THE MINISTERS MINISTRIES INTERNATIONAL (TMMI)

On every birthday, I receive a birthday text from one of my banks, and during special holidays like Christmas Easter, and Independence days. These texts are their ways of endearing me to them by making me feel they are also interested in other aspect of my life that is non-bank related. Some other banks buy cakes to celebrate their customers and give them special preference cards just to show appreciation for banking with them. I have two different banks, three before, but I closed one, ignored the other and I'm very active with one just because of the relationship they are having with me that not bank related. To train the African child to build a great business, let him master the art of customer relationship. Attend their birthdays and any event thats special to them or send messages, call to know how they are, show that you care and really care. As you build a deeper relationships with them, you'll endear them to your products/services, and you won't be afraid of

*THE HOLY SPIRIT* ```In the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried, saying, if any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink. He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water. (But this spake he of the Spirit, which they that believe on him should receive: for the Holy Ghost was not yet given; because that Jesus was not yet glorified). John 7:37-39``` The Holy Ghost is meant for all those who believe in Christ Jesus with deep hunger for God. If the believer in Christ thirst, he'll be filled with the Holy Ghost. Christ is now glorified and the Holy Ghost is now given to all those who believes in God through Christ. *He said unto them, Have ye received the Holy Ghost since ye believed?* …Acts19:2 After we believe in Christ Jesus, the next thing is to receive the Holy Spirit. The disciples being addressed in our above text had believed in Christ and were baptized in water but they hadn't been t

THE HOLY SPIRIT The Promise of the Father And, being assembled together with them, commanded them that they should not depart from Jerusalem, but wait for the promise of the Father, which saith he, ye have heard of me. Acts 1:4 Who is this promise from the Father that is so important that Jesus advised His followers to wait for Him? He is the Holy Spirit, He is so important to the believer that Christ advised His followers to wait for Him. every believer must wait desire for the infilling of the Holy Spirit, they must hunger and thirst until they are filled with the Holy Spirit. For John truly baptized with water; but ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost not many days hence. Acts 1:5 water baptism is a true teaching, but we must go beyond that and be baptized with the Holy Ghost. many christians are still within the level of the first stage; water baptism. we must desire the promise of the Father. Water baptism if done by men, but the Holy Ghost baptism is done by God Th

I went to buy a packet of sugar from a shop owner, I asked for  StLouise but because he doesn't have it and wanted me to buy the one he has, he brought it out and said something that put me off entirely and killed my interest from buying that brand of sugar. He said, 'this sugar' pointing to the brand he brought out, 'is better than StLouise because its not too 'sugarish''. I looked him with a look I can describe and said, 'if I want paper I'll buy a pepper that is 'pepperish', if I want salt, I'll buy a salt that is 'saltish', and if I want sugar, I'll buy sugar that's 'sugarish', if this is a pack of sugar that's not 'sugarish', I want StLouise that is' being able to answer the question, what does my customer want when he asks for these goods or services from me will help you know how to sell your goods. Your success as a businessman is around the need of your customer. Being able to know what

I met a friend whom I knew hawked packaged water in traffic, he now runs a big business. I knew him when he was selling those package of water (aka pure water) and he was ridiculed for it. I gave him accommodation then because he was putting up in a church before we met. He is now doing very well financially. I also knew many people who refused to began from that point where he began and till today they haven't begun anything because they are afraid what people would say when they see them beginning from the lowest point in life. Pride and the fear of what people would say is the reason so many are still living in abject poverty today. They are afraid of the ridicule they might get if they decide to hawk in the market, traffic or streets etc. as long as you can't begin small, you cannot begin at all. To train the African child to be wealthy, trained him not to be ashamed of starting from the lowest point in life while keeping his vision on the sky. God honors those who h

After receiving lectures on how to raise funds for his business ideas, he now wanted to practicalize it, and then he discovered that life application is always different from theory. His friend said, forget that lecture, you can't raise fund for this ideas by selling your business ideas and units to people as per the lectures, how would you gather the people? Who would listen to you? He tried discouraging him, but he wouldn't allow anything discourage him. He thought of how difficult it is for him to raise money from family members, so he decided to organize a launch party. He is going to launch the business he hasn't started. He told the best catering company whom he wanted they serve that he doesn't have money for their service, but that he'll bring important men to the occasion which would mean more customers for them, so the company agreed to serve as long as it would offer them the opportunity to meet with some elites of the society for a very low fee which w

Many years ago, when pipeline began the leak, people started rushing to fetch the diesel, gas, fuel and kerosene that flows at various timeframes. while the traffic was channelled towards that place, a man decided to sell gallons. there was sudden need for gallons and this man made it available. He sold it far higher than the market price and because he had set up his business on the road that led to the place where the pipeline was leaking, people bought gallons without minding the costs, after all, they are going to fetch oils that costs so much for free. some people even paid more just to secure all of the gallons. the price of oils (gas, fuel, kerosene and diesel) became came down because everyone within that environ have gone to fetch themselves but the cost of gallons never came down until the government came and sealed the leaking pipeline. The African child must be trained to see that opportunity is not in the cause of the traffic, but in what people need when heading towar

Two young men hawk bread to travelers. One day, one of them noticed that travelers need more than bread, that they sometimes come down from their buses to buy from the closest shops and because the buses don't always wait for that to happen, they don't buy as many things they wanted, so he went and have a wheel shop constructed for him where everything he could believe travelers would need would contain. he wheels the shop to them, so they could from the window of the buses buy anything they wanted. By this, he could sell more, and he operates a shopping system where he doesn't need to pay for a stand to build a shop on. his selling mate stuck to that traditional way of selling while many others started copying this young man and replicating similar ideas  in their various locations. Mr Strive Masiyiiwa saw a mobile money system run by Safaricom in Kenya and copied and reintroduce it as  a very successful mobile money called Ecocash in Zimbabwe. When you see a working

Adrian Dalsey, Larry Hillblom, and Robert Lynn went from door to door delivering goods, and now DHL has become an international air express industry. Never feel too big to go from door to door marketing your goods and advertising your services. Do you think there weren't houses that rejected the services of those three men? Did you think they didn't have friend that made jest of their work then? Where are those friends today? Who knows those people who had rejected their services then? Never because of what people would say shy away from taking your products to people and introducing your services everywhere your legs can take you. The African child should be taught that there is nothing wrong with hawking, going from door to door introducing people to your products and advertising your services and using your social media account to sell what you do. Never allow pride and the fear of what people might say hinder you  from going from door to door selling and advertising y

We've been trying in vain to convince him to buy from us until my mum spoke Hausa to him, he paused, conversed a little more with my mum in Hausa and then bought from us and from that day, he buys from us. when you speak to a man in the language he understands, you speak to his intellects but when you speak in his language, you speak to his heart. Nothing wins someone over more than appealing to his heart. When a man is endeared to you in his heart, he'll patronize your goods and services without much ado. To train the African child to be successful in his business, he must learn the art of conversing in the language of his would-be clients. If you are going to trade amongst lawyers, do some work and use diction familiar with lawyers likewise every other professions and, if you are going to trade amongst men of certain language, take formal or informal class on how to at least communicate in their language. You stand a better chance of selling your business and goods wh

STRENGTHENING THE POOR 40 A woman noticed by 2 am, people gather to wait for a bus that travels daily across to another city on a particular spot. She decided to set up a shop to serve these people. 1am till 4 am became her working hours. She started with a shop, then brought lots of seats, and then she brought generator and TV sets.  Soon, luxurious buses started stopping over there with traveling passengers for a brief rest, this increased sales and opened up the place for more businesses. To train the African child to be more effective in his business, he must learn the time of his target audience and be faithful with such timing to be available to serve. Being faithful to time is a very important factor in setting up a multimillion businesses. When you've identified the time when the customers would need your services or products, discipline yourself to be available and when you can't be, have someone else standing   for you that's why you should set up your busin

Pluck all the mangoes from a tree, after a while you'll find mangoes again, take all the billions from a billionaire, after a while you'll find him with billions again. Wealth is not what we have, but who we are and what we've trained our minds to lay hold of. a billionaire is not the one who has billions (though billionaires have billions) but the man who can make billions anytime because he has trained his mind to guide his hands into making billions. Take every money away from him and take him to a neutral ground, within A shortest time, he'll have billions again. Wealth is not what is in the hands, but what is in the mind. The African child who doesn't believe he is a billionaire has placed a limit to the amount of wealth that'll flow to him. When its possible in your heart, it would be achievable with your hands. We are who we believe we are, when we improve on how we see ourselves, we've improved on what we'll get in life. The man who believ

The biggest tree was once a seed, buried under the earth just like the smallest grass; they all had the same starting point but the difference is in the potential in the seed of the tree and the seed of the grass.Thee owner of the biggest business once had nothing likewise the owner of a petty shop, the difference is in the vision of each of them.How you see your business in your mind determine how big it would grow in your hands. When you see a very lofty business, the owner started from nothing just like you and built then business until it has grown into such greatness. Unlike seed, you can increase the level of the greatness of your business by adjusting how you see things. You only go as far as you can see, not more. You must train the African child to believe that there is no limitation to how great his business can grow into should he dream bigger and higher. The level any business can grow to is hugely dependent on the vision of the businessman. If you can dream big, your

When Facebook has only 'like' button for posts; when there are posts like 'deaths, bad things, and unpleasant news' people didn't know how to react to it, because clicking on the 'like' button would mean they took pleasure in such unpleasant news. Facebook users started criticizing Facebook for having only 'Like' buttons and Facebook listened and did more, we now have various buttons to express various emotions to posts. This made Facebook users rate Facebook more and Facebook was able to service its purpose of connecting people more. Real business tycoons listen to customer, their sincere feed backs are what they need to make adjustments. The African Child must learn to listen to customers for research purposes on how to improve his business and be of better service and not get offended at comments and the negative reactions of people to his product and services. You begin a business by working on an idea but your perfect the business by list

A couple who wanted a house were been shown around by an agent, the house they were inspecting caught the attention of the couples, and they were ready to pay for it immediately but the agent kept talking about another house which according to him was better than the one the couples were interested in. so he agreed with the couples to take them to this other house the next day, but unfortunately for him, the couples never showed up, that was how he lost his potential profit. To build a mega business, you must learn to wrap up deal as quick as possible. To build a mega business, you must train the African child to put the need of the customer first even if it different front his, and he must be quick to wrap up deals in accordance to the need of the customer. Not what you want for the customer that matters but what the customer wants for himself. Business are established and wrapped solely on the need of the people; whether its product or services, its wrapped around the need of t

I was traveling to Illorin and the bus broke down on the way in the middle of the night, I became confused then suddenly a thought that'll trigger hope in me hit me 'find out amongst other passengers who is heading to Illorin'. I started inquiring who was going to Illorin and  I found 5 passengers, so we came together and because we were together, we could plan and hire another vehicle who considered taking us to Illorin because of our number. To build a business, associate yourself with others with similar dreams, because soon the going would get tough. During winters lone wolf dies but the packs survives; the cold freezes lone wolf but packs survive because they come together and generate heat, yes, the goings would definitely get tough and only those who had formed a network with other business minded men would survive and thrive through difficult times. To train the African child to overcome discouragement as he builds his business, let him surround himself and ne

Around 1998 I noted that in the quarters that we lived, buying bread was coming every morning because i used to run errand for most of our neighbors. The place where the bread is sold is like 500 meters away so my elder sister and I decided to be buying in bulk and sell to those living in quarters. When we started the first round, we made profit, and we saved the profit and when we went second round we made more profit but that would mean doom for our small business. My elder sister was so happy with the profits that she decided we use the profit to buy more bread, I tried explaining to her that if we do, we won't be able to sell all, that we just need to maintain the amount of bread we buy for now. She was insecure and it was like I was challenging her authority thus she refused to reason with me, she exerted her authority and used the profit to buy more bread, but that would damn the business, the usual amount we used to sell was the number of bread we sold because our custome

A CEO was sharing his experience on how his business thrived through an economic recession and expanded afterward. He said that one of his staffs came to him and advise him to sell more of his company's shares to as many people as possible, and he did. Though it wasn't reasonable at that time to sell more of his business units; he was not in need of money and there was no plan to extend the business, but he just followed the advice and sold more of his company shares so when recession hit the economy, they had enough money to hold on and relaunch immediately and because they were the first company to recover, they henceforth dominated the market and every competition. Hire people you'll listen to when they counsel you as you run your business and not those you'll keep telling what to do. the best people to listen to are those who loves the company and the vision driving the company. Train the African child never to put himself in the situation where he won't l

Bright a Rebrander shared with me how his business crumbled because he allowed a family member to handle it, his story is similar to the stories of scores of people who had lost their businesses because they committed it into the hands of unskillful family members and very close friends. Business is not run on emotionalism, you only put business minded people in charge of businesses. Whoever that doesn't treat business as business, who uses family ties and friendships as a way out of being held accountable for the business isn't worth handling your business. To train the African child to build business, let him only put business minded people in charge of his business, and not those who can't be held accountable for the poor performance of the business because they are close friends and family relations. If your son is not business minded, let a stranger who is, be in charge of such business. Business is not run on emotions, but reasons and skills. Whoever that does

I went to visit a friend, and noticed she was always complaining of shortage of cash during our discussion unlike her. What happened to your business I asked? It folded up she replied promptly. At that moment I noticed a sorry look on her face, what happened that your business closed down? She said, 'when I lost my mom, I became so devastated and I couldn't attend to the business any longer and hence it started dwindling till I could no longer handle it, so I closed it down.' Didn't you have any other person to run the business in your place till you became healed emotionally? No, I didn't she replied with regret. To train the African child to build business, let him automate the business i.e. set up the business in the way that it will continue with or without him. Don't make the running of the business be 100% dependent on you, train others to play your role in the running of the business in case you aren't there at any time for any reason. Two head

The shoe is bigger than your leg, the person who designed the shoe didn't measure it well the sales man said. My friend had an unusual leg, and most of the places he goes to buy shoes, the sales men usually deride his leg but this one was different, he derided the shoe maker and not his leg. My friend decided to be buying every other thing from him because he was the first sale man not to deride his leg for being different. Communication skill is very important in building up a business. You must put the person first before the object to be sold or the service to be rendered. How you care for the person's feelings would determine how serious the person would patronize you. 'I guess your money is not enough at this moment to purchase this', 'may be another day you'll be able to afford it', 'you probably have other priorities that's why you don't want to pay for this now' etc. are examples of ways to talk to a customer who doesn't have en

It was during the war (Nigerian Civil war) that a man received news that his only son who was conscripted is dead, he mourned him and conducted a burial for him. After two years another solder who was conscripted with his son came and told the father that his son is alive and that he sent him gifts. The father refused to believe until this soldier showed him the picture he had snapped recently with his son. The picture has the date it was snapped written on it. when the man became convinced, he decided to trek to Enugu from Uzuakoli (134Km) where he had his son was carrying on a basket filled with some tuber of yams, packaged Garri and some fruits, he told himself that he must see his son. By the time he walked only 1km, he collapsed under the weight of his basket but as he lay down, he remembered that he had told himself that he'll trek to Enugu and see his son, he got up and trekked with that basket. Where does the strength to achieve great things come from? The answer is simpl

We wanted to go and buy some goods, the child that was with me insisted we don't buy from the closest shop and when I inquired why? He said referring to the man who sells are the closest shop, 'he doesn't laugh, always frowning'. People first buy into your mood before they buy your goods and services and if they don't like your mood, they may not buy your goods and services. The first quality of a good salesman is a good mood, once your mood is great, more people would be attracted to it and consequently buy your goods and services. There are a lot of sadness in this world, people are seeking for whom to at least brighten their day and not make it worse. therefore, if you can learn how to smile and maintain excitement, you don't need any other sales skills to sell. To work on your mood, deliberately tell yourself every day that you'll never be sad in your life, forgive because you are doing yourself a favor, list out things you are grateful for in your l

Many years ago, after I failed to get the required grade to do science, I had another opportunity. Our class principal had announced that whoever failed to get the required grade to do science can still do sciences if he passes the next exam he'll be setting. One day he came to class and started writing out various formulae and while he was writing them on the board, he kept insisting that we must memorize those formulae if we want to do sciences. When the formulae were getting too much, many started leaving the class. Not knowing exactly what our principal had in mind insisting we memorize all these formulae before we can have the chance to do sciences was too incredible to believe. The only reason I didn't leave the class was just because as I look at his head I told myself, if all these formulae has found space in his head, they would also find a space in mine. Later when he turned to see that the number of students had greatly reduced, he told those remaining, 'congra

Two friends squatting together had different business ideas and both of them did not have capital. They went their separate ways, after about 2 years, one of them saw the other doing that business he has planned and shared with him 2 years ago. How did you get the capital he asked? I wrote down my business plan, valued it and broke down the value into units and went around looking for those who would buy the units from me. They questioned me about the profitability of the business and when I was able to convince them few people saw what I was seeing and bought the units thereby providing me with the capital that I needed for the business.  What about you? Were you able to start your business as planned? No, I didn't know what to do to raise the capital but I think I know exactly what to do now. Within 6 months, he too had set up his business after doing similar thing his friend had done. When you have a genuine business plan born out of the need to provide a need goods or servic

STRENGTHENING THE POOR 23 A farmer once observed that his rice farm yields by up to 10% after he introduced small fish into his farm. Further study reveals that the fish feeds on insects that come to feed on the rice, the fish with their droppings provide fertilizers for the rice and help to circulate oxygen around the rice field. The rice farm in-turn protects the fish by making it difficult for birds to locate the fish inside the dense rice farm. The fish does well as the rice farm. When others are succeeding in their dreams, ours becomes easier. The best way to succeed is to make others a success. The poor man has a record of bringing others down, he is envious at seeing others make it in life, and he secretly or openly loath successful people. meanwhile, successful men have a record of helping others become successes in life, he admires success and is a fan to successful people. Like the rice and fish relationship, likewise in life, when one is doing well, it makes the other t

STRENGTHENING THE POOR 24 Some roads got eroded because of flood, the erosion damaged the road so badly that it was difficult to pass through. Many kept blaming the government for irresponsibility but someone gathered some group of friends, who went and fixed the road and tasks people petty sums to use the road. People were grateful that they could now use the road again, and they never bothered for the little sum they had to pay to use the road. Thousands of people use the road every morning and evening and these boys made lots of monies from providing such simple service. The wealthy man is that man who identifies a problem and tasks himself about solving it while the poor man identifies a problems and tries to apportion blames to whoever he thinks is responsible for the problem, he doesn't know that every problem he identifies is an opportunity for him to create solution to that problem (values) that'll attract wealth and make him relevant. For you to identify a problem

Two friends were selling the same quality of shoes at the same price.  One sells well,  while the other kept getting complaints that his shoes are too costly. One day he asked his friend what's the secret for the success of his sales? His friend invited him to seat at his sales outlet and observe him. While he was with him, he observed that, he wrote 200 on the shoes and cancels it rewriting it 100 on it. so when customers come, he tells them that the price of the shoe is 200 because of its quality, but he'll sell 100 because he is doing a clearance sales. More people buy without complaining that 100 is too much. So you tell them the shoe is worth 200 but you've for whatsoever reason want to sell it 100 to them? His friend replied, yes, and they'll be very grateful for buying the shoe that they want at 100 just because I've learnt how to sell to them. His friend added, I kept attending seminars on marketing, it was one of those seminars that I learned this. His fr

J. Robert Oppenheimer/Albert Einstein regretted creating the atomic bomb after seeing the devastation when it was used on Japan, Mikhail Kaiashnikov who died in 2014 regretted creating the AK-47 riffle, haven lived long to see his creation be responsible for more deaths than any other assault rifle. Stories abound of men who created things and offer services that later came to haunt them because their creation and services is used to propagate hatred, lewdness and inflict wickedness. While it’s important that we earn through creating values, when we offer services that strengthens the spread of evil, we destroy our ability to enjoy wealth. There is no joy in offering services that is been used to destroy the society. Services only fraudsters, dishonest earners, wicked and mean men would patronize, so they can use to destroy the society for their selfish interest will deny you joy and lead you into depression. The man who earns very little by offering services that builds the socie

A police officer built an estate and trained many of his children abroad from the monies he collected from bribery, laying false accusations on innocent people and shrewdly committing people into offenses so that he can profit from them unjustly. He looks so successful and seems to have everything going for him, he was made a chief in his home town as he commands social respect. He was due to retire 5 years ago, but he kept adjusting his years to remain in office and continue in his clandestine activities but one day, there was a change of government, and he was listed amongst those to be probed, he tried bribing the judges but unfortunately for him, none of the judges would be swayed, instead that act was used against him to increase the count charges on him during the judgment. While fighting the case, he sold his estates, all his cars and withdrew the rest of his kids from school to be able to fight the case. He earned by bribery and believed that through bribery he would escape

My Elder sister was afraid of arithmetic  and that fear made it difficult for her to understand mathematics and because she needed it in her O-level, she had to keep repeating it and each time she kept failing. One day I made a decision to teach her mathematics but I didn't start with it, I started by addressing her fear for math. Once I was able to boost her confidence in her ability to believe in herself, understanding arithmetic became very easy, in fact she had a 'B' in math afterwards. What became different? The O-Level standard wasn't reduced so that she could pass, but she upgraded herself by confronting her fear for mathematics to pass. The person who failed Math in about 5 attemptsisn't the person she is right now. When you fail, it means you've not upgraded yourself with enough information and skills to succeed, it means you still have lots of work to do on yourself, it means you need to sleep less and read more, play less and work more, entertain

Henshael is a musical genius, living with him made me understand what passion is all about, he spends all his free time in church learning and playing guitar till very late in the night. Even after forcing him home, he'll still be playing it on an imaginary guitar and making tunes with his mouth. While I haven't spoken with him for years, I see pictures of him leading large services in worship while playing music. When there is a gift, there is a drive that comes with it we term passion. Its passion that reveals that gifts and talents. When someone is talented, it has been observed to be true that the person would also be passionate about his talent, just as its true for gifts and talents likewise it is for ideas and visions. When an idea or vision hits a man, it comes with passion to drive it to reality. The man with an idea or vision becomes zealous in pursuit of the vision or idea. When a vision or idea is novel, the bearer would be more passionate about it. When poo

It was during the inaugural meeting of Rebrand Africa Nigeria in Lagos that I understood this concept very well, we discussed a business proposal and broke the risk down into units and many of those in the meeting bought the units and the risk got eliminated,  when we share a risk, it becomes no risk and when we share a profit, it becomes more profits because everyone who shared in the risk became more committed in making the business to work and expand which means more profit to everyone and little or no risk to anyone. This is the secret to successful businesses all over the world, the risk is shared and the profit comes to all those who partook in sharing the risks. Because the risk has been shared amongst many, many people are now committed to making the business work out which means expansion and more profit for everyone. Selfishness is the reason the black-man doesn't have a growing business; he wants the profits alone therefore the risk overwhelms him during the busine

Many of my home boys sat together under a tree some days ago; we've gathered to play soccer but unfortunately the one who keeps the ball hasn't come, so we started discussing randomly when someone raised the topic of a rich man within the neighborhood. It was rumored that his house is worth more than 100,000,000 Naira. The boys started saying that its impossible for a person to have such kind of money through honest earning that that rich man must had gotten himself involved in dark things, or he belongs to certain cult group. When wealth is strange to the mind and imagination, the hands can never be able to receive and handle it. once you've accepted in your heart that certain amount of wealth is too much for one person to amass through honest earning and the creations of values, you've disqualified yourself from growing into having such amount of wealth. If you don't believe you can be so successful  and earn no limited amount of money, the opportunity and ide

What triggers ingenuity?  What makes the mind receive creative ideas? He asked. The mind that is set on giving is the mind that tend to receive creative ideas but the mind that is set on receiving will be severed from receiving creative ideas. Though we have little or no control over the degree at which we are talented and  most times we discover our talents before our personality unfolds yet our creativity depends on the state of our minds. The selfish heart would lack creative ideas and would have little or no value to give to the society while the selfless heart would be bombarded with creative ideas. When everyone who put the society first, his creativity would be unleashed in no little degree. There is a maxim that says 'necessity is the mother of invention' but I say, 'love and selflessness is the mother of invention'. it's the sincere desperation to help one another that brings our ingenuity is man. Selfishness leads to poverty and lack and destructi

Every professional sport player who is doing well today always confess that he/she has a player he was looking up to and admiring while he/she was yet a professional player likewise every successful man once had a successful man he was looking up to. you'll definitely become the kind of person you admire daily whether you realize it or not. Those you admire are those you like listening and commenting about their lives. If you delight talking about failures in the society, you'll soon become a failure and if you delight in talking about successful men with admiration, you'll soon become successful. Mark Zuckerberg confessed that he was admiring bill gate, little wonder he is becoming as successful as Bill Gate. This is a major difference between a wealthy man and a poor man, while the wealthy man has another wealthy man he had aspired to be like, and to learn from what he does, the poor man doesn't have any. Most poor men always discuss other men who had failed in

Cristiano Ronaldo was once quoted saying that he told his father that he'll be very rich and today he is rich. Most wealthy men who started their lives from humble beginnings during their testimonies shared that they always knew they would become wealthy. Who told them that they'll become rich, you might want to ask? They told themselves repeatedly till they believed themselves. To walk out of poverty and lack, every morning tell yourself how rich you'll become, write your story in your mind and repeat that story to yourself whenever you feel the surge of hunger or feel the pain of lack. Its more precise when your write down the story of your life; how you walk out of poverty into plenty and read your story to yourself every night. When you begin to believe your story as your reality, it would become your reality. Ideas and opportunities to become wealthy comes to those who have convinced themselves irrespective of their background and academic deficiencies that they

STRENGTHENING THE POOR 11 BE PATIENT WITH YOUR DREAMS The mustard seed is said to be the greatest tree in the bible and one day in Illorin, our pastor had promised to show us the seed, so on that day when he brought the seed to the church, it was tied on a small transparent waterproof. Seeing it for the first time made me go Wow! I was expecting a large seed like the avocado seed, or something of similar size but this is just a very tiny grain; tinier than the half of a grain of rice. These seeds are so small despite the potential in them to become the greatest of trees on earth. The size of your life doesn't matter, what matters is the size of your dreams, if you aren't decorated yet with certificates and privileges, it still not a factor, the greatest factor is how lofty is your dream. The future belongs to those who have dreams and those who believe that the future is theirs to own. If you planted a tree that takes years to mature, don't be intimidated with those w

A super machine of company broke down, and they brought engineers from various places to have it fixed yet it won't work, then an old roadside engineer came by and requested if he'll be granted permission to check the machine and fix it, the company acquiesced and ensured that the company's engineer were watching him. After he had inspected every part of the machine, he removed a particular nut, cleaned it and placed it back. He ordered that the machine be on, and bingo! It started working. When the company asked him to state the money he wished to be paid for his services, he wrote $10000. The Chief Engineer revoted having being informed that he only cleaned a certain nut to have the machine come back to life. He told him to itemize how the cost of fixing the engine would be that much. He wrote only two lines, first is, 'cleaning the Nut cost $5 and knowing what Nut to clean $9995. The difference between the poor and the rich is simply, the rich knows what Nuts to

NEVER SAY ‘I CAN’T OR I DON’T KNOW HOW IT’S DONE’ Two boys shared a testimony of how they became rich after they won a contract to design a website for a bank and were retained by the bank afterwards. When the bank agent asked them if they could deliver the quality of website the bank needed, one of them wanted to say they can't but the other one tapped him and said to the agent they could. When the agent asked if they were absolutely sure, they affirmed and when the agent left, the one who had wanted to say ‘they can't’ asked his brother, why did you accept a contract we don’t know how to do, he responded, lets learn how to do it now. So they set to work, researching and invited everyone who has knowledge in complex codes, and they delivered the website to the bank, the bank was so impressed that they retained the two boys. The first way of knowing how to do anything is to confess with your mouth, ‘I can’. Once you can declare that you can, you have triggered your ingenuity

TEST EVERY CHANCE OBI was sharing with his friend CHARLES about an idea that came on his mind about a business. Days go into weeks and months and years, yet he won't work on the idea because he was afraid the business won't be patronized. After Charles has tried in vain to convince Obi to try before trashing the idea, he decided to try the idea despite himself despite the fear of failure that has rendered Obi from trying out the idea, he struggled for a while but as he kept failing, he became more interested in finding ways to make the idea work out and as he kept researching online, buying books on setting up businesses and attending business seminars, soon that idea worked making him a millionaire. The friend OBI who was the original owner of the idea is still poor not because he didn't conceive the idea that would had made im rich but because he was too afraid to try out and work out the idea. Many Africans are poor because they are afraid to work out many business

BUILD GOODWILL. one day a man died without much inheritance left for his children because he was poor. One of his child was bitter about it though he had trained them through all the level of education he could. one day, one of the sons went in search of a job and submitted his CV and was waiting outside the office with hundreds of people who have come for that same job. The CEO of the company came out himself to ask the throng of applicants who is Charles Obi, the boy reluctantly said, its him, so the man asked him to come in. are you the son of Mr Peter Obi, and he said 'yes' he is my father, but he is late now sir he added. Yes I heard the CEO said, I'm sorry I couldn't come for his funeral. After some moment of silence the CEO said, your father was a good man, though i never had any relationship with him but from afar I saw how good he was. When we lived on the same street, he'll always clean the front of my yard while he does his though i never stoop to t

Her heart was bleeding, I could see it on the expression of her face when she said, ‘every guy treats me same, they use me and abandon me’. After a while, she added, ‘I don’t think relationship is for me, I’ll never get married, and there is no hope’ I asked her how each of her relationship had ended and it was a sordid tale of heart breaks upon heart breaks. If you go to the same stream, you’ll get the same quality of water, and if you use the same criteria for choosing men, you’ll end up with the same kind men in different skin but with the same principle and belief. If you want to meet a different guy, change your criteria in identifying who to relate with. The same formula with give you same answer, the same criteria would land you with the same type of men. If you usually meet those you relate with at the tavern, or while you are scantily dressed, you are sure to meet a guy given to alcoholism or who is easily taken away by any other girl who is scantily dressed too. If you

A city had a very good shoemaker, his fame had spread across the all the surrounding cities. One day, an enemy city invaded the city of the shoemaker, they killed the king his cabinets, they killed every male they could lay their hands on but when they got to the shoemaker, the army general looked at him for a while and changed his mind, he told his soldiers to spare him and when they inquired why he would want to spare him, the general replied, he is the best shoemaker around here, and we’ll need him to fix our shoes. They spared him because of the value he creates. When money can’t spare anyone, when political name and position can’t help anyone, a man who creates value would flourish. In the time of crisis, men who create value would be needed. You must learn to identify a problem in the society that you will solve and master the art of solving that problem. Always train yourself to solve that problem, update yourself in better and better ways of solving such problems, learn

*HOW TO KNOW THE INTENTION OF A NEW GUY* She wrote asking, how do I know if his intentions are real and if he'll be committed? Without thinking much I responded, 'he won't start by telling you how deep he loves you because he knows that loving a lady comes with commitment, so he'll want to know you well enough to know if he can commit himself to his love for you' he won't start by saying 'I'll marry you or I love you' he may start with 'I like you, I admire you etc.' and would be interested in listening to you deeply when you are sharing anything about yourself. He'll go behind you to ask for anything he needed clearance concerning. And as he grows in knowing you, his love for you would grow and his way of expressing it would be getting stronger and stronger. While men with real intention starts slow, most men with false intentions have already composed sweet words for your listening pleasure. Men with real intentions are not quic

Many years ago, a man made a decision that he’ll never remain poor as he’ll land a contract that’ll earn him 10, 000$. He started studying actors that earns such and would keep trying to learn from them. He’ll keep practicing how to reach the level of those actors and one day, someone noticed him acting casually with some people he had brought together on the street and you can guess the cheque he received for his role in that movie; 10,000$. If you want to walk out of poverty, make a conscious decision to be able to offer services that would worth perpetual wealth and every morning remind yourself of it by saying it to yourself. Tell yourself how good you’ll be in doing such services and confess to yourself how much you’ll be paid for it. Write it down that which you think you can offer to the society that would attract wealth to you and refer to it always. Every morning say to yourself that your handiwork would be so useful to the society that everyone would seek and desire you f

Some monkeys would climb trees and catapult themselves over a five metre high electric fence from their primate research center in Japan only to be lured back with peanuts. These monkeys are in confinement not because they want to be or they couldn't escape but because they are still slaves to their appetites. The man who is enslaved to his appetite would never escape the circle of poverty. People are poor because they are addicted to comfort, to food, to drink and to pleasure. To teach the poor man how to be rich, you must teach him how to fast, how to walk out of their comfort zones, how to resist their tastes for drinks and never allow the desire for pleasure overwhelm them Whoever is a slave to comfort and food and drinks would never be rich even if he is rich, no sooner would he fall back to poverty and lack. Wealth is the reward for only those who has walked out of their comfort zones and who knows how to resist the desire for foods and drinks Teach the poor man that

Nothing torments someone more than his thoughts; the man’s thought is his greatest weapon for breaking out of poverty. No man is richer than his thoughts. The thought that dominates the poor man manifests to him in his day to day experiences. What he thinks becomes what he says and what he says becomes his daily experiences. Men are poor because they think poor and see themselves like grasshoppers. The image they see of themselves becomes the image they portray of themselves and people relate to them base on such image. When big opportunities come to them, they won’t grasp it because in their head they don’t believe it’s theirs for the taking. When a man is limited by his thoughts, challenges would look bigger before him than opportunities. He’ll keep talking about why things are hard for him, why he can’t make it and reasons prosperity isn’t for him. To help the poor, inspire him to dream big, tell him nothing is too difficult and no challenge is too hard for him to overcome.

Few days ago I observed something amongst beggars in Abuja. While some beggars would clean and do menial jobs for money, most of the rest would depend on the generosity and kindness of passer-byes to get cash. If the poor man keeps seeing himself as a dependent, no matter the amount of monies you give him, he’ll lose them all and fall back into lack and wretchedness. The creative spirit of a man manifests when he has tasked himself with giving and not just getting. Men who think of what to give are those who grow out of the chains of poverty while men who capitalize on people’s kindness and generosity are selfish and won’t get any better in life. Men are poor because they don’t think of what to give, they only think of what to get and they want to take advantage of people’s kindness and generosity. Wealth, Ideas and opportunities come to those who think in terms of what to give to the society and the nation. Soon enough wealth would fly away from those who think solely of themsel