YOUR GREATNESS IS A CUBE

A cube is made of three sides; the length, breadth and height. This is also the basis of your life. The first dimension of a great life is the Length of life. This is the inward concern for one’s welfare. This is what causes a push to move forward, to achieve your goals and ambitions. This is the critical dimension of life where we are preoccupied with developing our inner powers. This is the selfish dimension of life. This is all about advancement, progress and achievement and all these result from well expressed ambitions and well defined dreams. The great a dream, the greater a person’s life becomes and as Dr. Robert Schuller said “There are no great people in this world, we are all ordinary individuals but the difference between us is that some have got bigger dreams than others.”

The second dimension of a great life is the breadth of life. This is the outward concern for the welfare of others. Greatness is also achieved by not being self centered but by focusing on empowering others. The more people you empower in life, the more you will enjoy in your life. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr, observed “A man has not begun to live until he can rise above the narrow confines of his own individual concerns to the broader concerns of all humanity”. In fact by lighting other lamps, you make yours more brighter. Have a reflection of all great men and women in history then you will discover how they lived beyond themselves and most of them did not care much about their personal interests but offered their lives for the welfare of humanity. Examples are Mother Teresa, Martin Luther King Jr., Abraham Lincoln, Mahatma Gandhi, J.F. Kennedy, Prof. Wangari Maathai, etc who made huge sacrifices in their life for the sake of the community. Remember anyone can be great because anyone can serve.

The last dimension is the height of life. In order to achieve an all round greatness, one must master the third dimension of a great life. You must move beyond the self interest (Length), empowering humanity (breadth) and reach up, way up for the God of universe, the creator of heaven and earth. Unfortunately most people forget this and after achieving the two dimensions, they assume they have achieved everything they wanted in life. Most attain the length of life, a few achieve the breadth of life while one or none achieve the height of life. We still need God and it is an obligation whether we like it or not otherwise we are only but pursuing a rat race. Most of us use God as a stepping stone to cross a flooded river but immediately forget about the stone after crossing to the other side of the water. Those who forget about God in the pursuit of greatness end up very badly and in life it does not matter how you begun but how you finish.

This is the three dimension of a complete life as propagated by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Love yourself, love your neighbor and love your God. Embrace the three dimensions for a greater life.

Don’t Dream It, Be it.

SELF DISCOVERY IS THE PASSWORD TO YOUR GREATNESS

The essence of life is about knowing, loving and respecting yourself as summarized by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Meir Kahare underscored this when he said “It is incumbent upon us to understand our greatness and believe in it so that we do notcheapen and profane ourselves”. I strongly concur with this. For a man to have a great life is self knowledge or self awareness. Every great legend lives with a top notch sense of self knowledge.

William Barclay was very clear about this. He said “There are only great days in a man’s life; the day they were born and the day they discovered why they were born.”  You might live for seventy years but be useless for all those days unless you discover the two most important days of your life. Better you live one day as a lion than living a hundred years as a sheep. Most people know their birthdays but unfortunately they don’t know anything about their second day which is the day they discover their life’s purpose. Purpose is the reason as to why something exists. In the process of unmasking your purpose, you have to be clear about who you are and what you really want in this world.

Peel off the layers of identity crisis, self doubt and reach deep into your true self. Make up your mind to be all you can be. Winston Churchill once said “Men occasionally stumble on the truth, but most of them pick themselves up, hurry off as if nothing ever happened”. This is the reality about how the purpose of life can be elusive to a person. The most challenging journey is the journey of self discovery. What values are most important to you? What is of great interest to you? What is your passion? What do you believe in? What do you aim to achieve? What gives you more energy? What are you are ready to keep pursuing even if there is no credit for having done it very well?

To achieve your purpose in life, you have to sacrifice what you are and have for what you could become. One of the critical steps to a great life is self knowledge. If you don’t understand yourself, others won’t understand you. You have to be quick in understanding yourself. Most of us we have met so many people but unfortunately we have failed to meet the most important person in our life- Ourselves. People know so much about great people but know very little about themselves. No wonder we have seen more followers than leaders in this world. Many people will be found glued on television cheering Manchester and Arsenal while on the other side they have not discovered the Arsenal or Manchester in themselves. It is very unfortunate. Nevertheless, It is never too late. You still have time for self discovery. Play the role that your destiny has for you. What is this that you have been ignoring that is calling for your utmost attention?

Self discovery and self acceptance is the key to your life’s purpose. Knowing others is intelligence; knowing yourself is true wisdom. Mastering others is strength; mastering yourself is true power. These are the words of Tao Te Ching, These are the best parting words.

Don’t Dream it, Be it.

IT IS NOT DONE UNTIL YOU DO IT

None of the secrets of success will work unless you do. Theories won't lead to tour destiny but work will. You were created for action. The more enterprising you are, the more free you are and this is the rule of free enterprise system. William Shakespeare said Nothing can come of nothing. A belief is futile unless converted into action.For many of us who believe in the bible, the word Action is mentioned 500 times. If they don't work, you don't deserve to eat.
You cannot just dream yourself into what you could be. Recall the slogan of great leaders hub, Don't dream it, Be it. An old adage says," Laziness travels so slowly, poverty soon overtakes it." If you spend most of your precious time talking about success will win you the medal of failure.Laziness will force you to work twice.Remember God did not create apple juice, he created apples.The rest is up to man.While the world portrays itself as  a football game, most people instead of being players, they have decided to be on the side of spectators.
The world is divided into people who do things and people who talk  about doing things.I advise you be in the first group, there is no competition in this group. The other group has millions of people. God blessed us with work and he didn't put to us as a burden. We are all alike in our promises but we differ by our deeds. Wishing will never make you rich.

Brendon Francis said that Inspirations never go in for long engagements; they demand  immediate marriage to action. If the truth has to be known then most of our troubles arise from loafing when we should be working and talking when we should be listening.
The man who delivers the goods is the man who never gets turned down and is always gets a welcoming hand.

Don't dream it, Be it.

TAKE CARE OF THE TRIO G’s IN YOUR LEADERSHIP JOURNEY

What is in you is like fire and whether you try to hide it will just come out. As it sprouts out, your vision must be known to the world. This vision will create other leaders as you become great day by day. As you climb this ladder, I wish to caution you of the three G’s that Myles Munroe cautioned of. Beware of Glory, Gold and Girls. These are what I summarize as the three G’s. As I was reading through the great book written by the great teacher and leader, Alex Ihama, I read of these three G’s he learned from the late Munroe and felt I will be very selfish for not sharing this treasure with you. The three G’s are sure ways of falling a man if not well managed.
Glory is awaiting you if you live a life of purpose. Popularity and prosperity which you seek and die for notoriously are only valuable and sustainable if received as a result of the pursuit of purpose. Recall glory and fame should never be motivators of leadership; people are always attracted to leadership. Glory is reserved for God. We are tempted to be glorified whenever power and leadership comes our way. Munroe said fame should never be the focus, but in the humble belief of self as a source of inspiration to others.
With Gold, Dr. Munroe advises that when we discover our purpose in life and give give up everything for it, riches will come. But money should not be a motivator for leadership and should be managed effectively to fulfill the purpose and advance the vision. He believed that leaders should work hard to make themselves comfortable, but never at the expense of their purpose and the people entrusted to them. Gold must be spent to advance a vision that is greater than the self, as well as to expand the kingdom of God. In Kenya, I have examples of great men and women of God who have been fallen by the greed for Gold, chasing for political offices in order to make money. They have been sent to oblivion and their vision shattered.
As for Girls, this is the greatest indicator and temptation a man of purpose is bound to face. Munroe related his best form of protection against temptations when traveling around the world was to travel with his wife. It is a wise action of integrity. Power attracts temptations and many have fallen because of girls. Beware of beautiful girls ready to bring you down.
Memorize the 3 G’s, practice them and you will be a great leader. Don’t Dream It, Be It.

THE PRINCIPLES OF ENTREPRENEURSHIP (THE 16 P’s)

(1)PURPOSE

People don’t buy what you do; they buy why you do it. An entrepreneur must see beyond the moment; he must travel to a desirable future ahead of his followers to lead them there, hence, purpose and vision is sine qua non to entrepreneurship. Robert Byrne said, “The purpose of life is a life of purpose”. The hardest thing for an entrepreneur to discern is distraction. Purpose keeps you on course. A hustler is an ‘entrepreneur’ without a definite goal and purpose, a business without a definite purpose is open to abuse. An entrepreneur has a gold mine when he has a goal mind. Charles Noble said, “You must have long-term goal to keep you from being frustrated by short term failures”. Henry Ford had a global goal, to develop the first auto-mobile that the middle class Americans can afford to buy. His introduction of the model T automobile revolutionized the transportation and the American Industry. Ford’s goal was to: create a motor car for the great multitude.  At that time, automobiles were very expensive and custom-made machines. During the industrial revolution, cars were like buying a private jet today until Ford created the assembly line, the Ford’s dream: the creation of an inexpensive mass-produced automobile came to reality and today, the automobile is within reach for common People just because one man stuck to his purpose! Robert Brault said, “You can accept reality, or you can persist in your purpose until reality accepts you”.

(2) PASSION

Steve jobs said, “The only way to do great work is to love what you do”.  Pleasure in the job puts perfection in the work. Passion is the fuel that drives purpose. The things we are created to do excite us while the things we were not created to do exhaust us. Follow your bliss and the universe will open doors where there were only walls. Jack Welch said, “Good business leaders create a vision, articulate the vision, passionately own the vision, and relentlessly drive it to completion”. Passion is the only virtue of entrepreneurs that is contagious. Money follows passion and not the other way around.

(3) PEOPLE 

Margaret Wheatley said, “A leader is the one who has more faith in people than they do, and who holds opportunities open long enough for their competence to re-emerge .“ One of the greatest prerequisite of a great enterprise is that it will require people. The greatest form of bankruptcy in business is not money but people. People are definitely a company’s greatest asset. A company is only as good as the people it keeps. Growth and profit are a product of how people work together. It takes people to make the dream a reality. Bang Gae said, “Team work makes the dream work”.

(4) PROCESS

In quality control, the understanding is that as long as the process is perfect, the product is guaranteed, proper procedure eliminates unwanted consequences. The integrity of the product lies in the process, in fact, the process guarantees the product. George W. Bush once said, “You can’t do today’s job with yesterday’s methods and be in business tomorrow”. Great entrepreneurs understand that in business, if you focus on the goal and not the process, you inevitably compromise. Great entrepreneurs are process focused and not outcome focused, Noam Shpancer said, “the process is important regardless of the outcome”

(5) PRICE

Price must be value oriented and competitive, pricing is actually pretty simple; customers will not pay literally a penny more that the true value of the product. Katherine Paine said, “The moment you make a mistake in pricing, you’re eating into your reputation and profit”. Warren Buffet, the one-time richest man in the world said, “Price is what you pay, value is what you get”.

(6) PROBLEM

Mike Murdock said, “Money is the reward you get for solving someone’s problem”. In business, the man who has no problems to solve is out of the game. Successful entrepreneurs don’t just make profit, they proffer solutions to problems, a problem is a solution yet to be discovered. The richest man in Africa, Aliko Dangote, said  “ Every morning when I wake up, I make up my mind to solve as many problems, before retiring home”, no wonder he is the richest man in Africa! Great entrepreneurs think and solve problems for a living,  Albert Einstein said, “problems cannot be solved by the same level of thinking that created them”. When Albert Einstein was being interviewed to reveal the secret of his awesomeness, he said, “It is not that I’m so smart, it’s just that I stay with problems longer”. No problem can stand the assault of sustained thinking.

(7) PROFIT

Profits are like breathing. You have to have them. But who would stay alive just to breath? You must consider the bottom line, but make it integrity before profit. Henry Ford, the father of modern automobile and one of the greatest entrepreneurs that the world has ever produced said, “A business absolutely devoted to service will have only one worry about profits. They will be embarrassingly large”. Businessmen who focus on profit wind up in the hole, profit is what happens when you do everything right. Ray Anderson said, “Business makes profit to exist. Surely it must exist for some higher, nobler purpose than that”.

(8) PRODUCT

Quality is the best kind of advertising. The quality of a product must never be compromised, for when quality is compromised, profit has been forfeited. Peter Drucker said, “The aim of marketing is to know and understand the customer so well that the product fits him and sells itself”. The easiest way to keep a business from becoming obsolete is to keep evolving and the moment the product becomes irrelevant, the business becomes irrelevant. Steve jobs, the main back bone behind the Apple innovations said, “If you keep your eye on the profit, you are going to skimp on the product. But if you focus on making really great products, then the profits will follow”. Tom Peters, author of in search of excellence said, “Be distinct or be extinct”. A product must meet a unique need; the easiest way to go into extinction is to do what every other person is doing.

(9) PERSISTENCE

Calvin Coolidge, the 30th President of the United States of America said, “Nothing in the world can take the place of persistence. Talent  will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful man  with talent. Geniuses will not, unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent”. Where the willingness is great, the difficulties can never be great. Genius is one-percent inspiration and 99 percent perspiration (Thomas A. Edison). One of the most impactful inventions of Thomas Alva Edison is the light bulb and despite the plethora of his errors and blunders, Thomas was unflinching in his resolve to make the world brighter than he met it. In response to a question on the number of times he failed, he said, “I have not failed 10,000 times. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t”. The strength of entrepreneurs lies in their tenacity, consistence and persistence to a worthy cause. Winston Churchill, the former prime minister of Britain said, “Success is not final, failure is not fatal; it is the courage to continue that counts.”  It is always too soon to quit (Norman Vincent Peale).

(10) PREPARATION/PLAN

Failure in business is a result; it is a result of not preparing. When you are too busy to plan, you will be too easy to be disorganized. Chance favors only the prepared mind. Henry Ford said, “There are many secrets to success in life but getting ready is the greatest of them all”. When opportunity presents itself, it is too late to prepare. The secret of success in life is for a man to be ready for his time when it comes, one of T.V screen goddess in America, Oprah Winfrey said, “I don’t believe in luck. I believe that success comes when preparation meets opportunity”.

(11) POSSIBILITIES

Great entrepreneurs have been considered to always see opportunities and possibilities even in adverse business conditions. Leaders are not always the first to see opportunities; they are simply the first to see and seize opportunities. Winston Churchill said, “A pessimist sees the difficulties in every opportunity”. No matter the difficulties and failures, an entrepreneur’s sight for possibilities must never be blurred. Henry Ford said, “Failure is an opportunity to start all over, more intelligently”.

(12) PARTNER

In this new wave of technology, you can’t do it all yourself, you have to form alliances. Every entrepreneur needs allies, and the bigger the responsibility, the more allies he needs.  If you can run the company a bit more collaboratively, you get a better result, because you have more bandwidth and checking and balancing going on.Bill Gates, the richest man in the world and the co-founder of the Microsoft Corporation has a secret about Microsoft, “Our success has really been based on partnerships from the very beginning”.

(13) POSITIONING/STRATEGIC POSITIONING

Not every environment accepts the progress you want to put across. Positioning gives a business market advantage. The bible says, “A house that is built upon a hill cannot be hidden”, this is also true for a business, there is a place for every business. Right positioning will ultimately give a business a competitive edge. One of the greatest miracles in product marketing is rebranding- just a little change in product content and packaging can cause an awesome change in demand!

Positioning is not only about location, there are place positioning, product positioning, market positioning, price positioning, brand positioning and promotion positioning. In the parable of the sower in Mathew 13:1-8, the master illustrated one of the greatest secrets of entrepreneurship- there is no bad seed, only bad soil!

(14) PROMOTION

P.T Barnum said, “Without Promotion something terrible happens ……..Nothing”. When you try to market to everyone, you reach no one, promotion helps in locating our target or prospective customers.  Promotion is more than advertising. It encompasses advertising and all other methods that are organized to advance the state of a product. Promotion can be defined as an activity, such as a sale or advertising campaign, designed to increase visibility or sales of a product but in a layman word, promotion helps to attract prospective customers. There are generally two types of promotion: Online and offline, the online involves social medias (e.g. Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, Google+, Tagged, Myspace etc.), E-mails, Adds on Search Engines, Podcasting, Blogs, Website while the offline include: in store marketing, flyers etc.

(15) PRIORITY (The Pareto Principle)

The pattern underlying the Pareto (80/20) principle was discovered in 1897, by Italian Economist Vifredo Pareto (1848 – 1923). The principle helps us to manage our resources and time more effectively. It embodies the fact that 80% of output result from 20% inputs; it is therefore reasonable that we invest more of our time and resources on the 20% that gives 80% output and invest less time and resources on 80% inputs that gives 20% output. The principle is also referred to as the rule of the “vital few” and trivial many”. In business, products can be grouped into “vital few” and “trivial many”. There is 20% of the product that gives 80% income; a good entrepreneur must prioritize to give more attention, time, promotion and resources to the product that are the “selling point”.

(16) PRAYER

He who succeeds in his prayer life will succeed in life. He who fails in his prayer life will fail in life, these were the words of Mike Murdock. An entrepreneur must not make God the last resort. Failure in many business endeavors is a prayer failure; prayerlessness is leaving life to chance. John Wesley said, “We can do great things when we pray; but we can do nothing great until we pray”

Don't Dream It, Be It.......

RULES OF ENTREPRENEURSHIP

Entrepreneurship is a solution domain and must be dictated by rules and regulations. These are what am calling the 13 commandments of an entrepreneur. Entrepreneurs must exude certain behaviors, approach, life style, attributes habits in order to be successful. These are;

RESOLVE customers’ complaint promptly while others argue with customers to prove a point. The customer is the king and is the pillar of your business.

DELEGATE to get more work done while others do it alone. It is well captured in the holy book.

DECIDE while others are delaying. Indecision is like a stepson. If he doesn’t take a shower, he is dirty, if he takes a shower, he is wasting soap. Those pedestrians who are not decided are easily knocked down by a running vehicle since they are always in the middle of the road.

WORK while others are wishing. If wishes were horses, beggars could ride.

PERSIST while others are quitting. Persistence wears out resistance.

SMILE while others are frowning. SMILE is the most beautiful attire you can ever put on.

LISTEN while others are talking. Most problems that arise out of communication are that most people want to talk but they are not willing to listen and remember listening is not hearing. Hearing is a form of sense while listening is an attitude and a character.

STUDY while others are sleeping. If you don’t read, you won’t grow. There is power in books and knowledge is dynamic, it has to be updated. Don’t rely on ancient knowledge; keep on updating your software. There are two things that can change your life; the books you read and the people you meet.

PLAN while others are playing. Most people fail because they fail to plan.

BEGIN while others are procrastinating. Postponement is the biggest thief of time, don’t embrace it. Start with what you have today and what you have today is your business idea. Remember others have money but they don’t know how to spend it because they don’t have an idea.

SAVE while others are wasting. Saving is the hardest task in life but is the best assurance for tomorrow. Don’t be extravagant if you want to escape the chains of your employer. Saving 10% is like paying tithe, which is the hardest task just like completing your medication dose. Have control over your savings and you will decide your destiny. Warren Buffet said “Do not save what remains after spending, but spend what is left after saving”

COMMEND while others are criticizing. Remember too much analysis leads to paralysis. Most things need your comments not your immediate criticism.

Finally

TREAT your employee right; else they will use your internet to look for new jobs. If you are the kind of employer who considers your employees a liability, one day you will be a liability yourself when they are all gone. Treat them as your equal partners in business. You need teamwork to develop business and this you can only build it if you make use of all professionals.

HOPE YOU FOLLOW THESE COMMANDMENTS

And the last but not list, Don’t Dream it, Be It.

PASSION IS MORE POWERFUL THAN PENSION- PART 2

The evolution of Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC) underlines fruitlessness of getting addicted to your pension at the detriment of your passion. Colonel Harland Sanders was an American business magnate best known for founding Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC) and later acting as the company’s goodwill ambassador and symbol. Sanders went through traumatizing experiences that eventually shaped his life. In 1903, Sanders dropped out of school and lived on a farm after arguments with his stepfather. He took a job painting horse carriages, worked as a farmhand for two years, worked with his uncle in a street car company as a conductor. He enlisted in the United States Army prematurely at the age of 16 and was discharged after three months. He moved to Sheffield and worked as a blacksmith’s helper and two months after as a train cleaner. Sanders had many failures and kept moving from one job to another. He later enrolled as a fireman, worked as a salesman thereafter and also sold life insurance.

In 1930, Sanders finally quit working as a result of the great depression and decided to look from within what he could do to make a difference. The turning point came one day as Colonel Sanders was sitting on his porch in Corbin, Kentucky; one morning, the mailman came up the walk and handed him his first social security check, then he was 65 years old, broke and defeated, he looked at the check and said, “My government is going to give me a hundred and five dollars a month so I can eke out an existence. Surely there is something I can do for myself and other people.” He was internally motivated and began to engage himself in deep thinking, and thinking always produces results.

The thought of his mother’s special recipe for fried chicken came to his mind. It was a particular formula which he considered somewhat special. He decided to try to sell franchises for marketing his fried chicken. Sanders began to cook chicken dishes and finally opened a little restaurant. It was doing well, then the highway was rerouted and he lost everything. He was sixty-five years old at the time. Though Harland Sanders’ chicken was a hit, there were still many challenges to surmount. He utilized the recipes and cooking skills his mother had taught him. His special meal was the fried chicken which he seasoned with his original blend of eleven spices and herbs; his recipes eventually became famous.

Sanders decided to sell Franchises for marketing his fried chicken formula but was turned down by scores of restaurants. After much rejection, he rounded up some investors and the legendary Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC) was born. The KFC was one of the first fast food chains to expand internationally, opening outlets in Canada and later England, Mexico and Jamaica by the mid-60s. The company’s rapid expansion to more than 600 locations became overwhelming for the aging Sanders. His famous “finger-licking” Kentucky fried chicken made from a special recipe changed the face of “chicken” forever. Harland Sanders impact was so significant that Kentucky Governor, Ruby Laffoon, in 1935 made Harland an honorary Kentucky Colonel in recognition of his awesome impact, their advertising logo says it all-‘We do chicken right’. The greatest question of life is to ask yourself: ‘what is that one thing that I can do right? “Discover the one thing you were created to be, and be willing to pay the price to be it” – Anonymous

Sanders’ life pointed towards two facts about making a difference: one, there is no age that is too much to make a difference; two, there is nothing too small or insignificant to make a difference with as long as it is your passion. Colonel Sanders at the age of 65, made a difference with his chicken recipe. It’s amazing how a man can make a difference all over the world just with “chicken”!

The first and most imperative clarification is to know that your job is not your means of livelihood; your job should be a means to fuel your passion! The earlier you realize this basic truth of life, the less jaundiced your view becomes and the more clearly you’ll be able to position yourself in living a life of impact and value.

 Normal Cousin said, “The greatest tragedy of life is not that we die but what dies in us while we live.”  Don’t carry your passion to the grave! I have always said it, if you don’t use your talents to realize your dream, somebody will use you to realize his.

A parting shot, ‘Don’t Dream It, Be It”