Mine Exclusive

- THOUGHTS - 

EVERYONE FEELS STUCK IN THE MIDDLE

It's tempting to think your boss - or his boss, or her boss - has all the power. That's not how it feels to them. 

Everyone feels stuck in the middle. Even CEOs must contend with the board, investors, regulators, and the media. They have to deal with what often feels like overwhelming complexity.

You have a much greater ability to change your situation than you may realize. The first step is to realize that everyone feels the same as you do - often stuck in the middle - and the people who make progress are those who take change into their own hands. 

Most people want other people to change their situation. That's not how life works.

Change is up to YOU.

- Bruce Kasanoff

Finding Investment Opportunities Where Investors Fear

Warren Buffett is noted for saying: "Be fearful when others are greedy, and greedy when others are fearful.”

Right now, most investors are afraid of Nigeria. The uncertainty, risk and economic challenges are keeping them away.

If the Sage of Omaha is right, now is the time to get excited about Nigeria. This interesting article says it best, and I recommend you read it too.

The Chief Investment Officer at Allan Gray thinks the risk aversion to opportunities in Nigeria is quite extreme. 

Of particular interest is Nigeria's financial services sector. Nigeria's top 10 banks, currently valued at $6.5bn, were worth $35bn in 2008 when they were much smaller, inferior businesses.

- John-Paul Iwuoha

YOU'RE THE PURPOSE I AM HERE

You're the reason I live. You're my accomplishment. Without you I do not live. 

You're my purpose here. You provide me satisfaction each time I reach out in service to you. You inspire me to be whom I was created to be. You provide me cover. 

When you live, I live; when you win I win; and when you lose, I'm pained because I was formed to serve you and in serving you right, I win because you win. 

Let this guide you always where purpose and service is concerned.

- Joseph Ayeni 

I.T SECURITY AWARENESS 

So, I think Nigerian Banks are taking the issues of IT SECURITY lightly or just trying to be cost effective about it. 

Too many bank specific targeted mails (Spear Phishing) and they expect customers to be aware of what to do when they get such mails from their shabby adverts of do not disclose your details and pin to anyone!! 

Banks really need to address IT security awareness with media avenues that cost them something.

I don’t blame them too, in the eventuality that a customer falls victim, they just tell the customer they would see what they could do about it, nothing promising. 

They are not compelled to make refunds immediately to the customer. Some even try to make the customer feel negligent to his face.  

I wonder what the CBN is doing about this. Maybe its lack of exposure on the part of those running these teams or financial constraints. Who knows?

- Ileri Adeniji

Africans Think!!!

My Ancestors were not slaves.

They are humans turned to slaves by those who rob us of our cultural heritage and gave us some mindset reset and hypnotism called Religion.

They need to Repent by returning our stolen artefacts to where they belong, here in Africa.

Then and only then should we accept their Doctrines.

Enough of unrepentant ideologues usurping our resources with callous hatred yet preaching love with masquerading Hypocrisy.

#AfricansUnite!!!

- Demola Sanyaolu

A TALE OF OPPOSITE FORTUNES

The Lagos State Government has bewitched Lagosians. 

Lagosians are unanimous in the view that the Nigerian deep economic recession does not affect Lagos, ostensibly because the LASG is reporting stupendous internally generated revenue and showing off some pedestrian bridges and lay-bys. 

But Lagosians are losing their jobs, closing down or scaling back their businesses, and struggling to keep their children in schools. 

The government is getting richer and the people are becoming poorer.

- Jide Akintunde

 Help Them Regain Their Equilibrium 

Give a man a fish, they say, and you feed him for a day; teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime. Sorry—this saying is all wrong.

When a person is starving, that's not the time to fill their head with knowledge. The right thing to do is to first give the person a fish—banishing their hunger—and only then teach them to fish.

Far too often, people ignore this common sense first step. They see someone who is struggling, and they rush to offer wisdom. "Let me tell you what I'd do in your position," a well-meaning individual might offer.

But few of us understand the anxiety, confusion, and uncertainty that comes with overwhelming need. People in the midst of personal disasters are reeling. They can't think straight. Their nerves may be shot. Their confidence may be non-existent.

Rushing to offer a struggling person long-term advice is a waste of time.

Instead, it makes far more sense to help them regain their equilibrium. Once this happens... once their ears, heart, and mind open, then you have an opportunity to teach a new skill.

- Bruce Kasanoff 

Schools Kill Creativity

Schools kill creativity? Sure because a creative mind is an imaginative one and when you're truly imaginative, school accuses you of not paying attention.

- Joseph Ayeni

 Africa is a country 

If we must make real progress, we need to start acting and thinking like one.

The national borders we so patriotically celebrate are not ours. They are artificial legacies of a dark and colonial past, and serve to undermine our strengths.

Currently, Africans trade less with one another (about 15% of total trade volume), and trade more with foreign nations. The costs of cross-border air travel, funds transfers, and remittances across Africa remain some of the highest in the world.

Africa cannot benefit from its numerical strength until we tear down these artificial borders that fragment us. We cannot replicate the economic miracles of China and India if we continue to think as Ghanaians, Congolese, Nigerians, Ivoriens, Ethiopians, Egyptians, South Africans and Kenyans.

We have to stop thinking small. The most dangerous borders that confront us are not physical, but mental.

The only way Africa can grow and make its mark on the world is to grow together.

The internet is our big opportunity. It is the borderless platform and unifying force we have been waiting for.  Those artificial borders don't count here, and we can build on this.

Africa is a country.

That's what we used to be.

That's what we should be.

- Demola Sanyaolu

Limiting Your Ability To Achieve Great Things

Nothing limits your ability to achieve great things more than your desire to take credit for what you have achieved. 

It boggles my mind when some leaders take credit for the success of their organization. I think: you are already CEO, you already make $20 million, so why can't you empower the people who work for you instead of further inflating your own ego?

You can accomplish much more if you don't worry about taking the credit. Here are a few places to start:

Set fires under people. Get them excited about their job, a new project, or simply a plan for the future. 

Demonstrate by doing. Don't be a do-nothing leader; be a colleague who acts instead of just talks. 

Take joy in the success of others. Redefine success to include celebrating what those around you accomplish.

Allow things time to happen. Just because an idea enters your head does not mean that others will react immediately, especially if you are trying to effect change without taking credit. Be persistent but patient.

- Bruce Kasanoff

The Greatest Work Hack

You know what's the greatest work hack? Spending time with kids.

I just had the most intense week where I went from being stressed about GTM to being stressed about core product, to then being stressed about our recruiting efforts. Just the typical startup rollercoaster of paranoia. Add to that some prep for our first board, early prototype testing, and impending move to a new office, and what you have is a pretty intense startup week.

But in the midst of all of these chaos, the weekend happened, and I just spent the best two summer days ever playing with my five year old.  

Nothing like kids to give you perspective in life. Yes, work is very important, and yes, its key to ensure the startup does well. But its still not worth losing sleep over.

Time with kids will reset your priorities, fix your angst, remind you of what matters, and also help recapture a few gossamer threads of that wonderful childhood we all left behind. Perhaps as you lean back and smell that summer afternoon, you will be reminded of those sweaty days spent doing nothing. When time stood still, and the mind concocted trivial pursuits to while away the day. 

Perhaps then we will learn how to pause time again. And be truly happy. Because that's what its all about. That's why we do what we do.

- Punit Soni

Is NAFDAC Missing A Lot Of Teeth?

Water production companies these days fail to repeatedly take monthly samples to labs for assessment and analysis for various contaminants. 

Even when they do, they only do the "rudimentary" checks such as that for obnoxious chemicals (those that do not really pose a high health risk when slightly above their limits) and forget to test for other serious contaminants such as ATRAZINE, BENZENE and NITRATES or even BACTERIAL AND VIRAL ACTIVITY. 

Is NAFDAC missing a lot of teeth or are they collaborating with such underhandedness to spread water borne diseases all over the place. 

Out of curiosity, I did a full health and general scan on the product of a well  known water bottling company (name withheld of course) and almost fainted when i saw and rechecked the figures in ppm of the various contaminants present. 

NITRATES and BENZENE, a common cause of liver damage as well as nervous system damage too, were prevalent in the water sample. 

BACTERIAL LOAD (E.coli mostly) was shocking too probably due to poor and outdated processes of making the water clean (most companies only use the filtration process and just a few have the reverse osmosis process which in itself is a little behind the times). 

Frequent inspection and stiffer sanctions should be the answer. Period!

Patrick Chigozie Imaezue

(Chemical Proffessional)

 THE BIGGEST MISTAKE

A common question I get all the time: what is the biggest mistake young entrepreneurs are making?

They’re building businesses that only work during the best-case market scenarios.

Let me back up and explain a bit.

There are also so many incredible young entrepreneurs out there right now. I don’t want to sit up here and be that old dude who preaches about back in the day, or kids these days. 

That guy sucks. Nobody likes him or listens to him for advice on business problems.

But I do want to make sure young entrepreneurs have everything they need to succeed. And for that, we need to talk about the “biggest mistake” you are all currently making.

Link: https://lnkd.in/gnFeD2B

- Gary Vaynerchuk

 FIBRE INFRASTRUCTURE PROJECT IN UGANDA

Facebook's decision to invest $170 million in a fibre infrastructure project in Uganda is an interesting strategic move.

Ugandans, like most Africans, love Facebook. However, out of a total population of 38 million, there are only 2.2 million Ugandans on the social network. Facebook's penetration in Uganda is significantly lower than a number of other African countries with much smaller populations, including Angola and Ghana.

The reason for this gap is poor bandwidth and slow internet access speeds, which average only 512 kilobytes per second.

What's in this for Facebook? More users. By bringing more people online, it's footprint and influence in the social media space expands.

- John-Paul Iwuoha

Discovering And Unlocking The Power Of LinkedIn 

Let’s talk about one of the most powerful and underrated social network in the world, LinkedIn. I became a member of LinkedIn sometime in 2010 but did not really take it seriously.

My focus was on Myspace, Facebook, and Twitter. These are the booming social networks and still booming except Myspace which has gone into oblivion.

But something happen in 2012. I was the privilege to go through a LinkedIn Marketing Training online and that was when I realized LinkedIn is one of the most powerful channels to build a targeted leads of prospect, convert prospects to clients and attract high networked investors.

I was astonished by the quality of individuals and conversation I saw on LinkedIn.

Imagine being able to contact fortune 500 companies CEO’s and Managing Directors directly through LinkedIn and getting a response back from them. In fact, most of these CEO’s are not active on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. Their main social media channel is LinkedIn.

This discovery changed my life. My major goal became how I can strategically use LinkedIn to reach my target audience, build a valuable relationship and grow my business.

Since 2013, LinkedIn has become one of my major sources of getting quality clients which have resulted in six-figure income consistently.

I'm always surprised that we still have a lot of people who have not realized the power of LinkedIn. In my monthly seminars, I randomly ask the attendees their experience with LinkedIn and I discovered some of them are not even on LinkedIn not to take about knowing the power LinkedIn possess.

This experience was an eye-opener for me. How could anyone not use one of the best social media channel for attracting high-paying clients. Rather, they are busy on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Youtube and so on.

Do you know you can generate quality leads of prospects through LinkedIn?

Do you know you can attract high paying clients through LinkedIn?

Have you realized you can attract investors through LinkedIn?

Do you know you can build a powerful personal brand and a large following through LinkedIn?

Best regards,

- Celestine Mmadueke

Who knows whose life you can brighten up today?

Yesterday I got a call from a couple of friends from my Wharton days with no agenda but to say hi. They were catching up and thought of me.

Today I got an email from a colleague in Motorola who saw my posts on Learning Motors and wrote a lovely note wishing me luck.

Another ex-colleague noted that I was trying to hire engineers for the team and pinged to send in some leads to help.

We may strive for all forms and definitions of success but the biggest assets of our lives are the friends we make along the way. They are out there rooting for us through thick and thin. And have a bigger impact on our life that we can imagine.

So pause, take a break, and reach out to someone you care for. Send them a note, appreciate them, offer to help, or just say hi. Note their struggles, observe their journey, perhaps just be an audience to their life story.

- Punit Soni

AFRICA FOR SALE

As I travel different African countries, one thing remains conspicuous to me; there's a recolonization going on. 

The only difference is that the Asians have learnt from their past mistakes and heavily involved this time. 

I think African countries should stop celebrating Independence.

- Ekene Som Mekwunye 

The Voice Of Experience

I have seen it....

I have experienced same, nothing challenges and motivates an individual to render service to God and humanity globally and selflessly than having passed through the fire of life's challenges, trials and temptations and come out unhurt. 

Dearest, your present situation is just a phase of life...a temporary one indeed. 

So, be strong. May divine grace see you through. 

Remember, no condition is permanent.

- GENVOPRILOGY

There Is No Fence

We are ashamed of Africa. At least, most of us are.

It's easy to blame the rest of the world, but our attitude to our own continent tells the full story.

It is now clear to me that there are three distinct groups of Africans who see Africa very differently.

The first type of African has given up on the continent, often subconsciously. They believe Africa's future is rigged. They believe there is something innately wrong with us, black people, and it'll be impossible for Africa to break out of the rut. They focus on the negatives; the corruption, conflict and crime.

The second group sees the continent for what it truly is; a diamond in the rough. They acknowledge that Africa is a mess, but they see beyond the negatives. And that's because they're excited about the prospects and opportunities that will emerge from fixing and healing this continent.

The third group is indifferent and likes to think they're sitting on the fence. But the irony is, there is no fence. Africa is a mirror. Unless you're blind, when you look in her face, you MUST see something that ranges from disgust and shame to hope and admiration.

Shame or no shame, Africa belongs to us and WE will fix it.

You're either a part of the problem, or part of the solution.

- John-Paul Iwuoha

Your Words Are Powerful

Your words are powerful.  Even more  than the words spoken to others are the words that you speak into your own mind.

From this day forward when you speak, make a conscious and deliberate effort to have a minimum of 85% of your daily conversations positive, purposeful, and profitable. 

This will strengthen your mindset, create possibilities and attract more abundance and wealth in your life. 

Every time you say or think something negative--STOP. Immediately tell your mind ~ Cancel...Clear. 

This one practice will dramatically transform your reality. Become unstoppable by using your words to create your next breakthrough. 

You have something special.  You have GREATNESS within you!

- Hiram Figueroa

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About The Page

- Author's Note -

Mine Exclusive is an inspirational platform, a page that has been created on King Solomon's Mine specifically to share thoughts from known and renowned authors, both locally and internationally, about certain topics as regards to our religious faith, the news making rounds all over our dailies, trending stories on our major social media platforms, book reviews and view about life generally. 

 And with that said, please allow me the honor of welcoming you all to Mine Exclusive.