YOU HAVE ONLY THREE DAYS TO LIVE! -1 Yes you have only three days to live. This is not the pessimistic pontificating of a doomsday prophet. It is a statement of fact. So, set your house in order. Make peace with whoever you are at war with. By the way, you have even spent one of the three and you effectively have only two left! Shocked, surprised or afraid? We all have a life that spans a period of three days viz; yesterday, today and tomorrow! Feel better? Yesterday speaks of our history, a compendium of our experiences encompassing the high and low moments. Everything that has happened to you thus far, codified in an event or experience, bitter or sweet, as an immutable fact of your life story falls into yesterday and can never be recaptured. Once it became a referenced experience, you lost control over yesterday. You have spent it. It’s as good as a cashed cheque; leaving you with today and tomorrow. Yesterday is the building block of your reputation. It is the basis on which most men decide if and how to relate with you. Today is your currency. It is what is happening to you now. It is the tomorrow you spoke about yesterday. Today is cash at hand. You are living through today as you read this. You live today on the design you made yesterday. Incidentally, today is your canvass to design the template that tomorrow will follow. Today is a bridge between the stone-cold immutability of yesterday and the hope offered by tomorrow. It is a tabular rasa, an indifferent template that will play out what you bring into it, the pleasant memories of “good old days”, the regrets of past hurts, lost opportunities and the anger of past disappointments of yesterday or the eager expectation of great and mighty exploits ahead in the uncharted waters of tomorrow. The thing about today is that it cannot exist all by itself. It is sustained by images and graven imprints of memories and expectations. Today is the platform of full expression for two things that control our lives, negatively or positively; our memories and our imagination. One draws from history, the other pre-writes and gives a sneak preview of history before it happens. Today thrives on whichever is stronger. Great achievers master the perfect balance of both. Tomorrow is the totality of potential. It is the codification of all that can, should and will be but which has never been. Tomorrow is the promise of destiny. Some have called it a promissory note. It is an entire stretch of uncharted labyrinths that has only been visited or experienced in the fairytale bliss of untempered, albeit idyllic imagination. It is where you will live the rest of your life, so it must be regarded as very important. It is like a wilderness, a maze whose benefits can only be fathomed and appropriated by a powerful imagination and an uncanny capacity to make today’s lifestyle conform to the process that leads to a successful foray into that jungle, a virgin territory that calmly awaits the skilful hands of a diligent and imaginative gardener to bring structure and order into its chaos. Today is your character. While men relate with you principally on your reputation and at best character, God relates with you on your potential. It should not surprise you. That is His nature. He calls those things that are not as though they were. Since He pre-packaged you, He knows what is in you that neither you nor other men have an idea about. If I were Jesus, I would never have chosen a Peter, who seemed to have his foot in his mouth most of the time, to be my disciple. But then, I would have lost the evangelist who, when empowered, had three thousand converts at his first impromptu crusade! He did not stop there. The next time it was five thousand! If I were one of the early apostles, I would never have seen why Saul, later Paul, should not have had a first class ticket to hell, considering the havoc he wreaked on the church at its infancy. But then, how would I have known that he would end up writing two-thirds of the New Testament and deliver the true believer over the ages from the suffocating angst of crude and unforgiving Judaistic exclusionism masquerading as religion! Without a Paul, how would Martin Luther the Reformer have known that the just shall live by faith? Left to Peter and the other earlier apostles, no Gentile would have been privileged to hear the gospel, talk less of being saved! To succeed significantly, you must learn to cultivate an appropriate relationship with these three ‘days’, considering the fact that your entire life is wrapped up in them. Over the next few weeks, we will be discussing what your attitude to each of these days should be. You cannot wish them away. Each comes with its benefits that you must learn to draw from. You will succeed! Remember, the sky is not your limit, God is!

THE PURSUIT OF GREATNESS – 2

If greatness was about materialism, the Madiba himself, Nelson Mandela would have been another nondescript census figure in South Africa. But you and I know that not many of our local political and economic oppressors can even tie the lace of his shoes when it comes to universal impact. On issues of statesmanship in the real sense of the word, Mandela lights a candle to the rest of the world. Now in his nineties, the whole world celebrates his birthday annually. How about Mahatma Ghandi in India who led his people to stand against British oppression? Or Martin Luther King Jr, a Pastor who led the American Civil Rights Movement and who with his million-man march and celebrated ”I Have a Dream” speech that changed the history of America permanently? He was only 36 when he was assassinated. America has a national holiday in his honour!

Greatness is not centre-stage prominence or being in the news. Anyone can be in the news. Just know enough people in the media or pay for space! Or commit a crime that is heinous enough to warrant attention. Most people make the news for the wrong reasons. Armed robbers, prostitutes and murderers make the headlines daily. So do corrupt officials and stories of how our collective patrimony ends up in the pocket of a few while the rest of us are thrown into the confusing and confused debates on whether or not government should withdraw fuel subsidy.

A considerable number of people we watch on TV and in films daily as stars are not people you want to model your life after or want your children to be like. As the Yoruba would say, “a madman on display makes a great spectacle to watch but no one wants one as his child”.

Greatness is not a position or social status. We have seen in the recent history of our nation, cases of people who have attempted to lead us at the highest levels of governance with forged certificates. One was at that time our number FOUR citizen who was presiding over legislative activities in the House of Representatives. In another instance, a member of the House of Representatives was a kingpin of the 419 ring in Nigeria that bankrupted an entire bank in Brazil.

In Nigeria, people are given national awards not necessarily because of their contribution to society but by the positions they have occupied, even if there are no tangible achievements recorded in their tenure. Universities fall over themselves to award honorary degrees devoid of any honours to corrupt public office holders. The motive is usually less than altruistic. By the time the recipients show up with their retinue of aides and political and business associates and the endowment fund launch is announced, it attracts handsome figures into the university purse. How convenient!

Greatness is neither conferred nor ascribed. It is earned. A truly great man is the last to recognize or admit that he is great. Most times when he is being celebrated, he feels so small and insignificant behind it all. To him, what others find extraordinary is a normal way of life that he wonders why everyone else is not doing something like that.

Finally, greatness is not about doing big things. True greatness has little or nothing to do with the magnitude of a happenstance deed. It is really more about doing small, sometimes innocuous things in a big way that makes the difference. Fame may connect you to people’s heads but greatness connects you to their hearts. This is the reason why an unknown primary school teacher who makes significant impact in the development of his pupils will remain forever in the memories of those pupils all through their lives even when they struggle to remember the celebrated name of a current Olympic Gold medallist... Continued

Remember, the sky is not your limit, God is!

THE PURSUIT OF GREATNESS - 1

And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion
over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.

Gen 1:28 (KJV)


I am yet to meet someone who does not desire to be better than he currently is. Whether in status, income, job profile, social relationships, or even in their marriages, we all want a better package. This desire is the two-edged sword that fuels either naked, inordinate ambition or positively life-altering visions. Considering the fact that man was created with a mandate for increase and power over creation, the desire for greatness is an expression of an inner consciousness of a divine endowment and in fact, expectation.

The reality fo life however is that in spite of the fact that this mandate was given to all mankind, some people always seem to end taking the shine off others while the rest simply play the role of spectators or at best cheerleaders who derive their life bearings from the creative and domineering genius of those they consider as heroes.

Yet, while we celebrate heroism in others, we can all be heroes because we can ALL be great! Did you say fingers are not equal? I agree but the variance in size and height of the fingers is not an indication of level of importance. Each finger is as valuable as the other as long as it remains functional. In this series, we will be embarking on an exciting adventure that is designed to let you my dear reader know that greatness is not as elusive as you think. In fact, it is easier to pursue and accomplish than most of us care to admit. When you know the path of true greatness and the fact that very few people care to travel that road, you will quickly get of the choked bandwagon of people who only know the mundane and traffic-laden path of the rat-race we are all so familiar with.

We begin by looking at what greatness is NOT. When we get our definitions right, every other thing will fall into place. When people make the statement “I want to make it in life”, more often than not, they have no clue what the “it” is apart from choice property in exclusive locations, chieftaincy titles and other negotiated honours acquired to simply enhance a convoluted ego that suffers from a chronic inferiority complex and a loud vehicular presence that sometimes only betrays the vanity rather than the value of the owner. One man once said to my hearing “Oko beere ni iyi gomina” translated “the honour of a governor is in the length of his convoy”! The drive in this case to achieve is to impress rather than to impact.

Now do not misunderstand me. Is anything wrong in having things? Not at all. But possessions must always be a reflection of what life has given you as a reward for the greatness you have demonstrated. When that happens, honours and things look for you and not the other way round. Resources are always in pursuit of life-impacting visions. Material opulence should be a reward of value created not a pursuit.

This brings me to the first thing that greatness is not. It is not about material possessions. If it was, then Jesus Christ, the Saviour of the whole world would have been a failure. Though Owner and Creator of all things, He stripped Himself of all that paraphernalia and chose to become poor so that man may understand and access true prosperity. At a point in His earthly ministry, some people, awed by the supernatural manifestations and the power of His life-altering utterances, some people expressed a desire to become His disciples. He turned around and simply told them; “Foxes have holes, birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay His head”. I can perfectly relate with that. On many occasions, people have heard me speak or read my writings and express a desire to be mentored. Often, I can see how disappointed they become when exposed to my simple lifestyle because their focus ab initio, was wrong. They think I have money to throw around!

I have not read about opulence around Prophet Mohammed (SAW). Just in case those are too far away examples, if material wealth was a measure of true greatness, then Mother Theresa was a colossal failure, But I bet you that many of the world’s ‘’money-miss-road oppressors” would not even as much as get a second thought from even their family members if they passed on. Mother Theresa died in the midst of the poorest of the poor in India. She died around the same time as Princess Diana, epitome of the elegance of British pomp and royalty. Yet, the world gave her death no less prominence than that of Diana! In fact, the highlights of the celebration of Diana’s life were tied to the areas in which she had similarities with Mother Theresa, charity uncharacteristic of British imperial aristocracy.

...continued

Reemember, the sky is not your limit, God is!

THE WINNING EMPLOYEE’S ‘WORKTITUDES’ - 4

Servants, obey in all things your masters according
to the flesh; not with eyeservice, as menpleasers;
but in singleness of heart, fearing God - Colossians 3:22

I once had a Secretary attached to me when I was Executive Secretary of the Nigerian Publishers Association. He had an HND in Secretarial Studies and was fresh from NYSC. From all calculations, he was in JS2 or 3 when I finished Youth Service but he had the temerity to look at me in the face one day and tell me that we were both degree holders and so I had no right to tell him what to do. He actually unilaterally printed a complimentary card where he redesignated himself Administrative Officer instead of the Confidential Secretary he was employed as. Scriptures tell us not to argue with a fool. I simply disconnected from him and made him redundant. He did not last six months on the job. Without reporting him to the Management, he shot himself in the foot and was promptly sacked!

By submitting to constituted authority, you give yourself unrestricted latitude for learning and growing your experience profile. When you do, you increase your relevance to yourself and to the establishment.
Whatever you do to your superiors, remember that payday is just around the corner. Your subordinates will see to it that you have a bountiful harvest; pressed down, shaken together and running over!

Make yourself valuable but never indispensable. No matter the sensitivity of your job or how advanced the skills for it, never make yourself indispensable. No matter how many people sing your praise on the job, endeavour to raise other people who can do the job like you do it or even better. You are not the next Saviour of the world, so do not delude yourself with a Messiah complex that thrives on the ego-massaging fallacy that if you are not there, nothing would get done. The more sensitive and specialized the job, the faster the establishment would replace you if for some reason you dropped dead. As the saying goes, if you are indispensable, you may never be promoted. Afterall, why should we move you up if you are the ONLY one who can do your present job?
Great leaders actually endeavour to work themselves out of a job by deliberately developing people around them to attain a similar if not higher level of competence in what they do. For that reason, it is easy for the organization to move them up to higher responsibility so they can replicate the same capacity at higher levels! If you so jealously guard your competence and use it as the ready-made ace in keeping yourself on the job, your career will soon go on a downward spiral. Why? Someone will always emerge who can do the job better than you!

A high job turnover is not an asset.
In fact, it may be construed as a reflection of instability of character. Instability is antithetical to a life of excellence. When a person’s resume shows that he has changed jobs a couple of times in a short period of time, it sends to the employer a signal of inconsistency, lack of enduring commitment and a patent incapacity for sustained loyalty. It is true that these days, there are more job-seekers than there are jobs to be had. However, one thing that I have heard employers say over and over again is that loyal, committed employees who serve for a vision rather than a pay packet are rare to come by. An unstable person can never be an asset to any organisation. No matter the reasons for such moves, serious employers know that those who cannot stand for you when it is not convenient will stand against you when it is convenient for them to do so. When a person changes jobs too frequently, it could be a sign that all he is interested in is a pay packet and as soon as he is offered a higher package else where, he is gone!

Your salary should never be a determinant of your job value. If your pay is at par with your output, the organisation will soon fire you. Your value in the organisation must never be measured by how much you earn but how much you contribute. If you have a terrible self-esteem, an enhanced status or job profile cannot give you a good one! Your job is a platform that God has given you to make an eternal statement about His grace in your life. It should never be seen as just an avenue to earn money to pay bills or put food on your table. To significantly succeed, you must see your job as your opportunity to serve God and help people solve some problems. You must therefore work like one who has a stake not only in the organization but in the human project. Work becomes more exciting and meaningful when you find a cause for advocacy in it. When you work with that larger perspective in mind, the whole world is your pulpit. …continued
Remember, the sky is not your limit, God is!

THE WINNING EMPLOYEE'S WORKTITUDES - 3

Servants, obey in all things your masters according

to the flesh; not with eyeservice, as menpleasers;

but in singleness of heart, fearing God - Colossians 3:22

Those who merely wait for greatness to be thrust upon them will most likely wait in vain. Greatness is achieved by turning insignificant things into great accomplishments.

If you want to enhance your position, enhance your person. Status is not as much a position as it is a person. Spend quality time developing yourself through reading, attending seminars, listening to tapes of messages by identified mentors. Sponsor yourself to seminars even if your employer doesn’t. If all you do is wait for your employer to develop you, you limit your own scope and relevance. When you start knowing the things that only your bosses hitherto knew, you are making a legitimate case for higher responsibility and by inference, a higher position. Spend more money on personal development than you do on your wardrobe. An expensive suit on an empty mind is nothing short of putting authentic jewellery on a pig. If a man finds himself in a position bigger than his mind, he will, in a matter of time, reduce the position to the level of his mind. As the mind goes, so does the man. There is no dead-end job. Only dead-end people.

If you cannot function under authority, you may never qualify to be in authority.


And when Jesus was entered into Capernaum, there came unto him a centurion, beseeching him,

And saying, Lord, my servant lieth at home sick of the palsy, grievously tormented.

And Jesus saith unto him, I will come and heal him.

The centurion answered and said, Lord, I am not worthy that thou shouldest come under my roof: but speak the word only, and my servant shall be healed.

For I am a man under authority, having soldiers under me: and I say to this man, Go, and he goeth; and to another, Come, and he cometh; and to my servant, Do this, and he doeth it.

When Jesus heard it, he marvelled, and said to them that followed, Verily I say unto you, I have not found so great faith, no, not in Israel.

And I say unto you, That many shall come from the east and west, and shall sit down with Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, in the kingdom of heaven.

But the children of the kingdom shall be cast out into outer darkness: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

And Jesus said unto the centurion, Go thy way; and as thou hast believed, so be it done unto thee. And his servant was healed in the selfsame hour.

Matthew 8:5-13

If you plan to go far in employment, start thinking like your boss and soon, he will actually start letting you think for him. If a man cannot serve, he does not qualify to lead. Great leadership rests on the plank of accountability. You do not have to always agree with your boss but you must always respect him/her. Many times, you will have cause to disagree with your boss but unless he is asking you to break the law or go directly against the core values of the organization, insubordination is not an option. Treat your boss as you would love to be treated by your subordinates.

Trust is the currency of delegated authority. If your boss cannot trust you enough to delegate responsibilities to you without feeling that you will find a means of sabotaging or frustrating his outcome, then you are gradually digging your own grave on the job. Afterall, if a man is crooked, no one will want to make him a ruler. Why? He will only draw crooked lines! Get the pun?

Serve with sincerity and without a hidden agenda. Even if you feel that you are more qualified for the job than your boss, respect the fact that he is the one on that seat right now. Fate, destiny, chance or simple seniority through experience or even mundane issues of connection and favouritism may have got him there. That is none of your business. Simply respect him/her as you would love to be respected if you were on that seat even if your subordinate then parades an intimidating array of academic laurels and credentials. …continued.


Remember, the sky is not your limit, God is!

THE WINNING EMPLOYEE'S WORKTITUDES - 2

Learn to reinforce and acknowledge the contribution of every member of your team in recognition of the fact that all the members of the team came on board because of their perceived strengths, not their weaknesses. Organizations don’t recruit people because of their weaknesses but on the basis of their strengths. This is the value they have been called to add to the enterprise. So, stop relating with your colleagues on the basis of their weaknesses, or else you will never have the benefit of their best performance and co-operation. Identify with your team members in their pains and in their joys.

Even when the Almighty God Himself wanted to create the universe, He did not work alone. He engaged the Godhead-in-council. Jesus came to save the world but He took the time to assemble and work with a team of disciples. The Bible teaches us that one will chase a thousand and two will chase ten thousand. Synergy helps us to get results that are in multiples of effort put in. How awesome! If you attempt to engineer the failure of a member of the team, bear in mind that when the chips are down, he may also have sympathizers from within the team who will eventually administer to you a generous dose of your own medicine. In the event that you carry a Messiah complex that makes you feel that you are the next saviour of the world, do not be deceived, success has never been a solo effort. You need others as much as they need you.

5. If you don’t share the vision of an organisation, don’t work for it!
Jesus succeeded because He shared the passion of His CEO. You can only succeed well at something that unlocks your passion. Whatever you do in life that does not unlock your passion can never propel you in the direction of your loftiest dreams. The man does not exist who can sustain enthusiasm without passion. Find your passion and you’ve found your future. Do what you love, then love what you do! Find your dream job and it won’t look like work. Work with a smile, not a frown. If you work for an organisation because that’s the only place that can hire you, you’re a liability, not an asset. Your commitment to the job is suspect. This is because commitment is nothing but the choice you made when confronted with options. The employer would want to know if you CHOSE to work with him or if you are COMPELLED by adverse circumstances to work with him. The bottom-line questions here are, “Does your employer fear losing you to the competition? Or would we be very glad to see you go?”

6. You are a 24/7 advertisement for the organisation you work for.
The way you dress on the job is the way you are addressed. Your physical appearance, carriage and comportment speak volumes about your work and your organization. Always package yourself for the next level. If you are a clerk, carry yourself like an officer. If you are in Officer Cadre, carry yourself like a Manager. When you become Manager, comport yourself like a Director. People meet you before they meet the organization. If people met you in a taxi in town and later found you at the front desk, would they want to patronize the establishment? How would you feel getting to the front desk of a hotel or any organization and being greeted by a staff whose mouth odour makes you want to throw up or who obviously had not combed his bushy hair that day? ALWAYS have a positive attitude. Wear a smile as part of your dressing. Treat people the way you would love to be treated if you were them. You were employed to SERVE people, not vice versa. The people who walk through the door in your place of work are the reason your employer is in business! The clients don’t come for you. You are there for them! If the people the organization serves don’t think you are good, then you are not. Sadly enough, neither is the company unless it gets rid of you!

7. Your personality determines your performance on the job.
Every man performs to the degree of the development of his own person. People are not what they do. Rather, people do who they are! This is why we are called human beings and not human doings! Know who you are so that no one will try to sell you a close alternative. Work on your self-esteem. You define the job, the job doesn’t define you. Be a leader right where you are. Make a mark. Successful people succeed because they do small things in a great way! If you wait till you get the platform you want before you do your best, you may NEVER have it. Instead, use the platform you have to earn the platform you need….continued

Remember the sky is not your limit, God is!

THE WINNING EMPLOYEE'S ‘WORKTITUDES’ - 1

Are you currently in employment? Do you desire to get to the top in your working career or you simply want to mark time and join the multitudes who only work to pay the bills? Over the next few postings, I will be sharing with you certain things that every employee that desires to get to the top in his /her career should know. They describe the attitudes that you must have on the job if you really want to excel on your job.

1. Time is the Number 1 asset you bring into the establishment.
You must therefore invest it fruitfully. When he offered you employment, your employer simply bargained for a portion of your time. So, technically speaking, your employer didn’t really employ your person, he was actually buying your time. By accepting the offer of a job, you were actually accepting the employer’s offer for and assessment of the value of your time. Your salary is a reward for your time. So if you want to earn the reward, spend the time! In many developed countries of the world, people are paid based on the number of hours spent on the job as well as for quantifiable productivity.

In this part of the world, it is not unusual to see people report at 9 am to an office that opened at 7.30am, take a break to go for breakfast at 10am, return at 11am and take excuse by 12 noon to go to the bank, mosque or fellowship. He returns at 1.30 pm only to go for school run to pick his children from school at 2pm. He returns at 3.15pm (if at all he does) and closes at 3.30pm! Did you think this sounds ridiculous? Then you have had much to do with the civil service. This is what gave rise to the aphorism, “Nobody sweats while doing government job”. Another way this nonchalance is manifested is seen in the statement “Whether the master makes profit or not, the servant (employee) must get his pay”

To be a top-performing employee, have value for time. If you treat time well, time will in turn do you good According to Ephesians 5:16, we should be “redeeming the time, because the days are evil.” The easiest way to attract your boss’ attention and earn his respect and trust is to be the first to arrive the office and the last to leave.

2. The employer is not Santa Claus
Many people work with the misguided notion that the employer is Father Christmas who gives jobs out of deliberate benevolence. Wake up! Christmas comes only once a year! Your employer does not run a charity. He is in business for a definite reason and he is only committed to you as long as you are relevant to that cause. Unfortunately, government has been largely responsible for this complacent mindset by making the citizenry believe that the government owes everyone a living. So, people are employed to fill tribal quotas or as their compensation for political loyalty or some other reason that suits the whims and caprices of the government n power. In most cases, they know nothing about the job (and no expectations are set anyway since it is government money they will be getting. To your employer, your salary is an investment. It must yield dividends. When it stops doing so, you become an expendable part of the equation. Simply put, your employer does not owe you a living if you do not oblige him with value. Great employees earn their salary. They don’t just collect it.

In the parable of the talents in Matthew 25:14-30 three servants received seed money from their master for a definite purpose. Each one of them was endowed according to the level of the master’s assessment of his competence. When it was time to render accounts, two of them had justified the master’s confidence in them while the third who got one talent only proved that he was not worthy of even the one he received! The master promptly rewarded the two productive servants to the degree of the value added to his enterprise and he didn’t hesitate to sack the one who had not added value to what he received.

3. The team-player is the best player
If you want to make it to the top in your career, you must recognize that there is no ‘I’ in TEAM. Trying to run a one-man show on the job by trying to be the superstar of the team only reveals a morbid character deficiency that smirks of a stultified self-esteem. No man succeeds all by himself. Listen to others. But even more than that, learn from them. Offer a helping hand to other members of the team. Never try to sabotage the efforts of any colleague because you want to prove a point. It portrays you as petty, unreliable and inordinately and vindictively ambitious…continuedRemember, the sky is not your limit, God is!