MIND YOUR BIZNESS:
Business Ediquette, Protocol and other Stuff.
Let me ask you a question. When you wake up in the morning, are you excited about going to your place of employment, whether it is working for someone else or you are self-employed? If you answered, “Yes” to this question, then bypass this article and read the others. Now on the other hand, if you answered, “No”, then this article is for you. Read it and, maybe, even read it again. I want everyone whose eyes gaze across this article to have a positive affirmation by the time they finish reading it and begin to look at their employment differently.
As usual, I would like to start with me. I always want to be the first partaker of my own advice. I would like to share with you an experience I encountered several years ago when I was employed with Detroit Public Schools. I recall having a conversation with a gentleman whose company came in to provide business workshops to our students about finances. This gentleman and I began to develop a good working relationship. I began to open up to him and share some of my dreams and aspirations. One day, during one of our in-depth conversations, he asked me a most profound question. He asked me, how much time I gave to DPS (Detroit Public Schools). I thought about it, and I told him. Then he asked me, how much time did I give to my passion---what I really aspired to do? I thought about it and when I gave him the answer, I knew it was time to change the ratio between the time I gave to DPS and the time I devoted to living my dream.
Now by no means am I going to tell anyone to do what I did, which was leave my job to pursue my passion. I was able to leave because I had some physical challenges with my back and I was able to come out on disability leave. In fact, this is how I was able to retire from my job. I understand that everyone reading this article may not be afforded the opportunity to leave their employment, especially if they do not have enough savings or like in my case, disability insurance. But everyone reading this article has the opportunity to change the ratio between what they are doing and what they desire to do. Take the necessary steps to start living your dreams and walk in your passion. Believe it or not, everyone, and I mean everyone has a deeply rooted desire to do something that drives them (Proverbs 20:5). It is so imminent that you can almost taste, smell and feel it. It is that one thing that wakes you up at night and makes you toss and turn because it is almost hunting you. What is it? It’s your PASSION chasing you. I know about that feeling all too well. It is tugging at you all the time because it wants you to pursue it.
"Many are the plans in a person’s heart, but it is the LORD’s purpose that prevails,"
(Proverbs 19:21, NIV).
Written by Dr. Tunishai Ford
Pursuing Your Purpose