Welcome to the October 31st edition of Faith & Life Lessons.
You will see this email full of tidbits from my week. My goal is simple. I hope that from how I live my life, you can find a thing or two that helps you as you try to live a life that matters. I am always trying to do one thing - make Christ-focused decisions in love, work, and life. And this was my week.
The Story of My Week
You probably got the email I sent during the week about a 30-day event I'll be running from Monday, November 1st.
What you may probably not know is how much it took me to finally commit myself to it.
30 days is a long time to commit to getting up early and doing something before heading out to work.
At some point during the week, I wondered if I shouldn't cut the number of days - maybe 21 days.
I still have a day job so a part of me thinks "let me minimize the possibility of work schedule conflict and reduce the days"
But I looked at the overall content and I knew I would deliver less value if I did.
30 days is just the optimum number of sessions needed to bring the sort of change I am hoping people will get in the 11 important life domains.
So, I am committing to it.
And trusting God to help me resolve whatever conflicts come along the way.
Things I Learnt
1-When at Home, Be Home: I listened to an interview on David Novak's podcast, "How Leaders Lead" with Indra Nooyi, an Indian-American business executive and former chairperson and chief executive officer (CEO) of PepsiCo.
She talked about the day she was told that she would be appointed as president of PepsiCo.
As she was getting home, she met her mother at the door, who was living with them. Before she could blurt out her news, her mother told her that she needed to get milk for the family as they had run out of milk.
She said she told her mother that she had great news to share. The mother said, "go get the milk first."
She said she felt peeved at that moment but later on, she realized the importance of what her mother was showing her.
It taught her to remember that when she gets home, she is a wife, mother, daughter, daughter-in-law, etc but not a high-power company executive.
Her mother would say "you leave all that corporate titles at the garage."
Indra said she and her husband, also a high-powered executive, lived to do that as they collaboratively work to lead their home.
They built a home with their two daughters and members of their extended family.
They learned to be home when they were home.
At home, we are who we are at home not who we were at work.
2- A Human Problem, Not Gender: In case, you haven't heard, after announcing private equity firm Blackstone's acquisition of her fashion brand, Sara Blakely delighted employees with an unexpected perk. She announced on Instagram that she is doling out $10,000 and two first-class plane tickets to every member of the shapewear company's staff.
An old classmate in response, posted on Facebook "A female CEO hits it big and takes her employees and their loved ones along for the ride. A male CEO hits it big, continues to underpay workers while jetting off to space or wherever else. I am looking at you #amazon #facebook #microsoft #tesla etc etc…While plenty women CEOs share their winnings and give credit, a lot of male CEOs do not. Yes, there are outliers on both sides, but the numbers don’t lie."
I smile when I read these sorts of posts. A human problem is made into a gender issue.
When you build a narrative that a particular gender is better, you diminish the collaborative vision God had when He created both sexes.
I am sure if you do the research, you will probably find male CEOs that have a generous heart towards their staff members.
For example, six years ago CEO Dan Price raised the salary of everyone at his Seattle-based credit card processing company Gravity Payments to at least $70,000 a year. Price slashed his salary by $1 million, paying himself $70,000, to be able to give his employees a pay raise.
He was a modern-day Robin Hood, stealing from himself to pay his staff. And the company is still thriving.
I have a personal story. A company I worked with did a buyout of its 70% equity stake from the majority shareholders. The CEO, a guy, does something completely unusual for most Nigerian CEOs.
He decides to allocate some of the shares from the buyout to every member of staff.
During a one-on-one conversation I had with him much later, he told me how people around him had tried to discourage him from doing that.
They said, "These are staff, just pay them salaries, why give them shares?"
He told me "how much money do I need in life? I have one wife and two kids. I don't live in excess so why do I need to keep all the money?"
When you have people who think like these - it doesn't matter the gender, generosity will flow from the top to the staff.
We need better CEOs, not gender-based CEOs
Postscript
May you shine your light to the world around you in a way that makes them think "Jesus lives in this one". May the greatness of God be seen in how you live your life to honor Jesus. Amen
Tata,
Tola - The Everyday Disciple
I help Christians like you who want to live intentional lives incorporate their faith into everyday life so they can make Christ focused decisions in all areas of life and truly live to make an impact and make God happy.
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