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Hello everyone, and welcome to the show. I'm just chilling on a Sunday evening, so let's head straight into it. I think that, OK, yesterday's episode, I promised that we were going to look at whether faith can serve as an investment criteria or a business criteria. So in other words, can you use your faith to decide whether you should invest, where you're going to invest or what kind of businesses that you're going to get into?
And the answer obviously is yes, because you can do whatever it is that you want. I mean, whether faith or whether trends or fads can serve as a basis for whatever investments you want to make or whatever businesses you want to enter. But the key thing is our number One Financial returns. Are you going to get any financial returns or is there any market validation behind this idea that you want to put out into the market that you want to try?
Because like we've examined yesterday, the OK, well, not the whole point of being in business, but if you're trying something that has no market validation or the financial returns are not worth it, you're going to be quickly out of business. So yes, faith can serve as an investment criteria or business criteria, but we have to be sure that their financial returns, the business is worth it and there's market validation behind this idea.
Market validation just means that people want the product or the service. There's some demand for the idea. This thing is workable. Then the next thing we have to look at is if faith is going to serve as your investment criteria. You know, your faith determines where you put your your investment money or if your faith is going to determine what businesses that you get into is can we say that faith has a rational basis?
Now, the reason why this is important is because we're humans, we pursue meaning and coherence in everything that we do. So if we don't have a rational basis behind faith as an investment criteria or as a business criteria, then there's not going to be any meaningful integration with your values and you know, the other spheres of your life and how you conduct your life in in other avenues. So that's why faith can serve as your investment criteria or can serve as the business criteria.
But you just have to be able to answer those two questions #1 the whole thing of financial returns, market demand, market validation. Is this business worth it? Are the financial returns worth it? And then #2 is there a rational basis for this faith of yours? And this is how I go about answering both questions. Well, of course, if you've been listening to the podcast for any length of time, you already know my ideas around market validation.
So this is your first time of listening to the show and you want to figure out how to get involved in a business, how to figure out if there's market validation for your idea, if there's market demand for your idea, if people think the idea is valuable, if people think the idea is valuable enough to pay for the idea, then all you have to do is use market validation as a key term when searching within my own podcast and you'll be able to find all those episodes or I think I, I did a series of episodes on how to start your business in three easy steps.
So search for those and you're going to get some stuff there about market validation as well. So now let's move on to faith and whether faith is a rational criteria. This is a really important question today because most people today assume that faith is a wishy washy thing. They assume that faith is a relative thing. As per I have my faith, you have your faith, this other person has his lack of faith. All join is all the same.
What's the big deal? But unfortunately, that's because in modern society, we have a very poor understanding of what faith means, what rationality means, and the relationship between the two. I'm not going to go into details on the whole thing because I'll make this podcast extremely lengthy. And then again, this is a podcast not on philosophy, but on business, especially on sales, personal selling, sometimes marketing, you know,
things like that. But suffice it to say that faith actually is a very rational proposition. So this whole thing of faith is relative. You know, I'm a Christian, you're a Muslim, I'm a atheist, what's the big deal? All join different flavours. No, it's not different flavours. Faith is a very rational proposition. And by that I mean that when you take faith stances, whether you take Christianity or Islam or atheism, it is something that you can rationally critique or philosophically critique to arrive at the position of objective truth.
I know that some of you don't believe in objective truth. If I have a friend of mine that I thought she was an OK chick until I found out that she's one of those people who believes that objective truth doesn't exist, but find it kind of confusing because she doesn't live her life that way. Like there's no short thing as objective truth. Well, anyway, what I'm just trying to say is that faith is a very rational proposition because the ideas behind faith are what on the God's reality.
Why is there the fact that things exist? Because if we think about it, there's absolutely no reason to say that this world has to exist or that I have to exist or that you have to exist. Does God exist? So these questions are rational and philosophical propositions because if you answer the question, what on the God's reality or does God exist and you answer ideas, then the next question is what has he revealed? Because what he revealed, what he in quote has revealed will throw up stuff that are normative for mankind.
And by that what I mean is what is mankind? What are human beings I'm supposed to do? Oh, by the way, I'm not trying to trigger anybody with this episode. So every time that I say he, there are lots of historical and philosophical reasons why when people talk about God, they use he. I've addressed that in the previous episode. I can't remember the title, but if anyone has qualms with you, just let me know and we can have a conversation about that.
And then when I say mankind, I'm not. I'm not trying to trump up patriarchy and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. It's just that we need to have a universal word for the race of Homo sapiens, and for now, mankind is one of those terms. So what was I? Oh, yeah. So it's a rational proposition. What under God's reality does God exist? If he exists, what has he revealed? What things are normative for human beings? What should we be doing?
And this whole thing about God's existence, it's a rational proposition because it's something that you can critique philosophically. And my favorite arguments about these whole things are the contingency arguments. You know, the things that show that nature doesn't explain itself. You have to look outside of nature to be able to find out what it is that is the cause of nature, the cause of creation, the cause of reality.
And this whole thing of looking for scientific proof or empirical proof is not going to answer the question because empirical proofs are limited. If you're going to look for empirical proofs for everything, you can only find empirical proofs for things that you can see, taste, touch, smell, measure, or demonstrate in a laboratory, which is why there's no empirical proof for love, because you cannot see, taste, smell, measure, or do scientific experiments for love.
So anyway, let me move beyond this more philosophical part of the podcast, but I'm just trying to demonstrate to you guys that when I say I'm a Christian, or I say I'm a Muslim or I say I'm an atheist, it's not a matter of all joy. Different flavours was the big deal. Actually, it is a big deal because no matter which position you take, we can have rational arguments and their rational propositions to try and arrive at who is telling the truth and what is objective reality.
OK, so let me skip beyond that since it's not a podcast on philosophy. I want to move on to another question about why I'm faith people are so hung up over business decisions because there's some people who think, look, you're a Muslim, what's the big deal? Like you can sell pork now, what's the big deal? No, be big. There's no money. Or somebody will say like, yeah, you're a Christian, you're a Catholic. So why can't you, Why can't you run the strip joint?
Oh, by the way, it happens in Lagos. I know someone who's Catholic who has multiple strip joints. And funny enough, I moved to Abuja, I run into another person who owns a strip joint or should we say an adult entertainment bar. And the fellow also happens to be Catholic as well. So I'm just wondering if there's a certain predilection for Catholic businessmen to run those sorts of establishments. Anyway, don't mind me, I'm just being silly.
So yes, some people say what's the big deal. Now, this is the reason why faith people in quote have a big deal about these sorts of things. First of all, there's this whole thing of stewardship of creation in the Christian and the Muslim tradition. And because of that, there's a special role of man or humanity, yes, let me say humanity, so that people don't think I'm propping up patriarchy here. So there's a special role of humanity to steward creation.
And so that's why it is important. So there's a question of stewardship. And then there's also the problem of material cooperation with evil. What that means is this, there's good and there's bad. People who are in faith traditions do not want to do anything that cooperates with bad, which is the reason why all the people that run around talk about the environment, you know, like Bono, what's her name, the actress and the rest of them,
that's the reason why. So excuse me, People look at them as if they're hypocrites because they say, look, you're talking about the environment, but then you're going to leave this whole thing and you're going to fly in your private jet all over the world. You know, if you love the environment, why not just fly? Why don't just fly economy? So if you're going to divide the world into good and evil and good is environment and then bad is anti environment, you know,
then if you're going to talk the talk, but they're not walk the walk, then you're going to be cooperating with things that are bad. So these are the two main things. And that is the tension that kind of comes up when, you know, you run into someone and he's Catholic, but he owns a strip joint or, or an adult entertainment establishment, or you run into a Muslim and he sells pork or maybe he invests in alcohol or something.
So these are the tensions, the stewardship, and then there's a problem of cooperation with evil. So these are some of the tensions that come out of the whole thing. But I guess the summary of what I'm just trying to say with this episode is if you are a faith investor or a faith business person, there's absolutely no need to hide because I know that there's some of you who faith is important, but you think this is business.
Let me keep it on the down low. And in a certain sense, when we're trying to close the sale, yes, you're not supposed to bring up religion, politics and what else. I can't remember the third three things, but if there's a rational, if you think that there's a rational basis for these things that you hold to that are true and that is a rational basis that can be justified, then I'm not saying you should go around and throw your Christianity or your Islam in everybody's face.
But there's absolutely no reason to hide that you are a faith investor or a faith driven business person or someone who's got, you know, an environment based, you know that the criteria for your investments are the environment or the advancement of women or or whatever it is you do. So long as there's a rational basis and there's a rational basis, there's financial return. You can have meaningful conversations around these things.
It doesn't have to be something that you are scared of, so long as just remember market validation. The business fundamentals have to be spot on because even you're trying to do something for the glory of God, but the business fundamentals are not there. You're either going to have to do make it a great act of charity or you're going to have to fold up the business. So the business fundamentals have to be there. Financial returns, cash flow management, blah, blah, blah,
all those things. You have to be there. Then for the problem of cooperation with evil, for those of you who are faith driven business people or you have a conscience, you have to, you have to just bite the bullet. So if you're Catholic and you have strip joints, you have to be coherent about that, you know, close your strip joints. Or anyway, I'll leave you to decide what it is you're going to do with your strip joints.
Or if you're a Christian, should be involved in adult entertainment. If you're a humanist atheist, should you be involved in the business That kind of has overtones of human trafficking, which is why that whole Nike thing that I mentioned yesterday, you know, that's kind of the emotional acts that those people are going through. Like, OK, Nike, good investment, but they're running sweatshops, they're not paying children well, blah, blah, blah.
You know, So these are some of the tensions. And then if you're a Muslim, you know, the whole thing about alcohol and pork, you know, should you be and all that? So the faith is important. Grow some balls and get some courage, get some mozzy and decide. So for those of you who are dealing with all kinds of acts around these issues, because believe me, we all do from time to time, as a business consultant, I get approached by some people and looks like this thing is making money.
But then I'm like, well, as a Christian, is this the sort of thing that I should be putting my time and money and mental abilities too? So we all have these sorts of things. So if you're dealing with those sorts of acts, make sure that you have your religious dealer on speed dial, you know, call your mom, call your pastor, sit down, have a chat, you know, do some research online or maybe attend the class on business ethics or something, just so that we can get the framework that we need to be able to decide these sorts of things.
You know, so I'm a Muslim. I'm not going to touch the alcohol, but it looks like this hotel is making good money. Should I put money behind it knowing that the key driver is that they serve alcohol at the end of the day? So yeah, So that's how we deal with these sorts of things. People who are religious leaders, leaders do some research around business ethics and stuff like that, and you should be able to find the answers that will help move you forward.
But the answer to the question, can you say that my faith is going to serve as criteria for getting into business? Yeah, The answer is yes. Can my faith serve as a criteria for getting into investment? The answer, Oh, yeah, is yes. That's for sure. Just make sure financial returns, market validation, you need to lock that down. There also has to be a rational basis so that today it's not your faith in Christianity that decides this decision and then tomorrow it's your new age or whatever that determines you entering into another decision.
And then, you know, two years down the line, you become an atheist, and then it's the atheist, whatever that is, all your faith in Santa Claus or whatever it is. There just has to be some rational basis to all these things. So you don't keep hopping and hopping and hopping. So you meet those two things. In my own opinion, you're cool walking around and using your faith as your investment criteria or your business criteria.
So with that, we have come to the close of this particular topic. Might as well just wrap it up quickly so that this doesn't become an exercise in philosophy. So remember to connect with me on LinkedIn. My name is Tava Shima Ayede, I'm the host of the show. You can confirm the spelling of my name so that you can find me on LinkedIn and my e-mail address is also going to be visible on the link that you're using to listen to this episode.
Then connect with me on WhatsApp. I love hearing from you guys. The phone number is 08064662140 and the country code is +234. For those of you who are not Nigerian, thanks for your time and attention. I got you guys in the next episode and don't worry, we are done with all the philosophical stuff, so you don't have to be scared that you came here for business and instead you're getting a sermon. So I'll catch you guys tomorrow.