Oh What a Year!

Hello Everyone!

Permit me to say, it’s been busy for everyone, as our lives as we knew it (yes knew) has been rearranged, reshuffled, upended and any other word you can think of. 

And no. No one asked whether we wanted this change, but here we are!

For some of us, there has been no difference, or at least not much of a difference.

I suppose this is an exam on how flexible we really are as individuals.

How flexible was our schedules, our lifestyle, our minds, among other things?

One thing about flexibility is that, it’s when you need to twist to safe your life or at least assert your freedom, that it becomes obvious how flexible or rusty you are.

A lot of us have pulled a muscle or two, in this pandemic. It was either twist or break! Since breaking isn’t an option, twist it is. And if you are rusty, well…sorry about the muscle pull.

Funny, how some who don’t believe in Jesus Christ are wishing for the second coming.

As a Christian, I seriously doubt this is it, though I advice you prepare yourself by giving your life to Christ, reading the Bible and obeying the promptings of God in your conscience.

Be that as it may, we all need to find what our new normal is. 

Let us as individuals, look at what we do have and work with that to provide the essentials for ourselves.

I think no one can claim they have priority issues; but just in case: It’s food and shelter. I doubt you or I need much of any clothing to stay indoors.

For God has not given us the spirit of fear, but of power, love and of a sound mind. 2Timothy 1:7

Stay safe, healthy, and at peace.

Shalom!

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Entrepreneurship: Why?

Hello WondeBeau People!

It’s been long since I have been here — and I know I say that all the time or at least most of the time, so please bear with me. 

Starting a business is very trendy, especially in this fast and sometimes jaw-dropping millennium we find ourselves.

If you are not starting a business, you are mostly seen and regarded as a “lazy coward” — which I must say isn’t mostly true

Starting a business is more in vogue than anything the fashion plate has to offer. Infact, owning a business is the fashion plate.  

I think the — permit me to use this word — craze for owning a business stems from the wanting to be independent, or rather the declaration of independence.

After all, if you start a business, it’s a serious and responsible thing you are doing. And people will commend your folks on how well they’ve raised you, for you to venture out on your own. Even if your folks are unsure of what you’re about but they have a pretty good idea why you are about it, they will be forced to half-heartedly acknowledge that you are indeed doing something noteworthy. But…

I must say, that’s probably the most inspiring trend that has come out of this generation. I mean you can’t really blame our parents for being sceptical.

Their child who has always been getting into one scrap or the other, with parents having to clean up after them, wondering what on earth they’ve done to deserve their ordeal. And half wondering if their past — whatever that may have been — is demanding payment from them through their carefree juvenile of a child.

Then all of a sudden, the child who probably is now a teen or young adult becomes serious — way too serious for comfort and the parents are thinking, “Here we go again!”

Here they are, waiting for the other shoe to drop. Next thing is, “I want to start this business…”

And they’re thinking, “What now. Is s/he doing drugs?

Then they find out — in most cases — that their children has indeed found his/her legal genius. There was never a time they thought their children weren’t geniuses. They simply were geniuses in the wrong.

So most of the time startups had to get support from self and maybe later from the government or NGOs that support new business ventures.

It’s trilling to say, I’m an entrepreneur. Or I’m self-employed.

What does it mean? And most importantly what does it take be an entrepreneur?

Sometimes, starting a business is an avenue to vent your spleen, to release your pent up emotions or to release something that had been suppressed. To show those who think you are nobody, that you will be somebody.

I think that’s a fantastic productive way of fighting the demons — as long as you don’t run out of steam. Or you have plans on how to continue when you run out of steam.

There’s something about starting a business that exposes your weaknesses and flaws.

You need to know how to manage yourself before you can effectively and efficiently manage a business.

Earlier I was presented a question on: How do you define self-management as a lady? (even auto correct is wondering ‘what da hey?’)

Apparently this was asked in a job interview (phenomenal).

I didn’t know how to answer that question because I wasn’t familiar with that word. 

I could have responded by saying, ‘the ability to manage yourself’ and that would have been too cheeky of me. So as I usually handled things I didn’t understand, I shelved it.

The first thing that came to mind was organisation. Being able to coordinate yourself in an organised manner in a way that enhances productivity — no matter what you might be going through and irrespective of your stress level.

Now, it would be nice if that describes me, but it doesn’t — at the moment.

I express how I feel, I don’t manage it — though I’m trying to. 

Now I suspect that if you’re been asked that question in an interview, they want to find out if you can keep your personal life personal, without allowing it spill into your work life, thereby affecting how productive you are. Never crack, or fall apart no matter what. 

In other words, self-management involves your health: Taking sick leave or being physically sluggish at work, could probably be defined by the employer as, not being able to manage your health, thereby affecting your work!

If one has family problems and becomes distracted and lethargic at work, that may be defined as: being unable to control your emotions making logic and reason difficult in the work place!

If you just had your baby (congratulations!) and you need ma/paternity leave and/or extra breaks during work to take care of yourself and your babies, then you may be termed as: being unable to separate work from family/personal matters thereby reducing productivity in the work place!

In other words, whatever keeps you from giving your 100% at work is no business of the company.

What they are asking is, can you keep working per demand irrespective of what may or may not be going on in your life?

I may be overthinking things of course, but I can’t help but think this is a trick question meant to qualify, disqualify or trap an unsuspecting applicant. By the time the would-be employee knows what this is or may be about, it would have been too late to have a say in the matter.

I mean, self-management?! Come on.

Which is probably one of the major reasons why people are overcoming their fear of starting businesses and launching into the world of entrepreneurship, head first.

The other option is becoming less and less of an option. Working for someone else is becoming more unconducive by the day. Some are fortunate to work with companies who are humane and truly care for the overall well-being of their staff, but many don’t have that fortune.

The code word for this millennium is freedom. Having your own business, seems to be the only way to gain your financial independence, while maintaining your freedom of what, when and how you compromise…..

Shalom! 

Entrepreneurship: The Reality

Hello wonderful people!

Recently I have had a fascination for TED talks on YouTube, and I must say I have learnt a lot, on different topics.

Most recently, I watched a TED on entrepreneurs and the reality they hardly discuss or talk about.

Of course, the speaker is an entrepreneur talking from experience.

He talked about being lonely, depressed and most times flat broke. But when asked by friends and family how his business was going, he said,

“I will grin while gritting my teeth and say, ‘Great!’ “

The word great is usually a cuss word replacement, used mostly when we have put in our best into a project, and something upsets it so much, we might have to start all over again.

And we are already tired.

In the spirit of being positive even when we feel anything but, we throw our arms up and mutter, “Great!” — even when we are swearing on the inside.

Because, the first step into starting a business, or being an entrepreneur — as it’s called these days — that first step is motivation, hence the rise in motivational speaking and speakers.

More than 50% of most seminars are spent on motivational speaking. And what do they talk about? Power of Positive Thinking.

And the Bible says, “As a man thinketh in his heart so is he.”

Of course, you also must talk positive especially when you don’t feel like!

You must think and speak and act positively, especially when things are not going well.

And in the face of disappointment, stress, and possible depression, it is hard.

At some point I ask myself… not at some point.

I have been asking myself, if I’m being positive in my words or am I lying to myself and others?

You are likely to get assistance even if it’s encouragement, when you say things as they are, not as you wish them to be.

For a Christian entrepreneur, it’s harder to be ‘honest‘ with your feeling because, it could mean you don’t have faith.

After all, faith is still evidence of things not seen.

I’m apparently going to ask my pastor the difference between lying and speaking faith. It’s been long overdue.

I don’t know about you, but when I speak faith, I feel like a bloody liar.

And just so you know, I loathe lying and deception in any shape or form.

So imagine how I feel when I say what isn’t true, even when I’m biblically justified.

One one hand, when I’m asked, “How are you?” And I reply in tired exasperation, “Not good!”, I panick that I might have sent back my Angel of blessing, who was about to hand me a reward of faith.

Then I start to ask for forgiveness on unbelief. Praying that God restores what I have lost or what I might have lost as a result of not speaking faith.

On the other hand, when I’m asked, ” So how’s business? “. And I reply, “Great“, haven’t I shot myself in the leg, by saying the opposite of reality?

You know, it’s easy to speak positively when asked about personal matters. After all, you don’t want people knowing how you really are.

But with business, it’s different because, business is not personal!

Business is about serving others goods and services for profit. Nothing personal about that, except for the profit of course, which you wouldn’t be getting, without talking to people about what you are offering.

Saying the opposite of reality, could mean the loss of prospect or a lead, investor, or any other form of assistance.

Because if you’re great, then it could be interpreted as you needing no one for anything, therefore hardly anyone will be offering to help. After all, you are great, right?

So what I sometimes do is say the truth while still speaking faith. Therefore I reply with a prayer.

Something like, ” I’m fine, in Jesus name”

However, God just hinted me now that, in order not to come off sounding like a delusional religious fanatic to people who are not in my faith, I could say something like, “Thank you for asking, I’m praying for better.”

You get the idea?

To a non-christian, prayer is the last resort when you are at the point of giving up.

To them, why pray when you have a brain to think and the ability to work?

I think people will hear what you are not saying or asking, than what you’re saying.

Not to mention, your response being uncommon and unusual.

Its like a verbal business card. It will get people thinking because of your unique choice of words, they won’t be able to forget you easily, because your words left an impression.

They might want to know you better, to hear more from you. They will talk about you to someone else. It could be an, “I met an interesting person today…..”

Even if they don’t need your services at that moment, someone they discussed you with or someone present there might actually need your services and patronise you.

One the most powerful prayers a Christian can pray is,

“O God! Give me a mouth and a wisdom, in the name of Jesus Christ. “

You will know, when you say and do the right thing when you don’t know how to respond or what to do.

Shalom🤗