LEARN IT! DO IT! SELL IT!

You may wonder that what has this topic got to do with you or what relevance it is to what is on ground? It has a lot to do with you and yes I mean you. Whoever you are – young or old (unless you have stopped learning) then this message is for you.

Critically assessing the state of our country, it is very important  at this point in time to start thinking critically as an individual on what we can do for this great country of ours and not vice versa.

As an individual, serving corp member, erstwhile corp member, worker, unemployed graduate we all want to make money and we all need money.

As an individual who wants to start a business or a graduate (who has finished serving his country) looking for job, or as a serving corp member looking for ways to make ends meet, or a young person concerned about the future, a worker/civil servant looking for a multiple stream of income – whatever category you fall into (I can’t exhaust the list, it’s endless) there is a general question that comes to our mind anytime we think about money is             “ How do I raise enough money to sustain myself?”

Truthfully this question has many answers to it but one answer I‘ll like to share is Learn it, Do it, Sell it. You may ask that what has this got to do with money and what is the “it” emphasized and how will “it” make money that will be able you?

Let me start by saying that before you can very make money, you must first learn how to do anything that will earn you money – whether big or small. There is nothing – absolutely nothing that cannot be learned. What then do you learn? There are three fundamental criteria I will suggest you consider before you choose what you learn. They are:

v Evidence that it can be sold. Remember the essence of you learning is to make money so you have to be sure the knowledge you are about acquiring will fetch you money. It may be a skill acquisition, professional training.

v What you can develop interest in. even if that knowledge can be sold and you are not interested enough to cross the learning curve then it’s not worth it. Every new idea/project has its own learning curve and to succeed you must be able to persist and surmount the learning curve.

v Doing what is legally right and morally acceptable.

After learning what next? Practicing what you’ve learnt of course. So many people dream about making it in life but they are not applying the master key to achieving this. And what is the master key? Do it. Do what? Do what you have learnt know of course. Take action on that skill you have acquired, course you attended. Start implementing that idea.

As long you desire to be financially free, you must make steps to do what you hvellearnt in order to sell it. Unless act on what you know, you have absolutely no other way of selling.

How do you sell your knowledge then? How do you turn it a stream of income, to raw cash? Know people that are in that thing you know and are ready to pay for it.

Once you identify this set of people, strategize on how you sell to them, polish your skills and don’t stop learning.

I cannot say all that’s needed on this issue but I pray that you start acting right now on what you want to know and what you want to learn. A Japanese proverb says “vision without action is a daydream, action without vision is a nightmare”.

Remember knowing is not enough; you must apply what you know.

                                                                             OYELEKE OLUKEMI OLUBUKOLA

                                                                             BY/11B/0025      

WHY YOU MUST BE HAPPY?

Must you be happy? Is it a must? Do you have to? Is it necessary or compulsory? Should it not be once in a while or once in a blue moon?

Why must you be happy when circumstances prevailing in this world do not make you happy?  The news you listen to, the stories you hear, what you’ll see and even your personal challenges does not even give room to happiness. So what’s the essence of being happy?

There are so many things surrounding you that are unpleasant. You have so many “lots” to cope with – lots of goals to accomplish, lots of challenges, lots of hurdles to cover, lots of everything to do.

So how do you cope and what is the reason for staying happy with all these conditions?

First and foremost happiness is a choice. You can choose to be happy or unhappy.

There's a popular saying that" life is not fair".  How true is this? It is actually very true that life is not fair and so it has been and will always be. It is now your choice what you do with the "unfairness" of life. Maybe you'll accept it as it comes and make the best out of it or keep frowning, complaining and grumbling. In essence, what you do with the unfairness of life is what determines whether you are happy or not.

As a youth corp member you may say” I've been wrongly posted”, ‘I don't like my ppa’, ‘I don't like my community’ and so on. But do you know that all these  line of thoughts will make you unhappier and before you know it one year has come and gone and you have nothing to show for it(because you were too busy being unhappy).

Let me give you some reasons why it is necessary to be happy:

If you are happy;

·         You'll see things in the right perspective.

·         Your goals will be easier to accomplish.

·         The "lots" you find hard to cope with will all fall into place and before you know it you've actualised your dreams.

There are a lot of reasons why you should be happy and there are also a lot to make you unhappy but you can choose to be happy.

Happiness determines or shows your state of mind which also determine your mental health and further determine the soundness of your mind. So to be healthy mentally, physically, financially and to be fit in the society, choose to be happy.

I choose to be happy today and always.

Oyeleke Olukemi Olubukola

BY/11B/0025

AFTER NYSC, WHAT NEXT?

The ultimate question is this, what next? For most of us, we have a lot of questions to answer such as; do I stay back in this state or go back to my base? How sure am I to find work back home? Now that I am not entitled to accommodation, how do I pay for it? My parents have told me I’m an adult and I should take care of myself, can I cope with these meager salaries? Who do I live with and can I live alone? Is it safe? When do I get married and is my soul mate here? Endless questions flood our minds as we near the date when we are told to officially 'pass out' of the NYSC programme. The truth is this, to get a good head start at our after-NYSC life, we must answer these questions.

Staying back is a big decision and is dependent on so many factors. One, the work environment. Is the pay adequate to take care of all the bills, including welfare and occasional replenishing of wardrobes? Are the people in the office friendly and willing to help you acclimatize to recent changes both in your office duties and your status as a citizen? Is the area safe? Can you afford accommodation for yourself now that you are no longer a corper? These questions must be answered and you must answer them without sentiment because when it comes to work and money, emotions are never involved.

A life partner has become one of life's hidden treasures and for most of us, we are impatient to find it. Everyone just wants a map pointing to a direction shouting, 'there it is!' Unfortunately, when it comes to issues of the heart, patience is required. Some of us found our life partners during the NYSC programme. Most of who did had our weddings during the NYSC programme since the scheme provided financial assistance to ease the stress of the two lovebirds involved. Now there will be no financial assistance; just you, your pay from work and your guts to face the world. Would it be easy? Not in the least. However, for those of us who are Christians, it is advisable that we leave such matters to God and allow Him to direct our footsteps. The eye can be deceived, but the spirit of God in you, cannot. Do not make finding a soul mate a reason for staying back. Some of us have this notion, of men or women in a particular area being more marriageable than others. Even if this is true, if both of you are to be together, the Lord will bring it to pass in His time. Of all issues to take into your hands, marriage is definitely not one of them.

The issue of safety, cost of living and availability of jobs is also an important factor for those considering staying back in a state? If unsafe, can you cope with the amount of hostility, where there is a high cost of living will you be able to make up for it and in the first place, are there jobs available back here? Remember, that while answering these questions, you must be objective and where there is a question mark as regards safety, you should project into the future to see if things would be for the better. However, for the sake of simplicity, let us all look at these factors in terms of the present. Do they favor you now?

For those of us who do not want work for anyone but already have a business we’d like to tow into, bravo to you. However you also have some questions answer. Have you conducted a feasibility study and if so, does it favor your proposed business idea? In the event of failure of the business, where does money to pay off debts come from? Will your target audience be satisfied with this new product? What about sustainability and cost of embarking on a business venture of that sort? All these will be answered in your business plan, and you MUST possess one.

What about those who are leaving and going back to their base states. It would be much easier to take in if there were jobs waiting for such category of people. If you are one of them, then you had better start building your network base and singing your name in the ears of those who do or do not want to hear, as the fact is, you've been absent from the scene for nearly one year. You are now your own advertiser.

Living apart from parent's donations to our welfare package can be quite disturbing. Some of us have lived on our parents our whole lives, the rest of us have parents that have been reducing their quotas as a way of hinting us that we are near the adult stage of life and others, have gotten an early start in living on the labor of their own hands. For the first set of people, this would be the hardest, as they most times lack self-discipline and budgeting skills. As you switch over from corper to adult, you must imbibe the habits of regulating your spending and planning your costs. If not, you would wind up stranded, starving and savaged. In other words, you'll be a total wreck.

After-NYSC, what next? It’s a big question but it is advisable that it should be answered at least two weeks to the passing out day. So to those of who have passed out or are looking to exit the NYSC scheme, I ask; got a game plan?

CHINONSO DANIELLA EDEH

BY/11B/0665

HARNESSING THE GOLDMINE IN THE NYSC SCHEME

“Alas for those who do not sing but die with all the music in them” – Holmes.

About four months into the service year, Andrew, a corps member deployed to a secondary school in the Bayelsa hinterland took an assessment from the beginning of the service year and concluded that apart from his primary and secondary school assignments, he was simply stagnant and unproductive. Andrew would not just point accusing fingers at himself and swallow it just like that; no, he had reasons for being redundant for so long. His long list of excuses include the fact that he never liked Bayelsa, he hated the idea of teaching in a school with his hard earned Bachelor of science in Estate Management, he was disgusted by his new environment. As the litany of excuses fill up to the brim, it dawned on Andrew that the time being wasted was neither the villager’s, nor that of the NYSC; it was his own God – given precious and limited time. After listening to the fatherly remarks of the DG NYSC during his visit to the NYSC orientation camp in kaiama, Bayelsa state, the scales fell off Andrew’s eyes like Adam when he ate the forbidden fruit. The DG encouraged corps members to develop members to develop themselves and see the service year as an opportunity to sharpen their personal skills, establish tentacles for entrepreneurship options and embark on self – improvement sprees.

Away from the service year scene, many of us seem to unconsciously adopt the Andrew kind of lifestyle: complaining about all the wrong things and desperately digging up excuses to marshal a strong defense. This approach to life can be likened to the fallowing of an agricultural land. The grasses are allowed to grow to the peak and die out naturally year in, year out. They are in a dormant, inactive and uncreative state usurping valuable time and resources yet coming out with mediocre outputs that are only good as waste materials. When under the same condition and footing, their contemporaries would take the world by storm.

Fallowing youths as I choose to address them, are the ones who have made up their minds to just hide and fizzle out unnoticed; they have deliberately or unconsciously chosen to play the roles of the so called spectators in the theatre of life. They prefer to dodge responsibilities and make themselves viable guinea pigs for the experimentation of the escapist theory. Fallowing followers are blessed beyond bounds with exceptional skills and talents, but alas they are too lazy to even discover this goldmine resident in them, talk less of fanning to flame its embers. They prefer to take the lesser of the two evils, option B, which makes them mere onlookers while other people make things happen. Fallowing followers prefer to float, just lie low and let the tide toss them like weightless, directionless chaff. They forget Francis Bacon’s famous quote that “in this theatre of man’s life, it is reserved only for God and the angels to be lookers on”

But thank God for the NYSC initiative. If and only if Nigerian youths who undergo the scheme can continue to uphold the invaluable gains the NYSC training accords them. From the orientation camp to the passing out parades at the end of service year, the NYSC scheme is so packed with well planned programmes, activities and measures to imbue priceless values and virtues and expunge venomous vices from the veins of Nigerian youths. Little wonder a Nigerian president once described the scheme as one of the only lifelines for Nigeria’s tomorrow.

NYSC, YOUR STEPPING STONE TO GREATNESS

Over the years, the NYSC programme has continued to mobilize Nigerian graduates for a common purpose which is aimed at establishing Nigeria as a united, self reliant nation, dynamic economy, democratic society and full of opportunities for all citizens. The future of any country is dependent upon the youth, so NYSC was made mandatory for all Nigerian graduates to prepare them for greatness.

NYSC gives you room to consistently lay claim on the nation’s leadership. Youths being the pillar of every nation, NYSC programme allows you to get involved with national development which boosts your skill in leadership, teamwork through workshop and seminars within the community. Employees seek graduates with NYSC experience and are really interested to see how well you demonstrated these skills during your service year.

Greatness comes with preparation. NYSC gives you the opportunity to prepare for your tomorrow. One year is enough for you to really set yourself ready to face the future, to discover yourself, your skills, your talents, your interest, your passion, your goals and many more. If you can focus on improving one aspect of your life everyday of your NYSC programme then you are ready to shine.

Here are four ways to prepare you for greatness during your service year.

1.      Discover yourself: being free from school stress, we are now faced with the reality of what the real world is. Until you discover yourself, you may not be able to excel as you should. Knowing yourself is the most important step to achieving greatness. Discover what you like doing, what skills you have, what kind of work setting fits best with your personality type. It is a known fact that we are more likely to excel at what we like to do. Identifying your values is another most important factor. You have to know if your values match your interest.

2.      Networking with people: NYSC period gives you one great year of networking with people from all backgrounds, discipline, institutions, languages, cultures, religions, ethnicity and more. This is your opportunity to find contacts that would help you in your career.

3.      Success comes with service: Success is not measured in terms of money you make and wealth created. Although there is nothing wrong with this. Success is actually measured by a contribution that meets a need or wants. Many high value returns in life through the service to others, through charitable giving and work, participating in service groups and organizations just to name a few. The return for these forms of service is the personal gratification we experience knowing that we are meeting genuine need. You cannot out a monetary value on the benefits you will personally realize when you help. These are opportunities the NYSC scheme has freely given to all corps member. So contribute to nation building and receive the reward it comes with. Remember, greatness is God’s reward for service.

4.      Knowledge/skill acquisition: NYSC does not limit your ability to improve yourself. If you seek to rise above then you have to be well equipped. So you are encouraged to read wide and expound your mind. Visit the internet more often than before. Enrol into part – time schools life the Nigerian Institute of Management (NIM), a computer school, to mention but a few. Every day of your service year, add to what you already know skill – wise. There is no knowledge acquired that is a waste, improve yourself today.

In conclusion, success comes with hard work, dedication, unbroken focus, good luck and skills, to be great, you have to make a commitment to work through any challenge. Remember, life is for the bold and daring; greatness is competition and determination. Success starts from within the heart. Life turns out the best for those who see every opportunity and use it like the one NYSC has provided.

Ikpechukwu Nneka

YOU WANT TO BE SUCCESSFUL-EMULATE SUCCESSFUL PEOPLE.

As asserted by Trian Bracy; to become a lawyer, u study law; to become a doctor, u study medicine; to become an engineer, u study engineering; to become a millionaire, u study money. You study rich men and women. In respect to this I would also like to say here that if you want to be a success, u study success. You study successful men and women.

Everything has a reason and a season. You are here because of your natural desire to develop into one of those amazing beings on this earth. Our paths have crossed because I believe there is so much we can learn from each other. Let me share with you some learning I've got from one of my mentors. These are simple yet powerful beliefs I've learned. And this is all about success.....

Most of us have one way or the other watched an NBA (National Basketball Association) Championship series. You would agree with me that it's always exciting - from the start of the series until the end. Every game is fought hard by the competing teams. Each individual player is doing their best to contribute to their teams in order to win the series. If you'd also notice, seldom does a winning team win the series by a sweep. It's always a neck-to-neck battle, each team not giving up, always fighting hard. The team that plays the hardest & the most consistent is always successful in the end.

One success lesson we can learn about the above-mentioned example is that "Success is playing to the level of your competition..."

You can achieve success only if you play to the level of your competition. You must strive to always focus on improving your skill - developing yourself to becoming greater than your competitor, dominating all areas of the game. Success is not achieved only by focusing on yourself alone; it is also achieved by surrounding yourself with people greater and more successful than you. "Success is who you're playing with." As the famous basketball player Michael Jordan said during his time with the Chicago Bulls - "I am the best player because I play with the best players in the world."

So go ahead and ask yourself the following questions.

· Who am I surrounding myself with?

· Who am I listening to and watching as I build and develop myself and my business?

Your answers to these questions will determine how well you fare in the business, in success and in life.

Here are some tips which can be useful to all of us:

1. Always surround yourself with people who are more successful than you. Look at the people you always hang out with. Look at their achievements, their outlook, and their lives. If the 10 closest people you hang out with are "losers", it's just a matter of time before you become No. 11. By hanging out with these people, you tend to adopt their ways, their thinking, and their beliefs.

2. Look for a success model you can connect with. Communicate with him/ her regularly. Let him guide you to success. By doing so, you shorten your learning curves and you avoid some mistakes. This is the fastest way you can achieve success.

3. Surround yourself with a group of "like-minded" people. Have this as your "Mastermind" group. Be accountable for each others' success. Share ideas. Give and receive feedback. This way, you can leverage on each others' talents and experiences. You can play to the level of your competition. With your mastermind group, you have a better chance of success.

Always remember, the higher you'll climb the ladder of success, the more you need to surround yourself with successful people - those who have gone ahead of you - so you can learn from them.

So get to it! Start making new friends. Build alliances with people who are destined for greatness.

Your Net-work will determine your Net-Worth...

Always remember, "Employees get paid by trading time; Entrepreneurs get paid by the value they provide to the community."

Thank you.

ADEDOYIN OLAMILEKAN

BY/11B/1663