After about 3 years of sticking to the same design, I finally summed up the courage to change the design of my blog. I gave it a more modern look, a better display (reflow) on mobile phones and tablets, and a more visually appealing theme.









And it looks great on phone too!




It wasn't as tough as I was expecting it to be. I did everything yesterday evening. I got a new blogger template, backed up the old one. Uploaded the new template, edited the HTML codes to be my liking, and worked on the layout. 

Now the blog looks a lot better than the old one and also loads faster. You no longer see two different designs when you visit the blog from your phone vs when you visit it on a PC.

Hopefully, if nothing is broken and google plays nice, I will be using this design till 2017.


One of the great lessons I have learned as an entrepreneur is that there is nothing to be gained by sticking to a failing plan. If a plan isn't working out as expected, the plan needs to be changed.

image: lifehacker.com

At the start of this year, my new year resolution was to become fluent in (at least, written) French. I had everything well planned out. I had bought for almost N50,000 a French learning software that guaranteed fluency in French if I go through all the lessons. It looked simple. If I just take out about an hour a day for the French lessons (which, luckily, are very interactive), by the end of this year I would have gone past half of the lessons (yeah, it could take two years to complete) and by supplementing with some French novel reading I would have seen my French skills go awesome.

Unfortunately, as it is with most well though-out plans, they go astray. I am unable to find the one hour I need to spend daily on the French learning program. In fact, I am unable to find time and energy to click on the French learning software icon on most days. We are already about five months into the year. And most importantly, I don't see things improving as far as that resolution is concerned. So I am changing it.

What will I be changing the new year resolution to? I have decided to give my business more productive time. I am already cutting down on socializing, visiting friends and going out generally. Having evaluated my activities and progress since starting my business a year ago, it was obvious that my business edge has been the quality and innovative content I generate. My most effective marketing strategy has been the video course I created. My best activity has been the online training I did for close to 500 people last year. Over 80% of our clients found us via those amazing content we put online. And the most wasteful efforts I have engaged in have been going to social events and visiting people.

No entrepreneur is perfect. Same way there are no perfect employees.  I have read the memoirs and biographies of many entrepreneurs, everyone of them had visible easily fixed flaws that never got fixed. They achieved all they did not by getting rid of their flaws but in spite of their flaws. The secret of their success is simply  that they stayed in the game and gave it their all -- talents and flaws. 

My new resolution is to focus our energies where we will get the most return. I am going to also stop trying to be an overall good person. I will focus on being great at what I am good at and ignore what I am poor at.

The hardest thing to do in life is to stand still. It's practically impossible. You are always either going forward, making progress, or going backwards, getting worse.

image: algetler.com

Everyone ought to be a lifelong learner. It is the key to becoming relevant and staying relevant. No matter your age, profession and social position, you have to keep educating yourself.

It is very easy to lose one's edge in this fast paced world. Things are changing constantly. What worked superbly yesterday suddenly becomes obsolete in a few months. To stay relevant one need to keep abreast of new developments in one's field and learn to use the technologies that are now turning old methods obsolete.

Fortunately, the best way to keep educating oneself has not yet changed for centuries and won't for many decades (or centuries) to come. Reading. You have to see reading as a necessity, more like brushing your teeth and taking your bath. It's no longer a hobby, something you need to have a natural likeness for. It is now among the league of things you have to do whether you like it or not.

You have to make space for reading (preferably) daily in your life. You have to read wide and deep. You should follow the news and happenings in your world by reading good newspapers and industry magazines/journals. You should broaden your mind by reading random books. You should keep your professional edge by reading study guides on the new technologies taking over your industry. And you should improve yourself by reading personal development books and biographies.

And you can start small. You should start from where you are with what you find convenient, and gradually expand your reading/learning. You don't have to make it a competition. There will always be people like me who can and often read over 3 hours daily. And there are people who struggle to do one hour a day. It really doesn't matter much in the long run. What matters is that you never stop educating yourself. You can incorporate other learning means you find more enjoyable -- watching educative TV channels, taking video courses, attending conferences and joining forward thinking communities. Just do all you can to be a lifelong learner.



It's not easy juggling clients' work, blogging daily, replying mails, keeping up with my MBA studies, managing a small team and writing a book. 

Today, I am happy to share with you the first part of the chapter 1 of the Microsoft Excel book I am writing. I am considering titling it Microsoft Excel for The Business Professional.

Also, I have finally put everything needed in place to start the next batch of our online Excel training. If you chose it as your preferred Valentine Gift offer in the February 14 blog post I made, then be ready for a welcome mail soon. If you want to join and take the In-depth Microsoft Excel and Business Data Analysis online training, the price is no longer N25,000. It is now N30,000. You can sign-up here.

Microsoft Excel: Meet the Menus



In Microsoft Excel, we’ve got the Home menu, Insert menu, Page Layout menu, Formulas menu, Data menu, Review menu and View menu.

The other menus — Developer menu, Load Test Menu and Power Query menu — are not displayed by default. I enabled them and later in the book I will explain what they do and how to enable them.

Home Menu
The home menu is Excel’s most used menu. It has very straightforward sub-menus.


Clipboard: Allows you to copy, cut and paste in Excel
Font: Allows you to set font size, color, background color (fill) & turn on bold or italics or underline.
Alignment: Allows you to set the position of whatever you’ve typed (or copied) into Excel. It also allows you to set how it’s written: horizontal, vertical or slanting.
Number: Allows you to set how a number is shown in Excel: regular number, currency, scientific, percentage, fraction… 
Styles: Allows you to set the format of an Excel cell based on the data it holds (conditional formatting). It also allows you to convert a selection of cells to table, and to set quick formats for a cell.
Cells: Allows you to insert new cells, delete cells and change cell format.
Editing: It houses the very useful Sort and filter tools. And also Find & Select, Find & Replace. There’s also AutoSum which helps you sum all numbers in a selection.


Insert Menu
The Insert menu houses some of Excel’s best tools.


Tables: Allows you to insert PivotTable, PivotChart and Table. Inserting a table in Excel allows for quick formatting, and better formulas (via named ranges). PivotTable and PivotChart will be discussed later.
Illustrations: Allows you to insert images and shapes.
Charts: Allows you to insert charts, which will be specially discussed later.
Tours: Houses Map which takes you straight to Power Map. Power Map is part of Microsoft’s new Power BI. It enables you make geo-maps and create amazing data visualization tours.

Reports: Lets you access Power View, another Power BI tool. Power View allows to create a data model, loading up many different databases and creating analysis that cuts across all the databases, allowing you to see insights that are beyond a single database.
Sparklines: Allows you to insert charts that fit into one Excel cell. Makes some reports beautiful and easy to read.
Filter: Allows you to filter out field values you are not interested in.
Links: Allows you point a cell content to a website or an email address.
Text: Allows you to insert texts and objects (pretty much anything, including a PDF document)
Symbols: Allows you to type out equations and special symbols.


Page Layout Menu
The Page Layout menu does just that: setting up your Excel document’s page look and for printing.


Themes: It’s not often used; it sets the look of the Excel window itself. 
Page Setup: It allows you to set how the page comes out when printed. Most used are the Orientation (to set as Portrait or Landscape) and Print Area (to select on the cells you want to print).
Scale to Fit: It allows you to set how much is printed per page. Most frequent use is to force Excel to print on one page, or fit all the fields (columns) on one page width.
Sheet Options: You wouldn’t want to change the default. It allows you set whether Excel gridlines be printed or not, and headings too. Default is no/off (unticked).
Arrange: It lets you rearrange overlapping objects (shapes, images, textboxes…). Or align them.


Formulas Menu
The Formula menu gives you access to Excel’s built-in formulas.



Function Library: It has the formulas grouped by category. Once you have an idea of what you want done, it helps you locate the formula to use. It’s good to look through it once in a while to have an idea of the out-of-the-box analysis Excel can do.
Defined Names: Lets you name a cell or selection of cells. Can be very useful when analyzing a big database or building a model.
Formula Auditing: Allows you to check for errors in your formulas, trace formula cells and see how your final result is being calculated.
Calculation: Allows you to set when the formulas in your Excel sheet are calculated: automatic (whenever a cell value changes) or manual (at first entry and when you force them to be recalculated).

Data Menu
The Data menu allows you to work with external data and do basic data formatting.


Get External Data: It allows you to import or link to an external data file (non-Excel file). You’ll use it whenever you have a data in text file and need it worked on in Excel.
Connections: Allows you to make changes to the connections/links to an external data file. Or force a refresh of the connections to capture changes made in the external data file since last connection.
Sort & Filter: Allows you to sort data and do some filtering too. Filter allows you to specify values to display.
Data Tools: Allows you do very basic data analysis. Especially removing duplicate entries, and splitting one field into several (text-to-column). Example is splitting full name into First name and Last name.
Outline: Allows you to group (and hide) several rows. Useful for large data reports with few categories; helps to group categories.
Analysis: This is only visible after you enable Data Analysis add-in or Solver add-in. It allows you access a large collection of statistical analysis tools and problem modeling.

Review Menu
The Review menu is for spell checks, commenting and setting access restrictions.



Proofing: Allows you to carry out spell checks and word meaning checks.
Language: Allows you to translate the Excel file content from one language to another.
Comments: Allows you to include comments in an Excel sheet, view all comments at once or delete comments.
Changes: Allows you to set access restrictions and track changes to the Excel file. Also allows you to share the file.

View Menu
The View menu allows you to change the window layout of the Excel document. It doesn’t change anything in the actual document, just the way it’s displayed.


Workbook Views: Allows you to set how the workbook (Excel file) is displayed.
Show: Controls what non-printing details are shown: Gridlines, Headings, Formula bar and Ruler. The one you’ll be interested most in is Gridlines. If you want your Excel sheet to look more like a Word file, untick the Gridlines. That’s what’s done to every Excel sheet you see that has no Gridlines.
Zoom: Does what it says: sets zoom.
Window: Allows you to freeze headers so when you scroll they will never be out of view. And also allows you to split the Excel sheet display, so you can compare two different parts of the sheet.
Macros: Allows you to see the macros programmed in the Excel file (if there’s any macro in it). 


And I will like to say a big thanks to everyone who sent me helpful suggestions on how to go about writing an effective book. 

Have you ever been obsessed with one big change? It could be in your effort to reach a goal. Just like my goal to become fluent in French. For a long time I wanted a big change. I wanted to wake up tomorrow knowing I have become better at French than I was today. I searched for tips towards getting that big change, and I saw a lot of tips. It's funny how the internet provides you a one-sided information at all times. If you search for "why are dogs friendly" you will see a lot of supporting information just as much as if you search for "why are dogs not friendly".

So which is better -- going after a big change or many small changes?

image: fractalenlightenment.com

The answer is similar to that for the question -- should you go after a big goal or go after many small goals? Over a considerable length of time. often years, you should have a big goal and then break it down to several small goals to achieve over a much less length of time. And it's same for changes. Go after a big change over the long term and have it broken to smaller changes over the short term.

Learn to be okay with no progress or even negative progress. It's always like that in life. A step forward sometimes may require two steps backward. Don't be too obsessed with results. Rather figure out the best way to go after your goal and stick to it till you find a better way. Don't give up just because you are seeing no results or the results aren't up to your expectations. 

Everything we learn or work towards proficiency in follows the same pattern as learning to swim or drive or ride a bicycle. You start upbeat and with great expectations. Soon you learn to tune down your expectations as reality sets in. Then you get frustrated with the progress or lack of progress you are making. But if you don't quit you suddenly find that one day, after already having taken your mind off monitoring your progress, you eventually achieved your goal of proficiency. 

So dream up a big change in your life, break it into smaller changes. Form habits that will help you realise the small changes. Be comfortable with no progress for some time. Keep heading toward the big change regardless of the frustration and slowness you encounter. Constantly review your options and pick the best even if it's not performing well. And be optimistic always.


I am currently reading a life enhancing book, titled "Avoid Boring People". It is a memoir by James D. Waltson.


image: barnesandnoble.com
Reading it has opened my eyes to the power of collaboration. The value of being in the right community.

James D. Watson had at a young age of 34 won a Nobel Prize in Medicine. He went after all his research inclined passions. He was the sort of person you would consider unsocial and book-worm. The last person you would consider getting advice from on having a socially rich life. And someone you would least expect to tell you that there is no value in being a loner. Yet his memoir is filled with very many deep lessons on life - social and career. 

Most emphatic of the lessons he shared is the power of collaboration. He explained how it would have been impossible for him to discover the true structure of the DNA, which later won him the Nobel Prize, had he not partnered with other bright scientists and gotten insights from a lively community of gene researchers. That even in the cutting edge science community where individuals (and not teams) are celebrated and there is an ambiance of competition, you can't go far by being a loner. You have to leverage the varied expertise of other scientists and let equally bright minds critic your work before you consider it done. And that the fear of having someone steal your idea or beat you to a discovery shouldn't push you to the extreme of being a loner.

He also shared from his life on why it is much valuable to pick a small, new and growing niche doing a work that is in some ways ahead of the present time. Whether for business or research. He also advised that one should learn to separate popularity from value. The most beneficial community is usually not the most popular. The ideas you need will often not come from a famous man. The partner you need should be picked based purely on value.

The book is one of the best books I have read in a long while.

Have you heard of a virtual shopping mall? Instead of the actual item being on display, you see a virtual copy of the item.

image: retail-week.com

image: amusingplanet.com

image: amusingplanet.com

Then there are 4D, 5D, 6D and 7D cinemas. You not only see the movie in 3D but you feel the earthquake as it happens in the movie, you perceive the smell and you get drenched when it rains in the movie (hopefully not in real water rain).

image: 6dcinema.co.uk

image: groupon.co.in

image: 6dcinema.co.uk

There are other many cool technologies that already exist. When you see how fast technology is enabling us to do many previously impossible things you'll wonder what the world would be like in 100 years time.


"The greater danger for most of us lies not in setting our aim too high and falling short; but in setting our aim too low, and achieving our mark." Michelango




If there is one thing I will be grateful for besides God's grace since I began the whole entrepreneurship journey, it will be that it forced me to be comfortable with not knowing how I would "do it". It brought out the optimistic and adventurous side of me. I no longer try to know every turn and decision I will have to make, right from the beginning. And I have my entire livelihood staked on my being able to figure things out as I go on.

Every day I am resetting my aim. Setting it higher. Almost everyday I am facing new challenges. For once, all the inspiring stories of how the big multinationals we all want to have business dealings with  (as a contractor/consultant or an employee) now look more real and a possibility for me. 

When you aim high, you achieve more than people around you are used to or expects. And you set yourself up for a miracle. When you aim high, you live a more active and intellectually stimulating life. You are constantly at your wit's end and learning to identify new patterns. You are forced to be very creative and resourceful. You begin to see things in new and interesting ways. You stand out in the field you choose. And most importantly, you'll have a great story to share with your children and grand-children. They will be proud to know you didn't just mill around with the masses and took no risk. They will be proud to know you didn't fortify your comfort zone and aimed only for the achievable. You will all be proud of the path you followed.

Every day I let my mind expand and I keep shifting my aim higher; going for the big and challenging. It doesn't cost me to dream bigger than I did yesterday, especially when all the dreams are like mission impossible.

There is an amazing online academy that gives away great books. I am currently reading one of the great books I got from there that is on small business management and it has been giving me great insights into how to successfully run my business by understanding the peculiarity of a small business and how to avoid dying (as a business).

You can also enroll for great career boosting courses there, visit www.saylor.org/courses

Below is a list of the books currently available and their download links, all culled from www.saylor.org/books 

A Primer on Sustainable Business
HTML | PDF | DOCx
Advanced Business Law and the Legal Environment
HTML | PDF | DOCx
American Government and Politics in the Information Age
HTML | PDF | DOCx
An Introductory Course in Elementary Number Theory, by Wissam Raji
PDF | DOC | ePub | TEX/LaTeX
The Basics of General, Organic and Biological Chemistry
PDF | DOCx
Biology (via OpenStax College)
PDF
Building Strategy and Performance
HTML | PDF | DOCx
Business Communication for Success
HTML | PDF | DOCx
Business English for Success
HTML | PDF | DOCx
The Business Ethics Workshop
HTML | PDF | DOCx
Business Information Systems: Design an App for That
HTML | PDF | DOCx
Business Law and the Legal Environment
HTML | PDF | DOCx
Calculus: Early Transcendentals (via Lyryx Learning)
PDF
College Physics (via OpenStax College)
PDF
College Success
HTML | PDF | DOCx
Communication in the Real World: An Introduction to Communication Studies
PDF | DOCx
Computer Networking: Principles, Protocols, and Practice, by Olivier Bonaventure
PDF | EPUB | iBooks
Contemporary Calculus, by Dale Hoffman
PDF
Corporate Governance
HTML | PDF | DOCx
Criminal Law
HTML | PDF | DOCx
Developing New Products and Services
HTML | PDF | DOCx
Economics: Theory Through Applications
HTML | PDF | DOCx
Elementary Algebra
HTML | PDF | DOCx
Elementary Linear Algebra, by Kenneth Kuttler
PDF | iBooks | EPUB
eMarketing: The Essential Guide to Online Marketing
HTML | PDF | DOCx
Essentials of Geographic Information Systems
HTML | PDF | DOCx
Exploring Business
HTML | PDF | DOCx
Exploring Perspectives: A Concise Guide to Anaylsis
HTML | PDF | DOCx
Financial Accounting
HTML | PDF | DOCx
Focusing on Organizational Change
HTML | PDF | DOCx
Foundations of Business Law and the Legal Environment
HTML | PDF | DOCx
Fundamentals of Global Strategy
HTML | PDF | DOCx
General Chemistry: Principles, Patterns, and Applications
HTML | PDF | DOCx
Government Regulation and the Legal Environment of Business
HTML | PDF | DOCx
Growth and Competitive Strategy in 3 Circles
HTML | PDF | DOCx
How to Read Like a Writer, by Mike Bunn
PDF | DOCx
How to Use Microsoft Excel
HTML | PDF | DOCx
Handbook for Writers
HTML | PDF | DOCx
Human Relations
HTML | PDF | DOCx
Human Resource Management
HTML | PDF | DOCx
Information Systems: A Manager’s Guide to Harnessing Technology
HTML | PDF | DOCx
Information Systems for Business and Beyond, by David T. Bourgeois, Ph.D.
PDF | DOCx | ePub | Mobi | HTML | XML
Intermediate Algebra
HTML | PDF | DOCx
International Business
HTML | PDF | DOCx
International Economics: Theory and Policy
HTML | PDF | DOCx
International Finance: Theory and Policy
HTML | PDF | DOCx
International Political Economy: An Introduction to Approaches, Regimes, and Issues, by Timothy C. Lim, Ph.D.
PDF | DOCx | ePub | Mobi | HTML | XML
International Trade: Theory and Policy
HTML | PDF | DOCx
Introduction to Contracts, Sales, and Product Liability
HTML | PDF | DOCx
Introduction to Economic Analysis
HTML | PDF | DOCx
Introduction to Financial Accounting (via Lyryx Learning)
PDF | HTML
Introduction to the Law of Property, Estate Planning and Insurance
HTML | PDF | DOCx
Introduction to Psychology
HTML | PDF | DOCx
Introduction to Sociology (via OpenStax College)
PDF
Introductory Chemistry
HTML | PDF | DOCx
Introductory Statistics
HTML | PDF | DOCx
Launch! Advertising and Promotion in Real Time
HTML | PDF | DOCx
Law for Entrepreneurs
HTML | PDF | DOCx
Law of Commercial Transactions
HTML | PDF | DOCx
Leading with Cultural Intelligence
HTML | PDF | DOCx
The Legal and Ethical Environment of Business
HTML | PDF | DOCx
Legal Aspects of Corporate Management and Finance
HTML | PDF | DOCx
Legal Aspects of Marketing and Sales
HTML | PDF | DOCx
Linear Algebra: Theory and Applications, by Kenneth Kuttler
PDF | iBooks | Also: Lyryx Learning (PDF)
Macroeconomics: Theory Through Applications
HTML | PDF | DOCx
Macroeconomics: Theory, Markets, and Policy (via Lyryx Learning)
PDF
Managerial Accounting
HTML | PDF | DOCx
Mastering Public Relations
HTML | PDF | DOCx
Mastering Strategic Management
HTML | PDF | DOCx
Mathematical Analysis I, by Elias Zakon
PDF | iBooks | HTML
Microeconomics: Theory Through Applications
HTML | PDF | DOCx
Microeconomics: Markets, Methods, and Models (via Lyryx Learning)
PDF
Money and Banking
HTML | PDF | DOCx
Oral Literature In Africa
PDF | DOCx | ePub
Organizational Behavior
HTML | PDF | DOCx
Personal Finance
HTML | PDF | DOCx
The Power of Selling
HTML | PDF | DOCx
Principles of Economics
HTML | PDF | DOCx
Principles of Macroeconomics
HTML | PDF | DOCx
Principles of Management
HTML | PDF | DOCx
Principles of Managerial Economics
HTML | PDF | DOCx
Principles of Marketing
HTML | PDF | DOCx
Principles of Microeconomics
HTML | PDF | DOCx
Principles of Social Psychology
HTML | PDF | DOCx
Principles of Sociological Inquiry: Qualitative and Quantitative Methods
HTML | PDF | DOCx
Project Management from Simple to Complex
HTML | PDF | DOCx
Project Management for Instructional Designers
(Note: This text is a remix of Project Management from Simple to Complex, and was contributed by David Wiley.)
HTML
Research Methods in Psychology
HTML | PDF | DOCx
Risk Management for Enterprises and Individuals
HTML | PDF | DOCx
Six Steps to Job Search Success
HTML | PDF | DOCx
Small Business Management in the 21st Century
HTML | PDF | DOCx
Social Problems: Continuity and Change
HTML | PDF | DOCx
Sociology: Understanding and Changing the Social World
HTML | PDF | DOCx
Stand Up, Speak Out: The Practice and Ethics of Public Speaking
HTML | PDF | DOCx
Statistics Flexbook
PDF | DOCx
Sustainability, Innovation, and Entrepreneurship
HTML | PDF | DOCx
The Sustainable Business Case Book
HTML | PDF | DOCx
Topics in Applied Mathematics, by Charles Chui
PDF
Understanding Media and Culture: An Introduction to Mass Communication
HTML | PDF | DOCx
World Regional Geography: People, Places, and Globalization
HTML | PDF | DOCx
Writing for Success
HTML | PDF | DOCx
Writing Spaces: Readings on Writings, Vol. 1
PDF | DOC
Writing Spaces: Readings on Writings, Vol. 2PDF | DOC