When I first read this story, it really made me laugh but when I continued thinking about it, I realized the importance of integrating capitalism approach to life and business. The first president survival was based on the death of the second president. I am sure most of you will say in your heart; “that’s a cruel way of reasoning” but let’s look at this scenario again; the first president had no gun or weapon and the two of them combined could not take on the bear. The bear is so powerful that it can kill about 4 human beings at the same time; the two presidents were aware of the potential danger but it was the first president that instinctively and intuitively knew what to do.

 

 

 

I have heard this sentence many times that “life is not fair”. This may be true on an emotional level especially when you have to read the story above where a man sacrificed his own brother for his own survival but this is a false premise to life. The first president did not just get lucky for having such thoughts; he has developed this way of thinking over time. He may not have ever thought of facing bear and delaying the bear with another human being’s life but he definitely must have thought of the best way to survive impossible situation. The fact that he collaborated on the merger possibility was simply out of survival.

 

 

 

Survival is thus the first primal instinct of man; it is first food, shelter, and then clothing. In a world filled with competition and unpredictability, survival is the only language that suffices. If Mrs. A opens a shop in an estate selling bread at 100 bucks and Mrs. B opens another shop 1 year besides Mrs. A, selling the same bread at 80 bucks in order gain entrance into the market as customers are familiar with Mrs. A. If the landing cost of the bread is 75 bucks, Mrs. B has threatened the survival of Mrs. A by forcing her to bring down her price to 80 bucks. If Mrs. C joins the two of them 3 years later and reduces the price to 60 bucks because she owns her own bakery and sells the same bread knowing she makes profit from selling at 60 bucks.

 

 

I want you to look at the above scenario very carefully and think about your position in the work place or anywhere you feel you are deriving your economic power. Do you really think you years of experience matters? It’s just a matter of time for Mrs. A and Mrs. B to realize that their cheese is gone; the means of taking care of their home, their children was just taken from under their nose by another human being. This scenario is not different from the bear scenario; there is absolutely no difference; Mrs. C just sucks the life out of Mrs. A and Mrs. B.

 

 

Is the first president and Mrs. C such a bad person? Let’s see what the bible says about this. In Mathew 25, an allegory of the Kingdom of Heaven was emphasized with the stories of the 10 virgins waiting for their bridegroom. 5 of them were regarded as wise while the other 5 were regarded as foolish. The five foolish virgins were foolish because they did not anticipate a delay in the coming of the bridegroom. They all had oil in their lamps but they did not all anticipate a delay so the foolish virgins missed out on the wedding. The part that broke the veil in my eyes was when the 5 foolish virgins ask the 5 wise virgins for oil, they refused to give them. The reason for their capitalist thinking was simple; the resources would not be enough.

 

 

When people guard their resources because it would not be enough to take them to their destination, they are regarded as wise. This is the way the Kingdom of Heaven works. Mrs. C simply was guarding her resources; if Mrs. C was selling at the same amount that Mrs. A and B was selling, all her bread in the bakery will decay and she would make a huge loss because all the customers in the estate would have been loyal to either Mrs. A and B (remember she came in three years later). She could not sell to Mrs. A and B because the two of them buy from another bakery. The competition at the wholesale level was so hot that she had to go retail in order to recoup her capital.

 

 

I am sure you will agree with me that Mrs. C is not a bad person because she is just guarding her resources though at the expense of Mrs. A and B just like the wise virgins guarded their resources. Also note that Mrs. C has to give an account to her maker; she was given a specific amount of resources and she has to double it just like the parable of the talent in the same Mathew 25; the guy that was given 5 talents brought back 10 talents and the Master praised him and called him faithful servant. It did not matter that they had different talents given to the three of them; what matters is that they effectively doubled their talents. If the guy with the 5 talent said in his mind, let me consider the guy with two talent and not compete with him to double my talent; what do you think the master will say to the guy with the 5 talents if he returns with 5 talents out consideration for the guy with the two?

 

 

In the coming months, Mrs. A and Mrs. B realized that their cheese was gone so Mrs. A sold off her shop to Mrs. D who also has a bakery and competed with Mrs. C by reducing price to 55 bucks. Mrs. C and Mrs. D were in a price war that they no longer make significant profit in the business. Mrs. E did not have as much resources as Mrs. A, B, C and D but will introduce to us what God expects from us. Mrs. E met with Mrs. B to let her shop to her monthly. She made her bread from her kitchen oven and sold at the same price that Mrs. C and D were selling and was making substantial profit. Mrs. E’s bread was bromine free and tastier than Mrs. C and Mrs. D so sold faster and was always in demand.

 

 

The demand for Mrs. E’s price was so much that she increased the price to 200 bucks to reduce demand. Notwithstanding the price, Mrs. E’s bread was always out of stock. She did not really need Mrs. B’s shop again because people started queuing up in her house to buy her bread for 200 bucks. Hotels, companies and restaurants started ordering for her bread because her reputation grew and grew. Some smart investors saw the opportunity and built her a bakery factory and she kept her secret ingredients to herself. Mrs. E bread is no longer an estate thing but a national brand.

 

 

Mrs. E brand became so popular that people started collecting franchise from all over the world. There is nowhere in the world that you will not get Mrs. E’s bread. Mrs. E did not have enough resources when she started, she did not buy from a bakery to resell, and she started organically from her kitchen oven and thus was able to discover her secret ingredient. It was not easy for Mrs. E when she started because she must have had sleepless night and burnt fingers in order to manually make the bread demanded for. Mrs. E’s cheese can never go.

 

 

Just like the book; “who moved my cheese?” The rat that left the comfort of her location to seek for a new cheese was the hero we all thrive be like but not many of us can take the journey that the rat took. If we stick to our comfort zone, we would be like the bread that can easily be priced out of the market. When everybody is engaged in doing the same thing like staying in paid employment, you will simply be a commodity that is affected by price not brand. If you choose to be a brand, you must discover yourself and develop the talent God has given you. Remember the days of Noah, people did things the same way they have been doing it; when the storm comes and the storm will surely come like Mrs. B came, like Mrs. C came and Mrs. D came, it is only Mrs. E that will stand because of the ark she has built which accommodate Mrs. F to Mrs. Z.

 

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Life without passion is meaningless; we simply exist and feel a sense of worthlessness. Passion is mostly a misconstrued concept because we have this vague imagination that passion is associated with something we enjoy doing. There are so many people that are passionate about what they do but do not enjoy doing it. I am sure you will want me to give you an example but I won't just give you any kind of example, I will give you empirical examples; something that happens every day and everywhere.

 

 

 

Everybody knows Tunde ‫ your regular 5 star employee ‫ upwardly mobile, ambitious and relied upon to get the job done by his employer. He has won the employee of the month 11 times in a year for the past 5 years and just as he was about to get a raise and a promotion, Tunde dropped a bomb shell; he was terminating his employment with his company X and moving to a competitive company. Then the haggle starts; company X says I will attach a car to your new position; company Y ‫ a competitive company ‫ says I will give you a house in Ikoyi so you can get to work on time; company Z ‫ a start-up company which is not competitive ‫ says I will give you three times the combined money that company X and Y are offering

 

 

 

Let’s do an analysis of probabilities; for anybody to accomplish sterling performance like Tunde, the person must have passion. Passion is therefore a necessary prerequisite to successful venture but the real question we should ask ourselves is “what is Tunde really passionate about?” If Tunde chooses company Z, we can surmise that he is passionate about money not the job; if he chooses company Y, we can surmise that he is passionate about change of environment and enjoys what he is doing and if he sticks with company X, we can conclude that he is passionate about loyalty and prefers to stick with what he is doing.

 

 

 

The moment of truth when he makes this kind of decision declares his passion. Encarta dictionary defines passion as an intense enthusiasm for something. This enthusiasm is intense because it is mixed with overpowering emotions such as love, hate, joy or anger. Tunde may have been regarded to be passionate about his work before these three choices stared at his face courting him to a relationship. These three choices open us up to a different dimension about Tunde; does Tunde really enjoy his work or is he really grasping for the reward of the work?

 

 

 

When I hear someone say “I am passionate about what I do”, I wonder why people delude themselves. Nobody is passionate about work without a reward no matter how noble it may sound to tell someone I enjoy what I do. This is actually a sequel to “Talent and the Talented” where I emphasized developing of talents to skill which opens opportunity. The whole concept of opportunity is the reward we derive from it. The reward does not have to be money in fact money itself is not a reward. If Tunde ends up in company Z, it is not the money that drives him but what the money can accomplish; better school for his kids, better health care, etc.

 

 

I have established the fact that passion is derived from reward ‫ the reward of being happy. The longing for happiness is what precipitates passion. We go to school, work hard to get good grades because we believe we will get good jobs to give us good remuneration to marry, have kids which will make us happy. Have you realized that our whole struggle in life is to be happy? We are therefore defined as “species who want to be happy at every given time”.

 

 

If happiness is the end result of everything we do passionately we are therefore going in circles to be happy. Some people derive happiness from oppressing their fellow humans; some people derive happiness from learning new things; some derive happiness from playing football and getting cheers from fans, some derive happiness from dancing, singing, etc. If money is removed from this equation, then the happiness is short lived; we will then become frustrated. Though we are doing what we derive joy from but the fact that we cannot get money from it makes us go in circles. So our primal instinct is go for what gives us the money first then chase what we enjoy doing.

 

 

 There are some challenges associated with doing this; there is a 90% probability that you may not go back to what you enjoy doing because of the fear of not having enough. If you do not follow your passion, you become a slave to this world and you will be grouped amongst the data of world’s population. This means you just exist and you have simply not made any impact on this earth. If you are a Christian, you definitely know you have buried your talent like the one guy with the one talent. You will become a victim of this world because the talent you have will be taken from you. You will be debased and even with all your money, you will not be happy. You are simply a living ghost.

 

 

Kunle Afolayan, the son of Ade Love ‫ a prolific film producer and actor in the 80s ‫ left his progressive career in the bank to chase his dream of film acting and production like his dad. He was never known in his Local Government while working for the bank for 7 years but 1 year in the film production industry, he is known round the world; he was recently invited to London Film Festival to discuss his one and only film production ‫ IREPADA. Lalit Modi is one of the few billionaires in India but he was hardly known when he was running his family’s multibillion dollar conglomerate but when he ventured into his passion of cricket, the whole world sings the praise for creating the India Premier League. He is no more a census figure in India but an icon to reckon with.

 

 

How can we chase our passion and at the same time not be bothered about what we will eat and drink? The answer to the question has eluded so many people. Let us take a peek at the manual of our life; there lies all the solution we sought for in this world. Abraham was a man that could hear God like most people can. One day, he felt in his spirit that God was telling him that he was father of many nations. This was kind of rhetoric putting in mind that he does not even have one child not to talk of having the potential to have any since he was quite old and the wife he loves so much has passed menopause. He got confirmation on all side that he was going to have a child by visitors who told him he was going to have a child. This child was going to be the child of promise which Abraham quickly interpreted was going to be the seed of the many nations.

 

 

Intuitively, we know the seed that will lead us to the passion we desire but some us choose to ignore it while others try their best to force it. Abraham discovered the seed, explained to his wife and they forced it by producing Ishmael. Ishmael is a passion you decide to create outside your inner promptings; you build such seeds in lieu of your impatience. God rejected Ishmael as the passion of promise ‫ heir of many nations. When Abraham stopped forcing it, God gave him the seed in the form of Isaac. When Abraham stopped forcing the seed of passion, he made lots of money while waiting for the seed to manifest.

 

This is the secret my dear; when you intuitively feel a promise in you bigger than yourself that is definitely what you will enjoy doing. When you are on track with this inner-promise, the power of sin becomes useless in your life, you will be in fantastic health, you will not compete with your fellow brethren, you will be an icon in the field that leads to the promise and you will make money beyond your wildest dream. It may not be instantaneous and self gratifying but it would be sure. I did not make 200 thousand dollars by blogging; I made more than (>) 200 thousand dollars by following the inner prompting of promise though I did not know where it will lead me to when I started. It’s just like a pregnant woman who has no idea how the child will look when she puts to bed that’s the same way the promise is. You feel the birth pangs, you feel uneasy, you feel pains sometimes and when this child finally comes to the world, you eventually have a form and you name it.

 

 

It’s not easy to give birth to your passion just as it is not easy to chase after money; the work is the same but the rewards are different. If you chase after money, you will simply exist on this earth with the money because God himself made us understand in Genesis 11 that there is nothing that man sets his heart to do that he cannot do when God was talking about humans building tower to heaven. If you follow that inner prompting that will make you constantly passionate, you will leave a legacy for your children, you will be an icon, you will be very famous and wealth and health will run after you and finally, you can never be found wanting of sin.  

 

 

Rahab followed the inner promptings of her heart when she helped out the Israelite despite the fact that she was a prostitute, she became a prominent figure in history and was named in the biblical hall of fame. She had a choice to give out the Israelites and collect a reward from the king but she chose instead to follow the inner promptings despite the danger accompanied with it. This is a mere difference between passion and money. It is those that follow their passion that makes a difference in their world not those that decides to join the money wagon. This is why the young rich ruler that met Jesus felt inadequate despite his huge sum of money and following the law judiciously. It isn’t about obeying the law and chasing money, it is about following the inner promptings of your heart.

 

 

This is the difference between a 419 guy and a blogger; while the 419 guy may make immediate returns from his hard work because it requires hard work to be a 419, it may take the blogger some time but the blogger will eventually hit it when he/she is following her inner prompting. The 419 guy will violate his conscience because every human conscience goes against wrong dealings but he may deaden his conscience by justifying what he does. One of the craziest lines the 419 guys cook up is that the white stole from their fathers so they have a right to steal from them but the white guys are no more buying their fraudulent line so they deprive their fellow Nigerian brethren through telephone frauds. Later when they cannot defraud anymore, they will start carrying guns and ammunitions. The end is definitely sure for them.

 

 

The bloggers end that follows his/her inner prompting (not the one doing it for money) is also sure; the blogger will become an icon in his field and will therefore be consulted by the world. He will make tremendous amount of money and he will make a name for his children. The blogger will bleed along the way just like the 419 guy; he/she will have his low points and high point but the end is sure because the process is right. Lucky Luciano ‫ a famous American mob star in the 1940s ‫ could not have said it better when he said “it will take the same work to get money doing bad than it will take doing good.” I will rephrase it this way “it will take the same work following your passion than it will take chasing after money; you will both end up getting the money but the guy that follows his passion will leave his footprint in the sands of time.”   

 

 

 FROM JUNE 1ST; YOU MAY READ ABOUT BLOGGING ON THE ARTICLE CONFERENCE

 

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