Billionaires in Training

Call it Billionaires in Training, call it Cashflow 101 retreat, Monday and Tuesday the 28th and 29th of May is going down in history as one of my best days so far this year. Not only for me, I’m sure, but also for the 19 other people that were together with me as we played Cashflow 101 at the HS Blue Ribbon Hotel on Allen Lane Ikeja. We settled in from about 5pm, started off with dinner and 7, and the game started at 8pm at night. We did not know how we suddenly looked at the time, and it was 5am! We ended the game around this time, had a little recap, and went to sleep deciding to reconvene at 10:30am.

I’m currently still expecting the pictures from the friend that took them, as soon as I get the pictures, you’ll see them here. But before you get a preview of the pictures, I’ll try and do a good job with words in describing how the event went, the learning opportunities and reasons why you shouldn’t miss the next one. Summarily, I think we have discovered the best way to hang out together in these times.
In no particular order, I’ll try to detail the direct benefits of this particular billionaires in training session.

1. Learning – It’s so amazing how people with no prior accounting skills can become cashflow and balance sheet experts in one night. But believe me, before a game is over, you are a guru and identifying assets, liabilities, doing mortgages, identifying good deals, stock trading and a lot more that make you really financially intelligent. Believe me, it’s always exciting seeing people move from complete novices to guru’s. I saw this yesterday.

2. Changing Mindsets – One of the most exciting things for me with this game and gathering is the opportunity it provides in changing mindsets. We all start out the game thinking like employees that we are, but gradually a lot more matters to us. We want to know how to increase our passive incomes, how to ensure we bring down our expenses. We gun for higher cashflow, ultimately the use and focus of money changes for us. Somewhere along the line we begin to earn as close as possible to millions of dollars in a month. We begin to see ourselves differently, not as we are, but as we could be. It sensitizes our RAS, and we begin to see opportunities. The essential difference between the rich and the poor is their mindset.
3. Fun – I’m not sure I have had this much fun in a long while, and I believe I can say the same for many of the participants. I mean how else will you explain, the swift passing of time, the regular pleas by the hotel staff for us to lower our noise, the ecstatic celebrations of winning, the humorous laughs at others when they hit doodads or make expensive babies? We had enough fun to last a month.

4. Networking – It was also a fantastic opportunity to meet with people from different companies and industries. It was a nice collection of people, with representations from Glo, Shell, MTN, GSK, Generis, First Bank, PriceWaterhouseCoopers, KPMG, Private Business e.t.c. We had opportunities to play together, laugh, eat, and even eventually discuss opportunities together. People had the opportunity of meeting up with people they had been longing to see, some mysteries were also unraveled.

5. Matchmaking? – Naaaaaa… maybe in the next one.

In summary, it was an event to be in, and based on the promptings of the participants and the so much fun we had, we are daring to do another one soon. We are targeting June, 22nd and 23rd. We’ll arrive in the evening of the 22rd and play until morning on the 23rd, we’ll take a nap, and rejoin for a shorter game by 10am. After this game, we’ll sit down and discuss opportunities in Nigeria, and how we can individually and corporately make the most of these opportunities. This next session will be taking place in Lagos… Abuja, Porthaccourt and the UK are in the picture in the short term as well. With the discovery of cost implications from the first run, individuals will pay N30,000 while couples or duos will pay N50,000 to be a part of this. Sometime towards the end of the year, we are planning for one on a boat cruise around the Nile.

It’s a liberating feeling being a part of a revolution that will help to make the next generation of billionaires in Nigeria. I’m a billionaire in training, are you too? Whoever is interested in being a part of this next one, should indicate interests here or call 0700-RECHARGE (If you want to buy this type of line…let me know :))