Category Archives: Religious

Beautiful in its Time

Recently, I have been getting practical insights into the Biblical injunction that “all things work together for good…” and I must say that it has been a pleasant experience even though it did not seem that way during the “work out” process…

Like when I had an academic presentation postponed on the presentation eve after expending time and finances to put things in place. However, unbeknownst to me, all those who had a go at their presentations during that period received a “No!” verdict, due to circumstances not fully within their control in some instances. When I eventually made my presentation and had a breezy , “Yes,” I then understood why things had not worked out according to plan initially…

The other time, I had applied for placement in an organisation and could not progress as I had hoped, due to my tenuous computation skills at the time. This propelled me to take courses to improve those skills and a few years down the line, I got an easy walk into the same organisation to add value, without having to take any exams.

Very recently, I had to re-take a particular exam which in itself was a painful experience borne out of my carelessness. It was even more painful when the result came out and my name was not on the pass list. Yikes! I thought, a record two-time failure. I really could not fathom how I could deal. It then turned out that there had been some oversight which caused the omission of my name. I in fact passed the exam very well. Sigh of relief. Shortly after this time, my script for the same exam that showed potentials of causing me grief like never before, was selected and published as a standard for future exam candidates.

In all these, the lesson for me has been that “He has made everything beautiful in its time – Eccle 3:11 (NIV).”

Cheers to experiencing beauty in all our endeavours.

Warm regards,

Adefolake

*photo credit: http://www.google.com

 

 

Be YOUnique – Power of a Personal Brand

“Let me tell you why you are here. You’re here to be salt-seasoning that brings out the God-flavours of this earth. If you lose your saltiness, how will people taste godliness? You’ve lost your usefulness and will end up in the garbage.” – Mt. 5:13 (MSG)

Riding on the introductory italicised preface above, the salt is characterised as  flavouring. A flavour improves the taste of something, as we would have noted from our addition of salt to food. The salt is also a preserver as some of us may have observed in our younger days when our mothers/grand-mothers used salt to preserve fish. We may have also observed that salt is a white and powdery substance like sugar. What then distinguishes salt from sugar you may wonder? This distinguishing factor, is the essence of personal branding.

Personal branding simply described, is that uniqueness that separates one and makes one preferable to the other person. It is personal branding that makes the curriculum vitae (CV) of certain persons preferable to the CV of others. It is also this same personal branding that makes a particular interviewee get a particular job and not another interviewee; or a particular artist preferred above contemporaries. It is yet again personal branding that makes one business idea stand out from another supposedly similar business idea.

The bottom-line is that for anyone to succeed in life, the importance of personal branding should not be neglected. Placed in context with the current tide of economic events in Nigeria where the competition has gotten stiffer, one would agree that without personal branding, one can hardly be a success.

One may wonder how he/she can be a personal brand stating, “but I am just an individual not one of those big, respected companies.” In response to this, one would remind that the journey of a thousand miles begins with the right step. Those big, respected companies did not suddenly appear on the scene, they grew through concerted efforts and exhibiting the right values.

Thus, for today’s professional/entrepreneur to grow and improve his/her personal brand, there is a need to reflect on whether the values he/she holds dear are the right values. If you were to ask five persons within your immediate vicinity, for the first word that comes to their minds when they think of you, their individual responses would give an indication as to whether a positive personal brand is being built, or there is a need to re-evaluate values. Today’s professional/entrepreneur should bear in mind that the big, respected companies or even respected individuals with positive personal brands would not have amounted to much by being tardy, sloppy or lazy.

In closing, today’s professional/entrepreneur should make concerted efforts through deliberate actions, to re-write his/her story to reflect the positive personal brand he/she craves for so that like the salt, he/she would remain a flavouring (and preserver) because ultimately, today’s professional/entrepreneur, ought to be an epistle known and read of all men (II Cor 3:2).

Hugs,

Adefolake

*www.google.com