It Pays To Go The Extra Mile

AZUH ARINZE

Would you like to get to the peak of your career? Then, always go the extra mile. Do more than you are being paid for; give them more than they are asking you for – especially if you are still an employee.

Don’t be an average staff; be an exceptional staff; make yourself so relevant that any day you are absent, your supervisors will notice that. The company will also notice. And even the world.

Very early in my career, and during one of my interviews with Prof. Fidelis Oditah, a Queen’s Counsel and Senior Advocate of Nigeria, he told me that one of the things that catapulted him to where he is today is that anytime you ask him for anything, he gives you two; ask for two and you get three…

Coming from one of Nigeria’s most brilliant, decorated and celebrated legal luminaries, I immediately tucked it somewhere in my memory, and throughout my days as an employee, it never left that position. At both FAME Weekly and Encomium Weekly, where I worked for 17 years, before ultimately setting up YES INTERNATIONAL! Magazine, on June 19, 2011, we were expected to submit four story ideas every Monday morning. But I always turned in either six or eight.

Now, applying the ‘Oditah Dictum’ did something phenomenal for me and my career. First, it made my bosses, Messrs Kunle Bakare and Femi Akintunde-Johnson, to instantly recognize and appreciate my humble contributions. It also entrenched me as a dependable reporter who knew his onions. So much so that anytime I wasn’t around, they would say ‘let’s wait and see what Azuh has first’ before passing the cover. It again quickened my steps towards becoming the Editor, first of Reel Stars and later Encomium Weekly.

So, my dear friends, don’t just be one of them; be the star actor; the one that drives the process. Yes, nobody is indispensable, but you can still make yourself so, so relevant that even in little issues you are not left out or ignored. Sincerely, it’s possible, it’s doable and it’s also achievable. Remember again that if others can do it, then you too can.

Therefore, don’t be satisfied with mediocrity; shun the enemy called average, stand out, and in the event that all the people around you are also standing out, especially if you work in an excellent organization, make yourself distinct, peerless, matchless and repeatedly go the extra mile. Then, watch the Lord do the rest for you.

I implore you to go forth and shine!