Leslie was born mentally retarded, without eyes, and with cerebral palsy. Vegetable like, he was totally unresponsive to sound or touch. At the age of six months, he was expected to die shortly. A nurse, May Lemke, was asked if she could care for him at home until that time. She did… for more than thirty years.
When May accepted baby Leslie, she accepted him as just that, a baby – no different from others – to be taught and loved. Year after year she cared for him, but there was no movement or response. Even so, she never stopped talking to him, singing to him, or praying for him. Music filled their home… still, no response. She and her husband bought an old, used piano and put it in his bedroom. She pushed his fingers against the keys. With quiet faith, she knew God would someday help Leslie to break out of his prison. She rejoiced when he began to walk at age 16.
Several years later, May and her husband were awakened one night by the sound of Tchaikovsky’s piano concerto No 1. Startled, they arose to find Leslie at the piano with a smiling glow on his face. Shortly thereafter he began to talk and to cry… and to sing. And at age 28, he began to talk in earnest.
Dear reader, I think by now we would’ve seen, heard or read enough to convince us that the only sure way not to succeed is by giving up. I believe in miracles, but I think it happens faster when we decide to hang on. All we need is faith that it will come to pass. There are times our situation will look hopeless, but pause and remember that men and women havepassed through worse situations and still made it to the top.
Man can achieve anything he strongly believes in. I remember reading the story of Prince Albert. Prince Albert of England once visited the laboratory of a scientist named Lyon Playfair. According to Playfair’s biographer Sir Wemyss Reid, as the Prince and Scientist stood near a caldron of boiling lead, Playfair asked, “Has your royal highness any faith in science?”
“Certainly,” answered Prince Albert. Playfair washed the prince’s hand in a special solution and then told him to use his hand to ladle out some of the hot metal. The prince plunged his hand into the caldron and scooped up some in his palm – and he wasn’t injured.
For those of us who are in positions of leadership, give others a chance to develop. Don’t be quick in judging others. Those who do not perform today, with little assistance and motivation can perform tomorrow. Is there someone God has entrusted in your care? Go the extra mile to make it possible for that person to discover his potentials and put it into good use.
The key is in your hands. Use it!
– Uju Onyechere
| Many people have challenges deciding on what business to go into in the bid to generate multiple streams of income. Their main concern is what will make money rather than what value they can add to society. Since money is the major driver, there is often lack of effort in creativity, and the tendency is to copy what others are already doing which seems to be making money rather than what they are passionate about or good at. Consequently, when one person charts a new course and seems to be making it, copy cats are not far behind.
There is nothing wrong in copying, if you add value in the process (make it better than the original). However there is something wrong in totally abandoning what you were born to do, in the bid to grab at anything that seems to bring money in the short term. You have to settle it in your mind upfront that starting a business is simply a vehicle for serving the larger society. Everyone has something to give, something others are looking for, whether you believe it or not. The main reason you are still alive is because you are yet to give all you came to this world to give. The moment you pour out everything you came to give, your time here is almost up. There are countless opportunities to make your community, the state and the country better. In a country like Nigeria that lacks even some basic amenities and infrastructure, there are unlimited opportunities to close the gaps, by starting a business that will address one of the countless needs. When you fill a need, people will be willing to give you money for your service. The secret of becoming rich is to serve more and more people. The challenge is to develop the system that will do just that. It starts with knowing what to give, and how to go about giving it. You need to have the aptitude, skill set and passion to be able to give on a sustainable basis, without abandoning ship. What are you good at? Wherein lies your passion? What drives you? What do you love doing so much that you can even do it for free? What annoys you? What gets you upset anytime you come across it? Your passion and purpose may very well lurk within the answers. If you notice something wrong that nobody else seems to notice, or mind, it may very well be your job to fix it. You keep saying, “One of these days, I will ….” What if today is that day, what do you want to do? If failure is impossible, what would you attempt? You can practically build a business around any passion. Money will come. It is simply a matter of time. Simply seek ye first your purpose, passion, gifts, dreams and go for it full blast. All other things shall be added unto you, if you don’t give up too soon. The answers you seek lie within. Stop looking outside. What you are looking for is not lost. -Usiere Uko is editor of www.financialfreedominspiration.com and author of Practical Steps to Financial Freedom and Independence – www.amazon.com/Practical-Steps-Financial-Freedom-Independence/dp/147006832X . |
One of the greatest mistakes you can make is to launch a new idea without testing it. Many people lose thousands and millions of Naira every year on products they did not test before introducing them to the market. It’s true that the life of an entrepreneur is full of risky adventures but what we shall be discussing is how to take calculated risks.
How do you test an idea? How do you find out if people will buy it or patronize it? We shall be looking at several steps you can take before you invest too much time, money, emotion and other resources.
Be Your Own Devil’s Advocate
The easiest way to go about this is to attempt to disprove the idea that there exists a profitable demand for the product or service. If you cannot disprove this preposition, then by default you have reason to bring the product or service to the marketplace.
Seek Out People in the Same Business
A very important strategy in testing your idea is to seek out people who are already doing the same business and ask their opinions of the product or service. In the multitude of counselors there is safety. Share your idea with them and ask for their honest opinions. Don’t be afraid that someone will steal your idea. There are a thousand and one ideas out there for anyone to use. So be perfectly open.
Confirm the Demand
Before you introduce a new product or service to the marketplace, you need to make sure that there is or there will be a solid demand for it. During my speaking tour in Nairobi, I applied this technique. I produced a copy of the Audio CD of my speeches. The following day, I had an early morning program where I told the audience that the CD will be sold based on the demand and it will be available by tomorrow. Almost everyone paid. It was clear that the product will sell.
Check With Family & Friends
Family and friends are very good targets for market research. Ask your family and friends if they would buy the product or patronize the service. How much would they be willing to pay for it? Listen to their questions, criticisms and concerns. If you can’t answer their questions and concerns in a logical and convincing way, it could be that there is something wrong with your idea.
Create a Selling Promotion
A selling promotion is like an advertisement for a publication, a series of sales letters or emails. In the promotion, you would announce the product or service, and also tell people the particular time it will be available. Then you would give prospective customers the opportunity to pre-purchase at a discounted price with 100 percent money back guarantee. The key here is not to make money but to see if your customers or your marketplace will respond to your product.
Use The Seminar Approach
Organizing a seminar for your potential customers could be a great opportunity to test your idea. It will help you to have first hand information on the needs and concerns of the people. Before I published my bestselling book “There is Money in Your House” I had series of seminars with Churches on the topic. And the response from people was amazing. In fact most people were thrilled by just hearing the title. I didn’t need a seer to tell me that the book will be a market success.
Follow these steps to test your idea before you invest too many resources on it.
You will succeed!
– Chinedum Azuh
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FACEBOOK: www.facebook.com/motivationtoprosper
EMAIL: learninglab4@gmail.com
WEBSITE: www.motivationtoprosper.org
In the beginning of this year, I felt uncomfortable with the level of success I had in business, so I decided to take some practical steps towards moving it to an enviable level. Below are the keys that have worked for me to achieve this goal of building a great enterprise.
Form Partnerships
Participating in alliances has increased my revenues as much as 500 percent this year. I hope more businesses learn strategically to collaborate more because it cuts down on overhead expenses and increases productive resources. This is the way to great success in business.
Stay Current with Technology
A Chinese Business Mogul once said “When You Simply Apply Technology to the Resources Around You, Money will Flow”. Technology plays a role in every business, so all small business owners can benefit from not only having an understanding of the technology that impacts them directly, but also keeping track of how it changes.
It can help you make better decisions; and it can help save money, time and other resources.
Make Your Customer the King
There is an old adage that the customer is the king. Along with providing your clients with an exceptional product or service, you can encourage repeat business by being customer service-focused. This means asking for and acting on feedback, addressing issues and complaints quickly and thoroughly, and being consistently accessible and accountable.
Commit to Continuous Learning
It is no longer a secret that readers are leaders. You should understand that no matter how much you achieve, there will always be more to be learned and applied for even greater success.
Know When to Delegate
Whether you have paid workers, subcontractors or family pitching in, learning to delegate effectively can be the difference between reaching new heights and burning out.
Many small business owners are accustomed to doing a variety of things themselves, so it can be challenging to identify the tasks you don’t need to do yourself and assign the work to someone else. Once you overcome the challenge, though, you will have more time to dedicate to what you do best — grow your business.
Increase Your Productivity
Some of what you do as a small business owner will be routine; there are a variety of daily tasks that will need to be accomplished to keep your business running smoothly.
The more effective you are when it comes to completing the day-to-day business management tasks, the more potential your small business has for greater success. You can boost your productivity by developing systems to streamline these processes.
Step Up Your Marketing
The most successful small businesses are willing to explore new outlets of online marketing — in combination with their offline marketing activities — to see what produces the most interest.
Consistently changing, testing and mixing my marketing activities have helped me to see what works, what doesn’t and what type of result it produces.
While you do not need to do all of these activities at once, most successful small business owners find a way to work them in over time. To gain momentum, start with one or two that are already aligned with the way you run your business, and then start to make changes to incorporate the others gradually.
Use Goal-Setting to Push Boundaries
Goals can be a great way to clarify your focus, measure progress and track achievements. And for the most successful among us, goals also present an opportunity to push the lines of your comfort zone and take calculated risks.
Work with these ideas and you will enjoy limitless success in business.
You Will Succeed!
– Chinedum Azuh
Connect With The Author On
FACEBOOK: www.facebook.com/motivationtoprosper
EMAIL: learninglab4@gmail.com
WEBSITE: www.motivationtoprosper.org
“I messed myself up in the interview. It was really a bad day for me.”
“Despite all my prayers, I still flunked the test. Never seen such a bad day!”
“My wife suddenly fell sick early in the morning. By the time I reached office after taking the kids to school, the meeting had already started. I had to answer a query after. Then, I got a call that Junior broke his arm in school. Only God knows what a bad day.”
The quote continues.
If you were to describe what you call your bad day, wouldn’t it be something like the above? A description of a disappointment to a day’s expectation!
“But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you” Matthew 6:33.
Though a professing Christian, you have so much learned to seek first “all these things.” And when “all these things” fail to make headway a particular day, it is termed a bad day.
Why is your bad day not usually a day you were too busy to pray; a day you failed to tell someone about Jesus; a day you lied? What happens to a day when you talked so carnally as if you have never been a Christian?
“Whether therefore you eat, or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God.”
I Corinthians 10:31.
If ever you should term a day “bad”, I think it should be a day you were unconscious of the above verse. God is willing to help you achieve this.
– okenna obi-igbokwe
Love is the seeds of all seeds. It is the coating that should be on every seed. Love is the manure that fertilizes all seeds and ensures a harvest. Love is the greatest. You become wealthy and prosperous by giving and the greatest giver and motive for giving is love.
To every problem love is the solution. Love satisfies every need. Don’t ignore love. Many do and make a shipwreck of their lives. When a man walks in love he has all his needs met. Love brings to reality biblical prosperity…having more than enough to meet the needs of others and yourself and having peace within and without.
In Romans 13:8 the bible commands us to “owe no man anything but to love one another”. 1Co: 13:2: And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries, and all knowledge; and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not love, I am nothing.
And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, and have not love, it profiteth me nothing.
When you give love and give in love your labor and seeds become profitable.
Now love is the recipe and solution to the crises in your home. You believe money will win your wife’s respect and affection…. you are wrong. Do this instead. Eph: 5:25-27 Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it;That he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word,
That he might present it to himself a glorious church….” Giving is a proof of the sincerity of love 2Cor 8:8, 1 John 3:16. Love your wife and children, sacrifice time and give to them, listen to her foolishness, help her weaknesses, come down to her level, in love and with love take her to your level. Grow with your children. When you sow the seeds of love in your home your harvest is ensured. All hell cannot stop you from prospering. Nothing can overcome love. Poverty prevails because you are alone. Win your spouse and children and enjoy the strength of a threefold cord.
Ec: 4:12: And if one prevail against him, two shall withstand him; and a threefold cord is not quickly broken. The discord in your home is the reason for your lack. Life and labor is unprofitable because you are not working in love. Spend time together as a family. Pray, smile, gist, correct, plan, give, help one another.
Finally, let us all labor in love ministering (giving, helping, attending) to the needs of the saints. For God is not unrighteous to forget your work and labor of love, which ye have showed toward his name, in that ye have ministered to the saints, and do minister.
– emmanuel aladenusi
It is He who loved me
It was I who wasn’t free
It was at the cross that He and I became one
And that is how it’s gonna be eternally
I was lost and gone astray
But he came and paved the way
When He shined His light upon my rough and crooked path
And that is how it’s gonna be
Come what may
Yes: He raised me by His hand
When I was weak and couldn’t stand
By His might He broke the chains of sin upon my life
And that is how it’s gonna be
His work is grand.
-funmi aina
Have you ever noticed that God currently says blessed and not bless1. He says washed and not will wash2. He calls you cleansed, and he says you are sanctified2. He says forgiven3 and not that you should be looking for forgiveness. He says you are called.
It’s such an endless list – justified4 and even delivered5.
The issue is not so much about what God should do to you; rather it is about what God did. No wonder scripture says you have received the spirit of God so that you should know what God has freely given you already6.
The word of God is not revealing what God is about to do. Neither is it a blank cheque to fill in what God should do. It is an accomplished deed revealing all that God has done for you. Ephesians 2:10 aptly describes you as God’s masterpiece. A master piece does not need any touch again by the maker. It is complete already.
Let’s face the facts and accept who God says we are. You may not feel like it. People around you might not suggest it. You may even have been acting contrary to it all the while. But this does not deny the fact that God has made you whole. For in Christ all the fullness of the God head dwells in bodily form, and you have been given fullness in Christ – Col 2:10
Ever seen anyone deny the humanity of a baby because it fails to speak?
If only you had a glimpse of the man within. You would wonder why you had been fooled all the while.
Again, remember these are not issues you neither pray into reality nor carry out any form of work for it to manifest. The same way you would not tell a 3 year old baby born without any defect whatsoever to pray to walk.
This is simply what we should affirm or rather acknowledge. We should allow it rule our mentality and take over our very walk. There is something about you. Time is not called to tell it. It is who you are and have been made in Christ Jesus.
One alarming thing I noticed in the letter of James was in the description of the mirror – like quality of God’s word. God’s word is not out to show who you should be; rather it tells you who you are. That is who you are now. Learn to agree with the word. Renewing my mind in accordance with this truth and the true image of who I have been made makes me align my walk accordingly.
1 Eph 1:3 2 1st Cor. 6:11 3 Eph 1:7, Col 1:14 4 Rom 8:30 5 Col 1:13
– bolaji akanni
It is a wise decision to want to know where you stand, whether you are on the path of success or not, but it is possible to do this in an unwise way. There are two common ways believers score themselves that always results to detrimental consequences.
Some believers feel they are experiencing success in life when they compare themselves with others they believe are in the same social stratification, age group or work class with them and it is as though they have an upper hand. That is why some pastors feel rosy when their church congregation is more than the one close to them and some men feel groovy when they buy luxuries their friends can’t afford.
Some other times, when believers realize that others they classify as their mate are getting results they are yet to get, they start feeling envious. That is why some ladies change the tone of their prayers when most of their friends are getting married and some men start having sleepless nights when their friends got a higher paying job, built a magnificent edifice or bought a new car.
Perhaps right now you have a keyboard and a mouse in front of you. Can you try to use the mouse to type the word “SUCCESS”? If you succeed in doing that, try using the keyboard to click on the word you typed. Yeah! Such things don’t make sense when we are dealing with objects, but don’t you wonder why they make a lot of sense with believers? How will it sound if the mouse suddenly begins to lament that ‘I cannot type’. No wonder II Corinthians 10:12 says “…When they measure themselves by themselves and compare themselves with themselves, they are not wise”.
In the story of the prodigal son, the Bible says in Luke 15:17 (NIV) that “When he came to his senses, he said, ‘how many of my father’s hired men have food to spare’. The prodigal son scored himself not with his fathers hired men but with the standard in his father’s house. The right way to know whether you are still on the path of success is to score yourself with the standard in God’s word and in view of His plan for your life, which is unique to you alone.
– tope aladenusi