Day: August 19, 2019

Above all things

~ osasuoviawe

Matthew 19:16-22
And behold, one came up to him, saying, “Teacher, what good deed must I do, to have eternal life?”
And he said to him, “Why do you ask me about what is good? One there is who is good. If you would enter life, keep the commandments.”
He said to him, “Which?” And Jesus said, “You shall not kill, You shall not commit adultery, You shall not steal, You shall not bear false witness,
Honor your father and mother, and, You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”
The young man said to him, “All these I have observed; what do I still lack?”
Jesus said to him, “If you would be perfect, go, sell what you possess and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me.”
When the young man heard this he went away sorrowful; for he had great possessions.

Homily:

Whenever I read this passage, I put myself in the shoes of this young man that engaged Jesus, and I reflect on my choices.

To the reminder on the commandments by Jesus, he replied, “All these I have observed; what do I still lack?”
If Jesus reminds me today about the commandment – “You shall love your neighbour as yourself”, I will not even be able to reply, as the words will judge me.

To the next advice from Jesus to the young man, I will also walk away even more sorrowful. I do not have great possessions, yet I will hesitate to oblige such advice.

Dear God, help me to obey Your commandments and put You above all things in my life.

Sell it

~ osasuoviawe

I heard a quote today that got me thinking – “Perfect is the enemy of good”. I did some research and it is widely attributed to Voltaire.

It is a simple and profound statement by itself, but then I stumbled upon some other quotes that are just as profound.

“Better a diamond with a flaw than a pebble without.” – Confucius

“Striving to better, oft we mar what’s well.” – Shakespeare

The above quotes and thoughts do not mean stay stagnant, but it means whatever you have, sell it.

It is from selling that you get the much needed feedback to either improve or keep as is.

How do you know that poem is not what people will like?
How do you know that product you are working on, will spend its shelf life on the shelf?
How do you know that blog will not gain traction?
How do you know that business will not succeed?
How do you know no one will listen to you?

There is only one way to know – sell it. (This ties in well with KSB).

Most of the greats I know and I have read about, do not pick their most popular work as their favourite work. But the market decided what was of value and they built more around that feedback.

The best feedback mechanism is at the point of sale, not in your head.

Naval Ravikant once said, “The Lindy effect for start-ups: The longer you go without shipping products, the more likely you will never ship products”. I now get it.

“Perfect is the enemy of good” and what you have right now is good enough to start selling.

– Osasu Oviawe