went the extra mile to make his customer comfortable

Thrice I told this guy that I prefer he uses a soft cloth but I got weary of reminding him. I also told him privately that if he wanted to retain his customers he needed to observe better mouth hygiene by brushing his teeth thoroughly after every meal if he could not keep his mouth shut. I wasn't that direct; I used euphemisms to tell him about his really bad breath. As he didn't get the point, I found another barber, who though not as good as the other at cutting hair, treats  customers as kings by listening to what they want.

Recently I bumped into my former barber and he asked why I no longer came to his salon. I gave him an honest answer but instead of apologising and promising to change his game, he went on the defensive saying as a home boy (we hail from the same village) it was unbelievable that I didn't want to see him progressing. "That's why you're giving your money to the Baganda instead of supporting a 'brother!'"

In bewilderment, I walked away without another word. It's flabbergasting how many business owners play the I-know-you-so-you-must-become-my-loyal-customer card even if they are lackadaisical service providers with lackadaisical customercare. The sense of entitlement such people have instead of upping their game baffles beyond measure. That's why some people refuse to employ their relatives. 

If you're running a business, you must be open-minded; learn every day, get better and better in all areas of your business, and most of all consider the views of your customers lest the competition sinks you. Ignoring the seemingly minor details will make you like a beautiful woman who lacks discretion. The wise king, Solomon, said she's like "a gold ring in a pig's snout."

A soldier in the army of the Lord

The peculiar death of Gen. Aronda Nyakairima got me thinking about a boyhood dream I pursued heartily but failed to attain. I wanted to become a soldier. There was something about the army uniform, the caps, pips and hard boots that fascinated me beyond measure and kept me awake at night dreaming of the day I would become a soldier.

One day I escaped from school with my best friend to enlist in the army. The recruitment officer looked me over and said I was too young and physically weak for the  arduous tasks I was trying to sign up for. I watched the heavy army-green truck heave away with the lucky recruits including my best friend and wept inconsolably. 

With my friend officer Kabagambe

A few years later, my friend returned on a two-week vacation. I'll never forget the envy that gripped me with an intensity that almost gave me an acute heart attack when I saw him in his full uniform, with a pistol peeping from his belt. He had grown so tall with an intimidating presence. He punctuated his sentences with swahili while his cigarette-breath hit me full blast in the face. He was no longer the childhood buddy I used to steal mangoes with in the village. He was now a soldier I  realised I was afraid of.

After another few years, my friend was brought home in a coffin. We were all devastated. I'll never forget how his mother threw herself at the coffin saying her son was too young to die. If I had any dreams of becoming a soldier still lurking somewhere in the confines of my heart, that day they were lowered along with my friend's corpse into the grave and buried with him. 

Today, as a born-again Christian I'm a soldier of Christ serving in the army of the Lord, fighting on my knees, with bullets of prayer. But I have never ceased admiring the soldier's uniform and spirit. They endure a lot for the greater good of others but often die like dogs.

I salute Gen. Aronda and pray he's in Heaven.

The red rose

My friends and I recently pulled off a 'romantic' masterstroke and watched happily as it melted the women in our lives. These women are not our lovers but friends with whom we fellowship and serve the Lord.

It happened that two of them celebrated their birthday in the same week, and a third her fifth wedding anniversary. As the men in the group we did nothing to honour them beyond saying "happy birthday" and "happy anniversary" through our WhatsApp group.

If they thought these brothers don't really know tender-loving-care beyond words, they were proved  wrong a few days later when we gave them a surprise that blew them totally away! Actually we did something simple but it was made special by the fact that it was the first time we were doing something like this. Plus the sisters realised that their born-again brothers have "game" too.

We just pooled money and ordered a nice personalised cake with the girls' names on top as the icing. We did not stop there. We also bought a red rose for each of the girls, not just the birthday girls. Real roses, not the plastic stuff.

And then we met up for prayers as usual, cake and the roses safely hidden.  After the prayers, we said, "Attention, ladies! We got a surprise for you!!" The cake was brought out and one of us spoke on behalf of the men; something brief and precise – about how we treasure our sisters-in-Christ and value the moments we always share during the fellowships.

You should have been there to see them melt with joy like butter in the sun. Oh how they bubbled with delight and sniffed the roses like they had the sweetest fragrance in the world! That evening, the sisters learned that it's not true that Christian brothers are boring. And we discovered the magic in the red rose.

No matter how tall your father is, you must do your own growing

Where I stay an elderly lady comes over every weekend to wash our cloths. Nalongo is a fantastic lady who does a fantastic job. She has since become like a  mother to most of us and we love her to bits.

 You know how the weather can be capricious; raining when you least expect it to, or shining on till dust covers the atmosphere. 

One Saturday, Nalongo was still washing when the clouds grew dark and the heavens let rip. It poured down till late evening. 

We all must do our own growing

Nalongo put the wet cloths in basins and delivered them to their owners with a promise to return early the next day to hang them on the lines to dry. 

I was standing at my door watching the evening get darker and listening to the BBC on my small radio when Nalongo knocked on the door of my immediate neighbour. He opened the door, looked at the basin, and at Nalongo and grumbled: "You're giving me wet cloths." 

"Yes," Nalongo countered kindly, "you saw the rain." She was still soaking wet and shivering.

"But what am I supposed to do with wet cloths?" the spoilt bachelor continued, pouting like some unhappy little girl.

I was shocked and got dazed as so many questions raced through my mind. Was he blaming Nalongo for the rain? Did he want the poor woman to carry that basin of wet cloths to her home and return them in the morning?  Did he want her to command the sun to return that late and instantly dry his cloths? Or was  she a powerful miracle-maker who would with the snap of a finger invent some wind-driven fan to fan his cloths dry?  

Friends, I stood there shaking my head in amazement, wondering, "who grew" this boy! Then I remembered a line I had read somewhere: that no matter how tall your father is, you must do your own growing. Obviously this crybaby in a man body still has a lot of growing up to do. You really can tell boys from men by how they react to simple situations.

A heart-connection

Did you know that people need people to encourage them? We all try and all want somebody to find something to genuinely appreciate about us. Even that dopehead deep inside hates his lifestyle and wants to strip off that addiction, but will have no time to do that until the arrows of condemnation cease whizzing about and give him sober time to take stock if his life and do something better with it.

Did you know that people don't care about your riches, position or fame until they know you really care?  Because it's true that money, power and such things don't buy happiness. Happiness comes from sitting down and having intimate conversations with the people in our lives. Coming to check on me in prison or in the hospital is better than sending money. Spending time with your children and family is better than ensuring that they have everything money can buy. People want a heart-connection not a things-connection. 

Did you know that words have power greater than nuclear power? So powerful are words that the world was spoken into existence! You may disagree because you're  a proponent of the Evolution Theory, but you agree you ever melted a woman's heart with words. Or maybe somebody said something to you 20 years ago that you have never forgotten. Now that you know the sheer power of words, use words to bless not to curse, to lift not to destroy. There's something T-Bag calls "the captivity of negativity" that we must wage war against and there's no way we shall  win without speaking positivity.

Like the Nigerian lizard that jumped from the high tree and landed safely, praise yourself if no one does.  Those who know the power of the tongue and use their mouth well will eat the good of the land. Good words are that refreshing and empowering. Positive words will lead to a positive mindset and lifestyle that will take you places and make you an influencer that people will be running to like moths to a light bulb.

The terrible three

There are three terrible things that kill potential and prevent people from living out their true destinies. Fear, guilt and inferiority complex. But these are mere scarecrows that shouldn't stop anyone.

Find what makes you tick and be tick

To begin with FEAR, someone has rightly called it an acronym for "False Evidence Appearing Real". It's a real scarecrow because when confronted head on, it always gives way. Very quickly. But given chance, it enslaves viciously as we see in the tragic story of Okonkwo, a man so driven by the fear of being thought weak that he kills a boy under his custody and later a white official. Realising too late the enormity of what he has done, Okonkwo commits suicide and is buried like a dog, all his exponential prosperity coming to nothing. That's the trick of fear; it rushes you to do things and thereby crashes you. The only way to overcome fear is to understand its cause, and snuff it out with courage, perseverance and a sound mind. These help you to stay sober amid challenges and cope with hope.

As for guilt, it's antidote is in acknowledging your mistake, and making amends. All human beings are flawed and we all have been failures in one way or another. Even if you killed a man or betrayed your best friend, that guilt piercing your heart like an arrow can vanish when you eat humble pie by saying I'm sorry, seek forgiveness and forgive yourself. It's the only way to heal from the past and move on.

Lastly, inferiority complex is a terrible disease that often begins with wrong upbringing, and is exacerbated by comparisons. This world will always have people that are better than you physically, financially, intellectually and otherwise. So you have to quit comparing yourself with others and delight in your uniqueness, discovering and nurturing that one thing that makes you tick. Before you know it the world itself will be eating from the palm of your hand!

It's all about guts

I often wondered why the lion is the king of the jungle when it's  obviously not the strongest and wisest animal in the wild. Then I heard Dr. Bill Winston say in one of his sermons that the lion is the king of the jungle because it has more guts; it thinks it's the strongest animal and prances about with that attitude and conviction, injecting earth-shattering fierceness into its roars to keep others aware of who the boss is.

God has not given us a spirit of fear but of power and a sound mind

It makes sense. What makes even more sense is what we could achieve if we invoked our God-given guts; that inherent courage and drive that Bernard Shaw meant when he said that it's in the hour of need that a man finds his true profession. 

Consider how many men are living loveless and colourless lives because they cannot muster the guts to step up and tell the girl they love how they feel about them. Think about the number of intelligent men and women who are stuck in boring, poorly-paying jobs because they are afraid to step out and implement that idea they have been talking about for ages. 

Constantine 'Cus' D'Amato, that's the man who discovered and mentored Mike Tyson, once told his young progeny that a coward and a hero are the same inside; they both are scared of dying and getting hurt. But "It's what the hero does that makes him a hero and what the other guy doesn't do that makes him a coward." Plainly, he meant that a hero acts but a coward wishes on and never makes the definitive move that could change and transform his life. 

If you have a dream that has been reverberating in your heart, it's time to let it out; time to act. We all come out of our mothers' wombs naked and screaming, so let no body tell you you cannot make it. You're not a cockroach; there's a lion in each one of us, and when you let out that roar from the core of the heart there is nothing that can stop you from standing out.