These days, when I’m invited to speak, I hardly “prepare” in the traditional sense.

If the topic is within family strengthening, child safeguarding, protection, or purposeful and power parenting, I simply show up and speak from how I live. I don’t study to teach; I study to live. What I share on stage is what I am already practising off stage.

That is where this life lesson was born:

You don’t pursue your dream. You live your dream.
You don’t chase destiny. You position for it.

I first heard this framed by Olakunle Soriyan (reinforced by voices like Erwin McManus). My own journey has confirmed it repeatedly through what I now call “destiny in the casuals.”

Not strategy.
Not hype.
Just obedience and consistency, and suddenly, history opens a door.

A few “casuals” that shaped my path:

1990–1997: Casually participated in the Students’ Union for the love of service; gained lifelong, destiny-defining relationships.

1999–2000: Casually raised alarm about children kept in brothels in Lagos. Sent out a press release. NTA Lagos invited me to “Morning Ride”; I declined. A bigger casual door opened: NTA One-on-One, 4 April 2000, 30 million viewers at age 30. No PR agency. Just burden and obedience.

Marriage: Casually went to LASU to volunteer as a pastor. Met my wife. No strategic search, just alignment.

2003: Casually started a column with Daily Independent. It quietly became the springboard for my work with UNICEF.

2010: Casually introduced to Dr (Mrs) Femi Ogunsanya, then APEN Chair. Training her school led to one APEN session, then two, then massive visibility among Nigeria’s top private schools.

2013: Casually sent out our TeacherFIRE® brochures to international organisations. That single step birthed rewarding engagements with the British Council and SOS Children’s Villages International.

2017: Casually doing the work, volunteering faithfully, we were noticed. Our S.A.F.E for Children® framework was showcased by Facebook and Google at the Child Safety Summit in Dublin before participants from Africa, Europe, the Middle East, and observers from the US.

Second-generation relationships: Casually walked into The Fountain of Life Church on Tuesday, February 18, 1997, served in different capacities, became the personal attorney to our late Senior Pastor and his family, and later Secretary to the Board of Trustees. That casual step, taken 28 years ago, opened a relationship that is now in its second generation.

Again and again, the pattern is the same:

I was not chasing a stage.
I was living an assignment.

At 55, here is my conclusion:

• Life is not window dressing.
• “Breakthrough” is rarely sudden; it is the visible tip of years of invisible faithfulness.
• Your life will attract your like. Somewhere, a “big person” is quietly watching how you handle “small” things.

So the real question is not, “When will my big opportunity come?”
The real question is, “Am I already living the life that will recognise it when it arrives?”

Do have an INSPIRED weekend with the family.