When I wrote my first book The Selling Champion ten years ago, I met a lady in Enugu during an official trip. During my conversion with her, she told me that her Sister is an Author. We talked about books and brands. Towards the end of our conversion, I asked her to recommend a title for my upcoming book. At that time, I had not concluded on a title. I had three titles in mind:
- The Selling Champion
- Selling The Unsold
- The Art of Selling.
She read through few pages of the manuscripts and chose, The Selling Champion. I told her that my thoughts and hers on the choice of title seemed alike.
That was it! I chose the title: The Selling Champion. The book was later endorsed by Brian Tracy. Foreword was by Mazi Sam Ohuabunwa, FPSN,OFR, President, PSN. Dr Leo Stan Ekeh, OFR, FNCS, Chairman, Zinox Group and others, endorsed the book. The book became the first book on motivational selling in Nigeria!
The Selling Champion Consulting Limited later became a Training and Consulting Company, and a National Brand. What is in a name? Everything is in a name! How did we conclude on the name? I would say that an angel came to give me a name! The astonishing part is that I never met this lady again! The phone number she gave me went through twice and never worked again until I stopped trying to reach her. Destiny helpers!
It took me time in the course of my work to conclude that I met a destiny helper in that lady. She just came for the purpose of announcing the title of my book, which later became the name of our company.
Destiny Helpers are people we meet on the way in the course of our journey in life. They come to support us in one way or the other.
Destiny Helpers may not necessarily be people up there. They may appear in many shades and shapes. They may be high profile people. They may also be ordinary people.
Sometimes, Destiny Helpers may help you without knowing they contributed hugely to your career or life. They might help without even knowing what they did to you.
When I wrote The 25 Unbreakable Laws of Sales that was a phenomenon in the Sales and Business World. The book is the most voluminous and most endorsed book on practical selling in Nigeria! Our company was passing through a challenging phase that period. We lost hugely in an investment and were making efforts to recover. So we were nursing our wounds.
At that time, I also wanted to revise 4 other books. You will agree with me that it was a big project. Publishing 5 significant books at the same time during our struggling period … because of investment that went bad …was a big task. What do we do? The new book must come out, the 4 revised books must also come out. This was my decision. But how? This is where the entrepreneurial spirit in me emerged. I did some serious thinking on strategy and got an intuitive message to concentrate on the new book, launch it, then proceed to publishing the 4 revised titles. The quantity to publish for the new voluminous book was another issue. The intuitive message I got told me to concentrate on publishing copies needed for the launch of the new book. The message said: just worry yourself with the immediate challenge at hand and don’t worry about the 4 revised books, it would be sorted out in due time. I listened to that voice. Then it was time to reach the destiny helper. I called my publisher and narrated that we needed to reduce the quantity of the books as a strategy to achieve my goals. The main objective at that time was to launch the new book first and take it to the market, every other thing can follow later.
Naturally, publishing lesser quantity would be more expensive but that was the best strategy at that time. My publisher agreed on my proposal and we worked together to achieve the quantity we needed for the launch and the rest was success story. Just as planned, the 4 revised books were published 2 months later. Coming out with The Laws of Sales was a big breakthrough for our company! The book is a massive success.
My publisher was my destiny helper that critical time. He performed this function without knowing the effect it had on our company.
You need destiny helpers as you till the ground. Work hard, work smart, be visionary, be strategic, be determined and passionate in what you do, and pray for destiny helpers.
My friend and brilliant Osita Onuma almost dropped out of school in his 2nd year at University of Nigeria because of not being able to meet up with paying school fees. His destiny helper, a Prof came and took charge of paying his school fees. Osita had humble beginnings but his prowess was academic brilliance. He later made a 1st Class of 4.98 GPA, went to Imperial College in London where he was best graduating student, and later MIT in United States where he got his PhD. Today, Osita is a senior official at Microsoft. Work hard in your dreams, and pray for destiny helpers. God has a way of sending people to the man who is tilling the ground.
Destiny Helpers will not locate you in your bed. They will meet you in the field!
In the Bible, Joseph told the prisoner to mention his name before the king. It took the prisoner 2 years to remember the request, but when he did, Joseph became Prime Minister in a foreign land!
Be passionate about your vision and still make out time to pray that God sends you agents of support.
Mordecai never gave up on Esther. The wise old man strategically took Esther to the Palace where she later became a Queen. A slave girl became a Queen in a foreign land! Pray for destiny helpers and do your best too.
Pharaoh’s daughter discovered Moses in the river and took him to the Palace. A commoner didn’t discover Moses because his purpose was designed for the Palace. You need to be at the right place at the right time … doing the right things. Destiny Helpers make things easy.
My experience in life has taught me that somehow or somewhere, you will need help to get to a higher height. Yes, we all need this push.
Destiny Helpers can also come in form of mentors. These are people who were there before us.
In my career, meeting Brian Tracy and other mentors helped me tremendously.
As businessmen and women, destiny helpers can come in form of suppliers, technical partners, foreign and local associates. These folks have the capacity to help our businesses and ideas. Experience has taught me that you gain a lot by exploring strategic alliances.
I believe in the God Factor. I believe that the universe is controlled by forces: positive and negetive. The positive force helps, the negative force destroys. This is why you need to constantly work and walk with God in order to send you help at the time of need.
Today, I join my faith with yours to agree that as we work hard to achieve our purposes in life, may God send us destiny helpers that will make things easier, amen.
Our destiny helpers will locate us, amen.
George O. Emetuche, CES
Convener, Nigeria Sales Conference.