11 Things The Rich Do Which You Should Copy
I was relaxing somewhere yesterday and it crossed my mind if I did a piece on why they remain poor, I should do a follow up on how they can get out of poverty. We should not find faults all the time; we should be able to point the way up too. Anyway that is why we are here.
Let thus be clear, no matter how hard you try, some people will simply remain poor. I do not know why, but this seems to be the truth. Open the vaults of the CBN to some people, they will still remain where they are, perhaps because of some of the reasons we gave in the last article.
It is amazing how relevant the Pareto analysis is here. Pareto analysis by the way is also called the ABC analysis. In this perspective, it says 20% of people will control 80% of the resources while 80 % will control 20% of resources. For example, if you have 10 bank customers having a total of 100naira deposit, 2 of them will hold 80 naira while 8 will hold twenty naira, The two customers are in the A group while the 8 are in the B and C groups.
Lifting ourselves with boot strings to the A group is our concern here.
So, what do the rich do to fire them up? We need to learn from them so as to be successful and be in A group? Here we go;
1, Have “I will be Rich” Mindset. This is the most important of all the things you need. You have to think positively all the time. You have to see yourself being rich all the time. Think rich, play rich, walk rich and do all things as if you were already in wealth. If you see yourself poverty ridden all the time, I am afraid nobody can help you. Remember that whatever the mind of a man can conceive can be materialized. Your outside is a reflection of your inside. You will be what you think you will be. My octogenarian uncle told me the present Ooni of Ife, Oba Sijuade was always seeing himself as the Ooni even as a small boy. Those days, my uncle told me, Oba Sijuade would insist he be addressed as the Ooni of Ife. Today he is there on the throne.
2. A Mission At A Time. You cannot be everything. You want to sell water, run a school and yet a transport company at the same time. No, it does not work like that. It is a mission a time. When one mission is accomplished and can stand on its own, you move to the next one. Remember, you only have 24 hours in a day and you can do so much and not more. I admire the Americans for this, they pick one mission and follow it to the top. Remember the Williams sisters? They hardly knew anything outside tennis when they started. There is an adage in Yoruba and I will not bore you with the Yoruba version but it simply translates to, if you piss on a spot, your urine will foam, but if you spread it all over the place you won’t get any foaming.
Look, there is nothing to be ashamed of here. I am deficient here too. I run this site which is a full-time job if you really want to make a huge impact. Along there, I have my 8-5 work which makes the site suffer. If I had concentrated all my effort on this site in the last 4 years it would have become so monstrous. Got the gist?
3.Get A Mentor. Yes, you need one. Here, you do not want to invent the wheel. There is no point struggling for what is already available. You do not need to repeat the mistakes of the forerunners in your business of choice. Make use of available information and learn from those who have passed through the road before. Do not be intimated, you will be surprised how humbled people are when you ask them for help. In any case, the internet is there. You can actually learn from somebody without him knowing.
4.Read And Read And Read. Our reading culture is appalling and that is why you have graduate illiterates. The only way to have a fertile mind is to read always. Knowledge is buried in books and unless you read, they remain there untapped. Read the autobiography of great people and successful businessmen like Henry Ford, leaders like Lincoln and people like MKO and Rasaq Okoya. Here, I will recommend three books you have to read. First, go read “Acres Of Diamond”, follow it with “Think And Grow Rich” and top it with “The Mafia Manager”.
5.Have A Think-tank. Nobody has a monopoly of knowledge; go get a think-tank of people who have positive minds like you. You rob mind together and discuss new ideas and trends. This will have a positive effect on your business. If just go out and drink and gist, it has no business value. You must have a group deliberately formed by you to help your business. The interesting thing is that members may not even know they are in the group. It is only you who know them and you approach them as you need. They do not have to have meetings. The members can be scattered all over the globe as only you know them.
6.Expand Your Network. Do not confuse this with a think-tank. Your network is made up of customers and business associates doing business with you. A member of your think-tank does not have to be a customer. Having gotten this clear now, you will see why you have to expand your network. The bigger your network, the bigger your business. It is as simple as that. So go out and make a business friend a day.
7. Boldness. You have to be bold in all you do. You do not approach business with a timid mind. If you want to approach a more successful person for assistance, be bold and meet him. The worst he can do is to say no. Two stories will suffice here.
Ebenezer Obey, the juju maestro had a demo in his hand going to Decca to be recorded as an artist. With no dime in his pocket, he trekked from Agege to Obun Eko which is not be less than 8 kilometers. At Decca’s office, he was not allowed to see the GM. He waited for a small opening when the secretary entered and he forced his way in, face to face with the GM. Not giving the white man any room to think, young Fabiyi tabled his mission. “I have the best juju music here, try me and you will smile”. The GM was impressed by his boldness and the fact that it must be good music for him to have tracked to Lagos. He tried Obey and the rest, as they say, is history. Lesson:Ebenezer Obey had a good product, he believed in it and himself, he persevered and sacrificed by walking to Lagos and was bold. Do likewise.
Second story. You do not confront Nigeria number 2 man during the military era if you are not bold and made of sterner stuff. And yet, that exactly was what Subomi Balogun, the baron atop of Nigeria first merchant bank did. When he was seeking approval for his bank, he ambushed naval man Augustus Akhiomu, the second in command to General Babangida and of all places, in a church. With all the security men, Subomi found a way to meet him and fired his request for the approval of his license. The next Monday his license was approved and the result is the financial behemoth called First City Group.
8.Think Out Of The Box. If you do it like them, you will be just like them. Think out of the box and do things differently. If they walk on their legs why don’t you try and walk on your head. In Yoruba land, usually you pick a uniform for friends when you are doing the final burial rites for your parents and commonly they pick Ankara stuff. When I did the final burial rites for my mom, I refused to use Ankara and went for bartique (Kampala) instead. A close friend came to advise me against it because, according to him, it is not the norm and people will not buy it. I told him, I was doing that simply because people do not do it. I sold more than 200 of that stuff and people were still asking for it even in the church. You got the lesson?
9.Move With Successful People. Show me your friends and I will know the type of person you are. Cultivate the habit of moving in circle of successful people. Their aura will rob on you, they will help and you can tap from their brain. Try and join big recreation clubs in your area. It is an investment worth it. It is not for nothing that corporate companies sponsor their managers to join big clubs. If you are in Lagos struggle to join Island club or Ikeja club. Get a senior friend to take you there and sponsor you. Once there, people start to see you as one of them, you yourself stat to think as one of them and heaven start to fix you as one of them. Again people here are not your think-tank. You create the think-tank specifically. Another point that is related to this is to get very good hands to work for you. Hiring mediocre may seem cheap initially but you will discover it is costly at the end of the day.
10. Find Your Spot. You should find your spot. You cannot be good at everything. Find that thing you can do better than many people and concentrate on it. I can speak better than many people, but it will be ridiculous for me to want to head a choir. I can cook but I cannot sell food because I do not have the patience. I respect medics but I cannot be one because I am so sentimental. I can stand the sight of blood. Even if I have the cerebral capacity to withstand the rigors of a medical school, I will prefer to use my talent elsewhere. Find your spot. Many people are drifting all over the place because they cannot find their spot.
11 Seek The Face Of The Lord. The unseen hand in the affairs of men, you need him. Please do not get me wrong. Some people will go and ask there pastors if they should go to the toilet or not. Some would want to know whether to eat Bread or Yam,. Cheer frivolities. You must know where to draw the line. I am old enough to know that you need God in an all things you do. I am not preaching but rest on the divine power. Work and pray and not the other way round.
You would notice, I have been silent on fund. You will never get enough of that, no matter how hard you try. Most of the big names out there started with little or nothing.
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