Work Smart and Not Hard

Pro 12:27  The slothful man roasteth not that which he took in hunting: but the substance of a diligent man is precious.

(paraphrased: The foolish man does not roast what he took in hunting: but a wise man adds value to his substance)

Let me ask you a question! Common sense tells us that Hard work is equal to more riches right? Wrong! If this were true, then Africans or the so called developing world are supposed to be the richest people on the face of the earth because they are really hard working people. Look at the carriage they carry on their backs, heads, and the carts full of goods they push manually. But why are they still very poor and could barely live below a dollar a day. The answer lies in the way they work and do things.

Let’s pick one illustration of a story in the Christian Bible that provides the picture we can use. Those of you who are not Christians bear with me because I am trying to bring out an economic truth that is embedded in the biblical story am about to use.  The Bible tells a story of Isaac the son of Abraham who had two sons Jacob and Esau; Gen 25:27  And the boys grew: and Esau was a cunning hunter, a man of the field; and Jacob was a plain man, dwelling in tents. Gen 25:28  And Isaac loved Esau, because he did eat of his venison: but Rebekah loved Jacob.

There came a time when Isaac realized that he had grown too old and as per tradition it was time to give out his blessing to the first born son before he died. The scriptures actually says he called his son Esau, the first born and told him that the time for his blessing had come but Esau needed to cook  the meat stew that the father loved so much for him to receive the blessing. However, Esau being a hunter did not have an animal in hand to prepare the meal and so he needed to go out into the forest to chase for one lucky catch. And as you might guess Esau must have spent days before he had a break. However, Jacob his brother, being a farmer and was raising his animals in the back yard had an animal in hand. In summary the scriptures says Jacob with the help of his mother prepared the stew in time for his starving father and ultimately got the blessing. The question is How and Why?

The two sons of Isaac had each an occupation. One was a hunter and the other one was a farmer and breeder of animals. When you look at the characteristics of each of these so called skills you realize the differences; A hunter of those days used a spear or the bow and arrow set. The hunter then under these conditions can only kill one animal at a time. However, the animals were also not dumb enough to wait for the hunter but the hunter needed to chase or run after the animals. Whatever animal the weapon of the hunter hit, died. This means anything the hunter caught died. It is also probable to say that the hunter usually if not always only came with one dead animal. We could even guess that the hunter was always dead tired from the chase exposé (you could call it hard work). Esau had a diminishing resource

On the other hand the farmer does not kill what they hunt but they grow whatever is in their hands. Whatever, animals that Jacob had, he made sure they multiplied. He developed a skill to multiply the resource that he had. This is also evidenced in how Jacob was able later on in life use the same skill to his advantage to multiply his father in law’s animals (Laban the father of Jacob’s two wives).

Therefore, Isaac and Jacob represent two different economic paradigms; the Isaac and Jacob economic systems. An Esau economic system represents countries that focus only on one main product (or call it animal) and kill the product by selling it in raw material form. Take my country Zambia for example which has for many years relied on copper and exporting it in bulk cheaply at factory price (but now the economy is being diversified and things are changing). When the price of that raw material goes far below economic levels all the macroeconomic parameters are thrown out of control and not forgetting the evil animal called foreign exchange rate. However, the Jacob system multiplies what it has and does not kill what it has but adds value to it. In Jacob systems people work smart. Jacob allowed animals to multiply; hence, his resource was never diminishing. Jacob kept his resource in his backyard hence, did not have to run 20 Km or more to find his resource. I am sure most of you are now familiar with Internet millionaires (smart business people if you ask me)

Consider your life; what are you? An Esau or Jacob! If your livelihood depends solely on your salary, I am afraid you are an Esau and you are chasing one animal for a whole month. It’s time to diversify your economy into value addition. If you think there is nothing you can venture into, why not begin with your regular salary. Even your voice might just be a resource you have not considered to add value to it and become probably a public speaker or a comedian. Haven’t you noticed that comedians keep perfecting their jokes which even earns them even more income. Look up into the air, do you see anything? The fact that you can’t see anything does not mean that there is nothing there!

Remember that Absence of Evidence is not Evidence of Absence.  Haven’t you noticed that the mobile service providers are selling us our own conversations; this is evidence enough that knowledge products are the niche that has a higher return. So look and keep looking there is something that we are not seeing. Anything that has and will ever be has always been there. Nobody created the Internet, they just discovered it. This means there is more to discover!

The Internet platform is one of the untapped Gold mines that the developing world has not taken advantage of. They keep looking at the Internet as monster where fraudsters live. Only when you visit countries like Japan can you realize the wealth of things you can do with the Internet and its benefits to the national economy

Some of the richest countries don’t even have any minerals at all yet they have more wealth than the mineral rich African countries. What type of products do they own? And that’s key!

CHANGE YOUR THINKING AND BEGIN TO SEE    

Time to put on your boots and Aim for Glory

“If you put off everything till you're sure of it, you'll never get anything done”

~Norman Vincent Peale

 

You have been depriving the world of getting a taste of something really wonderful when you hold back your true potential. Whether you can sing, dance, write or be a great businessman, you are born with some talent. And it is up to you to recognize it and give it your best shot! That is called finding your true purpose in life.

The decision to change your life lies in your hand. All you have to do is tell yourself that you
can and cast away your fears once and for all! Don't waste your time thinking "what if?" and if anything what if you make it,

Plunge right in and take on every challenge that comes your way. If you are able to do this, there will be no place for worry, fear or self-doubt in your life. You will be a confident person who will be prepared to take on life head on! And moving forward without fear is the only route that will lead to success, no matter what your endeavour is.

The feeling of letting fear go is really liberating! When you let go of your fears because of certain choices that you make in life, you will be a happier and more confident person. The feeling of letting fear go is really liberating!

In fact when you let go of your fears and decide to take action, the universe starts conspiring for you and will make things fall in place. It's not always going to be easy, but it is definitely going to be worth it. So let go of the fears that are limiting you and move ahead with all your might!

Don't wait for others to begin what you will do for yourself. Muster up the courage and be the master
of your own decisions. It is time to live life for yourself, in all your glory!

Believe that you are born for greater things and liberate yourself from a life of ignominy. When you live your dreams, you will realize the true potential of life. The superb opportunities that life has to offer will open up in front of you.

There is no promise of it being easy; but when you choose to follow your dreams, every step you take
for yourself in the right direction will be worth it! So liberate yourself from all your fears and charge ahead!

Remember that, you are the only YOU and there will never be ANOTHER you

Dealing with FEAR; YOU ARE MORE THAN ABLE TO WIN

“The primary difference between rich people and poor people is how they handle fear”. ... Robert Kiyosaki

"Fear = False Evidence Appearing Real”

No matter what we try to think is our major hindrance, fear will always be one of the underlying snake creeping silently in our everyday decisions and actions that we try in order to pull ourselves up. It’s a monster we have to face because we have developed it for far too long a time since childhood. But it’s time we showed fear the door out of our lives. Probably the windows too!

  

This Friday I would like to share with you tips I learnt from an article by Gin Ng Khin Wee on 10 steps you can take to deal with fear;

Fear of failing, of course everyone does fear no matter how successful they are. One key thing about how we should handle fear is using it as a fuel to motivate us on pushing us even further to learn more. Once we know more about what the subject we are into, it's very natural that we have less fear and self-doubt. Self-doubt and fear interfere with our ability to achieve or set goals. Self-doubt and fear are the voices in our head telling us, "You'll never succeed, so why try?" and "who do you think you are?" Self-doubt and fear are also what make us listen to those voices and decide to give up before we get started.

While many people experience self-doubt and fear at some point in their lives, they take action anyway. Others remain stuck, or are confident in only one area of their life, such as work. They are too afraid to try new things like going back to school, entering new relationships or learning new skills. When we let self-doubt and fear rule our lives, we miss opportunities. We predict and believe that nothing good will happen to us, so we don't try anything new, and refuse to take even low-level risks. This leads us to discount people or situations that could help us reach our goals. While self-doubt and fear can come in different forms and from different sources, we can learn to break through them.

• Make a list of your fears. Only by admitting that they exist can you seek solutions. Complaining about them will not make the fears go away. It only re-enforces the presence of fear

• Write down how these fears affect your life. You can’t start a business venture or you can’t even apply for a job because of fear

• Become aware of the voices in your head and write down those negative messages. This gives you an opportunity to change the message. If the voices are saying you are ugly, then you can build yourself by telling yourself that you are beautiful and there is none like you

• Start building a support system of friends and eliminate people from your life who foster feelings of negativity. Some people are just too anointed to be negative such that when they come into your presence, all your talk just goes negative by default. Begin to stay away from such. You will suffer no losses than you already are

• Join a support group of people who have similar issues. A group that has a resolve to rid themselves off the fears not the ones who want to celebrate the fears

• Change each negative message to one that is affirming and constructive. Keep affirming to yourself every day until the words become part of you and your vocabulary

• Read books that help you feel better about yourself. Stay away from unnecessarily sad stories that do not have the good gaining the final victory

• Be aware of your past, and be willing to let go of it. Remember there is nothing you can do about the past which is already gone but you can certainly do something about today which is within your control

• List your goals and the actions you need to achieve them. Don’t start worrying about ‘How’ the goals will be achieved but concentrate on ‘What’ you want to achieve and start the journey. You will soon realize that everything is falling in place

• Take one of those actions every day. Each time you do something that brings you closer to achieving your goals you will feel better about yourself. When fears and self-doubts come back, and they still do, I break through them by using the tools and skills I've learned and now teach. They work

 Don't enjoy being afraid just because you think not taking actions in life keeps you safe from the consequences of failure or ridicule from others. Just know one thing;

'THERE IS NO SAFE PLACE IN LIFE BECAUSE NO ONE GETS OUT OF LIFE ALIVE'

Rather than wasting time with fear, you better start dancing with life at its maximum or else life will pass you by and find another dancing partner. And you will always be in the stands of life as a spectator of the change instead of being the change

I am out!

The Rat Race of the Middle Class

“Don't fear failure so much that you refuse to try new things. The saddest summary of a life contains three descriptions: could have, might have, and should have.” ~ Louis E. Boone

The most amazing thing is how the economics describes categories of citizens of a nation as made up of the rich, middle class and the poor. Well, someone might say these terminologies are subjective depending on what criteria are used to conduct the segregation in any given society or country. Whatever the case let me share with you my thoughts about the rich and the middle class. The rich are called so because they own Assets. They keep their money in assets, they form corporations called companies and they are not likely going to pay income tax as individuals. Why? You cannot apply income tax to an asset. The rich are only likely going to pay taxes when they spend their money on items. Their companies will pay some form of corporate this or that tax at the end of the year based on the profits they make (crudely speaking surplus funds above their Assets) and not in their individual capacity but as a group of shareholders (that is if they report a profit).

Let’s look at the middle class. This is composed of people who are in some form of employment which can be referred to as the social group between the upper and working classes, including professional and business people and their families. The working professionals form the bulk of this category. These hard working groups earn a prescribed income at the end of a working month. Their entire income is subject to taxes. They are the real tax payers. Just imagine, their salary is subject to income tax and the rest of the disposable income is distributed to expenditure items whose cost includes some form of tax such as VAT or sales or Excise tax. You see what I mean! It’s like the incomes are already finished even before they come every month. I can assure, they will be the bulk holder of credit cards.

The middle class is consciously or unconsciously in the ‘Rat Race’ in pursuit of something you can never achieve. This is what is typical of the middle class. They look at their current status and find it inadequate in terms of resource base and want more. if someone has the first education degree qualification, they decide to go for a masters’ degree in the hope of getting a better job with a higher salary. Let’s suppose they do manage to get higher qualifications and a better paying job. What happens then is that they probably would move to a more expensive house and change their style of living to match their new status which would push congruently all their costs upwards. What they have achieved is a new paper called qualification and higher taxes to pay in line with their increased pay and expenditure. Eventually they are back to square one and begin to think about how to get a better paying job to meet their now increased expenditure status which ends up as a rat race which is an endless, self-defeating, or pointless pursuit. It conjures up the image of the futile efforts of a lab rat trying to escape while running around a maze or in a wheel. No one can ever get rich working for others. Because it is just that, others own the assets of that company and they only spend out of the surplus funds or profits for such things such as salaries. You don’t get rich by saving but by investing. The middle class are clouded with so much fear of setting out into the investment arena but the strange thing is that they have no fear of spending their hard earned income even beyond

The only way out of the Middle Class Rate Race is to set objectives around ownership of productive assets and begin the transition to the rich. The greatest assets we all have is ourselves. Those innovative ideas that have been playing in your mind and fear has kept you from pursuing them, are the gold mines or the greener pastures you have been looking for and not the qualification or jobs you so obsessed with. Remember this

‘formal education will help you earn a living, but self-education will make you a fortune’ ~ Jim Rohn

“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented and fabulous?

Actually, who are you not to be?”

~Our Greatest Fear —Marianne Williamson

We all want to succeed in life. And although success does not come on a silver platter, it is still what everybody wants. This is why people get up in the morning to work and drag their bodies back to bed at night. People simply want to be better – in everything. There is only one reality and no matter how you would like to escape from that, it will always get you. So why not face it with a more realistic approach?

Have a well-defined goal

A well-defined goal gives you direction in life. People with a purpose wake up every day with a reason and a plan of action for each day. If you do not have a plan, you will always be operating other people’s agendas. Other people will dictate where you can or cannot go, they will decide what you can or cannot have. Each one of us has a God given talent and if you can identify it and build your goals around your talent, you are on your way to greatness. Imagine a talented football player who gets $100,000 a week, an amount not even a leader of an African country can earn legally. Identify what you are good at, pursue and it will earn you a fortune

Have the Right Mindset

Remember big dreams are made in a ‘CAN’ and not in a ‘CANNOT’. Whether you want to go to the classroom or build an empire, you have to have it in you. Having the right attitude is always the first requirement to getting things done. And, honestly it is the only credential that you will ever need.

Be Interested

Information and knowledge is power, and if you do not stick out your ear to whatever is happening, you do not stay current and will not know the trend and direction. You do not always have to know everything but it would matter a lot if you know what matters.

Smile

Sad but true! Smiling transcends almost all differences and just imagine how it would benefit your cause. You know it is a great gesture too, right? It is a formula that works and has been proven with time.

Appreciate the Little Things

Find a reason to be happy. It does not always have to be a person or something big. In fact, you would be astonished at how the little things can affect you in big ways.

Have the Right Relationships

Relationships are very ideal for all of humanity. It is through relationships that we grow, learn and get inspired. However, having the right relationships with the right kind of people is key to your personal growth. If you are the smart one in that relationship, you must find another group to associate with in order for you to out-grow your current level. If you are hanging around with a group of losers, you are on your way to being a loser. Keep nurturing relationships that stretches you beyond your current comfort zones.

Above all, commit to your personal growth through reading and listening to something inspiring. When you feed the inner man with the right consciousness, your whole personality will change in the desired direction. Do not pay attention to the garbage in the news that keep reminding people of how bad things or the economy is. Human beings have the ability to create the economy they desire in their own lives. It’s a personal choice