“What’s your belief?”
I believe in:
God, he’s almighty.
Family, they’re everything.
I believe in:
Love, it warms the heart.
Smart work, it brings comfort.
“Your turn, what’s your belief?”
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I believe in God
There’s no dispute
He created me.
I believe in love
There’s no argument
My family and friends are enough evidence
I believe in writing
There’s no doubt
It’s therapeutic.
I believe in kindness and forgiveness
There’s no question
Our world will be better off with these. -
I hope you all started the month on a wonderful note.
Writers Space Africa magazine: February magazine cover I was interviewed another interesting personality this month. Head on to the Writers Space Africa magazine website to download the magazine for free and read up.
I look forward to your thoughts on this edition.
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I’ve worked with the Writers Space Africa magazine from 2020 to 2021 as one of the Children’s literature editors along with Ngalim Jusline Veeyeenyuy from Cameroon.
The past two years has increased my experience in editing, opened me up to interesting literature from across Africa and broadened my perspective on diverse cultures.
Writers Space Africa magazine, January 2022 edition The editorial team, though virtual, has been well structured. Affording me the opportunity to learn from the vast experiences of the editorial crew.
For this year, 2022, I’ve moved forward to becoming the assistant chief editor for the magazine. This is indeed a great responsibility especially considering that I’m now a mother with a little child to care for.
However, I look forward to carrying out my responsibilities with pleasure especially since one among the responsibilities involves my interviewing different writers who will be the featured writers for the magazine’s monthly editions.
For this month, I got talking with a Children’s literature enthusiast, lawyer, author and one of the new children’s literature editors for the magazine, Rachael Twinomugisha from Uganda.
You can get a copy of the magazine for free here. Going forward, I shall share monthly editions of the magazine here for your reading pleasure. 🤞🏽
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Cover of The Power Of Positive Thinking In this book, “The power of positive thinking by Norman Vincent Peale,” we are exposed to the need and importance of always thinking positively. As the author aptly pointed out in his introduction, “This book is written to suggest techniques and to give examples which demonstrate that you do not need to be defeated by anything, that you can have peace of mind, improved health, and a never-ceasing flow of energy. In short,
that your life can be full of joy and satisfaction. Of this I have no doubt at all for I have watched countless persons learn and apply a system of simple procedures that has brought about the foregoing benefits in their lives.”
In the seventeen chapters that make the book, one is gradually exposed to the positive thinking idea starting from the very beginning which is believing in one’s self. Other mind-changing and myth-breaking concepts such as;
– How to have constant energy.
– Try prayer power.
– How to create your own happiness.
– Expect the best and get.
– I don’t believe in defeat.
– How to break the worry habit.
– Power to solve personal problems.
– How to draw upon that higher power amongst many others are discussed in the subsequent chapters.
As a Christian, the splashing of the book with scripture was a wonderful thing for me as it provided more clarity, shone brighter light as well as brought new perspectives to some scriptures I am already familiar with.
Ultimately, the book encourages everyone to become an optimist while trusting in God just like me 😜. Do check out the book and read it for yourself, it sure has a lot to teach. -
Cover of Become A Better You In this book, Joel Osteen presents different situations that make individuals feel inadequate, lost and most times depressed and points out based on the word of God (the Bible) how those situations shouldn’t make us feel that way but that rather, we should be encouraged knowing that God’s strength is made perfect in our weakness.
I call this book the self-help and motivational book with a difference because as with everything else, whenever God is brought into the scene, everything changes for the better, so whenever you feel overwhelmed, read this quote from the book and remember to be in God’s rest. “Being in God’s rest means that although you may have a problem, you trust Him to take care of it. It means that you may be in a situation that you don’t understand, but you are not constantly trying to figure it out. It means you have a dream in your heart, but you are not in a hurry, you’re not frustrated because it hasn’t come to fruition yet. In other words, when you are really in God’s rest, you know that God has you in the palm of His hand. No matter where you are, you accept it as the place God wants you to be.”
I recommend this book to anyone who is trying to improve their lives for the better or who is looking for an encouraging and interesting book. -
Cover of The Mafia Manager The title of the book and the authors’ name were what caught my attention to read the book. V–whoever he is, sure knows how to give a good narrative about business in the mafia sphere (this thing of ours) and in the legit corporate business sphere (this thing of yours). The book is divided into three major parts viz:
1. Managing yourself.
2. Managing others.
3. The rest of it.
And each of these parts goes further to explore the aspects that build up the whole.
Even though I found some of the ideas shared utterly manipulative and even brutal in some cases, he also shared useful tips on business and surviving therein. Below are some points from the book that really stood out for me.
“The three basic rules of effective time management are:
1. Schedule your tasks.
2. Delegate them.
3. Delegate more of them.
Effective time management means making the most of every minute you work–and making certain that you have hours every day and days every week, weeks and weeks every year when you do not have to work.”
“To make a decision, large or small, discover, examine, and consider the following:
1. The specific nature of the problem.
2. The facts or what seem to be the facts.
3. The alternatives and their possible consequences or rewards.”
“Stick to what you know best. Trees often transplanted seldom prosper.”
“Boldness in business is the first thing–and the second–and the third.”
The compilation of axioms at the end of each part was creative and interesting to read too. -
Cover of The Richest Man In Babylon We learn from the richest man in Babylon, Arkad, that “truth is simple,” hence the seven cures to a lean purse which he taught the men of Babylon might look too simplified at a glimpse but, within them lies the secret to having gold coins in ones purse.
SEVEN CURES TO A LEAN PURSE
1. Start thy purse to fattening.
2. Control thy expenditures.
3. Make thy gold multiply.
4. Guard thy treasures from loss.
5. Make of thy dwelling a profitable investment.
6. Insure a future income.
7. Increase thy ability to earn.
On further reading, we encounter Kalabab, who shared with his companions, the five laws of gold which he had learnt from Nomasir, Arkad’s son.
THE FIVE LAWS OF GOLD
1. Gold cometh gladly and in increasing quantity to any man who will put by not less than one-tenth of his earnings to create an estate for his future and that of his family.
2. Gold laboureth diligently and contentedly for the wise owner who finds for it profitable employment, multiplying even as the flocks of the field.
3. Gold clingeth to the protection of the cautious owner who invests it under the ad of men wise in its handling.
4. Gold slippeth away from the man who invests it in businesses or purposes with which he is not familiar or which are not approved by those skilled in its keep.
5. Gold flees the man who would force it to impossible earnings or who followeth the alluring advice of tricksters and schemers or who trusts it to his own inexperience and romantic desires in investment.
He further explained how these laws applied, helped Nomasir who had earlier lost all the gold coins given to him, to regain much more gold and come back to his father’s house as a wealthy man.
Although I first read this book back in 2018 and had applied it’s principles then to my Corper allawee, I got sidetracked along the line and totally forgot about its lessons. Reading it again now has reminded me as well as given me more clarity on how wealth accumulation is a gradual, continous and consistent journey as has already been resounded in our earlier reads on finance i.e the millionaire next door and the psychology of money.
Other things one will learn from this ancient book include:
– how to treat matters of lending and borrowing.
– the value of hard work.
– the usefulness of hunger and desire in acquiring wealth.
– the importance of meaningful relationships/friendships.
– the danger of idleness
And a of host of other virtues.
Do read it and share what your key take away from the book is. -
Cover of The Psychology Of Money The two opening quotes by Napeleon, “a genius is the man who can do the average thing when everyone else around him is losing his mind.” And Sherlock Holmes, “The world is full of obvious things which nobody by any chance ever observes.” Gets your mind reeling on what to expect in the pages of in this book and before long in the introductory chapter, we see that “The premise of this book is that doing well with money has a little to do with how smart you are and a lot to do with how you behave. And behavior is hard to teach, even to really smart people.”
Throughout the book, we are presented with how people think and behave with money and also given pointers on what one who hopes to become wealthy should and shouldn’t do. One of the things that stood out for me was the idea of saving just for saving sake! My mind is still grappling to accept that part especially since I’ve always saved with a specific goal that the cash would be used for.
His referral to a Nigerian scam artist in chapter three made me feel a little hurt–considering that I’m Nigerian–that he’d used the person’s nationality instead of his name as he’d done with prominent defaulters like Rajat Gupta, Raj Rajaratnam and Bernie Madoff in the same chapter.
In chapter nineteen, he gives a good summary of all that has been from chapters one to eighteen, giving one a bird’s-eye view of the book and he goes further to share his personal financial decisions with the readers in chapter twenty. How Morgan ends each chapter with an appealing invitation to read on gives a smooth transition from one chapter to the next such that it feels like you’re on a freely flowing river, with several contributing tributaries and heading for the ocean.
In conclusion, a quote from the book captures aptly the importance of experience in not just making financial decisions but also how it affects one’s life and lifestyle, “Studying history makes you feel like you understand something. But until you’ve lived through it and personally felt its consequences, you may not understand it enough to change your behavior.” -
Cover of The Millionaire Next Door Beginning with the comparison between the trust officer and the millionaire next door was mind changing, for I too would have picked the trust officer as the millionaire due to his obviously affluent lifestyle but the authors shattered that mindset by potraying that looking wealthy (as popularly propagated by mainstream media) isn’t the same as being actually wealthy in real life. Talking about the portrait of a millionaire, I marveled that a millionaire could spend 2-3 hours answering a questionnaire just to earn between 1 dollar!
Knowing that it took over 20 years of research to write this book gives it not only credibility in my opinion, but also shows how determined the authors were in presenting facts to help people build wealth.
The formula given to calculate one’s net worth — Multiply your age times your realized pretax annual household income from all sources except inheritances. Divide by ten. This, less any inherited wealth, is what your net worth should be – helps to determine if you are PAW (prodigious accumulator of wealth) or UAW (under accumulator of wealth) or AAW (average accumulator of wealth) and is an eye opener though it might be a little tricky to calculate for one who doesn’t earn a monthly salary or hasn’t kept consistent record nor taken note of his/her annual income.
Some of the investments mentioned— publicly traded stocks, mutual funds, common stocks, bonds, equities–where quite foreign and a tit-bit unrelatable and confusing. The advice to get an accountant, particularly a certified public accountant (CPA) and attorney also seemed far fetched to me because I don’t know how effective those are down here.
The whole bane of the book is centered around these seven common denominators among those who successfully build wealth:
1. They live well below their income.
2. They allocate their time, energy and money efficiently, in ways conducive to building wealth.
3. They believe that financial independence is more important than displaying high social status.
4. Their parents did not provide economic outpatient care.
5. Their adult children are economically self-sufficient.
6. They are proficient in targeting market opportunities.
7. They chose the right occupation.
Let me conclude with this excerpt from the book, “most people who become millionaires have confidence in their own abilities. They do not spend time worrying about whether or not their parents were wealthy. They do not believe that one must be born wealthy. Conversely, people of modest backgrounds who believe that only the wealthy produce millionaires are predetermined to remain non-affluent.”
I totally recommend this book to anyone who wants clarity on how to build wealth and also, understand how millionaires work, think and spend.
P.S The story of Mr. Allan shared in chapter four is something else, in my mind, I was thinking, “how can a person refuse a gift of a Rolls-Royce?” Then I remember the chapter title –You are not what you drive. But see ehn dash me a private jet now like this, I go collect am and then think about the implications later 😂😅. Please don’t look at me like that, I’m still working on my millionaire mindset.
