₦airaland Forum

55) Why Perseverance would get you 'somewhere'

As the yam seller in our story (refer to post #46) continues in the market 'struggle', -falling down and getting up-, stuff begins to happen to her and her business.

With the passage of time:
- she would naturally begin to have loyal customers who would make her shop their first stop
- She would get experienced in reading through customers, therefore knowing potential buyers vs potential 'broke ass' hagglers (the way wen as girls dey mature, dem dey know guys wen be time wasters )
- Some other yam sellers would have given up along the way, thereby reducing competition
-She would soon be able to source for farms where she can buy yam cheap and then make a good profit
-She would have built trust with her suppliers who can then sell bulk yams to her on credit (almost like a cheap loan)

From the above, you see that there is a very strong possibility that anyone who perseveres in a line of business will come out at least 'alright' at some point in time. From our overall analysis, you can see that the only thing that can possibly stop you is death and your giving up.

But,the really big but is.............what is the measurement of 'alright'?
is this -'alright'- worth the struggle, the sacrifices, endless stress that you passed through, sleepless nights?

In a simple language, is perseverance worth the struggle?

[quote author=some-girl]If these boys weren't murderers and/ or rapists, I do hope those that beat and burnt them are tortured and have their arms and legs amputated to serve as a deterrent to jungle judges.[/quote] ......Jungle justice for jungle justice?

obadiah777: I ONLY FIGHT WORTHY BATTLES. FIGHTING OVER MATERIAL GOODS IS NOT A WORTHY BATTLE TO ME.

Dude, you'd better admit to yourself that you screwed up (which is past tense)

The alternative would be that you're obviously frozen as a mental zygote which is pathetic

obadiah777: AND WHAT DO YOU HAVE TO SHOW FOR YOUR BRAVERY ? A NASTY GASH ON YOUR HEAD WITH MACHETE ? I TROWAY SALUTE OOOOOOOOOO BRAVE MAN

You're actually proud of, and gloating for being a coward?? Wow!!!

I bet your type would be rare in the middle east

54) Persevere wetin?

As Pese digs through the earth towards point Z in another part of the globe, there is a very strong possibility that he will discover oil somewhere along the path AZ. The longer his life span, the greater the probability that he will strike oil. The oil find could however be very small or very vast.

Its like gambling. If you just keep on gambling consistently throughout your life, there is a strong possibility that you would one day win something. That something might be extremely small and won at the later parts of your life when you're about to die off. It could also be a very big win at the start of your gambling career

When in business some people tell you "just hold on there", something like what I have just described could be what actually plays out.

As you continue in a specific relevant line of business (e.g yam selling) through time, there is a strong possibility that the business will finally 'settle-in' if you: don't give up, don't die, or are not sunk by debt.

The reasons why the yam selling business will finally 'swim' if those conditions listed above are met is simple....




**Still hold on to the mental image of the guy (Mr Pese) digging through line AZ in search of oil as we trash this out in the next post**)

53) Lets talk about Perseverance

I'll share with you some insights on the merits and demerits of perseverance, and might suggest ways you can manage it effectively.

please take a look at the diagram (it is an hypothetical one, incapable of existing in real life, but serves a visual purpose in our lesson). In the diagram, there is a man called Mr Pese Viehance standing at a location in the globe called A. Spot 'A' has no oil wells, The man wants to dig for oil, and the man has been told by motivational teachers to persevere, and he'll eventually get to his destination

stance: please continue this thread, it's been dormant.

I will in due time.

stance: Guy u are simply too good. I started reading today and I will come here everyday for updates. You seem to be an elderly person who has seen it all.

at the bolded, and no comments

@naptu2 and Ishilove

No body send me this message sha... but

You probably could write on a fictional character or family wrapped around the corridor of power going through these experience. Like the soldier chap that was in the radio station during the coup broadcasts.

To give the book an international push, one of you could do a literal inclined postgraduate study in a well reckoned uni in the US or UK and make the book a collaboration project. The uni if the right one will definitely be interested in it

Kinda like the way that guy in Thisday paper who late became and S.A wrote on yaradua's life and death while in Harvard

@Naptu2
U probably should get together with Ishilove and write a book.

I'll buy it before it is printed (and I'm serious). As long as say im no pass 20,000 naira sha

....

...

@naptu2

umhh. thanks

52) My Conversation with an Ibru Patriach

In my younger days when the desire for money burnt so bright in my eyes (im still dey burn o,, but with sense now ). I boldly approached one of the Ibru's for insight into business strategy. He seemed impressed with my friend and I, and off course started talking (an old tongue likes to wag).

He explained how the families business took off, the challenges and the strategies. Thank God for those oak seeds he shared with me (part of which drives what I share with you), they're more valuable than money and I'll be forever gratefull.

Now listen very carefully. One of the stories he shared was how they were the first to start the sales of ice fish in Nigeria. Hear him (not his exact words sha):

"Boy" he said, his old handsome face beaming with a smile, reminiscence etched deeply on his brows, "at that time, it was almost like a taboo for Nigerians to eat ice fish".
"They associated it to mortuary, and Fresh fish was the order of the day".
"But my brothers and I saw an oppurtunity for a new industry and lots of money to be made, especially as the Nigerian economy took a turn for the worse, so we opened Ibru Fisheries"

"It was tough work, convincing people to start buying ice fish, soo we started advertising on air and radio".
"We sponsored programs like those maggi kitchen ones where we showcased chefs cooking with icefish".
"People soon began to warm up to the idea, and Ibru fisheries became a highlly successful business"

52) Back to the yam woman

Remember I critiqued suggestions that the yam seller in post #46 and 47 continues selling yam despite the unprofitable and highly competitive nature of her business. However, if you look closely at the village scenario in my first set of posts #3 to 7, you would see the possibilty of partnership between competitors (sometimes described as cabals etc) in order to get better sales for all in the group (off course, this is bad for the consumer, and foreign governments hate this).

This is the idea behind unions and industry partnerships. So if all the market women in her street are able to discipline themselves and come together as a 'fighting' unit, they would be better placed to compete against individual yam sellers in other streets, and probably drive them off the market (Eastern traders use this strategy a lot).

Another strategy is for the yam selling industry to convince consumers that yam is good, and garri is bad. Probably push a story in newspapers saying "Garri kills 1000 in all the states of Nigeria". Consumers who have limited resources then turn to yam exclusively, thereby killing off the garri industry and making the yam selling very profitable

zameen: Nice one. What chances are there for undergraduates?

I suspect that if an undergraduate aligns herself to this sector through either a primary univeristy degree (such as engineering), work experience or certifications/seminars pointing towards the industry, her CV will be more conspicuous to the recruiters.

following from this, someone that studied HR as a first degree and then goes on to have a work experience in something like NEPA in Nigeria; or EDF energy (global location); or a certification like project management and maybe 'HR considerations in Powers sector' certification (hypothetical) should be more competitively placed

naptu2: 2) By tradition, the Idejo are the children of Olofin (one of Oduduwa's sons). Depending on which side you support, Lagos was either founded by Olofin or by Benin (I'm going to avoid that controversy).

By tradition, the various Idejo families own the land of Lagos. The Oba of Lagos (who came from Benin) owns no land apart from his palace (Iga Idungaran).

Why don't our scientists do some simple genetic tests to confirm the Benin yoruba controversy on their obas?

@naptu2

wow!! Who are u?
This sounds more like an insiders perspective or the son/brother to an insider

51) Village Capitalism

Capitalism in the small village in our analogy where there are two or more women and only one man says that the women have to compete amongst themseleves for a limited resources from the man.

In this cae, the man is allowed to bestow his favours unequally. The ladies in this village will then tend to outdo themselves in order to get the mans attention. The ladies might try to look beautiful, or even offer to farm for the man in order to outwit her mates. Some might start using juju to try and get rid of their mates.

While this mad rush is going on, some of the smarter ladies might pause to think and try to understand what the man (who happens to be the customer) really wants. So while the others are busy padding their bossoms and making up their faces, it just might be that the winning strategy is simply someone that the man would enjoy talking with.

As the competition becomes intense, you can easilly see that there would be more 'production', advancement or activities. New bras developed, botox for the bumbum, attention to social education, more sacrifices to the juju, valentines day celebration etc. The man might soon feel very motivated to farm more (or outsource the faming to one of the willing women) in order to take care of his growing number of children.

Right. Now u see why business is tough and prone to 'failure'? It's all becuase there is competition from competitors for a limited resources (the customer's money)

@OP

Great write-up

50) STILL ON COMPETITION, CAPITALISM AND COMMUNISM

I can't help but try drilling a little bit deeper into this concept

For you to make 'comparatively greater money' than others, once there is competition in your line of business, you need to be 'competitive'. In simple but not too accurate english, it means you need to be 'better' than others. It is almost folly to think that the 'others' don't exist.


Looking at society from a big picture view, this is how capitalism vs socialism and competition works, or was designed to work:
Remember our village scenario in the earlier posts #3 to 7 with a village of two (or more) women and a single man. The two women desire to satisfy their 'self interest' urges (refer to post #13).

Communism/socialism says that they should all have the man equally, despite any of their female virtues. So it pushes the man to have equal amount of se.x with each of them, equal love for them, equal children from them, and equal favors bestowed by the man on each of the women.

This seems good right?
Well the challenge is that this would ultimately kill incentives for 'progress'. Any of the women can come to the man with dirty and torn panties expecting that it's her turn for the night, smelly mouth, let her weight go, stop making up, farting recklessley around etc. He his not expected to have any choice in the matter. As the women gradually become more sloppy in their appearance and efforts, the man's s.ex drive might soon take a nose dive. There is no much push for him to farm. The little he gets will be shared equally amongst all. Poverty or lack might soon set in, but is distributed equally amongst all

U can actually juxtapose this concept against nations, religions, relationships, marriages, communities, friends etc to see how it makes sense

190: No thankss
U'l get dropped for notin if u like speak grammer from now till next tomorrow

Idowuogbo: Fawck u! No wonder d gals kept rejecting u. Ur face alone na horror movie! Chucky Oshi!

lolol0lololo ahahahahahahah.
u guys are sooooo hilarious

@ naptu2

thanks for sharing these

ba7man: Goodday sir, I'm really impressed with the way your thread sucked me in and kept me hooked while reading it. I'v added it to the list of write ups I'll read over nd over again. And some people come here to spread hate when they culd b reading a write up like this.....

Great comment. I am more than sure that once you've internalized this thread, there would definitely be some improvements in your outlook and results

Cheers

Nextworldnx: Lagos business school?
Oh! No no, i dont have anything to do with them. Am just a blogger on job vacancies, study abroad opportunities, scholarship and internship openings.
I publish those as soon as i get updates, thats all.

ok. great job

49) Monopoly and little stories
Lets give examples of monopolies in action around us

-There is a church in Nigeria that is very rich. After service, u'll notice that the only books and cd's on display for sale are those of the pastor

-In youth service camps, u might notice that sales of some essential goods that everybody must buy (e.g slippers, buckets) are restricted to specific persons closely related to the top heirachy of the NYSC local managers

-The FRSC recently wanted to introduce new number plates and force nigerians to buy it (off course some businessmen where behind it)

-The lekki toll gate is another example of a monopoly

-You notice the strength and brutality of road transport unions in ensuring that they are in control of the transportation industry

All these stories should give you some insight to one of the ways to increasing your wealth through monopoly. The monopoly would be better accepted without bloodshed if it is intertwined with an accepted power structure

48 ) Monopoly
(I'll go back to the yam seller anal0gy and poke a hole in my analysis that is consistent with web thinking. The idea is simply that when you reach a brickwall, put on your thinking hat on the many possible ways to overcome it. You could push hard, dig through or just scale over the wall)

A way of pushing yourself ahead of the competition is through monopoly. Simply put, it is you providing goods and services that no other person can or is allowed to. Dangote's success is mainly hinged on monopoly -total control of the market mainly through government backing. I've heard stories of instances where some folks imported stuff, and Dangote drastically reduced his price beneath cost price thereby snuffing out the competition instantly (this by the way is illegal in many developed countries).

Monopoly goes hand in hand with power. I actually forgot to drill into power in my earlier posts. Given a choice between money and power, many folks I have had this discussion with in Nigeria prefer money. This to me is an erroneous choice in a country like Nigeria. Money is what the bankers had, and yet got sent to Jail, and are still being hounded by the EFCC. Power is what others like the Rep guy Farouk, IBB etc have that makes them largely untouchable.

Money can buy you some amount of power in Nigeria alright, but for those that are after power, money comes naturally with it. The difference is this. With power, you get to place people in positions, many of whom do not deserve such positions. They remain eternally loyal. They in turn place others in positions. Before you know it, you have a cocoon of invisibility surrounding you which can hardly be punctured. Imagine Odilli being touched with his wife as a justice of the supreme court. This is almost impossible. (My analysis on the difference between money and power is not so rigorous, but I hope u understand what I am trying to drive at)

With such monopoly and power relationships, oligarchs were created in Russia. The oil industry in Nigeria has been cornered by a few etc

Nextworldnx: Now i sense “survival of the fittest“ (48 laws of power). Get brutal in decision making, either subtly or openly.
Whatever! Who gets ahead in this game playing “too soft“ or by “the rules“ anyway?
It can be liken to a football match. In a knock-out stage of any competition, a team must win and d other must lose, a team must smile while d other must cry, no matter how “fair“ the referee wants to be. You call it a “healthy“ competition: whats “healthy“ about the other team crying?

I get your drift bro! Btw, what is LBS?

Lagos Business School

47) The yam woman and your story

An interesting reply to the yam woman was that she should persevere and God will see her through.

In one of those motivational books popular in Nigeria, a story is told of how someone set about digging for petroleum. Aftre a long time of frustration he gave up and sold the land. Then came someone else to continue the digging. The new person dug only a few inches and voila!! hit black gold
... Right

With such story, you can add God to the mix, and I trust that many will keep on digging till they draw their last breadth on earth (a beautiful anticlimax). Of course their kids will watch all these unfold and might end up being bitter and resentful towards God if they don't see their dad hit black gold in his lifetime.

The interesting thing is that with this resentment towards 'God rules', the kids might end up being very successful. Folks that know the story might then say God gave the blessings of the righteous parents to the kids, but the kids have turned their backs on God

I have seen this play out,.... common, don't tell me that you haven't see such scenario too.


While I honestly have no qualms with anyone that sells or buys such ideas of perceverance as narrated here. I however wish that the success of such ideas can be tied into the payments for the books, seminars and religious giving. In other words, I wish there is a model whereby such books/seminar/preaching can be bought on credit, and money remitted only after the actor (that's someone like the yam seller or crude oil developer) has made a success of the venture.


**Please, I only used the yam seller as an example for my critique. I have not said that the thread owner solicited for any money whatsoever. I actually kind of admire the threadowners insightfull comments, If the threadowner feels offended, he or she can let me know, and i'll look out for another real life story***

46) Bloody Competition
please be careful reading this

Reading post# 45, u can clearly see there would inherently be a resistance to your making more money by others within a space you share with others. This could be subtle or very glaring. In the developed world, there are structures/frameworks/regulations that guide against the bestiality that might arise with such unsurpings. In Nigeria, it's different.... you could be killed (many have indeed been killed)

Let's show you the power of the knowledge of competition. I read a post in Nairaland recently of a lady complaining about her shop where she sells yams. Business was not going well for her

Now, imagine that there was a disaster in that area where all other yam sellers are suddenly Xed. What do u think will happen to her yam business? Yes, u got it right. She would make astronomical sales. The sad truth is that some competitors actually think this way, and try to actualise it. What drives such evil action is what in the business world is referred to as Monopoly.

So when you see business people rushing to spiritual houses to pray, its simply a wish (some might not even know this) that the competition be subdued. It might then take on a new toga of the battle of the gods for their wards to be the ones to increase (while the others decrease)

Monopoly....