Category Archives: hustlers

Don’t trivialize that Gift…

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Something made me decide to write about this yesterday…

Part of my JD at work is to assist the Lady in charge of the Alumni body. Usually, I end up doing all the behind the scenes work but she is in charge because a Corper can’t be in charge seeing that our days are usually numbered here.

We are planning an Alumni reunion this December and so we have been working closely with the Alumni President in reaching out to the Body who happen to be everywhere in the world.

So yesterday, we had to send an email and then the babe just says

‘Ehen Eziaha, please help me draft a mail, containing this this and that’.

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I interrupted what I was doing to draft it and then I heard her attempt to explain to someone what she wanted me to do and that was where wahala started.

She couldn’t put it together in words to explain. It was too funny. She just kept talking rubbish till she just told the Person, ‘please eh, just go and ask Eziaha, that is why I told her to put the thoughts in my head together in writing because I know how good she is with crystallizing and then selling ideas, including writing.’

When I was done, I told her to come see it. It took me like 7mins to put it together and they kept gushing at the final piece. In fact, I told her to read though while I went for a class so imagine all the fussing when I got in. The mail for her was just perfect… a good combo of official and casual.

It hit me.

This thing didn’t even cost me anything to write or explain. It came too easily. Too easy I may have even trivialized it.

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There and then, I said a quick THANK YOU JESUS.

Funny how because we can do some things very easily, we just trivialize it. It would amaze you as to how HARD it is for others to do it. There is no trivial or useless gift God gives us. Every gift or talent or skill (to take it a step further) can be a wealth creating avenue…

A man’s gift makes a way for Him and brings him before great men… Proverbs 18;16

Who would have thought Public speaking would ever become a career, yielding millions in Nigeria. Or even cooking fancifully termed CHEF? Heck, Events planning. I am constantly amazed as to how parties that used to be planned by ‘Aunty’ (usually your mom’s sister or dad’s sis) is now a big deal with fancy titles and even fancier figures… Choi!!! Every thing is an event today… Na wah… Or image consultants? People who help you pick out the right dresses for events. Haba!!! Even area boys is a gift/skill ooo.  I am not even kidding… That you can do something easily doesn’t mean everyone else can ooo. Look for those who can’t and who need your services and sell your gift or better still, your skills (polished/honed/trained gifts) for a fee. You may have to do it for free first, you may even be begging people to let you do it for free and before you know it, wham!!! Before you know it, the big bucks be rolling in.

Do you wanna ask Linda Ikeji or Bella Naija?

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Or my favorite translation… The Message…

Observe people who are good at their work—
skilled workers are always in demand and admired;
they don’t take a backseat to anyone.

OPERATIVE WORD: SKILLED

Nuff said…

Muah

E’

PS

Here is a picture of Uche’s baby that I mentioned here.

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Her naming is tomorrow. I am sure I have been forgiven already if I don’t make it… :)

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My girl Uche was up and running by the next day… WOW!!! I was super impressed and amazed. Again Congrats hun. I would have said ‘Now you can close shop since you have a boy and girl’ but Frank says we are going to 12 so… GOOD LUCK!!! Hehehehe

Inspiration FM and Values…

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Prepping for work this morning, I tune to Inspiration FM which is easily my fave radio station. 

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Two guys who I am NOT fans of were on. I think they were the same two guys who stood in for Wanawana when she was out for a while. I found them too garrulous so I stopped listening till she got back.
Well this morning they were on Dan Foster’s spot and the topic was Cheating. One of the guys told a story of an exam he had to write recently and he drew a blank. He also had no calculator so the invigilator allowed him use his phone. The lady trusted him to NOT google.

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Just use the calc app to help. Being that he was blank, he considered cheating and googling up the answers. He most likely wouldn’t have been caught. So he posed the question, ‘what would you do if you were in same situation?’
Lemme share something I heard from my darling Pastor Bimbo (God rest her soul).

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She used to tell us then that we can’t say we don’t steal (fornicate, cheat, etc) when we have NOT yet been put in a position when we can afford to get away with commiting such vices and we do NOT. No point claiming to be this or that when you have NOT been tried. Of course we recognize that there are some things one just knows that one cannot just do because of VALUES. 
So people called in. My problem didn’t stem from the fact that some people said they will cheat. It came from two things…
1. The brazenness with which they said it and made it look like any other thing you did, you are just dulling and should be ashamed of your choice. 

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2. The way the presenters tackled anyone who claimed they would NOT cheat. Infact the ones that said they would cheat were praised for their honesty and ‘being true and being themselves’. The ones who mistakenly mentioned that they were Christians were tackled and I do mean TACKLED. ‘Are you Pope John Paul?’ ‘Are you saying you have NEVER cheated?’ ‘People sha like pretending’ ‘The way he even claimed to be Christian was not pure’ ‘Final exam ooo. You would repeat if you fail’ Chai. I was beyond mortified. They were NOT saying this just to TEST the people ooo. They were saying it as a yabis. One even said some exams are wired to enable cheating. 
Does it ever occur to people that BEING YOURSELF can also be you telling the truth? If I called in, I would have BEEN myself totally. And being myself means I would NOT cheat. I won’t even consider it.

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I was a diligent student so I studied usually, but even then because I had commitments in church and played politics too, I didn’t always study as much as I wanted to. I had drawn up incredible blanks in exams especially final year. I cried after some papers. In some instances, cheating would have been breeze. I didn’t even think in that line. My criminology lecturer (who I had intense love and respect for) would always say ‘It is more homorable to fail than to cheat’

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In that final year, I had a GPA of 6.7/7.0 (UI uses 7.0 grading system not 5.0). Infact I had this confession in school, ‘Nobody that cheats has the right to score higher than me in ANY paper’. That’s why I made BEST GRADUATING STUDENT. 

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I’m allowed to brag some… Hehehehe
See eh, there is something called VALUE.

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It guides your decisions whether people are watching you or not. It wasn’t because I was a Pastor in school that I didn’t cheat. I could have been in Kafanchan where no one knows me and still wouldn’t. I recall writing GCE. I had spanked WAEC but momma wanted me to write GCE just because…
In my centre, which had some ‘special candidates’ , they were telling them the answers.

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Infact they separated us, and you need to see the way the ones who didn’t pay were hustling to get answers from the ‘special ones’. It was funny but sad too. I was too uninterested. Disgust must have shown on my face. One of the ladies came to me to ask why I wasn’t showing any interest in that charade. She now wanted to help me. I told her to shove it. I turned in my paper and walked out. It was day 1. I didn’t show up again. I couldn’t stand it abeg. I knew either I was beaten or I’ll slap someone. Hehhehe  

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Same with stealing. No matter how convenient, stealing won’t ever appeal to me. 
Same with fornication or aristoism. It can’t appeal to me. 
My point is Let your values guide you.

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Values by the way is a positive term so good values is just tautology. Make your values. Stand by them even if unpopular. Never ever let anyone make you apologize for your values. And please teach your children same. 
There is a paucity of role models out there. BE ONE… Posterity will thank you. 

Stay FAB darlings
E’

PS:
Inspiration FM annoys me some times. Today was one of those days. You guys claim tp be a family station. Imagine kids listening to that rubbish this morning….
Btw, dude finally said he didn’t cheat but anyi g’aju onye?

PPS;
Always an Attitude o’ Gratitude starts tomorrow.  Whoop. I am ready. Very ready… Feel free to use the comments section to be a part. Lets make this fun and inclusive… Deal?
Lezzdodis….

PPPS
Shout out to Tani who gave me dinner yesterday and took this picture hehehe
I love it so I’m adding it…

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Cute yeah?

I’ma HUSTLER… I’ma A’ma HUSTLER…

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   No one makes it in this life by sheer muscle/hustle 1 Sam 2;9 The Message

The Amplified bible for a while has been my mainest. I love how it amplifies the Word. Plus tz my momsy’s mainest too. Joyce Meyer.

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Before the AMP, the NLT was it ooo. I could not read two lines in the NKJV which is sorta like a constant, without referring to the NLT. Recently, I felt drawn back to my First Love, Eugene Peterson’s The Message BIBLE.

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If you find the KJV and stuff boring, please feel free to get TM and you would feel like you are discussing 21st century stuff with 21st century people. It is so cool. I love the way it breaks the gospel down to what young people especially can relate with. Of course, you can’t read TM alone. You gotta read it alongside a more ‘serious’ version but I love me my TM anyways. The scripture above makes me love it even more… If you back up a bit, you would see that that was Hannah’s song of praise after she bore Samuel, the Boss. Let us bring this down to today, especially Nigeria… Too many hustlers!!! Hustlers for life!!!

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And they are proud calling themselves HUSTLERS!!! The kinda curses we bring on our selves sha… A’ma hustler, A’ma a’ma hustler… na wa ooo Btw, allow me to define HUSTLING by popular opinion. But before I do, please indulge me in this exercise. When I say hustle, what is the first thing that comes to your mind… certainly NOT a stress-less auto cruise life, where no matter the effort you put in, the results are always a hundred fold more. No sir!!! I bet the first thing that comes to your mind is sweat, stress, traffic, shoving, etc… Now on to some definitions I got for HUSTLE To push roughly. To jostle. Make money doing something slightly shady. To push or force ones way. To sweat through something. To shove. To sell or promote energetically and aggressively. My favorite has to be; To make STRENOUS efforts to obtain especially money or business. (www.iword.com) In Lagos parlance; To wake up very early, struggle through the Lagos traffic, complete with drivers and conductors, trek under the sun, wait for an upward of 3hours to see an ‘oga’ only to be re-scheduled at rush hour, and all sorts of other crazy things that Lagosians go through… LOL More definitions here and they are NOT pretty Sweetheart, HUSTLING is NOT the way. I don’t care what you define hustle as, we all know what anyone means when they say ‘I jus dey hustle’. Please allow me to introduce you to the BLESSING. The blessing of the Lord that maketh rich and addeth no HUSTLE (Proverbs 10;22) The BLESSING that makes life rich… The BLESSING that makes TRULY rich and adds NO sorrow, neither does TOILING/HUSTLING increase it. The sort of BLESSING that makes you achieve what others sweat and HUSTLE to achieve VERY stresslessly. Can we turn on the BLESSING and turn off the HUSTLE for life!!!

Allow me to also introduce you to the GRACE of God. Grace that acts as a sort of lubricant making us glide through life easily. I know what Grace can do and I know the difference between Grace living and hustling. As a student, there were times I would HUSTLE in studying. Spend all night studying, reading almost everything. I used to SWEAT and TOIL to achieve high grades. When the grades came, yes I felt fulfilled but that paled in comparison to what I felt later. In my last two years, especially my final year, I turned on GRACE… Oh I enjoyed an academic life of Grace. I was busy doing student politics and Church HOD work and my study time reduced. So when it was time to study, I knew I could NEVER cover it all with the limited time I had. I would just tap into GRACE. Grace that would make me cover JUST WHAT I NEED to cover and no more. When the exams came, I would spank the papers easily mehn!!! I recall SOC 422 vividly. We had about 24 topics to cover and only 6 questions would come out in exams, to answer 4. I knew I could NEVER finish reading it all. Grace took over literally. Grace and Mercy I would say. Cos God directed me to a very sparse few to read and wham!!! More than half came out of what I read. The rest, I used Spritual ogboju to answer and MERCY took over. Mercy!!! Oh MERCY… Not getting what you deserve. I didn’t deserve it but guess who got an Aplus when the results were out? Mba, NOT the Hustlers. E’ My final year result was the BEST ever. Whenever I feel down a teensy bit, I bring out my transcript. It tells me a story of GRACE like nothing else. It reminds me that my muscle and hustle did not bring as much as GRACE brought. Please can we turn on the GRACE and MERCY of God and turn off the HUSTLING for life!!!

Allow me to talk to you about FAVOUR for a minute. Getting what you DO NOT DESERVE. Oh I recall hustling to get a particular school where they would have paid me LESS for my NYSC, and maybe I would be in one staff room with a dozen other teachers. I made calls, got insulted sef by security man, hustled, would go there EVERY DAY sweating to get accepted. Whaosai!!! They were tossing and turning me for the flimsiest reason. I was getting almost frustrated. Till God in His infinite mercy turned on His favor for me, after a very short prayer I said.

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Like play like play, my present Boss told someone to have me call her and she practically threw me an offer I could NOT resist. The pay is great, working environment FANTASTIC and I get driven to and fro work daily, and I can take the day off like I like.

That, my dear is what I call FAVOR… Can we just speak the FAVOUR of God over our lives daily and turn off the HUSTLE forever?

I love the easy life. Dem no swear for me… Some of you like to HUSTLE and even derive some sort of REP from being called a HUSTLER or saying ‘We just dey hustle’ and so beef those of us who have decided to turn on the FAVOR, THE GRACE, THE MERCY and of course NGOZICHUKWU , that is THE BLESSING… I don’t!!!

I HATE STRESS!!!

I am LAZY, sorry. If there is an easy way, I want it.

No be by who carry block and sweat pass ooo, it is by who KNOWS THAT NO ONE MAKES IT IN THIS LIFE BY SHEER MUSCLE ALONE

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Please before you quote Genesis where God cursed Adam and said that man would have to sweat and all, please allow me to introduce you to THE FINISHED WORK on the cross that has redeemed us from that curse. Aren’t you just grateful for that second Adam?

Recently, a friend of mine shared with me an amazing testimony. He was sitting pretty in his office when he got this mail. A certain church bought some lands and needed a Lawyer to work on the papers and stuff. They chose him. He didn’t apply ooo. They just knew he was a Lawyer Let me fastforward to the part where I tell you that the profit from that business ran into well over 5million naira, after all the expenses have been made ooo. As in, he didn’t hustle for it. God just brought it to Him. That is a combo of the BLESSING, FAVOR,GRACE and MERCY… in the million proportion that I love. Did I mention that this person is such a sower and a diligent worker in church? And even at his job…

By the way, that verse in other versions is simply BY STRENGTH SHALL NO MAN PREVAIL… Yes that popular scripture you know.

Make no mistake darling. I am not knocking diligence and promoting laziness. As a student, I studied with the free time I had and even spent some nights awake. The anointing doesn’t rest on LAZY people. The anointing repels laziness. I am in no way promoting a lazy life. As a Believer, you sef know that you cannot afford to be lazy. Find something to do, give your best to it. But if you are relying on mere muscle alone, then I am so sorry for you.

If you need to labor however darling, please labour in the Word. Find a scripture for that thing you are trusting God for and labour in your confessions. Sow!!! As Christians who wanna enjoy THE BLESSING, we can let our seed do the hustling for us. Pay your tithe and sow seeds too. Both to the church and to the life of men who are daily showing us what it is to be A BLESSED BLESSING (Please insert Rev Albert’s name here and Pastor Kingsley Okonkwo, my amazing Fathers). And please be active in God’s vineyard too, the Church. You can’t be giving all your life to work COMPULSORILY and then when it comes to church, you go only when you are tired or have the time. Then of course, be diligent in your work. VERY DILIGENT… The BLESSING repels laziness ooo. But to trust in that strength of yours alone is to be a HUSTLER… Speaking of sowing, a Hustler can’t sow. Because all your results are from hustling… No Grace factor. How you wan take sow na…? It will be like sowing your blood.

Let me end with this beautiful line that I heard from a Pastor in COZA… The message is THE DYNAMICS OF GRACE… He said,

THERE IS A PLACE OF GRACE. IF YOUR LIFE IS ALL ABOUT WHAT YOU HAVE EARNED (by your HUSTLE/MUSCLE), YOU ARE NOT UNDER GRACE. THERE MUST BE ROOM FOR GOD’S GRACE, GOD’S DIVINE SURPRISES…

Turn off the HUSTLE, turn on The BLESSING, THE GRACE THE MERCY AND THE FAVOUR OF THE LORD…

GRACE-FULLY Yours’

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E’