Apr
29
2008
Oh thank God, alas, the note on Google on my site was removed today. My website has been declared harmless once again by Google. It’s been a really long night, but it’s over now, thankfully. A little research I did revealed that it was a flaw on the version of word press that I was using that a popular hacker exploited. He’s been doing it online, so guess my website just moved one more level up in global recognition. For all who stayed with me through the trails, thank you again.
There is a good old bible story that is arguably one of the most popular, it’s called the parable of talents. I’ll be using this as my case study for this particular article, and for the next one as well. The first article we’ll be looking at this together at face value, then the next one, we’ll go deeper into the roots of the parable. It promises to be an exciting journey. The one question I want to ring through your mind as we go through however is, “did you bury it?”
There are two categories of people, the traders and the bury-ers, all of humanity fall somewhere in between this divide, as bury-ers or as traders. So are you a trader or a burier? Are you trading or burying? Well, before you go on into analyzing yourself on the wrong indexes, let’s plunge into this study together first. Continue Reading »
Apr
23
2008
“Hello all, my site just recovered from a hate trojan upload by an unknown hacker that had access to my cpanel. If you tried accessing the site for some time now, google tells you it may harm your computer. We have resolved the issues now and sent it to google afresh for a new assessment. Thanks for bearing with me, and thanks for all that called and messaged during the problem, I am grateful, and thankful.”
Once upon a time, there was a young man who in search of a profitable business to do, decided to venture into exporting. This man was not so buoyant, so rather than wait for perfect conditions he decided to venture anyway in a small scale.
Every day, this young man physically packed a bag full of sand and rode with his bicycle across the border to Benin republic. Everyday that this young man meticulously rode past, the customs men would fulfill their normal protocol of searching his bag throughly, wondering when sand became so expensive across the border. After the man crossed over, the custom men will dedicate some time arguing for against his insanity. “How can a man, carry a bag of sand across the boarder everyday, is sand running out of circulation? After weeks of joking about this case, the curiosity of the customs men began to grow. “Could it be that there is something that he knows, that is unknowns to us?” Could it be that sand is gold in Benin? Or is there a new business we ought to educate ourselves about?
After many months, they gained the boldness to ask the young man what was really on their mind. They confronted him on this particular day, as he was riding past. “Hello young man”, they said, “we’ve been watching you with a mixture of bewilderment, wonder and amusement, please tell us, what exactly are you smuggling across the border, we promise not to punish you or go against you, as we have been unable to see it for so long!” Continue Reading »
Apr
17
2008
I was opportuned to be one of the facilitators in a discussion forum for young entreprenuers today. The line up of invited people for this particular segment included Mr. Okechuckwu Ogunjiofor the pioneer of Nollywood, Mrs Florence Seriki MD of Omatek ventures Ltd, Otunba Gadafi, MD of DMT Mobile Toilets, Eno-Obong Essien, MD of Rheydolence Limited and my humble self. Mrs Seriki was ably represented by her CMO, while Otunba had to be unavoidably absent. I entered the venue as one of my key mentors was living, Prof. Pat Utomi, I was so pleased at his excitement at seeing me. The meeting was meant to be an interactive session with young and upcoming entrepreneurs. we were all given the floor for 10mins ahead of the questions and answer session. While I learnt quite a lot from the other speakers, when it was my turn to speak, I remembered a story I normally start entrepreneurial sessions with.
It happened at a time, that an elderly Yoruba man approached his fresh graduate son with a proposition. He told him that he had found a wife for him. The young man was shocked and displeased, how can his father in this day and age be looking for a wife for him. He told his father to please leave him alone, that he can find a wife for himself, at the right time, which of course is when he’ll also have gotten a job. The father persisted though, that the wife he had found for him is a daughter of Dangote (Dangote is currently the richest man in Africa). “Really?”, the young man quizzed, “are you serious?”, “I don’t think it’s a good thing that my father is finding me a wife, but if it’s Dangote’s daugher, sure, why not”. 
. The father penciled this down as number 1. This father had his university education in the eastern part of Nigeria, and had somehow crossed paths with the current Central Bank Governor- Charles Soludo. He called him up and told him that he would want his son to be a director in CBN. Charles laughed and wondered why he would make that kind of request. “Directorship of the CBN is by appointment and we usually need people with strong networks and networths” – Soludo said, “Who is your son, and what has he done?”. To this the father informed soludo that his son is about to conclude marriage arrangements with the daughter of Dangote. “Ah”, said Soludo, “Your son sure has the network, if directorship is all he wants, it can be arranged ASAP. The father noted this down as Number 2. Continue Reading »
Apr
14
2008
Yesterday we had our regular New Nigeria Club sponsored Sunday seminar. We had two feature speakers, Niyi Adesanya and Kunle Awofolajin. Niyi Adesanya spoke about Public Speaking as a tool for financial empowerment, while Kunle Awofolajin spoke on Forex Trading as a tool for financial empowerment. These two presentations are a must hear. Somewhere in between introducing the two speakers, I had the opportunity of talking for 3 mins. I narrated a story that had been on my mind of late, and I think it’s good I share it with you as well. Once upon a time long ago, there was a rich widow. This widow was very rich but had no children. she had many maids, many employees and many friends, but few children. It so happened that it got to a time in her old age that she was diagnosed with an incurable disease. Everybody rallied around her and cared for her, until she became too much of a burden and one by one, they stopped showing up. It happened eventually that there was only one person left with her – an uneducated matron who loved the rich widow so much she was willing to dedicate her time to care for her until her death. In the weeks that followed, things deteriorated slowly until after a while, the rich widow could hardly speak. At this time, she knew that the end was near, and she decided to make signs to the matron and ultimately gave her something that seemed like a sheet of paper.
Continue Reading »
Apr
05
2008
It’s one full year now, when we started an investment club under the code name Generis Financial Solutions. I remember the kinds of comments that visited the birth of the two arms of these clubs then. Some people complained that I was complaining about the hyips that existed then because I wanted to start my own. I got a lot of personal mails attacking my personality, I had a number of rough comments and outright vituperation, but I forged ahead then because I believed that it was possible to manage a financial club and get results for people. I wasn’t alone though, there was a team of people who believed as well, some helped in the process of managing the funds while the others put their money where there mouth was.
After a while, we decided not to admit fresh people into the club. We started getting lots of emails and comments from interested people. By the time the wonder banks wound down, a deluge of mails hit my personal account. Some people realized, that I might really not be as stupid as they imagined as some of the things I had said had come to be true in time. It was a lot of challenge saying no to people’s money, but I had to be firm, as my credibility and integrity is worth more to me than any amount in the world. After 1 year, today precisely, we called the members of the club for a breakfast meeting, and declared 100% return on investment for the fiscal year closing today. We didn’t only declare it, we wrote out checks to the members for the amounts due to them to liquidate their holdings. At least this shows that the money is not on paper only, but real. It also gives them the opportunity to take their money back, to take proper position in the reloaded version of the Investment Club. Continue Reading »
Apr
03
2008
For NNC members who check my site frequently, the following mail has been sent to your box, I’m just using this opportunity to keep you informed about what we have done till date. It’s been hectic, it’s been fun, it’s been work but it’s been exciting. For documentation purposes and for the sakes of those who are not members of the club, you can get the update here.
Hello Compatriot,
How are you? It’s been quite an indecent while that I have personally mailed you.
This is to keep you updated about all that we have been doing, and to ask you to be a part of what we are doing, when and if you are opportuned. Some of the people that will also get this mail are people who are up to date because they have been a part of it all.
I’ll also want to use this mail to invite you for our weekly public meeting. We have been holding it 2pm every Sunday except the last at the Memorable Gatherings, Opposite Tisco Plaza, Daily Times Bus-Stop Agidingbi. We had to move from a 250 venue to a 1500 venue because of population explosion. You are cordially invited for this weeks edition
Reorientation
One of the things we set out to do is to help in the reorientation of Nigerians to believe in a better Nigeria and to live value based lives. We have been able to carry reorientation to a number of Universities in Nigeria. Continue Reading »
Apr
01
2008
It’s been quite a while that I have written, it hasn’t been out of having nothing to write, it’s has been out of being extremely busy. I hate this type of business, working on so many things at the same time, some of them great things and not having sufficient time to communicate or update the world about them. New Nigeria Club has been matching on beautifully, we have in our tracks covered a lot of things we planned to do, and are doing more by the day. We have been able to spread our tentacles into a lot more opportunities for members, we were able to get investment opportunities for members and our weekly meetings have tipped and we have changed the venue from an unfilled 250 sitter hall into packing full one that can accommodate 1500 people at a sitting every Sunday and a lot more. We are currently concluding the acquisition of the New Nigeria City, and working on putting the New Nigeria City Ltd together as a management company that will be co-owned by New Nigeria Club members. God has been good, and things have been great.
Just last Sunday, I caught myself praying a prayer that currently comes to me naturally. It’s not the Lords prayer, but it’s a prayer that I have uttered with as much regularity. In fact the prayer is so much a part of me, that without thinking when I want to pray I utter the phrases to God and it causes me to think. My life is on an upward climb, and trust me, all the glory belongs to God. I have come this far, and will go further, not by my genius or by my strength, but by God’s grace and his answers to prayers. I remember I wrote a similar article some time ago, titled the songs that influenced me. I think you can learn a few things from these words of prayer, and offer them to God for yourself as well. Continue Reading »
