How to make your first million before 2012 ends!

"Listen! A farmer went out to plant some seed. As he scattered it across his field, some of the seed fell on a footpath, and the birds came and ate it. Other seed fell on shallow soil with underlying rock. The seed sprouted quickly because the soil was shallow. But the plant soon wilted under the hot sun, and since it didn't have deep roots, it died." (Mark 4:3-6).
Our generation these days is obssesed with a lot of things but one thing rings the loudest in my ears which is the desire to acheive success as quickly as possible. We want to make our first million in weeks, build a house in months and make it to the cover of Time magazine in a few years. The crazy and wasteful lifestyles of political office holders and celebrities mesmerise some and they also want that cloth, that house, that car, that attention. We go to church and hear prophecies and promises of faith and seed sowing, of instant change of lives (financially), deceiving christians to continue to give for their enrichment in the name of prosperity. The church continues with their building projects, not concerned about the welfare and growth of its members. What's the point?
Nigerians need to wake up and realise that there is no free food anywhere,no capacity for overnight success. True and lasting success comes from long periods of hardwork, diligence and commitment. Those seen at the top did not get there by wishing, giving and praying (alone), or losing their integrity. It takes years to make it to the point of fulfillment. Let no man deceive you with some story of how you can acheive that dream in a very short while. Nothing, in reality, works that way.
Please drop your comments and let me know how you feel about this.

This Too Shall Pass!

There are times when during my daily routine that I remember something from the past and give a broad smile. Or other times when I ask my brother "do you remember when…" It is at such moments as this that I practically realise that life is in phases. You finish one phase and move to the next. You then, look back at those times and smile. When an insurmountable problem stands before me, I look back to all the previous ones I have overcome and tell myself "this too shall pass". If I could surmount the last one, what could possibly stop me from doing the same to this?
Friends, this is a worthy way of restoring hope when everything seems like it's finally come to an end. Just keep believing that this too shall pass. Repeat it to yourself as many times as you can while you tirelessly work at dealing with the problem.
May God help us all. Amen.

The reality outside vs. the reality inside

There have been times for me when I would love to do something, I would be absolutely resolved to do it and ready to take action. Then on facing that situation in which I need to act in, it's like I had become paralysed. All the resolve and decisions I had made prior to such moment seem to have fizzled into the blues. When stuff like this happens I have discovered that the anticipated reality inside just does not match the reality you met outside. Such instances are seen daily, like when you plan to walk up to somebody (probably of the opposite sex) and when that person shows up, you suddenly cannot move a muscle or say a word; or when you intend doing a particular business at a particular time. All the business plans have been written and it seems everything looks fine until when you realise that it's not really so. Maybe wrong timing or a bad market busted your balloons but in all these there is a way out. Yes there is a way out when things like such happen. There are surely steps you can take to get back on track.
First is to re-strategize. Sit your ass down and plan again. Perhaps you missed something the first time. Include the new changes you have discovered and make another move. Don't do like many other people that just fold their hands and say "it isn't really my thing anyway". In life, one needs to learn to effectively respond to feedback. It is only an Omniscient God that can be certain about what the future holds, but for us as humans, we have no choice than to use the feedback we get from the environment to our profitable use. We all have Machiavellian tendencies in us anyways. According to Personal Development Guru, Anthony Robbins, and Kent Sayre the sure fire formula for success is this:
1) You set an outcome.
2) You monitor your results you get through feedback.
3) You vary your behaviour until you get your outcome.
When the reality within does not match that of the outside world, it could lead to a drop in one's morale or level of confidence in the capacity to succeed. When such occurs, the way out is to affirm yourself to become confident again. Do not stay at one spot, hoping for things to change. If wishes were horses beggars would ride. Recollect past experiences in which you have been able to rightly navigate yourself confidently in situations that everything looked bleak. Then your confidence will surge and you will be unstoppable!

The Future From Behind

She is a top executive at one of the best corporate firms in the country. Earning a six figure income, she has an apartment in the better parts of the city where she lives with her handsome and industrious husband. Their marriage has never been any better. The doctor says she is one month pregnant with her first set of children- twins. Her husband's business is thriving and the executives at his company are always vibrant with ideas to increase productivity and profits.
Wow! What a splendid success story! Some might be thinking "mstchew, who's he trying to deceive here? Who's living that kind of life?" Well, I don't know about you but I know that lifestyle is what many Nigerians enjoy even with the way things are going in the country. That story above is the dream of many young people, including myself. A dream where everything's working perfectly fine, where there's absolutely nothing to worry about. It is possible to get to that point and fulfil that craving. I will show you one way you can achieve this. Just read on.
Have you ever watched a movie from the end to the beginning? Like from its last scene to its first? How did it feel or look when you did such, awkward? When you do this you get a sense of what the movie's all about. You can envisage what would have happened to get to such an ending. Nothing will take you by surprise as you watch the movie because you have seen the beginning from the end. But do you know you can use this same approach in your life? "How?" you ask. It's simply by doing the same thing with your dreams and goals. It involves vividly playing a mental video of your desirable future and rewinding that video to the present. Now, between that point in time and now, what did you do to get there? What steps did you take to achieve that dream of yours? Could it be to be a first class student, to get a high paying job in an oil company, to have a loving family, or to set up an N.G.O? The Wise Master said, "Suppose one of you wants to build a tower. What is the first thing you will do? Won't you sit down and figure out how much it will cost and if you have enough money to pay for it? (Luke 14:28)". This has to do with planning and strategizing. You have to figure out the right steps to take to take you to where you want to go. For instance if you want to travel to a certain country, you must first be aware of where you are heading for and then how you will arrive there. Will you get there by flight, by seaways or by the road network? These are conditions you must ponder about before you take off on such a journey. Do you have a dream? Have you set SMART goals on how to get to the dream? What will it take you to achieve the dream? What did you have to sacrifice to realise your dream? Questions as such must not be left unanswered if one is to make it to his/her colourful and bright future.

Anything is possible, so also is the realisation of that dream. I believe in you. I believe in your dream. Do not give up. Keep at it and very soon you will breakthrough. Peace be with you.

The Chat Dude

He is at it again!
The chat addict is working his fingers on the small, cuboid device called a phone.
2go, BBM, Nimbuzz, Whatsapp, Facebook, Twitter...
He is on every one of those social networks,
Never will his mind be at one thing;
While working, he's chatting
While eating, he's chatting
While walking, he's stupidly chatting too.
Tell me one thing he ever does without having chatting at the back of his mind.
Always thinking of punch lines to use to get his friends lol
Or to get them reply "lwkmd" or "LMAO".
He has become a performer,
And his friends as his audience.
A miserable life he lives but thinks he's catching fun
All done just to avoid being bored.

The Fringe Benefits of Failure, and the Importance of Imagination by J.K. Rowling

The Fringe Benefits of Failure, and the Importance of Imagination
J.K. Rowling , author of the best-selling Harry Potter book series, delivers her Commencement Address, "The Fringe Benefits of Failure, and the Importance of Imagination," at the Annual Meeting of the Harvard Alumni Association.
Text as delivered follows.
Copyright of JK Rowling, June 2008
President Faust, members of the Harvard Corporation and the Board of Overseers, members of the faculty, proud parents, and,above all, graduates.
The first thing I would like to say is 'thank you.' Not only has Harvard given me an extraordinary honour, but the weeks of fear and nausea I have endured at the thought of giving this commencement address have made me lose weight. A win-win situation! Now all I have to do is take deep breaths, squint at the red banners and convince myself that I am at the world's largest Gryffindor reunion.
Delivering a commencement address is a great responsibility; or so I thought until I cast my mind back to my own graduation. The commencement speaker that day was the distinguished British philosopher Baroness Mary Warnock. Reflecting on her speech has helped me enormously in writing this one, because it turns out that I can't remember a single word she said. This liberating discovery enables me to proceed without any fear that I might inadvertently influence you to abandon promising careers in business, the law or politics for the giddy delights of becoming a gay wizard.
You see? If all you remember in years to come is the 'gay wizard' joke, I've come out ahead of Baroness Mary Warnock. Achievable goals: the first step to self improvement.
Actually, I have wracked my mind and heart for what I ought to say to you today. I have asked myself what I wish I had known at my own graduation, and what important lessons I have learned in the 21 years that have expired between that day and this.

The Paradox about Problems

I am not an adept lover of romance movies, though i do love watching other kinds of movies. Very recently i watched two particular romance movies that teach the same lesson. These two movies are 'not easily broken' and 'the vow'. From these movies i learnt that it takes the problems and upside downs of life to make things become right. There are some problems that won’t just go out of our lives unless we learn the lessons from them. Problems have a way of smoothening things up and making them better. They refine our characters and help us form better perspectives about life. We tend to treat people better, love our family more and become better givers. The usual concept we predominantly have about problems is negative, grave and causes nausea. But when we look at our lives over time, we’ll come to notice the impact these problems have had on the course of our lives. Poverty for instance helps people to become better managers of money, sickness helps to bring us to our senses regarding our lifestyle (most especially for people that never give themselves rest and are always in constant stress, sickness is the signal that they need rest), divorces and breakups are pointers to the fact that one needs to be more caring and should put in more work into the next relationship and as a final example, death teaches us to value our lives and of those we dearly care about. It’s all just Nature’s way of balancing life….Ying Yang, as the Chinese philosophy puts it.

Let Time do its work!

Here we are, in the 21^st century. Everything moves at high speed. If it isn’t, it’s considered obsolete. The internet, cars, jets, airplanes, even marriages must be all done quickly. The coffee is prepared fast, the noodles make waiting for food to get done an easier task. People have come to more easily fulfill their desires of instant gratification more easily and quickly than ever. Time isn’t seen in a matter of decades, years, days, weeks but in minutes and seconds now. Information zaps all in front of us that we find it difficult to quantify and reproduce what we are learning as before.

As the time race continues, most people take the same sick perspective toward success in their lives. They expect everything to work out quickly and easily without them breaking a single bead of sweat. They want to get it now! Now is the thing, not later. But things don’t work out like that. Everything has its own time and season. In the movies, there could be overnight success, but in reality, there is no such thing. One has to toil and wait for the ripe time to come.

Every single thing in this world has its own time of success, including the human race. If a friend or colleague is at the peak of his game (career, marriage, academics, relationship, family) and you are not, even though  you started out together, don’t fret or get jealous (though its entirely human to do such), just get relaxed and convince yourself that things will soon work out fine for you too. In every person there is this voice that speaks to us. Funny enough the voice in question only amplifies when things go wrong, like when your girlfriend rejects your long awaiting marriage proposal, or when the promotion bypasses you even though you know you deserve it. What you should do at such gloomy times is to pick yourself back up, shrug those confident shoulders and change what that voice is saying! Affirm yourself in positive ways by using positive words to make yourself feel really good.

Success is a turn by turn event. Don’t get freaked out if the tide isn’t flowing in your favour, very soon the wind will blow and all will be well. Just keep working hard and doing what you know how to do best and believe in. Keep putting commitment, dedication and endurance and perseverance as top priority values for your life and am telling you, as long as the sun will come up the next day, things will get better!