₦airaland Forum

“You’ll never get an offer from Microsoft” - my wife in 2006

I graduated college with a degree in EE in the early 80s. I just missed the microcomputer revolution that was happening out west by a couple of years (little did I know there was some awesome stuff happening half of an hour from my home Commodore International - Wikipedia ) and spent the next 25 years doing some pretty cool stuff, carving out a career as an embedded controls expert outside of Philadelphia. I always thought I would end up in Silicon Valley, but nobody called to ask me to come join the party!
[There is a lesson here that took me many years to learn]

In the late 90’s, a few friends and I cofounded a very small electronics manufacturing company that despite some early successes, started to bleed cash after the crash in spring of 2001. Fast forward to 2006 - we were in the process of downsizing our company, laying off all the staff and moving it into the living room of my partner. I was under-employed, but still hustling like hell.

Back in 1996, I discovered the internet. I had a couple of websites, and I put my resume on them to try to hustle some free-lance work. (This was before LinkedIn)

And it worked! Occasionally, someone would stumble across my site - and I’d get some work.

Fast forward back to 2006 - apparently a Microsoft recruiter had discovered my web site - they were staffing a new team, and would I be interested in a phone interview ?
Of course! The tech scene in Philly was dying and it was increasingly difficult to land meaningful employment.

The phone interview went well, so a trip to Redmond was next. My wife was receptive to the move, but she injected a dose of realism: “You know, they only hire smart twenty somethings, not over- the-hill, balding, middle-aged man-children ( I was about to turn 45 when I got the call). You’ll never get an offer from Microsoft. ”

Ouch !!!

I guess that’s all the motivation I needed. I went online and bought and studied three books on interviews - including cracking the Microsoft interview. I rehearsed hypothetical questions with whoever would indulge me. I prepped and read and researched and prepped some more. Finally, I packed a carry on with all the PCBs I had ever designed.

I was prepared. I believed in myself, but also knew that sometimes things can go south quickly in an interview. I had also read that their interview process was set up to reject people by default.

October 2016. I just celebrated my 55th birthday. And just got my 10 year anniversary crystal at work. It is amazing what a person can do, when someone tells them they can’t.


and if you’ll indulge me with one more hyperlink, check out this song from Willy Wonka that for some reason I can’t get out of my head.

EDIT: If you like this answer, do not follow me. It is a fluke. Most of my answers are short, sarcastic, and troll-like 1 - 3 word answers. My better answers are about high school Physics (mechanics) and Gravity, but if you are into that, you should get a life. Seriously. Dude.

BONUS: Why don’t you navigate your Netscape to the best answer of the bunch:

Gina Vincenza Van Epps' answer to Has a person ever said something to you that made you rethink your life?

It really is the best answer -hands down - to this question. I have the first sentence printed on my monitor. Gina’s answer had such an impact on me that it inspired me to write my own answer.


Source: https://www.quora.com/Has-a-person-ever-said-something-to-you-that-made-you-rethink-your-life

Neteller here: www..com.ng

I spent many years hiring people for large, hi-tech companies. We had a rule of thumb that the best hires were those with B+ to A- GPAs. The A and A+ and 4.o crowd often don’t do as well because they have not learned to work as hard.

This is not to say that there aren’t exceptions, but as a rule we found that a high proportion of the “A” average crowd were too full of themselves to do well in real jobs.

That said, below B starts to create problems because of lack of innate ability, but even there you will find many exceptions.

By the way, due to grade inflation, many people who have A averages today would have had B or B+ averages 50 years ago, so if you believe grades have become inflated, B today often means what C meant 50 years ago, and that’s a matter of some concern.

In the end, it depends on the individual.

Source: https://www.quora.com/Why-do-most-people-consider-B-to-be-a-bad-grade

Neteller here: www..com.ng

This is not about the Why, because it is simply not true that most scam emails come from Nigeria - they only claim to come from Nigeria. Microsoft even has some research on this. I have taken the liberty to lift a quote directly from one of the links as well..

- Largest no of scam emails do originate from US location ip addresses not Nigeria. http://research.microsoft.com/pu... And http://www.techrepublic.com/blog... addresses why Nigeria is the scapegoat and not necessarily the major culprit in fraud and scams.

- "It is Nigeria's dreadful reputation for corruption that makes the strange tales of dodgy lawyers, sudden death, and orphaned fortunes seem plausible in the first place." the Nigerian government has did a shoddy job of curbing this PR mess early enough thus cementing Nigeria's perception as that scam nation.

- this is not to say that a good number of young Nigerians were involved in scams in the last decade. This is due to huge gap between the rich and poor and limited options to cross from one divide to the other. Fraud and scam has indeed helped many of these ones to cross that divide and they've moved on to some more legit trades
(https://www.nairaland.com/2205408...) . More Youths are also looking to cross that divide via the arts - music and film. Others who continue to ply this shamed craft mostly do so from outside the country - Ghana and Malaysia being the commonest destinations.

Source: https://www.quora.com/Why-do-so-many-email-scams-come-from-Nigeria

Neteller here: www..com.ng

I was making $35,000 as an assistant manager at Walmart in 2004. I interviewed with Costco thinking I’d never get the job so I shot for the stars and requested $60,000. The interview went well but I was sure they were going to hire someone else. I’d only been drug-free for like three years and I had this lingering feeling that I’d be a loser for the rest of my life.† To my pleasant surprise, I nearly doubled my salary and got the job.

I thought I’d made it. I was still living with my parents, paying them $400 a month rent (because, well, this is the US and parents charge adult children for rent and even if they didn’t, I wouldn’t live with them without paying something) and suddenly I had all this money. I was so excited. I really believed that I’d turned a corner in my life.

I walked into my job and by the time I left that day, I knew something was wrong. By the end of the first week, I knew I’d made a horrible mistake. I couldn’t believe I’d left a job as a manager at Walmart —which I loved, believe it or not— for a job that I knew within one day that I’d hated. (Note: Costco is an amazing company, one of the very best; this particular issue was with my warehouse manager and the specific job I was tasked with).

And man did I hate it. I stuck it out for four months then began frantically applying around. I ended up landing the job that I’d stay at for six years (Kohls) that started out great, but ended up sucking the life out of me (no knock to Kohls, who is one of the few companies that treats managers with grace and dignity).

It takes a while for me to know I love a job. It takes me a few hours to know that I’m gonna hate it. My instinct has never been wrong so far.

†When you get defeated like that, you spend a lot of time imagining what success would be. I ended my senior HR role at over 100k and I hated my life. I took a huge pay cut to do something I liked. I’ve worked my way up to a great salary, but through all of these years, I didn’t realize that the paycheck didn’t make the success (but it doesn’t hurt). If you’re miserable and you hate the job, no amount of money makes it worth it.

Source: https://www.quora.com/How-long-does-it-take-to-realize-that-you-are-in-the-wrong-job

Neteller here: www..com.ng

Na im wahala be dat.



Neteller here: .com.ng

Leadership always starts with great communication, so amazing bosses use these phrases daily.

Whether you're managing an intern or running an entire business, your employees' success (and your own skin) depends on your leadership.

Thankfully, the solution for motivating your team and squashing any issues is right at the tip of your tongue. It all starts with communication -- the skill experts point to as the make-or-break factor for successful leadership.

Here are eight things that exceptional bosses tell their employees daily. Start using these daily (or begin looking for a boss who does), and watch your success skyrocket:

1. "I have total confidence in you."
There's nothing more discouraging than a boss who doesn't believe in a person's abilities and tries to micromanage them at every turn. Even ultra-confident individuals will see their self-belief plummet if they're treated like a white-collar toddler.

As President Theodore Roosevelt said, "The best leader is the one who has sense enough to pick good men to do what he wants done, and self-restraint enough to keep from meddling with them while they do it."

It might be tough to let go of the reins at first, but if you give your team opportunities to rise to the occasion, you'll find a happier and more motivated office environment.

2. "This is what I want us to accomplish..."
CEO and president of Lockheed Martin Marillyn Hewson found this to be the biggest key to success in her career: "Great leaders motivate and inspire people with why they're doing it," she says. "That's purpose. And that's the key to achieving something truly transformational."

What separates exceptional leaders from mediocre bosses is their ability to communicate their plans and tie the daily drudgery into big-picture goals. Charting a clear course for your team fosters a sense of job stability and drive at work -- so always take the time to explain "why" instead of merely doling out orders.

3. "What can we do better next time?"
As Arianna Huffington sagely suggests, mistakes are the best teachers. "We need to accept that we won't always make the right decisions, that we'll screw up royally sometimes," she says. "Understanding that failure is not the opposite of success, it's part of success."

Every person on planet Earth has messed up at his or her job at least once (even me...well, maybe more than once). Mistakes happen, especially when you're trying something new.

As long as it's not a reckless or careless mistake, turn that error into a learning experience. Teaching someone what to do next time to avoid a blunder is much more productive than reprimanding them.

4. "I want to play to your strengths."
Warren Bennis, a renowned author and scholar on leadership, found that "Too many companies believe people are interchangeable. Truly gifted people never are. They have unique talents." He says, "Such people cannot be forced into roles they are not suited for, nor should they be. Effective leaders allow great people to do the work they were born to do."

Every person on your team has special skills -- that's why I embrace uniqueness at my company, and you should, too. This speaks to the idea of treating people as individuals in a world where employees are too often seen as expendable. Looking for greatness in everyone we work with can only lead to great things.

5. "What is your opinion?"
Top-notch bosses don't let ego get in the way of innovation -- they seek advice from everyone, regardless of where they are on the totem pole.

Asking your employees what they think is another great way to show that you have faith in them and value their input. Plus, I've found that the best insights come from the most unexpected places.

6. "How can I better support you?"
An excellent way of reducing employee turnover is a preventative approach. Take the time to check in with your team. Ask them what's on their plate and what you can do to help them succeed.

As Sheryl Sandberg, the COO of Facebook, says, "Leadership is about making others better as a result of your presence and making sure that impact lasts in your absence."

If you serve and enable your team, they'll want to do the same for you and your company, too.

7. "Let me know if you have any questions."
Many people have had at least one intimidating boss whom they didn't feel like they could go to for help. Having an open door policy shows that you're available to your team and care about open communication and their productivity. The faster their questions are answered, the faster they can get back to accomplishing the task at hand.

8. "Good work."
Giving recognition is a lot cheaper than installing Ping-Pong tables or nap pods, and much more effective. No matter how much employees are paid and how cushy their perks are, they'll want to know that someone cares about their work. So take a few minutes to invest in well-deserved praise -- your team will always appreciate it.


Source: http://www.stumbleupon.com/su/2lo6Q7/:1vpg496ed:TdUkDkG8/www.inc.com/elle-kaplan/8-things-exceptional-bosses-constantly-tell-their-employees.html

Neteller here: www..com.ng

Coconut water refers to the sweetish liquid that occurs naturally inside the kernel cavity. It is abundant in young (green) coconuts, and still present in the mature ones.


Coconut water is the naturally occurring liquid inside young, green coconuts. It has 0 fat, 0 cholesterol and is low in calories. The main benefit of coconut water is that it is full of electrolytes to hydrate and replenish you after a workout, a hot day, or a long night of drinking.

Coconut water has more potassium than a banana, and 15 times the amount found in traditional sports drinks. Potassium helps prevent muscle cramping.

Some coconut water companies add juice to flavor their product, which can result in a lot of added sugar and calories, so you'll want to avoid that, but pure coconut water is a great alternative to artificial sports drinks and other sugary beverages.


Source: https://www.quora.com/Is-coconut-water-healthy

Neteller here: www..com.ng

For example, watching TV all day seems like a waste of time when you could be using your time to do some thing better like going out for a walk or spending time with friends or family.

Here are some of the examples from my life:

TV. I haven’t watched TV for 7 years now. Although sometimes I feel as if I’m missing out (especially in the US), I don’t regret it. I feel I am more productive and that I consume the information more mindfully. I am reading books, watching movies, listening to podcasts, finding new and more engaging ways to learn and express myself. This doesn’t mean that TV is genuinely evil or that everyone should stop watching TV or that nothing on TV is worth watching. This is just what works for me. Quick tip if you want to consume TV in a more mindful way: make sure that when your TV is on, you are actually watching it and that you’re watching something you chose. Don’t scroll TV channels randomly for hours. Don’t use TV as a background noise. That is the waste of your time and attention.

Consistent email checking. (OK, now the people will start citing Tim Ferriss and other big sharks how you should check your email once a month and that jazz.) Unfortunately, for most of us, it is completely impossible to get rid of email in total. However, consistent email checking is super unproductive, because it gives us the illusion that of productivity when in fact, it’s just busyness. Jumping from the task at hand to email and back activates the monkey mind mode, without fail. It is crucial to have scheduled large blocks of time without email. Only in a focused state we can do deep, meaningful and hard work.

Social media notifications on a cell phone. Similar thing as email. If you let everyone’s Like or Retweet make you stop whatever you’re doing, you cannot possibly be focused. And when you’re not focused, you’ll end up wasting tons of time on repeating, corrections and trying to catch up.

Scrolling the social media feed mindlessly. Just as mindlessly browsing TV channels wastes time and energy, scrolling down the social media feed in search of something (of what?) is a perfect way to kill huge chunks of time. That process is draining because you need to decide multiple times: “Do I want to read this? Do I want to watch this video? Do I want to see this album?” Yet we all scroll and scroll. My experience is that it’s the best to time scrolling. 5 minutes can be plenty. We should use social media to connect, not just to scroll.

Worrying. I wasted years on worrying and ironically, most of the things I worried about have never happened. (Then I realize that if I worry about something enough it will most likely not happen.) Even those very few things that did happen, seemed so much scarier in my thoughts. Worry is a huge waste of time. Once you find yourself worrying, take a small action, because it’s an antidote to despair. Make a plan. Call someone. Ask for help. Shift your focus from yourself to someone else and do something nice for him or her. Move your body, worrying means that you’re too much in your head. Write the super scary worst-case scenario (like a script for a bad horror movie) and laugh. Play with a child. Create. Just get yourself out of that state.

Comparison. Nobody puts photos of semi-burned scrambled eggs, messy work desk, greasy hair, Friday night in pajamas with a bad cold on Instagram. Yet, all of that (and much more) is life. We mostly get to see high heels, glasses of champagne, beaches, airplanes and that jazz. And we get the false picture. We compare ourselves to a false (or rather filtered) pictures. We compare ourselves to social norms, expectations, people who had different life circumstances than us (read:everyone) and Instagrammed reality. Use your envy as a tool to learn more about yourself and your values. That’s it. The comparison is a drain. You are incomparable. You are unique. (Just like everyone else.)

Complaining. My mom is very active and practical. Once my sister was complaining to her about something, and my mom gave her like 15 creative solutions. Then my sister said: “But mom, I don’t want you to solve my problems. I just want you to feel sorry for me!” So much truth here. Boy, do we love to bitch and complain! Yes, it’s healthy and it feels good to let those toxic emotions out. But after a while, complaining will trap us. It will help us create excuses, find the reasons why the situation is horrible and permanent and it will make us feel like the victim. Complain efficiently, then change what you can, accept what you cannot and always ask yourself: “What is the hidden gift in this crappy situation?”

Breaks spent in a draining way. Breaks are key components of productivity. Yet, if you squander breaks on activities such as above mentioned #4, you won’t use the revitalizing potential that the breaks can have. Good uses of breaks? Here: take a short walk, stretch, do a brief meditation, talk to a friend or colleague about something that is not work-related, do a brief exercise sequence, leave your computer and do NOTHING, listen to a podcast or audiobook, make a doodle, a photo, clean your work space up, wash your coffee cup. Don’t try to be productive, don’t multitask, let your brain rest.

Focusing on more things at once. This is a favorite activity of my monkey mind and I have to maintain a daily effort to cope with it. In this modern age, there is so much that we can do, watch, read, listen, work on, that we get paralyzed by the abundance of choice. We start working on one thing and then we think: “Oh, I should probably be reading a paper/posting on social media/ writing/whatever, right now.” Then we tend to switch, or multitask, or get so anxious and confused that we end up doing nothing.

Golden rule: one thing at the time, one bite at the time. There is an endless number of activities that you could be doing right now. Choose one that enriches you and that makes the difference. Stick to it. Finish it. Move on. (A good hack from “Getting Things Done”. Work on the task at hand and when the idea for new activity pops up, write it on the post-it note. After you are done, review the note and check out whatever you want.)
Regretting. This is the big one for me. I can’t help but think that some events and life choices make a substantial and non-reversible difference in our lives. Yet, we don’t know. As Cheryl Stayed says in “Tiny Beautiful Things”: “I'll never know, and neither will you, of the life you don't choose. We'll only know that whatever that sister life was, it was important and beautiful and not ours. It was the ghost ship that didn't carry us. There's nothing to do but salute it from the shore.” The best way to avoid regrets is to be brave, loving and present. And to do what you can. Here. Today.

I would conclude this answer about time wasters with a beautiful quote by Donald Miller from the book “Blue Like Jazz”:

“I believe that the greatest trick of the devil is not to get us into some sort of evil but rather have us wasting time.”

I hope this answer serves you.

Source: https://www.quora.com/What-is-truly-a-waste-of-your-personal-time

Neteller here: www..com.ng

Why should Trump be rewarded for his lies?

I remember when the ‘Pussy Grab’ news story broke, a lot of people, friends of mine, were declaring it to be the end of his campaign. I think my quote at the time was…

“He could stamp a kitten to death on YouTube, it doesn’t matter.”

His supporters were already emotionally invested in their candidate, it didn’t matter at that point. Rape allegations didn’t matter, people had picked their guy.

Source: https://www.quora.com/Why-did-constant-lying-cost-Trump-nothing

Neteller here: www..com.ng

You can send some funds to a Neteller account denominated in Australian or New Zealand dollars. If you want dollars, euro, pound sterling, yen, and so on. You can open a Neteller account in that denomination and have it funded by an exchanger which would send dollars to it and have it converted automatically for you.

One good thing about it is that, the fund can then be withdrawn by you to your domiciliary account here in Nigeria or to your Neteller debit Net-Card which you can use on ATMs. You can use it anywhere in the world and for anybody in the world. Foreign currencies sent from your Neteller account to your domiciliary account would be in inflow, and could be withdrawn as cash or used for many purposes.


Q. What is Neteller and what are the uses for it?

A. Neteller is an electronic currency for online payments (e-currencies are exchanged on computers). Money in a Neteller account can be used to pay merchants, sent to other customers of the service, or spent at any retailer that accepts MasterCard® using the Neteller prepaid card that is a part of the account. People in over 200 countries use the Neteller service to transfer money to and from merchants, such as financial institutions, social networks, or online betting firms, and can withdraw funds directly using the Net+ card or transfer the balance to their own bank accounts. You can receive salaries and payments for services in Neteller. You can use your local currency to buy Neteller for your account or change Neteller in your account to your local currency or transfer it directly to your bank account.


Neteller here: www..com.ng

Here’s the Most Effective Way to Say No to Things You Don’t Want to Do

Being helpful is a nice thing and all, but it’s also exhausting — so much so, in fact, that research has shown that offering to help your co-workers too frequently can actually make you worse at your job. Even just being on the receiving end of a colleague’s venting can feel like an energy-sapping emotional burden, especially if you’re the office “toxic handler,” a term coined by psychologists to describe the one person everyone complains to.

Once you’re in it, though, it can be a hard role to climb out of — saying no to people who want your time and attention, after a history of saying yes, can be a challenge. But in a recent post on Mental Floss, Shaunacy Ferro highlighted some advice for getting better at “no,” in work and in life: Choose your words carefully. A refusal that includes “don’t” — as in, “I don’t answer emails on a Saturday night” — is more powerful than one centered around “can’t.”

The observation comes from a 2012 study in the Journal of Consumer Research, which found that the way a statement was framed had an effect on how well people thought they could stick to it. Saying “I don’t eat X” when tempted by an unhealthy snack, for example, made participants feel more “psychologically empowered” than using “can’t.” The same held true with a scenario about resolving to exercise each day: “I don’t skip my workout” was a more powerful motivator to get to the gym than “I can’t skip my workout.”

The reason, Ferro explained, comes down to how much room the statement leaves for you to later reverse course: “Regardless of whether you’re talking to yourself or another person, ‘can’t’ suggests that you might want to do something, but aren’t able to,” she wrote. “The implication is that in another set of circumstances, you could.” With “I don’t,” on the other hand, “there’s no room for debate. It’s a hard-and-fast rule that you set for yourself.” Say it to yourself: I don’t say yes to things I want to say no to. Doesn’t that feel good?

Source: http://www.stumbleupon.com/su/1VqSJi/:XJpbbx_5:Y+0LMB6Y/nymag.com/scienceofus/2016/12/heres-the-most-effective-way-to-say-no-to-people.html

Neteller here: www..com.ng

This question is asked so you can be aware of the sometime tough reality of business.


This is more of a dirty tactic made by one employee than a whole business, but it caught me off guard when I found out what she did.

Do you know those iPads on the white swivel stand that many small businesses use for payments?


If you’ve never used one, essentially the stand allows the iPad to swivel around to face the customer so they can either enter a tip or not and then swivel it back to the cashier.

I’ve had cashiers use this stand probably hundreds of times, but one particular instance at a Glaze location caught me by surprise. I went with a friend to get some dinner and noticed that right before he paid, his total had gone up a couple bucks, after tax. I realized that the cashier would still swivel the iPad around to the customer (because they would need to sign their name), but she would input the tip for herself very quickly before she rotated the iPad to the customer.

I was next to pay and was curious to see if she would try it again. Sure enough, I peek over the iPad to see what she does, and with lightning speed she types in a nearly 20% tip before having me sign my name.

It never crossed my mind in the hundreds of times that I’ve put in a tip and signed my name on one if those iPad stands that a cashier would try to pull this dirty trick. I actually thought it was pretty ingenious, so I let her keep the tip. Unfortunately for her, I pointed out what she did to my friend who demanded that the tip be refunded. The manager came over, and the cashier played dumb throughout the whole thing, pretending it was some sort of error in the system.

Dozens of people come in and out of that location every hour; I wonder when her boss will catch on.

Source: https://www.quora.com/What-dirty-business-tactics-do-you-know

Neteller here: www..com.ng

Adie ti o ku si ma je agbado.... A chicken which is not dead can still eat corn.




Neteller here: .com.ng

The Illuminati are the Puppet Masters who rule the world. They convene in secret and strategize on the best way to make more money for themselves while keeping the rest of us under control.

They control all the money in the world, the banks are seeded with their members, they control the press, TV, the Internet and all the information that we get fed and are allowed to see.

I've heard that they're even behind the crazy weather we've been having because what could be more powerful than the being able to control who gets water for their crops and who dies of hunger and thirst.

They're behind every war that's ever been since they started in the Middle Ages.

Wars are very, very big money makers for them.

It's unknown how many of them there are, but from reading all of the above, knowing how heavily they are involved with The Freemasons, I don't know about you, but I can only draw one conclusion.

They must be Jews.

After all, don't Jews own all the banks, own Hollywood, run all the newspapers, own the Internet?

OF COURSE NOT!

The whole illuminati conspiracy tale is just so much fantasy.


Why do so many of us want to believe that a few men and maybe, big maybe, a few women, are "running" the world?

All these years and no solid evidence? No one's spilled the beans?

There is only one secret that I know for sure that no one has told and that's where Jimmy Hoffa is buried.

I'll leave the rest, who killed JFK, did a plane really crash into the pentagon, did we land a man on the moon and are there just a select few illuminati running the world, to the conspiracy theorists. I have enough trouble with reality.


Source: https://www.quora.com/Who-or-what-are-the-Illuminati

Neteller here: www..com.ng

I'm pretty tech savvy and I've been using Windows 10 on my desktop and Ubuntu on my laptop for about 3 months now.Ubuntu runs super smooth and is noticeably snappier than Windows for my laptop.But what annoys me is there are so many good Windows programs that don't work well on Linux even with Wine.

Answer:

Yeah, and what annoys me is that you can’t drive a diesel car with gasoline.

You can’t be serious, can you? Just take a break, stop looking at the monitor and think about what you just wrote. Only for 2 minutes. I hope you find the flaw in your reasoning.

Source: https://www.quora.com/Is-Linux-overrated

Neteller here: www..com.ng

Priscilla Chan recently did an interview with TODAY.

They met at Harvard at a frat party while waiting for the bathroom.

She first met Zuckerberg while waiting in line for the bathroom at a Harvard fraternity party.

The party was thrown by friends who thought Zuckerberg was about to get kicked out of school for a prank he had pulled. “I thought he was just this really interesting guy, who really wasn't that studious,” she said.

“On our first date, he told me that he'd rather go on a date with me than finish his take-home midterm. The type-A first child in me was appalled,” she said.

Source: https://www.quora.com/How-did-Mark-Zuckerberg-meet-Priscilla-Chan

Neteller here: www..com.ng

Hello Traders:

This message mostly concerns sellers of Neteller.

We just felt like giving more explanation for a few instant cash transfer failures we’ve experienced while paying our customers in Naira.

There are basically two types of transfers: National Electronic Funds Transfer (NEFT), and Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement System (NIBSS) Instant Payment (NIP). The latter we’ll call Instant Transfer.

NEFT allows you to be paid within 24 hours. You get your money on the same day, provided it’s initiated before 12.00 P.M. If it’s initiated after 12.00 P.M., you won’t get your money until the following day, weekends excluded.

NIBSS Instant Transfer allows you to get paid within minutes. That’s the only option we use at .com.ng, in spite of the fact that the cost of using it is higher when compared to NEFT.

When most exchangers tell you to wait for 24 hours to get your money, or they tell you that you’d get paid on the following day, that means they’re using NEFT to pay you. These exchangers set extremely high spreads already (far higher than what we offer), and yet they want to avoid costs by paying their customers through NEFT, whose costs is cheaper than Instant Transfer. This is willful delay of customers.

It looks like NEFT has a higher success rate than Instant Transfer. Based on our experience, about 98% of instant cash transfers we make are successful, which means customers get their money quickly. But roughly 2% of the time, some wouldn’t get their money quickly – they get it later.

Now FAQs:


Q: You said about 2% of the time, some customers don’t get their money instantly. Why? What causes that?

A: Yes, 98% of the time, our customers get paid instantly. But when an Instant Transfer fails, the cause is due to the fact that the recipient’s bank is having a downtime or network problem at the time of transfer, and therefore the bank account can’t receive money at that time. It’s a kind of downtime that doesn’t allow even those in the banking hall to cash any money as long as it lasts. This is usually not a problem from our bank, which is Access Bank, because if there’s a downtime or a network problem at Access Bank, we’d simply not be able to transfer money to you. If we’re able to transfer and you can’t get it within 1 hour that means your bank couldn’t receive the money at the time it was sent.


Q: What would then happen after an Instant Transfer fails?

A: If a customer doesn’t receive her/his money in an hour’s time, following a transfer from us, then we begin to contact Access Bank to know what the issue is and how it can be solved. This is time-consuming; but we can’t be happy until a customer gets their money. We keep on contacting Access Bank, pestering them, as they work to resolve the issue, and we keep the affected customer updated on every step taken. As it was said earlier, the issue is often with the recipient’s bank, and they may want to help us by contacting their own bank as well.

If you fail to get your money after an Instant Transfer, it doesn’t mean the money is lost, it simply means there would be an inevitable delay in delivery. Access Bank would usually re-initiate the payment, often using NEFT for the re-initiation. That means the customer would get paid within 24 - 48 business hours, following the re-initiation of the money transfer.

Once again, if an Instant Transfer fails, Access Bank would usually re-initiate the transfer, using NEFT. You get paid within 24 hours (or 48 hours in extremely rare cases).


Q: Why do you prefer Instant Transfer?

A: As said before, we use only Instant Transfer to pay our customers. We don’t use NEFT, because we feel it’s unfair and wicked to deliberately delay customers’ payment till the following day. Certain customers have critical and urgent needs for their money, and the best way to put smiles on their faces is to pay them instantly. Even if they don’t need the money urgently, it’s still rational to pay them instantly, so that they can concentrate on something else.

We prefer not to buy Neteller, to delaying customers unnecessarily. The only condition that causes delays of few to several hours from our end, is when the manager is not on seat at the time of Neteller sales to us.

Instant Transfer failures are rare; but it happens once in a while because there’s no perfect technology. There’s no perfect bank, and there’s no bank that can’t have a downtime at any time. However, with good banks, downtimes ought to be very rare.


Q: Should I change my bank and account number and give you a new one?

A: Like we said before, there’s not perfect bank. A downtime may occur at any bank, but it’s more frequent with some banks. Downtimes and network problems should be very rare with a good bank. Unless downtimes and network failures are too common with your bank (which often leads to frustration), you mayn’t need to change your bank and account. Unless otherwise indicated, we use only our corporate account for this business.

Access Bank has the best online customer support system we’ve ever experienced, and that’s why we decided to remain with them.


A: When an Instant Transfer fails, why don’t you transfer another money?

Q: We transfer money to an account only once. If we transfer two times, then we’d end up paying you two times. That’s because the first transfer would eventually reach you, no matter how long it’s delayed, we hope you understand this, and we appreciate your patience



A: If an Instant Transfer is successful why hasn’t an alert arrived from my bank?

Q: SMS alert is sometimes not a reliable way of verifying payment. We often send email and SMS alerts to our customers. But if you fail to get an alert from your bank, then you’ll need to use other means to check your account, like login into your Internet banking portal, SMS balance enquiry, ATM balance enquiry, etc.

Conclusion:
We fund our customers as fast as they can imagine, like less than 20 minutes (unless the manager isn’t on seat, which can cause a delay for a few hours). Most of our Instant Transfers of cash are successful – like 98% of the time. Some regular customers haven’t had this kind of experience, while a few have had it. The purpose of this article is to shed more light on the issue and the causes, so that customers can understand better.

Don’t forget we transfer cash to customers’ accounts anytime, any day, whether day or night – 24/7.

For our current rates and more info, please visit: www..com.ng

When its not possible to fire a CEO that hold equity in the company?

The amount of equity one holds in a company has nothing to do with being possible to get fired as a CEO. But it does help.

In Mark Zuckerberg's case, Facebook has two classes of stock: Class A shares that carry one vote apiece (the same shares you can buy on the stock exchange), and Class B shares that carry 10 votes per share. Zuckerberg has a boatload of Class B shares and, as a result, controls roughly 60 percent of the voting power at the company.

According to SEC Filling: Statement of Beneficial Ownership Mark Zuckerberg owns 29.3% of Facebook’s Class A shares, but only around 20% of the company as a whole. That makes this stake worth closer to $13.6 billion rather than $18 billion. In addition to that, Zuckerberg owns other types of shares, harder to track. So his total stake is worth more than that."


For further understanding please read this Re/Code article: How Can Mark Zuckerberg Give Away All That Stock and Still Control Facebook?

Source: https://www.quora.com/Can-Facebook-fire-Mark-Zuckerberg

Neteller here: www..com.ng

These may include coding hacks or general hacks using some software. The criteria being they must be useful and easy to learn within a short span of time.

Answer:

Here's an oldie but a goodie for Windows machines. It will let you hide a file inside another file. So in other words you can hide a zip file inside an image.

Open a CMD shell (or powershell)
cd to a folder that contains a .gif, jpg etc and a .zip file
Run the following command: copy /b MyPic.gif+MyArchive.zip MyZipPic.gif
The resulting file can be opened by an archive extraction app like Winrar or whatever, and also in an image viewer. It will appear as an image in the OS however so the zip file is hidden well. It should work for other file types too.

Here's another kind of cool trick that has no practical use whatsoever, but is cool to show your friends. It will show you Terminal Star Wars:

You need telnet. It will be available by default on OS X and other 'nix machines. On Windows, you generally have to go to the Control Panel > Add Remove Features and add the Telnet option
Open a terminal on nix, or CMD/Powershell on Windows.
Run the following command: telnet towel.blinkenlights.nl
Enjoy the terminal version of Star Wars. It goes on forever. Someone put a hell of a lot of time into it.

Heres one more for an iPhone. It will show you numbers instead of bars which is much more accurate. The lower the number, the better the signal. Basically anything under 105 or so is a decent signal. 90 would be great.

Go to the phone app and dial this number: *3001#12345#*
That will bring you to the field test. Hold the power button down until the "Slide to power off" control appears but don't slide it.
Hold the Home button down until the slider and field test goes away. You should see numbers instead of bars in the upper left.
Just do it again if you want to change back. EDIT - Per Luis Villa's comments, apparently doing it again doesn't always change it back for everyone. If that's the case, try following these instructions:
'Go to the phone app and dial this number: *3001#12345#* once on field test. press "Back to phone" on the upper left corner.'

There are some other cool things you can do in that field test app but I'll leave those for someone else.

Source: https://www.quora.com/What-are-some-tech-hacks-that-can-be-learned-in-10-minutes

Neteller here: www..com.ng

Give examples of ways that parents tried to discipline a child that didn't work or actually enforced the behaviour. See my own answer for an example.


Answer: My sister and I don't get along, so I never expected her to ask me for advice, but here's what happened.

My father was visiting her and her family and everyone was sitting at a large, rectangular dining room table.

Her son was about 18-months-old, and kept climbing onto a chair, then attempting to crawl across the table, to be with his Grandfather.

My sister kept removing the child from the chair, scolding him, and putting him in "time out." (He was 18-months-old). She would try to keep him there for maybe a minute or two, then scold him again, then bring him back to the table, and expect him to sit "nicely" in his own seat.

Finally, at one point, my sister looked at me (I was raising three children who were teens at the time), shrugged her shoulders, and asked me, "What would YOU do?"

After my father and I got rid of the shocked expressions on our faces from having the request to begin with, I gently picked up the child, carried him around the table, and placed him happily in Grandpa's lap, which was his whole goal in the first place.

Sometimes, you just try too hard to make things work, when you completely ignore the obvious. (Both child and Grandpa sat quietly visiting with the rest of the family for over an hour, until the child fell asleep in his lap).


Source: https://www.quora.com/What-is-the-wrong-way-to-discipline-a-child

Neteller here: www..com.ng

Lawmakers..... Lawbreakers.



Neteller here: www..com.ng

And you know... Majority of the fans got no jobs.


Neteller here: .com.ng

I am 31 years old with 10 years work experience and a commerce major. I make $100k/yr as an IT business analyst. I am passionate about learning to code and becoming a developer. I have some savings to see me through for a year.


At 26 years I was living in the Cayman Islands, making over $100,000 tax-free and surrounded by hot chicks wearing bikinis - yet I couldn't help but think about committing suicide.

It wasn't until I lost it all that I was able to discover the secret of how to pursue your passion without going bankrupt. But before I tell you how you can pursue your passion...

I'd like to talk to you about a few 'fallacies' that are pushed down our throats...

The Fallacy Of A Career Path

The career path with a good paying job is defined.

You do your degree.

You pass with great marks.

You apply for interviews.

And pretty soon you will get hired and start your career.

The career path for your hobby isn't defined.

If you do your degree, you still have to figure out what to do after.

Then you have to find people who will be willing to pay for your hobby.

Then you have to understand the business side of things.

But on top of that you have to explain to everyone why you're doing what you're doing.

How it will pay for your bills, and how you will still take care of everyone.

It isn't the easiest thing in the world. And because it is hard - most people don't follow their hobby.

I thought it would be hard, and that's why I didn't follow my passion.

The Fallacy of Talent

Here's the funny thing though... when I started working in the corporate job I didn't know anything.

Sure I'd done a degree, and gotten the right marks to get in... but from the work perspective... I didn't know anything.

That's true whether you joined a multinational, a local conglomerate or just a small 10 person office.

When you just start out in your line of work... you don't know jack. The multinational company knows this.

So what do they do... they pay you to show up... at least for the first 2 years.

In those 2 years they will train you to do the things that they needed you to do.

You start working and you start learning. The more you work, the faster you learn, and the faster you learn the faster your progress in your job.

To get you to a point where you can actually provide more value to the company than it cost to train you, and that it costs to pay you now.

That's the fallacy of talent. You aren't talented at the corporate job that they are paying you - but because you show up and DO the work is why they are paying you.

Let's say you love to paint... just to make this example simpler... but you can replace painting with whatever you truly love to do.

What would happen if some one paid you to paint for 8 hours every day for the next 2 years?

But that's not all... what would happen if along the way that same person corrected your mistakes, taught you to hold the brush better, improve your strokes, and how to better mix paint.

But then as your skill improved taught you to paint using Canvas, Oil and then all the other tricks and techniques for you to use.

Do you think you would get better at it?

Chances are you would get significantly better at. You would probably get better at it faster than you would get better at doing your corporate job.

So in two years of focusing 8 hours on your passion you would be where it would take 10 years to get in your corporate job.

The lesson here is that you need to DO it to really LEARN it. You aren't talented to do your corporate job, but trained to do it.

Similarly you won't be talented to DO your passion, you will need to TRAIN yourself to do it.

Which brings me to the real question in the question...

How Do I Pursue My Passion

So let's look at the burning question,

How do I pursue my passion and make money from it…

Before you can learn to run you need to learn to walk. The ‘learn to walk’ part in this analogy is you learning to DO what you're passionate about.

The ‘learn to run’ part is you making money from your passion.

We’ll talk about that in a minute but first let’s look at why you can’t quit your job.

You can't quit your job because of two reasons

1. You have bills to pay - and if you quit your job you will probably end up on the street evicted, because you didn't pay your bills.

2. Your skills in your passion aren't really sharp enough to support you. You still have to practice to get these up to speed.

So before you quit your job and go all ‘Fight Club’ on your passion, let’s figure out how you can actually start doing your hobby at a higher level.

So here’s what you do to start DOING what you love to do. aka step 1 to pursuing your passion.

1. Figure out what you love to do

Don't just say it - write it down. Often when we just say things, we'll sway from one to the other. You're different. You will write this down.

2. Take one hour right after you've figured it out to actually DO it

If you love painting - stop reading, go paint for an hour, then come back and finish reading.

This step is very necessary. It forces your mind to realize that you can actually do the things that you love to do. SO DO IT NOW.

3. Figure out what your problem areas were

Chances are there were some things that you did today that you weren't very good at. You had a few hiccups. You didn't have the right kind of canvas, or the paints were dry, or you didn't have any place to actually paint.

Write down all the problems that you encountered in doing your PASSION. Take 5 minutes to write all this down.

4. Setup your environment

Now that you know what keeps you from doing the things that you love to do – go out there and fix those things. Not to make them perfect, but good enough that you can start doing what you love to do.

Get new paint if you have to. Dedicate a space in your house where you can do what you love to do.

Find a space for this hobby, even if it is the corner of your room.

Then dedicate this space to your hobby. Nothing else gets on top of this space, anything else around it gets throw away, or put in another corner.

5. Schedule yourself in

Right now you’re in a place where you probably spend very little time on your hobby. We have to change that.

Remember the corporate analogy we used above. That your employers pays you for the first two year just to show up and learn something… think of this as being the same thing.

You’re employing yourself for the next two years just to learn your hobby.

But since this is a hobby you can’t do this full time, and you won’t be paid in cash. You’re getting paid in your ‘skill growth’.

However, since you are getting paid – you must show up on time every day and do the work.

Or your pay will be exponentially deducted.

What is exponential deduction?

Your skill will become worse with each day that you’re absent. Until you get to a point where you will lose this skill, and the passion for this hobby.

Additionally, you will also lose other skills associated with doing this hobby. The longer you stay away the worse it gets.

The upside is that this is also exponential growth. The more you work on your hobby the better you will become… until over time you will become a master without even knowing this.

That’s where you want to get to. You want to become a master at your hobby.

And just like in the corporate job the biggest battle is showing up in the morning, dressed and ready to go – the same is the case with your hobby.

You need to show up every day to paint and ready to go.

So schedule yourself in – tell your friends to f*&k off when it’s time for your hobby, and then put your head down and work on it.

But you’re still not getting paid for your hobby…

That’s right. You won’t be paid for your hobby at least not in the beginning. Until you become better.

But if this is something that you want to do then you must keep doing this.

Once you’ve been doing this for 6 months you will become good enough – not great, but good enough to help other people.

This is where you will start to make money. aka step 2 to pursuing your passion...

Before I tell you how to make money, let’s look at the true nature of work and money.

What's the true nature of work?

The true nature of work is this; work is anything that you do for which someone else will pay you money. But it isn’t something that you do on your spare time.

Work isn’t something that you do when you’re watching TV. Or when you’re hanging out at the beach.

Sure there are people out there who will suggest that you ‘can’ do that… and show you pictures of them doing this… don’t get fooled by this.

Those are just pictures of their one-off vacations where they did ‘some’ work.

Most of the work is done in a work environment. It can be a studio if you’re love to paint, or a race track if you love to race cars.

But work is done where it is most productive.

Work is also long-term. It is not something that you decide to do for 3 months, then do something new.

What that means is that you will keep working on your ‘hobby’ for the next 30, 40 or even 60 years… so if you skipped figuring out what you really love to do, now would be the time to do so.

Work is also a lifelong pursuit. What this means is that you can’t think about your hobby, as I’ll work for 2 years and make tons of money and then go retire at the beach.

This doesn’t work.

This is the definition of ‘get-rich-quick’ schemes which rob you of true happiness and riches.

If you want to retire at the beach, think about becoming a life guard instead, or a scuba diver. That way you can enjoy the beach all day.

But the second part of work is getting paid. Which brings us to the next question

What’s the true nature of money?

Money is not a ‘thing’ that exists on it’s own. Money is just some paper printed with a bunch of number and a signature on it. It does not have any intrinsic value.

Gold, and silver have intrinsic value. You can melt gold and use it in other forms. You can make jewelry out of it, or you can use it in microchips.

But not money, money doesn’t have intrinsic value.

Money is ONLY a convenient medium of exchange between two people.

So what are the two people exchanging – their work products.

You do some work and get paid for it. The other person does some work that you pay for.

What have you exchanged?

You’ve exchanged your work for his work… and if you go one step further…

You’re exchanging your life to be able to do work. So effectively you’re trading your life every time you buy something.

This is important because every time you ask someone to ‘pay’ for your hobby; you’re asking them to trade their life. If you understand this you will be able to make money a lot faster.

But let’s look at

How To Make Money By Pursuing Your Passion

Here’s how you make money by pursuing your passion… but you can only do this if you’ve been 'doing' your hobby everyday for at least 6 months.

Chances are if it is your hobby, you already have been doing this for 6 months, but if you’re just picking up a hobby – go practice it for 6 months first.

The reason; so you will have gone through the tough times that most newbies go through.

You will realize for yourself what works, and what doesn’t. You will know how to overcome obstacles and be able to speak to them.

But let’s assume that you’ve been practicing your hobby for the last 6 months… this puts you in the 5% of people who actually have taken the time out to learn something.

What this means is that 95% of people who want to do the things that you love to do, don’t know anything about how to do this.

They don’t even know that they need to schedule their time, prepare a space, get ready to do it every day…

Most people just think about ‘winging it’ when the pick up a new hobby. And without a detailed plan for them to learn this new hobby, get nowhere.

Your job now is to help these people learn what you’ve learnt in the last 6 months.

1. Start by starting a YouTube, a blog, a Meetup group, or a podcast. Don’t worry; you’re not trying to the best out there, but the beginner helping other beginners.

2. Start creating one video, blog, event, or podcast each week. Don’t overthink this step.

Your information and knowledge matters.

Not the way it look, or sounds, or the way you look or sound. All those things you can fix later – for now you need to get going.

3. Keep doing your hobby, and teaching other people every new thing that you learn for the next 3 months.

Don’t ask for money.

Just help other people.

If they ask you a question, answer it with sincerity. If they need help, help them. If they want to talk to you, talk to them.

Be super, super helpful.

4. Ask them what their biggest frustration, problem; obstacle is to learning what you’re teaching them.

Then solve this frustration. You might know how to solve this, or you might have to learn.

Either way, figure it out and solve this problem. Now you’ve got their trust, you’ve demonstrated that you can help; you’re a friend, an ally.

5. Create a simple two page website and start collecting email addresses. This website is a landing page that tells them that you can solve their biggest problem in step 4, and then gives them the solution for free as a download for exchange for the email address.

6. This email list is your most important asset. You will use this to build a relationship with your prospects, and find out how you can help them out in the future.

Additionally, now when you upload a new video etc, sent the list an email that you’ve put it up and send them a link to this video. Keep doing this until you get to 100 subscribers.

7. At 100, send out a survey asking them what are their top 3 frustration, and what the top 3 best results they are looking.

Then create a coaching program for them that helps them achieve the result they want while avoiding the top 3 frustrations, ask them to pay $197 to be in this coaching program.

8. Most people won’t take the coaching program – maybe 1 or two will. Coach them, and then ask them for a testimonial.

Use this testimonial the next time you launch the program. Repeat steps 6 - 8 every quarter for the next 12 months. Keep doing this.

9. The more you do this the better you will get, and the bigger you will become. But you have to do this.

It will take you some time to get to 100 subscribers, but from there it will take you less time to get to 1,000 – then to 10,000. And before you know it you will be making more money from your hobby then you do from your job.

10. Now it’s time to quit. But only after you’re making twice as much money from your hobby as you did from your job.

Because your job is paying for the office you use, the electricity at work, the facilities, and still paying you. When you go out on your own you need to think about these things.

So here’s what you do next.

Pick up a piece of paper and write down the 3 things you’re most passionate about, your favorite hobbies.

These are typically the things that you’re currently paying for.

Then figure out which one hobby excites you the most. This is the one that you’re going to focus on for now.

Create a space for this hobby where you will work on it, and schedule it in your calendar.

Source: https://www.quora.com/Should-I-quit-my-job-and-pursue-my-passion

Neteller here: www..com.ng

Death is the cessation of all biological functions that sustain an organism. Phenomena which commonly bring about death include biological aging (senescence), predation, malnutrition, disease, suicide, homicide, starvation, dehydration, and accidents or trauma resulting in terminal injury. Bodies of living organisms begin to decompose shortly after death.

Death has commonly been considered a sad or unpleasant occasion, particularly for humans, due to the affection for the being that has died and/or the termination of social and familial bonds with the deceased. Other concerns include fear of death, necrophobia, anxiety, sorrow, grief, emotional pain, depression, sympathy, compassion, solitude, or saudade. The potential for an afterlife is of concern for humans and the possibility of reward or judgement and punishment for past sin with people of certain religions. – Wikipedia

Please help! How can I become immortal? Is there anything I can do to escape death?

Neteller here: www..com.ng

Do this and you'll have done the important stuff first.

Life is busy. It can feel impossible to move toward your dreams. If you have a full-time job and kids, it's even harder. How do you move forward?

If you don't purposefully carve out time every day to progress and improve, without question, your time will get lost in the vacuum of our increasingly crowded lives. Before you know it, you'll be old and withered,  wondering where all that time went.

As professor Harold Hill has said,  "You pile up enough tomorrows, and you'll find you are left with nothing but a lot of empty yesterdays."

Rethinking your life and getting out of survival mode
This article is intended to challenge you to rethink your entire approach to life. The purpose is to help you simplify and get back to the fundamentals.

Sadly, most people's lives are filled to the brim with the nonessential and trivial. They don't have time to build toward anything meaningful. They are in survival mode. Are you in survival mode?

Like Bilbo, most of us are like butter scraped over too much bread. Unfortunately, the bread is not even our own, but someone else's. Very few have taken the time to take their lives into their own hands.

It was social and cultural to live our lives on other people's terms just one generation ago. And many Millennials are perpetuating this process simply because it's the only worldview we've been taught.

However, there is a growing collective consciousness that with a lot of work and intention, you can live every moment of your life on your own terms. You are the designer of your destiny. You are responsible. You get to decide. You must decide, because if you don't, someone else will. Indecision is a bad decision.

With this short morning routine, your life will quickly change. It may seem like a long list. But it's really quite simple:

Wake up
Get in the zone
Get moving
Put the right food in your body
Get ready
Get inspired
Get perspective
Do something to move you forward
Let's begin:

1. Get a healthy seven-plus hours of sleep
Let's face it -- sleep is just as important as eating and drinking water. Despite this, millions of people do not sleep enough and experience insane problems as a result.

The National Sleep Foundation conducted surveys that revealed at least 40 million Americans suffer from sleep disorders, more than 70 kinds. Not only that, 60 percent of adults, and 69 percent of children, experience one or more sleep problems a few nights or more during a week.

In addition, more than 40 percent of adults experience daytime sleepiness severe enough to interfere with their activities at least a few days each month -- with 20 percent reporting problem sleepiness a few days a week or more.

On the flip side, getting a healthy amount of sleep is linked to:

Increased memory
Longer life
Decreased inflammation
Increased creativity
Increased attention and focus
Decreased fat and increased muscle mass with exercise
Lower stress
Decreased dependence on stimulants like caffeine
Decreased risk of getting into accidents
Decreased risk of depression
And tons more. Google it
The rest of this post is worthless if you don't make sleep a priority. What does it matter if you wake up at 5 a.m. if you went to bed three hours earlier? You won't last long. You may use stimulants to compensate, but that isn't sustainable. In the long run, your health will fall apart. The goal needs to be long-term sustainability.

2. Prayer and meditation to facilitate clarity and abundance
After waking from a healthy and restful sleep session, prayer and meditation are crucial for orienting yourself toward the positive. What you focus on expands.

Prayer and meditation facilitate intense gratitude for all that you have. Gratitude is having an abundance mindset. When you think in terms of abundance, the world is your oyster. There is limitless opportunity and possibility for you.

People are magnets. When you're grateful for what you have, you will attract more of the positive and good. Gratitude is contagious.

Gratitude may be the most important key to success. It has been called the mother of all virtues. If you start every morning putting yourself in a space of gratitude and clarity, you will attract the best the world has to offer and not get distracted.

3. Hard physical activity
Despite endless evidence of the need for exercise, only one-third of American men and women between the ages of 25 and 64 engage in regular physical activity, according to the Centers for Disease Control's National Health Interview Survey.

If you want to be among the healthy, happy, and productive people in the world, get in the habit of regular exercise. Many people go immediately to the gym to get their body moving. I have lately found that doing yard work in the wee hours of the morning generates an intense flow of inspiration and clarity.

Whatever your preference, get your body moving. Exercise has been found to decrease anxiety, stress, and the chance of depression. It is also related to higher success in your career. If you don't care about your body, every other aspect of your life will suffer. Humans are holistic beings.

4. Consume 30 grams of protein
Donald Layman, professor emeritus of nutrition at the University of Illinois, recommends consuming at least 30 grams of protein for breakfast. Similarly, Tim Ferriss, in his book The 4-Hour Body, recommends 30 grams of protein 30 minutes after waking up.

According to Tim, his father did this and lost 19 pounds in one month. Protein-rich foods keep you full longer than other foods, because they take longer to leave the stomach. Also, protein keeps blood-sugar levels steady, which prevents spikes in hunger. Eating protein first decreases your white carbohydrate cravings. These are the types of carbs that get you fat. Think bagels, toast, and donuts.

Tim makes four recommendations for getting adequate protein in the morning: 1. Eat at least 40 percent of your breakfast calories as protein. 2. Do it with two or three whole eggs (each egg has about 6 grams of protein). 3. If you don't like eggs, use something like turkey bacon, organic pork bacon or sausage, or cottage cheese. 4. Or, you could always do a protein shake with water. For people who avoid dairy, meat, and eggs, there are several plant-based proteins. Legumes, greens, nuts, and seeds all are rich in protein.

Please read more here: http://www.stumbleupon.com/su/2iHp3V/:Wy$BgH$9:V0jTY9_a/www.inc.com/benjamin-p-hardy/8-things-every-person-should-do-before-8-am.html

Neteller here: www..com.ng

Weekly Trading Forecasts on Major Pairs (December 5 - 9, 2016)

Here’s the market outlook for the week:

EURUSD
Dominant bias: Bearish
EURUSD consolidated throughout last week – in the context of a downtrend. A closer look at the market reveals that there has been some consolidation to the upside, and there would be some bullish attempt this week. EUR would rally versus most other major currencies, save USD, which is expected to continue strengthening this week. There are resistance lines at 1.0750 and 1.0800. There are also support lines at 1.0550 and 1.0500.

USDCHF
Dominant bias: Bullish
This pair also consolidated last week; while consolidation to the downside is revealed by a closer look. USD would remain strong this week, and would be seen going upwards against certain major currencies. The challenge is that CHF would also make some rally attempts this week, and thus, USDCHF may find it somewhat difficult to rally massively. There are resistance levels at 1.0150 and 1.0200. There are also support levels at 1.0050 and 1.0000.

GBPUSD
Dominant bias: Bullish
Cable ended a two-week equilibrium phase by breaking out significantly. The breakout was well anticipated and it ended up favoring bulls, as price went up 330 pips last week, slashing through the accumulation territory at 1.2700 and closing above it. This week, Cable would rally versus certain majors (like NZD and AUD), and of course, it is currently rallying against USD. This is something that may continue, but not without challenge from bulls.

USDJPY
Dominant bias: Bullish
This currency trading instrument experienced some bullish movement last week. Price went up 300 pips, testing the supply level at 114.50, and unable to go above that supply level. Price underwent some bearish correction on Friday, but the bullish outlook is far from over. In fact, the outlook on the market this week is also bullish, and further northwards journey is expected. Price would need to go above the supply level at 114.50, and then continue towards the supply levels at 115.00 and 115.50.

EURJPY
Dominant bias: Bullish
This cross underwent a smooth northwards movement last week, topping at 121.88, before closing below the supply level at 121.50. There is a Bullish Confirmation Pattern in the market and further bullish movement could be witnessed this week. There are possible bullish targets at the supply zones of 122.00, 122.50 and 123.00. On the other hand, the demand zones at 120.00 and 119.50 should try to hinder vivid pullbacks this week.

This forecast is concluded with the quote below:

“Over the coming weeks and months, many excellent short, medium and long-term trading opportunities for low risk Forex trades will present themselves. Now is the time to put together your game plan with multiple edges to profit from these trending currency pairs… Whether you want to open investment positions (using the weekly or daily chart), swing trade the 4-hour chart, or day trade the 5 minute charts, the opportunities are going to be plentiful. With these nascent trends, the leverage, the liquidity, and the 24-hour-trading the Forex market offers, you have to ask yourself: why aren’t you trading currencies yet?” - Gabriel Grammatidis (Source: Vantharp.com)

Source: www.tallinex.com

As you may know India suddenly decided that their 1000 and 500 Rupee notes were no longer valid. To put that into perspective, when you travel to India and get spending money (say $500), that translates into about 32,000 Rupees. Thirty-two 1000 Rupee notes is a lot of paper to put into a wallet but suddenly the biggest bill that’s valid is the 100 rupee note. Converting $500 would mean I would now have to carry 320 100 Rupee notes. It’s a little like the US deciding that all paper currency is no longer valid except for the dollar bill.

The 1000 and 500 Rupee notes will be totally worthless after December 31st so masses of people are going to banks to deposit their notes. If someone has a large amount of cash and the government doesn’t like their story for how they got it, they tax people 50% on that money. And if someone refuses to say how they got their money or they can’t prove how they got it, then they get taxed at 90%.

What’s interesting is that people could decide that the 500 and 1000 Rupee notes have value regardless of what the government says and they could just continue to use them — but that’s not happening. Money is all made up and the governments get to decide what pieces of paper are legitimate and how much each piece of paper is worth. India is an example of just what governments are capable of doing with money.

The Rupee is going through something of a disaster with the Indian government saying that all notes above 100 rupees are no longer valid (like the US saying all notes bigger than a dollar are no longer valid).

Source: http://www.vantharp.com/Tharps-Thoughts/814_12_1_2016.html

Neteller here: www..com.ng

REWARD VERSUS MEANING

Trading success does not follow a linear trajectory, success ebbs and flows with good times and bad times. If you trade for long enough you there eventually will come a time when you question the decision you have made to become a trader. It all seemed so easy initially and there was never any consideration as to what could possibly go wrong.

This is a natural part of the journey and it is a watershed moment because those who understand their own motivations will have sound concrete reasons for continuing. Those who do not or whose motivations could be termed shallow or materialistic in nature do not and it it those who do not who will most likely give up.

Often when I ask people why they want to trade I get the overwhelming and immediate response – MONEY. After all this is a money profession – the aim of trading is to accumulate wealth through whatever approach suits your personality. It could be options or FX trading, or position trading equities. This pursuit of wealth as a sole driver is the reason why advertising in this industry is directed to switching on this particular hot button. Money or the accumulation of wealth has always been a strong societal driver.

In technical parlance money is known as an extrinsic motivator – that is you do something right – you get a reward. It is a very Pavlovian arrangement. This arrangement is after all is the basis for capitalism. Traders are often caught in this trap believing that this is an exchange for labour profession when it is actually an ideas profession. This is a natural mistake because of all of our socialisation has lead us to this point.

We have been lead to believe that labour be it in whatever form it takes is exchanged for money and money is the extrinsic motivator. Granted, some are highly motivated by such rewards since careers are built on this sort of behaviour manipulation but trading is not really a career it is in my eyes more of a lifestyle choice.

Unfortunately many fail to see beyond this as an initial motivation. The issue with money as a motivator is that the subconscious cannot recognise what this means so it has no context for it. Therefore it cannot be integrated into ones psyche – it remains if you wish an outsider sitting on the sidelines attempting to steer what you do. But no matter what import you give to it as a motivation it is still an outsider and cannot directly influence the trajectory of your behaviour.

The issue with this lack of integration is that eventually it will trip you up – the subconscious has a remarkable ability to go in the direction that it wants to go in. Not in the direction you think it should go in. And you and your trading suffer the consequences of this.

In part this disconnect relates to the notion of the shadow which is an integral part of Jungian psychology. Essentially the shadow is the darker more destructive parts of ourselves which our conscious mind does not identify. And it these parts that often brings traders unstuck – the expression that is often bandied about is snatching defeat from the jaws of victory.

Over the past three decades I have lost count of the number of traders I have seen who have been on the cusp of making it only to do something stupid. Sometimes the better angels of our nature lose the battle.

To be successful at trading there is a need to integrate all of our beliefs, desires, and motivations into a cohesive whole as opposed to a jumble of vague ideas which revolve around money.

Money as a motivation will fail to survive the first set back you have and there will be set backs since these are also part of the game. It is only deeper motivations that enable us to move on after being literally put on our arse by the market. To think that this will never occur is naive in the extreme but once again the industry itself is to blame since it only promises the new Ferrari not that you might end up actually catching the bus.

A deeper reflection on why people want to trade reveals something other than money. And these answers reveal the true nature of the trader. Some relate to control of one’s life, others to time and having more of it. Others to what they will be able to do in the long term with their family. Such motivations are intrinsic; they are part of the fabric of the trader. Trading is merely a vehicle to fulfill these deeply held aspirations.

The motivations that each person brings to a certain endeavor or choice is idiosyncratic and will not translate to someone else. Your goals only have meaning to you but this is the central issue, they have to be your goals and not someone else’s and this clashes directly with the way we have been brought up. The structure of our lives is largely built around fulfilling the goals others, be it doing what you we told at school through to following the instructions of your employer.

Getting rich was often the payoff for following someone else’s instructions. It is not a value or meaning in and of itself. This is an important distinction because true motivations are based around meaning and not reward – Both Great change and great resilience comes from internal motivations and the strongest of these spring from the search for meaning.

This means that the search for meaning is an internal search. You do something because you want to do it not because you will get a reward for it. Internal motivation brings about meaning and purpose and therefore adherence and dedication. Finding purpose in your own goals is a new experience for many since it is reflective of what you want from your life not what someone else’s either wants from you or wants for your life.

This means that you have to undertake the hard task of writing down your meanings – what is your purpose in wanting to follow a certain path. It requires you to have your own philosophy and to be able to articulate what this is. This is the hard part – articulating what you want and you should be able to do this even if it is a struggle. Meaning has its own motivating qualities.

I firmly believe that it is impossible to motivate someone irrespective of what the industry that has sprung up around positive thinking will tell you. Motivation and therefore reliance stems from meaning since true meaning cannot be dimmed by external events whereas simply being driven by a desire to have a Porsche by next Thursday will not survive the first hurdle.

Author: Chris Tate

Article reproduced with kind permission of http://tradinggame.com.au/

www.tallinex.com wants you to be a successful trader

Owo ti omode ba koko ri, akara lo ma fi je. The first money a teenager gets would be spent on consumption.

THESE 6 NEW TECHNOLOGY RULES WILL GOVERN OUR FUTURE

Technology is advancing so rapidly that we will experience radical changes in society not only in our lifetimes but in the coming years. We have already begun to see ways in which computing, sensors, artificial intelligence and genomics are reshaping entire industries and our daily lives.

As we undergo this rapid change, many of the old assumptions that we have relied will no longer apply. Technology is creating a new set of rules that will change our very existence. Here are six:

1. Anything that can be digitized will be.

Digitization began with words and numbers. Then we moved into games and later into rich media, such as movies, images and music. We also moved complex business functions, medical tools, industrial processes and transportation systems into the digital realm. Now, we are digitizing everything about our daily lives: our actions, words and thoughts. Inexpensive DNA sequencing and machine learning are unlocking the keys to the systems of life. Cheap, ubiquitous sensors are documenting everything we do and creating rich digital records of our entire lives.

2. Your job has a significant chance of being eliminated.

In every field, machines and robots are beginning to do the work of humans. We saw this first happen in the Industrial Revolution, when manual production moved into factories and many millions lost their livelihoods. New jobs were created, but it was a terrifying time, and there was a significant societal dislocation (from which the Luddite movement emerged).

The movement to digitize jobs is well underway in low-salary service industries. Amazon relies on robots to do a significant chunk of its warehouse work. Safeway and Home Depot are rapidly increasing their use of self-service checkouts. Soon, self-driving cars will eliminate millions of driving jobs. We are also seeing law jobs disappear as computer programs specializing in discovery eliminate the needs for legions of associates to sift through paper and digital documents. Soon, automated medical diagnosis will replace doctors in fields such as radiology, dermatology, and pathology. The only refuge will be in fields that are creative in some way, such as marketing, entrepreneurship, strategy and advanced technical fields. New jobs we cannot imagine today will emerge, but they will not replace all the lost jobs. We must be ready for a world of perennially high unemployment rates. But don’t worry, because …

3. Life will be so affordable that survival won’t necessitate having a job.

Note how cellphone minutes are practically free and our computers have gotten cheaper and more powerful over the past decades. As technologies such as computing, sensors and solar energy advance, their costs drop. Life as we know it will become radically cheaper. We are already seeing the early signs of this: Because of the improvements in the shared-car and car-service market that apps such as Uber enable, a whole generation is growing up without the need or even the desire to own a car. Health care, food, telecommunications, electricity and computation will all grow cheaper very quickly as technology reinvents the corresponding industries.

4. Your fate and destiny will be in your own hands as never before.

The benefit of the plummet in the costs of living will be that the technology and tools to keep us healthy, happy, well-educated and well-informed will be cheap or free. Online learning in virtually any field is already free. Costs also are falling with mobile-based medical devices. We will be able to execute sophisticated self-diagnoses and treat a significant percentage of health problems using only a smartphone and smart distributed software.

Modular and open-source kits are making DIY manufacture easier, so you can make your own products. DIYDrones.com, for example, lets anyone wanting to build a drone mix and match components and follow relatively simple instructions for building an unmanned flying device. With 3-D printers, you can create your own toys. Soon these will allow you to “print” common household goods — and even electronics. The technology driving these massive improvements in efficiency will also make mass personalization and distributed production a reality. Yes, you may have a small factory in your garage, and your neighbors may have one, too.

5. Abundance will become a far bigger problem than poverty.

With technology making everything cheaper and more abundant, our problems will arise from consuming too much rather than too little. This is already in evidence in some areas, especially in the developed world, where diseases of affluence — obesity, diabetes, cardiac arrest — are the biggest killers. These plagues have quickly jumped, along with the Western diet, to the developing world, as well. Human genes adapted to conditions of scarcity are woefully unprepared for conditions of a caloric cornucopia. We can expect this process only to accelerate as the falling prices of Big Macs and other products our bodies don’t need make them available to all.

The rise of social media, the Internet and the era of constant connection are other sources of excess. Human beings have evolved to manage tasks serially rather than simultaneously. The significant degradation of our attention spans and precipitous increase in attention-deficit problems that we have already experienced are partly attributable to spreading our attention too thin. As the number of data inputs and options for mental activity continues to grow, we will only spread it further. So even as we have the tools to do what we need to, forcing our brains to behave well enough to get things done will become more and more of a chore.

6. Distinction between man and machine will become increasingly unclear.

The controversy over Google Glass showed that society remains uneasy over melding man and machine. Remember those strange-looking glasses that people would wear, that were recording everything around them? Google discontinued these because of the uproar, but miniaturized versions of these will soon be everywhere. Implanted retinas already use silicon to replace neurons. Custom prosthetics that operate with the help of software are personalized, highly specific extensions of our bodies. Computer-guided exoskeletons are going into use in the military in the next few years and are expected to become a common mobility tool for the disabled and the elderly.

We will tattoo sensors into our bodies to track key health indicators and transmit those data wirelessly to our phones, adding to the numerous devices that interface directly with our bodies and form informational and biological feedback loops. As a result, the very idea of what it means to be human will change. It will become increasingly difficult to draw a line between human and machine.


Source: https://www./6-new-technology-rules-govern-our-future-vivek-wadhwa

Neteller here: www..com.ng