TIME OF AWAKENING

Above this tent of green

A blue sky lay overhead

With trees hanging all around

Dancing from side to side

The kisses by the wind

Made every tree to sing

Oh, what a melody!

Sweet sounding symphony

A taste of grandeur

From tree rustling

Sea rumbling

Birds chirping

Wolves howling

And wind hovering

Oh, what a melody!

A melody like no other

Just like heaven's ochestras

Playing with harps and cymbals

Trumpets and drums of thunder

Such a rare symphony

Oh, such a melody!

The sound of awakening

The rise of earth angel

The time of gathering

And homecoming.

Written by:

Ebenezer O. Akinrinade

(Writer & Poet)

[Image by: *Tanium Images* (Canada based partner of EAphotoMedia)]

The jOhN Syndrome: A Lesson for Entrepreneurs

Cinematography is one of my end games & Photography is one of the roads that will lead me there. In lieu of that fact, I've made it a habit to visit the cinemas at least once a month. Its as if I get divine revelations whenever I visit to watch a movie. I even had to borrow money from a friend last week just to see one of those true life epics. I cried to tears by the time the movie was over. I can be emotional like that sometimes but that's beside my point.

One of those movies that almost always brings me to tears is the movie titled WHITE HOUSE DOWN. Honestly, I don't think any Nigerian alive has watched that movie as much as I have. I place it in my top 5 movies of all time (right beside Pursuit of Happyness & John Q). There are at least 100 lessons you can get from watching the film.

One of my favorite scenes is when the main actor, John, was being interviewed for a position as a secret service agent in the White House. According to all the credentials he had accumulated until that time, he was not qualified for the position. He had graduated University with average scores, been divorced, been dismissed from the army, engulfed in serious debt & never seemed to finish successfully anything he started. But somewhere within him he knew he was qualified for the position.

At the end of the interview, you could see the determination & desperation in his eyes when he concluded his plea to the interviewer (who coincidentally happened to be his ex-girlfriend while he was in George Washington University): JUST GIVE ME A CHANCE. His past qualifications & misachievements was what was visible in the eyes of the interviewer. His application was denied.

Fast forward to 2 hours later. He had surmounted many impossible challenges & situations and was the main reason the President of the United States was alive. He literally saved the President. The stone that the builders, architects & engineers rejected became the chief stone wherein the House would stand on. Despite his CV, he proved to himself &  the world that all he indeed needed was JUST A CHANCE.

He had what I call the jOhN syndrome: that diagnosis that has concluded that one isn't fit for a position or post because of one's past achievements or mistakes. But it is that very syndrome that seems to have driven many into achieving the monumental success that has been ascribed to their names till date. Moses was a stammerer, Saul was shy, David was an errand boy, Ruth was a widow, Solomon was a ************* (not too sure what you'll call someone with 1000 babes), Joseph was a prisoner (though not his fault) & Seun was a deported felon.

Yet that syndrome drove them unconsciously into being qualified to be "stones" that will be significant in the building of success & greatness. It is the reason I seem to gravitate towards the person whose past or present seems to be akin to the fall of Humpty Dumpty. For History has proven that it is mostly people with the jOhN syndrome that have made History.

My encouragement to all reading this who sense they have this type of syndrome is this: do not loose hope for one day, your achievements might save/strengthen a President or a generation. At the end of the film, even John's ex-wife was obviously proud of the achievement of his John. At the end, even your ex & enemies would brag to people about the fact that they once knew a guy like you with the jOhN syndrome.

Oh well, enough of my epistle. I can hear John calling me to go watch the film for the 73rd time this year.

Written by:
'Seun Akisanmi
[Photographer & Writer]

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FROM PRISON TO PHOTOGRAPHY (Chapter 2)

Glancing through the paper in his hand, he proceeded to ask if I knew 6 other names. At this point, my heart had gotten to my mouth.

It wasn't that I had completely forgotten the names in question; the names were just no longer in my conscious memory.

The date was October 20, 2000. The auction listing I placed on eBay had come to an end. I listed for sale 12 PALM V handhelds at $250 apiece. The retails price for the gadget was $300 so potential buyers knew they were getting a great deal. PALM V was like the release of a new model of iPhone in those days and most gadget-crazed individuals were itching to get one in their hands.

My main reason for selling at a discounted rate was that I needed funds to pay for my school fees. I wanted to desperately relieve my dad of the fees he had paid for me for over 3 years. I would eventually sell the dozen gadgets within 2 days. Within moments, the buyers, including one Christopher Smith, transferred a total of almost $3000 to my Bank of Edwardsville account. I was happy. I was overjoyed.

The truth was that I did not have in my possession any PALM V gadget to mail to any of the 12 buyers. Still, I was confident they'll get the gadget they paid for.

A few days earlier (October 16, 2000), I had met one Michael Jackson on Yahoo Auctions. He claimed to be a distributor of the PALM V gadget, with warehouses in Japan and Canada. He was auctioning them for $150 apiece and I realized I could make some money buying from him at that price and selling to others at a higher price. I realized I could easily make $100 apiece on this breakthrough gadget.

Thinking of those transactions now I've become an ardent believer of that old saying: if it sounds too good to be true, it's probably too good to be true. I would later discover that I was dealing with someone whose name will forever be engraved in my membrane the same way MICHAEL JACKSON (the pop star) was a fan of millions. My life will not be the same.

I ordered a dozen of the gadgets from Michael Jackson and decided to auction them on another website that my company was listed on: eBay. I would later transfer electronically $1800 (from the $3000 I got from the eBay buyers) to my new distributor. I would forward him the addresses of the 12 buyers so he would be responsible for mailing out the gadgets to their respective owners.

I would never forget that moment I clicked the button on my mouse to finalize the transfer. He was happy, I was happy. And I was about to become seriously sad.

5 seconds after I transferred the funds to MICHAEL JACKSON, I got a mail from a Yahoo Auctions seller: "I noticed you were bidding for the PALM V being sold by user michaelj.....I hope you have not paid for them because the guy is a FRAUD."

If I had gotten the mail from that anonymous Samaritan 7 seconds earlier, there's a good chance that things wouldn't have turned out the way it is for me now. If I had gotten that mail earlier, I might not have turned out to be a PROFESSIONAL PHOTOGRAPHER today.

To be continued ....
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Written by:
Oluwaseun Akisanmi
Photographer |Writer |Poet |Host, NiPHEC

Facebook - Seun Akisami
Twitter - @seunakisanmi
WhatsApp - +2348120129149
Email - seunakisanmi@elophotos.com

NB: This is a non-fictional account of 'Seun Akisanmi's journey from PRISON to PHOTOGRAPHY.