Tag: Money

Trade off to Success

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Trade off to Success

“To get one thing that you like, you have to give up another thing that you like.”

Some will say you can’t eat your cake and have it, if you have eaten it then it is gone; the irony of life. The cost of something is what you give up to get it, the cost of building your own dream is to give up building another man’s dream.

Unfortunately, most of us want to eat our cake and have it. We want to party all night and still excel in the exam we write in the morning; we want to live in sin yet enjoy unlimited Grace; we want to lay idle yet except something to happen; we want to stay in bed and hope success will find us there… To have what we desire most we have to give up what we desire least. It is called sacrifice or trade off.

Winners embrace hard work. They love the discipline of it, the trade-off they’re making to win. Losers, on the other hand, see it as punishment. And that’s the difference.
Lou Holtz

Trading off is not an easy thing to do, losing what you desire is never fun, no matter how small it seems but the truth is that it will be worth it. It takes discipline for someone to give up what he is enjoying at moment just for the sake of what he is to enjoy in some distant future, a discipline many of us lack and the reason it has been difficult to change our status.

What are those things you need to give up to be able to focus on your goals? Deep down you know you have to let some things go, you have to avoid some sets of people and stop taking advice from some group of friends. These are little inconveniences you will have to bear if you desire to reach those goals. Trade offs are must on your route to success and a stitch in time saves nine!

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Performing Beyond Expectations

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Performing Beyond Expectations

Please read this message and see what makes you different from other person.

*This is what I called life assessment without argument.*

Ezra and Thomas joined a company together a few months after their graduation from university. After a few years of work, their Manager promoted Ezra to a position of Senior Sales Manager, but Thomas remained in his entry level Junior Sales Officer position. Thomas developed a sense of jealousy and disgruntlement, but continued working anyway. One day Thomas felt that he could not work with Ezra anymore. He wrote his resignation letter, but before he submitted it to the Manager, he complained that Management did not value hard working staff, but promoted only the favoured!

The Manager knew that Ezra worked very hard for the years he had spent at the company; even harder than Thomas and therefore he deserved the promotion. So in order to help Thomas to realize this, the Manager gave Thomas a task. “Go and find out if anyone is selling water melons in town?” Thomas returned and said, “yes there is someone!” The Manager asked, “how much per kg?” Thomas drove back to town to ask and then returned to inform the Manager; “they are N100.00 per kg!”

*The Manager told Thomas,* “I will give Ezra the same task that I gave you. Please pay close attention to his response!” So the Manager said to Ezra, in the presence of Thomas; “Go and find out if anyone is selling water melons in town?” Ezra went to find out and on his return he said: *”Manager, there is only one person selling water melons in the whole town”.* The cost is N500.00 each water melon and N300,00 for a half melon. He sells them at N100.00 per kg when sliced. He has in his stock 93 melons, each one weighing about 7kg. He has a farm and can supply us with melons for the next 4 months at a rate of 102 melons per day at N350.00 per melon; this includes delivery. The melons appear fresh and red with good quality, and they taste better than the ones we sold last year. He has his own slicing machine and is willing to slice for us free of charge. We need to strike a deal with him before 10am tomorrow and we will be sure of beating last year’s profits in melons by over N2,300,000.00. This will contribute positively to our overall performance as it will add a minimum of 8.78% to our current overall sales target. I have put this information down in writing and is available on spreadsheet. Please let me know if you need it as I can send it to you in fifteen minutes.”

Thomas was very impressed and realized the difference between himself and Ezra. He decided not to resign but to learn from Ezra.

As we go ahead with our daily decisions on where we ought to be and what ought to be, let this story help us keep in mind the importance of going an Extra Mile in all our endeavors.

As an Event Producer, Baker, Consultant, Draper etc; hoping to grow to the top of their game within our businesses; you won’t be rewarded for doing what you’re meant to do, you are already paid, for that!

HOWEVER, YOU WILL ONLY GET EXTRA RECOGNITION FOR GOING AN EXTRA MILE

Performing Beyond Expectations. ABOVE AND BEYOND.

To be Successful in Life,

You must be Observant, Proactive and Willing to Do More, Think More,

Have a More Holistic Perspective and Go Beyond The Call Of Duty.

Author: Unknown

You are a Success!

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You are a Success!

I didn’t say ‘You are successful’. I chose my words carefully. Success is one concept that is difficult to pin down to a specific universal definition. It’s an elusive, evasive and slippery idea. Frankly, what really is success? What are the yardsticks for determining a complete success story?

If getting married was success, Jesus was a failure.

If being unmarried was success, Mohammed was a failure.

If amassing college degrees was success, George Washington was a failure.

If growing gray hair and dying old was success, Alexander The Great were failures. (He died at 32years of age).

If being the wealthiest man was success, Albert Einstein was a failure (in his time).

I think you get the gist by now.

There’s no way you’d define success universally without making light of and alienating many notable names; apparent success stories.

I wouldn’t say success is relative, but I’d say it is subjective. If it was relative (to persons), a murderer may define serial killing as his idea of success. But nobody in his or her right mind should see that as success. The fact that he kills people successfully doesn’t mean he is a success story. But when I say success is subjective, it means that the meaning of success is subject to circumstances and/or experiences of one’s life. For instance, a man who was physically and sexually abused as a boy is a success if he grows up to empower rather than abuse others. Rising above negative circumstances and experiences of life is my definition of success. The moment you rise above your negative circumstances, you are the real MVP (a success story).

A friend told the story of his life thus;

I remember when I was admitted to Nigerian Law School. My hope of being called to the Nigerian Bar was almost dashed. The problem was the Law School Tuition. It was #230,000. This was 2007/2008 Academic Session. You see, in my family at that time, #230,000 was a fortune. It would be a fortune if your Dad was a retired low-level NEPA official (Pensioner) and your Mum a medium-scale trader. My Dad literally called a nuclear family meeting to discuss how we would raise the almighty tuition so that I could make it to Law School. He even considered selling his car at the time.

Folks, that amount was a big deal to us. Well, to cut to the chase, through sweat and blood, my Dad raised the money. I don’t even want to know how. All I know is that on the day I was given the cash to pay into the Nigerian Law School designated account, I became paranoid. It felt like I was being followed. Until that day, I had never held that much cash in my life. I was more vigilant than an FBI agent even in the bank premises. I only regained my sanity after the cashier gave me my Bank Teller and said, ‘have a nice day’.

Today, for one court case, I charge almost twice or triple that amount. Someone might wonder, ‘but I spend #500,000 on feeding every month and you charge that for a lawsuit?’ Exactly! And that’s why success is subjective. One man’s lunch money is another man’s weekly budget. And they may both be success stories because their circumstances are radically different. My parents went to great lengths, running from pillar to post just to get #230,000. I make double or triple that amount in one brief. That is Success to me and my parents especially. They did for me what was not done for them. They rose above their own circumstances.

You too can. And when you do, you are for all intents and purposes a Success. No matter what your bank account reads, if you can rise above your challenges, You are a Success!

Don’t Believe Everything You See

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Don’t Believe Everything You See

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Many people saw the above post on my timeline and I am sure most of them were like, “Selah has started again with his pious posts”. As much as I would have loved to attribute the post to my being ‘pious’, it was actually necessitated by some personal events that took place few weeks before the post. So I urge you to sit back, enjoy the gist and maybe learn a thing or two.

So as usual, I was going through Facebook looking for trends and lovely posts to be part of, then I saw the profile of an old friend, someone I used to be very close to some few years back. On his profile was this picture of him on a beautiful white bed with lots of dollars (cold cash) scattered on the bed. The first thought that came to me was, ” yes o, my guy don hammer”. Instantly, I searched for his number, called him but the number wasn’t going through, so I concluded immediately that my guy is no longer in this country. Next I sent a Facebook chat to him and he responded enthusiastically, we exchanged pleasantries and tried to catch up on old times.

The following day he was the first to buzz me on Facebook messenger, “he started with how successful he is now and how he is willing to expand and carry his friends along”. To me that was impressive, his pictures said so much about success, so I had no problem believing him. Eventually, he said he had this business he was currently working on but he needed $1000 about #300k to finalize the deal. He asked if I could spare that and in 2weeks, he will pay me #500k. Tempting offer, but then my mama taught me that if it is too good to be true, it is definitely not true.

Anyway, I ignored mama’s words, I told him I will see what I can do. If you know me too well, I don’t tie down capital (as an economist), so there was no idle #300k hanging around. I thought of calling few friends, to see who had such idle cash, eventually got someone willing to drop #150k with a promise he will get #200k in 2weeks time, I had #100k, so I was left with sourcing for #50k. This was already the third day and this my friend practically sends Facebook message to me every hour to ask how far. I told him I had #250k already but I should have the #300k by the end of the week. He lamented how the opportunity might be missed and so I had to intensify my search for the remaining #50k.

Finally I remembered this guy, also a friend and he happens to know this my money spinning friend that wants turn #300k to #500k in two weeks. So I called him up and told him I needed #50k, this guy is ‘street’ so he insisted on knowing what the money was meant for. Bound by my goody two shoes rule, I told him the whole story. He just started laughing, – I was getting irritated now – “what’s funny?” I asked. He just said, ‘hope you have not sent him the #250k’, I said No. He said ‘thank your God!’ He then showed messages from this same guy, with the same proposition to him some months back. He said he fell for it and lost #280k. He said after he transfered the money to a Nigeria bank account as he was instructed, this guy stopped replying his messages meanwhile no known phone number or address to trace him.

I couldn’t close my mouth, so my guy has not arrived, all those pictures were just to lure unsuspecting victims, like I almost fell for it. It just occurred to me, I really have no way of contacting him besides the Facebook messenger. So what I did next was to send Facebook message to him saying “Hi, I got the money and Shola (name of my other friend he swindled) is saying hello too”. What I got as reply was shocking, he immediately ‘unfriend’ me on Facebook and till today, I got no message from him.

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Don’t believe everything you see on social media, half of it is not true and those that are true are often exaggerated.
If you have not seen someone in a while be diplomatic while relating with them, don’t just disclose everything about your life.
If you are a lady, don’t fall for the display of wealth and affluent on social media, they are most likely not your answered prayers but nightmare your mama warned you about.
Don’t bemoan your life because of what someone displayed, what many people are really going through if they tell you, you will be in the front roll for thanksgiving next Sunday.
Be smart, don’t fall for the games of these people leaving fake lives, don’t let them make you question your life and then make wrong choices.

If you are on the right path, keep at it, it will soon pay off. Don’t claim to be what you are not just to be liked by people. Even when you have so much be modest about it. It is a world you can’t really predict, stay real.

3 Traits That Assures Success

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3 Traits That Assures Success; You must have one!

So be sure when you step, Step with care and great tact. And remember that life’s A Great Balancing Act. And will you succeed? Yes! You will, indeed! (98 and ¾ percent guaranteed) Kid, you’ll move mountains… Dr. Seuss

Success is not something out of the ordinary, not some fairy tale we say or hear to give us hope, success is real. Some define it in terms of achievements, money, wealth, freedom, happiness, fame or even love.

Bessie Anderson Stanley expressed success in terms of the following achievements;
He who has lived well, laughed often, and loved much;
Who has enjoyed the trust of pure women, the respect of intelligent men and the love of little children;
Who has filled his niche and accomplished his task;
Who has never lacked appreciation of Earth’s beauty or failed to express it;
Who has left the world better than he found it,
Whether an improved poppy, a perfect poem, or a rescued soul;
Who has always looked for the best in others and given them the best he had;
Whose life was an inspiration;
Whose memory a benediction.

With the above in mind, it is easy to have what you seek in terms of success in the clear perspective. Now how do you get there, how will the word “eureka” be heard from you. You need at least one of these traits I am about to discuss.  All successful people I know have one of these three (3) traits. I will explain what each entails and the laws that back them.

👆Inviting Personality: To be successful you must have an inviting personality. This includes any of these qualities, having good looks; beautiful or handsome, having nice attitude, being approachable, you must be reasonable and understanding or above all you must have a dissolving smile handy at all times. People with this trait easily get away with things, people tend to want to listen to what they have to say, they easily get favours and most importantly, doors have a way of opening for them. You might have noticed this about yourself or your friends with this trait, it is no magic, Just law of attraction at work.

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✌Wit: Well if you missed out on the first trait, here is another that can make you successful. The qualities here include, you being witty, that is, smart, intelligent, wise, inquisitive, able to think outside the box, clever, humorous, talented or industrious. Wit is not limited to academic brilliance, you must know that being street-wise, being able to manipulate, cajole or warm your way into people’s heart is also witty. People with this trait may find it hard at first but once they are in, nothing can stop them. People with this trait actually work for what they get from life. This is the aspect most motivational books focus on because this is where most people fall. However for those who are lucky enough to have Inviting Personality and Wit traits at the same time, things fall in place easy and fast for them. This is based on the law of problems & solutions or cause & effect, if you can solve a problem, people will be willing to pay to have your services.

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👌 Supernatural: if you don’t have the first two, here is your last chance. The good thing about this last trait is that it is something you can learn; not in born, you can build it over time. The supernatural trait includes being prayerful, going into religious ministry, providing spiritual solutions or seeking spiritual help. Most people, even with the first two traits, result to this because of their “laid back attitude”. People want God to assist them without them lifting a finger, well it is a known fact that this has worked for few, it is called breakthrough. Some take it a step further by setting up their own religious ministry to help others and from there they become successful too, it works! Pastors are rich, Alfas are wealthy, supernatural sells, spirituality changes the natural order to favour the devoted but at the cost of being faithful to God or the spiritual source. This is the supernatural law; faith and hope make miracles of life’s situations.

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If you don’t have the first two and you are not willing to acquire the third trait, you might just be another man chasing his own shadow and success might just be another illusion or a tale of what should have been.

What is Your Worth?

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WHAT IS YOUR WORTH?

Tochukwu barged into her sister’s house and shouted “I’ve had enough, men are all the same”

Her elder sister Chioma, who was five (5) years older than her, got married three years ago to her first love Paul. Tochukwu used to tell her, “she is boring”, for dating the same guy for over 5 year. Chioma got married to her first love because she does not believe in changing men. She has this principle, “If you have found your true love then you have no reason to run back and forth with others. Stay faithful to your true love”. While Tochi, on the other hand, as everyone calls her, believes that there is nothing like true love. She is of the opinion that “If you find a rich man who loves you then marry him”.

As months passed by, with Tochi going to her sister’s house once in a while and she seeing the way her sister’s husband showers her with love, Tochi started having second thoughts about love and men. However, this particular day had been a very annoying day for Tochi, her boyfriend, Daniel, had insulted her publicly and the only person she could talk to was her elder sister. Chioma had been her confidant since childhood but when she barged into her home, Tochi had really passed her boundary this time. “Tochi this is my matrimonial home for God’s sake, what if my husband was home what exactly is wrong with you?” Chioma questioned, in a rather angry voice. Tochi apologize immediately sensing the annoyance. “What has men done to you this time?”, Chioma asked.

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Tochi then explained to her sister how Daniel publicly insulted her, by calling her a parrot, saying she talks too much. “Sis, he doesn’t respect me at all, he treats me anyhow”, she tried to hold back her tears. She continued, “Can you imagine it was inside the shopping mall that he insulted me o, in fact I’m never going back to him!”. Her sister smiled, just to calm her aching nerves, then asked her to sit down.

Then with a voice so gentle yet firm, Chioma began, “Tochi, No man will respect and value you until you learn to respect and value yourself”. Tochi had a puzzle look on her face.  Chioma smiled again and continued, the issue of being valued, does not only come in relationship with your partners or spouses, it also affects your relationship with people in general. Have you ever wondered why your friends talk to you anyhow or why your boss or even your siblings treat you without courtesy? It all boils down to how you carry yourself, the value you place on yourself and the aura that you carry around you.

Let me ask you a question; when you look in the mirror what exactly do you see? If you see a man or woman who is timid, ugly and stupid, I’m afraid, everyone you come across that day would most likely see you that way too. When you look in the mirror why not see a man or woman who is confident, smart and intelligent, you have nothing to lose, after all, God created you that way. People will keep on messing with you until you learn to raise your price tag, Chioma concluded.

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“Don’t rely on some-one else for your happiness and self-worth. Only you can be responsible for that. If you can’t love and respect yourself- no one else will be able to make that happen. Accept who you are- completely; the good and the bad and the changes as YOU see fit – not because you think someone else wants you to be different”. – Stacey Charter

To my beautiful ladies, if he actually slept with you at the backseat of his car you can’t expect him to think you are worthy of a matrimonial bed! You need to know that you worth more than that and you are not just a toy to play with. To my handsome men, if a lady makes you feel less and compares you to other men then you need to stand up and let her know you are the best. There is so much inside of you why would you settle for less than you deserve?

When you are walking, raise your head high and be confident of the fact that you worth so much more than precious stones. I need you to know that every mistake you have made and all the bad experiences you have had, all sums up to make you better than you were before. Know that because you failed at something has not made you worth less. You need to fall in love with yourself everyday because if you don’t love you, nobody will. After all it is love your neighbor as yourself meaning your first love is yourself.

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I know we are not all perfect but with learning and believing in oneself, we get better every day. I need you to know that you worth so much more, if you are in a gathering of people who make you feel less, then I think you need to change such people. Hang out with friends who make you feel better and brighter. Don’t stay where you are tolerated, move on to where you will be celebrated. Remember nobody can make you feel worthless without your permission. You are a treasure that should be treasured. You are so very special!

I love you and I believe in you!

Omodara Oluwabunmi Onome

Your Time is Your Life

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Your Time is Your Life

Time, not money, is your biggest asset in life. You need time to invest in relationships (with yourself and your family) or to chase your passion.
“Think again” if you are still trading off time for money. Let your money work for you. You don’t work for money. That is exactly what Financial Freedom is… – Manoj Arora , From the Rat Race to Financial Freedom

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There are 24hours in a day but you can have more than 24 productive hours in a day. There is a difference between normal hours and productive hours. One day in productive sense, is equal to the number of hours you make use of that actually impact on your life before dusk turns to dawn. The rich understands that Time is their most valuable asset and what they do is to hire more hands (that’s buy more time) to get the most from a day. The cheapest form of this can be seen in networking and marketing.

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Take for instance, a man who sleeps for 10hours, eats and have fun for another 10hours then uses only 4hours for something productive, that means in a 24hour-day he only gets 4 productive hours. On the other hand, a young entrepreneur, sleeps for 6hours, eats and have fun for another 6hours, works for 12hours, then hires 4men who also work 9hours for him, effectively he will be having 48 productive hours in a single day. Now you understand why the first man is barely getting-by and the second man is living large.

Some have mastered the use of time that they actually make money per second. Mike Adenuga gets money for every second you spend on a Glo line, that’s your time working for him. For every minute you spend on Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg gets an alert, your idle time working for him. For every hour spent at a football viewing center, the viewing center guy is counting cash, your time making him rich. If you are employed, your employer hires you first to add your time to his time, then maybe for your skills to make you efficient. Your employer can’t be everywhere at the same time hence because of this limitation, he puts a value on your time and buys it off you. Don’t get me wrong, it is nice to have fun, get employed but it is also fair that you understand that your time is precious and more valuable than you know.

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The value of time is best appreciated if you put it to use. Better put, the worth attached to time depends on how one translates every second to money (earning ability). The truth is, no employer will pay you the true worth of your time, no matter the value placed on it, your time is still a part of your life that you can never get back. This is why it is saddens me, when I sees able bodied young men waste away their time.  Some go as far as asking other friends, “what can I (we) do to kill this (time) number of hours?”, they conveniently murder part of their lives.

Don’t be fooled by the calendar. There are only as many days in the year as you make use of. One man gets only a week’s value out of a year while another man gets a full year’s value out of a week. – Charles Richards

Your time is your life, don’t waste it. Your time is your greatest resource and most undervalued asset, be careful the price tag you put on it. Don’t waste your time on unproductive ventures, rather see how you can increase the number of productive hours you have in a day. Put your hours to use, invest money in them and let them work for you. Even if you have to offer your service to someone who can afford them, make sure you buy others’ time that you can afford and let them work for you too, that way you end up with more. Every tick of the clock, that’s a part of you ticking by, never let it go to waste.

For what it’s worth: it’s never too late or, in my case, too early to be whoever you want to be. There’s no time limit, stop whenever you want. You can change or stay the same, there are no rules to this thing. We can make the best or the worst of it. I hope you make the best of it. And I hope you see things that startle you. I hope you feel things you never felt before. I hope you meet people with a different point of view. I hope you live a life you’re proud of. If you find that you’re not, I hope you have the courage to start all over again. – Eric Roth , The Curious Case of Benjamin Button Screenplay

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