My Only Regret....20007

Let everything that have breath praise the lord says the psalmist. 2007 was a very outstanding year for me. infact i can say its the best year so far. i changed jobs like 3 times! i made financial progress! relationships were consolidated and goals were achieved.

My Only Regret however is that i did not set bigger goals.......

In 2008 i will be more consistent with my blogging at least once a week.

I will be on air twice a week on radio. Gold Fm 5:55am Mondays and Wednesdays

I will be in touch with the people that matter in my life.

I will cultivate deeper relationships with people. I will be proactive about helping others.

I will also develop stronger spiritual values

and practice my faith

Lastly i will be more understanding of others....so help me God

Nigeria - Prophecy Vs Invention

I have always believed that there is nothing so bad about 3rd world. The world hasn’t stopped, so the fact that we are third world, simply implies that when the positions were scored, we were third. There is nothing wrong with that. He who is third today has the benefit of learning from the 1st and the 2nd. If the 1st runs into a ditch, the second will avoid the ditch and so will the 3rd. If the second runs into a ditch, the 3rd still has a 3rd chance. It means also that the opportunities we have to get back up after we have screwed up is more. Can someone say to someone - “there is nothing bad with being ranked as 3rd world”.
However, there is something wrong with staying 3rd world, and heading in the wrong direction. It means for as long as life exists, we would never be anything better than 3rd world. The question that ought to bother us as a nation and as individuals, is where is our nation heading. I will not worry about the details of the speed, or the stretch of our movement if direction is uncertain. It is only a fanatic that doubles speed when direction is unsure. I am a student of prophecy and by extension a son of the tribe of Issachar, I am also a student of creativity, and believe that where the future prophesied future seems bleak, another can b
e invented.
Here are some key indexes for determining the future of our nation and easy fixes for ensuring we invent the one we desire.
1. Individual Vs National Development: When the MD of General Motors became a Minister in America, he was asked an integrity question. He was asked if he could endorse good policies that would adversely affect General Motors in any way. He responded, that while he would seek to uphold the good of the American people above that of his company, he doubts seriously that there will ever be any good policy that will affect GM negatively. He said that all the while he was MD, he had always ensured that whatever he was doing was not only good for GM but good for America. Hear this loud and clear. Until the decisions of individuals in Nigeria both in public, private and in no office starts to consider the good of the Nation, Nigeria will never be great. Until individual progress can be connected with National progress, there will be no National progress. Where are we facing in these regards? The wrong direction. Today, people can rise to the top of the economic food chain without having a thought about National development. Where does that kind of direction lead to? Extremely rich and extremely poor, no middle class, dying nation.
2. Dependence Vs Interdependence: One of the key elements sinking America today, is that America has developed itself into a nation of dependents. There are too many people depending on the government for social security and retirement settlement. America has developed an entitlement generation, people who believe that they are entitled to what does not exist. The entire social security and retirement benefit system is a huge ponzi scheme, and the populace does not even understand what lies head or what a ponzi scheme is. The Nigerian is fast brining itself out of a situation where all federal government workers believe that the government will take care of them till they die, the structures of pensions and gratuities is quickly being repositioned to what makes sense even in the private sector. While this is happening gradually, many still do not understand fully, that their lives now lie in their hand, not only in pension allocation, but generally. The government is not responsible for Nigeria - Old Nigeria or New Nigeria. We are not entitled to what we had in the 1960s and 70s where we were running systems that have begun to fail globally. If Nigeria will ever be better or change, it’s going to be by the effort of the individuals. No matter how good the government is, no matter how leader the leader, we will never be entitled to what we don’t take conscious ownership of. Just like your personal financial intelligence guarantees your future, so does you personal national input guarantee your future in the New Nigeria. We need to be a nation of volunteers, of people who ask not what their country can do for them, but ask what they can do for their country.
3. Producer Vs Consumer: The Jones’ make a monthly salary of N100,000 but have a monthly budget of N250,000! What do you think will happen to the Jones’? If you said, go bankrupt, get into slave trade, become beggars or become extinct you are not far from the truth. They will end up somewhere within that matrix, depending on how many years after. As a nation, we are no different from the Jones’. We are consuming more than we are producing. Or rather, we are consuming… because I struggle to remember what we are producing. What type of encouragement do we need to patronize our own local businesses? What encouragement do we need to wear made in Nigeria clothes? What motivation do we need to buy our products? Do we first need to run aground and be back down before we look up? The direction that consumes more than it produces ends up extinct.
4. Money Making Vs Value Creation: Who are the richest people in Nigeria? That might be a difficult one, I think a better question is who are the billionaires in Nigeria? What work are they doing, and what value can the average poor man boldly claim to derive from them? Are they into Financial Services? What value are they adding to the economy? Are they funding SME’s or are they collaborating to fund non Nigerian companies? Are they financing the real sector, or are they trading stocks… or monkeys? Are they oil barons or are they in the oil and gas sector? Are they drilling oil and adding value to it and to the populace, or are they selling raw materials, buying finished products and selling us more of what we should need less of? Are our rich men creating value? But I thought money making was a function of value creation, how wrong was I. It is possible to make money without creating value, it’s called bad money. I understand from history as well, that when bad money shows up, good money goes into hiding. If we promote and encourage money making without addition of visible value, the voice of value adding initiatives will be suppressed.
The direction we face as a nation is clear. It’s the direction different from the one we should be facing. We should stop blaming the government, it’s not the government’s fault. It is all our fault. The government has too long been the destination of bastard blames, leave the government alone. We are overrating the importance and power of politicians, they are vital, but can’t do it alone. If you have anything to offer Nigeria, make it known. In the days of God’s power, there shall be volunteers.

written by deolu akinyemi
www.deoluakinyemi.com

A Different Picture.....A Different Result

Occasionally do you have the reason to pause and ponder over life is all about? Personally I do. I am also persuaded that this is a legitimate question. It’s interesting to note that how you see life is the basis by which you will base your judgments, actions and decisions. This is what determines whether you are materialistic or not. What you have attachment to and to what extent.
For instance, what is your view on money? What can you do to acquire it? How are you willing to share or distribute it? To what purpose are you willing to put it to use. Do you want to spend it now or later? You need to appreciate how influential your perspective on life can be. It is not just limited to your relationship with money, but also with people, positions, opportunities etc. This is also referred to has your value system.

Values are what we stand for. They are grounds on which you cannot compromise. Values do not change no matter how you vary the quantity of money. People with values are the ones that will make a difference in the new Nigeria. A people who know what they stand for. A people who don’t have a price. A people who cannot be purchased. Values are the DNA, the fabrics of which the society is made. As a people we have great values like, integrity, uprightness, honesty, hard work, diligence. Our word is our bond. This is our honor.

It may shock you to know that perpetuators of wickedness and corruption are in the minority. They are few but noisy and loud. They have painted us red abroad but their time is up. How do I know? You represent the truth and you will stand up for it. At your place of work you will follow due process. You will not take bribes or shortcuts. No more examination malpractices. Yes that’s the new you and new Nigeria. Nigeria will change when you make your own little contributions. Nigeria will be different when you are different. By the year 2025 I see a brand new Nigeria. I see people of different nationalities queuing up at our different embassies trying to get visa to enter Nigeria. I see Europeans participating in a Nigerian visa lottery.

I am not crazy, neither am I daydreaming or having a nightmare. Things have started changing already. The only way you can perceive the change is by changing yourself. In case you are contemplating leaving the shores of our country for good. Please change your mind, don’t pack your bags yet. Don’t go to where opportunities have been. Stay in Nigeria where we are creating opportunities. Stay and help build this country to that level. Those who till the land will reap the harvest. The tide is changing and I can feel it

Most of us will do anything to become good except change our way of living.- anonymous

Starting strong; beginning with God

NAFECS FISRT SYMESTER INAUGURAL SEMINAR

November 23 2007 BY Oluyemi Adeosun

In the beginning was the word and the word was with God and the word was God. John 1 vs. 1-5

And God said let there be light and there was light. Genesis 1 vs. 1- 4

Characteristics of the beginning

• Things may be without form, and void
• Darkness may be prevalent
• The most important thing is light
• Then other activities can follow
• Light is information, knowledge, vision or revelation

Lessons

• The most important thing is the word
• Words comes from thoughts
• Thoughts comes from what we chose to listen to, read, watch, hear and believe
• What you say is either God or devil inspired
• The devil is word perverted
• What you say is what you believe, act on, and get
• You will not get what you say if you believe in what others say and not what you say
• Words are superior to situations, circumstances and environmental factors.
• Words determine your attitude, behavior and character
• A set of attitude is superior to a set of circumstances
• You are not what happens to you, you are what you chose to become
• Words determine your opinions and expectation
• Gods word is different from status quo (darkness, mediocrity)
• God’s word works and brings about a performance. Put your words to work.
• Gods word sets a new vision, dream, path, course, direction, focus, result
• If you don’t change your focus you cant change your result
• A set of attitude will produce a set of results consistent to it
• What do you want to become tomorrow. Knowing it will help you endure and pay the price now.
• Have a spiritual goal, academic goal, leadership goal, personal development goal
• Get a mentor
• Set a goal- 5 points
• Greater ambition than others
• Take more risk than others
• More demand, more Grace, more result
• You can achieve anything if you put your mind to it
• Don’t blow your first chance
• Build a skill set
• Says law of market
• If you don’t define your goals poor results will define you
• What people know and do and their staying power differentiates people

WHY YOU ARE IN SCHOOL

• Discover your gifts, talents and potentials
• TO acquire a discipline
• Sharpen your skills
• Develop life long relationship with God and with people- each individual you see represents a door to a sector or industry in the economy. Build deep and positive friendship

Ultimately you are here to develop capacity

Sin puts you in the dark and weakens your capacity. Righteousness exalts or develops a nation.

Action points

• Set an impossible goal
• Endure an impossible schedule
• Serve an unlimited God
• Achieve an outstanding result

"Champions aren't made in the gyms. Champions are made from something they have deep inside of them - a desire, a dream, a vision. They have last-minute stamina, they have to be a little faster, they have to have the skill, and the will. But the will must be stronger than the skill." -- Muhammad Ali

QUESTIONS, CONTRIBUTIONS OR ENQUIRES CONTACT

Oluyemiadeosun@yahoo.com, www.yemiadeosun.blogspot.com, 08025320606

Seven Differences between Wealth and Riches

Wealth and riches are not the same. Now let’s consider the differences.

• Riches are a function of the amount of money you make; wealth is of that which you retain. Riches are what pass through your hands; wealth is what stays in your life. For example, earning a million naira per month makes you rich but not necessarily wealthy. Mike Tyson is said to have made over four hundred million dollars in his boxing career but is now bankrupt, owing over twenty million dollars. He is a classic example of someone who was rich but not wealthy. Spending money shouldn’t be your focus. It should be making and retaining it.
• You can become rich overnight but not wealthy overnight. Winning the lottery or star prize in a reality TV show may make you an instant millionaire but not a wealthy person. It takes years to build wealth because wealth is a function of your financial intelligence as expressed in the kinds of decision you make over time. Check out the guy who wins an instant million today in two years time. That’s when you will know if he his wealthy or not. To build wealth you have to be more long term oriented in your thinking and actions.
• A rich man depends on his talents to make money. A wealthy man recruits the talents the talent of others to build wealth. How many people have you engaged to help you make money? If your answer is none then it will be difficult for you to build wealth.
• A rich man has to keep working to make money; a wealthy man keeps making money even if he stops working. Take a landlord as an example collecting rent as long as people keep using his facility. But even the man earning a million per month will lose his job if he fails to show up for work! That is why it is difficult to become wealthy if you are not making money passively.
• Rich people usually depend on a single source of income, especially salary. Wealthy people usually have multiple streams of income. How many streams of income do you have? If it is only salary I think you need to sit up!
• Riches can be lost overnight but it is difficult to lose wealth overnight because wealthy people keep their wealth in more than one reservoir and it is difficult for a single turn of events to affect all the reservoirs at the same time. It is unlikely that the stock market, real estate and the businesses will all crash at the same time.
• If a wealthy man loses the business, investment or property he almost always bounces back. All he does his to repeat the process of building those assets all over again. He may even build an entirely different business. But if a rich man loses his high paying job he most likely remains permanently broke unless he finds another high paying job. This is the reason many salary earners go broke if they lose their jobs. They don’t know how to build an asset.

A rich man is not so different from a poor man! You have to migrate from poor to rich to wealthy.

Multiple source of income

1 Engage in farming- people must eat

2 Start trading shares

3 Engage in real estate- people must live in houses

4 Start a transport services- people must move

5 Provide power supply. Kerosene, diesel, petrol. People use it daily

6 Open a canteen- people must eat

7 Open a dry cleaning service

8 Start an extra mural lesson. If you are a teacher organize private lessons.

9 Make you’re your hobby commercial. What you are doing for free, some people are making money by doing it.

The man who has done his best has done everything. The man who has done less than his best has done nothing.

What if

How wealthy or rich are we in this state? If today the constitution of the nation is changed and the resources of each state is used within the state it is found. How rich are we going to be? Are we still going to meet our needs? Can our internally generated revenue (IGR) meet our internally generated needs (IGN)? Yes I do not pray that something like this happens…..but what if. To make progress in life, we need to ask some what if questions and provide the answers before they are actually necessary. This is what enables people, organization or nations to recover quickly from an unexpected negative occurrence and to be able to capitalize on an unexpected opportunity. What if I lose my job today? What if my children stop sending money to me? What if government introduces fees in public schools?

The reason for doing this is strictly for planning. I know that Africans do not like anticipating change or disaster. That’s probably why insurance is not doing well as it should. I don’t myself. However for those of us who have spent sometime on mother earth we know that unexpected things do happen. Should you fail to have a contingency plan or back up plan the consequences will be devastating. Even where your backup plan does not work you are more equipped to handle a turn of events than the individual that did not anticipate it at all. That is why you should have a will now. Planning for the unexpected is proactive and hard work.

Lets take one what if scenario. What if your pension or gratuity is not paid to you promptly or on time? To handle this proactively here are a few tips.

• 20% of your income henceforth should go to investments e.g. stocks; real estates etc. get financial education.
• Increase your source of income or ensure you ensure you have multiple sources of income
• Plan your family. Ensure that by the time you retire, all your children are through with their tertiary education and self supporting
• Empower your spouse- make sure your spouse is gainfully employed or doing one business or the other
• Avoid wasteful spending- think about this. Why should you spend your entire savings on a wedding or burial ceremony? You don’t have to impress anybody.
• Own your own house. Start building your own house now. Don’t wait till you have a large amount of money before you commence. Buy a parcel of land and start construction work gradually. It’s not funny when a retiree uses his gratuity to build his house.

Let’s get back to the first what if question. Can this state survive with only her internally generated revenue? I really believe that we should start working towards this now we at least have external funding support. What do we have at our disposal? Tourism potentials, agriculture or arable land, solid minerals, educational institutions and human resources are some of the things that readily come to mind. We should identify our major strength and build on it. We must invest heavily to make our resources marketable and competitive. Efforts to build human capacity must also be sustained because people are the most important resources of any nation.

"Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn't do than by the
ones you did. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds
in your sails. Explore. Dream." -- Mark Twain. American humorist, writer and lecturer, 1835-1910

oluyemi Adeosun

Thinkers rule the world

If you look around you, you will realize that there is nothing as common as hardworking but poor people. We are hard working in this part of the world. This is an undisputable fact. However success does not respond only to hard work. Not only should you be hard working, you must also be smart working. When you work hard, you work with your muscles. However when you work smart, you work with your mind. One factor that is critical to growth and development is a sound mind.
The ability to think is crucial for success in this dispensation. Thinkers find a way of making things easier. Look at the equipments that make work easier, these are product of the thinking mind. Thinkers gradually but surely take over the economy. Thinkers have the ability to process raw information and materials to refined stuff that will command a premium price in the market. This is because the outcome of thinkers thought makes life easier for other people. A crude mind cannot process crude oil. You mind must be sharpened. Hard workers will always be the subordinate of smart workers.
Former American president Bill Clinton said ‘what is in your head is far more important than what is under your feet’ we need to develop our individual minds. No matter how expensive raw materials are, the makers of finished goods will always make a higher profit. Thinkers determine the price of the raw materials. Thinkers make use of raw materials. A thinker cannot be stranded. Once you can think, you can always find a way around your inadequacies and insufficiencies.
Do you wonder why some people don’t like to think? It is because thinking is hard work. You use a lot of energy when you put your mind to work. When a thinker is told to cut a tree, he will use 1 hour to plan and strategize how to go about the project. He will now use 7 hours to execute the project. A non thinker however will use 9 hours to cut the tree without success and use the remaining 1 hour to wonder why he did not succeed
We need to step up our capacity to think. One country in the world markets the peace in their country. People from all over come and deposit their money in their banks. Imagine thinkers know that peace and political stability is an asset. A peaceful country will find it easier to attract foreign direct investment. Similarly a peaceful individual will find it easier to attract opportunities into their lives. The sole purpose of education is to increase our capacity to think, analyze, process and ultimately get more results. People will look for you when your thought process makes things easier for them
Books and reading have an incredible capacity to develop and broaden peoples mind. When last did you read a book? An individual who does not read has no advantage over an individual who cannot read. If only the average guy on the street can use the same time he spends watching all the premiership matches to also read books. Premiership is so exciting to watch today because some thinkers are administering it. Yes it is good to relax and watch football. However it is also important that you become outstanding in life so that others to will one day watch you perform or celebrated for excellence. Imagine a poor man watching a rich man playing (at work).
I challenge parents to enforce a reading schedule on their children. Ask the children questions on books you assign them to read. Let them write reports on them and share their own thoughts. They should spend less time watching films and reading books that will expand their minds. You will only motivate the children when they see you reading too. Do you have a library at home? When last did you buy any book?
The best place to empty your money into is in your brain. The hurdle in your mind someone else has crossed it. The answer is probably a book away. The returns are overwhelming. Do you want to be in high demand? Please start thinking.
Bill Clinton said ‘what is in your head is far more important than what is under your feet’
OLUYEMI ADEOSUN