The furnace of affliction

I visited a steel mill recently. Top executives sat in large air-conditioned offices and labourers worked at the furnace, sweating heavily in the long overalls they wore.

In life you must choose which divide you want to belong. This is influenced by your daily choices (how do you spend your time?), your risk appetite (how willing are you to take risks?), your knowledge quotient (how well do you know your field?), your passion (how intoxicated are you to want what you claim to want?) and the supernatural (how sound is your relationship with God?).

Success and failure are not given, they’re achieved. You’re not a product of chance, but of choice. You choose to live, to die, to dream and to have faith in God. Your life is a summation of your daily choices.

d1 + d2 + d3 + … d1m = YL
(Where d is decision, m is million, YL is your life).

I saw the labourers pour molten steel as red hot liquid fire. Endure your furnace of affliction. This is where you’re melted, cut to size, made to shape, moulded into destiny. This is where you’re transformed to a candidate for cosy offices. Every problem is designed with an expiry date, it won’t last, friend.

Your light and momentary troubles are achieving for you an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. Endure hardship.

Dealing with a loss

You may have lost anything to the recession- a job, an opportunity, an investment, a loved one or all hope.

Dealing with a loss is difficult, but it is important to bounce back stronger. Be like the elastic band that keeps stretching beyond its limits; resilient in the storm. You have in you what it takes to overcome every difficulty. Discover new ways to solve your problems by pushing the walls of your mind. Insanity is trying to solve a problem the same way, expecting different results. See through the fog of confusion in you.

You may have been fired but get fired up! Don’t lose your dignity to a past event. Take the front seat and stage a comeback. Rise from your ashes. Pray to GOD. Fight depression.

“What looks like a loss may be the very event which is subsequently responsible
for helping to produce the major achievement of your life." – Srully D. Blotnick.

Unearth the diamonds within you. You may never have realized them as such because you’ve been so familiar with them, little wonder you trample over them. A tragedy of life is being ignorant of one’s most precious treasures.

There’s hope for a tree that’s cut down, it’ll sprout again at the scent of water. Make hay while the sun shines. Strike while the iron is hot.


Photo: Google images

What advice would you give a sacked banker 3?

Sometimes, bad things happen to good people. God allows this so that He can show that there are higher grounds attainable. You may never overcome your fears until you experience a crisis.

It happened to Bisi Olatilo.

The Bisi Olatilo Show (BOS) we know today was borne out of a push, frustration about a cruel system and a resilient fight for survival. BOS is a colossus, a social diary of the crème-de-la-crème and a TV show for those who want to see the latest social fad.

For Olatilo, it didn’t happen overnight. He looked inwards, identified his skills- he could speak and write Hausa, Igbo, Yoruba & pidgin fluently, he could do master of ceremony. So he chose the latter and set up a company, leveraging on his network of contacts. Just like that? But it took time, patience, passion and perseverance plus guts!

Then, from the events he covered, he created a 15-minute Social Diary, which later became the 1 hour show currently syndicated on many local and international TV stations. He also has a 24-hr channel on HiTV. That’s innovation.

He advises that ‘You cannot eat with all the 10 fingers. You must have a residual thing you can fall back on in times of trouble. I was asked to leave [FRCN] and I felt bad about it, but I had a few things to fall back on.’ Hmm.

I believe that the Fortune 500 companies of the future are being built today. What is in your heart to build? Build. “Where is the capital?” you complain. Normal Vincent Peale says, “Empty pockets never held anyone back. Only empty heads and empty hearts can do that.”

Tunde Alabi-Hundeyin II

Please read ‘Mind Your Business’ series again.

What advice would you give a sacked banker 2?

He’s a broadcaster extraordinaire, a polyglot and an exceptional master of ceremony, MC. That he’s a world-class media personality is no doubt. His name- Bisi Olatilo. You have certainly seen his show.

Saturday Sun says “his story is an inspiring story of audacity, persistence, passion and hard work.” His broadcasting career has taken him through Radio OYO, Radio Nigeria, Voice of Nigeria, later Federal Radio Corporation of Nigeria, FRCN.

What you may not know about Bisi Olatilo is that he was sacked from FRCN! Sacked? Yes, you read that right. He was laid off for engaging in private practice (PP) or freelance business deals. That included legitimate jobs like script writing in Hausa, Yoruba, Igbo & Pidgin, MC-ing and jingle production.

He says, “I didn’t bargain for it. But today, I am thanking God that it happened the way it did.” That’s because 10 years after, he’s a multi-millionaire doing the business he established after his dismissal. More importantly is the brand, fame and the goodwill he’s been able to build for himself. I doubt if this would have been possible as an everyday newscaster in FRCN. Do you agree?

To be continued…

Tunde Alabi-Hundeyin II