As A Man Thinketh
Samuels Adebayo (Nigeria)


1. What Ideas were personally most important to you in this book? Do not simply list the ideas, but explain or discuss why they were important to you, using personal examples.

The book As A Man Thinketh is rated very high among the few books I have read so far simply because of its truth that whatever a man imagines he makes come true, such that man is the maker of himself by the thought he chooses.

The mind is with constantly filled thoughts; it never will be free, we are fortunate however, of being able to tailor our never vacuum minds to think and dwell more on our true desires through practice, ceaseless search and conscious effort which will eventually be what we really are.

I discovered that persistence thinking on that which I really want helps me to achieve it, just as dwelling my mind so much on that I don't want comes my way; a very good example is when I was in the university, in my third year precisely, I was having a very difficult time in financing my education, I spoke to friends and distanced relation, I got help that could solve about one tenth of my daily challenges, I struggled really hard with part time job and challenging academic works- I could not cope, so I dropped.

After about six months out of the university I knew I was meant to have a degree, i switched my mind to going back to school, day and night I think of myself being a graduate, in fact my mind refuses reflect on possible challenges of rejection at school, ridicule by friends and several obvious academic stress. In less than a month of persistence thinking, I went back to school and I discovered that my mindset on going back to school helped my course, I overcame all the troubles that I was faced by. Surprisingly, I graduated ahead a couple of my colleague.

Little wonder I am never caught unaware of whatever happens to me.

2. Can you relate the ideas or concepts in this book to your personal circumstances in life such as your relationships, your beliefs, your goals, your values, etc? Please use personal examples in your explanation.

On the 13th day of January, 2004 I wrote;
Believe me
Nothing happens to me as new
Good and bad
The bad and the good
Now it happens again
Some twice, some thrice
And some once- the once will sure repeat
Nothing happens to me is new
Only some are yet to happen
But they won't be new
Because, they'll have once happened
When it happens again
You say One, I count two
You count two, I say three
When it happens thrice
It's a fine tune of the second
When it happens twice
Its transmutation of the first
When it first happened
It was in my imagination
Nothing happens to me as new
It was new, only in my imagination
Believe me, we are product and manifest of our imaginations.

3. What are the most important new ideas or concepts you learned from this book? Please Explain.

I learnt that circumstance does not make man, it reveals him to himself, no such thing as destiny, I am solely responsible for whatever I become; I nursed it, that is me and that I am.

I can turn around, however, by being conscious of what I think of me, deliberately filtering away that which I am not, be very willing and ready to fight the good fight and earn myself a rapid transformation for good.

4. Has this book challenged or changed your thinking in any way? If so, explain how?

By my native name ANAWUNREYI meaning the popular one, I dream lofty dreams-
Each time I think
I think how small I was
I think how small I am
I think how big my thoughts are
I think how big I'll be
I fear the thoughts
I fear the bigness
I see myself too big for the space the world provides
I think each time.

Haven written this in 2004, I was robbed of my dreams simply because I followed majority who will never see possibility, who believe in smallness and I fear being alone, I allowed myself to be lied to.

This book has and is challenging me never to toy my thinking, to be very mindful of it, and not to trade my dream for whatever, keep them strong until they become reality.

5. Are there ideas in the book that you totally disagree with? If so, why?

James Allen's little volume is inspiring as the ideas are all true and very agreeable although I know more than what is written in this book is required to achieve a clear and sincere result.

6. What did you find most helpful and least helpful in this book?

I found very helpful the fact that man can find every truth that is connected to his being, if he will dig deep. Work is involved, sacrifices must be made and result is also sure.

When I first read the book As A Man Thinketh in 2004, I became troubled because it aligns with my inner self but conflicts with some other beliefs that I have blindly picked through religion from parent and through friends and some distanced environment.

I became conscious of what I think thenceforth but was very fearful, thus was not strong enough to follow through, I also became very lazy, I think big and do small, could not act on the learnt lesson from this book and many other book that are meant to build me up. I lived a life that really was not mine. I followed crowds and ran after shadows, I lost my mind, I allowed others to create path for me to follow- I was never happy, I lost confidence and lost valuable properties which today I wish I had never loose but I intermittently remember that As A Man Thinketh In His Heart, So Is He.

I am now aware of the uncertainty in walking the path created by others, how disappointing others value, expectations and standards are, how burdensome it is to suppress ones thought for another's and how easy it is for someone to work hard just to attain failure. Now, I am awake.

Being awake means knowing that I am responsible for what become of me through my thinking, being responsible and being the rightful master of me, trusting my dreams enough to follow through despite challenges and all oppositions to achievement. This is 2008, I know how much work I need to put in, do that which I ought to, and make sacrifices and become the popular one- ANAWUNREYI.

7. In 50 words or less, please describe the main idea the whole book is trying to convey.

The main idea conveyed in the whole book, I have summarized thus;

Except you stop thinking
You can't help making
Except you are dead
You can stop living
If you can imagine
You can make come true
Except you stop thinking
You can't but create
It's simple yet true
What you think is formed, created and made manifest
And that is who you are.

Please rate the following questions on a scale from 1 to 10. Ten is good and one is poor.

A. How interesting was it to read? 10
B. How helpful were the contents? 9
C. How easy was it to understand? 9
D. Would you recommend it to others? 10
E. What is the overall rating you would give it? 10

Jonathan Livingston Seagull
Assessment by Samuels Adebayo

1. What Ideas were personally most important to you in this book? Do not simply list the ideas, but explain or discuss why they were important to you, using personal examples.

Gulls are sea birds that earn their normal livelihood from scouting for fish, a daily routine that may be boring but it's a way of life!

The idea that even in every way of life, inquisitiveness is no do without for some none ordinaries with some amount of fear, doubt and convictions. I am not any different from this class, I seek beyond routines.

Being aware of my supernatural? Possession, I feel a Trans of possibilities, happiness, joy and physical upliftment- a feeling had to comprehend by the powerful many. It's just like erringly weighing small amount of truth on a scale alongside popular and even enormous lie. The lie will seems to be right but a great quest keeps growing inside the true identifier of both; to stick by the small inner truth- hungry, happy and learning. To abide by the routine and the majority is boredom and failure.

Each time I follow my heart on the issue of spirituality, thoughts and feelings I celebrate achievements, although small they are but big enough to give me real happiness. At each time I try to transcend to a higher realm, I face challenges that could ordinarily be worked over, but, I follow outer voices perhaps, and victory becomes short lived, I feel ordinary again and without warning my focus changes and no longer do I control myself. Jonathan Livingston was never left alone, some other seagulls had been in that state before him and he was not to be the last to be an outcast and a happy seagull that achieves desires.

2. Can you relate the ideas or concepts in this book to your personal circumstances in life such as your relationships, your beliefs, your goals, your values, etc? Please use personal examples in your explanation.

The feelings, although during meditation is very great, pure and independent of outsiders opinion and not biased with any religious theory. I sit uprightly with my eyes closed and transcends into a higher realm.

As felt by Jonathan Seagull, his sorrow was not being alone but that other gulls refused to believe the glory of flights that awaited them, I feel same, not solitude but those others I try to explain to never understands, and will not comprehend the possibilities of outward peace and fulfillment from inner calmness, and they will rather discourage me. I am learning to know, however, that to follow a meaning higher purpose for life, rejection will be faced along.

While I was in the university, I was seen as weird, experimental, different and par adventure stupid. I was financially poor, so I took to improvisation of forms and materials, I think of the extra ordinaries, I used junks, produces seemingly strange pieces of work as I rightly recorded thus:

Cheap colours
Found objects
Rugged surfaced pieces
He covers a canvas with colours
Heavily motifed in lines
The title- irony of the colours
He picked the objects from street
Bind them into finish
He calls it great
Seen as been stupid
Gets no attention
The critics ignore
He keep growing in the manner
Unacceptable, not reckoned with
He stages an exhibition
People could not understand
Quite unusual
Stupid
Beautiful works?
Most unusual
Too different
Great curation
Great exhibition
And suddenly
Known for his art
Scouted for by the critics
The press' respondent
The society's love
The great one they concluded
A man his work.

Another good example is a time in school that we were to produce a piece using plaster of Paris (POP), I could not afford one so I had to improvise, I mixed some white cement which was given to me by a colleague with a large amount of white powder and some marble dust I got from a construction site in school at he time, all of these gave me a result that marveled everyone, it was soft to carve and the marble dust gave it a shining effect that arouses lots of question and amazement. I got a distinction in the course.

3. What are the most important new ideas or concepts you learned from this book? Please Explain.

One of the most important new ideas I learnt in this book is that at the end of every tunnel as commonly said, there is a light. Despite the rejection faced by Jonathan, he was peaceful, happy and was not sorry for the price he had to pay. That very evening he was welcomed into a new school.

Having come to understand the reward of pushing through, am afraid I am still scared, I don't really know how much rejection I might have to face, I fear, I think I need some encouragement, but from where?

The new school I seem to have seen from a distance, it's splendid I will say, but what stops me from living in this foreseen environment?

As I write at the moment, I am confused; I have tried a religious sect that is perhaps of true worship but it bores, the routine is very tiring and burdensome. Being a true member will requires more than I am ready to part with or even more than I have got. Because I have shown some amount of interest, met with some people when I first attended some of the meetings and now, I find pulling out a bit difficult yet following through will mean I will become a hypocrite, which I really do not want. I want freedom, happiness, trueness and peace.

Anawunreyi the great one
The popular one Anawunreyi
Seeing more than others see
Wearing a look that saintly seems he hate the most those things others love
Others beauty is not his
Ever looking higher or lower
He loves solitude
What manner of man is he that he's here and yet not here?
Like the weed in the desert waste
Others to him are either fool or he is to other men.
Anawunreyi the great one.
I am willing to learn and be mentored; I am open to advice now more than any other time in my life. I can distinguish from right and wrong, I really need help now.
"Tell me what to do" "YES, I WANT TO FLY"

4. Has this book challenged or changed your thinking in any way? If so, explain how?

I challenged to wanting to know beyond what I see and see beyond what I already know, learn to listen to the inner voice within me and to prove what I shall get to know from henceforth. My thinking is been challenged once again that I am responsible for what I become, that I don't have to be ordinary after all, that I should seek to find, find and experiment with, be daring and bold and I will not be alone at the long run. I really want to fly.

5. Are there ideas in the book that you totally disagree with? If so, why?

None to disagree with but I know everyone need a Jonathan, I need Jonathan Livingston Seagull.

6. What did you find most helpful and least helpful in this book?

Knowing that I can learn to fly is most helpful discovery I have found in this book because I now know it all begins with curiosity, questioning the norm and reasoning extensively and beyond the ordinary.

I feel I am to be compared with one of gulls listening in the darkness for hours on end, not wishing to see or to be seen of one another, fading away before day break.

It is also very encouraging that after reading the book I feel I someday will spread my wings and fly, then will I discover myself and my true self will launch out, learning, knowing and teaching others.

7. In 50 words or less, please describe the main idea the whole book is trying to convey.

The main idea in the book is that we all can learn to be better that what we are at the moment, without any limitation.

A. How interesting was it to read? 10
B. How helpful were the contents? 10
C. How easy was it to understand? 8
D. Would you recommend it to others? 9
E. What is the overall rating you would give it? 9

Comments

Without constant persistence, without vibrant brilliancy
I think, I want, I wish

My wishes;
Swept away over time
Brought back with time
A proper tool of my impersistence

My wants;
Ever getting higher
Never gets lower
Chiseled by fear
Gouched away by friends
Eroded in flood
An implement of my impersistence

My thoughts;
Too heavy for a mind
Sometimes I wonder if they are mine
Really mine they are
Seen being stupid
Yet they ever get higher
Never gets lower
Chiseled by fear
Gouched by friends
But were never eroded
A residue of nature's brilliancy.

Leadership For Dummies
Assessment by Paul Adedayo (Nigeria)

1. What is the main idea that the author is trying to convey in the book?

The primary main idea the authors is conveying in the book “Leadership for Dummy” is how to primarily practice leadership principles without hitch or glitch, to be responsible and accountable in our daily activities. The belief of an average man living in this world is that leadership tasks are insurmountable and because of that they dare not try to accept responsibility of taking any leadership position. Apart from this, it also stated the difference between leadership and management and what the leadership stands for likewise what the management equally stands for.

2. What were the seven ideas which were personally most important to you and why? List these seven ideas followed by an explanation after each one as to why it was important to you. Use personal examples from your own life.

Passion to Lead

Every French soldier carries a marshal's baton in his knapsack - Napoleon Bonaparte

Leaders are not born leaders are made, leadership is not only to lead, leadership is commitment in action. Leadership is responsibility and accountability. Leadership is foresight and active step to create desire in reality. I quite agree with a man that said leadership is not about caring title but caring a cause. With my few journey on the subject of leadership I discovered that leadership is not to lead people, leadership is passion to make a difference, passion to bring about change where change is necessary.

I have done so many researches to understand why some leaders fail and while other succeed. Many view points and opinions has being thoroughly criticized to find the true bases for the causes of success and failure of a leaders, this book has help me to come into a conclusion that for any leaders to succeed seven things must present for an effective and efficient leaders, they are as follows:

Vision
An overarching idea doable dream, a mental image of where you are leading the follower to, that is realistic. Vision is an essential aspect of leadership that gives direction to people. I discovered vision at the early age of my life, I noticed that it is the currency of life, is usable and obtainable anywhere in the world and it can take a man to any where he may think of. My life as a person wouldn't have been what it is today if I had not discovered my vision in life. Vision guide my way of life and help me to keep in touch and maintaining my relationship with God.

Mission
A statement that summarizes goals that help to accomplished, fulfill the vision. Having discovered my vision in life, a statement was carve out to summarize and to create a path to accomplish my vision

Direction
A chargeable goal or set of goal that responds to the current situation or best information; the path from where you are now towards accomplishing the mission

Goal
An intermediate step that responds to the current situation that, when taken with other goals accomplishing the mission. Many things were set to do by my vision but a step by step approach were position to enjoy the fulfillment of the whole vision in a grand style

Legal Cooperation With Others
This point is best explain in this book by Robert Easton, Chrysler CEO, who said nobody can know everything and nobody can do everything… in other word without a legal cooperation with other you go nowhere as a leader. As a leader of our organisation I indeed know that the foundation and the speed of accomplishment we have enjoy so far wouldn't have been possible without harnessing the potential of other by legal cooperating with them as team.

Sense of Listening
One of the central components of leadership is listening, there is need to gather many information about the people to lead the course to pursue and the environment to operate. Listening helps work to develop a more organized system for extracting information by having your group make regular presentation to you, in writing and orally. As person this area as being my strength irrespective of my ideas I give everyone an opportunity to express their ideas and if it potentially proven we develop on it. And move with it.

Place the Needs Of Others Above Your Own Needs
This very one is very important to pay more attention to has a leader. Many a time we need to show the humility of our service to the people we lead. This is so essential to gain full possession of the leadership skill. The need of our follower must be our priority any day any time. I initiated of weekly meeting with my staff immediately I became the head of my department, to mend the gap of communication between the management and staff. This platform gave me the true picture of individual need per time. Timely need has been provided via this platform for many staff to benefit from management.

3. How will these ideas or lessons help you in a practical way, both in your daily personal life and in helping you to create a better world? If so, how?

Vision, mission, dream and goal, are mention in this book I have position my life to live a vision driving life and to lead with excellence, exceptional in my leadership skills. That is what I work towards daily as I set out for any assignment and in pursue of my vision and dreams. Not only to behave it , also to influence people around me to be vision oriented and vision driving as the way of life.

4. Quotes: Are there brief quotes from the book which really got your attention? If so, please list and comment on them.

Every French soldier carries a marshal's baton in his knapsack - Napoleon Bonaparte

“Giving your group a very strong vision is always important so that they have a constant sense of mission and expanding sense of possibility”

“Before a group can be enter the open society, it must first close rank”

Also the different between leaders and managers which are listed bellow help me to ponder and to understand the task ahead as a leader.

Difference Between Leaders & Managers

* Manager plan leaders create a direction
* Manager set goal leaders create vision
* Manager organized people leaders makes alignment
* Managers do thing right leaders do the right things
* Manager manage thing leaders leads people
* Manger manage resources leaders develop a potential
* Manager drive to accomplish goal leader embrace vision
* Managers celebrate position leaders are dictionary for life
* Managers wait for opportunities leaders creates opportunities (Sam Walton)
* Managers fixed problems leader fixed solution
* Managers control people leaders influence people

5. Is there anything in the book that you do not understand or are unclear about, or are there ideas which you disagree with and, if so, why?

I have been on this journey of leadership for few day, reading this book is just like a refreshing of something I have done practically. To be frank every idea are very clear to me.

6. Did the book contain exercises for the reader to complete? If so, did you complete all of the exercises and did you find them helpful?

No, there are no exercises for the reader to complete; though I believe leadership is daily practice for those who can take responsibility, so all the ideas are daily practice exercise for me.

7. Was there anything you read in the book that you would like to comment on that was not covered in the previous questions? If so, please comment.

Slogan your vision into compact word
I leant one new thing from this book that I would never forget, which is turning a vision into slogan that enables you to talk about the vision daily. The vision slogan keeps the leader in remembrance of where his or she is going to and help to stick to it.

Leading with someone else's vision
This area sound a bit very interesting to me, reading this part in the chapter four of this book gave me a very good idea on how to harness the vision of others in our leadership skill. I love the example of Jerk maple that owns the vision for the America police in New York but was harnessed by the mayor and the police chief.

Leadership and information
The most essential part of leadership skill is decision making which pave way for a creative planning in an organization. Decision making processes are enhance by the large number of information at the dispose of a leaders. I like the author of this book put it “the better informed you are every step of the way, the greater the like hood that you will make the choice”

Please rate the following questions on a scale from 1 to 10. Ten is good and one is poor.

A. How interesting was it to read? 7
B. How helpful were the contents? 8
C. How easy was it to understand? 7
D. Would you recommend it to others? 8
E. What is the overall rating you would give it? 9

Comments

This book has helped me to discover some hidden secrets about leadership, in fact I give kudos to the authors.