By Dendy Media

Today we’d like to introduce you to Dr Sule Emmanuel.

It’s an honor to speak with you today. Why don’t you give us some details about you and your story. How did you get to where you are today?

Thank you for the opportunity. I was born in the historic city of Benin, Nigeria – West Africa. Had my formal education in Nigeria, until I obtained a bachelor’s in Computer Science. Raised by a single parent from whom I learnt first-hand the virtues of hard work, self-discipline, and commitment to the pursuit of a vision. The discipline I saw in my mother eliminated all my excuses to fail in life. Growing up in the city of Benin, I made a resolve that I was going to make my contribution to make my city better. My city was behind in development, and I observed a trend; the average young person had but just one dream: ‘jet out of the country’. It was clear to me that there was no way our city was going to attain anything close to noteworthy development if the brain drain continues. I resolved I was going to do everything to change things. I decided to introduce entrepreneurial training to the young school leavers in my society. We established a training academy through which we successfully equipped young people into entrepreneurship, giving them the right tools to start and succeed and yet connecting them with funders.

The most remarkable achievement for me is that, through our initiative, we have been able to inspire the birth of other initiatives with a passion like ours. Ever since, I have remained on the priceless path of inspiring and coaching individuals and teams to live happy, purposeful, and prosperous.

I’m sure your success has not come easily. What challenges have you had to overcome along the way?

Coming from West Africa – Nigeria, a country with immense potentials but with many avoidable developmental challenges, it sure does come with lots of constraints and limitations, because you have to work a lot harder than your counterparts from developed nations where there are infrastructures and systems to leverage on.

Nonetheless, I have always believed in the power of dreams, discipline, and determination. I am a firm believer in the philosophy that whatever you can envision, and commit yourself to developing the right skills, while also strategically building the relevant network, you will surely achieve. When we started the business and leadership academy in my city, there was strong apathy towards what we were doing. But I told my team that the goal was to change an age-long narrative and the destiny of our city, and we had a price to pay for being innovators. We kept at it, constantly reminding ourselves what the goal and motivation was, and we ensured to celebrate every little success.

So, despite the challenges I have had to face, again and again, a key motivation for me is the understanding that money hides in problems. I keep telling myself, “Emmanuel, if you want money, all you have to do is identify problems and create solutions. People will only pay you for solving problems.” I have always believed that nothing is impossible; whatever we can envision, we also have the potentials to actualize. This has been a key inspiration to confront and overcome challenges.

Let’s talk about the work you do. What do you specialize in and why should someone work with you over the competition?

At THE SULE EMMANUEL UPGRADE, we are dedicated to helping individuals, teams and organizations enjoy remarkable success, as we help them remain on the path of purpose, providing the needed inspiration, training and coaching to help them maximize their potentials and surmount every obstacle to their individual and cooperate success.

We offer highly acclaimed virtual and onsite coaching and training programs on several performance-enhancing and personal development areas, while also providing viable solutions to critical concerns on Team Development, Career Advancement, Global Entrepreneurship, Leadership Development, Relationship Improvement, Business Development and Successful Management, and many more.

We design tailor-suited training programs for each client, in line with their needs, goals and expectations. We are in business to serve and help our clients to become better every day, both in performance and result. We are simply in business to help our clients succeed with theirs.

We also facilitate (virtual and onsite) at conferences, seminars, and workshops, with each session laced with practical guidance to add value to each listener.

What’s your best piece of advice for readers who desire to find success in their life?

This for me is the golden rule: identify what you want (precision/clarity), discover the price that must be paid (sacrifice), commit yourself to paying the price (action) and stay focused until you win (discipline/determination).

Remind yourself daily that good ideas without effort will lead you nowhere. Besides, ‘good intention’ is not a product. Remember, the sun only shines on those who get out of the house.

Refuse to be persuaded by anyone that impossibilities exist. Refuse to accept that there are heights you cannot attain. No individual has the monopoly of success. Live with the understanding that failure is feedback, and it is one of the best forms of education you can receive. Be intentional and consistent with your personal development; it will reflect on the kind of thoughts you entertain, your choices, your outlook, and your approach.

Consistently invest on your growth.

Avoid procrastination. Procrastination is the arrogant assumption that you will always have opportunities tomorrow to do what are you are refusing to do today.

Do not allow the fear of losing to become greater than the excitement of winning. You cannot always avoid failure, but whatever the outcomes of your effort, you can use it to advance your life. Every person you admire have failed more times than they have succeeded.

Finally, believe in yourself. Believe in your gifts. Believe in your dream/vision. The best way to convince critics and naysayers is to stay with the dream till it works, and it will.

Speaking of success, what does the word mean to you?

Success means different things to different people, and indeed, there can be no universal standards for measuring or defining success. Our values (or the lack of it) will inevitably influence our perception, definition and pursuit of success. How we define success determines what we pursue and how we pursue them. Many years ago, I sat to ponder, ‘what will make me feel successful?

How will I know I am successful?’ For me, success is happily living out my purpose.

An invention/device or entity will be deemed to be successful when it is excellently functioning in alignment with the purpose for which it was created. I believe the same applies to every human being. We are all God’s creation; created on purpose and for a purpose. Our responsibility is to discover this purpose and commit our lives to it. It is in passionately fulfilling that purpose; we will find success.

I believe every other benefit, such as material possessions, social capital, affluence and influence will come when the right understanding of success drives us.

What’s next for you?

We recently published my third book on building healthy marriages, titled, “THIS THING CALLED MARRIAGE”. We made sure we launched the audio version, alongside the hard copy and electronic version. The acceptance has been phenomenal. This title is my 16th published work.

However, we are currently working on the release of two other beautiful books which are very dear to my heart, “14 THINGS THAT KEEPS PEOPLE SMALL” and “THE SEVEN TYPES OF IGNORANCE.” We hope to release it to the public in the next few of months.

Our organization is also currently working hard at developing some cutting-edge virtual training programs for graduating university students across Africa. The goal is to give them an amazing head-start, upon stepping out of the four walls of the university. We want to empower Africans to build Africa. These training programs are thoroughly and thoughtfully designed with a core understanding of the “African” challenges/limitations, and all that is needed to achieve exceptional success in our communities, and yet building a global brand.

We have a dedicated team that is currently working on a partnership arrangement with some universities across Africa to establish our entrepreneurial mentorship platforms, and we are open to partnerships with organizations from all over the world with similar interests.

Finally, how can people connect with you if they want to learn more.

Sure, I can be reached on all these platforms:

Website: www.suleemmanuel.com and www.drsuleonline.com.

Twitter: @drsuleemmanuel.

LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/drsuleemmanuel.

Facebook: www.facebook.com/drsuleemmanuel.

YouTube: www.youtube.com/suleemmanuellive