Welcome to the October 11th 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
I am still on the road and I miss my family
I guess months of lockdown when we spent most of the day together makes been away from the house even more difficult
Thanks to the power of modern technology, I get to do video calls and pray with the family before they head off to school. We also do that in the evenings when they get back and before they nod off to sleep.
My wife and I try to keep conversations during the day as much as I am not stuck in meetings.
All of us on the trip are married with kids. And we all do the calling and checking up on the family now and again.
One of us calls one of his kids in boarding house every evening during the window of time the school affords him. The kid was so excited to hear that his dad was calling from another country - he shouted this to his friends while he was still on the call.
Man, it reminds me of the effort we need to keep putting to make sure work does not come between our family
We must always fight to keep our family
Things I Learnt
1-When Culture Dunks A Deal: When I was younger, I remember watching an international bank's advert in which they talked about how learning the local country's culture was important to their success.
I didn't think much about it until I was talking with an international businessman this week.
Let's just say this is a man in the billions
He talked about a deal that went south because his partner did not understand the culture of the people he was dealing with.
The culture of the guys they were dealing with was strongly linked to "respect for the boss". As much as possible, you don't embarrass the boss in front of his subordinates.
His partner did not realize this. He said "no" to the proposal from the boss instead of probably saying "yes" or "that sounds interesting, let me come back to you on that".
After thinking about the proposal, he went back to try and push discussions further to which the boss flatly refused. To him, it was a clear case of "you embarrassed me by saying "no" publicly, you can't come back again".
As the world continues to shrink, I remind myself to take note of the unique aspects of the culture of the people I meet.
It could be the decider of whether they accept me or not.
Or if they take my deal or not
2-Never Stop Keeping Yourself for Your Family: I got front roll seat listening to a much older man reminiscence on certain aspects of his life.
When he got to his marriage, he spoke in a matter of fact voice that he regretted one major failure on his part.
He had gotten involved with another woman and that's how he ended up with two families.
Due to problems with the government in his home country, he had to leave the country for about 5 years. At the onset, his wife went with him. Until she said she could not continue the life in self-exile and went back home. The government was not after her and the kids - only the husband
She believes that was the biggest mistake in the whole matter.
But he does not excuse himself. In his words, his wife did not deserve what he did.
He was far from home and loneliness got the best of him. Now he has two families and they found out about each other on their own because he was too afraid to tell them.
He owns up to it all.
One of the life lessons he freely shares
And hopes we can learn from
Postscript
May you find wisdom from God to make the right choice (amen)
Tata,
Tola
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