On The Path Of Winners By Bayo Ogunmupe Business Of Living Your Dream

On The Path Of Winners

By Bayo Ogunmupe

Business Of Living Your Dream

BUILDING a life of service is the real essence of living. With service to others, you will attain riches far beyond your wildest dreams. The mindset of service to humanity will bring you wealth, happiness and peace.

  Begin by giving to others without expecting anything in return and keeping your deeds to yourself. Resolve from today to make service your obsession. Don't allow your situation to be an obstacle. But the Bible said in Genesis: [It is not good for a man to be alone.” This means you must open yourself for the support of others. You can serve humanity greater by allying yourself with other like minded people.

  Life is a business, you cannot thrive in it alone. The parable of talents comes handy. A traveling merchant gave his three servants his goods for handling while he was abroad. To one he gave five portions. He gave the second two, while to the last he gave one portion. Upon his return, he demanded his servants account for the money he had given them. The first two servants had doubled their money. But the third servant returned to the master the single talent he had given him. The master was upset with him because he had not utilized his gift, but had hidden it.

  This parable teaches the importance of maximizing every opportunity you are presented with in life. It implies all life is business. And you must serve your customers for profit and service. Thus, your dream must be pursued as a business in expectation of fulfilling your vision of serving others. It is the same way in marriage. Your spouse expects fulfillment in return for her investment in you. If her relationship with you isn’t yielding the expected return, she might want to reallocate her resources elsewhere.

  In accomplishing your dream, you need the same resources as you would need to build a business-knowledge, labour and skills. Also you need the ability to leverage your resource, the know-how of others and how to create a platform from where to launch your vision.

  Your most important task in this regard is to let the world know your vision. Then the world will help you get what you want. Remember, people and companies cannot help you unless your plans serve their purpose. And you cannot lose for loving others. Why do you think Bill Gates is still one of the richest in the world? It is because of his unceasing love for humanity. He shared his Microsoft success by producing two other billionaires, Paul Allen and Steve Ballmer. He made his company the one with the largest number of millionaire – employees with robust ownership stakes in the company. Gate isn’t afraid to serve others. Their in lies the secret of his success.

  However, in order for you to succeed in your efforts to realize your vision, you must exude integrity. Integrity, which means honesty and truth, is the very foundation of  your greatness. It is what makes the great great. Wealth with integrity produces peace of mind. In real terms, integrity means being true to oneself. For, if you are true to yourself, you won’t be able to deceive others. Integrity is manifested in how you see yourself, your skills and visions. Integrity includes: a sense of humour, understanding, kindness and gentleness.

  Indeed, the person destined for greatness needs to recruit others to supply the resources and the know-how. Here are the rules to follow to create the lifestyle of integrity. One, never violate divine laws or the rights of others. You will always pay back if you do. Two, develop a code of conduct upon which you deal with others. Otherwise never enter into a transaction that does not benefit all concerned.

  Three, find out the truth about any transaction before you enter into it. Patience always yields dividends. Four, never compromise your code of conduct no matter how expedient. Integrity is a constant, never a variable. It must be upheld no matter the situation. Five, be prepared to stand alone when integrity is concerned. Avoid following the herd, time will prove you right.

  Six, commit only to that which you believe in. Finally, always give your best in all situations and recognition will come to you, no matter how long it is delayed. Continue to nurture integrity until the peace that passes all understanding pervades every area of your life. Maintain your integrity by marching into hell for heavenly cause. When you remain true to yourself, you are aligned with the divine forces of the universe. When you walk with integrity, you are walking with Jehovah God.

  As you make deposits into your integrity account, resolve never to yield to making withdrawals. Because when you sacrifice your integrity, you are sacrificing your dream. Your integrity is the foundation of your dream. Don't be discouraged from starting a good idea for lack of money. With integrity, others will joyfully invest in you. Our champion today is Ehud Barak, the Israeli stateman who served as Prime Minister from 1999 to 2001. He was leader of Labour Party until 2011 and holds the posts of Minister of Defence and Deputy Prime Minister in Benjamin Netanyahu’s government of Israel.

  Born as Ehud Brog in February 1942 in Mishmar Hasharon, then in the British Mandate of Palestine. He is the eldest of four sons of Esther Godin and Yisrael Mendel Brog. Ehud Hebraized his family name from Brog to Barak in 1972. In 2005, Barak was voted the 61^st greatest Israeli of all time, in a poll by the Israeli news website Ynet to determine whom the general public considered the 200 greatest Israelis.

  Barak earned his bachelor’s degree in physics and mathematics from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem in 1968. He had his master’s in economics and engineering form Stanford University, California, USA in 1978. Barak joined the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) in 1959. He served in the IDF for 35 years rising to the position of Chief of the General Staff with the rank of Lieutenant General, the highest in the Israeli military. Barak commanded the regiment which helped rescue paratrooper Batallion 890 which was surrounded in the Battle of Chinese Farm.

  During his service as a commando, Barak led several great operations, such as Operation Isotope, the mission to rescue the hostages on board Sabena Flight 571 at Lod Airport in 1972. He also led the 1973 covert Operation Spring in Beirut in which he disguised as a woman in order to capture members of the Palestine Liberation Organisation. He was also the architect of Operation Entebbe of 1976, a rescue mission which freed hostages of the Air France aircraft hijacked that landed in Uganda. Jonathan Netanyau was the only victim of that operation. Barak also organized the Tunis Raid of 1988, which eliminated the PLO leader, Abu Jihad.

  Later Barak served as head of Aman, the military intelligence Directorate of the IDF. He also headed the Central command and was the deputy chief of the General Staff of the IDF (1987-91). He also served as the Chief of the General Staff (1991-95) in which period he implemented the Oslo Accords of the Israeli Jordan Treaty of Peace.

  Barak received five military decorations, making him the most decorated soldier in Israeli history. In 1992, he was also awarded the Legion of Merit by the United States. On 26 November 2012, Barak announced that he will retire from politics after the next election in January 2013. Barak found passion and inspiration from his grandparents: Frieda and Reuven Brog, who were murdered in Lithuania in 1912, which left his father orphaned at the age of two. Barak’s maternal parents, Elka and Shmuel died at the Treblinka extermination camp during the Holocaust.

On The Path Of Winners By Bayo Ogunmupe Winning attitudes of champions

On The Path Of Winners

By Bayo Ogunmupe

Winning attitudes of champions

WINNING begins from your believing you are a true champion. Despite the devil’s machinations, you are the best. The first Adam failed because he never went through the furnace of depression, but Jesus the last Adam succeeded because he went through the travails of life. You just don’t sit down to complain, just rise up to confront the enemy.

  Thus, you need a paradigm shift in order to win. You cannot be doing things the same way and expect different results. You need courage, scholarship, discipline, perseverance and innovation for victory in life.

  A champion is a winner in a competition. To win on the other hand is to be the most successful. Those who have successfully won battles are called champions. Here are five secrets of winning.

  One, belief in God is the first secret of winning. Life is a battle that you cannot win outside of your faith in God. There is always something behind everyday reality. This is the God factor in life. Those who win in the face of dire opposition always have a spiritual foundation from God. There is no doubt Goliath was a champion from another realm. But he stood on wrong foundation in contesting against God who had chosen David as the champion of His people.

  There is no neutral ground in the attainment of victory, you are either with God or the devil. True champions never trust only what they know, they trust God. Your goal is to consolidate your life and future. Since we are confronted everyday by life-limiting factors, only the God factor enables us to surmount those challenges. Standing on the shoulder of God is the surest way to victory.

  Two, because ignorance can hurt you, you must recognize the devil in your neighbourhood. So to win you must recognize who your enemies are. You cannot kill the enemy you don’t know. In life, it is either you slay your enemy or you became its slave. Victory begins with the right knowledge and the right mind-set. You must know that your enemy is not afraid to confront you because he knows you. Every victory strengthens you to attain greater victory. Seek changes in you so that you can change your life.

  Three, a true champion cultivates the right attitude to winning. Attitudes are the totality of who you are. They contain your beliefs, values and the way you act. A champion does not allow his circumstances to limit him. Let your life be transformed by creative ideas. Make God your partner for success. Never blame God or anybody for untoward circumstances. God uses challenges to make you become His true friend and champion. You must see breakthrough in every barrier, promotion in every opposition and victory in every obstacle.

  The hero in you cannot berth until fear is extinguished. The way you see yourself matters in life. Young David killed the fear of facing giant Goliath. He didn’t allow Goliath to intimidate him. He focused on victory ahead of him. You, will always win by extinguishing fear from your mind. Believe who you are. People never believe in those who do not believe in themselves. Your upbringing does not change God’s plan for you. Do not expect people to help you fulfill your dream.

  Four, champions sacrifice is born out of passion. No one ever won a life battle without sacrifice. You must sacrifice something to be a winner. Sacrifice is about giving up a thing of value for another. Nelson Mandela gave up the glamour of the legal luminary to go to prison for freedom.

  Consequently, he became the greatest blackman of the 20^th century. There is always a price for success. It took God the sacrifice of His son to redeem the world from sin. The proof of your love for excellence is the sacrifice of your comfort zone. The test of true love is sacrifice. Nigeria is underdeveloped because her leaders and people are not ready to sacrifice for greatness. Nigerians only want to get not give. You must be willing to die for something in order to be great. If David had not taken the risk of dying for his generation. Israelites would have remained slaves.

  Five, the true champion has the courage to finish his life well. Courage is the offspring of faith, it isn’t the absence of fear, but the conquest of it. Courage enables you take the risks necessary to fulfill your dream. Life yields its bounties to those who refuse to quit. God dos not use cowards for His work. God first transforms people into courageous beings before making them champions. The scriptures have it that those God used, He first made them bold and fearless before their targets. Jeremiah, the apostles, Gideon and Paul came out as examples. Never underestimate any man of courage because Satan fears the fearless. When you become fearless, then you can conquer whatever comes your way. You can become whatever you want as you are. Your direction depends on your vision and achievement is determined by your focus. Thus, as a champion you must have a vision and focus in every contest. Success is determined by the needs of others you have met. It isn’t how many people you knew, but how many will fill a lasting loss when you are gone.

  Our champion for today is Joseph Edward Murray, the American plastic surgeon who performed the first successful human kidney transplant on identical twins, Richard and Ronald Herrick in December 1954. Murray shared the Nobel Prize in Medicine in 1990 with Donnall Thomas for their discoveries concerning organ and cell transplantation in the treatment of human disease.

  Murray was born to William and Mary Murray in April 1919. He grew up in Milford, Massachusetts. He was of Irish and Italian descent. He studied philosophy and English, earning a degree in humanities in 1940.

  He later attended Harvard Medical School, doing his internship at Bent Brigham Hospital. Then, he was inducted into the Medical Corps of the United States Army. Serving at Valley Forge General Hospital, Pennsylvania, Murray worked for an esteemed plastic surgeon – Dr. Bradford Cannon where he developed lifelong passion for plastic surgery.

  After his military service, Murray joined the surgical staff of Bent Brigham Hospital. Then he trained in plastic surgery at the New York and Memorial Hospitals, returning to Brigham in 1951. In 2001, Murray published his autobiography, Surgery Of The Soul: Reflections on a curious career. There, he chronicled his success. After performing successful renal transplant between the Herrick twins, he went on to perform the world’s first successful allograft and in 1962 the world’s first cadaveric renal transplant.

  Then Murray became the world’s leader in the study of transplantation and reconstructive surgery. In his 20 years as director of the Surgical Research Laboratory, at Harvard, he inspired others who became leaders in transplantation. He retired as Professor of Surgery Emeritus in 1986 from Harvard Medical School. Murray suffered a stroke at his Boston home and died at Brigham, his old hospital in November 2012. He was aged 93 years.

Book Review Title: Aworinde, triumph of Vision, Author: Esther Aworinde Publisher: Refiner’s Touch, Bariga, Lagos, 2012. Reviewer: Bayo Ogunmupe

Book Review

Title: Aworinde, Triumph of Vision,

Author: Esther Aworinde

Publisher: Refiner’s Touch, Bariga, Lagos, 2012.

Reviewer: Bayo Ogunmupe

AWORINDE, Triumph of Vision is a wife’s recollection of her husband’s quintessential life of purpose and vision. Plato said: The life which is unexamined is not worth living, which is why Esther examined the life of her husband: Paul Iseoluwa Aworinde in this volume. This book is a romance recalled by a partner.

  It is told by a widow whose romance spanned 33 years of very eventful marriage. Author Esther’s biography of her late husband Iseoluwa Aworinde, physician, entrepreneur and philanthropist partly makes the book an autobiography. And in telling her story, Esther regales us with invocative recall of her life with Paul in a day-to-day love affair infused with high voltage drama.

  In telling her story, Esther draws from the dictum of critics, that an Autobiography is best without self pity, self justification or boastfulness. An autobiography should be clear, fresh and direct.

  Accordingly, Esther kept her promise that the book isn’t just about herself, that there are many things unique about Paul, which are worth telling the world.

  The author shares the fun of living with her Paul explicitly and bluntly. She warns of the prospect of strong emotions from you if you knew the shock of Iseoluwa’s sudden death in 2007.

  Aworinde, triumph of Vision is a medium sized book with 398 pages, 15 chapters, two postscripts and endearing tributes. Also, it contains 20 pages of photographs showing the weddings of the Aworindes. Aworinde was born on 9 September 1943 at Ilare, Osun State in a period characterized by harvest of farm produce, with ample food and cash to spend for the popular Christian Harvest celebrations at a time of the year, which is approaching Christmas.

  According to their family tradition, after six days, he was named Paul Iseoluwa Ojo Aworinde. He was baptized Paul in the Methodist Church his parents attended.

  However, he lived an eventful life dying on 28 November 2007 at the age of 64 years. But in the intervening years, he had studied medicine at the University of Ibadan. He first had a bachelor’s second class upper division degree of the University of Ibadan before proceeding to the University College Hospital for medical training.

  Duro Oyekanle, Paul’s cousin made an interesting observation about Paul’s time at the University College, Ibadan as it then was because it operated as a college of the University of London.

  Duro and Paul had both secured admission into UI at the preliminary (Prelim) level in September 1966. The more popular admission to the University then was through the Advanced Level passes from the Higher School Certificate. The prelim programme was an experiment started by UI to catch bright students from secondary schools. As Duro Oyekanle reported, his first year at UI would have been financially horrendous for him but for the benevolence of Paul who had good financial backing from his rich elder brother, Israel Ilesanmi Aworinde.

  Eventually, Paul got his medical degrees in Ibadan, returning after his youth service to pursue a post-graduate course in obstetrics and Gynaecology. Then commenced the courtship between Esther Olamide and Paul Iseoluwa. After a chance meeting five years earlier, Paul and Esther met again at Ilesha Grammar School. Esther was in Higher School Certificate (HSC) year one and Paul Iseoluwa Aworinde taught Biology there while on break form his medical studies at the University of Ibadan. Thus, he was her Biology teacher.

  But it cost Paul 33 prostrations to gain Esther from her guardian, Mama, her father’s elder sister. They were finally married in Ikoyi Registry, Lagos on 26 October 1974, during his youth service year. Paul was serving at Abriba, Abia State and off the newly married went to take residence at a bungalow allocated to Iseoluwa the youth corper there. They had Olubunmi, their first baby there.

  Aworinde entered into full private practice in 1976 when he was employed by Lafia Clinics, Lagos owned by Dr. Olusegun Ajayi and his partner, Dr. Akintunde Akindiji. He decided to establish his own practice from there.

  Listing in his notebook he decided to buy furniture and equipment towards self-employment. This system of saving on equipment prevented spending the whole salary on emergencies if saved in the bank. Aworinde believed in planning for whatever he needed, so he planned his own hospital, the May Clinics Limited.

  He decided to name his hospital May because Maria is the name of his mother. Mary Hospital and Mariam Hospital had been registered by others, so the nearest to Maria was May. That was how he started May Clinics Limited, Ilasamaja.

  From the day he decided to build a private hospital, he opened a notebook and started writing all that he would need to accomplish his desires. Aworinde believed you can never be a great success without adequate planning.

  Furthermore, he crafted a mission statement because he believed in the Bible book of Habakkuk 2: 2-3. He said his vision must be guided by his mission statement for accomplishment. Name: May Clinics Limited. Logo: In God we trust. Mission: To be a foremost, highly friendly healthcare provider whose workforce have in their hearts the fear of God, providing services with love for God and humanity. Vision: To be a leading healthcare provider in Nigeria. To ensure fast services and adequate return on investments to the stakeholders.

  The strategy he employed was the fear of God embedded in the workforce which in turn makes them loving and friendly both with the patients and co-workers.

  The values he sought to achieve are excellence, hardwork and integrity. Aworinde made sure that every May Clinic employee imbibed the values embedded in the mission statement. Thereafter, he found a suitable location in Ilasamaja, by the expressway and close to the Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LUTH). Finally, he was able to secure a bank loan through Alhaji Adepoju, his senior colleague at Imesi-Ile High School. By the third birthday of his second daughter, Funlola on 1 March 1978, Aworinde had completed the establishment of May Clinics.

  By 1980, May Clinics had become one of the well equipped hospitals when healthcare was just developing. It boasted of its own operating theatre, x-ray facilities, medical laboratories, ultrasound scan and a wide variety of specialist consultancy clinics and services. Aworinde was a rare product of a generation of doctors whose foresight and innovation and incredible insight and business skill enhanced medical practice of the time.

  Meanwhile, the Aworindes lived together as husband and wife for 33 years. The joy and fullness of life was dimmed on 28 November 2007 when Iseoluwa died. He left his wife Esther Olamide Aworinde, two daughters and two sons. His wife of 33 years, which he secured with 33 prostrations wrote this memoir. She had her B.Ed in Biology from the University of Ibadan and a masters in educational planning from the University of Lagos. She had been a teacher and school administrator in Osun, Ogun and Lagos States.

  Apart from being a book publisher, she is a deaconess of the Winners Chapel Bible Church and chairperson of May Clinics Limited, Lagos.

Bayode Ogunmupe

The Turbanning ceremony of Bayode Ogunmupe as the Sanmori Adinni of Idi-Araba Lagos

Nigerian moneybags in ebullition By Bayo Ogunmupe

Nigerian moneybags in ebullition

By Bayo Ogunmupe

NIGERIA needs technical talent in order to grow her economy. In particular, the manufacturing sector is increasingly technology-driven, especially the multinationals. Unfortunately our tertiary institutions have not revised their curricula to meet the rising demand for skilled technical manpower.

  We do not even have the know how to install, operate and maintain new operational machines. Thus, there is a dearth of talent in this sector. This dearth of talent mars Nigeria’s economic growth. This area must be addressed squarely. The Nigerian Institute for Industrial Technology is an example of a technical school positioned to do this.

  Indeed, a report by Mckinsey Global Institute urges that businesses operating in skills scarce world must know how to find talent with the skills they need. They are to build strategies for hiring and retraining the workers they will need in order to gain competitive advantage.

  Which is why we should examine why Nigeria is backward. This is explained by a book published recently by Daron Acemoglu, Professor of Economics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) USA and James Robinson, a Professor of Political Economy at Harvard University. The book is entitled: Why Nations Fail. In the book, the two professors aver that nations fail not because of geography, culture or policy but for lack of institutions broadly defined as institutions that govern economic and political behaviour.

  Countries that succeed are those with the right economic institutions, secure property rights, law and order, market and state supported public services. Also, they have markets that are open to free entry of new business, that uphold contracts and with free access to education and opportunities for the great majority of the people.

  Indeed, the two experts argue that the countries most likely to develop these economic rights are those with open pluralistic political systems, where competition for political office is open, where the electorate is open to new political leaders and ideologies. Ordinarily, powerful people will always seek to grab power and undermine a broadly shared prosperity for their own greed. By keeping those narcissists in check, the nation succeeds, if unchecked that nation fails. In the Nigerian situation, the greedy narcissists are unchecked which is why Nigeria remains backward.

  However, this explains the prosperity gap between South Korea and North Korea, North America and Latin America, but also between Botswana and Nigeria. In spite of being very rich, Nigeria has 70 per cent of her population living below one dollar a day. Nigeria is also with eight per cent of the world’s poor while Botswana has 33 per cent of her population living under one dollar a day. The widespread poverty, illiteracy and unemployment in Nigeria does not only uphold the veracity of this finding, it is also responsible for much of the imbalance, instability and kidnapping, the militancy in the Niger Delta, the secessionist threats from the southeast and the Boko Haram insurgency from Northern Nigeria.

    Now, the Nigerian government has lost the exclusive power to use violence and now a nation on the throes of disintegration. Apart from a break down of law order owing to Boko Haram, kidnapping, oil spillage insurgency and armed robbery, there is also a break down in public services reminiscent of acute infrastructural decay. Nigeria ranks 14^th in the World Failed State Index. This isn’t because of our ethnic and religion diversity, it is because of our ineptitude; because Indonesia which ranks 63 is as ethnically and religiously diverse as Nigeria. Our inability to integrate the Nigerian nation through a broadly shared available prosperity and justice has reduced us to a failed state.

  The exclusion created by our narcissistic leaders and the backlash it generated, has been the result of how power has been exercised and monopolised by an elite group since the collapse of the First Republic in 1966. The point is that those who seize power in Nigeria after 1966 have always been in power through proxies up till now in the 21^st century. In Nigeria power has always revolved around the military clique that wrested power from Tafawa Balewa. For instance successive governments and the various agencies and ministries have been filled by arrangement rather than through free, fair and open practice. With few exceptions, our leaders have preferred second-rate brains and bootlickers to straight and competent administrators.

  That was why it was not until the advent of President Umaru Yar Adua that ministries had to return unspent fund to the state. Even then the practice seems to have died with him.

  Also, each Nigerian military ruler had become a moneybag since Balewa. The exception to this rule was Alhaji Muhammadu Buhari whose uncompromising egalitarian posture caused his ouster after 20 months in power in 1985. Thus, Buhari now leads a faction of Nigeria’s narcissistic ruling elite. That military cabal has created a huge patronage network fueled by oil rent and royalties, thus concentrating power and wealth at the centre.

  The discretionary award of oil blocks by each potentate in power, to friends, loyalists and bootlickers only helped build a digital fortress for each ruler. Bonuses payable by an investor when he wins and signs bidding agreements with the department of petroleum resources, to the tune of millions of dollars are often waived, only to be admitted through the back door paid to special accounts as appreciation gifts. Indeed, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo’s failed bid at self-perpetuation in power, would have been unimaginable but for the cabal’s penchant for coercion, bribery and assassination. For the line of political murders: Mamman Vatsa, Bola Ige and Moshood Abiola come to mind.

  Because of the enormous wealth at stake, our decadent captains have always turned elections to selections which was why Obasanjo said the 2007 election was a do or die affair.

  If even our colonial masters didn’t wish us well, as recent memoirs by former colonial officers testify, why haven’t our leaders woken up by developing Nigeria? The answer can be found in the narcissistic greed of our leaders, their lack of knowledge of affairs and perhaps their innate lack of gumption which made Nigeria produce one Nobel laureate with 167 million people while Germany has a ratio of one Nobel prizewinner to 500,000 people. That means you should forget the notion that Nigerians perform better outside the country. It is a myth. There are no records of its award-winning prowess.

  However, we now know that it is for their safety, in order to keep themselves in power is why our rulers have kept us poor and ignorant. Which was why they bastardised our educational system. But there is crisis in the elite, occasioned by the ostracisation of Buhari from the club of moneybags. And that is why he has become the rallying point for the opposition. That line of thought might be the stream by which a change can emerge. Recent disasters point in the direction that solace lies in a unified opposition to narcissistic moneybags who want to continue in power through bribery, kidnapping and election rigging.

  The kidnapping of Mrs. Kamene Okonjo is a case in point. Within a fortnight of her kidnap, parliament was compelled to pass into law a N161 billion bill authorising the President to pay marketers’ subsidy claims. Hitherto, government was loath in paying the oil subsidy suppliers.

  Indeed, like in America, there is a glimmer of hope that this country is angling for change. In the last U.S. presidential election for example, Barack Obama was re-elected by people who don’t really care for politics. A sizeable chunk of Obama’s backers were people who admire neither party nor territory, because Obama was above of either. He was immune to the horse-trading and favour mongering that politics entails. Obama’s backers weren’t politically motivated. These people who re-elected him just stood for justice. Nigerians should behave likewise in 2015. All we need do in the transition is to create the awareness that change alone can save the nation from collapse.

On The Path Of Winners By Bayo Ogunmupe How To Secure Your Wealth

On The Path Of Winners

By Bayo Ogunmupe

How To Secure Your Wealth

ONCE you have found your ideal vocation, you must out think your contemporaries in meeting the needs of the people in order to excel. It is in that manner that you can obtain divine favour to gain your heart’s desires. Everything in the world remains to be done better than it has been so far. The best is yet to come! You will only command attention if you make a daring discovery or propose a bold new idea that makes life better. To do this you must be willing to challenge and break the bonds of conventional ways of doing things.

  Just as the computer replaced the typewriter, so no product or service has ever been manufactured and sold as efficiently as it might be. Some day new products will replace present day gadgets. Start using your own creative powers now. Think about things that can be done to improve the quality of life of the people you serve. Doing so translates to more wealth for them and some of that wealth will invariably pass unto you.

  It is significant for you to follow these patterns of thinking in order to improve your ways of thinking. One, think associatively. Associate ideas and concepts continually in search of new relationships between existing objects and ideas. That was how the computer, the ipad and typewriter developed from the printing press. Two, adaptive thinking which involves adapting old products to new uses. This was how the aeroplane seatbelts were adapted for car use and motion pictures were adapted for educational use as teaching aids.

  Three, thinking combination as everything in life is contrived. That was why America could learn from Japan’s supersonic technology and managerial style. Four, thinking rearrangement is a way of turning products or ideas upside down for the production of new items. This thinking berthed running shoes, for there were no shoes for athletes before the 19^th century. The Olympiad was conducted bare footed then. Creative thinking and need produced spike shoes used by sprinters.

  There are local issues peculiar to our character as Nigerians. There is unemployment and corruption. We need home grown remedies to cure them. The world does not know or believe that you can do a think until you have done it. Which is why we are all mediocres. No ethnic group has excelled over the other in Nigeria through creative thinking or governance. That is why regional integration appeals to me. By pooling her resources together a region can show its excellence over others by conquering poverty in her domain. For now there is no proof a Yoruba is better than an Hausa or that a Fulani is superior to an Itshekiri, we are all plodders.

  Five, thinking substitution is the strategy employed to replace old products. Because an item is being used now does not mean it will continue to be the favourite of the future. Nothing is indispensable, see how desktop computers replaced typewriters in the marketplace. Moreover, plastic is now used as substitute for wood. Six, thinking minification produces smaller products. Much of today’s technology market – laptop computers, palm pilots, ipad, cell phones, has to do with making products smaller and more portable. You should think of new devices or tools that would be better or more useful, if they were smaller.

  Seven, thinking time-saving is another device for making products that save time and money. This is more relevant in communications where email and faxes are replacing the snail mail as preferred mode of communication. Eight, thinking cost saving trigger new alternatives for products and services to replace previously expensive and time consuming items. In the USA, consumer goods manufacturers locate their plants in low cost regions such as Korea, Japan and South America to ensure that the cost of products is competitive.

  Finally in thinking safety, new, safer products are manufactured to avoid hazards. Smaller, safer brands of fans, air conditioners and the like are now in vogue. Adopting one of these strategies in your existing business as a basis for new development may lead you to a new discovery, which could draw popular attention to yourself and your business. Ordinarily, our people believe they can get something for nothing. That mindset has kept us a beggar nation. That invariably impels us to buy cheap foreign goods, which have been produced on the service based thinking, which is creativity driven and compels giving to every person more than you take from them. Because of the long-term value we enjoy from their services, our foreign partners enslave us with their goods leading to large scale unemployment here. This has been caused by unseemly reliance on imported goods and services.

  Unless you begin to think in terms of how you can improve people’s lives, as against how much you can make from people, any success you have will be short-lived. Success always follow those who give more than they received. Our champion for today is Cyril Northcote Parkinson, the British historian, author and formulator of “Parkinson’s Law.” This law is the dictum that: Work expands to fill the time available for its completion.

  A relatively obscure academic prior to his enunciation of that law which first appeared in The Economist of London in 1955. Parkinson later devised a second law” Expenditure rises to meet income. That was detailed in his “The Law and Profits (1960).” Born in July 1909, Parkinson was the youngest son of William Parkinson, Principal of York School of Arts and Crafts and his wife, Rose Mary Curnow. Northcote attended St. Peters School, York where he won a scholarship to study history at Emmanuel College, University of Cambridge. He received his BA in 1932 and his Ph.D from King’s College, London in 1935.

  Parkinson taught in various schools in England and from 1950 to 1958 in Malaysia. He based his comments on bureaucracy on his experiences as a British army staff officer during World War II. Administrators make work for each other, he said, so that they can multiply the number of their subordinates and enhance their prestige. His second law was intended as jibe at government functionaries, who he thought were inclined to expand their own ranks indefinitely, so long as taxes could be raised.

  Written in a funny style, Parkinson’s Economist essays were issued in book form in Parkinson’s Law or The Pursuit of Progress (1958). Apart from the book that made him famous, Parkinson wrote numerous historical works, including the critically acclaimed The Evolution of Political Thought (1958). He is considered an important scholar within the field of public administration. Parkinson and his wife divorced in 1952 and he married the journalist Ann Fry with whom he had two sons and a daughter. After the death of Ann in 1984, he married a third time to Iris Hilda Waters. Then they moved to Canterbury, Kent where he died and was buried in 1993.

On The Path Of Winners By Bayo Ogunmupe Make Double Win Your Obsession

On The Path Of Winners

By Bayo Ogunmupe

Make Double Win Your Obsession

ORDINARY thinking makes people believe they could get something for nothing. That mindset permeates the Nigerian social milieu. They believe they have to drive sharp bargains in order to make profit. They base this on the premise that someone must lose before another can win. But the service based mindset, those obsessed with winning fairly, which is creativity driven, compels them to give to everyone more than they take from them. Unless you are obsessed with dispensing justice in that manner, any success you may have would be short-lived.

  Those who serve humanity in this manner are rewarded with continuous divine beneficence, which in the long run surpasses the cash value you give out. But also, you receive divine favour for which is immeasurable. If you ever wonder why Wal-Mart is the largest retail company in the world, this is the reason. Wal-Mart ensures that its suppliers provide the company with products at low prices, which they pass along to their customers. Instead of maximizing their profit, they decided to gain an uninterrupted patronage from them over a life time – a reward which far exceeds any short-term profit. That is the way of the double winner.

  Until you get to the point where serving others becomes your trademark, you remain with the mediocres rather than the winners. “But love your enemies, and do good, and lend hoping for nothing again, and your reward shall be great,” Luke 6:34, Jesus said. Being obsessed with goodness in this manner is the real essence of living. With this attitude, you will attain riches far beyond your wildest dreams. This mindset brings you a harvest of happiness, affection and love.

  However, the foregoing affirms that where there is no service, there cannot be a reward. The key to success therefore, is to make service your obsession. Begin by giving to others without expecting anything in return, and keep your good deeds to yourself without broadcasting them. Create a burning desire to help others regardless of what you have been through in your struggle for success. This will serve you such that it will become a legacy of your name and reputation long after you have departed this world.

  You can achieve any thing you want in life. All you need is desire which is proof that you have within you the power to win. Desire is a force for good. So resolve from now to live a life of service. All you need is to make whatever you are doing a pleasant experience. This will enable you find the way to your desired vocation. Seize whatever you are doing now as an opportunity to grow. Regard whatever situation you are in as being beneficial to your goals. Never think negatively for whatever positivity you shared with others grows and that which you withhold diminishes. Never let any disaster quell your desire to help others.

  The pursuit of excellence is infinitely greater than making a living. Wealth is more than money. Abundance is found in living a full, happy life. Money is just an icing on your pyramid of wealth. Learn to live a life of purpose by following these rules. One, do your best to never violate your honour by lying or cheating. These vices will confront you later in life. Two, keep clean in thought and body through clean habits, clean speech and associating with clean people. Three, stand up for the rights of others against evil influence. Be inspired by winners and muster courage to walk where angels fear to tread.

  Four, work faithfully and make the best of your opportunity. Save money to pay your bills at the same time, be generous to the needy. Five, be a friend to all and a brother to every living soul. Six, be prepared to know dangers, avoiding negligence and accepting your life’s responsibilities. Seven, be polite, humble and protective to the weak and helpless. Eight, smile while you can, do your work promptly, not shirking your duties. Nine, be loyal to all whom your loyalty is due, be loyal to members of your family, the firm for which you work, and your country.

  Ten, respect all duly constituted authorities and obey all that which does not violate your moral code. Eleven, do your duty to God and your country, help others at all times, keep yourself physically strong, mentally awake and morally straight. It is apt to ask when is time to stop giving and serving. The answer is just keep giving till Jehovah stops giving you. That was the way firefighters, the police and emergency workers acted on 11 September 2001 in the United States. That is the barometer for truly serving. Finally, learn as if knowledge alone could secure your abundance.

  Our champion today is John Marshall, the fourth Chief Justice of the United States and the founder of the American system of Constitutional Law, including the doctrine of judicial review. Marshall’s first great case in more than 30 years of service was Marbury versus Madison (1803) which established the Supreme Court’s right to state and expound constitutional law. His most important decision in exercising this authority was in McCullock versus Maryland (1819), which upheld the authority of Parliament to create the Bank of the United States.

  During his tenure, Marshall participated in more than a thousand decisions, writing 519 of them personally. John Marshall was the eldest of 15 children of Thomas Marshall and Mary Keith Marshall. He was raised in Fauquier county in Virginia where he later lived among extensive properties his father acquired. He was self educated with occasional instruction afforded by a visiting clergyman who lived with his father for a year.

  In 1775, Marshall as lieutenant joined his father in the Virginia regiment, which enabled him to participate in the U.S. war of Independence. He joined the Continental Army in 1776, serving under George Washington for three years. Marshall’s career in the law dates from 1780 when he was licensed to practise law. He was elected to the Virginia House of Delegates in 1782 and 1784. He was married to Mary Ambler in 1783. It was through his effort as delegate that caused Virginia to ratify the Federal Constitution. He became leader of the Federalists in the Virginia House of Delegates.

  Marshall declined an appointment to replace Justice James Wilson at the Supreme Court in order to run for the House of Representatives. He was elected in 1799 as a Federalist. However Marshall became the secretary of state in 1800. When the chief justice resigned later that year, and John Adams was defeated for Presidential re-election, Adams nominated Marshall to the senate as chief justice. The last Federalist senate confirmed Marshall in 1801.

  As chief justice, Marshall provided qualities that were admirably suitable for the growth of a powerful arm of government. Before Marshall, it was the custom of the Supreme Court as in England for each justice to deliver an opinion. However, at Marshall’s instance, this practice changed. Thereafter, there was only one single opinion from the Supreme Court. The new practice contributed to making the court a more effective institution. And when opinions were cast in Marshall’s clear and compelling statement the growth of the court’s authority was assured.

  Marshall lived a life of contentment. His wife bore him 10 children, four of whom died in childhood. He enjoyed the companionship of fellow lights but died suddenly a few years after his wife in 1835 at the age of 80.