The End Of The Contests

This is to inform you all that our twin contests of Best Commenter and First Commenter which started in August officially ended on the 9th of September 2015.

We are expecting to announce the winners on the 12th of September 2015.

Keep glued to this blog to know who won what

Thanks

Dr. Jerry - the First

#DrJTF

Once Upon Some Life Obstacles

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Once upon a time a daughter complained to her father that her life was miserable and that

she didn't know how she was going to make it.

She was tired of fighting and struggling all the time. It seemed just as one problem was solved, another one soon followed.

Her father, a chef, took her to the kitchen.

He filled three pots with water and placed each on a high fire.

Once the three pots began to boil, he placed potatoes in one pot, eggs in the second pot and ground coffee beans in the third pot.

He then let them sit and boil, without saying a word to his daughter. The daughter, moaned and impatiently waited, wondering what he was doing. After twenty minutes he turned off the burners.

He took the potatoes out of the pot and placed them in a bowl.

He pulled the eggs out and placed them in a bowl.

He then ladled the coffee out and placed it in a cup.

Turning to her, he asked.

"Daughter, what do you see?"

"Potatoes, eggs and coffee," she hastily replied.

"Look closer", he said, "and touch the potatoes."

She did and noted that they were soft.

He then asked her to take an egg and break it.

After pulling off the shell, she observed the hard-boiled egg.

Finally, he asked her to sip the coffee.

Its rich aroma brought a smile to her face.

"Father, what does this mean?" she asked.

He then explained that the potatoes, the eggs and coffee beans had each faced the

same adversity-the boiling water.

However, each one reacted differently.

The potato went in strong, hard and unrelenting, but in boiling water, it became soft and weak.

The egg was fragile, with the thin outer shell protecting its liquid interior until it was put in

the boiling water. Then the inside of the egg became hard.

However, the ground coffee beans were unique.

After they were exposed to the boiling water, they changed the water and created something new.

"Which one are you?" he asked his daughter.

"When adversity knocks on your door, how do you respond?

Are you a potato, an egg, or a coffee bean?"

----------------------------------

Everyone will face adversity.  That is an absolute certainty.  

But how will you react to each one?  

Will you become hardened?  

Will you cower away?

Or, will you change and grow and keep pushing forward with absolute belief in

yourself and a commitment to work hard and go for your goals?

Be your own hero!

Write your own STORY remember history only means HIS STORY

Never let others write your story for you

Life Comes With No Guarantees or Warranties

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 I remember in my growing up years, that my father used to talk to all his children every 5 am of the morning Monday to Saturday (with my Mother in attendance) after which we would proceed to the Family Altar for the morning devotion.

On Sunday mornings, they would ensure that we were dressed up for Church service and actually take us by hand to the Church.

After the service, my Father used to conduct a kind of "test" to see who actually listened and got the message from the service - he would ask us for instance "what was the topic of the Pulpit Talk?" or where was the first reading taken from? e.t.c.

Those actions of my Father, though irritating at that time, but actually formed the bedrock upon which most of us his Children grew up and prepared us to face the future without fear.

That goes to confirm what the Bible says "Train up a Child in the way that he should go and when he is old, he will not depart from it" -- Proverbs 22: 6

This may therefore suggest that there is a guarantee in life that if you do A B C, then X Y Z would be the outcome or that if you choose to go left, definitely you would not encounter any road blocks.

But that is very far from the truth and the truth is that in life, there are no guarantees or warranties.

There is no guarantee that the child who was raised in a home such as my Father's would not deviate from the path set before him or her?

There is no guarantee that all the principles, lessons and wisdom poured into the children when they were growing up would stick with them all through their adult lives?

And all these are because, we are all INDIVIDUALS and as the children make their way through life, they not only drop some of the things they learnt at home which to them appear depressive or out of fashion but also pick up other habits/characters that they see most of their peers involved in. Because they do not want to be the only sheep amongst the goats, they prefer to blend to be goats too just to flow or tag along with their peers.

After all we have heard of Children born to Pastors and Bishops who are way out of the Christian life that their parents struggled hard to impart in them when they were growing up.

This therefore means that while growing up may be limiting for the fear of Parents, being grown up is a sesame street event where everyone is "free" to decide which path to tread.

We are obsessed with the culture of getting ahead and ensuring a win.

We have little tolerance for failure.  We want guarantees on everything – purchases, programs, etc.  

We want a 100% money-back guarantee that this will work.  “If you can’t guarantee the weight-loss program, I’m not trying it.”  “If you can’t guarantee that I will get a job on the first interview by using your training program, I am not even giving it an attempt.”  

We want guarantees on EVERYTHING – including raising our children to make wise decisions.

I have seen it happen several times, individuals have refused to get involved in programs that ordinarily should benefit them because they did not get any guarantees that such programs would work.

And because they did not get any guarantees they did not take part  not remembering that the life we live is predicated on seasons and times, happenstances and ordinances which may not be clear to us.

Sometimes even when guarantees are given, they fall short of expectations and make people lose confidence and some even suffer from broken hearts.

It is therefore important to know that while there are no guarantees or warranties in life, we can always put FAITH in all out DOUBTS, that way we can be GUARANTEED of life transforming actions.

Dr. Jerry - the First: JP

#DrJTF

Success In September

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Hello friends

Another new month is here.

It is called September, not only is it a new month, it is also the first ember month of the year and the last month in the 3rd quarter and the 9th month of this year 2015.

If there are still any resolutions in our New Year Resolution list that are yet to be taken off the Board, then this is the month to commence them; because with the arrival of the ember month, the year 2015 is surely heading to an end.

It is in line with the above thought that we have decided to invite you to participate in our program Success In September #SiS.

In this program we want to assist as many persons as had wished to establish a second stream of income as one of their resolutions for this year but have not commenced that yet. We want to assist them to establish a second stream of income, either through ONLINE BUSINESS or OFFLINE MULTILEVEL MARKETING BUSINESS.

For those who think that starting a business is CAPITAL INTENSIVE, you would be shocked to know that with as low as N5, 000.00, you can start your own ONLINE business and with as low as N10, 000.00 you can start your own OFFLINE Business - yes it is that low.

So stop fretting about capital and start doing something to achieve your goal for 2015.

We are here to assist you so you would be in business for yourself but not by yourself, all the support you need shall be provided by us.

So what are you waiting for?

Kill that limiting spirit now, kill procrastination NOW!!!

Successful people are ACTION TAKERS

Take action now: send your Name, Location, Email Address and Phone Number to 0705-994-9508

Don't let this September pass you by

You MUST Succeed In September

Dr. Jerry - the First: JP

Originator - #SiS

Behold September!!!!!

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The arrival of a new month is like the arrival of a new baby in the house.

Right from the Hospital, it is celebration galore.

I remember when my wife had our first son, I had taken her to the Hospital and asked my Mother (of blessed memory) to keep her company while I went to report at my duty post.

I quickly drove off to the Hospital where I was working to sign in and then inform the Head of Department that my wife was in labour at another hospital.

All that took me just about an hour and by the time I came back to where my wife was, the Medical Director accosted me on the way to the ward and took me by hand to the Maternity ward and said to me Doctor behold your son. You can only imagine how pleasant that announcement was in my ears and how joyful my heart was. I thanked him and gave my wife a huge bear hug and even my mother too. I was just hugging everyone in sight including the nurses. My joy was more because it was her first pregnancy and despite all our fears as usual, she had delivered like the Hebrew women of old - no stress, no strain, no complications.

But I am not here to talk about my wife's delivery but to announce to you my friends the birth of a new month and to say "Behold September"

God has made it possible for us to enter into a new month. Not all who saw the beginning of August saw the end of it, so many persons passed on either naturally or by disasters of wars, accidents, crashes, bomb attacks, terrorism and other such acts that take lives carelessly; but in His mercy He saw us through them all and brought us into this new month.

It's only Him that could do this, never let another take the glory

I am so filled with joy and happiness and am just going around and hugging everyone in sight (I wish you were here so that I can hug you too). Hugging has a special way of communicating (I shall write on that soon - remind me) and it sure is one way for me.

So now that you are in September, what are you going to do with it?

Give an answer to that question and the God Whom I serve wholeheartedly shall bless you beyond your imagination.

Have a wholesome month

Dr. Jerry - the First: JP

#DrJTF

Stay True To Yourself

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I have a reasonable number of "friends" on facebook - 9/10th of who I don't know in real life.

Of that 9/10th of persons in my facebook friends list who I don't know in person, 7/8th of them have profiles that shout it all out.

What do I mean?

I always regularly visit the profiles of my facebook friends to know who they really are and most of them give out information that are not real and can not be confirmed.

And most times, it starts from the profile name - I have met persons with very funny kind of names and when I sought to know the meanings of their names, they tell me that they are not their real names and in my innocence I inquire why they don't use their real names and what I get is "you won't understand" and since I don't like "faking" in any form, I go ahead to delete such.

Lots of people claim to be CEOs

I have met a number of persons (and that's quite a number) who claim to be CEOs of Companies; but my curiosity on this matter was actually brought out one day when one of the persons who claimed to be a CEO was asking me for recharge card on, I was shocked to say the least. So when I asked how a big guy like him who is a CEO of a Company can condescend to ask me for recharge card - he told me "Oga, don't mind what I wrote there, na "forming" things!!!!!, another one even told me that his Company is still in the future!!!!!

So I ask myself, why would anyone claim to be what they are not? If you don't say how it is with you, how would you expect to get help?

Most people do not know that Employers of labour are also on facebook and other social media and that they look for genuine persons online with a good reputation to employ!!!

So if you are already a CEO, then why are you still looking for "job?"

But the one that pisses me off most of the time is persons claiming to be where they are not. Someone who has never left otueke in his life time, would claim on facebook that s/he is living in Europe or America.

One experience of mine that was particularly funny happened some 3 months ago. Some guy sent me an add request which I accepted and then in the course of chatting, he said he would want to meet me because he wanted to learn the online businesses I train people on, direct from me and not through my online teachings/trainings but that he does not live in Nigeria and so does not know how to go about it. I asked him where he was and he said that he is living in Edmonton - Canada (which was what he wrote on his profile) and that excited me because then I was running a program at Edmonton and how refreshing it would be to meet a fellow Nigerian in a foreign land, so I asked further of which side of Edmonton he was staying and he gave me an address that was quite close to the hotel I was staying -- wow!!! that was too close for comfort, so I told him that I was actually staying at so so so Hotel but attending my program at the Institute (gave him the name and address of the Institute) and asked him to come to the Institute so that we can get acquainted and then plan something for the request he made. The guy wowed! and said it was okay for him. We agreed on the time to meet. I asked for his number but he said I should give him mine instead since he is the one to call (made sense to me) so I gave him my number to call when he gets to the Institute. And when the program for the day was ended, I sat at the Institute's lobby waiting for the guy. When the time we agreed on was up and there was no him neither a call from him, I decided to send him a message on facebook but to my greatest surprise, I could not locate him again in my list - he had DELETED HIMSELF from my list and had become another FACEBOOK USER. It hit me home that the guy might be another person "forming" claiming levels where he is yet to be. Maybe Canada is how own "futuristic" destination of residence -- lol

My friends, forming things is so expensive. When you tell a lie, you have to become a habitual liar to protect the first lie and so you have to always be on your guard because when your lie comes to the surface, you lose all trust and confidence you had built over a period.

But for the truth, it is always the truth. You don't have to protect it, it will always surface. When you tell the truth, even if you are woken up from a deep slumber, you would still say it as it was, you won't strain to remember it.

So why form?

why make unnecessary claims?

you are God's own work still in progress

if you want it, you can always have it but forming it or claiming it publicly when it is not yet there is just not it at all

Your online reputation matters as well as your offline reputation.

You might say no one is watching, but I tell you, someone is watching and you know that this world is a very small place, you never can tell when you would run into your facebook friend that you did not know in real life and then KPUM your claims would become vapour and mist

Today, make a decision to be real and genuine - it pays better dividends

Ciao

#DrJTF

That Old Time Religion

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From when I was very young and quite impressionable, I have always held religion in awe because that was how my Parents inculcated it right into me.

I was taught to see the Pastor as next to God and whose words were sacrosanct.

I was taught to reverence the Bishop because he communes with God in deeper depths than any would ever do

I was taught that sin is an abomination to any one and a reproach to any Nation, they did not teach me to beautify sin and give it another name but to see sin and call it sin

I listened attentively to the Pulpit talk whenever I attended a service because the words that would emanate from there were words of edification, which would make me think of how I am living my life and see if there is a way to cut out all that are hindering my progress on the road to heaven and not words that would make me feel comfortable in my sin.

I was taught that we all have sinned and come short of the glory of God and that only the Grace of God keeps us going.

I was taught that the Church is the place where sinners go to obtain salvation, I was not taught that there are some RIGHTEOUS persons who come to Church and whose business is to CONDEMN others.

That old time religion taught me that hard work and perseverance are the way to riches.

In those days, a called Pastor would surely excel.

Then, Religion  had not been commercialized.

Today

Religion has gone hay wire, Pastors call themselves, anoint themselves and give themselves triple gifts - Apostle, Prophet, Evangelist, Doctor ........

All Pastors want to be General Overseers, even when they are in the service of another, all their attention is focused on how to poach some well to do members of that sect to form their own Churches

Today's trendy Pastors infuse laziness into the minds of their followers by asking them to fast and pray over things that they can do for themselves because they are serving God Who is the Owner of the thousand sheep on the hill and Who would do all (including the ones that the people ought to do for themselves). Little wonder then that we are having more "failed individuals."

They say hard work is akin to hard labour and so people should rather practice smart work!!!!!

They specialize in spewing out prophecies from God knows where and hypnotize their members into believing such prophecies to the point of parting even with their last savings to attend to the cleansing and spiritual bathing that must be done for fortune to smile (which 99.999% of the times is FALSE and FAKE).

I could go on and on and on but, I can just summarize by saying that the closeness and tightness wrought in the Church of old where Christians gather to "break bread in one Communion" is preferable to me than the openness of today's Religion.

I crave for that old time Religion!!!

Dr. Jerry - the First: JP

#DrJTF

The School Called Marriage

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Marriage is the only school where u get the Certificate before you start. It's also a school where you will never graduate.

It's a school without a break or a free period.

It's a school where no one is allowed to drop out.

It's a school you will have to attend every day of

your life.

It's a school where there is no sick leave or holidays.

It's a school founded by God:

1.On the foundation of love.

2.The walls are made out of trust.

3.The door made out of acceptance.

4.The windows made out of understanding

5.The furniture made out of blessings

6.The roof made out of faith.

Be reminded that you are just a student not the Principal.

God is the only Principal.

And to be successful in the School in order to score an A, you need to put the following into practice on daily basis

Even in times of storms, don't be unwise and run outside.

Keep in mind that, this school is the safest place to be.

Never go to sleep before completing your assignments for the day.

Never forget the C-word...Communicate.

Communicate to your classmate and to the Principal

If you find out something in your classmate (spouse) that you do not appreciate.

Remember your classmate is also just a student not a graduate, God is not finished with him/her yet. 

So take it as a challenge and work on it together.

Do not forget to study the Holy Book (the main textbook of this school).

Start each day with a sacred assembly and end it the same way. Sometimes you will feel like not

attending classes, yet you have to.

When tempted to quit find courage and continue.

Some tests and exams may be tough but remember the Principal knows how much you can bear and yet it's a school better than any other.

It's one of the best schools on earth; joy, peace and happiness accompany each lesson of the day.

Different subjects are offered in this school, yet love is the major subject.

After all the years of theorizing about it, now you have a chance to practice it.

To be loved is a good thing, but to love is the greatest privilege of them all.

Marriage is a place of love, so love your spouse. 

More grace from God.

From Mother To Daughter On The Eve Of Her Traditional Marriage

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A piece of advise a Mother gave to her daughter on the eve of her traditional marriage

My daughter,you are now a wife and soon you'll be become a mother too. God bear

me witness that I taught you how to cook and do other household chores. 

I taught you to respect men and to explain your anger when necessary but if you do

otherwise, I know you,not as a daughter but as my fellow woman.

My daughter,you see this your husband? He is a gentleman but don't take advantage of that. 

Don't bring out the beast in him. 

My daughter,you see this mark on my forehead? Your father gave it to me. He tolerated me every time

but on that day,He came unexpectedly. It wasn't his intention but i dared him and he hit me just once

My daughter,Men hate it when you use the words "YOU CAN'T DO IT".He sure can do more than but

he's just protecting you from harm.

My daughter,whenever there is an argument or misunderstanding,try drinking water. You can't talk when you have water in your mouth.

Now,you have two families. You are very lucky. Tolerate and appreciate them just as you did

here in our home.

Learn to welcome other people's kids and soon,children will surround your table with love. 

You see that my big pot? I bought it when i still had no child but i always cooked with

it to feed those children who had nothing to eat.

Learn to show hospitality.

Welcome a visitor and at least,offer a glass of water. Don't discriminate. 

Don't shatter your husband's family. instead, bring them together.

Learn to appreciate little efforts and soon, they'll learn to do more.

Today,you are wearing your traditional marriage costume and you

look so beautiful in it but there is still another gown you need to wear. That is the

MATERNITY gown. I wore it and you shall wear your's too.

When you have a misunderstanding ,don't come back here. Sort things out and build a happy home.

I built mine and your father enjoyed me.

Men like food. They like both the KITCHEN food and the BEDROOM food. 

Don't deny him any of the food

If you do all these and have Christ as the BedRock of your Home, you shall surely have a successful marriage, just as I have had

God bless you my daughter

5 Incredibly Useful Lessons I Learned From Harvard Business School's New Online Course

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I recently spent 11 weeks from April through July taking a new online course from Harvard Business School.

Called HBX CORe (Credential of Readiness), it's a "pre-MBA" course that tackles the basics of statistics, economics, and accounting using HBS's case study method and a proprietary user experience.

Its target demographic includes professionals who are looking to make up for their lack of a formal business education in hopes of advancing their careers. Business Insider covered the $1,500 price (which has since increased to $1,800).

After spending approximately 150 hours with it, I can say that I believe it is worth the financial and time investment, and is superior to free online courses in the same subjects.

HBS professors Jan Hammond, Bharat Anand, and V.G. Narayanan take students through the mechanics of their respective classes, but the case studies help teach practical lessons that can add another layer of understanding about how companies operate every day.

Here are some of the most useful lessons I learned:

The Winner's Curse means in many auctions, the winner may actually be the loser.

Unless everyone in an auction has perfect information about the value of the item up for grabs, the winner is just whoever happens to be the most aggressive or optimistic.

Someone who bid lower than the item's worth has a surplus of zero and doesn't win, and someone who bids exactly what the item is worth also has a surplus of zero and doesn't win. That means the person who wins overestimated the value and has a negative surplus.

Product bundles maximize value rather than creating waste.

You've probably bought several product bundles in your life where you felt like you were forced to buy something you really didn't want: You really needed Microsoft Word, could maybe use PowerPoint, and figured you'd maybe use Excel once or twice, but the bundle was a better deal than just buying Word and wondering if you should also pay full price for PowerPoint.

But the beauty of this classic Office bundle is that it maximizes revenue for Microsoft not because products are forced on you, but because there is a negative correlation among preferences of customers. There was someone whose preferences were similar to yours, except they really wanted Excel, moderately wanted Word, and barely wanted PowerPoint.

In the end, Microsoft wins by creating price discrimination, a strategy where similar goods are offered at different prices in different markets, like someone paying full price for paper towels and another purchasing paper towels only because they have a coupon.

Price ceilings and price floors can end up further complicating the problems they're meant to solve.

When the state of New York decided to enact an anti-price gouging law on gasoline in the wake of Hurricane Sandy, it was with the intention of keeping prices fair for New Yorkers of all walks of life.

Because the price was below the equilibrium price, in which supply equals demand, there was a shortage of gasoline and people had to spend hours in line for a shot at filling up. And because the price could not be raised, companies from other states had no incentive to ship gasoline to New York customers, resulting in some struggling citizens without gas.

A similar situation occurs when a minimum wage, an example of a price floor, is used in an elastic labor market — one in which workers would be willing to work more hours if paid a higher wage — and increases unemployment due to a surplus of labor.

A company's fixed costs are irrelevant to pricing decisions.

Fixed costs like rent and equipment expenses don't vary as the quantity produced of a product changes. Variable costs like raw materials and packaging do vary with quantity changes.

Fixed costs are relevant to whether or not a company should enter an industry or stay in business, but are irrelevant to pricing. If a coffee shop owner, for example, spent $300,000 setting up her business and produces a standard cup of coffee at a cost of $2, any value from a price above $2 is her profit, and she can lower the price all the way down to $2 if a price war with a competitor breaks out; the $300,000 is not a factor in determining how much the coffee should go for.

The Central Limit Theorem explains why we can confidently use random samples to learn about a population.

If you're measuring the impact of a variable on a population — say, how distance from downtown affects the price of a suburban home — the distribution of the averages of those samples will be normally distributed (i.e. it will be in the shape of a bell curve). The average of this resulting bell curve will be equal to the true average of the population.

In the real world, no one actually uses the huge amount of time and resources it would take to collect a bunch of samples and map their averages. Instead, we know that there is a 95% chance that the average of the sample is within two standard deviations of the population's average. Without getting into the math behind it, this is how we confidently determine ranges of values from a sample.

Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/lessons-from-harvard-business-school-hbx-core-2015-8#ixzz3iqrGcdut