WHERE MY HEART MEETS YOUR SHELF!

My Secret Mission

Making People Smile is Harder Than Cooking Sadza With No Firewood

Nephi Mupombwa Moses Lurie

7/6/20265 min lees

Apple MacBook beside computer mouse on table

MY DREAM AND I ARE ON A BREAK

Let me tell you something I’ve learned the hard way. It is VERY hard to make people smile. And I’m not talking about that fake “say cheese” smile we do for photos. I mean the real one. The one that starts in your eyes first, then your whole face gives up and just laughs. The kind of smile that shows up when your heart has been heavy for three days straight, and then one small thing comes and lifts it all off you.

Go ahead and try it today. Walk up to someone with a serious face and say, “Please smile for me.” Watch what happens. First they’ll frown at you like you’ve lost your mind. Then they’ll look around like you’re trying to sell them something. And finally they’ll give you that tiny, suspicious half-smile that clearly says, “What exactly do you want from me?” See? It’s hard!

Singers have been trying for years. They pour thousands of dollars into beats, videos, and dancers. They cry in the studio at 2am. They write about love, pain, money, heartbreak. And what do we do? Half the people comment “this song slaps!” and the other half say “we’ve heard this before” and skip it after five seconds.

Comedians try too. God bless them. They stand on that stage with a microphone and their whole career in their hands. They tell twenty jokes back to back. Five people will laugh. Three will say “that one was okay.” One person will be on their phone the whole time. And there’s always that one uncle in the back who shouts “tell us another one!” even though he’s already half asleep.

And then there’s us. The writers. The poets. The people walking around with books in our hands and dreams in our eyes. We pour our hearts onto paper. We write stories that can heal you. We write poems that can carry you when your legs are too tired to walk. And what do people say? “I’ll read it later.” Later means January. Of next year. Of 2030.

You see what I’m saying? It is so hard to make a son of man happy!

Even King Solomon, the son of David, the King of Jerusalem, the wisest man who ever lived, struggled with this exact same thing. The man had everything. Let me say it again: EVERYTHING. Money? He had gold coming out of his ears. Wisdom? God gave it to him personally. Songs? He wrote over a thousand of them. Houses, gardens, vineyards — the man had a whole real estate portfolio.

And after all of that, he sat down and wrote Ecclesiastes. You know what he said? _“Vanity of vanities, all is vanity. What does a man gain from all his labor?”_ If we translate that for 2026, it means, “I tried everything to make people happy and I’m exhausted.”

But wise people don’t quit. They pivot. So Solomon wrote Proverbs next. Short, punchy, funny, and true. He said, _“A cheerful heart is good medicine, but a crushed spirit dries up the bones.”_ Proverbs 17:22. Do you see that? Even three thousand years ago the Bible was basically saying, “Bro, laugh. It’s medicine. It’s free. Take it.”

And then he wrote Songs of Solomon. Now that’s where the man really tried. Love poems. Sweet poems. “Your lips are like honey” kind of poems. I think he figured, “If I can’t make the whole world smile, maybe I can at least make one person smile deeply.” And that, my friend, is wisdom.

That’s exactly where I got my assignment from.

Because here’s the second truth nobody tells you. If it’s hard for ME to make YOU smile, it’s ten times harder for YOU to make YOURSELF smile when life is pressing you from every side.

Life is not playing. One day your business is quiet. The next day your data finishes. The next day someone asks, “So what exactly are you doing with your life?” And the next day you’re on TikTok watching a 19-year-old who already owns three houses. In those moments, nobody is coming with balloons and a marching band. You have to find your own light. You have to dig for your own joy.

That is exactly why I’m here. That’s why I sat down and wrote books. That’s why I was up at 2am writing poems when I couldn’t sleep. Not because I think I’m the next Shakespeare. But because someone has to say, “I see you. You’re not crazy. You’re not alone. And you’re going to be okay.”

Most of what I write is about the real, everyday, sweaty stuff. How do you wake up when your motivation left you last Tuesday? How do you start a business with $5, a phone, and prayer? How do you keep going when week one you had zero customers, week two you had zero customers, and your cousin is telling you to “just get a real job”? How do you grow something small into something that can actually feed you?

My books won’t magically deposit money into your account. I wish they could. But what they will do is sit with you. At midnight when you’re overthinking. On the bus when you’re tired. In that moment when you’re about to quit, but you read one more page and you whisper, “Okay, one more day.”

There’s an old proverb that says, _“If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.”_ Think of these books as me walking next to you. Sometimes I’ll make you laugh. Sometimes I’ll make you think. And sometimes I’ll just remind you to drink water and breathe.

So here is my invitation, and I’m saying this with love. Go read them. If you have $5, buy one. It helps me keep writing more. If you don’t have $5 this month, message me. I’m serious. I’ll send you one. No guilt. No “but you must pay me back.” I just want the words to reach you, because words are medicine too.

The world already has enough bad news on WhatsApp. The world has enough people telling you what you’re doing wrong. What we need more of are voices that say, _“You’re doing better than you think. Keep going. And laugh while you’re at it.”_

Picture this with me. You’re sitting under a tree. It’s not too hot, not too cold. Just perfect. You open one of my books. On page one you chuckle because I said something stupid and true. By page five you stop and think because something feels like it was written just for you. By page fifteen you see yourself in the story and you feel less alone. And by the last page you close the book, stand up straighter, your shoulders are down, and you’re ready to go again.

That’s the goal. Not just to give you information. To give you oxygen

So yes, it is hard to make people smile. It is hard to write things people will actually finish. It is hard to sing songs people will play twice. It is hard to write poems people will memorize. But “hard” is not a stop sign. “Hard” is a sign that it matters.

And I’m doing it anyway. For you. With books. With poems. With long blogs that make you laugh and then make you call your mom after.

So please, go visit the website and check out the books. If just one sentence makes you smile today, then I’ve done my job. If one idea helps your business tomorrow, then we’re winning. If one poem carries you through a hard night, then every late night writing was worth it

And I’ll leave you with Solomon, but in my Harare version: _“Enjoy your work. Enjoy your people. Don’t take life too seriously. And remember: data is expensive, but joy is free.”_

See you on the next page. Come with an open heart ❤️