WHY I WANT YOU TO BECOME AN ENTREPRENEUR PART 3

“Money is plentiful for those who understand the simple laws for its acquisition”.George S. Clason, The Richest Man in Babylon.

One of the most interesting books on the subject of wealth creation I ever read was “The Richest Man in Babylon”. One thing I can’t deny however is that despite all the “Hollywood effects” and drama I find missing from its pages; there’s a lot of practical wisdom contained in it. One of such lessons I retained from reading the book is that “wealth grows wherever men exert energy”. As long as the people in a place are applying their time and effort, and even their money in a meaningful venture; there’s a good chance of exterminating poverty in that place. That reminds me of another great book on the same subject matter titled, “Can Every Nigerian be a Millionaire”? In literal terms, it sounds impractical but taking the term “Every Nigerian” metaphorically in that context, its possible people! Impossible is nothing.Every one of us have a common enemy who taunts and chides us, especially when there’s a task at hand to be done; His name is “MENTAL” and his surname is “LAZINESS”. Mental Laziness and nothing else is what makes you do just average when you know you can do much better than that. I was careful to mention his first name (i.e. Mental) because we usually only think about his brother, “PHYSICAL”. I’m such a person who’s physically lazy on some level compared to some other people (I’m not a slug though), but I never tire to exert my mind on a matter, to probe and to question, and to ponder on solutions. An American lady who was visiting Nigeria for a second time a short while ago and I had a small chat with, said she felt very sorry seeing some dismal living conditions in the country because in her words “Nigerians are a very hardworking people”. She went on to tell me that what she feels makes a difference in our society and the one she comes from is that; “In Nigeria, you work hard, In America, we work smart”. Profound and true words for me who’s been in a university where things were unnecessarily difficult and done attachment with an engineering firm where we were made to carry some stuff a crane would have lifted very easily. Some yahoo boys do work smart though, but in a negative way. If they only channeled their energies in the right direction, they’d discover how much wealth they could still create without the stigma of fraud.

That aside and back to the subject of Mental Laziness, why are we mentally lazy?Who wants to be poor? No seriously, who doesn’t want to be rich? We all do don’t we. Now the axiom, “……..if wishes were horses……………” does make a lot of sense. All right, next question, Who’s willing to do what he has to do to be rich? Uh……,I don’t see many hands again, what happened to all the “want to be rich people”? It always amazes me how people are overly excited about getting involved in a profitable venture and after meeting the first obstacle they simply give up. But that’s not the stuff Great Entrepreneurs are made of, that’s not the way small enterprise have grown into Great empires. You can ask Mr. Gates and Mrs. Sheila Johnson, you can learn from the lives of Michael Dell and Ray Anderson. The same principles hold true for every man in every land, the desire for wealth must be translated into definite action. In the ageless wisdom of the Bible, “Faith without works is dead”. Money is power, and you ought to be reasonably ambitious to have it. You ought to because you deserve it and there’s more good you can do in the world with it than without it.

Coming home to the scenario in our country,  ASUU strike was called off a couple of months ago. In my estimation, about half of the country’s active population were staying Idle at home. Now, if you’re a student affected by the strike, you deserve no blame for what’s happening; but you can’t allow an ‘irresponsible and insensitive government’ decide your destiny. For many the strikes is actually bliss, a time to flex and shayo, and have all that fun who’ve been missing. But its not all about that friends, the strike shouldn’t just be a reason why you’d hop from kuranmo to oniru beach every weekend, or make Silverbird cinema your personal TV, or make Ceddi plaza your new home; No. it’s a time to exert yourself, a time to probe and question yourself on what you can do and how you can develop some new skill. It’s a time to acquire knowledge of businesses you’ve been unaware of and opportunities you never knew existed. You might spend your time sulking on “why you no go school for yankee when your mates dey go” but that’s just negative energy been exerted and sapping you of your best ideas yet. If you’d only try to look at the bright side, you’d discover that this may just be a unique opportunity for you to take charge of your destiny.

In closing, I’d like to tell the story of a Nigerian whose life serves as an inspiration, Mrs. Florence Seriki, CEO of Omatek Company Plc. She’s someone whose achievements in business have proved that just because something seems impossible doesn’t mean it is. Omatek Computers has the first factory to basically assemble computer cases, speakers, keyboards, and mouse in Africa. In November 2005, Omatek beat 42 other countries to win the “Microsoft Best System builder Award” for West, East and Central Africa. Mrs. Seriki started her path to success with a simple skill – computer knowledge. While doing her National Youth Service in the mid-1980s, she discovered that the directors in the office couldn’t work on their computers because they didn’t know how to use them. She asked her boss one day if she could teach him, he obliged and from there she went on a row teaching the other directors in the company. That was how she started earning money training executives on the use of the computer, then staff of banks, oil companies, e.t.c. before she finished as a youth corps member, she opened an office in lagos where she employed people to train other people. She also recognized an opportunity in the fact that many companies didn’t have enough computers. So she started buying foreign brands of computers and selling to her customers. By the end of her service year, she was already counting millions when many of her contemporaries were crying for vacancies. The great story goes on to tell of how she went to source funding from Small and Medium Enterprise Equity Investment Schemes when banks were not willing to support her. Today, Omatek Company is quoted and listed on the Nigerian Stock Exchange and is a conglomerate of four companies. Her story is a humble one of how dogged determination and creativity transformed a National Youth Service Corps member to become one of Nigeria’s millionaires. These same qualities would work for you too and possibly with even greater results. In the words of David Schwartz, a success coach, “Believing something can be done paves the way for creativity and it opens up your mind. You can find the solution to business and other problems if you believe you can”. Eliminate the word ‘impossible’ from your mind, especially when setting financial goals. Personally, I’ve set a 6-month financial goal I’m working towards, it’s a high mark I set for myself no doubts, but entirely possible. Release your creative ability, take a decision today to take charge of your financial future; and as my friend Obie likes to say, “See you at the top bro”. May the words of prophecy come true for you that, “…..every wilderness would become a fruitful field and every fruitful field would be deemed a forest”. This, my friends, is another compelling reason why I want you to become an entrepreneur