Chapter 1:
I have got some good news and bad news for you in this chapter.
FIRST, THE GOOD NEWS!
If you are like the average Nigerian who earns at least N5,500 per month, from age 20, even with no increase, by the time you are 65, about N3.5 million would have passed through your fingers. If you earn N7,500 per month, even with no increase in the next 40 years of working, you would have handled N4.6 million. That's a lot of money. See it for yourself!
N5,000 invested monthly from age 20 at average 25% return will yield N2.2 million at age 30. If this same N5,000 is invested at average rate of 25% over a 20 year period, it will give N20.8 million. If this is invested at the same rate for 40 years till age 60, it will yield N1.8 billion! The truth is, you can grow wealthy on the money that is already flowing through your fingers.
NOW, FOR THE BAD NEWS
If you are like most people, you will spend it all, after a lifetime of earning, and end up with nothing. 96% of Nigerians are said to live below poverty level. Yet, Nigeria is the 7 th largest producer of oil in the world. Why? You may ask. 7% of Nigerians control 89% of the wealth of this country. 93% of Nigerians are left to struggle for 11% of available wealth. It is to relocate this formula and let the wealth go into more hands, that this book is written.
Think about this: Up till the end of 2004, only 2% of Nigerians were informed, and fewer were involved in the activities of the Nigerian Stock Exchange. It was the banks recapitalization drive of the Central Bank of Nigeria , as well as the massive awareness campaign of the banking sector offering their Initial Public Offers (IPO) that raised the level of capital market awareness in the country to around 10%. Yet the investment and market capitalization in Nigerian Stock Exchange is well over N6 trillion in the hand of less than 2% of the 140 million people in Nigeria !
I normally test the understanding of audiences in my many investment and financial empowerment seminars across the country, on the Stock Market Report on television programmes. The responses I often get vary from confusion to outright lack of understanding. We often conclude humorously that as far as financial news in our television programmes were concerned, “The more you look, the less you see”. No one in these media organizations has ever sat down to evaluate the effectiveness or otherwise, of what they are communicating in the name of financial education. Our parents don't teach us how to make money. We only learnt how to spend all we earn from our parents.
No school in Nigeria teaches on the subject of making money. I was a guest speaker on financial intelligence at a large convention of medical students from about 17 campuses in November 2005. None of the graduating students in the medical schools has ever heard any topic on investment mentioned in all their six years of study in medical schools. Even the Faculties of Finance and Business Administration don't teach their students on how to make money. Until as recent as 2004, no university in Nigeria has any department dedicated to the study of entrepreneurial skills. After 46 years of University Education in Nigeria , only one or two have functioning Centre for Entrepreneurial Development Studies. Very few have the department on their drawing boards and on the signboards.
So, if you want to be rich, don't rely on your school education. A book like this, and specialized seminars, serve as a bridge between academic knowledge and financial intelligence. If you want to be poor, go to school. If you want to be rich, go to seminars and read books on how to get rich.
STIR UP THE MILLIONAIRE IN YOU!
When Michelangelo was asked why he bought a chunk of marble which others considered inferior to carve his classic work, David , he replied “Because there is an angel locked in that marble, and I must set it free”.
There is an angel called Millionaire inside you, waiting to be set free. The Millionaire in you must be identified and stirred to action. The Millionaire seed in you needs to be nurtured from seedlings to full grown trees of wealth. A light needs to be switched on your inside for you to see clearly the Millionaire in you.
You have a gold mine inside of you. God never made a junk. There are incredible possibilities in you, that when properly directed, can take you to unimaginable heights.
People who become wealthy are not different from you. The difference is simply in the mental limits they set for themselves. Your earnings are the result of your normal mental programming. A wise man once said that “Wealth is the product of a man's ability to think”.
Poverty is not the absence of cash. Prosperity is not the presence of money. Poverty is not hereditary. Prosperity is not a Briton. Success is not a citizen of America . Lack is not synonymous with being black. It does not have to be white to be right. It is stinking thinking to anchor your financial destiny on your geographical location.
Poverty is in many cases a form of mental illness. The assuring news is that if poverty is an illness, it can be cured. You can get out of it. Anyone who becomes aware of this fundamental law and applies it to his life can become whatever he wants to be. Absolutely nothing can stop him. Circumstances will bend to his wishes. The greatest limitation a man can impose on himself is the one created in his own mind.
Wealth is created by the word within. Wealth is actually not the possession of anything, as you would soon find out. Things are outside effect of an inside job.
How do we crack the millionaire code? Can we identify a millionaire if we see him? What does the rich eat? Can we identify a millionaire by his wristwatches or jewelries? Is it by the location and grandeur of his house? Does he invest in expensive perfumes and designer clothes? Are they of the class that throw lavish parties? Our research findings do not point to any of these as yardstick for measuring wealth.
Is the millionaire the fellow with millions stashed away in bank accounts and coded safes abroad? Is he the lucky guy who inherits tons of money in an estate? Are the big winners in lottery and reality shows such as the Big Brothers Nigeria and beauty pageants automatic millionaires, after all, they won millions? Not necessarily so. The money launderers, 419 scammers, credit card and internet fraudsters, the 10 per centers in government and politicians with ill-gotten wealth, do not qualify to be referred to as millionaires in the real sense of the word.
Mike Tyson, the former world heavy weight boxing champion, was worth $350 million at 30. But, three years later, he filed for bankruptcy and was indebted to the tune of $16 million. Who is the millionaire ? It is not the person who earns millions as income. This is a point of departure from popular views about wealth. Wealth is not the same as income. I f you make a good income each year and spend it all, you are not getting wealthier. You are just living high. Wealth is what you accumulate, not what you spend.
IS THERE ANY RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN ACADEMIC DEGREES AND WEALTH?
I have been a player in the people development sector for over two decades. I have come to the conclusion that the relationship between education and wealth accumulation is negative. Few of the very wealthy in Nigeria and abroad are less likely to hold degrees in law, medicine or engineering. We are not suggesting that our children should drop out of school to start a business. Every one should get the best of education and give our children the very best of school training. However, most experts on wealth creation agree that the earlier one starts investing his income, the greater the opportunity to accumulate wealth.
It is difficult to accumulate wealth when one is in school. This is the reason doctors and other well-educated professionals get a very late start in the earning race.
There are always exceptions among travelers on the wealth course. There are few who combine academic school with wealth accumulation education. The point has been made over and over again: If you want to be wealthy, enrol in the school of the wealthy. If you want to be poor and average, hang on to academic schools only. How do you enroll in the school of the wealthy? It is by attending investment seminars, business workshops, joining investment clubs, reading books written by the wealthy and successful and not just the “brainy” and struggling professors!
One of my protégés by name, Yomi Anifowoshe, attended an investment workshop organized by Christian Leadership Skills Inc. I showed the participants “How To Start Business With Little or No Money”. I exposed to them “45 Business Ideas You Can Do With Little or No Money”. I took the participants through “17 Ways to Invest”. Yomi was in Senior Secondary class 1 at the time, largely fending for himself, as the first son with three other siblings and his mother. He picked one of the business ideas on home service dry cleaning on weekends. He was able to accumulate N5,000 (Five Thousand Naira) over time. He approached me for counsel on how to turn the N5,000 around. I took him to my broker, who promptly opened a stock broking account for him. Yomi was encouraged to be investing the little income flowing from his weekend business, while maintaining himself and paying his way through school.
Four years later, he gained admission to University of Lagos . I asked to know his progress with investing. What he declared thrilled me. Yomi already had stocks in Guarantee Trust Bank, WEMA Bank Plc, OANDO Plc, UAC Plc and Zenith Bank Plc.
Now in his third year in the University, my protégé is working his way to the millionaire club even as a student! He still does the weekend business of home service dry cleaning.
This partly explains why hardworking professionals are not wealthy. The truth is, the longer one stays in school, the longer one postpones producing an income and building wealth. You can fast forward your entry into the millionaire league by enrolling in the school of the wealthy, while attending conventional schools.
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