Ayo Arowolo: What has the mind got to do with it?

ASK DOUBLE A

We shall devote this week to answering some money questions from the mail box. We are treating two of such questions in this edition. To get your questions featured in this column, send an email to info@topnaija.ng.

What Has The Mind Got to Do With It?

I have desired to get my church to grow  and generate enough money to keep things going but this has remained a mirage. Every time I meditate, God always asks me to change my thought. I still can’t grasp the full meaning of this instruction. Do you have something to share on this subject? God bless.

I once heard the account of a stock investor who went to meet his stockbroker after about 14 years of active investment. He just wanted to know the value of his investment. He built that investment from his regular, though paltry salary. When the stockbroker eventually told him that he was worth about N8.5 million, he refused to believe it. He insisted that the stockbroker should first issue a cheque to the tune of N1 million so that he would know if it was indeed correct. He cashed the cheque the following day. The man, however, died a few weeks after. He had been in poverty before and he had not reached the threshold of a million. His mind could not process that information.

It is a real work to work on one’s mind. Yet, whatever your mind cannot conceive and accept your hand cannot touch. It would not become a reality. So, the real work starts from the mind. May I suggest these steps? First, have a clear picture of the type of church you want to build and this should not be something you copied from other people. You really need to get a revelation on this. Once this is done, the second step is to sit down and think through how this would be. This stage would include connecting with other pastors who  have a semblance of the model of the church you want to run for counselling and mentoring if possible. Also at this stage, you need to get all the books that have information relevant to your ministry. Dissect the books and note the points of application.

The third step would be to develop a blueprint for running the church. You must be clear about the type of audience to whom you are sent. This on its own would influence a lot of things including possibly the location of the church. Then, you need to paint the picture of what the church would actually look like at maturity in your mind. This thought should be fixed in your mind even if the present situation does not resemble that picture. Once you don’t allow this picture to disappear, ultimately, with God in the equation, the destination is certain. Message: Renew the picture in your mind and hold on to the new one until it manifests. All is well with you.

How Do I Create Multiple Streams of Income?

I would want you to shed more light on this issue of multiple streams of income. I am a man of ideas. You touched on it in one of your online articles. I can generate ideas any time, anywhere. My challenge, however, is that I don’t know which one to really settle down with. Do I have to start so many projects simultaneously to be able to generate those sources of income? I need your response as I am at a loss.

I once mentioned it in one of the past articles that from a single idea, at least seven streams of income can be developed. The problem is that we don’t dig deeper before we move into other things.

You do not need to start multiple projects. The truth is that everyone has more than one idea running in his head at a time. Indeed, Rick Warren in his book Purpose Driven Life suggests that every human being has between 500 and 700 ideas or talents he or she can excel in during his or her life time. I found that very astounding and revealing. One commitment you can make right away is to focus on developing one talent per year for the rest of your life. Dig deeper on every idea developed to mine the cash inside of it (You would certainly need a guide on how to do the conversion to cash).

Every talent you focus on should be polished and developed with acquisition of relevant knowledge and until your talents become skills, they cannot not give you good returns. You can do this by attending relevant seminars, reading good books and networking with other people in that area.

Avoid the tendency to use what others are doing in that area as a yardstick for measuring your progress. You are unique. I suggest you focus strictly on bringing out all the stuff inside of you. If you sense you have the talent of being a public speaker, go to work immediately on it and don’t relent until you push the talent to what one of my mentors would describe as the wealth zone.

And all will be well with you. You can also request for one of my free articles How To Convert Your Passion and Your Challenges to Cash

CAN I START ALL OVER AGAIN?

I need your advice on this dilemma. I am 53 years old. I had worked hard to prepare for this period which ordinarily should be my retirement period which I want to use to do the things I am really passionate about. Unfortunately, all my nest eggs are in the capital market. I had built a portfolio of shares that were valued at N375million as 2007 and I had planned to retire at 55. As at the time of writing, my shares were value at less than N45million. What can I do? Can I pick up a job again?

Any time you discover you have fallen into an error either the one you caused or the one foisted on you, the wise thing to do is to stop and take stock of everything. Take inventory of what you have, the contacts available to you and re-ignite the passion for your vision. With clarity of mind, you can start all over again.

Falling or making mistakes is not the issue, it is the perspective you bring into assessing the mistakes that counts. There are always opportunities even inside those challenging circumstances in our lives. The major work I think you should work on is your mind. You should spend some time listening to some good motivational CDs. Read books on those who have stumbled and got back on their feet again. You can do successfully whatever they did to come back.

Initially, you may have to find engagements that suit your temperaments for the purpose of generating cash flow. Set another deadline for yourself and work hard towards achieving your goals. If you do not faint, you would be surprised how far you can go and how many opportunities still lie ahead of you. If you need counselling on how to start out, you should go for one. All is well with you. Don’t ever give up.

THERE ARE TREASURES IN EVERY FAILURE

The secret I am sharing in this edition is profound. It contains the strategy  for turning every adversity into platforms of opportunities. Read it with understanding.

I was in a state of deep meditation and reflection when my daughter rushed into my study shouting: “One man is looking for you.” I walked to the door, and guess who – it was my Mentor! I was wondering what he was up to this time. We exchanged pleasantries and, predictably, he walked in the direction of my study. I offered him a chair but he remained standing for about three minutes, gazing at my shelves. He was just nodding his head and intermittently muttering “that’s good.” Apparently, he was satisfied that I had increased the stock of books in my study beyond what he had seen the other time he was in my house.

He explained that the reason he was in my house was to tell me that he would be travelling out of the country that Saturday and he wanted to confirm whether I was at home so that he could give me a very important capsule. I thanked him for taking the trouble to come.

Within every problem, there are great treasures. “The capsule I want to give you today, I will title: Every Perceived Mistake Contains a Seed of Fortune. Now let me ask you a question and I want you to be frank in your answer: ‘Have you ever faced a difficult situation? And what was your reaction at that time?”

It was a tough question. I had gone through difficult moments, but the one that drove me to the cliff happened when I was in my final year in the Department of Political Science at the University of Ife (now Obafemi Awolowo University, OAU, Ile-Ife). We were preparing to write our last examination paper for the final semester in part four. In that particular paper, I had earlier scored above thirty marks out of forty in the continuous assessment. The paper was scheduled for a Saturday from 12 noon to 3p.m. On that day, I was at the cafeteria in my Fajuyi Hall hostel doing a last-minute revision for the paper. At about 11.20 a.m. when I was getting ready to move to the venue of the examination, a colleague in the department walked up to me, looking worried. I thought he had come to call me so that we could go to the venue of the examination together. But instead he dropped a bombshell… the time for the examination had been changed to 8.00 a.m. – 11.00 a.m., and they had just finished writing the paper I was still reading for! He explained that all efforts to contact me had proved futile. To say the very least, I simply lost all my senses. I picked my bag, rushed to the venue of the examination, but the lecturer had already gone to the staff quarters, a distance of about six kilometres from the venue of the examination.

In panic, I raced to the lecturers’ quarters. Ben Johnson couldn’t have done better. I explained the situation to the lecturer, but he refused to budge. But after prolonged begging and some measure of crying, he eventually agreed to assist me on the condition that the Dean of the Faculty was still around. We drove in his car to the Faculty of Social Sciences of the university.

Unfortunately, by the time we got to the Faculty, we were told that the Dean just left a few minutes earlier. I was confused. We both waited but the Dean was nowhere to be found. After a while, the man drove off. But I was still hanging around. After about ten minutes of waiting, the Dean returned and I explained the situation to him. He was sympathetic and wanted to help. I rushed to the lecturer’s house again, but unfortunately, as I learnt later, he went to town after leaving the Faculty and there was nothing the Dean could do. It was a very tough situation. The following Monday, when my Head of Department got to know about it, he wrote a strong letter on my behalf to the Dean, saying, among other things, that I was the best student in the Department. The Faculty wanted to help, but there was another strange problem: my file was missing! To cut the story short, I could not graduate with my colleagues. I  had to re-sit the examination. To be honest, suicide was not far from my thoughts.”

There is a purpose for everything.“That is an interesting experience,” my Mentor said, and then asked: “So what happened thereafter and how did you find yourself in journalism?”

“While I was alone on the campus, I had to really meditate and pray to God for I did not know what to do,” I replied. “But a voice told me to utilise the time writing articles for newspapers. Before then, I had developed a consuming passion for Newswatch Magazine, particularly their business section. I knew every writer there. I wrote a few articles on the economy which were published by The Sketch and National Concord newspapers. I was very excited. I documented it in my diary that I would like to be a  journalist.

“Eventually, for my National Youth Service Corps(NYSC), I was posted to serve at Moslem Comprehensive High School, Imepe, Ijebu Ode, Ogun State. While at the school, I set up a Press Club, and one of the activities was reading the news at the Assembly every Wednesday morning. It was so popular that people around the school would sometimes gather to listen to the news. An idea occurred to me to launch the Press Club. I did and I was able to draw to the place journalists I had always admired. Yanju Adegbite, formerly of Broadcasting Corporation of Oyo State (BCOS) and Soji Akinrinade of Newswatch were also there. They were both impressed. Apart from donating money, Mr. Akinrinade offered to employ me at Newswatch or assist me to secure a job in another media house after my national youth service. He fulfilled his promise. I was given a job in National Concord as a Proof Reader. I accepted the job as it would enable me to pursue further education. It was while in National Concord that I enrolled at the Nigerian Institute of Journalism, Ogba, Ikeja, for a Postgraduate Diploma where I got the Director’s Prize for the All-round Best Student at the end of the programme. I also enrolled for my Master’s programme at the University of Lagos thereafter.

“By divine intervention, when I moved to African Concord Magazine, the then Editor, Mr. Bayo Onanuga (now Managing Director and Editor-in-chief of The News) persuaded me to join the Business Desk. I did and have been in business journalism since then. Financial journalism has taken me to countries I couldn’t have dreamt of travelling to”.

Every problem is purpose driven.“That is great. That is great,” my Mentor said several times. “Now, I don’t have much to say again, your story has said it all. But let me share these few words with you on this topic. Usually, what we call failures are not failures at all but points and platforms for God to either bring out a particular strength in us or take us to the direction He wants for us in life. Every informed millionaire knows this. When I was listening to your story, the question that came to my mind was, where would you have been today, if you had not stayed behind on the campus, if you had not served where you served and if you had not met those people you met? There is a lesson I want to leave with you today and it is this: if you have absolute trust in God, He can turn what you consider a disappointment into a gem of opportunities. Remember, His ways are not our ways and His thoughts are not our thoughts. “When you encounter difficulties, don’t brood over them, don’t say things like, ‘God why me’? The questions you should ask are: God, what are you saying to me here? What strengths are you trying to draw out of me? Where are the seeds of opportunities in this situation? Once you develop this habit, you will only be failing forwards and not backwards, as John Maxwell would put it. I had gone through several trying moments myself and God had always unfolded gems of opportunities after each experience.  The righteous is permitted to fall seven times  “You see, the wisdom is not in not failing, it is in coming out stronger every time we fall into difficulties. We are permitted by God to fail several times. And if you have not failed before how would you appreciate what success is? That is what the late Tai Solarin meant by his quotable quote, ‘May your road be rough.’ “I am sharing this with you because you will certainly come across trying circumstances in your journey to financial freedom. You will lose money. Friends will betray you. Advisers may confuse you. But every time you fall into difficulties, don’t despair; just ask those sets of questions again and you will come out better”.

“Enough for today,” he said as he gave me two books to read.

NUGGETS

• Every problem contains at least seven ways of mining the treasures inside it
• Every time you face a challenge, don’t panic. Look within for those hidden treasures
• Get some of the resources I have recommended and make use of them. They would show you how to develop your problem solving muscle