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Present Location: Pacific Luck Hotel, Down Town Shanghai, China. I have been out of Nigeria for a while and my wife has been calling me to come back home; in her exact words “come back home, please (stressing the please)”. I like it when she says please because it kind of put me in control; her lordship is actually begging me. That’s empowering at the same time interesting; I am the gee, the man and her voltron (lol). It’s good to be in control but don’t mind my above joke, I am the one that needs and misses her most because she is my rock. The “busyness” of my project has actually engulfed my mind so it seems she is missing me more but that’s really not true; I have truly missed her because she is my best friend, my counselor, my lover and my mother. I always remember the first day I met her; it was a thunderbolt of 7 thousand megawatt; my eyes were fixated on those large brown eyes light peach. I knew there and then that she was the one; I couldn’t explain it but I knew. Series of events after this extraordinary moment has proven my decision. When I remember those numerous events; my gratitude to God has been overwhelming. I really despise composing text messages (I rather call) but I was moved to compose one for my one and only lover: 

 

 “I thank God for giving me the most understandable and loving partner. Where would I be if God has not placed you in my life? I really really really love you.” 

 

 I am not much of a romantic but I am forced to be one when I think of the numerous events we have been through. Thinking of my wife in this fashion especially in this luxurious penthouse suite overlooking the city of Shanghai through a sight-seeing glass forces me to question the importance of money. I realize that money has no intrinsic value; it is only symbolic to acquire our desire. Nobody is interested in money itself but the value of what it can procure therefore it has limited function. You do not go to work or do business because you want money; you are only interested in what money can do for you; feed, clothe, shelter, pay bills, live luxurious life, etc. Therefore, it is not money we want but those things that we perceive that money can buy. If we remove money from the equation, do you think we can get what we desire without money? If our mind believes that money fuels our desire then we are seriously going have issues with being wealthy. I have come to a personal conclusion that the reason why we have the poor to rich ratio at such a high end is because the poor persistently believe that you need your personal money to get what you desire while the rich believe you can get what you desire with or without personal money. There is a big difference between this two and I would love to elaborate further: 

 

 

My wife and I plan to procure one of the flats in 1004flats in VI; we were told to bring 15 million naira. She looked at me and said “it’s time to start saving”, I immediately corrected her statement by saying “it’s time to start investing”. The difference between the statements is the way we were looking at it; she believes we have to put some money away for a period of time till it accumulates to 15 million before we can acquire the flat. I told her all we needed to do was look for a mortgage bank (which we already have) to equity-finance the project then pay in the sequential months. By doing this we have money to invest in other projects. She says what if the investment we divert the remaining money fails and the interest rate is high on the loan; we would be pressured and may lose our collateral. I liked her line of thinking but unfortunately one can never get to the wealthy mentality through that. So I said:  

 

 1.      The investment can never fail; I can only lose some money if I made some error in judgment because I definitely would not divert the money into only one project and I definitely would not invest into something I am not familiar with. Even if I fail in one project, I would gain in another, the gain-lose outcome would clear out itself.2.      I am putting the loan into property; the property itself would stand as the collateral. I can always rent it out and use the money to finance the debt while my investment recovers from whatever crashes it. Remember when you rent in Nigeria, you collect large sums for two years including all the agreement and agency fee.3.      I am fortunate to have worked in the bank and I know firsthand that debt recovery is a night mare for bank workers. The bank workers would rather sit down with their debtors and see the best way to recover their money than outright sale of the collateral. 

 

 She immediately understood me and I could see the deep respect in her eyes for me. She immediately saw what I was seeing and knew there was no way we could lose out. I could feel the excitement in her voice when she started mentioning investments to place the “unused” money. What most people don’t know is that all the people you see owning one big company or the other or big time investors are big time debtors. They only use other peoples’ money to make money. It is not every Olu, Ngozi and Musa that can pull this off because for leverage to work it requires control. The only way you can get control is by investing in your mind about that particular investment. I got a call from a family friend in USA who wanted to invest in Nigeria based on the crippling worth of the US dollars. He called me after making his enquiries and was unhappy that the 6million naira he wanted to invest was going to give him 11% return if he fixed it for one year. He was skeptical about the stock market because he had a very bitter experience with it and does not trust company stocks for anything not after losing to Enron. He wanted to know if I knew any Government regulated institution that he could place his money and would give him a bigger return than the banks. I knew none in Nigeria so I told him about the Dubai Gold Commodity Exchange (DGCX) and that it was regulated by the Emirates Securities (ESCA – A UAE government regulated body) and all monies placed in DGCX are insured and re-insured by various insurance companies which I listed for him. I told him about a broker that can manage his portfolio in DGCX and give him a minimum of 20% return per annum and maximum of 40% per annum. All contracts would be signed by him and the broker and countersigned by DGCX. 

 

 He was very excited and told me he was going to ask his wife (based in Nigeria) to put 10 million in my account so I could facilitate it for him. I told him I would not be able to facilitate the transaction for him. He told me he would pay me a significant amount of money upfront to get it done. I told him it was not about the money for my services because as an introducing broker to DGCX, I have my commission in the transaction which was much bigger than what he was offering. I told him about so many people I knew personally that lost money last year in various scheme because they do not know how to control their leverage. I told him I would not be a party to people who ignorantly put their money in an investment vehicle without understanding the basics. The reasons why he got his fingers burnt in company shares were because he was not literate enough about the stock exchange. About 90% of those that place a position in the NSE (Nigerian Stock Exchange) do not know how it operates – all they know is the appreciation and depreciation of the stock price. They thrive on capital gain thus become gamblers or should I call it the official name – speculators. They do not know how to leverage on their stock to increase their wealth. I would personally not transact any business with anybody who does not know how the DGCX works and want to put their money because of a promise of 40%. The broker would send a report every day of how his money was transacted and if he does not understand what the broker was doing, how would he know when to pull off his funds or advise the broker on what to do.  

 

 He told me to send him materials to read on DGCX but unfortunately there was no free material he could read on it. I told him I was developing a manual; I would send it to him when I am done @ an affordable price. Since he was my family friend and I have a level of trust for him, I sent him the draft copy which he appreciated but was not happy with me. I know so many people are not happy with me this year because I refused to join one program/investment vehicle or the other. It’s not that I do not understand that I would make a lot of money from this program but how sure is this program. It is the degree of certainty that this program would not fail that discourages me from joining and subsequently promoting it. A lady friend of mine introduced me to a program where she earns 3.5K USD monthly since January and every time she wins, she sends me the proof which definitely triggers my greedy emotion but I know it is not a sure investment for me because I do not have control though it has leverage (using little to acquire much). For me to have control, I have to get exposed to it through reading it and gambling but even with that the program is not regulated so leaves a degree of  uncertainty. I may eventually join this program but I definitely would not promote it on this site maybe I would promote it on POeTSolvers Article Conference when I join. 

 

 All I am trying to pass across is that investing in your mind is the surest investment platform even if the investment vehicle is regulated or not. If you do not have control over any investment platform, you would eventually get your fingers burnt; you enter a cycle of emotional ups and down. Buying the 1004 flat with debt financing requires a lot of control and the ability to move in a preferred outcome. I have a friend of mine who was self employed; he was into selling any products that was brought from outside the country. Whenever I buy anything from outside the country to sell, he was the first person I call because he has the uncanny ability to sink any product. I called him for a meeting one day and asked why he has not considered travelling himself and expanding his margin. I was concerned for him because his wife was pregnant. He had never thought of it before which actually surprised me so I told him the requirements he needed to do international travel which was well within his means. He agreed that the requirements were within his means but he was afraid that it may not work out for him if he put his own personal resources. When I was in Guangzhou, I bought a PSP2 game console, to let my mind get acquainted with probable outcomes of investment or business. All games have probable outcome just like any investment; you may lose or win. There are certain steps you follow that makes you win and certain steps you follow that makes you lose. The more acquainted you are with a particular game, the more you are able to devise means to win. This is where control is obtained. When my friend said it would not work out, I was in utter shock because the most important part of international trade was sinking the product and this guy has the ability to get it done and he was afraid. Afraid of what? Then I explained to him the laws of probable outcome and the progressive use of control.  He was still not convinced because the next statement he uttered was a question “When next are you travelling so I can tell you the products to procure?”  

 

 

 I tell most people that ask me to counsel them on one thing or the other that I am not a superman just an ordinary man that invested in my mind. My mind is my sure investment and no investment vehicle can be compared to. My mind is also leverage because with a developing mind you really do not need much capital resources to get things done. When people tell me they do not have enough money to execute a particular project, I tell them about leverage. This is the basis of leverage investment and I have learnt its application from the bible

Five thousand guys were hungry and the disciples came to meet Jesus for the solution of how to feed them. The disciples immediately suggested money which they seem not to have. Jesus asked them to look within for any resources. When you do not have enough resources, you are expected to look within. A boy gave up five loaves and 2 fishes which was the only resources they have. You would definitely have something (no matter how small) that you can work on to achieve your aim. Jesus showed profound gratitude to his Maker for the five loaves and two fishes. We are expected to rejoice and be grateful for the resources that we have at hand. He then gave the disciples to share it amongst the five thousand people. You are expected to take those resources you have and put it into the project at hand. The five thousand people were filled and it remained twelve baskets. This is where most people get confused on how they can take the resources at hand to achieve the project they envision. I will take my time to explain this in subsequent write-ups. 

  

P.S. I am back in Nigeria at the moment but this article was written in China. I did not post it until now to prevent information overload. I have been laughing my heart out watching channel 198 on DSTV, please kindly watch with me; Adios my brothers and sisters.