The Secret of Life Rhapsody

PLANNING IS EVERYTHING I begin with the words of Winston Churchill who said that: “Plans are of little importance, but planning is essential. I couldn’t agree less with this noble man. It is time for us to Plan TODAY. What are we planning for: A Wedding, An Exam, A House Building Project, A Successful Future. Whatever it is, You have start with a plan because: “If you fail to plan, then you are planning to fail” In a nutshell, I think planning is a virtue that is readily available from the creation of the world till now, yet man barely uses planning as a tool. I look around me and I see that every new technology that is been used today is or was a function of someone’s planning.  The houses we live in are a function of someone’s planning. The decisions we make today are a function of many years of planning which is been executed by us today. Two years ago, I made a decision to join Project Management International (PMI) and a...

SOCIAL CAPITAL Man is a social being, meaning that we are bound to meet people and network with them all with the sole aim of attaining resources. Wikipedia defines Social Capital as a form of economic and cultural capital in which social networks are central. Social Capital transactions are marked by reciprocity, trust and co-operation, and market agents produce goods and services not mainly for themselves, but for common good. Economists have defined Social Capital as a factor of production. This means that if you can’t be trusted as a business man or woman, in a matter of time, you will lose your best resources namely: Your Staff, Your Vendors and Suppliers, Bankers and Investors (Capital) and the business. In my opinion, Social Capital is equated as your trust capital. It is your earnings in trust capital that you either draw from or deposit into. You must work on growing your social capital at all times, and you must be trusted at all times. Little ...

UNDERSTAND THE PROCESS AND NOT THE END PRODUCT As I write the piece, I remember what my software testing teacher used to ask us before he starts every class.  How would say to us: Can you get clean water out of a dirty pipe? And we would all chant A BIG NO. And he would say to us that is the greatest lesson in life. He would say focus on the process and not the end result. Many years later, I was preparing for an exam.  I was so confident with myself that I had already passed the exam because I had taught over 20 students who had written the same exam and passed. Guess What: I failed the exam! I came short by one mark. The passing score was 40 and I scored 39.   That result plagued me for many years. During my lessons learned debrief after failing the exam, I realized that 60% of the questions I faced on exam day were based on two topics I barely studied.  I also assumed that since everyone I taught passed the exam, then ...

LIVE FOR OTHERS My Dad is going to be 70 later this year and as we celebrate him, the only thing obvious about him is that he lived his life for others. As a child, I never understood why my father would wake up every morning and he went about finding out how people were faring because he cared. When it was time to go to school, my Dad will offer a lift to every child on the street, till the car was over loaded with kids. I still didn’t get it. He was always everywhere, helping the street association to get a bigger transformer from the power generating company, helping his own community to get electricity in 1995 and helping tenants and preventing them from been evicted by landlords. To make things more interesting, anyone travelling abroad from our community used to come and stay in our house in Lagos before travelling. One day, I couldn’t help but ask: Daddy, why do you help people who don’t even appreciate it, let alone remember you. His answer stunned...