Faith comes by hearing but it grows by use

Of particular interest to me is the story of 43-year-old Taofick Okoya, the Nigerian man who tried in vain to find a dark-skinned doll for his niece. PHOTO| COURTESY YOUTUBE

What you need to know:

  • Ideas are the first seeds of faith. So many people are idea banks but their lives do not reflect the ideas they have.

  • The ideas have not been planted mainly because, in their lives, rationality triumphs over intelligent irrationality.

  • Many people see the gaps and they complain and say that someone ought to do something about this. What if you are that someone? What if you have been blinded by years of submission to rationality?

Many people shy away from doing great things because they say that they do not have faith.

Their concept of faith is some mystical element that comes on a few chosen people, and somehow they have excluded themselves from this group of people. But is faith a special endowment on a chosen few or available for all?

The reason faith seems to be so far away from many is related to the concept of rationality. Faith is the act of superimposing intelligent irrationality over rationality. Most people are driven by rationality and therefore cannot execute what they consider as being irrational.

This battle between rationality and irrationality has been going on through the ages. In fact, almost all breakthrough concepts on earth today were once considered as irrational.

We all marvel at stories of great success. What we fail to realise is that most of these inspiring stories are products of irrationality. They are the medals obtained by people who did not allow themselves to be contained by rationality.

Of particular interest to me is the story of 43-year-old Taofick Okoya, the Nigerian man who tried in vain to find a dark-skinned doll for his niece.

Instead of taking the rational position of giving up, he took on the irrational task of making that doll himself, and that irrational act has made him a name (the guy who outsells Barbie dolls) and given him a 15 per cent share of the total toy market in Africa’s most populous country.  

Now, let us imagine that Taofiq came to you and asked for your advice. Let us think of all the rational reasons we would have given to convince him that it was a very bad idea.

The difference between achievers like Taofiq and others

First, we would say that the African doll market was not ripe enough to stake all he had on it. Second, we would say that no one can effectively compete with an already established brand like Barbie.

Then we would say that toys cannot break through in Africa; who thinks of toys when there is food to put on the table and school fees to pay? There is surely no shortage of rational reasons why he should not have ventured into the project.

Faith is like a seed. It is useless on the shelf and has to be planted. The difference between achievers like Taofiq and others is that the achievers plant their faith. They give their faith direction and a task. For those who do nothing, it’s not that they do not have faith. The problem is that they do not plant their faith; they do not give it a  task.

Everyone has heard of some amazing story of success before, and faith does come by hearing.  However, the fact that faith came does not mean that it will produce. You may be given a bag of seeds but that does not guarantee food in the future if the seeds remain in the bag. They need to be planted to produce. Faith comes by hearing but grows by use.

Ideas are the first seeds of faith. So many people are idea banks but their lives do not reflect the ideas they have.

The ideas have not been planted mainly because, in their lives, rationality triumphs over intelligent irrationality.

Many people see the gaps and they complain and say that someone ought to do something about this. What if you are that someone? What if you have been blinded by years of submission to rationality?

Intelligent irrationality is unique because it is based on a special kind of intelligence. This kind of intelligence is not approved from the outside by people who have no clue concerning what you are talking about. It is a type of intelligence that protrudes from diligence in research, personal development, building capacity for the dream and a very healthy dose of self-confidence.

This combination will give the power of execution to plant the first seeds of faith (ideas). When these ideas are planted and given direction, breakthrough concepts are born.

Every human being has a responsibility to leave the world better than we found it. The only way to do this is to embrace the philosophy of intelligent irrationality and then, by planting the seeds of our faith (our ideas) on a very needy world. Those bound in the prison of rationality add to the numbers of those who merely exist without truly living. Their presence never makes a difference. (To be continued)