Monthly Archives: November 2008

Adeolu Akinyemi
November 27, 2008

Staying Up in a Down World


Job 22:29  When men are cast down, then thou shalt say, There is lifting up; and he shall save the humble person.

Global Meltdown, Financial Crash, Fall, have you heard those words lately? If you haven’t then it means you have not been watching the news or reading the dailies. It is very clear, “men are cast down”. Many have lost a lot of money, many have lost relationships, many their jobs and and many have lost their lives. It’s not affecting individuals only, gigantic corporations have liquidated, even countries have declared bankrupcy. Men are cast down!

In the midst of these stormy dissasters that have hit “men” – humanity, nations, corporations, individuals, what is the recommended strategy for staying up? What activities must we participate in at these times, to make our fates different from that which bedevils the world?

The strategy is simple, and very straight forward. In that one sentence above, I’m going to share with you a few practical strategies for rising above these times, but first let me share a story I learnt 13yrs ago with you. Continue reading →

Related Posts:

Adeolu Akinyemi
November 24, 2008

The Miracle of Nigeria


It had never happened before in the history of Nigeria, but it just happened, or was it a dream? The Electoral process this year was impossible to toy with, the nation was almost unanimous in it’s vote for a true leader. The voice of Nigerians was not muffled, it was loud and clear! The time for change had come, and even the weather bore witness with it’s stillness and calmness. A rainbow stained the skies, it was as if the divine supported us with a message of not forgetting. With the unity characteristic of Nigerians only in the support of our national team, Nigerians were united and with a landslide victory declared the end to the rule of recycled furniture (sorry I meant leadership) and substandard officers. The wind of change blowing all over the world, had made it’s way to Nigeria! The results had just been announced, and the people had been rewarded with a leader they could call theirs.

The government has not started to operate, it hasn’t been sworn in, but already the hope in the air is so thick it can be felt. The people are celebrating and excited! They say beginning is half done, it feels like it truly is. All our unsubstantiated proclamation of a New Nigeria now seem real, all our cries to be the most desirable seem no longer a pie in the sky. Our differences seem buried in a new vision to be a part of the new, and dissociate from the old. We score more airtime on foreign stations than even our own, the world is awed. The world seems as confident in our future as we are. It all seems amazing and like a dream. I cast my mind back and asked my self,”How did this happen, how did we do it, what did we do?” I remembered the faces, some names, some voices, one by one it all came back to me, I remembered the people that brought about this great change, and my heart was gladdened. It had taken us a few years, but alas! Here is how it all started. Continue reading →

Related Posts:

Adeolu Akinyemi
November 22, 2008

Secret Fomular to Getting Lucky


The first question ought to be, what is luck, does it exist? If it doesn’t, then what are we talking about? If it does, then how can we be lucky? Is there really a secret fomular for luck?

All these, reminds me of an occurence that happened lately, I had an opportunity to relay it with a team of people in the UK last week, and it dawned on me that it really was an interesting occurrence. We had BIT (Billionaires in Training) in Lagos Nigeria and after the event, we had our normal recap. For those who do not know, the major highlight of the BIT is an opportunity for people to network, play a fun game of Cashflow 101, do an extensive recap of the learnings from the game and share real life opportunities we can all partake of to make it out of the rat race. It’s usually an exciting time, and an opportunity to meet new people.

In this particular BIT, we were doing the recap and someone noted that he observed that in the game as in life, there was a lot of luck involved. He mentioned that he noticed that a particular couple were very lucky. They seemed to get the right opportunities, throw the right scores, they definitely had luck.

When it was the lucky couples turn to respond, the answer was shocking and interesting ;) Continue reading →

Related Posts:

Adeolu Akinyemi
November 19, 2008

Sudden Death


Fourteen years ago, I was a little younger than I am now. I recall a particular day, I was sitting in my shop, yes, my shop. Just after secondary school, a friend and I had decided to start up a business venture ahead of getting into university. The breaks in universities were usually long and unending in those days, so anything to while away the time was worth it. “Adonai Ventures”, it’s been 14yrs yet I cannot forget the office, the place and the partitioning. We were running a drycleaning agency, a barbing saloon, a card making company and a whatever else we could lay our hands on. Staying in the office was also developmental for me, as I got the opportunity to listen to tapes and read, and believe me, I read in those days!

There was a story I listened to back in those days, that made a strong impression on me. I can still see the tape, it was white. We played tapes back then in a black double cassette player, I can still remember that tape player, it was a blessing back in those days. We rocked it, and it still rocks my soul! This story is the one I want to share with you today. My hope, is that the same way it made an impression on me then, it will make an impression on you. Continue reading →

Related Posts:

Adeolu Akinyemi
November 17, 2008

Is this Deoluakinyemi.com?


Hello Friend, thanks for all your contributions – reading, visiting, commenting, sharing, printing, forwarding e.t.c that you have made. All this has helped www.deoluakinyemi.com get to where it is today. This is still the same www.deoluakinyemi.com, only now the picture is more recent, the theme is completely locally made, and it’s Celebrating 3yrs of blogging history.

We are however not stopping here… we are going on, and planning to be bigger and better. I can’t do it alone still, it will be with your help and your support. So I’m using this opportunity to thank you, and to ask you for your continued support. It pays to change things once in a while, that way we can rekindle our excitement of having something new, and we can get fired to do more and more.

First of all, I’ll need your comments on this new look, it’s still work in progress, so your comments will surely add some value. I’ll appreciate every comment, great, good, bad and ugly. Continue reading →

Related Posts:

Adeolu Akinyemi
November 14, 2008

How I Started Blogging


I usually write my titles before I start writing. The titles usually motivate me to write. Looking up at this title today, and seeing what lies ahead of me, I know that this must be a lot briefer than it should be.

Right now I’m in Ikeja, I’ll be in Maryland by 3pm, and I need to be in the UK for a meeting tomorrow morning – Billionaires in Training. I need to also be back almost immediately as I have other meetings and engagments all over the place. I really desire to write everyday, this is my ideal, but atimes things just swing into accelarated mode, that I catching my breath is a struggle. Blogging is still a first love for me, I feel like telling the whole world to join me online as well, and let’s position ourselves as Nigeria’s New Media.

Tomorrow will make it exactly 3yrs after I made my first. 3 sentences post on blogosphere. I remember starting then, going on for about 3 days then having a 5 months break before I posted again. In those 5 months, I could very much have stopped, but somehow, I kept getting reminders like this post, and decided to go for it. Today, I’m 1 blogger, with about 450 posts, 9000 comments, and 400,000 visitors. I didn’t know how powerful having a blog was, until I gave it a good shot. Today, it’s helped me to achieve a lot, and if you digest this history lesson, and take a few tips from it, it might help you too. Continue reading →

Related Posts:

Adeolu Akinyemi
November 11, 2008

Can I Know You?


I decided to dust up one of my audios yesterday, and I’ve been listening to it since then. It’s an audio by Harvey Mackay, and it’s about building powerful networking relationships. Contrary to popular opinion, it’s an area where I believe I have serious room for improvement. Peter Drucker once said – “More business decisions occur over lunch and dinner than at any other time, yet no MBA courses are given on the subject”. Since there is no course or formal training on networking, it’s knowledge we must all invest in getting, and a life course we must all sit… and before this sounds like mere education, please know sincerely that I am building my network, and I’ll like to get to know YOU better.

If you are thinking, I’m an employee, what do I need to network and build powerful relationships for? Well, be sure that you will not be an employee for life, even if you want to be. The age of collecting 35yrs service award golden wristwatch is far gone, and even if you have that temperament, you’ll have to retire someday – Either to read newspapers and earn passive income, or to engage in one hobby or the other, either way, you’ll still need people, so why not start building those relationships now. Continue reading →

Related Posts:

Adeolu Akinyemi
November 8, 2008

We can make a difference!


I’m sure by now it’s no longer news, that a convoy of armed Navy men, maltreated a young lady by the name of Uzoma Okere. They beat her up and stripped her of her blouse, leaving her bra exposed on the streets in broad day light. This constitutes a breach of fundamental human rights, a lack of respect for human beings, and a national shame at the time when the world celebrates democracy.

There are some things within the events that have unveiled that I actually am happy with, and I want to take it up as a conscious effort we can make. Within 3 days, the media had responded, the matter had reached the senate, the Governor of Lagos had called her up and a lot seemed to be happening. It seems like it deserved to happen like that, but that’s not the Nigeria I knew some years ago. The speed of circulation of information about this matter could not have happened 8yrs ago! As a nation, we are changing, to get better, we must take responsibility, and yes we can!

Here are a few key highlights of what happened that was good, and how we can all help to replicate it. Continue reading →

Related Posts: