How To Create Wealth

If your goal is to become wealthy, you have to know how wealth is created.
The answer is contained in two words: “add value.”
All wealth comes from adding value in some way. All wealth comes from serving and satisfying your customers better than they could be served and satisfied by someone else.
Wealth is the result of adding value to them in a way that no one else can match. Think of it as your contribution to someone else and the end-product is the person's satisfaction and by-product is your paycheck which can be in several forms. The more contribution you make, the greater your paycheck. The more people you contribute to, the fatter your paycheck. Thus, it's safe to say that the value you have multiply by the people who benefit "immensely" from that value equals your wealth, or anybody's wealth.
Consider the richest people in the world, Bill Gates, Larry Page, Aliko Dangote and estimate the value they have made to several lives. This insight will give an understanding into the extent of their wealth and their steady and continued rise in fortune.
In your job, you should be looking for ways every day and every week to add value and to become more valuable than you were before.
Throughout your career, your main focus must be to constantly seek out ways that you can add value to your boss, to your co-workers, to your customers, to your suppliers, and to everyone else and anyone upon whom you rely for your success.
This should be your motto: “Add value, add value, add value!”

Credit: Brian Tracy
 

Lessons from Bill Gates

Bill Gates, Microsoft Founder and Philanthropist

When questioned about his incredible success, Bill Gates, founder of Microsoft, now turned Philanthropist with Bill and Melinda Gates foundation, offered these ten insights to anyone starting out and desiring success. They are worth considering:

1. Life isn't fair, get used to it;

2. The world doesn't care about your self-esteem; it expects you to accomplish something before feeling good about yourself;

3. You won't make $60k (about N9m) a year out of school, or be a vice president with a cell phone. You have to earn it!

4. Do you think your teachers/lecturers are tough? Wait till you have a boss; he is not tenured!

5. Flipping burgers isn't beneath you; your grandparents called it opportunity

6. Your parents weren't always boring; it came from feeding you, cleaning your clothes and paying your bills. So before you rush out to save the rain forest from the 'parasites' of your parents' generation, try delousing your own closet

7. Some schools may have abolished winners and losers, but life hasn't. They may have eradicated 'failing grades' and given you as long as you want to get the right answer. This bears no resemblance to reality;

8. Life isn't divided into semesters. You don't get summers off! Employers aren't interested in helping you 'finding yourself'; you do that on your own time!

9. Unlike television, real people actually have to leave the coffee shop and go to work

10. Be nice to nerds; chances are, you'll end up working for one someday!

Think deep about how you want your life. Plan and prepare towards IT!
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ARE YOU GOING WITH THE FLOW?

“Only dead fish go with the flow.” Dead fishes simply go with the direction of flow of the water body. They have no life in them to go otherwise. How do we differ from dead fishes if we allow our lives to be patterned with what’s the norm?

Image Courtesy: contrarian.ca/2009/07/04/going-with-the-flow

Most of us like to take the path of least resistance. We don’t want to be termed the odd one out. We don’t want to be seen as been ‘different’ even though we’d like to be different but not ready to pay the price of being different: Courage.

How do you know if you are going with the flow?

A very simple way to know if you are going with the flow or not is the decisions you take on a daily basis. For instance, if you just resumed in an office where you resume by 8am and you decide to resume one hour earlier to get started with your day, you will be noticed and possibly mocked (I have seen that happen too many times); that’s not a problem. But when you drop your guard to go with the flow of prompt resumption or late resumption, you will notice one thing: your productivity will drop. You are down with the flow; struggling for survival. One mark of truly successful people is continually doing the inconvenient but necessary things without losing enthusiasm.

How do you deal with this: decide everyday you breathe to be different. Don’t take the path of losers. Don’t just do the convenient; do the necessary.

(A word of caution: By any means, being different does not mean you should neglect sound principles or good examples from mentors or role models.)

Dead fishes don’t swim. The water body carries them and sooner than later drops them on dry land. You have life in you, a great opportunity to be different and an example unto others in every good works. You’ve got no business going with the flow. Only those who stand out are outstanding.

Share and inspire a friend. Have a great working week.

Live Beyond Yourself

When you are eighty or ninety, and you’re sitting on the porch rocking and looking back on your life, how will you feel about it? You won’t have to answer to anyone to fulfill their expectations – nor your parents or your business associates or your spouse. What would you have done with the gift of life? The answer will be important to you then, so the question should be important to you now.

The course of your life is determined by:

-       the RELATIONSHIPS you FORM

-       the DECISIONS you MAKE

-       the ACTIONS you TAKE

Each has the potential to change the course of your life.

If you’re not doing something with your life, it doesn’t matter how long it is. If you are doing something with your life, it doesn’t matter how long it is. Life does not consist of years lived, but of its usefulness. It's not duration but about donation. Your focus must be beyond yourself. If you are giving, loving, serving, helping, encouraging, and adding value to others, you are living a useful life. 

George Bernard Shaw has this to say: "This is the true joy of life, the being used for a purpose recognized by yourself as a mighty one; the being a force of nature instead of a feverish, selfish clod of ailments and grievances complaining that the world will not devote itself to making you happy. I am of the opinion that my life belongs to the whole community, and as long as I live it is my privilege to do for it whatever I can. I want to be thoroughly used up when I die, for the harder I work the more I live. I rejoice in life for its own sake. Life is no brief candle to me. It is a sort of splendid torch which I have got hold of for the moment, and I want to make it burn as brightly as possible before handing it on to future generations."

That is significance!

ADDING VALUE

I was having a discussion with one of my associates sometime back and he made a comment that the reason Bill Gates can’t be poor again is because of his high level of giving. First, he gave the world the user-friendly operating system, Windows. Now, he’s giving generously to charity to combat HIV/AIDS, malaria, polio and many more diseases in developing nations.

If you are just a receiver, you can’t be adding value to others. You can’t attract people and other good things into your life. Instead, you will be a parasite, feeding on people. Sooner than later, people will get tired of you and want to avoid you like a plague.

Giving is more honorable than receiving. Giving can be in several ways: by listening more, contributing intelligently, helping out in the community or even at home, rendering

voluntary services and much more.

When you constantly think about how to add value, you will be amazed at the opportunities that will be presented to you. This will aid your development. Don’t expect anything in return when you add value. Be excited about it and see your life flow towards accomplishment.

Look out today where and how you can add value to others.