Sandbox Paris monthly dinner

Last night was exciting for me in a lot of ways.

I was at the Sandbox monthly dinner. This dinner is organised by Sandbox Paris and is thrown open to non-members. It was an amazing evening for me sitting in the same room with people from different walks of life who are doing amazing things daily in pursuit of their dreams, the atmosphere was intellectually stimulating and if you know me so well you should understand my excitement.

At first I was with my friend Onyeka Nwelue and I was just getting to introduce myself to Sophie and her friend when Nettra Pan (who I like to call a Cambodian goddess because of her beauty and aura) came around and said I should not sit with Onyeka and forced me to sit with some other people. So myself and Sophie, who by the way I find very interesting and smart, decided to look for somewhere else to seat. We found two empty seats around this table of four and we Alban and Cecile who were obviously jsut meeting themselves.

Alban is a very interesting fellow, he has travelled far and wide, he runs a business, he's hosting a party next week, so I'm definitely going to see him again some time soon.

Cecile is a medical resident, she's tall, beautiful, smart and seems rather adventurous and outgoing (a trait which is rarely associated with medical professionals). I gave her a copy of my book and I made her promise to review the book and send her honest opinion about the book.

I wrote A-Z Life Lessons in Nigeria and for Nigerians, and I am really interested in knowing what Europeans think about my book. I was telling Alban that Nigerians majorly read motivational and religious books, but fiction seems more appealing to the people here in Europe which is one of the reasons why I might be publishing a fictional piece in the nearest future. As much as I would have loved to, I couldn't give Alban a copy of my book, I've exhausted the copies I came here with and I really need to get more copies from Nigeria asap. Sophie said she would glad to review the book too and I really hope we meet up for that coffee soon :)

Sophie is intelligent and pretty, has a degree in business, she's currently pursuing her masters in renewable energy in a school here in Paris. She couldn't hide her passion for renewable energy

We talked about Alban's idea of mobile offices, his incubator company, and online platform; we talked about work-life balance, routines and how to break away from them, the benefit of having your house in proximity to your office; we talked  renewable energy, development in that sector, energy storage, energy trading; we talked about medicine, mobile health applications, effect of doctor's personality and charisma on treatment and diagnosis; we talked about spirituality, spiritual journeys, yoga,  etc, and towards the end we talked about my book and my motive for publishing.

I also met Etienne Adriaenseen, the Co-founder & CTO of Poutsch a socio-political online platform. He has definitely interacted with a couple of Nigerians as he was able to say "how far" "how you dey" etc. Awesome dude, you guys should check out Poutsch and subscribe.

In Cecile's words, those evenings are great for the mind.

I love the Sandbox community, I love this initiative, I love Paris.

Have a good day ahead guys!

This is why we are here

Success: this is why we are here

Success

Ideas translating into reality

Success

Dreams coming true

Success

Words turned flesh

Success

It is why we are here

It is why we go to school

It is why we learn

Learn what?

Learn the ways of success

Success

The divide between the rich and the poor

The divide between the great and the overlooked

Success

This is what we live for

Success 

Academic success

Material success

Business success

Oh! Material success

The money

The cars, clothes, shoes, mansions

The attention

The class

Success

It is why we are here

The smiles of satisfaction

The comfort in abundance

That's what we all crave for

Dinner is served

Life is a banquet
What are you bringing to the table?

Life is a banquet
We go to get what we want from the table

But what are you bringing to the table?
How are you making life better for others?

The first time I sat down to write I had learnt so much in the previous weeks and I lacked a company to share it with. The knowledge was burning in me, but there was no channel to spread the fire as I was out of school on internship and I didn't have the regular company of my dreamer-friends to share these thoughts with; choosing to write these thoughts down was the best thing that happened to me.

Today, I'm privileged to bring my thoughts on the pages of a book as though the book were a tray and I am dropping it on the banquet table of life and I know someone will take a scoop from this dish of thoughts and be filled with relevant knowledge.

Life is a banquet
We get to get what we want from the table
But what are you bringing to the table?
What are you doing to make life better from others?

Often times, I come across people that have scooped from what I have brought to the banquet and...
The joy that fills my heart when people quote me or I walk into a house/office and I see the book A-Z Life Lessons on the desk is priceless.
Often times people approach me to thank me for advising them; they put some of my principles to use, it produces results and they are super excited to get back to me on the validity of those principles.

I can't induce such priceless satisfaction if not for the hand of God upon me and my passion to share knowledge.

I once ran into a worship leader that inspired me so much in the place of worship in my college days and as he sighted me, with so much excitement he told me how he had been trying to get across to me just to let me know that as he read the first two page of my first book, tears flowed freely from his eyes. I was speechless. And as I walked out of that conversation, I remembered how I wrote some of the pieces in that book while in tears and as I repeatedly said these words to myself DEEP CALLETH UNTO DEEP.

If you've ever seen people dance with excitement when you give them your OLD clothes, then you should understand me to a reasonable extent.

Life is a banquet
What are you bringing to the table

There is that thing in you that will make this banquet more colourful, bring your tray to this banquet.


A times I don't even know what exactly it is I am bringing to the table, but I'm always eager to bring something to the table.

Life is a banquet

It is easier to condemn others and judge them based on what they are bringing to the table.
Life is a banquet
You and I determine what is served
Dinner is served
What are you bringing to the table tonite?

Thinking table

I would sit on this chair and think of all the successful people that I know of and I would remember the words from that lottery advert I used to watch a lot as a kid E FIT BE YOU OH

And it became a habit to look at successful people and to tell myself "Tolulope, you can become this big and even bigger if you choose to"