Henry Akubuiro
Unravel Your Hidden Gems, Tolu Akinyemi, T&B Global Concept, London, pp. 376, 2018
Watching others ascend the totem pole of life with relative ease, some are wont to believe they can’t fly. Times without number, they have tried times, yet they have found no way to break the ice. Don’t despair if you are unsettled by a losing streak.
Tolu Akinyemi, the author of Unravel Your Hidden Gems believes that the hero lies in you. If only you can discover the hidden gems in you, you are on your way to excelling. How, then, do you dig deep into the labyrinth for the gems?
Unravel Your Hidden Gems is a 376-page book by the UK-based Nigerian prolific author. It a collection of over 360 inspirational and motivational essays from a young man, who feels he has a mission to rouse dampened spirits to make the much-needed push in life to regenerate abundantly.
In seven parts, the author makes a diligent search into typical problems encountered by men, capable of weighing them down, and comes up with snippets of wisdom. Reading these pieces, you feel that the author is a preacher. Though his essays are not majorly based on biblical injunctions, the author penetrates the inner recesses of your heart as a preacher would, making you feel you haven’t actually done enough before arriving at a hasty resignation to fate.
There is a lot to learn to bring out the best in you if you are wavering between success and failure. Preparation, says the author, is the best condition for success in life, and to be on top of your game, you need to carve your own niche, that unique selling point that is hard to resist.
Akinyemi emphasises the need to celebrate others who are successful rather than be jealous of their achievements. “My number one tip I would like to share with you,” he writes, “is that you should rejoice with them that rejoice, celebrate the success of people around you” (p.6).
The companies you keep also plays a certain role in how far you can get in life. If your friends are bereft of vision and value, chances are that you might be influenced by their lethargic contentment. So the author dedicates two essays –“Relationships: The Current that Controls your Life 1& 2” –to sound this note of warning.
Besides, you have to obey the law of continuous motion –that tenacity of purpose to keep moving, even when life seems to be at a crossroad. Rather than looking up to heaven for a magic wand to rewrite your hard luck story, the author sells the virtue of perseverance. You need to discover your place, besides, and focus is the key.
Akinyemi echoes: create your buzz, celebrate your success. You have to be thankful for today, hoping that tomorrow is going to be much better as long as you are working towards achieving your goals. Sometimes, we think where we are at the moment doesn’t open the avenue to flourish. The author says: the pasture isn’t always greener on the other side. This candid advice is meant for many Nigerians fleeing to other countries, thinking that these foreign lands are paved with gold where one can extract an ounce by the minute.
In his essays on life series, the author teaches how to take risks, for it is an individual affair where you have to act your own script. Besides, you have to discover your aptitude, and drop the milk and start cracking bones. In everything you do, you have to live your life. Never forget that, for every prize, there is a price to pay.
Bachelors will also find interesting Akinyemi’s “Letter to My Single Brothers” in which he advises them how to go about the search for a priceless jewel, plus what marriage is and what it isn’t. He also has a letter to “My Unborn Child”, “My Single Sisters”, and My Creator”.
The author poses the question: who are you in Part III? This is borne out of the fact that many people are suffering from identity crisis. A copycat lifestyle has become the norm, yet we forget that the herd mentality doesn’t necessarily make one a success story if you venture into every venture.
Elsewhere, the author tells us that the people who make the most out of their life are those who have made it a responsibility to make use of their opportunity as it comes. It comes with a willingness to concert half chance into clear cut goals. Better still, the end of a thing than the beginning.
If you are one of those living a life dictated by your parents, read up “The Professor is in Town”. Drawing from his paternoster, the author tells us on pages 141-143 some lessons he learnt from his father. One of them is Time is Life, which emphasises on using time judiciously. He also learns, among others, that education makes the difference in our world. You, too, can tap from these words of wisdom.
Unravel Your Hidden Gems is like a Solomon talking to us in the 21st Century. The book teaches us to value what we have, the pursuit of excellence, and, above all, steps to unravel your hidden gems, drawn from your extraordinary talents, deposited in your right from the first day the placenta was severed from the womb. A book for all seasons, no doubt, especially in Africa where aspirations sometimes do not match inspirations, it is only logical that you add it to your shopping cart