Recently I posted on my Facebook wall a status that generated a hot debate in the hours and days that followed.

It went as thus:

"I have struggled a lot and continue to struggle to make my dreams come true. I will struggle till I join the billionaires’ club. I want everyone who knows me to study well what I am currently doing to realise this dream – how many hours I work every day, how I treat my customers, how I control my expenditure, the kind of people I associate with, and the money and time I spend on inspirational materials and events. In the next ten years when you read my success story don’t dare claim that I was lucky, or that I killed someone. Just know it was hard and smart work that paid”.

Whenever you see successful people around, don’t imagine they just reached where they are by accident. Maybe a few might have been lucky to bump into success, but the majority had to work tooth and nail to cause their success. Holding all other factors constant, our achievements and failures depend on the decisions that we make every day and the actions that follow. In simple terms, we decide who we want to be. 

Yes, we contribute a great deal in shaping whatever kind of life we are living today. If you are a drunkard, don’t blame your friends who influenced you to start drinking slowly by slowly; they did not force you. If you are a drug addict, don’t blame the devil; it was your choice. Decisions are seeds that we plant and when we do, they grow and produce results that we must be ready to harvest.

In the process of writing my next book ‘HOW TO BEAT COMPETITION’, my research has indicated that many Africans waste Fridays totally because they are either thinking so much about weekend programmes, are having the fatigue of the week or are frustrated about what they’ve failed to achieve in the past four days. But a winner can still be very productive on a Friday because he/she is looking at accomplishing what is left on their week’s target. 

Taking responsibility is a principle of success that everyone should learn. Knowing that our present and future life depends upon the decisions we make now inspires us to make wise choices. Life always presents different options and the options we choose determine whether we shall live a victorious life or whether we shall live a mediocre one where we blame everyone else for our situation.

We can still make the right decision even during the moments when we feel like it’s not the most attractive thing to do. When your friends suggest that you blow your savings on a posh car or you sell off your land and have a posh wedding, you have the choice to either say yes or no. There is nobody else whose responsibility is to make decisions on our behalf; we must make the choices ourselves and then be ready for the outcomes, good or bad.

Robert Bake Tumuhaise is the MD, World of Inspiration, & founder of the Authors’ Forum in Uganda