In the first week of January, 1979, I took my letter of resignation to the Departmental Manager of my company. He was not surprised that I was resigning because our working relationship had become frosty. But he was shocked to know what I was planning to do. He asked me, “Are you going to Glaxo?” I replied no. “Pfizer”? I said no. “Then, where are you going?” I simply replied that I would start publishing a pharmaceutical newspaper. He laughed mockingly, as if I was a crazy man.
After the jeering laughter, he asked me how I planned to take care of my wife and young kids. I replied that I would make money from the newspaper to take care of my family. He laughed the more and told me, “Ifeanyi, I know you well. You can’t make money from that paper. You will even be begging people to take the copies free of charge. You must think seriously about your future. Have you discussed with your wife?”
As soon as I left him, he invited the National Sales Manager to discuss the “foolish” decision I was taking, instead of getting a marketing position in another pharmaceutical company. The next time I met him was at the PSN conference in Umuahia in November 2017 (38 years after). He was officially invited to the conference as a traditional ruler. On arrival, he met me and my wife at the entrance of the venue and we heartily embraced each other and took nice photographs.
I gave the above narration to show you what you can experience when God gives you a vision of what He has planned for you to do. Your vision is your personal calling; it is not for any other person. When my boss was mocking me, I pitied him because of his ignorance. He did not know what God had already revealed to me about my future. I allowed him to express his mind and then left him with my letter of resignation. He was not the right person I could have shared my vision with. He did not know that God had already given me the idea of what He would want me to do for Him.
When God gives you a vision, you are not expected to share it with everybody. Joseph did it with his brothers and parents and created some problems for himself. There are vision-killers who can destroy your future. May God direct you to those who will support and encourage you to fulfil God’s plan for your life.
I realised this very early and tactfully kept away from certain colleagues. Of course, God led me to Prince Julius Adelusi-Adeluyi (Juli as he is popularly called) who was very excited and we looked critically at the dummy I presented to him for comments. I had the idea of the name “Pharma News” but Juli suggested one word, “Pharmanews”. On house colour, we considered some colours and arrived at process blue.
One great thing that happened in the last quarter of 1978 when some ideas were flowing into my mind was that I wrote them in a notebook with hard cover. I did not allow any idea to evaporate. That was on Wednesday, 27 December, 1978.
At that time, I was not reading the Bible and did not know that even God instructed us to write down the vision He gives us. It was when I became an active Christian that I saw it in Habakkuk 2:2-3 (KJV), which says, “And the LORD answered me, and said, “Write the vision , and make it plain upon tables that he may run that readeth it. For the vision is yet for an appointed time, but at the end it shall speak, and not lie: though it tarry, wait for it; because it will surely come, it will not tarry.”
Implementing God’s vision requires focusing on the assignment. Luke 9:62NKJV says, “No one, having put his hand to the plough and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God.” You have to carry it out as instructed. When God gave the instruction for building His temple in Jerusalem He gave details of dimensions and materials. When Noah was to build an ark He gave very clear instructions. When God through Prophet Samuel gave King Saul instructions on how to vanquish Amalek, Saul did it his own way and that led to the end of his kingship of Israel.
