CELEBRATING YOU!

You need to be celebrated! Yes, you!

This year may not have turned out the way you had hoped it would but the mere fact that you made it through from January till now is a testimony in itself.

When we don't get what we want, especially if it's something we desperately yearn for, the tendency to feel dejected and depressed is usually there. And we get caught up in all the things we've missed or couldn't achieve, it's very easy to overlook the things we did achieve or the things we do have.

For everything that didn't happen for you this year, they're all in the past now. Don't let your hope(s) die with them. Don't bother yourself comparing your achievements (or the lack thereof) with those of others. It will serve you no good purpose. A friend of mine recently told me that sometimes we're so busy counting other people's blessings instead of our own. 

And I agree.

I've come to realize that after all is said and done, we still have life, which is the most important thing we need. Cars, houses, spouses, children, jobs, businesses and other desires we may have will be of no use if we didn't have life in the first place.

So be grateful for life. Because when there's life, there's hope; and when there's hope, there's life. Hope is the foundation that drives dreams and your dreams will happen for you next year!

Let's all be grateful and thankful for the little or much we were able to attain this year and get ourselves ready for what the future holds for each of us. I perceive that 2019 will be an awesome year for you!

Permit me, therefore, to celebrate you this year as well as for next year. You will succeed in the coming months, for sure.

I celebrate you!

Do have a Merry Christmas and a prosperous New Year ahead!

MERRY CHRISTMAS! And May 2018 Meet You Well!

ABUJA AND THE EFFECTS OF RECESSION by Usman Baffa Nasser.

A friend of mine recently sent me this article to read. After I was done, I couldn't hold back the urge to place on my blog for my faithful readers to read. It is insightful and thought-provoking and I hope you enjoy it as well as I did and learn a thing or two as I also did. Happy reading.

Abuja is probably the worst-hit of Nigerian cities by this recession. It is only understandable: Abuja works at nothing but revels in wanton opulence, fed strictly from pens adding zeroes behind a whole number. It's buildings are populated with straw companies gliding on patronage and privilege, not rights, merit and productivity. Most of its inhabitants are currently in what seems a state of disbelief, if not shock.

My son and I walked lazily to Sheraton two Saturdays ago and from the gate you got a surprise: no line of traffic! The lounge was empty as the car park was vacant. We sat in surprise at the little corners of decay creeping on the lounge, part of which was even poorly lit. Of course, even Maitama and Asokoro are wrapped in thick darkness these days at 8pm if grid power fails.

I was surprised at the black silence I met in these desolate palaces. Everywhere signs hang on homes and high-rise office buildings begging for tenants. I called a number on one and the voice that answered said it was for sale:N 3.6billion, seven-story building with a footprint of about 250sqm. "I see".

There is good hiding in evil and sometimes you don't even have to look too deeply to see it. Too many wealth in Nigeria is strictly in figures without any underlying source or feeder spring. If you got your money through work and creativity; if they put you in a desert, you will still replicate the feat.

What is called a recession in regular economics is but a dethronement of false money, the overthrow of pretenders and wealth built with the tip of a pen so that reality and productivity can take over. It is an inevitable passage if nature is correctly programmed.

In a hilarious circle I was told about a typical Abuja moneybag whose fortune has now turned around. He was in money - and you know what I mean. In height of his affluence he collected two more wives to make a total of three. But the noose had been getting tighter and, all streams gone dry, he applied for a loan from a bank. Not so well exposed to the hazard of seeking credit from Nigerian banks, he was exceedingly positive he will soon be credited and so went with gusto to the manager's office on an appointed day to get the final answer on his application.

When he was told that he had been turned down, he lost control of himself so completely that he pooped on himself right there in the bank. He was helped into the bathroom and offered a ton of tissues and when he had become manageable, they led him into a taxi and gave him a thousand naira to the bank's happy ending of the personal tragedy.

The story teaches us that wealth without foundation will end in sudden failure. It is not only Abuja or the typical, overweight Nigerian big man, Nigeria itself is a victim of lazy wealth: oil is not a result of hard work or creativity. We don't even as much as have local capacity to drill the oil! If we don't build our economy by adding value through processing and developing our human resources, we won't end up much better than that poor individual you just laughed at.

My view:

It is time to start building real and sustainable wealth, enough of what used to be...The difference between the poor and rich nations is not the age of the Nation. This can be demonstrated by countries like India and Egypt, which are more than 2000 years old and are still poor countries.

On the other hand, Canada, Australia and New Zealand, which 150 years back were insignificant, today are developed and rich countries.

The difference between the poor and rich nation does not also depend on the available natural resources.

Japan has limited territory, 80% mountainous, unsuitable for agriculture or farming, but is the second in worlds economy. The country is like an immense floating factory, importing raw material from the whole world and exporting manufactured products.

Second example is Switzerland, it does not grow cocoa but produces the best chocolates in the world. In her small territory she rears animals and cultivates the land only for four month in a year, nevertheless manufactures the best milk products. A small country which is an image of security which has made it the strongest world bank.

Executives from rich countries who interact with their counterparts from poor countries show no significant intellectual differences.

The racial or colour factors also do not evince importance: migrants heavy in laziness in their country of origin are forcefully productive in rich European countries.

What then is the difference?

The difference is the attitude of the people, moulded for many years by education and culture.

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When we analyse the conduct of the people from the rich and developed countries, it is observed that a majority abide by the following principles of life:

1. Ethics, as basic principles.

2. Integrity.

3. Responsibility.

4. The respect for Laws and Regulations.

5. The respect from majority of citizens by right.

6. The love for work.

7. The effort to save and invest.

8. The will to be productive.

9. Punctuality.

In the poor countries a small minority follow these basic principles in their daily life.

We are not poor because we lack natural resources or because nature was cruel towards us.

We are poor because we lack attitude. We lack the will to follow and teach these principles of working of rich and developed societies.

We are in this state because we want to take advantage over everything and everyone.

We are in this state because we see something done wrong and say - “Let it be”

We should have a spirited memory and attitude …only then will we be able to change our present state..

If you do not share this message, nothing is going to happen to you. Your prized animal is not going to die, you wont be sacked from your job, you wont be having bad luck for seven years, nor are you going to get sick.

But, if you love your COUNTRY, try and circulate this message so that as many people may read and see what our problems are and hopefully move to change themselves to change the country.

THE 7 REALITIES OF MONEY

In this life, those who do not have much will always be more than those who do. That is the stark reality. And it is not necessarily because the few are better than the many, but instead because the few know certain things the many do not. It is also because the few are willing to run with what they know while the many, most times, prefer not to do so aside from stand from afar to sometimes deride the few who, through what they know, always seem to be ahead of the pack.

What you know more than another will certainly always keep you ahead of them. That's how it works in every area of life. And when it comes to money, if you know the truth about how it works more than me and work with what you know, you are guaranteed to always have it more than me. It's that simple. However,for some, the world of money is one maze of headache they can hardly understand nor wish to, since to them it's just a spiral of complications they could rather do without.

Yet we all need money and so must strive to understand certain basics about it; after all, it's what the few who seem to always have it in their possession know and it has helped them to continuously have a hold over it. The minority know a few basic realities about money that we either don't know or simply just ignore, and I've made a little attempt here to list a few out to help enlighten us. It's the report the minority know about and you really also should know about too.

1.  ANYBODY CAN MAKE MONEY
Yes, anybody can make money. And the reason is quite simple...everyone has brilliant potentials stored up inside their brains that can be harnessed to ensure money comes to them. Making money really isn't an exclusive preserve for just a few, but then the few that seem to have more than most people have actually accessed their potentials and so tend to stand out from the rest of the crowd. You can actually make money whether it be consistently or occasionally and that is one reality you must consciously carry about inside your mind.

2.  ANYBODY CAN HAVE MONEY

In the same vein also, anybody can have money. There's no rule under heaven that says you cannot have it. As everyone of us have the ability to make money, so also do we have the ability to have it. Those who seemingly have more money than others do not carry more than one head and neither are their brains of a different colour from ours. So believing in the truth that you too can have money is one reality that must constantly be on your mind.

3.  ANYBODY CAN MAKE AND HAVE MONEY BUT NOT EVERYBODY WILL
Despite the above two realities though, there is another reality that evidently is more apparent than those. And that is the fact that though anyone of us can both make and have money, not everybody will. And the reason for that are varied, principal among them being that quite a number of people don't believe in points 1 and 2 above and so hardly exercise any effort to ensure that money comes to them or even stays with them. Once you start thinking that you don't deserve money or that it's just for a few or that it's even an evil to be avoided (which really is very absurd!), then you stand no chance of doing what is needful to ensure that you can always have the money you need to be able to always meet your needs.

4.  YOU HAVE MONEY WHEN YOU CAN ALWAYS MAKE AND KEEP IT
Making money and having money aren't exactly the same thing. Quite a number of people make money from their jobs, businesses, investments and sometimes hobbies, but can hardly tell where all that money they make has gone at the end of the day. Making money is your ability to get money to come to you, while having money is your ability to keep all or a portion of what you make to ensure that you always have something left. Having money is all about control for it is only that which you control that you can direct, and only that which you can direct that you are a master over. So, control is what you must learn to master to be able to make and have money.

5.  MONEY CAN NEVER LEAVE YOUR HAND WITHOUT YOUR PERMISSION EXCEPT IT IS TAKEN AWAY FROM YOU BY FORCE
An understanding of this truth will immensely change your concept about how money works. Money will never ask you to do anything that you don't want to do. It will never buy anything that you  don't want to buy; and can surely never leave your possession without your approval except someone else forcibly takes it from your possession or without your knowledge (which is what we call stealing). So, the master of your money is you and the way you want it to operate. Be rest assured that if you don't spend the money yourself on something or if someone doesn't take it from you without your consent, your money will always remain where you originally kept it no matter the length of time that passes by until you eventually make the decision to make use of part or all of it. Yes, money is that loyal.

6.  TO MAKE OR HAVE MONEY, YOU MUST HAVE VALUE TO GIVE 

To make money, someone must have to give it to you. So, assuming you don't steal it from someone else, the only and best way to get it is for someone  to hand it over to you. However, for that to happen, you must have some value to give in exchange for the money you expect and once that is possible then you're guaranteed money. So, if you have some value to give me which could be defined by what I really need but cannot provide for myself but which you possibly possess, then once I am willing to accept your value offer I should also be willing to compensate you for it. Money then exchanges hands and you make money.

To have money, I must have value to give to myself  because it is that value that is able to ensure that what I make is constantly not thrown away recklessly. So, educating our minds become paramount and very important because it's from our minds that we make the decisions as to what we intend to do with our money. If our minds are more patient than impatient whenever money enters our hands, the probability of us being reckless with it and spending it frivolously will be quite low. And the less of the money we make that we spend, the more it is possible to have more in our reserves to use whenever we need to.

 

7.  MONEY IS SIMPLY THE TUNNEL THROUGH WHICH COMPENSATION IS EXCHANGED FOR VALUE

Money in reality is just a representation of value received. It's just the channel through which we compensate people for handing over a certain thing of value to us, be that a product or a service. That is why money is defined in financial terms as an acceptable means of exhange. And that is also why money is co-notated in various ways; it can be coins or bank notes or cheques or drafts or credit and debit cards or bonds or stocks and shares, etc. 

You want to know how to make and have money? You're in luck. You can order  my bestselling eBook, HOW TO MAKE AND KEEP YOUR MONEY by sending an email to michaelibiorika@gmail.com

THE FIRST SOUP I EVER COOKED.....AND WHAT IT TAUGHT ME

I recall very vividly something that happened to me in my teens. I was fresh from secondary school and, like my peers, was at home waiting on my results. With plenty of time on my hands, I spent most of it dreaming of many things, going out to play football and, of course, eating as much as I could.

Things weren't that easy in those days and I belonged to a polygamous family, with each of my father's wives having a timetable to cook weekly for the entire household. Sometimes it was a peaceful house and sometimes it wasn't; but that's not the reason I write.

On one of those weeks that it was my mother's turn to cook, she called and told me that I must learn to cook. That it was wrong for me to just be in the house and do nothing but be engrossed in fruitless ventures. She said cooking was not the exclusive preserve of women/girls only and that all her sons must learn it, beginning with me. I was annoyed and a wee bit cocky because I felt she was impinging on my personal space and time, but I agreed to not to be stubborn that day. She said we'd get to it once she returned from the market. The smiles on my sisters' faces were teasing but I told them I would surprise them.

When Mum returned from the market she informed me that she would be preparing Okro soup that afternoon and that it would be my first cooking lesson. So I stayed with her all the time in the kitchen staring at what she was doing and listening to what she was saying. My cockiness was all over me as I behaved as though what she was cooking I could repeat easily in my sleep!

I should have paid attention!

Days later, it was my turn to prove that she had taught me well. My sisters literally refused to leave the kitchen entrance, eager to see what I had to offer. My Mum had to chase them away repeatedly. When I took a look at the ingredients before me with the pot on fire, my brain froze. I couldn't recall a thing. Actually I did, I just didn't remember the sequence in which my Mum had prepared the soup some days earlier. With my cockiness still in charge of my being, I went ahead and poured everything all at once into the boiling pot of water on the cooker, oil,  pepper, salt, fish, meat and vegetables! Then I stirred and stirred and stirred. My heartbeat increased and I could feel it literally ringing in my ears! The aroma from the pot after a while tried its best to calm me down but I could tell by merely looking at the contents of my cooking pot that something just wasn't right!

After a few minutes the soup was done. The result of my arrogance was about to be displayed. And voila! I had managed to prepare what my Mum famously called okro peppersoup!

My sisters laughed uncontrollably, some falling on the floor and others either colliding into the wall or into each other. Even my Dad didn't know what to say to me. I thought I saw a smile but who can interpret whether it was a smile of wonder or of pity for his firstborn? My shame was sure and I disappeared into my small room for hours, tears flowing and my cockiness broken. Later that day, my Mum came to console me and then painstakingly took her time to again show me the steps to preparing that delicious okro soup.

So what did I learn that day?

1. Pay attention to what you're doing and what you're being taught. Don't ever assume that you can know it all. Just drop your ego.

2. You may have all the tools you need (gifts, talents, education) at your disposal, but you will still need the skill on how best to utilize them.

3. The right timing makes all the difference and your efforts worthwhile.

4. Always be open to learning.

5. You will always need someone to guide you in the right way to go.

6. Don't be afraid to fail, it's only a learning curve.

7. There comes a time in your life when you should stop pushing responsibility for your life unto others and instead take responsibility yourself.

The next soup I prepared after that was a whole lot better! My confidence rose and now I can cook the okro soup as though I've been doing so all my life!

(Did you like this post? Do please let me know what you think and also if you've ever had a similar experience. Also kindly subscribe to my blog so that you don't miss out inspirational posts. Thank you.)

RESPECT YOUR HUSTLE by Ebuka Anichebe

Do you find yourself constantly seduced or blackmailed into giving free advisory services or consultation to family and friends and sometimes friends of friends?

I have a number of doctors and lawyers who are close friends of mine. Many struggle with this one thing. They have a reprehensible fear of charging family and friends for personal services.

Young consultants just starting out, coaches of every shade and type whether its fitness, lifestyle, fashion, money, youth, marketing and even finance coaches; as do so many other service-professionals in many industries who also suffer this affliction needlessly.

Listen up, please if there’s any lingering remnant of moral repugnance stopping you from asking for payment for services rendered I implore you to expunge it from your soul.

May these pathogens die by fire!!! Recieve brain I pray.

Listen my good friend! People value more of what they can pay for! Call it equal to the effect of a powerful placebo, the expensive type.

Even the subtlest self-hatred or lack of worthiness of your profession is enough to make you disadvantaged in any sales-conversation or what had the potential of becoming one…. but no. Instead subconsciously, you had to sabotage yourself and entirely discount the power of framing the mindset of your friend-turned-client-in-need into fully appreciating the subtle power of equivalent payment for services rendered.

Yes, give a generous discount, if you must, but please demand a fee in cash or equivalent kindness.

Just ask yourself, who is to say whether or not it is okay to charge for your personal services. And if you feel its okay to use your talent for charity, please feel free to. But I dare say that an accumulation of concerted efforts of your several years of experience and knowledge acquired through hard-work, study and talents is definitely worth charging a decent amount for.

Come on, they (your friends) pay their mechanic to take a look at their car engine, they also pay their barber, the street hawker who sells them vegetable and the butcher who supplies meat and all the others get paid.

Why not you?

If you keep thinking your talent or skill is free and so why charge a fee. You’ll nearly always provide less than your best. Not to mention soon go broke and embarrass your family and friends.
Is that fair?

Most malaria patients appreciate their doctors service in the middle of the night. By the time the danger has passed and they’re back on their feet, the hospital bill looks ludicrously expensive.

It’s the law of diminishing appreciation.

Show some respect for what you do straight up. And others will too respect your hustle.

What’s more? You will then speak about your chosen profession with even more confidence and pride. And those kind of emotions are infectious and cause even more sales, bookings and referrals, thereby creating a virtuous cycle.
It’s okay to be charitable but make sure it’s for the less fortunate and not some friend looking to take advantage of free labour.
No….not good….not good my friend….give discount instead. Be cheap labour not FREE labour.

Do us all a favour my friend. Respect your hustle. Plus we (needy clients) may also need the additional placebo effect or mental edge to fully believe in the efficacy of your services and fully appreciate the advice far better than we would were it given free like beer parlour gossip.

We all value the 100 U.S dollar more than our 1,000 Naira simply because we place more value on it. Its our own perception.

How much value do you place on your personal service?

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