Here are 10 lessons from the Bible that explains God’s laid down guidelines and principles for success in this life and business. While I was sitting down “jejely” beside the road catching some fresh breathe. The Holy Spirit began to remind me about some truths from the Bible and how it applies to life and business. Then I brought out my pen (digital memo) and I began to write.

1. Don’t look down on yourself - you are the image of God. Rather, Know your worth & place in God. Self-realization is the first step to a great life. Find out who you are and what your purpose is and would be. Jesus found this out when he read “...the Spirit of the Lord is upon me..., for the LORD has anointed me to bring good news to the poor...”  Luke 4:18. Nehemiah found out this when he heard the news of how his home town (Jerusalem) had become desolate. (Nehemiah 1-2)
    
2. Know something; whatever you think is worth anything - study to know it very well. David knew how to use stones and “catapult”, Joseph knew how to interpret dreams, The Men of Issachar knew the times and what should be done per time; most notable people God have used at critical times actually got to a point of mastery of what they know. What do you know? How are you getting to mastery of it?  
    
3. Be a skillful salesman. Learn to sell yourself; never delegate the job of selling yourself to another man. Remember how Joseph told one of the kings servants to remember him when he gets back to the palace. David tells stories of how he killed the bear and the lion; giving reasons why they should trust him to kill Goliath. Jesus intentional asks people who are healed to give public testimonials. Success figures in the Bible are also great sales persons. Don’t be carried away with the miracle of five loads and two fishes. Don’t stay at the level where God has to always fend for you when he already gave you power to fend for nations - through the mastery of sales techniques. 
    
4. Build a team. God doesn’t like lone-rangers. He knows about human limitations, he gave the first man a wife because - it is NOT good for a man to be alone. “For if they fall, the one will lift up his fellow: but woe to him that is alone when he falleth; for he hath not another to help him up.” Ecclesiastes 4:10. Even Jesus - your Lord and Savior, needed a team; who are you?
    
5. Build Continuity into your plans. If you don’t plan about anything, please plan for your death. Even God had made his plan for human afterlife clear. What is your own plan on how your business, family and other dealings will go when you exit this world? Joshua was Moses’ exit plan; Jesús carefully taught his disciples on what they should do and how they should behave when he die. Don’t confuse this as wishing death on yourself. But death is certain and God wants us to prepare for it. Remember when God sent the prophet to Hezekiah to say “...put your house in order, you will die in...”. God actually want us to always put our dealings in order so that we don’t waste resources through the gap we create when we die. 
    
6. Be known for something. Stop “confusing” your angels 👼. One of the first points above was about knowing something. Now, we need to consciously portray that we are known for that thing. We might think that it’s something that happens naturally, that when we are good at something; people will just begin to know us for it; but that’s not always true. We need to consciously brand ourself has someone who is good at that thing by exercising our gifts freely. Remember Joseph the dreamer? How he kept interpreting dreams for people? Even in the prison, he interpreted dreams for the kings servants. 
    
7. Be prayerful. Now this is where most Christians get it wrong, either by not praying at all or praying amiss because of lack of understanding of what prayer is. Prayer is the process of opening your channel of communication with God. Now what you “discuss” with your God is your problem, but you must ensure that channel isn’t permanently closed; opening it as frequently as you can to firstly open up the truth in your heart to God and also receiving from him. Prayer is not so hard, it’s not only about climbing mountains or halting all your work for some big retreat. It’s first about ensuring there’s constant flow of communication between you and your God - speaking to him regularly and paying attention to his guidance and teachings. Prayer is not “the key” as people always say - I would call it “a key”: only one of many spiritual advantages we can enjoy as Christians. Many are stuck at the point of leaving everything else and just praying, forgetting that God wants us to remain relevant in this world by doing other things other than pray. 
    
8. Write. Writing isn’t just for authors, every human being with a great calling have something in common; they all have something written about them. Either they wrote it themselves or someone wrote it about them. I found out God wants us to live a well “documented” life. A lot of places in the Bible, God mandated his prophets to write down his instructions. Also, the Scriptures today are available because some people took the pain to document their life and their journey with God. God wants us to document our lives, he want us to document our businesses, he wants us to document the instructions he gives to us. He wants us to document everything we can document about ourselves. So that it can be useful to others as other people’s writings has become a blessing to us today. 
    
9. Ask for the money! Many are always shy to demand for renumeration for their products and services. Its unbiblical to allow others to get away with your sweat because you are too shy or you don’t want to appear desperate. Remember, David asked what the reward is for the person who will kill Goliath. The Bible says “for the worker deserves his wages” - Luke 10:7 (NIV) and 1 Tim 5:15. God wants you to ask for your money accordingly as per the service you render. If you don’t do this and you are poor, it’s your fault for disobeying the scriptures. 
    
10. Seek people first. In your business and any other ventures, “Seek ye first the people (customers), every other thing follows”. It’s biblical to take conscious efforts to look for customers before you look for what to give to the customers. Yes, I know this may sound counter-intuitive, but it’s a “Jesus-based” principle. It is okay to think about what you want to offer your customers, to think about how you want to serve your customers; but don’t do too much about creating your products and services unless you have thought-through and practicalized how you intend to make your customers. You will want to know what part of the Bible I learnt this from? John 14:3: “And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself...”.  Jesus Christ in this passage, after he won the heart of his disciples and confirmed that “The harvest is plenty, but the laborers are few” (Luke 10:2), he set out to go “prepare”. You would have asked why he didn’t prepare before coming the first time? Well, it’s simple - it’s more expedient to prepare to get customers. Moreover, your whole business enterprise should center around your customers, so the earlier you get to meet them, the better. 

There is an article in circulation that instructs that "When you dial the code (*#61#), it will show whether your calls or fax or data are been  forwarded / monitored or not". This has been checked to be false. 

Okay. So if this turns out the way this article describes, it doesn't mean that you are being monitored. What it means is that you or someone at some point has activated call forwarding on your line. They may have dialed a similar short-code or used the functionality on the phone to activate it. 

*#61# is a short-code to check the status of call forwarding on your line. There is actually a manual method of doing this on most phones. Call forwarding is a service from mobile network providers, that allows you to take calls from another line if for whatever reason, your current line is not available. Simplest form of call forwarding is "activating voicemail" - calls enter voicemail based on the criteria you set. Someone might say, I didn't activate anything on my line. Network providers sometimes may set your line to forward to voicemail by default, that doesn't tanslate it to being monitored. 

Call forwarding isn't a monitoring feature. No one can actually monitor your call activities with call forwarding. But it can allow your calls to be answered by another party (if the condition set is met). For instance, if you set to forward all calls, you will not receive any calls on your line, but the number you set will get all the calls.

Who can monitor your calls easily without your involvement?

1. Your mobile network provider
2. Anyone who can eavesdrop between your phone and the masts
3. Your phone Operating System provider (Google/Apple)
4. Apps installed on your phone that has the "phone" privilege.

You really have no button or functionality on your side to turn off monitoring by those parties. All you can do is chilax and hope that they stay true to their privacy policy you agreed on. There is no way you can check whether this parties are currently monitoring your call or "deactivate" it.

So who is responsible for this viral "fake news"? Yes, there are some people who feed from sharing or publishing supposedly helpful topics to scare people or ginger them to take action. 

When it comes to landings your dream job, your CV is an important factor to look into. Get it right, and you’ll have an interview in no time, but get it wrong, and you may not be getting the offers you deserve. Every CV is different as you want to show why your set of skills makes you suitable for the position you’re applying for at that moment, but all would follow a similar structure. This guide will show you how to write a great CV that’s ready for this digital information age. 

As part of my professional practice coupled with being an employer, I would have reviewed more than 10, 000 CVs till date. I have opened more than 1000 CVs this year alone, many have asked me to help review their CVs but because of my busy schedule, I think it is better I put all my thought together and make a post about what I have learnt over the years. That way, I can help more people land their dream jobs.
 

What is a CV?

A CV, short for curriculum vitae, is a personal promotional document used to sell yourself to prospective employers. It answers some questions about what a prospective employer may want to ask. In generic terms, It should tell them about you, your professional work history and your skills, abilities and achievements. Ultimately, it should highlight why you’re the best person for the job.

Appearance of a Great CV

• A CV in its entirety should address one important question - “what kind of value do you bear to offer an organization?”. 
• It should not as well look too cumbersome because recruitment process is already a tiring process for employers; so your CV should have a look that shows you are trying to make their job easier. 
• Your CV should look pretty and professional. Don’t attempt to design your CV yourself. Get a CV template instead and use it, you will save time and you will earn the respect of the employer. 

The appearance rules for CV

1. Write the CV yourself. The best person to answer the question about your value is you. You may however contract someone to review and update your CV for you. But don’t contract someone to independently write your CV on your behalf. Of course, a consultant can sit by you and guide you, asking relevant questions or providing insights. 
2. A CV should be brief. The best CVs are one-pagers. And if they have to be two pages, ensure the important informations are in the first page. Employers will most likely not check the other pages because of their busy schedules. Also Including more pages than necessary can send a wrong signal to anyone reviewing your CV. 
3. Except you are a badass professional graphic designer, you should not attempt to design your CV by yourself. You should get a CV template and edit it with your own information. There are a lot of free templates online. You can buy some professionally designed templates too. You should ensure you don’t leave any dummy content though. Also make sure you don’t tamper with the styling of the template. That’s how you stay professional in the eyes of an employer. 
4. A CV should be published as PDF except the employer ask specifically for another file type. It’s important because PDF is the easiest to view on most devices. Most people will send other formats that their employers will not be able to open easily. 
5. The file name of your CV should be your full name with “(CV)” appended to it. E.g. “Firstname-Surname-CV.pdf”

What should be in your CV?

While the structure of a CV is flexible, bending to your unique skill set and experiences, there are particular sections that employers expect to see on your CV regardless. Here are the sections be believe are generic information to include in your CV:

1. Name - Your full name (Some Employers will google your name. So please google your name yourself first and have an idea of what employers will see when they google you)
2. Phone number - (Put the best number here, you can indicate another for whatsapp)
3. Email address - (Please use a professional email address e.g. firstname.surname@gmail.com)
4. Web address (Use a personal website, LinkedIn profile or any other online platform that includes your professional work). This is needed because your CV may not be able to contain all your work, including a link gives employers an avenue to learn more about you. Just ensure the link is well updated with your professional work. Remove anything that doesn’t portray you well on those platforms 
5. Contact details (Just City and Country - no full address pls)
6. Previous relevant work experiences: list briefly - Organization name / Job Role / Year you joined them. If you have worked in many places, limit the space to those ones that’s most relevant. 
7. Educational background - briefly mention the institution name, qualifications attained and the year of graduation. If you have gone to many schools, mention only the last three schools max. 

Things to exclude from your CV

Except prospective employer exclusively ask for them, please exclude the following from your CV

1. Street Address - it’s no longer interesting to most employers nowadays. Putting the City and country on the address field is enough most times to give an employer an idea of where you are based. 
2. Postal Address - Email is the new postal address in the digital age. You won't be receiving anything in the mail.
3. Career goals; Career Statements. - Employers now know most people just copy and paste this things, so most don’t read them or take note of them. If they must appear at all, ensure they are brief and not so generic. 
4. Interests; hobbies - Only include this if there are more spaces remaining in your single-page CV and you want to fill it up with content and of course, they must be relevant to the job. 
5. Title "Curriculum Vitae" - Employers already know what we are viewing, they know they are not reading your diary.
6. Too much text content - Employers are busy trying to hire. They are not reading a story-book. 

Ejiro Osakede -  is no news that in the new normal we all have to be tech-savvy. And one of the relevant skills to acquire this season is coding. 

On this episode of E-chat, I had an engaging chat with Ayoola Falola who has been in the tech industry for over a decade and has several awesome and praiseworthy products in the online. 

His love for computer started when he was about 6yrs old and that love and drive pushed him to self-teach himself about computer literacy. Although he graduated as an architect, he became a teacher to those who studied computer science simply because he became a master in this field based on his passion and hunger to learn. 

In the prayer room one of these nights; I was “scabashing” as usual. I would do this one-hour everyday at least for about three years. It was great, great experience - so much spiritual growth, I got to realize and experience first-hand what believers authority meant.

I had outgrown petty sicknesses; eternal yoke of poverty had been broken. Miracles became a norm for me. I saw it happen so frequently that I got used to it. God is good. Above all, I received the certified true copy of my salvation and everything was smooth. I never wanted it to end.

So today, I had an interesting conversation with Mr. Pacqueens Irabor - the inventor of “lovepreneurship”, founder of N.A.M.E. Foundation - an organization helping to promote the act of Caring, Giving and Sharing in Nigeria. His experience as the State Manager of Bank of Industry may have helped him see Nigeria for what it truly is. He said something that shocked me; “Stop Praying for Nigeria” - he said. He continued by saying, “We need more of the people of light to come out and shine out the darkness in every corners of Nigeria”.

It resonated with an experience I had that particular night in the prayer room - after about 30 mins, still on the one-hour watch; I heard the voice say… “Go and work!” instructing me to leave the prayer room and go and do some work. I would have thought that must be the devil. Abi who would have thought God would tell his child to “leave his presence” and go do some “canal work”?

But that voice was familiar, it was the same one, which handed me the confirmation of my salvation. My logical (binary) mind was quick to try to deduce that it was either the Spirit of God speaking to me or at the worst, it was the devil that had been leading me all these while. Yes, the Bible taught us to “try all spirits” too; so I did. It turned out; it has been God leading me all along. My journey was like that we read out in Psalm 23.

Over time, I found out there was so much I could accomplish being a prayer warrior as a Christian. But there was so much more I could do with my earthly work. I also found my calling didn’t need for me to pray more than I do earthly work. I found that a lot of prayers had gone ahead of me. A lot of people had prayed for me, just so I could do my work with so much of unwavering strength.

But why do we tend to want (or think we need to) pray more when we ought to work? I traced it back to our nature as humans, being a creature of worship. We are wired to worship anything that works - so because I prayed for money and I got it, I want to pray every time I need money. Meanwhile, it is the plan of God for me to work for money and then help those who are still in bondage of poverty.

I also found that it was in the plan of God that I embarked on that spiritual prayer exercise - praying fervently, fasting a lot of times and experiencing heaven on earth. I wish for every believer to try to attain this level of spirituality. But to also see this as not the destination, but a path on the highway to the destiny God has for them. It is the plan of God for men of light to come out and shine the light of God in every dark corners of the world. Showing the world, a glimpse of the kingdom of God. Christians will not get to do this in the prayer room but in the workplace and every other part of their everyday life.

I've stopped praying for a lot of things. Not because I got tired of praying, but because I have seen in the mirror the answer to those prayers. Rather, I have started working to match the man in front of the mirror with what he sees in the mirror – being that man God wants me to be.

Now, this message is not directed for everyone. If you have been called to pray, then your work is to pray. For those called into the intercessory ministry or pastoring - praying would be the business God has put in your hands. It would be an error for someone who is called into another work praying more than working on what God has placed in his/her hands.

Am I saying Christians shouldn’t pray? Well, far from it; the fire of a Christian who doesn’t pray will soon die. But then there are a lot of concepts to prayer - the simplest is it being a communication channel to God. Speaking to God and hearing back from him is the foundational benefit of prayers. So every believer must know how to talk to God and what he/she needs to do to hear back from Him. Once you have attained this level, what is next is to service it however allows you to also function well in the work God has placed in your hands.

So what prayers have I stopped? I have stopped praying for everything God has embedded in me its answers. Through my journey, I had found out the kind of god I am to the world, having received life from God and with His light shone on me - I now have the responsibility to shine in the world. I have stopped praying for money, God makes money so I now also make money. I stopped praying for my country - Nigeria; God has a government - a kingdom in heaven that I am part of, I will set up my own here on earth like that one He has in heaven. God heals the sick; I will heal them here whether by laying hands or ensuring they have the right medical treatments. If we remove all these petty prayers from our list, we would lead better lives as Christians and lead more people to Christ. Selah!

So I’ve received a number of requests on my DM asking what career options to go for in the IT industry. Beyond passion and what we know, some education is needed to help guide us in the right direction I love to classify jobs in IT (and by extension software development) space into 3 types.
 

The classification is based on the kind of opportunities you can get from there. Based on where you:
 

1. Can only get a job with it i.e. after certification or school, the next best place to learn or do anything with it is through a job or some internship. These class has the least opportunities, but most jobs in this categories are rapidly growing into the second category but with mostly limited learning options e.g. hardware networking, etc. In most cases, your growth is limited by the infrastructures your employers have or can afford.
    
2. Can get a job with it and also practice on your own. But you cannot build anything with them unilaterally E.g. Database management, Server Management, Cyber Security, Data Analysis falls in this category. They are mostly termed as support roles in the scheme of the "builder" tech. Given the right organization and learning materials, you could be sitting on a gold mine here especially if you can get to the point of mastery of the subject matter (most people don't get to this level).
    
3. Can get a job with it, can practice on your own with it and can also do (or build) something with it unilaterally on your own. Because of these, this class of career paths actually offer the most opportunities in form of where your skill is needed and what you can do with your skill. Software development (including web) falls within this category. 
    

Nevertheless, beyond opportunities, passion and interest matters in making career choice. Also, people can find themselves excelling in one one career than the other because of some innate abilities. You can become a consultant in any of the categories once you gain mastery and some experience. So it means that things get better with time but the start is also important. Mentorship is also key into making the best opportunity of your career choice. 

Cheers!