February 23, 2009

On Your Marks…


I typically write the title of my post before I start writing, that way it keeps me focused on what I really want to write about. Today however, I’m doing things slightly differently. I’m going to write the title after I am done. What I have in my heart this morning is a theme, and I’m certain that after I have transferred my thoughts and feelings to words, the title will appear.

The strong theme being expressed on my mind this morning is “Adding Memorable Value”. I have been publishing articles online now for a little over 3 years. My articles have moved from total obscurity to some level of prominence. I have also migrated from no comments to as many 10,000 plus comments. I have articles with single digit views, and articles that have over 100,000 views. I have written articles that can be classified as useless, written those that can be classified as moderately valuable, and I have written articles that have added memorable value.  My heart desire from today, is to step up, and provide more content regularly that will enter into the class of  adding memorable value! Continue reading

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January 26, 2009

Who else wants a better life?


 

It’s very depressing observing people in my environment everyday. Right now as I write, I am on the road, and I’m writing and staring out the side glass, I see different people, different shapes and sizes, different classes and at different stages. Sometimes I look beyond what I can see, and try to ask myself what some people could be thinking? Many people are so bothered about the basics, that they are clearly stuck in the present. The immediate gratification of our basic human desires, kind of mortgage our future possibilities. It’s either that our quests to satisfy the immediate that blinds us from the ultimate, or the fact that we haven’t set our ultimates is what makes us slaves to the immediate. Even I am inclined once in a while to stray and think in the line of our regular excuse, the fault of our leaders, the lack of accountable leadership, the lack of systems that can bring to office people that have visions and the capabilities to drive us to achieve. My mind strays, but not for long. Leaders are men like you and I. They were not born with crowns, nor with leadership tattooed on their butts. They were born like you and I, crying and wailing, wondering why they had to come to this world at this time. If we must get a better life, we must stop looking outside ourselves but inside. We must know that to fix the king, we must train the child. Yes we need great leadership, much more we need a system that will make it impossible for mediocre leadership to reach the throne, but most importantly we need to be a people that deserve a better life. We need to be an enlightened people, people that are easy to govern, difficult to rule and impossible to enslave.

I’m in the office now, I made it through the car park, lift and corridor of the office without closing my laptop. Yeah, every morning that’s my routine, I always keep the laptop opened. I wonder what my neighbors at home and at work think J. So back to the quest for a better life. My assumption is that I want it, and some other people do too. We need to get a few things right. We know some of these things already, but few of us put them to practice. In the cause of last weekend, I spent a considerable amount of time with an Australian friend, and it occurred to me that there are many things I know that I don’t practice, yet this guy knows a few things, but practices them like a religion. I got challenged to take some things more seriously, and I consider it a privilege to remind you about a few of them. Continue reading

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January 20, 2009

Do More


I was reading a story some days ago that I had read before, but it struck me in a new way! It is a proverb, that when the student is ready, the teacher will appear. I have noticed this a lot in my life. That what I have seen before takes on new meaning because of the experiences that I am having. I know for how long I drove in the car with my dad for example, without paying attention to how the car was driven. It came to a time however, that the student in me was so ready, that everything that was done became a lesson for me. We are at various points in our journey, and the stories told today may not be relevant to you today, but keep them close to your heart, for as soon as the student in you is ready, the teacher will appear!

In this story, a prophet was about to die, this prophet was not a fake prophet, he was a real prophet. He was real in that he had said different things and they had come to pass, he had also done many great works, and miracles and signs. He was a respected and highly revered prophet in the land, and even the king was installed by him. On his death bed, the king came to him, and sought for him to bless him this last time. To appeal to his emotions, the king said the same words that the prophet uttered when his own mentor was departing. The prophet was touched, he decided to bless the king, but not in the conventional way of blessing, he requested that the king perform some acts of symbolism as a channel for his blessings. What you are about to read, is the strategy for ensuring that that which is yours in potential, reaches you in reality. Enjoy Continue reading

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October 30, 2008

Revealed: Entrepreneurs Creed


Entrepreneur’s Creed

I do not choose to be a common person.
It is my right to be uncommon — if I can.
I seek opportunity — not security.
I do not wish to be a kept citizen,
humbled and dulled by having the state look after me.
I want to take the calculated risk,
to dream and to build, to fail and to succeed.
I refuse to barter incentive for a dole;
I prefer the challenges of life to the guaranteed existence:
the thrill of fulfillment to the stale calm of Utopia.
I will not trade my freedom for beneficence
nor my dignity for a handout.
I will never cower before any earthly master
nor bend to any threat.
It is my heritage to stand erect, proud and
unafraid: to think and act for myself,
to enjoy the benefit of my creations
and to face the world boldly and say:
this, with God’s help I have done.
All this is what it means to be an entrepreneur.

I stumbled on this creed some days ago, and it rang home to me. It was as though I authored it. Please forgive my thinking myself capable of such, but once in a while in my life, I read words of a page and it reassures me. One of such readings recently was the writings of Lee Kuan Yew of Singapore, and of Peter Drucker about the Entrepreneurial Society. When I saw this creed, it lept out of the pages, and sounded like what I must memorize. You might not be an entrepreneur today, but there are a few lessons in there for someone too. Here are my thoughts. Continue reading

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October 28, 2008

The Parable of the Apsiring Gorilla


Many people who have heard me speak, know that I am a story teller. I love stories, I enjoy hearing them as much as I enjoy sharing them. I have often discovered also that people love stories as well, so somehow we connect, and 5yrs after I speak somewhere, I still meet people that remind me of the stories that I told them. This shows me that story telling does work. While writing a story and telling them are two different things, I very well prefer to tell than to write, because in telling I get to feel the crowds pulse, read their excitement, follow the twists and turns, and tell the story in a unique way for every crowd. On Sunday I was opportuned to present this story before a crowd of about 1000 people, and truthfully, even I enjoyed the story in a different way.

Once upon a time, there was a young man. This young man had a dream, a goal an aspiration that one day he would become the number 1 clown in his country. He had gone for a seminar where he had been thought to analyze his skills and write down his goal and vision, and for him, it all pointed to being a clown of repute. As soon as he discovered this, he started searching for materials on clowning, and started reading and developing himself in earnest. He went to watch other clowns perform, interacted with a few people about his dreams and invested heavily in developing himself. Continue reading

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May 13, 2006

When the winds come


Today (after midnight) is one of those days when I have a little time before I sleep to actually think (almost worry) about where the ship of my life is being steered. Don’t be fooled, i’m also human. I get to wonder at times if the future will be as good as I desire it to be, but the difference with me, is that I catch myself quickly and conciously decide to think of the things that I know I should rather be thinking of. The things that are true, lovely, pure, just, praise worthy e.t.c.

I remembered a story in the Bible this morning. Jesus needed to spend some time alone, and asked his disciples to go ahead in the ship. He stayed behind to pray, and when he was through decided to go join the disciples. Seeing they had gone far into the sea, he decides to take a stroll on the sea waves (wow…I wish I could do that). The disciples were having a really rough time, and to compound things, they saw a ghost bouncing on the waves of the sea. They were terrified! Jesus decided to calm their nerves, he announced to them, “Take courage,It is I, don’t be afraid”. Wow, they saw the master himself, riding on the waves of the sea. I’m certain it’s a site worth going back to the past to see, but that’s not quite the cornerpiece of our analogy tonight. Peter did something really strange in this story, he beckons on Jesus to give him permission to come over to meet him. Continue reading

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