Titles Don't Win War

When I was in the third year in tertiary, I recall a conversation that our class representative had with one of our lecturers. We were supposed to have a session with the lecturer that morning. Since it was a new semester, our class representative was not familiar with the new lecturers. She failed to recognize the lecturer with his title. He got so furious and decided not to come. The whole class had to apologize until he changed his mind to attend our class.

I couldn’t fully appreciate the dramatic experience we had with the lecturer on that day. Now, I understand how academia is full of people who hide their insecurities behind titles, citations, size of grants and jargon. Just a few know why they chose a particular career, how it adds value to the world, and work hard to do it well.

The world today has different problems and it presents diverse challenges to us each day. Nevertheless, life is in such a way that, it is no respecter of titles. Your ability to overcome and surmount challenges is largely determined by what you are made of. Someone once told me that life is a fire. But quietly in my head, I said to myself, if life is a fire, then depending on the material I made of, I can overcome. If I am gold, I need fire to polish myself. But if I am paper, then the fire will consume me.

What are you made of? This is should be everyone’s fundamental quest in life.

I am not under-estimating one’s titles in life. But far from that, we shouldn’t be so obsessed with titles. Simply because you don’t get your value from them. Just ask yourself this question, supposedly, your friends will remember you for one thing, what will it be?

Trust me, nobody will remember you for your titles. People will remember you for your value. Titles and positions don’t make you valuable; you get your value from serving your purpose to the world. And in serving your purpose, you have to overcome hurdles in life with what you are made of.

Chase purpose!!

What you are called to do by your creator is more important than what men will confer on you. Most people stop learning after getting titles. They feel they know. If you have a growth mindset, you see learning as a journey and not a destination.

The truth is that most people who are not living effectively are the ones who need a lot of titles to cover it up for them. The goal in life is to be reduced to your first name.

When you hear of Moses, Samuel, David, Jesus, Mahatma Gandhi, Martin Luther, and many other great people. What comes in mind first is their purpose before anything else. But in our world today, people have ten titles, yet they have done nothing yet.

I'm more impressed by people who put purpose first in life. At the end of it all, what people have conferred on us doesn’t matter. Instead what we contribute to the world with our life is all that matters. We will need something bigger than our titles to win the wars in life. More to that, we need to live a purposeful and meaningful life.

It is well