Building structures that hold the future

In this short video, I share my thoughts on the importance of building structures today that will hold and sustain your future.

How to keep track of rapid changes in your business.

Business Series 2: Ideas Rule

In the last article we established that wealth is made. Our minds are trained to see
wealth as the amount of money in our account or the amount of cash we have in our
pockets but real wealth is beyond this. Do not get me wrong; the end result of what
I am teaching is that you should have money available for you but when starting out,
keeping your mind fixated on actual cash will shut down your ability to be creative
about creating wealth.

Wealth creation does not depend on the resources you have outside you but what
you have in your mind. The actual resource used to create wealth is the invisible
component called ideas. Your ideas, as intangible as they may seem, are the
powerful ingredients you need to create the wealth you desire to create. Your
business idea may seem as though it is just an idea but that lone idea when developed
can create a business that not only provides for you and your family but many other
people who will work inside it and earn an honorable living.

This idea stage is one of the most difficult stages of developing a thriving business.
But if you stay on it it will eventually pay you bountifully. It always does. So the
question is if you can pay the price of developing your idea from just another idea
into a concrete substance from which a profitable business will sprout from.

Ideas are powerful. They are so powerful that even when you work with someone
you cannot rise until you begin thinking as if you own the business or organization.
The moment you change the way you see yourself it affects the way you think. If
you successfully change the way you think from a sorry employee to the owner of
the business, it changes the way you think. As the business owner you won’t come
to work late or abandon a sale halfway or talk rudely to customers, etc. now think
of it, if you have an employee who is willing to pay the price an owner pays to see
to the success of your business, will you hold him or her from progressing in your
business? If you are in your right senses you won’t. You will enable the rise of your
employee because diligent people deserve to dine with dignitaries.

In it's simplest form, being in business means getting paid for solving human
problems. The weight of problems you solve determine the promotions you enjoy.
If you solve small problems you enjoy small pay and if you solve big problems you
enjoy big pay. Think of this for a while: a cardiologist and a general practitioner are
both medical doctors but while the medical doctor earns a minimum wage, the
cardiologist enjoys plush benefits. The difference is that one handles problems like
malaria and typhoid fevers while the other almost always handles life or death case.
The weight of problems you solve determine the promotions you enjoy.

Business Series 1: Wealth is Made

The words you are about to read are important – follow them carefully. These words are important because they are predictive of the financial direction of Nigeria (and probably your) over the next decade. Hence, these aren’t just words but seeds that I seek to plant in your life (through your assimilation and action) that have the potential to sprout and blossom into a mighty tree with hundreds of resultant fruits on it.

Entrepreneurship is the way for our financial increase and path out of unemployment. Some people are quick to protest that they are “not cut out for business.” This is an error in perspectives towards. Fact is that nobody is “cut out” for anything nor do you need to be cut out for business to excel therein. We need to understand that entrepreneurship is not the actions taken by a business person but a way of thinking. It is a mindset; an attitude of the mind. This attitude understands that since business exists solely to solve human problems then we are all in business irrespective of what we do to earn a living.

In addition, wealth is made. Wealth is the child of resourceful minds that solve problems other human beings are faced with. Wealth does not jump down from the skies to the lucky and neither is it imparted on any person. Wealthy nations for example are not wealthy because a “god of wealth” favors them. No, they are wealthy because their citizens took the initiative to create it. This means that you can create wealth and I can create wealth.

As a nation, we will begin to experience national wealth when we learn and apply principles of entrepreneurship. These are the principles of wealth creation. We cannot prosper by depending on wealthy nations for aid. No beggar creates wealth. It has not happened in the past and will not happen in the future. Aids reinforce our belief that we are poor and if we believe we are poor then we are poor.

Entrepreneurship is the key to ensuring we have jobs for the future. It is the way for individuals to create wealth. It is the way forward for our families to build sustainable income. Hop on the entrepreneurship ride as we take the journey towards creating the wealth we desire.

Let go of the steam - Forgive!

Resentment is like a glass of poison that a man drinks; then he sits down and waits for his enemy to die.

“To err is human but to forgive divine” and you probably believe it is true just like I do. It can either be taken to mean it is normal for a man to err but to forgive means operating in the divine or only the divine can forgive. I may not know what it exactly means but I do know that children have it and we need it.

Some days back, on a sunny afternoon, as I walked down the road that leads to my house, I came by two boys, roughly the age of seven. Both had locally made toys in the form of cars which they pulled with a string behind them. One boy’s toy car lost a wheel and he struggled to fix it. The other in a bid to keep their fun rolling decided to give a helping hand. The first refused and pushed him away. “Ah, what a naughty boy”, I thought, “He deserves no help!” The second boy felt the same (or so I thought) and began to walk away. The boy with the broken toy tried futilely to fix the wheel. It did not take long for him to realize that he needed help. He apologized immediately and asked for help – the same help he had earlier rejected. “No way!” the judge in my head gave verdict, “here is the chance for full pay back.” But to my shame, the first boy who was by now quite a distance away, turned and helped repair the broken wheel of his friend.

I really could not believe it. With kids it seems there will always be a “happily ever after” end to a story. How was it so easy for this kid to forgive and forget? As much as my experience has shown me, it is a difficult thing to forgive. Forgetting is a completely different ballgame. That seven-year-old taught me otherwise.

Forgiveness is a beautiful virtue that the world no longer teaches. Rarely will you hear a public speaker say things like forgive your neighbor. It is one of the virtues that tag people as “weak”. And who wants to be weak? We don’t want to forgive when wronged and funny enough no one is even asking for forgiveness. No one cares if you forgive or not. It is a wild world we live in, a world of vendettas (bloody or not). Consider the words of George Herbert, “He who cannot forgive breaks the bridge over which he himself must pass.” If peradventure you want to exercise this virtue here are some tips:

·        Make room for people to fail. Human beings will always be human beings and part of being a human is that we will never be perfect. Since we will wrong each other, it is important that we learn to give each other that room to fail. After all, we are humans!

·        Let go of your pride. Some times we don't forgive because we feel to proud to be on the losing side of an argument or a business deal or even of a simple decision. This winner-loser mindset robs us of our enjoyment of life and increases our pride quotient. Let go of some pride. You, yes YOU can lose at somethings. If you'll keep this in mind you'll suddenly realize that there wasn't any reason to fear losing in the first place.

·        Don’t deny the hurt. Sometimes we simply deny that we have been hurt by someone else and that is the reason we remain hurt. You must learn to accept the fact that you have been hurt if you will forgive. Think about it, what is there to forgive if you say you weren't hurt? Accept and admit being hurt if you really want to forgive the person that hurt you.

·        Learn to forgive yourself also. Sometimes the person that needs forgiveness from me is ME. We exhibit unforgiveness towards ourselves even as much as we exhibit it towards others. You really want to learn to forgive? begin with yourself. Forgive yourself for doing things you promised you would never do again. 

t      The fact is that every single one of us can forgive if we follow the steps outlined above. 

How to Get Out Of Debt

I received a question that said: Hello Yusuf, I work with the state government and my salary is 30,000 monthly. The problem is that I am always in debt. At the moment I owe over 200,000. I have been embarrassed several times and I usually simply borrow from one person to pay the other. Please help me. - John B.

My answer was: 

Debt is a very difficult situation to find yourself in. I have battled with debt and paying off many times and so I connect with what you are passing through. Many times I felt like a slave to the people I owed because even when I earn something little I remember that I was owing someone. In my situation I followed some simple steps that I hope will help you also just as they helped me to get out of debt. By the way, I use the acronym GOOD to help me remember. It simply means; Get Out Of Debt. G for get, O for Out, another O for Of, and D for debt. So whenever you forget remember to do the GOOD thing and get out of debt!

The steps are simple. 

1. I made a firm commitment to get out of debt. I didn’t just want to be debt free or even say I will be debt free but I made a commitment to it. A commitment is greater than mere desire to be debt free. It was a desperate craving for me. Being debt free was like a river of flowing water in the middle of a desert for me. So, make a commitment and write it down as a goal. Remember that a goal must be realistic. This means that you must be able to believe you can achieve it. For example, don’t say you will pay off your debt in one month. In your case that will not be realistic because as you said you earn 30,000. Also, ensure your goal has a timeframe. State clearly when you will be debt free. If you say you will be debt free one day you may never be debt free. But when you set a realistic timeframe then you will stand higher chances of attaining your goal.

2. Spend less than you want to spend. I had to take the difficult step of spending less than I desired to spend. Our tendency is usually to spend more than we can or everything we can. Both of these is a very bad thing to do if you will be debt free. When I have one thousand Naira with me I make sure I never spend it all. When you begin this it will be difficult but after some time you will adjust.

3. don’t buy brand new things. This will sound funny to some people but I often resort to this when I need to pay off debts. I don’t buy what I cannot afford even if I have the money to do it. technically, when I have money but am in debt I actually don’t have the money because it belongs to someone else. So instead of buying a phone for 30,000 I will buy the fairly used for 15,000. This way I save 15,000. Rather than buy a shirt for 5,000 I will buy a fairly used one for 2,000. All this is to buy me time until I pay off my debt.

4. buy things off season. What I mean by this is that you should not buy things when they are HOT in sale. Buy them when no other person wants to buy them. Delay buying an air conditioner or fan until the harmattan season. For example, a small room warmer, which normally costs 2,500 during the hot season, costs 9.000 during harmattan. So, delay until it is off the season it is desperately needed then take some money and buy it cheap.

5. don’t buy under pressure. Whenever something suddenly comes on you and requires that you pay immediately, practice stepping out of the environment and ask for some time. Simply say you want to think or that you don’t have the money with you at the moment to pay. This technique will save you thousands of naira if you use it. most spending decisions we make under pressure are the wrong decisions. Some time ago some health officers came to my work place and made a tremendous big deal over Hepatitis B and C and how it can be contracted by sharing clippers. They concluded by presenting us with clippers for sale at 4,000. Although they were right with their information, they took advantage of the duress they placed us in. under the pressure of not wanting to contract Hepatitis and eventually die I coughed out 4,000 from money that didn’t belong to me and bought the clipper. When I got home I realized that the market value of the clipper was actually 1,900. When my wife asked how much I bought it I told her we it was given to us for free. I felt duped but only had myself to blame because I knew that I shouldn’t have bought under pressure.

6. call your debtors and explain. This is one step many people fail in. the truth is that the pressure you are under because of your debts will be greatly reduced when you know your lenders aren’t angry with you. What most people do when they are in debt is stay as far away as possible from their lenders but when you keep in touch you are helping yourself. On the one hand your lender will know you have not forgotten and are willing to pay. On the other hand you buy yourself the much needed time to settle and pay gradually.

7. create a spending plan. Ok, so the “b” word has to fit in at some point. In truth, a budget is just a spending plan. It will help you stay on the straight and narrow with your current debt payments, or your new accelerated payments. A spending plan is something you lay out to make sure that you are spending less than you earn.

Some people say that they don’t like budgets, but have these people ever tried one? Better yet, if you've lived all this time without a budget, how do you know you won't like having one? After trying a realistic budget on for size, most people agree that the alternative—being in debt—is much worse.

The sooner you start dealing with your debt, the sooner you'll have it paid off. The next few years will pass whether you pay it off or not, so start by trying at least one or two of these strategies. You've really got nothing to lose!

If you need help getting started with a plan, or if you're not sure if your budget is realistic, contact me for a confidential appointment. My appointments are either over the phone or preferably through emails. I will review your whole situation with you and then suggest options to help you reach your goals. The earlier you contact me, the more options you'll have. 

First Step to Learning from YOUR Failings

The first step towards learning from a failing is to acknowledge it and take responsibility for it. This sounds like the most logical thing to do when you have failed, simply acknowledge and take responsibility, but the reverse in the case in society. Have you met a student who passed an examination with flying colours? He typically will say of his result when he is asked that, “I scored 5 As and 3 Bs!” more often than not he will speak with a zest that tells you he is proud of his accomplishment. In the same vein ask a student who performed woefully in the same examination and you will hear something like, “They gave me 3 Ds and 4 Fs.” I want you to note the choice and usage of words here. The student who did well takes responsibility for his performance but the other who failed deflects responsibility and attaches it to the examination body. They failed him! This is a simplistic example but goes to buttress the point.

What is your attitude towards your failings? Do you quickly acknowledge that you have failed and take responsibility for it or do you deflect it to just about anybody who you can deflect it to? If you search for such escape routes you will find many – your spouse, children, religion, school, economy, environment, the weather, or even God. The problem with taking these escape routes is that they ensure you do not leave your condition. You will continue to remain in the rot because if it isn’t your fault that you failed then you will wait for the person or circumstance whose fault it is to correct itself or the condition for you.

If on the other hand you are set on a progressive course in life, you will acknowledge that YOU failed and take full responsibility for YOUR failing. Do not underestimate the importance of taking responsibility when it comes to your failings. As in all cases of taking responsibility, you suddenly feel empowered to succeed when next you do the same venture. Taking responsibility gives you the following advantages:

·        Shows you and people around you that you and you alone is in control of your life.

·        Impresses upon people that you are a responsible person.

·        Increases public opinion of you.

·        Enhances your personal sense of self worth.

·        Reduces fear of failing in the same and other ventures.

·        Makes you confident of the fact that you aren’t a passive failure

·        Increases your confidence of trying the same thing again and even trying other things.

·        Increases your chances of success in life.

Never be afraid of taking responsibility for your failings. Imagine losing these benefits simply because you aren’t able to acknowledge a failing and accept responsibility for it. 

Learning from Your Failings (Part 2)

The second and final step towards learning from your failings is the art of scrutinizing the reasons for failing deeply. I call it an art because I really consider it to be such. To explain my statement I’ll like to teach you about a method of questioning invented by the Japanese. It is called the “Five Whys Method.” It is a question-asking technique used to explore the cause and effect relationships underlying a particular problem. The primary goal of the technique is to determine the root cause of a defect or problem. It is important to remember that the answer to each question then forms the basis of the next question. Let me give you an example.

Assuming you have identified a nagging problem that although you perform satisfactorily in your examinations, you don't score higher than a C. 

You then ask yourself:

Why don't I score better grades than Cs?” This is the first why. It may have an answer that goes thus: Because my tests and assignment scores are always low.

Then you proceed to the second why:

Why are my test and assignment scores always low?”

To this question your answer may be:

Because I don't take my academics seriously until a few weeks to the examinations.

And then the third why:

Why don't I take my academics seriously until a few weeks to the examinations?”

Because I perpetually resume late to school.

Fourth why:

Why do I perpetually resume late?

Because I depend on my poor mother for pocket money.

Why do I depend on my mother for pocket money?

Because, unlike other folks my age, I don't work during the holidays.

Now, note that the Fifth why is the root cause. At this point you stop and earmark a counter-measure. A counter-measure for this example may be: “I need to ensure that I take up a part-time job during the next holiday so I can earn and save some pocket money for school.”

If you follow this simple technique it will most certainly help you probe your way to the root cause of any problem.

I hope I succeeded in showing you ways to learn from every failing. Remember, failing is a natural happening in the path of success. A failure is a person who sits back and accepts a failing as his final destination!

Fear of Failing

Many of us are afraid of failing, at least some of the time. But atychiphobia, which is fear of failure, is when we allow that fear to stop us doing the things that can move us forward to achieve our goals.

Fear of failure can be linked to many causes. For instance, I remember running away from a debate competition which I was one of the favorites to clinch in primary school because my father was not supportive of the idea. At that time – for some reason I couldn’t explain – he felt I didn’t have what it takes to deliver in a competitive debate. Because of his reaction, I developed a grave fear of failure attached to any opportunity to speak in front of a crowd. I carried those negative feelings into adulthood but was lucky enough to overcome them.

Experiencing a traumatic event at some point in your life can also be a cause. For example, say that several years ago you gave an important presentation in front of a large group, and you did very poorly. The experience might have been so terrible that you became afraid of failing in other things. And you carry that fear even now, years later.

Some signs that you are afraid to fail in your endeavors and in life include:

·        A reluctance to leave your comfort zone and try new things. (explain briefly)

·     Self-sabotage – for example, procrastination, excessive anxiety, or a failure to follow through with goals.

·    Low self-esteem – commonly using negative statements such as "I'll never be good enough to make the examination," or "I'm not smart enough to get on that team," are proves that you have low self esteem.

·    Perfectionism – A willingness to try only those things that you know you'll finish perfectly and successfully. Also it shows in an attitude that isn’t willing to accept any error or imperfection in your activities.

It's almost impossible to go through life without experiencing some kind of failure. People who dare to live failure-free lives live so cautiously that they amount to nothing. In effect, they're not really living at all.

The wonderful thing about failure is that it's entirely up to us to decide how to look at it.

We can choose to see failure as "the end of the world," or as proof of just how inadequate we are. Or, we can look at failure as the incredible learning experience that it often is. Every time we fail at something, we can choose to look for the lesson we're meant to learn. These lessons are very important; they're how we grow, and how we keep from making that same mistake again. Failures stop us only if we let them.

Learning from Failings

There are different angles we can look at failings from. We can consider them to be fatal blows to our progress and give up or we can look at them as opportunities to learn something new. These are differing perspectives and they have differing consequences. It is of this I will like to speak to you about today – how to learn from failings.

Note that the constant in the equation of success is failing. To fear failings therefore does not help overcome it. The person who has truly overcome failings is the person who learns from every opportunity he or she has to fail. This means what should have had the potential of discouraging and in fact destroying future possibilities turns out to be the teacher. When Thomas Edison tried several times to make the electric bulb and didn’t succeed he reportedly said, “I didn’t fail. I learnt 10000 different ways the electric bulb cannot be created.” That’s the paradigm of a person who understands that failings are effective teachers.

The flip side of this is that people find it difficult to perceive how failings can be our teachers. I mean, how can something I detest be what will teach me how to do the thing I want to do effectively? It is always important to keep in mind the fact that failings are inevitable. Show me a person who never fails and I will show you a person who never tries to achieve anything. In fact, this same person will not amount to anything worthwhile. To establish this point I often ask folks how they learned to ride bicycles. Without an exception they all state that they fell several times in the process of learning. In fact some say that they didn’t know exactly when they perfected the skill of riding a bicycle. This is so because the transition between imperfection and perfection, between failings and mastering, is seamless. You move from one world to the other without knowing when you cross the border.

Overcoming the Fear of Failing

It's easy to find successful people who have experienced failure. For example:

·      Michael Jordan is widely considered to be one of the greatest basketball players of all time. And yet, he was cut from his high school basketball team because his coach didn't think he had enough skill.

·     Warren Buffet, one of the world's richest and most successful businessmen, was rejected by Harvard University.

·             Richard Branson, owner of the Virgin empire, is a high school dropout.

Most of us will stumble and fall in life. Doors will get slammed in our faces, and we might make some bad decisions. But imagine if Michael Jordan had given up on his dream to play basketball when he was cut from that team. Imagine if Richard Branson had listened to the people who told him he'd never do anything worthwhile without a high school diploma.

Think of the opportunities you'll miss if you let your failures stop you.

Failure can also teach us things about ourselves that we would never have learned otherwise. For instance, failure can help you discover how strong a person you are. Failing at something can help you discover your truest friends, or help you find unexpected motivation to succeed.

Often, valuable insights come only after a failure. Accepting and learning from those insights is key to succeeding in life.

Although there is always a chance that we will fail in some life ventures, there are a few ways to reduce the fear of failing:

·      Analyze all potential outcomes – Many people experience fear of failure because they fear the unknown. Remove that fear by considering all of the potential outcomes of your decision.

·     Learn to think more positively – Positive thinking is an incredibly powerful way to build self-confidence and neutralize self-sabotage.

·    Look at the worse-case scenario – In some cases, the worst case scenario may be genuinely disastrous, and it may be perfectly rational to fear failure. In other cases, however, this worst case may actually not be that bad, and recognizing this can help face the fear.

·      Have a contingency plan  – If you're afraid of failing at something, having a "Plan B" in place can help you feel more confident about moving forward.

If you are afraid of failure, you might be uncomfortable setting goals. But goals help us define where we want to go in life. Without goals, we have no sure destination.

Start by setting a few small goals. These should be goals that are slightly, but not overwhelmingly, challenging. Think of these goals as "early wins" that are designed to help boost your confidence.

For example, if you've been too afraid to talk to the new department head (who has the power to give you the promotion you want), then make that your first goal. Plan to stop by her office during the next week to introduce yourself.

Or, imagine that you've dreamed of returning to school to get your MBA, but you're convinced that you're not smart enough to be accepted into business school. Set a goal to buy a form fill and submit.

Try to make your goals tiny steps on the route to much bigger goals. Don't focus on the end picture: getting the promotion, or graduating with an MBA. Just focus on the next step: introducing yourself to the department head, and purchasing the form. That's it.

Taking one small step at a time will help build your confidence, keep you moving forward, and prevent you from getting overwhelmed with visions of your final goal.

Failings and Failures

So to redefine failure, it isn’t just about how little money you have stored up or even how little you earn. It isn’t how “small” your office is or how insignificant you think you are. Failure is when you live life aimlessly on the wrong path. Failure is also when you pursue a life goal either because someone else feels you should or when that is the direction society is headed. The failure is the teacher who is teaching only to earn a salary. The failure is the nurse who does it simply because she didn’t have any other thing to do. Also – and get ready for this one – the failure is the Local Government Chairman, State Governor or even President who is occupying that hallowed office only because he had the money to buy it or because “people said he should contest.”

Failing is an occurrence, a happening, an instance. Failing is external. It is a thing that happens to people when they get out of their comfort zones and try something different. Failing is a natural episode in the process which leads to expertise. A failure, on the other hand, is a person, a way of life, a life pattern. Being a failure is internal. It isn’t something that happens to a person but the person himself. A failure is a person who depressingly sits back in his pool of sorrow and feels he can never be anything better than he is at the moment. A failure is someone who has truncated the failing process by making it his destination.

So the question which naturally arises is whether you fail or are a failure. It was the Late Maya Angelou that said, “You may encounter many defeats, but you must not be defeated. In fact, it may be necessary to encounter the defeats, so you can know who you are, what you can rise from, how you can still come out of it.” Believe me when I say to you that I know firsthand the pain and difficulty that comes from failing. Interestingly though, I will not sacrifice the fleeting peace of not trying to take away the excitement of trying something. I understand that it is only those who dare to fail that can ever achieve anything worthwhile.

Finally I’ll like you to consider the golden words of Winston S. Churchill: “Success is stumbling from failure to failure with no loss of enthusiasm.”

A Discourse on Failings

I will like to begin with a question which will sound like a rhetoric one but of which in all intents and purposes I desire that it triggers a chain reaction of thoughts in your heart. Here it is: have you ever failed in your life? It is safe for the goal of this discuss for me to assume that the answer to this question is yes. I say this because I have personally had several bouts with failings and although with every bout I feel like a loner on a deserted island, I have witnessed the desire many have to break free from the bondage of failure and realized that I am not alone after all!

Funny as it may seem, not too long ago – precisely during my university years – I considered some people impregnable by the sharp claws of failings. I remember a colleague we tagged “Prof.” He was a brilliant chap and deservedly excelled with a First Class degree in Chemical Engineering. On one occasion he was asked if he had ever failed academically and he surprised most of us by stating emphatically that he has. He was asked to elaborate and he explained that he once set a goal to score an A grade in a course but got a C. That didn’t in any way sound like a failing to students like me who were oscillating between Cs and Ds.

Sometime later I understood what Prof meant when I heard the legendary Earl Nightingale define success as “The progressive realization of a worthy ideal.” This definition was revolutionary to my psyche because it meant two things:

·    The first is that success is a journey. This means you don’t become successful when you attain something or even a goal but you become a success the moment you begin a journey towards a predetermined end.

·       Second to that is success is predetermined. This means that the success isn’t just the person who attains a big office or becomes rich but the person who is doing intentionally what he or she decided to do. A success is hence the school teacher who is a school teacher because that is what he wants to be and do. The success is the nurse who chose that profession herself and is doing a great job at it. This also applies to every other field of human endeavor.