Resuming Writing On Substack, What I Am Learning About Work And Learning To Adjust To Any Situation
Welcome back from my writing break!
I have been on a forced writing break on Substack for a couple of months (my last published article was in July).
A break I didn’t plan at all!
The major reason?
We relocated this year — I have actually never directly mentioned it, never written about it.
Never, until now.
And the pressure of settling into a new country, with all its uncertainties and adjustments, really took a toll on my writing and some of my personal projects.
It hasn’t been easy.
To be honest.
Nonetheless, in the midst of all the “good chaos”, somehow I have been able to keep myself warm and fought really hard to keep my projects alive and afloat, never letting my grip on the pen slip!
Thankfully, I am adjusting fine and getting my rhythm back!
There’s an awful lot I want to share with my readers on Substack!
A lot!
And I am glad to resume my writing break with a book review/study...
Business Education Is Crucial!
“Josh has done more for my business education than my MBA. The Personal MBA walks you through the mental models you need to excel in business. A lifetime of business knowledge in one volume.”
— SHANE PARRISH, founder of Farnam Street and host of ‘The Knowledge Project’ podcast
I will be doing a personal study on “The Personal MBA” by Josh Kaufman.
I’ve been looking for a new book to study, and while discussing with our Chief Technical Officer at Care City Media, he recommended the book.
I took a brief look at it and decided to add it to my end-of-year to-read list.
Hans Finzel wrote the last book I studied about leadership, and I published my personal studies as a series of articles on Care City Media.
We’ve been working on putting the studies into a small book to make it easy to read. Once it’s ready, I will let you know.
Back to The Personal MBA.
If you really want to enjoy this study, I recommend you buy the book too.
What makes this particular book study really interesting is that I have decided to study/review it together with my key team members (at Care City Media and Carecode Digital Health Hub).
We’re all going to get the book and study it together. And I will share some of our studies here, too!
If you’re not subscribed, kindly do so so that whenever I publish a review, you will get it directly in your inbox, and who knows, we may even hold one or two reviews together!
Business knowledge/education is crucial!
One of the deficiencies we had when we started building was a lack of concrete business knowledge/education.
We thought it was all about raw passion!
Passion is good.
But without the element of important things like accurate, relevant business knowledge, passion alone won’t take your dream where it can really change lives.
If you’re just starting to build, take this golden advice from me: seek accurate, relevant business knowledge/education.
And you don’t really need to pay for an MBA education. Though if you can afford it, why not go ahead!
What you’re really paying for in a traditional MBA education is the experience, connections, adventure, interactions, and relationships you’ll build while learning, which are also very important in the world of business and entrepreneurship.
But if you have enough discipline to sit down, study and apply what you are learning, then get good business books and just study.
Studying with a small group of like-minded people is also very effective.
The first review drops next Saturday at 10 am.
I will be dropping some more details about the book review on my LinkedIn.
You should check it out, particularly if you’re in Nigeria and would love to follow the review closely.
I will be buying the book for two people who are ready to follow the review to the end!
You might be one of the lucky people!
Who knows!
Please find me on LinkedIn to learn more about how I will pick the two lucky people.
What I Am Learning About Work
“The only thing that ever sat its way to success was a hen.”
— Sarah Brown.
How has your perspective on work evolved over the years?
How do you view the work you’re doing?
Are you tired of working?
Is work becoming an unavoidable burden to you?
Do you feel stuck, like you are in prison and unable to escape?
Do you think you are... in a rat race?
An everlasting hamster wheel that never stops?
If this is you, I am here to let you know you are not alone.
Most people are tired of work, including me.
They see it as a needed burden.
If you don’t work, you won’t eat. Right?
But what sets a few apart from the fog of work is their deliberate approach and how they mould and nurture their mindset.
You see, if you keep approaching work with the wrong mindset, it will crush you.
It takes a lot of work to recalibrate your mind to view work through a different lens.
Work feels like a burden to me, too.
There are times when I just feel like staying away from work. But lately, my perspective and understanding of work are actually deepening.
I have started to see work as a compulsory part of my life where I am presented with the opportunity to learn to become a better person by doing my best work, interacting with people with a leadership mindset and trying my best to serve those whom I help at work.
If you strive to find purpose in work, work will begin to look less like a burden.
You begin to see your work as your own little way of contributing to the development of the world.
It doesn’t matter what your work is.
You can always find purpose in the work that you’re doing.
This is how my perspective is changing.
Whenever that feeling of dread or tiredness plagues me, I recondition my mind and start thinking about how I am helping the people at work.
I start thinking about how to do my work better and how to interact better with my colleagues and the people at work.
Work Is All About Helping
Look deeply at work.
It’s all about helping people.
Whether you’re a soldier, driver, cleaner, doctor, lawyer, judge, or teacher, mention it.
Whatever you’re doing as a human being is all simply about helping people in different capacities and in various ways. Some directly and some indirectly.
Your work isn’t all about you. It’s about others.
This is how my perspective is changing, and I think it can also help you somehow begin to view work from a deeper and higher perspective so that you can start to reap the real benefit of work, which is not your wage or salary but the satisfaction that comes from knowing you are helping people and contributing in building the world in your own little way.
We begin to see hidden opportunities for growth and expansion when we discover purpose in the work that we’re doing.
Ordinary people doing ordinary things have gone ahead to do extraordinary things because they learnt how to approach work with purpose.
You, too, can do extraordinary things from ordinary things when you approach your work with purpose.
It’s all about making up your mind to change your mindset.
How do you want to change your perspective towards work?
Learning To Adjust To Any Situation
“Change is hard at first, messy in the middle and gorgeous at the end.”
― Robin Sharma.
I learnt this early. The ability to adapt, adjust, and, where necessary, evolve.
Life doesn’t favour the rigid, or those who find it extremely difficult to learn new things and ways, and to adjust to realities and situations as they come.
Life itself comes with different situations each day, and the only people who move through it all are those who’ve mastered the art of adjusting and adapting.
Be like water that takes the shape of its container.
Looking back on my journey in life so far, I am very grateful that I learnt to adapt to life’s situations early on as a very young man.
I remember when I had to drop out of university while studying biochemistry to pursue my nursing career. It was a hard decision at the time, but I kept my focus and made up my mind to adapt to all situations and not be rigid about the path I would take to fulfil my goals.
I learnt that the road to your goals is never going to be a straight one. And if you stay rigid and try to force straight roads out of curvy ones, you won’t reach anywhere in life.
You must learn to go through the curves, jump the obstacles, crawl through the tunnels, and just keep moving.
I am not where I want to be yet, but I am proud of how far I have come. And I am also happy to be on the right path—and, most importantly, I am satisfied with the mindset I have built over the years.
Now, back to you!
Are you the rigid type or the fluid one?
The one who doesn’t want to experience any obstacles or curves on their path.
And when they see an obstacle or hurdle, instead of quickly looking for a way through it, they sit there and wait for the obstacle to move or try to push it themselves.
Most obstacles on your way to destiny are not going to move away from your path.
They are there for that reason--to spur you to find a way to pass them. And as you navigate past them, you learn new things.
So, I am here to encourage and inspire you to keep moving.
Don’t stop or settle. Keep moving.
That’s it, friends.
How refreshed I feel writing to you after a very long time.
It’s like an enormous burden has been lifted off my pen.
I will write you one more letter before the book review's first episode on Saturday.
Make sure you don’t miss it!
To stay in the loop, kindly subscribe.
Catch you in a few days.
Have a wonderful week.
Your friend in the school of leadership and innovation.
Now my reading appetite is yearning to gulp this masterpiece. Thanks for the review. That's generous and thoughtful of you sir
Oh how my heart leaped for joy at this news.
You're a wise writer.
Great grace sir ,as you resume writing.
May the land and all it's inhabitants favour beyond measures.