I wanted to flow with the 2008/2018 comparison trend prevailing on social media, so I dug through the wormhole of the internet to uncover my 2008 pictures. Instead, I discovered my 2008 articles along with the pictures. I cannot believe I had time to write these lengthy inspiring articles. I have decided to post one 2008 article every month together with a 2008 picture. The first article below was published 17th January 2008 and the picture reveals a 2008 speaking engagement at Glory Christian Center. To capture the times, I decided not to edit the article.
It’s time for another jolly trip to financial literacy; this time I would attempt to open your eyes to spiritual elements that affect investment. They are leverages that are oblivious to average investors and mostly ignored. They are the foundation to all investments and mostly practiced by the greatest investors of all time. Like most of you are aware, Uncle Dipo is always very generous to reveal the secrets:
Understanding leverages is a very vital step to investment. Every big business and big investors are into leverage investment; they use other people’s resources to generate margins for themselves. This is very important to note if you want to achieve financial abundance and independence. The aforementioned definition is a Finance Perspective but in order to fully understand leverage and how it could help you on an individual level to attain financial freedom, we should explore the original use of leverage. What is leverage? Let’s look at the power of a lever pivoting about a point; how this tiny lever can be used to lift up a huge load. The lever reduces the energy that would have been expended to lift up the load so the unused energy can be used for other activities. This is the reality of leverage investment where you do not expend all your resources on one particular investment but are able to diversify into other investment portfolios using limited investments resources.
This simply means using little to gain much. The secret to doing this is the latency of the various elements involved. For example, if you are part of a work environment, investing in the job itself would not give you the necessary returns but investing in the people in the workplace would go a long way to produce constant returns to you. 80% of the people in the workplace invest in their job so always miss the mark while 20% invest in the people at the workplace so constantly get promoted. Although there are other factors that come to play in workplace success, the interpersonal relationship is king to all the elements of workplace success.
Now there is an evil I found amongst men; the inability to tell the truth to themselves “this is a true example of latency. I have got phone calls, emails and comments about people’s complaint “Dipo, why not write about other things apart from money?” Then one funny caller did something that made me laugh after uttering the aforementioned comment; she told me to call her back so she can expatiate on her comment. I asked her why she could not expatiate right away. She said she did not have money to buy air time. There and then I could not hold my laughter; I laughed so hard that tears strolled down my face. How can someone not have money to buy airtime and be wondering why I write about money. The truth of the matter was that she obviously did not know why I was laughing because she switched off her phone immediately which made me call her. She now started her tale on what and what she felt I should write about. Since I am Mr. Nice Guy (especially to ladies), I decided not to tell her why I was laughing.
I simply told her money affects every decision we make; it is the only thing that God knew a man would worship in lieu of God. Because we do not confront the allure of money, we tend to self deny how much it affects our everyday decision. People wake up at 4.00 a.m. to go to work and come back at 10.00 p.m. because of money. 98% of the workforce in Nigeria is there for the money. I have seen marriages fail because of money. I have seen ladies say they love a guy with all their heart but when the guy fails to secure a job after school, they immediately drift. Almost all university students in Nigeria are studying their preferred course based on money, the Nigerian huge crowds in US and UK embassy is premised on money, most people cannot give charity because they do not have money, etc. If money affects our lives so much why not write about it. The funny part is that most people deny their chase for money that it becomes a latent issue buried and almost not up for discussion.
100% of my write-up this year would be based on leverage investment except otherwise instructed by God. I would be opening you up to secrets of making money like I am about to do right now. It is very important that we gain mastery over money and make our crucial decisions independent of money. Just a little important diversion, the book of Revelation in the Bible revealed an economic crisis that may befall man in chapter 13 verse 11 to 18; it talked about obtaining a mark “666” which must differentiate those that are ready to stay in the economical earth system. Those without this mark would not be allowed jobs, commerce, trades, etc. The people in the club “666” would have to do atrocious things in order to join the club; this simply means these people would go against their conscience in order to be economically viable. To prevent this sort of thing from happening, you must be able to learn the ropes of creating money independent of external factors so no one can tell you to deaden your conscience in the quest for money. Please, kindly read this particular topic more than once to fully understand its implication. These are the five latent investment leverages:
1.The Mind:
“As a man thinks,…”
I asked an Engineer in the bank why he was working in the bank. He said he wanted money for his masters. So I told him he could get his masters done without money and he just could not understand. I asked him how many years he had been working in the bank and he said 3 years and he had been able to save 1.5 million Naira. Since I knew his academic profile, I was shocked that he could stay in one bank for that long in the name of “one day doing his masters”. I knew immediately that he had an issue with the mind viz-a-viz financial intelligence. So I asked him which school he wanted to go; he said he was not sure but he is working in a school in Malaysia. So I asked him how much longer did he think he was going to work to get the money he needed for the masters; he replied emphatically “I am going to be promoted soon and with that kind of money, I should be able to raise the five million Naira I needed for the masters in 3 years”.
Now the problem with this Engineer is that he did not know that he did not have to work for 6 years to get his Masters done; he needed to work on his mind for 1 month to get his Master’s program for free. This also applies to leverage investment; so many people place their monies in investment vehicles to be paid peanuts because of their mindset. The greatest investment you can do in this world is investing in your mind. Nothing in this world can compare to mind investment; it is what gives you financial sustenance and shaves a lot of heartaches when it comes to losing. Expose your mind every day to financial forums like this one; read, travel and expose your mind to possibilities. Every other thing can be snatched from you except your mind. Invest in it each day and it would empower you to recognize opportunity, therefore, giving room for leverage. The mind is one of the greatest leverage investments you can commit to though most Nigerian Youths fail to see this. The mind is inelastic; once it’s stretched it cannot regain its original form making it a viable investment vehicle. You can never lose by investing in the mind; you can only gain.
2.The Tongue
“So also the tongue is a small member and yet it boasts of greater things”
I have never known the power of the tongue until my year 2 university days when a couple of us had a routine of speaking words into our future. One of the words I normally proclaim during this confession session was the fact that “I cannot lie”. After 3 consistent weeks of speaking these words, I found it very difficult to lie even when the lying was going to favor me. I found out that the heart controls the body and the content of the heart is fueled by the tongue. Armed with this revelation, I was able to locate other words from Jesus that supported my claim; Jesus said: “It is not what enters a man that harms him; it is what comes out of the man that defiles him”.
It is invariably the tongue that controls the life of a man. James used the ship in a sea to explain this important revelation. He compared the rudder of the ship to the tongue. The rudder is what controls the ship; it is analogous to the steering of a car. No matter the waves, storm or external forces that influences the direction of the ship, the rudder keeps the ship in the planned direction it always wanted to go. Investing 15 minutes a day speaking great things to your future goes a long way to affect your life positively. It keeps your life in check and directs you to the direction you proclaim. This is latent leverage that is missed by most people and regarded as religious hocus pocus but those who use it are eating the fruits thereof.
3.The Talent
“The gift of a man makes room for him”
Most people intuitively know that it is what they are good at that would set them apart from others (common sense, right? Wrong). When external factors like money come to the equation, this type of reasoning is thrown away from our minds. What we fail to understand is that it is the constant honing of these talents that sets us apart in the world of investing. I really cannot blame the youths of today because the faults emanate from an early background where we are forced to be like others. A lady comes home with her report card; scores distinction in English and fails Arithmetic. She is immediately forced to work on her Arithmetic in order to be like others while these may seem logical; it is definitely a wrong approach to greatness. If the parents recognize that their daughter has a flair for English, they should invest all their resources to make sure no one can compare with her in the English Language then make sure she gets above pass mark in Arithmetic.
After reading and watching biographies of prominent men and women in the world today, I realized the parents focused on their strength from childhood. This is also imperative in the world of investing; invest in what aligns with your strength/ talent. If you are sales oriented, build on the power to convince people by joining Network Marketing; if you are very analytical, go for the stocks market, Forex, and futures market and improve on your analytical ability; if you are creative, join the league of setting up businesses; use your creativity to build core competency that sets you apart from competition, etc. There are many reasons why you should align your talent to your investment which includes:
1.If the investment does not work out economically, you would have improved your talent considerably making it a skill-set
.2. You cannot be a “guru” in all investment type; why not be the best in what aligns with your talent.
This is what stands you out amongst the rest. When investment is mentioned, Warren Buffet comes to mind; he aligns his talent to his investment and he is the second richest man in the US. He gave out the biggest charitable donation in the history of the world; 32.5 billion USD in 2006 and he was quoted saying “I do not like engaging in charity, I rather give the money to Bill and Melisa Gates to give out the money”. He knew his talent lies in squeezing money from people not in giving out money. Utilizing your talent gives you leverage.
- The People
“When did we feed and clothe you?”
Investing in people is so latent that most people obviously ignore it. People invest negatively with other people that they most of the time miss out on so many opportunities that they could have. Anybody that really matters to you should be highly invested on with time and gift. For most workers that make use of brokerage services for investment vehicle, your broker should be your best friend (not literarily); he would definitely make you richer than you can imagine with little attention given to him/her. He would remember you whenever there is an opportunity that can change your statues forever. I have people that work with me in business; I always make sure it’s a win-win business relationship. I always go the extra mile to make sure they win so they would always remain loyal. What I have done is simply deposited into their emotional bank account thereby creating leverage for my entire business venture.
In my former office, people wonder how I was able to keep my personal driver for so long and how he has been so loyal to me (Personal drivers are the hardest employees to keep). I just smile because they do not know that I invest heavily in him not just monetary but time and patience. I overlook his misgivings and encourage his strength with rewards. Just one month after I employed him, my salary was upgraded in the office; I upgraded his own salary too and he was very shocked. I remember buying an expensive wristwatch for myself in his presence and I asked him if he wanted the same thing. The shock in his face was just too obvious and I bought it for him. Whenever I travel out of the country, I make sure I buy things for his girlfriend. What do I gain by doing this? His Utmost loyalty which is the essential ingredient of an employee-employer relationship. My car has never visited the mechanic ever since I employed him; he makes sure everything in the car is fixed and also repairs my generator for free. The return on investing in people is huge.
5.The Family
“A man that doesn’t spend time with his family can never be a real man” – Don Corleone of Mario Puzo’s Godfather.
This is one of the greatest leverage in every investment. Spending time with your family is strong leverage to investment. Most people ignore this particular part of their lives and invest without their family. The Bible says it this way: If two shall agree as touching anything on this earth, it shall be approved by the heavens. Most people have misunderstood this for prayer; it is not about prayer but about an agreement between you and your spouse or anybody you have a strong covenant with. If both you and your partner (could be your brother/sister) do not come together and agree, you are underutilizing powerful leverage that is ignored by all. There is strength in the agreement of two than one; it is easier to bear losses if you are two instead of one. It is much fun to share your winnings instead of consuming it alone.
Most men prefer not to let their wives into their investment portfolio; I believe this is a huge mistake. They fear, she would make demands on trivial stuff when she knows the money he has. You must be open to your spouse concerning your finances and discuss all investment plans. When she makes demands on what the man considers trivial; set an example by not purchasing what she considers trivial; then it would be easier to tell her to sacrifice for the greater good.
