Yesterday we had our regular New Nigeria Club sponsored Sunday seminar. We had two feature speakers, Niyi Adesanya and Kunle Awofolajin. Niyi Adesanya spoke about Public Speaking as a tool for financial empowerment, while Kunle Awofolajin spoke on Forex Trading as a tool for financial empowerment. These two presentations are a must hear. Somewhere in between introducing the two speakers, I had the opportunity of talking for 3 mins. I narrated a story that had been on my mind of late, and I think it’s good I share it with you as well. Once upon a time long ago, there was a rich widow. This widow was very rich but had no children. she had many maids, many employees and many friends, but few children. It so happened that it got to a time in her old age that she was diagnosed with an incurable disease. Everybody rallied around her and cared for her, until she became too much of a burden and one by one, they stopped showing up. It happened eventually that there was only one person left with her – an uneducated matron who loved the rich widow so much she was willing to dedicate her time to care for her until her death. In the weeks that followed, things deteriorated slowly until after a while, the rich widow could hardly speak. At this time, she knew that the end was near, and she decided to make signs to the matron and ultimately gave her something that seemed like a sheet of paper.
The old matron was touched by this feeling of love, her mistress gave her something out of appreciation. She was so touched. She couldn’t make anything of the content, but the gesture was well appreciated. She took the sheet of paper home, laminated it, and placed it in her living room. In time, she hoped, she’ll be able to showcase it to her visitors as something she recieved for doing good. After a while the widow died, and the matron organized a small funeral for her from her savings, and went back to her normal life. After some months, the matron had an economic crisis. This crisis, ended her career and emptied her account. She was broke as the old time church rat (church rat’s have plenty to eat these days). She moved from friend support, to family support to a point where things got so bad, that she couldn’t afford to eat even the basic necessities nor feed her family a balanced diet. Things were heading for a sure death by starvation.
Sometime around this junction, a young man came visiting, when he got into the house, the laminated peice caught his eyes, and he went and picked it up. He approached the fragile and dying matron with the peice and asked, “What is this and why is this here?”, the old matron smiled narrowly, too hungry to chuckle but obviously excited at telling the story – of how she had supported a life till death. The young man’s look did not cooperate with her story telling excitement. He was shocked. He stopped the woman abruptly and explained to her, that what she had laminated was a check of $100,000,000 and the authorization to pay that the rich woman had left her as her only deserving heir. Right there in her living room, she had the key to the solution to all her problems, but she had laminated it! She was a millionaire but her bank account didn’t reflect it. She was rich but lived like a pauper. She had it all, all she could ever desire, but she required a few more steps to turn it into cash, the first step of which was knowing. She didn’t despise the gift, now, she loved the gift, she cherished and adored it, but that’s seldom enough. I’m sure she looks ignorant and foolish to you, but hang on a minute, are you sure you haven’t laminated it? Let’s see.
1. Do you have anything that is of value that you are not using? Personal Initiative? Money saved up in the bank? Influential friends? Powerful relationships? Great Mentors? Fantastic Ideas? Anything that is valuable and unused is being laminated.
2. Do you have anything around you, that could have great potentials, that you do not fully understand? The Nigerian Stock Market? Global Stocks? Forex Trading? Public Speaking? Online Businesses? Blogging? That great idea e.t.c. Anything around you that could have great potentials if tapped into that you do not tap into is being laminated. Go for knowledge, go for information.
3. Have you read it? Have you read those books that you have? It’s becoming a growing sport to collect books. Every time someone talks about a great book you buy, but do you read? Do you know what great and liberating discoveries lie inbetween those two shiny covers? Do you know what ideas can be sparked up by reading that website that you have bookmarked but not read in a while? If you are not reading it, you are not better than the one that cannot read it. If you are not perusing it, you are laminating it.
4. Are you living a good life? Are you happy? Are you excited about tomorrow or does it seem as if life is winding down? Are you in control of your life or is someone else on the drivers seat. Are you living life at the peak or living way below your potentials? If life is not going the way you want it, if things are not looking bright and in multicolours, if you are not excited or living what you’ll consider a good life, then go check your walls, go and dig into your luggage, you’ll see the laminate. You won many awards back in the days, you were the best this, the fastest that, the most likeable e.t.c. Are those things anywhere near your realities today? Go dig it out, unlaminate it and put it to proper use.
After yesterday’s meeting, someone came to meet me and informed me – “I have laminated it, thank you so much for showing me”. I don’t know if you are like that one person today. I have one word for you, go get it out, and use it!
