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

Nokia’s Quiz (Send the Answers today)

Which of the following is Nokia known for?

A. Finding people       B. Identifying people C. Connecting people

Where is Nokia’s global head office based?

A. Norway                  B. Finland                   C. Denmark

Which of these can you get FREE on your Ovi Store?

A. Games        B. Sweet & Sour sauce           C. Umbrella

Which of these can you get on the Nokia C3?

A. Instant Coffee        B. Instant Noodles      C. Instant Messaging

Everything you need for your Nokia is right here except?

A. Ovi Store   B. Ovi Chat   C. Ovi Mail   D. Ovi Street

(Please send the  all answers to the questions to deoluakinyemi@gmail.com today 2nd of Sept, 2010.)

As I write this post, I’m in a taxi in Nasarawa. We’ve been journeying together with a few colleagues from Jos, heading towards Abuja. It’s almost 8pm and I’m 2 days behind my normal plans. I’ve had two cancelled flights by two different airlines in two days. The pot seems black, but I have learnt from time, that the white corn jelly [eko funfun] usually proceeds from the black pot of life.

Wherever, however, whenever, great things come from small, hopeless or ugly beginnings. In the midst of it all, I’m getting cozy with my blackberry and, I have a message for you! Continue Reading »

Can your life drastically improve in the next one year? Did it, in the last one year? What are you prepared to do differently?

Let’s not fool ourselves, things are not likely to suddenly progress and transform you into success or greatness without doing something you didn’t want to, or think you can do before! Don’t read this mail, don’t take action based on what you read, and I can guarantee your life will continue the way it did before you started. Act however, and you may discover that you have untapped potentials for unique achievement and greatness.

The Foolish buy today, the Wise buy tomorrow based on trends! Continue Reading »

One of the strongest revelations I walk with is understanding that the fear of extremes makes us mediocre. People regularly live less than their potentials, because of a dread of the worst. What if I fail? What if I die? What if my good name is dragged in the mud? What if I make a fool of myself? Unwilling to think deeply about the worst, men and women condemn themselves to an average low impact existence.  No books are written about them, no quotes to their name, their fear of failure got them eventually the same fate with all, death, but meaningless lives.

I have learnt to always confront my worst possibilities? I resigned from paid employment 4yrs ago with clarity about the question, what if I fail? My answer was that should I fail, I would send my family to my parents or theirs, I will stay around in Lagos for a little longer and work my butts off, if all still fails, I will go back to the village and get involved in farming!  I grew up learning to farm, and I know that on the farm you are not likely to die of hunger, and once there is life, there is hope . I have a colleague that told me his own worst case scenario was that he’ll become a driver – since he loves to drive. What I have learnt is that except you are willing to ask yourself mind boggling questions, you will not make mind boggling progress.  Those who go very high in life, are those who have dealt with the fear of falling. What if you fail? Continue Reading »

We are where we are today, because of decisions that we made. Life is a journey, it’s a long road with many junctions, it’s a giant maze. The junction you and I chose to follow determine our destination, and determine our experience. Take it from me, decision making the most important activity we’ll ever engage in. Everything else stems from our decisions. He who leads, excels or succeeds does so based on decisions. The only measurable output of your thinking is your decision. Once again  however, our curriculum does not arm us at any level with how to make decisions.

“Whenever you see a successful business, someone once made a courageous decision.” – Peter Drucker (Management Guru)

This reminds me of the story of an economic adviser to a great king. This king always relied on his adviser to help him with his economically oriented decisions, but typical of all economists, the adviser will offer him a detailed analysis of why to do things in a certain way on one hand, and reasons why he can do it the other way on the other hand. The king would need to make a decision, and at the end of the day will hear two possibilities, one version on one hand, and the other on the other hand. This got the king really frustrated, and anxious to end his persistent confusion. The king thought long and hard, and finally came up with a decision that is indeed the mother of all decisions. The decision that will help him simplify his decision making process. After he did that, his life became simple, and he became successful. Continue Reading »

Very early this morning I woke up with a startle. There seemed to be a strong message on my heart, for me, and for all that care to listen. I had known for a long time that the determining factor of anyones success or failure is his/her thoughts, but very early this morning it got reinforced. Our minds are the battle grounds in which our battles are won or lost, it is the last frontier before our victories. You and I can get to anywhere from where we are, we can become anything we dream or chose to become. It’s totally up to us, we’ve been given the power. Great things however do not happen to us by coincidence, to become and arrive at the right destination, we must become the right people.

If you desire the financial prosperity of Bill Gates, what you need is not his company or a financial leverage. What you need is to think the thoughts of Bill Gates. If you want to play golf like Tiger Woods, then you need to think like Tiger woods. Change your thoughts and your life will change. Think poverty and you will become poor, think wealth and it will be. As a man thinks in his heart, so is he. Your life will move in the direction of your most predominant thought. I hold firmly the opinion that you can change your life. That you and I have a choice in the way our tomorrow will be. I believe that inside everyman and woman, lies the keys to a better life, that no matter how bad, we can change, not matter how low, we can still rise. Do you feel the need for more, for better, for greater, for more impact? Then this is your time, and this post was written to guide you. Continue Reading »

Some of you were not reading this site back when I wrote “I wept”, and some of you were. If you are curious enough you can go over and read it. It makes an interesting read everytime I go back memory lane. Today’s article is however not a mere recap of why I wept back then. Today’s article is about why I wept today!

Just incase you don’t know, let me remind you once again, that I percieve my tears as precious. So precious that you are likely to find gold before you see tears in my eyes. I have discovered however, that while it might be difficult to share tears out of pain, I find myself getting moved and touched by care, concern and certain fundamental life issues.  Today I held back the tears without success, with a handkerchief in my pocket and ladies from different nations around me, I tried to play the man with a heart of steel, to watch and nod rather than allow my lacrimal glands take the day, but it happened again. Like Shakepsear said – “To weep is to make less the dept of grief”, I felt better after.

It wasn’t out of sorrow, thankfully, it was out of concern and compassion for people like you and I.  People like you and I who have the capacity to do a lot more than we are doing. People like you and I who have accepted the stereotyping of society. People like you and I who are bound for the grave with virtually all our talents and resources untouched and still loaded. People like you and I who are so quick and sharp with excuses, that we have become incapable of venturing into anything. While I listened, my heart melted, my siliva dried, my ears openned and I heard Gods’ voice in my ears, and my eyes gave way to warm tears. What happened? Follow me. 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 »

I came back into Nigeria yesterday, and I have been tongue and finger tied. When you learn too much in one doze, it can lead to intellectual constipation. In these kind of times, it pays to sit still for a while and let it all sink in. Afterall, it’s not what we learn that matters, it’s what we do with what we learn. 

It’s been 9 days of interacting with nature and history! I’ve been around a few countries prior to now, my first visit to Dubai made me feel that Dubai was the ultimate tourist attraction from Africa to Asia, but the number of tourists I came into contact with in Egypt, is a record I’m not sure will be beaten in a long time! Whereas in Dubai the crowd clusters were in shopping malls, in Egypt people queued in front of Tombs, in front of Temples, Mosques, Churches and Museums. People paid, yesterday night I counted my own tickets, to learn about the past. American’s, Europeans, Asians, Africans, Australians, all the continents were there, everybody taking out time to be on vacation, looking for something, asking questions, and where they were allowed, taking pictures. Continue Reading »

There is an experiment that I read about that opened my eyes to the truth about Fear. I’ll narrate the story to you and guide you into my understanding of the inner workings of fear and how to break away from limiting mind sets. There is nothing that stops living a full and fulfilling life like fear. Fear shackles, holds back, and paralyzes good initiatives. Many of our best ideas have never seen the light of day because of fear. Many of us are living way less than our possibilities because of fear. Many of us are stuck with Jobs we don’t like, relationships we don’t enjoy, dreams we haven’t birthed, desires we don’t express, all because of fear. The fear of the unknown, the fear of being wrong, the fear of failing, the fear of falling, the fear of poverty, the fear of isolation. Fear! If you can break free from the hold of fear, not only will your words be motivating, your life will be inspiring. When we break lose from our fears, we unconsciously liberate others around us to do the same! 

How fear works is quite interesting, and I think this little experiment clarifies it. Imagine a long flat board, 100 meters long, and 1 meter wide (1 meter is a little more than 3 rulers and for 100 meters, think about the track in secondary school) Imagine it lying on the ground, and you are asked to walk on it without moving off it at any point. If the picture of this is clear in your mind, walking along this board for 100 meters should be a piece of cake. In fact, you should be able to almost close your eyes and run on it. Right? Now imagine that this same flat board, was lifted up to the height of a sky scraper and fixed between two sky scrapers for you to walk on? Imagine, it and ask if you would? The truth is, you will be a lot more reluctant to walk, the board has not changed, it was the same board you would have run on confidently a few mins ago. But all of a sudden now, you are afraid, the fact that it is high up is allowing you to be clouded by the possibilities of what might happen, you are suddenly thinking more about the consequences of falling than the prospects of walking or even running. This is the way fear works, it takes your eyes off possibilities into the real of consequences. You begin to imagine things that may and will never happen, and it stops you dead in your tracks. Fear is the greatest road block to success, and except you learn to live above and in spite of your fears you are doomed! Doomed to mediocrity, doomed to average, doomed to live out a frustrated and unfulfilling existence. If you don’t face your fears, it will back you down into the corners of timidity, batter you into cowardice and leave you an underachiever. We need to understand fear and free ourselves of it’s grip, here is how. Continue Reading »

I’m sure this will create different answers in different minds. Is there a game that can be classified as the greatest? Is it football, hockey, golf, cricket or basket ball? Or is it one of those not too popular games that has been discovered to have the capacity to excite and fascinate us the most? Which is the greatest game on earth, and what are the parameters that make it so? Do we measure by the thrills? The population of the world actively engaged in the game or it’s process? The degree by which our lives are affected by them or do we use statistics from opinion polls?

Whatever it is that we chose to use however, certain facts are undeniable. Football is a game that has the capacity to literally arrest a great percentage of the world in front of their television sets. More people in the world play golf and football more than any game. The thrill and the followership of basketball in America and increasingly globally is on the increase. The fanatic support of teams, of stars and of championships is tending towards idolatory. The games have become a rallying point of our social lives, we spend days watching, spend hours talking, minutes updating the scores and seconds rejoicing. These games are great, but none of them qualifies as the greatest game in the world. Continue Reading »