I have moved to www.busayoakanro.com

Dear Readers,

Sorry to have been off for a while. The truth is that I have moved to my own domain – www.busayoakanro.com. I apologise for my negligence but encourage you however to log on to my new site so we can keep the communication line.

I love you all.

Busayo

My mentor’s mentor is my mentor

I went for a program on Saturday – (2 days ago) where my I was privileged to listen to my mentor speak on a topic titled $1 million dollars. It was a seminar aimed at pointing those who had been making money conning people through the internet in the direction of using those same skill sets they employed in duping people to make money legitimately.

He started by showing the audience a quote of one of his mentors on a power point presentation slide. Two things immediately struck me hard:

1. The name of his mentor.
2. The veracity of his words.

Immediately, I decided to adopt the same man as my mentor. Please note; this man is a situational mentor. This means that he’s a mentor in a particular area or dimension. He is not a full or rounded mentor. He’s not exactly someone my mentor or I would like to model in terms of lifestyle or values. He is just a mentor by virtue of what he said in his aging years and the application of those words to our lives and other. His name is

Celebrating Felix Ekpa

I attended today an interesting interactive breakfast seminar on “Using Street Skills to Make Money Legitimately” facilitated by Felix Ekpa and friends. The highlights of the seminar were focused on how to employ and exploit the same skill sets used on the streets to con and dupe people out of their money to make money legitimately.

One of the things that struck me immediately I entered into the conference room used for the seminar was the array of young upwardly mobile-looking guys who you could almost bet your life on were some of the most law abiding and straight citizens of this great country. I couldn’t help but feel sorry for them and at the same time feel utmost joy.

The former feeling was in relation to those who they who would have caused pain and tears; families they might have wrecked;

The world’s new richest man

 

<!– –> Thursday March 6, 2008 Buffett becomes world’s richest man Legendary US investor Warren Buffett has overtaken his friend and sometime bridge partner Bill Gates as the world’s richest individual, with a fortune of $62bn, despite giving away a large chunk of his fortune to charity. The Nebraska-based investor has topped Forbes magazine’s annual ranking of the world’s billionaires, ending a 13-year reign for Gates, who drops to third place with $58bn. Narrowly pipping the Microsoft founder into second place is the Mexican telecoms magnate Carlos Slim, who has seen his fortune double in the past two years to $60bn. Britain’s richest resident, Lakshmi Mittal, comes in fourth, while the youngest billionaire is 23-year-old Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, who is worth $1.5bn. Buffett’s rise to number one is particularly interesting, Forbes notes, because it comes at a time of global financial turmoil and as he starts to give away part of his fortune to charity. In 2006 Buffett, the head of Berkshire Hathaway Inc, announced plans to donate 85 per cent of his money to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and four family charities. However, the man known as the Sage of Omaha also saw his fortune grow by $10bn to $62bn last year by taking advantage of depressed stock markets. “Even though he is giving away a piece of his fortune each year, the stock of Berkshire Hathaway, the source of Warren Buffet’s wealth, has been rising very rapidly,” said Forbes magazine chief executive Steve Forbes. Any celebration by the world’s newest richest man is likely to be low-key, as Buffett is famed for his frugality. In 2006 the billionaire who enjoys Cherry Coke and hamburgers celebrated his wedding to his longtime partner Astrid Menks with a fish supper at US seafood chain Bonefish Grill. The bride sported a discount wedding ring from Buffett’s jewellery company. “Buffett’s still living in the same house he bought when he was 28 for $31,000,” said his biographer Robert Miles. GUYS, INDIANS OCCUPY 4 POSITIONS IN THE FIRST 10 RICHEST MEN IN THE WORLD. WHAT ARE WE DOING IN NIERIA? WHO IS GOING TO BE THE FIRST NIGERIAN BILLIONAIRE?

Hiring the best

Today, it seems some organizations get the best hires while some never almost get a good one. Maybe like everything else, the process of hiring has slightly changed to suit this age and maybe not.

I remember attending an assessment at a multinational a few months ago. I passed the written tests and was told to wait for an interview. I was kept waiting for about 5 hours without lunch or newsletters, magazines or a video of the organization. I felt so terrible and immediately concluded in my mind that human and employee relations in this organization aren’t what I’d like to experience. As if that wasn’t enough, when I finally was interviewed, there were no apologies made with reference to the delay. I was vexed to say the least. I’m sure a lot of other people have suffered even worse a fate at the hand of hiring managers. There are some things recruiting and seclection/hiring managers out to know with regards to treating applicants improperly.

You can find out as you read an excerpt from HR advisor reviewed and edited by me.

Taking Responsibility

“To be truly great, find a problem and take responsibility for solving it.”

A few weeks ago, we had as a guest minister in my church a Nigerian and I put a stress on the word Nigerian, who has been able to etch is footprints in the sands of gold of a non-Nigerian nation. In fact this renown man achieved this feat in a European country. He has been dubbed as one of the ten most influential and impactful men in that country. He has been the subject of many world leading magazines. e.g. New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Ebony magazine etc.

He titled his message as “The sin of irresponsibility”. He told of how to be truly great and described it as taking responsibility for a problem and providing the relevant solution. In fact, according to him greatness is regional because problems are regional. The region of coverage of the solution you provide is the area in which your influence or greatness is bound by.

If you solved the problem of incessant power outage and inadequate power supply for a state in your country (say Nigeria for example), your area of influence is bound within your state. You are a hero to those who are under the influence or effect of your solution. To people in India, for example, you are a Nobody. As a matter of fact, in other states or regions within Nigeria, you are not different from any other regular citizen; but if the influence of the solution you provided spreads across and beyond that state and filters into or covers other states or regions, the level of greatness that can be applied to your name increases in proportion to the area your solution now impacts.

Devil wears Prada

“It is in our moments of decisions that our destinies are shaped……”

I am sitting down on the floor of my mentor’s sitting room writing this post at about 12.09am at night. I’m actually supposed to be working on some content for the website of the organization I work with but I just watched this movie and couldn’t resist the urge to write about it.

The title is as above “The Devil wears Prada”. The lead part was done by Academy award winner Meryl Streep. For those who have watched this movie, I won’t need to explain some stuff, but for those who haven’t, first I need to tell you to go and get a copy, sit down and watch it carefully. There is a lot you can learn. These are some of the things I learnt.

1. There are no limits.

The movie stars Anne Hathaway as Andrea “Andy” Sachs, a recent college graduate who comes to New York City and gets a job as a co-assistant to powerful and demanding fashion magazine editor Miranda Priestly, played by Meryl Streep. She came on the job as a novice. She was not interested in fashion nor did she know the first thing about succeeding in the fashion industry.

Relevance

I used to read a lot of western books when I was younger. One thing that used to impress me about native American Indians was their equestrian skills.

• I read about how Indians from before they were teenagers could ride horses bareback. They could mount them at top speed and get off the same way.
• They could literally put their ears to the ground and tell how many horses or riders or vehicles are moving, in what direction they are moving, how far out they are and how soon they’d reach them.

Reading for Gold

 “Buy the truth and sell it not”

 

A few days ago I spoke with one of my mentors about some goals I intended to achieve this year. I had the privilege of asking him what books he read that formed his values and business acumen. They said that if you want to hide something from a black man, hide it in a book. They went further to say, if you wanted to make sure he didn’t find it, buy the book and give it to him. He told me that it wasn’t necessarily the books you read that mattered but the treasures you might have dug up within the books. He summarized it as follows; if you must read a book:

 

• Make reading the book like a voyage. An adventure to seek out treasure.
• Go into the book with a purpose.
• Look for something definite in the book.
• It is not the books you read that matters; it is what you find in the books you read.
• When you find what you are looking for in a book, you should digest it until it becomes a part of you.
• What you become in life is a result of how much you have ingested and digested from reading, not what you have read.

 

Amazing Opportunities

It’s been quite a while I have updated the public on wonderful personal development opportunities that are available for anyone desirous of making the best of their lives and investments. The quote says that the best time to plant a tree was 20yrs ago, but the next best time is NOW. The greatest and best investment we’ll ever make, is investing in our lives. There are a number of opportunities to help you make the most of your life this year and I’m happy to bring them to you.

180 degrees Seminars

There’ll be a string of personal development seminars this year. There will be different features every week for the span of 40weeks. At the end of 40weeks, everyone that has 10units will be given a recognized certification in a range of personal development topics for each of the modules of 10units. These seminars will features series on Financial Empowerment, Business Development, Finding Purpose, Self Awareness, Public Speaking, Making Money Online, Stock Trading, Forex Trading, Networking to Millions, Business Financing, Social Skills Development e.t.c. The seminars will be featuring the best of facilitators from within the development industry. These seminars will cost N1000, per session but will be discounted for New Nigeria Club members. The first Unit – Introduction to Financial Empowerment will kick off on Sunday the 24th of February. (It will feature seasoned professionals making money with stock, forex, real estate, integrity, networking, intellectual property, public speaking e.t.c.) Attendance is on a first come first serve basis and it’s strictly by registration. To register, send a mail to info@generis-solutions.com with your basic contact details and 180Degrees as Subject of mail.