Your TALENT is Your TRUMPET; Blow it Loud!

 

Born on December 30, 1975, in Cypress, California, his parents identified his talent at an unusually early age. The boy was gifted not only with exceptional playing abilities, but he also possessed a passion for a particular kind of sport. He first gained national attention when he was only three at the time, and he was quickly hailed as a prodigy, or a child with remarkable talent. Not long after that, when he was only eight years old he won his first formal competition. From that point he became virtually unstoppable, winning trophies and breaking amateur records everywhere. Media accounts of the boy prodigy had reached nearly legendary proportions by 1994.

At the turn of the twenty-first century, he was the most dominant figure in all of sports, and it soon became evident that he was destined for success. That legendary prodigy boy is Tiger Woods, the champion.

Imaging a room filled with people with different sizes and shapes of trumpets. And everyone is expected to blow with his or her own. What do you think will happen? This is what I think; it is the one that blows loudest that is heard and that eventually gets attention.

In a world where there is a struggle for recognition and relevance. Everyone wants attention and everyone seems to be doing his own thing in his own corner of the world. No doubt, everyone is endowed with incredible talent. But unfortunately many have been made to believe that education is what makes one relevant and recognized. However, history has proven without doubt, like that of Tiger Woods that education by itself is not enough to make one relevant or recognised. Talent is what stands one out of the pack. Borrowing a statement from the Bible, “the gift of a man makes room for him and brings him before great men.” My understanding of this statement is that one’s natural gifting is what announces one to his world.

Therefore, for you to be relevant and gain recognition, you have to show the world what you carry within. In this wise, your talent is your trumpet. The louder you blow it, the more attention you command.

Joseph the prisoner blew his own from the prison and pharaoh heard in his palace. David blew his and the whole of Israel raised his banner over that of their King.  You have got to blow your trumpet. Blow it really louder. Because the louder it sounds, the farther it goes and the more recognition you get.

If you want to gain recognition. If you want to become relevant. Then you must blow your trumpet! My advice; blow it with all you have got, cos’ the louder the better.

Cheers!

The Reality of Entrepreneurship

Born on September 9, 1984 and raised in the impoverished south side of Chicago in a single parent family. He began his entrepreneurial, personal and civic development at six years of age selling home-made body lotion and his own hand-painted rocks door-to-door. At age seven, he was carrying business cards that read "the 21st Century CEO." At age eight, he became co-founder of Urban Neighborhood Enterprise Economic Club (U.N.E.E.C.) on Chicago's South Side. At age 13, he started a fast foods business which he sold a year after for $1.5 million dollars. By the age of fourteen he was already a self-made millionaire. Today he is the youngest person to have an office on Wall Street. His name Dr. Farrah Gray a remarkable young man with an entrepreneurial mindset. His story, truly, represents a true picture of the reality of entrepreneurship.

Entrepreneurship among many things gives you the opportunity to stretch your potentials, explore opportunities in your environment, provide solutions to the problems of the society and explore a wide range of avenues to better your lot.

Dr. Gray is truly a representation of the reality of entrepreneurship. He was able to transit through the three realms of the path to economic emancipation; Passion to Product to Profit. Identifying needs or opportunities and providing products or services to meet the identified needs is what entrepreneurship is all about. Meeting needs! Every society has needs and it takes only people with entrepreneurial eyes (mindsets) to be able to identify those needs and fill the gaps.

Like Gray, every one of us is born with that spirit of enterprise. However, the problem lies in our unwillingness to exercise and stretch our minds to think and provide solutions to the problems in our immediate environment.

Entrepreneurship is and will always remain the only solution to the problems of unemployment and poverty in most nations. We each have a responsibility to challenge ourselves to engage in entrepreneurial ventures. Nations have been and are still being transformed on this platform.

There is something in you that you can give out. There is a wealth of talent and skills in you that can meet a need. Gray made it from a slum, single parent home and as a vulnerable kid that needed all the support a child can get. He went on to become a real business owner and founder at age 6! Remarkable, you say! Well, I couldn’t agree any less.

Take that step today. Stretch your mind and experience the reality of entrepreneurship.

Cheers!

From Passion to Product to Profit... Continued

 

From Passion to Product to Profit

Doing what you love to do and getting paid for doing it.

Maybe you are one of those incredibly gifted individuals to whom God has given many talents and passions. Don’t let fear or worries of what people think or say hold you back from turning your passion into a product. If you are truly happy with the passion that God has put in you, keep those enthusiasms burning bright because your passion could be the matchstick that will light a spark for the startup of a profitable world-class business venture. Your passions could be used to create opportunities to build profitable businesses that meet social needs in our communities. 

Our collective passions, therefore, represent a powerful force of transformation for our country. From one man’s passion for computer and software, the US and indeed the world at large are better for it.

Today, many young Nigerians are pursuing their passions to profit in various areas such as in football, academics, science, music, literature and so on. In football, young Nigerian soccer stars are using their passions to make a lot of impact thereby creating a positive image for the country. Some of the young Nigerians who have pursued their passions for football to profit include Kanu Nwankwo, Obafemi Martins, John Mikel Obi, and even the female Falcon's top strikers Mercy Akide, Cynthia Uwak to mention a few.

In music, Innocent Idibia popularly called Tu Face. Indeed, he is one young Nigerian musician who has become a phenomenon from nothing but just doing what he loves to do; his passion. Cobhams Asuquo, a fascinating blind singer and music producer has proved that there is ability in disability. I call him the music virtuoso. A singer and producer, Asuquo has soared above every limitation posed by his disability. This is the force of passion at work. A man that is driven by passion can never be stopped irrespective of his physical state.

In comedy, Julius Agwu fondly called D' Genius, Bright Okpocha a.k.a. Basket Mouth are not missing from the list. In literature, the outstanding Nigerian young literary jewel Chimamanda Adichie, has also held her own. The list endless.

In this 21^st century, stories abound of young people making strides, once again proving beyond doubt that just any one can pursue his passion to profit irrespective of every limitation in their environments or what the society believes.

See how these young people and many others that we don’t even know, have changed and are changing their lives with nothing but by doing what they love to do.

I encourage you to pursue your passion, translate it into a tangible product and then to profit. You owe it to God. You owe it to humanity and you owe it to yourself. Go ahead and do as occasion demands.

Passion is the key and you have it!

Cheers!

From Passion to Product to Profit

From Passion to Product to Profit

Doing what you love to do and getting paid for doing it.

Born in May 14, 1984, Mark Zuckerberg an American computer scientist, software developer and philanthropist best known for creating the social networking site called the Facebook, of which he is CEO and president, began using computers and writing software as a child. While growing up, his father noticed he had a passion for computers and software and decided to hire a private tutor to guide him. His passion for computer was so strong that his private tutor nicknamed him ‘the genius,’ adding that it was "tough to stay ahead of him." 

Today, Zuckerberg’s passion for computer and software has led him to create a product (Facebook) which no doubt has brought him fame and fortune. By this, he has clear shown the power of translating one’s Passion into Product and then to Profit. He has donated over $100 million to public schools system in the US and to several other causes around the world. Not only that, the product of his passion has also created opportunities for new business startup and growth and employment for other people. From his passion for computer and software, Zuckerberg has not only made great fortune for both himself and the world at large but he has also impacted lives and the global economy so much so that posterity will reap the after rewards of the product of his passion.

Like Zuckerberg, there are millions of people both young and old around the world who are making impact in their various areas of endeavour. In football, athletics, music, entertainment, business, education etc, you name them, they are everywhere. You too have a passion for something. Passion is one thing that everyone is born with. And God who has put those passions in us expects us to use them to make profit by using them to create products and services that will add value to the society and at the same time enable us make some earnings. 

What really is passion, you may ask? PASSION applies to intense, ardent affection or love, enthusiasm, a strong liking for or devotion to something; activity, object, or concept e.g a passion for chess or scrabble, a passion for fishing, cooking, writing, singing, speaking etc. 

The heroes, legends, champions, and leaders who fill our history books were allpeople who translated their passions into profit first for the society and then for themselves. Look within you, what is that thing that you enjoy or love doing? It could be housekeeping, doing the laundry, cooking, looking after children, counseling, driving, teaching, talking, writing, singing, storytelling, and so on. 

to be cont'd

The Force of Entrepreneurial Thinking

The Force of Entrepreneurial Thinking

In Transformation, a book authored by Ed Silvoso, the story was told of Jennifer Mwesigyee a young woman somewhere in Uganda who worked as a seamstress to supplement her husband’s income but ends never seemed to meet. Given a loan of $171 she bought her own sawing machine and soon she was able to hire others.

Not too long, she identified a need for affordable and reliable transportation in her small community and with her little savings decided to invest in the business. Starting with just one motorcycle and a rider, she progressively built a fleet of vehicles and as such created jobs to support other families.

Since then, Jennifer has invested in other businesses such as real estate, farming and property rental. Jennifer’s journey from a mere seamstress to landowner to farmer to investor and community leader shows…..…the force of entrepreneurial thinking when applied. Just as the law in physics that says everything remains in a state of rest until relevant force is applied. “Entrepreneurial thinking is a force that when applied can push a man from the circle of poverty into that of economic freedom. And until that force is applied man is bound to remain in that state of rest in the circle of poverty.”

As the whirlwind of news surrounding the vast economic crisis continues, causing massive job lose and an alarming increase in the rate of youth unemployment in Nigeria and around the world continues, I stopped to reflect on why providing entrepreneurship education and promoting entrepreneurial thinking is very vital to young people especially at such a time as this.

Have you ever wondered how most large economies got to where they are today? If you haven’t, well I have. Nations like US, Germany, China, Japan, South and North Korea, Malaysia, and even South Africa are typical examples of nations with developed or ‘super’ economies. How did they get there? That’s the key question. And why are some other nations not among the so called ‘super economies’?

So many thoughts could be roaming your mind right now. But please don’t dare to think it is because the so called ‘super economies’ have all the resources; human, material and finance. I bet that you are absolutely wrong if that is your answer. The Nigerian situation (economy) proofs to us that even though having the resources is necessary, it does not automatically translate to economic emancipation and growth especially when the owners of such resources are not proactive. Adequate research has also established that the growth of any economy is not, in anyway, dependent on the availability of resources at one’s disposal, but on one’s ability to first engage his mental resourcefulness before he can, in reality, transform his resources into elements for economic growth.

What I’m talking about is simply ‘entrepreneurial thinking’ which in simple translation means pro-active thinking (thinking and acting in anticipation of future problems or needs and finding possible solutions) which is what differentiates the ‘super guys’ from the ‘small guys.’ 

Obviously, this explains why some nations, even with meagre resources, have become super developed while others even in the midst of abundant resources are merely trying to survive. 

Entrepreneurial thinking is the key to economic emancipation for every individual and nation. Nigeria and indeed Africa are practical case studies to proof to us that it is not just in the quantity or quality of one’s resources. It is the resourcefulness and creative potentials that one is able to call upon or bring to bear in order to translate those resources into tangible wealth that makes the difference.

Obviously, in the long run, this seems to be the only way out of youth unemployment. Yet interestingly enough, in spite of the prevailing unemployment among young people, most young people still do not consider entrepreneurial thinking as a vital tool and entrepreneurship as a viable career option or an important subject matter. Worse still, most schools are yet to include entrepreneurship as a core subject in their educational curriculum that will help young people start and manage their own businesses but rather teach them to be employees and to follow already laid down conventional way of thinking; go to school, graduate with a good grade, come out and get a good job with a good pay and so on.

Many schools teach subjects that are not practically relevant in our society today and will not help solve real life problems, but rarely do we see the possibility of entrepreneurship presented as a viable subject and career option for young people.

“If you look at today’s connected world, opportunities to make an impact are no longer constrained by yesterday’s barriers- where you live or how much experience you have- it’s about who can think up ideas, take their ideas and make them happen,” says Jonathan Ortmans, president of global entrepreneurship week USA. There’re a lot of young people who do not realise that yet, and i believe this blog would change that in a big way.

For young people to escape from the vicious circle caused by failing in the system, active intervention will be necessary. There’s therefore an urgent need for young people to be educated and trained in the field of entrepreneurship. In order for them to become job creators rather than job seekers, youth should learn and develop the skills needed to identify viable business opportunities and eventually start their own businesses. This is empowerment at its most basic level!

Cheers!

Welcome!

Springboard to Success

Entrepreneurial thinking is one of those critical skills that virtually everyone needs to succeed in this 21^st century. Entrepreneurial thinking which in simple translation means pro-active thinking is thinking and acting in anticipation of both present and future problems or needs and finding possible solutions to solving the identified problems or meeting the needs respectively.

 

I strongly believe that promoting entrepreneurial thinking and expanding the availability of opportunities for young people to engage in entrepreneurship should be a critical part to, not only solving the problem of unemployment in the Nigeria and indeed the world but also teaching young people how to make it financially, how to own their futures as economically productive members of the society and take full ownership of their lives.

Lacking in most youth today especially in Africa is an entrepreneurial mindset which I believe is a critical 21^st century skill and helping young people to develop the right portfolio of skills, especially in entrepreneurship, as well as the development of creativity, they can become the continent’s and the world’s next generation of enterprising and innovative business people. But our society has not yet created the right environment that fully develops this critical skill in young people.

It’s therefore based on this premise of promoting entrepreneurial thinking and also providing entrepreneurship education in response to helping young people to become economically-productive members of the society, job creators and superior employee candidates with the right entrepreneurial skill and mindset that I opted to start this blog.

The goal of this blog is;

To help young people begin to think entrepreneurially and also learn about entrepreneurship; what it is, how to identify business ideas and opportunities, start up a business, how products and services are developed and sold and, how to write a concise business plan and lots more. 

Key objectives of the blog are;

·         To Engage young minds in entrepreneurship.

·         To Explore young talent and creativity. Ensuring that every young person has the opportunity to explore his or her entrepreneurial potential

·         To Empower young people with requisite skill to take full ownership of their lives by becoming economically self-sufficient.

Ultimately, through this blog, I believe young minds will be engaged, talents will be explored and young people will become economically productive and empowered.

Purpose of this blog

This blog seeks basically to promote the promotion of a culture of entrepreneurship among the youth, serving as a resource for a subject that schools don’t teach young people.

This blog will provide you with the opportunities to learn about what entrepreneurship really is, recognize the benefits that entrepreneurship can bring to you and the society, be encouraged to consider entrepreneurship as a viable career option, to evaluate your own entrepreneurial skills and characteristics and eventually begin to look for business opportunities to engage in.

Cheers!

Think Entrepreneurship!...........................Championing an entrepreneurial society.

Engaging young minds. Exploring young talents and creativity. Empowering young people.

Join me as we learn what we need to succeed in this 21^st century.