Best of Ojeagbase

GOD and not man, is your SOURCE of supply. Don’t ever forget that.

Sowing –– the act of placing seeds in or on the ground for future growth –– is the secret of changing the story of your life from whatever it is now to a brighter, more colourful one.

And as I stated in last week’s instalment of my series, Simple System That Pumps Money Into Your Bank Account Like Invisible Paymaster, anyone who is not critically ill has something to sow.

Yes, there’s a seed in your hand that you can sow right now. You only need to see it. The reason most people don’t see it, and that may include you, is that when seed and sowing are mentioned, the first thing that comes to their minds is the physical money.

This is not always so.

Your action –– things you do or say or, even things you think –– is a seed. And once you take any action, you’ve sown a seed. And it must come back with a harvest.

With that understanding at the back of your mind, let’s see how someone who has no job and no money but has plenty of time could use that great resource to turn things around positively.

The first and definitely the most critical step that such a person should take is to look for someone to invest his free time on for –– wait for this –– free.

Don’t recoil from the thought yet. Hear me out. In making a choice of who to invest your free time on, you’ve got to be creative. That means you will first of all ask yourself: what do I want? Your answer will determine who will qualify to benefit from your free time.

Think about the italicised phrase for a moment. Do you notice that you are already being empowered, feeling like the boss? The time is yours. So, you have the right to invest it on whoever you like!

Okay, so because what you want is cash, there’s no point going to an individual who is flat broke like yourself or a company that has salary arrears running into months to pay.

Your choice definitely has to be an individual or a company that you can put your free time to their use without the intention of charging them a penny but who are in a position to, in appreciation of the good job you did, give you at least a token in return.

Before I proceed further, I want to make one thing absolutely clear to you here. GOD and not man, is your SOURCE of supply. Don’t ever forget that. The reason I bring this up here is because of what I said in the last paragraph that could be misconstrued to mean that you are giving your time so that the person who benefits from your free service is obligated to you to do you a favour in return.

No, that is NOT so!

The point I was making is that most people would naturally want to sow something back into your life in return on their own volition without your asking them or even giving them the impression that was what you were after.

Just as the Holy Spirit inspired Apostle Paul to write in 1 Corinthians 3:6 –– “I planted, Apollos watered, but GOD gave the increase.” GOD is your Supplier. No man can take His place. So, look up to Him always to reward you, to provide the harvest for what you sow.

With that made clear, putting your services at the disposal of the individual or company, also requires that you be creative. Why? Because of the strange things that are happening in our world [note, not just in our country!] today.

Whoever you are, if someone you didn’t know suddenly appears and offer to be washing your clothes for you even for free, the first thought that would come to your mind is that probably that person is out to study your environment so that he could lead a gang of robbers to your house sometime later.

So, get a credible story about your mission ready. Rehearse it properly so that you can deliver it flawlessly when you need to do so, making sure you maintain an eye contact with the person without your eyes shifting when making your delivery.

Here’s an example. “I’m so and so. I live at [give your residential address]. I’m not employed. But I have the ability to [say precisely what you can do well]. I believe you can use my service which I’m prepared to render at no cost to you. If you give me the opportunity, it will prevent me from wasting my free time. I will give you the number of Mr. [or Chief or Dr. or Alhaji so and so –– someone who is credible who can vouch for your character and whom you must have first sought their permission to so use their name] whom you can contact for a reference about me.”

Will it work? You bet it will. But take note. It does not necessarily mean that the first person you offer your free services will jump at it. However, be rest assured that you will find someone.

Guess what? Where the people you approach are not disposed to engaging you to do what you’re offering them, a good number of them will either open their wallet and give you money to assist you [even though this is clearly NOT your intention of approaching them; you’re not out to beg for alms] or they will have a desire to help you get something you could be doing.

I once applied this strategy with a little twist to it to get my very first employment after I voluntarily discharged from the Nigerian Army in 1978. When I landed in Lagos shortly after I left the army, I went to the Daily Times to apply for a job as a sports reporter. I was told they were not hiring at the time.

So I offered my boss, the late Solomon Babatunde Oshuntolu [ESSBEE], my services as a stringer. He agreed. The Daily Times was paying freelancers for their contributions to their publications. They do it by counting the number of lines per each article and pay you accordingly.

I grabbed the opportunity with both hands. But something really dramatic happened. About five months into my adventure as a freelancer for the Daily Times, my articles and short stories started appearing in the Evening Times, Lagos Weekend and Times International in addition to the Daily Times.

For me, that was a good development. But not so for my very high up boss at the Daily Times at the time, Mr. Peter Osugo aka PECOS, who had the responsibility of ensuring that the company’s funds were being managed well.

At the end of each month, my claim was totaling N500 and above [yes, N500! and that was a LOT of money at the time]. A reporter was being paid N150 monthly on the average. So for a stringer to be earning almost four times that amount in a single month got Mr. Osugo miffed.

Next thing I knew, he placed an embargo on my claims with the instruction that I should be employed immediately or he would not sign my claims any longer. That was how I got the job which I started on April 1, 1979.

If I didn’t opt for the freelancing option and then put in my absolute best, my life story will definitely be different from what it is today.

Can you do the same? Should I answer for you? Of course, “Yes!” is my resounding answer.

So you always have something to sow. And whatever it is, if you dare to sow it, it will bring back harvest. Join me next week as we continue the journey to discovering how to get paid non-stop by the Invisible Paymaster.