RICH YOUTH, POOR YOUTH

The urge to be financially buoyant is the dream of every youth. But not all will be. “For the poor shall never lease out of the land...” Deut 15:11. There are several young people that are willing to be rich in life, but they never know how. Mind you, there are some that get rich but still they lack the mind of success they will never succeed in life e.g. MICHAEL Tyson made $300million at the peak of his fighting career but today he his bankrupt, he lacks the mind set of success. Michael Jackson, arguable the most popular song artist and at a time made the list of top 20 richest in the world now has his wardrobe out for sales, left with almost nothing at 50 years birthday on 29 Aug 2008.
And there are two other Michaels that inspire me, so much that I feel like add Michael to my list of names. They possess or may be acquire some extra mind of success. For instance when Olympic gold medalist track star Michael Johnson ran he seems to glide across the track, his feet bearly touching the surface. His affable personality made him a crowd and media favorite, but I was struck by his humility during the 1996 Olympic games he shed fears as he crossed the line. His appreciation as he draped the American flag across his tired body for a gold-media was inspirational. He was a true champion. There is this other Michael. You know the one. The guy
who is arguable the best basketball player to ever grace the game. The one who proved that character is what you do when no one is watching. He was physically talented, yes, but his mental toughness, is legendary both of these champion left an inedible mark on their sport but it is the following two quotes that are forever engrave in my mind.
“I have missed more than none thousand shot in my career. I have lost almost three hundred games. On twenty-six occasions I have been entrusted to takes the game winning shots and I missed. I have failed over and over and over again in my life. And that’s precisely why… I succeed”
Michael Jordan (Five time MBA league MVP)
“Life is often compared to a marathon, but I think it is more like being a sprinter, long stretches of hard work punctured by brief moment in which we are given the opportunity to perform at our best”
Michael Johnson
(200m and 400m Olympic gold model winner)
We shall draw references from the Bible as we discuss the three drives to financial accomplishment we shall discuss the following.
· Diligence
· Mind of success
· 10 commandment

WISDOM SERIES #1. Steve Jobs

I

If you haven’t found it yet, keep looking. Don’t settle. As with all matters of the heart, you’ll know when you find it. And like any great relationship, it just gets better and better as the years roll on ~ Steve Jobs

Deciding what not to do is as important as deciding what to do.~ Steve Jobs

Here’s to the crazy ones — the misfits, the rebels, the troublemakers, the round pegs in the square holes. The ones who see things differently — they’re not fond of rules. You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify or vilify them, but the only thing you can’t do is ignore them because they change things. They push the human race forward, and while some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius, because the ones who are crazy enough to think that they can change the world, are the ones who do.~ Steve Jobs

Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma — which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.~ Steve Jobs

If you keep your eye on the profit, you’re going to skimp on the product. But if you focus on making really great products, then the profits will follow.~ Steve Jobs

If you don’t love something, you’re not going to go the extra mile, work the extra weekend, challenge the status quo as much.~ Steve Jobs

That’s been one of my mantras — focus and simplicity. Simple can be harder than complex. You have to work hard to get your thinking clean to make it simple. But it’s worth it in the end because once you get there, you can move mountains.~ Steve Jobs

You can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something – your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life.~ Steve Jobs

I think if you do something and it turns out pretty good, then you should go do something else wonderful, not dwell on it for too long. Just figure out what’s next.~Steve Jobs

Let’s go invent tomorrow instead of worrying about what happened yesterday. ~ Steve Jobs

Change Yourself.

“You must be the change you want to see in the world.”
“As human beings, our greatness lies not so much in being able to remake the world - that is the myth of the atomic age - as in being able to remake ourselves.”
If you change yourself you will change your world. If you change how you think then you will change how you feel and what actions you take. And so the world around you will change. Not only because you are now viewing your environment through new lenses of thoughts and emotions but also because the change within can allow you to take action in ways you wouldn’t have – or maybe even have thought about – while stuck in your old thought patterns.
And the problem with changing your outer world without changing yourself is that you will still be you when you reach that change you have strived for. You will still have your flaws, anger, negativity, self-sabotaging tendencies etc. intact.
And so in this new situation you will still not find what you hoped for since your mind is still seeping with that negative stuff. And if you get more without having some insight into and distance from your ego it may grow more powerful. Since your ego loves to divide things, to find enemies and to create separation it may start to try to create even more problems and conflicts in your life and world.

NIGERIA IS A LIE

I was born in the mid 1980s, about 25 years into the Socio-political experiment called Nigeria. I have lived roughly half of the lent of this geo-sociological fantasy. The political class deem it important to throw a Centenary Celebration of God-knows-it merger of the ill-assorted component of what Chief Obafemi Awolowo called “a mere geographical entity”. As much as I float in the pool of opinions for or against the Centenary Celebration...I hear you ask, float? Why? I do because the powers that be had calculatingly striped my generation of the knowledge of the past. We read our fathers histories from the sons of their captors, and until the wild have historians the wild will always be the vanquished.

Having said that...

I want to add a voice to the many lonely voices through this media. Have consciously dug into the precedence, background and history of this ‘entity’ especially as summarized by The Governor General of Nigeria between 1920 – 31, Sir Hugh Clifford, describing Nigeria as  “a collection of independent Native States, separated from one another  by great distances, by differences of history and traditions and by ethnological, racial, tribal, political, social and religious barriers.”  (Nigeria Council Debate.  Lagos, 1920).  This description captures the problems of today’s Nigeria vividly and I have come to this definitive and scholarly conclusion. NIGERIA IS A LIE

Nigeria was created by a lie to remain a lie

 I wish to quote the words Flora Shaw, a former Colonial Editor of the London Times wrote in the newspaper on January 8, 1897:

 "The name Nigeria, applying to no other part of Africa, may without offence to any neighbours be accepted as co-extensive with the territories over which the Royal Niger Company has extended British influence, and may serve to differentiate them equally from the colonies of Lagos and the Niger Protectorate on the coast and from the French territories of the Upper Niger.”

Therefore the proposed geographical entity tagged Nigeria is way smaller to what has come to be known as Nigeria today. Nigeria existed before 1914. When the British re-cloned the chimera called Nigeria in 1914 she did not intend for Nigeria to evolve into a nation. Nigeria was designed to last as long as it served the interests of the British. An internal switch was built into the design sketch; this was and still is the “Northern Administrator”. A low level British Administrator during the colonial days of Nigeria, Mr Harold Smith said this in 2007: “Our agenda was to completely exploit Africa. Nigeria was my duty post. When we assessed Nigeria, this was what we found in the southern region; strength, intelligence, determination to succeed, well established history, complex but focused life style, great hope and aspirations… the East is good in business and technology, the west is good in administration and commerce, law and medicine, but it was a pity we planned our agenda to give power ‘at all cost’ to the northerner. They seemed to be submissive and silly of a kind. Our mission was accomplished by destroying the opposition at all fronts. The west led in the fight for the independence, and was punished for asking for freedom. They should not rule Nigeria!”. A calculated masterpiece that had propelled the proceedings of our corporate existence since 1914. Nigeria was and still is a lie; Nigeria is a project of the British leased to the Royal North to manage and fetch dividends for the master, the British. 

 Fast-forward 1914 – 2014...

Nigeria is a filthy secret! “The foundation of this country was built upon dishonesty, corruption, selfishness, tribalism and all evil.

Turning your Talent into Wealth

There are no two persons that are exactly alike in their natural endowment. Even identical twins that grew from the same genetic pool have marked differences that establish them as separate individuals. The implication of this is that everyone is a store house of talent.

And talent simply put means the ability to do something in a unique or exceptional way. Unfortunately, many do not know there particular abilities and those who do don’t know how to harness their potential for pecuniary benefits.

Experts, however agrees there are some principles on the issue of turning one’s talent into money that work for all and may be learnt by anybody. It is amazing how little people generally know of themselves. Have you ever heard someone say, “Imagine I never knew I could do that” that person is merely re-echoing his ignorance about his own mind. A person begins to learn about himself from the age of self-consciousness. For this reason the first step to personal success is to “comprehend yourself”, you have to embark on a voyage of self-discovery. Self-discovery is central to this chapter; I can’t over emphasis it importance.

Having said all that, the development of identified talent is the next step to personal fortune. There is hardly any person that is not aware of one or more things they are good at, most time those potentials where only neglected and left undeveloped. Just as crude oil lying thousands of feet below the surface of the earth generates no national income to the owner nation so does an undeveloped talent.

Developing one’s talent or potential in this regard means bringing them to a standard above the average competence. Most bird can fly but not all can soar! You must determine to function above average before your potential can attract economic value. Developing your talent also involve the ability to withstand criticism against a particular venture. E.g. there was a time in this part of the world when it was believed that music as a profession was for social misfits, when buffoons (who we now know as comedians) where scorned, when playing football was frowned at by parents, but today reverse is the case.

For the the concluding part of this article follow this link
http://coachfaithonline.blogspot.com/2013/07/turning-your-talent-into-wealth-donts.html

Turning your Talent into Wealth - The Don’ts of Talent

When you set off the process of developing your talents and it starts to attract attention, here are some don’ts that should guide you.

1.    Don’t ever conceal it. Seek opportunities to showcase your potentials at every given time.

2.    Don’t expect to start off as high income professional; few ever do. Be content to begin as an amateur. Income should not be your priority at the onset, as you ought to concentrate your effort on fine-tuning your abilities and getting people to know your capabilities.

3.    Don’t be short circuited. To be short circuited is to have false sense of having arrived when you are just unfolding. Many talented persons get derailed just as their talent begins to shine. This is often caused when young talent allows their talent to get into their head and they lose focus of their ultimate objectives of developing their potentials in to established professionals. Pre-mature satisfaction is a dream killer; always aspire for a higher.

4.    Don’t be prodigal. You should not only invest in your talent but reinvest the proceeds of your talents; this makes you stable and established. Imagine for instance a young musician who employs the proceeds of his amateur performance to buy a posh car when he has not yet acquired musical instruments or recording appliances. Such a person may find it difficult to achieve his potential. Unwise use of resources in the early part of one’s career can make a journey of 1 year last 10.

5.    Don’t be the fool. Critically appraise any contracts or deals that was attracted by your talents, there are so many talent-scavengers who are dressed in suits and carry sweet titles as sponsors, producers, investors, etc., you may need a lawyer (or a more experienced hand) to help with unbiased and unemotional negotiations. Also history is replete with cases of upcoming stars that killed off their dreams by engaging in activities such as drugs, boozing and partying, betting and other activities perilous to the actualization of their dream.

6.    Don’t be discouraged. The first work of many musician of repute had in most cases once been adjudged unmeritorious and unremarkable and turned down by their respective recording companies. The fact that many of them turned into legends speaks volumes about the fact that there is no finality to failure, failing simply means try again and bringing once talent to a place where it brings in money often requires resilience, courage and self-belief.

7.    Don’t imitate. You should try to give yourself a distinct form of identity by inventing your own way of doing things. Doing your things your own way gives you a personal symbol. Don’t be contented with imitation, be different obviously you are, therefore don’t bury your uniqueness in another person’s brand. Carve a niche for yourself by being an ambassador of your own enterprise.

Finally, adapt technology where necessary, no matter how good a person may be at doing something, if he fails to keep up to date with modern trend, his skills may become irrelevant. A person should be ready to imbibe all the positive changes dictated by science and technology in his area of specialization.

Finally, we pointed out earlier that talent in itself is never enough. John Maxwell in his book Beyond Talent enumerates thirteen key choices that can be made to maximize any person’s talent. He said, Belief lifts your talent, Passion energizes your talent, Initiative activates your talent, Focus directs your talent, Preparation positions your talent, Practice sharpens your talent, Perseverance sustains your talent, Courage tests your talent, Teachability expands your talent, Character protects your talent, Relationship influences your talent, Responsibility strengthens your talent, and Teamwork multiplies your talent.

If you devote yourself to all these and put your trust in God, you will be able to turn your talent into profit. 

FOR HOW LONG WILL YOU REMAIN JOBLESS

Written every job test, exams,pre-interviews, interviews and post interviews to no avail.

At best you will be employed and confined to the four square wall of an office with AC, if applicable.
And thereby follow the terrains of the hero's past.
Who later depends in their later years on pensions,paid irregularly.
Or at best follow other corrupted hero's, changing financial figures to frustrate the populace.
not knowing they are frustrating their future and destiny.
There your capacity and capability may not be utilised.
For years your hopes and aspirations of what you want to be becomes a mirage.
Take a snap today and think of how you can live beyond the bonds and shackles of searching for what is not worth dying for.
I remembered how I almost got drown in Lagos to write an exam that almost 150, 000 people participated.
Later to hear that only ten people were shortlisted.
A Nigeria where half baked Universities in the name of private institutions help to produce more half baked graduates.
Note that no matter the University you attend in Nigeria, you don't have a guaranteed job anywhere.
No matter the class of your degree, graduate or post graduate, remember that masters and doctorate degree holders wrote exams to become drivers.
So going for more degrees is not the answer.
It's time we launch ourselves into new revolution, where skills and creativity rules our economy.
Not like the junks our Nollywood feeds us with, or the moral derailed BBA...Useless Brother Africa aired in our airspace.
Or the skills displayed in Rivers state house of assembly.
Skills that will cut boundaries of poverty, manageable or wild.

In this country, a third class university graduate, through hard work and mental skill revolution, runs one of the largest consultancy company in Nigeria, he never went to Harvard.(Google KUNLE SORIYAN).
Thanks to social network websites like facebook, twitter, and 2go that have employed many of our youths, they resume as early as 7am to leave 11:45 pm.
Soon Barclays Premier League will start, and our guys will start paying their dues to DSTV every weekend, who will then repatriate it to Britain.
A country where as a Nigerian, you will pay 3000 pounds( N750, 000) to visit
There they waste away their precious time, which they suppose to invest in either developing there mental skills or physical skills.
Not knowing that someone somewhere screw his mental faculty, to make fortune from their ignorance.
Those that are educated in recent times are at the mercy of the so-called illiterates, who tapped into there God given potentials to create their own world.
Wake up, sit up, reason up, get a skill, rebrand it, manage it and you will get paid eternally with fulfilment.
If you actually don't get a job, does that means you wouldn't survive.NO.
That was a message I sent to a friend sometimes back.
We shall only if we can pay the price and get what the best University in the world cannot give us.

Yours in destiny race

By - David Oluwatosin Gold