Have you read my One Life Goal?

 Leonardo da Vinci is the main inspiration for it.
He lived an extraordinary life. The kind of life I hope to live. If I could regard any man as perfect, it would be him.

Leonardo da Vinci was born 15th of April, 1452. Like most other great men, there was nothing great about his birth, family and early life. What was most special about him is that he never stopped growing. He poured himself into all that interested him. And lived fully. He used every talent he had. He didn't try to fit in anywhere. He gave his thoughts wings and his hands tools. He thought and worked. 

 He was a very caring and simple man. He loved everyone and was kind to even birds. He would buy caged birds just to free them. He was a vegetarian. He couldn't stand the killing of animals for food. He had an apprentice who was always stealing from him and lying to him, yet he remained kind to him. Took him back every time he had spent all the money he took off with. He even included him in his will. He's the kindest man I have ever read about.

 I don't want to give a narrative of his biography because he's slightly more than human to me. He is the epitome of simplicity. Even when Michelangelo called him incompetent and lazy, he wasn't offended. He was the perfect mix of brain and energy. Calm, caring and creative.

 He fed his childhood curiosity throughout his lifetime. His rules and life principles were not formed in his head and to be followed religiously. They were written in his kind heart, and expressed gently. 

 You can read more about his creativity here. He's regarded as the most creative man that ever lived. 

image: usatoday.com

 Next to Jesus, there are other 3 people whose lives greatly shaped mine. Leonardo da Vinci, Samuel Clemens Langhorne and Steve Jobs. I have already talked about Samuel Clemens Langhorne (aka Mark Twain). And today I'll be talking about Steve Jobs.

 First of all, I need to let you know that just as diamond isn't found floating in it's purest form on the cleanest river, but is found in thick dirt with an awkward shape. So also are the world's most inspiring people. They are not the symbol of the ideal man we all have in mind. But they are always the best of their kind. Special beyond comprehension and creative beyond description. And that's the only way to describe Steve Jobs.

 Steve Jobs was born on February 24, 1955. His mum and dad were unmarried, and students at the University of Wisconsin, USA. His mum's family wouldn't let them marry. So they put the baby up for adoption. He was adopted by Paul Jobs and Clara Jobs. His new dad was a Mechanic/Carpenter and the new mum an Accountant. He lived a regular life. Nothing special about his upbringing or family.

 But as he grew up he began examining his life. Soon, he concluded that going to University wasn't his own decision and he saw little value in it. He dropped out. And it was at that point that his life took a unique turn. He began doing only the things had strong passion for. He was too young to worry about money and too smart to work full-time for someone else. He was obsessed with creating something of value and doing it in the most beautiful way possible. And that was how Apple came to be. He found someone who was technically smarter than him and they began Apple Computer Company. And as you know, the rest is history.

 They built the first personal computer. They hired Bill Gates and gave him one of his earliest big breaks. They did things people thought impossible. They kept setting new standards and ended up creating an entirely new industry. 

 But the real inspiration is in the path he took. He dropped out of college when it was not a fashionable thing to do. He wanted a life he chose, not one decided for him. He put all his energy into building things. And when he started Apple, no one took him and the company serious. One of the founding partners pulled out early on because he saw no future for the company. He had numerous troubles getting needed fund. Almost everyone he talked to thought he was crazy. But he was so determined and persistent that people began to take him more seriously. They saw the drive and couldn't but give him a chance. And he went on to build the world's most innovative company. Twice.

 What inspires me the most about him is that he focused on just one thing: creating. He never cared about money or public perception. He did his own thinking and followed his own gut. Even when he was ousted from Apple, he took his life earnings and started another company. He spent almost everything because of his obsession with high quality and creativity before the company started turning profits.

And here is the best inspirational presentation on Steve Jobs, I could find. 


I'm a member of Lighthouse Toastmasters Club. I have been a member since October 2011. I have been the Club's Sergeant-at-arms, Secretary, and now, the VP Membership. I have only missed meetings thrice since joining. But I have only given 6 prepared speeches. One of my mentees has already completed the Competent Communicators Speech projects, all 10 of them. And the VP Education is not happy with me. I take about 6 months to give 1 speech. And I'm becoming a bad influence on my mentees. In fact, she has stopped giving me mentees.

That's me at the extreme left.

So I have been thinking really hard about it. Why am I finding it extremely hard to give a speech?

And today, I'll be sharing the answer in form of a regular Toastmasters Speech. In fact, I'll be delivering it to you as the Speech 1 I should have given. What we call the Ice Breaker's speech.

And here it is: The Toastmasters Speech I'll never give. I have titled it: The Real Me.


The Toastmaster, fellow Toastmasters and guests.
We run away all the time to avoid coming face to face with ourselves. Author, anonymous.

Some of us are created as generalists. And others are created as specialists. The main difference is that the specialists are extremely good at a few things and terrible at everything else. While the generalists are able to acquire proficiency at any skill they desire, and are usually average at every other things.

Unfortunately, I fall into the Specialist category. And it's a misfortune Toastmasters constantly remind me of. I'm mandated to give a speech. A speech that will be very engaging. One that won't make you snore. It's the same as telling me to not talk about the things I'm most passionate about. Because you'll find them extremely boring.

Then I must put some life into my speech. Make it very passionate. Use body gestures. Use voice modulations. And use pauses creatively.  And these are my biggest pain as a Toastmaster. I don't do any of this in real life. If you see me talking passionately, it must that I'm under the influence of a drug. Or there's an Evaluator to please. And as for body gestures; I'm used to moving only my lips when talking. The only real life situations I use body gestures are when conversing with a deaf man and whenever I'm trying to speak French. And voice modulations. I'm yet to figure out what a preacher will say that will make me genuinely scream at the top of my voice. Even while I was drowning in a river in Bayelsa state, I wasn't screaming. I was just there with my hands up and sinking. Even when I try hard to fake being excited, shouting for joy has always been beyond me. Even the less strenuous voice modulations, ones that involve subtle change of speech tone to give more effect to the words spoken has always been irrelevant to me in my day-to-day life. I let my choice of words create whatever effect I want, and not the way I say those words.

So every time you see me behind this lectern giving a speech you can relate to, modulating my voice, moving from one side of the lectern to the other, generously using my hands, and doing a mini drama to give you a speech that wins your applause. You can be sure that it is not me you are seeing. The real me will do nothing of that sort.

So who is the real me?

If the world was perfect, I wouldn't be here giving this speech. I wouldn't even join a Toastmasters. I would be in a big electronics lab making embedded systems. Hacking hardware and automating all I could. Because the real me is an extreme introvert who loves making things do more than they were originally designed to do. Who loves building new things and automating mundane tasks. And that's why I love programming. A 15mins phone call gives me headache, but 8 hours of writing codes makes me energized and happy.

The real me is not the one right in front of you giving this speech. The real me is lost. Perhaps, forever.

The Toastmaster.


I'm on a queue at ParknShop, the attendant is taking longer than usual to attend to me. I feel like telling her, "You are wasting my time."
You are at Lekki toll gate, the queue is not moving. You let your car horn do the screaming, "You are wasting my time."

 Then one day I thought about it. Most times, I'm not in a hurry to go do something else. In fact, I often go ahead to waste my time some other way. 

 Being busy and always in a hurry is, perhaps, the only way we waste our time. We simply fill it with activities. We seldom use the opportunity a delaying attendant and the queue at the toll gate give us to stop and take a break. To break free from ceaseless activities.

 I'm not suggesting that you begin evaluating your life in those random short time. I'm saying you should just try to shutdown. Take your mind of everything. Enjoy the moment in silence; silence of mind and actions.
image: zgallerie.com

And what will you gain by doing this?
I don't know. But I can assure you that you won't gain anything by always being a hurry. Ceaselessly acting.

 So next time you are stuck in a queue, don't scream: "You're wasting my time."
Take it as a Godsend opportunity to shutdown and refresh your mind in the golden river of silence.


To trust someone is to have to confidence in that person, that he won't suddenly change his mind.
image: davidbork.com

 I've heard people discuss trust. Even on radio. And sometimes, when I listen on their discussions I wonder if they are being sincere and human. They talk about principles and rules of deciding if someone can be trusted or not. They relate their numerous experiences, involving a breach of trust.

 I wonder if they have ever asked themselves this question: "Have I never suddenly changed my mind before?"

 The truth is that trusting someone is an act of faith. You are taking a big leap. Everyone of us has changed his mind suddenly before. And we all of have our very convincing reasons for it. But regardless of reason, trust is dependent on staying true to your promise. Which is beyond any human. There will be situations, life threatening situations, that will make us instantly abandon a promise.

 It's true that some people are experts at encountering circumstances that make them renege on their promises. The weather can be enough reason for them to breach a trust. Yet, there is none of us who can say he's 100% sure of fulfilling whatever he promises. Even the bible admonishes us to say, "If God wills, I will do..." Being 100% sure of what he would do was the Rich man's main fault, who's barn yielded much increase. He forgot that he needed to be alive to do them and that his very life was not his.

So when we are severe on someone for not fulfilling a promise, we should remember that he is only human. And we are human too. Everyone of us is not worthy to be trusted; we all suddenly change our minds.

Rather we should learn to manage our expectations. Even from ourselves. Understand that no one can be relied completely on. That every act of trust we make is an act of faith.


Last weekend, I spent the entire Saturday and Sunday making a dynamic Excel dashboard that creates a PowerPoint presentation slide in the end. It was no small task; I had just two days to get it done. 

Today I'm going to share with you an Excel feature that can make your Excel life easier. It helped me a lot in making that Excel dashboard. And it's also a smarter way to work with Excel. It's called Named Range.

And here's how you use it.

As you expect, I have made a sample data for illustration. It's a sales report for a fruit grocery store.



Named Range allows me to group all the Product cells together and give them a name. And do likewise for the Unit Price and Quantity.

So let's do that for the Products. Highlight the Fruits, from Banana to Strawberry.


Click on Formulas tab, and Name Manger.


The Name Manager settings box will pop up.


Click on New.


It will automatically detect the cells you highlighted as the Range and give the Range the name Banana.

Click on OK. And you'll be taken back to the initial settings box, but now with the Banana Named Range.



Do the same for the other fields.


You can safely close the Name Manager box.

It's now time to put the named ranges to use. To begin working smarter on Excel.

Remember that in the original table, the Sales Amount hasn't been computed. 


Now we are going to compute it for each product, in a smart way.

For the Banana, just key in the formula: =Unit_Price*Quantity


And copy it down, to Strawberry.


And now you're using Excel as a Pro. 20 years from now, your Excel sheet will make sense without you racking your brain.


Anytime you look at the formulas, they will always make sense.

And the best part is they make writing Excel macros more fun. You don't have to update your codes every time you change the positions of data in the Excel sheet or add new entries. Just update the named range, and you are done.

In fact, I'm now working on a big Excel macro to automate a giant report. And you can be sure that I'll be using named ranges.


The best life you can have is the one of doing what you really really want to do. A life spent in pursuit of your dreams.
image: kellyjbaker.com

These are what happen when you follow your dreams:

  1. You become very creative. Dreams require you to do what no one has done before. And necessity, they say, is the mother of creation. As you start small and keep building your dream, you'll begin to exude creativity like you've never done before.
  2. You begin to life fully. Our dreams are the embodiment of our true self, true desires and hopes. Following them is the surest way to living a fulfilled life.
  3. You become the best at what you do. It's natural that you'll become extremely good at what you focus almost all your energy on. And when it's tied to a burning desire like a life dream, you're definitely going to become the best at it.
  4. You begin to attract people that will help you live your dreams. People are moved more by actions that words. When they see, by your actions, that you've extremely focused and diligent, they will be more willing to give you any help you need.
  5. You age gracefully. The only gray-haired folks that are fun to be with are the active, creative, non-grumbling ones. Going after a dream that is life-long will make you creative till the day you die. And you'll always be relevant and fun to be with. And many people's life coach.
  6. You become unstoppable. Or have the feeling of being unstoppable. Because your drive comes from within. Nothing external can quench it.
  7. You become unique. And in a way you'll be very proud of.
  8. You'll live a happier life. Following your dreams is like growing happiness under your feet, rather than seeking it in the way people treat or value you. You can't follow your dream and be sad about it. The people that have the most Eureka moments are those following their dreams.
  9. Finally, it's the best way to live life. It puts you in the league of the world's greatest: people who charted their own course.
It's never too early or too late to follow your dreams.


Tomorrow is Valentine. 
It's not too late to plan a surprise for your val. And if you don't have a val, don't feel sad. I don't have one too. It's my preferred choice. But if you don't have a val and don't know why or didn't make it that way. Then you should spend tonight in a prayer vigil.

 So let's talk about love, today. What it means to love.
image: profmuluka.com 

 Unfortunately, you can't define love. You can only feel it. When you love someone, there's nothing they can do to make you stop loving them. One of its truest form is that feeling mothers have for their children. Even when the child sets his heart on following a path of shame and evil. The father might disown him, but never the mother. If there's only one person that visits the world's most notorious criminal in his prison cell, you can be sure it is his mother.

 And that is what it means to love. If you truly love someone, you'll stand by that person through thick and thin. There will be disagreements, fights, complaints, and every other thing that plagues relationships. But you both know that in the end, you're inseparable. 

 And for most of us, this kind of love doesn't come upon us like a cupid's arrow. Or like it came upon Romeo and Juliet. We have to cultivate it. Consciously make it grow to the point where it's strong enough to outlive its objects. That's why much fewer marriages break after the 20th anniversary. 

 To love is to be inseparable. It could exist between two bosom friends. A brother and a sister. A father and a son. Always a mother and her child. A boy and a girl. A man and God. A wife and her husband. 

 There's no formula to it. There are no principles. There's no trying to be a better person. It's not about being tolerant or considerate. It's not about being sweet and kind. It's not about constant communication. It's beyond all these. It's simply being inseparable. No pretense. No formality. No butterflies. No shooting stars. Just that plain feeling of attachment that transcends all. 

 And for most of us, it's not about finding that special someone. It's about making someone the special one.

 Happy Valentine in advance!
To be honest means to be truthful in words and deeds. 
image: newerapolitics.org 

 Unfortunately, it's not as easy as it sounds. It's hard because it will require most of us to change our characters. If you are someone who is a perfectionist, extremely hard to please. You will have a tough time having a healthy relationship with your spouse, if you decide to be honest always. The only way out is to stop being a perfectionist. 

 Sadly, I'm not always honest. I'm always acting like I'm enjoying a boring conversation; but deep inside of me I won't mind a catastrophe happening to interrupt the conversation. I occasionally smile to ensure the disgust I'm feeling inside does not show on my face. I say thanks a lot of times when I don't mean it. And then there are the ones I'm really ashamed to talk about.

 My aim is obviously not to show you how to be honest at all times. I'm not qualified to do that. My aim is to show you that honesty is truly the best policy. I have never regretted any moment I have been completely honest. Sincerely, I do feel sad once in a while after taking a honest action. I also frequently get criticized. But after sometime, I always realize that it was the best decision.

 When you're honest, you're being true not just to others but also to yourself. When you are honest, you're doing the right thing. It may not be the most beneficial thing. You may be hastening someone's judgement/punishment or revealing secrets. But they will be well deserved judgement and secrets that shouldn't have existed in the first place.

 Honesty is not an act, it's a way of life. It will require you to discover your true self and make hard changes. Because you will always be truthful, you will not want to be a part of a scheme that is shady. You will not want to keep a habit that you're not happy admitting. You will not want to keep friends that keep putting you in embarrassing situations. You will be extremely responsible, dependable and a man of verifiable integrity. The kind of person everyone wants to have important deals with. Even the people that complain about your frankness will be proud to know you and always willing to vouch for you. You will not have trouble getting anything from (almost) anyone, since they know that you are incapable of deceiving them. People will trust you and treat you special, in a very nice way.

 Best of all, you'll have a spouse that trusts you; children that will be proud of you; business partners that will go great lengths for you; and everyone will be willing to recommend you.

1 year ago, if I had come across a blog with all the posts I now have on my blog and if the guy running the blog writes daily, I would be trying to contact him to show me how.

Today, I want to tell you that no matter how big your dream is or how tough the journey seems or how impossible your true desire is: Please give it a try. Don't think, "What if I fail?" Think, "What if I succeed, like Mike?"

image: createmixedmedia.com

If I end up not meeting my goal of writing an article a day for the rest of my life, it wouldn't be because I couldn't do it. I'm now 100% convinced I can. It would be because I got too old to type out the article. 8 months ago, I thought I was making a decision I can't pull through, pursing a goal that is doomed to failed. That the day I won't write an article is just by the corner, standing beside reality. And it's just a matter of time before I meet them both.
Now, I believe I have changed that reality.

Definitely, things didn't turn out as I was expecting. In fact, I wasn't expecting that I would still be churning out an article a day by today. I just wanted to give it a try, and if it was getting too difficult, I'd quit. Now, I'm paying monthly to use an email service that mails my daily posts to my esteemed readers. Since posting less technical and boring stuffs that rank high in google search, I have been getting less traffic and making much less advert revenue. I probably won't be getting a cheque from Google this month. I recently got a N20,000 Spectranet modem and paid extra N7,000 for 15GB data bundle. My monthly expense on keeping the blog up is now about N10,000. N7,000 for monthly internet and about N3,000/month for email service.

By the way, the Spectranet internet service is superb. I've used it in Lekki, Ikoyi, VI, Lagos Island, Obalende, Oworonsoki, Gbagada, Maryland, Ikeja, Agege, Oshodi, Dopemu, Iyana Ipaja, Oke-odo, Abule-Egba and Ahmaddiya. The speed is better than any other internet service I've used before, and consistent. I'll recommend it for anyone living in Lagos. You don't need to get the N20,000 MiFi modem. There are cheaper modems. Just that the MiFi one is small (can be put in a large pocket), has a 10hrs battery and allows you to connect your other devices wirelessly to internet.

What have I gained by giving my goal a try?
  1. I'm achieving what I was almost sure I would fail at -- writing an article daily
  2. I became true to myself. I stopped trying to separate all the different aspects of my life: Work, Facebook, Twitter, Business, Family, Friends and my Dreams. I consolidated them all. Though I still wish my colleagues at work and close relatives won't stumble on my blog. I rarely check my Facebook and Twitter for fear of seeing a comment by someone very close to me. But for once in my life, I'm taking a big step in trying to stop being a different person to different sets of people.
  3. Sometimes, I'm amazed by the creative articles I come up with. All my favorite authors are no longer superhuman. I now see myself in the same light I view them. I can feel my writing career growing wings.
  4. I'm now able to make real business decisions. Like choosing to write creative articles that won't fetch me traffic and keep pulling down my ad revenue over posting technical stuffs that are boring and will get me traffic and increased ad revenue. I used to think it would be an easy decision, until I actually had to face that fork in the road. I considered pulling the plug on some of the stuffs I was paying for to make the blog more friendly, since I wasn't going to be earning much anymore. After thinking hard and long about it. I decided to even spend more. And to apply that principle to other areas of my life. To separate value from earning potential. To spend more on value than just mere gain.
  5. I made new great friends: Nelo, Adeleke, Nosa, Sunday, Idowu, Austin, Ahmad, Sir Asuku, Ahmzy, Olatunji, Hussain, Don, Chichi, Ebubedike, Misbahu, Ugochukwu, Babs, Temi, Alabs, Adebayo, Ife, Ify, Adetollah, Dipupo & DJ White.
  6. Best of all, I now try more daring things. Like planning to resign to build my own biz.
So whatever big dream/goal you have, give it a try.