₦airaland Forum

Why is “Now” the
PERFECT TIME to start?
Posted on March 21, 2012 11:18 am under Diary
of an under 30 CEO, Entrepreneurs, Management
Enlarge image
“For disappearing acts, it’s hard to beat what
happens to the eight hours supposedly left
after eight hours of sleep and eight of work” –
Doug Larson
By Ola’ Jacob Ajayi
According to a Chinese proverb, the best time to
plant a tree is 20 years ago, the next best time is
now. In life, we give ourselves the negative
reasons not to get started. We believe so much in
the “Why I cannot start now, and Why I should
start in the next 10 Years”. Sad! The more we
grow, the more challenges we face.
Airtel’s ongoing “Fast is an Attitude” campaign
caught my attention last week and two of the
copies wowed me;
1. Tomorrow is 24 hours late
2. Millionaire at 29? You are 5 years late.
Though a typical African child finds it difficult to
achieve some feats at an early stage, hence we
resolve to make fantasies of the kind of life we
want. According to a friend, the following are
reasons why a 24-year old businessman might
not be a millionaire in this part of the world;
1. He is probably battling with a 3 credit unit
course in school
2. If he is out of school, the dude is busy
looking for employment in multinational
corporations.
3. He wants to make money without any
impact on the world.
4. He believes he needs to work for like 10
years to garner capital for his business.
5. Lack of electricity, manpower dearth and
bad economic system are turn offs.
6. Nobody to motivate him. Friends, Parents,
Siblings believe he should get a job, and not
“start a job.”
7. Lack of focus for ones’ life.
8. He is turning God to a magician by
expecting miracles without sowing seeds
(Faith without work).
I was part of a team that interviewed some fresh
graduates for a contract job in a company last
year. I took interest in one of the applicants and I
asked him what kind of job he is interested in. He
said, “Do I have a choice? There is no job in this
country . . . . if you are lucky to get one, just hold
on to it. I have submitted CVs to Oil and Gas,
Telecoms, FMCG companies, Schools, Financial
institutions etc. All I want is to keep my head
some where and earn a living.”
When you don’t have a plan for yourself, then you
need to squat on other people’s plan. Why should
you get just any job? Why should you pity
yourself that life is gruesome in this part of the
world and you can’t make it until you hit a
jackpot? The scare never gets away, so you either
end up settling for less or you make it big.
One thing that interests me about the employed
folks is that they use the active 30 years of their
lives in building an empire for a smart man. On
retirement, they suddenly take interest in having
their own business so that they can continue to
earn a monthly living. Gratuity paid, no more
monthly salary . . . . . life seems miserable at this
point.
According to a research we carried out during
business training for prospective retirees last
year, over 78% of retirees lose their gratuity to
starting a new business. Yes, they’ve got the
experience but you don’t walk miles to the river
without having a clue of how to cross to the other
side.
At 65 years, they suddenly become desperate to
change their world. Every business looks
promising to them, thus they invest without any
major feasibility study. Few of them would be
lucky to end up as consultants, secure another
job with a meager pay, run a successful business,
or just retire home and become a dependent on
the family. What happens to those that are not
lucky?
Waiting for the right time to start your own
business is tough. The time is never
right . . . . .expenses on expenses – You need to
take care of your family, push your social status
higher, do personal development, cater for the
known and the unknown, spend some money on
wants and needs. The capital will never be
enough to start!
No matter where you are and what you are
presently; a student, job seeker, uneducated,
employed . . . the best time to build the next 10
-20 years of your life is now. Whatever is planted
now will be a giant with many fruits in decades if
properly managed.
Mark Zuckerberg had many reasons not to start
Facebook in 2004. Yeah! No capital, dearth of
technical ability, he was still in school and his GP
could suffer, some friends didn’t support him, no
idea of how to monetize the startup …but despite
that he got started and I’m happy to tell you he
made the Forbes list of world billionaires, and very
soon FaceBook would be available for you to trade
on wall street. His tree is just 8 years old.
There are many success stories that tell us to
start, stand the storm and win the game.
Business is not an automatic success and requires
lot of planning to get on board.
Let’s share a few points together:
PART A
1. Understand what you want for your life
2. What is your present background – Passion
and Qualification
3. Where do you see yourself in 5 years?
4. What are your competencies?
PART B (Sketch it down on a notepad)
1. Write out 5 business ideas you have
2. In front of each idea, write the estimated
capital and how many months needed to set
up
3. Write out different ways you can use to raise
minimum capital
4. Do your research
5. Pick one of the ideas
6. Write out your implementation plan
7. Gradually start implementation
Starting now doesn’t mean having everything
set. It takes time to conceptualize and execute,
so don’t rush yourself, just make sure you start
the first step of putting your ideas together and
move to the next step.
Go get started, and remember to share your
thoughts.

www.ventures-africa.com/entrepreneurs/why-is-now-the-perfect-time-to-start/1336

Can you sell half of the full plot?

Thanks DoeJohn,

The car is just 8 months. Changed the engine seat and it cut due to the vibration. Pls do send ur mech's contact and location.

Thanks Kashif. Can you give me the contact of the person that fixed it? My mechs are just clueless.

By the way, my ac doesn't get cold. Just blows a lil chill air. Topped the gas twice, changed the termostat. . . Still same. Any solutions?

Hi learned people of our land. My Honda baby boy vibrates anytime I switch on the engine. The vibration is so bad once I engage the gear without any major movement. I.e in a traffic jam. Any idea on the cause? It has cut my engine seat twice in a month. . .

@tkb, you can now remove it. will sms you soon.

@TKB,

I have a friend that started same thing sometimes last year and he's doing cool. He started with the cultivation of cassava, maize, plantain . . . . . and animal husbandry. He has some hectares of land in Osun state.

He's presently into marketing and distribution of his stuffs on large scale. We can talk more about this off NL.

Hmmm. Thanks

.??

Waiting

Good people of Nairaland,

A friend is  stuck imbetween buying a honda babyboy and Toyota camry orobo. he needs a good car, rugged and presentable. Heard people complain about Babyboy's Gear though some said its not expensive to fix. WhaT do you advise.


By the way, this will be his first car.

Sent you a mail.

Hi all,
I have the option of either going for my Phd in any of our indigeneous schools or travelling abroad to get an MBA in any of the Ivy League schools. I presently have my Msc, so getting admitted wont be an issue. what do you suggest?

yeah, finally taken to the streets

Not yet confirmed. Just finished talking to Wenger via Skype.

A friend told me to help find out how much he will need financially to get HBS MBA. Though he needs a little less than $200,000 to complete the 2 year programme, but having N40m will just be fine so that he doesn't really on any grants or aids.

Frankly speaking, I don't think it makes much sense to hustle such amount only to give it to an Ivy league school.

I would rather start a business with the money and see if I can triple it in 3 years so I can go back to Harvard with better capital base.

What do you think?

hmmmm, where did Chris get over a million tweeps in Nigeria? We currently have less than 500k twitter users in NG.

. . . . . and na so so talk we go dey talk till 2013.

*subscribing*

Let's get it started here.

FB page
Twitter Handle . . . . . . . .

Was chatting with some colleagues an hour ago and we seemed not to be on the same page. The bone of contention being that what will happen if the fuel subsidy is removed?

Some insisted that Nigerians won't take it lightly with GEJ, as that could be the end of his tenure. They believe We are already pushed to the wall and any extra push could lead to a revolution.

I bluntly told them any revolution will never happen in Nigeria, not this generation. We so much love our lives that we would rather sit down at the system facebooking and tweeting about the indecencies in governance to taking to the street like the Egyptians, Libyans etc


What do you guys think? Are you ready to be part of such a revolution or will you just sit at home . ,  ,  ,  ,  . .

Chisom212:
Please guys is Ad Placers.com a scam? Just wanna know if they pay?

no, adplacers is not a scam. We have paid over 100 local and international publishers. E.g Notjustok, bellanaija, lindaikeji, goal.com etc

Myne White:
I signed up to them but when no ad appeared after a week, I uninstalled the code.

can you mail info at adplacers.com? Possibly a technical issue from your end.

deco2come:
I once tried to use their service. I was going through the websites they have as their publishers and was surprise that I will pay 150k per click if I want my ad to appear on nairaland. I guess they are trying to make Seun the most richest man on Mars

I sent an email to them asking if it was a mistake or what. I also ask other question but up till now, I have not receive any reply from them. Maybe they are waiting until I reach 120years before they can reply to my email.

In conclusion, I think that any company or business that failed to reply to its customers request/email do not understand the meaning of business. They might be real but I will say that they are not ready yet.

we never told you to pay 150k per click. It was 150k for 1 week tenancy ad on nairaland. Though no email exchange, we remembered talking to you on phone.

yommysomguy:
150k per click? This is my first tme of hearing this.

Ymodulus:
hmmmm!!!! Non actus mens a reus. Judge accordin to d action. Poster bfore i give my final comment are you sure its 150naira? If so they are fraud STARS

communication issues,nothing like 150kper click. Any enquiries should be sent to info at adplacers.com

Ok sir, thanks.

Am not OJA, some passed it to my BBM and I decided to put here. True or false we still have something to learn

Who told you it's not true?

Please pass this to your friends and enemies that are seeking for jobs via BlackBerry Broadcast, Internet, Print
etc

It has been confirmed that ritualists now use these porous means to request CVs from unsuspecting job seekers and later send invites to them to come to their office for written and oral test. Unfortunately 98% of the victims never lived to tell the story as they were killed on arrival and used for rituals.

A recent incident was that of october 2011 at Sabo, Yaba Lagos of Nigeria.

Graduates were requested via a broadcast that went wild and wide on BB to send their CVs to a gmail address for opportunity to work in different departments of a new company.

Less than a week of the pseudo job application request, over 50 applicants were invited via mail to come for a test in a particular location at Sabo.

Trust Nigerians, people fought at the gate to gain access to the main building and many gate crashers were even on ground. Suddenly, a young man had a scream from the inner office. . .it was a repetitive scream of agony. He tried to leave but the security man at the gate convinced him the test will only last for 5 minutes. "Funny, those that went in are yet to come out and you said I will be out in 5 minutes?".

As he was about to leave, one of the security guards whispered to a colleague " this na bad market o, let the idiot just go". This gave him a conviction that there is more to the so called job test. He left the scene with a few ladies. Scared of reporting to the police, they made a complaint at a nearby army barracks.

Trust soldiers, they rush down to the gate and tried to force their way in. . . .then a gunshot! Someone from within shot one of the soldiers and it dawned on everyone that this is more than a fishy business.

The soldiers overpowered the guards and gained entrance, injured some of the workers and captured them alive. 6 mutilated bodies were recovered. These were job applicants that went in for the test.

Stories like this are rampant in our present day society and many are going on that are yet to be foiled.

Please, Please and Please, when next you receive a BC, or read on the internet or Print that Company xyz is recruiting, don't just auto forward your CV but rather take some time for due diligence to know the job authencity.

These few points may help:

- ask questions from friends and family about a company you want to forward your cv to.

- Google search the company and see what people have to say about the company.

- ask questions on popular forums like naijahotjobs, nairaland etc about the job.

- take a visit to the venue before the d-day and pretend you came to see the md or someone

- if you are sending your application to a 3rd party email e.g @yahoo, @gmail etc you need to be extra careful.

- check the website of the company. Most coys now have websites.

- pray to God to guide you

On a final note, your joblessness is for a while, don't kill yourself before your time.

May God help us (Amen)

OJA

Please to meet you toba and slimyem.

Am a dark guy, slim, 6 ft, , . ,

What's happening here?

A friend of mine just called me that he will be ending his relationship with his fiancee this coming week. Though they have been together for 3 years with the hope of getting married but unfortunately the whole thing seems one sided.

Some of the issues listed by my friend are: they are not communicating effectively. They saw only 6 times out of the 3 years and It's been more of an e-relationship. The girl is a bit slow and more of an introvert. A Christian to a fault!

Though the girl is falling head over heels, my friend tried to love back but it's not just working.

Closer friends are saying he should not quit because the girl is of good character and both families are already involved.


Dude wants a final advice from me . . . . ,

AdPlacers Video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ezEPDlWln_A&noredirect=1

Hehehe
Hehehe

Ok oh

159 at parallel