Self-Motivation, Personal Growth and Entrepreneurship Development on DeoluAkinyemi.com

I and a team of my friends and colleagues rushed down from Lagos to Ilorin yesterday night. We got to Ilorin around 7.30pm haven kept about 500 students waiting for over 2hrs. Manchester United was battling it out with Arsenal within a few minutes from our getting there, but the students waited for us to come, and waited again for 3 more hours while I shared some thoughts and strategies with them on how to position themselves in the next few months.

Being in Ilorin and speaking to these crowd of eager youths was fulfilling and exciting for me. By the time we finished, it was 11pm, and we didn’t have so much time to answer questions. I am dedicating this post to them, to fill in their comments, and ask their questions. 

A few thoughts have run in my head since last night, I’ve been doing some thinking about what I said and what even I have learnt. I don’t know who is out there that needs to be blessed by these words, I can assure you however that if you practice what you are about to read, you will make history! These are not the things I spoke about, if you want that, buy the tapes , let the student body make some money Continue Reading »

If we indeed are a sum total of our experiences and the vital impressions they have left on us, then no individual is fully introduced until you have a glimpse at where they are coming from, and the experiences that have shaped them. It is interesting however, that we get to know people and learn from their experiences after they die in their biographies, of if they do it themselves in their later years. 

Somehow the world makes us feel it’s self aggrandizement  to begin to write an autobiography at a young age, but it’s interesting however that when we read about the great, our attentions are not focused on how they died, or how they spent their old age, our eyes are riveted rather on their making, their early years. We look around for traces in them of similarities with us, as if somehow to convince ourselves that greatness has not completely eluded us. Greatness hasn’t eluded you, it’s never too late to start to do things right. When all is said and done, and your history is written, there will be no reference to the kind of car you drove, no reference to how many houses you have, no reference to how loaded your bank account was. Think about it, do you know what car Bill Gates drives? Do you know how many houses he has or where he has them? Remember, this man is still alive now, and 99% of us don’t even know those things. When your coffin is lowered and your grave sealed, what lives on after you, are the lives you have blessed, the people your coming made a difference to, what you gave, the sacrifices you made and the things you did, that made others say thank you. Continue Reading »

When the lazy man yawns the market women hear

The lazy Man likes to prolong action, he wishes that it rains so he can sleep

It’s no use telling a lazy man not to sleep, the day of his shame is nearer than ever.

 

The lazy man hears about a sumptuous meal of pounded yam, and draws a chair

He hears of a journey to the farm and carelessly throws away the cutlass

The lazy man cannot strike the palm tree for wine

Neither can he shoot at the dove for meat.

 

The lazy man gets to the palm tree and opens his mouth

Yes, it must drop for free!

What you have just read about is my conversion to English of a poem I learnt in Yoruba class in Secondary School. Let me give you the raw form so that just in case you understand the language it can make some sense to you. If you don’t understand Yoruba, please feel free to skip this part. Continue Reading »

Once upon a time a team of young people came together to have a discussion about their future. They were in their early teens, and they seemed in a hurry to know what their future held for them. The imagined and postulated on what was possible and what was not, who will likely become what and all what not. While they rambled and rumbled, an elderly woman passed by and overheard their discussions and arguments about the future.

The old woman slowed down until they noticed her and kept quiet. With a shrill voice slightly more than a wisper, she looked one of them in the eye, and asked them a question that got them all puzzled, “Is your future bright?” Not knowing whether to answer for himself, answer for everybody or not answer at all, the silence gradually grew to wispers and and sign language. Haven gotten them where she wanted them to be, she went ahead to ask them which of them was willing to look into her crystal ball to see his/her future. The reaction that ensued reminds me of about four years ago, when I was presented with a similar opportunity in Poland, questions within a wide range fly around in your head, let’s not go there. After a while, they joked and heckled and they brazed up and decided to take a peek into their futures. 

The Old woman brought out a crystal ball, but first asked them a few questions. “What do you want to become?”, “What is your dream?”, “What have you done about your dream?”, “What do you plan to do?” After they answered the questions, he showed them the crystal ball, and explained to them what she could see. Continue Reading »

Once upon a time, a big manufacturing company had a problem with their machine. Their machine was huge and monstrous and it was quite a challenge to pin down exactly what the problem was. The machine simply stopped working, their internal engineers tried tirelessly, but hours rolled into days, and days headed for weeks. They decided to hire the services of a city renown expert engineer. 

The engineer came to the site as soon as he was briefed. Like all engineers, the first thing to do for him was to diagnose before prescribing solutions. He had a word with the heads of operation of the company and they commissioned him to solve the problem. He strolled into the engine room, it was a really big room with lots of pipes, engines and cylinders. It was a big operation. The expert engineer strolled in, observing carefully as he walked along. A few engineers from the company closely behind him, trying to see for themselves where the problem was. The expert engineer, oozing the wisdom that comes from plenty of white hair strolled carefully around the entire room, touching, pausing, feeling and thinking. After walking around for about 30 mins. The engineer requested for a hammer from his tool box. He took out the hammer, and hit a particular spot on one of the cylindrical pipes. He asked them to switch on the engine, they did, she struck the place again, and as if by one stroke of magic, the engine’s responded, and began to work again. He asked them to switch off the engine, then turn it on again. The machine responded as if there had been no problem whatsoever, it worked smoothly. 

All the engineers were surprised, but excited. Alas the machine was up again. News went fast to the operations manager and the CEO, the expert engineer was indeed an expert, as he had solved a very complex problem that had bedeviled the whole company and help them ransom for too long. Their excitement however faded when the expert engineer sent them his bill. He was demanding for a small sum of $10,000. The engineers could not believe their eyes, the operations manager was exasperated. He could not reconcile the bill, with the story he had heard of how the problem was solved. Not to appear rude by denying the expert of his charges, the operations manager requested that the expert engineer break down his bill, so that the company could understand what they were paying for. Continue Reading »

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In my growing up years, I discovered I cut my public speaking teeth, helping as compere in people’s birthdays. This ofcourse meant that I had to keep a list of stories, riddles and jokes to entertain the audience with. It also meant that I had to sit through a number of birthday messages and good will talks. As you can possibly guess, I currently cannot be tongue tied speaking at any birthday, but more importantly I picked up a phrase that has stayed with me from one of those birthdays. The statement is simple – “One year more, is one year less!”

What that statement means is that while we rejoice about advancing in age, we should be careful to think back and know that you have one year less, to achieve all you were born to achieve. The psalmist put it in a great way, when he said “Teach us O lord, to number our days, that we may apply our hearts to wisdom”. Wisdom is knowing that every advancement in time, is a deduction from the upper sands in the hourglass of life. It is hence essential that as we celebrate our achievements, we plan our progress.. Continue Reading »

PRESS RELEASE

We are proud to announce that Advertfarm has finally gone public with the beta today. This has been made possible by the priceless feedback from our Private Beta testers.

We are currently limiting account sign-ups to ONLY 1,000 users at the moment. So, hurry and get yours now.

Please, feel free to distribute the following press release:

Advertfarm, a mobile content network, has emerged today from private beta. This start-up is privately funded and based in Lagos, Nigeria. Advertfarm, as a stand-alone company, focuses on delivering mobile contents to users across Africa through Short Message Services (SMS).  Our services include but not limited to SMS marketing, SMS Recruitment, Events Broadcasting, Sponsored Mobile Services and Mobile Alerts. Continue Reading »