Dare To Be Rare

Would you like to command or attract a high value? Do you want to be sought after? Would you like to attract a high premium? Then dare to be different. Express the uniqueness within you. Scarcity is one of the determinants of price. Little wonder gold is more expensive than gravel. I hope you are aware that they are both stones. Gold is just a more precious stone. You have got to develop abilities to such a high level of excellence that you will become rare.

Another factor that determines the price of a product or premium an individual will command in the processing and pressure you have gone through. It will interest you to note that diamonds and charcoals have basically the same constituents. The major difference is that diamond went through more pressure. Little wonder diamond can cut through any kind of mental and command a higher price.

Do you want to attract more resources into your life? Then I challenge you to go the extra mile in training and development. Put in excellence into your work. Put in excellence into packaging of your product. Be punctual and timely. Let your word count. Be trustworthy. Be renowned for integrity and forthrightness.
Are you a cook? Be the best cook in town. Are you a father? Be the best dad ever. Be courteous to your customer. Smile at them. listen to them. Treat them like the king that they truly are. You will witness repeated sales and get free publicity and referrals. Excellence will distinguish you.
Be the very best by putting in your best. One first class result is superior to 4 second class lower degrees. Do your best every time. Remember you are only as good as your last impression.

OPPORTUNITIES

Recently, I came across a definition of the word poor. And it really intrigued me. POOR means passing over opportunities repeatedly. When people want to explain away the success of others, they simply say that that man is lucky or has great opportunities. Al Capone was quoted to have said that all men have opportunities to be successful via legitimate means.

Opportunities are either coming your way or passing you by. Opportunity is available to all and sundry. However you must be able to identify it to be able to capitalize on it. Opportunity is no good if you do not seize it. The law of recognition or identification is critical when it comes to opportunity. In essence every situation, location or occurrence is potentially an opportunity depending on your perspective. You do not need many opportunities. One opportunity well utilized is enough to propel you to greater heights.

A well-trained and developed mind sees more opportunity than the average mind. Opportunities exist everywhere. Opportunities are oblivious to some people because they are dressed in work uniforms. People who shy from responsibilities usually miss out on opportunities. Opportunities also present themselves when others have challenges that we can utilize our skills to solve. When you excel at your present undertaken, you make yourself attraction to other opportunities.

Opportunities themselves as:

People- treat everyone you meet with dignity and respect.
Places- pick up an idea, body of knowledge or mentality.
Problems- you discover your talents and capacity to solve problems
Powerful opposition- you know how valuable your goals are.
Preparation- it increases your capacity to contribute
Pain- it helps you help others who will face similar challenges
Period or time- that you are alive now is an opportunity to act.

Dig your well before you are thirsty. Develop yourself to the extent that people will count meeting you an opportunity. Go and succeed.

Want to relocate to Naija

U, anyone who wnts to relocate to Naija?I think u have to read this funny piece.
First , the down side of Nigeria . Its economy has predominant characteristics of a third world's. It is No. 35th on Transparency International' s rating on the list of the world's most corrupt nations. It used to be No. 1. Thanks to the EFCC and ICPC. NITEL has now completely collapsed. Where NITEL failed, mediocre local independent telephone operators dominated by Indians are carting billions to the banks and their banks in India . NEPA is tottering.
The road networks are in a very, very dilapidated condition. The transportation system in Nigeria is in a big mess. Travel by road in Nigeria has seized to be a thing of joy. By air is expensive and froth with danger of air crash due to the preponderance of molue aircraft in the air. Still, it is expensive. A forty-five-minute flight to Abuja from Lagos costs between twelve and fifteen thousand Naira, ($90-$130) depending on the airline. Crime is climbing because of joblessness, particularly among young school leavers. Politically motivated pen robbery is still with us. Economically induced robberies are on the rise too. Banks are now robbed in broad day light. You cannot open your favorite daily any morning without reading about a robbery incident here and there. Because it is not an election season, assassinations are on the wane - it looks like.
In spite of all, this is the best time to start thinking of relocating to Nigeria . Nigeria is changing. This is very fast. You begin to notice this at the airports - your first points of entry. The air cooling systems now work most of the time. The conveyor belts work too, most of the times that I have seen. Power systems at the airports fail intermittently but not as they used to do.
The people you meet either at departure lounges or on arrival halls are beginning to imbibe the culture of courtesy. Trolleys, though for hire are now available for the jaded traveler to cart away his luggage. Even the toilets are manned by professionals who say hi to you before use and after. (Some times they hide the tissue papers and make you pay for service.) Inside the airports, touting has been kept at bay. There are banks with ATM machines competing for the business of the Nigerian traveler, at most Nigerian airports now. Modern communications gadgets are on display at every nook and cranny displaying wares, arrival and departure times.
Before you relocate, make sure you have the wherewithal to get back to where you are relocating from - just in case. The reasons are too many. But the first you would notice is how far high on the economic ladder your mates have climbed. And as you know, economic progress has a twin brother climbing the same ladder - social mobility. Your contemporaries have moved and they did so slowly but sure-footedly while you were gone. Your mates dine at the most expensive restaurants and drive the latest model cars - not on credit.
Your mates have bought up properties in the choicest areas of the land. Your mates are to be found in, Wuse II, Asokoro and Maitama areas of Abuja . Your mates have occupied the choicest areas of Lagos , particularly the picturesque sites of Lekki , Victoria Garden City - fancifully called the VGC. Of course, your mates now use their Ikoyi and VI previous homes as offices. It is no more fanciful to say I live in Ikoyi or VI. There are new places of abode in the land - from Kaduna to Port Harcourt and from Enugu to Maiduguri , and your mates have taken them up while you were gone.
If you left over ten to twenty years ago and you are planning to be back, know that you have become unemployable. You have to be self-employed for a long while. Be sure you have enough resources to keep you going through the period it would take you to re-acquaint yourself with your "former" home. Things have really changed - changed for good for those who did not jet out and somehow changed for bad for those of us who took the next plane and left the country.
In Nigeria , your mates in the public and private sectors of the economy, particularly the banking and oil industry, have become highly placed. Most earn the equivalent of between 200,000 and 300,000 dollars a year plus other incentives to wit. There was an advert recently placed in one of the papers for a job opening which warned those not earning twenty million Naira and above, per annum, in their present job not to apply. Most have built their own houses in Nigeria . Most have more than two cars in their drive way. Most live in homes that smack of opulence, with every modern gadget ranging from large sized Plasma TVs to Microwaves.
Most have genuinely saved enough to send their children to some of the best educational institutions over seas, including to the Ivy Leagues. Most are share holders in most of the emerging markets that have been liberalized during the eight boom years (and counting) which we that left, have missed. Most of them have savings in liquid cash that run into tens of millions. Most have invested in the now, very lucrative Nigeria stock market. You would marvel when you have a snippet of what amount of shares your mates now hold. You would shiver in self pity.
If your mates joined politics, they have occupied the choicest of political positions in the land and made new friends that will be hard to dislodge. If you happen to have showed off to them in your hey days of "returning" from America , be rest assured they have not forgotten. They call us mercenaries in politics. It is now their turn to show you, that you can't have it both ways. They have built a barricade and insulated themselves from out side interests - you the returnee being an outside interest that must be dreaded. If you have real or passing interest in politics, you must show it with extreme caution. They would like to invite you to political meetings and discussion only to put you to size.
While not accepting everything they say, when making your presentations, or contributions avoid using phonetics. Avoid such phrases as "if it were in America or Europe ." They do not like to hear that. One of them surely will remind you "this is Nigeria " to the embarrassing applause of others, there present. They see Nigeria now as a trophy. They labored for Nigeria while you were gone. They suffered the June 12 crises together while you were gone. They suffered the Abacha era while you were gone. While you were gone, you probably had returned on one or two occasions only to scurry out soon after complaining of incessant heat, erratic power supply and mosquito bites. At the airport, you must have been caught criticizing everything in sight. They have not forgotten your new borrowed accent and the phonetics that do not rhyme.
That you need a shelter to live in Nigeria if you planned relocating to Nigeria is an understatement. There are many ways to do this. It's either that you have managed to build something for yourself in the city you would want to relocate or you could find an affordable apartment. With the kind of money we make overseas from genuine everyday livelihood, it is almost next to impossibility that you could build yourself an abode commensurate to what you are used to. If you find yourself in this position, don't worry, if you endured the pains and worked hard and kept a low profile in order not antagonize your former friends, within five years your will build your self, your dream home.
You need to feed well. This too is an understatement. Avoid going to the supermarkets to get your food - raw, processed or cooked. Buy from the local sellers at the nearest mammy market. Go to the supermarkets and shops to buy the essentials. At the malls, you will find that while you spend a miserable amount to buy your essential needs, Nigerians who are not been tos, buy up anything in site both the ones they need and those they do not need.
This people have so much money. How they make it, you will find out if you endured. Closely related to this is your phone habit. It is very expensive to use the telephones in Nigeria . As you know, telephone calls in the western world are taken for granted. Here, while it's beginning to happen as if it is for granted, it is very, very expensive. To Nigerians who are not used to such freedom of expression, they are spending millions everyday to make phone calls -to satisfy their newly found phone freedom. If you are not mindful, telephone bills may cut into your feeding pattern. If this happens, before long, you will become an object of gossip. You will lose your complexion and weight and they will notice.
You need clothing to cover the body you have labored to nurture while you lived abroad. This also, is an understatement. Nigerians pay too much attention to dressing. Your dress mode can shut the door at you or open the door for you. Avoid casual dressing, particularly when you are going to meet with the Nigerian big man. He knows the stuff you're wearing and could place you based on that. Be simple but neat if need be occasionally be flamboyant. Express yourself. Speak good English, where there is a need, do not use slang such as I wana or I gonna….
Do not lend money. Give out only that which you could afford to lose. Beware of relatives and the extended family system. If you manage to set up a small business, never employ those closely related to you. They will ruin you.
You would need to dry clean. Dry cleaning here is too expensive. You pay as much 300 naira (about $2) to dry clean an inner vest. Think then of what it would cost to do a bunch of laundry. Think seriously of having a washer and a drier installed - wherever you may decide to live.
You must have at least two good cars. That car of yours, which you price so much, is not fashionable in Nigeria . Here some people drive the next year's model before they become common in Europe or the Americas . How they make such money to pay upfront is still the mystery I am struggling to unravel. The roads are so bad and the drivers so ill-trained that if you drove yourself, and not being used to their adversarial/ confrontational pattern of driving, your car and you would, in a very short while be a sorry sight. They hit you and beg you. They hit you because you are conscious of driving rules and apply it. They, who do not apply simple driving rules, rule the highway in Nigeria . In a society not used to insurance, and where vehicular laws are not implemented, begging has replaced insurance coverage. Even passer bys would chip in to ask the offending reckless driver to beg you and get on with his life. If they beg you, you must accept. That's your only recourse.
To this end, you must have a good mechanic as a friend. He will introduce to you, a good panel beater (your used car will always need to be panel beaten back to form after constantly being bashed by ill-trained Nigerian road users. Most Nigeria drivers, I hear, buy their drivers license) who will in turn introduce you to a vulcanizer and an auto electrician, here, fancifully called a rewire. You need a vulcanizer because the roads are bad. Flat tires occur very often here than usual. Of all the auto-related experts you will work with, the rewire should be the one you must dread. He is not well trained in the operation of modern day computer induced auto cars. His method of rewiring has set many late model computerized cars ablaze.
Make a difference.. .Stand out of the crowd and touch a life...u are a miracle to someone today cos God has made you one and given you the capacity to blossom in someones life...God bless you

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