In my hometown, if you visit someone and meet him eating, it is believed that you are thinking well of that person. Normally, he will invite you to join him in eating, even though there was no provision for you. Whether you accept the invitation or not is not the issue. The important thing is that you arrived at the right time to meet the food. Do you sometimes wonder how you get a place at the right time or the wrong time?
Do you know that someone can walk into an accident and become unfortunate while another person can walk away from a scene just before an accident? It could be a difference of minutes. Was that person who left the scene just before the accident a smarter or more intelligent person? This is a principle of life which applies generally.
The wisest king, Solomon, deeply meditated on this principle of life and made a profound statement as recorded in Ecclesiastes chapter 9:11. “I have seen something else under the sun. The race is not to the swift or the battle to the strong, nor does food come to the wise or wealth to the brilliant or favour to the learned. But time and chance happen to them all.”
There is no doubt that there is an unseen Guide who directs people. All you need to do is to listen carefully and do as directed. You may be directed to do something that seems stupid in your own eyes, but that is the right thing to do. Do it. At that moment, do not resort to your natural intelligence or wisdom. Just behave like a child and do what you are told to do.
Many of us make good plans for business, sometimes hiring the best consultants. But no matter how good a plan may be, only God can make it work. How the business plan will turn out is clearly beyond what any consultant can forecast. That is why Proverbs 16:3 says, “Commit to the Lord whatever you do, and your plans will succeed.” I think that whatever plan we make is like a sketch or a draft which we have to submit to God for the finished work. He is pleased with someone who realises that only Him can bring our design to perfection. Proverbs 16:9 says, “In his heart a man plans his course, but the Lord determines his steps.” God is responsible for the outcome of your plans because He alone is omniscient.
In 1979, when I started Pharmanews, I was desperate to secure advert support from the pharmaceutical companies to enable me take off. Some friends and colleagues promised support later, while a few gave me the initial adverts. But no company was willing to pay until the first edition was published. However, I needed the money to publish this maiden edition to convince the company to support me.
I had a vision, alright, but there was no money. One afternoon, I remembered I had seen the signboard of a pharmaceutical company at Ilupeju, but I had not been there before and did not know anybody there. But God directed my steps to that place. I signed the visitor’s slip which was sent in to the managing director. I was asked to come in. This German warmly welcomed me as if he had met me before and asked what he could do for me.
I quickly shared my vision of a monthly 12-page A3 size pharmaceutical newspaper to be distributed to pharmacists and doctors all over the country and asked for advert to support it. I showed him my mock-up with spaces for advert. He listened carefully and caught the vision immediately. He asked, “How will you send it to pharmacists and doctors?” “I will fold the copies with brown paper and post them.” No!! he replied. “Use very good white paper and I will advertise on it also.”
He received the mock-up and immediately booked some premium spaces and asked me to send him the bill for May to December 1979 to be paid in advance. Then he would retain the spaces and pay upfront every January from 1980 until he decided to stop. With a cheque for the next eight months in my hand, the business of Pharmanews took off.
I continue to give glory to God for directing my steps to a person I had never met before to launch my business when I could not find a relation or a friend to do so for me. I believe that if God gives a commission, He makes the provision.
He is always seeking the person to commission and equip. The person may not be the smartest or the most capable, but time and chance happen to everything. He looks at a man’s heart while people look at the physical features. He knows the motives of people and weighs them as precious gold is weighed on a scale.
