Stolive, From Botswana, 7 Fans, 4 Hubs, Joined 7 weeks ago
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Kimh039 Interviews Stolive
Stolive Writes About His Material and Spiritual Perspectives on Success
1. You are new to HubPages. What brought you here and how has it been so far for you?
As I was launching SucceedingLife some months ago (2-3), the idea occurred to me that HubPages is a great place from where traffic can be driven to a website. It stirred up my curiosity. So I came, explored it, and thought “whether HubPages can help drive traffic to my site or not, this is a place where I need to be. I’ll bring my message right here, and if readers will respond positively and decide to visit SucceedingLife, let it be.”
That’s how I found myself joining, and I’m happy to have done so. I’ve been warmly welcomed with positive comments and feedbacks to my Hubs. This alone tells me that my message resonates well with readers, which is very encouraging. You know, I’m primarily a French speaker and I’ve been learning English for the past seven years that I’ve been in Botswana. Receiving words of encouragement such as, “beautifully written” and fan mail tagged with “good writer” has been very encouraging. As for the traffic to my website, 11 visits from Hubpages. Not bad, especially that I’m avoiding as much as possible to promote.
2. You are from Botswana. Please tell us a little about Botswana and what it is like there.
I originate from the Democratic Republic of Congo, the 2nd largest country of the African continent, and one of the richest in terms of potential, which has unfortunately been devastated by many years of impoverishing dictatorship and wars. I left my country in May 2004, and I’m currently living in Botswana. It is located in the centre of Southern Africa. Bordered by South Africa, Namibia, Zimbabwe and Zambia, Botswana is essentially covered by the Kalahari Desert. It counts about 2 million people for a surface area of plus minus 600000 sq km. Its economy is mainly dependent on diamonds, beef export and tourism.
One of its biggest centres of tourists’ attraction is the Okavango Delta, the largest inland delta in the world, permanent and seasonal home to a wide variety of wildlife. There, you’ll find Elephants, Buffalos, Zebras, Hippos, Nile Crocodiles, Lions, Cheetahs, Hyenas, Rhinos, Antelopes, etc… Another big centre of interest for tourists is the Kalahari Game Reserve. Also rich in wildlife, it is inhabited by the notable Bushmen.
Though Botswana has managed to transform itself from one of the poorest countries in the world to a middle-income country with a standard of living similar to Mexico’s, its population (highly affected by HIV/AIDS) is, for a large part, poor, “uneducated”, and very dependent on the Government. Education and Medical Care are almost free for citizens. Batswana (citizens of Botswana) are peaceful, proud of their economical achievements, and reserved towards foreigners, especially vis-à-vis African foreigners. The lack of a qualified local workforce explains the Government recourse to foreign expertise. In addition it has massively invested in education, and Botswana is starting to reap the fruits of this politic. Life in Botswana is quiet and can be enjoyable, particularly in rural areas, for those who like nature.
3. As an adolescent, you had Pott’s disease. What is Pott’s disease and what was that experience like for you? How did it affect you?
Pott’s disease, Tuberculosis Spondylitis, or Spinal Tuberculosis is a disease caused by a bacterium called Mycobacterium Tuberculosis which was discovered by the German Physician Robert Koch in 1882. Also called Tubercle Bacillus and Koch’s Bacillus, this germ is the causal agent of all types of TB. Even though the most known type of Tuberculosis is pulmonary, the Koch’s Bacillus can affect several other organs of the human body like the envelopes of the brain (Tuberculosis Meningitis), the kidney(s) (Tuberculosis Nephritis), the liver (Tuberculosis Hepatitis), the lymph glands (Tuberculosis lymphadenitis), the abdomen (Tuberculosis Peritonitis), the Joints (Tuberculosis Arthritis), the bones (Tuberculosis Osteomyelitis), etc… When it affects the spine, which is made of vertebral bodies joined to each other by the intervertebral articulations, it causes a type of tuberculosis (Tuberculosis Spondylitis) that was described for the first time by the English Surgeon Sir Percival Pot in 1779 before Koch discovered the Mycobacterium Tuberculosis.
The disease is horribly painful. I was 15 year-old when I contracted it. I remember being unable to walk and spending sleepless nights crying from incoercible excruciating lower backaches. The progressive destruction of my 5th lumbar vertebral body and the fusion of its subjacent joint, along with the irritation of the roots of the nerves innervating my lower extremities incapacitated me and kept me bed ridden for several months. No one could tell what I was suffering from.
My parents and siblings were very supportive, but their efforts could not help. Dad then decided to teach me about the power of the mind so that I could use it to heal myself. Seduced by this concept and determined to get through the suffering, I diligently read the books that he availed to me one after another and practiced the exercises he was giving me. The exercises were about concentration, visualization, and autosuggestion by positive affirmations. One morning, as I woke up from an agitated night, I noticed that I had a tender swelling just above my left groin in my left iliac fossa. I was rushed to the hospital where the swelling was said to be an abscess. An incision and drainage was immediately performed under general anesthesia.
What was initially thought to be a curative surgical act resulted in one month hospitalization, another hospitalization in another facility for 7 months, and 3 years of endless daily wound dressings. The abscess was incised and drained, but its cause not identified. It eventually became a fistula – a passageway between my destroyed 5th lumbar vertebral body and my body surface allowing oozing of pus.
To cut a long story short, I continued practicing visualization and autosuggestion. The exercises helped me acquire a mindset characterized by a firm determination to overcome the plague and a strong belief that I would eventually get healed. But the expected outcome did not occur. It’s only when I understood that everything in life has meaning, that I was on earth for a purpose, and when I dedicated my life to God that things started changing for the better. Life’s purpose comes with a set of unfailing promises. Reading, learning, meditating upon the word of God, and praying unveiled some of these promises to me. “But he was wounded for our transgressions; he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and by his stripes we are healed.”
The word of God gave me, and still gives me, the right framework within which I could continue visualizing myself as being healed and positively affirming my healing became exercises for strengthening my faith. We may believe in whatever thing or “reality” we chose to, and this alone can definitely help in producing “positive” results. But, but, but...the more accurate beliefs are, the more lasting and satisfying the results will be. As for how to develop accurate beliefs, I’ll let you read between the lines.
To close this question, suffering from TB spine was an experience that brought me closer to my creator, which made me discover my life’s purpose: Helping others discover theirs and really succeed in life.
4. Tell us about your website, SucceedingLife, and explain the ideas of purpose, potential and success as mentioned on the site.
SucceedingLife is meant to help people really succeed in life. Concretely it is a medium where I share everything that I’ve come to learn about achieving real success, the kind that comes with fulfillment and that leaves a sense of legacy, the kind that can make you say when the bell will ring for you, “it is finished”, “mission accomplished”, “I’ve fought the good fight, I’ve finished my race…”
This kind of success requires one to know his life’s purpose. Not only his life’s mission, but his life’s purpose which comprises the answers to why and what for one is here on earth. Too often we limit our search to finding what we have to commit our lives to (career, profession, cause to serve, etc…), but there’s more. When you know the “why”, you’ll do the “what for” in a manner that will satisfy your creator. And this is the key to real success and fulfillment. The why determines the values one has to live by and the person he’s called to become.
As for potential, it is the indwelling capabilities your creator, God, has bestowed upon you for the purpose of achieving your life’s mission. It’s your giftedness. If we are to be really successful in life, our potentials need to be in line with the “why” and released within the framework of our respective life’s purpose.
5. Nicknamed Stolive, your real name is Dr. Olivier BETU K. What kind of medicine do you practice and what is a typical day for you?
General Medicine; I’m a General Practitioner working full time in a primary hospital. We provide primary health care and stabilize patients before referring them to district and referral hospitals.
A typical working day in the hospital starts with a morning report meeting where over night admissions and in-patients progress are reported by the night team. Each reported case is followed by a discussion aiming at improving the management our patients. Following the meeting, come the ward rounds during which every in-patient is reviewed, his progress re-evaluated, and his management (investigations and treatments) updated if need be.
I am currently in charge of our maternity (antennal, labor, and postnatal wards). When I’m done with the round, I go and attend a short management meeting with the Chief Medical Officer, the Chief Administrator Officer, and the Nursing Superintendent. At the end of this meeting, three quarters of the morning has elapsed. I then join my colleagues in out-patient department for consultations for the rest of the day which ends at 16.30 hrs. We do of course break for lunch from 12.45 to 14.00 hrs. When I’m on call (2 times per week on average), I’m on standby at home from 16.30 until the following day.
6. In your profile picture you appear to be very engaging and you describe yourself as being able to engage easily with others. If someone came to you for coaching on how to connect with others, what would you tell them?
Well, I have done a lot of public speaking, counseling, and medical consultations, but I’m not an expert in communication. What I’ve come to learn and integrate is the fact that effective communication requires that the people involved are in tune with each other so that they can emit and receive each other’s message at the same wavelength.
This means:
- The sender and the receiver need to know each other, or at least have an idea on who they respectively are (importance of introduction).
- The sender and the receiver need to know the reason why the communication is taking place (there should be nothing that can give a hidden agenda impression).
- The interlocutors need to be in agreement with each other regarding the time and place of the communication.
- The message should be conveyed with clarity
- The sender should try as much as possible to be sensitive to the receiver’s feedbacks, both verbal and gestural (attitudes, facial expressions, etc…) so as to fine tune his message and its transmission.
One thing I’m really good at is conveying messages with integrity. Words should not only express thoughts, but also the feelings associated with the expressed thoughts. Recourse to gestures in order to support words and transmit the associated feelings as well can be effective. The tone of the voice can also help. But these things shouldn’t be faked. If one sincerely believes in his message, it will come spontaneously.
7. Your Hubs are about your passion for success and helping others to achieve success. Do you think you will publish hubs on other topics, such as medicine or philosophy or a hobby? What about fiction or poetry?
Not really about my passion for success; I’m writing about success. My passion may transpire through my writings, but I don’t think I’m writing about it. Indeed I’m passionate about success, and this is mainly why I’m writing about it, but I do so also because I want to share a different approach to the subject, an approach that encompasses both material and spiritual perspectives from a Christian standpoint in avoiding the extremes. I wouldn’t hesitate to write about philosophy, which I’m also passionate about. I would leave medicine to others. My current limited writing skills in English wouldn’t allow me to write fiction and poetry, though I’m a big dreamer and like contemplation.
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