The Marriage Beatitudes
1. Blessed are the husband and wife who continue to be affectionate, considerate, and loving after the wedding bells have ceased ringing.
2. Blessed are the husband and wife who are as polite and courteous to one another as they are to their friends.
"I do not set aside the grace of God, for if righteousness could be gained through the law, Christ died for nothing!" - Galatians 2:21
I think hearing this verse was the first time I really understood Christianity as being about God's grace and mercy, not laws and commandments.
While it is good to live well and do no evil, nothing I/we will ever do will be enough, and the grace is given in ways and reasons beyond my/our comprehension and control.
I experienced a miracle that day that had to make the point clear. Not by power of might. Not by righteousness or obeying laws. It is all by grace.
Suffering the most humiliating form of death and overcoming it by resurrection was to show us that there is nothing that grace cannot overcome.
Studying the scripture is one thing; understanding it is another. I heard that verse from a devotional, and it made me realize that Christianity is also about a life of study and learning.
All the prayers, novenas, and rosary sessions (which are necessary for meditation and discipline) could not have revealed this to me without study.
I have learned that one of the biggest mistakes founders can make is becoming emotionally attached to a business idea before finding out if people genuinely need it.
It is easy to get excited about an opportunity, create a product, invest money, bring a team together, and announce the business to the world. The real problem often becomes visible later, when you discover that customers are not willing to spend money on the solution or that the numbers behind the business simply do not make sense.
In this episode of Diary of an African Entrepreneur, I take a closer look at one of the most important steps that often gets ignored when starting a business: testing the idea before committing heavily to it.
I share lessons from startup failures and real business experience to explain why understanding the customer must come before building the solution. It is not enough to know that people have a problem. You need to know how important that problem is, how they currently deal with it, whether they would pay for a better solution, and whether you can serve them profitably.
If you are building a company, exploring a new opportunity, or thinking about putting your resources behind an idea, this episode is a reminder to take a step back and ask the difficult questions before moving forward.
An idea can be exciting, but excitement is not proof of demand.
Before you build more, make sure there is something worth building.
#DiaryOfAnAfricanEntrepreneur #AfricanEntrepreneur #Entrepreneurship #StartupValidation #BusinessStrategy #DejiAdebusoye
@AskMichaelTaiwo Thank you for capturing it clearly MT - a potential crisis seems to be brewing, isn't it? Any solutions you can proffer? Will more male mentorship programs (alone) work?
Long may it continue! It's positive role modelling for young men.
They emulate Kola Karim, Dangote, Tony Elumelu, NOT Hushpuppi or the failed rapper/kickboxxer in Romania accused of trafficking.
@atkfarouk You decide when you want to take profit and sell. For instance, you can decide when you buy to sell once you make 20% profit so you do just that once you achieve the target
@atkfarouk No, it is only if you sell at this point that you lose your gains/investment. Your gain on minus means you lost the gain. You are not in debt, the maximum you can lose is all you invested.
We admire people who achieve things that “we think” we cannot, because either we have been told it is hard, or we tried a bit of it and found it difficult. We then give up and praise those whom we think are better than us. They may seem better because they have found a hack that others haven't discovered yet.
Nobody can be better than you at something when you consistently try to improve on previous attempts. That is what sets the high achievers apart from those who achieve less. It is something we must learn from within and turn into a habit. Excellence is a habit. Achieving excellence is not easy, but you can “hack yourself” into it.
I had a conversation with @bernard_parah yesterday over lunch, and he reminded me of the Y Combinator interview question: “Give an example of a time you hacked something.” It kept ringing in my head as I drove around Accra. I knew I hacked things daily, but I was trying to remember the first time I did it and turned it into a habit.
I thought it was at age 11 when I had to find a way to survive the long holiday and was broke, but I realized I could wash my neighbor’s poultry for 1 Naira 50kobo. That money became the capital I used to start a business selling canned tomatoes, and I made more money than other boys in the market by being better dressed and selling to people still in their cars by the road.
They were more affluent, and they would rather buy from a clean, polite, well-spoken, and well-dressed young boy than the rough hawkers who didn't care about their appearance. They also likely bought the premium brand then called “De Rica,” and I had found the main importer in the market of original De Rica tomatoes with embossed expiry dates.
I outsold all of the other hawkers and ended up getting canned Derica tomatoes on credit from the supplier because of my volumes. I was doing this during the holidays and did better than those who did it daily to survive. I did better because I figured out the market and hacked it.
The thing is that it wasn't the first time I hacked something. I went back into my memories and realized that the very first time was when I was 7 years old, when I hacked my time by doing tasks early and defeating procrastination. The key was to look beyond the tasks and not the tasks themselves.
If I had to read for exams, I looked forward to the holidays afterward and the club sandwich my parents gave me as a reward for being first in my class. I made sure I did well in those exams by preparing early and listening attentively in class. I hacked and organized myself at age 7.
My parents also gave me motivation. This is the same Jedi mind tricks I now also use on my kids. It is not blackmail, it is motivation. You can always hack yourself and any situation to achieve optimal outcomes.
I will have to turn this into a proper article and share it with my kids. That is part of the hacking process. I need to find out whether De Rica is publicly listed and buy their shares. They were the first luxury product that I sold.
I'm just not that interested in learning from successful people anymore.
I'm interested in learning from successful people who learned how to be happy and balanced.
Oftentimes, the very thing you think is working against you is really going to work for you. However, it’s up to you to release preconceived ideas. Let go of thinking everything has to happen your way and on your timetable, and trust that God is ordering your steps.
The HolyGhost is the porter standing at the door into your life. He should authorise those who get access into your life. He monitors the conversations you have with others and regulates how much of that door gets opened while interacting with others.
For every vision you have that may seem impossible today, it really isn't. It is important you don't make haste but build a spiritual altar around it. Say nothing to anyone about it until instructed or permitted by God to speak.
Disclosing things prematurely to others increases spiritual warfare around it and it could lead to more difficulties in your path.
Spend time in private disciplines of prayer, fasting and offering up spiritual sacrifices over it. This is what amounts to building an altar.
In return heaven will send down revelation and direction. You start speaking prophetically and the light on how to go about it will dawn upon your heart.
Let the Spirit come upon you concerning it.
#MondayMotivation
Tonight, we practise what is known as the davening prayer, which is to move your lips in meditation upon the answer God has given.
Paul taught this when he said after the peace of God that passes all understanding enters your heart in answer to prayer, make sure to think upon things consistent with the outcome.
https://t.co/SrRj64M7QG at 9.00pm
Why you shouldn't just buy into the prevailing narrative but do your homework and do not outsource your thinking to anyone.
There was a narrative that was spun around the resurrection of Jesus by the Pharisees that still exists till today.
Matthew 28:12-16
12 And when they were assembled with the elders, and had taken counsel, they gave large money unto the soldiers,
13 Saying, Say ye, His disciples came by night, and stole him away while we slept.
14 And if this come to the governor's ears, we will persuade him, and secure you.
15 So they took the money, and did as they were taught: and this saying is commonly reported among the Jews until this day.
This is how people can spin things, and those who don't dig deeper than the prevailing popular opinion can pick up thought patterns that will derail them from their God ordained path.
Always do your mental homework. Ascertain the facts and where things don't add up there is a reason why it isn't adding up.