HANG ON

                                           ... By Uwaoma Eizu


Please hang on. In 1976, a man, Ronald Wayne gave up on his work, he was frustrated at the way things were going, so he sold his 10% stake in a company called Apple for $800. He was excited. But now he regrets it, now his shares are worth $58,065,210,000 (58 billion dollars) but it now belongs to someone else!


Hang on, Law 16, Perseverance (Hexavian Laws of Business).


Keep going. In the words of the 80's rapper Chuk D, "don't let a win get to your head and a loss to your heart." Go. In the words of Julie Andrews, "perseverance is failing 19 times and succeeding the 20th."

Sacrifice is deep. Going through stress, pain and sacrifice for what you want shows to the powers of creation, the  forces of life, an inner proof of desire. At the point of breaking comes your breakthrough.

Every sacrifice counts. Pain creates value. In the words of one of the greatest European thinkers and philosophers, Frederick Nietche, he says that "most times, the value of a thing is not in its worth, it's in what it costs us to get it." I concur.

No matter what you're going through, hang on. Fight! Perseverance is the handwork you do after you get tired of doing the hard work you already did. In the words of the Somalian singer K'naan ft Nas, he says  "difficulty is an excuse that history never accepts." Do.

To me, a good business and a good life is like a natural spring. And like a natural spring, to drill a well or to have pipe borne water, you have to break through hard ground, move away all the rocks and after a great level of work the thirsty ground becomes damp. And just a little deeper you begin to uncover a beautiful underground stream that washes away everything in its path. This is clean water, at that point comes a good spring! Have a taste with us!

We are Hexavia!
Business Plan. Strategy. Branding. Website. Startups. Trainings. Project Management. Advisory.
www.hexavia.net, 08035202891.

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©Eizu Uwaoma. Repost if you find useful.


 I received this post from Uwaoma Eizu as a Blackberry broadcast on Tuesday, 16th April 2013.

SUNDAY SCHOOL



                                                   

                                         
Christian Marriage ... with Pastor Enoch Adeboye

Memory Verse: "Whoso findeth a wife findeth a good thing and obtaineth favour of the Lord"- Proverbs 18:22.
Bible Passage: 1 Corinthians 7:1-15.

Introduction
Marriage is the oldest human institution. It predates the Church and government. Breaching marital vows is more dangerous than many realise.

OUTLINES

Why marry?
Some reasons are: to obey God (Gen. 1:28); for fellowship (Gen. 2:18); for partnership (Ecc. 4:9-11; Gen. 2:24); to legitimately satisfy certain desires (1 Cor. 7:9) and for the propagation of the human race (Gen. 9:1).

Who to marry
Christians may only marry Christians (2 Cor. 6:14-17). We have clear reasons why a believer should not marry an unbeliever: do not be unequally yoked together with unbelievers; righteousness has no communion with darkness.

When to marry
Marriage is for adults because it carries heavy responsibilities requiring maturity and experience. Resolve issues and be in good health. Marriage requires strong healthy bodies. Parental approval is a precondition, especially for the bride. Ensure financial stability, especially for the man.

Courtship
This commences when the parties have declared an intention to marry. It is very important to keep yourself pure or you may discover how easily love can turn to hate (2 Sam. 13:15). Pre-marital sex is not acceptable to God. It erodes the foundation of the marriage.

What makes a happy marriage?
Sacrificial selfless love, prayer, faith and patience are some of the key ingredients. It's a lifetime "till death do us part" commitment. Marriage is not an experiment. It is permanent, (Matt. 19:6-9; Eph. 5:25; Tit. 2:4).

Conclusion
The greatest marriage ever is that between Christ and His Bride, the church. This unites heaven and earth. Are you ready for this most wonderful union? Are you saved? If not, there is no better time but now. Welcome to the family of God.


Culled from The Guardian Newspaper, Page 40: Sunday, February 3rd, 2013.

"21 COLLECTED NIGERIAN POSTS."

Spiritual, inspiring, provocative, humorous and encompassing. I present to you:

"21 COLLECTED NIGERIAN POSTS."  

You will definitely learn a thing or two from this collection.

1 talks about how to overcome fear. 2 says you should not be lazy. 7 says opportunity will come, but be prepared. I don't have a word for 8. Point number 9 says- be benevolent! Men have responsibilities- that's point 11. Please don't read 15, someone said it's provocative; the person's response follows immediately. You will find SHIPS and KIDNAPPERS in 16 and 17 respectively. Read 20 if you desire a happy home.

Please drop your comment or suggestion at the end.


1. The first step in the deliverance from fear is to have the right kind of fear: The fear of the Lord. That is why Solomon wrote in Proverbs 2:1-5. Get only the Fear of the Lord.

2. Are you young? Engage your hands in something profitable and don't be idle. Only ensure that it is something legitimate and God-glorifying. Don't fold your hands! If there is no job, you can create one for yourself. Ask God for inspiration. If you will not work until you get your dream job, you are very lazy and operating outside of faith. But if you excel in little jobs, they will pave way for the dream job to come.

3. There are TWO ways to being Successful; one is to figure out what you are PASSIONATE about & the second is to DO IT. What you are passionate about will always DRIVE you.

4. Teacher Asked:- What's A Baby Lizard Called?? Akpos Answered:- Lizzy Baby.

5. Fake friends reveal themselves during your time of victory and defeat. The clue? They're silent. They will not congratulate or comfort you.

6. You don't force respect out of people; that's rape. You earn respect.

7. Without realizing it, every human being walking the face of this earth, is not looking for a house, a car, plenty money or in some cases, many girls. What we are really looking for are opportunities. The problem now is when we find them, are we prepared to seize them, use them or even recognize them? The moral of this story: Study, prepare and be ready, the opportunity will come.

8. My dear brothers please don't play with a woman’s heart. She only has one. Play with her boobs, she has two. Thanks for your co-operation.

9. Don't feel bad if people remember you only when they need something. Feel privileged that you are like a candle light that comes to their mind when there is darkness. Be a blessing this month.

10. Bringing people down will never take you up. He who digs a pit doesn't fall into it. He's actually in it.

11. If you can't afford her bills, say so. Don't turn around and say she is materialistic. Women have needs, men have responsibilities. Live up to it.

12. The most expensive liquid is TEARS because it contains 1% of water and 99% of feelings.... Please think twice before you hurt someone.

13. Everyone wants to be part of a "Success Story" but not part of a “Misery Story.“ They forget that the misery story formed the foundation of the "Success Story." Things are getting better!

14. When things are at their worst, keep on going, this means they can only get better from here.

15. Dear girls: If you have slept with over 10 guys, seriously, you have lost the exclusive right to call your "p***y" a private part. It now belongs to your local government.
RESPONSE: ... that's funny. But why do we label girls that have a high affinity for men but celebrate guys that womanise? I think both sexes are culpable. "Nevertheless, to avoid fornication, let every man have his own wife, and let every woman have her own husband." (1 Corinthians 7:2)

16. SHIPS were designed to take you to places. So if your friendSHIP, relationSHIP, partnerSHIP is not taking you anywhere you should abandon that SHIP and let it sink!

17. Your Ex asking you to be friends after breaking up is like... KIDNAPPERS asking you to keep in touch after letting you go.

18. Sleeping with the richest guys won't make you rich & life is more than Bold5, colour blocks & taking pictures in hotels and eateries... work hard and stay classy.

19. You will always find someone who can jump higher, run faster, go farther, dig deeper, talk smarter, think bigger than you. What you should concentrate on is this: in anything you choose to do, make it difficult for anyone to say that you were not EXCELLENT!!!

20. THERE IS NOTHING AS SWEET AND WONDERFUL AS THE UNION OF TWO SOULS BECOMING ONE.... But because of some factors some of these unions don't see the light of the day. Sometimes I try to analyze some of the causes that hinder long lasting happiness in a once happy home: Communication, lack of understanding, bad friends, family interference, bad advice, lack and poverty, unfaithfulness, keeping secrets, I am the boss attitude and finally disrespect of one another. If only we can work on these ills, am sure we will not only have a sweet and better home, we'll enjoy absolute peace of mind.

21. The road to Success is not straight...there is a curb called failure, a loop called confusion, speed bumps called friends, red lights called enemies, caution lights called family. You will have flats called job....But if you have a spare called Determination, an Engine called Perseverance, insurance called Faith and a driver called Jesus, you will make it to a place called success!!!



Kindly drop your comment or suggestion.

THANK YOU!

Compiled by Charles Okoh.

GOOGLE MESMERIZES OBAMA

Barack Obama tours Google:

Toward the end of the tour, Larry led me to a room where a three-dimensional image of the earth rotated on a large flat monitor. Larry asked the young Indian American engineer who was working nearby to explain what we were looking at.

"These lights represent all the searches that are going on right now," the engineer said. "Each colour is a different language...." The image was mesmerizing, more organic than mechanical, as if I were glimpsing the early stages of some accelerating evolutionary process, in which all the boundaries between men- nationality, race, religion, wealth- were rendered invisible and irrelevant, so that the physicist in Cambridge, the bond trader in Tokyo, the student in a remote Indian village, and the manager of a Mexico City department store were drawn into a single, constant, thrumming conversation, time and space giving way to a world spun entirely of light. Then I noticed the broad swaths of darkness as the globe spun on its axis- most of Africa, chunks of South Asia, even some portions of the United States, where the thick cords of light dissolved into a few discrete strands.

Richard Branson's remark:

I have been asked: "What is the greatest business invention of the last fifty years?" That's a tough question because you need to factor in the mobile phone, DNA testing, the personal computer and the Internet, but I think the winner has to be Google's powerful search engine.

Google has allowed ordinary peope to find things out much more quickly. It has led to more immediate choice- and increased consumer power- and a freer flow of information, knowledge and ideas. It is far more than just a search engine- it has become an engine of change.

Google's History: Two Standford Ph.D candidates in computer science Larry Page and Sergey Brin collaborated in a dorm room to develop a better way to search the web. In 1998 with some million dollars raised they formed Google with three employees operating out of a garage.

IMPORTANCE OF WINE

WHY WAS WINE USED AS MEDICINE DURING BIBLE TIMES?

In one of his parables, Jesus spoke of a man who had been beaten by robbers. Jesus said that the man was helped by a Samaritan who bound up his wounds and poured "oil and wine upon them." (Luke 10:30-34) When writing to his friend Timothy, the apostle Paul advised him: "Do not drink water any longer, but use a little wine for the sake of your stomach and your frequent cases of sickness." (1 Timothy 5:23) Were both the practice Jesus described and the advice Paul gave medically sound?

The book Ancient Wine describes wine as "an analgesic, disinfectant, and general remedy all rolled into one." In ancient times wine had a central role in Egyptian, Mesopotamian, and Syrian health treatment. The Oxford Companion to Wine describes it as "man's oldest documented medicine." As for Paul's advice to Timothy, the book The Origins and Ancient History of Wine says: "It has been shown experimentally that living typhoid and other dangerous microbes rapidly die when mixed with wine." Modern research confirms that some of the more than 500 compounds found in wine have those and a number of other medicinal benefits.

Culled from THE WATCHTOWER (August 2012 Edition, Page 26).

PENSIONERS’ POVERTY AS LESSON TO THE YOUTHS

PENSIONERS’ POVERTY AS LESSON TO THE YOUTHS published in The Guardian Newspaper of Monday, 26 July 2010 23:00 By Luke Onyekakeyah Opinion - Columnists.

WHEN the ancient Hebrew King Solomon stated that the aggressive shall be rich while the poor is feeble (Proverbs 10.4), he probably foresaw the poverty, agony and distress that retired civil servants in Nigeria would be subjected to after spending their lives and talents working for a system that doesn’t care about their welfare. King Solomon was sounding a note of warning to humanity that the only way to be rich is to be diligent, working with the hands along the path of personal vision. Getting a job is good in a system that cares for the citizenry. Though, one won’t be rich in such system, but the person won’t suffer at old age after retirement.

It is common knowledge that the richest people on earth are not salary earners or civil servants as it were. The richest people are those who have personal vision of what to do with their own hands. When the vision is put into action, the result is wealth. Forget about the corruption and greed in Nigeria whereby people who didn’t do any work simply become rich overnight by stealing and cornering what belongs to all to themselves. To such people who got their wealth through dubious means, King Solomon has a word for them. He reminds them that, “Wealth gotten by vanity shall be diminished; but he that gathereth by labour shall increase”, (Proverbs 13:11).

The wealth of dubious, corrupt, scammers, thieves, robbers, kidnappers, pen robbers, forgers, etc, shall be diminished. Their wealth shall never succeed them into the next generation. Their ill-gotten wealth shall end up with them. That is the eternal truth whether they like it or not. It applies whether or not they know about it. It doesn’t matter if one doesn’t believe or acknowledge it. The only solution to avert the disaster associated with ill-gotten wealth is restitution. Those who have stolen from the system must restore what they have stolen as the only way to be free from the eternal wrath of God.

Now back to our distressed pensioners, you may then ask, does it mean that the pensioners weren’t diligent? Were their hands slacked? Could that be the reason why they’re poor today? The answer to all this is simply yes. If it is true that under normal circumstances, salary earners are not known to be rich, then, it means that a decision to remain a salary earner, working to realise someone else’s vision or a system that doesn’t care for your welfare at old age is a decision to be poor.

In Nigeria, it is common knowledge that people working in public establishments, namely ministries, departments and agencies (MDA), are among the laziest workers in the system. They don’t think about how to improve the system. And, as if the system recognised that, they’re being punished for their lack of wisdom. Their not being diligent explains why they couldn’t realise early enough in their lives that one day they would retire and leave the system and what becomes of their lives thereafter never crossed their minds. They’re the people suffering today at a time they should be reaping the fruit of their labour.

Unfortunately, the system they worked for is corrupt and didn’t provide for them. It is not that they didn’t make savings through the extant pension scheme at the time. Apparently, that money has been stolen by their corrupt successors who have become “wiser” by falsely believing that the only way they could safeguard and guarantee a comfortable old age is by stealing from the system.

After stealing the funds, their corrupt successors are the ones asking them every now and then to come for endless verification even if they’re bedridden. At the end, most of the pensioners won’t get anything. Many will die in penury. But the consequences of a diminished wealth await whatever wealth those corrupt officials have gathered by vanity. As a matter of fact, their situation after retirement would be worse because their generations would suffer the consequences. God visits the sins of the fathers upon the children to the third and fourth generations… (Exodus 20:5).

Since April or so, both the federal and state governments once again embarked on a fruitless identity verification exercise for the over 160,000 pensioners throughout the federation. Most of the pensioners are owed pension stipend for upwards of six months. One Nigerian Postal Service (NIPOST) retiree reportedly died at the General Post Office, Ikeja in Lagos while protesting for his unpaid 49-month pension arrears and another three deaths were recorded in Lagos. Reports abound of other deaths of the old and feeble men and women who are regularly forced to travel long distances to Abuja or the state capitals to be verified before they could be paid their legally deserved pension.

Each time the pensioners are assembled, there aren’t adequate preparations made to attend to them in a smart and civilized manner. The verification exercise is an experience in anarchy for the poor and weak old folks. They’re dehumanised and clearly abused by the system they served. At the end only a few would manage to get probably one or two months out of the many months of arrears owed them. The rest get nothing. Thereafter, the arrears will begin to accumulate. When the greedy corrupt officials observe that the money, which probably they lodged into their private accounts to yield interest, has become huge enough, they would initiate another verification exercise designed to kill many of the pensioners so that their entitlements would end up in private pockets. That is the vicious cycle of corrupt enrichment that has been entrenched in the government pension scheme.

It is pertinent to ask why it is necessary for the frail looking men and women to be regularly invited for verification? Is there no database of the pensioners at their various places of work? Is there no other way of monitoring those that are living or dead? Why can’t the exercise be done at the ward level considering the age of the people? Why is it so difficult to organise the payment of simple pension if it is not to defraud the system? For how long will this continue and people are subjected to untold pain and suffering?

Like I said above, the youths should learn from the bastardisation of the system and learn their lessons. The situation is made worse and unpredictable now with the high rate of unemployment. There is need to shift the paradigm as regards employment. Since the system is not yet prepared to cater for the citizenry, particularly the aged, there is need to de-emphasise paid employment and instead give thrust to enterprise development at personal level.

The National Directorate for Employment (NDE) is not doing the whole job it is supposed to do. I have said it before that training people to acquire skills only without doing anything to assist them set up personal businesses is an effort in futility. There should be an enterprise development fund from which prospective youths are assisted financially to set up businesses. If one million youths are assisted in one year and each in turn employs two persons that will be three million jobs in one year. If that is consistently done for five years, that will be 15 million jobs. That will make unemployment history in this society.

The shabby way the pensioners are treated should be an eye-opener to the youths, especially, those that have graduated from the universities and are busy traversing the cities looking for non-existent jobs instead of sitting down to decide what to do with their lives. The Nigerian system has not changed. The bush fowl, in an Igbo adage, told the chicken to watch the way it is dissected that is the way she too will be dissected. This is a warning to those youths who have ears to hear.

Author of this article: By Luke Onyekakeyah

INSANITY ON LAGOS HIGHWAY

INSANITY ON LAGOS HIGHWAY published in The Guardian Newspaper.
Thursday, 04 November 2010 00:00 By Charles Okoh
Opinion - Columnists

AN average road user in Lagos State violates traffic laws probably as a result of ignorance or impatience. This lamentable act can be likened to “insanity.” I have not had the opportunity of visiting a dozen countries, but I think Nigeria (with Lagos as focal point) is ranked among the highest in the comity of nations where traffic offences are committed. Both motorists and pedestrians are culpable.

A good number of drivers on our roads were neither trained nor tested by an instructor before they were issued a drivers’ licence. It becomes impossible therefore to expect the best from them on the highway. No wonder they drive at unsafe speed and also ignore road signs as simple as ‘NO PARKING” or “NO U-TURN.” Another disheartening fact is that a typical Lagos driver will readily beat the red light if no vehicle poses a threat and if the traffic officers are not on ground to apprehend him. Again, there is an increasing abuse of pedestrians on a daily basis, motorists hardly give way to pedestrian crossing. In most instances, no sooner will a pedestrian step on the zebra crossing than the approaching vehicle will increase its speed. This will prompt the pedestrian to either retreat or run across the road like an Olympics athlete.

I am not absolving pedestrians; they constitute a nuisance also. Tell me why people in their right senses would decide to cross the highway indiscriminately risking being knocked down by unsuspecting vehicles even when they have an option of using the zebra crossing or pedestrian bridge close by. Does that not amount to insanity? Who is to be blamed – the government or the people? Let’s see if there is a justifiable reason for breaking traffic laws. Lagos State has an unenviable reputation of gridlocked roads. This is evident on the Oshodi-Apapa Expressway, Third Mainland Bridge and Abeokuta Expressway among others. The reason is that there is no effective transportation system to move people around the state en masse. As a result, thousands of private and commercial vehicles take over the highway.Construction and maintenance of roads across the city also hamper the flow of traffic as alternative routes are not always in place. This recurring congestion causes some fretfulness. It turns decent road users into beasts and they resort to breaking the law. But is that justifiable?

In a scenario where one has an interview to attend or a flight to catch and one is stuck endlessly in traffic, should one not react? God be thanked for commercial motorcycles popularly called “Okada.” They serve as alternative in circumventing traffic jams especially when one is in a hurry. I think it is safe to say that hitherto, Okada remains the fastest and most available commercial means of moving from point ‘A’ to point ‘B’ within Lagos metropolis. Do you know the State Government has plans to ban these life-savers?

In my opinion, Okada riders should be left well alone until an effective transportation system is made available. Newton’s law of motion says, “for every action, there’s an equal and opposite reaction.” This law applies to our highways. That’s why for every road congestion, there’s almost always an equal and opposite traffic violation. It is laughable to see that some traffic violators (military and paramilitary men, government representatives, traditional rulers etc) go unpunished. In a real sense, should there be a sacred cow?

It is often said that every rule has an exception. Since there are no emergency lanes on our roads, does it mean that ambulances and fire services vans should be exonerated when they obstruct traffic? What about bullion vans and military vehicles manned by some brutal personnel – does the law allow them to blare siren and intimidate other road users? It has been noticed that more often than not, they move at breakneck speed and scare innocent citizens with their guns and horsewhip.

There is a kind of reckless driving that goes on especially at junctions where traffic lights are lacking. It is called ‘Lagos driving’. You could find about 12 lanes of vehicles struggling to narrow down to one or two escape lanes. It is usually a survival of the fittest contest. Cars come in very close contact because everyone is jostling for the available space. In the process, some of them collide and more delay is caused from ensuing arguments.

Road congestion and traffic violation go hand in hand. Over the years, it has caused untold suffering to Lagos residents. Man-hour is lost on a daily basis. People are stuck in traffic until late hours of the night and they are sometimes attacked by hoodlums. There is increased fuel combustion and pollution of the atmosphere. Humans are forced to inhale a mixture of dust and poisonous gases deleterious to health. Vehicles also wear out fast as a result of overuse.

The onus is on government to enforce traffic laws. Except for very special reasons, no offender should go unpunished. There should be no sacred cow. Anyone who violates the law should be brought to book – whether a Governor, an Army General or an obscure pedestrian. Besides the option of a fine, I suggest that violators should be detained for between 30 minutes and 4 hours depending on the magnitude of their offence. And while in custody, they should be given a copy of the Highway Code to digest. Is there a lasting solution to road congestion and the attendant traffic violation? The answer is yes! Lagos Island has a transient population. A good number of its visitors (workers and traders mainly) reside on the mainland. So there is mass exodus to and from work. Government as well as private establishments should create more jobs on Lagos mainland. This would reduce the mass movement of people in one direction. In addition, alternative routes or timing should be provided for heavy-duty trucks especially the ones that ply the infamous Oshodi-Apapa Expressway.

During road construction and repairs, temporary passage should be created before-hand to forestall traffic congestion. More traffic officers should be deployed to traffic prone areas to maintain law and order. An individual should be properly trained and tested before he is issued a drivers’ licence, Motorists and pedestrians should be continually enlightened on highway ethics. I must commend the Governor of Lagos State, Babatunde Raji Fashola. His administration has since begun to make a concerted effort to ease traffic within the city. But more still needs to be done in this regard to satisfy the burgeoning population. Eko o ni baje!

• Okoh lives in Lagos.

Author of this article: By Charles Okoh