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Consistency: Once we have started an initiative, project, programme or a process that we are convinced of its impact on our lives, and it is certain to take us to our destiny, and becomes our legacy, we must perfect one particular aspect of our behaviour and that is consistency in the execution of our plans. This does not need to be formal and in writing. This is more in our mindset and attitude. If you have clearly defined and/or understood the logical steps toward the objective, there is no debate, argument, doubt, or self-betrayal about it. You must just go for it. Be unscrupulous on yourself. The results you have envisaged are so fundamental that you cannot imagine the opposite, namely failure. The universe will never disappoint you. It gives you back what you give it. So, do not give it ego poison, but ego food. It will take care of you. Be consistent in executing all the logical steps you have either identified or are given by practice for you to achieve the set goals. Be consistent at all times. Do not find yourself being caught in debating with yourself as to whether you must wake up or sleep longer, or wanting to delay implementation of the action to the following day. Do what is due today, for tomorrow has its own activities, and deserve your full capacity and full attention.

Repetition: as you pursue your life and/or professional goals, you will commit mistakes and disappoint yourself. This is how we learn in life. You must never be too critical to yourself to an extent that you are discouraged from trying again. I grew up in Jane Furse, in Sekhukhune Region, in Limpopo Province, South Africa. There is this football club at Ga-Sekwati Mampuru village, called Sekwati Try Again FC. I like them very much because their name is very motivational. Life is about repetition and trying again. If you fail in doing something, you must try again. You grow from your mistakes. All what you need is positive attitude and self drive to try again. I think it is Jimmy Cliff that sung the song, Second Time Around. There is always second time and many more times in life. We must take the opportunity to try again, and take second time opportunity. Sekwati Try Again FC was a very good football club. They never gave up. You win against them, they will be coming for you next time. They would have studied the previous game, identified your strength, and their weaknesses, and figured out how to approach the game second time around. This time round, they will beat you satisfactorily. So, repetition is the master of success.

Staying Power: success in life depends on your stamina, i.e. your staying power, tenacity and drive to hang on. Nothing come easy in life. You better get used to the practice of staying on course until the end of the journey. I have never heard of anyone that was killed by persistence. What kills people is the dislike of their work and problems that are caused by fellow human beings at the work places. It is also caused by our inability to deal with the complexity that is brought by fellow human beings, or our attitude toward it. So, you must have staying power. Never take problems personal. Otherwise, that is what will cause you stress and ultimately kill you. Be on the rational mind at all times. Do not be emotional about the challenges and problems brought to you by your colleagues, managers, leaders, and/or subordinates. Be aware of the language that your superiors are using when they are engaging with you. Respond to them using the same language they are using. If they are using the language of command or instructions get it right first time and respond accordingly. Do not respond with the language of emotions, for it will irritate them and they will view you as a cry baby and spoiled rat. If they are using the language of facts, make sure that yo get the facts and stick to them. If they use the language of reason, make sure that you get the rationale why they communicate the way they communicate with you. So, be always aligned with your leaders, colleagues and stakeholders language of communication. So, your staying power is not only physical, but emotional and mental as well. You can condition yourself accordingly.

Hard Work: at the end of all, it is about working hard. This does not suggest that your life must stop, no. You must just understand that every action requires a bit of a push if you want to be better than others. Nothing can beat hard work, especially if hard work is accompanied by creativity, innovation, and smartness. We must love what we do. We must condition ourselves to plough and invest first before we can harvest. Once we find ourselves wanting to harvest where we have not ploughed, we are on a dangerous road, that will lead to self-destruction. It is beautiful to reap the fruits of our sweat. You enjoy such fruits without any guilt.

So, work ethic according to the above input, is about consistency, repetition, stamina (staying power), and hard work. Nothing less, nothing more. You must develop work ethic to achieve success. That is the winning formula. Of course your natural talent come in handy at all times. But as John Maxwell wrote in his book: Talent is not Enough, indeed talent is not enough. It requires the right personality, attitude, hard work, determination, etc.

For those of you who are not familiar with the Everton Mint, it is a black and white mint flavoured sweet with a delicious toffee centre. Everton is also a district of Liverpool in the United Kingdom and the name and home of a famous English football team; Everton F.C. Now, in the late 1800’s there was a sweet shop called ‘Ye Anciente Everton Toffee House’ which was owned by a lady called Old Ma Bushell. ‘Ye Anciente Everton Toffee House’ was situated near to the Queen’s Head Hotel in Everton. Old Ma Bushell created a sweet she called the Everton Toffee which she sold to people on their way to watch Everton F.C. play their football matches; this turned out to be hugely successful and popular among the Everton F.C. fans.

Unfortunately for Old Ma Bushell Everton F.C. moved to a different football stadium called Goodison Park. Goodison Park was situated very close to another sweet shop called ‘Mother Noblett’s Toffee Shop’. Mother Noblett realised there was a lucrative opportunity for her to sell her toffee’s to the Everton F.C. fans just as Old Ma Bushell had, however she could not use the name Everton Toffee as Old Ma Bushell had already patented it. To overcome the problem Mother Noblett invented a sweet which was a mint candy on the outside but with her toffee in the middle and named it the ‘Everton Mint’. Mother Noblett also had the idea to make her Everton Mints black and white which at the time was the colour of the Everton F.C. football kit. The combination of the name and the very well made toffee sweet helped to make the Everton Mint hugely popular amongst fans and locals.

Mother Noblett’s ingenuity did not stop there; she met with the Everton board and agreed with them that before each football match a girl would walk around the outside of the football pitch tossing Everton Mints to the crowd in the stands, free of charge! This helped make Mother Noblett and her Everton Mint the famous name it is today. Mother Noblett’s granddaughter was given the honour of being the first ‘Toffee Girl’ and this tradition stayed with Everton F.C. for many years even after Everton changed their football kit from black and white to royal blue.

Mother Noblett made such a success of her sweet and the crowd loved the ‘Toffee Girl’ so much that the club and fans decided to nickname the club the ‘Toffees’, a name which has stuck with Everton throughout it’s history and is still recognisable today.

Unfortunately not much is known of what happened to Old Ma Bushell or her ‘Everton Toffee’; however Old Ma Bushell must be given the credit for the initial idea of the Everton Toffee/Mint. Credit must also go to Mother Noblett for having the vision and the tenacity to take Old Ma Bushells idea and make it a big success. The Everton Mint now falls under the umbrella of sweet giant Barker and Dobson and with their help has managed to stay just as popular now as it was over 100 years ago.

The club’s formal name is Manchester United Football Club, or Manchester United FC.

They are also referred to, popularly, as the Red Devils. Founded in 1878 as Newton Heath LYR FC, the squad train at their home venue of Old Trafford, with its capacity of nearly 76,000. Owned by the Glazier family, the squad have Joel and Avram Glazer as co-chairmen, and Sir Alex Fergusson as manager.

Manchester United have won the most league titles, 18, a record they share with Liverpool. However, unlike Liverpool, who haven’t won a single Premier League, the Red Devils have won in 11 of the 17 Premiership seasons, so far.

In the ongoing season, United have won two of three matches played and are currently third on the League table behind Chelsea and Arsenal.

Early Season Preview:

Manchester United would want to win the Premiership this season, for more than one reason. Apart from the obvious need to establish themselves as the best team in the fray, the squad know that this could be Sir Alex Fergusson’s last year, at the helm. And that the Premier League title could be the perfect parting gift.

In fact, this is Fergie’s 25th year, and even after a quarter century in charge, his motivation is intact. The Community shield, the traditional curtain raiser to the season, saw United lifting the trophy, by beating Premier League defending champions, Chelsea. Was that a teaser trailer of bigger things to come?

This is the Red Devils’ current line-up: Van der Sar, Vidic, O’Shea, Evra, Jonathan Evans, Scholes, Nani, Giggs, Fletcher, Rooney, Berbatov, Kuszczak, Smalling, Owen, Hernandez, Carrick, Valencia and Rafael Da Silva.

Wayne Rooney has returned to the League after a forgettable World Cup, and he will want to put those memories behind him, the best way he knows — by scoring goals. Rooney’s form, as ever, will determine how the Old Trafford outfit shape up in their Premiership campaign.

Sir Alex has had the legendary knack of spotting little known players who have gone on to do brilliantly in top flight football. Javier Hernandez, signed this summer, belongs to this breed. Hernandez did well in South Africa, and has looked good in his short tenure with the Red Devils. Apart from Javier, Fulham’s defender Chris Smalling is another summer signing of promise. In departures from Old Trafford, United have sold Ben Foster.

The Premiership, in recent years, has become a two-horse race, between Chelsea and Manchester United. This year, I expect it to be a three-pronged affair, with Arsenal providing the third side to the triangular contest. From the evidence of the matches played so far, I would back the Red Devils to mount a serious challenge for the title.

FC Barcelona and Real Madrid are two of the most exciting teams in the world. The best players on the planet ply their trade in the Spanish Premiera Division and in mainly these two powerhouses.

Last year, Atletico Madrid got the better of both Barca and Real in the La Liga. Although they couldn’t snap up victory in the Champions League final against Carlo Ancelotti’s side, yet all over they had a great season.

The ten-time European champions, Real, have yet another target this season and it is to win the Champions League again. No club side has ever won back-to-back Champions League trophies. To compete for all the major trophies, the Spanish giants have added a few marquee signings. Toni Kroos is one of those and he has justified his value to be called-up by one of the most successful clubs in the world. Kroos was phenomenal for the German champions, Bayern Munich, and was among the best players in Brazil, 2014 World Cup, which his national side eventually won.

Real not only, grabbed the World Cup winner, but they also convinced the best player of the tournament to sign with them. James Rodriguez was the star in Brazil and he lead his team quite far in the tournament. His tally of 6 goals helped him win the Golden Boot. It will be quite interesting to see how he would do at the Santiago Bernabeu under Ancelotti, who describes James as the player who would be Real’s future. On the other hand, the outgoing players are Nuri Sahin and Morata.

It is quite possible that Real win more silverware than previous season as the Galacticos look more powerful than ever.

Barcelona too, haven’t done bad in this summer transfer window. The Catalonian giants seized the opportunity to sign probably the best striker in the world right now. Luis Suarez is a flawed genius and he definitely attracts controversy. He would be out till October 25th and might feature in the first El Clasico of this season. In addition to the ex-Liverpool man, Barca have brought in Marc-Andre ter Stegen, Claudio Bravo, Ivan Rakitic and Jeremy Mathieu. Alexis Sanchez and Bojan Krkic are the players who were not needed by the new manager at Camp Nou.

Barcelona appeared pale last season and they would look to get back their domination in world football. Leo Messi would again be key for the Blaugrana and would be assisted by Suarez, Neymar and Iniesta. We can’t predict which team would do better than the other because of the sheer quality in both the sides.

Professional football as a competitive sport has had its unfair share of tragedies over the years. It is both entertaining and dangerous especially on the field of play. The Nigerian sporting family witnessed one of the most horrific football tragedies on the 23rd of December 2008, when nine female amateur footballers and two coaches were burnt beyond recognition in an auto crash on their way from Jos, Plateau state.

The tears of sorrow had hardly dried up, when 15 members of an amateur side, F.C Jimeta from Adamawa state, Nigeria, died in another auto crash on the 26th of January 2009. Twelve of the dead were players, while the remaining three were trainers.

The tragedy that took place on the 26th of January 2009 had hardly subsided when another devastating incident occurred on the 21st of February 2009. In a single swoop, 13 Football supporters of Nigeria Premier League side Ocean Boys F.C of Yenegoa were killed by persons suspected to be cultist, on their way to attending a premier league match involving their team and Bayelsa United at the Ughelli Township Stadium in Delta State, Nigeria.

Nigerian footballers have also had their fair share of tragedies on and off the field of play. Below is a list of some of the players who have braved all odds to bring joy to football loving Nigerians but later succumbed to the cold hand of death.

• Samuel Okwaraji

Nigeria enterprising midfielder Samuel Tochukwuma Okwaraji slumped and died on August 12, 1989 during a World Cup qualifying match between Nigeria and Angola. He died of a heart related ailment.

• Amir Angwe

Amir Angwe died on the field of play while starring for Julius Berger F.C on October 29th 1995. It was later discovered that he died of a heart attack.

• George Igenewari

The younger brother to Nigerian former international- George Finidi was slain by the bullet of rival supporters during an F.A Cup match involving his club- Rangers F.C and Stationary Stores of Lagos in 1995.

• Tunde Charity

He was a member of the Flying Eagles team that participated in the 1989 U-20 World Championship held in Saudi Arabia. He died of a head injury sustained in the playing field while featuring for Bendel Insurance F.C in a league match in 1997.

• Boniface Danjuma

This Plateau united player died on August 12, 2006 after he slumped and was confirmed dead 13 minutes into the second half of his team tie with city rival JUTH of Jos at Nassarawa stadium, Keffi.

• Orobosa Adun

He was the first choice goalkeeper of Warri Wolves F.C of Warri Delta State. Slumped and died on May 26th 2009 during training as a result of injury sustained when he was attacked by thugs of Rangers international of Enugu.