scgtb    Feb 16, 2014

Hi John,

Will you please give us an update on your loan? What's going on with your business?

Thank you,

Mike

John    Oct 3, 2013

met with someone this week who told me something that really got me thinking. He said that he envied people like me who are always upbeat and who have no problems in life. He said that life seemed to be imbalanced in how it dished out problems to people. He said that unlucky people like him seemed to have more problems hurled at them than lucky people like me. As I listened it suddenly occurred to him that he might indeed be speaking for many who attribute success or failure to luck. They have reduced life to a game of chance.

As I have said many times, there was a period in my life when I was the perfect picture of an unlucky person. I was so economically challenged that to get 50 shillings to move from point A to point B in a tuk tuk was on the same level as getting a flight to the moon – uphill! However, I did not dance to the tune that life was playing me trying to tell me that I was an unlucky person.

The first letter in the alphabet of luck is A for attitude. Even when I was down, I refused to see myself as an unlucky or cursed person but as a blessed person who was being offered a curse by life. The choice to take it or reject it was totally mine. The challenge is that a lot of people have accepted their current condition as a destination and not as a location en route to a greater place.

John    Sep 13, 2013

I am a passionate African and my singular purpose is to see to the transformation of Africa one mind at a time. I grew up in an environment and in an era where just coming out of colonial rule we saw nothing good in ourselves. We always looked across the seas for guidance. Everything black was bad and everything white was permissible. The bad person in the family was called the black sheep. A white lie was the permissible type of lie and for some of us we were so paranoid that if travelling by air and we peeped in and saw that the pilot was white, we relaxed but if it was a black pilot we prayed. All that was needed for a school to be termed international was to have a few foreign teachers and the most hilarious was when a tailor who had never seen an airport put up a sign that read ‘London trained tailor”. Perhaps the worst thing that happened to us was the fact that even though we had political independence we did not have mental and economic independence. That was then. Today through a lot of mental reconfiguration and through a lot of hard work now see a generation of Africans who are genuinely proud to be African. There is hardly no field today where we don’t see what I call the Africanization of the African mind to compete on a global playing field not as clones of anyone but as authentic Africans with globally respected excellence.

John    Sep 10, 2013

How do you explain a person who had ten million dollars nine years ago and today is totally broke and has to take a bus to work and lives on support to be able to feed her family? Strange? Well, that is the story of Sharon Tirabassi,a Canadian lady and many more who like her got their money from winning the lottery. But wait, the same thing that works in her is what drive she roadside thief, the political, thief, and the corporate thief. It is the very thing that drives many people in our society. They did not go through the process that would have prepared them for success and so they cannot keep it and that is why the thieves no matter what label we give them will have to keep stealing to maintain their lifestyle.

There is such value in process but many want to bypass the process that will prepare them for the success that they desire. Many seek an experience of comfort but are not ready to embark on the journey that will lead them there. They are looking for shortcuts. The truth of life however is that the journey qualifies the experience. The journey is why we can sustain the experience. If the experience comes as an accident or as a result of taking a short cut it cannot be sustained. Whatever you compromise to get, you will ultimately lose.
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John    Sep 10, 2013

We need to make a demand on ourselves for excellence. We need to take advantage of our obscure years to build things that will launch us out to the public in style. We need to develop such an appetite for excellence that we refuse to cut corners and look for short cuts. We need to pay the price. When we do this, people will buy us not to encourage us or out of sympathy but rather because they need us because of the value that we add to them.. My message to the youth who are involved in furniture making (and indeed any form of production) is that they should not interpret this shunning of their ingenuity as a vote of no confidence in the innovative prowess of the African mind. Rejection is an integral part of the process of acceptance even when the rejection comes from the very people who should celebrate one. Let us push the boundaries of our self demand for excellence to the point where even if the leaders go looking for furniture (or any other thing that we produce) in China, we will have people coming from the rest of the world to buy what we have. I remember the Nigerian millionaire who bought a first class ticket to go for treatment in a UK hospital. He paid 3,000 pounds for the medical appointment that got him a 50 pound prescription. His greatest shock however was that after spending all that money he was amazed to discover that the doctor that would attend to him was a Nigerian who had studied at the University of Lagos. He told me that he felt foolish. It is time to make some more people feel foolish by the sheer power of our excellence.

John    Sep 10, 2013

The African transformation will begin when the African celebrates their own. When the African is proud to be African and when we are comfortable in our Africanness. I once came across some interesting data a few years ago. That year, 70,000 Africans emigrated to Europe and North America and in the same period, 100,000 expatriates from these places were given high flying contracts in Africa. The first step to gaining acceptance is to accept ourselves. This is not to say that we will accept and celebrate mediocrity. We must start from the position that we are excellent beings capable of producing excellence. When this happens we will do whatever it takes to ensure that whatever is produced is not patronized out of sympathy but out of necessity. What do I mean by this? I have been in church services where someone is called up to sing and they start by saying, ‘please don’t listen to my voice, just listen to the words’. They then go on to sing an absolutely ear tormenting song. This is an insult to the presence of people who celebrate excellence. The insult is further compounded when the preacher afterwards says people should encourage the singer and buy their CD’s. These are the ways in which we dignify nonsense. How can the singer tell me not to listen to the voice? They should have said they were reciting a poem instead and we would have been ok. How can the preacher tell me to use my money to consolidate and encourage such displays of patchiness?

John    Sep 10, 2013

I am a passionate African and my singular purpose is to see to the transformation of Africa one mind at a time. I grew up in an environment and in an era where just coming out of colonial rule we saw nothing good in ourselves. We always looked across the seas for guidance. Everything black was bad and everything white was permissible. The bad person in the family was called the black sheep. A white lie was the permissible type of lie and for some of us we were so paranoid that if travelling by air and we peeped in and saw that the pilot was white, we relaxed but if it was a black pilot we prayed. All that was needed for a school to be termed international was to have a few foreign teachers and the most hilarious was when a tailor who had never seen an airport put up a sign that read ‘London trained tailor”. Perhaps the worst thing that happened to us was the fact that even though we had political independence we did not have mental and economic independence. That was then. Today through a lot of mental reconfiguration and through a lot of hard work now see a generation of Africans who are genuinely proud to be African. There is hardly no field today where we don’t see what I call the Africanization of the African mind to compete on a global playing field not as clones of anyone but as authentic Africans with globally respected excellence.

John    Sep 10, 2013

I thought that listening to a FORBES billionaire was inspiring but listening to the analysis of a 14 year old girl was what made my day. She had been an eye witness to the days when we could not pay for her school fees and she had to stay at home. She had witnessed the days when getting a mathematical set for 80 shillings was a major prayer point in our lives. She had witnessed the Christmas when there was nothing to eat and a friend sent us two thousand shillings to buy food. She is however now also witnessing the other side where we pack out venues full of people who want to be inspired by our story and learn from us, where we sell out books and DVDs because people appreciate what we have and want to get as much as they can. She is witnessing us succeed in different businesses in different nations.

The worst thing you can do when faced with challenges is to focus on the challenge. A bible verse says that you become what you behold. If all you focus on is the problem that you are going through then it will multiply and reproduce itself in your life. When faced with problems focus on the possible solutions. As you focus on solutions, remember, what you behold, you become. Never give any situation the power to rob you of your dream.

Challenges are a constant in life. They come to the king and to the street cleaner. Though they come in different measures and proportions no one alive can escape facing situations that they would rather not face- situations that task their endurance. Unfortunately a lot of people allow their problems to define them. They get so engrossed in what they are going though that they lose their vision of where they are going to. Never let today’s challenges rob you of tomorrows victories. Never generalize on your future based on your present. Look beyond the challenges and look at possibilities. Remember, challenges are things we go through – going thorough not going to. They always come to pass and not to stay. In the midst of the storm look ahead and let the possibilities of the future inspire you out of the conditions of the present. Take your bearing not from where you are but from where you are going. Sometimes where we are may not have the capacity to inspire us but we can surely get inspired by where we are going and use the inspiration to shorten our stay where we are.

John    Sep 10, 2013

ntrepreneurs are getting younger and younger these days. Stories of people launching startups right out of college and becoming CEOs in their 20s seem to pop up everywhere. But it turns out some of us don't even need to reach college age to start a successful company: These business owners aren't even out of their teen years yet! Check out our list of incredible young entrepreneurs that made a name for themselves before they could drive a car
Leanna Archer was just 9 years old when she began bottling and selling her own hair pomade to friends and family. Based on her great-grandmother's secret recipe, Archer's line of all-natural hair products has expanded to include a variety of hair cleansers, conditioners and treatments. The now-17-year-old serves as the CEO of her company and has been recognized by prominent business publications like Forbes and Success Magazine. She even started the Leanna Archer Education Foundation to help build schools and safe learning environments for underprivileged children in Haiti.

John    Aug 24, 2013

Do you need any specialist skills to do the job - obviously you cannot just be a Doctor because you fancy being a Doctor...that takes years of studying. Most businesses need some kind of training...you cannot just become a web designer for example even though there aren't any recognized qualifications as such - usually it will just be your portfolio of work. Being a photographer for example - we can all take a picture, but can we take good pictures on a regular basis?

Another thing to think about with your business idea is how much it is going to cost you to set up in the first place?

If you haven't got much money then businesses where you require expensive equipment or lots of stock and or premises are pretty much non-starters as business ideas. Even if you have a rock solid business plan to back your business up it is likely that your investors will also like you to have some money invested in the company you are setting up - that way you have something to lose - if you have nothing to lose you just won't care about your business as much and therefore won't work as hard or as well.

Once you have your idea - you need to think is it going to be mainly an online business / offline or both?

For some businesses it will be obvious that you have to do it one way or the other.

Some businesses you may start off one way and end up doing both when you have got yourself established...as in effect you are tapping into a new market by going online or setting up a bricks and mortar business if you were purely online before. All of these decisions should be in your business plan. There should be triggers that you reach when you do certain things.

So in short if you are stuck for a business idea then look at what experience you have got, what things are you interested in, otherwise look through this website and see what floats your boat...remember you have over 6000 business to choose from - there must be something of interest to you.

John    Aug 23, 2013

met with someone this week who told me something that really got me thinking. He said that he envied people like me who are always upbeat and who have no problems in life. He said that life seemed to be imbalanced in how it dished out problems to people. He said that unlucky people like him seemed to have more problems hurled at them than lucky people like me. As I listened it suddenly occurred to him that he might indeed be speaking for many who attribute success or failure to luck. They have reduced life to a game of chance.

As I have said many times, there was a period in my life when I was the perfect picture of an unlucky person. I was so economically challenged that to get 50 shillings to move from point A to point B in a tuk tuk was on the same level as getting a flight to the moon – uphill! However, I did not dance to the tune that life was playing me trying to tell me that I was an unlucky person.

The first letter in the alphabet of luck is A for attitude. Even when I was down, I refused to see myself as an unlucky or cursed person but as a blessed person who was being offered a curse by life. The choice to take it or reject it was totally mine. The challenge is that a lot of people have accepted their current condition as a destination and not as a location en route to a greater place.

John    Aug 23, 2013

met with someone this week who told me something that really got me thinking. He said that he envied people like me who are always upbeat and who have no problems in life. He said that life seemed to be imbalanced in how it dished out problems to people. He said that unlucky people like him seemed to have more problems hurled at them than lucky people like me. As I listened it suddenly occurred to him that he might indeed be speaking for many who attribute success or failure to luck. They have reduced life to a game of chance.

As I have said many times, there was a period in my life when I was the perfect picture of an unlucky person. I was so economically challenged that to get 50 shillings to move from point A to point B in a tuk tuk was on the same level as getting a flight to the moon – uphill! However, I did not dance to the tune that life was playing me trying to tell me that I was an unlucky person.

The first letter in the alphabet of luck is A for attitude. Even when I was down, I refused to see myself as an unlucky or cursed person but as a blessed person who was being offered a curse by life. The choice to take it or reject it was totally mine. The challenge is that a lot of people have accepted their current condition as a destination and not as a location en route to a greater place.

John    Aug 23, 2013

met with someone this week who told me something that really got me thinking. He said that he envied people like me who are always upbeat and who have no problems in life. He said that life seemed to be imbalanced in how it dished out problems to people. He said that unlucky people like him seemed to have more problems hurled at them than lucky people like me. As I listened it suddenly occurred to him that he might indeed be speaking for many who attribute success or failure to luck. They have reduced life to a game of chance.

As I have said many times, there was a period in my life when I was the perfect picture of an unlucky person. I was so economically challenged that to get 50 shillings to move from point A to point B in a tuk tuk was on the same level as getting a flight to the moon – uphill! However, I did not dance to the tune that life was playing me trying to tell me that I was an unlucky person.

The first letter in the alphabet of luck is A for attitude. Even when I was down, I refused to see myself as an unlucky or cursed person but as a blessed person who was being offered a curse by life. The choice to take it or reject it was totally mine. The challenge is that a lot of people have accepted their current condition as a destination and not as a location en route to a greater place.

John    Aug 23, 2013

met with someone this week who told me something that really got me thinking. He said that he envied people like me who are always upbeat and who have no problems in life. He said that life seemed to be imbalanced in how it dished out problems to people. He said that unlucky people like him seemed to have more problems hurled at them than lucky people like me. As I listened it suddenly occurred to him that he might indeed be speaking for many who attribute success or failure to luck. They have reduced life to a game of chance.

As I have said many times, there was a period in my life when I was the perfect picture of an unlucky person. I was so economically challenged that to get 50 shillings to move from point A to point B in a tuk tuk was on the same level as getting a flight to the moon – uphill! However, I did not dance to the tune that life was playing me trying to tell me that I was an unlucky person.

The first letter in the alphabet of luck is A for attitude. Even when I was down, I refused to see myself as an unlucky or cursed person but as a blessed person who was being offered a curse by life. The choice to take it or reject it was totally mine. The challenge is that a lot of people have accepted their current condition as a destination and not as a location en route to a greater place.

John    Aug 23, 2013

If we are going to live out our expectations we will need to do some learning to align our minds with our expectations. Learn the language of your expectation. Don’t think cheap. Don’t excuse mediocrity. Don’t imitate the cheap. Be inspired by the expensive. Don’t criticize success. Don’t hang out with dream killers. See yourself as a solution to the problems of people and not just a recipient of the solutions of others. Take back your life from despair. Take your life from failure. To all the living, there is hope. The evidence of hope is action. Act in the direction of your expectation. Refuse to let yesterday define you. Refine your mind. Redefine your life. Move from merely existing to truly living.

John    Aug 22, 2013

The ability to see what others are not seeing is a key to differentiating yourself and succeeding. Somebody looked at an orange and saw the possibility of selling fruit juice to the masses. Someone looked at water and decided there was a better way to sell water and began to bottle it and sell. Think of that. If selling water can become big business then we truly do not have any excuse. The problem is what we see. Every great enterprise and every great fortune has been made by people who saw something different from what others were seeing even though they may have been looking at the same thing.

If all you see is what you are looking at then you are vision impaired. Ordinary minds see final states. They look at a bottle and see it as an end. They look at a table and see it as an end. The truth however is that there is nothing today that has reached a final state. The world and life in general is in motion. People stagnate in their lives when they have a mindset that sees finality. They look at their lives and see finality. This is what leads many into depression and has led some to even commit suicide.

John    Aug 22, 2013

At this time of the year people go through two basic emotions. There are those who are excited because the year turned out like they wanted it to and then there are those who are devastated because the year did not live up to their expectations. Whatever category we may fall, we have a very good opportunity now to reflect.

Let us start with those who had a bad year. If you are reading this then I suspect that you are still alive. If that be the case then it means you have an opportunity to reflect with the aim of projecting. You can look back with the aim of repackaging for re-launching. Ask yourself the tough questions. What should you have done that you did not do? What should you not have done that you did? Who should you have cut off that you left onboard? Who should you have brought onboard that you left out.
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John    Aug 22, 2013

We made it but what are we going to make out of it? For some of us we have been making it – seeing new years for nearly half a century. While it is wonderful that we made it and we are truly grateful that we made it the most important thing to consider is what we will make out of it. Every New Year is a raw material to build. It is the refresh button of the universe. It is a golden opportunity to say goodbye to the old and to welcome the new. However, what makes the year new as I discussed last week is not the numbers. It is not the calendar. What makes the year new is you. We made it to 2013 but did your mind make it? While everyone will rejoice and celebrate a new year the truth is that some people are still in the nineties in their thinking. I was with some friends of mine celebrating the New Year and I asked them a very candid question. I asked which year they were celebrating. Tragically some people are celebrating 2013 outside but in reality they have just entered the new millennium in their mind.

John    Aug 22, 2013

We made it but what are we going to make out of it? For some of us we have been making it – seeing new years for nearly half a century. While it is wonderful that we made it and we are truly grateful that we made it the most important thing to consider is what we will make out of it. Every New Year is a raw material to build. It is the refresh button of the universe. It is a golden opportunity to say goodbye to the old and to welcome the new. However, what makes the year new as I discussed last week is not the numbers. It is not the calendar. What makes the year new is you. We made it to 2013 but did your mind make it? While everyone will rejoice and celebrate a new year the truth is that some people are still in the nineties in their thinking. I was with some friends of mine celebrating the New Year and I asked them a very candid question. I asked which year they were celebrating. Tragically some people are celebrating 2013 outside but in reality they have just entered the new millennium in their mind.

John    Aug 22, 2013

We live in a world where we sometimes have to do the same things like go to work every day, make phone calls, send emails and generally adhere to some fixed patterns that make up our daily experience. However we need to evaluate ourselves. For a pattern of routine to be acceptable, it must of necessity lead to positive change. A pattern of routine that does not produce positive change is a worthless venture.

The reason we exercise regularly is because the routine will produce a positive change. The reason we eat daily is because it develops us. The reason we sleep daily is because it refreshes us. There are few things worse than engaging in a pattern of routine that leads to nowhere.

To make the best of our routines we must always seek new ways do old things.

This is possible only by exposing our minds to new things every day. Once we are able to break the routine in our minds then we will break the negative power of routine in our lives. The key to being able to do this is to make sure that our minds receive new information every day.

Faith comes by hearing. New information in our minds have the inherent ability to generate faith in that information. Now talking of faith, it is important to note that faith is not a positive attitude. So many people have gone down with a positive attitude simply because they did nothing with the attitude.