damiOluwatoyinbo.com

February went by so fast.

I guess it was because I had so much to do.

At the beginning of the month, I had my to-do list.

At the end of the month, I had ticked off almost everything on that list.

That gladdened my heart.

I was in Badagry once.

Abia state on two ocassions.

Different parts of Lagos every week…meetings…seminars…conferences…

What was I doing?

Great question!

I was doing what I was born to do…empower my generation to be all that God wants us to be.

I was preaching…teaching…speaking…training…facilitating meetings…writing…granting interviews…sharing what I know…what I have learned over the years.

Life’s greatest joy lies in our contribution to other lives.

It feels great to make a difference for good.

Are you making a difference in someone’s life?

Just like February, March is flying by so fast.

Before you know it, it’s going to be April, then May…June…July…September…December…2011…

Phew!

What’s my point?

“There’s no time.”

Well, there is time but there’s no time to waste.

I believe that we have enough time for what we NEED to do but we don’t have enough time to do all that we WANT to do.

We have enough time for what we were born to do but we don’t have enough time for all we wish to do.

Everyday, different things and people are contending for your attention…fighting for your time.

So what are you going to do?

You can’t attend to everything or even everyone.

You have to make the right choices.

That’s the struggle I face everyday.

I bet you have a similar experience.

Whatever you do, do what you were born to do or it would have been better if you were never born.

Ouch…

P.S: It’s my birthday this month and I have some special offers for you.Stay Tuned.

I’ve had a very busy week.

I was at my sisters’ introduction on sunday after preaching in the morning.

I travelled back to Lagos on Monday.

Had a series of meetings and spoke at The Rock Foundation Mission on Tuesday.

Attended my sister’s Court Registry wedding on Wednesday.

Dealt with a few business issues on Thursday.

Was privileged to attend an auspicious occasion with my mentor on Friday.

I haven’t had as much time to rest as I would love but in the midst of all the activities and engagement, I haven’t forgotten to laugh.

I have seized every opportunity to laugh.

Different people have different pastimes,.Laughing is one of mine.

I laugh at jokes.I laugh at some jokes that are not even funny.

I laugh to myself…sometimes at myself.

I avoid this but let me confess, sometimes I laugh at people.(Please don’t tell anybody-good thing is I laugh at you with you, not behind your back…)

Some weeks somebody saw me laughing and asked if I had just won a lottery or if my wife just had a baby.(Just for the records, I’m still single as at June 12, 2009)

A few days ago, my brother said something that made me laugh.He didn’t think it was that funny so he said,”o ma an rerin gan sha” which means you sure do laugh a lot.

Well, it’s not like I laugh 24 hours a day.That would mean I’d be so busy laughing that I wouldn’t have time to live.

I don’t laugh 24 hours a day but I do my best to laugh as often as I can.

King Solomon said, “A merry heart doeth good like medicine.”

This probably explains one of the reasons I haven’t used medication in over ten years.(Well, except you vitamin C in that category).I say this to the glory of God.

Too often, we get caught up in the tension of everyday life that we forget to keep our hearts merry and our lives joyful.We forget that we need the oil of joy for the engines of our emotions to perform optimally.We focus so intently on what we are yet to receive and forget to celebrate and thank God for what He has given us so far.

So let me ask you, “Are you too busy to laugh?”

When was the last time you had a really good laugh.I’m not talking about a complimentary smile to pacify a friend who just shared a joke.I’m talking about heartfelt,rib-cracking laughter that brings unsolicited tears of joy to your eyes.That may lengthen your life bey a few days, weeks, months or who knows, years!

Don’t say there’s nothing to laugh about.You bet there is…even if the only reason to laugh is that there’s no reason to laugh.(Does that make sense?)

Do yourself a huge favor, brighten your life with joy and let your laughter bring hope to somebody around you.

I hope I’ve been of help.

If you are still frowning, it could be I’ve done a bad job or you are just…

Meanwhile I have a gift for you here.

I have nothing against college degrees.

I am privileged to have one in Chemical Engineering.

However, it is necessary for us to constantly remind ourselves that what we achieve in life has a lot more to do with education than it has to do with degrees.

It is important that we observe that the people who become the most successful (at least by natural definition are those who follow their passion and not necessarily highly esteemed professions or careers.

The most successful people are those who make their calling their careers

and their purpose their profession.

What you have been given by God has tremendous power to produce significant results inspite of anything you do not currently possess.

I am pleased to present to you a list of globally respected CEO’s who never got college degrees yet went on to build businesses that are changing the world.

Some of them dropped out for some reason.Others never stepped on the soil of a college campus but they all made it against all odds.Today, some of these CEO’s employ PhD holders….hmmmm….food for thought.

Read on and be inspired.

1. Dennis Albaugh

Chairman, Albaugh
Type of Business: Pesticides
Education: Associate’s degree from Des Moines Area Community College
Fun fact: He has a collection of more than 100 classic Chevrolets

2. Paul Allen

Founder and chairman, Vulcan
Type of Business: Media, telecommunications
Education: Dropped out of Washington State College after two years
Fun fact: He persuaded Bill Gates to drop out of Harvard. They later founded Microsoft (MSFT) together.

3. Richard Branson

CEO, Virgin Group
Type of Business: Travel, radio, TV, music, venture capital
Education: No college degree
Fun fact: He became an entrepreneur at age 16 with the creation of Student magazine.

4. Maverick Carter

CEO, LRMR Innovative Marketing & Branding
Type of Business: Marketing
Education: 3.5 years of college at Western Michigan University and University of Akron combined
Quote: “Don’t be afraid if you see an opportunity to go and give it shot. You can finish school later; it’s always there.”

5. John Paul DeJoria

CEO, John Paul Mitchell Systems
Type of Business: Hair-care products
Education: No college
Fun fact: He started out selling greeting cards at age 9.

6. Michael Dell

Founder, chairman, and CEO Dell (DELL)
Type of Business: Computers
Education: Attended University of Texas, Austin; did not finish.
Quote: “When I started our company, it was very much an idea outside of the conventional wisdom, and if there were people telling me that it wasn’t going to work, I wasn’t really listening to them.”

7. Felix Dennis

Founder and chairman, Alpha Media Group, formerly Dennis Publishing
Type of Business: Publishing (Maxim, The Week)
Education: No college degree
Fun fact: He wrote a biography and published a magazine about Bruce Lee; sales surged when the martial arts star died suddenly in 1973.

8. Barry Diller

Chairman and CEO of IAC/InterActiveCorp (IACI)
Type of Business: Media
Education: Dropped out of UCLA after three weeks
Fun fact: He started his career working in the mail room of the William Morris Agency.

9. Bill Gates

Co-chair and Trustee, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation; Chairman, Microsoft (MSFT)
Type of Business: Philanthropy. Software.
Education: Dropped out of Harvard
Fun fact: As a schoolboy, he created a program that allowed people to play tic-tac-toe on the computer.

I had the privilege of ministering at the chapel of the Lagos University Teaching Hospital on sunday.

It was a wonderful experience, I must confess. It was nice seeing a few folks I hadn’t seen in a while.

I enjoyed the warmth and hospitality of everyone I came in contact with but what gladdens my heart the most is the fact that God counted a little boy like me worthy of being a  blessing to so many people including professors, doctors, specialists, future leaders and other VIPs.

I started by announcing that one of our greatest needs as a nation is the fear of God.

I talked about the importance of fearing God and highlighted some qualities of a God-fearing person.

I gave an acronym…G.I.F.T.

That simply stands for Godliness, Insight, Faithfulness, Truthfulness

I want to add two more attributes of a God-fearing person.

Endurance

Discipline

So you understand what I mean when I say “Are you G.I.F.T.E.D?“

You would agree that these are virtues and values that we must all cultivate and exhibit consciously.

I’m not perfect, neither are you .

I’m a project in progress, so are you…and everyday is an opportunity for us to grow in God’s grace.

Today is a good day to start making a conscious effort to grow in godliness, insight, faithfulness, truthfulness, endurance and discipline.

Commit yourself and when next you are tempted to act out of character, remind yourself that you are G.I.F.T.E.D.

You are a gift to our generation.

I promised to share more secrets with you.I’m really sorry this post is coming a little later than you anticipated.

So here you go.

Change your belief system.

The level of thinking that has brought you this far may not be good enough for your next level.

Your expectations for 2009 should be higher than those of 2008.You may say “but I was disappointed last year because my expectations were too high.” You might even be tempted to conclude like some others have that “blessed are they who have low expectations for they shall not be disappointed.”

Don’t fall into that trap.

Be Nice.

Someone once said “kindness is a fruit of the spirit not niceness.”Your guess is as good as mine-that statement is often used as an excuse for self-centredness.Don’t make it one of your favorite quotes this year.Go out of your way to do stuff for people.Now, I don’t mean you should that all the time(I don’t do that all the time but I try), but do it often till it becomes natural so that when next someone says “thanks a lot” you’d  say “it’s a pleasure” and not “it’s a pressure!”

Read at least one book every month.

Readers are Leaders.To be successful in life, you must have a deep thirst for kowledge.To be effective this  year you must read.You must read people, situations and books.A book gives you an opportunity to learn what the author knows without necessarily going through the pain and heartache he/she went through to learn those things.

Browse the internet regularly.

This is 2009 not 1999 and if you are far from the internet, you’d be stuck with some really old ways of thinking and obsolete strategies.There’s so much informaton on the internet.There are great sites that provide information on a pluralty of subjects-from personal and professional development to internet marketing and wealth creation. Take advantage of such sites.Most of them are free.Don’t watch the world pass you by.

Work like you’ll only live once on this earth.

This year, work like you’ll only live once because you’ll only live once on this earth.

You have so much in you but the only way you’d ever realise your true potential is to work on and with your gifts.Work is an opportunity to express your worth.Don’t despise work this year, embrace it.Enjoy it.

watch out for some more.