Bishop T. D. Jakes spoke at Soar Africa on September 6th 2019. I was there and these are the notes I took. Really good learnings.

• Success is no longer a local idea. It is a global idea. Until you think globally, you won’t see success locally.
• If you are not seeing success through your neighbors next door, your customers might be in another country. Go beyond the walls of where you are.
• His mother did not allow people to put a period where there was really a comma.
• Do not allow people to lock you up in one dimension. You can do every creative thing that God put inside of you.
• There is huge demand for art in Kenya around the world. Get out of the box. What we call normal, they call amazing.
• The problem with greatness is that your greatness is in your normal.
• Book to read: The world is flat. There are no barriers – no restrictions. You can go as far as you want to go. Your marketplace can be the world.
• Book to read: Soar by TD Jakes.
• You can not use what you do not have to get where you want to go.
• The wind is right for your dream. In order to be successful, do the right thing at the right time in the right atmosphere.
• You are the architect of your future. Do not just wait for it to happen. Or complain about what other people are not doing.
• You cannot be individualistic in your thinking. Pull the next guy up.
• He’s never had a hater who is doing better than him.
• Build a brand. Everything about you defines your brand. Make it easier for people to do business with you. Business nowadays is done online. Brand has to be a promise that can be trusted. Fix bad customer experiences fast.
• A table can only rest on 4 legs. Knock one out and it topples over. Government, Spiritual leaders, community leaders, corporations must work together to build the right infrastructure.
• Don’t discount the older folk. They know things that you do not know. Young and old need to talk.
• Never stop being a student. You never get a masters in life. As soon as you figure something out, it changes.
• Fiercely protect your brand. Africa needs to get better at this.
• Why don’t Kenyans post nice things about our country. We reacted vehemently about a word he used. Use that same power to market your brand.
• Purge the culture of corruption and replace it with capital.
• Use the power you have. Rather than crying about the power that you don’t have.
• Build your business on where you are going.
• Strategy = synchronized, step by step plan from point A to Point B.
• What do you solve with what you bring?
• What you do is not who you are. When people give you titles, they imprison you. Don’t let them lock you up. You are whatever is inside of you. You are whatever you dream. Get out of jail. You are more than what people call you. You are more than the company you work for. What makes you jump out of bed in the morning? Find your purpose and passion. Find that thing that you are drawn to.
• The anointing your expect is the anointing you receive.
• Instincts are inside of you and they are never one dimensional.
• You are not your job. If your job goes down, it doesn’t mean that you go down.
• Surround yourself with people who are good at what you are not good at. They will complete you. Those who are good at the same things you are good at will compete with you.
• Have Structure –
◦ If you are overwhelmed, it’s time to add more structure.
◦ Stress is a sign that you need more structure. It’s an alarm that your have reached your weight capacity. Weight in terms of what you are handling in life. Like the stage he was standing on was built to handle the weight of a few people and some other things. It was not built to hold a car. A car would break the stage. If you need to bring a car on stage then the structure of the stage need to be redesigned.
• If you know how to do something, you will always have a job. If you know why the work is being done then they work for you. – John Maxwell.
• You never get up because of what is around you. You get up because of what is inside of you.
• You have the power inside yourself to handle life – to change the world you live in – to fix what is broken. Focus on what you got not what you didn’t get.
• Success is when what you see on the inside materializes on the outside. Success for you should not be defined by how others define success. God put what He meant for you inside you. It’s the desires and dreams that you have. If you achieve them, then that’s success for you.
• You are one idea away from changing your entire life.
• You are created by the creator in His likeness. Therefore, you are creative. Find your own steps. You have the power to create what is not there.
• If you are a dreamer, you may be down for a while but you will get back up again – like Joseph in the Bible.
• I am awesome because my God is AWESOME. Everywhere I go, all that is in me goes with me.
• Humility is an inner awareness of your own frailty. Work on your gratitude. Humility is in the story you tell yourself about yourself. Rebuke the temptation to be entitled.
• You adapt to new jungles (new place & situations) by instinct. Don’t go into the jungle talking too much. Spend time watching and learning then internally tell yourself that you belong here. He said this when we was talking about how odd it was for a person like him to be rubbing shoulders with influential people in society, to live in their neighborhoods, etc. he had to adapt to being there and tell himself that he belonged there.