OVERCOMING BUSINESS SETBACKS 3

We began with the story of Brain Icy as found in the 1982 Encyclopedia Britannica year book under the section unusual events of the year. Brain Icy woke up and found a leak on the ceiling of his apartment; in the bid to call the vacuum cleaner he discovered all his four tires were flat, ran back to call on the phone, had electric shock; called a friend to help him discovered his car has been stolen. They found the car, he dressed for parliamentary service was about to go out when he sat on the bayonet of his gun which cut through him and he had to go for surgery.

Now, his friend took him back home after surgery as he opened the door he saw that plasters which had fallen from the ceiling had killed all the canaries in his cage; his birds were dead. As he ran across the wet carpet to get to the cage he fell down and injured his back and was taken to the hospital again.

A newspaper reporter caught up with him and asked him; how can you explain all these happening to only one person in a day and Brain Icy said humorously it looked like God was trying to kill me but he kept missing. Isn’t that interesting for someone who has seen so much trouble in one day. He should have been discouraged at that point in time but he was still humorous, he was still cheerful. The truth was that; that day was going to come to an end.

I want to say also that your challenges are seasonal. This phase will pass. This downturn in business will pass. The world has experienced recession before and the world has always come out of those recessions. If your business is experiencing a recession you will come out of this but on one condition if you don’t give up. Winners never quit but then quitters never win. You may never discover your potential for overcoming adversity until you find yourself in one. Be like the tea bag it releases its sweetness when it is thrown into hot water. Maybe this is the season you will get the best idea of your life ever. Don’t give up your miracle is on the way.


If you have experienced a down turn in business the customers are not coming any longer, the jobs are not there, you have to lay people off work or maybe you are the one that have been laid off work I want to encourage you to realize that things could be worse. You may have lost some money, you may have lost customers, you may have lost some opportunities, you may have lost a shop but there are things to still thank God for; everything is not lost yet it could have been worst than this. You have not lost your life, most of us have not lost our health, we have not lost our relationships, we have not lost our husbands or wives or our children, we have not lost our houses, we have not lost our vehicles, we have not lost our assets; something is lost quite alright but all is not lost yet.

We must not give up and behave like everything is finished. I want to say to you today that you are not finished yet at all. Your opportunities in life are not yet finished; your life is not finished yet. At least something is working and you could afford to give God some thanks. Please realize that things could be worse. At the same time acknowledge where you are, some things have changed that is the truth; sometime we spend a whole lot of time wishing things didn’t change there is no point things have changed its time to move on. Some opportunities have expired, its time to move in a new direction, its time to make a new plan, its time to dream a new dream; but please know that God will never allow an opportunity to expire in your life if He has not created another one. Let’s go for it, let’s find it; take time to pray, to think, to plan, to dream; there is a new day, a new dawn around the corner.

You will succeed!

REAL SUCCESS 2

To multiply our success, we must decide not to go on the journey of success alone. We must help others to move on to higher levels of success. We must admit, of course, that it is hard work dealing with people, but we can overcome the challenges.

Some of us don’t help others to succeed because we are insecure. We feel that if we help others to become more successful, we may lose our position to them. When we are insecure we tend to cut others down so we can look bigger. Truly successful people, however, raise others up. They have discovered a secret: when you help others to rise, you will never go down.

Some of us don’t empower others because we have large egos and enjoy the attention and sometimes worship that less successful people give us. We like to be the attraction at every occasion. That would be okay at a wedding-we would be the bride. But it would not be exciting at a funeral-we would be the corpse in the coffin.

Friend, I challenge you today to multiply your success. Help people around you to succeed. Your success will be so powerful, it will outlive you...Sam Adeyemi

You will succeed...

REAL SUCCESS 1

One day, several years ago, I was in deep meditation and prayers early in the morning when an inspired idea played out on my mind. In this mental drama, I saw that my wife met Dr David Oyedepo, the President of Covenant University and Presiding Bishop of the Living Faith Churches worldwide and he asked that I should see him the next day. All of this happened in my mind. And it was true I had wanted to see him.

Two days later, it happened exactly as I saw it in my mind. I have since spent many hours learning from Dr Oyedepo. The things I have learnt from him have strengthened my character and increased my success level in many areas.

What Dr Oyedepo has done to me I have committed myself to do to others. The greatest investments we can make in this life are the investments we make in people. When we think of success, we think primarily in terms of how much money, position, prestige, recognition and similar things we can get. But ultimately, it is more blessed to give than to receive. Douglas M. Lawson once said; “We exist temporarily through what we take, but we live forever through what we give.”

In the church where I pastor, I struggled for a few years to build a large congregation, until I realized it would be difficult to do it alone. Then I began to train people. Today, there are close to two thousand people trained to minister like I do, and the church is growing like I had dreamt it would.

Dear friend, don’t succeed alone. Take others along with you. When you help others to rise, you will never go down... Sam Adeyemi

SET REALISTIC GOALS

Thank God we have seen the New Year. It is the dawn of a new beginning. The opening of a New Chapter.


Exodus: 14:13 says: "And Moses said to the people, ‘Do not be afraid, stand still, and see the salvation of the Lord, which He will accomplish for you today. For the Egyptians whom you see today, you shall see again no more for ever."

Dear friend, set goals and make plans for the year.

Planning is a fundamental key to our success. People with goals and plans succeed in life, while people without them fail. People without goals restlessly wander through life looking for what they cannot explain. They are frustrated, confused and filled with anxiety. Unfortunately, they do not understand why Robert Schuller, author and pastor, once said; "If you fail to plan, you are planning to fail."


A Chinese proverb says; "The journey of a thousand miles begins with one step." I like to put it this way, "The journey of a thousand miles begins with one step in the right direction." It is only wise that you determine your destination before you set out on a journey. If you don’t know where you are going, it is not likely you will get there.


Let us discuss six reasons why people don’t set goals and make plans:


1. They don’t know how. We can solve this by reading books, asking ‘how’ successful people or simply listen to our broadcasts: radio and television.

2. It is too much trouble. Well, there is always a price to pay for success. It is either you pay now and play later, or you play now and pay later. It is better to make the effort now.

3. They don’t have faith in their goals and plans.

4. They begin with long-range goals. When they don’t see immediate results, they become discouraged

5. They leave the future entirely to God. While it is true that God has absolute control over the future, it is also His nature to plan and He expects us to do the same. Proverbs 16:9 (Living Bible) says; "It is good for us to make plans, counting on God to help us."

6. The rapture. Some don’t set goals because they believe that Christ will come back any moment from now. However, Christ does not expect to meet us waiting idle for His arrival. He expects to meet us busy doing His work on earth.


My Dear friend, take a pen and paper; write down your short-range goals, for the next one-year. Write your mid-range goals for the next five years. Write your long-range goals for ten, twenty or more years.

Let me ask you; have you heard of the Chinese bamboo tree, which is planted, watered and fertilized year in, year out for four years without showing any visible sign of growth? If you were a farmer cultivating the Chinese bamboo tree, would you not be tempted to abandon the plant and consider it a waste of your time and efforts? However, I need to inform you that during the fifth year, the plant suddenly shoots up and grows to 90ft tall just in six weeks!


Above all, begin to do something about all the goals you have written down. God will bring them to pass. This will be your most fulfilling year.


Let this be the most exciting year you ever lived. Release power into your life through goals.


You will succeed!

Sam Adeyemi

Tips for Goals Setting

Have you set goals for the New Year? Here are some important tips to help you construct your goes for next year.

Break down your goals by setting goals for every key area of your life, e.g., spiritual, financial, personal development, family life social responsibility, etc.

Set specific goals for each area. E.g. spiritual: Read through the Bible in a year. Financial: Make an annual income of ten (10) million naira. Etc.


Set a time target for each goal, e.g. Spiritual: finish going through the bible by Dec 31, 2009. Financial: Make a million naira by January 31, 2009.

Write how you will achieve each goal, e.g. Spiritual: Read three chapters of the Old Testament every morning. Financial: Sell at least 10 electronics every week or improve my skills on the job by going for an MBA, thereby getting the desired promotion.

Make sure you set goals that will motivate you for action. If they don’t motivate you, rewrite them to ensure you are motivated.

Do a periodic evaluation of your set goals to be sure you are on course or out of it.
However, do not set small goals because of your past experiences. Set MOTIVATING, BIG and ACHIEVABLE goals. God bless!

Take Responsibility

Remember, that being responsible means that you are committed to doing everything within your power to ensure that things work out. It means for you to do something about what you can do something about. My dear reader God will not do for you what you can do for yourself. He has given us the power as human beings to do so much. We are created in his image; we have the power to conquer our environment. We must take responsibility for making things to work the way they should work.

I know its easier for us to make excuses and for us to blame other people or for us to blame circumstances but when you are used to making excuses you find it difficult to know how to make anything else. We need to take responsibility for what happens whether good or bad. Remember once again, God will not do for you what you can do for yourself. He won’t brush your teeth for you, he won’t clean your room for you, he’s not going to lay your bed for you, he won’t paint your house for you, he won’t pick the dirt on the floor on our behalf, he won’t eat our food for us and as a nation we must realize that God will not do for us what he has given us the power to do.

Remember the man that was brought to Jesus in the Bible on a stretcher; he couldn’t walk and Jesus told him, ‘man take up your bed and go home.’ What he couldn’t do for himself God gave him the power to walk but that’s where the miracle stopped. As far as taking his bed was concerned; he had to carry that bed himself. Dear friend, whatever you have the power to do – to go to school, to learn, to be an apprentice under someone, to work hard, to get out of your bed and out of your house in the morning, to set goals for yourself and try to achieve those goals God will not do those things for you.

Let me describe some characteristics of responsible people. Responsible people don’t like to be unproductive. They like to add value to other people’s lives. They don’t like to take things from others for free. They do not like to be liabilities on other people. They know that the person, who gives will always be stronger, will always be richer; so, they prefer to be the one always giving.

Responsible people like to pay the price. In life we must pay. If you pay now you play later. If you play now you will pay later whichever way you pay. Responsible people like to pay their prices earlier enough. Then, responsible people have healthy self image because they believe that with God’s help they can do it; they can achieve their goal and the more they try the more they achieve the healthier their self esteem is.

People who run away from responsibility never grow; never build self confidence because ultimately inside them they see themselves as failures. Responsible people are not afraid to confront challenges. They believe that problems exist to be solved and they are willing to use the resources at their disposal to achieve their goals. Now, dear reader, it is not enough for you to do something you must do it to the best of your ability.

God will help you!

Impatience

John El Meson once said, ‘impatience is a big get a headache.’ When we are impatient we want to get ahead, we want things to happen fast; we want to run ahead of somebody else. But John El Meson said impatience is a big get a headache. When we are impatient we become frustrated, we express negative emotions ultimately it impact on our health. It has never been easy to be patient but it’s probably harder now than ever.

In our day we can send messages across the world instantly, we can cook food instantly; we can even buy on the internet instantly and now we want everything else to happen instantly but it won’t just happen like that. An acorn will not grow into an oak tree instantly. You don’t build a house instantly. We cannot break the laws of nature; growth is a process.

So, let’s begin with your definition of success. If the definition of success for you is built on material things and of course you can try to acquire material things instantly. But, if your definition of success is in your character, if it is who you are then you must know that it will take time for you to grow your character. And now when we acquire material things very quickly but we do not have the character to manage them ultimately we collapse. Things fail in our lives, we are out of equilibrium. So, please remember success is not what you have it is who you are. And it takes time for you to grow, to develop the emotional and the spiritual capacity to bear the weight of the success that is coming into your life.

Ralph Waldo Emerson once said, ‘adopt the pace of nature, her secret is patience.’ My dear reader trees stayed on the same spot for decades; they know that their time will change, their season will change and they adjust to the times and seasons. They are not under any illusion that they will be growing fruits or leaves all year round. It all depends on season and they are willing to wait. But when the right season comes trees know that the fruits come out by themselves they don’t have to groan or struggle.

Sometimes we struggle, we groan, we are frustrated, we become broken emotionally even physically because we are trying to force things to happen out of season and out of their time. We won’t always get instant results. In fact, some of the best things in life require years of hard work and waiting. If we do not overcome our need for instant gratification we may frustrate the process for achieving our goals. When we are impatient we are likely to be almost always frustrated, angry and unhappy at our rate of growth. And we cannot afford to subject ourselves to negative emotions constantly; it breaks down our health.

So, rather than focusing on what God has not done let’s focus on what God has already done in our lives with that we can be grateful. You know it all depends on what we focus on; it’s either the glass is half empty or it is half full. Let’s focus on the fullness and whatever it is that is left God will still do at his time.

And we must always remember that being impatient has negative consequences. We are likely to get angry, flare up very easily. We are likely to sink into depression and negative dark mood. Also, we have the tendency to throw away relationships, to throw away education, jobs when things are not working for us fast enough.

Our lives are filled with abandoned projects because things are not working fast enough. But of course, to complete a building you must stay with it. Build it right from the foundation all through till you put the roof on it and even then it is not yet done you have to put the finishing touches. Close the openings, close the windows, fix the doors and so on; it just takes time. So, we are likely to throw away relationships, throw away our marriage relationships, throw away friendships, throw away education because things are not working fast enough and sometimes many of us may find it difficult getting those years or relationships back.

Also, we waste our energy worrying instead of spending the same energy in the pursuit of our goals. Because things are not working fast enough we don’t pay attention to the goals themselves we are frustrated. I encourage you my dear friend it takes time but ultimately you will fulfill your destiny. I pray that God will help you not to stay behind the time he designed for your destiny.

You will succeed!