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WEALTHY BUT HUNGRY

WEALTHY BUT HUNGRY

Why do we work hard at failing forward?

It is not the quantity of your brain that determines whether you will succeed. It is the capacity to use the 100 billion nerve cells it contains to EN-RICH others. You need to enrich others to be rich. As you read this content, it is a demonstration of my ENRICHMENT and practical UTILISATION of my own 100 billion neurons. The truth is that ideas are not fully formed when handed to us by fate. The process of believing in those ideas and acting on them helps to connect the nerve cells.

ENTREPRENEURSHIP WAS A BIRTHRIGHT: It is not too late for anyone who cares to learn

It does not matter which part of the world you were born, while government policies, opportunities and value systems may vary from country to country, one thing is constant: human being, according to sociologists, is a social being. This presupposed that we thrive on social capital driven by quality positive relationships, meaningful engagement with the world and purposeful associations.

Unfortunately, the potential to thrive diminishes as we were growing up. Conventional wisdom says that we get wiser with age but evidence has shown that just when we have graduated from Universities or Colleges and we pride ourselves as educated and struggle for jobs, our opportunity to be wealthy began to fade. Why? The very important tool that is the foundation of wisdom was taken away.

We got it wrong. We should be told, this is the certificate to “try and fail forward” and not the idea that we are now graduate thinking, we know it all or qualified.

No one is telling us to change things by creating new models that will make existing models obsolete. I grew up in Nigeria where I knew about elephant cement until a new model of cement took over and birthed the richest man in Africa.

I like the story of James Dyson who invented the bagless vacuum cleaner after iterating 5000 prototypes and failing forward. James Dyson according to Forbes now worth $9.9billion.

The only way to connect the 100 billion nerve cells in other to fight poverty and hunger is to get busy at failing forward. This is what 98% of the 7.8 billion humans are not willing to do. We are afraid to fail.

For two years, I was offering mentorship through Facebook, email, WhatsApp and no one was willing to pay. It takes courage to breathe life into new idea. There comes a day when a mentee committed N6000.00 and that inspired a new journey of the Self-Actualization Mentoring Academy.

EDUCATION DIMINISHES OUR ECONOMIC PROSPERITY

Well, it sounds counterintuitive. 98% of the world’s population have become less prosperous in economic terms because they did not start out as job creators or they were lacking great mentors. Amazing discovery, they were carrying invisible chains.

What is this invisible chain? It is a chain of comfort. It is associated with suitable Job conditions that prolonged our decisions to exit. They want to be safe in someone else’s security. These job conditions are rosy health packages, housing schemes, pension plans and all you can think of as employees’ benefits. How do I convince you to think otherwise? How do I convince you to create your life as early as possible? This is not what you may want to hear but if I kept telling you what you wanted to hear, I would be dishonest with you. It is paradoxical that you are wealthy but hungry.

There was an invisible chain that kept people long enough not to change jobs or create jobs. Do not think it was an employer’s making. No! Employers have been nice to set you up. You cannot get wealthy with them but you get the leverage to start. It is up to you.

Creativity (ability to create) was a birthright. It is the precursor to wealth and basis for entrepreneurship. In 1960s, when the world was preparing for a breakthrough beyond the earth into outer space and walking on the moon, Professor George Land was commissioned to design test instruments for the recruitment of Scientists and Engineers for the space mission. He did this perfectly. In 1968, the test instrument was used for children of age 5. It turned out that 98% of the children were at genius level of creativity. So as children, we were born to create. We were born to invent. We were born wealthy.

WHERE DID WE GET IT WRONG?

In 1985, Professor George Land went ahead to administer the test instrument to workforce. These were adults from age 25 and above. The story had changed. Only 2% of adults were now operating at genius level of creativity. See the irony: 98% of children are mentally wealthy at age 5 while 98% of adults are living below their potential.

I wanted to know what had become the creativity level of the children that were tested in 1968. So I looked out for evidences. In my exploit, I found out that Professor George Land continued the research with these children at age 10 and 15. At age 10, that was 1973, only 30% of these children had their creativity maintained at genius level. From age 5 to 10 we had declined from 98% to 30%.

At 15 years in 1978, these children’s potential to create had dropped and 12% scored in the highly creative range. These were as documented by George Land and Beth Jarman in their book, Breakpoint and Beyond: Mastering the Future Today.

In answering the question, “Where did we get it wrong”? 98 out of 100 adults got it wrong by unlearning creativity. In order word, we grew up learning uncreative behaviour and this positioned us to seek comfort where we would spend the rest of our lives fulfilling the dreams of the 2% that ventured. This conclusion was a justification for my claim that education was structured to diminish our prosperity.

WAY FORWARD: creativity holds potential for wealth

Vary your experiences

While we cannot all start out as job creators, it might be important to note this: If you do not want to live your adult life as slave of uncreative behaviour, do not spend all your years working in one place. Remember we are social being and most of us thrive on social capital, quality associations and relationships. Relationships do not get better if it is not mutual. This left us with a question: Does anything exist as employer-employee mutual relationship? A fool thinks employer-employee relationship is a marriage. Probably that was why divorce would happen at 65 or after 30years in public service? This forced creativity on you and began to imagine which business I can start.

The more you spend in one place, the less you are open to new perspectives. You have mastered the routine of that job environment and this mastery blocked your creative juices. When I spoke to senior educators on this matter, I found it had become a challenge for them because some feared, “Where do I start from? After so many years, if I picked a new job, I will be asked to use new lesson plan template to design lessons when I have got everything here in my folder and I did not have to bother”.

Something exists as Market Value and unfortunately, increment in salary does not compensate for Market Value. I learnt so much from the expatriates who were leaders in most International organisations. One told me, “five years is the peak”. These leaders’ modul operandi were renewable contracts. I am keen to say, “Those who do not move never noticed their chains.” To get back your creativity, vary your experiences.

Think in decades (Invest in Yourself)

There are four features that define creative behaviour according to experts. One of those features is imagination. My best understanding of imagination came from Albert Einstein. The genius said, “Knowledge can take you from point A to B but imagination can take you everywhere.” When you are engaged in a work where someone controls your wages, most of the time, you concentrate and grow your knowledge, technical skills and attitude.

When you create a system that you are in control of your earnings. In this situation, you extend beyond knowledge and technical skills, you dwell more in the field of core skills of imagination and strategic thinking. This is not to say employees lack imagination. However, employees are alive with their work at work most of the time while employers are alive with their work all of the time. The game changer here is the law of growth that says, “What we focus on expands”.

In 1929, the Saturday Evening Post published the remark of the genius, Albert Einstein: “Imagination is more important than knowledge.” During the first two months of COVID-19 in Nigeria when salary was not forthcoming, a school teacher borrowed money to start food business. In less than 30 days, debt had been repaid.

I do ask myself, 10 years from now, will I regret establishing Self-Actualization Academy or will the world be better that I live? If you do not have something bigger than you in the next decade, search for significance and prosperity might be a mirage.

Know your status

Could it be that you are in the 2% population that still have their creativity at genius level despite the education that was structured to unlearn creativity? For those whose creativity had been unlearned, the good news is that, it can be rebuilt. The greatest investment in the world today that yields the highest dividend is an investment in self.

I founded self-Actualization Academy to help individuals identify their potential through scientifically validated tests and maximize their results to create wealth. Wealth is a birthright. These test instruments are handy and you can benefit by sending an email to admin@selfactualizationacademy.net or WhatsApp number +2348039147549.

Jamiu T. Aliyu

Founder, Self-Actualization Mentoring Academy

U.S. Space and Rocket Academy Ambassador

European Council for Nuclear Research Ambassador

Global Scholar Ambassador @ African Leadership Academy South Africa

Core Skills Global Trainer and Cambridge Education Teacher Consultant