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Bide tried to wrap his ahead around what Grandpa just told him. He felt it didn’t make sense, how could the forest move.


“Grandpa, may be something very big moves among the trees?” He asked for the umpteenth time. He knew was to get the same answer.
“The forest moved Bide.” Grandpa answered in a calm patient voice Bide had grown accustomed to.


Bide and Grandpa sat on the sandy beach facing the tributary of the great sea. It was a moonlit night. Bide suddenly glanced over his shoulder at the coconut trees behind them. He had heard a movement among those trees but he wasn’t sure.


He turned to check if grandpa had heard the sound but grandpa’s gaze was on the calm water in front of them. He felt it was just his imagination. He reasoned. if there was actually the sound of any movement among those trees, grandpa would be the first to hear.


Grandpa was a fisherman. Bide had been out at sea with grandpa many nights. He had seen him smell approaching rain and dangerous sea monsters miles off.


“You’re conscious of your environment when you stop your mind from wandering.” Grandpa had told him when he asked how echolocate so effortlessly.
(Ayietim Blog)


Bide looked up at the sky. He noticed that the moon had passed the south and was now in the west. It should be 3 a.m, he guessed.


Grandpa had told him that moon followed the path created by the sun. His ten year old mind had sought to know why the moon didn’t create its own path;


“From the beginning of light, the moon has been depending on the sun for its own light. Up till now, the sun is yet to ask the moon to pay for the service. You know why? The sun knows that humans look up to the moon to stabilize the tilt of the earth to avoid climate extremes. Without the moon, seasons would vary widely as the earth’s tilt changed. If this was to happen, humans wouldn’t have fond memories to savour and festivals to celebrate. Without celebrations, humans wouldn’t appreciate the sun. Life is about celebrations.

https://ayietim.com/2021/07/22/when-the-sun-shines-on-you-reach-for-the-moon/

Most parents exert dictatorial influence on their children’s career decision making just to live on through someone else’s life.


They try to undo life mistakes and fulfilled failed dreams through the lives of their children. This is the primary cause of many parents overbearing influence on their children’s career decision making.


In most families, such influence usually turns out to be a disservice to an innocent kid at the point of making a life time decision; especially in a career choice.

To avoid guiding your child to an unfulfilling adult life, a parent should be an observer of a xhild’s career decision making. Give wise counsel not orders.
To know where to draw the line, it’s necessary to understand qualities that separate a good parent from a bad one.


What are qualities of a good parent?

A good parent gives love unconditionally. Love is not given as a reward but as a freely. However, the love is not given without placing limits on tolerable habits.

Although it’s impossible to cover all grounds but most of these limits should be clearly spelt out well in advance. Frequent reminders should be made.

A good parent is patient. Children by their age, experience and stage of development are most times going to do things you as a parent disapprove of. When they get you upset, don’t overreeact. Be patient, seek an explanation and take the time to educate them on why a word or action can’t be tolerated.

Encourage and support your child through phases and challenges. A good parent regards this as one of the top parenting duties. They use their experience, age and strong emotional intelligence to create develop dependable shoulders for their children to lean on. A child is emotionally strengthened when they realize that there’s a dependable parent waiting to be a part of their tough times.

A good parent is a role model that multi-tasks and provides strong leadership. This is important because a parent is the first agent of socialization. Remember, the world is a social space where people look up to others for direction. So, children naturally turn to their parents first to provide leadership and mentorship.

Most parents are aware of the leadership role expected of them by their children. Regrettably, most have seized this opportunity to perpetuate themselves in that role well into a child’s adult life.

Parents in this category would want to influence their children’s career decision making. What they fail to acknowledge is that the child, now an adult, knows their strengths, weaknesses, and passions better than anyone else.

A knowledge of one’s true self, is one of the most fundamental career decision making considerations.

If the statement above is true, shouldn’t parents have little influence on their children’s career choices? After helping a child to get quality formal and informal trainings, a parent should step back. Let the child pick a career they feel would give them happiness and fulfilment in life.

A good parent doesn’t ask to live a life’s encore to the detriment of a child’s happy life. You, as a parent, wouldn’t want to be blamed for a child’s career failure. The joy of a responsible parent is to live to see their child enjoy a successful life.

So when you’re done making the biggest sacifrice humanly possible. Which is, putting your life on hold to prepare your child for a great future, move on when the child becomes an adult. Move on to something else. You’re never too old to either set bigger goals or start again.

https://ayietim.com/2021/07/21/parenting-how-to-contribute-positively-to-your-childs-career-decision-making/

What is data storytelling?

It’s a storytelling skill that is used to break down hard to understand data to an easy to understand narrative.

A data driven storytelling is a tool for analyzing and filtering large data to present a position with a high engagement and a significant conversion rates.

What are the qualities of a good data driven storytelling?

What best defines a data driven storytelling is the speed at which a layman audience takes an action on the basis of information supplied.
For the information supplied to win new clients, data information shouldn’t just be boring numbers and analytical tools. Complex data should be explained using relatable examples. There should be a correlation between data and content (story).

Therefore, real life examples which resonate with audience should be used to work figures into a story. This is an effective way to create a data visualization that benefits the audience without them exerting too much mental energy.

2, Show a great enthusiasm about the story. If you want to evoke the desired emotion in your audience then you must feel the story deep within you and manifest that feeling.

Your audience has to see and sense your excitement and hear same in your voice to be excited too. It may be difficult to get this result if you are not passionate and comfortable with your data and visualization tools. And if you haven’t researched your audience very well.

3. Be emotional. Where the data paint a dismal picture, use your tone to convey the disappointment.

On the other hand, where your story data offer a solution; hope and belief, appropriate emotional signals should be used.

4. Create suspense by building an interesting story around your data. At the beginning, be deliberately slow while crafting the background. This is where you define your objectives to align with the audience you have.

As you begin to build your story, be a little unpredictable as much as you can to keep your audience guessing about where it’s all going.

Gradually, flesh out your characters, their locations their roles and show why all these matter to the goal of the story.

While at it, use visualization tools that enhance clarity and simplicity. The goal is always to get your audience to enroll in at the end of your story. It would be difficult to get them on-board if you get them confused.

By the time you finish a compelling narrative, most members of the audience should have reached the decision to say ‘Yes’.

This is the overriding objective of using the data driven storytelling approach; to win a loyal customer because;

A loyal customer adds mouth watering values to a brand.
A returning customer is known to buy more than a first time customer. Their tendency to spend more results in increased sales revenue.

2. A loyal customer is a brand ambassador who is not on the company’s payroll. One happy and satisfied customer could be expected to come back with one more customer.

If a company had 20 new loyal and happy customers and each encouraged 20 new customers to join the company’s brand loyalty family. The company would end up with 400 loyal and happy customers. An effective data driven storytelling marketing approach can make this happen because it is directed and customized.

It helps to build direct relationships with customers.

https://ayietim.com/2021/07/20/how-brands-can-use-data-driven-storytelling-for-business-expansion/

At the beginning of every relationship, it often seems that the laughter won’t stop, the joy will always go on; nothing can ever go wrong.Then the angels of love have brought you someone who will never wrong you.

Soon, the bubble bursts, the reality takes over. Your sweet angel is suddenly the devil’s messenger of Conflicts. Conflicts become frequent and the option to resolve them as many times as you could is always available.
Resolving conflicts in relationships multiple times, is the only option for those who are committed to a long term relationship.

Though resolution attempts will not always be successful but they often offer the opportunity to clear the river of dirts and debris. A young relationship is like a river flowing towards a larger body of water, the closer it gets to a bigger water, the fewer the dirts.

Conflict resolutions in relationships strengthen the bond. So, when there is a conflict in your relationship, avoid the following mistakes;

1. Don’t be defensive. Being self-opinionated and self-righteous are habits that erect walls. They are signs of pride. The “I didn’t do anything wrong” will shut your mind to reasons and the need to embrace the chance for a quick resolution.

The first step to resolving a relationship conflict is to drop your defenses and open your heart to take the blame and apologize when you realize you’re wrong.

In most conflict situations, apologizing as against holding your grounds, soften the heart and put out the fire in a surprisingly quicker way..

What’s is there to defend stubbornly without a moment to stop and think objectively?

A relationship is not a competitive sport, it’s a never ending journey made by two to find the happiness that is difficult to have without one another. A relationship is not a union between rivals. And, happiness and incessant conflicts are strange bedfellows.

2. Try not to be evasive. These words, “Let’s talk” shouldn’t remind you of an urgent meeting, an urgent work, deadlines to meet and other reasons not to find an immediate solution to a problem.

Take the bull by the horns and face it head on. Every other thing can wait while you resolve issues in your relationship. This is very important, as your relationship is the heart of a balanced life.

Evasion of an opportunity that may resolve a conflict in a relationship is dangerous. The consequence is leaving a crisis to fester, produce awkward moments and allowing the relationship to teeter on the brink of a breakup.

3. When there is a conflict, walking away from the relationship shouldn’t be the first option.
Don’t walk away without exhausting all options available to resolve the conflict.

A relationship is not a bed of roses. It’s a beautiful garden of roses but blighted here and there by occasional ugliness. The magic in relationships comes alive when humility and understanding are given space and time to turn ugliness to beauty.

4. Don’t change your personality. When there’s a conflict, you may want to change, to shape into the image that you think is expected of you by your partner. But this will be a mistake. Don”t live a lie just to keep a relationship.

A relationship is not for chameleons , it’s for real human beings who stay faithful to themselves and to their partners at all times. So, always and always be yourself. Always have it in front of you, that you were loved in the first place for who you are and not for what you are.
If you’re convinced that faking your personality is the solution, don’t forget about the worst that would happen when truth eventually triumps...

https://ayietim.com/2021/07/19/11-conflict-resolution-mistakes-in-relationships/

…Is all down to embracing contentment, giving love unconditionally and loving who you are.


Choosing contentment over insatiability is housing your heart in a safe haven. A contented heart is not troubled by uncertainties, because its tranquility is dependent on nothing.


A contented heart asks not to receive love first. Rather it gives an unconditional love from the abundance that’s within. Love flows out naturally because it’s at peace with human imperfections. It understands that time, tenderness and love win in the long run.


And this heart loves self also. A contented heart never blames self when things go wrong but always envelopes self in positivity. Because this heart is ever conscious of the forces of life that must pull, push and give the opportunity to achieve balance.


Unfortunately many are too lost in the crowd to see the forest through the trees. They are walking in a circle going nowhere; lost in a maze of confusion. The maze of confusion is not where to find balance in life.


Until they find themselves and let contentment and love lead them, they may never achieve a balanced life.

https://ayietim.com/2021/07/17/living-a-balanced-life/

‘The key is in not spending time but in investing it.” – Steohen R Covey.

Are you spending your time or you are investing it?

Which time management technique are you using to the increase the return on your invested time.

Time is one of the phenomena in life that humans can’t create. But we have the choice to make the best or worst use of the time we have. There is always a consequence of how we use our time.

Manage your time wisely as an investment and gain the best out of life. Alternatively, spend it as an expense on liabilities and lose it but gain regrets.

It’s rarely the choice of many to waste the gift of time on procrastination and other time wasters. It’s often a result of absent or poor knowledge of a good time management technique. People who fall easily into the trap of procrastination could extricate themselves with the help of a good time management technique called “timeboxing.”

What is timeboxing?

Timeboxing is a time management technique used to allocate fixed time period to a well thought out activity. An activity ends at the expiration of its assigned period.

If used effectively, timeboxing could prove to be a simple strategy for creating an easy to follow productive daily routine that minimizes or eliminate time wasters from your calendar.

Timeboxing allows the flexibility to adjust to contingency events.

Now, why is timeboxing a good time management strategy?

Timeboxing leads to increase in productivity; With timeboxing, it’s easy to match daily activities to time periods according to personality traits.
As a morning person, plan and build your goal oriented daily routine into the morning hours. Be honest to yourself. When you do this, it becomes difficult for you not be productive within these hours except on your off days.

2. Timeboxing your daily activities results in a gradual elimination of procrastination.

Hours which would have been lost to the unproductive habit of procrastination are invested in gainful activities.

You find yourself moving from one activity to the next activity on your daily timetable and calendar. You suddenly become aware that any period wasted could result to not meeting deadlines. And not meeting deadlines often results in not achieving set goals.

3. A level of focus is achieved;

Planning, organizing and controlling your daily activities with the aid of timeboxing, raise your level of focus.

Every activity in front of you, receives your complete attention because it has been planned for. Your focus on the task at hand hardly shifts to something else that doesn’t demand your immediate attention.

Timeboxing therefore, keeps you conscious of the time you have to complete a particular task and of the fact that when that time period is over, you have to move on to the next task.

So to give the work at hand your best, you realize that you must focus. In other words, attaining mindfulness is possible by using the time management technique of timeboxing.

4. Timeboxing is a sure path to self-discipline.

Self-discipline is a habit that requires commitment to a plan of actions and resolutions.

Timeboxing is a time management strategy that makes it possible to maintain that commitment. Sustaining this commitment over days, weeks and months takes self-discipline.

You must be disciplined because you will have to stick to the schedule regardless of how you feel emotionally and physically.

5. Timeboxing helps to reduce stress.

The stress which comes from working in high and low productive periods just to meet deadlines is reduced. This is because timeboxing allows you to break down a big task into smaller manageable sizes and attend to them in your naturally productive periods.

Given, you will definitely have days of low motivation but gains from days of high productivity will offset losses on bad days and sometimes, exceed them.

6. Timeboxing is a good time management method for scheduling breaks.

Experts recommend taking breaks between every 25 and 90 minutes. They explain that these breaks prevent decision fatigue, strengthen memories, improve productivity and are important for emotional and physical health. Timeboxing is a powerful time management tool for punctuating tasks with breaks.

This is possible because timeboxing generates a daily to-do list and attaches corresponding time periods. So, there’s enough room to consciously throw in periods of breaks that boost your level of motivation, your productivity and your health.

The life of an entrepreneur depends on their ability to make sound investment decisions. Sound investment decisions guarantee sustained profitability. Sustained profitability guarantees the attainment of the going concern status.

So a company that is in the business of long term investments must be armed with investment decision making tools that helps in figuring out the most profitable investment option. One of the most Important of these tools is the Weighted Average Cost of Capital (WACC). But first what is Cost of Capital?

Cost of Capital is what it will cost a company to secure funds (equity and debt). It is the required rate of returns on ordinary shares, preferred stock, debentures and so on. The cost of capital is the discount rate used in Net Present Value (NPV) calculations. It is also the rate for benchmarking calculated Internal Rate of Return (IRR),

It is the minimum return investors demand for making available the capital a new project requires.

The Weighted Average Cost of Capital (WACC) is used by analysts and investors to assess an investor’s returns on an investment. WACC is a very reliable method for estimating cost of capital,

Now, how is WACC (an investment appraisal technique) found?

WACC is arrived at, by determining the average of the costs of individual component of a company’s finances. This average is found by weighting the sources of finance by their corresponding share of the total collection of capital available.

For example if a company had the following portfolio of equity and debt>;

3 million $1 (face value) ordinary shares with a market value of $1 per share (available at par) and an estimated cost of 10 percent,
2 million $1 preference shares with a market value of $0.20 and an estimated cost of 8 percent and,
5 million Debentures with a market value of $0.80 per $100 nominal value and an estimated cost of 3 percent, the weighted average cost of capital would be ;
Component Market Value ($) Proportion Estimated Cost Weighted Cost
Ordinary shares 3m * $1 = 3m 41% 10% 0,41 * 10% = 4.1%
Preference shares 2m * $0.2 = 0/4m 5% 9% 0.05 * 9% = 0,45%
Debentures 5m * $0.8 + 4m 54% 3% 0.54 * 3% = 1.62%
Total 7,.4m 100% 6.17%
The weighted average cost of capital (WACC) is 6.17 percent. Remember, the lower the WACC, the higher the value of investment.

Since WACC represents the expense of raising money to fund an investment, a WACC of 6 percent means that this company would have to pay their investors $0.06 for every $1 received. A 6% weighted average cost of capital is a good go-aheadinvestment indicator in many industries.

So, what advantages does WACC have over other investment decision making tools?

WACC has the following advantages;

WACC is an investor’s confidence booster; An investor with the finance to invest is often faced with the fear of uncertainty about the future. So, attaining a high level of confidence is required to overcome this fear. Such confidence must come from facts and figures.
WACC is often used to generate facts and figures that give an investor the confidence to make an investment decision.

WACC helps pick out the best among alternatives; The dilemma of many investors is knowing with near accuracy, the best option among competing investment opportunities,. WACC is the reliable investment appraisal technique that is often adopted to pick the most favorable investment option.
WACC tells an investor the option that is likely to generate the highest Return on Investment (ROI). This is achieved by comparing the WACCs of companies competing for funding.

WACC is the minimum hurdle rate; Investors would most times want to know, the minimum hurdle rate of return that would guarantee a satisfactory ROI. WACC is usually useful in this regard. WACC is used by investors and companies to determine the Return On Capital Invested (ROIC).
WACC is used for the valuation of a firm. Remember that WACC determines the cost of capital by having each category of capital (equity and debt) proportionately weighted. A decrease in a firm’s WACC indicates a decrease in risk and an increase in valuation.
WACC is a good measure of risk. An investor’s attitude to risk is a key factor in investment decisions.
As an investment rule, the expected return from an investment is expected to be directly proportional to the risk involved. WACC helps an investor to measure the risk associated with available investment opportunities. The risk associated with an investment increases as the corresponding WACC increases.

Build joy into your journey,

the storm passes swiftly

Over a heart that joy lives in;

is trouble the sickness, joy is the healing,

don’t join the multitude who are waiting

and working for joy that is everywhere.

Real joy is not in a distant goal,

joy is the fire that keeps our intelligence aglow,

joy lies in the fight and not in the victory,

so no matter your struggle, build joy into the journey,

share smile and share joy,

life is a bag of pains in the absence of joy.



https://ayietim.com/2020/08/08/why-is-joy-important-in-life/

Most go into relationships with the fear of being their true selves.

They hide behind masks of who they are not because they errorneously believe that relationships are not for human beings with imperfections.

They are afraid that if they are known for who they are, they wouldn’t be loved for who they are. This is wrong. And this is the major reason many relationships fail.

A relationship is a comfort zone. A comfort zone that gives the freedom to gradually let down your guard and finally be your true self. Over time, the comfortable knowledge of who you are with, will give you the confidence to open up and allow your partner into the recesses of your being.

When you let this happen, you unmask yourself for your partner to see some of those traits you were ashamed to reveal at the beginning. At that point, expectibg your partner to understand that you are human and to accept you for who you are may be asking for too much. .

Stick around? Stick to a stranger. That stranger is not the person she fell in love with. She fell in love with the man behind the mask. And that man was an apparition all along. She fell in love with ghost.

When she accepted you at the beginning, she did so because she believed she had found someone with her definitions of right qualities. Now, with that person gone, don’t expect her to stick around.

If she does , it may neither be because of you nor for love sake. It may be because she is trapped by the committment to shared parentibg responsibilities and by the management of shared assets. Note, these traps are not strong enough to keep her.

Therefore it makes sense not to wear a mask and embark on the search for a love that endures. Love endures everything except lies and pretences. If you want to attract someone to love you for who you are, you must show who you are from the word go..

You must carry the portrait of your true self at all times in your search. It may happen that the person you really want doesn’t love who you are. That will hurt. But as painful as it will be, swallow the bitter pill and continue the search without changing a thing about what makes you tick.

One’s meat is another’s poison. Presently, you will find someone else, who will love you for who you are. And when you find the one that loves you for who you are, you have found a love that endures.

https://ayietim.com/2020/08/10/you-want-an-enduring-love-dont-wear-a-mask/

The fact that nobody has ever done it

shouldn’t stop you being the first one to push it

attempt to do it many times and fail your way many times to one great success,

all you need are a pocket full of motivation and some sweat,

bury yourself in it, don’t listen to naysayers

because those who couldn’t do it would always try to stop you from being a celebrated achiever

https://ayietim.com/2016/10/14/stop-listening-keep-pushing/

so true.

I will not fight for freedom, I will rather fight tot loose myself from the heavy chain of enslavement caused by our silence in the face of oppression.


Today, we must resolve to embrace the NOBLE CHAIN. The chain that will bind us together as a people. The chain that will not make us see ourselves as less human to anyone else.


We must embrace the noble chain that will not undermine our dignity as a people. The chain of self determination, which by all standards, is lighter than the chain of enslavement.


We must loose ourselves from the chain of inferiority complex, the chain that makes us think our “white” brothers are better than we are.


It is time to submit ourselves to that noble chain that will make us see ourselves as Africans first and foremost.


We must accept the noble chain of being a Nigerian, a Ghanaian, or a Kenyan before the chain of tribe.


We must remember that we cannot escape our being in chain. Whether we are under the control of somebody or people are under our control, the truth remains that everyone is still in chain.


If you are a leader, you are in chain to lead your subject in accordance with the stipulation of the law, and if you are a follower, you are in chain of obedience and submission to your leader so long as he leading. Anyhow you look at it, we are in chain:-the chain to perform our duty in line with our callings.


But it is important to choose a noble chain against the chain of enslavement. It is the way we look at things and interpret them that determine the kind of chain we are in.


The seeming freedom we claimed to have belongs to those who are bold to say the truth. Though, this is not really freedom, but a noble chain in actual sense of the word.


Those who keep quiet when they are supposed to speak are in chain of fear, and such chain is that of enslavement, but for those who speak up to oppose the wrongs, are in chain of attack from those who celebrate evil over good, and being in this kind of chain is noble.


To me, freedom is to be in a NOBLE CHAIN. Those who are in this chain are always celebrated in the end.


Those in a noble chain take as a duty, the act of treating everyone in the sense of human and not in the sense of class and wealth. This is the kind of chain that should bind us together as one.


Choose your own chain which should be noble, and stop being in a chain that was designed for you by your enemy.

Written by Michael Eneyo


https://ayietim.com/2021/07/14/freedom-is-an-illusion-it-is-either-you-are-in-a-noble-chain-or-a-chain-of-enslavement/

To improve is to change; to be perfect is to change often.” – Winston Churchill.

No change comes from doing things the same way.

Real change comes from the conscious effort to do things differently. Change is brought about by the wilful attempt to move away from the usual. Real Change is going to take the learning of a lot of things about a new way at a very short time.

Keeping the time short must be intentional because not every attempt to break away from the usual brings the desired change. It is usual and normal for some attempts to fail. When the learning period is short, more time, money and energy committed to the learning are saved from being wasted on a lost cause.

How do you achieve an effective learning within a reasonably short time? In order words, how can you achieve an effective learning and achieve time efficiency at the same time?

Follow this process;

Be certain of the relevant skill required ro be bring about desired change. This is very important if time and energy must not expended on learning a skill that is later found out to be irrelevant.
We are living in a world where nearly nothing is new, it means someone has the skill you seek. Although it may be difficult to acquire it but learning it is not an impossibility. So find out the relevance of a skill to the change you desire before beginning the learning process,

2. Have a plan. Draw up a plan with a focus on deadlines and budget.

3. Be focused on the learning. Maintaining focus is very important as it keeps distractions away.

4. Be disciplined to stay within the leaning curve during the learning period. Stick to the routine plan, stay within the budget and let your speed be guided by deadlines set.

5. Frequently review knowledge acquired with learning goals set at the beginning. This will keep you from veering off the track, wasting time, energy and resources,

6. You don’t have to acquire an expert knowledge to start the change initiative. Start once you are comfortable but don’t stop learning,

7. And when you have achieved the desired change don’t forget to make innovation initiative an ongoing part of you and your business. As you already know, change is the only constant thing in life.

https://ayietim.com/2020/08/17/7-simple-ways-to-initiate-desired-change/

Scientists report that when the common things that kill humans are taken out , the human body’s capacity to restore equilibrium to its counrless structural and metabolic systems after disruptions still fades with time.


This progressive decline pegs the maximum life span for humans at a region between 120 and 150 years (full report at Scientific American).


This means that death is still inevitable, isn’t it? But should we worry about death? Since there is a ceiling to the longevity of flesh and blood, 150 years scientists believe, shouldn’t we turn our attention to learn as we were to live forever and learn to create immortal legacies?

We should and we can create the greatest legacy anyone can bequeath. That’s the legacy of love. Lionel Richie sums it up beautifully in the following words;


“I think the whole world is dying to hear someone say, ‘I love you.’ I think that if I can leave the legacy of love and passion in the world, then I think I’ve done my job in a world that’s getting colder and colder by the day.”

https://ayietim.com/2021/07/10/how-long-could-humans-live-a-new-research-suggests/

Having a great business idea without a startup capital is like wandering a vast desert in search of an oasis. You are literally going to leap in when you see one. Then gulp down the water with all the impurities.


It’s wise to understand what capital gearing is before you decide to borrow or not to borrow to start your business.

What is capital gearing?


It’s a financial ratio that shows the amount of debt of a company to it’s equity. It’s a measure of financial risk. This risk increases toward volatility as the ratio of debt to equity gets higher.


The higher the gearing ratio, the more the interest payable on debt and the lower the earnings on equity. You may end up borrowing to service debt commitments.


The risk doesn’t end with sinking deeper into more debts, your control of the company could also be threatened.

Your creditors may want to teach you best ways to run your business profitably. This may come in the form of business partnership and so called, “business support”. In most cases, their way will not be on the same level with your vision.


Before you look to lenders for funding, have an amount of equity that would guarantee a lower capital gearing. Your capital gearing should be a ratio that keeps with you, the control and the freedom to be proactive and react quickly to evolving trends.


Only borrow when you’re certain you will have a positive leverage. That is, only when projections indicate that your earnings from the application of debt are going to be greater than interest payable on debt.

But should you even borrow to start a business? The answer is Yes. Debt financing is not a bad idea if you’ve sincerely mastered strategies that guarantee favorable returns on intended investment.


You must also be ready to work hard and proceed as if you were bootstrapping.


As a takeaway, keep the gearing ratio lower than 25 percent.

https://ayietim.com/2021/07/09/business-financing-why-is-capital-gearing-ratio-important/

George Will says it does. According to him,

“The pursuit of perfection often impedes improvement.”

Why does perfecrion slow down improvement?

Because perfecrion hardly leads to progress and it’s progress that leads to improvement. The quest for perfecrion on the other often leads to discouragement.

People who often set out to achieve perction through the channel of perfecrion seldom see light at the end of the tunnel.

Not getting the results they want erects a pillar of hopelessness between where they are and where they want to be.

With no hope of success in sight, a perfectionist would most likely be unhappy to continue. This is because perfection kills the enthusiasm not to give up until progress is made.

The reverset is case for someone that is driven by the search for success rather than by the quest for perfection.

The individual in search for success understands that they are imperfect humans. That all they need to succeed is just to discover the right way to what they want. Then use that as their success template.

An individual inspired by the desire for success, sets achievable goals. Having accepted their imperfections, set goals they know they have the capacity to achiwve.

This is not what the seeker of perfection does. A perfectionist lives in an utopian world where everything is perfect. As a product of that belief, they often set unrealistic and unachievable goals.

Unachievable goals because they’re unlikely to be inventive and patient enough to achieve them. Perfection is an enemy to creativity.

Now, if perfectionism hasn’t led you to where you desire to be then it’s time you changed course.

Start now to set achievable goals. Be honest to yourself and set goals that align with your areas of strength and passion. Attach deadlines to your goals and keep your eyes on results.

As results come in, analyze them objectively and avoid blaming yourself when those results fall short of your expectations. Success is a process and learning from mistakes is part of the process. Learning from your mistakes may lead you to fortuitous discoveries.

Continue to take those actions that are your strategy to achieve your goals.Be decisive and fast. Avoid the attractiveness of procrastination.

Surround yourself with great people. You are going to need their love, support, wisdom and honesty as you go for success. But don’t take them for granted. Be grateful for having them around as a hedge and let them know you truly appreciate them.

Finally, be self disciplined. With the ultimate goal always in view, self discipline will not let you stop until you get there. This truth was clearly expressed by Theodore Roosevelt when he said;

*With self-discipline almost anything is possible.”

https://ayietim.com/2021/07/08/does-perfection-often-impede-improvement/

An insurance policy to a large extent, should provide the restoration of the value of a lost asset. In the light of this merit, investing in insurance policies is a wise investment.

A healthy net worth is a positive value of net assets. A postlitive value of net assets indicates excess of total assets over total liabilities.

Therefore, the maintenance of a healthy net worth and it’s improvement demand that the true value of assets must not be lost.

In reality, no one has control of unexpected occurencies that may wipe away some of your assets. But you have the choice; of buyng multiple insurance products to maintain or grow your net worth.

Should you buy all your insurance products from one or many companies?

The Advantages for bundling your policies with one competent insurance company should help you decide .

The first advantage is that you end up paying less for multiple policies with one than you would have paid with different companies. Insurance companies offer attractive discounts to primary subscribers that buy multiple pulicies exclusively from them.

Another advantage is, you avoid the confusion which may arise from different billings from different companies. A summary of all transacrions is given in one comprehensive statement for periodic reconciliation.

With one statement to study, errors are easily spotted and quickly corrected.

Bundling of insurance policies gives a primary insurance subscriber access to personalized professional services. No insurance policies would want to lose one subscriber with multiple accounts with them. So, they will do everything professionally possible within ethical boundaries, to keep an A-list subscriber happy.

https://ayietim.com/2021/07/06/why-should-i-bundle-my-insurance-policies/

A relationship is meant to be the best place to find the most sought but hardly found happiness and inner peace in life.

The absence of inner peace and happiness is the reason for the incompleteness we feel in life.

Therefore, to fill the void in our lives, we search for someone to give us strength and complete us.

When we find the right fit, we work hard to keep them for a life time; we crave for a long term relationship.

You know what? Nature agrees and supports this desire. But nature’s support only lasts as long as each heart is home to half of the whole. Unfortunately. Life is a distraction.

Not many people in a relationship can avoid the distraction life throws their way. Succumbing to the distraction that life is, is becoming a toxic partner in a relationship that one half is still unconditionally committed to. The one that gets distracted can’t hide the tell tale signs for long.

What are these signs;

1. The one who is screaming silently to be cut off is easily irritated by the presence of the pest (that’s who the once cherished person becomes in an unhealthy relationship).

Little harmless observations and auggestions incensed the distracted partner.

2. The presence of the pest is a harbinger of unhappiness. The pest is seen in everything that goes wrong as the cause. The pest becomes the catharsis.

3. The negative energy that has enveloped the relationship soon takes it toll.

The pest starts to stay out of the way of the person who once filled the void in their lives. They turn to loneliness for companionship.

For the one on the receivng end, things begin to fall apart very quickly with spill over effects on other aspects of life; daily existence is hunted by regrets- in some cases, by suicidal thoughts.

When a relationship brings you to the precipice, remember, you have the right to be in control of your life.

Take control of your life and head the ship of life in the direction of happiness and inner peace. This, doesn’t translate to self-centeredness.

Rather, deciding what’s right for you in a relationship is helping a timid partner: to decide what’s good for them too.

https://ayietim.com/2021/07/06/3-unmistakable-signs-that-show-you-are-in-toxic-relationship/

The inner world. Other people’s perception of you is a reflection of them; your response to them is an awareness of you.- Roy T. Bennett.

Why is it important to know how others perceive you?

To be aware of who you are at a particular time of your life. Paying attention to what people think of you is awakening to the progress you’ ve made towards your personal goals.

But this awareness is easily created when you know how you perceive yourself.

Forming the habit of being conscious of your thoughts, actions and words helps you realize when someone’s perception is wrong.

What should you do if someone’s perception is wrong? Ignore such a perception. Because paying attention to a wrong perception could deflate your self confidence.

On the other when someone’s perception is right, your self confidence receives a boost. And this is very good for your personal development and growth.

Because according to Sloane Stevens, “When you have confidence, you can do anything.”

https://ayietim.com/2021/07/05/is-it-important-how-others-perceive-you/

Great expectations? little work?

No, they don’t match.With such a combination, depression is the reward,

So, for every expectation, there must be an equal level of hard work,

the fact is, no feather is hard enough to crack a nut.

https://ayietim.com/2016/08/27/no-feather-is-hard-enough-to-crack-the-nut/

It’s very difficult to achieve financial prosperity without puting the concept of opportunity cost to use in your spending.

It’s normal to have many wants competing for your money, which may not be enough to get all of them for you. So, to get the best out of your spending, you must understand the value attached to the best alternative foregone. This is opportunity cost.

Understanding ande applying the concept of opportunity of cost to your personal finance, are going to help you achieve the following seven personal financial goals;

1.Spending Within Budgetary Provision:

A good budget should be a financial plan that accommodates absolutely necessary expected spending within expected income. Obviously, a good budget is not possible in the absence of opportunity cost as you wouldn’t be to put in the budget, only things which enhance personal financial health.

So after the budget has been set up with the help of opportunity cost, you would stay within your budgetary spending limits if you stuck to your budget.

2. Acquisition of Only Relevant Current Assets ;sm

This is possible with the aid of opportunity cost. When the value of the best alternative is foregone, it means an alternative with a higher value is chosen. When current assets like vehicles, and furniture are purchased on the basis of durability, most flexible usability and best maintenance option, then only relevant ones are chosen and acquisition of toxic assets are avoided.

3. Elimination of the Purchase of Toxic Assets:

As mentioned above, the purchase of toxic assets is avoided when opportunity cost guides every purchase.

The elimination of toxic assets from your current assets is important as wasteful maintenance costs are eliminated.

Apart from the elimination of the leakages through wasteful maintenance costs, valuable space is saved for relevant current assets. And .more money is freed up to fund financial growth.

4. Money is freed up for savings:

No money spent on toxic assets means more money saved.

As more and more potentially redundant assets are struck-off your spending list, more and more money is saved.

5. More Money Saved means significant: Capital (or equity) for investment in other streams of income.

What is the significant of this?

It gives financial health to your money because your saving begins to outweigh your spending..

6. Opportunity Cost is a good guide to good investment:

Opportunity cost if applied objectively and professionally, should help to narrow your options to the most viable investment opportunities available.

You should be able to rank investment opportunities in terms of highest returns and quickest pay back periods then go for the one that best guarantees your investment.

7. Credit Rating / Worthiness Improvement:

A consistent application of opportunity cost to your spending should naturally help you to lower your indebtedness and consequently improve your credit rating.

https://ayietim.com/2021/07/02/7-reasons-opportunity-cost-is-important-to-personal-finance/

Cindy sat on the couch, her eyes on the TV program but her mind was several mile away from her sitting room.

Nick, her husband of 23 months had not called for six months now. She had made several failed attempts to talk to him within the same period of no communication.

Nick was at the front, engaging the militia in a gorilla warfare that had taken so many military and civilian lives.

He had gone back immediately after the 2 day honey moon. The wedding was hurriedly put together because Nick couldn’t afford to spend more than a weak away from the front.

Now, she had endured six months of not hearing his voice on the phone.

“Life is cruel. Cindy lamented silently. To add to the burden was the fact she was also in a state of confusion. Simeone in her office, was on her neck.

He wanted Cindy to go out with him on a date. A part of her was yelling at her to accept the offer. She was lonely.

“I wouldn’t be doing anything wrong.” Cindy rationalized.

“After all, it would be a harmless date. Drink juice, have a non-romantic talk and come back to my house.” She continued in an effort to free herself of any self-guilt, just in case she accepted Simeone’s offer.

Then a breaking news on the TV caught her attention. Six officers just lost their lives in the ongoing war.

Their photos and their names were on the screen. Cindy check photos and names, one after the other. She didn’t know any of them until her eyes got to the last name and photo. was Otti, her husband.

Cindy let out a loud scream and fainted.

1
* * * *
Someone saw the news the same time Cindy saw it. He knew Otti, He drove over, found Cindy spralled on the floor and took her to the hospital.

Seven months later, Cindy had come out of the worst. Otti was a distance memory, Patrick had done a great job to comfort and nurse Cindy back to life.

With Otti dead and with Cindy ready to move on , Patrick asked Cindy the big question. Cindy said “Yes.”

Both decided not to rush things. Cindy was still living alone in the apartment she once shared with Otti.

One evening when Cindy got home from work, she found a surprise package. Otti was lying on the couch...

https://ayietim.com/2021/06/29/good-and-evil-are-very-hard-to-explain-or-understand-keith-haring/

Do you have a budget? Is it designed to help you grow?

A budget is your quantitative plan. It is a collection of the things you want to spend money on and where the money is going to come from. It is a simply a collection of your future revenues and expenditures.

Having a budget is an indication of an intention to avoid running into financial distress and focus on financial growth. Growth is a product of a good budget. What is a good personal budget?

This is how a good personal budget should look like;

A. Income: It must show your expected annual income. The annual income should be broken down to a monthly income by dividing the annual income by 12 months. And the monthly income further broken down to a weekly income by dividing each monthly income by 4 weeks.

Your income is your is your net revenue. That is, it is what is left of your revenue after taxes, interests and all other deductibles are removed.

B. Allocation of your weekly income. It is very important to always allocate your weekly income among your basic needs and set aside a portion as your weekly saving.

For instance, you may allocate your weekly income to the following needs and saving with their corresponding percentages;

1. Shelter- Accomodation- 20%

2. Food – 20%

3. Clothing – 5%

4, Communications- 5%

5. Continuous Learning- 20%

6. Savings– 30%

At this point, it is important to remind you that this is a personal budget that is focused on personal financial growth. This is the reason learning and savings take 50%. Of the budget.

The next important item that must make a good personal budget is how you intend to allocate your saving.

C. Allocation of savings. You may;

1. Invest 30% of your savings.

60% of which may be in ventures with a short term returns on investment (within 12 months) and 40% of the 30% set aside for investment may be invested in ventures with long term returns (more than 12 months).

2. Set aside 30% of your savings towards getting a personal home. Remember, your saving is a portion of your weekly income not spent. So the 30% saved towards a personal home is accumulated over time till it could buy a personal home. Or, till it could be used as a counter fund to buy a personal home.

3. Set aside 25% of your savings towards other things like a car and house stuff.

4. Reinvest 15% of your savings. This is absolutely important in order to maintain and progressively enlarge the cycle of growth.

https://ayietim.com/2021/06/29/what-should-be-included-in-a-personal-budget/

Every morning, Solomon leaves his bed
He takes his breakfast then he owns the day

He lets his imagination lead him
Through the fields, mountains and the street;

There’s no end to what he tries,
He seeks wings to join the birds in the sky;

“Oh, let me send my kite!”
“Tell them to give me a share of their wings, I want to be their lookalike!!”

it’s funny? Solomon doesn’t think so,
he’s now on the bridge watching the river Flow.

again, his mind is his fairy world
where everything is possible, anything can be done.

Yesterday, you were Solomon
but today you’ve outgrown that world,

you’ve forgotten about your power of imagination
you follow orders, you no longer ask questions;

no questions asked, no discovery made
Hey! You were born to create

It’s for your best life, you were born
But you must go back to when you were “Solomon”.

https://ayietim.com/2021/06/28/when-you-were-solomon/

You have cut him more than once, pants down. At first, he denied and went on the offensive. But when you refused to be cowed, he later admitted, confessed to it and apologized profusely. Your heart melted (afterall you love him so much and he knows it) and you took him back only for him to cheat on you again and again. He is a serial cheat, what should you do?

Men cheat on women and women cheat on men. Why do we cheat on each other? Why is your friend cheating on you serially? Is it your fault? It may not be your fault. May be you have been so faithful to the union and have done the much you could to make your spouse stay faithful to you, yet he still cheats on you. It’s in human nature to seek adventure. So some wouldn’t think twice about the bad thing that could happen to anybody’s feelings before they cheat. All the desire, is to satisfy their hunger for adventure first and then take care of any ugly consequence later. Some people are never contented with the best they have. They sometime do their best to get something of a lower value to what they already have, just to pump adrenalin and ‘get high’.

So, if you are stuck with a serial cheat, check to find out if the communication channels are still active. Use them frequently and scale back on your busy schedule in order to create more time to be with your spouse.

Stop being suspicious of every move your spouse makes. Stop going through his phones and eavesdropping on his calls. Cut him some slack and build trust and hopefully, he would one day come back home to the true love, only you have for him.

https://ayietim.com/2017/02/08/marriage-and-relationship-how-do-you-cope-with-a-serial-cheat/

Love is an attempt at penetrating another being, but it can only succeed if the surrender is mutual.” – Octavio

So, it’s not going to be easy to be on the same page on everything very quickly. Agreeing on everything? Is never going to happen.

Why? The penetration, though will never be one hundred percent, is going to be slow but steady. Note that one hundred percent penetration is not needed to build a great relationship.

The level of penetration that makes two hearts inseparable is enough. The truth is, this is not going to happen without hitches now and then.

To overcome occasional hitches, you have to be committed to the continual building of bridges. Build those bridges with perseverance, understanding and wisdom.

But you will never succeed at building those bridges to join two hearts if the other heart is uncooperative?

The penetration must be mutual. Two persons that desire to spend their lives together must put in the hard work: to always cling to one another, no matter the intensity of self centered interests which may try to pull them apart.

Love does its job when the determination to penetrate one another is mutual. What’s Love’s job? To keep two hearts together as one in an atmosphere of enduring happiness and peace of mind.

PS:

Please note that the meaning of the word Penetration is this context is, “the ability to discern deeply and acutely.”

The full Octavio Paz quote;

“Love is an attempt to penetrate another being, but it can only be realized if the surrender is mutual. It is always difficult to give oneself up; few persons anywhere ever succeed in doing so, and even fewer transcend the possessive stage to know love for what it actually is: a perpetual discovery, an immersion in the waters of reality and an unending re-creation.”

https://ayietim.com/2021/06/27/love-is-an-attempt-at-penetrating-another-being-octavio-paz/

“Effort only fully releases its reward after a person refuses to quit.” – Napoleon Hill.

Don’t quit yet,
you have held on this long,

quitting before it ends,
is forgoing the reward for nought,

if you went in for the reward,
then quit not until it’s all yours,

hold on, every persistent pressure,
is an effort that eventually releases the reward.

https://ayietim.com/2017/02/06/effort-only-fully-releases-its-reward-after-a-person-refuses-to-quit-napoleon-hill/

In your heart, you have had more than enough of the abuse.
In your heart you have walked away several times.
In reality, you are still giving him one more time.

You are wishing and secretly praying that he should change, though you know that this may never happen. So, you are still sticking around waiting for a miracle to happen and save or rescue you from the ‘hell’ of a life you are living.

Why are you waiting for a miracle to happen when you can just get up and leave. Do you call that ‘love’ or it’s ‘plain stupidity’?

Okay and yes, you love him but clearly, he doesn’t love you back. You can’t create love in a heart that is not with you and is not for you. Love happens naturally and it must be in two hearts going in the same direction for it to happen. It’s either it’s there or it’s not there.

Don’t try to convince yourself that you are not good enough for another person. Nobody is ever good enough until they find someone who treats them very very special.

And there is always someone, somewhere searching for someone like you, to love, to cherish and to keep. But you may never meet that ‘nice’ person, until you have the courage to walk away from an abusive relationship that has given you the worst kind of harassment, intimidation, disrespect, painful heartbreak and ‘fake’ make=up.

The courage to walk away comes from the awareness that you are special and that you deserve nothing less than to be treated nicely and beautifully.
You are a great gift to the world, so never hesitate to ask for a better deal.

Walk away from an abusive relationship while you can. Don’t wait until you have passed your prime, at which time, you would settle for whoever and whoever is available, even when ‘the whoever’ is clearly not who you desire and is never available in body, soul and spirit, for you.

https://ayietim.com/2017/02/11/relationship-why-are-you-tolerating-an-abusive-relationship/

How much is your self worth?

Does it give you confidence or does it make you feel inferior in life?

If your self worth gives you an inferiority complex then you are not ever going to live a happy life. Because you are not ever going to dare to think big and dare to reach people who could help you live that dream.

But you have in you what every great person has, the difference is, you are yet to do the hard work of discovering your true self.

Your self worth is reached when you have the knowledge of the truths about you.

What are these truths;

1. You are capable of getting done, anything you believe in,

2. You are capable of attaining any height by putting in 1000s of hours to learn what it takes,

3. You are not perfect. Therefore you are going to make mistakes like every great person makes,

4. You are going to win against all oppositions by refusing to give up and,

5. You are going to reach your self worth by knowing that you too have something special to gift the world.

You are worthy of having the good things of life,

life blesses those who try, fall but still rise,

with it’s sweet fruits which are plucked,

after the field of challenges has been crossed.

https://ayietim.com/2020/07/31/how-do-i-reach-my-self-worth/[url][/url]

In October 2014, Nigeria
received universal praise
for its swift and efficient
tackling of the Ebola
pandemic which had
struck West African
neighbours Sierra Leone,
Guinea and Liberia.
But the core team of staff
from the Nigeria Centre
for Disease Control (NCDC)
who led the effort have
since quit their jobs,
because their salaries had
not been paid for nearly
three years.
"If they play back the
clock, they won't get me
to do that job again," says
Dr Kenneth Madiebo, the
53-year-old medic who
dealt with the body of
Patrick Sawyer, the first
identified Ebola case
Nigeria in 2014.
A project officer with the
NCDC since September
2012, Dr Madiebo was
assigned the task of
decontaminating the
hospital room where Mr
Sawyer had died in July
2014, and preparing his
body for cremation.
In a video he showed me,
Dr Madiebo, the only
health official involved in
the process, dons his
protective gear and enters
with a team of morticians
to remove Mr Sawyer's
naked body from the
narrow toilet where he
had died.
Mr Sawyer had been
certified dead at 7:30 but
the removal of his body
took place at 23:30 that
night.
"Everybody was afraid,"
said Dr Madiebo. "Nobody
else wanted to do it. But I
did it because it was my
job."
"I was ill for days
afterwards but it was
more psychological, not
Ebola."
Public praise came his
way when Nigeria was
officially declared Ebola-
free on October 20, and
the then Health Minister
Onyebuchi Chukwu asked
Dr Madiebo to stand up
during a press conference
and commended him
openly for his key role in
containing the virus.
That same month, the
minister resigned his
position to pursue other
interests, while Dr
Madiebo was promoted
from project officer to
incident manager, a
position that came with a
salary increase.
But, he has never received
the new salary, or any
other salary since then.
His colleague Colette Isu-
Ezumah, a 43-year-old
public health worker who
moved back to Nigeria
from the US in 2011,
shares these frustrations.
She was a driving force
behind the 250-strong
group of Nigerian
volunteers sent to Sierra
Leone and Liberia for six
months to help in the
fight against Ebola, when
infection rates were at
their peak in 2014 and
2015.
'No right to email'
Despite this, and just like
Dr Madiebo, Ms Isu-
Ezumah has not been paid
since October 2014.
"Our boss kept telling us
not to worry, that we
would eventually get
paid," she says.
The 2014 Ebola crisis:
Most deadly Ebola
outbreak in history
More than 11,000
people killed - mostly
in Sierra Leone, Liberia
and Guinea
Other deaths recorded
in Nigeria, Mali, US
Started in Guinea in
December 2013,
declared over in
January 2016
How Ebola changed the
world
How Ebola spread from
"patient zero"
Why Ebola is so
dangerous
Tired of all the placations,
Dr Madiebo decided to
take matters into his own
hands.
At the time, President
Muhammadu Buhari had
just been elected, and
with no new health
minister named,
Permanent Secretary
Linus Awute was in
charge.
Dr Madiebo sent an email
to Mr Awute, copying in
his six colleagues who
were also out of pocket
for nine months' pay.
"You have no such right
to write me directly,
knowing that you are
under several layers of
authorities in the Federal
Ministry of Health," came
the reply from Mr Awute
in July 2015.
"Where is such impunity
and unsatisfactory
conduct coming from?"
He added: "The terms of
your engagement and
payment of salary, to the
best of my knowledge,
was strictly under the
Federal Ministry of Health/
CDC Cooperative
Agreement.
"Funding for your salary
can only be
accommodated under the
Project and subject to
availability of funding for
which the CDC was unable
to make further funding
release to the Project.
The only mistake here is
that Management of the
Federal Ministry of Health
ought to have disengaged
you promptly to prevent
this tendentious email."
'Show magnanimity'
But the final words in that
verbose email from Mr
Awute offered some
hope:
"After my brief and the
discussion that followed
with the relevant
Department, I went out of
officialdom to abandon
the nicety to show
magnanimity by
developing a plan to
absorb you into the main
stream Civil Service."
Why Nigerians love
flowery language
Clinging to this glimmer
of hope, Dr Madiebo and
his colleagues kept on
working.
"I resigned my job in the
UK to bring my 15 years
of specialist training to
help improve the
deplorable health
conditions in my country,"
said Dr Chuks Ukpaka, one
of the medical doctors
who established the NCDC
in September 2012.
"We were never
disengaged but promised
payment in arrears."
Dr Madiebo's next task
was to co-ordinate a
three-week monitoring
period.
Nigeria's praised but unpaid Ebola heroes. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-41147691?iorg_service_id_internal=624173547714020%3BAfp6Bd4miLC5nxdJ

"These are the few ways we can practice
humility:

To speak as little as possible of one's self.

To mind one's own business. Not to want to manage other people's affairs.

To avoid curiosity.

To accept contradictions and correction cheerfully.

To pass over the mistakes of others.

To accept insults and injuries.

To accept being slighted, forgotten and disliked.

To be kind and gentle even under provocation.

Never to stand on one's dignity.

To choose always the
hardest." - Mother Teresa,

https://ayietim./2017/08/19/mother-teresa-on-how-to-practice-humility/