Learn Lessons and Move Forward

One of my favourite sayings has been “when you lose, don't lose the lesson” by Dalai Lama.

We all believe that everything happens for a reason but still contest when some things happen and sometimes ask the question “why always me?” - like footballer Mario Balotelli.

But do we really understand that some things happen randomly? Why would a man wake up in the morning with a headache and say he is being witch-hunted by witches and wizards in his village but never says the same culprits made him feel good when he wakes up well rested.

If we had an excuse for every misfortune that befalls us, why don't we have a solution to avoid its recurrence in future? If we have the reasoning capacity to know where certain misfortunes come from, why don't we have an equally reasoning capacity to get us out of the misfortunes and possibly avoid getting into same?

If I have to put my failure to pass a particular course on the difficulty of an exam, i'll keep failing and keep blaming the difficulty for my failure. Maybe I may someday upgrade and say the lecturer dislikes me that's why he sets difficult questions targeted at me alone. But what stops me from thinking I may be doing something wrong to warrant my failure? Why can I not “re-strategize” and change my approach? It probably has to do with my belief that I cannot be wrong and so the other party has to change his approach.

A saying credited to Albert Einstein goes “insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results”, this is like putting salt into coffee over and over again and expecting it to taste like it contains sugar. It just wont happen. This saying goes hand in hand with the earlier Dalai Lama quote “when you lose, don't lose the lesson”.

These quotes can be brought together thus, if plan A does not work, move to plan B and do not waste time on plan A or claim you are trying to perfect plan A (who you dey deceive?). BUT, take lessons learnt from the failure of plan A that you can use to perfect your plan B, and also guide against making the same mistake as plan A.

No human is omniscient (well neither are animals nor robots), so there is no obligation to get it right the first, second, third or one millionth time, as long as lessons are learnt, going forward previous errors are not repeated as to show insanity and you keep progressing. After-all,  the light bulb was not invented by repeating mistakes made from the first attempt.

Adolescence by Billy Collins

I had never heard of Billy Collins until I saw a 2012 TED talk – Everyday moments, caught in time – where he presented 5 of his poems in animations. He is an American poet who has won various awards and honours for his poetries.

I appreciate poetry even though I am not a big fan but the animations got me hooked to it and sort of made me understand the poems better and faster than I would have had I only listened and not seen a visual representation.

My main point in this TED talk was the last poem he read out to the audience which he said was a recent poem titled: To my Favourite 17-Year-Old High School Girl. Even thought the poem mentioned “girl”, I feel it goes on to address all teenagers and adults alike who feel the time to act is not now and have 1001 excuses for everything.

"To my Favourite 17-Year-Old High School Girl"  by Billy Collins.

***

Do you realize that if you had started building the Parthenon on the day you were born

you would be all done in only one more year?

Of course, you couldn't have done that all alone.

So never mind; you're fine just being yourself.

You're loved for just being you.

But did you know that at your age

Judy Garland was pulling down a 150,000 dollars a picture,

Joan of Arc was leading the French army to victory,

and Blaise Pascal had cleaned his room –

no wait, I mean he had invented the clculator?

Of course, there will be time for all that later in your life,

after you come out of your room and begin to blossom,

or at least pick up all your socks.

For some reason I keep remembering that Lady Jane Grey was Queen of England

when she was only 15.

but then she was beheaded, so never mind her as a role model.

A few centuries later,

when he was your age,

Franz Schubert was doing the dishes for his family,

but that did not keep him from composing two symphonies,

four operas and two complete masses as a youngster.

But if course, that was in Austria

at the height of romantic lyricism,

not here in the suburbs of Cleveland.

Frankly, who cares if Annie Oakley was a crack shot at 15,

or if Maria Callas debuted as Tosca at 17?

We think you're special just being you –

playing with your food and staring into space.

By the way, I lied about Schubert doing the dishes,

but that doesn't mean he never helped out around the house.

***

That Bucket List

We may not be quick to admit it but we all have a hidden Bucket List that, like a life goal we hope to have achieved before we finally say goodbye to mother earth ranging from 'within reach' to 'the extreme'.

What would you like to do before you die? Build a school, a place of worship, have the highest number of followers on twitter, an endowment fund for the less privileged or even an endowment fund for your pet. Its all up to you.

Before I die I want to be guaranteed Heaven. This may seem an unrealistic target but if I think I can pull it off, then I can. Its my bucket list not anyone else's.

A positive to be derived amongst the numerous positives from this bucket list thing is that it is a way to spur us on. It encourages one to work hard to achieve these goals or achieve goals that lead to achieving these goals. Saying 'before I die I want to start my own business' can ginger me to work hard to be able to put resources together, invoke the entrepreneurial spirit in me to think-up or start a business of my own. The same can be said of learning a new skill, a new language or understanding one's religion.

Almost everyone wants a car but not all of the 'almost everyone' gets a car. Saying 'before I die I want to own a car' would fire you up to save more, spend less, invest more, improve myself and skills so you can earn more just so you can hit that target of buying a car.

For me, before I die I want to drive a Formula 1 car, I want to go to the apex of Mount Everest, I want to drive around the Nurburgring in Germany, I want to do all sorts. It could be for fun, humanity sakes or business. No matter what you do it for, it is worth having a bucket list.

Pictures via beforeidie.cc

JAMBED!!!

This is my entry for the sagaysagay.com #MyJambStory competition. Here i tried to depict girls penchants for shopping and how it affected a supposed jamb candidate.

My uncle called to inform me that he had secured a lecturer at the MAULAG (now UNILAG) to runs my admission, as long as I can score 180 in the JAMB exams coming up in 3 months. I explained to him that there is also Post-JAMB exams arranged by the university and asked whether the lecturer can runs that one too and he said its not going to be a problem. He said my admission letter is ready but only if I can score 180. I smiled and said ONLY 180? Piece of cake, I can score 380.

I thought to myself that in 3 months or thereabout, I would be a Jambito and after another 9 months, I can start calling others Jambitos. I took out all my textbooks and decided to start studying in earnest. While taking out my textbooks, I discovered that my wardrobe was almost dry, I must have being left behind in the fashion world. All the clothes I had in there were outdated and wouldnt fit into a university like MAULAG and I was still going about with a Nokia E71. I didnt like all that and so I approached my dad to convince him of the need to upgrade my wardrobe to meet up with university standards.

My dad failed to understand what I meant by university standards and wanted to know why I hadnt found a good tuition house to register for lessons. I waved it away and said I could do that in no time, moreover the exam is in 3 months so there is more than enough time to study for 400 lousy questions. Luckily for me, mum was there and she convinced him not to probe further. He gave me 100k for shopping. I thought this was not going to be enough so I called my friends Kike and Ife to assist me.

In order to properly manage the money, we spent 1 week at MAULAG to see the fashion trends amongst its female students. Apparently 1 week was not enough so we had to spend another 1 week, taking secret shots of impeccably dressed female students.

After 2 weeks of undercover fashion investigation, we finally decided on what to get for me using the tight budget at our disposal.

The 1^st 3 days at the Palms Lekki was terrible, things were so expensive we thought Kim Kardashian now shops in Palms. We spent the next few days penning available low priced stores to decide which to exploit next, we settled for City Mall at Onikan and went there the following week. The difference between City Mall and The Palms can be likened to a Blackberry Bold 2 and Bold 4 so we ditched it after sampling all the items in almost all the stores. We were busy at my place thinking of where else to go when it dawned on me that we should go to Balogun market on Lagos Island, the warehouse of them all.

Now, Balogun market is not all about gbanjo and cheap things, they have new stuffs and 1^st class materials that we can get at the lowest possible price. Afterall some City Mall and Palms stores get their stock from Balogun market.

We made plans and stormed Balogun market. It took us over 1 week to do the shopping, even Kike and Ife got to pick some tops and a pair of shoes each.

We spent the next couple of weeks trying to see the best possible way to get the maximum out of my new acquisitions when one day on the 9pm NTA news, a commercial came on that JAMB examination will be written on Saturday the 14^th of march 2012, I smiled and checked the date on my new blackberry curve 4 only to see “Thu, Mar 12”.

Confusion set in and I remembered the fire brigade approach normally used by the Nigerian Eagles in competitions. I took out my books and started to cram sharp sharp but fell asleep barely 30 minutes later on the sitting room couch. I had a terrible nightmare where I saw my books running after me, when I woke up, I instantly remembered the JAMB examination happening the next day and began jacking again. I did 4 straight hours of jacking.

Kike came in at about 11 am to inform me of what she saw on the news last night, I allayed her fears that I was already studying hard. She asked me where my centre is and whether I had gone there to secure the teachers there to provide me with espo, I stared at her with a blank face when I realized I had not even bought JAMB form.

In that moment, I appreciated the 5^th line of the Nigerian national anthem.

Needless to say, I was truly jambed.

Is Buddhism a Religion?

Is Buddhism a Religion?

"Best Way"

Is there such thing as a 'best way' of doing things? Maybe 'yes', maybe 'no', maybe it depends on how we view it or maybe it depends on how well a 'best way' is preached to us. We cannot however deny the fact that there is a general rule to how everything is done, a specific procedure that everyone has to go through to achieve set objectives.
It could be a 'best way' of cooking rice, a 'best way' of ironing a shirt, a 'best way' of dressing or a 'best way' of addressing people. But really are these truly 'best ways'? In motorsport for instance, there is what is called a “racing line” or in some games a “best line”. It is said that the fastest route between 2 points is a straight line, hence the racing line is a line that builds on this and gives the best line around corners and straights to follow to hasten reach to the finish line. But is the “racing line” truly the best line?
Everything we do has a side effect, too much of water is bad even though water is believed to be the elixir of life. Too much food is bad, even though food is an essential for human existence. Even the air we breathe if taken at irregular patterns can hamper breathing. Karma is everywhere from good deeds to bad deeds, to doing, seeing, hearing, smelling and so on and on and in-exhaustively on.
Breakthroughs in science and technology bring about new technologies, new drugs and new ways of doing things that continuously make the previous 'best way' seem pre 1st century. Mobile phones, emails and the internet have made communication so easy that the 'best way' which used to be sending letters via a post-office is now almost obsolete.
We read books and see articles online where we see people discuss principles on the way we should live, the 'best way' to do business and the 'best way' to practice religion. But really all these are just people's opinions, principles that have worked for them. There is no doubt that some principles may work for others but are they necessarily the 'best ways'? Most are just opinions of the author, even the religious teachings are merely people's understandings of the Holy Books.
Records are shattered when new ways of doing things are found which always supersede the 'best ways'. Faster cars are made with an improvement on the current 'best way' of engine manufacture, new rules and laws are made when the previous laws become outdated and do not meet the needs of present circumstances. In the past, the best in safety is no longer the best because new bests come out to 'outbest' them and then these new bests have to stay a while until we are able to discover new bests that can 'outbest' them.
Sometimes you want to do something and are told its impossible, this is because the best is believed to have been  done and there is nothing one can do to improve on that. That's why when Tata motors wanted to build the Tata Nano, the engineers and researchers were told to “Question the Unquestionable”. This could mean going against the norms and the perceived 'best way' of car production, it could mean doing the impossible and it could equally mean stretching the limits of human imagination to get what they want. I use the word “could” because it could equally mean otherwise.
So now I'll ask again, is there a 'best way'?
The 'best way' thing is a circle that would continue to revolve round and round without end and it finally comes down to us what we perceive to be the 'best way' of doing what we do or what we are about doing.
The hard way is the only way for those who refuse to seek other ways, likewise the 'best way'.

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"More From Less For More"

I recently watched a 2009 TED talk where the speaker, R.A. Mashelkar discussed “breakthrough design for ultra-low cost products”. In this presentation, he discussed how Tata Nano was conceived to its eventual production, the $28 foot and an ultra cost drug that treats Indian Psoriasis (it is an autoimmune disease that affects the skin. It is characterized by dry red patches on the skin covered with scales. Wikipedia). In the cause of his talk, he also talked about the $25 incubator by Stanford University students which otherwise costs $2,000.
The theme of his talk was however “more from less for more”. Sayings of Mahatma Gandhi were quoted a number of times from the which the speaker derived the theme.
The idea behind the theme is producing more for less to benefit more. Which makes a lot of sense except we have this idea that when stuff is mass produced, the quality tends to be inferior. Hence we shouldn't expect quality products from this school of thought.
Rightly so, yes. But through the presentation, one understands that the more from less for more school of thought is not looking to cater for everyone, in fact it targets those at the bottom of the food chain who would otherwise not have access to these things been produced.
For instance, how many people can afford a $20,000 artificial limb? Its even a rarity to see those who can afford it needing because most of the times, its the poor who need limbs due to some avoidable accidents they were involved in or all kinds. The $28 artificial limb is affordable to a few, in the sense that they do not need to save a fortune to get access to it.
The same thing goes for the Tata Nano car which took technology from the Indian three-wheelers and incorporated into a $2,000 vehicle. If some people can save up to $800 to $1,000 to buy motorcycles, then words cannot describe their joy in being able to add a few hundred dollars more to buy a car.
From the business aspect, Tata makes more money selling to this segment of the automotive sector and tapping the millions of profit to be made while competition broods.
To ensure the success of this modus operandi, extensive research has to be done to find a way around the prevailing norms and more importantly doing things the opposite way. Reference was made to medicine, where the speaker mentioned that the standard drug delivery process is to Do research  is done using molecules and chemicals, the result is then tested on mice before transfer to humans if successful. Their Psoriasis however worked in the opposite direction. Research is made on humans using the existing available treatment method, new found medication is then tested on mice before it is finally allowed on humans.
The key difference here is that, in the second case, the research proper is done using humans and not testing different molecular or chemical solutions. It is more like a crash test on an actual car to appreciate the crash impacts and know where to beef up in the actual production car.
Producing more from less entails using very little resources to produce, this justifies the low cost that the end product ends up and ensures its for more. Examples of such products are Chinko phones which are inferior phones produced with obviously very cheap materials and cost far less than its more expensive big name phones but with almost same features. Though with compromises in big areas of this phones like the screen resolution, audio quality etc., these phones are affordable to people who cannot afford the high-end brand names.
I'll end by encouraging the need to for more research on ultra-low cost items especially items essential to human survival and existence such as drugs, infrastructure needed to improve social amenities such as hospital equipments, housing construction methods etc. so as to be able to provide for more from the less that was expended.

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The best 5 months of my University days

I came across this while scouting my pc this morning and thought to share, even though its like 2 years late.

****************

It’s been 3 dragging months for us, especially for me. Lots of commitments on me. School commitment, AIESEC commitment, and 2010 Focus commitment, though I have being able to rank them on a scale of preference thus; AIESEC, 2010 Focus, then school and here’s why;

AIESEC cos I’m the LCP (Local Committee president) for Kano with lots of programs and people to manage as well as goals to be met chief of which is for me to bring back AIESECkano to being an LC on its own and no more under AIESECjos.

2010 Focus cos I’m chairman organizing committee and a lot has to be done to save face by January. I have vowed to deliver a better photo-album than last year’s and an improved dinner and awards night than last year. In short, I want to organize a show better than previous ones and hard to be surpassed by subsequent ones.

Finally school cos hey even if I don’t enter class I can pass my exams but on top of that management is a course that deals with reality, and my being LCP and Chairman, I practice management, and this helps me in my examinations cos I am able to give real life and first hand examples when the need arise.

One thing peculiar with these guys mentioned above is by January, I should be doing an assessment of how I have done the past academic year. Have I been able to meet my set goals? Exceed expectations? Flop? Make new friends? Make new enemies? And on top of all, have I been able to develop myself?

Knowing myself through and through, I don’t see obstacles. I remember the words of Rhythm fm presenter (Big Tyme); “put God first and the rest will fall into place”.

I believe that in carrying out a project, how I start will determine the end. Even if you have a shaky start, as long as you are able to realize and accept that the start is shaky and you are ready to make amends, then the end is sure to be as expected.

But before the much awaited January, which is just 5 months away, I’ll just sit back, make an assessment of the past 3 months, make amends, ship out, ship in and get ready to get back to work in earnest when school resumes for second semester. And after that, through the exchange program AIESEC provides me, I’ll be looking forward to going on a 5month holiday/management traineeship exchange program in South Africa? Who knows, I may even apply to be on the MC of some other country out there?

****************

I must say that those 5 months were the best 5 months of my university days. One thing i know i achieved for AIESECkano is sustainence, a united house with new followers ready and willing to move the entity forward. And they still are moving it forward unto greater things.

2010 Focus had a little setback in the delivery of our photo-album, infact we had to delay issuing the album until the dinner was over because we were totally disappointed and completely gutted with the result we got. I hear no one has matched what we did. I'll do a sepparate piece soon.

I had to delay my project until after the 2010 focus party so i could concentrate on the event. It took me 2 weeks to write a 31 page project that was accepted.

All in all, massive 5 months, massive impact, massive everything. Massive massive massive massive team i worked with. From the AIESEC team to the BOF crew were all amazing guys.

Excerpts from the Meditations of Marcus Aurelius

Marcus Aurelius April 26, 121 CE. – March 17, 180 CE. was Roman Emperor from CE 161 to 180. Marcus Aurelius' Stoic tome Meditations, written in Greek while on campaign between 170 and 180, is still revered as a literary monument to a philosophy of service and duty, describing how to find and preserve equanimity in the midst of conflict by following nature as a source of guidance and inspiration. ---> Wikipedia

**These are excerpts from the book of "Meditations of Marcus Aurelius"**

***Start***

[2.1] When you wake up in the morning, tell yourself: The people I deal with today will be meddling, ungrateful, arrogant, dishonest, jealous and surly. They are like this because they cannot tell good from evil. But I have seen the beauty of good, and the ugliness of evil, and have recognized that the wrongdoer has a nature related to my own - not of the same blood or birth, but the same mind, and possessing a share of the divine. And so none of them can hurt me. No one can implicate me in ugliness. Nor can I feel angry at my relative, or hate him. We were born to work together like feet, hands and eyes, like the two rows of teeth, upper and lower. To obstruct each other is unnatural. To feel anger at someone, to turn your back on him: these are obstructions.

[2.2] Whatever this is that I am, it is flesh and a little spirit and an intelligence. Throw away your books; stop letting yourself be distracted. That is not allowed. Instead, as if you were dying right now, despise your flesh. A mess of blood, pieces of bone, a woven tangle of nerves, veins, arteries. Consider what the spirit is: air, and never the same air, but vomited out and gulped in again every instant. 

Finally, the intelligence. Think of it this way: You are an old man. Stop allowing your mind to be a slave, to be jerked about by selfish impulses, to kick against fate and the present, and to mistrust the future.

[2.3] What is divine is full of Providence. Even chance is not divorced from nature, from the interweaving and enfolding of things governed by Providence. Everything proceeds from it. And then there is necessity and the needs of the whole world, of which you are a part. Whatever the nature of the whole does, and whatever serves it to maintain it, is good for every part of nature. The world is maintained by change – in the elements and in the things they compose. That should be enough for you; treat it as an axiom. Discard your thirst for books, so that you won’t die in bitterness, but in cheerfulness and truth, grateful to the gods from the bottom of your heart.

[2.4] Remember how long you’ve been putting this off, how many extensions the gods gave you, and you didn’t use them. At some point you have to recognize what the world it is that you belong to; what power rules it and from what source you spring; that there is a limit to the time assigned you, and if you don’t use it to free yourself it will be gone and will never return.

[2.5] Concentrate every minute like a Roman – like a man - on doing what’s in front of you with precise and genuine seriousness, tenderly, willingly, with justice. And on freeing yourself from all other distractions. Yes, you can – if you do everything as if it were the last thing you were doing in your life, and stop being aimless, stop letting your emotions override what your mind tells you, stop being hypocritical, self-centered, irritable. You see how few things you have to do to live a satisfying and reverent life? If you can manage this, that’s all even the gods

can ask of you.

[2.6] Yes, keep on degrading yourself, soul. But soon your chance at dignity will be gone. Everyone gets one life. Yours is almost used up, and instead of treating yourself with respect, you have entrusted your own happiness to the souls of others.

[2.7] Do external things distract you? Then make time for yourself to learn something worthwhile; stop letting yourself be pulled in all directions. But make sure you guard against the other kind of confusion. People who labor all their lives but have no purpose to direct every thought and impulse toward are wasting their time — even when hard at work.

[2.8] Ignoring what goes on in other people's souls – no one ever came to grief that way. But if you won't keep track of what your own soul's doing, how can you not be unhappy?

[2.9] Don’t ever forget these things:

The nature of the world.

My nature.

How I relate to the world.

What proportion of it I make up.

That you are a part of nature, and no one can prevent you from speaking and acting in harmony with it, always.

[4.4] If thought is something we share, than so is reason – what makes up reasoning beings.

If so, then the reason that tells us what to do and what not to do is also shared.

And if so, we share a common law.

And thus, are fellow citizens.

And fellow citizens of something.

And in that case, our state must be the world. What other entity could all of humanity belong to? And from it – from this state that we share – come thought and reason and law.

Where else could they come from? The earth that composes me derives from earth, the water from some other element, the air from its own source, the heat and fire from theirs – since nothing comes from nothing, or returns to it. So thought must derive from somewhere else as well.

[4.5] Death: something like birth, a natural mystery, elements that split and recombine.

Not an embarrassing thing. Not an offense to reason, or our nature.

[4.6] That sort of person is bound to do that. You might as well resent a fig tree for secreting juice. (Anyway, before very long you’ll both be dead – dead and soon forgotten.)

[4.7] Choose not to be harmed – and you won’t feel harmed.

Don’t feel harmed – and you haven’t been.

[4.8] It can ruin your life only if it ruins your character. Otherwise it cannot harm you – inside or out.

[4.9] It was for the best. So Nature had no choice but to do it.

[8.35] We have various abilities, present in all rational creatures as in the nature of rationality itself. And this is one of them. Just as nature takes every obstacle, every impediment, and works around it – turns it to its purposes, incorporates it into itself – so, too, a rational being can turn each setback into raw material and use it to achieve its goal.

[8.36] Don’t let your imagination be crushed by life as a whole. Don’t try to picture everything bad that could possibly happen. Stick with the situation at hand, and ask, “Why is this so unbearable? Why can’t I endure it?” You’ll be embarrassed to answer.

Then remind yourself that past and future have no power over you. Only the present – and even that can be minimized. Just mark off its limits. And if you mind tries to claim that it can’t hold out against that … well, then, heap shame upon it.

[8.37] Are Pantheia or Pergamos still keeping watch at the tomb of Verus?

Chabrias or Diotimus at the tomb of Hadrian? Of course they aren’t. Would the emperors know if they were?

And even if they knew, would it please them?

And even if it did, would the mourners live forever? Were they, too, not fated to grow old and then die? And when that happened, what would the emperors do?

[8.38] The stench of decay. Rotting meat in a bag.

Look at it clearly. If you can.

[8.39] “To the best of my judgment, when I look at the human character I see no virtue placed there to counter justice. But I see one to counter pleasure: self-control.”

[8.40] Stop perceiving the pain you imagine and you’ll remain completely unaffected.

– “You?”

Your logos.

– But I’m not just logos.

Fine. Just don’t let the logos be injured. If anything else is, let it decide that for itself.

[8.41] For animate being, “harmful” is whatever obstructs the operation of their senses – or the fulfillment of what they intend. Similar obstructions constitute harm to plants. So too for rational creatures, anything that obstructs the operation of the mind is harmful.

Apply this to yourself.

Do pain and pleasure have their hooks in you? Let the sense deal with it. Are there obstacles to your action? If you failed to reckon with the possibility, then that would harm you, as a rational being. But if you use common sense, you haven’t been harmed or even obstructed. No one can obstruct the operations of the mind.

Nothing can get at them – not fire or steel, not tyrants, not abuse – nothing. As long as it’s “a sphere … in perfect stillness.”

[8.42] I have no right to do myself an injury. Have I ever injured anyone else if I could avoid it?

[12.1] Everything you’re trying to reach – by taking the long way round- you could have right now, this moment. If you’d only stop thwarting your own attempts. If you’d only let go of the past, entrust the future to Providence, and guide the present toward reverence and justice.

Reverence: so you’ll accept what you’re allotted. Nature intended it for you, and you for it.

Justice: so that you’ll speak the truth, frankly and without evasions, and act as you should – and as other people deserve.

Don’t let anything deter you: other people’s misbehavior, your own misperceptions, What People Will Say, or the feelings of the body that covers you (let the affected part take care of those). And if, when it’s time to depart, you shunt everything aside except your mind and the divinity within…if it isn’t ceasing to live that you’re afraid of but never beginning to live properly…then you’ll be worthy of the world that made you.

No longer an alien in your own land.

No longer shocked by everyday events – as if they were unheard-of aberrations.

No longer at the mercy of this, or that.

[12.2] God sees all our souls freed from their fleshly containers, stripped clean of their bark, cleansed of their grime. He grasps with his intelligence alone what was poured and channeled from himself into them. If you learn to do the same, you can avoid a great deal of distress. When you see through the flesh that covers you, will you be unsettled by clothing, mansions, celebrity - the painted sets, the costume cupboard?

[12.3] Your three components: body, breath, mind. Two are yours in trust; to the third alone you have clear title.

If you can cut yourself – your mind – free of what other people do and say, of what you’ve said or done, of the things that you’re afraid will happen, the impositions of the body that contains you and the breath within, and what the whirling chaos sweeps in from outside, so that the mind is freed from fate, brought to clarity, and lives life on its own recognizance – doing what’s right, accepting what happens, and speaking the truth – If you can cut free of impressions that cling to the mind, free of the future and the past – can make yourself, as Empedocles says, “a sphere rejoicing in its perfect stillness,” and concentrate on living what can be lived (which means the present)… then you can spend the time you have left in tranquility. And in kindness. And at peace with the spirit within you.

[12.4] It never ceases to amaze me: we all love ourselves more than other people, but care more about their opinion than our own. If a god appeared to us – or a wise human being, even – and prohibited us from concealing our thoughts or imagining anything without immediately shouting it out, we wouldn’t make it through a single day. That’s how much we value other people’s opinions – instead of our own.

[12.5] How is it that the gods arranged everything with such skill, such care for our well-being, and somehow overlooked one thing: that certain people – in fact, the best of them, the gods’ own partners, the ones whose piety and good works brought them closest to the divine – that these people, when they die, should cease to exist forever? Utterly vanished.

Well, assuming that’s true, you can be sure they would have arranged things differently, if that had been appropriate. If it were the right thing to do, they could have done it, and it were natural, nature would have demanded it. So from the fact that they didn’t – if that’s the case – we can conclude that it was appropriate.

Surely you can see yourself that to ask the question is to challenge the gods’ fairness. And why would you be bringing in fairness unless the gods are, in fact, fair – and absolutely so?

And if they are, how could they have carelessly overlooked something so unfair – so illogical – in setting up the world?

[12.6] Practice even what seems impossible.

The left hand is useless at almost everything, for lack of practice. But it guides the reins better than the right. From practice. 

[12.7] The condition of the soul and body when death comes for us.

Shortness of life.

Vastness of time before and after.

Fragility of matter.

[12.8] To see the causes of things stripped bare. The aim of actions.

Pain. Pleasure. Death. Fame.

Who is responsible for our own restlessness.

That no one obstructs us.

That it’s all in how you perceive it.

[12.9] The student as boxer, not fencer.

The fencer’s weapon is picked up and put down again.

The boxer’s is part of him. All he has to do is clench his fist.

[12.10] To see things as they are. Substance, cause, and purpose.

[12.11] The freedom to do only what God wants, and accept whatever God sends us.

[12.11a] What’s made of.

[12.12] The gods are not to blame. They do nothing wrong, on purpose or by accident. Nor men either; they don’t do it on purpose. No one is to blame.

[12.13] The foolishness of people who are surprised by anything that happens.

Like travelers amazed at foreign customs.

[12.14] Fatal necessity, and inescapable order. Or benevolent Providence. Or confusion – random and undirected.

If it’s an inescapable necessity, why resist it?

If it’s Providence, and admits of being worshipped, then try to be worthy of God’s aid.

If it’s confusion and anarchy, then be grateful that on this raging sea you have a mind to guide you. And if the storm should carry you away, let it carry off flesh, breath and all the rest, but not the mind. Which can’t be swept away.

[12.15] The lamp shines until it is put out, without losing its gleam, and yet it you it gutters out so early – truth, justice, self-control?

[12.16] When someone seems to have injured you:

But how can I be sure?

And in any case, keep in mind:

• that he’s already been tried and convicted – by himself. (Like scratching your own eyes out.)

• that to expect a bad person not to harm others is like expecting fig trees not to excrete juice, babies not to cry, horses not to neigh – the inevitable not to happen.

What else could they do – with that sort of character?

If you’re still angry, then get to work on that.

[12.17] If it’s not right, don’t do it. If it’s not true, don’t say it. Let your intention be…

[12.18] At all times, look at the thing itself – the thing behind the appearance – and unpack it by analysis:

• cause

• substance

• purpose

• and the length of time it exists

[12.19] It’s time you realized that you have something in your more powerful and miraculous than the things that affect you and make you dance like a puppet.

What’s in my thoughts at this moment? Fear? Jealousy? Desire? Feelings like that?

[12.20] To undertake nothing:

i. at random or without a purpose;  for any reason but the common good. 

[12.21] That before long you’ll be no one, and nowhere. Like all the things you see now. All the people now living.

Everything’s destiny is to change, to be transformed, to perish. So that new things can be born.

[12.22] It’s all in how you perceive it. You’re in control. You can dispense with misperception at will, like rounding the point. Serenity, total calm, safe anchorage.

[12.23] A given action that stops when it’s supposed to is none the worse for stopping. Nor the person engaged in it either. So too with the succession of actions we call “life.” If it ends when it’s supposed to, it’s none the worse for that. And the person who comes to the end of the line has no cause for complaint. The time and stopping point are set by nature – our own nature, in some cases (death from old age); or nature as a whole, whose parts, shifting and changing, constantly renew the world, and keep it on schedule.

***End***

Fear

Can we ascribe man’s greatest drawback to be fear?
I certainly will. Let’s take Robert Greene’s books for instance. I have all three books and I must say they are perfect even though some people criticize me for having them. One thing is certain, there are some strategies we as a people may find difficult to take action due to one factor: FEAR.
Fear makes me not want to trust my enemies over friends, fear makes me not want to crush the enemy totally, and the list is endless. We fear because we do not know the outcome of our actions. As we can’t predict what may happen in the next second, why don we just face our fears and do what we have to do anyway. It is my belief that procrastination derives its roots from fear. If I fear something, I’ll procrastinate till I can’t do it. That’s just it. But if I can take control of my fears, procrastination will be a thing of the past.
Overcoming fear is the key to great things in life for everybody.
Once you overcome fear, the fear to begin to implement strategies, or even the fear to overcome fear, you are on your way to where your heart desires.
It could be fear of failure, fear of the unknown, fear of criticism, any fear at all. Man can never make head way with fear in his heart.
One method I can recommend we use in overcoming fear is by following Napoleon and Clements advice in their book “success through a positive mental attitude”. PMA
“When you are about doing something and fear creeps in to dissuade you, all you need to do is to invoke that self motivator “DO IT NOW”. You’ll be surprised at how many times you would have conquered fear by just invoking that word “DO IT NOW”.
Try it, you’ll see

White Candle

This is a true story that happened on Thursday 19^th July 2012 at about 12 noon.

Real names and locations not used.

Tolu woke up on the morning of Thursday morning feeling very agile and ready to take on the challenge of the day. She was to make a deposit at a branch of a new generation bank and go to Yaba to get hair-straightener for her mom before proceeding to her holiday job.

She left the house without touching the Indomie she had taken time to cook, carrying her bag containing her HP mini, Blackberry Torch and cash. She gets to bus-corner bus-stop and doesn’t find an empty Keke Marwa. Okada riders also do not want to go towards Masha, where the bank is located. An unpainted taxi (popularly called kabukabu) with two passengers (a male and female) comes along and claims to be going towards her direction. She gladly jumps into the backseat ready to accomplish her first task for the day.

After moving a few meters forward, the taxi driver informs her that there is a lot of cash in his boot belonging to the male passenger who claimed to have stolen it from his deceased boss. The passenger claims that after his boss died that morning, everyone had helped him/herself with what they could lay hands on of the boss’ property, and he took the cash. They informed her that the female passenger has actually seen the cash after the boot was opened to her when she initially doubted the story. The taxi man claims to have wanted to report to the police but was told that the deceased boss has probably charmed the money and as such anyone who is aware of the existence of the money is an accomplice to the crime. To cleanse them, each occupant of the taxi must get a candle stick and white sand that would be used to perform a cleansing ritual by the male passenger, after this they shall all share the money equally.

Meanwhile, they had passed the bus-stop Tolu was to alight and had gone as far as Ijora and were on their way back to Masha. She told them she didn’t want in and wanted to leave the taxi. At this point she knows too much and is already an accomplice is what they told her, and she must get a candle. She was asked to put her phone into her bag and make sure the bag doesn’t touch the door or any metal in the car as it’s an abomination pending when the cleansing is done.

The female passenger who had being silent all the time was dropped off at a location where she was given money to get a candle and return to the car. The taxi driver however did not wait for her to return before zooming off. On getting to Iponri, the driver parked and gave Tolu fifty naira to go down in search of candle stick while they wait for her. She was told to leave her bag in the car as she couldn’t touch it until the cleansing was done. She left the bag, left the car and was about to go in search of the candle. She hadn’t gone far when she saw the car running off.

The bag containing the laptop, phone, and money was gone with the taxi.

She had to trek back home from Iponri and completely broke down crying when she got home. She is however, thankful that she lives to tell the story.

This is one of many stories that some people usually do not live to tell, or stories that sometimes end worse than the above. Sometimes, girls are kidnapped and their belongings taken from them. The kidnappers also rape them and dump them in places where they cannot find their way back home. Sometimes, they are used for rituals, parts of their body taken off and left to die in the cold, and other times they are held for ransom.

In view of these, we are advised to be extra vigilant and be observant at all times. Remember that everyone has a little bit of paranoia in them; put your own into use and to your advantage. Be observant and always TRUST NO ONE BUT SELF and PUT YOURSELF FIRST, especially when you find yourself in strange company or in a strange situation. After all, part of the safety rules in a plane is to “help yourself with the gas mask before helping others”.

Stay safe.

NYSC XP

After recently concluding the mandatory National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) scheme, i want to access the service programme from the day we were mobilized into camp, up to the day of Passing Out. Thankfully, i was able to experience quite a large aspect of the programme (good and bad) and can really write from experience.
The NYSC is an arrangement by the Federal Government of Nigeria for all Nigerian graduates below the age of thirty (30) to serve the nation and get to experience other areas of the country outside their place of domiciliary. This is why sometimes, we find someone who studied in Delta state and resides in Anambra is posted to Osun or Zamfara. Recently due to the security challenges in the country, huge consideration is given to those who would like relocating from volatile areas of the country.
I am a graduate of Business Administration from Bayero University, Kano and was in Ghana when a friend called from school to inform me that the Batch B posting was out and i had been posted to Abia state. With a heavy heart, i set out for Lagos enroute Kano determined to be relocated to Lagos, armed with medical records to convince even the strictest NYSC official of why i could not serve far away from home.
The three (3) weeks we spent in camp were the longest 3 weeks of my life (i think), eating too much carbohydrate, unsalted soup, half-cooked meat (where it is available), and food the size that should be fed to 3 year olds fed to adults. By God’s grace (alone), we survived the 3 weeks in camp and i was relocated out of Abia State.
Getting to Lagos, i got to know (from fellow corpers) that after the initial registration, we had two (2) weeks to bring a Place of Primary Assignment (PPA) of our choice (otherwise we get posted to a random place which is supposed to be the right thing, and i later learnt you can doctor your posting letter ). I put in effort to find a PPA to no avail. Before the 2 weeks lapsed i got my posting letter that read that i had being posted to a bank. Ordinarily i would not like to work in a bank but after putting many things into consideration (money of course the major factor), i decided to take the offer. Meanwhile, my fellow corps members had started work in their various PPAs.
I reported at the head office of the bank and was told to return after a period (which i cannot remember). I was then sent to a branch for an interview which i attended (I remember being asked why i wanted to serve in the bank by an interviewer which i sarcastically answered that i was sent there by NYSC is why). I was told that they will get back to me and i thought, “I’d rather serve in the head office than a freaking branch”. A few days, connects and a note later, i was recalled to do interviews in two head office units (the first unit rejected me cos i put my NYSC registration over resuming to work first. When the unit later recalled me, i told HR i was no longer interested in the unit and HR agreed. Friction even before i started work was not a good omen). I started my service year in the latter unit around mid September and truly enjoyed the experience gained. Before the end of the service year, i was told that i would be required to stay on, but i politely declined.
From my days in camp up to the day i finally collected my certificate (which was not on the day of Passing out Parade (POP) for me but three days after), i discovered that people are so power drunk that even a gateman would want to “unnecessarily” show you that he is in charge and sometimes you have to grease your way out of situations. Added to this is the penchant to want to do things in a crude form (the monthly clearance comes to mind) and the degrading treatment meted out to corpers by their coordinators and staff of NYSC. Even the Community Development Service (CDS) (every corper is mandated to belong to a CD group and contribute to the development of the community he/she falls under) is a farce these days as what obtains is a mere signing of CD cards (which is a card used to monitor attendance). To cap it up, one can desist from attending CDS and still get card the signed off at the end of the service year for final clearance after greasing some palms. There is a computer in the office of the Local Government Inspector (LGI) of the Local Government i was assigned which i have never seen put into use. The whole thing stinks of administrative inadequacies and generational backwardness and any attempt to put in suggestions is met with contempt and automatic black-book entry.
Even with its lapses, i got a lot of experience from the 9 months spent in the bank and know including that in my resume has greatly upped the document. Can same be said of other corpers? Maybe for a minority because a majority end up in schools, and majority of this majority end up teaching subjects that they do not fully understand to children who would end up not doing well in external examinations and later get blamed for not studying hard. The minority of this majority may understand the subjects but lack the required expertise to impart knowledge and end up like their counterparts who know nothing. It is not mandatory that a First-Class Honours Student in Business Administration can teach commerce which is the sad misconception that guides the posting of corpers to schools.
Employers want to see work experience on the resumes of job seekers. Hence it is very clear and fair that a Second-Class lower Business Administration student who spent his one year of service in the marketing section of a multinational oil firm will get picked over a First-Class Honours Business Administration student who spent one year teaching English to Junior Secondary School students in a public secondary school.
I’ll just conclude by stating that the NYSC hierarchy needs to do something about the monthly clearance thing and get the whole NYSC process (from call-up number issuance down to certificate issuance and through the ranks) organized and fully computerized to take the scheme away from the stone-age it currently is struggling under. A proper look at the issue of PPA to favour corpers when they go out into the labour market is also something to revisit and re-organize.

Moving on from the "Spa" crash

The first lap first corner collision caused by Romain Grosjean in the just concluded Spa-Francorchamps race in Belgium will remain fresh in our minds for a long time. One could see the extent of the carnage with the number of carbon fibre and expensive F1 parts flying and laying around the track after the crash, giving the safety car 5 free laps around Eau Rouge.
But moving on from that, the stewards awarded Grosjean a one race ban which means he'll miss the exciting drive around Monza which in my opinion is a ban well deserved considering his exploits this season thus far.
Perhaps the worrying thing about the ban is the reason used as a basis for giving the ban.
Saying the stewards regard the incident as an extremely serious breach of the regulations which had the potential to cause injury to others is quite a good enough an explanation but i dont seem to understand why this next line had to come in: “It eliminated leading championship contenders from the race."
Now this could imply that had if the likes of Alonso and Hamilton were not affected, the ban could be softened. And this automatically means that had the crash affected the back-markers, Grosjean would have gotten away with a warning or probably a drive through penalty in Monza.
Another implication could be if Alonso and Hamilton weren't major title contenders, what would the penalty be like? Or if Alonso were to have caused the crash, what penalty would he get? The questions would keep rolling and we wouldn't get answers. This is a way of saying penalties are issued based on who you are and who was affected.
I think the stewards and the FIA should mind the languge they use when communicating and try to issue blanket punishments to whoever faults and whoever is faulted. Issuing penalties based on "who you are and who you offended" is a way of causing friction in the sport which may not show right now but will surely pile up and hunt the sport at a future date.

3 principles

I’ll like to introduce 3 priceless principles of life which when utilized guarantees you enormous success in endeavors.
Success as we know come in different forms and formats. We can say we have a successful marriage, career, even successful studies. But can you have success without proper planning? CAPITAL NO!!!
Based on this and haven read books, seen happenings around and other personal experiences, I derived 3 timeless principles used by many a great number of people (either consciously or unconsciously) and which really is going to work for anybody who uses them properly.
Have No Fear
Take That 1st Step
Stay Focused
I. Have No Fear – the fear factor, man’s greatest enemy, the only limiting factor man has.
Any time we come across one great idea or more, we are bedeviled or discouraged by our right hand man; FEAR who pops out and gives 1001 reasons why that brilliant idea is a waste of intellect. Or there are times when we have to do something and then that same man comes up and says ‘hey leave that for tomorrow, not now’.
Some will say that’s procrastination but believe me procrastination majorly arises out of fear, conquer fear and you see that procrastination flees you lie a mouse fleeing a hawk.
So I say No. 1- Have No Fear. You want to carry out a task? Do what Clement and Napoleon n their book “Success through a Positive Mental Attitude” PMA said “DO IT NOW” book “success through a positive mental attitude” PMA
Doing it there and then means you have conquered fear.
II.Take That First Step – Now conquering fear will make you move that baby foot of yours. Like it is said; ‘the journey of a thousand, miles begins with a step’. Take that first step.
The magic in taking the first step is that after that, thousands of giant steps follow because that first step has shown you that there is nothing to fear.
III. Stay Focused – Stay focused and never look back. You want to start a business, have no fear that it’ll fail, take that first step then stay focused on the goal you set for yourself.
In everything you do in life, detractors are ever ready to bring you down, to distract you. By staying focused, you eliminate all forms of distraction; you put the enemies under check.

A synopsis of Stephen Covey's "The 7 habits of highly effective people"

SYNOPSIS OF THE 7 HABITS OF HIGHLY EFFECTIVE PEOPLE by Stephen covey

The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People has become an indispensable resource for individuals and executives who seek to improve their lives and their careers as effectiveness is the tool for survival in today’s fast-paced environment.
The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People is based around becoming a balanced, integrated and powerful person as well as creating a complementary team based on mutual respect. It discusses building personal character and how one can develop it into becoming a more effective person.
The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People encompasses 7 habits, which if followed is believed to make one effective and have a complete framework of universal timeless principles of effectiveness.
The habits divided into three parts include: be proactive; begin with the end in mind; put first things first; which is all about been interdependent and attaining public victory make up the first part of the habits, think win-win; seek first to understand, then be understood; synergize, focuses on the second part which is about independence and achieving private victory, while the last habit; sharpen the saw which makes up the last part which discusses dependence is about renewing the spirit and increasing ones competency in the four areas of life, vis – body, mind, heart and spirit. Each habit represents a principle and a way of thinking which is universal, timeless and self-evident.
The 7 Habits are character principles that shape who or what we are and are believed to increase ones influence in an organization and is more appreciated when practiced than just been read, this is why some people are believed there are lapses to it in the sense that some organizations have low-trust cultures and misaligned structures and systems that aren’t supportive to the achievement of the goals set out by The 7 Habits. This can however be corrected as success can be easily achieved by putting all learned into practice and integrating The Habits into one’s daily activities.

Rendering disaster impact-less on an organization's MIS resources

RENDERING DISASTER IMPACTLESS ON AN ORGANIZATION’S MIS RESOURCES
Disasters are inevitable in human existence and can strike at any time without warning. Disaster is a sudden calamitous event bringing great damage, loss, or destruction; sometimes a sudden or great misfortune or failure.
Disaster is classified into two broad categories namely
Natural disasters; such as flood, fire, earthquake, hurricane etc.
Man-made disasters such as intentional or unintentional human errors, sabotage, intrusion, virus, burglary, theft etc.
Every organization is prone to one disaster or another and this may include system crash, natural disasters such as earthquakes, and accidental disasters such as fire or deliberate acts of espionage or data theft and data loss.
The Management Information Systems (MIS) department of an organization is required to put in place different methods and ways by which it can either reduce or completely eliminate the damage such disaster has on the organization's MIS resources and sometimes reverting to the previous state before the disaster occurred.
Three (3) different means that aimed at reducing or eliminating loss in the event of a disaster:
Preventive measure, with the aim of preventing disaster from happening.
Detective measures, with the aim of detecting disasters and nipping them in the bud before they occur.
Corrective measures, with the aim of correcting or restoring the organization to its previous state after the disaster has occurred.
To render such disasters as mentioned above impact less on an organization's MIS resources, using the above mentioned measures, the MIS department should adopt different contingency plans so if one fails, they can revert to another.
Three (3) typical contingency plans
The Emergency Plan specifies measures that ensure the safety of employees when disaster strikes. It includes alarm systems, evacuation procedure and fire control procedures.
Backup Plan is the backing up of the original data to a different location physically away from the site. For instance sterling Bank BUK branch could backup its customer records and employee payroll to Sterling Bank Head office system so that in case of a disaster, they could easily revert to it. Hardware could also be backed up, this may include hardware such as expensive parts or scarce parts that may be difficult to find. An organization may decide to purchase additional quantities of hardware to backup in case the one in use collapses.
Vital Records Plan is a plan that specifies how the vital records will be protected as these are records that are vital to the organizations running. As backup copies are stored at remote locations, computer records can be transmitted electronically eliminating the problem faced with transmission.
Disaster can be rendered to impact less on an organization’s MIS resources when the organization takes measures to guide against it.
Such measures include setting up a Disaster Recovery Plan (DRP). In doing this, the following strategies if adhered to will be able to revert to its former state before the disaster struck and prevent disaster from happening:
Data Protection: This is the backing up of data to external disks or tapes and stored on-site as well as off-site. Here in case of fire where everything is burnt down, the offsite disk or tape can be brought to use.
Regular Training and Testing of Plans and Strategies: An organization should also make sure to regularly check with its backup data to make sure it is up to date and ready to be used at any time it is needed.
Updating The Plan: Disaster recovery plans should never be static. Changes invariably occur with storage resources, applications, Information Technology personnel and even business processes or corporate entities, such as mergers or acquisitions. As changes take place, the disaster recovery plan must be updated to reflect those changes. Changes can also have an adverse effect on the disaster recovery strategy, hence it may also be necessary to consider a different backup technology or increase the Wide Area Network bandwidth to maintain acceptable Recovery Points Objectives for replicated data. Whatever the case, an organization's change management process must include disaster recovery planning to ensure that any Information Technology change that could potentially affect recoverability is captured and addressed before it is implemented. Change management should also ensure that disaster recovery is included in the early development stage of any new application and supporting infrastructure.

A Review of Harry Mills' "Artful Persuasion: How to Command Attention, Change Minds and Influence People"

Persuasion can be defined as the ability of one party to cause another party to do something through reasoning or argument. In relation to sales management, persuasion is an act that seeks to influence or convince somebody to do something against or partially against his wish through negotiation, manipulation or argument.

Artful Persuasion: How to Command Attention, Change Minds and Influence People by Harry Mills seeks to open ways by which professional persuaders as well as marketers and professional sales people can go about influencing people and increase their customer base.

In the book, persuasion has been defined as “the process of changing or refining attitudes, beliefs or behaviours”.

We tend to respond to persuasion in 2 ways; thoughtfully – which weighs the pros and cons of each argument before acceptance or not, and mindless in which we take a mental shortcut and rely on our instincts to provide us with clues as to how to respond.

There are also 2 routes to persuasion; central in which the receiver is rational, active and logical in drawing conclusions, and peripheral in which the receiver spends little time in processing the content. The organization of this book has been built around these 2 routes.

In persuasion, there are 4 conversation patterns that make up the persuasion effect, these are:

The persuasion effect – one side successfully persuades the other to adopt or agree to their position

The negotiation effect – where negotiation takes place and compromise is reached

The fixation effect – where both sides are adamant and refuse to budge regardless of what the other side says

The polarization effect – where the gap increases the more you talk. This may be as a result of misunderstanding or attacks by either side.

A professional persuader knows to avoid polarization and win the hostile side.

As there are persuasion effects, so are there 3 types of influencers; the foxes, bloodhound and donkeys.

Foxes are win-lose persuaders and exploit opportunities to deceive and manipulate often focussing on the short term, bloodhounds take advantage of opportunities as they try to build mutually beneficial relationship win-win relationship, while donkeys are stubborn and unwilling to learn as they typically destroy presentations and meetings.

Intensive training and/or in ‘character transplant’ is needed to transform foxes to bloodhounds and education and training is needed to transform donkeys to bloodhounds.

Persuasion starts with credibility and it is here that the credibility formula (trust + expertise = credibility) comes to play. When persuaders lack integrity, they discount everything they say. We can be referred to the Munich deceit where Adolf Hitler deceived the British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain into believing he wanted peace with Czechoslovakia only for him to turn around and attack them including Poland which led to World War II.

Marketing gurus Al Ries and Jack Trout were also cited to believe truth is such a powerful persuasive weapon in advertising that they call it Law of Condor.

It is believed that academic titles confer expertise and status and experts typically establish their authority by displaying their credentials. These include doctors, lawyers, dentists, engineers, professors and other professionals.

There are 3 levels of credibility which include; Personal credibility – Ideas credibility and – organizational credibility.

A good persuader should master the art of image management with illustrations from past American presidents as Nixon, John F Kennedy and Abraham Lincoln.

It also discussed the research by Professor Albert McHuabian of UCLA where he said non-verbal communication accounts for 93% of the impact of a message, while verbal components account for just 7%. Past leaders who have used image management to improve their public rating and popularity include Margaret Thatcher, Australian PM John Howard, and Hilary Clinton. The use of body language gives a checklist of body language gestures. A professional persuader also dresses well for success; speed reads another person and gives a very good vocal delivery as well as produce a confident and commanding voice.

A persuader who portrays a deceitful and lying attitude is very likely to lose his persuasiveness and there are 3 steps to lie detection process.

In persuasion, visuals play an important role as it increases persuasiveness. In a test conducted, it was revealed that 75% of persuasiveness comes to us visually, 13% via hearing and 12% via smell, taste and touch.

The prime purpose of a visual persuasion is to communicate a persuasive message, as the mind finds it easier to process and store symbols, than to decode text, visuals grab our attention far better than words.

In delivering visual persuasions, the following key rules are advised to be followed; think KISS (Keep It Short and Simple) – stick to one thought concept – contents should be organized into 3 – 5 main points – visual overkill should be avoided – keep text brief, simple and readable.

In persuasion, skilled negotiators ask more than twice as many answers as average negotiators. They do this to exploit the self-persuasion in those they want to influence.

They do this because of the belief that questions elicit answers and keep the persuader in control, as well as actually persuade.

There are 5 types of questions all of which aid persuasion as follows:

Open questions – closed questions – disturbing questions – leading questions, and – rhetorical questions

After every question, there is the feedback, which is the art of giving replies to the questions or responding either positively or negatively to the questions.

In self-persuasion, group discussions and role plays are best used to persuade. It is also advised to be an active listener so as to be able to provide the right response.

In persuasion, there are different groups and these different groups have different messages to be targeted at them.

A good persuader tailors his strategy to the audience. As there are 6 audience types, all audiences will have to be approached differently. The 6 audience types are as follows:

Hostile audience – neutral audience – uninterested audience – uninformed audience – supportive audience – and mixed audience.

It is imperative to analyze the audience before beginning. Professional persuaders don’t promise all things to people as they lose credibility, they use the red, yellow and green zones to quickly gauge the attitude of an individual to achieve a major change and plan a series of step-by-step changes.

Outthink and outwit your audience is a persuader’s strong point. Using the intensify/downplay schema, persuaders can use 2 broad strategies to achieve their actions.

By intensifying or highlighting particular features of what they want to promote or downplay the points they want to make.

There are 3 identified intensification tactics vis-a-vis repetition – composition – and association, as well as 3 downplaying tactics vis-à-vis omission – diversion – and confusion.

A professional persuader intensifies his selling point and opponent’s weakness and downplays his own weakness and opponent’s strengths.

It has also been discovered that minds are programmed to mindlessly say yes or no to many persuasive requests almost as if on auto respond.

There are 7 persuasion triggers that stimulate the minds to mindlessly respond to these requests.

Professional persuaders take advantage of us when we are in a state of mindlessness using these triggers/. They include:

Contrast – reciprocation – commitment and consistency – authority – scarcity – social proof and – liking

In contrast, judgement is relative. This principle shapes our perception in all sorts of different ways. We automatically look for a benchmark to base our decision, judge the value of an offer or the fairness of a request. Judgement is relative not absolute.

Reciprocation is the law of give-and-take. With reciprocation, we are expected to return any kind gestures or moves offered to us. The rule is also powerful as it can make us accept requests from people we dislike.

The rule is also most often used in negotiation by the use of the concession-and-wait rule. There is also the use the rejection-then-retreat strategy by asking for more than one expects to receive.

Persuasion trigger 3 is commitment and consistency. With this technique, having agreed to a small request we always feel obliged to commit to a larger one because slam initial commitments can lead to a larger one. This is so because having made small commitments, people often get caught in the entrapment trap.

For using the influence of position to persuade, one may act on authority which is trigger 4. Though it is advised to challenge an authority when it is used arbitrarily or dangerously. Also reinforce the authority that comes from position with credentials based on expertise and competence in order to be respected.

Scarcity rules says we value what is scarce because we believe it must be valuable. Scarcity principle can also be used by creating phantom alternatives. Though to create scarcity, one must emphasize the unique features of the scarce commodity.

Conformity is the 6^th persuasion trigger. It simply means to follow the crowd or being one of a group. People always choose to go with what they believe is the popular view. It is imperative to note that a professional persuader should stress the popularity and trends of his product/service.

Finally trigger 7 ‘liking’. It is believed that likeable communicators are more persuasive because we tend to please the people we like and find attractive. Physical attractiveness also increases likeness. This is because of the image sent and the information the persuader has on people. In exploiting attractiveness, it is believed that best referrals are usually friends of the person being persuaded.

A powerful and professional persuader can make waves in his chosen field, be it marketing, strategy, human resource and other facets of management. Artful persuasion is therefore ‘Bible’ for the would be professional sales representative and manager.