Apart from bringing you out of your comfort zone, excellence demands from you preparation and training. Nobody attains excellence without the necessary process of preparation and training. That is what you do when nobody sees you. It is the rigors of self-education that you go through while others play. It is the pain of self-preparation that you engage in while others are partying. Preparation and training are those things you do in the solitude of your studies when others are basking in the sun on the beach.

Ladies and gentlemen, there is no excellence without preparation and training. It is what you do in secret that determines your public manifestation. Those hours of preparation are never in vain. They will be a handsome reward to you sometime in the future. When your training and preparation is constant enough to lead to excellence, one day, excellence will elevate you. Excellence will crown your efforts. Excellence will bring about your celebration. Excellence will lay a table before you, in the presence of your colleagues, after they come back from their sun bathing.

“To become successful, do the little extra things that ordinary people refuse to do. The little extra hard work, little extra practice, little extra studying and the little extra positive attitude.” ― Archibald Marwizi

Another thing that excellence will require of you is the ability to endure. For you to attain excellence in anything, you need stamina to keep on going. This is because excellence is not attained overnight. True excellence takes time. It takes perseverance. True excellence takes endurance. For true excellence, you need some stamina.

I remember when I had just arrived in the former USSR to study journalism, a general requirement for students those days was that they had to first study the Russian Language in their first year. Unfortunately for me, I was late to school by about two weeks. At that time, my fellow students had started speaking a bit of the Russian Language. At least they had all learned the alphabet and could read the language at that time. By the time I arrived, I was in all kinds of trouble. I was so much behind that my professor could not help but confess that if I ever spoke the language, even though he was a communist and an atheist, he would gladly go and put a candle in the church, because at my level he thought there was no way I would be able to speak the language.

After this extremely damning verdict, I was only left with two options; God and the library. First, I spoke to God about it and decided to stand on his promise in Deut. 28:13: “And he Lord will make you the head and not the tail; you shall be above only, and not be beneath, if you heed the commandments of the Lord your God, which I command you today, and are careful to observe them.”

I made a deal with God that according to His word I would end up being the head in that school, the first and not the last. The other side of that agreement was that I would put in my best effort in the library.

“Roll-up those sleeves and work until you see the fruit of your labour. It takes Passion, Resolve and a Productive Work Ethic, meeting with Opportunity, for you to succeed.” ― Archibald Marwizi

Ladies and gentlemen, if you have ever spent some considerable time in the library, you would have to agree with me that the topic of stamina and endurance comes in handy here. I remember the first few weeks in the library, after studying for some time, I would look at my wristwatch trying to reassure myself that I had spent at least 4 of the 6 hours that I had intended to spend daily. To my amazement however, when I expected to see 4 hours, I saw that I had only spent 30 minutes in actual fact. So I resumed my studies with a renewed determination to go longer.

When I was sure that the 6 hours were over, when I looked at my wristwatch I realised that I had spent only 2 hours. But that is the only way you build stamina. After doing this for about 6 years, I eventually graduated as the best graduating student with first class honours from that university. There is no excellence without stamina. Excellence demands endurance. You need to persevere before you can have the testimony of excellence.

“Excellence is not a success but a persistent pursuit of perfection.” ― DebasishMridha

When we started our church, I soon discovered that the same quality is equally needed in building a mega church. At that time, I was determined to pray 6 hours every day. My experience brought me back to the years in the library as a student. Each time I thought I had prayed for about 2 hours, my wristwatch would inform me that I had only prayed for about 20 minutes. But once I passed the exams of perseverance, excellence began to work for me. We ended up building the largest and one of the most powerful evangelical churches in Europe, when I was only in my early thirties.

“You must succeed! Not by accident, but deliberately! You are able to succeed – now you must be willing to succeed and this must reflect in the way you spend your life.” ― Archibald Marwizi

Another very trying aspect of excellence is that in most cases, excellence will take you through the path of trials and tribulations. People of excellence are often misunderstood. They often go through a lot of trials, attacks and tribulations. My own story in the Ukraine attests to this truth. As a black man pastoring a church of 99% white Europeans, I have had to endure a lot of misunderstanding and trials. It is one thing for you to do that in your own country or a country where you are a citizen. It is an entirely different thing for you to do the same thing when you hold a Nigerian Passport.

It is worse still, if you are a black man from Africa. For example, over the last 20 years of our ministry, I have had to endure over 20 criminal charges. I have endured countless amounts of deportation attempts, hundreds of lawsuits and the list goes on and on. The beautiful thing about excellence is that despite the trials and the tribulations, excellence has a way of distinguishing you.

As I write this article, I am still a persona non grata in Russia. The reason is because the excellence we have attained in the Ukraine has made so much noise on our behalf that now Russia cannot imagine us coming to do the same thing in her territory. Yet, the beauty of excellence is that excellence will make a way for you even when you are under prohibition.

“Dominate the market with your products of self-control; no matter how many temptations produced by the devil, you will still overcome with profits of excellence.” ― Israelmore Ayivor

Despite the ban, we have at least a hundred churches prospering right in the heart of Russia. Excellence knows how to operate in impossible circumstances. You will only have a testimony of the exploits of excellence if you are not afraid to go through the trials and tribulations.

•Sunday Adelaja is a Nigerian born leader, Transformation Strategist, Pastor and innovator who lives in Kieve Ukraine. He can be contacted at sundayadelajablog@gmail.com

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