TIGblogs - SunnyBits's TIGBlog

What is the Difference?

Wed, 24 Sep 2008 10:09:00 EDT

I woke up today...unsatisfied. Why? I feel unfulfilled, yet emasculated, gaged and lost.

I feel like travelling...where? I dont know...

Today I realise the world expects me and you to be at the top without being given anything and a moment after your success, it crowds around you. I am perplexed and exasperated to find out that there is no short-cuts to success. Yes for all the legitimate success seen today, a lot of hardwork has been put into it. We must thus arise and face the daunting challenges facing (me) us.

Today I woke up to very sick and empty because I was trying to find out the difference between a gunman who wakes up and starts shooting innocent people and a terrorist who straps a bomb on his waist and wastes innocent lives. I am perplexed! Who is the terrorist? The gunman or the terrorist oops, are the all gunmen or both terrorists?

Today I saw the same girl again, she looks beautiful and lovely I wish...but I am scared stiff to walk to her lest she turns me down or I walk into something that does not last. I am worried

Today, I chose to write this piece without regard for the garnish...or the polish.

Today I feel I want to travel out of Nigeria and stay for sometime and then come back, but I dont have the money.

Today I searched the internet seeking for fellowships, but up till now I am not satisfied.

Today I feel I should continue writing how I felt.

The whole story doesnt make any sense? Well, that is the idea.

Do You Have What It Takes?

Thu, 08 May 2008 11:05:00 EDT

I was asked the other day what personality traits I thought were important to entrepreneurial success. I immediately gave my preprogrammed reply about passion and dedication and hard work. After taking some time later to ponder the question a little deeper (I normally operate in shallow waters), I came up with a more detailed checklist for entrepreneurial success. This is by no means a definitive list, but I'd be willing to bet that if you don't have at least a majority of these traits, your chances of business success will be greatly diminished.
You must be self motivated.
If you don't have the wherewithal to bounce out of bed each day without your spouse drenching you with cold water, chances are you don't have the self motivation or discipline required to be an entrepreneur. Business demands that you take action based solely on your own volition. You have to do a hundred things every day that will not get done unless you make yourself do them.
You can't be afraid of hard work.
If you think working for someone else is hard work, try starting your own business. You will be required to give every ounce of blood, sweat, and tears you can muster and then some. You will have to work long hours and be on call 24/7, at least in the beginning. If the mere thought of hard work makes you tired, maybe you should just keep your cushy day job.
You should have experience in the type of business you plan to start.
If you can't locate your car's engine you have no business buying an oil change franchise. The most successful business owners have prior experience in the industry in which they have set up shop. Consider working in an industry at least part time for a year before jumping in with both feet.
You must be able to climb back on the horse.
I always say: "If business was easy, everybody would do it." Starting a business is hard work and the odds for failure are against you in the first few years. If you want to ride herd on your own business, you must be willing to fall off your horse and get back on a few times without giving up.
You need the support of your family.
When you start a business you may have to spend more time away from the family than you like. The business may also put a strain on you financially. You will have enough obstacles in your way without having to worry if you have the support of your family and those closest to you
You must have a thick skin.
If your feelings are easily hurt, keep your non-threatening day job because business is not for you. Many days in business, rejection waits around every corner and you must be able to handle rejection without taking it personally.
You must interact well with others.
Being an entrepreneur requires interacting with a variety of people, from your own employees to vendors to customers to investors. You must have the ability to effectively manage people without offending them; the ability to accept good advice from mentors and politely discount the bad; the ability to overlook mistakes or quietly rectify them; and the one I have trouble with: the ability to tolerate incompetence without losing your cool (at least not on the outside).
The deeper your pockets the better.
The number one cause of business failure is a lack of money. Before you start your business you should have access to enough capital to see you through until the business can sustain itself.
You must be able to delegate.
Running a business requires the performance of dozens of simultaneous tasks and it's foolish to try to handle them all yourself. You must learn to put your trust in others. If you can't dish out responsibility without worrying over the result, your business growth will be limited.
� 2006 - All Rights Reserved -

Kehinde Kamson: The joy of a small beginning

Tue, 22 Apr 2008 10:04:00 EDT

The journey of a thousand miles, they say, begins with a single step just as it is said that little drops of water make the mighty ocean. These popular sayings played out very well in the story of Mrs. Kehinde Kamson, the simple and unassuming managing director and chief executive officer of Sweet Sensation, who operated her confectionary business from her backyard for eight years before the first outlet was opened and guess where? In a tiny converted security house at the Ilupeju area of Lagos. All she had, two used air conditioners and a few other scrappy equipment. Today, that her tiny room and parlour business has metamorphosed into several outlets in Nigeria.

The beginning

Kehinde has never been a struggling woman, she had a very comfortable beginning with all the good education and discipline she could get. Her background played a strong role in whom she has become today. Born a twin to two educationists, she was well grounded in discipline, hard work and morality. Her father was a well respected clergyman who spent the better part of his life moulding the life of youths as a teacher, the mother, also an educationist had a strong entrepreneurial spirit running in her vein. In fact, she defiled the expectations that she should just sit at home as a house wife to even found a school of her own.

Perhaps, Kehinde took after her mother in entrepreneurship, for years after, the young woman with a good husband and a comfortable home as well as a good job as the head of accounts in an oil servicing firm, gave up that plum job to venture into the uncertain world of entrepreneurship, and catering for that matter. That did not go down well with many of her friends who thought she was out of her mind.

But she knew what she wanted.

Kehinde, a graduate of accounting from the University of Lagos, a chartered accountant and an alumnus of the Lagos Business School, had everything going for her. However, at the time she took the decision to quit her job it was not necessarily because the spirit of enterprise was burning in her, but more because of her love for her family. She wanted to spend more time with her children and her husband.

A new life

Restless like her mother, Kehinde just could not keep her fingers idle. She soon realised that she has a hobby which she hadn’t thought of turning into a business, she loves cooking.

She initially started with cakes, pastries and supplies to fast food joints like Mr. Biggs, UTC, Leventis, Kass Chicken and a few others.

Recalling events of those days, she said, “along the line, I thought of starting something on my own. That thought led to the Ilupeju outlet. It was basically experimental. I wasn’t thinking so big for it at the start. At that time Mr. Biggs was not taking finished pastries because they produced their own. Ours was the first they ever took as a finished product. It took me two years to penetrate Mr. Biggs and I will like to say that seeing myself supplying to Mr. Biggs was actually one of the things that motivated me to set up a major eatery joint. Seeing long queues of people dishing out money, I thought to myself, why am I slaving away supplying things to all these companies, why can’t I set up a big outlet too? That was how the desire came to set up the Victoria Island outlet.”

Growing the business

Being a focused person with a vision of where she was heading, Kehinde did not look back once she started despite the challenges she faced. Hers is a product of a particular type of mind set, skill set and character set.

She, of course did not fail to mention the unreserved support she got from her husband. In fact she describes him as the inspirer and her solid source of support.

Her philosophy of life is never to underestimate what can come out of small beginning. This mind set according to her will make you never to be scared or shy of starting at whatever level you are in presently. “You’ve got to be very patient and persevering because if you are too eager to enter into the ‘big league’, you might get frustrated and get hurt,” she advises.

Kehinde believes that success is knowing one’s purpose in life, as well as a feeling of achievement that persists forever. She also said success is achieved in inches, a story line that lasts forever, that according to her is the story of Sweet Sensation.

Guiding principles

Kehinde depends on God for everything, particularly for guidance, she believes in hard work, she tries to put passion into whatever she does and she is a perfectionist with an unquenchable love for excellence.

Her advice

“I would advise young people to pursue good education. Education helps to broaden your thinking. Good education can help you to develop creativity. There are many opportunities that people don’t pay attention to. There are so many things people could do. Look at what is happening in the comedy industry. Sincerely speaking, our youths have no reason to be idle especially when they are graduates. Yes people are already in the area you would have wanted to go into, but there are still a lot of opportunities untapped in that same area. All you need to do is just add value and customers would come running after you,” she counseled.

Make Money in Abuja

Mon, 31 Mar 2008 11:03:00 EDT

It seems there are only few people cut out to make money in Abuja aight? Nope! You are dead wrong. We all have the chance to make that money.

Someone said imagine making up to $1,500 in a week and I said you are 419. Yes, a full time 419er. But now I know better.

Can you imagine that if someone has the strength to click an advert online, he is actually paying someone like you and me? Imagine making up to $100 Daily for just being online and people click on you ads. Yes that is the power of google adsense.

You may want more information by emailing sunnybits@gmail.com or call 08037419796. I have the midas touch. Turn that internet access in your office into a gold mine or maybe the goose that lay the golden eggs.

I will post more info later

See you in a bit.

Sunny

Make that Money Now

Thu, 27 Mar 2008 03:03:00 EDT

There are several links on this page that links you up with money more than you can ever think...just look around those ads and click.

Visit regularly for more posts like these.

Cheers

Make Real Money Online

Wed, 26 Mar 2008 05:03:00 EDT

It will always seem like a dream, but here is the real deal - You can use google to make money online without shedding a tear. Before now I have always believed that it was not real, until I met this friend of mine during a workshop. He told me how he makes a minimum of a hundred dollars a month for just posting links, people click and he makes cool cash.

I was dazed when he told me how he travels within Nigeria by flight and pays for his studies abroad and bla bla. He told me to keep in touch as we would link me up, but I refused to budge and so he shared that all I should do is post and when people click I will be credited with money that will come to me in real check...you wont believe it.

Check this page for more details...soon

Training and Trade

Tue, 25 Mar 2008 08:03:00 EDT

07 March, 2008 01:00:00 JUDE NDU

The most important business advice he received early in his career was when he was just 20, and only three weeks into his first real job as foreign affairs and business editor of the largest circulation afternoon newspaper in Frankfurt, Germany. He brought his first two editorials to the editor-in-chief, a German, who took one good look at them and threw them back at him. They are not good at all. Drucker, if you don't improve radically within the next three weeks, you had better look for another job'. Remember he had only been on the job three weeks. Drucker later remarked in an interview with a reporter, 'for me, that was the right treatment. He did not try to mentor me. The idea would have been considered laughable at that time. The concept of mentoring was post World War II. In those days before World War II, you were hired to do a job, and if you didn't do it, you were fired there and then. It's very simple, 'either get good -or get out'.
Training, this is the trademark and the trade secret of world-class champions from all walks of life particularly in the field of sports and business. According to George Clason, in his classic book -The Richest Man in Babylon -as a man perfecteth himself in his calling, his craft or vocation, even so doth his ability to earn increases. In those days when I was but a humble scribe carving upon the clay for a few coppers each day, I observed that other workers did more than me and were paid more. There and then I determined that I would be exceeded by none. Nor did it take long for me to realise the reason for their greater success. More interest in my work, more concentration upon my task, more persistence in my effort, and behold, few men, very few could carve more tablet in a day than I. With promptness, my increased knowledge, skill and productivity was rewarded, nor was it necessary for me to go to my boss six times to ask for a raise. A lowly company clerk walking past the president's office may see a man just sitting in a chair, hands behind his head and starring at a blank wall. The clerk who feels pressured every minute of the day with work to do may wonder what the hell the president does to earn the kind of money he takes home. Are companies presidents worth the huge salaries paid them? My answer would be yes.
The leader hasn't simply practised his vocation or profession, he has mastered it. He knows and has learned everything there is to know about his profession and then surrendered to it. He has become one with it. But such mastery requires absolute focus and concentration, a full deployment of yourself. Becoming an industry leader isn't easy, whether in the writing profession, as a business consultant, e.t.c. anyone who claims otherwise is not wise but fooling himself. As a professional leader, competence is important; a true sense of mastery of the job at hand. The path to self mastery is built on an unrelenting practice, practice, practice. Whether it's in sports, music or creative arts, those we call masters are shamelessly enthusiastic about their calling. They are willing to take chances, to play the fool. It is said that the most powerful learning is that which is most like play. The achievement of mastery in any field requires months and years, yes, years of training and hardwork on yourself and on the job. Every great success was preceded by long period of years of concentration. According to Brian Tracy, it will take about five to seven years to master a particular craft. Even witchcraft takes years for a witch to master. O.G Mandino, an award winning author of many books that have sold in their millions of copies, said that people tell him his books are so easy to read. He often replies them that the reason they are so easy to read is because they were so hard to write. He would write and rewrite a single paragraph as many as fifteen times so that it flowed smoothly from one page to another for the reader.
Keep practising and perfecting your skills at every opportunity. Practice, they say, makes perfect. For the purpose of this material, a new approach to practising and perfecting your skills is in the use of visualisation and guided imagery. Clinical and experimental psychologists have proved the human nervous system cannot tell the difference between an actual experience and one that is vividly imagined. This means you can learn and unlearn physical and mental skills by practising them in your mind .The advantage of using imagination are that you'll never practice the wrong motion. The use of visualisation and guided imagery is now standard and universally used in sports and trainings at Olympic camps. Many famous sports athletes used visualisation and meditation even before the concept became popular. We have often heard stories of Olympic athletes who have spent years in vigorous training and preparation for a one day event. They mentally rehearse their performance, envisioning over and over again the details of execution. They create in themselves the strength to compete successfully. Competition is the driving force of survival. The field of evolutionary psychology has taught us that competition between individuals and groups is what naturally selects winners from losers in society. The makeup of the average individual is to survive competitively. The worlds wealthiest are the greatest competitors. Success and survival are all wrapped up in the ability to compete and dominate.
Golf champ, tiger woods is a text book example of what it takes to be great. Because the father introduced him to golf at an extremely early age-18 months, and encouraged him to practice intensely. Woods had put in at least 15 years of practice by the time he became the youngest ever to win the United States amateur golf championship at age 18. What makes tiger woods great? Woods never stopped trying to improve himself. He was always in the 'woods' devoting hours to practice and even remade his swing twice because that is what it takes to get better. Research now shows that natural talent is irrelevant to greatness. The secret is a painful and demanding practice sessions and hardwork. You will only achieve great success through an enormous amount of hardwork over many years. The world's premier investor, warren buffet for instance is famed for his discipline and the hours he spends studying financial statements of certain investments. In virtually every field of human endeavour, most people learn very quickly at first, then more slowly, and stop developing altogether. Yet a few do improve for years and go on to succeed greatly. Why? How are certain people able to go on improving? Many great sports performers are legendary for their brutal discipline of practice sessions.
But this discipline is not only limited to sports. It has been used successfully by me in improving my writing skills, public speaking skills, job interviews and in selling my self and ideas to prospects.
The largest room in the world is still the room for self improvement. I was recently reading through The Toyota Way, the company's corporate philosophy which incorporates the spirit of Kaizen -a Japanese term for continuous improvement approach. The Toyota Way, for the records reads "perseverance is power at Toyota and we always work with this in mind. We believe that effort in itself does not guaranty progress. Our achievements over the years have shown us that perseverance, creative spirit and continuous improvement reap rewards". The quality revolution in the United States started in Japan and has since transformed the way business is conducted. After World War II, Japan was devastated and their economy left in ruins. Their very first attempt at recovery led to the production of cheap products, especially for exports to the United States. These early products dumped into the U.S market were of such poor standard that they were labelled "Jap scraps". But during the same period in the 1950s, an American management consultant -W Edward Demings visited Japan to advise them on quality control measures to improve their quality of manufacturing. The Japanese welcomed Deming's ideas and business philosophy with much enthusiasm that he lived the next few years of his life there.Demings originally introduced the concept of continuous improvement that came to be popularised as the Kiazen Principle or method of management.
Do not expect to become a market leader unless you are really more informed. Increasingly the most important class distribution in every economy is not the ownership of land or wealth, but the ownership of information.
The key to making a successful career out of your trade is knowledge and continuous education. Do not expect to become an industry leader unless you are really more informed. Remember, leadership develops daily, not in a day. As I close this chapter, never forget that the quality of a person's life is in direct proportion to their commitment to excellence regardless of their field of career. Man is born free, but you cannot have true freedom without financial freedom. Freedom may be free but it comes with a price. Knowledge is the price. But knowledge does not come easy; investments have to be made to extract it. The applications of knowledge are at the core of today's technological revolution and have been instrumental in the growth of economies in more advanced societies. KNOWLEDGE RULES THE WORLD

Nigeria Youth Stakeholders Forum

Fri, 21 Mar 2008 10:04:00 EDT

I have spent three days so far with young men and women from various Nigerian States to look again at President Umaru Musa Yar'Adua's 7 plus 2 Agenda for making Nigeria one of the world's leading economy by 2020.

We have not had any serious time out, its been work, work and work and guys, I am loving it.

Two issues have so far been selected from the Seven Point + Plus 2 Agenda, we choose, Wealth Creation and Food Security Agriculture, so as to have a firm focus on what to monitor and evaluate vis-a-vis Policy and Research, Corruption, Media, Niger-Delta.

At this point, we are taking briefing on the Action Plan for all to take home and implement as concluding part of the workshop...though in its draft, I will later put on full details.

Lest I forget, today is the last day.

SunnyBits

Starting a Business – Realistic Things To Check

Fri, 21 Mar 2008 09:03:00 EDT

After Tony’s discussion with Shina, the tycoon, he decides to adopt a more realistic approach to his plans to launch his own business. Tony has come to realise that leaving paid employment to go into self-employment should not be done simply out of enthusiasm. Starting a successful business that would stand the test of time has to be done systematically. Lots of brainstorming, planning, verification of facts and speculations have to be done.

The market
Tony gets a reputable consultant. He needs a realistic overview of the market for his products. He wants to know the extent of the local, national and international market for his product. Paying a consultant is eating into his savings. But paying a lifeguard is so much better than drowning in the unexplored waters of self-employment, he tells himself.
However, Shina’s advice is that he must not leave everything to the consultant to do. He says, “Some people fail in business because all the planning for the business they are to run was done for them by consultants. You are going to drive your business. The consultant should simply be a guide or instructor and not the person at the steering.”

Competitors
With the consulting firm’s assistance, Tony finds out the existing competitors in the field he wants to enter. He also has information on what each one is offering. He then asks, “What can I offer that they are not offering? Many of them are quite big; I could get partners and come into the market as a giant. On the other hand, I could come in as a small player. If so, being a small player also has certain advantages.” He decides to identify them and enter the market with such superior customer satisfaction.

Target/market size
Working with his consultant, they estimate the market size that he could realistically capture. They are able to do financial projections of the money needed especially at the take off point. Knowing the capital he needs gives Tony some measure of relief. He does not have that much but he is certain he can get enough to make up for the rest from his family members.
The consultant advises that if he does not get the remaining balance, then they could rework the plan. He can produce fewer quantities initially. The production costs would be a bit higher as they would not be taking advantage of economies of scale. But reinvesting the profits until his capital gets to the point they projected would bring in the benefits of economies of scale.

Location
A good location for production with proximity to the customers is good, he is told. Tony, in his usual exuberant manner wants to set up a superb office beside the factory. The cost of setting up the office is so huge. He believes he could get the funds.

Product quality
Shina tells him, “Even if the money is a gift and not a loan from someone, target it towards getting customers. Getting customers is more important than getting a superb office except the nature of the business is such that a superb office would attract customers. That is for those in service business that customers have to come to the office regularly.
But for someone producing goods, the quality of the goods mean more to the customer than your beautiful office. Someone said, ‘The experience of a bad product lasts longer with the customer than the satisfaction the producer deprives from making extra money producing sub-standard products. So much more resources should be channelled towards producing quality goods or services. Afterwards, you can invest in a superb office.” Tony tells the consultant what Shina told him about the office. She agrees.

Hitting the market
Shina also tells him, “No matter how great the products are, if they are not consistently demanded by customers, the business will sink. That also goes for those in service business. Quite often though, the risks in the service businesses are lower than in manufacturing.” Tony has to find out how he is going to reach his target(s) at the least possible costs.

Product type
Tony keeps paying visits to Shina. Thankfully, Shina is always willing to give free what he pays consultants for. For anyone who is interested, there are always successful people willing to share their knowledge.

Shina asks him about his product type. He says this is very important. This is because some products can saturate a market. He continues, “Some products make an entry into a market, their manufacturers and suppliers make huge sums of money but if new markets are not captured, demand reduces.

This is because the type of product is such that the demand is a one-off thing for most individuals. Even when the customer comes back for a repeat purchase, it might be several years later. Such products include heavy capital goods such as houses, personal computers; cookers etc.” He continues, “If you want to continue to operate in a particular market segment, then you have to have an accompanying product or service that would ensure your customers keep patronising you. For instance, phone companies do not just sell their lines; they sell recharge cards and provide other accompanying services.
Food business thrives because no matter the quantity of food consumed, people still need to continue feeding. So in making your business plan, you have to know if the products is such that will enable you to continue earning reasonable profits staying in the same market or if you need to constantly capture new markets. If you have to stay in the same market, is the product type such that will enable your firm to provide accompanying services? Find out.

Passion/Aptitude
Do a realistic appraisal of what you are good at in your current employment. Most times people want to launch a business so they would be able to do what they love doing. But running a business involves so much more. Know precisely the things you love doing. Plan your own job description to include the things you enjoy doing or have the aptitude for. If getting others to do those aspects you are not good at would incur so much cost, then acquire those skills before launching out. You may need to do them at the initial stages of the business.

Training
After having done a realistic appraisal of your aptitude for going into self-employment, you may still need to go for courses on entrepreneurship. You need training in business generally and in context of the line of business.

Buying an Existing Business
Find out if there is an existing business you can buy rather than starting one from scratch. You would therefore not be a new entrant into the market. You will enjoy the goodwill of that business, the loyal customers and so many other things.

But you need to do a lot of checks. These include the reason the owner(s) want to sell, if you can work with the present staff, if the business is in huge debts, its reputation in the market and with is publics etc. If all these things are all right, buying an existing business offering the same thing you want to offer is better. You could then build on the exceptional idea you have.

Family’s capacity to withstand lean periods
He takes Shina’s advice to inform his family of possible financial challenges at the early stages of his business. He tells his wife, “You will definitely become the wife of a multi-millionaire but you may have to make certain sacrifices before then.” Together, they make plans to reduce expenses.

·Juggling paid employment with self-employment
Shina has also advised him to consider the possibility of staying in self-employment in the initial stages of his business. He checks his current work schedule. This enables him to know if he can conduct his business within that time. But testing the water is so much better than drowning in unexplored waters, he tells himself.

8 Good Reasons to Have Sex Now

Fri, 21 Mar 2008 07:33:00 EDT

Girl –
I love him
I want him to be my first
He's waited long enough
I don't want to lose him

Guy—
I love her
We've been going out for a long time
I have needs
It's time we took our relationship to the next level

Hey, why wait? Those are all some pretty good reasons to have sex. I mean, you could have said you want to have sex to use each other, or to give somebody else that lingering infection because you shouldn’t have to suffer alone, or even the old overused excuse, “everybody else is doing it!” But no, your reasons are pretty good, aren’t they? To go along with these carefully thought out reasons, here are some of the great “benefits” of getting sexually involved now, before you get married.

You’re going to get hurt

No matter how you look at it, even when you have good reasons to do it, premarital sex hurts…a lot. If you are a guy, you might think it’s just the girl who gets hurt, but you’re only partly right. The girl will get hurt, because she has this uncontrollable tendency to attach her heart to any guy she gives her body to, unless she’s already been made cold-hearted from the pain of offering her body to be used so many times that she doesn’t care anymore.

But as a guy, you will get hurt too. By indulging in non-committed sensual pleasures, you will be setting yourself up for a lifetime of comparisons that will hound your thoughts and make you unable to be content in your most valuable future earthly relationship—your marriage. The guilt you’ll have—and there is always guilt eventually—will eat you up so badly that you will be a target for addictions or avoidance that will prevent any true intimacy in this life.

Both you and your girl will be hurt in another way that you never anticipated. Someday, if you marry each other, she will likely have respect issues and resentment toward you for not valuing her body enough to protect her purity. How will this hurt you? Not only will you have to deal with a resentful wife, but sex will be the tool that she withholds from you. Then you will resent her and the vicious cycle begins.

Your future is going to get messed up

You already know that teens get pregnant, teens get abortions, and teens get STD’s. Those are all ways that your life can get messed up now and stay that way for a long time. But other long term effects are hard to measure. If you sleep together now and end up getting married, it’s likely from all the statistics that you won’t stay married. And let me tell you from experience, divorce is one of the hardest things you will ever try to survive on this earth. When you split the lives and history you’ve built together, it’s like your heart has been ripped in two. If you have kids together, double the pain. The Bible says that when you got married, you became ONE flesh. The only way to separate one flesh is to rip it in half, leaving gaping, bleeding wounds.

God is going to get pushed out of your life

There’s no way around it. When you are living to please yourself and ignoring God, He isn’t going to force Himself on you. That means that you aren’t going to have His help, His encouragement, His direction, or His awesome plans working out in your life. You might think you’re having fun for awhile, but eventually, living for yourself is going to hurt. You will end up lonely, depressed, hopeless, purposeless, and passionless. That’s because you can’t ignore God for long and enjoy your life. You can try, but you will never be peaceful or satisfied. It is impossible. The Bible says in Romans 8:7, 8, “If your sinful nature controls your mind, there is death. But if the Holy Spirit controls your mind, there is life and peace. For the sinful nature is always hostile to God. (NLT)”

Something better than “good”

Oh, oh…those good reasons to have sex don’t look so good anymore. Thank goodness that there are some even better reasons not to have sex. The better reasons are so much better for you and your future, that they reveal an amazing truth: Your “good” reasons to have sex now, instead of waiting until you are married, are actually bad reasons.

Remember that God loves you and only wants the best for you. His directions for you to stay pure are not to keep something from you, but to help you experience the very best He has to offer. He’s the one who created love and sex. Follow His directions for using it and it will be the best it can be.

__________________________________________

Source: CBN.com

Press Release

Fri, 21 Mar 2008 07:03:00 EDT

The British Council in collaboration with Youngstars Development Initiative organized a successful Nigeria Stakeholders’ Forum from 18^th – 21^st March, 2008, at Grace Point Hotel, Wuse Zone 6, Abuja, to have an interactive discourse on the 7 Point Agenda of President Umaru Musa Yar’ adua and Policy Implementation and Development Financing.

The forum which was the climax of the earlier one month online discourse tagged e-forum, had more than 40 youth with passionate interest drawn across the 36 states of the federation and the F.C.T for youth participation in good governance.

The forum provided a viable platform for Nigeria youth to exhaustively discuss the subject matter and provide a workable document with viable recommendations or suggestions that will and in the effective execution of the 7 point agenda.

The forum commenced with an opening ceremony graced by the representative of the minister of youth development, the representative of the Hon. Speaker of the House of Representatives and the secretary to the government of the federation. In addition to the discourse, among the youths, some resource persons lectured the youths on various topics, which include:

1. UNDERSTANDING THE CONCEPT OF ACTIVE YOUTH PARTICIPATION IN GOVERNANCE AS EMERGING LEADERS (BY KINGSLEY BANGWELL-JOS)

2. POLICY MAKING, YOUTH INVOLVEMENT, ADVOCACY AND LOBBYING: PRACTICAL SKILLS FOR ENGAGEMENT (BY PAMELA BRAIDE-CALABAR)

3. PRACTICAL TOOLS amp; SKILLS FOR EFFECTIVE YOUTH ENGAGEMENT ON POLICY AND GOVERNANCE.

4. STRATEGIES FOR CULTIVATING EFFECTIVE MEDIA AND YOUTH PARTNERSHIP FOR DEVELOPMENT ACTION.

Also service groups emerged during the forum and showcased their talents which indeed contributed to the success and added colour to the programme

Nigeria Youth Stakeholders Forum - Abuja 2008

Thu, 20 Mar 2008 07:03:00 EDT

Press Release Shortly...

Nigeria Youth Stakeholders Forum

Thu, 20 Mar 2008 04:35:00 EDT

Yes. I m right back. And right now inside the Nigeria Youth Stakeholders Forum organised by Young Stars Foundation and sponsored by the British Council. Guys you just need to know what is happening, although I will have to come up with the details in a bit....

Nigeria will work!

A Vote for Rigging

Wed, 02 May 2007 07:14:00 EDT

After 8 Years pretending to be in the groove of Democracy
...today we have Political Appointment for Elections
...a juxtaposition of figures to create a margin of victory at the polls...
Oh how I weep for motherland

She is so weak that she cannot rise up to protect her chicks.
She,s been so raped that she cannot even protest
She has been so mutilated and she has been left for stupid
She is a destitute amongst nations inspite of her wealth
Oh how I weep for motherland

Where is your hope motherland?

heART of the Matter!

Wed, 14 Feb 2007 05:46:00 EST

Valentine. Imagine all my cousins taking on me to be their Val. Men, these day in Naija (Nigeria) guys either skip this day or forget that there is a February 14 to be celebrated. Some guys even go to the extreme of having a clash with their girlfriends on the 13th so that they will not talk on the 14th, then reconcile on the 15th. It is worse on guys because the babes themselves can be quite demanding. As it stands now, there are a lot of expectations on guys to PERFORM on Val's Day or get FIRED.

The heART of the matter is that where there is love, other good things will naturally follow. It now lies with us to discover love and apply it generously on fellow human beings. Let today be not a day for love on that special someone, but shed it on someone who really NEEDS some - the homeless, the sick, widows, prisoners. Make sure you not only say it, DO IT.

I will resume blogging - my way soon, but before then, the heART of the Matter is JUST DO IT.

Up Man. U!!!

A Heart Cry

Sun, 11 Feb 2007 12:41:00 EST

Anytime I flip though the papers, I am always almost heavy hearted - mudslinging, gutter politics. Right now, I hate politics in motherland, but I gotta love it, else crooks will keep on holding public office and continue to put OUR future in jeopardy and like I have said over and over again, WE MUST VOTE ACROSS PARTY LINES TO CHOSE CREDIBLE PEOPLE - THIS IS A TASK THAT MUST BE DONE WITH THE BALLOT PAPER. It is an interesting tale of believe the unbelieveable. The only comic relief comes when I have to go and watch Manchester United flourish in their quest to wrest the English Premiership crown from rivals Chelsea. You can be sure that Christiano Ronaldo plays a huge part in this. However Motherland make me wonder if in all we do we do not go to extremes.

2 Weeks ago - that is before the bout of malaria fever that made me to remember the fight against mosquitoes in Africa is real - there was a bad twist to the comic relief. Two young men, watching Arsenal host Bolton in an English FA cup match in downtown Lagos degenerated into the unbelieveable - one friend who was supporting Bolton Wanders said Bolton will win the Match against Arsenal, and as usual with a lot of young men here, an argument ensued resulting in one of the friends stabbing his friend with a knife in the eye balls. To say the least, I shudder. Love for the game almost flew out of my life, but I had to catch it by the tail.

Common guys, wherever we are, we can stand out...I've got so much to put out, but maybe I will have to wait until next time. The cyber cafe is about to close, there is no light and honestly too, it is getting quite late. Sai Anjuma ( See You Later!)

Obasanjo explodes: April polls do or die affair for PDP

Sun, 11 Feb 2007 11:06:00 EST

PRESIDENT Olusegun Obasanjo yesterday declared that the April elections would be a do or die affair for the country and his ruling Peoples Democratic Party [PDP].
Addressing elders and other stakeholders from Abeokuta North Local Government Area of Ogun State on preparations for the forthcoming polls, Obasanjo said that he would give it all it takes to ensure his party’s victory in the elections, adding that he was not prepared to hand over to criminals.

He explained that he would want to hand over to those who would continue with the reform programmes of his administration and pointed out that continuation with the reforms would make Nigeria one of the leading countries in the world within the next 15 years...

http://www.vanguardngr.com/articles/2002/cover/february07/11022007/f211022007.html

I Decided...

Sat, 10 Feb 2007 06:33:00 EST

Like the beginning of every new year, this year too, I decided not to decide but live in decision. Have I decided? No. I have not, though sometimes it depends on the way you look at it. I really got tired of the round circle - every year comes with a new resolution that must be changed at the start of another.

I decided to live positively not minding the changing times or tides, not minding the circumstances, but to be an agent of change all round... I will soon start sharing my experiences, please join me.

Triumph of Democracy and the Shame of Political Tyranny: Etiaba Hands Over to Obi

Sat, 10 Feb 2007 06:19:00 EST

Governor Peter Obi walked regally into the Government House, Awka yesterday. He exuded unbridled joy. Spotting a navy blue stripped shirt and matching pair of trousers, he enveloped Dame Virgy Etiaba (his erstwhile deputy who had held sway as governor following his ouster) in an embrace. Then followed a deafening applause welcoming the embattled Governor back to the office he vacated under controversial circumstances about five months ago.
It was an emotion-laden scene as Etiaba finally handed over to his former boss. The joyous scenes at Government House Awka yesterday followed the voiding of the impeachment of the Anambra State Governor by the Appeal Court sitting in Enugu.
Etiaba had assured that she would hand over to Obi yesterday as soon as the appelate court made its pronouncement and she kept to her words....

http://www.thisdayonline.com/nview.php?id=70192