QUIP: A revolutionary tool for creating and sharing notes

When I was 5 years old, my school teacher would often bark as those of us who hated writing: the shortest pen is better than the longest memory. Now unless you are Elon Musk OR Gustavo - the CEO of an Internet of Things start-up I recently worked with, this is definitely true for you. More than two decades later, I proudly tell my friends and anyone who cares to listen: QUIP is better than the longest memory AND QUIP is the best note-taking app and basic word processor on the market. Before I talk about QUIP, here’s a brief history of my experience with notepads, word processors and dumb electronic post-it-notes.

Image credits: https://snarfed.org/2013-07-30_introducing-quip

For more than a decade, I carried a notepad and a pen on my person, just to be able to quickly capture random inspirations, flashes of brilliance and momentary ideas that I felt could potentially become the seed for the next billion dollar venture. After all, we are regularly bombarded with legends of successful founders who discovered great ideas in one of such random moments. For example, Kravis Kalanick and Garrett Camp were reported to have first thought about Uber on a cold night in Paris in 2008, when they couldn't find a cab. I’m sure they must have somehow documented their first thoughts before following up on it to co-found Uber together. Therefore, notes are great as they help us articulate and document ideas that could potentially change the world as we know it.

However, there’s a couple of problems with physical notepads. They can get lost and you may be unable to retrieve them when you desperately need them. You are also compelled to get a new one every once in a while after blank pages are exhausted. Sadly, old notepads are often filed and forgotten in dusty home and office libraries. What this means is that many good ideas get filed away, and lost – forever!

There are of course electronic alternatives to notepads. They are called Word Processors. There’s a good number of them today, including offline and online ones. The problem with powerful full-feature word processors like MS Word or Google Docs is that you mostly use them when you want to create presentable documents, not when you need to capture ideas.  You hardly think MS Word or Google Docs when you want to quickly capture that magical inspiration running through your head, or some experience you need to quickly document. Today, there are also quite a number of offline and online notepads and electronic post-it-notes that are available but these have limitations as well. You can only access most of them on specific devices or platforms that they are optimized for. These note-taking platforms are also not optimized for collaboration and easy retrieval. Worse still, they all look boring and uninteresting.

Here comes QUIP to the rescue! QUIP is an awesome multi-platform note-taking tool that has restored coolness, simplicity and accessibility to note taking and collaboration. QUIP creates a social network around your notes, and allows you to work with others to quickly give an idea traction. The great thing about QUIP is it’s not just a cool basic word processor. It’s a simple collaborative tool that allows you to quickly take notes on ANY internet enabled device, access those notes from ANY device and still have the flexibility to share those notes with anyone in both your personal and professional circles. It takes just 2 clicks to create a new note, and it takes only one to retrieve it no matter how long ago you created it. It’s also very easy to share notes with friends, family members and team mates. The beautiful aspect of sharing notes is that every time you update a shared note, everyone you previously shared that note with receives an unobtrusive notification. Despite delivering this extraordinary level of flexibility with notes, QUIP still manages to place security and privacy completely in your hands. You can remove and grant access to notes as you please. The in-app photography feature allows you to take pictures with your mobile phone and store them within your notes. QUIP also includes a chat functionality that allows you to send messages to your QUIP friends and collaborators. Even better, the app allows you to upload existing notes and word documents from Dropbox, Google Drive, EVERNOTE and Box.

For a multi-platform user like me who uses MAC, PC, Android and IOS, QUIP gives me seamless access and an unrivaled user experience by being platform agnostic. The interface is really well optimized on all devices and platforms, and still surprisingly homogenous in appearance. Notes are displayed in a refreshing notice-board style within the browser/app, while the left pane contains a timeline of updates to notes in your repository. The interface on Android and IOS is really beautiful and intuitive. The total user experience is truly remarkable. The mobile app displays your notes in a compelling way that simplifies identification and retrieval. Titles are written in a large bold font making it easy to identify and retrieve previous notes. The first few lines of existing notes are also visible – giving you the opportunity to preview content before actually opening the note. QUIP is undoubtedly set to take the electronic notes and basic word processing industry by storm, just the same way Google redefined online search.

Because of QUIP, I don’t ever have to worry about capturing my genius ideas or sharing my personal notes anymore. However, I’d like a few more features. First, I’d like the engineers at QUIP to create an offline storage feature similar to that of Dropbox. I’d like to be able to create new notes in an offline browser and still be able to retrieve them even if I close the browser before internet connectivity is restored. Second, I’d like to see a simple drawing tool that allows me to make a few sketches here and there. A picture is what a thousand words, so I’d like to be able to sketch my own images on the note canvass. That’s about it.

If you haven’t, you should absolutely try QUIP today. Your note-taking life would never be the same again! 

THE MINER’S MINDSET

To mine simply means to dig deep for hidden treasure. The psychology of the miner is very interesting. The miner commits so much energy into digging, even when there’s no physical guarantee of striking it rich.

I recently took a class called “Analytics lab” at MIT. This class was composed of a select group of 40 students (out of more than 400 MBA and graduate students) who were passionate about digging deep into data to unlock hidden patterns and treasures. Since this was an action-learning class, I and my teammate were commissioned to provide free data-mining consulting services to a client based in Boston. After countless hours of mining our client’s data, we made startling discoveries that were capable of doubling their revenue within 2 years and elevating them to the level of big brands such as IBM. This company was so excited, they asked us to join their company.

Now, those treasures had always been locked up in their data, but they never took the time to find them. In order to find treasures, you must disconnect from daily routine, and channel your energy into focused mining and exploration in a specific area. In today’s world of social media, people are being increasingly distracted. They cannot focus on anything. They know a little of everything, but are not experts in any area.

A petroleum engineer will tell you that you have a better chance striking oil if you dig 20,000 feet in just one place, rather than digging 500 feet in 1000 different locations. It’s called putting all your eggs in one basket. When Elisha burned up his Oxen and followed Elijah, he put all his eggs in one basket and mined deep into Elijah. Years later, Elisha received a double portion and had the power to make others wealthy in just one day. Friends, I urge you to mine deep into your area of interest, even if it costs you in the short term.

God bless

Scaling up Investments in Social Enterprises

SaafWater (a social enterprise in Pakistan) had a vision to tackle the huge problem of access to affordable clean water across the developing world and their noble objective was to systematically use social entrepreneurship to solve this problem that was faced mainly by the world’s poor. They saw the opportunity to leverage existing ideas and technologies in achieving their objective. Just as any business would do, they did their market research and felt rest assured that a total addressable market of over 4 billion people more than validated the business case for their socially beneficial for-profit venture. 

Even better, they didn’t have to build their product from the ground up; the CDC had a water purification technology that had been waiting to be harnessed. Choosing a beachhead market wasn’t difficult either. Karachi, a large city in Pakistan had a ready consumer market with over 15 million residents, and the SaafWater team didn’t have to try too hard to find a willing sales-force. They only had to bear the initial cost of providing training plus performance-based incentives to get them moving.

SaafWater’s key innovation was around the business model and supply chain network. This is often the hard nut to crack in emerging markets, so they focused on this and grew the business organically. They sought to achieve a simple and straightforward two-fold objective: build a profitable company and prevent 500,000 cases of diarrhea per year per city.

In my opinion, they took a smart approach in pursuing this objective by using a for-profit vehicle. This allowed (or forced) them to apply the rigor and outcome based approach that characterizes private sector driven investments. It is obvious the problem of access to safe drinking water isn’t new, but has certainly seen (and continues to see) a lot of activity and investment from foundations, governments and non-profit organizations over the years. Sadly, this problem has just refused to go away. Why is the reason for this, you might ask?

The reason is not far fetched. These non-profit approaches have failed simply because they’ve lacked consistency and sustainability, and do not have the right incentive structure. Governments, foundations and non-profits have limited budgets and often have other bureaucratic and donor-related constraints that make it difficult to pursue their programs to logical conclusions. In addition, they have different incentive structures from non-profits. Non-profit organizations are often judged by how much they are able to raise and spend, and evaluated less by how effective they have been at tackling development issues. Their focus is often on popularity and acceptability, rather than on fact based results and quantifiable performance, so the problems seem to stick around despite huge investments.

I believe for-profit ventures and the private sector play the most critical role in advancing society. All other actors simply play hygiene or enabling roles. I also believe that nearly all social problems in the world today are amenable to some type of for-profit venture. Private sector organizations have very clear measures of success that everyone understands. When they fail, they are effectively punished by the market and when they succeed, they are rewarded with more resources and better access to markets. This is how Coca-Cola, Google, Microsoft and Toyota conquered the world. Could you imagine if we left drug development and biotech development to non-profit ventures? Where would medical practice be today?….. unthinkable!

What are the limits to social entrepreneurship?

Social entrepreneurship currently suffers from a perception problem. Even though social enterprises are technically classified as for-profit ventures, they are still seen by much of the world, and by many investors as belonging to the same broad category of non-profit ventures and NGOs. The reason is many people (including investors) have mental models that interpret doing good and doing business as two mutually exclusive endeavors. Social entrepreneurship is however a revolutionary attempt to bridge these two perhaps, distinct objectives and craft out visions that marry both into a harmonious union.

21^st century capitalism may have also contributed to the dichotomy between doing business and doing good. Few can argue against the great technology and economic gains that capitalism has delivered to the world in the last 50 or more years. However, many also believe capitalism has fueled narcissistic and/or acquisitive tendencies that have produced few billionaires and countless peasants, and the Forbes list has a great way of reminding us that half of the world’s wealth is still controlled by less than 100 people.

Therefore, the investment community tends to look towards “pure” business ideas when they want to make huge capital investments, while they continue to reserve smaller amounts of capital for “social” entrepreneurs who they still consider as next-door neighbors to non-profits.

This problem of access to capital will continue to prevent social entrepreneurs from scaling up their ventures in ways that could deliver huge global impact comparable to global for-profit success stories such as Google and Amazon.

The good news is that there are more opportunities today than before with the increasing acceptance of the social entrepreneurship model and the creation of more social enterprise and impact investment funds across globe. Overall, the future of social entrepreneurship seems bright, but there are significant challenges to overcome.

Incubators and Entrepreneurial Support Systems for Africa

Incubators and accelerators have now emerged as a potent entrepreneurial resource for kick starting and accelerating high-potential innovative startups across the world. However, each region has its nuances, and that includes Africa.

While other regions such as Europe are still learning to deal with fear of failure, Africa already has more than its fair share of entrepreneurs. However, this seeming advantage has not translated into global mega corporations for Africa. The reasons are not far fetched. Out of the wide range of possible reasons for starting a business, empirical studies have shown that survival and the need for alternative income are leading motivating factors. Essentially, entrepreneurship is viewed as a potential parachute that could be used to escape the pit of poverty. The negative implication of this is that the few enterprises that initially succeed do not have world domination wired into their operating framework, and lack a strong motivation to take over the world, since that was never the objective. Enterprises also tend not to survive more than 2 generations, due to weak regulatory and institutional support mechanisms, and poor corporate governance.

Incubators and venture support systems in Africa should take note of these peculiarities as they work with entrepreneurs in Africa. Unlike Europe, entrepreneurial activity is already high, so the focus should not be to motivate Africans to start businesses. Rather, strong mentorship should be provided to aspiring entrepreneurs in visioning, corporate governance and long-term strategic thinking. In addition, access to basic resources and physical infrastructure is a significant barrier for entrepreneurs. The very high cost of doing business, especially in major African cities such as Lagos and Nairobi are also a major obstacle. Venture incubation programs should provide shared resources such as internet access, electricity, office space and food as these are absolute necessities for budding entrepreneurs, who often have no reserve income to draw on while working on their venture. Incubators may also need to go beyond idea validation. They need to provide robust target market evaluation and product launch support for African entrepreneurs, as there are not very many independent success stories just yet.

Relevance of western entrepreneurship approaches to different sectors in Africa

Unlike in the West where there is a wide range of mature industries, Africa’s best growth opportunities are concentrated mostly in four or five broad industries, based on the McKinsey’s “Lions on the Move” report. Therefore, entrepreneurial efforts in Africa should be focused on sectors that offer the best opportunity, based on market demand, quality of regulatory framework and the overall macro-economic status. Technology and mobile startups across the world have a fairly similar approach to launching and scaling their products but sectors such as consumer goods, agriculture and infrastructure tend to be more sensitive to local or regional nuances. In 2014, Nigeria’s ranking on the Ease of Doing Business Index was 147, Ghana was 67, South Africa was 41 and Rwanda was 32. These figures show that African countries have very different environments, and the Regulatory and institutional frameworks are at different stages of maturity. Each country has its peculiar strengths (and weaknesses) based on its resources and strategic priorities. The general lesson here is that there is no such thing as an Africa strategy. Africa is a continent of 52 unique and peculiar nations with varying interests and differing levels of political and economic maturity and stability. Therefore, entrepreneurship approaches should be evaluated and optimized for each country, and should incorporate internal and external risk assessment frameworks that are relevant to the economic and political realities in each country. A one-size fits all approach is never going to work.

Is the Rocket Internet model relevant to Africa?

This is like asking whether products sold in the West would find application in Africa - of course! Unfortunately, this question isn’t that relevant today, because Rocket already has more than a dozen startups across the African continent, and a good number are doing really well.

Rocket companies are now in Nigeria, Ghana, Kenya and counting. I know Rocket quite well because I worked at Nigeria’s fastest growing ecommerce platform just last summer and my host company’s greatest competitor was a Rocket Internet Company. As I said earlier, Africa has 52 markets that are unique in their own right. The odds are that there is at least 1 of these 52 markets that is amenable to the wonderful startup ideas that have their roots in the West.

Africa is pretty much open for business, and all ideas that create value and produce wealth are very welcome. Rwanda, Ghana and many more African countries are seeking the influx of foreign capital and foreign ideas to rapidly grow their economies. Today, nobody really cares about where ideas come from. They just need to make sense, and they need to be executed to perfection!

When will Africa Develop?

The fundamental proof of development and social advancement is not found in ubiquitous infrastructure projects, neither is it primarily evidenced by an upward trend in GDP. The litmus test for accurately evaluating and qualifying the developmental state of a nation is conducted by evaluating the prevailing mindsets and worldviews of the people. Since the law of averages must apply in this context, a nation cannot be said to have attained “developed” status simply because it has managed to produce exceptions and outliers i.e. a few stars here and there.

Walter Rodney explained that Development in human society is a many-sided process. At the level of the individual, it implies increased skill and capacity, greater freedom, creativity, self-discipline, responsibility and material well-being. Some of these are virtually moral categories and are difficult to evaluate. However, what is indisputable is that the achievement of any of these aspects of personal development is very much tied to the present social realities, prevailing socio-economic status and national destiny as a whole.

He also gives interesting insight into what Underdevelopment is.

He says underdevelopment is not the absence of development, because nations have developed in one way or another. Underdevelopment makes sense only as a means of comparing levels of development. It is very much tied to the fact that human and social development has been uneven and from a strictly economic view-point some human groups have advanced further by producing more and becoming wealthier.

The moment a nation appears to be wealthier than others, an enquiry is bound to take place as to the reason for the difference. After Britain had begun to surge ahead of the rest of Europe in the 18th century, the famous British economist Adam Smith felt it necessary to look into the causes behind the ‘Wealth of Nations’. At the same time, many Russians were very concerned about the fact that their country was ‘backward’ in comparison with England, France and Germany in the 18th century and subsequently in the 19th century. Today, our main pre-occupation is with the differences in wealth between on the one hand Europe and North America and on the other hand Africa, Asia and Latin America.

EAST AFRICA REPORT

In three words, KENYA WAS AWESOME!

I and my friend, the tireless reformer and wise master builder – Maxwell Ogaga recently embarked on our second joint “African Reformatory Exploration” and this time around, our destination was EAST AFRICA, specifically Kenya. We were both in Liberia earlier in 2012 for 7 days and what a roller coaster it was! Our Arik Air flight via Accra to Monrovia was quite ‘eventful’. At a point,  we had to activate Great Faith while the aircraft maneuvered through inclement weather, but we held our peace knowing  Jonah was not on-board this particular flight. This was not just some fun trip, but rather a purpose driven commission laid on our hearts by God and we were rest assured an innumerable company of angels were on-board so we had nothing to worry about. 

Real Estate in Emerging Markets: A Global Perspective and Focus on Nigeria

Real Estate in Emerging Markets: A Global Perspective and Focus on Nigeria

Firstly, its great to be back! I never stopped writing, but my focus shifted in the past few months to other media but now I’m back (I hope!)

I’ll be sharing a few thoughts on Real Estate. The facts (and viewpoints) presented here are excerpts from a formal presentation I made at a strategic forum in preceding weeks.

I should charge a substantial fee for this information, but I’ve chosen to be magnanimous in the hope that you would also share valuable insight with me when you’ve got one.

Why Real Estate?

It’s real (of course it is!)

It is transferable (unlike your job)

It’s in limited supply (even if you reclaim all red and blue oceans)

It underscores all human activity (except you live permanently in the air).

Emerging Markets…are nations with social or business activity in the

process of rapid growth and industrialization. (The nations in blue are broadly classified as emerging markets. Nigeria is one of them!) 
Investing in Nigeria is plain straight blue ocean strategy if you ask me.

King Nebuchadnezzar and Daniel; President Jonathan and Who?

The subsidy debate has engulfed Nigeria, albeit the entire known world and I’d like to add, even the heavenly host who by now most certainly would have been bombarded by innumerable petitions and supplications from citizens of the most populous black nation on earth. This existential crisis has knocked tenderly at the door of Nigerians for more than a few months and was eventually formed and happily delivered on none other than the first day of 2012 (recall that 2012 is the year the world ends according to the Mayan calendar, so we can expect 2012 to be action packed from start to finish). The nature of that action will depend on us.

Before I digress, let’s dive into the chronicles of King Nebuchadnezzar. Who was King Nebuchadnezzar you might ask? He was one of the few kings known to have practically conquered the entire world. Daniel, a great Prophet of God went even as far as to describe him as king of kings. This king was specially chosen by God to execute judgment upon a stubborn nation that had consistently ignored divine instructions. As you might have figured, that stubborn nation was His first born son – Israel.

This king ransacked God’s own nation and carried off everything and everyone worth confiscating as slaves to his own country. He chose the finest of their princes and deployed them as strategic human capital to stabilize and expand his kingdom to the far ends of the earth. To make matters worse, God defied all protocol and declared this pagan king as His own very servant sent to accomplish divine mandate.

Shaking Nations

Who is behind the shaking of nations and governments??

U.S debt is at near an all time high, EU economies are failing, instability and uprising has engulfed the middle-east, tornadoes and earthquakes and storms are being dispatched on a near weekly basis. Even our nation Nigeria, is right now surviving on razor edges. Who is the architect of these quiverings, tremblings  and judderings? Is it the unseen enemy, rogue nations, anarchist groups, clandestine outfits, secret ops or the global association of witches and wizards? The shaking that is gripping the earth right now, I believe is being orchestrated by the LORD himself (Hag 2:21-23 and Is13:13) and is for two purposes.

First is to shake off everything that doesn’t need to be there in the first place. This includes impostors in God's house, false governments, phony leaders, deceitful spiritualists, deceptive dogmas, counterfeit ministries, repressive regimes, man-made fabrications and everything that is chaff, as qualified by scripture.

Second is to pressurize, distill, decontaminate, distinguish, shift and propel the sons of God into the prime place of command, recognition, respect, authority, domination, governance and performance (Obadiah 1:21). The world as we know it must be shaken and turned upside down and sideways up till Albert Einstein is compelled to rise up from his grave and revise his book from “The World As I See It” to “The World as The Lord Would Have It”. 

I AM NOT NORMAL

We live in an age where man has developed a concept of the ideal life. You are expected to have “achieved” certain milestones at certain stages of your life, marked out by age ranges. Let me provide you with the time table.

Age 2: start nursery school;

Age 4: Begin primary education

Age 10–11: Get into secondary school

Age 15–17: Get admission into a good University

Age 19–23: Graduate with 2:1 or 1st Class

Age 23–30: Get married, get a masters degree, get a good job

Age 35–40: Get through with having kids, and be a manager at a good company

Age 60–65: Retire and take care of your grandchildren. Enjoy your retirement package

Age 70 and Above: This is extra time. Play golf, travel the world, volunteer and die when you are tired

If you dare dis-conform (does this word exist!?) or deviate from this time table, then you need special prayers. Your case is exceptional and you need to fast, pray and seek God for guidance on how to escape this pit of shame. You ought to start combing your ancestry for unidentified curses that are the probable and possible causes of your predicament. 

The folly in this chronology is quite obvious, but it is still very surprising that many seemingly liberated souls in an age of exceeding revelation and insight are still subconsciously loyal to this dogmatic and religious time table. 

Defy the Quit Option!

Never quit! Never take no for an answer! It doesn't matter the weight of diametrically opposed and counteracting forces, existential predicaments, or a desolate and miserably grim present state of affairs. We will rise to the very highest level possible in our chosen field. We will break all limitations. This declaration is our eternally binding covenant sealed by the Blood of the Lamb.

On a clear night in late June 2005, four U.S. Navy SEALs left their base in northern Afghanistan for the mountainous Pakistani border. Their mission was to capture or kill a notorious al Qaeda leader known to be ensconced in a Taliban stronghold surrounded by a small but heavily armed force. Less than twenty-four hours later, only one of those Navy SEALs remained alive.

In the book “Lone Survivor”, Marcus Luttrell, the sole survivor of this operation (Operation Redwing), tells the story of the desperate battle in the Afghan mountains that led, ultimately, to the largest loss of life in Navy SEAL history. But it is also, more than anything, the story of his teammates, who fought ferociously beside him until he was the last one left-blasted unconscious by a rocket grenade, blown over a cliff, but still armed and still breathing. Over the next four days, badly injured and presumed dead, Luttrell fought off six al Qaeda assassins who were sent to finish him, then crawled for seven miles through the mountains before he was taken in by a Pashtun tribe, who risked everything to protect him from the encircling Taliban killers.

There is an undeniable innate desire for greatness on the inside of every living human. Without exception (no matter how concealed, repressed or de-emphasized), 6.5 billion of us are obsessed with obtaining some measure of recognition, admiration, respect, veneration, reverence and esteem from the members of our community and human-sphere. This desire in and of itself is totally legitimate because we as offspring, inherited it by design from our progenitor, pre-cursor, Lord, creator, paramount ruler of the universe and architect of all matter and energy in all its existential forms (including spiritual energy). 

Sonship has a much deeper meaning than is generally associated with it. 

To be a son means to have the nature and character of a forbearer. (This explains why some biological parents denounce offspring that willingly take an acute detour away from the nature and character that was presented to, and expected of their wards.) The Father spoke to Jesus during the transfiguration and said “This is my beloved Son. Hear ye him.” This event happened deep into the ministry of Jesus when He was about concluding it. God was in essence issuing a divine score-card and validating (based on visible and undeniable performance) the status, person, character and ministry of Jesus as a perfect, impeccable, flawless and exhaustive spectacle of divinity amongst humanity.

Therefore, for every member of the universe of rational, balanced and spiritually aware homo-sapiens (i.e. those that came from Yahweh; NOT from the chimpanzee or some big bang detonation), there is a substantive desire for greatness. This is normal. This is default. This is scriptural. This is undeniable. This is our nature.

Now, The ultimate measure of a man is where he stands in moments of difficulty, NOT moments of comfort or pleasure - MLK. If you fail in the day of adversity, your strength is weak – Holy Scripture. When push comes to shove and we are stretched beyond limit, should we capitulate? The human body is a colossally complex but yet assiduously adaptive machine that was designed to withstand near unfathomable extreme conditions. Michael Jordan, Usain Bolt, Roger Federer, William Wallace, Joan of Arc, Alexander the Great and the U.S. Navy SEAL have all taught us a few lessons on possibilities. Consequently, we must query and probe on why these men (and women) were able to do things that many of us couldn’t or simply would just not do. Were they hewn out of a tempered breed, or perhaps a special hybrid blessed with more talent than other living souls? The obvious answer is NO! Their difference was, is and will always be in their mind and spirit; something I would call a sturdy, stalwart, resilient and excellent spirit that defies and conquers ALL adversaries. Their minds operated rather differently from the expected or popular train of thought that prevailed in their day. Where others saw and professed under-achievement or the status quo, they dreamt and reached for opportunity and victory.

Navy SEALs are the U.S. Navy's principal special operations force, a part of the Naval Special Warfare Command (NSWC) as well as the maritime component of the United States Special Operations Command (USSOCOM).

The unit's acronym ("SEAL") is derived from their capacity to operate at sea, in the air, and on land – but it is their ability to work underwater that separates SEALs from most other military units in the world. Navy SEALs are trained and have been deployed in a wide variety of missions, including direct action and special reconnaissance operations, unconventional warfare, foreign internal defense, hostage rescue, counter-terrorism and other missions. Without exception, all SEALs are male members of either the United States Navy or the United States Coast Guard.

SEAL training is brutal. Prospective SEALs are subjected to an incredibly tough selection process that is meant to weed out chaff. It takes over 30 months to train a Navy SEAL to the point at which he will be ready for deployment. The SEALs that emerge are ready to handle pretty much any task they could be called on to perform, including diving, combat swimming, navigation, demolitions, weapons, and parachuting. The training pushes them to the limit both mentally and physically in order to weed out those who may not be able to successfully complete the demanding missions and operations with which SEALs are faced. The types of stresses they endure during BUD/S (Basic Underwater Demolition/SEAL) are the same stresses they will endure as SEALs. If they can't withstand it when lives aren't on the line, chances are good they won't be able to withstand it when lives are at stake.

Marcus Luttrell attributed his survival to his success at the grueling Navy SEAL training. The training was targeted at breaking the minds of trainees. If you succeeded at training with your mind intact, you were deemed ready for just about anything.  If Marcus had given up during training, he would never have stood a chance at surviving the real deal. His training instructors even warned him that if a trainee ever for once voiced out his frustration and desire to quit, that trainee always ended up relinquishing the Navy SEAL dream. In this game, the moment you open your mouth in frustration, you prove you are unfit for the calling.

My direct questions to you are these: Do you have a breaking point? Are there conditions that would warrant you giving up? If the situation demands waiting almost indefinitely, will you give in? Do you lack the ability to survive and thrive anywhere? Does your patience run out easily? Does the experience of those around you define what your viewpoint is? Has your backward or indigent background skewed your worldview in this present day? Is the word “impossible” in your lingua franca?

If you answered YES to any of the questions above, you are NOT ready for Super Achievement. You should be content walking in the path already threaded by others.

We must utterly understand that the greatest treasure that man has is his faith. What can separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trials, tribulations or even angels? In the 11th chapter of the book of Hebrews, we learn that by faith, men stopped the mouths of lions, men obtained a good report, women had their dead raised to life, disciples suffered extreme persecution, Enoch was caught up into heaven, Noah kicked off the ark project 100 years ahead of the flood,  Abraham searched for the city whose Architect and Builder is God, Sarah obtained strength to conceive at 90 years of age, men were stoned to death, some were sawn asunder, others were slaughtered by the sword, but YET, ALL DIED IN FAITH HAVING NOT RECEIVED THE PROMISE!

If these men and women accomplished unfathomable things but still didn’t receive the promise that their faith envisioned, then the empirical and logical deduction is that their faith saw far exceedingly beyond the great miracles they obtained. In simple terms, their faith delivered great results, but they all died in faith because what their faith originally anticipated was incomparably greater than the promise and results they obtained in their life time. 

This realm of faith has one description. It is called boundless faith.

So I ask again: is there anything that is capable of invalidating, extinguishing or paralyzing your faith? I pray for you (and myself) that our faith will not fail. (Now we know what Jesus meant when he prayed the same for Peter).

Shalom!

TOMORROW DOES NOT EXIST!

Go, move, stop, quit that job, write that exam, run, fly, start, reverse, retry, resist, recover, replace, change over, get out, leave the comfort of home,……..whatever……..Just Do Something! 

GIVE ME THIS MOUNTAIN!

These are POWERFUL ACTION words. You are not young and you are not old. All that matters is that you are alive. Those who know half of what we know are DOING twice as much as we are. The instruction for the NOW is clear. Yes I know we don’t have enough information. We don’t have enough money. There is nobody to help us. We don’t know where to start from! There is no infrastructure! Security is lacking! Guess what? These are all excuses! This is a different season. We’ve moved beyond dissertation. This is beyond talk. You know talk is cheap. In this season, we have a mandate to do a lot with almost nothing, create forests in deserts, defeat ancient foes and recover lost ground! In this season, even if we are making a mistake, then let's make it with passion! All that matters is the heart. Jesus loves both good and bad people and He is particularly attracted to imperfect people. It’s indifferent folks that He hates! There's no room for indecision.

There’s no excuse. Yesterday is gone and wehaven’t yet received an invitation into tomorrow! In the words of Dr. Mike Murdock, "Hope is what you sell when you don't have answers". The time for hopeless hoping is past. What you do NOW determines whether you get an invitation into tomorrow. People who are 10 times better than us in all respects died today. The reason you are reading this is because someone up there is giving you yet another chance. That person is trusting (not hoping) that you will get the message this time. There is no guarantee you will have another chance. Let me share this deep revelation with you. If you think your future is awaiting you, you’ve missed it completely! Actually, there is no “future”. It’s all a lie. The future doesn’t exist. It’s an optical illusion. Jesus always talked about "TODAY". Infact, He dismissed "Tomorrow" by saying it would take care of itself. Tomorrow is merely an extension of today. All you have is today. No more, no less! Today is what connects you to tomorrow. Throw today away, and tomorrow goes with it!

So my question to you is: What have you been postponing? What have you been hiding from? It's clear they’ve been lying to us to wait for the “right” time. Remember they said the same thing last year, and the year before the last. You can’t claim to not know the truth. The choice is yours. You can go back to the waiting chamber, or you can choose to seize the moment.

The time is NOW. We are already late. We need to work twice as fast with half the resources. The ball is in your court. This time tomorrow morning, that ball would be long gone. By then, we may have missed it and another opportunity may not come in our life time.

Be a Bitz’uist. This was the word used to describe David Ben-Gurion. He was Israel’s first Prime Minister, a founder of the modern state of Israel and a member of Time Magazine’s 100 most important people of the 20th Century. A Bitz’uist is someone who just gets things done no matter the challenge!

David Ben-Gurion was also a Kibbutz. Kibbutz is the name of a community in Israel. Kibbutzniks constitute less than 2% of Israel’s population, but they produce 12% of Israel’s exports! At a time, they constituted 15% of Israel’s entire parliament. They led an innovation that turned a barren wasteland country classified as being 95% semi-arid into a nation with over 240 million trees. Israel is the ONLY country in the world where desert land is being turned into forests. They dug a well as deep as the length of 10 football fields, brought out warm water and reared fish right inside a desert. They took it to another level by harnessing waste water from fish plantations to irrigate farmland in a desert.

The forests in Israel today started with one tree.

At age 85, Caleb said “Give me this Mountain”. He was just as strong and competent as he was 40 years earlier. I’m certain he thought within himself “I’m not gonna let these clowns talk me out of my destiny a second time”. Will we respond like Caleb?

Enough said!

TODAY is the DAY of SALVATION!

In the transcendental words of my friend and leading Apostle of Change – Amenze Iyamu, JUST BE!