Limited liability companies are regarded as corporate persons. In fact, a company wanted to stand for election in USA.

Have you ever considered yourself as a company? If A = B, then B = A too. If a company is a person, then a person is a company. Well, legally. But today, we'll take it beyond the legal arena. So join me as I show you how to run your life like a company. 

Thanks to books and reality, I know quite a lot about how businesses are run. So let's take my life as a business. I'm Michael Olafusi Ltd. 

image: contactvirginmedia.com

What are the practical implications?

1. As a company, I will have a Mission, a Vision and a Value statement. And this is one thing we all need to learn from companies. Having a Mission, Vision and Value statement that is made obvious to everyone is one of the best ways to live a focused and value-based life.
2. I will have a record of all the important activities in my life. Just as a business keeps a journal and a ledger. And some even hire forensic accountants to help set things straight. It's obviously going to be tasking, but it is worth the effort. And after a few months, it will become as easy as brushing one's teeth daily.
3. I will have a Budget. 
4. I will interact with only the people that value my time, expertise and resources. And just has companies rate their customers and business partners, based on their credit worthiness and business ethics. I will have a mental list of all the people I interact with. I will dedicate more of my resources to those that do not abuse them.
5. I will do a SWOT analysis yearly. Just like companies do to become more self-aware and know where they truly stand. 
6. I will invest in myself heavily. The best companies aren't the ones hoarding cash and not re-investing in themselves. The best companies are the ones that are forward thinking and will even borrow to position themselves in a future vantage position. 
7. I will care more about my potential value than my current cash statement. We individuals are obsessed with cash at hand and in bank. Companies care more about future cash flow. About their earning potential. About their brand value. About what the future holds for them. Not about how many SUV's they have in the car park.
8. I will be extremely law abiding. Just as companies hire attorneys to help them figure out all the laws they should abide by, I will take extra care/effort to abide by all laws that affect me. It saves a lot of future troubles.
9. I will be known for something. Something very specific. Just like all companies.
10. Finally, I will be more socially responsible. I will donate to causes that better lives and the environment. A good company does.

Ever needed to make a PowerPoint presentation with charts/graphs already in Excel? And also have the PowerPoint one automatically update whenever you change the values for the charts in Excel?

Today's your lucky day. I'll show how to do just that.

Here is my Excel chart of all the houses in Lagos by regions: Ikeja, Lagos Island, Victoria Island...

I'll like to have this in a PowerPoint Slide. And just the chart.
To make the chart more visual friendly, I'll do some slight formatting.

And here's my better formatted one. I added a Data Table.

Now, I'll put this in a PowerPoint Slide.

Here's my PPT, already made ready.

I intend to put the chart in the 2nd slide.
So I copy the chart and paste it in the 2nd slide. Just at the lower right corner of the pasted chart, I see a CTRL icon. I click on it. It gives me extra paste options. I choose the Keep Sourc Formatting & Link Data.

And that's all. You can do this for any chart.

So let's do some testing testing.

Here's my final chart.

I'll go make some changes in the Excel chart table.

From:

To:

Let's see if the PowerPoint Slide chart changed.

Voila! It updated itself.

And that's how to make dynamic charts in PowerPoint, that will update directly from Excel.

Once in a while, I come across someone who is very annoying. Maybe also extremely irrational that I don't even know what to say; he's just not going to get it. And then he keeps talking, and I feel like smashing his head with something really hard. My breath becomes steam hot. I'm very sure I'll never feel sorry for whatever I do to him. My anger is completely justifiable. 

Have you ever been in that kind of situation? Well, I was two days ago.

I'm not going to tell you about it. But I will tell you what I always do. I simply -- Breathe deep; and let it go. 
And here's how to breathe deep: You take in air from your nostrils and fill your stomach with it. You should be able to see/feel your stomach grow bigger. Then breathe out slowly. 
And how do you let it go? You put on the fiercest face you can conjure, one showing all the anger within. You're angry and you must be sincere and not smile or laugh or make a blank face. Show your anger, but on your face only. Then, ignore him. Don't think about what happened or how to retaliate. Just keep breathing deep and ignore him. If you strongly feel like doing something more, just take a walk. 

What will this achieve?

1. It will prevent you from killing somebody
2. It will ensure that he knows that you are angry
3. Breathing deep is a relaxation technique. You should do it even when you're not angry. Make sure you let the air get into your stomach. If you're panting, you're doing it wrong.
4. Not saying anything will make you feel good afterwards. You won't have the usual remorse feeling that you didn't say enough or used more strong words. Trust me.
5. People around will have a much better opinion of you than the other guy. When they see the anger on your face and the deep breathing you're doing, they will even be careful not to make any comments that will make you explode or kill somebody.
6. You will keep your self esteem and still look terrifying. Much more terrifying than the other guy.

So next time you're well pissed off: Breathe deep; let it go.

Amidst the hustle and bustle of daily life in Lagos, it's easy to let our health trail.

I wake up 4:00am every weekday. I sleep between 11:00pm and 1:00am. Thinking about it scares me. I sleep for a stretch of about 4hours every week day.
Then on weekends, it's either Toastmasters or Lagos InterNations meetup or a Client meetup on Saturday. Even Sundays are busy for me. I'm the bee kind of person, even if you lock me up in a prison for a year, I will find a way to become super busy. I got the gene from my mum. She's been into over 10 different types of businesses. She's always full of ideas -- business, home, and big ideas. Growing up, there were times when almost everything we used was home made -- the soaps, school bag, snacks, juice, bed sheets, pillows, curtains... I don't know of anything she mentioned doing that she didn't do. She is my own proof that whatever you can think through, you can do.

Back to the Health Matters.

image: blogs.va.gov

Fortunately, I had thoroughly considered the health impact of the lifestyle I chose (or more appropriately, that chose me). 
And these are the steps I take to be as healthy as possible:

1. I take lots of short naps throughout the day. It helps to compensate well for the short night sleep. And it keeps me stress free and smiling throughout the day. 

2.I exercise daily. I walk daily. I do push-ups 3ce a week. I swim almost weekly. I get huge benefits from the cardio and muscle workouts. Better posture, always alert, improved brain functions, and a glowing skin.

3. I eat proper meals. Lots of protein and vegetables. Fruits too. Then vitamin supplements occasionally.

4. I have a job I enjoy. And a part-time job I love. I encounter no source of negative stress throughout the day. No stress induced health hazards. 

5. I use Vaseline Total Moisture Conditioning lotion. It has Vitamin E, B and A. And some other skin nourishing ingredients. People say it will make me a lot darker; I don't care. I want a very healthy skin. And so far, I'm loving the result. Been using it for years now.

6. I do regular checkups. That's one of the benefits of having a mum run clinic and a dad run diagnostic center. Checkup and treatment is just a chat away. Free too.


Sadly, they are not enough. Nothing should take the place of a proper night sleep. The car fumes I inhale daily gives me a health worry only inactivity can fix. 

When it comes to health matters, the key is in finding the best compromise. Getting a lifestyle you can sustain, that won't hinder you from being creatively active, and won't ruin your health fast. We'll definitely lose our health someday; so there's no gain in not having a life just to hold on to a health we can't keep forever. Afterall, we are like ships. We are not meant to live our lives at the habour.

I used to think the only talent I have is cramming. 

Cramming is like a fun game to me. As a child I crammed a lot of the 'begat' in the bible -- And Abraham begat Isaac, Isaac begat Jacob, Jacob begat Judah, Judah begat Pharez, Pharez begat Hezron, Hezron begat Ram, Ram begat Amminadab, Amminadab begat Nahshon, Nahshon begat Salma, Salma begat Boaz, Boaz begat Obed, Obed begat Jesse, Jesse begat David...

The only fun I had in church, growing up, was participating in bible quiz. And when I got to university, I used my talent well. I loved the lecturers that wanted what they taught us written word for word as answers to their exam questions. I wouldn't even miss a comma. Then at the university chapel, I once got the label of 'Go-bible'. It was during one of our half year review of Sunday School Bible Study. We were told that there would be a recital of memory verses of the period under review. And we all should prepare for it. I took it too literally; I crammed all the 26 memory verses, the dates and the bible study topics. When the day finally came, I was the first called upon, and I rattled off 24 out of the 26 memory verses. I lost count and forgot to say the remaining two. Everyone that came after me recited just one or two verses. That day I got the nickname 'go-bible'. I was slightly sad I didn't get the opportunity to add the dates and bible study topics for each memory verse. I had spent hours per day for weeks cramming everything.

But now I know I also have the talents of writing, swimming, meditating, sleeping, Excel based analysis and thinking. And I'm going to show you how you too can discover your talents.

image: anthonycoppedge.com

Talents are those things you're exceptionally good at. Sometimes they come natural to us, like singing (for most people), and sometimes you have to put in some initial effort, like public speaking. Sleeping, meditating and thinking came naturally to me; I have been talented at them since before I can remember. My mum loves talking about my sleeping adventures, how the worst circumstance anyone can be in is to be locked outside and trying to get me to open the door at midnight.
As for the writing, swimming and Excel based analysis, I had to put in some initial effort. What made them talents for me is that I learned them at an alarming rate. Every little effort I put into them generated a very high return. I have learned music and how to play about 5 musical instruments, unsuccessfully. Every effort I put in got me no-where.

So how do you figure out your talents? Try everything that interests you and everything that comes natural or almost natural to you is your talent. And that's the only way to discover your talents.

There's a huge advantage to being different -- you make your own decisions. You're well insulated from peer pressure, partly because you're hardly in sync with your peers. You are used to being perceived as different and then you don't care anymore. You do things your own way and you make your own decisions almost always. 

That has been my single biggest advantage in life. 

image: lifechoicesmedical.org

The truth is our choices make us. Even when we let others make them for us. 

Let's take a ride down memory lane. Our parents/guardians chose the schools we attended (based on the value they placed on our education and the money they could afford to spent towards it). And it's amazing how those choices have defined us. Some even got married to their primary school love. We are so proud of the schools we attended and will rather go for our school reunion than a company retreat. The primary school we didn't choose as against the company we worked hard to get a job in. I don't see people arguing that my company is better than yours, but I see people almost beat themselves up in defense of their Alma mater. We have our university anthems, secondary school logos on our phones/laptops, but not the job offer letter we signed after a rigorous interview session. So it doesn't matter who made the choices, you or someone else, the effects are lifelong. Those choices will someday make us.

I think too much about my life. Not about the future, but about my options. I've been given a life, my life. Regardless of what parents advise, friends prescribe, and the society certifies; in the end I will have to live with the outcome of my choices. When I'm old, parents won't be there to blame, friends would have changed, and the society would have moved on; I'll be forced to accept full responsibility for those choices, whether I made them or not. 

It's sometimes hard to think straight under the influence of parents, friends and culture. The trick I use is to think long-term. When I'm 70 years old, which would I wish I had taken. It helps in putting things in the right perspective. It helps to see the irrationality in most of the options. And using this trick, I have decided to stop engaging in non-value adding activities. You wouldn't find me arguing with anyone, it drains energy and adds no value. You wouldn't find me trying hard to impress anyone. I'm not interested in people who don't like me; I'm still trying hard not to piss off the few that do. I don't do anything just for the sake of tomorrow's gain -- like boot-licking or suffering now. Life is as much about the journey as is the desired destination. I'll not let anything scratch my dignity. I need it intact till I die. 

Everyday, I spend hours examining my life and identifying the logic/emotion behind the numerous choices I make. And I'm often amazed by the ones I let a smiling sales rep, the traffic, my boss at work, my colleagues at work, the talking heads on TV and radio, popular opinions and fashion trend make for me. And I say to myself, "No wonder they say Nigerians are the same; the choices that make us are made by same influences/people."

"Michael, you are my last hope. All the files in my 8GB memory card are almost gone. But the free space has not increased, the flash is almost filled as before. Just that I can't find all my folders and the files I stored in them. When I put it in my phone, I can't access my pictures, videos and musics. If I snap a photo, it doesn't save. It's driving me nuts. I have several years accumulation of valuable training videos in it. You have to help me. You are the computer guru."

Then another one.

"Hi Mike. I noticed something on my flash drive. I used it in a Cafe, and since then my folders have been showing as icons and I can't access the files in them. Can you fix it for me?"

Guess what?
I fixed it. And I will show you how you can always fix this type of problem. It's so easy, you'll almost hug yourself afterwards.

Here's the logic behind what we will do. The virus hid your original folders and we are going to unhide them. And that's all. 

The best part is you are not going to need an antivirus. It wouldn't hurt to scan your flash drive with an antivirus to help fix other likely issues with the flash drive.

So here's how to get it fixed.

Plug in your flash drive. Goto My Computer and take note of the letter assigned to your flash drive.

As you can see in the image above, the letter I was assigned my flash drive.

Next: click on Start, type command prompt in the Search box.
Click on Command Prompt under Programs (the first search result).

Type attrib -h -r -s /s /d I:\*.* and press Enter. (Change I to the letter assigned your flash drive). Wait for some seconds till it's done. (You can copy the command from here and paste in command prompt using right click, then change the I to the letter assigned your flash drive). 

And that's it. Now you'll suddenly see all you files and folders back. 

And for the techy ones among us, here's what the command actually does.
attrib is a DOS command for changing file and folder attributes. 
-h removes the hidden file attribute 
-r removes the read-only attribute
-s removes the system file attribute
/s ensures this is done for all files in the flash drive
/d ensures this is done for all the folders in the flash drive

What the command does is to set all the files and folders in your flash drive as accessible and editable. 

Having considered all the advice and recommendations I've received. I have decided to make a proper e-book of the Investment Guide I promised you when you subscribed to my blog. It's also expanded and edited. I'm sure you'll enjoy reading it, even though you might be familiar with the valuable information I shared in it. You can download the Investment Guide here.

Below is an excerpt from the e-book:

***********************************************************

The Purpose and Benefit of this Guide

Most of us find the finance and investment world hard to make sense of. We would rather just work hard, earn a respectable income and give someone else (or investment firm) to invest it on our behalves.

There is nothing wrong in doing that, well, on the surface. The real trouble in doing that is the underlying assumptions – that you will find a trustworthy and high grade investment manager and that you will never fall into any financial crisis. Sincerely, I would rather cross a road with my eyes closed than take that risk. And since I do not intend to cross the road with my eyes closed, I have taken great pains to equip myself with all the finance and investment knowledge I need.

And that knowledge is what I have condensed into this Investment Guide.

You will find it useful in making sense of the investment world and, hopefully, fuel a hunger in you for more practical financial knowledge

Best of all, I have made it easy to understand. You don’t need to have any special or background knowledge. All you need to understand everything in this guide is to read this in a calm place and maybe print it out, to easily mark areas that interest you.

Why you need to Invest?

Investing is not just about wealth generation – making your money work hard for you as you did for it. Investing is also about wealth preservation – making sure that the N1 million you have now will have the same purchasing power 2 or 5 years from now.

If you put all your money in a savings account, the interest you will get on it is not going to insulate you from the damaging effect inflation will have on your life savings. As the price of things keep going up and cost of living increases, the N10 million you have in a bank will not be able buy you much in 10 years’ time, the value will have been eroded by inflation. So you really have no option than to make sound investment decisions now.

I work terribly hard every day and deny myself a lot to set aside some of my income. I will cry if I discover that the N20 million naira I have saved over my working life is just worth N5 million naira in today’s value.

And that is the what inflation does to money kept in a savings account. The house you can buy with the N20 million naira today will be selling for N40 million naira in 10 years, while your savings account will be reading N20.5 million. And that’s if you’re lucky to find a savings account with 3.6% interest rate. Most are 2%.

*****************************************************************

Don't forget to download the Investment Guide here.

All the opportunities are here. At least for me.

I have spent all my life here. Every skill and knowledge I have will deliver me the most value here. Maybe not in money terms, at least in the short run. Every creative work I produce, tangible or intangible, will be most appreciated here than someplace else. And so I say, once again, all the opportunities are here.

image: ynaija.com

What opportunities?

1. I can wake up someday and go meet my grandpa to connect me to the politicians in my home state. That I want to go into politics. He is the first LG Chairman of my village. Though, this is not on the list of the 10,000 things I would love to do with my life but it's an open opportunity still.
2. Running a company in Nigeria is super easy. You really don't need an attorney. No one will ever sue you for anything. No expensive legal documents drafting. You can even do your taxes yourself; the tax codes here are super simple. 
3. You don't need to be a genius to make it. In fact, being a genius will work against you. 
4. People's expectations are not much. No one will criticize you for anything. Everyone is focused on the politicians and Super Eagles. You can try all your legit business ideas.
5. It's extremely easy to become a motivational speaker in Nigeria. If you fail at every other thing, you can make a living sharing the story. You'll have little competition. You can easily partner with the one man/woman mobile stores that sell anything in traffic and Molues.
6. All the business professionals are in Lagos. You can grow your professional network aggressively without breaking a bank; just know the right events to attend.
7. There is so much crap -- on the radio, on the TV, packaged as products, and sold as services. If you put enough brain into whatever you do, the top will be an easy ride. 
8. We've got one of the best climates in the world. No snow, no typhoon, no hurricane, no volcano, no ash smoke, no earthquake, no tsunami, no natural flood (all our floods are man triggered), and no 60 degrees sun.
9. Nigerians are very tolerant. It's only the 18 year olds and their overage versions that ridicule people, and they mostly do it via twitter and blogs. This is the best place to make all your mistakes.
10. There's almost 18hrs/day electricity where I live. Life is good. Companies with no signposts are sprouting almost everywhere.
11. There's no place like home. Almost all the world's greatest artists and inventors lived their entire lives close to home. Even the world's richest men are home-based -- Warren Buffet, Bill Gates, and our own Aliko Dangote. 
12. I can be anything and anyone here. Especially, the President. 
13. Best of all, I will never be homesick because I'll always be at home.

As you already know, I'm heaven-bent on starting a company. I have been preparing hard for the lifelong journey. I have started a part-time consultancy biz. I have almost resigned twice to take it full-time. And I have been reading every book I believe will help me on this amazing entrepreneurial journey.

I have:

1. How to Start a Business. Jason Nazar
2. The Cold Calling Secret. Mark Boardman
3. How to Write a Business Plan. R. T. Williams
4. The Intelligent Entrepreneur. Bill Murphy
5. Street Smarts. Norm Brodsky
6. How I Raised Myself from Failure to Success in Selling. Frank Bettger
7. Founders at Work: Stories of Startups' Early Days. Jessica Livingston
8. Bookkeepers' Bootcamp: Get a Grip on Accounting Basics. Angie Mohr
9. How to Do a Year's Worth of Bookkeeping in One Day: A Step by Step Guide for Small Businesses. E. T. Barton
10. Economics for Investment Decision Makers: Micro, Macro, and International Economics. Christopher D. Piros
11. Finance. Ehsan Nikbakht
12. How to Build a Financial Model. Sol Hong
13. The Everything Store. Brad Stone
14. Security Analysis. Benjamin Graham
15. Iacocca. Lee Iacocca
16. The Founder's Dilemmas: Anticipating and Avoiding the Pitfalls that can Sink a Startup.
17. The Personal MBA. Josh Kaufman
18. Berkshire Hathaway Letters to Shareholders, 1965 - 2012. Warren Buffett
19. The Warren Buffett Way. Robert G. Hagstrom
20. The Book Investing Wisdom. Warren Buffett
21. How to Win Friends and Influence People. Dale Carnegie
22. One Up on Wall Street. Peter Lynch
23. The Steve Jobs Way. Jay Elliot
24. The Autobiography of Andrew Carnegie.
25. The Alchemist. Paulo Coelho
26. Rule #1. Phil Town
27. The World is Flat. Thomas L. Friedman
28. The Five Elements of Effective Thinking. Edward Burger
29. The Presentation Secrets of Steve Jobs. Carmine Gallo
30. Outliers. Malcolm Gladwell
31. A Random Walk Down Wall Street. Malkiel Burton
32. Too Big to Fail. Andrew Ross Sorkin
33. Lower Your Taxes. Bob Adams
34. The Five Rules for Successful Stock Investing. Joe Mansueto
35. The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. Steven Covey
36. Dig Your Well Deep Before You're Thirsty. Harvey Mackay
37. Sharkproof. Harvey Mackay
38. Personal Finance. Deaver Brown
39. Start Something That Matters. Blake Mycoskie
40. Think and Grow Rich. Napoleon Hill
41. The Success Principles. Jack Canfield
42. Millionaire Upgrade. Richard Parkes Cordock
43. Extraordinary Leadership. Robin Sharma
44. Simple and Cheaper. Deaver Brown
45. Managing Your Home Office. Deaver Brown
46. The Free Agent, No Employee World. Deaver Brown
47. Make Yourself a Millionaire. Charles C. Zhang
48. Building Your Network Marketing Business. Jim Rohn
49. The Lean Startup. Eric Ries
50. Jim Cramer's Real Money. Jim Cramer
51. The Greatest Salesman in the World. Og Mandino

The one that has helped me the most is -- Founders at Work: Stories of Startups' Early Days. By Jessica Livingston

image: amazon.co.uk

It's a collection of the interviews Jessica had with the founders of some of the biggest startups. Including Apple's Steve Wozniak. It opened my eyes to the reality of starting a company. And made me resolve to start my own company no matter what. If I had bought the book for $300 (N49,650) it would be worth it. Luckily the book sold for less than $20 (N3,310).

It provided me with practical ways to start a company, what to avoid, how to grow the company, and everything a mentor would tell me. It's the best business book I have.