Empowerment For The Future

On Saturday Sixteenth May 2015 I spoke alongside Career Success Catalyst Jimi Tewe to fifty participants at an inaugural FREE Seminar with the theme “Empowerment For The Future”. I thank God for the awesome platform in Lagos that was sponsored by Resource Intermediaries Limited.

While many people followed the session live on social media, I feel obliged to share snippets of ideas and tips discussed over the five-hour session. I would break these down into the three broad issues covered by Jimi and I. Please feel free to let me know which of the quotes if any resonates with you, and to tweet or post them on Facebook for others to read them too if you so desire.

Life After Paid Employment

1. Life outside paid employment is tough, rough and lonely, but worth the move. It requires Clear Thinking, Planning and Action though - Soji Oyawoye

2. When do you know it is time? When the idea occurs to you. The earlier you start on your idea, the better - Jimi Tewe

3. There is Time and Chance for everyone. But if you are not prepared, the Time would come and you will not get the Chance - Soji Oyawoye

4. Your faith and people around you are key ingredients for success. Your association (contacts) should be your strongest point - Jimi Tewe

5. Change your mindset. Change your thinking. The world changes practically every second. If you desire to do anything DO IT NOW - Soji Oyawoye

6. If somebody can pay you N1,000.00 for an idea, you can be paid N1million for it. Start with the little things you can do, even if it means doing it for free - Jimi Tewe

7. No one creates anything new. Innovation simply means adding value to what already exist. So be innovative - Soji Oyawoye

Entrepreneurial Tips

1. Key driver of entrepreneurship is an understanding of the problems around you. Proffering solutions to the problems is what drives business growth - Soji Oyawoye

2. Sell to people that need your products or service, not just to people you are comfortable with. Sell to people who can pay for it - Jimi Tewe

3. Ideas are spirits. They only prosper when they possess the right body. Your idea may be fantastic but you may not be the right body for that idea to manifest through. Collaborate or seek partnership with someone who has what you lack - Soji Oyawoye

4. Make sure you understand the dynamics of whatever business you are going into - Jimi Tewe

5. Take time to study the Social, Political and Economic Development of any economy you seek to do business in - Soji Oyawoye

6. There is a difference between Consumer and Customer. You make money from the Customer not the Consumer. Using baby diapers as an example let your Consumer (baby) use the product free and let your Customer (the mother) pay for it - Jimi Tewe

Discovering Purpose

1. What you have a burden for is an indication of your purpose in life. The thing or things that you have a Burden for should be considered alongside Opportunities that you are uniquely exposed to, your Abilities, skills and talents that you are endowed with, the Trials you have gone through or are going through and the things that give you greatest Satisfaction when you do them even if done free. This acronym BOATS propounded by Pastor Charles Achonwa of Doulos Ministries is helpful in helping one to discover purpose in life if thought through - Soji Oyawoye

2. When you have a mentor, you do not make the mistakes they have made in the past - Jimi Tewe

3. GOOD is the new ordinary. You need to read a book "When Good is Mediocre” by my friend Don Azubike Onyegbu. Once you discover purpose you have to be EXTRA Ordinary. You have to put in more than others to stand out. As Oprah Winfrey said, “Don't worry about being successful but work toward being significant and the success will naturally follow - Soji Oyawoye

4. Package yourself (prepare) properly and the expected money will come - Jimi Tewe

5. Seed, time and harvest are actually three separate words and best not to read them as a phrase. It is SEED, TIME and HARVEST. You can't have a Harvest if you have not sown a Seed while it takes Time for your Seed to become a Harvest. The quality and type of Seed sown would also determine the length of Time it would take for the commensurate Harvest to manifest - Soji Oyawoye

From the impact the event has had, Empowerment For The Future is going to be a regular event with the next one holding in Abuja in the third quarter of 2015.

Send email to talktoril@resourceintermediaries.org if you would like to attend the FREE seminar in Abuja.