Now I know why they say it’s best to find what you love doing, are talented at and can make money from. It’s because there will be many dark days when you will have nothing to motivate you. When you will have to work hard and long and have nothing to show for it. When despite how you are feeling you still have to get stuff done. And for those days you are going to need your love for what you do to keep you going on.

Today is one such day for me. And it started on Sunday. A friend and I did a breakdown of my revenue, expense and cash flow for the month of February. My bank balance at the start of February was more than at the end of February (negative cash flow), but that was not annoying or particularly worrisome. I experienced it many months last year. What is worrisome is that the jobs I spent the most of my time on, the jobs that made me work on Sundays, in the middle of the night and didn't let me sleep well; for those jobs my payment is being delayed. The ones I didn't sweat much on ended up being the ones I got paid on time for. I log in to my Quickbooks and I see overdue invoices.

image: webapp.nozbe.com

Almost everyday, I have to do some marketing, do Excel programming, do customer care, attend to random requests I keep getting in my mail, try to remember to do the important business case that has been pending for weeks, write a blog post, follow up for payments of work done and do Excel training (online or offline). I work harder than I have ever done before in my life, and everyday. There is always a sea of work in front of me and my goal is no longer getting them all done but figuring out which one to turn down.

And on days like this, when you are not even seeing the results of your hard work and still have to get stuff done. It's much tougher.

I think the biggest online discovery I have made so far this year is stumbling upon Microsoft's new web show on business and how it is evolving in the 21st century. The show is called Modern Workplace. And to be sincere, it thoroughly beats my expectations of something coming from Microsoft. It is one of a kind, I don't know of any similar innovative show I can compare it with. Not even CNET's. And it's unlike Microsoft, to do something so creatively beneficial and not tie it to their software or give this much freedom. Every month they interview the people right in the middle of the innovative modern business world we live in, the companies doing the creatively different things and turning everything we have come to accept as the only way to get things done on its head.

The web show I watched this month was business (thought) transforming. And it is also a live show. It happens in a studio like the one our favourite CNN and BBC shows happen in but in this one you can chat in. You can send in your comments and questions that will be answered during the show. It's the closest to speaking to some of the popular people you've only dreamed of meeting. Imagine having to ask Jeff Immelt, CEO of General Electric, or Mary Barra, CEO of General Motors, a question and they answer you instantly. 

You should head to Modern Workplace and register to get the invitation to the monthly live web show. For a lot of us it is the closest we get to the business and technology leaders who are creating the future, today.

Don't forget to register: Modern Workplace 

Being a Microsoft Excel Most Valuable Professional (MVP), I get to interact with the other fellow MVPs across the world and one striking thing about them all is that everyone has his specialty even within Excel. They know Excel thoroughly, no doubt, but they each have one part of Excel they are super Gurus at. And they even build a business out of focusing on that area of Excel.

Today, I will be sharing with you a training program by one of the MVPs, Mynda Treacy. She focuses on teaching people how to make amazing Excel Dashboards that work like magic. And in case you don't know what an Excel dashboard is or if you need to learn to make one, I'll break it down for you in a few words. But if you want a thorough breakdown, head to http://www.myonlinetraininghub.com/excel-dashboard-course

image: myonlinetraininghub.com

An Excel Dashboard is an interactive report you make that shows everything about your data in a very meaningful, visually appealing and engaging way. You can make a dashboard for your company's entire sales data. It will show every insight about the company sales, with visually appealing charts. You can select to see sales across the country or the regions in the country or the different states. You can also select to see sales by a particular product line or business unit. It's more like a report you ask a question and it gives you an answer immediately. And the best part is once you make the dashboard, you only have to copy another year's data into the report to have it do for another year rather than remaking it. So it's a report that is great and saves you lots of time. 

As for whether you need to learn to make Excel Dashboard; if you do a lot of standard recurring reports in Excel, maybe financial reports or monthly sales report or KPI report or operations analysis, you will greatly benefit from learning to make Excel Dashboards.

Mynda has a great online course on making Excel Dashboards and I consider it the best. And it's at a very affordable price too. For about N30,000 you get to learn all there is to making awesome Excel Dashboards that will make people think your Excel skills are close to magic, that will bring insights to your company's data and get you the positive corporate attention everyone desires.

You can sign up for the course here: http://www.myonlinetraininghub.com/excel-dashboard-course 

There used to be a time when I thought that being the best is all that matters. At school, at the games I play and, later, at work I aimed only at being the best. And to be fair, there is nothing bad about wanting to be the best. I think most of all I achieved growing up were the results of that motivation to be the best. Just that there is one big fault with always wanting to be the best: you have to follow rules and take a path everyone else is taking. Even if you are creative about the way you run that path.

I have certifications I don't use and paid heavily in study time and money to get. I have worked jobs that weren't designed around my strengths and personality. I have had to do the things I enjoy only after work and on weekends. And I was constantly trying to show my value to the company I worked for. It made the most part of my life look like a race. A competition. Climbing an overcrowded ladder. 

Then I began thinking hard about my life and the lives of the people around me. I began considering what it is I really want to do with my life. But every time I thought about going for my dream I was always faced with an inner voice of doubt telling me that I am not equipped enough, that I am not the best or the biggest.

And I see this thought trail in others too. You love writing but you don't want to do it full-time because you are not the best writer there is around nor the biggest (most popular) one. You have a business idea but you don't want to commit to it because you see better and bigger businesses already established. Everyday, there is someone delaying his dream because he doesn't consider himself the best or the biggest.

Today, I want to tell you that it doesn't matter that you're not the best or biggest. Most likely, too, the company you work for or the path you keep walking along is also not the best or biggest. You should see your life as a journey, an expedition, and not a recurring sprint. You don't have to do the things you don't want so you can only dream of the things you want. You don't have to climb an overcrowded ladder just because you see someone you are better than up above you. You don't have to be constantly in a race, walking the same path as everyone else.

image: vonstrago.deviantart.com

When you care too much about being the best or the biggest you miss out of the fun in the journey. Though I quit my job last year to build the best and biggest Excel consulting firm in Nigeria, now, after a year of experiencing things I have only read about or seen in movies I am more concerned about going at my own pace and enjoying the journey. I don't care if you are not as good as me and you make more than 10x my income. I don't care if you are bigger than me despite I have superior services. I don't care if I don't get any external support. I don't care if everyone is speeding past me. I'm not in a race (anymore). I am on a journey, an adventure, and thoroughly enjoying it is what matters most. I don't have to be the best or the biggest. 

(In line with this, you guys should expect my novel soon. Writing over 10,000 words this week has proven to me that I can finish my novel sooner than I thought.)

There is a mindset innovators have, and you and I can have that mindset too if we put in a little dedicated effort. Every human is born with the ability to innovate, to do something very useful that no one else has ever done before. And we all began life with that mindset. As babies we had no restriction to what we should attempt to do. We had no fear of heights, no fear of failure, no fear of the new and no fear of tomorrow. But as we grow up we pick up patterns of behaviour that prevent us from trying new things, we avoid failure at all cost and we try to orchestrate tomorrow.

The Innovator's mindset is one that doesn't try to define itself. It is a mindset that is not fixed on old ideas and generally accepted ways of doing things. It is a mindset that waters its ground for new ideas. It is a mindset that that stretches itself constantly. A mindset that looks beyond the present, that looks beyond its mistakes, that looks beyond its current capabilities, that looks beyond the societal norm and that is constantly recreating itself.

So how do you cultivate that mindset?

It starts with having the right value system. Having a strong core that is value based. Because that is the only way you can remain unbroken by the challenges you will face and the failures you will encounter. Every innovator has that core that keeps them optimistic when all else falls around them. If you are Christian, that core will be build on God.

Next is you need to break free of group thinking, of doing things the way everyone else does them. There is nothing special about working hard along the path everyone is taking. We all consider Christopher Columbus as innovative. Yet the second person to journey to the Americas must have faced same troubles and worked just as hard as he did but no one remembers him. Why? Once there's a roadmap, anyone can do anything. Think about it. There are many things you do today that were innovations centuries ago. You make fire. You cook your meat. You write and read. Some people are permanently remembered as innovators for doing those things you now do and take for granted. And its because they found the roadmap we all now use. They broke free from the group thinking that was prevalent in their time and made something entirely new.

Lastly, you need to get used to failing. The path to failure and success are the same. The guy who passed his JAMB and the one who failed all followed the same path of registering for JAMB and writing the exam. Some get to finally pass on their second or third attempt, but the path was always the same. And it applies when you seek out new paths too. That you fail doesn't make the path wrong it just means you should try again. You have to be insensitive to failure.

And those are my recommended ways of cultivating the Innovator's mindset.

As unsocial and unresponsive to mails and messages as I am, I have managed to create a good personal brand online. And I can tell you that you have a better chance than me at doing so too.

Today, I am going to share with you tips to help you create a consistent and powerful image of yourself online. One you will be very proud of and that will bring the right personal and professional opportunities your way.

image: marketingthink.com

1. Be On LinkedIn
LinkedIn is the quickest way to create any to-be-seriously-taken image of yourself online. If you want to brand yourself as a Personal Development Coach, it is just as easy as putting it in your LinkedIn profile title. People take seriously what they read about you on LinkedIn. And you should put a very good looking professional portraying picture of yourself on LinkedIn. Not some selfie that you can't have printed on a newspaper article about you.

Here is a basic checklist of things to ensure are right about your LinkedIn profile:

• You should have a well filled LinkedIn profile.
• You should put up a proper profile picture
• You should connect with all the people you went to secondary school and university together
• You should connect with work colleagues and business contacts
• You should join Lagos Business Club group and other groups that interest you.
• You should sign up for the one-month free LinkedIn premium account. Make sure you cancel before the end of the one month free subscription. Here is the LinkedIn Premium subscription link.
• Follow the influential people you like.
• Don't be too silent on LinkedIn. Share useful content and if you can write articles. See examples of articles I have put up on my LinkedIn which have gotten me some business deals and new connections.
• Finally, view my very well made LinkedIn profile for ideas of what you can do to improve yours.

2. Be On Slideshare

Slideshare is another not too popular social site you should be on. It is a very quick and unique way of showing your knowledge and professional profile to the world. You should start with converting your LinkedIn profile to a Presentation and share it on Slideshare. Don't worry, once you sign up at www.slideshare.net you will see the option to do that LinkedIn profile share. 

For ideas of what you can do with your Slideshare account, view mine here: http://www.slideshare.net/olafusimichael 

3. Complete Your Google Profile

Go to your Google + profile, here's the link if you can't remember how: https://profiles.google.com/me 

Upload a proper profile picture and have a good looking profile banner. Fill your professional details correctly. Here's help on how to do that: https://support.google.com/plus/answer/1355890?hl=en

And those are my quick tips on how to work towards having a good personal brand online. You will notice that I didn't mention Twitter, Facebook and having a blog. They are also important but I believe you already have your mind made up on whether to use them or not. But if your mind is not made up I will advice you use them too.

I believe that the best step we can take towards achieving our goals is to break them down to small daily activities. It gives you a sense of daily accomplishment and makes you much more relaxed and equipped at achieving the goals you set.

Take my life goal for instance. I have it broken down to daily tasks: daily writing, daily exercise (even if it is just in my mind), daily working on my entrepreneurial dream, daily thinking about my French competence, almost daily programming and daily reading. It gives me a daily increasing hope of achieving my life goal. 

I have no doubt that I will become a writer with published novels. I already write daily easily. Two years ago when I made the decision to write daily, it was for several weeks the hardest thing I did each day. I felt like I was doing something I couldn't sustain and it was going to be just a matter of time before I would have to give up or find it too unbearable a daily task to continue. I didn't know I was going to get so good at it that it would become extremely easy to do and even become a means of relieving stress rather than adding to my daily stress. Now it's as easy a task as brushing my teeth. I no longer doubt my doing it tomorrow or this day next year. I am even about buying a novel writing and organization software. It does not write novels by itself rather it helps you organize your novel better, develop plots and finish your novel faster. That's how confident I am that becoming writer (one of the major part of my life goal) is a done deal.

And it's the same approach I have taken towards achieving the other parts of my life goal. And I know the parts I am struggling with just by examining how faithfully I do the daily tasks meant for them. 

One of my favorite plays is As You Like It by Shakespeare and it has this timeless quote:
"All the world's a stage,
And all the men and women merely players."

image: mcnallyjackson.com

I agree with him. We all are playing roles and we get better if we daily practice at our roles. And I think most of us already daily practice at something. But I will advise that you should practice daily at the role you really want and not the one you find yourself in. And the only way to do that is to look at your own goals and break them down to daily activities.

A lot of people have asked me, "How do I become a Microsoft Excel expert?"

In today's post I am going to answer that question for everyone who is also interested in becoming an Excel expert.

image: chandoo.org

I believe that becoming an expert in Microsoft Excel requires three things: a strong passion to learn Microsoft Excel, a work situation that requires deep use of Microsoft Excel and lots of reading (or watching of Excel tutorial videos).

1. PASSION

I began my career as a telecoms Base Station Subsystem engineer with Nokia Siemens Networks (NSN); I helped switch on Etisalat network in a few towns in Anambra state and upgraded some network sites across Enugu, Benue, Anambra and Kogi. I was learning the cryptic Man Machine Language (MML) commands and for a time worked at Etisalat's national Network Operating Center (NOC) in Abuja. Before then I used to train people on CCNA and Linux. I also could teach Oracle Database management. Then when NSN did a round of downsizing and most of us who were employed for less than a year were told to go, I joined another telecoms company - Comviva - working on Airtel Africa CRBT project. After a year, I left again and joined 21st Century Technologies as a telecoms switch engineer before transitioning to a more analysis based job role there.

If I go by my course of study in the university, the certification exams I have written and the professional experiences I have, I would doing something more telecoms core related and not Microsoft Excel. Yet last year I quit my job at 21st Century Technologies to start my own Excel consulting business. And the only reason I can give for it is -- Passion.

My rapid learning of Microsoft Excel, even over-learning of it, and daily use of it to help people is due to my passion for it. And that passion is the foundation upon which I could build an expertise in Excel on. 

You need a big passion for Microsoft Excel if you want to be an Excel expert.

2. RELEVANT WORK

My second job, the one with Comviva, required me doing revenue and operation analysis of the business unit in 10 African countries and making lots of recurrent and ad hoc reports. All through my stay in the job Microsoft Excel was my workshop. From resumption in the morning til close of work, I was doing stuffs in Microsoft Excel. Then when I moved to 21st Century Technologies, I spent the first month writing Excel macros (programs) that automated the analysis of the EWSD logs to monitor telephone network important metrics. In that job, I wrote a dozen of Excel macros and saw the positive impact they made.

Microsoft Excel is not easy to learn out of a work context. And to become an expert is almost impossible if you don't have any work to use the knowledge you acquire on. You are much better placed to become an expert in Excel if you use it in production (live business impacting tasks). Luckily, you can find freelance jobs on oDesk, Elance and Guru to help meet this requirement.

3.STUDY

What you don't know, you don't know until someone teaches you. You can't become an Excel expert by trying to figure everything out yourself. You should read books that will help speed your journey and watch video tutorials. You can start with my YouTube channel Excel Training playlist, it has 24 videos that teach you almost everything on Microsoft Excel: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL0kdLm6FekrNA7uC65nmsiuIfGZcm-ATP 

Best of luck in your quest to become an Excel expert and you can reach me for any extra help you feel I can render.

I was finally done, on Sunday morning, with my 5,000 words essay assignment. But as it now constantly is with my professional life, I have another 2,000 words essay due today. I'm already at 1,200 words; almost done. Then I have another 4,000 words essay to get done on or before Friday.

Just yesterday, I wrote the remaining 1,500 words to complete the 5,000 words assignment; I spent a few hours fixing a program I made for a big client that would be sent to the management for sign off (according to them) today, after several weeks of testing and changes; I helped a friend in the US with her problematic masters assignment (mostly the charts part) and I began another 2,000 words essay. In all I worked from early morning till way past mid-night. But I am glad I met all the deadlines. Oh, and I also sold a customer an iTunes gift card (I sell e-gift cards, in case you need one).

Well, today's post is an adaptation of the 2,000 words assignment I am doing. The assignment is on strategy formulation for the 21st century organizations. And in the course of my intense research and reading, I came across many interesting texts. I will be narrowing on one insight I got from the texts. It perfectly explains why the business ideas you come up with are almost useless and why all those fancy acronym analysis of business are not often useful. I mean SWOT, PEST and PESTLE.

So here we go.

The business world is now a very fast changing one and also unpredictable. The business strategy approach that relied heavily on in-depth analytically thinking about the business' internal capabilities (strengths and weaknesses) and external circumstance (threats and opportunities) to come up with a fully formed business strategy/proposal are no longer useful except for competitions and investor wooing. No detailed plan can survive the test of the reality in the current business world. No company can know its strengths, weaknesses, threats and opportunities just by thinking, analysing past events and predicting future ones. It will have to let the market show it its strength and weakness, by testing all its assumptions before taking them as valid. And any list of threats and opportunities will be obsolete very fast that it's not worth making any detailed long-term strategy on. 

The current business world only allows for a learning organization. An organization that is constantly adapting, processing lots of feedback from its marketplace and learning rather than just thinking out strategies. So the current business world has no place for untested ideas, ideas that are detached from the reality and formulated entirely on a structured thinking process. Which, unfortunately, is where all your great business ideas fall as long as you haven't tested them in the marketplace. 

The world has changed, and the businesses that are now flourishing are the ones that followed no rigid business plan but kept pivoting based on the learning they are getting from the marketplace. So whatever business idea you have, don't think too highly of it until you find a way to test it out in the marketplace.

This year I have been trying to read some of the very many books I bought last year, so though I have been reading a lot, I have bought just three books.

Today I will giving you a very short review of the three books I already bought this year.

1. Organizational Behaviour by David A. Buchanan & Andrzej Huczynski

It's a very expensive book I had to buy to get a job done. But it's full of extremely useful knowledge for an entrepreneur or aspiring business manager. It was from it I got the Myers–Briggs Type Indicator personality assessment I wrote about last week.

It's more of an academic text. 

2. On Writing by Stephen King

image: stephenking.com

Stephen King is one of the greatest writers alive. And in this book he shares his very inspiring story of how it all began and how aspiring writers like me can achieve the remarkable.

3. The Innovators: How a Group of Hackers, Geniuses, and Geeks Created the Digital Revolution by Walter Isaacson

Walter Isaacson specializes in biographies. He wrote that great book on Steve Jobs. I now have four of his books, all biographies: Benjamin Franklin, Albert Einstein, Steve Jobs and The Innovators. The Innovators is more of a biography of the computer world we now live in. It's about how it all began and the geniuses who created it all.

You can't read his book and not want to make something tangible, beyond money, out of your life. If you are technology inclined I recommend you read this book. But for everyone, I recommend you read the one on Albert Einstein and you will be pleased to know that genius is not in the genes but a combination of values and decisions.


And those are the three books I have bought this year. Bought any interesting book this year that you would like to share?