Pursuit is mostly perseverance and passion

It's been three months and six days since I left Lagos, Nigeria for Nairobi, Kenya and finally Lusaka, Zambia. While its immediately easy to see the differences - its quite exciting to see the similarities that Africans bring to the table.

There are vibes that every city gives off - Nairobi reminded me of Lagos - the traffic was almost a shock to discover. More than an hour from the airport to the hotel. Spent a few lunches in the same mall that was bombed and it reminded me how much terror has started to surface on the continent.
The mall has a new look and reconstruction taking place would have you believe that it never happened however the security checks and scans tell a very different story.

Now Lusaka...
That's a different kettle of fish. It has been two years since my last visit here around february or march of 2012 and so far there have been so many changes. A lot of new constructions, lots more traffic and cars but nowhere near the scale of Nairobi or Lagos.

Still the thing that makes this city unique are the people and their attitude - forever friendly and open. Polite and helpful. Not that this means that GOD has made his home here - GOD is of course everywhere but most times - we prefer to throw him out because he doesn't look or act like GOD.

Back to the story at hand...
I am here to find fortune and fame and as always - it requires a persistence bordering on lunacy. This is a forgiving land full of great promises but the seeming easiness masks a lot of work that needs to be done and followed through. The pace of life here is almost idyllic and tends to create the false illusion that there is alll the time in the world.

Three months later you suddenly realize that you're still standing almost at the same spot you were when you arrived. Suddenly you start to push for things to happen but at the back of your mind - you just have to believe in yourself even with the delays and hold ups - you require patience and trust that GOD always sees thing through if you're prepared to commit fully.

Business is somewhat a funny matter - it requires a commitment from us greater than what we are usually give - it forces us to commit more with less guarantees and every potential for failure. There are rarely an backups or fall back positions.

That's the excitement and the danger.
I have been at this for a almost one year and six months and frequently - I still question my sanity for wanting to exchange comfort and conformity for this danger.
But...
I realized that there is no other way to push for a fulfilled life - I would rather live a life that tried than one that simply stood by and wished.

I also came to more fully understand why people prayed in such situations.
The uncertainty and feeling that GOD or the FATES were playing  game a dice with you - ho things sometimes stood on the tip - threatening to collapse at every given moment. Sometimes you did your best and things simply didn't go through and other times - you didn't do anything and things came along.

These fates of ours and our role in them indicate so many variables - we may not control those variables but we can control our attitudes and reactions to them. It will also help us keep an open mind to ALWAYS search for possibilities

You can't do it if you don't believe in yourself and i what you're doing - you need to be passionate (like crazily passionate and persevere even when the odds look bad - rest if you must, restrategize if you will BUT never ever give up.)

The Future is always here and already exists in our minds

The last time i put up a post in this blog was more than a year ago and at that juncture i had formally made up my mind to risk the waters of self employment. I was awaiting my December 31st, 2012 deadline to say "adios" and Goodbye to the employment sector.
Between that time and now - a lot of water has passed under the bridge and it has been an adventure - one with mixed feelings and if honestly asked if i would do it again - I would probably hesitate before i gave my answer.

On one hand, questions like "are you mad?" and "what the hell do you think you're doing?" rang through my mind like a bell tolling in the silence of the early morning. It shatters peace and often brings the battle of ideals to the forefront. The core aspect that really scared me was the loss of financial certainty (that dependency on a fixed income salary that would keep coming so far i "met" my employment obligations and while of course the company was still "solvent")
I was repeatedly question by former colleagues about my plans and if i had gotten "employment" else where - the answer was very much "No" but they couldn't as of yet understand why I would take such a seemingly foolish of stupid decision.

Fast forward to the present day - By this time I have survived more than my first year in the jungle of self employment and moving into the second and i will tell you a plain and honest truth - it isn't exactly like the movies.

There are those lingering moments of doubt and self re-cremation, there are those conversations that can now take place without the the undue influence of frustration and anger or even despair. Sometimes when i start to have money worries  - just at the verge of lashing out at myself - I remember the ideals of why i started out this journey.
When I talk with any of my former colleagues - they still ask the same questions; as if they want confirmation that it isn't as frightening and vicious as they feared. Alas our values in life and our fears or aspirations takes us in different paths.

I have one fundamental objective and that is to give life to my ideas and mental aspirations in one form or another either independently or part of a collective that shares the same aspirations.
I was tired of burying them or passing them over to meet conformance in the "work-place".

The more i stayed, the more i saw, the more frustrated i became and one of my key realisations was that the organisation does not have the employees best interests at heart.
The core requirement is to generate and sustain profit levels through any legal means possible.

While I have no illusions or misgivings of how i was used or how i used elements of the system; i soon came to realise that there is no real long term plan for people who chose to remain in such a system.
The current economic trend does not even guarantee a long career or the associated benefits that used to be part of the retirement benefits of our fathers and their fathers before them.

My choice was to strike out on my own while there was still time and youthful vigour to actively pursue my aspirations. The result is an involvement in various companies and initiatives in one capacity or another over the last two years. There will always be new things that catch my fancy and i will always pursue what i consider to be parallel interests so far a chance of intersecting might occur.

I am a strong advocate of a service platform - this addresses the various needs of people, clients and businesses and once such a need exists; the opportunity to earn an income by bridging or meeting that need is also available.

I saw the future and i believed in it well enough to take a chance or risk in pursuing it. I abandoned safety of paid employment and staked the part of myself in need of security. Learning is paramount and I will continue to update myself with new facts and details.

The future rewards foresight and courage and while it is easy and SAFE to stay with the majority; when an upheaval comes - you will still be forced to learn the lessons you denied yourself. 

The Future begins from the simple seeds of a dream and the exciting journey that unfolds with equal parts of the good, bad and ugly will shape us into who we become and what gifts we offer to the world now and in the near future.

What is in this thing called life

The crowd does not always cheer wildly. Sometimes there is no crowd to begin with. Just you and those seeming insecurities that plague our thoughts. It seems like so many things rising up to overwhelm and scuttle our dreams but that's life - its a teacher that prefers the often rough and rugged route to impact you with the best learning opportunity BUT only if you chose to see it that way.

It has always been about perspective and attitudes. perspective could be likened to a viewpoint - the better it is the more of a larger area you can see and perhaps it also helps in the decision making process (don't ask me how). Your attitude is the rocket propellant that will see you through the various stages - the rough patches as well as the smooth.

But yet there is more...
Sometimes we feel we have been singled out for special punishment - we may even feel that we do not deserve it and maybe that's true as well.
So many sudden events befall you - death of a loved one, the loss of a job, a relationship breakup, a business loss - its all out there and sometimes it can push us dangerously close to our breaking points.

That's when we are tempted to throw in the towel and yell from the top of our lungs: I Give Up!

However that's when you shouldn't give up - that's precisely the point when you should ask - why all this effort to discourage me?
(if you knew the answer then there would be no need for this missal now would there?)

Life is a game show - it is its own reality.
Life is human's attempting to make sense of the maze that they find themselves in - self made mazes and other mental conditioning and trappings. Life is course with its set of rules on how to play and what to do.

Life is what we make of it but that depends on how we think doesn't it?
How much of life is made up and how much is real depends on a large extent to how we see it and how we react to its various ploys and plays.

It will make us sad, angry, frightened, afraid, fearful, joyful, ecstatic, passionate, humbled, exalted, confident, love, hate, dislike, arrogant, disdainful, spiteful and vengeful and yet these are mere reactions - our reactions to life and all that it throws our way.

A man only truly knows or understands life if he sees the REAL big picture.
This REAL big picture is simply this: we are all interconnected and interrelated in this journey - every action and reaction has a seeming impact on the life, fate and fortune of others directly or indirectly.

Do not be weary because you can still make a difference to someone. Smile and focus on those little joys - your life is not merely a sum total of your failures or successes - it is a sum total of the impact of our collective actions and the long lasting benefits it has brought to others who may not be connected to you directly.

We are all a part of life - as life is all a part of us.