ON THE BATTLEFIELD
This story as told by Tara, I have decided to treat in a separate message. Its lessons are too deep to be swallowed inside a general topic. In the world of business, there are always people who stand as dream destroyers. They are positioned or they position themselves to frustrate or try to frustrate the visionaries of an enterprise.
Tara Fela-Durotoye told the story of how her products were counterfeited. She travelled out of Nigeria and met someone showing her invoices of her products and she knew the money was not coming to her. She was so downcast that the person who accompanied her commented, ‘Madam, your head has been down since we left that place.’
At that point, she shook herself out of that moment of despair and said ‘My head will not be down in the name of Jesus.’ And she remembered a scripture from the book of Habakkuk 3:17: ‘Although the fig tree shall not blossom, neither shall fruit be in the vines. The labour of the Olive shall fail and the fields shall yield no meal, the flock shall be cut off from the fold and there shall be no herd in the stall, yet I will rejoice in the Lord, the God of my salvation.’
Tara stayed in her hotel rom in that country, praying and asking God for direction. Soon she swung into action, sending adverts of places where genuine Tara products could be found. And soon the storm was over.
She talked about an experience that also shook her.
Tara had trained two ladies in South Africa and when they returned, they made up their minds to misbehave till they were sent out of the company. They became so insolent that they were sent packing. Tara did not know what havoc the ladies had done to the business until she got a call from one of her big-time customers. The customer complained that one of the ladies had been paid and did not deliver on the job. The customer was shocked to discover that the lady was no longer her employee. That was when Tara discovered that the two ladies had taken many of their customers away. They had done make-up on behalf of House of Tara and the money did not come to the company.
Tara was unhappy and called the mother of one of them to report what her daughter had done. ‘But she has to start from somewhere,’ her mother had said, in defence of her daughter. Tara was so disappointed but kept calm. She found it difficult to forgive the ladies. But God told her she had to forgive them and leave the battle for him. So Tara devised a method. She called their names every morning as she recited the Lord’s prayers. She said, Lord forgive me my sins and trespasses as I forgive……..she inserted their names there. Tara kept doing that till God took away the pain from her heart and she completely forgave them.
God showed her that he truly fought the battle when she got an award from an organisation. Till date, that is the only award with a cash prize she has received. And guess what….. the cash she received was the exact amount she used to train the two ladies.
Isn’t God wonderful?
Not long after, one of the ladies came to apologise, saying she has not had peace since she left the company. Tara told her to make peace with the prince of peace.
These are instructive stories that teach us that when we get to the battleground of business, there is a God that stands to fight for us. In case there are people who are fighting you as you navigate the world of business and even in your daily life. Those you have been nice to who have repaid you with evil, don’t bother to lift your sword. Hand it over to the one who wins every war ON THE BATTLEFIELD and watch yourself glide into victory.