Akin Aregbesola

This is my blog.  My own personal blog, and the only place on the internet where I am free to express my mind sincerely, without fear of stepping on somebody’s toes.

I am aware that some of my thoughts may appear boastful and provocative.  Some persons may wonder why I choose to ‘leak’ my secrets in public.  Factly speaking, I really would have loved to keep all the boasts and all the secrets of my person, my family, my finances, and my business to myself.  But God has directed otherwise.  Over the past 2 years, he has reminded me consistently that I did not go through some of these experiences for my sake only, but for such a time as this, that somebody may have companion via them.

He has directed that I share them so that someone may benefit; so that another may know that God is not unaware of his seemingly very bad situation.  As much as many will hate it for being so blunt, it will also be an eye opener, an encourager, a source of hope for a few.  I hope that you will be one of this few.

1. I failed to come out tops in SITP, so did not get job as permanent staff with Shell
2. I failed in my bid to setup a computer school in Warri.  I packed up after 4 months.
3. I failed to get a job or setup a new business in PH.
4. I failed in my efforts to travel abroad
5. I failed in 2 different attempts at marriage
6. I failed in a business partnership
7. I failed to secure a bank loan to boost my business

Lesson learnt from my failures

1. I am not met to be an employee, but an employer
2. Haven stayed in Warri for over 6 years at that time, I had stayed and learnt enough.  It was time for me to move on
3. Port Harcourt was not in God’s agenda for me at that point in my life
4. I was not ripe for travel.  God had not even started preparing me for international travels
5. They were the wrong women
6. If I did not fail then, I still would have failed later on after so much had been put into the business.
7. I dint need the loan.  It would have retarded my progress, indirectly

God has created every man to do something for Him.  Some people in the world to help others fulfill their destinies.  Sometime, there is need for team work.  You don’t live in isolation.  You just might be alive so as  to help you dad, your mum, your uncle, your cousin or even a stranger avert some health hazard or situations that will keep him alive long enough to fulfill his own destiny.  Do you think God will be happy with you if you now run away from that responsibility?

If God destined for you to be in Lagos at t particular era of your life, and because of family dependency you run away to USA to you can be alone to enjoy your life, do you reckon that your sojourn in the USA will be successful?

Maybe you are the only rich man in the midst of many poor people in your family or in your neighborhood.  Maybe you are the only male child in the midst of many female children.  Maybe you are the first borne, in a unique kind of way.  Maybe you are only completely healthy person in the midst of your siblings. Don’t these send signals? Don’t you think God is trying to tell you something?  You must sit down, meditate upon this and discover why?  You just might have a destiny to be a small redeemer.  If you take up this responsibility, God will bless you and provide the resources you need to accomplish.

On the contrary, if you run away from the responsibility, you will not only be hurting yourself, you will also be delaying the delivery of the persons for whom you are destined to be destiny-helper.

Remember that God’s blessing often come slowly but constant, especially as attached to the job that He has given you to do for Him.

My Example: My mum is late now.  She died in 2004.

After my service year in Warri, I remain there for another 8 years.  The real reason was because I wanted to be far away from my sick mother, and be relived of the extra work of having to be directly responsible for her drugs and all.  But after several failures to setup a business in Warri, and then PH, I had very little choice but to return to Lagos.  That automatically meant taking charge of my mum’s situation as the first, and only working child.

After a while, I rented my own apartment but I still preferred that she lived on her own.  After I was prevailed upon by my uncles, I reluctantly brought my mum over to live with me in my flat, after all I wasn’t married at that time.

Within 6 months of doing this, things began to brighten up for me.  I remember a particular day I delivered a seminar.  The turnout was good and I made some good money.  I walked up to her in her room and handed over N10,000 to her to whatever she wanted.  She was so surprised, that despite having to buy drugs regularly, the inconvenience of taking her to hospital now and then, I could still give her money.  She got emotional, asked me to kneel down, and prayed for me.  She prophesied so many good things about international travels, good marriage, beautiful life, etc. that are fasting coming true today.

The message is there is a blessing attached to every responsibility God has given you.  Take the responsibility and enjoy the attached blessing.  At the end of the day, the blessing will swallow the work, and you will only be happy you did not run away.

They are counting people, but .  They are greeting everyone, but when you extend your arm for a handshake, you were jumped over because you are not important.  No one sees anything good in you.  You are ridiculed and relegated to the background.  Now they have succeeded in making you so timid that you have lost your self confidence.  You have even condemned yourself, and now blaming God and asking questions “what is this aura around me that make people resent me so much?”

I have good news for you!  There are enemies around looking for talents and destinies to devour.  You are nobody now so they can Passover you.  When you case comes up in coven, they will say, no need to waste time on that one, he is already nobody.  Let’s take the next person.  This way, they will continue to ‘jump you pass’ until God has completed His work inside of you and puts His glory on you.  At that time, it will be too late for the enemy to act.  They would only wish they had recognized the potential in you much earlier.

My only warning is, despite the negative circumstances surrounding you, NEVER give up on yourself because God himself is preparing you for much greater heights than you can ever imagined.  If you were perfect, you would think it was by your efforts.  He has reserved the glory of making somebody out of your present nobody, for Himself, and Himself only.  Sorrow may last till night but joy comes in the morning.  Your morning is around the corner.  Never give up.

During my childhood days in the village back in the then Bendel State of Nigeria, we would trek to the stream, some 4Km away to fetch water.  Sometime, when water scarcity hit so bad, the crowd will be so much; so the tranquility of the water will be disturbed; so the bolder ones will move closer and closer to the source of the water in attempt to get cleaner water.  Occasionally, the entire stream will be so disrupted that no one will be able to get clean water for the entire day.

Surprisingly, the early morning the next day when we return to the stream, the water would not only be there flowing effortlessly from the source, it will be sparkling.  Behold clean water again, after the struggle, distruption, and temporary unavailability the previous day.

This is my analogy of true wealth.  In my opinion, wealth is not the money you had yesterday, nor the money that you have now.  It is the guarantee that irrespective of the situation and the economic circumstances surrounding you today, there is a constant supply of money because you have taken all the precautions to protect the actual source of the money.

It is a mentality of not being afraid to spend today’s money because of fear that the money would be gone once it is spent.  It is a positive mentality of I must do what I have to do today because I believe that by tomorrow, my source would have generated even cleaner money as long as I take those precaution to protect the source.

First it starts as a thing of the mind, as you being to live it, it begins to get real.

My Example: If anyone told me I was going to be a tithe payer, I would argue it.  But for two years now, I have paid tithe regularly.  Tithe paying and giving generally, are part of the precautions I have taken to protect my source.  An believe me, it works.  My account never dries for long.  Even in times of financial turbulence, I act in faith and God has never disappointed me.  Just at the niche of time, my accounts will provide the funds that I need for any purpose/project.  I have never borrowed from any bank or any individual.  I don’t even pray to borrow any more.  Rather, I am delighted for God to use me as Lender.  I partner with Him to answer people’s prayers on lending.

The monies may not necessarily come in Millions, but at the end of the day, I am able to accomplish that which I plan.  It has never failed me.

I believe that God has destined everyone to be rich and comfortable.  But human nature has made this original plan only an illusion.

I believe that just as everyman is unique in their physical appearance, with different curvature, different shapes and sized of facial organs, different structures of dentiture, so also are our destinies uniquely different from one another’s.  A fundamental problem with man is that we try, consciously or unconsciously, to imitate others.  But we cannot reach God’s destination for us by going in another’s path, who probably has successfully reached his destination.

In our quest for comfort for example, one person makes it big by winning a government contact worth N100M.  Suddenly, everyone who wants to make it big is looking for government contracts.  Maybe another two persons whose destinies also lie along that path also get contract.  The others feel that God does not love them; and they are discouraged.

The point here is, even though we are all met to be rich, we are met to be rich through different and unique ways.  Some may make a Million Dollars from one contract, others may be destined for businesses that make $1 from a million persons; yet others may be destined to make their Million Dollars, but only in helping others discover their destinies.

The mistake we make is to believe that because we have failed to make money where everyone else has made money so easily, God hates us.  Therefore, we resign to our fate.

I believe strongly that if you would just go a step further to find out what your unique destiny is, you will be setting the foundation right and solid, for wealth creation that will even outlive you and your generation.

My Example: Prior to setting up my company in January 2003, I had failed in

• Gaining employment with Shell after a one year pre-requisite training with them
• An attempt to setup my own computer training school.  I ran it for about 3 months, and packed up
• An attempt to first, get a paid job in PH, and then an attempt to setup a computer training school. I had to come to Lagos after about 3 months of failed attempts
• My partnership with an old trainee of mine to setup IT Consults.  Failed after 6 months of operation
• 2 attempt to travel out of the country in search of ‘greener pasture’

After all these failures between January 2000 and December 2002, I had a meditation session with God in December 2002.  I laid all my complaints about how I was a failure in everything I attempted, and how He must help me get out of this country to save my face.  But he asked me, what do you have?

I said to Him “I have nothing, you have not given me anything but you have given everyone around me something”  But the question kept coming back to me “what do you have?”.  Reluctantly, I said first to myself and then in the meditation, the only thing anyone ever agrees I am good at is teaching computer.  And He said “that is it; therein lies your talent, your destiny, your money”.

I came out of that meditation with a strong feeling of I “thank God I have made it”.  And that propelled me to begin to do things.  Without an office of my own, without equipment, and with just enough money to run 2 adverts, I started my company.  By the end of the first month, I made over N600,000, more than enough to take care of all I had to put in place to start the business.  And there has been no going back ever since.

The business is over 8 years old now, with annual turnover of over N75M, four branches, and about 50 staff.  Most importantly, because I have discovered my destiny-business (to impact lives positive through training) and I remain in that business, I believe that everything I have achieved in the business thus far is like the glory of the former that cannot compare with the glory of the latter reign, which is ahead.

God does not punish or reward a man by his prayers, or his church attendance.  Neither does He punish or reward a man, contrary to popular belief, by his actions.  God judges by the motive behind a man’s action or inaction.

On the other side of life, it should not be surprising to find one “murderer” in heaven and another “murderer” in hell.  Or one “small” pastor in heaven, and some “big” pastor in hell.  Or even a mere title-less church member in heaven, and his great teacher/mentor/reverend in hell.  Thousands of “criminals” of will be declared not just innocent but saints, and their places will be swapped with the “innocents” that we today hold in high esteem and reverence.

Those who have done great things to impress men would have reaped the reward from the accolades of men.  Some would have done great things to meet their own needs and satisfy their mortal bodies.  Some others may have done great things for the attached recognition and reward of this world – all selfish motives but difficult, maybe impossible to decipher.  But the true reason will be imprinted in their conscience.

At judgment, this memory chip called conscience will be retrieved and played before all.  Then the real reasons we have done the things you did, the truth, will be revealed.  God’s judgment will be based on this truth.

Only those things that we do out of genuine love, irrespective of whether they appear wrong or right in the eyes of human, will attract God’s reward, in this world and in the life to come.

Dreams do come true

Let me count a few of my achievements

• my own small company of over 50 staff, and 4 branches
• Several travels and family vacations to many countries of the world on my own account
• 13 cars in the last 10 years
• 2 properties in Lagos

Considering where I am coming from, and the fact that I practically went through the struggle on my own, I consider the above great achievements!

But I never at anytime in my life wrote these down as dreams that I longed to realize.  If I ever wrote down anything, it would be some 25 years ago when my idea of an accomplished man was to live and raise a family in a room & palor apartment as a teacher in some city.  Even in my wildest imagination, I never dreamt of owning half the things I control today.

In the process of these and many more personal achievements, I have come to discovery that dreams can come true in one of two ways:

1. The selfish way:  Struggle all by yourself, and accomplish everything by your efforts, energy, etc
2. The selfless way: Commit your struggles to God; in exchange for part of others’ struggle

The first option will give you result.  But the 2^nd option will give you much greater, with much less efforts, much faster.

What is your dream? To own you own house? Then contribute to helping others build their houses.  Maybe you want to own a bigger car? Then buy a small one for someone.  To travel abroad, help someone realize his dream of travelling abroad.

Rather than keep complain about God not answering prayers, you volunteer to answer the prayers of people around you, on God’s behalf.  What you sow, you will surely reap.

My Example: I have contributed to building houses for my relations.  I have actually have to build a complete house from start to finish for a close aged relation of mine.  I have bought a car for someone.  I have handed over one of my used cars to a relation.

Then you can imagine then that I am riding the latest car in town and own properties in choice places on Lekki axis of Lagos.  Now the idea is not to boast about these things.  The idea is to prove to you that these principles are not just theoretical.  They work!  At least, they are working for me.  I do not know another way to prove this order that to let you into some of my personal secrets.

The tendency now is for you to say well, I am doing these because I have the money.  You will be getting it all wrong.  My message is not that I am doing all this all by myself using option 1 above.  Rather it is that I have used option 2 of how to realize your dream above and it works:  I did not have money to buy my own car and my properties and all; but God made the way because I was helping Him take care of smaller businesses for other people.

Start practicing this today.  I assure you of your own testimony within a few months.