BUSINESS SERIES 9: LEARNING ON THE JOB!

It is much easier to take a pay check than to grow your own business, worse still you may not have brought sufficient experience to the job! Very few individuals had an impressive CV when they were considering themselves for the CEO job of their business, no doubt the idea was too great. The desire was burning and adrenaline level was high! Then the job begins………….you find your first client or your first client finds you! And Gbim you are in Business! You’ve dreamt about this long ago but you didn’t understand the adjustments you’ll have to make, to make matters worse you’ve got deadlines to meet.

The taxi/bus people are completely oblivious of your plight and you can’t wait to get a car. in the midst of the whole brouhaha you’re sure you’re on the right track, it’s just that the track demands a sweat suit!

I now can understand why big firms pay their CEO so well, those folks deserve every bit of the dollar they get; though in the States the amount could swirl you for a moment. The quality a good CEO brings to the job is a very rare commodity; you’ll be surprised how few people are willing to think, act on their dreams and dare stick out the harmattan.

You’ll be even more surprised at the competence of those that have taken the plunge. The key folks, is the ability to learn every day, to think daily and Pray like every day was your final year exams, because in a way, it is. Adapt to new information and be quiet enough for fresh insights.

The idea that got you running may not be sufficient to keep you in the race!

People are crucial; they make or mar, Listen to your inner voice when dealing with people. If it looks right, sounds right but doesn’t feel right on the inside; delay the decision if possible.

Building the Dream

A house is built brick by brick, keep at it. One day you’ll reach critical mass.

Exposure is your responsibility; don’t be limited to your environment. Take a trip to somewhere you can learn or meet people that you can learn from, the good thing about working for yourself is the ability to learn what you want to learn when you want to.

Making mistakes is part of the deal, it is the hallmark of great men; Fall forward.

If you find the virtuous woman, marry her! (and vice versa).

Always remember to think Abundance!

MY PLEA

Nigeria needs more young professionals to take the lead, don’t be scared of the public sector. Only thread gently and reverently, you don’t influence people you don’t respect. If not for anything, they are there, you are not. Be like Joseph, interpret the dream; do the work and let Pharaoh take the credit. Do this and you’ll save a nation.

And while you are it, holler me and share the experience.

nnamdiokwonna@yahoo.com

The Bondage Breaker: Masturbation, Homosexuality and the Power of God.

You sure read right! We’re talking about this and don’t let the TV talk host confuse you, these are not normal. They go by different codes and names; self-love, ********(depending), you know it is a wonder the way we invent names for stuffs like these. No doubt these are not entirely new, the increasing attention on “sexuality” issues though more of a “new age” appeal is not entirely limited to new age philosophy. The new age monistic posture that “all is one” and the lack of substantive difference between genders has generated a lot of waves which though are not necessarily presented as logical arguments are offered via the media as concluded realities. (see previous notes on Redeeming the arts)

TV propaganda has made masturbation look normal, safe and rather a wise way of keeping things under control. In reality these are very powerful influences that we sometimes try to explain away , this author by the way is no stranger to such influences.

Whatever your world view is if you are under the influence of these powerful forces (more powerful perhaps than alcoholism/nicotine addiction), there is a way out and please do know this for sure; these are real bad habits.

Question; on what basis are they bad?

Answer: The same basis on which killing someone is wrong! Masturbation and homosexuality like all sexual sins are self-degrading and God despises such. The human conscience serves as a good pointer and I’ve found out that individuals can also “switch off” the conscience entirely, we can lose hold of the anchor post that defines what is good and what is bad.

But peradventure you are under the influence and want freedom then I’ve got good news for you. The spiritual influences behind pornography, masturbation and homosexuality fortunately are under the Lordship of another superior influence; the Lordship of Jesus Christ. His influence is available to set you free to smile again, to truly love and to live a life of real freedom. Freedom not to lewdness but freedom to virtue, the greatest and least available freedom is the freedom to choose that which is noble and right and to do it and keep doing it. Jesus Christ unlike no other gives that ability with a clear conscience to top it!

Personally I’ve learnt that this Christ influence can only be assessed by Faith; to believe in Jesus Christ as the one sent by God to die for the world’s sin and Who also rose that we may live in Him and by Him. If you already believe in the Lordship of Jesus Christ then lay hold on this and similar scripture and fight your fight of faith; “Once more Jesus addressed them.”I am the Light of the world," He said; "the man who follows me shall certainly not walk in the dark, but shall have the light of Life." John 8:12.



Hold fast to this, spiritual influences are only accessed by faith. You would need to make a public declaration (might, as the Spirit leads) and with time you’ll enjoy the victory that Christ alone brings.



Okwonna Nelson (nnamdiokwonna@yahoo.com)

THE BONDAGE BREAKER: DEALING WITH ABUSE

The first time I wrote on this topic, I had just finished typing it and was making some finishing touches when armed robbers stormed my office and made away with my laptop and other valuables. We however did not sustain any physical abuse! Of the trio of physical, Psychological and Sexual abuse I think the latter is more devastating. Sexual abuse is both physical and psychological.

“I was ravaged” were the words of a victim of sexual abuse. It really is a sore subject, one we often refuse to talk about. Our refusal however appear to be a product of our helplessness. A victim of sexual abuse would rather undergo the procedure again than talk about it.

She came to my office that day

She spoke in riddles,

The bottom line was that she was depressed

She asked for an anti depressant

She was fourteen

Her friend is undergoing an abusive scenario she said

I was surprised she knew the details so well

There wasn’t enough time

And I wanted to help

The story was ghoulish

I wouldn’t tell of it

The story of ravage

It is not just girl’s stories

I’ve heard the boy’s version

Told by men

Men with tears in their eyes

We read about it so often

And later try to forget

The victim wouldn’t

The victims couldn’t

The pain was real

Memories refuse to fade

Subconsciously we can hide it

Denial often is the escape

An escape with seeping side effects



HOW DO I OVERCOME ABUSE?



If this is your question, you are not alone and there is an answer. There is power for you to forgive and be forgiven, I didn’t say it is easy, you can’t muster the strength though but I know of One who can.

“To forgive is to let a prisoner free and to discover that the prisoner is you” , this is the “foolishness” of God; that in forgiving evil we find truth. Salvation is found only at the cross of forgiveness, the cross of Love.



The trip to that cross is the track on which an abused person experiences the saving redemptive grace of God’s power. It is a trip many have taken and found redemption, it isn’t an easy trip no doubt but a necessary one.

Accept the Love of Christ, He loves you enough to pay for humanity’s ill and all of lives burden are made light when we accept His love and dare to share it.



Leave the abusive scenario, flee it and run to shelter. Accept His Love and dare to give it.



“On the last day, the climax of the festival, Jesus stood and shouted to the crowds, "Anyone who is thirsty may come to Me! Anyone who believes in Me may come and drink! For the Scriptures declare, 'Rivers of living water will flow from his heart.” John 7:37



Anyone!



Okwonna Nelson

nnamdiokwonna@yahoo.com

Indiana Jones, Immortality and the Grail Cup

Indiana Jones, Immortality and the Grail Cup

Donovan has just shot his father and Indiana Jones got one more reason to get to the Grail cup, drinking from it held the promise of immortality and his dad was in desperate need for immediate mortality at least!

He had to pass the “breadth of God”, the several heads littering the walkway suggested previous fatal attempts; the “breadth of God” did a good work of decapitation.

Indiana muttered the words to himself as he crept towards the walkway; “the penitent”, “the penitent” .............

”……….only the penitent shall pass”; the words written in his father’s diary.

Perspiration was running down his spine when it hit him “a penitent man is a humble man...............”. “A penitent man kneels before the lord!”

He immediately knelt and just then the swirl of a rotating blade swept past his hair. He crept forward, found and unhooked the metallic death machine that was one of the 3 guards to the grail cup, the rest is history.

Like Indiana Jones and his father in the “Last Crusade”, immortality is a quest humanity has romanced for centuries; we all wouldn’t want to die. The cosmetic industry as it is today attests to man’s unending devotion to youth, Old age is fast becoming abhorring.

The wisest of men wrote that “He has also put eternity in their hearts” Eccl 3:11.

At the heart of every Faith is the promise of immortality, in Christianity it is called “Eternal Life”, it goes on to suggest that eternal life begins right here on earth and really it does.

The ‘born again’ life is a spiritual one and it is not bound by the limitations of time. In eternity, nothing is going to happen as everything has happened. This perspective will allow us understand the promises of God and the immutability of His counsel, He speaks from eternity. As a child of God, one is blessed with all spiritual blessing (eternally).

Though I might have lost some earthly goods, be undergoing certain trials but from an eternal perspective the total result is always good.

The consciousness of this eternal life and the Kingdom of God (the premise for eternal life) is the prerequisite for a joyful and fruitful life in every age.

Like Indiana Jones, I’ve knelt before the Lord, believed His word and I do have eternal life!

Okwonna Nelson

www.nelsontalks.blogspot.com

N for Nicodemus: Defining Salvation

The term “born again” has suffered a thousand qualifications and would have suffered death for it! Some folks could give a limb to distance themselves from such a term, yet it was Jesus Christ himself who made the first allusion to that term. (Luke 3:3).

Born again? What does it mean? The definition is found in verse 6: “that which is born of the flesh is flesh and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit” (note the capital “S” and the small “s”.

The explanation is really that simple; giving birth! A Spirit gave birth to another spirit (YOU). It is a spiritual birth, you are given birth to by God himself! An entirely new ( recent innovation) creature, that life is of another plane with different characteristics just like plant life is different from animal life because they belong to another “kingdom”.

A born again Christian is of another kingdom.

The life of the new spirit is called “eternal life”. Eternal life is not just longevity, it is the quality of that longevity! (a function of the Character of the parent”( 1 John 5:4, 1 John 5:16, 1 Peter 1:23)

There are no sin scars in that new spirit! There are scars on the mind and on the flesh but on the spirit? Nope, not one.

REAL LIFE

If you’ve ever struggled to be good you’ll understand the struggle saved believers often go through in their bid to get it right. How can I live above sin?

Answer: By faith! On this side of the divide (eternal life), everything is by faith since you are limited by a flesh suit. We can only access an unseen eternal life by faith, in my own personal struggle coming across John 8:12 did the magic. I held on to that scripture; it says that you cannot sin. As long as you are conscious of the Spirit that is in you you’ve overcome all of lives challenges including sin.

To maintain that consciousness it is paramount that we understand that a new creature could as well be an infant and such needs milk, then something tougher and later on meat. Most folks are mal nourished, (if you are do, go find a church or a mentor that teaches the Word). Your growth in the Word and obedience to the gospel of Christ (the things God will tell you) would influence your ability to assess the provisions of that new life and they are immense.

 God Bless

Okwonna Nelson (www.nelsontalks.blogspot.com)

nnamdiokwonna@yahoo.com

THE SEEKER AND BEAUTY UNTOLD

It is the soul of the faith

An ambassador’s honour

A soldier’s cause and a martyr’s tale

The best of news for society’s rum

And the eureka of her cream

A rooftop’s tale, told by the stairs

Freely received, often sold for money

The bleeding heart of a giver

The fugitive is loved

Pardon has been given

A life lived, judgement deserved

Death by crucifixion, two for company!

A groaning saviour? Or a mock king?

A forlorn wish and a surprise reply

Paradise today, not tomorrow!

Bleeding hearts or a battered mind

An infirm body or an abused one

A prodigal son and a waiting daddy

Breaking news; the seeker is sought!

Paradise today, not tomorrow!

 =============================
THE HOUND OF HEAVEN

I fled Him, down the nights and down the days;
  I fled Him, down the arches of the years;
I fled Him, down the labyrinthine ways
  Of my own mind; and in the mist of tears
I hid from Him, and under running laughter.
........................................ ,..................................
Halts by me that footfall;
  Is my gloom, after all,
Shade of His hand, outstreched caressingly?
  "Ah, fondest, blindest, weakest,
  I am He Whom thou seekest!
Thou dravest love from thee, who dravest Me."

Francis Thompson (1859-1907)

Redeeming the arts 2

“Why do you paint them nude“ the tutor asked

“I want to see them the way God made them” Michelangelo answered

“You are not God, are you?” the tutor answered

============================================================================

“Painting is poetry which is seen and not heard, and poetry is a painting which is heard but not seen”.

Leonardo da Vinci (1452 - 1519)

Italian artist, engineer, and inventor.

Perspective: is the way we see/value things and the arts can be seen from different perspective. Someone said “there is only one angle at which one can stand straight and a thousand at which one could fall but humanity is testing the angles”!

A Common Question in My Generation is “what is wrong about that”? And the best answer I have found is “is anything wrong about anything?”

Is anything really wrong about anything? Is anything wrong about the contemporary art?

To pry into the morality and rationality of the contemporary art, the question above will always show up and I will let you do the answering.

If for the reader there is nothing wrong about anything then that is a state of moral relativism. In other words a state of “no absolute truth” and hence “no moral law giver”. Then stretch such a state further up and you could conclude that there is no practical difference between a Hitler and a Mother Theresa! Since it depends on the way you look at it as there are no concrete benchmarks for evaluation: a state of lack of meaning, the very thing that science deals with. The questions of what? Why? And How?

The state of moral relativism is illogical. Life itself seeks coherence.

In contemporary setting, a lot of music sell for their beats and rhythms and not necessary for the meaning of the songs and this is exactly what Shakespeare implied when he said:

“Life’s but a walking shadow, a poor player,

That struts and frets his hour upon the stage,

And then is heard no more. It is a tale

Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,

Signifying nothing.”

We have a generation of music and drama which in the words of its fans “does not necessary signify anything”: “full of sound and fury signifying nothing” according to Shakespeare.

That would have not been too bad if the “fan” believes in such a “no significance” view of life as Shakespeare. A noble scholar once said:            “First, art would imitate life, then life would imitate art. Ultimately Life would take its very existence from the arts”

In everyday life we evaluate source and then judge product from source, business men evaluate companies to rate their products. You would look at a restaurant’s setting before you consider their food, a vehicle before the service. It is only the ignorant that does anything less, and in the arts we have made the mistake of looking the other way.

The greatest crime really is simplicity!

The meaninglessness we perceive around every day I believe is because to some extent Life has taken its very existence from the art (something we didn’t necessary agree with but liked never the less).

The Law of Conscience

The Contemporary man I believe the law of his conscience when he chose that which he didn’t really agree with but likes none the less. When a young man sees a nude scene he doesn’t agree with but “just happens to like” he comes to a point where he must choose which appetite to feed; His heart or his feelings. It’s a question I have often asked myself; “why do I not feel good about that though I would want to see it again”?

It is in these choices that man either redefines art for himself or rejects himself. Because whenever we choose that which is against our better nature but excites our baser nature we not only estrange ourselves from God (the moral law giver and source of your heart-feelings), we estrange ourselves from ourselves.

Take a look at any contemporary artist of choice and you will see an estranged individual.

Man’s relish for the arts is a God given character as “Creatures are not born with desires unless satisfaction for those desires exists.”  C. S. Lewis. We redefine the arts by taking responsibility for what we watch or listen to, knowing quite well that sooner or later we would take our very existence from those. But then contemporary man can only derive the strength from a superior affection; the compelling power of a new affection. (see my previous note with the title “the compelling power of a new affection”)

Thanks

Okwonna Nelson

nnamdiokwonna@yahoo.com

Business Series 8: C for Capital

“Ideas are capital

The rest is just plain money”

German Bank

The Nigerian situation is a unique scenario; the marketplace has never been so threatened. I maintain that the average business man is a threatened species but the opportunities are still immense. In that light, the above statement is worth taking to heart as the worst of times are often the best of times.

What really is capital?

First, money is not real; it is a unit of measuring “economic value”. If you should obtain an executive MBA from Lagos business school, chances are that the “economic value” of your time would increase and hence your “take home”. Thus economic value could be “current” and “accumulated”.

My point is that if you are looking for “capital”, the first thing is to evaluate your current “economic value”. What is the current economic value of your time and your idea? It is not always exciting to see individuals of “near negative economic value” looking for capital!

You may not have a dime in your pocket but if you and your ideas have much “economic value” then leverage on that and you will find start-up finance. (I will do an article on leveraging on your economic value).

Your current “economic value” which is a summation of the worth of your idea, skills and time (by current market price!) is of more value than your weighted economic value (cash at hand).

There are 3 types of capital and 3 major questions

Faith Capital: you alone can bring this to the table

Human Capital: The summation of your experience

Money capital: what my friend Boma wants me to talk about!

a.       Can your faith carry it?

b.      If it can, can you?

c.       If both of you can, How?

THE” HOW” OF THE MATTER

1.       From where you are: we often underestimate/overestimate how much we need, sit down and calculate how much you really need. Write a business plan and see if you can observe the first rule of business “think big but start small”. Start from where you are: what you have!

2.       My capital: what and what can I sell? My money first, how can I leverage the resources within my control, can I back track the idea 3 steps backwards and start with the bigger picture in mind.

A home office, cyber office?, word of mouth advert, fbook?

3.       If I must borrow, let it be official: terms and conditions apply. Avoid assumptions, business is a serious matter. Family and friends are your best bet. Plan to repay.

4.       Equity: Can other people buy into my business? Do I need other people?  I always prefer a corporation with others with you than a partnership. Maintain at least 51% ownership. If other people can buy in, what are they offering? If you are taking people just for the money then take people who can invest more in the future, you could get better loan conditions in the future that way.

If you are a young man: an older, wealthier advisor could be a bonus when prayerfully chosen.

5.       Reinvest profits, no partying until you survive the first 3 years!

6.       Bank loans: not a good idea for a start up except when your “current economic value” is the collateral and expected profits far exceeds interest. If you’re idea is a very big one, mere preparing for a bank loan would help you shape up!

7.       As you start, let all your cash pass through a particular bank account. That way you have evidence of business that banks understand.

8.       As a rule, take a loan only when you must.

9.       In a corporation it is better to own 51% of the business and a CEO job than wait till you have 100%, you may never.

10.   Your greatest asset is God’s words in your heart. It is the blessing; He makes rich, He adds no sorrow with it. Sow seeds and please pay your tithe.

 Thanks

Okwonna Nelson

nnamdiokwonna@yahoo.com