ENG philip

[Crazy Vibes @CrazyVibes_1]

When the President of France visited the United States in April 1960, he asked the FBI to help him find a man.
The man he was looking for was an American citizen. He was sixty-four years old. He had been awarded fifteen French military decorations and — six months earlier, in a ceremony in Paris — had been made a Knight of the Légion d'honneur, the highest civilian honor France can give. The medal had been pinned to his chest by the President himself, who had publicly called him un véritable héros français. A true French hero.
The FBI located the man within a few days.
He was operating an elevator at Rockefeller Center in New York City.
The elevator operator's name was Eugene Bullard. He had been born in Columbus, Georgia, in 1895, the son of a man whose own father had been a slave.

He had run away from Columbus at the age of eleven, after watching a white mob nearly lynch his father.
He spent the next several years drifting through the American South. At sixteen, he stowed away on a German freighter at Norfolk, Virginia. He landed in Aberdeen, Scotland. From there he made his way to London, where he learned to box. By 1913, at eighteen, he was prizefighting in Paris.
When Germany invaded France in August 1914, Bullard was nineteen years old. He had no legal obligation to fight. He had no French citizenship.
He went to the recruiting office on October 19, 1914, and signed up for the French Foreign Legion.
He spent the next eighteen months as an infantryman in some of the worst fighting of the war — at the Somme, at Champagne, at Verdun. He was wounded three times. The third wound, on March 5, 1916, tore open his thigh and left him with permanent damage to his leg.
He was twenty years old. The doctors told him he would not return to the infantry.
He decided he wanted to fly.

In a Paris café in the spring of 1916, while he was recovering, Bullard mentioned to three white American friends that he was thinking of joining the French air service. A Mississippian named Jeff Dickson laughed.
Gene, Dickson said, you know damn well there aren't any Negroes in aviation.
Bullard answered: Sure do. That's why I want to get into it. There has to be a first to everything, and I'm going to be the first.
Dickson bet him two thousand dollars he would not make it.
Bullard took the bet. He earned his pilot's license on May 5, 1917. He won the bet.
He reported to the front in August 1917 and flew approximately twenty combat missions over the next three months in a SPAD VII. The fuselage was painted with a bleeding heart pierced by a knife and the French phrase Tout le Sang qui Coule est Rouge — All Blood that Flows is Red.
He carried, on every combat flight, a small capuchin monkey named Jimmy in the front of his flight jacket.
The French press began calling him L'Hirondelle Noire — the Black Swallow.

When the United States entered the war in 1917, Bullard immediately applied to transfer to the U.S. Army Air Service.
His application was rejected.
The U.S. Army Air Service had a policy, in 1917, of not accepting Black pilots. The other American pilots flying for France in his unit, all of them white, were transferred to the U.S. Air Service.
He was the only one who was not.

For the next twenty years, he was one of the most familiar faces in the Montmartre nightlife of Paris between the wars. He owned a nightclub called L'Escadrille. He spoke fluent French, English, and German. Hemingway drank there. Fitzgerald drank there. Langston Hughes drank there. Josephine Baker performed there. Louis Armstrong was a personal friend.
When Germany invaded Poland in 1939, Bullard was forty-four. His fluent German and his ownership of a nightclub frequented by German officers made him useful to the French Resistance. He became an intelligence agent — eavesdropping in his own bar on conversations between German officers who did not know he understood every word.
When France fell in June 1940, friends in the Resistance smuggled him across the Spanish border before the Gestapo could arrest him.
He came back to the United States for the first time in twenty-eight years.
He arrived in New York with thirty dollars in his pocket and a permanent limp.

He did not return to a hero's welcome. He returned to a country that had no idea who he was.
He worked at a perfume counter. He worked as a security guard. He worked at the Staten Island shipyards. By the late 1940s, he had taken the job that he would hold for most of the rest of his life.
He operated the elevator at Rockefeller Center.
He was wearing the elevator uniform on the day a producer from NBC came down from the studios upstairs to ask if he was the man Charles de Gaulle had been looking for.
A few weeks later, NBC sent a film crew to interview him in the lobby. The studios where NBC produced The Today Show were on the floors above. He had operated the elevator that took the network executives up to those studios every morning for nearly ten years. He had not been recognized as he did it.
He went back to operating the elevator the following Monday.

He died of stomach cancer on October 12, 1961, three days after his sixty-sixth birthday.
He was buried in the French War Veterans' section of Flushing Cemetery, in Queens, in the uniform of the French Foreign Legion. The casket was draped with the French flag.
In 1994 — thirty-three years after his death — the United States Air Force formally commissioned Eugene Jacques Bullard as a Second Lieutenant, posthumously.
It was the first commission the U.S. military had ever offered him.
He had been the first Black combat pilot in American history.
The French had been calling him a hero since 1917.
The Americans got around to it in 1994.

[Dr. ₿ 🟠 | The Racing MD @TheWealthDr]

A Japanese Manager Once Told Me: “We Fire Employees Who Arrive on Time.”

I laughed.

Then he explained why—and it completely changed how I see success.

I first heard this in Tokyo during a business dinner.
I asked why being late is such a serious offense in Japan.

He replied calmly:
“We don’t fire the late ones. We fire the ones who arrive exactly at the start.”
The table went silent.

In my culture, arriving right on time means:
• responsible
• disciplined
• professional
In his culture? It means passive.

He explained:
“If you arrive at 9:00 sharp, you’ve waited until the last possible second.”
That tells us something important.
It tells us you didn’t plan for:
• traffic
• delays
• uncertainty
• responsibility beyond yourself

And if you don’t plan for uncertainty… you can’t be trusted with systems.

He said something I’ll never forget:
“Only the weak arrive in the last minute.”
Not because they’re lazy—but because they think in limits, not margins.
Japanese companies don’t value accuracy.
They value anticipation.

A professional arrives early to:
• settle the mind
• read the room
• prepare mentally
• show readiness

Not to rush in out of breath.

That idea stayed with me.

And once I noticed it… I couldn’t unsee it.

The most successful people everywhere, no matter within which country:
• arrive early
• stay calm
• observe first
• speak last

They’re already present before others even enter.

They build trust before the meeting begins.

They notice details others miss.

They create opportunity before others react.

That edge compounds.

Showing up early isn’t about time.
It’s about mindset.
Exactly on time says: “I did the minimum.”
Early says: “I came prepared for reality.”

Business, and life, require margin.
When someone says, “But I came on time,”
I no longer hear discipline.
I hear the limit of their thinking.

Japan understood this long ago:
Success begins before the clock starts.

Will Americans and Germans and many others relearn these self-explanatory principles?

The question going forward is:
Will YOU continue with the behavior of the Have-Nots, or choose the behavior and success of the Have-Yachts?

Bitcoin. 🟠

[ENG philip @Phitswar]

Akasingy'e nokeeha

[Modern Dad @ModernxDad]

This one thing that drains a man faster than anything in a relationship..

[Made In Uganda @ugandanmade256]

Xico Kashambo’s Solt & Pepa is turning up the heat with healthy and naturally grown chilli, crafted with care and proudly made in Uganda!

Shop and sell at #MIU now — Visit: https://t.co/XLe4RRl7h9

#MIUSpotlight #MadeInUganda #ProudlyUganda

[Formula 1 @F1]

Sassy Max is back! 😅

#F1 #SingaporeGP

[ENG philip @Phitswar]

Romans 8:18

[ENG philip @Phitswar]

@ai4ug What is the schedule for the next cohort?

[Alan Kasujja @kasujja]

Alan, should I take my kid to an International School?

Me- No. I did it with mine. I wouldn’t recommend it for yours.

Why?

Me- Mine would eventually end up going to school in the UK so they needed to be in that system. You get?

Yes. What would you do different?

Me- Get a good school with solid governance. Strong parent and OB/OG involvement and educate them in a Ug system until they finish their undergraduate degrees.

It’s cheaper and they need a solid base. A good OB/OG network etc.

And then?

Me- Save that money you’d have used on international schools for their post graduate education. Send them to LSE, KCL, OxBridge etc. I don’t know about the US unis these days.

Really?

That’s what I would do. You do whatever you deem best for your child.

[Sudhir Byaruhanga @Sudhirntv]

⚡ Power & Elec Uganda 2025 is HERE! ⚡
🔌 3rd Edition | 🌍 UMA Show Grounds, Kampala
🗓️ 10–12 July 2025

Join East Africa’s BIGGEST expo on:
🔋 Power • ☀️ Solar • ⚡ Energy • 🌱 Renewables • 💡 Lighting • 🔧 Electronics

🌐 Network, Innovate, Transform!
📍 Don't miss it – where energy meets opportunity.

#powerelecuganda #etsipl #lanestrauganda #power #solar #energy #electrical #kampala #renewable #electronics #lighting

[ENG philip @Phitswar]

@SpoxOfUmeme @UmemeAtService need a solution or should we engage regulator?

[ENG philip @Phitswar]

@UmemeLtd what's happening with new connections? I paid up in Nov 2024 for 16 meters (CF) but to-date only one meter has been delivered. What can someone do to get their meters, N@ked protest at the offices @MDofUmeme what happened to timely service delivery 🤔

[The Coterie Book Cafe @CoterieBookCafe]

Ho ho ho🔥🥳 it’s going doowwnn tonight 💃

KARAOKE NIGHT is heerree! Come let’s sing and dance the stress away in a fun filled night hosted by @funkykaraoke

“We sing for mental health and fun”
Location: Bandali Rise, Bugolobi
Enquiries: 0200990033

[Leaders 𝕏 Junction @LeadersJunction]

The best strategy you can ever find out:

[ENG philip @Phitswar]

@mtnug please handle these phone crooks 0782935965 it's too much

[ENG philip @Phitswar]

@mtnug what's happening with your Network....I cannot get calls through

[Umeme Limited @UmemeLtd]

What is the ongoing Yaka! meter upgrade?

The Yaka! meter upgrade is simply a meter software upgrade aimed at safeguarding the customer vending experience beyond November 2024.

Learn more: https://t.co/AYRL64NWC4

#UmemeAtService #PoweringUganda

[ENG philip @Phitswar]

@mtnug

[Kanyesigye Akbr @kanyesigye_]

Just learnt that @mtnug has a daily data cap on its “unlimited and uncapped” fibre internet 🤦🏽‍♂️
It clearly says there’s “no cap” in the description and terms, @UCC_Official is this legal?!