You know, in Genesis 2:21,22, the Bible does not say explicitly how the LORD God “made” the woman for man. For the animals, it was very clear, “out of the ground the LORD God formed every beast of the field…” Gen 2:19. And in chapter 2:7, “And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground.” But, for the woman, it is not clear how.

If we forget about that for a second and think about it differently, what baffles me today is how a woman born to her parents can be “made” by the LORD God to be the perfect help meet for a man born to completely different parents. The “rib” of the man is removed when? And how is it utilised to make the woman? And both become one flesh. They are perfectly made for each other. Frankly, it is the most miraculous thing I can ever imagine. Perfectly mysterious in an uncanny way.

Please make no mistake, this shaping for a perfect help-meet is not as a result of upbringing, or education, or character development, or environment, or whatever; it is not even DNA, or genetics or genes. It is something about two people whose souls are matched together. Strength meets weakness. The woman could be called the man, and the man is the perfect woman made for her, although it is often mentioned the other way round.

It is mind-boggling! Both the man and the woman were created for each other, but came into the world through different families, and marriage becomes an opportunity for them to finally unite. This relationship is much stronger and sacred than the parent-child relationship. I must argue that the tangent that enables both of them to identify the divine arrangement is love. Love will illuminate to them an arrangement made for them before they were born.

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This ruffled some feathers. I want to write at length about this, but I’ll try to control myself. I have two perspectives to look at it.

In Patrick Morley’s book, What Husbands Wish Their Wives Knew About Men, he talked about four stages of marriage: Courtship, Honeymoon, Building, Empty Nest, and Widow-(or Widower-) hood. I wrote about it at length in my note, “A Note on Love and Neglect”. (Check it out on my profile.) So, culling from his ideas, a man in Courtship or Honeymoon is not particularly himself, most especially if he’s a generally moral—where he has pent up heat and pressure within himself for years and is finally given an opportunity to express it. He might act matured and well-collected, but you have no idea what goes on in his mind: flashes of actions that are only checked if not for his values—that is, if he even has strong values. Yet once in a while, you’ll find these spurts of ridiculousness in his decisions and actions.

In love is one of the ways a man demonstrates his childlike nature. The freedom to become a child again. What do children primarily pursue or attributes demonstrative of their nature? Pleasure, security, acceptance, weakness. I argue that in love is when a man finds a crack in himself to become “alive” again. And majority of these expressions of childlikeness is in actions that can be termed ridiculous in practice.

Even in the Building phase of the man’s relationship life, when he knows his beloved in deep successions of intimacy and fellowship…if in truth, he loves his beloved unconditionally, there will be spattering flux of ridiculousness in his actions, behaviour, and practices. These actions span in almost every area of his life. He can sacrifice, let go, relinquish, and even lay his own life, honour, and respect—if need be. That makes no rational sense to clinical manhood theory socially. It’s not only about what he feels for his beloved, the goosebumps and all the weight of emotions, it’s much deeper. It’s love.

I have tried to simplify it the best my current enlightenment and time can afford me. It’s difficult to relate if you’ve never loved a beloved—even from a distance. Nothing about your actions from inception will be reasonable.

CAVEAT: I define reasonable as prioritizing your own self-interest, principled in truthy theories, and staying within the jurisprudence that govern the behaviours of men of the society you belong to. Finally, I define ridiculous as a deviation from reasonable.

Hope it helps. See you in the next one.

Wealth is the last stage of the hierarchy of growth.

“Years ago, when I was rushing around in the laboratory [conducting medical research], someone admonished me by asking, ‘Why all the busyness? One must distinguish between motion and progress’.

“Yes, at some point this distinction must be made. But it cannot always be made first. And it is not always made consciously. True, waste motion should be avoided. But, if the researcher did not move until he was certain of progress he would accomplish very little...

__Quote from PMARCA, (I think…)

The quote is just an aside. My point is that while you’re growing, do not first seek wealth creation. Wealth creation is a byproduct of meaning, and meaning is a consequence of value. Sorry if this all sounds highfalutin. But my point is that when you bring your value to the marketplace, the natural response is for the marketplace to reward you with wealth commensurate with your contributions in progressing human life.

I once quipped that if you give people an opportunity to live a better life, they will always pay you. So, on the hierarchy of the essence worth pursuing, wealth should be the last, most especially when you are young. When you are young, you want to be developing skills that will serve you in adulthood; you want to be learning how to learn, developing muscles that will serve in years to come—mental, spiritual, relational, social, and network.

In your youth, you want to invest yourself, invest your time in worthwhile projects, and find love. In your youth, you should have to find and recognise your love-match; someone you can spend at least 10 decades with in evolving intimate, purposeful, romantic and spiritual fellowship with. You also have to find love in a project or skill, or labour you find most meaningful to devote an evolving decade to. These two are more important than talent, passion, and all the warbles of success-mania.

Remember, in your youth, wealth should be the last. If you find your peers already making money, it’s not their fault, nor yours. Don’t let FOMO get in your way. If you’re learning and building, and failing, and teaching, and giving out (even for free), then you’re on the right track. Focus on process. I tell you—from my heart—money is so easy to make when you become the GOAT. (Luck will find you without stress.)

So,

I believe all convictions are received as knowledge or instruction. They are not given to us as convictions; we make them convictions. (It could be because we believe and trust the one or One who gave us such knowledge or instruction, or that we have tested and tried them through application and result.)

The challenge is if the knowledge or instruction was given to us by man—this might be other men or ourselves—it is likely to be very fallible because all a man has to give in wisdom is likely all he currently has become. But as his becoming evolves, then he has better to give in wisdom. But, if it is God that gave the instruction or knowledge, it is still subject to scrutiny, not because God is fallible, I believe that is not the case, but because our interpretations of His instruction or knowledge are what is fallible. (Every one man has a different context of application as his current becoming and environment deems fit.)

In summary, for men, what you receive from them or from your own intuition evolves as you become. And such “conviction” you held, that worked and progressed your ventures, might not be applicable any longer. And you must learn to let them go. They could be useful to other men who are currently where you were or have a particularly different context from yours. For God, as your becoming in Him evolves, your interpretation becomes better refined and as such, the application of such instruction or knowledge should be readjusted to fit what you currently have come to believe it means, as it relates to your context and ventures.

Hence, there is no conviction except the moral instructions as relating to life and love, whether in men or in God. (Don’t take away life, not even yours. Love all souls, including yours. These instructions I have made convictions because they are not only profitable for all generations but also for all contexts. Unless I’m in the army and at war, I will kill. Or something threatens my life or that of my family, then they will get a thing or two from me. Other than those, we’re good.)

I hope this helps.

Passion is the differentiator. Bishop David Oyedepo said that passion is the fuel that drives the vehicle of vision. Passion is to a vision what fuel is to a vehicle.

When you find your passion, you find momentum to move and drive your vision. If you vision is long-term, the more durable your passion must be.

Go for passion. Make a difference.

Spoiler alert: BIG UPDATE coming to Notes. I mean, really BIG update!

Let’s make a bet. And I know I’ll win the bet. I am going to win. Yeah, that was the bet.

Why will I win? Well, for one, because I’m never going to give up. And I’m never going to give up because I believe God is backing me. “Okay, Joshua, you have to be objective here.” Well, this is me being objective. God is backing me up. And when God backs anybody up, they CAN’T lose. I mean, God has a reputation of having never lost any battle. Who wouldn’t trust such a guy? I trust Him.

So, as long as I work really hard and trust Him, I will definitely win. I have designed my values for this season. Two words: Learning and Building. I’m either learning or I’m building. My time, my interest, my devotion, my…anything. The agenda is…I’m either learning or I’m building. And I think that should be the core values of Netintui. We want to be one of the most innovative media and technology companies in the world for democratizing excellence across industries. To achieve this, we have to either be learning or be building.

Learning relentlessly, and building maniacally. And adjust the rudder along the way.

Onwards!!!

For the most part, it’s easy for youths to disdain life. I wouldn’t blame them, they have not really tasted much of life’s experiences, and make better judgment on whether their pessimism (or optimism) is the right approach towards their situation.

Naval Ravikant once said that compared to adults, it takes longer for youths to make key decisions in their lives, because they lack experience. A youth should probably take months or years to decide on where they should live, who they should marry, what job or career they should pursue, and who they should partner with on their journey. But a well-resourced adult can make those decisions in days or perhaps a few hours because they have a wide gamut of experiences, narratives and stories they can pick from, crunch it with up-to-date wisdom, think about it and decide. For youth, that’s very difficult.

So, I see this inexperience almost everywhere among youths. They are very easy to give up on projects, think about life in the here and now (neglecting compound interest), get easily irritated at failures, failed relationships, job loss, unemployment and hardships. It’s not their fault. They are sick. They have been infected by a ubiquitous epidemic called youth. Almost every explanation of their future is a prognosis.

My suggestion is to cushion the effect of the youthful epidemic by allying with fellow well-resourced youths. The sharing, fellowship and camaraderie of this group are aimed at empowering each one member in her areas of deficiency and times of sudden convulsion as a result of the ‘sickness’ called youth. (They can also arm themselves with historical writings, materials and content that offer profound perspectives—though this is still not an elixir for hands-on, first-person experiences.)

I hope this helps.

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These ideas are from the book, The Richest Man in Babylon, by George Clason. Very good book. 101% recommend. This is the second time I’m reading it— though this time I’m doing a review of it, perhaps make a Podcast on it and write on it also.

1st: Keep a portion

"I advise that you take the wisdom of Algamish and say to yourselves, 'A part of all I earn is mine to keep.' Say it in the morning when you first arise. Say it at noon. Say it at night. Say it each hour of every day. Say it to yourself until the words stand out like letters of fire across the sky.

*****

Do exactly as I have suggested to the egg merchant. For every ten coins thou placest within thy purse take out for use but nine. Thy purse will start to fatten at once and its increasing weight will feel good in thy hand and bring satisfaction to thy soul.

*****

2nd: Control your expenditure

what each of us calls our 'necessary expenses' will always grow to equal our incomes unless we protest to the contrary.

*****

Let thy motto be one hundred percent of appreciated value demanded for each coin spent.

*****

"This, then, is the second cure for a lean purse. Budget thy expenses that thou mayest have coins to pay for thy necessities, to pay for thy enjoyments and to gratify thy worthwhile desires without spending more than nine-tenths of thy earnings."

*****

3rd: Make your gold multiply

"I tell you, my students, a man's wealth is not in the coins he carries in his purse; it is the income he buildeth, the golden stream that continually floweth into his purse and keepeth it always bulging. That is what every man desireth. That is what thou, each one of thee desireth; an income that continueth to come whether thou work or travel.

*****

I extended my loans and investments as my capital increased. From a few sources at first, from many sources later, flowed into my purse a golden stream of wealth available for such wise uses as I should decide.

*****

"This, then, is the third cure for a lean purse: to put each coin to laboring that it may reproduce its kind even as the flocks of the field and help bring to thee income, a stream of wealth that shall flow constantly into thy purse."

*****

4th: Guard your treasure from loss

"Every owner of gold is tempted by opportunities whereby it would seem that he could make large sums by its investment in most plausible projects. Often friends and relatives are eagerly entering such investment and urge him to follow.

*****

"The first sound principle of investment is security for thy principal. Is it wise to be intrigued by larger earnings when thy principal may be lost? I say not. The penalty of risk is probable loss. Study carefully, before parting with thy treasure, each assurance that it may be safely reclaimed. Be not misled by thine own romantic desires to make wealth rapidly.

*****

"Before thou loan it to any man assure thyself of his ability to repay and his reputation for doing so, that thou mayest not unwittingly be making him a present of thy hard-earned treasure.

*****

"Before thou entrust it as an investment in any field acquaint thyself with the dangers which may beset it.

*****

Today, my training would show to me at once the folly of entrusting a brick maker to buy jewels.

*****

Better by far to consult the wisdom of those experienced in handling money for profit.

*****

"This, then, is the fourth cure for a lean purse, and of great importance if it prevent thy purse from being emptied once it has become well filled. Guard thy treasure from loss by investing only where thy principal is safe, where it may be reclaimed if desirable, and where thou will not fail to collect a fair rental. Consult with wise men. Secure the advice of those experienced in the profitable handling of gold. Let their wisdom protect thy treasure from unsafe investments."

*****

"If a man setteth aside nine parts of his earnings upon which to live and enjoy life, and if any part of this nine parts he can turn into a profitable investment without detriment to his wellbeing, then so much faster will his treasures grow."

*****

5th: Own thy own home

"No man's family can fully enjoy life unless they do have a plot of ground wherein children can play in the clean earth and where the wife may raise not only blossoms but good rich herbs to feed her family.

*****

"To a man's heart it brings gladness to eat the figs from his own trees and the grapes of his own vines. To own his own domicile and to have it a place he is proud to care for, putteth confidence in his heart and greater effort behind all his endeavors. Therefore, do I recommend that every man own the roof that sheltereth him and his.

*****

"Also I say to you, my students, that the money lenders gladly consider the desires of men who seek homes and land for their families. Readily may thou borrow to pay the brick maker and the builder for such commendable purposes, if thou can show a reasonable portion of the necessary sum which thou thyself hath provided for the purpose. Then when the house be built, thou canst pay the money lender with the same regularity as thou didst pay the landlord. Because each payment will reduce thy indebtedness to the money lender, a few years will satisfy his loan. (Also called Mortgage.)

*****

This, then, is the fifth cure for a lean purse: Own thy own home.

*****

6th: Insure a future income

"The man who, because of his understanding of the laws of wealth, acquireth a growing surplus, should give thought to those future days. He should plan certain investments or provision that may endure safely for many years, yet will be available when the time arrives which he has so wisely anticipated.

*****

"A man may buy houses or lands for this purpose. If wisely chosen as to their usefulness and value in the future, they are permanent in their value and their earnings or their sale will provide well for his purpose.

*****

"A man may loan a small sum to the money lender and increase it at regular periods. The rental which the money lender adds to this will largely add to its increase.

*****

Therefore do I recommend to all men, that they, by wise and well thought out methods, do provide against a lean purse in their mature years. For a lean purse to a man no longer able to earn or to a family without its head is a sore tragedy.

*****

"This, then, is the sixth cure for a lean purse. Provide in advance for the needs of thy growing age and the protection of thy family."

*****

7th: Increase Your Ability to Earn

"Preceding accomplishment must be desire. Thy desires must be strong and definite. General desires are but weak longings. For a man to wish to be rich is of little purpose. For a man to desire five pieces of gold is a tangible desire which he can press to fulfillment. After he has backed his desire for five pieces of gold with strength of purpose to secure it, next he can find similar ways to obtain ten pieces and then twenty pieces and later a thousand pieces and, behold, he has become wealthy. In learning to secure his one definite small desire, he hath trained himself to secure a larger one. This is the process by which wealth is accumulated: first in small sums, then in larger ones as a man learns and becomes more capable.

*****

"Desires must be simple and definite. They defeat their own purpose should they be too many, too confusing, or beyond a man's training to accomplish."

*****

Therefore, did I determine that I would be exceeded by none. Nor did it take long for me to discover the reason for their greater success. More interest in my work, more concentration upon my task, more persistence in my effort, and, behold, few men could carve more tablets in a day than I. With reasonable promptness my increased skill was rewarded, nor was it necessary for me to go six times to my master to request recognition.

*****

"The more of wisdom we know, the more we may earn. That man who seeks to learn more of his craft shall be richly rewarded. If he is an artisan, he may seek to learn the methods and the tools of those most skillful in the same line. If he laboreth at the law or at healing, he may consult and exchange knowledge with others of his calling. If he be a merchant, he may continually seek better goods that can be purchased at lower prices.

*****

"Always do the affairs of man change and improve because keen-minded men seek greater skill that they may better serve those upon whose patronage they depend. Therefore, I urge all men to be in the front rank of progress and not to stand still, lest they be left behind.

*****

"Many things come to make a man's life rich with gainful experiences. Such things as the following, a man must do if he respect himself:

1. "He must pay his debts with all the promptness within his power, not purchasing that for which he is unable to pay.

2. "He must take care of his family that they may think and speak well of him.

3. "He must make a will of record that, in case the Gods call him, proper and honorable division of his property be accomplished.

4. "He must have compassion upon those who are injured and smitten by misfortune and aid them within reasonable limits. He must do deeds of thoughtfulness to those dear to him.

"Thus the seventh and last remedy for a lean purse is to cultivate thy own powers, to study and become wiser, to become more skillful, to so act as to respect thyself. Thereby shalt thou acquire confidence in thy self to achieve thy carefully considered desires.

And that was it for the core ideas. I might share others as I have the opportunity. (My language has already been affected by the parlance of the book. Interesting.)

Here’s my caveat: these things take time. It won’t be automatic. Start where you are and grow as you go.

When you begin to expose your mind to be enriched by the resonant energy of the minds of others, through documented writings, recorded audio or video, or captured moments in images, you begin to reorder into a new being.

I like to say that one of the ways transformation comes is through exposure to excellence or the excellent. Excellence has a form in human beings and the impression of such excellence affects their speech, and the energy they exude. When you expose yourself to these people, they transfer this energy to you through their speech and their presence. This affects you. It makes an impression on you. If you don’t cultivate and sustain this energy it will slowly wane with time. The possibility of keeping the “pedal” swinging is the transformation. You must intentionally seek this.

I just returned from a Marriage and Family Conference and the words my ears heard charged my heart and spirit; the prayers and the exhortations were so profound. I’ve completely changed frequency. But…how does one sustain this “uppity”?

My argument is that there has to be constant exposure. The heat that boils water is the same heat that will keep such water boiling: the principles that produce a result are the same principles that will sustain such result. Therefore, remain exposed to excellence.

One last thing, beside the conference, I have been engaging lots of books, podcasts, and videos on various topics spanning work, spirituality, money and marriage. And as a result, my mind is beaming with visions. Ideas have just been flowing through my mind like I just got admission to become a channel for ideas. I hear strange phrases, weird combination of words that Google have no reference to. The bathroom has now become an altar. Sometimes, I almost control myself from shouting and screaming. It’s a different kind of possession. (I would suggest that it seems like humans graduate—at some point—to become conduits. What they become channels of is relative to the activities that engendered their graduation. Interesting!)

Now, my vocation and avocation are to designing structures to executing ideas. From Notes, to my Podcast, to my videos, to (whatever). I don’t just want to relish in these visions. I want to share these ideas, build things, and enable other people.

When I had a conversation with my elder sister on my Podcast —the episode, The Girls Afraid of Shame— she asked, “What if you lived life and you never got married? Are you afraid of that? You’re a woman, what if you never have children? Are you afraid of not having children?”

When I think about these questions, I restructure it and ask myself, and ask you a similar question: What are you afraid of? What questions of ‘what if’ are you afraid to ask yourself?

What if you don’t…eventually get married to [her/him], or travel the world like you desire, or buy that thing you’ve always longed for, or build the house you’ve always imagined, or make as much money as you desire to make? What if you don’t have sex before you die? What if that relationship doesn’t work out? What if the business doesn’t work? What if your dad or mom or anyone you love so dearly dies before you’re ready for it? Are you afraid of that?

What are you afraid of? (I once heard from Apostle Joshua Selman that fear is an evidence there is a knowledge you lack. Well, everyone lacks some knowledge. Alone, nobody knows everything. But, think about the question.)

Well, if you will not fear anything you must have some hope. And what you hope on better be Solid, otherwise when the storms come—and come they will— you might go nuts. Life happens, they say. Perhaps, someone else challenged, “Life doesn’t just happen, life happens just…” The desire to acquire the knowledge of what “just” means for you is primarily your responsibility.

Serendipity is real. But do not base your life on them. Mrs Funke Felix-Adejumo said, “Life is not governed by miracles, it’s governed by principles.” It’s just very stupid of some of us to always pray for miracles when simple application of principles can easily solve our problems. Well, such is the life of the unenlightened wo/man.

So, I’m back again…what are you afraid of? What am I afraid of? “Joshua, what are you afraid? What if Netintui doesn’t work out?” Haha! It’s my job to make it work. Don’t be afraid of anything. Just do what you’re supposed to do. Launch for the galaxies. Leave the rest to serendipity, luck, grace, favour, fortune or whatever you might want to call it —depending on who you are.

This is perhaps one of the best ideas to practice for your financial breakthrough. A part of all you earn is yours to keep. Oh, yes.

In fact, read the book, The Richest Man in Babylon, by George Clason, to get the full gist. Read the book at least 5 times, and something will affect you. Exposure attracts impactation. There are so many books, and you CANNOT read them all. My advice is to get 5 of the best books on a subject and read them over, and over, and over, and over…until you begin to recite the writings from your sleep.

Good advice. (By the way, how do you like the new Writing page. We are just getting started.)

Take care.

This is by Chung Ju Yung, the founder of Hyundai. And boy is it true? You just have to do your best. You just have to contribute as much as you can to the right cause. For the time you have, that’s the best you can do while you hope for the better.

A lot of things will not go on straight. A lot of things will not work so well. A lot of them will not be so easy. You need soldiers to help you along the way. You need “helpers” to support you along the journey. But, even with all the help possible, you still have to hope for the best. When there’s nothing left to do, take a break. Go for leisure. (You’ve done your best. Last we checked, you’re not God.)

At least, in my life, I know this is quite a message for me, I used to feel like I could bend reality. (And I still believe I could. And I can. Yet, frankly, I must confess, there’s power that needs to be received to execute such agency.) Agency requires power; it requires maturity, skill, drive, passion, etc. Agency is a powerful thing and it has enabled people to force reality into being, but not every human being can apply agency, at the same level. When you have done all you can at the level of your power and influence, that is your agency threshold, leave the rest to…(whatever). Chill. Refresh yourself. Re-strategize. Recoup. Go for another training —after your leisure. We need leisure to regain our sanity.