THE NEED FOR A BIGGER PICTURE

When we were kids, we played a lot in the world of fantasy which we had in our head, we would say things like, “Daddy, buy me an airplane”, with the mindset that our parents can do all that we wish and ask for, but as we grew older and got wiser, the harsh reality of life began to dawn on us and we started seeing things from the perspective the world created for us, due to various reasons, ranging from our background to economic situations. All these factors have limited our desire to want things, wish and aim for a better life.

Today, I am writing to open our eyes to the other aspect of life which we have been blind towards. This is basically the need to dream big, need to break out of our comfort zone and have a positive mentality. When you limit your reasoning or scope, you never know more than the fence you build for yourself, on a daily basis, you need to strive to get bigger and open your mind to what and who you could become. 

The thought of all these alone serves as fuel that powers you very hard to achieve your aim. The best part of it is that you do not pay anybody or need to involve anybody in your thought. To building positive gigantic mental pictures, you need to tap into the creative part of you.

 A mentor of mine once said “First within and then without’’, this means that you have to build a picture of what you desire first in your mind before it is seen in real world. Travel, read, make new friends, meet and discuss with people that would challenge you to ask for more from life. Everything you see is as a result of someone’s dream at one point or the other which was followed through to a conclusive end.

Think, Create and analyze till your brain sweats, follow it up with meaningful smartwork guiding you towards its realization, and I tell you, the world will marvel at you.

“Dreams are real, so chase them”-Trey songs, 27^th Aug, 2011, MTV(south Africa Diary).

                                                                   Fakeye, Olaniyi, Olatunde

                                                                   President,

                                                                   Neff Business Concept

SIMPLE ACT OF GIVING

There are certain things we cannot decide, some of them include who our parents are, their status in the society before our birth, country in which we are born, where natural disasters happen and a lot of others that we know. All these and more sometimes make people in those situation or circumstances unsafe.

We who are opportuned to be safe, healthy and okay have a moral obligation to help, to render assistance to those in need, to create and provide a better life and condition of living for them. What is the essence of living if we cannot bring smile to the faces of others, if we cannot tend their wounds?.

I see life itself as a gift from God, none of us who are okay today gave ourselves the right to existence, it came naturally, so why can we not make that living experience happiness and joy for the closest person to us who we know is in need?.

As the lyrics of a song by a group of renowned musicians in America goes ” we are the one to make the world a better place so let’s start giving”, also the words from the Holy Bible says “it is more profitable to give than to receive”, the little display of this act could go a long way in stopping the different vices committed in our society by young minds who need help.

No matter how small it is, no matter to whom, where and when, engaging in this in a long run would bring happiness and relief to whoever it is offered to. Take for instance the flood that disturbed the south-south and Northern part of Nigeria, it would not take anything for people not affected to give so those people affected can be catered for, but instead, some of the people employed saw it as a means for them to enrich themselves.

Until we begin to understand that it is not only the people that we are biologically connected to are our brothers and sisters, but also our neighbors, people in our community, state, country and continent at large, we would not be able to live or co-exist in peace, no matter where we find ourselves.

GOD BLESS US, GOD BLESS NIGERIA, GOD BLESS AFRICA

                                                                             Fakeye, Olaniyi, Olatunde

                                                                             President,

                                                                             Neff Business Concept

WORDS FROM A WORTHY MENTOR

Good day peeps, i came across this wise sayings from a man that has proved himself beyond reasonable doubt as a global influence in our world of today, and decided to share it with you, I hope it holds meaning to you as much as it holds to me.

RICHARD BRANSON'S BLOG

1. Listen more than you talk

We have two ears and one mouth, using them in proportion is not a bad idea! To be a good leader you have to be a great listener. Brilliant ideas can spring from the most unlikely places, so you should always keep your ears open for some shrewd advice. This can mean following online comments as closely as board meeting notes, or asking the frontline staff for their opinions as often as the CEOs. Get out there, listen to people, draw people out and learn from them.

2. Keep it simple

You have to do something radically different to stand out in business. But nobody ever said different has to be complex. There are thousands of simple business solutions to problems out there, just waiting to be solved by the next big thing in business. Maintain a focus upon innovation, but don’t try to reinvent the wheel. A simple change for the better is far more effective than five complicated changes for the worse.

3. Take pride in your work

Last week I enjoyed my favourite night of the year, the Virgin Stars of the Year Awards, where we celebrated some of those people who have gone the extra mile for us around the Virgin world. With so many different companies, nationalities and personalities represented under one roof, it was interesting to see what qualities they all have in common. One was pride in their work, and in the company they represent. Remember your staff are your biggest brand advocates, and focusing on helping them take pride will shine through in how they treat your customers.

4. Have fun, success will follow

If you aren’t having fun, you are doing it wrong. If you feel like getting up in the morning to work on your business is a chore, then it's time to try something else. If you are having a good time, there is a far greater chance a positive, innovative atmosphere will be nurtured and your business will fluorish. A smile and a joke can go a long way, so be quick to see the lighter side of life.

AFRICA, HOME OF OPPORTUNITIES UNTAPPED

For a long time now, I have been writing about improving oneself and developing in every way possible, but today, watching the direction to which the continent, AFRICA, which fortunately happens to be my root, is facing, I cannot help but talk about, and sell her to the outside world.

I understand and have seen how the activities we have engaged in has crippled our image in the mind of everybody outside the continent, the world has no faith in us, in our government, in our values. We have also experienced the harsh treatment we receive outside the shores of our motherland, just because we carry passports of one of the countries in her. Even the press publicly continues to dent our image.

With all these known problems, I would want to point out the fact that AFRICA, and most importantly Nigeria, which I hail from, is beginning to emerge with great opportunities with billion dollar ideas and financial opportunities.

Presently, almost every sector in Nigeria are under explored, with businesses so easy to build, if the saying “streets paved with gold” is ever true, then I am so sure Nigeria is one place you can find this.

Investors from countries in the UAE, Europe, America, and even in house South Africa and other part of Africa are constantly making mind bugling profits in their chosen area of interests, some of such companies include MTN, Unilever, Julius Berger and even in house owned GLOBACOM.

Every year, we hear about grants, and all form of charity offers sent to Africa, but it is an irony that nothing is ever solved with all that. Instead of sending money down, why not channel those funds to help build businesses, why not help reduce the rate of unemployment which would allow your target audience have enough money to buy all they need for themselves and their family, why not help young intelligent, enterprising men and women with bright ideas and concepts build businesses that would not only sustain them, but also a lot of other people.

I sincerely see Africa, Nigeria in particular (don’t blame me, it’s because I hail from her, lol) as a fertile ground for any good seed you want to plant. This is because the whole continent is a typical representation of the saying “consuming all we produce”, we have the population for labor and consumption for whatever it is that we need.

Everyday, new reforms and policies are daily put in place to make it easy for anyone interested in breaking out with the next big thing to come into Nigeria and Africa a s a whole, why not come in before the ship leaves you behind, with a population of over 800 million people in the continent, there is enough space for any bird to fly.

With the little I have seen, I know that many Nigerians are exposed to the opportunities that abound in this country, and are ready to explore, all they need is a push to move them forward.

I, as a patriotic Nigerian admonish all sincere, upright and serious investor to come and put structures on ground so as not to miss out on what AFRICA has to offer presently.

                                                                                            

Fakeye, Olaniyi Olatunde

President,

Neff Business Concept

                                                                                                                                             

MY THOUGHTS, MY MIND AND I

Good day my friends, how have you been?, I am sorry i have not been able to post in a while, but i am sure you would forgive me for that. I had other commitments that took all my time, coupled with a lot of other issues beyond my control. well, I hope what I have for you now makes up for my absence.

Today, I am going to be talking about our mind, the thought that goes through them, and how they go a long way in shaping our lives. This topic is very important due to the fact that many of us do not know how much power we have within us, as the phrase goes, “I think I am, so I am”, or “first within, then without’, we have to be able to commune positively with our mind to get whatever it is that we want.

Millions of thought goes through our mind daily due to what we observe, feel and see, but we only take important ones that are of interest to us. Our interest dictates what we imprint on our mind and think over.

We know that naturally, before talking, our mind brudes over the subject, then produces an idea which we make known to others by speaking, which in turn shapes how we are viewed by the general public.

I have come to discover that we have to be able to bring our thoughts under our control, as we cannot control our lives if we cannot perform this little exercise.

A lot of factors like fear, environment, people, situations distorts our thought pattern, but the truth is we can bring all under our control if we can just work on controlling our thoughts to do what we WILL naturally, and then believe and work towards them in one mind with dedication.

I have talked about how the environment affects us and vice versa, but we cannot build a healthy and enabling environment if we cannot control our thought pattern and the mind as a whole.

We have the ability to reshape our world, our life and our environment, just by thinking positively as related to any aspect of our life, concentrating deeply on how to bring our thought into reality and putting in the needed zeal and dedication to do what we have pictured and analyzed.

It takes the same energy to  think positive as it takes to think negative, they also release the same kind of force, only in opposite directions, with the first giving you the zeal to find ways of overcome the challenge that might stand in your way, and the other, magnifying the challenges and showing to you reasons why you cannot achieve your aim. The way you think affects the way you see yourself, and what occupies your mind, which will in turn chart a course for your life.

I advice that we take conscious effort to expel negative thoughts from our mind , concentrate a great deal on the positive, consider the benefit accrued to the positive and see yourself already possessing them. Also, highlight step by step plans to accomplish the task as regards your interest.

Get a note, list out steps to achieving your aim in them, on a daily basis think, concentrate and map out ways to bring your concept to reality. You would immediately find out that your mind begins to attract and pick up ideas that would make it possible. Continue on a daily basis to develop and seek methods of accomplishing your aim.

After you have completely made enough enquires from your mind and listened to people who have more experience in that field, made enough research, you would have gotten enough to kick-start you at least 50%.

After all that, you now have to condition your mind, and concentrate on the possibilities and how it is going to come into existence by pushing fully to achieve it.

Even the Bible says, “as a man thinks in his heart, so is he”. As long as you are determined to succeed, nothing is impossible. All you need is the strength to discipline that part of yourself which by willingness, consciousness and dedication, all is possible.

Fakeye, Olaniyi Olatunde
President,
Neff Business Concept

MY ENVIRONMENT AND I

I listened to one of my mentors today and he made me realize how important I am to my environment and vice-versa. Bruding over the topic above, I decided to share it with you my friends.

From my understanding, I have come to see that you cannot give more than you have, the environment we are is the mould that shapes one’s life, as we all know, no matter the quality of a seed, it’s productivity is dependent in the soil in which it is planted.

As we know, our environment influences our aspirations and goals based on what we see and like, it limits us to certain type or class of people, who we over time become friends and share our dreams with. With our knowledge of this fact, why don’t we then take issues relating to our environment serious? , I wonder.

Also, the other twist to the issue is that we determine our environment, we collectively as a people determine what we want, which in turn shapes and determines what we get from life, but due to our “I don’t care attitude”, we leave this very important aspect in the hands of the greedy, self centered people who don’t have any positive value to add, it is so evident why we as a nation are where we are.

Looking around today, it is visible for everyone to see that people are not building creative instinct, but that of survival and it is basically because of the circumstances people face on a daily basis in a country where basic needs are not available, people do all to survive, which in turn makes them act like animals.

My point today is simple, whichever class in the society you feel you belong to, by this I mean the rich, poor, intellectuals, conservatives, middle class and the likes, it is the collective responsibility of everyone to build the environment with resources and ideas they have so as to create an enabling environment.

We should in our little communities take decisions not based on instant gratification and satisfaction, but for its improvement. We should not let the common factor “GREED” erode us of a better life for the populace and future generation, we should re-orientate ourselves and possibly open the history books to find out the driving values of our founding fathers and leaders, put them to work to make sure we move forward. 

We should not deceive ourselves by folding our arms, acting unconcerned, because whatever damages caused would always come back to hunt us.

This little advice I have for us today before things go out of hand and we start to regret.

GOD BLESS THE FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF NIGERIA. GOD BLESS US ALL.

                                                                                            

                                                                                            Fakeye, Olaniyi Olatunde

                                                                                            President,

                                                                                            Neff Business Concept

MY CONCLUSION ON THE NIGERIAN MATTER

After the duel between the Federal government of Nigeria and the Nigerian Labour congress (NLC) over the pump price of petrol which lasted six working days, federal government eventually brought down the price to 97 Naira as against the 141 Naira which the price was inflated to before the strike.

During the period of the strike, prices of goods and services had increased astronomically, transportation price was neck cutting and Nigerians faced a lot of harsh situations. One would think that the strike embarked on by the NLC, with the noise and the level to which it was supported by the general public would return the price back to 65 Naira, how funny is it to find out all the noise and public display was all for nothing.

I like to point out the fact that all services that had surged in price during the period petrol was sold for 141 Naira would not reduce in price now that the price has been reduced to an extent and the effect caused by the price that caused the strike is still the same as that of 97 Naira. If the price of petrol was never going to come down to its original price, why did we not accept the removal of subsidy from the beginning, why did we waste our time fighting a war we cannot win, I wonder.

The federal government has set up a panel to investigate the petroleum sector to find out irregularities in the subsidy issue, I am surprised we waste our time investigating, when the people benefitting from these sector are people who are celebrated by the system investigating them.

As a nation, we compare ourselves to other countries that are not oil rich, we console ourselves with the fact that PMS is still more expensive in those countries than ours even at 141Naira, we never compare ourselves with the oil rich ones that sells the fuel for much less than 65Naira we used to buy it for, since we know we have failed to build a system that works and would make the product accessible to us cheaply.

In  my honest opinion, I feel the problem caused by subsidy removal is based on the fact that a lot of Nigerians do not have faith in the government, they do not believe that the money generated from this avenue would be spent judiciously and towards the right course.

I would say we should allow the government do whatever it is that they have promised with the hope that they would do as promised this time, for we do not have a choice in this matter. Subsidy removal has come to stay and what it is only telling us is simple, ”HUSTLE HARDER TO MAKE ENDS MEET”.

                                                                                            Fakeye, Olaniyi Olatunde

                                                                                            President,

                                                                                            Neff Business Concept

WHAT WOULD THE OUTCOME BE?

Yesterday, the 9^th of January 2012, the NLC (Nigerian Labour Congress) proposed strike began to go against the pump price of petrol (PMS – Premium motor spirit). A lot of notable figures spare headed the protest with the likes of Wole Soyinka, Tunde Bakare, Bankole Wellington (Banky W) to mention a few.

On Saturday 7^th January 2012, the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria gave a speech pleading to Nigerians to bear with him and his cabinet and also to give him time to implement policies and factors that would make life bearable.

He talked about bringing in diesel run buses, which would be handed over to transport managers in the 36 states of the nation, he also pointed out the economic implications if the subsidy on PMS is not removed.

All the points highlighted made sense, except for the fact that PMS is in more direct use than diesel, the populace depends on their single and two stroke engine generators to run their daily businesses in a country where electricity is a major problem.

How on earth would prices of goods and services not skydive when the basic cost to run small scale businesses which serves the need of the populace would increase, what happens to DVD/CD seller who needs light to power his system for advertisement, what happens to the fashion designer and hairdressers who uses electricity to power their machines, how would these translate on the price of other basic needs attached to direct usage of PMS, I wonder.

It is said that 300 Billion Naira was spent on subsidy during the democratic regime of Olusegun Obasanjo and today we spend close to 1.5 trillion Naira. To me, if this is true, is the government of the day not supposed to know that some people under serious covering buy the fuel in extremely high quantity with the government paying subsidy on the amount bought, store it and export it out of the country after a while, selling it at extreme profit (a process known as ROUNDTRIPPING), does this not point out the loopholes in our shipping and export system, which is also evident in the security arms of our dear nation, I wonder

To the best of my knowledge, I feel the government is not ready to face the reality of things, in my opinion, decisions that should be taken should be to put monitoring measures in place, accounting for all PMS produce imported, exported and how they are distributed. I feel the government should devise means for easy distribution of the product and I also feel that all arms of government involved in the petroleum sector should be properly audited and investigated, I suggest that all unnecessary expenses be cut down and methods should be fashioned out to use little resources to achieve high productivity, but the fact remains that it is just my opinion.

Back to the main issue, what do we expect to get from the ongoing strike, would the aim and objectives by the NLC and the good people of the nation come to pass?, time would tell, time would definitely tell.

As we go on in this civil course, I wish and hope our expectation is granted, but as the saying goes, “if wishes were horses, beggars would ride on them”.

Fakeye, Olaniyi Olatunde

President,      
Neff Business Concept

HAPPY NEW YEAR

First and foremost, I congratulate everyone who made it into this year 2012. Going by all that happened last year, ranging from religious and ethnic crisis in different part of my country, to wars and famine experienced in other parts of the world, being fortunate to see the new year is something we should thank Baba God for.

To everybody who took out time to read my blog last year, I am happy about the fact that you took out time of your busy schedules to pick few points from my write-ups, this year has a lot in stock for all of us and I would say we should take our time to enjoy and take all in as the day go by. I also wish you all success and fulfillment in all your endeavors.

 My discussion today is basically going to be about the occurrences in my country Nigeria. Yesterday, the federal government officially removed the subsidy on premium motor spirit known as petrol. I woke up this morning, drove down to the petrol station only to find out that the product now sells for N141, as against N65 which it used to be. I can’t even imagine the effect this singular decision would have on the populace, as I know this increase in price of fuel would have a chain reaction on the price of all other commodity

Around October last year, news filtered out that the federal government plans to invest N428.8billion which sums up to ($2.68bn) in three refineries in Indonesia, when we have refineries here that should be repaired and put in good working condition that would in turn provide the product at very low rate, provide employment and also allow for other chain of service. To me, this move would only go against what they preach which is wooing investors into the country, as nobody would be willing to invest in a country where the government of the day does not see prospects.

 The policies declared by the federal government has not in any way created an enabling environment for entrepreneurship to thrive, there is high unemployment rate, level of crime in the country is high and the case just got worsened with the increase in fuel price.

 Recently, the minimum wage of workers was just increased to N18500 as against N7500, then, the price of petrol was N65, now it has surged to N141, in a country where having 10-15 hours electricity in a day is a tall order, where transportation takes a large chunk of our money, where education is on a daily basis nose-diving, where clean consumable water is still a major problem even in some of the oil rich state, where insecurity is a big issue, where we maintain and operate one of the most expensive government. I sometimes wonder how they reason.

A country which used to be known for peaceful and happy people is now a place where depression is becoming a rampant issue, where suicide is becoming the order of the day and where religious/ethnic crisis is even threatening the daily operation of her citizen.

I wish we could go back to the root, discover what the values of our founding fathers were, their dream, aspiration and collective goal for the nation which made them give all to get independence from the colonial masters.

I wish we could take out time to have both short and long term goals as regards all aspects of this country, mapping out strategies that are workable and efficient to produce results needed.

I wish we could just be truthful to ourselves, understanding the fact that there are people who cannot afford a meal of N100 which is less than $1 a day, working the streets without a slight idea of what the next minute holds for them and taking this as a reference point when making policies\

I wish we could all bend a little so the boy walking on the street would have a ray of hope, so the girl at that corner waiting for a customer to pay her for sex because she has no other way to survive could see that she has no reason to do that anymore

Only with this kind of mentality and action can we return to our old values and make good decisions that would favor us as a nation because the child of today becomes the adult tomorrow and the values he grows up with affects the decisions he makes, but as the Holy Bible says, if wishes were horses, beggars would ride on them. Which way are we headed as a nation?, which way Nigeria?.

 Fakeye, Olaniyi Olatunde
 President,
 Neff Business Concept