10 %

Nigeria has been labeled the most populous black nation. It has been said that out of every 4 black people you meet around the world, 1 is a Nigerian. A country of about 150 million people with leaders in every relevant industry of the modern world, Nigeria is undoubtedly ranked as being part of the top 10 percent of known countries in Africa. However, can it be categorized as being part of the top 10 percent of developed or developing countries in Africa? I’d say no.

South Africa is regarded as the only developed African nation so that rules Nigeria out of the category. Even among the developing nations, Nigeria doesn’t have a GDP that qualifies it to be top 10 percent. It’s been said that 90% of the wealth of a certain group of people will rest in the hands of 10% of that group of people. Nigeria has not proved itself yet to be part of the 10% holding the wealth of Africa. Whereas the potential is evidenced by the massive stock of Natural, Human and Intellectual resources, the realization is another story altogether.

The current Managing Director of the World Bank, a vice-president of the World Bank, a former secretary to the Commonwealth of Nations, An Icon of Revolution in Ukraine, a former world’s best computer scientist……..etc. are all Nigerians. I could go on and on. What about natural resources? The largest gas reserves in the world, one of the largest bitumen reserves in the world, the 6^th largest crude oil producing and exporting nation in the world; the most unique granite deposits (sandy-looking) in the world; large deposits of marble and limestone just to mention a few all refer to Nigeria. Why then are we not top 10 percent?

Preparedness – 5

“Luck = Opportunity + Preparation”

Having learnt and developed key managerial skills, Joseph had acquired the ability to take over the whole empire. He just needed the opportunity. Once the opportunity presented itself, he was available.

What had he learnt?

 

• He learnt how to dream.
• He learnt how to serve.
• He learnt how to manage people and resources to achieve a particular goal.
• He improved his dreaming skills to interpretation of dream skills.
• He learnt how to network.
• He learnt integrity.
• He became a visionary – he could recommend solutions to interpretation of dreams before they came to pass.
• He learnt to make himself relevant wherever he found himself.

What if Joseph had accepted his fate as a bond servant without hope for a turn-around? What if he had frowned on and despised opportunities to develop himself? What if he never had seen the cup half-full instead of half-empty? He probably would not have prepared himself for the place of prime minister.

Prime Minister – The Prize of Relevance

Joseph paid the price and won the prize. He had been learning all that was necessary to stay relevant in his environment (Egypt). He found out that dreaming didn’t add value to others. Only the dreamer was gratified by the dream. So he learnt how to interpret other people’s dreams.

Would I Ever Have Been 1st?

You shall be the head and not the tail; you shall be above always and not beneath.

I returned yesterday from a trip to a major city in a south-western state in Nigeria. I went to the city on three platforms. One was to facilitate a training program at an institution of learning within the city; another was to stage a seminar on the New Nigeria Club ideology and marketing presentation; the last was to accompany my mentor to his alma mater to present awards of excellence to the best performing students at every level of the school.

While the training went well, I am not going to be writing about it now, nor will I be writing about the NNC seminar which was also a success. My highlight here is the presentation of awards of excellence to the best performing students. Typically, being the best inferred that such students were currently ranked the first position in their respective classes.

After a motivating lecture delivered from the depths of his heart (the lecture was titled – 10% percent), my mentor whose name was also in the academic hall of fame proceeded to confer on these deserving students their awards. Those that were given awards were the best three students in each class and the most outstanding and/or creative students in sports, arts and the likes. The best overall student in each class was given a full scholarship for 1 year.

Preparedness – 4

I ended up writing about Joseph’s management training in the previous post, titled PREPAREDNESS – 3. Joseph picked up this lower level training at Potiphar’s house where he ran a small organization (potiphar’s estate). The human resources at his disposal were slaves (lower cadre personnel). In Potiphar’s house, his integrity was tested with his master’s wife and having passed, he was promoted to the level of Senior Manager – The Prison.

 

Prison – Senior Level Management

After Joseph was sent to prison on false charges, he continued exhibiting relevance in the area of excellent managerial capabilities. He was so organized, adept, knowledgeable and skillful that he was made the deputy controller of the prisons. The difference between this kind of slavery and the one in potiphar’s house is the type of people he was relating with.

While in Potiphar’s house, Joseph’s mates were slaves; right here in the prison, Joseph’s mates were the high brow in the society who were there because they had fallen out of favour with the emperor (Pharaoh). Notice that Joseph was so exceptional in his abilities and skills that his master found it impossible to remand him in a slave prison. If he must be remanded at all, then he must be imprisoned with men of timber and caliber.

He need learn at this level how the high and mighty operated their lives. How they spoke, how they ate, how they held wine glasses, how they dressed, what they talked about, games they played, places they visited, who they knew, who they loved, what they dreamed………….In fact, Pharaoh’s former butler and wine mixer were present in prison at the same time Joseph was. He attended to them and polished his etiquette. He asked and found out how the palace ran, how Pharaoh looked and how he spoke. He found out all that was required of a man who would someday not only live in the palace but run an empire.

Joseph had his final preparation here for the BIG STAGE and provided value/services for top of the pop clients (Pharaoh’s chief officers). Little wonder he fit into the role of prime minister smoothly as  soon as he left the prison.

What are you learning where you are now? Your location is not directly proportional to your opportunity to learn. It’s your situation that is directly proportional to your opportunities to learn. Don’t stop learning. When you stop learning, you start dying. Live deliberately anywhere or everywhere you may find yourself.  

Preparedness – 3

I thought I’d have rounded up this topic in two posts only but it seems the more I write, the more I have to write. In preparedness 1 and 2, I wrote about Joseph’s sojourn in life through some P-Junctions and how I drew inspiration from his experiences in Padan-aram (the plain) and the pit. From the pit, Joseph was sold into slavery to work for a man named Potiphar. He was the captain of the Pharaoh’s guard.

Potiphar’s house – Management Training

Joseph got into Potiphar’s house as a slave at 17years of age. Not long after he started working there, it became apparent that he had an exceptional ability to manage resources effectively. This was evidenced by his been made the chief slave who controlled all that his master had exclusively. At some point, even Potiphar lost an account of what he truly owned because Joseph was running everything.

I like to say Joseph needed to come to this place to learn low-level management. He only had control over bondmen like himself; men of humble status. He was able to learn their needs, responses, reactions and work ethics. Since he was a slave himself he was able to understand the slavery mentality and to rise above it. He was a leader by position but he learnt to become a leader by influence so much so that when when his master, Potiphar’s wife lied against him to get him arrested, no one in the household (estate) of Potiphar could arrest him until their master himself came.

Joseph learned the rudiments of leadership and management and management in Potiphar’s house. He learnt how the production line ran. He learnt about processes. He learnt how to deal with semi or stark illiterates. He learnt to empathise with the labourers who were at the bottom of the food chain. He ate, slept, played, laughed, cried, and worked with them. They shared stories of well and woe together. They celebrated together and they sorrowed together. He knew their pain and their power. He knew their thought pattern.

Going through times that look like Joseph’s enslavement are times when we should learn the rudiments of leadership and success. It is when we should gather relevant experience necessary to facilitate smooth transition to the fulfillment of our purposes. Potiphar’s house is not necessarily a slave camp. It is a Management Training opportunity.

Preparedness – 2

Rejoice not over me O my enemy for though I am down now, I will yet rise again

This is a continuation of the learning and development stages that occurred in the life of Joseph. Previously, I had talked about his redundancy at home which caused his intrinsic talents to be hidden and unused. For more of that please navigate back to Preparedness – 1. Otherwise, you can read along as I move to the next P-junctions of Joseph’s life. Remember, the link is Deolu and you can have a deep insight into what each of these Ps represent and their application to life. From Padanaram, Joseph ended up in the pit when he went to see his brothers.

Pit – Loneliness

Joseph’s brothers conspired to kill him when he went to see to their welfare. The source of the deep hatred were his dreams which seemed to indicate that they’d serve or worship him sometime in life. This wasn’t helped as I wrote in my previous post by his father’s excessive doting on him. It only increased their jealousy and reduced his productivity.

Isn’t it those who are afraid of what we might become who always want to kill our dreams? Haven’t you noticed that habitual dream killers are those who are not dreaming at all? Isn’t it common to find that the ones who should be closest to you and who should help nurture your dreams are those who literally discourage you from dreaming again and actualizing those dreams?

After passionate intervention by his eldest brother, they decided to keep him in a pit for a while as they deliberated on what next step of action to take. Joseph was all alone in the dark, smelly pit. The lesson I learned here was the lesson of being alone. If you have a dream and seek to live to fulfill that dream, there’ll be times when you’ll be alone. Those are the times when all the faculties of your being synergize to make you an unstoppable moving force. On the flip side, those are also times when you can begin to consider thrashing your dreams. The time of being alone is the time of reflection and deep thinking. It is in the pit that you begin to analyze “what’s the worst that could happen?” “What if my brothers killed me or left me here to die, would that negate my dream”?

Preparedness – 1

“A man’s gift makes way for him and causes him to sit before kings and great men”

SUGAR!!! Today is the 1st of feb, 2008. Can you imagine? 31 full days have passed. I just attended a presentation on FINANCIAL EMPOWERMENT delivered by my colleague. It was supposed to be a rehearsal, for the real deal on sunday, but it couldn’t have been done better. It was evident he was prepared; not necessarily because he spent a night losing sleep over the presentation but because he’d been preparing for it all his life…….Maybe i’ll go into details later in another post……………I wish I could just continue writing my post but i couldn’t do that if i didn’t refer to “the beginning”. The beginning here refers to 3 posts titled “where are you 1-3″ at Deolu. There he talks about Joseph’s journey through the 6P’s-Padanaram(plain), Pit, Potiphar’s house, Prison, Palace, Prime Minister. You will have a thorough knowledge of what those P-junctions mean with relevance to life.

I got an inspiration concerning this journey as regards the lessons Joseph learned at each of these P-junctions. Please indulge me as i take you through my thoughts.

Padanaram (plain ground) – LATENT OR TALENT

Joseph was born and raised here. He had latent managerial talents that weren’t exploited. His father loved him TOO much because he was the son of his favoured wife. He had lost Rachel-Joseph’s mother at childbirth and as a result doted on Joseph and his younger brother Benjamin more than was necessary. He didn’t allow him follow his brothers to learn the shepherding and cattle rearing. He felt if he exposed him, he’d probably lose him to the wild. He believed he was too tender to face the rigours and dangers of leading cattle through the wilderness. what if lions and/or bears got him? what if his brothers sent him alone to get something for them and he lost his way? what if? what if?. Those are questions that would probably have run through his mind so he decided to play it safe and keep his son at him.

Singleness

If your eye is single, your whole body would be full of light.

 

I once heard about the story of a young man who had just one arm - the right one. The guy very much wanted to learn judo (a form of martial arts). His desire to become a world class judoka made him seek out a world class judo coach. He told the coach of his desire to learn judo and contrary to his expectation of discouragement or rejection due his handicap, the coach agreed to train him.

From the first time the training started, the coach began to teach him a particular “throw” technique aside from the basics of judo. Everyday and every training opportunity, he taught him to learn only that same technique until he perfected it. After a while, the young man began started wondering when he’d be taught another technique. All his other colleagues at the judo school were taught several other techniques but he wasn’t allowed to learn any other. He soon began to feel left out and complained to his coach about the issue. “If you want to learn to be a great judoka, just listen to my instructions and obey them.” said the coach in response to his questions.

A little while later, the young judoka started to compete in in-house matches and he started to win engaging the only throw technique he had learnt. One after the other, he won all his matches and entered into the local area competition. He won this event and qualified for the regional, state and national competitions respectively still using and honing the single throw skill he had been taught.
At the nationals, he had it a lot tougher going against experienced judokas armed with only one skill. He fought gallantly though unimpressed with himself and his coach that he could only engage one option of challenge while his opponents displayed several techniques. He literally fought for his life to counter all the techniques thrown at him. Then came the finals.

Blindness

“See, I have made you a god unto Pharaoh”

I have always been amazed at these two words-Blindness and Deafness. They generally represent a handicap or a deprivation for most people as blindness is many times related to darkness and we all know darkness is the “absence of light”. In essence, if you are blind, you have no form and you are void because that was the state of the world before God said “Let there be light”. If you need to know what state you are in, please buy the tape. Hey! but wait! see what wikipedia defines blindness as – Blindness is the condition of lacking visual perception due to physiological or neurological factors.

The interesting part of this definition for me is the visual perception. In fact, if I would redefine blindness, I’d say it’s the condition of lacking visual perception due to physiological, neurological, environmental and spiritual factors. Albeit I have found out that a handicap in one of our five senses usually results in a compensation for that loss by an upgrading of some of the other good and available ones to complement the deficient one.

Helleen Keller was quoted as saying “what is worse than blindness is having eyes and not being able to see”. She was blind at 16 months; she authored several award winning books; she could speak 3 different foreign languages and she was also deaf. Stevie Wonder has been able to write, sing and produce many award-winning songs. Ray Charles held the world spell bound in his time. Someone said “your most important eyes are not on your head but on your mind.” Why isn’t this strange?

Boldness

As I sit in my room musing over what to write, a funny story I heard in my secondary school comes to mind. It’s titled Boldness (courage). I hope I don’t bore you with its length. 3 naval divisions each from 3 different countries assembled together on a warship somewhere on the high seas. The countries represented were USA, Japan and Nigeria. The different commanders of these divisions soon got embroiled in an argument of who had the boldest soldiers in his division. After much deliberation, they decided to enter into a boldness contest.

The Japanese commander was the first one to give an order. “Jackie Chan!” he shouted, “Swim round this ship 5 times”. A fit young japanese sailor retorted “Aye, aye sir!”, jumped into the ocean and swam round the ship 5 times. The japanese commander looked at his colleagues and asked “Did you see what that man did? now that’s boldness”. The american commander proceeded to give his own order “Chuck Norris!” he yelled, “tie your hands behind your back and swin round this ship 3 times”. “Aye , aye sir” responded a lithe young soldier before plunging into the sea and swimming “no hands” around the ship 3 times”. His commander, the american, with a wolfish grin on his face turned to his colleagues and said “See what my man just did? men that’s boldness.Then came the turn of the nigerian commander. He looked around the ship and bellowed “Pasuma Wonder!” “Aye, aye sir!” answers Pasuma as a huge black man steps out of the ranks. “Swim round this ship once! Anyhow!”, commanded his boss. The nigerian soldier looks in bewilderment from the sea to his boss and back again. His visage quickly changes from shock to wrath as he runs at his boss and begins to pummel him with blows shouting things like “O fe pa mi ni? Mi o ni baba! Mi o o n’iya! O fe pa mi sinu omi abi!” Apologies to non-yoruba reading viewers. It simply translates as “Do you want to kill me? I am an orphan! You want me to die in this water? Anyway, after venting his wrath on his commander while the whole camp watched in amazement, he stepped back a few paces. The nigerian commander picked himself off the ground, dusted his uniform and signals to his colleagues to come closer. “Did you see what that man just did?” he asked them, “Now, that’s boldness. I’m sure none of your men can try that.”