SPARK UP OR PACK UP! | 'Kayode Oyero

Hi my friend! How are you? Trust you’re doing great. Permit me to share with you some commonsense on relevance and being in vogue taking to mind that being up-to-date is the only bulletproof not to go out-of-date. So this is titled: Spark up or Pack up! Please enjoy your read!

“To keep glowing and going in life, there is the need to keep growing. Contemporary relevance and importance is tied to the wheels of continual branding efforts – ceaseless improvements.” – ‘Kayode Oyero

It was a Sunday evening. I sat down in my living room savouring an episode of a soap opera. It was a recorded transmission on a terrestrial television station. Cool and splendid was the natural gust of refreshing breeze that sipped in through the chinks of the cross-ventilated windows of my living room. Life without that composite mixture of elements called air would be nothing but a steel foundary, a blacksmith’s hearth, an oven, I am certain. No wonder its absence or insufficiency makes occupants of overcrowding locations go no longer at ease. Thank God for this panacea of suffocation! Life without it would have been hell I tell you!

The interruption of audio-visual commercials was tiresome, most especially those that flitted by right in the middle of tense, electrifying, suspense-filled and interesting scenes of the episode. In fact, almost thirty out of the sixty minutes allotted to the soap generously catered for sundry advertisements, campaigns, promotions and public notices, of course flagged by sponsors of the programme.

“Dis programme sef. Na wa o! I don’t even know if it’s a disguised trade fair for displaying products and services!” my sister squawked in disgust, hissing immediately afterwards – her body language complementing her disinterest at the commercials.

But discerningly, even at her heightened hatred for the deluge of commercials that littered that episode of the soap, I can’t but be fascinated to the attention-getting and carefully cooked commercials, both for products and services. It was so riveting. From the switch to product repackage to bonanzas, refined product delivery, newly introduced installment payment scheme, after-purchase free services, redefined eye-pleasing graphics, adoption of fan-loving celebrities for endorsement of products and services and other thrilling exclusive concepts. With these and many innovations, products and services in the same utility category were just out to out-fame one another. Hence, my conclusion that a number of these companies and business owners are conscious of a nine letter word: relevance.

As man, the desire to venture into adventure is almost insatiable. Of course, we are wired by nature to long for and cuddle discoveries, innovations, inventions and improved ways of doing things. We like regeneration, perhaps as an escape from going on a perpetual routine. The special specie of creatures, especially those called men dread repetition. An idea, concept, lifestyle, property, phenomenon, genre of music or even a fashion outlook captivating today can within a twinkle of become old-fashioned and once-upon-a-time if no repackaging efforts is injected into it.

The principle is quite simple: no innovation, more deterioration. People are always on the lookout for a new outlook; a creative design and innovative approach to things so fresh from the crucible. I’ll explain what I mean.

For instance, view the present outlook of a house gorgeously painted thirty years ago. Visualize the current state of a frock that was the kill of the town ten years ago. Peep through your mind’s eye and objectively tell which you now prefer between the motoring technologies of then and now – the Mercedes Benz, Volvo, BMW et al of the 1980’s or the Sport Utility Vans (SUVs), Hi-tech Muranos or Limousines that characterize the new millennium. Hmmn! Your preference no doubt is instructive that no individual wants to be identified with obsoleteness.

Dear friend, branding should not be solely restricted to material and inanimate vocations and abstract phenomenon like the advertisement of goods and services; its tentacles should leverage beyond that territory into the sociological patterns, lifestyle and general anthropological affairs of man.

Though as humans we may have no capacity whatsoever – whether magical or technological to reborn a younger version of ourselves like the mythical phoenix, but of course, we have the wherewithal to re-create, re-invent and re-brand ourselves. The largest room in life still remains the room of improvement, growth and development. The same you can only be refurbished by the same you. It’s all about energy!

Many a wife’s marital woes at the moment is as a result of laxity and complacency. No new delicacy or cuisine for one, two, three years. No new mating style. No new dress sense. No new positively picked up habits. A hairdo lasting for six months with repelling and tousled undergrowths before change. No invention of scintillating love names. Haba! All these and you expect him to keep ‘dying’ for you?! I’m sorry. I am afraid your nonchalance will make him keep ‘waking’ and consequently endear him to the nifty-handed mama put’s daughter who’s got the cookery ability to whet and wet his tongue with different spicy delicacies, day in day out. Mama put’s daughter applied no voodoo or philter on him; she only pulled at her most effective packaging string by bringing new cuisines to the table every now and then, icing her efforts with attractive and almost un-refusable body languages – that alone is enough to do the magic and get him inescapably hooked in her carefully spread bait. It may appear funny but it’s not a laughing matter I tell you.

Mind you, as it is in the feminine world so also it is in the masculine. Many a husband is archaic and far from being tender when it comes to love. Going on vacation with his woman for splendid experiences and pleasurable moments in new environments which affords greater and refreshed marital intimacy and bonding is no priority to him, hence making the matrimony a bland business as usual! So pathetic!

Dear friend that human cohabitation is not complex as some assume. Smooth untiring social co-existence devoid of boredom and full of corporate relevance at work and personal prestige, be it in marriage, courtship or relationship is possible and achievable if we constantly repackage ourselves; both intellectually and physically.

May I drop this on you:

Dynamism is the secret of relevance; Improvement is the oxygen that sustains it. Even the visually impaired appreciates a newly renovated property. Even the deaf relishes the sweet and tuneful sensation of a just released musical album. Even a widow can be mistaken for a sweet sixteen for branding sake. Even the rejected stone in business deliberations, having inhaled the oxygen of personal reinvention and cognitive re-equipment, can turn to be the BBB: Brain behind the Business, chucking out amazing and productive business strategies and ideas that eventually birth landslide successes, making his or her presence and views invaluable, indispensable and indisposable during business decisions.

My dear friend, for you to arrest contemporary relevance and distinction, there is the need for constant branding and re-branding as well as re-invention and innovation. Life becomes a gaunt bundle of boredom and monotony when things are done in a fixed pattern or behaviour, when nothing changes positively about us. There is nothing as disinteresting as a life at inertia. Indeed, when boredom sets in, relevance sets out and abandonment automatically holds sway.

You see, when something becomes a routine, its value becomes thin and before long, the world leaves it and move on to celebrate another thing. Indeed, people who don’t grow have no alternative than to groan.

Change is the only constant thing in life, so I have heard many people profess. But let’s face it. Anyone who refuses positive change, transformation and evolution faces the wrath of change. The world turns its back to anyone or anything that refuses change. Consequently, it suffers abandonment and neglect. Antiquity has no fan. Man generally fancy and cuddle new ways of doing things, new attitudes, new found fame and new electronics. We are lovers and connoisseurs of brand new things.

Getting started for constant personal rebranding to achieve steadfast relevance? Here are three wise decisions you must live in its consciousness.

Number One: Avoid complacency

Never rejoice long in the comfortability of a comfort zone. When you stop thinking, you start stinking. Remember: no innovation, more deterioration. Always strive for a better you. Read more. Acquire more useful information. Learn more skills. Attend more seminars, trainings and workshops. You can’t be loaded and not be needed.

Number Two: Flexibility

This is a civilization mentality. Go with the trend. Gone are the days of paper communication and documentation in the corporate environment; almost everything has gone digital. Acquire basic computing skills to thrive and survive this evolution if you have not. Also, brush up your diction. Polish your vocabulary; it is a golden opportunity to create a positive first impression. Remember the cliché: first impression lasts longer? Great! You are as brilliant as what you last wrote and your last utterance. Go with the flow. Those who don’t, lie low.

Number Three: Creativity

One of the easiest ways to miss it in life is imitation. Don’t be a conformer. Don’t be a prisoner of tradition. Tread paths yet to be trod. Go creative. Go exclusive. Embellish yourself. For instance, a couple tired of matrimony can spice up their marital relationship if they can just change their style of doing everything and go adventurous. Do something positively differently. A little change of style and approach will go a long way in making a positive turn-around difference to your life I bet you. Remember: someone initiated sachet water into the Nigerian economy. It was never in existence before. And today, it is the fastest resort of the common man whenever he wants to slake his thirst, thus, the emergence of many water packaging factories every here and there. Go initiative! Initiate something new. Don’t bother whether it would be accepted or not. Just do it. Risk-takers are fortune-reapers!

Dear friend, if you don’t move with the moving train you will be left behind. Life is a moving train. Inertia and stagnancy brings about irrelevance. Step up to the latest version of you. Being up-to-date is the only bulletproof not to go out-of-date. The gospel truth is: no innovation, more deterioration. It is either you spark up or you pack up. You may be as good as you are for the moment but may not be for the next moment if you rest on your oars. Please start sparkling! Be an unpredictable super-success!

Please connect with me on twitter @Imodoye_1 for interaction. Thanks for the read. God bless. Enjoy your day!

© ‘Káyọ̀dé Oyèró | 2014

All Rights Reserved.

THE FIGHT OR FLIGHT RESPONSE | 'Kayode Oyero

A

s members of the human race, our bodies offer us two choices whenever we are in danger or faced by complexity or adversity. These alternatives are either to run away or stand and fight tooth and nail. These reactions are almost impulsive and spontaneous in homo-sapiens. Psychologists call it the fight or flight response. But while those who absconds end up with the identity: failure, the courageous ones who put up a good fight emerge success having been crowned with victory. The operation of success and failure is quite simple: fight and you may win or leave and automatically lose!

Let’s get deep!

In my submission, disappointments take precedence before desired appointments. Disappointments share similarities with the attitude of most office secretaries in today’s corporate world. The analogy is this: for guests to be allowed into a boss’ office, such must receive favor and empathy of the secretary. You will agree with me that this type of empathy or compassion is either bought or divine in most cases.

However sarcastic the above picture doubtlessly seems, the fact is that this phenomenon is commonplace in today’s corporate world. The sorry tales of contractors being lied to by some secretaries about the absence of their boss suffices. “Ha! S/he just zoomed out to catch an appointment.” “S/he is inside but in the middle of a judgment-day meeting and it doesn’t appear s/he would be through anytime soon,” they often excuse, tongue flailing with tacit deception.

Ironically, though, the supposed boss may just be as ignorant of this denial as the folk being denied. In some cases, the secretary may just be acting on his or her prejudice (you can trust female secretaries for that, especially). And as an upshot, those who understand the business landscape are often swift and proactive about the situation. In nick of seconds, they oft-tame it, overcoming such indifference as greeted them by the secretary by subscribing to the popular phrase: doing the needful.

To this set of individuals who do the needful, creaming palms or palm-greasing is an act of motivation and not corruption. I wouldn’t say this is a justification for illegality.

“Those creatures called personal secretaries are better tamed if one cherishes his or her time,” a job applicant had once told me, matter-of-factly. “They are gods and indefatigable kings and queens once seated in their miniature palace. Not even the minutest oxygen has the permission to go in to their principal without their endorsement,” he had added.

The phenomenon is quite simple: if you do want an audience with oga at the top, you need the assent of his or her secretary or personal assistant. This, however is subject to the latter’s discretion in most cases. Indeed, no one access a willing boss if the personal secretary or assistant is unwilling. Let me explain this statement:though the boss may be willing to offer assistance to a visitor but should the secretary be unwilling or perceive such visitor (whether invited or not) as loathsome, then, it is ‘case closed’. End of discussion unless such guest is ready to do the needful or providence beam a smile on him or her.

What’s the point here? Let’s bring the grist to the mill!

Dear friend, you see, in life, obstacles, challenges, shortcomings, disappointments, difficulties, vicissitudes and adversities are just like some office secretaries - as portrayed above. Of course, they are hindrances, obstructions, frustrations and deterrents ready and willing to shake, dissuade and even discourage the lily-livered, the undetermined and the feeble-minded from attaining success. Challenges and its blood brothers are unflinching sentinels; gatekeepers of fulfillment and accomplishment. What do I mean by this? I’ll explain.

Just as it is inborn, instinctive and almost natural for humans to hold dear their lives, that of their loved ones and cherish their valuables and properties, hence, their subscription to all manner of protections: sturdy burglary proofs and security doors, barbed wire fences, remote controlled gates with intruder-detection alarm, bulletproof vehicles and other prevents that the Cyber Age has given to man. So also, success and victory, being a treasure island and an Eldorado of cozy comfort installs protective apparatus as restriction for potential invaders and burglars alike.

Dear friend, gold, silver, money, property and other trinkets of human materialism can be burgled (forget all the centurions of technology. There are living testimonies of hi-tech robbers who invaded the ‘most secured of the secured fortresses’). But enduring wealth and success cannot be robbed or impoverished. Abiku(born-to-die or shortcut) success however takes an exception. You want to know why? Shortcuts have inherent gun shots that cut life short.

Frankly speaking my friend, everything worthwhile (if truly you desire it) must be fought for, sweat for, and in fact, paid for; desire the prize? Pay the price! It’s a rule! And in case you don’t know, the golden rule states that he who has gold makes the rule. Fleeing from challenges and towing the line of least resistance brings nothing but mediocrity out of any one.

The fact that there is no monopoly of ambition in life makes success cost a fee; it’s not free. Persons who forge ahead even when chances go thinner emerge winners. Be dogged and radical at the pursuit of your lofty dreams. Sturdy strength lies not in physical mightiness, but in willingness to triumph. No one on planet earth, whether born or unborn attain victory without confrontation. Growth comes through pain. No fight, no defeat. No battle, no mantle. No attack, no defense! Remember the maxim: the best form of defense is attack? Yeah! The biblical story of David and Goliath is no fable after all.

Dear friend, I challenge you to challenge your challenges today. Rise-up! Don’t give-up! Don’t break-up from the pursuit of your dreams and aspirations. Put up a good fight. You are a combatant. Don’t be a coward on the battlefield of life. You are a victor not a victim, an overcomer not a failure if only you can try more. You have the tenacity to defeat adversity, I assure you. Ẹni bá maa jẹ oyin inú àpáta kò gbọdọ̀ wẹnu àáké – he who desires a gemstone must be ready to be an unrelenting stone-cutter; his persistence must be greater than the resistance of the rock – he must be stronger that the rock goes a wise saying of the Yorùbá of South-west Nigeria.

Thanks for the read dear friend. Kindly share your thoughts with me. My Twitter handle is @Imodoye_1. Enjoy your day.

…Kip da Optimism Alive!

© ‘Káyọ̀dé Oyèró, 2014

BALANCING GOALS AND ROLES WITHOUT HOLE | ‘Kayode Oyero

“…Life is an indivisible whole not fragmented parts. And any attempt to endanger marital role at the expense of career goals (and vice-versa) inevitably creates a hole of pain, emotional anguish, inner discomfort and general dissatisfaction. People who fail to strike inertia balance between their goals and roles pay costly balance later on. Success in an area of life is not a justification for failure or mediocrity in other areas…”

The more we grow, the more activity-based we become, the more the challenges of coping with living, the more fixed we become, the more our imperatives, our priorities, our yearnings and of course, our responsibilities!

Twenty-four hours a day become barely enough for us to sufficiently attend to all that we must touch - all that are important to us. Unfortunately, we are willing to contribute so many things, yet we lack the effective time management to distribute them evenly. Consequently, we hopelessly desire additional hours each day, thinking in our wildest imagination of such possibility rare as hen’s teeth when we know cocksure that the programmer of life and time will not shift its ground. We are quick to forget that the day is the smallest complete natural unit of time.

“The problem is time” we lamentably throw out as excuse for any who cares to listen to why we left some obligations unattended to or abandoned. We tell our spouse, “Honey, you just have to understand the nature of my job; it does not give room for me to take you out as such. I hope you understand?”, “Mum, marriage is not on my list now. Don’t you think I need to be a manager before that?” we ask rhetorically begging for an agreeable and soliticious up-down nod from them.

We starve our partner of conjugal rights such as intimacy, attention and emotional bonding. We deprive them of their inalienable right all because of career, ambition and official undertakings. Today, we are part of the entourage on a business tour. Tomorrow, we are heading a strategic marketing committee just inaugurated by the management of our company aimed at boosting sales and expanding niche. Next tomorrow, we are in the classroom, sitting attentively before a Don, taking one post-graduate lecture after the other. And in the evening after classes, we are at workers’ meeting in church or at the mosque, trying hard not to forsake the gathering of the brethren and on the day after, we wake up very early, dash to the bathroom for a brief shower and off we are to religious centers, to praise The Creator, to give him both dance and cash offerings in order to maintain spiritual standing with him.

But quite sadly, we prioritize our schedules and fail to schedule our priorities. We spend little or no time at home or outdoor in recreational atmosphere with our family. “They understand” we tell ourselves consolingly anytime our conscience snaps, for the greatest battle we fight are in the silent chambers of our own soul. We continue in this workaholic cycle trifling and neglecting our primary roles as father, mother, spouse and even our secondary role as son, daughter, brother and sister until nature knocks us down on compulsory bed rest.

Dear friend, there is nothing absolutely wrong with being diligent at work or aspiring the upper part of the corporate ladder, bagging higher certifications, sweating it out to realize our vision being the best manifestation of creative imagination and the primary motivation behind human action and being fervently involved in religious matters. But, sometimes, we may be saving minutes and wasting years once these commitments are not well-balanced with the family front, the emotionally part of life – the right to love and be loved. Thus, life becomes barely meaningful and enjoyable. Indeed, all is well that ends well. A chair of three legs but with one stunted offshoot definitely wobbles.

I can’t agree less with Stephen Covey, author of First Things First when he noted that “much of our pain in life comes from the sense that we’re succeeding in one role at the expense of another, possibly more important roles. We may be doing great as Chief Executive Officer of the company, but not doing well as parents or spouse. We may be succeeding in meeting the needs of our clients, but failing to meet our own need for personal development and spiritual growth.”

While roles represent the need for healthy family relationship and domestic, social and religious responsibilities cum areas of contribution, goals represent ambition and career building and a deep desire to create value and positively affect humanity, for this is the most valuable prosperity anyone can leave for posterity.

Incidentally, roles and goals form the major component of man’s life, hence their interconnectedness and indivisibility. Take for instance, just as the news of a promotion at work is shared with glee with family members and loved ones, so also does a fresh divorce (out of improper attention paid to marital responsibility) not only reduce the concentration and output level of a staffer, but can also be demoralizing and psychologically depressing. Notably, goals and roles are eternally trapped in an inseparable web and any attempt to wean one invariably jeopardizes the other unless when balanced.

Frankly speaking dear friend, life is an indivisible whole not fragmented parts. And any attempt to endanger marital role at the expense of career goals (and vice-versa) inevitably creates a hole of pain, emotional anguish, inner discomfort and general dissatisfaction. People who fail to strike inertia balance between their goals and roles pay costly balance later on. Success in an area of life is not a justification for failure in other crucial areas. True success is all-encompassing. It is all-round turn-around. It is one that brings about gratifying feeling of pleasant fulfillment in all areas of one’s life. A balanced life is one at equilibrium not one in the posture of a see-saw; where one end is blossoming flourishingly and the other end is at the disadvantaged base.

When an individual’s life is at seesaw, struggle, difficulty and unrewarding labour become the order of the day. Why? Because accomplishing one goal inadvertently impact others in a cruelly negative manner due to lack of balance. When the family is not suffering temporary but consequential abandonment, official duties or religious obligations pay the price. Truly, most of our frustration comes from unmet expectation!

Now, Dear friend, permit me to share with you Four Approaches to a Balanced Life

Number One: SYNCHRONIZATION

By synchronization, you multitasks goals and roles. You juxtapose: attend to your responsibilities and ambition same time. For instance, communicating with your spouse and kids during lunch break at work. 

“Hi! Was just thinking about you.”; “Hope you are enjoying classes.”; “Hope Juli isn’t giving you much of a stress” are short utterances that go a long way in bringing a family closer every day.

I particularly think the cliché: “Out of sight isn’t out of mind” has outlived its relevance. Out of sight must not just stay in the mind. It must be articulated in constant communication. Communication which is a display of care and concern tremendously helps grow affection. Everyone likes to be someone else’s priority. Remember, to communicate is to commune. What is cultivated develops and that left un-prune deteriorates. Pick up that phone now, run to the convenience of your organization and call them. Try it! Sweet distraction! Never neglect parental responsibility and your role as a father or as a mother.

Number two: HARMONIZATION

Harmonize compatible goals and roles. For instance, a man who is a father, husband and a clergy can marry his responsibility has a father and a husband together by spending wonderful moment in the car with his wife and kids on the way to church if his week has been whole of a hectic 4a.m to 11p.m.

Likewise, there is nothing wrong with a man who is a postgraduate student, employee, father, sport enthusiast and husband to take ‘Junior’ to class or the gym with him on Saturday if that will kindle the fire of father-to-son love and vice-versa. Try it. It’s fun! Papa and son in class! Papa and son working at keeping body fit at the gymnasium. Remember, a day still has twenty-four hours, therefore the need for prudent time management.

Number three: ensure INCLUSION

By inclusion, we create involvement and participation of roles and goals. We sensitize, prod and persuade our friends, business associates, academic pals, family members, spouse, religious affiliates and any and every other person in our circle of influence to embrace our goals, vision and ambition. Be open about your aim and target; do not leave them in the dark about what you intend to slingshot. That way, you all will be busy together working at achieving something worthwhile. Your wife or husband won’t complain of less attention. They understand and share your purpose.

Here’s an example: An individual with a contribution-driven purpose for charity and social welfare can persuasively recruit everyone whom he owes one responsibility or the other into strategic positions of his or her Non-governmental organization. There is a sense of bonding that comes from sharing common goal.

However, some goals and roles can be so selfish that they require exclusive SEPARATION

Essentially, time-sensitive roles and goals like corporate appointments and marital obligation in the area of exchange of marital vow and conjugation and few others may demand exclusive attention and focus in order for one not to wastes years all in a bid of trying to wisely utilize minutes. Too much haste often results in waste. However, Initiative is the key here.

May I drop this on you dear friend: The way we see the problem is the problem. When we change the way we see, what we see automatically changes. Perception is possession. It is possible to balance goals and roles without hole. All-round success is not a mirage; it is possible and achievable no matter how busy we are or how tight our schedule. So therefore, you have no excuse to remain a bachelor or a bachelorette all under the guise of career pursuit. Accomplishing one goal must not jeopardize others. Remember, everything can be taken away from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedom – to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s way, how we respond.

“Vibrant health, economic security, rich and satisfying relationships, ongoing personal and professional development, and a deep sense of purpose, contribution and personal congruence create quality of life” says Roger and Rebecca Merrill.

Dear friend, no man is a know-it-all. You can add to the four approaches. I’ll be glad to have your views. My Twitter handle is @Imodoye_1. A balanced life is possible. Enjoy your day!

…Kip da Optimism Alive!

Picture credit: Google

© ‘Kayode Oyero, 2014

All Rights Reserved.

ENSLAVE YOUR SAFE; INVEST IT

‘Kayode Oyero

Hi my friend! How are you? Trust you’re doing great. Permit me to share with you an opulence mentality called investment. It is the mindset that distinguishes perpetual salary-earners from income-earners - entrepreneurs. So, I’ve titled this one: Enslave Your Safe; Invest It!

“…money, be it in form of accumulated wage, salary, reward, profit or loan melts away like Shea butter under intense sunlight if not hid under the protective shade of investment…money in your safe is a slave…”

Lately while my eyes toil the pages of a book, I stumbled on an outstanding phrase. The author told me sternly that the true meaning of knowledge is “to ‘know’ is to have an ‘edge’”. Yeah! People who know are outstanding. His morphological dissection of the word is no doubt apt. Also is his sense of reasoning reasonable.

But recently while I browsed thought catalogue in the courtyard of reflection, I realized that as plausible as the author’s assertion is, it finds no correct or acceptable relevance in the world of finance.

Yes, the more we ‘know’, the likely our chances of having an ‘edge’ over associates, contemporaries and colleagues in job securements, official promotions and corporate appointments. But this is unlikely in the school of financial intelligence. Until you apply the knowledge and principles of acquiring and perpetuating wealth, you can’t have an ‘edge’ even with all you ‘know’ about multiplication and duplication of money. Wisdom locked up in the head pays no one. So dear friend, apply all you know to your advantage, today!

Now, let’s face it! It is no fallacy that a major yardstick that the society uses to measure the weight of an individual’s success is such person’s financial buoyancy or economic clout. In social interpretation and perception, the man who is successful or who has true knowledge is the man who has an ‘edge’ with not what necessarily he ‘knows’, but what he can ‘show’. Call it show-off or exhibitionism, the fact remains that wealth is the topmost criterion that convinces the society into admitting that an individual is accomplished.

The ugly tales of some Universities Dons who have medley of degrees yet reek in great degree of debts, ineptitude and financial bankruptcy suffice to this notion. These are intellectuals who fail to commercialize their knowledge. Entrepreneurship is their put-off. They enjoy loafing in the safety of monthly salaries and allowances, school buildings, trappings and other borrowed properties provided by the institution as motivation and compensation of service. They ignore the narrow and thorny but rewarding path of financial independence, forgetting that money, be it in form of accumulated wage, salary, reward, profit or loan melts away like shea butter under furious hydrolyzing power of harsh sunlight if not hid under the protective shade of investment. Indeed, complacency is the father of stagnancy!

Dear friend, in the classroom of financial education, the more you yearn for the secret of Oceanic prosperity and the more you learn its ropes and apply the fruits of pecuniary knowledge and wisdom acquired, the more you earn. There’s no two way to it. It’s not magical, only practical. Just go out! To go out is to stand-out!

Dear friend, permit me once more to introduce to you, five stages to Monetary Independence. I call them The Five poverty Extinguishers. This discovery is borne out of a critical cross-examination of lives of folks in longtime romance with opulence and magnanimous prosperity; it is the result of a long-time clinical observation. Here we go!

Number 1: LEARN

This is the first of the five extinguishers of penury. This phase entails preparation and acquisition of necessary skills, technical-know-how and expertise through training and mentorship, be it through academic, technical or commercial education, thus, bagging certificates which is testimony of an individual’s competence in a specified field of human endeavour.

Through this poverty extinguisher, you fatten your barn of expertise, acquire knowledge, ideas and intricacies of a business line required to create value for mankind and invariably reap profit for yourself. Remember, preservation of self-interest is the first law of nature and it takes idea to get to there.

Number 2: EARN

No man is an island but the energy and wherewithal to grow into an island lie latent in every man. And until it is activated, a person’s potential remains dormant. With the skills acquired, get a paid employment. This avails opportunity for corporate experience and exposure. It also allows you to build up capital for your own establishment if only you:

PAY ONE OF YOUR TEN

Amongst the options to build up a secure capital for self-own business, paying one tenth of your monthly salary or accumulated wages into your investment purse is the surest. Although lending from thrift societies, loans, grants and soliciting help from family members and associates may be viable and provide a lump sum of substantial capital, but remember, he who desire, must show will. Asides, debt is like a deep pit which one may descend quickly into and struggle vainly for years to escape.

To pay one of your ten monthly, control your expenditure. Shun money-swallowing and needless self-indulgent ventures like acquisition of wants – frivolities and liabilities; a man who consumes all his seeds is left with none for planting, thus, truncates the possibility of having fruit-bearing trees. At first, it may be difficult to pay a tithe every month into investment account, but it pays after all. Have you heard the cliché: little drops of water make a mighty ocean?

“Yeah, it’s as common as salt in most delicious soups!”

Good. Your simile is appetizing! If so, then,

INVEST AND HARVEST

Having being able to boast of a capital with the application of the systemic approach up there by paying your monthly investment bill: at least one of your ten every month, it’s time you enslaved your safe. Money in your safe is a slave; it must work and labour in interest-yielding investment(s) – your own investment.

Dear friend, with the experience garnered so far, this stage beckons on you to pull the trigger of resignation especially if your burgeoning business demands your personal monitoring, therefore reduce your productiveness and efficiency at your paid employment because of less devotion and attention paid to it. Moonlighting can be dangerous at times. Juxtaposing can be detrimental, unless if it is real estates, stocks and bonds amongst just a few less attentive investments.

May I drop this on you: to Investment is to harvest; it is directly proportional. Sow risk, hard work, steel persistence, sheer determination and reap bounty reward. Needlessly, the road to financial independence proves seldom frustrating and often laced with disappointments, setbacks or one or two shortcomings, but I assure you its forthcoming is juicy. Remember, to try is to triumph. To aspire is to go higher. To stand out is to go out; come out of your comfort zone. The largest room in life is that of improvement. Unshackle the handcuff of status-quo. You can do it because you are meant for the peak and it’s in You!

Number 5: DIVEST

Dear friend, let’s take a cue from the roots of trees. When fully mature, a tree saturates its root around its area of plantation. It spreads its tentacles so wide that it is sometimes unimaginable and inexplicable why it covers such distance in the soil. Here is the reason: every tree understands the secret of relevance called security. Consequently, it infiltrates the soil further with stalks of its root so as to be sturdy, unconquerable and withstand whirlwind and tempestuous storms that may threaten its survival.

Dear friend, with a fruit-producing tree in an area of establishment, wisdom dictates that you divest; diversify. I am yet to hear or see an affluent man with just a stream of income; it is always a span of Business Empire. Politicians, kidnappers, fraudster, hired assassins and folks in other unprintable vocations outside human decency are however an exception.

Even inherited wealth if not cultivated withers; it diminishes and evaporates. What is cultivated develops while what is left un-prune deteriorates. Streams dry up. Ponds dry up. Rivers dry up. Lakes dry up. But an ocean never dries up because it receives water from multiple estuarine sources. Show me five to seven out of ten outstanding people and I will show you intelligent folks with sound financial understanding of investment. They acquire, save and enslave their savings. They make it labour and relish its succor.

Dear friend,success associate itself with men who have completely demolished the pillar of procrastination with their caterpillar of determination. Until you move, nothing will move, so dear friend, Learn, Earn, Pay at least one of ten monthly, invest and harvest, then divest. Enjoy pleasure while your treasure works and produce more treasure, then sit back, relax and enjoy the tasty fruits of your investment when old age slips in. Remember wealth is not in a man’s wallet but in the golden streams that fill it. The withering of the dry leaf is a warning to fresh ones. Gather Gold before Old age gets hold of you. 

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