Book review: The Purpose Journey
A great book that explores real stories about Nigerian women that chose to be intentional about their future
Disclaimer: This is not a Selar plug. It may look like it, but it’s not 😂
Author: Tolu Makinwa
So here’s the story behind how I got to read this book:
In my struggle to find new merchants for my startup Selar.co, I stumbled upon Tolu’s IG post about her book being on Okadabooks, I think Chude Jideonwo liked the picture, and that’s how I found about it(Don’t get me started on how I use the IG following activity tab to find new merchants).
Moving on from that web of desperation …
Yeah, so I DM’d Tolu about listing her book on Selar, and she was so kind with her reply. She asked if we had testimonials she could see, sadly we didn’t any written testimonials, but I took a screenshot of our chat with Eva Alordiah(A Nigerian artist that sells her books, and makeup training tickets via Selar), that screenshot was definitely not the best choice because while Eva mentioned she really enjoyed using the product, she also mentioned the issues her fans had while downloading the book after they made a purchase.
The message was the only thing we had that was close to a testimonial so I had no choice, plus I couldn’t just crop the message after the first bit, Tolu would suspect foul play. By God’s Grace, she looked past the issue(I did upgrade the system so the download issue was no more), and she finally listed on Selar.
Confession: I was looking for a way for someone(anyone) to talk about Selar on IG today, so I decided to buy the book in my friend’s(Adeboro Odunlami) name and email address. It costs just NGN600, so it was fine.
So that’s how I got the book.
Review
After the purchase, I was like “I already bought the book, I can as well read it”. So I opened it. Lo and behold, it was just 47 pages, and the characters were a bit big too. Glory!!!!!!! I love short books. I’ve been reading Steven Furtick’s (un)qualified for a month now because it’s a bit voluminous. But either way I was excited.
The description of the book on Selar is
“The Purpose Journey is a compilation of real life stories about five women that triumphed over pain, hurt, disappointment, addictions and guilt on the path of purpose discovery to live life fearlessly.”
To be honest, as a buyer just seeing that description for the first time, I didn’t find it enticing in any way. Boro’s response when I told her the title of the book I bought with her email address was “Sounds charlatan already 😂”. That was the same thought I had when I first saw the book on IG.
With most books I read, I always know what to expect from it, but with this book, I didn’t know what to expect, I read the introduction, and it was quite cliche, not cliche in a bad way, but cliche in the sense that, it sounded like every other book about purpose and journey, but I kept on reading.
The book is very simple and concise, it starts with an introduction, and then the 5 stories of all the women, each woman getting their own chapter. The first chapter was about Moji Coker, she talked about how she started watching X-rated movies at 6, and how she also begun playing with her genitals at a very tender age. She narrated her journey from all of that, to the woman God has called her to be today, and how she uses her voice for talk about these things and how they affect christians of today. It’s such an amazing story.
These days you read a lot of books, and you really can’t relate to any of the characters in it. It’s either the problem is too ‘Wyt’ or not realistic enough, but not The Purpose Journey, I love how these stories are very relatable and you can literally google these women, and see them on social media. To me, that’s just amazing!
Another story I love is the third story by Fola Ogunsola, her story is so inspiring, don’t worry, it’s not about addiction or sex, hers is a story of hard-work and perseverance. I literally lost count of how many jobs she switched from because she wanted to follow her passion. What I also love is her motto of commitment to doing her best work any where she goes. Her brand name is “FINESSE”, which she explained means “Perfect finishing” — that was the footprint she left everywhere she went. There are so much gems in her story, without saying too much, she narrated how she was born with a silver spoon but lost it when her dad couldn’t repay a bank loan, and things went downhill from there, even to the point where she was hawking to feed the family at a very young age.
Other awesome stories include Faith Essien, Tolu Michaels, and the author herself — Tolu Makinwa, her story was the final story. She talked about how God rescued her from lesbianism, pilfering, insecurities and suicide attempts. Trust me, it doesn’t get more real than this. I particularly loved the scriptures at the end of her story.
There are so much gems in this book, and for a small book, you’d think other wise, but I’m grateful I read this book. I even paid for another copy for myself because I was really blessed by it, and I wanted to support her. I know she is going places!!!
Again, it’s not a Selar plug but you can purchase the book here https://selar.co/TPJ, I hope it blesses you.
Ps: After my first purchase with Adeboro’s email, she posted about the sale on IG, so my plan worked 😈
