lifeasiseeitlekealder

with 2 bonuschapters!

edition2nd

lifeasiseeitlekealder

mindingbusiness

your

lekealder

A very practical guide to buildingand managing an enterprise.

Touches parts many books cannot reach!You'll recommend this book to others.

Conversations stof a 21 century

saint

le e K alder

a business conceptualization kit for entrepreneurs

R

Leke Alder Pilgrimage

PilgrimageThe soul's pictorial journey through life's difficulties,complexities andimperfections.

080808Leke Alder's first novel.A political thriller with a peculiar twist.

life as I see it. Copyright © 2006, 2008 by Leke Alder. All rights

reserved. Published by Alder Media.

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval

system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic,

mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the

prior written permission of the copyright owner.

Request to the Publisher for permission should be addressed to:

Alder Media

1 Ajose Adeogun Street, (by Ligali Ayorinde Street)

Victoria Island, Lagos, Nigeria

+234 (01) 270-5408/9

Second edition.

All photographs © Leke Alder

except Leke Alder portraits by Seyi Body-Lawson

life as I see it ISBN: 978 077 560 9

Leke Alder will like to hear from you:

leke@lekealder.com

www.lekealder.com

ss n e 4E e c 5

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on power & hu an natu ee e o ol 1 5l tt r t u ( ) 1give e y paid a i 53

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l to o (2etter lu ) 90

S s eon hin 96

con entstcon entst

Pro m [po ry i s ]e s et n pro eGu y!ilt 99

Africa Chi 01n ld 1l M od 10

Sou o 3T e ye av 105h E s h e ithe Do e 10

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Nobo y 13Madam d 1

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sam on s ri dl 20s ' d ep e ared p y pri ? 22

r p to a the ceBo fi e of h vanitiesn r t e 25the owe f a om 2 p r o w an 7ourne to the s 29j y abys

becoming en pre eur 3on an tre n 4g ving 3i 8

the da k ide 41r s

i s up to all of us 43t'

P fa he d e it 2re ce to t 2n d ion

It is amazing what a simple book can do.

And it is amazing what words can do.

Indeed, a word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in pictures of silver.

For the many mails received and all the souls touched

For the many lives inspired and the questions of the heart answered

For the young who have read

And the old who have acknowledged

For those who bought for many

And all the sparks that flew

I am, indeed, a humbled man.

I am, Yours sincerely,

The Grateful Man.

I will keep on writing, and my words will mould a nation. My words will build dreams and inspire the Next.My words will heal and my words will illuminate…

21May07

Preface to the 2nd edition

pleased topleased tomeet you!meet you!My name is Leke Alder.

I am a seeker of the unknown.

I work as a consultant at an eponymous company called Alder Consulting, an ideas,

strategy and brand consulting firm.

I have not always been a consultant. I was a lawyer. Well, you could say I have always been a consultant!

I have the privilege of working with people I love: men and women of character and virtue. Talented, intelligent, dedicated, passionate

and full of faith. I'm a blessed man.

I have also had the fortune of taking a life journey with a lovely woman, my wife Lola, and we sired 2 wonderful kids.

I am gifted in many directions. I write stories, plays and poetry. I draw, I paint. I design buildings, interiors, furniture, software, products,

graphics and I am a keen photographer. You could call me a polymath.

However, my greatest thrill in life comes from my knowledge of God through Jesus Christ. He's made all the difference in my life and I am

so so grateful.

My name is Leke Alder and I'm pleased to meet you.

I love wisdom and I seek to understand fundamental models of human existence, relationships and interactions.

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I have a self portrait, made as it were from images and viewpoints.

It is an emblematic complexity full of shards of shades of truth.

A darkling of light.

To some I am a hardworking machine

a creature without a soul.

To others I am a visioneer

A creature with an inner eye.

And yet some see me as a spiritual essence

a member of a mystic Order.

Yet others relate to me as a piece of cerebral equipment

a dry fig without need of sap.

I am a dark enigma

a grey matter full of shadows.

And yet I am corporeal.

My name is Leke Alder. I am no cyborg.

Cyborg

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4I seek to paint life with light

To adopt darkness as a paint brush

And co-opt light into an unholy truce

with darkness.

I seek to capture the essence of being

To expose the raw feelings of nativity

the fragility of character

with excess profundity.

I desire to capture the fleeting

in a frame by frame of time

To express the depths of the Unseen

And the banality of human nature.

I am an imageneer

a keen developer of ideas

a creator of the vivid

I have discovered my joy.

Photography is my passion fruit

a gifting compensation for my loss as an artist.

My health could no longer hold

Against the fumes from paint.

Life is a huge canvas

of instant hues and greys.

I seek to persuade compassion

with meditative compost.

I seek you as my Guest

And this much I guarantee

You will see with your mind

And depart exhilarated.

Methodious

05May05

We tend to equate our work with life and our measure of success with our earnings. We rate people based on the

metrics of their pocket even when there is a knife in that pocket and it is stained with blood. As long as they have

shekels they are special and we accord them expensive privileges.

I believe that money is a means and not an end, and when money becomes an end, you transform. At best, money is a

coma, not a full stop. If you think otherwise, you'll have poverty of spirit and a deformed soul.

Don't get me wrong, money IS important but you must be large hearted, being rich towards others. This is the ultimate

determinant of wealth. History will not remember you for the amount of money you have. It is the size of your

contribution - intellectual, political, social - that history remembers. History has selective amnesia.

I have always wondered about this animal called life, especially success. I wonder about the purpose of our existence, our perambulations and titillations.

on moneyon money& purpose& purpose

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There is something twisted about money. It is the currency of life no doubt, but is it life?

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The Writer of history demands that we live a selfless life full of

contributions. History only recognises men of purpose: those with

purposeful contributions.

We get into petty jealousy because we've not been able to define

a purpose for our existence. 'My Mercedes is bigger than yours';

'my children attend better schools than yours'; 'my lair is swankier

than yours'; 'my wife is prettier than yours'; 'my coffin is more

gilded than yours'; 'my grave is deeper than yours'… It never

ends, does it? It will never be enough. The man with one plane

envies the man with 2 Lear jets. Even my probate lawyer is meaner

than yours. Talk about life after death!

There must be a reason why some people are more blessed than

others and it can't be for the purpose of oppressing the lesser

blessed.

I define success as the fulfilment of purpose. It is the only

definition that I find accommodative of the success of Paul the

Apostle, Julius Caesar, Henry Ford and other great men in history.

Or else Mother Theresa was a woeful failure. How come nobody

ever names their child Judas? He made a lot of money, was

politically connected and made valuable investment in real

estate. Judas was a failure because of a lack of understanding.

You cannot truly be successful in life without purpose. A failed

purpose is a tragic life.

And if success is the fulfilment of purpose then you can't really

measure your success until you're near the grave, geriatically or

paediatrically. (Alexander the Great died very young).

It's amazing that history will not remember Bill Gates for being the

richest man in the world. His place in history seems cemented for

his philanthropy. He's being described increasingly as the man

with the largest foundation in the world and not the man with the

largest stock options.

Someone asked me at lunch yesterday afternoon about what I'll like to be remembered for. Now that's quite some thought!

4am,13May05

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lifeasiseeitlekealder

ISBN 978077560 - 9

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