Today’s post is a reflection of personal events and lessons learnt over the last couple of weeks.
Talk isn’t cheap anymore. I learnt how vital words are and much more, the information they convey.
Information is an invaluable asset in today’s economy. A relevant piece of information can change a man’s fortune forever. If it’s relevant, refined and packaged and it’s peculiar to an audience or it most likely solves a problem, there will be an exchange of value somewhere down the line. Someone is waiting to pay for it.
Consistency is key to the achievement of any goal. I learnt that not everybody who begins a journey finishes it, if it were there would have been no failed business; every business would have been a success. God’s grace and consistency are vital in the progress of any venture.
Focus is like a laser that cuts through metal when clearly harnessed. Focus is instrumental to the pursuit of any goal. It is said that broken focus is the reason men fail, however I observed a subtle definition of focus is that the focused eye may be blind to a hundred other things at a particular instant.
You either prepare to go all the way or you do not set out at all. If you choose to climb a mountain, until you have reached the summit you aimed for, you have not achieved the success you set out to achieve.
There is no such thing as Impossible, no mountain is insurmountable, if you fail to reach the peak the first time you just may not have gotten the stamina yet.
He who fails to plan obviously plans to fail. Proper planning is the simple antidote to the disappointment brought my poor performance. If you plan it well enough, you will leave no stone unturned and you will definitely uncover the precious pebbles that are way beyond the surface.
Stay in the moment, treasure it and move confidently into the future. Discard the burdens, pay attention to the lessons from the past with the goals of the present and the assurance that God’s greatness reside in you and you will stop at nothing to work it out.
Learning never ends....and success is only sure if you never ever give up!
Join myself and my team at Avenues to Wealth as we work closely with 20 people who are ready to increase their financial intelligence, make extra monthly income of about $1000 or more, secure your space atthe link.http://bit.ly/VqbOgh
I's a great day! Today is the birthday of a great man. He is an excellent communicator, a unique personality, a wonderful
Leader and great patriarch.My
grandpa is 94 today! So I decided to dedicate this post to the blessed
wonderful 'young man' as I review 2 of the lessons he taught me
directly. While these are not new laws, they are worthy of note.
1. Order is heaven's first law: My granddad being a man of order, will always point out this to me during my vacations with him as an undergraduate.He
emphasized and practiced the orderly arrangement of things, from books, to shoes, clothes and what have you.
Order
indeed is heaven's first law. Imagine what kind of day it would be if
you woke up and the stars were still lighting up the skies and the moon forgot to be retired from the night. Everything in the universe, the seasons the elements all come out and
are seen in a particular order and pattern that is the work of God and
should be appreciated and emulated here in our processes.
The further
applicaton of this is the need for protocol in everything that should
be done, if it's worth doing, it might as well be worth doing well and
in the right order
2. Cleanliness is next to godliness.Grandpa's penchant for cleanliness and neatness is not only seen when he is dressed in his elitist way
but it can also be seen in the ambient neatness of his house.He
wouldn't mind to emphasize it in his words should there be a need. This
cleanliness he also complements with his love for prayer as a devoted
Anglican.
Cleanliness is also a state of purity of life and character of any one who aspires towards all that is good and godly. Integrity, a form of cleanliness is itself a necessary asset in any business.
This two lessons will suffice for reflection today. I appreciate God for his life and I wish granddad more of God's strength and grace in the years ahead.
Cheers!
Emmanuel Ayeni
Join myself and my team at Avenues to Wealth as we
work closely with 20 people who are ready to increase their financial
intelligence, make extra monthly income of about $1000 or more, secure
your space atthe link.http://bit.ly/VqbOgh
One day in the early part of this year i picked up my old smart phone and I decided to make another video on the 'money series' with the help of a colleague. Although this video hasn’t gone live yet but I want to share a few thoughts on the subject matter contained or covered in it.
I once read a book by a rich British Entrepreneur as an undergraduate and holiday road side book store owner titled ‘How to get Rich’ by Felix Dennis , while I do not guarantee the book will put some bucks in your pocket, but it does point to some invaluable thoughts on the subject of money, wealth creation and entrepreneurship. I share some of these tips from the book alongside some personal tips.
Money being a medium of exchange, is essential in any economy.(You may refer to my earlier post on money here) However, there are 7 ways of making money in any economy regardless of the geographic location, some of this ways will make you rich why some of them will not, I will cover ways rich people make money in another post.
1.A MAN MAY CHOOSE TO STEAL MONEY: It is the illegal and most unethical way of making money. The fact is some people make money by stealing from others, people steal in different ways and at different levels. From robbers to the executive that embezzles office funds to the politician that steals public funds these all make money from stealing and anyone who makes money from this way is called a thief or robber. Stealing money is not sustainable and is also degrading. The consequences of the illegal act of stealing is a jail term or death sentence as the case may be. Stealing itself is against the values of integrity and honesty that are instrumental to creating wealth, hence this in not an ethical and sustainable way.Why steal while there are better ways?
2.YOU CAN WIN MONEY: One known way by which any one can make money is win it. People have won mind blowing amount from stakes at the lotteries but millions more have lost their fortunes to bookmakers. As much as you can make money from gambling your results depends on your belief in luck or the unreasonable probabilities that mostly control the money game of chance.
3.YOU CAN MARRY INTO MONEY: A man may marry into money, by marrying into a wealthy family a man may attain some levels of wealth or he might acquire some money based on his new status or relationship. This might be some of the reasons for
4.YOU CAN INHERIT MONEY: If you have a rich uncle or wealthy relative who left you a great fortune, chances are that you might have been entitled to some of his wealth without even knowing it. Heirs of rich parents can make loads of money from their inherited estates.
5.YOU CAN WORK FOR MONEY : This is making money by selling your time ,effort or skills for money. International bestselling Author Robert Kiyosaki opined in his popular book Rich Dad, Poor Dad, that “the poor and the middle class work for money” he explained truly rich people have money work for them . However working for money is a legal starting point for most people to earn money and according to financial analysts about 80% of the world make money this way.
6.YOU CAN PRINT YOUR OWN MONEY: By this I mean you can set up a system of creating continuous flow of money like a cash machine. It has been proven that building your own successful business is a great way of making money in any economy, I will go into details in subsequent posts. This is how the mega-rich and wealthy make money and thus create enduring wealth. I am teaming up with a group of financial experts at our company Avenues to Wealth to work with just 20 people within a period of 30 days to begin their journey to building a viable business system and thus embark on their journey to financial freedom, I will provide registration link at the end of the post.
7.YOU CAN MAKE MONEY WORK FOR YOU: This is a corollary to number 6. One interesting thing about money is not only can it be created, it can and also has to multiply. In George Clason’s Richest man in Babylon Arkad revealed the need for your gold to work for you and its children’s children work hard for you. This is one other way to make money and here is the play ground of the rich and wealthy.
I believe this piece has done a bit in laying more foundations on some essential aspects of financial intelligence with regards to wealth creation. Join myself and my team at Avenues to Wealth we work closely with 20 people who are ready to increase their financial intelligence, make extra monthly income of about $1000 or more, secure your space at the link.http://bit.ly/VqbOgh
Today my first search on Google for the word ‘Name’ turned out about 7.88 billion results in 0.45 seconds
I come from a rich African culture where much importance is attached to a name. This practice is indeed true in every sense, even in most parts of the world.
We are taking a close look into the nature of names as an important part of the success equation.
If words are powerful then It’s only logical for me to believe that names are much more powerful.
As a matter of fact, In my opinion your name will be mentioned or used about a billion times in your life time and probably beyond. A name has the capacity to outlive you.
A name is powerful and is so important, the God of the whole earth has a unique name and He introduces himself to everyone or anyone in every transaction with a unique name! As a matter of fact the lists of His names are endless in different languages of the world! And they all point to His unquestionable supremacy. (A discussion for another day on spirituality post)
What makes names special? What is so spectacular and amazing about names? I will shed some light on some today by God’s grace.
This is mind blowing! I will try to get to it as easily as possible.
A name connotes beginning. A name is a hallmark of every meaningful beginning. Imagine boarding a plane/flight with no name at the beginning of a journey to nowhere, Imagine sitting at the cinema to watch a movie without a title, you would rarely start to read a book without a title or author, every huge project as a scope a name a title. Even a baby at the beginning of its life gets a name that marks the beginning of a journey to person hood.
A name is your first priced asset in life. Think about it, no great business enterprise or organization takes off without uniquely defined name apart from it s vision and mission. The first asset a baby receives in life is its name, there even a whole of websites that specialise in helping young parents with this choice.
I love pets especially dogs. Have you ever imagined what happens the moment you give a dog its name and it goes on to own it and answer that name? Names aren’t just words, even Yachts or Hurricanes have names... So I would like to reflect more on the nature of names.
Your name is your identity and a reflection of your attributes and personality. When a name is mentioned, something comes to mind, it might be closely associated with a problem or a solution. Your name is like a huge label around your brand. If you were a product your name is one of the way you appeal to customers, it might be a reason people buy you. Your name creates an impression on people. Often times our names create an atmosphere, feeling or mood wherever they are mentioned. See how many times some names are mentioned and someone smiles or frowns. Your name is an entity and integral part of your identity. Your name is your brand. If you are in double Google brands like Coca-cola, Microsoft, IBM, Xerox to Tiger Woods, Giorgio Armani (Hah! I won’t delve much into the subject of branding here).
Your name tells people something about you. Your name might tell us where you are coming from, where you are or perhaps where you are going. A name as your identity can tell us a bit of whom you are or perhaps something about you. A name can tell your story.
Name means access. Your name is the first point of contact with you. People know your name first before they ever get to know you. Most times they see you before they might be opportune to hear you and what comes to every one’s mind consciously or subconsciously is always one question- WHAT IS YOUR NAME?? – Who are you?
Your name is people’s first access to you because that is what you answer and most likely that is what they already have. I have a list and some pictures of mentors on my goal pad/ vision board some I have never met while some I have already met yet I have never met any of these great minds without at least knowledge of their names.If according to Robert C. Lee “The sweetest sound to anyone's ears is the sounds of his own name” then I also discover people’s name will make different music to the m based on the level of access or relationship you have with them. However people’s name most times will be your first access to them.
Names also create access. Have you ever had an appointment with an executive without knowing his name? Probably not. If you were in a great place and you were scheduled for an appointment, you will most likely be asked who you want to see. And the name creates a level of access for you.
Just like a busy executive that wouldn’t be disturbed in the midst of a meeting but on hearing the voice of his son call out ‘Dad’ or the voice of the wife call out ‘Bill’ will excuse himself for few minutes to answer his name or the call.
What is your name? We have heard this question countless times and behind those words are the vital questions ‘who are you?’ or ‘what is your story?’. Names aren’t just words. A name is a vital part of your identity, it has a life of its own – it doesn’t die depending on how you use it or what you do with it and it creates the first level of access to you. In W. C Fields' Words, “It ain't what they call you, it's what you answer to.” and I might add that what you call yourself and what you answer to, matters a whole lot on your Journey to Greatness. I will love to read your thoughts on this subject in the comments section below.
“Don’t fear failure so much that you refuse to try new things. The saddest summary of life contains three descriptions: could have, might have, and should have.” - Louise E. Boone
My heart pants.I feel like a man on a bungee jump.It is the beginning of a 30 day challenge.
I am giving myself to consistent blogging and writing for the next 30 days.
I have done successful 7- day challenges and I believe I can do this and go on to a 30 day challenge.
I will be so happy to do a 30-day post! Wow! That would have changed me!
Yes! It takes a lot of discipline, mind control and...Whatever, to maintain a connection and churn out something of value for the 30 days!
So i initially was making out for a 14-day challenge but today I will take a leap of faith and blog for 30 days.
What will I write or blog on? I have chosen to step out in faith.i will set out from my comfort zone, my niche and moved to
Uncharted courses. I will write from my heart more than from my head.
I will reach deep within for the rich deposit of inspiration God has placed here in, I will take the light and go down into the cave of learning and discovery and find the treasures that lie fallow.
This will mean serving my gift and my assignment.
What more will I blog about...? I will write from something to anything. I will write on "whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable.."
I will blog on anything that informs and inspires lives to greatness. I will write, teach, share and blog daily within the next 30 days.
Join me on this ride on a 30-day inspirational journey from August 12- September10th 2014.
I am excited at the very thought of it, and I hope with you my esteemed readers I hope to achieve this feat. I will appreciate your thoughts and suggestions on this.
I am sharing information from www.internationalsos.com on the recent epidemic ravaging some parts of West Africa.
Find details below as shared on their site.
An uncontrolled outbreak of Ebola virus is currently underway in several countries in West Africa (Guinea, Liberia, Nigeria and Sierra Leone). This is the largest Ebola outbreak ever reported, both in terms of case numbers and geographical spread. It's also the first time the disease has affected large cities. Capital cities of these nations are affected.
The disease is spreading person to person, causing significant international concern and disrupting both the health and economy of these countries as well as neighboring nations. in late July, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared the outbreak a Grade 3 emergency, its highest level of any emergency response. In early August, they declared it an Public Health Emergency of International Concern, meaning it is a serious public health event that endangers international public health.
An outbreak begins: the first round
This outbreak began in Guinea. The first case there occurred in December 2013, though it was not reported to the World Health Organization/identified as Ebola until March 2014. This significant delay means that control measures were not enacted for months, allowing the virus to take hold in the community. Soon after the disease was brought to international attention, cases were also reported in neighboring Liberia. This progression was upsetting but not unpredictable: borders in the affected area are often porous, with people walking from one nation to another on a daily basis.
Control measures were enacted in both countries, and seemed effective. By the beginning of April, disease activity slowed. It looked like the outbreak was heading to its end.
A false sense of relief
However, unexpectedly, cases spiked again in late May. New areas were affected. Ebola struck people in areas that had never had an Ebola infection before. The disease also intensified in places where people had previously been infected.
The disease also began actively spreading for the first time in Sierra Leone in late May. New cases continue in all three affected countries and beyond: Nigeria reported the first imported case in late July, in a man who had flown internationally.
Epidemic is not under control
The World Health Organization stated in July that there is a high risk that the outbreak will spread to other countries that border Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone (the three countries initially affected by the outbreak). Indeed, the disease was imported into Nigeria that month. WHO states there is a moderate risk that other countries in the West African subregion will be affected. Infrastructure limitations will contribute to international spread, as it is difficult to implement health measures at border points or to effectively trace and monitor contacts of Ebola patients. People may travel from one area to another to seek healthcare, which is limited in some places.
This Ebola outbreak is not under control. Resources and personnel are stretched in trying to handle the situation. Cultural concerns also play a role: some people in these countries do not believe Ebola is an actual disease. Others are unethically selling a counterfeit “vaccine” to protect people (there is no vaccine for Ebola). Conspiracy theories circulate. Misinformation and mistrust make it difficult to implement national and international health measures – which are critical to bringing the disease under control.
The World Health Organization has declared the Ebola situation to be a Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC) in early August. The statement confirms that countries in which Ebola is spreading form person to person should declare a national emergency, and consider temporarily stopping mass gatherings. All affected countries are also instructed to screen exiting international travellers with, at minimum, a questionnaire and temperature measurement. Anyone who has Ebola or symptoms of Ebola should not travel. Contacts of Ebola cases should be monitored on a daily basis, and should not travel nationally or internationally for 21 days after exposure. WHO expects countries to ensure airline crews have "appropriate medical care" when operating in affected countries, and have mechanisms for contact tracing travellers. WHO again reiterated there is "no general ban on international travel or trade", however Ebola cases and their contacts should only travel if "the travel is part of an appropriate medical evacuation".
I have been a regular visitor to the Gate's personal blog for a couple of weeks and I am always amazed by his Reading list, trips and continuous philantrophic feats around the world.
I am compelled to share his review of his favourite business book,a book with a captivating title. I also share a link to downloading a free chapter of the book. As a matter of fact Gates created an instant it for this book after he revealed to the world it's hi favourite!
The book is out of print but sure amazon is your answer ;)
Read on!
The Best Business Book I’ve Ever Read BY BILL GATES ON JULY 12, 2014
Not long after I first met Warren Buffett back in 1991, I asked him to recommend his favorite book about business. He didn’t miss a beat: “It’s Business Adventures, by John Brooks,” he said. “I’ll send you my copy.” I was intrigued: I had never heard of Business Adventures or John Brooks.
Today, more than two decades after Warren lent it to me—and more than four decades after it was first published—Business Adventures remains the best business book I’ve ever read. John Brooks is still my favorite business writer. (And Warren, if you’re reading this, I still have your copy.)
A skeptic might wonder how this out-of-print collection of New Yorker articles from the 1960s could have anything to say about business today. After all, in 1966, when Brooks profiled Xerox, the company’s top-of-the-line copier weighed 650 pounds, cost $27,500, required a full-time operator, and came with a fire extinguisher because of its tendency to overheat. A lot has changed since then.
It’s certainly true that many of the particulars of business have changed. But the fundamentals have not. Brooks’s deeper insights about business are just as relevant today as they were back then. In terms of its longevity, Business Adventures stands alongside Benjamin Graham’s The Intelligent Investor, the 1949 book that Warren says is the best book on investing that he has ever read.
Brooks grew up in New Jersey during the Depression, attended Princeton University (where he roomed with future Secretary of State George Shultz), and, after serving in World War II, turned to journalism with dreams of becoming a novelist. In addition to his magazine work, he published a handful of books, only some of which are still in print. He died in 1993.
As the journalist Michael Lewis wrote in his foreword to Brooks’s book The Go-Go Years, even when Brooks got things wrong, “at least he got them wrong in an interesting way.” Unlike a lot of today’s business writers, Brooks didn’t boil his work down into pat how-to lessons or simplistic explanations for success. (How many times have you read that some company is taking off because they give their employees free lunch?) You won’t find any listicles in his work. Brooks wrote long articles that frame an issue, explore it in depth, introduce a few compelling characters, and show how things went for them.
In one called “The Impacted Philosophers,” he uses a case of price-fixing at General Electric to explore miscommunication—sometimes intentional miscommunication—up and down the corporate ladder. It was, he writes, “a breakdown in intramural communication so drastic as to make the building of the Tower of Babel seem a triumph of organizational rapport.”
In “The Fate of the Edsel,” he refutes the popular explanations for why Ford’s flagship car was such a historic flop. It wasn’t because the car was overly poll-tested; it was because Ford’s executives only pretended to be acting on what the polls said. “Although the Edsel was supposed to be advertised, and otherwise promoted, strictly on the basis of preferences expressed in polls, some old-fashioned snake-oil selling methods, intuitive rather than scientific, crept in.” It certainly didn’t help that the first Edsels “were delivered with oil leaks, sticking hoods, trunks that wouldn’t open, and push buttons that…couldn’t be budged with a hammer.”
One of Brooks’s most instructive stories is “Xerox Xerox Xerox Xerox.” (The headline alone belongs in the Journalism Hall of Fame.) The example of Xerox is one that everyone in the tech industry should study. Starting in the early ’70s, the company funded a huge amount of R&D that wasn’t directly related to copiers, including research that led to Ethernet networks and the first graphical user interface (the look you know today as Windows or OS X).
But because Xerox executives didn’t think these ideas fit their core business, they chose not to turn them into marketable products. Others stepped in and went to market with products based on the research that Xerox had done. Both Apple and Microsoft, for example, drew on Xerox’s work on graphical user interfaces.
I know I’m not alone in seeing this decision as a mistake on Xerox’s part. I was certainly determined to avoid it at Microsoft. I pushed hard to make sure that we kept thinking big about the opportunities created by our research in areas like computer vision and speech recognition. Many other journalists have written about Xerox, but Brooks’s article tells an important part of the company’s early story. He shows how it was built on original, outside-the-box thinking, which makes it all the more surprising that as Xerox matured, it would miss out on unconventional ideas developed by its own researchers.
Brooks was also a masterful storyteller. He could craft a page-turner like “The Last Great Corner,” about the man who founded the Piggly Wiggly grocery chain and his attempt to foil investors intent on shorting his company’s stock. I couldn’t wait to see how things turned out for him. (Here’s a spoiler: Not well.) Other times you can almost hear Brooks chuckling as he tells some absurd story. There’s a passage in “The Fate of the Edsel” in which a PR man for Ford organizes a fashion show for the wives of newspaper reporters. The host of the fashion show turns out to be a female impersonator, which might seem edgy today but would have been scandalous for a major American corporation in 1957. Brooks notes that the reporters’ wives “were able to give their husbands an extra paragraph or two for their stories.”
Brooks’s work is a great reminder that the rules for running a strong business and creating value haven’t changed. For one thing, there’s an essential human factor in every business endeavor. It doesn’t matter if you have a perfect product, production plan, and marketing pitch; you’ll still need the right people to lead and implement those plans.
That is a lesson you learn quickly in business, and I’ve been reminded of it at every step of my career, first at Microsoft and now at the foundation. Which people are you going to back? Do their roles fit their abilities? Do they have both the IQ and EQ to succeed? Warren is famous for this approach at Berkshire Hathaway, where he buys great businesses run by wonderful managers and then gets out of the way.
Business Adventures is as much about the strengths and weaknesses of leaders in challenging circumstances as it is about the particulars of one business or another. In that sense, it is still relevant not despite its age but because of it. John Brooks’s work is really about human nature, which is why it has stood the test of time.
