Building Wealth

Here is an exciting thought! Why not work full time on your job and part time on your fortune? And what a feeling you’ll have when you can honestly say, “I’m working to become wealthy. I’m not just working to pay my bills.” When you have a wealth plan, you’ll be so motivated that you’ll have a hard time going to bed at night.

Related: The Best Money Advice I Ever Heard

So if you will indulge me, I would like to share a simple formula for creating wealth. Here’s my thought on how money should be allocated.

The 70/30 Rule

After you pay your fair share of taxes, learn to live on 70 percent of your after-tax income. These are the necessities and luxuries you spend money on. Then, it’s important to look at how you allocate your remaining 30 percent. Let’s allocate it in the following ways:

Charity

Of the 30 percent not spent, one-third should go to charity. Charity is the act of giving back to the community and helping those who need assistance. I believe that contributing 10 percent of your after-tax income is a good amount to strive for. The act of giving should be taught early, when the amounts are small. It’s pretty easy to take a dime out of a naira’s. But it’s considerably harder to give away a NGN100,000 out of NGN1 million. You say, “Oh, if I had NGN1 million, I’d have no trouble giving NGN100,000.” I’m not so sure. NGN100,000 is a lot of money. Start early so you’ll develop the habit before the big money comes your way.

Capital Investment

With the next 10 percent of your after-tax income, you’re going to create wealth. This is money you’ll use to buy, fix, manufacture or sell. The key is to engage in commerce, even if only on a part-time basis. So how do you go about creating wealth? There are lots of ways. Let your imagination roam. Take a close look at those skills you developed at work or through your hobbies; you may be able to convert these into a profitable enterprise.

Related: 5 Questions to Help Turn Your Passion into Profit

In addition, you can also learn to buy a product at wholesale and sell it for retail. Or you can purchase a piece of property and improve it. Use this 10 percent to purchase your equipment, products or equity—and get started. There is no telling what genius is inside you waiting to be awakened by the spark of opportunity.

Savings

The last 10 percent should be put in savings. I consider this to be one of the most exciting parts of your wealth plan because it can offer you peace of mind by preparing you for the “winters” of life. Let me give you the definition of “rich” and “poor”: Poor people spend their money and save what’s left. Rich people save their money and spend what’s left. Twenty years ago, two people each earned a NGN50,000 a month and they each earned the same increases over the years. One had the philosophy of spending money and saving what’s left; the other had the philosophy of saving first and spending what’s left. Today, if you knew both, you’d call one poor and the other wealthy. So, remember that giving, investing and saving, like any form of discipline, has a subtle effect. At the end of the day, the week, the month, the results are hardly noticeable. But let five years lapse and the differences become pronounced. At the end of 10 years, the differences are dramatic. And it all starts with the same amount of money—just a different philosophy.

Related: 7 Tips for Developing Your Personal Philosophy

What is the origin of true ambition? There exists really only one place to find true ambition, and that is within you—in every thought, in every movement, in every motivation. Your ambition is an expression of who you truly are, your own self-expression.

Related: How I Learned That ‘Ambition’ Is Not a Dirty Word

Ambition says, I know who I am and I know where I want to go. I’m accumulating knowledge and experiences and feelings and philosophiesthat will help prepare me for opportunities that I know will show up without notice or any help on my part. Because you know where you want to go, you have already been working on the parts of your personality that will make you better. Working on your attitude, working on your health, working on your time management skills. Putting it all down on paper. And you constantly see yourself in the place you want to be, going in the direction you want to go.

Direction determines destination. So here is a question you must ask yourself: Are all the disciplines that I’m currently engaged in taking me where I want to go? What an important question to ask yourself on this year 2020 at the beginning of the month, the beginning of the week, the beginning of the day. Don’t kid yourself—fingers crossed—hoping you will arrive at a good destination when you’re not even headed that way. You have to ask yourself often, AM I? Am I doing the disciplines that are taking me in the direction I want to go? Don’t neglect to ask these important questions, questions that help determine your direction, the set of your sail, your destination.

• Is this the direction I want for my life?
• Is this someone else’s direction?
• Is this a goal I have been ingrained with since my childhood?
• Is this goal my parent’s, my spouse’s, my boss’s, my children’s—or is it MINE?

Ask yourself these questions and then debate them. After you have answered these questions within yourself, then take it one step further and ask, What am I doing that is working or not working? Debate it all. Work with your mind to figure out the best possible direction for you—your self-direction. And then ambitiously pursue your own self-direction. Let the power of your own ambition take you where you want to go, to do what you want to do, to create the life you want to live.

I’ve said it before, that success is the study of the obvious—but sometimes we need someone to remind us and show us the simplest way to get there.

Here are four simple steps to find your way to more success than you could ever imagine:

1. Collect good ideas.

My mentor taught me to keep a journal when I was 25 years old. It’s the best collecting place for all of the ideas and information that comes your way. And that inspiration will be passed on to my children and my grandchildren.

If you hear a good health idea, capture it, write it down. Then on a cold wintry evening or a balmy summer night, go back through your journal. Dive back into the ideas that changed your life, the ideas that saved your marriage, the ideas that bailed you out of hard times, the ideas that helped you become successful. That’s valuable, going back over the pages of ideas you gathered over the years, reminiscing, reminding yourself. So be a collector of good ideas, of experiences, for your business, for your relationships, for your future.

It is challenging to be a student of your own life, your own future, your own destiny. Don’t trust your memory. When you listen to something valuable, write it down. When you come across something important, write it down. Take the time to keep notes and to keep a journal.

2. Have good plans.

Building a life, building anything, is like building a house; you need to have a plan. What if you just started laying bricks and somebody asks, “What are you building?” You put down the brick you’re holding and say, “I have no idea.”

So, here’s the question: When should you start building the house? Answer: As soon as you have it finished. It’s simple time management.

Don’t start the day until it is pretty well finished—at least the outline of it. Leave some room to improvise, leave some room for extra strategies, but finish it before you start it. Don’t start the week until you have it finished. Lay it out, structure it, put it to work. The same goes for the month ahead—don’t start it until you have a plan in place.

And, the big one, don’t start the year until it is finished on paper. It’s not a bad idea, toward the end of the year, to sit down with your family for the personal plans, to sit down in your business for the professional plans, to sit down with your financial advisor to map out money plans. Plan out your calendar, your game plan, for all of life’s moving parts.

The reason why most people face the future with apprehension instead of anticipation is because they don’t have it well designed.

3. Give yourself time.

It takes time to build a career. It takes time to make changes. It takes time to learn, grow, change, develop and produce. It takes time to refine philosophy and activity. So give yourself time to learn, time to start some momentum, time to finally achieve.

I remember when Mama was teaching me a little bit about the piano. “Here is the left hand scale,” she said. I got that; it was easy. “Here is the right hand scale.” I got that, too. Then she said, “Now we are going to play both hands at the same time.” “Well, how can you do that?” I asked. Because one at a time was easy… but two the same time? But I got to where I could play the scales with both hands. “Now we are going to read the music and play with both hands,” she said. You can’t do all that, I thought. But you know, sure enough I looked at the music, looked at each hand, a little confused at first, but finally I grasped it. Then I remember the day when Mama said, “Now we are going to watch the audience, read the music and play with both hands. Now that is going too far! I thought. How could one person possibly do all that? By giving myself time to master one skill before we went to the next, I got to where I could watch the audience, read the music and play with both hands.

Life is not just the passing of time. Life is the collection of experiences and their intensity.

4. Change yourself.

Learn to solve problems—business problems, family problems, financial problems, emotional problems. The best way to treat a challenge? As an opportunity to grow. Change if you have to, modify if you must, discard an old philosophy that wasn’t working well for a new one.

The best phrase my mentor ever gave me: “Mr. Sunday, if you will change, everything will change for you.” I took that to heart, and sure enough, the more I improved, the more everything improved for me.

You cannot change your destination overnight, but you can change your direction overnight.

Take Initiative!

Let me ask you a question: When was the last time something significant happened in your life that youinitiated?

One of the key distinguishing marks I see in successful leaders all around the world is a willingness to take initiative.

Lester Wunderman was a legendary New York Ad man in the 40’s and 50’s. After being fired from his job, Wunderman got up the next morning and went back to work anyway—without pay. The head of the agency, Max Sackheim, ignored him for a month before finally walking into his office and saying, “Okay, you win. I never saw a man who wanted a job more than he wanted money.”

Wunderman went on to become one of the most successful leaders in the history of the advertising industry, and is widely regarded as the father of direct marketing.

Here’s what I want you to know: It will take a bold step from you today to reach your potential tomorrow.

Consider these things as you seek to become a leader who takes initiative.

1. Know what you want.

Napoleon Hill wisely said, “The starting point of all achievement is desire.” The only way you’ll be able to recognize opportunity when it comes is to know what you want.

2. Push yourself to act.

Leaders who take initiative understand their responsibility to be self-motivated. I love this quote from President Theodore Roosevelt, “There is nothing brilliant or outstanding in my record, except perhaps this one thing: I do the things that I believe ought to be done… And when I make up my mind to do a thing, I act.”

3. Take risks.

Leaders are willing to take risks when they recognize there is a price for not initiating too. President John F. Kennedy said this, “There are risks and costs to a program of action, but they are far less than the long-range risks and costs of comfortable inaction.” Taking risks is necessary for sustained growth and long-term success.

4. Make mistakes.

To make things happen you have to make mistakes. Take it from the founder of IBM, Thomas J. Watson, “The way to succeed is to double your failure rate.” In order to experience great success, you must be willing to put yourself on the line, even at the risk of failure. It’s not about failing less, it’s about learning faster.

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Conrad Hilton, wildly successful hotel executive said this, “Success seems to be connected with action. Successful people keep moving. They make mistakes, but they don’t quit.”

I want to encourage you today to push yourself to take initiative in your life and leadership. If you wait for opportunity to knock, you will be known for your wasted potential. But if you choose to believe that opportunity is waiting for you to knock, you will find it everywhere.

Do you wait for opportunity to come to you?

Or are you constantly on the lookout for opportunity?

It’s like former Chrysler chairman Lee Iacocca said, “Even the right decision is the wrong decision if it is made too late.”

Don’t wait—take iniaitive!

Achieving genuine success is not a solo effort. You simply can’t be successful by yourself. With that in mind, I’d like to offer some tips that have been effective for me in building good relationships.

Related: 8 Traits of Healthy Relationships

Let’s start with kindness. How kind should you be? As kind as you possibly can. Who should you be kind to? To everyone you come in contact with. From taxi drivers, to hotel clerks, to servers, to store clerks, to people on the street, in your office and at home. Be kind to everyone.

A kind word goes a long way. Perhaps somebody is having a bad day and you don’t know it. He or she is really feeling down and you offer a kind word. Maybe it’s just a friendly, “Hello, how are you today?” Maybe it’s just taking a minute or two to listen to what somebody has to say. But your few moments of attention could turn somebody’s day around. You might make them feel more worthwhile and important.

Be generous with your kindness. It will go a long way. People will remember, whether you know them or not. If you’re in a crowded restaurant and you’re especially nice to the waiter, he’ll remember you next time you come in and give you even better service.

When you give kindness, it’s not gone. It’s invested. It will come back to you two, five, 10, 100 times. Kindness is important in every aspect of your life, especially in building good relationships with others.

The next relationship-building essential is sensitivity. Allow yourself to be touched by the experience of others. Understand the plight of others. Open up your heart, mind and attention to the needs of others. Whether they’re people you work with or people you live with, you need to put yourself in other people’s shoes. Try to find out, if you can, what’s going on in their hearts.

Related: How to Be More Empathetic in Conversations

If there’s a problem, you’ve got to be sensitive enough to ask some questions. One question might do it. Sometimes, however, you won’t even get through to the root of the problem until you’ve asked two or three questions.

People often won’t reveal the problem on the first question. You say, “How are you today? How are things?” He or she answers, “Well, everything’s OK.” You can tell by the way they say this that everything is not OK. Most of us don’t want to come right out and say what the real problem is, unless two criteria are met.

1. We need to feel as though we’re talking to someone we can trust.
2. We need to believe we’re talking to someone who really cares.

So it might just take a second, third or fourth question before the trust builds. Once the person finally understands that you do care, they’ll be willing to tell you what’s really going on. You’ll hear what’s really on their mind.

Asking questions up front can save so much time. Have you ever talked for an hour and then asked a question? You probably found out that you just wasted the previous hour. Learn to ask questions that will build the trust and communication between you and those you work with. Build trust and communication, and you’ll also build loyalty.

Related: 9 Traits of Trustworthy People

If you don’t know the other person very well, you will obviously need a longer questioning process. You need to take the time to find out what he’s all about. You must be sensitive to where he or she came from, what he or she has been through, and the tragedies in his or her life. If you really want to have an effect on people, start with where they are coming from. If they’re hurting, try to understand their pain. If somebody’s in trouble, you’ve got to start with the trouble.

Learn to express, not impress. If you want to touch somebody, express sincerity from the heart. When you try to impress, you build a gulf. By expressing, you build a bridge. People want to be able to relate their thoughts and philosophies and experiences to someone who will say, “Me, too. I know what you mean.” They don’t want your reaction to be, “So what?”

If you’re meeting someone for the first time, and you’re simply getting acquainted, here’s where you start: Find something you have in common. Find something you can both identify with.

When you’re talking with somebody who’s been stricken in the heart and you’ve had the same experience, you can talk about being stricken in the heart. Your words will mean something. They will have substance. They will have depth. If you start there, building the bridge with kindness and sensitivity, you have identification. You have the basis for a strong and fruitful relationship. And everyone will benefit.

Related: The 4 Building Blocks of Good Communication

We all know the value of having plenty of money, especially as entrepreneurs. But we also know there are people who started enterprises with no money, who went on to make fortunes. So how did they do it?

Jim Rohn believes there are nine things that are more valuable than capital, things that can lead straight to your success:

1. Time

Time is a treasure—the time you set aside not to be wasted, not to be given away. The time you set aside to be invested in something that brings value to the marketplace with the hope of making a profit, that’s capital time.

How valuable is time? Time properly invested is worth a fortune; time wasted can be devastation. Time invested can perform miracles—so invest yours.

Related: 5 Tips for Using Your Time Wisely

2. Desperation

My friend and mentor Bill Bailey went to Chicago as a teenager after he got out of high school. And the first job he got was as a night janitor. Someone said, “Bill, why would you settle for night janitor?” He said, “Malnutrition.” His first job might have been night janitor, but he went on to receive the Horatio Alger award and become rich and powerful—one of the great examples of lifestyle that I know.

Desperation can be a powerful incentive when you say I must. You work at whatever you can possibly get when you get hungry. You go to work somewhere—it doesn’t matter where.

3. Determination

I have another friend, Lydia, whose first major investment in her new enterprise was also desperation. She needed to feed her kids—so she invested $1 in something she believed in. That $1 was used to buy a few flyers so she could make a sale at retail, collect the money and then buy the product wholesale to deliver back to the customer.

First Lydia said, “I must find a customer”—desperation. Second she said, “I will find someone before this first day is over”—determination. And sure enough, she found someone. Determination says I will.

4. Courage

If you’ve only got $1 and a lot of courage, you’ve got a good future ahead of you. Because humans can do the most incredible things no matter what happens—courage in spite of, not because of, circumstances.

5. Ambition

With courage, Lydia made three or four more sales. And once she got going, ambition took over. She thought, If I can sell three, I can sell 33. If I can sell 33, I can sell 103. Lydia was dazzled by her own dreams of the future.

Related: How to Access the Power of Ambition

6. Faith

At this point, Lydia began to believe she had a good product, a good company. And then she started to believe in herself—Lydia, a single mother, two kids, no job. My gosh, I’m going to pull it off! Her self-esteem started to soar.

Faith is an investment that cannot be matched. Money can’t touch it. What if you had a million dollars and no faith? You’d be poor. You wouldn’t be rich.

7. Ingenuity

The reason Lydia is a millionaire today is because of her ingenuity—she put her brains to work.

Probably up until now, you’ve put about 1/10 of your brainpower to work. What if you employed the other 9/10? You can’t believe what can happen. Humans can come up with the most intriguing things to do.

What’s ingenuity worth? A fortune. All you need is a $1 and plenty of ingenuity. Figuring out a way to make it work, make it work, make it work.

8. Heart and Soul

Heart and soul is like the unseen magic that moves people—moves people to make decisions, moves people to act, moves people to respond.

What is a substitute for heart and soul? It’s not money, because heart and soul is more valuable than a million dollars. A million dollars without heart and soul? You have no life. You are ineffective.

9. Personality

My mentor Bill Bailey taught me, “You’ve got to learn to be just as comfortable, Mr. Rohn, whether it is in a little shack in Kentucky having a beer and watching the fights with my friend Winfred, or in a Georgian mansion in Washington, D.C., as the senator’s guest.”

You’ve got plenty of personality. You’ve just got to spruce up and sharpen up it, develop it to where it is effective every day, at home anywhere, no matter who you talk to—whether it is a child or a businessperson, a rich person or a poor person. It makes no difference to you who is rich or who is poor. It’s about the chance to have a unique relationship with whomever. Have the kind of personality that’s comfortable, the kind of personality that’s never bent out of shape. Move with ease, with charisma and sophistication and humility.

With $1 and this list, the world is yours. It belongs to you, whatever piece of it you desire, whatever development you wish for your life. It’s the kind of capital that is more valuable than money and that can secure your future and fortune. Remember that you lack not the resources.

What’s your dream?

Think about it—what is the one thing that you would love to see accomplished in your lifetime? If I had to guess, it’s probably pretty big. And that’s a good thing—as long as what I say next doesn’t discourage you:

Everything big started small.

I’m sure you remember those famous first words of Neil Armstrong as he walked out on the moon: “That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.” The funny thing about that historic achievement is the first steps were taken long before that infamous “first small step.”

President John F. Kennedy birthed the vision in a speech at Rice University on September 12, 1962 when he declared that the United States would “go to the moon in this decade.” Because the President chose to make this endeavor a priority and aligned the budget accordingly, we saw the vision come to reality seven years later on July 20, 1969.

Chinese philosopher Lao Tzu said, “A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.” That is so true! Don’t let your big dream overwhelm you before you even begin—start small.

Henry David Thoreau wrote, “One is not born into the world to do everything, but to do something.” According to StrengthsFinder 2.0, every person can do one thing better than the next ten thousand people.

What’s your one thing? Find it and focus on growing it everyday.

John Maxwell shares an eye opening thought about the compounding effect of doing something small to grow daily: “If you start with just a single penny and double it every day for thirty-one days, you end up with $21,474,836.48.” Just consider the possible return from practicing your one thing with excellence every day!

Remember, success is gained in inches, not miles. Maybe the first step for you is a small change. Trying to make big changes too quickly can paralyze you with fear because it can appear unachievable.

Try organizing your desk to be more efficient, rearranging your calendar to get more out of your day, or reading a book that broadens your perspective. Any small change that can make you better is worth making.

The greatest mistake I see young leaders make is attempting to skip the small steps in the beginning. When they do this they end up missing out on the many important lessons that must be learned before big steps can be taken. They spend all of their time looking around at other leaders doing big things and get tricked into thinking they should be there already.

It may sound simple but the only place you can start is where you are.

Don’t be fooled: success is a journey, not a destination. And it all starts with one small step. Your action.

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How to Develop Critical Thinking Skills

By Sunday Uroupa |November 13, 2019 | 3 

Do you react to situations based on your emotions or personal biases? Are you looking for ways to improve communicationand the flow of ideas with those around you? There are skills that have the capability to greatly improve your capacity to make objective, effective choices and arguments, and those are critical thinking skills. Without these skills, arguments can often be one-sided. Criticism can feel like a personal attack on your character rather than an opportunity to open up dialogue and communicate productively.

Related: 8 Ways to Master the Art of Communication

Let’s take a look at how to develop critical thinking skills so that you can walk into any situation with the tools needed to set intense emotions aside and make insightful decisions.

1. Become a self-critic.

The very first and most important step for developing critical thinking skills is becoming a critic of your own thoughts and actions. Without self-reflection, there can’t be growth. You can break down your own thoughts by asking yourself why you believe something. When you do this, you need to clarify your thoughts by assessing this information objectively and finding a solid logic to what you believe, rather than just a muddled idea. Why do I believe this? Can I think of examples in my life when this proved true or false? Am I attached to this idea emotionally? Why? When we self-reflect, we are able to observe how we respond to a situation, in our minds and out loud.

Another aspect of becoming a self-critic is acknowledging your strengths, weaknesses, personal preferences and biases. When you know this information, you can understand why you approach certain situations from a specific perspective, and then you can step around that viewpoint because you are aware of its presence.

2. Active listening.

Thinking and listening are nearly impossible to do at the same time. To become a critical thinker, you need to be able to listen to others’ ideas, arguments and criticisms without thinking of your response or reaction while they are speaking. You can’t properly absorb the information someone is trying to convey to you if you don’t take the time to truly listen. Listening allows us to feel empathy.We hear someone else’s story, struggles, ideas, successes and passions, and how they reached them. When we hear their perspective, we can take that information and analyze it. When we use active listening skills, we can fully understand what someone is trying to tell us because that conversation continues until all parties can reiterate what the other is trying to say.

3. Analyzing information.

Analyzing information is paramount for critical thinking. No one thinks critically at all times. Sometimes our joy, anger, sadness or other emotions are too great, and other times we struggle to focus on the central issue at hand. To reach success, we need to analyze the information before us, whether it is information in our mind or being shared by others. We can break it down by assessing what is being said, and ensuring that we clearly understand what it is that needs to happen. Then we can dissect and appraise all arguments, including our own, and think about how the decisions would impact others, as well as the bottom line. When we can step back and analyze an argument, it allows us to approach it from an objective viewpoint.

4. Nonviolent communication.

Critical thinking isn’t much help if you can’t communicate in a nonviolent, productive way. When listening and analyzing different arguments, you first need the ability to recognize valid logic. Then you need to be able to communicate with other people in a productive way. The basis of nonviolent communication is compassion, observation and collaboration. When we approach any scenario with compassion, we are already in a peaceful mindset, rather than a defensive one. When we observe, we can observe our arguments and others without judgment and evaluation. We can detach our emotions from an idea. He doesn’t like my idea, so he must not like me. And collaboration naturally happens when everyone comes into the process with a compassionate, open mind, with the focus on solving the objective at hand rather than protecting anyone’s ego.

5. Developing foresight.

The ability to predict the future impact of a decision is foresight. Foresight is a critical component for success in all aspects of your life. When you move somewhere, you plan ahead to see what the job outlook is and the safety of a neighborhood. If you are moving a business, it is wise to examine the impact of that decision. Will it be too far for some of your talented employees to drive? Will you lose business because of the change? What will you gain? Every decision should be weighed carefully, with consideration of how the choice affects your bottom line, but also for the people who are working toward success alongside you.

Critical thinking requires the ability to reflect on one’s own beliefs, as well as someone else’s ideas, and then see the connections between those things. It requires the ability to actively listen to others, to assess, dissect and appraise arguments, and to separate intense emotions from the topic at hand.

Related: 10 Ways Successful People Make Smart Decisions

Be yourself; Everyone else is already taken.

— Oscar Wilde.

This is the first post on my new blog. I’m just getting this new blog going, so stay tuned for more. Subscribe below to get notified when I post new updates.

This is an example post, originally published as part of Blogging University. Enroll in one of our ten programs, and start your blog right.

You’re going to publish a post today. Don’t worry about how your blog looks. Don’t worry if you haven’t given it a name yet, or you’re feeling overwhelmed. Just click the “New Post” button, and tell us why you’re here.

Why do this?

• Because it gives new readers context. What are you about? Why should they read your blog?
• Because it will help you focus you own ideas about your blog and what you’d like to do with it.

The post can be short or long, a personal intro to your life or a bloggy mission statement, a manifesto for the future or a simple outline of your the types of things you hope to publish.

To help you get started, here are a few questions:

• Why are you blogging publicly, rather than keeping a personal journal?
• What topics do you think you’ll write about?
• Who would you love to connect with via your blog?
• If you blog successfully throughout the next year, what would you hope to have accomplished?

You’re not locked into any of this; one of the wonderful things about blogs is how they constantly evolve as we learn, grow, and interact with one another — but it’s good to know where and why you started, and articulating your goals may just give you a few other post ideas.

Can’t think how to get started? Just write the first thing that pops into your head. Anne Lamott, author of a book on writing we love, says that you need to give yourself permission to write a “crappy first draft”. Anne makes a great point — just start writing, and worry about editing it later.

When you’re ready to publish, give your post three to five tags that describe your blog’s focus — writing, photography, fiction, parenting, food, cars, movies, sports, whatever. These tags will help others who care about your topics find you in the Reader. Make sure one of the tags is “zerotohero,” so other new bloggers can find you, too.