Independence ?

On 1st October 2009 Nigeria will celebrate 49 years of independence from British rule.

I am a Nigerian, though i live abroad, but i cannot shy away from the predicaments that the country finds herself. The people are impoverished and freedom from British colonisation has not translated into prosperity for the country.

This sadly, is the story of many 'independent' African countries.

One must therefore ask the question - what is wrong with Africa?

Why are many African countries poor despite the tremendous amount of natural resources in these countries? why are we so keen on killing each other?

These questions are endless, but one thing i know is that very soon, the masses will be pushed to the wall, and we will begin to ask the right questions.

Those days will come when politics will not be a business or an opportunity to satisfy personal gains.

Africa needs real leadership and real followership, we need to cultivate the right mindsets and right intentions to for our nations.

As we celebrate the independence of Nigeria - the self proclaimed giant of Africa - let real independence and revolution begin to reveal itself, let's make the streets safer, provide good basic amenities, make life in Africa more livable.

It will be well.

Stay Inspired and be a solution!

-Bolaji

Usain Bolt Sets New World Record

I have been thinking a lot lately about living a life of achievement.

Rick Warren already taught that every human being is created to live for a purpose, not just to watch others live out their own purposes.

I saw Usain Bolt, bolt away at nearly 40miles / hour to clinch the 100Metres world title, not only that, he set a new world record!

What are you waiting for?

Life may not be exactly a sprint, what is important is that there is always a tape to breast at the end of the run.

Paul in the bible said he ran the race of life as though he had achieved nothing; counting everything else of less importance to the new goal he had set ahead of himself.

What goals have you set for yourself? do you think they are unachievable?

Goals could be in career terms, social terms, business, family etc.

Well, I don't believe that there are unachievable goals in life, not any more. Not after the invention of the WWW, computers, bio-fuels and the latest advancements in mobile interface technologies!

What are you waiting for?

Usain Bolt has decided to raise the mark, forgetting that only yesterday he set a new WR of 9.58, he's reaching for 9.4!

Be Inspired!

**You can watch Usain race video here http://www.usainbolt.co.uk/usain-bolt-100m-video-world-record-9-58/

Modern Life

Hi there,

It has been sometime since i posted on this blog, I have been spending more time on developing materials for my poetry collection.

Soon i will be giving more details about this, but this morning i want to inspire you with two of my new poems. I hope you are refreshed and encouraged, blessed and stronger to face the new week.

Be Inspired!

Modern life

We live under each other’s watch,

sifting news of each others downfall,

our ears, glued to the neighbour’s wall

to pick the tiniest vibrations of their pain.

To conceal our own sorrows and worries,

we wear the best of jewellery and fabric,

the tingling of our itchy feet we contain

with bulging eyes, hailing to pop out.

We drive the best of luxury cars,

a new ride on the street, our heart jolts.

We live on credit to prove a fortune

that far eludes us, light miles away.

The name of the game is blame,

finding fault for all that’s wrong-

‘twas this, ‘twas that; never accepting

the recompense our folly, enrolled.

In love, we deceive ourselves

with passionate kisses in public places,

yet, every morning we re-enact,

the wrestlemania of previous night.

Hopping from one bed to the other,

we live a bit of ourselves behind,

never worrying about the repercussions

till the woes of our secrets escape the open door.

© Abolaji Lawal, 2009

Angus

To humans in peril, life is worthless,

To a dog in a home, life’s worth living, many times over.

He’s always chasing shadows, barking hard at them,

If I could I would, I tried to stop him, many a time.

But he never stops. He hops and jumps; on two legs he stands,

raised, to catch the shadow of the souring eagle.

Together, we run for the ball, the club to my caddie,

a race in the sun. I reach for the ball just before he grapples for its shadow.

Our early morning walks, an adventure-

I lead the way in the woods, he settles into my shade, formed by the early sun.

The neighbour’s scooter casts for him, a bewildering image.

Every zoom of the scooter at lunch, he barks, restless.

He chases for a mile, for two, beyond the foot bridge.

I guess he’ll never stop, until some day the impossible happens -

Till Angus catches a shadow and traps it in his claws,

he will lay a chase, across the green parks of Beggerwood;

until I learn from my four legged friend, that nothing is impossible,

Until I choose never to give up; pick up my wedge and chip the ball again.

© Abolaji Lawal, 2009

The New Economic Disorder

...by Larry Bates

This is an amazing book and i strongly recommend it.

It paints a picture of investment and banking from a whole new perspective.

The new edition features great insight into

~ Personal debt

~Mortgage Crisis

~Investments and Liquidity

~predictions and forcasts the economic future of nations

Be Inspired!

Success @ the level of thoughts

What a man thinks in his heart defines him!

Do you know you can create your own world through the power of your thoughts?

Your thoughts and your dreams are your first opportunity to start on your journey to greatness.

Ever heard these words "If you can think it, you can achieve it!"

See, dear friend, everything we are and we will be starts from our mind, you can decide today to be encouraged and be positive, dream big and decide to make a difference!

Yes, you will be faced with oppositions and challenges, but the ability to stay to true to your thoughts and work hard at bringing to birth your dreams and visions starts in your 'heart'.

How do you look at you? do you THINK you are going to make it, be successful, an achiever extraordinaire? It all starts from your thoughts!

"As a man thinks in his heart, so is he"

Note: The success sky image is from http://davecaudill.com/default.aspx

Discovering the Business Success Factor

Brian Tracy from his book “100 Absolute unbreakable laws of Business Success said “The underlying rule of business success says that you must find out critically the underlying success principle in a particular line of business before you go into it”

After you have decided on what business to do, and you are passionate about it, does that mean that you will be automatically successful?

I really wish I could say yes, but unfortunately the answer is not quite in the affirmative.

One thing you must look out for is what I call the critical success factor!

Why are the people doing business around you and in the line of business you are going into successful?

If you are going into online book business for example, you need to ask yourself “What are Amazon, e-bay and other webshops doing right?

To balance this with the point I was making in Part 2 of my article on Financial Independence and Entrepreneurship (see below) I’d liketo ask you this question. “Are you confident that the business you are passionate about will solve a problem and bring the right financial rewards?”

Think on these things.

In summary; an entrepreneur who wants to achieve financial independence must be passionate, hardworking, solution-oriented and be disciplined enough to pay attention to the critical success factors in his / her chosen line of business.

Financial Independence and Entrepreneurship – Part 2

Financial Independence is not an automatic achievement or fruit that you harvest when you start any business, invent a product or service.

It comes from hard work; it comes from solving a problem.

The reward of creating a service or a product in the area of your best interest that solves an existing problem could be a lasting business that pays your investment off at record time, have enough to take home, and even more to re-invest.

That’s financial Independence – when your investment starts working for you.

For you to start such a business, especially in the current recession that has almost frozen bank credits to $0 you need to be sure that you are solving a problem and that its eventual value is worth more than what you will be investing from your hard earned capital.

So for example, if you decide to start a Ranch in your village to produce milk and meat, ask yourself “Why will the buyers buy from me?” “Why will the departmental shops or the home butchers prefer my meat to others?”

What am I bringing to the table?

Dear friend, what problem are you solving?

To help you start thinking, I’ll give you a few problems that are common across several businesses.

- Quality – can you provide a better quality product or service?
- Time – Delay in goods receipt
- Quality customer service
- Additional information and education on product
- Easy return / refund service (be careful though)
- Good packaging
- Web based?
- Free delivery?
- Can you create a tool or service that will make a particular task easier?
- What do people on your street need so dearly?
- What are the businesses or tasks that people in your area or country hate to do…refuse collection? Guess what? There’s a lot of money in shit business!

Did I get you thinking right now?
There’s so much you can do, there are so many problems you can solve.

May be you don’t like the daycare your son or daughter attends, what’s wrong with it? May be you are called to solve that problem!

What do you always complaining about?

Think about these things.


Be Inspired!

Financial Independence and Entrepreneurship – part 1

Financial Independence and Entrepreneurship – part 1

The world economy has slummed in an unconceivable magnitude over the last 18 months. I thought it necessary to share my ideas on the power of an entrepreneur – Financial Independence!

Your understanding or perhaps, your definition of what financial independence means will go a long way to affect how you think and how you implement your business ideas and solutions.

I am not sure there is a right or wrong answer to this, however I think the current financial climate will convince you of your independence or otherwise.

Some have defined financial independence to mean being able to live your life – provide for your family, buy things you need, go on holiday etc without the need for credit.

Another definition from my dear wife was – the ability to afford anything you want or need at anytime without worrying about money.

What is your own definition?

Why? - Because it will affect how you work hard at creating and maintaining a profitable business.

As an entrepreneur, you own a business or an invention and you carry the risks of the business, which means that ultimately, you are responsible for either the success or failure of the business.

Not everyone will be or can be a successful entrepreneur, because lots of people are not ready to take sensible, calculated risks. If you design a product, create a service or start a trade and you have enough passion and skill to steer it to profitability, the reward you get, especially in this so called recession is financial independence!

What ever your definition of financial independence is, you can relax knowing fully well that your money is working for you.

I spend a lot of time thinking, planning and acquiring skills to start small businesses – especially web-based ones, and I realised that with hard work and faith in God you can live above the current recession by creating your own wealth!

Be Inspired! (C) Abolaji Lawal, 2009

The heart that God loves

The heart that God loves
May i encourage you today conerning the kind of people who impress God.
They are not necessarily perfect people, they are not people with a "holier than thou" attitude.
They are people with genuine hearts.
People with a broken and contrite hearts
....Willing to accept God's wil
l...Will to repent when wrong
...Willing to submit all to the Lord

Be Inspired!