IT’S STILL ABOUT ECONOMICS

When I meet people whose only opinion of an economist is that of tightfisted people, I laugh off their ignorance because inadvertently they are referring to themselves, Just about everyone is an economist!

An economist simply chooses the proper allocation and application of his resources which have competing demands, for maximum output knowing there are implications for his choices. Is this not what you do daily?

Let’s discuss the four areas of our lives where agonizing will be the inevitable result of not economizing.

TIME:

If life is measured in and with time then the amount of time you’ve got is equal to the amount of life you have. In short:

Your time = your life

You tell the quality of life a person lives by the use(s) he puts his time to. Knowing so many things jostle for his time, he’ll choose to put it to the most productive use because a waste of it is a waste of his life. So what are you doing today, what are you doing now? It is important for you to know that “the best thing about the future is that it comes one day at a time”[1] therefore, “let him who would enjoy a good future waste none of his present”[2]

Be careful the people you spend your time with because they will either appreciate your value or depreciate it. Know that “time is the coin of your life. It is the only coin you have, and only you can determine how it will be spent. Be careful lest you let other people spend it for you.”[3]

Be careful the places you spend your time because you either earn your right of progression to the next level in life or you regress to the beginning.

Be careful what your preoccupations are because they will either help you occupy your land of fulfillment or occupy you themselves. People who always complain that their time is occupied by one or other things are actually not in control of their lives until they are the ones occupying their time with resourceful and result-filled ventures.

Let’s hear Solomon talk to us about time:

    

Everything has its own time, and there is a specific time for every activity under heaven:

a time to be born and a time to die, a time to plant and a time to pull out what was planted,

a time to kill and a time to heal, a time to tear down and a time to build up,

a time to cry and a time to laugh, a time to mourn and a time to dance,

a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them, a time to hug and a time to stop hugging,

a time to start looking and a time to stop looking, a time to keep and a time to throw away.

a time to tear apart and a time to sew together, a time to keep quiet and a time to speak out,

a time to love and a time to hate, a time for war and a time for peace.[4]

TALENT:

The world will keep ignoring you if you keep ignoring your talent. Nobody has ever left a mark in life without using the ink called ‘talent’. Unfortunately so many people have worked and walked through life without the proper application of their talent for maximum impact and benefit. Sadly enough, all the “hard work without talent is a shame, but talent without hard work is a tragedy”[5]

There is no mortal born without an ability, something they can do with minimum supervision and direction. Look deep inside of you, that is what is yearning to be displayed. Your life will never be lived with maximum output and optimum productivity without the input called ‘talent’. Yet your talent is not just enough because “there is no such thing as a great talent without great will power”.[6] It takes will power to recognize first what area you are talented in, it takes will power also to step up and hone your talent until you can see its Excellency like raw gold that has passed through the rigour and heat of refinement.

After realizing in my days at the university that my talent lies in helping people achieve their dreams through motivating and inspiring them by the spoken and written words, I started investing time and money on books, tapes and seminars that will help me polish this talent. Though I am still far from my desired destination, I am not where I was those days. I am still seeking for ways to remain relevant with both my spoken and written words.

In the end, it’s your choice to discover, sharpen and use your talent and live in bliss everyday or ignore it and live in confusion.

Until you start walking in the light of your God given talent, you will keep stumbling in the darkness of your shadows.

It’s still about economics!

Arise! Shine! Your light has come, and the glory of the Lord has dawned[7]

Be inspired!

Remain motivated!

… to be continued

---

[1] Benjamin Franklin

[2] Roger Babson

[3] Carl Sanburg

[4] The Bible book of Ecclesiastes 3:1-8

[5] Robert Half

[6] Honore de Balzac

[7] The Bible book of Isaiah 60:1

All quotable quotes are from www.mobile.brainyquotes .com  Accessed on 20^th November, 2012

THE BRAVADO OF A 15 YEAR OLD Lessons for those who cower

It takes a great fish in the vastness of the ocean to attempt to swim against the tide. To be uncommon is not common in an environment where commonness is a default. Of course it is true that “you don’t get harmony when everybody sings the same note”[i]- Doug Floyd

It also takes a great spirit to stand up for what is right, pulling away from the gravitational forces of mediocres who don’t understand how it is that you are going against nature or sometimes limiting and inhibiting nuture. They will do everything possible to pull you down. The great Albert Einstein captured it succinctly when he said that “great spirits have always found violent opposition from mediocrities. The latter cannot understand it when a man does not thoughtlessly submit to hereditary”[ii].

Let me ask, won’t it be too much a burden for a 15 year old to carry these qualities of positive uncommonness and an audacious bravado? For Malala Yousafzai, a 15 year old school girl from the Swat District of Pakistan’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, the answer is an emphatic NO!

This great spirit of a girl has defied odds stacked up against her by the circumstances surrounding her place of birth and residence in Pakistan, Swat (where the Taliban -who are ruthless with anybody who go against their principles and prescribed way of life- hold sway with all sorts of restrictions to fundamental human rights especially the embargo placed on the girl child education and the frequent bombardment of the Swat valley by the military who are trying to wrest the area from their control) to emerge as a world celebrated Youth, Women and Education activist who described the value she has chosen to place on her life thus:

“my purpose is to serve humanity”[iii]

Malala Yousafzai

What is it about this “little girl” who does not bear arms (save for her pen, paper and voice) that can threaten the sanity of the dreaded Taliban to the extent that they attempted the madness of assassinating her but failed on 9 October 2012 for her stance on girl child education in Pakistan? What is it about her will power that has shamed those with fire power? What is it about her that has made the entire world stand still?

Here’s what I think: she has placed an immense value on herself. It is such value that is not determined by the latest Blackberry, designer shoes and clothes, cars or wristwatches and other toys in similar category (items that serve as the measure of value for and of the average Nigerian young person) but by a clearly defined purpose and passion driven by her service for humanity. Hear her:

“I have a new dream…I must be a politician (her father’s suggestion though she wanted to be a doctor) to save this country. There are so many crises in our country. I want to remove these crises”.[iv]

Malala Yousafzai

Don’t get it twisted; this is not the distant dream of a naïve 15 year old. This is not a dream she hopes to wake up from in a future but one she has started living out courageously in her present, in the face of daunting challenges and opposition coming from no lesser group than the Taliban.

I dare say friend that your life is as valuable as the things you pay attention to, the things that make you feel good, important and relevant.

If your attention is on the cheap designer items you surround yourself with, no matter how much they cost (I call them cheap because in the end they are items and are perishable and can’t stand the test of time) then your value is equally as cheap.

I challenge you to rise up like 15 year old Malala and be counted for and valued by your non perishable service to humanity or in a more simplistic way, your neighbor. I challenge you to live up to a cause worthwhile- even if it is not in as much scale as Malala’s. Let your dreams which define who you are like Malala’s be such that will inspire hope in the heart of a neighbor.

As Malala makes her way to recovery in a hospital in England,

 I urge you to make your way to recovery from self centered and valueless purposes and dreams because it pays more to be like a farmer in exchange than a farmer in  subsistence.

Malala Yousafzai has shown me that I can command the attention of the world by having the guts to stand up for something worthwhile.

Don’t forget, she’s just 15 years old…

Ye are the salt of the earth: but if the salt has lost his savour, wherewith shall it be salted? It is thenceforth good for nothing, but to be cast out, and to be trodden under foot of men. Ye are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hid. Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.[v]

Matthew 5:13-14 & 16

Be inspired!

Remain motivated!

---

[i] www.quotegarden.com/conformity.html Accessed on 12th November, 2012.

[ii] www.quotegarden.com/conformity.html Accessed on 12th November, 2012.

[iii] http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malala_Yousafzai Accessed on 10th November 2012.

[iv] http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malala_Yousafzai Accessed on 10th November 2012.

[v] The Christian Bible.

NB: For more on the experience of Malala Yousafzai, just Google her name on the internet and you’ll find multiple links you can check out.