Ogboli seeks to succeed Uduaghan

Ogboli seeks to succeed Uduaghan

By Bayo Ogunmupe

A business mogul and human rights activist, Charles Ogboli has declared his aspiration to succeed Emmanuel Uduaghan as the next governor of Delta State.

  Ogboli, who is also the chairman of Ecovat Petroleum, made this declaration at Asaba recently.

  When asked why he had chosen the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) as his political platform the legal luminary said, he chose the PDP because during his tour of the states he discovered the  state PDP is the best managed in Nigeria. Ogboli said that that realization gave him the encouragement to choose the ruling centre-right PDP.

  According to the Aniocha born businessman, his intention to vie for governorship seat was born out of his passion to see a prosperous Delta State among the oil producing states of the federation.

  The gubernatorial aspirant then called on the people to shun money politics in order to elect a credible governor who will sustain the progress Uduaghan has made in Delta State.

  “Electing a credible person who will sustain the progress of the state is the reason I am presenting myself for the great task”, he said.

Nnoli's Book to Lift Job-Seekers' Employment Prospects

By Bayo Ogunmupe

IN the aftermath of the 2008 world economic recession, people have lost their jobs and many more are looking for jobs due to Nigeria's import-oriented society. Which is why the publication of You're Hired: Making The Best of Job Interviewsi (Author House, Bloomington, U.S.; 2013) by Harry Nnoli is very timely. Indeed, in the future, it will be all the more imperative that there will be more qualified graduates than jobs in an import-dependent country like Nigeria.

Unemployment will persist in Nigeria for decades because employers are not interested in job-seekers, rather entrepreneurs are looking to engage problem solvers and solution providers. Thus, job seekers will continue to suffer despite having necessary skills. Unless job-seekers embrace self-employment, import substitution, small and medium enterprises, they will continue to wallow in poverty. Which is why a new orientation to employment is necessary.

For a job seeker to gain a job successfully, he must show that he is the right person the employer needs. This book is a guide to professional in making the best of job interviews. This book shows that a candidate's qualifications might get him an interview, but securing the job requires much more than gaining the employer's boardroom. You are Hired provides the three strategies for getting hired. It shows how to identify the right qualities required for any job interview. It identifies the most appropriate responses to interview questions. The book exhibits materials such as practice worksheets to help the job seeker or reader land a job.

You're Hired has four parts, eight chapters, an introduction and a conclusion; eight appendices and a total of 150 pages. The book has been segmented in four parts, each of which you need for success at the next interview. The first part establishes the fundamentals for securing your dream job. These include defining your value proposition, writing a winning resume and harnessing the power of your imagination.

The second segment prepares you to take on any job interview. It helps you to organize yourself, detailing three key strategies for getting hired. The third part of the book focuses on the best answers to typical interview questions. The final part of the book concentrates on making the right choices after securing the job. The appendices afford you the opportunity to practice specifically for interview with the worksheets provided alongside other relevant details which are very useful.

A particularly interesting section is the concluding chapter of the book. There, the author, Harry Nnoli, quotes an aphorism by Henry Ford, the American car magnate of the 19th century. He said, "If money is your hope for independence you will never have it. The only real security that a man will have in this world is a reserve of knowledge, experience and ability."

Therefore, the only way to secure a job is first you become a person who can add value to the organization. Until you can demonstrate to your prospective employer that you are the solution he needs, you are not ever likely to become an employee. Consider the story of Edwin Barnes whose desire to work for Thomas Edison was definite. He didn't know dison personally or have enough money to pay his railway fare to Orange, New Jersey, where Edison's company was situated.

When he finally got to Orange Barnes did not say, "I will try to induce Edison to give me a job." He said, "I will see Edison and put him on notice that I have come to go into business with him." A few years after he started work as a floor cleaner with Edison, his break came and he became a millionaire salesman who helped many people benefit from Edison's dictation machines. He was so good at selling the machines that it led to the nationwide slogan, Made by Edison, sold by Barnes."

There are seven elements of success. They were responsible for transforming Barnes from a poor floor cleaner to becoming the most capable salesman Edison ever knew. His success is attributable to traits that propel people in life. These traits made Edwin Barnes see the potential of Edison's machines when others doubted their profitability. They are one, Barnes knew exactly what he wanted to accomplish. Two, he was willing to start at the bottom in order to gain expertise and exposure.

Three, he had dogged determination to bring his goals to reality. Four, he created and seized opportunities. Five, in alignment with his goals, he found a way to help other people become more successful. Six, he made himself invaluable at his work. Seven, he was committed to providing customers with excellent service. The author, Harry Nnoli is a management consultant and motivational speaker. He has many years of experience in sales and marketing. He retired as a chief executive of a multinational corporation. He founded Smiles Training and Consulting Company and hosts Positive Difference, a motivational programme on radio. He brings a balanced perspective to personal and professional social development in Nigeria.

Making The Best Of Job Interviews

Making The Best Of Job Interviews

BY BAYO OGUNMUPE

IN the aftermath of the 2008 world economic recession, people have lost their jobs and many more are looking for jobs due to our import oriented society. Which is why the publication of You’re Hired, making the best of Job Interviews; Author House, Bloomington, USA, 2013, by Harry Nnoli is very timely. Indeed, in the future, it will be all the more imperative that there will be more qualified graduates than jobs in our import dependent country.

  Unemployment will persist in Nigeria for decades because employers are not interested in job seekers, rather entrepreneurs are looking to engage problem solvers and solution providers. Thus, job seekers will continue to suffer despite having necessary skills. Unless job seekers embrace self employment, import substitution small and medium enterprises, they will continue to wallow in poverty. Which is why a new orientation to employment is necessary.

  For a job seeker to gain a job successfully, he must show that he is the right person the employer needs. This book is a guide to professional in making the best of job interviews. This book shows that a candidate’s qualifications might get him an interview, but securing the job requires much more than gaining the employer’s boardroom. You are Hired provides the three strategies for getting hired. It shows how to identify the right qualities required for any job interview. It identifies the most appropriate responses to interview questions. The book exhibits materials such as practice worksheets to help the job seeker or reader land a job.

  You’re Hired has four parts, eight chapters, an introduction and a conclusion; eight appendices and a total of 150 pages. The book has been segmented in four parts, each of which you need for success at the next interview. The first part establishes the fundamentals for securing your dream job. These include defining your value proposition, writing a winning resume and harnessing the power of your imagination.

  The second segment prepares you to take on any job interview. It helps you to organize yourself, detailing three key strategies for getting hired. The third part of the book focuses on the best answers to typical interview questions. The final part of the book concentrates on making the right choices after securing the job. The appendices afford you the opportunity to practice specifically for interview with the worksheets provided alongside other relevant details which are very useful.

  A particularly interesting section is the concluding chapter of the book. There, the author, Harry Nnoli, quotes an aphorism by Henry Ford, the American car magnate of the 19^th century. He said, ‘‘If money is your hope for independence you will never have it. The only real security that a man will have in this world is a reserve of knowledge, experience and ability.”

  Therefore, the only way to secure a job is first you become a person who can add value to the organization. Until you can demonstrate to your prospective employer that you are the solution he needs, you are not ever likely to become an employee. Consider the story of Edwin Barnes whose desire to work for Thomas Edison was definite. He didn’t know Edison personally or have enough money to pay his railway fare to Orange, New Jersey, where Edison’s company was situated.

  When he finally got to Orange Barnes did not say, ‘‘I will try to induce Edison to give me a job.” He said, ‘‘I will see Edison and put him on notice that I have come to go into business with him.” A few years after he started work as a floor cleaner with Edison, his break came and he became a millionaire salesman who helped many people benefit from Edison’s dictation machines. He was so good at selling the machines that it led to the nationwide slogan, Made by Edison, sold by Barnes.”

  There are seven elements of success. They were responsible for transforming Barnes from a poor floor cleaner to becoming the most capable salesman Edison ever knew. His success is attributable to traits that propel people in life. These traits made Edwin Barnes see the potential of Edison’s machines when others doubted their profitability. They are one, Barnes knew exactly what he wanted to accomplish. Two, he was willing to start at the bottom in order to gain expertise and exposure.

  Three, he had dogged determination to bring his goals to reality. Four, he created and seized opportunities. Five, in alignment with his goals, he found a way to help other people become more successful. Six, he made himself invaluable at his work. Seven, he was committed to providing customers with excellent service. The author, Harry Nnoli is a management consultant and motivational speaker. He has many years of experience in sales and marketing. He retired as a chief executive of a multinational corporation. He founded Smiles Training and Consulting Company and hosts Positive Difference, a motivational programme on radio. He brings a balanced perspective to personal and professional social development in Nigeria.

Success Comes From Visualizing Your Vision

On The Path Of Winners

BY BAYO OGUNMUPE

Success Comes From Visualizing Your Vision

YOU possess and you have available to you unlimited mental powers. You are an average person because you are unaware of the treasures in your mind. When you begin to unleash the power of your subconscious you will often achieve more in a year than most people achieve in a lifetime. Your ability to visualize is a most powerful faculty. Your success begins with improvements in your mental pictures. You are what you are and where you are today because of the mental pictures you carry around in your vision.

  As you change your mental pictures on the inside, your world on the outside will begin to change to correspond to your mental pictures. Visualization activates the law of attraction, which draws into your life the people, the circumstances and resources that you need to achieve your goals. Visualization also activates the law of correspondence, which says ‘‘As withing, so without.” As you visualize by procuring mental pictures on the inside, your world on the outside like mirror begins to change.

  Just as you become what you think so you become what you visualize most of the time as well. Albert Einstein, the most valuable genius of the 20^th Century said, ‘‘Imagination is more important than facts.” Napoleon Bonaparte, Europe’s only emperor said, ‘‘Imagination rules the world.” Napoleon Hill, prolific writer and man of letters said, ‘‘Whatever the mind of man can conceive and believe, it can achieve.”

  The most common characteristic of leaders throughout history is vision. They often visualize and imagine an ideal future years in advance of its becoming reality. That was the way pharaohs of Egypt built the pyramids and Walt Disney clearly saw a happy luxuriant amusement park many years before Disneyland was built. Anything worthwhile in life begins with its mental picture. Naturally, you are always visualizing every blessed day as you go about making a living and making choices.

  It is essential that you learn to manage this your visualizing. You can do the managing and control by focusing it on achieving the goals that are very important to you. People become champions by visualizing the kind of success they want to enjoy in advance. They see the success they desire in advance.

  For unsuccessful people however, this works to their detriment. They always visualize their experiences of failure. As a result when they go into the new experience, their subconscious have been preprogrammed for failure rather than success. But your self image determines everything. Your self image is the mental pictures you feed your mind prior to any event. However, you have complete control over your mental pictures.

  You should choose to feed your mind with positive and exciting success images. Everything that you have achieved in life is the result of the use of visualization. Everything that you visualized positively came true for you. So, take control of your mental pictures. You have been using the power of visualization throughout your life, so focus it on achieving your goals. Make sure your images are focused continually on what you want and the person that you want to be.

  The first president of the United States, George Washington, considered by historians as the most indispensable man for the success of the American revolution. Washington was born in a small house and raised with little advantages. But because he was ambitious, he had to mold himself and shape his character in order to attain greatness. Not having children, he can only perpetuate his name by being famous. His guide was a book with 130 rules of manners and deportment. He learned his rules by reading and repetition. He eventually committed these rules to memory.

  At the time Washington became a powerful figure in the American Revolution, he was described by the British as the most courtly and gentlemanly man in the America colonies. So like Washington, develop your own character by developing within yourself a series of key virtues such as sincerity, humility, temperance, discipline and honesty. Over time these mental pictures of yourself will soon become deeply impressed on your subconscious whereby the mannerisms and yourself will become one.

  You are what you can be. Piero Ferucci, in his book, What We May Be, said we can develop any quality we desire by imagining that we had it already. Read about such a quality, learn about it and visualize it. See and think about yourself as you can be. Gradually, you will become that new person. The four parts of visualization are one, frequency, meaning the number of times that you visualize your particular goal as achieved. Two, the duration of the mental image, the length of time that you can hold the picture in your mind each time you replay it. Three, vividness is the third element of visualization. There is a direct correlation between how clearly you see your goal or the result in your mind and how quickly it comes into your reality. Finally, intensity is the last element of visualization. This is the amount of emotion that you attach to the visual image of your goal. If your emotion is intense enough and your image is clear enough, your goal will immediately come true.

  Our champion this week is Alistair Cooke, the British born American journalist and commentator, best known for his insightful interpretation of American history and culture. Born in Manchester, U.K., in November 1908. The son of a Wesleyan Methodist preacher, Cooke read theatre arts at Jesus College, Cambridge and graduated first class in 1930. Later he won a Commonwealth scholarship to study theatre in the United States, first at Yale University (1932-33), then at Harvard University (1933-34).

  Alistair Cooke’s nationwide U.S. travels had a profound influence on his professional life. Following a stint as a Hollywood script writer, he returned to England to become a film critic of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), he later served as the London correspondent of the U.S. National Broadcasting Company (NBC).

  In 1937, he returned to the U.S. to settle in New York City. He became an American citizen in 1941, and started a commentary on American affairs on BBC radio, Letter from America, broadcast from 1946 till he died in 2004. Alisfair Cooke’s America surveyed 500 years of American history in an eclectic and highly coherent narrative. The book was a bestseller. His other works include the critical biography of Douglas Fairbanks, based on his coverage of a celebrated Congressional Investigation. He wrote scores of books and films. He was one of the greatest journalists of the 20^th cent

Overcoming The Challenges Of Our Existence

On The Path Of Winners

BY BAYO OGUNMUPE

Overcoming The Challenges Of Our Existence

SATURDAY the 27^th of September 2014 was an environmental sanitation day in Lagos. As such the streets were jam packed in bid to honour an invitation to attend a symposium in Ikoyi on that day. Nonetheless, the symposium went ahead albeit late. Held at the old Ikoyi Hotel now Christened Golden Gate Restaurant, the seminar by the Rosicrucian order, AMORC was titled, Overcoming the Challenges of Mortal Existence. It was hosted by the Lagos Zone of the Order.

  The first of the AMORC mismatches was the choice of Dr. Frederick Fasheun of the Oodua Peoples Congress (OPC) as chairman. Expectedly he disappointed them by not attending. It was not expected of AMORC, an order that teaches its members to think and absorb wisdom of the ancients to choose such a controversial politician as its seminar chair. The OPC isn’t only controversial in a federal republic, its cohabitation with the Unity Party of Nigeria is all the more untenable among Nigeria’s score of political parties.

  At all events, the seminar discussed through a panel of discussants the mortal existence of man, the sources of the challenges facing humanity, the solutions and optimizing the spiritual gains of man’s existence. The opinions tendered made interesting listening occasioning several guffaws and humorous excitement. During questions and answers, the press was allowed to ask questions. My question was not answered satisfactorily.

  The question was: Why is the path of an average Nigerian billionaire dogged with fraud and dishonesty? Put another way, why is the path of an average rich man in Nigeria dogged with fraud and dishonesty unlike in the United States where the state declares a person a millionaire based on his tax returns and his patents. Apart from Frater Johnson Ikube, the Lagos Zonal grand councilor of AMORC, in his address on mortal existence, no other speaker gave us an inspiring speech.

  In his speech, Ikube averred that we must learn to pray and seek to find and obey the will and the laws of Jehovah God. But as an answer to my question, the panelist who volunteered to answer it said he found nothing reprehensible in the behavior of Nigerian money bags. Nonetheless, I found solace in the Rosicrucian worldview that difficulties are often necessary for us, that though they seem like setbacks, but that they are real opportunities to learn lessons and remove obstacles to our desires.

  However, as it often happens to me, the answer to my question came dramatically via a radio programme of the Inspiration FM. The sermon was given by a Ghanaian pastor, the Reverend Mensah Otobil as I heard it relayed by radio. Accordingly, to the pure, all things are pure but to those different, those without belief, nothing is pure. Thus, the state you are into influences your actions. To the pure everything is pure. To the impure, if you placed him in a holy place, he will pollute the holiness of such a place. For the pure person, he will sanctify a holy place.

  In the same vein, the mindset is a product of a worldview. Whereas, a worldview is a set of spectacles. Every human being has a worldview. One’s worldview determines his outlook. The worldview is the way a community looks at the world. It is out of the worldview of an individual that his mindset evolves.

  A mindset is basically the way you understand and respond to whatever is happening around you. Your worldview determines the way you deal with life. There are three different mindsets. First, are the people who have fixed mindsets. Such people have a fixed position on the sphere of the wife in a marriage. There is the mindset that denies respect to a married woman in the family where the world-view do not respect women.

  Secondly, there is the mindset of the double mind. Here, a double mind is the opposite of the fixed mind because the double mind has no clear position on any issue. He cannot make up his mind on any matter. James 1: 6: 2-8 describes a double minded person as a wave of the sea tossed by the wind. Finally, the growth mind is the open mind whereby a person freely adjusts to the circumstances of his life. The growth mind is the mindset of a godly person.

  Thus, it is the mindset of the Nigerian moneybag that prevents him from paying his taxes. According to Pastor Mensah, that would be the mindset of one with a fixed worldview. In this seventh decade of my earthly existence, I have come across Christians who were so selfish that they peopled their media organizations with only members of their denominations, leading to the failure of their companies and losing millions of naira therefrom.

  In the same way, I have worked with Moslems who alienated members of their families and died in the process of hoarding money stolen from the state. In the end, I have found the Jehovah Witnesses nearest to what God wants us to do to one another in the course of our earthly existence. Which is why lapses among the Rosicrucians did not come to me as a surprise. In Nigeria, we have such a warped worldview that we could not but live in poverty in the middle of plenty.

  Out champion for this week is Herbert Spencer, the English sociologist and philosopher who was an early advocate of the evolution theory and achieved an influential synthesis of knowledge, advocating the pre-eminence of the individual over society and of science over religion. Spencer’s greatest work was The Synthetic Philosophy (1896).

  Born in Derby, England in 1820, Herbert Spencer’s father, William Spencer, was a schoolmaster whose, dissenting religious views influenced Herbert’s nonconformity which led him to abandon the Christian faith. Herbert Spencer declined an offer from his uncle the very reverend Thomas Spencer, to send him to Cambridge and in consequence his higher education was largely the result of his own reading. Briefly he was a schoolteacher and from 1837 to 1841 a railway civil engineer.

  In 1842, he contributed letters republished as a pamphlet, The Proper Sphere of Government to The Nonconformist magazine. Later he became a subeditor of The Economist. From this safe vantage point Spencer wrote his opinions on sociology, psychology and philosophy. His strong scientific orientation led him very far in an era plagued by pessimism. Spencer’s synthetization of science showed a sublime audacity that has not been repeated after him. He died in Brighton in 1903.

How Being Flexible Aids Success

On The Path Of Winners

BY BAYO OGUNMUPE

How Being Flexible Aids Success

IT is in the nature of life that some people will be successful while others fail. Some will be billionaires, live better lives, enjoy greater fulfillment and satisfaction, live happier love lives and contribute more to society than others. Moreover others with promising careers end up as second rate and also ran mediocres.

  At the onset of this new millennium, the Menninger Institute of Leadership, Kansas City in the USA, conducted a study on what qualities would be most important for success and happiness in this 21^st century? After painstaking research, the enumerators concluded that the most important single quality that you can develop, in this time of rapid technological change, is flexibility. Thus, being flexible is the greatest facilitator of change for success in today’s world.

  The antonym of flexibility is rigidity – meaning: an unwillingness to change in the face of new and overwhelming information or circumstances. In creative problem solving, the opposite of flexible thinking is fixed or mechanical thinking. Failing to approach life with an open mind is to react predictably in every situation. Your being flexible is therefore very essential if you wish to transcend mediocrity.

  Today, the speed of change is inexorable. Now we are living in an age where change is taking place at a faster rate than ever before in human history. Surprisingly, the rate of change is increasing every year. Besides, change today is not only faster, it is unpredictable since it isn’t following a straight line but starting, stopping and moving in new directions.

  Thus, change is beckoning on us from all directions, and we must be flexible and adapt or fail. Being unpredictable, change often forces us to scrap plans as a result of an unexpected development coming from an unexpected direction. Therefore, we have to remain flexible in our thinking and actions. For those with rigid beliefs, change causes enormous stress. They have been ensnared by the comfort of the workplace, with their current methods and processes, change causes them pain.

  However, three factors drive change nowadays, each of them multiplying by each other to increase the speed of change. The first change factor is the explosion of information and knowledge in every area of human endeavour. One new discovery in our competitive marketplace can change the dynamics of your business overnight. A major industry can be rendered obsolete by a new product or service that achieves the same result faster, cheaper or easier than before.

  A critical event, such as the September 11, 2001 US terrorist attack, the market disaster such as the Wall Street scandals which caused the 2008 World Economic Depression, can transform the entire business environment. For example, when the Soviet Union dissolved in 1989, the Iron Curtain came down and the Cold War ended, the defence industry – the weapon manufacturers across the world was jolted into panic. Thousands of highly trained and skilled executives were laid off permanently. An entire industry was shut down and certain nation states went into recession.

  The effects of change are always overwhelming and unavoidable. Only the flexible are able to respond effectively. Which is why you should be open minded and flexible. You must be constantly open and alert to new ideas, information and knowledge that can help you in your business or in the achievement of your goals. You can make a fortune with one new idea. Leaders are readers, it is essential that you keep abreast of new technologies in your field. Read all publications in your field. Read the best selling books in your field. Attend seminars and conferences relevant to your field.

  The second factor driving change is the rapid growth and development of new technology. Every new piece of scientific knowledge leads to advancement in technology. This allows business to be done faster, cheaper and easier. This means whatever works now is already obsolete. Today’s new technology has a shelf life of six months, before it is replaced by a gadget that will do the job faster and cheaper. If you refused to adapt, your competitors will soon put you out of business.

  Being in business today is an endless game of leapfrog. You have to leapfrog over your competitors by serving customers faster, better and cheaper. Your competitors in turn leapfrogs over you with newer, better or faster products or service. Also, your competitors imitating you, will force you out of your comfort zone to your disconfeiture.

  Finally, the third element driving change is competition. Competitors are more creative today than before. They hire solution providers not mediocres. To survive the tough and intense competition, you have to become even more focused and flexible. L earn to say, ‘‘I was wrong.” Admit your errors promptly. Mediocres use eighty per cent of their time covering up their own wrongdoing. People fail because of their refusal to admit errors. It isn’t a flaw to make mistakes. Deal with the world as it is, not the way you wish it were or the way it might have been in the past. Face the truth, be open to new realities and listen to your customers. Accept the fact that you may achieve your greatest success in an area very different from what you planned. Being flexible alone enables you to triumph.

  Our champion today is William Ewart Gladstone, the British orator and statesman. In a career spanning 60 years, he served as prime minister four separate times 1868-74; 1880-85; February to July 1886, and 1892 to 1894. Also more than any person, he served as chancellor of the Exchequer (Minister of Finance) four times. Gladstone was also Britain’s oldest Prime Minister, he resigned for the final time when he was 84 years old.

  Born in December 1809, Gladstone died in May 1898 aged 88 years and serving as premier for a total of 13 years. He entered Parliament in 1832. Beginning as a High Tory, Gladstone served in the Cabinet of Sir Robert Peel, becoming a Peelite after the split of the Conservatives. In 1859, the Peelites merged with the Whigs and the Radicals to form the Liberal Party. As chancellor, Gladstone was committed to low public spending and to electoral reform, introducing secret voting.

  After his electoral defeat in 1874, Gladstone resigned as leader of the Liberal Party. He formed his second ministry in 1880, passing the Third Reform Act. Back in government in 1886, Gladstone proposed Irish Home Rule, which was rejected by Parliament. He formed his last ministry in 1892 at the age of 82. Gladstone resigned in 1894 in opposition to increased naval expenditures.

  Gladstone is famous for his oratory, his religiosity, his liberalism, his rivalry with the Conservative Leader, Benjamin Disraeli. He had poor relations with Queen Victoria who once complained, ‘‘Gladstone always addresses me as if I were a public meeting.: Gladstone is consistently ranked as one of Britain’s greatest Prime Ministers. Gladstone was a lifelong bibliophile to the extent that in his lifetime, he read more than 20,000 books. He eventually came to own a library of over 32,000 books. Along with Otto von Bismarck who unified Germany, Winston Churchill, who won World War II for the world, and Ronald Reagan who dispersed the Soviet Union, a study of the legacy of Gladstone will convince you that older people make better leaders.

Be Not Ensnared By Comfort

On The Path Of Winners

BY BAYO OGUNMUPE

Be Not Ensnared By Comfort

LONELINESS leads to psychosis. In order to avoid such illness, you need a soul mate. But how do you find your soul mate? Indeed, casualness brings casualties. If you don’t have a clear idea of what you want, you will end up getting a substitute. The way to finding what you want is to write out a complete description of your ideal person. You should be clear about the age, temperament, personality, values and sense of humour of your beloved.

  In every area of your life, you must use visualization to make it better. Similarly, idealization involves creating an ideal picture of your career. Indealizing is another version of visualizing.  But beware, you cannot hit a target that you cannot see. Once you are absolutely clear about what you want, you will ultimately achieve your goal. As with goal setting, the best times to visualize are late in the evening and early in the morning.

  When you visualize your goals as if they were already achieved before you go to sleep, your subconscious accepts them at a deeper level. Your subconscious then adjusts your words and actions during the day so that you do and say more and more of what will make your goals into realities. Another time to visualize is first thing in the morning. Clear mental pictures of your goals enhances the chances of their coming into reality. Make your life a continuous process of visualization by visioning your ideal future.

  Make visualization a regular part of your life. Regularly create exciting mental pictures of yourself and your life exactly as you want them to be. Have implicit faith that your vision will materialize exactly when you are ready. Imagine you had just moved into a new house. But just before he departed, the previous tenant explained to you privately that there was a room at the basement that housed a most amazing computer. In this computer, you could programme any goal into this computer and it would give you exactly the right answer at the right time. It works every time. And every answer would turn out to be perfectly correct.

  You imagine what an incredible difference this facility would make in your life. Indeed, such a computer exists. It is in your mind, it is called the superconscious mind, the active part of the subconscious. It is the most powerful human faculty ever discovered in history. And you can tap into it any time you want. I have always emphasized in my pieces that you become what you think about the most and that whatever your mind can conceive and believe, you can achieve.

  Also, I have dealt with the importance of the absolute clarity in determining what you want to be, have and do. In each of these cases, I was referring indirectly to the proactive power of the superconscious mind. The existence of this active layer of the mind is the secret of the ages. It has been known for aeons of time. But only in the last one hundred years that the knowledge of the superconscious mind has become generally available, and then to only a few people.

  Sigmund Freud, the Austrian neurologist and founder of psychotherapy discovered that the mind has three layers. One, the ego, was described as the part of the mind that is alert, aware, deals with the external world and takes action. It is also known as the conscious mind.

  Two, Freud’s id is the unconscious or the subconscious. It is the storehouse of memories and feelings. It functions automatically to keep our thoughts and feelings consistent with our past experiences.

  Three, the third layer of thought was what Freud called the superego, called the oversoul by Ralph Waldo Emerson. Alfred Adler called it the collective unconscious. They also refer to it as Infinite Intelligence. The Italian psychologist, Roberto Assagioli called it the superconscious mind. It is a great universal power you can access to achieve any goal. It has been reported that virtually all successful people of the world used it continually throughout their careers and credited it with their most outstanding breakthroughs.

  Whenever you have suddenly originated a great idea or insight that solved a problem or resolved a dilemma, you have had a superconscious experience. The great musicians tapped into and used their superconscious mind. The law of superconscious activity is this: any thought, plan, goal or idea held continuously in the conscious mind must perforce be brought into reality by the superconscious mind.

  Our champion this week is Walter Lippmann, the American journalist, commentator and author, who in a 60 year career made himself the most widely respected political columnist in the world. Lippmann was born in September 1889 in New York City to Jacob and Daisy Baum Lippmann, an upper middle class German Jewish family.

  Lippmann coined and conceptualized ‘‘Cold War,” he also coined the term ‘‘stereotype” in its modern psychological meaning. He criticized media and democracy in his newspaper columns and books, notably in his book: Public Opinion (1922). Lippmann’s views contrasted with the contemporaneous writing of the philosopher John Dewey. Lippmann won two Pulitzer prizes, one for his columns and the other for his 1961 interview of the Soviet premier, Nikita Khruschev.

  Lippmann entered Harvard University at 17, he studied under the philosophers Geroge Santayana and William James, concentrating on philosophy and languages. As a journalist, media critic and philosopher, Lippmann tried to reconcile the tension between liberty and democracy. In 1913 he joined others to found The New Republic magazine. In World War One, Lippmann was commissioned a captain in the Army. He was assigned to the intelligence section on the staff of Colonel Edward House. He returned to the U.S.A in 1919. Through Colonel House, he became an adviser to President Woodrow Wilson, drafting Wilson’s Fourteen Points speech.

  On journalism, Lippmann saw the purpose of journalism as ‘‘intelligence work. Though a journalist by profession, he did not think news and truth are the same. To him, democracy was deteriorating, with voters largely ignorant about issues and lacking the competence to participate in public life. He argued that distorted information was inherent in human mind.

  In his most influential book, Public Opinion (1922, 1956 and 1965) Lippmann asserted that ordinary citizens were no longer able to judge public issues rationally. In The Phantom Public (1925) Lippmann rejected government by the elite by recognizing that the class of experts were outsiders in politics hence, not capable of effective action. He died in 1974.