Lessons from the School of Life

I am a silent learner and runner. I enjoy learning stuff but my introverted self does the learning in private and quietly. Then I love with the stuff I learn. Turns out this is not a new trait. My parents are constantly making fun of that I did not crawl, apparently one day they found me walking – straight from baby walker to walking without having crawled. Another instance of this runner at work, I was supposed to have done three years in nursery school but somehow got skipped from nursery two to standard one without going through nursery three. So I was probably created to be a learner and runner.

How short term limitations can steal your dream

Over the last few weeks, I have been thinking about how to make some changes to some aspects of the Lapid Leaders Experience. God had given me a vague picture of the end product, but the in between was still very unclear, and so I ended up talking to an uncle for ideas on how to effect this vision. This uncle told me that he would link me up with some influential people in his circles who could then give me ideas on how to effect the changes. The people he wanted to link me up with were in my books not a good idea, I felt that they would be inaccessible and would not be in a position to put in the hours to the vision I was working on. However, my uncle disagreed with me. He told me that my problem was that I was thinking of the short term headache rather than focusing on the long term goal. He told me that my long term goal was best served by these influential people that he wanted to introduce me to.

Why you must pursue a ridiculous dream

Over the last few weeks, God has been challenging my faith! I consider myself a person of faith, I mean who quits a ‘high-flying job’ and starts a venture like Lapid Leaders Africa, only a woman of faith, right?! However, over the last few weeks God has been telling me that He’s not impressed by this my faith. Every week I have told Him, really God? Really? I literally live by faith not by sight and you tell me you are not impressed? And the answer has been a resounding yes~

Love is Hard!

Today we held a training for the Lapid Leaders Council (LLC). LLC is the governing body that the graduates from the 3-month program transition to so as to enlist into our mission to raise an army of the next generation of African Leaders. Anywho, while we were praying after the LLC training, I felt God leading us strongly to this verse,  1 Corinthians 13: 1-3″If I could speak all the languages of earth and of angels, but didn’t love others, I would only be a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. If I had the gift of prophecy, and if I understood all of God’s secret plans and possessed all knowledge, and if I had such faith that I could move mountains, but didn’t love others, I would be nothing. If I gave everything I have to the poor and even sacrificed my body, I could boast about it; but if I didn’t love others, I would have gained nothing.”

How to raise funds for your vision

I get asked by many people where the finances to support Lapid Leaders Africa (LLA) come from. Infact a few months ago, a friend asked me if we had managed to raise funds from donors. I remember thinking, how I wish we had. Lapid Leaders has been built on sacrifices (I have written more on this in this blog here). We are in the process of developing the 2016-7 strategy of LLA and so I am thinking about financial sustainability a lot more. Where does any vision bearer get the finances to run the vision God gives them?  After all without finances, the vision stays on paper. Turns out we are not the frst vision-bearers, and we can learn a lot from vision-bearers who have gone before us.

The No 1 Thing That Will Hold You Back As A Leader

A couple of months ago, I received the financial report of my former employer. As I went through it, I was in awe of the progress they have made in the one year since I left them. However, somewhere at the back of my mind, I was disappointed at this progress. Somehow I had thought that after I exited, this organisation would collapse and sink into losses. Okay I’ve exaggerated but you get the point. I had done a good job at this my former employer, and so when I left, a very silent part of me had waited for the day I would be able to say, ‘yee I left and the organisation even noticed’! Vanity, I know! But I know we all have such silent thoughts, we are just bright enough to keep them at the very back of our heads.

Don’t sweat the small stuff

They say that every person who jumps from formal employment to the world of entrepreneurship always faces a day or a month or even an hour when that decision is put to test, the ‘day of reckoning’. As I celebrate one year of God’s faithfulness, I am conscious that my day of reckoning came in November last year. I left employment with such a naïve mindset. This naïve mindset has served me well (you can read this blog for more on this). The first few months of this decision were such an easy ride. Up until November happened.

I miss my fat bank account

This week will mark a year since I took a leap of faith from a high-flying, formal job to the madness of the uncertain, informal world that I felt God was calling me to. I love unwinding experiences, it is how I learn and grow from one ‘glory to another’. I am therefore spending some time reflecting on the past one year and the things God has taken me through. I am hoping I can share a few of the things that I have seen, the lessons I have picked in that one year. Buckle up and enjoy the ride. One of the hardest lessons has been around finances, I will give you some background information.

Collapsed buildings and all

A comment that was made by one of the Lapid Leaders in a seminar we recently held has stuck with me. We were discussing the events that transpired as part of #OccupyPlayGround. He said that within a few weeks we will have forgotten this issue and a new issue will be trending. A few weeks earlier in a similar seminar, we had been discussing #MyDressMyChoice. Now #MyDressMyChoice was history and we had moved on to #OccupyPlayGround. Perhaps our ability to move on is a gift, maybe, perhaps, no?

The dream team

Last Sunday I attended 2 services in 2 different churches, I either am an addict of churches or am a church hopper. I am still chewing on that, I would like to believe I am neither of the 2 but hey, attending 2 services in a day is not normal, right? Interestingly, both these services left me with a similar message, a build up to last week’s blogpost (you can read last week’s post here).