Blog

“Jabez was more distinguished than all his brothers” – The Living Bible

 

 

After a rigorous business meeting in Rome, I was allowed one day to tour the city by my host before jetting back to my country. My itinerary for the “toured” day was planned; visit the palaces of the great Emperors of Rome from Caesar to Augustine; browse through the Vatican City to see the Pope and end up shopping in the great Fashion Houses. The one particular visit that spoke real volumes to me was my shopping in the Great Italian Fashion House (I am sure you would be wondering how it is possible to gain more from shopping considering the aforementioned places mentioned).

 

 

I intended picking up some couple of suits and shoes so on arrival at the mall; I went straight to the first shop and the first thing I observed was that there was no customer in the shop so my thinking was that “things would definitely be very expensive” but the first suit that caught my eyes was the most expensive suit in the shop and it was marked “275 Euro” (I try to make it a habit not to do currency conversion or I would never buy anything outside Nigeria). After testing the suit, I immediately bought it because of the style, fit and material. I quickly left the shop to avoid temptation from the beautiful suits I was beginning to observe. A few distances from the first shop, I saw another shop filled with so many people. The label on the shop read “Dolce and Garbana”; I went in after much effort from wriggling off the crowd and hoping I would get great suits here (based on the designer) at cheaper prices (my thinking was based on the crowd). I was utterly shocked when I saw the price tag of the cheapest suit; it was marked “600 Euros”.

 

 

This experience left me thinking all through the day; the suits I saw at “Dolce and Garbana” was not even as good as the suit I saw in the first shop (my judgment was based on the quality of the material and the style) but “Dolce and Garbana” was more expensive and had huge traffic of people. This was illogical and whenever I experience any illogical thing, I always consult the Bible because the Bible always explains to me illogical things that produce results. Then I saw it; it was written in the book of Proverbs: “Choose a good name rather than riches”. This simply means in making a decision between riches and name; God almighty says the name is a better choice. Wow, this was the greatest nugget to hit the face of the earth. When the Bible says a name; it means the value placed on the name not just the name; in the business world, this is called branding. The story below further drives home the point:

 

 

 

There was a huge battle between Volkswagen and BMW in bidding for Rolls Royce Company when it was placed for sale. Volkswagen out-bided BMW to buy the company and there was great jubilation in the Volkswagen camp until they realized they had made the greatest flaw; Volkswagen bought the Rolls Royce Company but did not buy the name. They did not buy the right to use the name “Rolls Royce”. What a mistake; what is the company without its name – nothing. When luxurious cars are mentioned, your thought immediately runs to Rolls Royce; when durable electronic is mentioned, your mind goes to Sony; when mobile phone is mentioned, your mind quickly thinks of Nokia; when good office shoes are mentioned, you quickly think of the Italians; you call all the soft drink in the world “coke”; when you want to eat noodles in Nigeria, you ask for Indo Mie; the name “Beyonce” signifies new generation pop music. All the aforementioned names have distinguished themselves in their respective games.  

 

 

To further buttress the point on importance of name, I listened to a tape by a notable speaker where he said he received 7K naira a day to speak when he started, later on he received 50K naira a day with the same amount of work, he later received 200K naira a day with the same amount of work, he has received 500K naira a day, 700K naira a day, 1 million naira a day and 1.2 million naira a day. All these amount received were in progression of name awareness not different work but the same work. This translates to increase awareness of name, the increase your wages not the increase amount of work. The work place gives a good idea where differentiation in remuneration is based on name not on the hardest worker and most people are not even known in their work place; they are only HR numbers.

 

 

This write-up submits that rather than invests in money; why not invest in your name where you can easily transcend the challenges of life. The book of Acts relay to us the story of the sons of Sceva that wanted to cast out demons using the name of Jesus; the demons mentioned the names (Jesus and Paul) that have the authority to use the name of Jesus to cast him out not the sons of Sceva. This opens us to the fact that before a name can be valued; there are some processes that must be acquired. It is the sustenance of these processes that gives you a name in your game. In business, if you are branded as a man of integrity, there will be a gravitation of people towards you; it is not the best people in a field that get the business, it is the people that are perceived to be the best that get the business.

 

 

Now suppose you have a bad name and you are wondering how to turn it around to get an excellent name in your game; you can look no further than the bible to give you the best way to turn around your name. The person that comes to mind is Jabez; despite the natural connotation of his name, he was able to give a different value to the name so He was proclaimed to be more distinguished than his brothers. This is the true connotation of greatness; the ability to turn around a hopeless situation and rise above all the challenges and become distinct. For a country like Nigeria that is branded with corruption and fraudulent activities, it needs to understand the Jabez principle; for a person that is interested in a winning formula that distinguishes him from his peer, he needs to understand how the mind of Jabez is working; this is why I would take another section to give a vivid analyses on the Jabez principle and how those who are interested in winning and successful (whatever that is) should adopt these principles. Watch out for part2; I wonder how many part2 I have not been able to complete (please, pray for me).