Welcome to the October 16th 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.
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The Story of My Week
A week of interesting experiences and a reminder of how we respond to things differently.
First up, some friends from church are leaving within the next 2 weeks.
The wife while speaking with someone mentioned that next Sunday would be their last weekend in Dakar. She was not sure if they would be coming to church. To which I responded, "hey why not? we'll bring you guys to church ourselves if we have to."
The wife, a Canadian-born-but-raised-in-Africa-as-a-missionary-child, laughed. According to her, this was exactly what all the Africans she told said while the non-Africans (mostly north Americans) just said "Ok, I see."
Both sides were showing the same emotions - they will miss the family.
The Africans were showing them by wanting to share every moment they could with them. The North Americans were doing the same by giving their space to be alone if they wanted.
Second up.
At the beginning of the school year of one of my kid's classes, the teacher told us about a series of 10 books that he would be testing our kids on.
He also mentioned that there is no rush. Some kids master the books in 3 months, or 6 months or take the whole session. He just encouraged us, parents, to work with our kids so they could be moving.
Regularly, he sends updates to the parents celebrating the progress of all our kids.
This week, he sent a message celebrating one student who had mastered all 10 books. As the first student to do so, he gets a pizza from the teacher.
And that's when the donkeys came calling.
A parent said that there should be pizzas for all the kids to recognise all the hard work of each kid.
It looks like not every parent was Ok with explaining to their kid that it was ok for someone to get a pizza for coming first.
Instead of that, let's not have a prize for the kid who came first.
I smiled.
I also felt for the teacher that has to manage varying parents' expectations.
But one thing I like about the guy was that he set the ground rules with the parents at the beginning of the session.
One of his rules was this "if your kids are not used to getting a "NO" response at home, they will get it with me."
My kind of teacher.
Things I Learnt
1-When the Boss Stands for the Team: I was speaking with a multi-millionaire developer during the week. I was learning from him during our conversation.
At one point, he talked about one ultra-premium development which had high net-worth individuals (HNI) living in it.
He said the HNIs tend to become bullies. And he was not going to let them bully his staff.
He showed me a recent email by one of them to some members of his staff. The person had copied him in the email.
Maybe her way of letting the guys know "I can speak to your boss". A Karen move.
The boss saw through it.
He responded by giving her an email the kind of response that protects his staff.
A truly boss move.
I learnt from that.
Don't let the clients minimize any member of my team
2-Reputation Speaks Louder Than Connections: I happened in on a conversation about a transaction between two key players with connections in government.
One of them had a stronger connection but a weaker reputation.
The other had a less strong connection but a better reputation.
The outcome? The guy with the better reputation got the transaction.
It's interesting how information about a bad business arrangement flies around to the point of hurting even strong connections.
It's one of the reasons I am always trying to make sure that people who engage with me in business leave with a good experience.
It's expensive to build a good reputation but the value it brings is more than worth its weight in gold.
Postscript
May you never forget what you are worth. It was bought with the blood of God's only son. Amen
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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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