@Poster,

Did Nelson Mandela wear a suit at international gatherings? Will his appearance at such gatherings be "un-business like" (my own word)? When he spoke, would the responses he received be scant or none at all, because of what he wore or would he receive more responses and respect as an international statesman because of who he is?

How about Kwame Nkrumah when he was alive?
Ok, how about Indira Ghandi when she was alive?
Did people really look down on Mahatma Ghandi with a bedroom wrapper over his body or was he respected and given international accolade for the quality of his teachings and wisdom?

You've heard the popular maxim, "big clothes do not make a big man".
You can wear a £1000 suit and still be considered a donut at an international gathering. And we certainly know who this is applicable to.


Ok, humour me this one time. You claimed like others in support of your stance on this thread, that the Chinese wear suits at International gatherings. True. And I am sure the French and Japanese do as well. But guess what? You'd never hear them converse in English, even though you and I know fully well they can speak the language.

It's good to generate a good discourse, but sometimes I despair whether topic starters actually do a proper appraisal of the quality of the topic before they press the "Enter Button".

I read with painstaking effort the comments from everyone. My due patience in not immediately partaking in this discourse much earlier was, in the main, attributable to the delicate nature of the subject matter. Nonetheless, it  is shocking, although not in the least surprising, that some people can take maximum advantage of the availability of free speech, employ an independent thought process and masquerade it as "intelligence" - not realising that in reality what is being displayed is a wanton lack of knowledge and an abuse of ignorance.

Conversely, the thought process we apply to the context of certain issues sometimes defeats my level of understanding. When Pastor Adeboye said Nigeria will be great, he said it was a prophesy from God. Anyone who has taken the time to read the bible well will note that there have been true men of God who have heard from God, and equally fake men of God. Again, the bible points out that not one word of God will return to him void until it accomplishes what it sets out to do. The same bible spoke about fake parisoners, who didn't worship God in sprit and in truth. There have also been instances that true men of God have been admonished for not carrying out their assigments. And in cases where people rebelled against the men of God in the bible (Moses), God punished them for their sins. Everyone has their own reward, whether they lie, kill, cheat or steal, do good deeds or bad ones. But who are we to judge except God. It is best we have a stern look at ourselves in the mirror and remove the plank in our own eyes whilst attempting to remove the speck of sawdust in someone else's eye.

In this regard, it is clear to all and sundry that whatever Pastor Adeboye purports God said about Nigeria is not for anyone to dispel or dispute. He is a man of God. Whether he is reverred by everyone is another matter. And let's just assume, one is compelled to disagree with his comments, one shouldn't go as far to to degrade, abuse and tarnish his reputation simply because other Pastors are renowned for "spouting lies" and siphoning church funds at the expense of their parishioners. There are Churches and there are churches. The same for Pastors. And it is nothing peculiar to Nigeria as a country alone.

If there is a prophesy that says Nigeria will be great, that does not translate that everyone should fold their arms and wait for that to happen without being productive as always? Even the bible warns about the sluggard who sleeps all day without working, stating clearly that poverty is their ruin in the end.

So America, China, and other super power countries are doing well against the backdrop of their unbelief in God. Bravo! Does that equally mean the entire nation are atheists? Even during the oppressive years of the slave era, there were a vast number of white people, chief amongst them, William Wilberforce, who spoke out vociferously against the system and was instrumental to the abolition of slave trade. Similarly, what you will come to realise now or many years to come, is that God's kingdom will be established the world over. And there is nothing anyone can do about it. With the passage of time, true Christians will be the ones writing policies and effecting a real change in governance.

In passing, let us be mindful of what we say and how we say it.

A word is enough for the wise, and for fools, generally it may take an eternity to embrace wisdom as they continue to bask in their stupidity.

hi please i need help urgently, i'm trying to start a professional digital photography business. i'm thinking of wedding photography, portraiture etc but i'm stuck in a rut  now. any ideas anyone?

Ok, the good thing is that you have developed an idea that you are passionate about. The next part is the belief that you will excel in your chosen field.

What you really need to do is to research into your market and specifically check out the competition. What are they doing or are not doing that you could do better? Who are their clientele? How often do they get projects? What digital equipment and modern technology are they using to produce quality photographs?

Once you have done your research based on your target audience, you need to think about quality (in terms of output as well as presentation) as everyone seems obsessed by it. For example, do you think producing an album/DVD's with an appropriate background music will suffice? Or can you think of something else to add to the mix?

You then need to attend parties (whether you are invited or you just "heard and you decided to branch" and watch the professionals at work. Talk to them, befriend them and find out everything there is to know about the profession. Ask to see their work. Pretend as if you are a potential client. Visit them at their studio and see the layout and presentation of the place. Bear in mind, location is very important if you intend to pitch to rich clienteles.

Once you are sold on the idea of moving into action, invest in quality digital cameras and start taking photograghs at weddings, general parties/personal/nature (i.e. sun setting). Before you know it, you would have collated enough materials to make several albums. This is what you need to show future prospective clients.

Word of advice: When you are pitching a client, remember to sound confident and speak with authority on your subject matter. If you start saying eh, er, or Yoruba Yoruba to a direct question, then you are beginning to lose the plot and won't be taken seriously.

Dress smartly (I recommend a suit)and borrow or buy a nice car. Arrive on time for appointments. And all I can say is wish you the best. The world is your oyster, buddy. Remember the only person who can stop you is YOU.

I recommend you check out a sample of Ross Oscar Knights work and website to see what you are up against.

http://www.photosbyknight.com/gray/
http://www.rossoscarknight.com/index2.php
 

SB

2ce,

I applaud your post and the intelligent and congent ideas you put forth. It is important for any one seriously looking to start a business to adhere to the advice being given. For as James Allen wrote "until thought is linked with purpose, there can be no intelligent accomplishment".

May I add a couple of more ideas,

First of all, you are a unique individual and you are special regardless of your personality, your education or lack or, or business experience. You have a gift. A talent that has been deposited within you that you need to bring out. It will only remain dormant until you do something about it.

Start with this process every day,

- Always get in the habit of thinking good thoughts everyday
- Filter out unproductive thoughts that may distract you
- Find a place where you may generate ideas
- Always carry a notebook of ideas with you and write them down
- Listen more to people in conversations as opposed to talking - an idea in their conversation might spring up in your mind which may be totally oblivious to the people having the discourse.
- Once you have an idea of what you want to do, make a plan of how you want to turn your ideas into reality
- Be passionate about what you want to do
- Surround yourself with "Eagles" and not "chickens". Assuming you are a potential
"eagle" and you are associating with "chickens" then you will be stuck to the ground and not realise that you were distined to soar to greater heights in life.
- Discuss your idea/s with your thinktank group to elicit more ideas of how to move it forward
- Because you are passionate about what you intend to do, you need to be “deaf” to the negative outpourings of certain people I refer to as dreamkillers.
- Next is to do an indepth research on your idea/product
- Your product does not have to be an existing product.
- It is isn’t an existing product, you need to get a patent to protect the rights of the product.
- Once you have a patent, you are a stronger position to get an sponsor to invest in your project with a return on their invested stated in your projected business costs. It’s called using other people’s money.
- Even if the product is in the market, you can re-adapt the product by including new features to it. This is the trick Microsoft has always be using against Sony and of recent against Apple, by coming out with X-Box and their own unique Ipod version after their competitors have hit the market with theirs.
- Read books. Quality ones on business and self development. If you can’t be bordered with books, listen to the CD version instead. I recommend a few.
   
(Think and Grow Rich – Napoleon Hill, Richest man in Babylon – George Clason, One Minute Millionaire – Victor Hansen and Robert Allen, Thinking for a change – John Maxwell, The spiritual laws of success – Deepak Chopra, Notes to a friend – Anthony Robbins, How to be Rich – John P. Getty, The Secret – Rhonda Bryne, The Art of War – Sun Tzu, The Science of Getting Rich – Wallace Wattles and As a Man Thinketh – James Allen)

- Now go out there, launch out and finally “Arrive”. Of course it takes hard work to make it a reality, but action and continuous sustained belief is the key to achieving success. Don’t give up. If you want to, remember people like Thomas Edison who invented the light bulb and finally made it work at the 10,000th attempt. And Captain Harland Saunders who founded KFC whose recipe was turned down by several restaurants almost 2000 times. Then there was the Beetles who were turned down by Decca for a recording contract – they said they couldn’t sing and that guitar music was already going out of fashion. For more success stories, read Anthony Robins book (Notes from a Friend).

Finally, my best wishes in your pursuit. Remember two rules. Once you are at the top, give God all the glory and continue to honour him. And don’t forget the people around you, especially the ones who helped you to rise from where you are to where you want to be.


SB

However, there are 2 ways of looking at it. We can either get discouraged and say : "People have invested in this country/sacrificed a lot for this country before, and nothing came out of it." We can therefore keep away and seek our interests alone. Or we can think " If this country has such resources, that means there are wealthy people in this country - They exist somewhere. Therefore if I offer certain goods/services in this country, they will thrive because there are people who can afford them - I get my share of the "oil money", they get my services and everyone is happy[b][/b].

Naijacutee,

I would very much like to subscribe to your line of thinking. But I am constrained for one or two reasons, notably quite a lot of people have a myriad of business ideas which they have implemented before and has worked for them successfully. Others have been discouraged due to the poor infrastructure of the country (i.e. lack of constant electricity, bad roads, etc)

The point I am making here is that not everyone is as business savvy as you think. Secondly, not everyone will have a business idea and run with it if they can't connect with the right people (that is hoping that won't even steal the idea and run with it themselves). Also, people will do anything to make ends meet, legal or illegal. It's called survival of the fittest. It happens in other countries too.

To reiterate, there is nothing inherently wrong with MLM. And pyramid schemes or MLM doesn't always involve money as the "product". A case in point is Mary Kay's product which is an MLM business. Mary did this and became a multimilliionairess. Other women, including many Nigerians are doing the same MLM business and making serious money as well. Some are doing it part time or full time. And it's all legit.

Does this reduce their thinking process to contribute to nation building or start up a business with the money they made from MLM someday? We ought to focus on successful MLM's and what people do with their ROI as opposed to why they are doing it in the first place. I will be seriously disappointed if I heard someone for instance having a party and splashing out £10k (regardless) from the returns they made on any form of business. That is not an astute investment at all. But we all think differently. It's a case of whatever floats your boat and different strokes for different folks.

According to the bible, aren't women supposed to be the helpers? 

Ok, Chiogo, I can understand the viewpoint you raised. However, you were a bit tad of the mark with the title of the topic. Rather than generalising, you should have couched your words in this manner: "Are some Nigerian Men Lazy or just completely insensitive?" Now, we know it is strictly not true to say that all Nigerian men are like that. In fact, some men who are generally insensitive can be seen as hardworking and vice versa. Laziness and insensitive are two relative terms not even attributed to Nigerians alone.

Having said that, there may be a number of reasons why the man in question was not carrying the shopping. Let me spice up some "tongue in cheek" statements here.

- The man may have just had an operation
- The man may be fasting
- The man may have just eaten and one lifting of any heavy object, and the contents of his pot belly
  will erupt resulting in serious loud farting (the bombshell type)
- It may be against the man's culture for him to carry goods while his wife is tagging along
- The man may be wearing agbada which is not conducive for carrying anything heavy
- Ekaete, the dutiful wife, does not want her darling "Orbi" to carry anything.

On a serious note, it is really important for a man to play a helpful role in every capacity, including being with their partner/wife when she is about to give birth. Now that is a real man.
It's not all about spending money. It's about being there for youe spouse. You are doing it for her, and not because someone is watching you or maybe you'll be ashamed of what they might say or think. Who cares? If a man is successful in business and to the outside world and can not hold or sustain his home, that man is a failure. Period.

Naijacutee,

I know you bode well for the future of Nigeria. But do you know the art of "thinking" is a diffucult mental process for everyone? You need to answer a few ques, name one learned Nigerian who hasn't come up with a multitude of solutions to rid Nigeria of the mess we are in right now? This has come in the form of speeches, whitepapers, blueprints, etc What came out of it?

Also, you have again skipped this important question before you can assuredly state that you have rested your case. I will quote the question again verbatim.

"Rather than dwell on the demerits of MLM, perhaps you need to take a cursory look at our beleaguared economy over the years, and ask this perennial question: Where does all the huge millions that an oil rich country like Nigeria make a day disappear to?"

A counsel does not arrive at a conclusion until they have thoroughly weighed up the pros and cons of a case before they do so.

Naijacutee,

I applaud your resolve to sustain this rather interesting discourse. You certainly had me in stitches when I read the ASDA fable.  . However, in view of the example you provided, it would be erroneous to assume that there is a dearth of people who indeed have a legitimate and profitable home business.

Personally, there are several ways to accumulate wealth. In utilising one idea or method to achieve this is nothing new or to be scoffed at. For instance, without the short-sightness of IBM, Bill Gates would not have capitalised on the technological changes that they (IBM) missed at the start of the PC revolution. I used Gates as an example here, as he was a bright whizz kid, who despite not completing his studies at Harvard, went on to found Microsoft with Paul Allen. The question is, if Gates was bright or deemed a "donut", would he still have had the vision he had in the 70's of putting every PC in every home which is now a reality today? How many similar Bill Gates still languish in the technology field or in other fields? How many other American hustlers still do "runs" everyday?

The fact of the matter is that in any country or society, you'd find very successful enterpreneurs, in much the same way as you'd find hustlers. The American example was unique for a reason. For America to be where it is today required many years of governance under British rule, and years of development after the attainment of independence at the tail end of the 18th century. They even had to undergo one of the worst periods of their polity which was the "Great depression" era (1929-39). No sooner had they breathed a sigh of relief, they were also bombed by Japan in 1941. Today, we are all aware that America stands as one of the biggest players on the global scene.  It wasn't easy, but they got there, with I hasten to add, contribution from the slaves through organised labour. Great Britain, at the height of the Industrial revolution also attained its greatness from the contribution of slaves as well.

All these illustrations are evidence to show that nation building requires more than individual enterprise or the mobilisation of manpower to boost a country's GDP. Conversely it is made up of a structured social and political reengineering, of which Nigeria is still some light years away. No nation can aspire to be great if the proper mechanism to ensure its greatness is amiss (i.e. lack of ethics, integrity, respect for the law and rules, savings and investment, responsibility, and above all, time management).

Evidently, some if not all the afore mentioned is missing in Nigeria. Admittedly I will be wrong to discount the notion that Nigeria is blessed with resources and equally awash with talented professionals at home and in the Diaspora. But the question you conveniently ignored in my earlier post is how has Nigeria accounted for the billions of dollars accrued from oil over the years? What has really contributed to the brain drain in Nigeria? Is there an end in sight? Where are the basic infrastructures needed to run a successful and thriving business? (i.e. electricity, roads, etc).

And instead of working towards a pragmatic solution to the underlying problems besetting the economic and social polity of Nigeria, we have lurking furtively in the background, some political scoundrels who will do anything to sabotage any advancement either at state or federal level. Little surprise that one of the major reasons why Nigeria is still progressively backgward is because of selfish, corrupt and inept officials who would rather maintain the original status quo for self aggrandizement.

So, in the main, can you honestly afford to point an accusing finger at someone who is at least trying to survive and bid farewell to a lacklustre job he/she despises by investing in a networking business? I am not overly concerned about the fact that they invested in an MLM business (not all are scams and not all involves "money" as a product). It is what they have done with their returns on invesment that intrigues me.

In any case, the stage is set for anyone to dream big and have a million and one ideas to implement in Nigeria. (Yes, we can be original and innovative. Nigerians are not averse to being rich by any means necessary - the same is obtainable worldwide - albeit it would be morally edifying if the riches were through legitimate means). However, once you are able to manouvre through the bottleneck of redtape, polliticking, spurn the sexual overtures (regardless of whether you are male or female) of someone leading you to "Mr Big Gun" or "Mr Big Gun" himself to invest in your project, the world is your oyster if things go as planned.

Naijacutee,

With guided precision, I painstakingly read the diverse viewpoints from all the other forumers to the topic you raised and came to the conclusion that neither their comments or yours is out of place. Personally, I have an aversion for MLM schemes having been involved in them in the past. As with any business, the risk one decides to take in investing ones money ought to be a calculated one. In saying this, the investor is well advised to undertake a proper appraisal of the business, know its strengths, and likely pitfalls, the yield factor and long term propects for growth. If all these are missing then it is be avoided at all cost.

Admittedly, MLM may not be everyone's cup of tea. Indeed, I am yet to see any kind of business that will appeal to everyone. Why? As surprising as it seems, not everyone wishes to amass a large quantity of money. This is not to say that those that harbour this wish, should be vilified or derided. Similarly, any one going in MLM should not be assailed with self smug phrases such as"fools", "lazy", or "stupid". Contrary to conventional thinking, there are some networking home businesses that some people do on a full time basis which invariably provided them financial freedom and quality time being spent with their families, which had hitherto eluded them when they were stuck in their 9-5 rut.

Observably, the world being a global economy is about to witness the dawn of a new marketing concept. No longer will people have to rely on the physical distribution of products anymore. What will evolve from now on is the intellectual distribution and marketing of goods and services over the internet, especially in the wellness industry. Without a doubt, the marketing and wellness industry will produce a lot of millionaires in the coming years especially with people who work from home. For more indepth analysis on this, may I recommend Paul Zane Pilzer's book The Next Millionaires. See link below. http://www.paulzanepilzer.com/tnm.htm

Coming back to the points you raised, you meant well by alluding to the fact that we should find alternative means to create other ways of sustainance and production to the economy of Nigeria. However, that can only become a reality if people are able to make money legitimately and in return make money work for them. Other streams of income and the establishment of businesses can then spring forth from there which will create many employment opportunities and contribute significantly to the GDP of Nigeria. That was how JP Getty (the Bill Gates of his time did it) in America coming off the depression era. His recipe for success was "rise early, work hard and strike gold". If he hadn't taken a calculated business risk, the American economy would not have benefited tremendously from his huge success as a businessman.

Rather than dwell on the demerits of MLM, perhaps you need to take a cursory look at our beleaguared economy over the years, and ask this perennial question: Where does all the huge millions that an oil rich country like Nigeria make a day disappear to?

I'll leave you to ponder on that fufu for thought.

Zhia2000,

Please can you kindly email me your draft plan for the recycling project you have undertaken? My email add is tymadele@yahoo.com.

I would really appreaciate this kind gesture.

Regards,