Forbes, 2011: Data is the new oil... Data is just like crude. It’s valuable, but if unrefined it cannot really be used. It has to be changed into gas, plastic, chemicals, etc., to create a valuable entity that drives profitable activity; so must data be broken down, analyzed for it to have value.

Harvard Business Review. 2012: Information is the ultimate renewable resource. Any kind of data reserve that exists has not been lying in wait beneath the surface; data are being created, in vast quantities, every day. Finding value from data is much more a process of cultivation than it is one of extraction or refinement.

Wired 2014: Data in the 21st Century is like Oil in the 18th Century: an immensely, untapped valuable asset. Like oil, for those who see Data’s fundamental value and learn to extract and use it there will be huge rewards.

Adage, 2014: "Data is the new oil," said Wells Fargo Securities senior analyst Peter Stabler in an interview. "Scale without data is becoming less valuable every day."

Epam: Data is the ‘New Oil’, But Only if You Refine it

Broadgate, 2015: Data is like Oil... We are completely dependent upon it to go about our daily lives. It is difficult and expensive to locate and extract, and vast tracts of it are currently inaccessible. As technology improves we are able to obtain more of it but the demand constantly outpaces supply. The raw material is not worth much and it is the processing which provides the value, fuels & plastics in the case of oil, and business intelligence from data. It lubricates the running of an organisation in the same way as oil does for a car. The key difference between oil and data is that the supply of data is increasing at an ever faster rate whilst the amount of oil is fixed.

US Chamber Foundation, 2015: Today, as the World Economic Forum has observed, data is the new oil. Just as oil was the essential commodity of the industrial economy, data is the essential commodity of the information economy, on which much of our current economic growth depends. It is, in essence, the essential lubricant of the modern state. And, just as with oil, today’s conflicts rage over data’s production, collection, processing, analysis, transportation, and use. Critical to oil’s utility is its unencumbered flow around the globe. In much the same way, the essence of data’s utility to the knowledge economy lies in the free global flow of information. But data differs from oil in two critical respects, which illuminate some of the challenges presented by data globalization. First, the sources of oil are physically fixed, geographically limited and, for all intents and purposes, only accessible through expensive physical technology. By contrast, data is distributed on a much more geographically diverse scale and can be harvested by almost anyone.

Pubcon: “Data is the new oil” – Sharing, consuming, and understanding data is more important than ever and will continue to be.

Me, Today: I have made the right career choice. I'm now into Oil and Gas. Not the old one, the new one. 

First, I want you to know that no path is superior to the other and that most likely you don't have the option to choose the path to follow.

image: bahaiteachings.org

Path 1:

We all know or are lucky to be part of those people who get on well early in life. Usually, it is that you get a very well paying satisfying job and no financially crippling shocks. For the few others, it is that they are able to plug into a lot good opportunities and place themselves on a steady financially rewarding growth part early on in life. 

I consider them as those living the opportunities-driven life. They get the opportunities everyone wants relatively easier.

If you are having life easier than most of your friends and you are young, then this is probably the path you on. 


Path 2:

This is the path of those who bloom relatively late in life. They spend the bulk of their youth working harder than most of their friends and for less. They have to prove their value many times over before the opportunities they want come along. They get most of the good things they want later than most of their friends.

I consider them as those living the value-driven life. They have to create the value first and repeatedly before they get the reward for it.

If you work harder than most of your friends and don't have any wow pictures to put up on Facebook/Instagram, then you should be hoping you are on this path.


Insight:

The truth is most likely you can't choose the path to follow, you can only try not screw things up on the path you are on. If you have lots of opportunities, then try to constantly make the most of them. If you have to prove your value over and over before you get an opportunity, then you have to be comfortable with postponing the fancy vacation and other wonderful things your friends post on Facebook.

Figure out where you fall and be happy with what you've been handed in life. Do more of the things that improve your chances and capacity. In the end, whether you start slow or not, you can always do all the things you've dreamed of doing. You might be posting your own photos late but eventually you'll have them. The key is to not run using another's clock (my favorite Yoruba proverb).

Yesterday, after a very tedious job, I was surfing through Netflix and came across a particular movie -- Enemies at the Gate. It is a 2001 movie and about the World War 2. I don't particularly like war movies and was more interested in looking for action movies like Fast and Furious, Bourne Series, Transporter and Transformer; ones I haven't watched. Then I placed my mouse pointer on the movie and saw something that changed my mind.

On Netflix, when you move the mouse over a movie listing, you see a short description of what the movie is about and the viewers rating of the movie. A good movie will have a rating of 3.5. An very good one will have a rating of 4. An exceptionally good movie will have a rating of 4.5 and above. Enemies at the Gate had 4.9 rating. That type of rating is very rare for movies on Netflix, it's series like Flash, Daredevil and Arrow that get those type of rating. So I decided to watch the movie.

It was a great movie and didn't take me long to see why it had that very high rating. And I got a bonus in the end. They displayed what happened to the main guy in the movie afterwards and that the movie is about real events. It wasn't a fiction. The hero of the movie, Vasily Zaytsev, was real and was as legendary as the movie portrayed him. He was Russian's legendary hero of the World War 2.

image: think-bug.com

His story showed that it takes opportunities you can't control, skills you never knew would be extremely useful and interesting times (good or bad) to become a hero. In short, it takes numerous favourable circumstances to become a man of high significance. You can't plan your way to becoming a legend. You don't make history. Rather, history chooses its heroes. It is history that makes you.

If there was no World War 2, there wouldn't be a legendary Vasily Zaytsev. And it's like that through the course of history. Heroes are results of a combination of interesting times, interesting personality and luck. More accurately, its not luck but God. He directs history and picks its heroes. He has different roles for everyone and regardless of your personal/religious beliefs, he still ensures you stay within the bounds of his role allocation to you.

In the end, you become what he has fashioned you to be. All the difference is in how well you play your role. You don't make yourself. You don't make history. You are a role taker.

I am currently selling about 10 copies of my book a month on Amazon Kindle store. It is not a lot but for the type of book it is and the fact that most Nigerians can't access the book on Amazon, so I am relying on sales to US, UK, Indian, French and German customers, then it's something significant. 

Then there are months of spikes. The first two months of publishing the book, I got a lot of sales. Then things started slowing down. I have experimented with different price points: $5.99, $9.99, back to $5.99, and now testing $3.99. At all these price points I have made sales, except for the $3.99 I just set yesterday night. 

The extra benefit I get from publishing on Amazon is that I enrolled my book for the Kindle Unlimited program. So people who subscribe at $10/month to Kindle Unlimited (a type of library access plan) can read my book. Amazon then pays me for every page of my book read. And luckily for me, people are reading my book. Yesterday I got about 200 pages read. And that was a Sunday. At the end of the month, it all adds up and is the equivalent of making more book sales.

I am considering abandoning the plan to have a hardcopy version of the book. I intend to update the book, alongside my video training course on Udemy. I will be adding a lot more things I have learned and cool new features in the current version of Excel. And with Amazon Kindle, updating a book is extremely easy. Takes just a few hours and costs nothing. I will be able to benefit from the 5 star ratings the book already has and the relatively good ranking it has in its Amazon category.

I also now run an advertising campaign on the book to give it more visibility and cross-sell it to Amazon customers buying similar books.

Increasingly, I am finding that I get more results from online alternatives than the traditional way of getting things done. Without any marketing on my part, my online Excel course training is selling. My book on Amazon sold with little push. And now all my marketing for my business is now done online using Google Ads, Facebook Ads, LinkedIn Ads and Email marketing. And I am getting results. 

Thanks to everyone who sent in applications or referred someone for the role (vacancy) I put up a week ago. I got over 20 applications and and already reviewing them to see who to pick.

However, business has been more stressful and I can't wait till I have hired an onsite technical assistant and trained him. I barely sleep these days and still the workload isn't reducing. So as a way of fixing the current situation and stop delaying client jobs, I have hired 5 professionals as virtual staff. They already have the skills required and agreed to a per hour payment for each job project.

image: itpro.co.uk

The roles they are filling are:

• VBA Experts (hired three for this role, one is charging $22.50/hr and the other two are charging $10/hr)
• Financial Research Analyst (I think I won a jackpot with this, the lady I hired is charging $3.33/hr and has all the skills I need. I plan to increase her payment after she completes the current trial job I gave.)
• Blogger (someone to come up with 5 great articles for my company blog per month. The guy I am in discussion with is charging $10/hr, I am proposing $7/hr. I hope he accepts because I have decided to hire him even if he sticks to the $10/hr. He is extremely good.)

I have already started pushing projects to them. So now I will be more relieved and can rest a little without the terrible feeling of disappointing a client.

I am hoping the whole arrangement works out fine and that our income can cover their payment. I will now have to improve my billing and payment collection as I now need to pay more people. 

I am also thinking of how to put my Ikeja office to better use. I keep paying on a quarterly basis as its a serviced office but I seldom use it. Once I am done reviewing the applications for the technical assistant position and found a right pick, both of us we work from the office. It is a very comfortable, roomy and air-conditioned office. There's also a training room and reception. I was lucky to get the office on a very good terms from a close friend. He handles the yearly payment for the entire floor and offices on it: the rent, receptionist, power, generator, cleaning and other servicing. He was extremely kind with the fees I pay him.

Till now, the entire team has been working remotely. So I end up doing client meetings and a few training there. But once I get the technical assistant, both of us will daily resume there.

I am happy I am finally making progress in turning this whole business into one that will be less dependent on me. Hopefully, someday I will be able to take a one month vacation and not feel like I am shutting down the company for one month.

Today, I have gotten an interesting motivational story for you. It is stolen from livin3.com and it's one of the five inspirational stories on the page I took it from. You can read the others by heading over to their amazing site. This one I picked is the one I liked best and I am sure you'll enjoy it.

So here it is:

Once upon a time a daughter complained to her father that her life was miserable and that she didn’t know how she was going to make it. She was tired of fighting and struggling all the time. It seemed just as one problem was solved, another one soon followed.

Her father, a chef, took her to the kitchen. He filled three pots with water and placed each on a high fire. Once the three pots began to boil, he placed potatoes in one pot, eggs in the second pot, and ground coffee beans in the third pot.

He then let them sit and boil, without saying a word to his daughter. The daughter, moaned and impatiently waited, wondering what he was doing.

After twenty minutes he turned off the burners. He took the potatoes out of the pot and placed them in a bowl. He pulled the eggs out and placed them in a bowl.

He then ladled the coffee out and placed it in a cup. Turning to her he asked. “Daughter, what do you see?”

“Potatoes, eggs, and coffee,” she hastily replied.

“Look closer,” he said, “and touch the potatoes.” She did and noted that they were soft. He then asked her to take an egg and break it. After pulling off the shell, she observed the hard-boiled egg. Finally, he asked her to sip the coffee. Its rich aroma brought a smile to her face.

“Father, what does this mean?” she asked.

He then explained that the potatoes, the eggs and coffee beans had each faced the same adversity– the boiling water.

However, each one reacted differently.

The potato went in strong, hard, and unrelenting, but in boiling water, it became soft and weak.

The egg was fragile, with the thin outer shell protecting its liquid interior until it was put in the boiling water. Then the inside of the egg became hard.

However, the ground coffee beans were unique. After they were exposed to the boiling water, they changed the water and created something new.

“Which are you,” he asked his daughter. “When adversity knocks on your door, how do you respond? Are you a potato, an egg, or a coffee bean? “

Moral:In life, things happen around us, things happen to us, but the only thing that truly matters is what happens within us.

Which one are you?



You can read the other four inspiring story here: livin3.com

image: slideshare.net

"A stumble may prevent a fall" - Thomas Fuller. 

Not all mistakes are bad. Being wrong sometimes is good. There will be times you need a rude jolt to become aware of a bigger danger. That is the stumble that prevents a fall.

I frequently encounter this nowadays as I am constantly trying something new and stretching myself. There are occasions when a client draws my attention to a little embarrassing mistake and by the time I swallow my pride, apologise and fix it, I find out that there's something bigger that is responsible for it and should be taken care of first. There are also times when discussing with a client that I say something that is obviously wrong (and embarrassing) and this prompts the client to give me more helpful information that eases my life/work but wouldn't have gotten had I not made the little blunder.

Increasingly, I am finding that being wrong isn't always bad. The lesson you learn might be 20 times of useful value than what you knew before the error. And in some cases, you might end up being right but just in the wrong way. And there are some things you can't be an expert at without those little embarrassing errors.

In my training class, what wins the respect of my training participants are those little uncommon issues that I help them fix without coming over to the front of their PC. They were once the embarrassing issues I faced. Like the PivotTable field list disappearing. Mistakingly pressing a keyboard shortcut that has changed everything. Pasting not working after copying and entering a cell. Not seeing the Design and Layout menu after inserting a chart. And the little issues with some formulas.

Just yesterday, another one happened. I was taking an in-house training for a company and no one seemed to be getting the explanations I was giving. It was seriously affecting my flow but it pointed me to a bigger issue: I had picked too complex set of examples and practice files. So I skipped lunch break, used it to build new practice files and everything changed. The class became lively instantly, they began understanding everything I was saying before and they felt happy by the end. Today, I will be ending the class, and hope to end on a very good note as I have fixed the bigger issue causing the little embarrassing awkwardness in the class. 

Being wrong is a feedback, and it always shows you a way to be better.

There's always a compromise. You can't have it all.

A lot of people think there should be a balance between your work life and social life. And that it's terrible to have no friends because of work. And they are completely right. Where the misunderstanding arises is in where that balance lies and how many friends is enough.

For me, the balance lies at close to no social life. Social life has never done me much good and zaps me of energy I can better deploy on something I will be more proud of. And I am perfectly okay with having one or two friends. Not that I don't trust people or like my privacy. I just find it a lot of work having close friends -- they get worried when you don't call, they are worried you don't visit, they are worried you don't ask for their help, they are worried you don't talk much. So it's no small task to keep them from worrying. 

That I gain little from social activities or enjoy life more with very few friends (whom I seldom call or visit) are not the reason I shutdown my social life. It's because I have successfully turn my work to art. I have managed to find what I love doing and I'm making a living from it. It's very difficult to pull myself away from doing what I enjoy and on top of it, I am always made to play the role of a saviour. Imagine having to beg a prospective client that you can't take on his project and he's now the trying to convince you that any terms you give are okay by him and that you are his only hope. It happens to me too often these days, and being my softy self I take up the project and kill every social plan I have for the month. It's so bad I am often scared of picking phone calls.

So my social life is experiencing a natural death. I use up all my free time to get much needed sleep and rest. Thanks to the amazing community of my blog readers and e-friends, I also get the networking benefit social events give. And Google never stops sending business contacts my way. Almost everyday, someone contacts me after having being directed to me by Google. There are many mails I am yet to reply. I have the bad habit of shutting down when under pressure. I don't know where to start the replies from and where to get the time. I just hope I don't turn potential friends to enemies. No one like to be snubbed and that's the feeling you get when you send someone an email and he doesn't reply.

I have indeliberately become an artist. Consumed by my art. Every work I do take between hours to weeks to complete. I don't have a standard method, I simply have a high taste and keep working till I get that right solution. I can do a project three different times/ways just to get a great looking result. I also work all times of the day and days of the week. I like to stay with my work than go hang out with friends. And that is the main reason I have shut down my social life. It's not needed.

Disappointment is when you are unhappy because what you expect didn't happen. And there are two major causes of disappointment:

1. You
2. Someone else

When you have an unreasonable expectation, then you are the cause of whatever resultant disappointment. And this is the type of disappointment I see often. It is also very common among sports fans. Someone extremely angry and sad because a player continents away missed a goal. Someone refusing to eat because his club lost a match. Isn't there enough troubles we face in Nigeria that I will have to add expectations from someone who doesn't know I exist and makes his money anyway to my list of worries. And that is besides the fact that life is full of ups and downs for everyone (and even every football club). Must I add their downs to mine?

Whenever you have an expectation that is not paying enough attention to reality, then disappointment is guaranteed. There are people who act like everyone owes them. When they ask for a chance to swap to your lane and in front of you, if you refuse they get mad. If they ask you for help and you are not able to help, they feel dejected. If anything goes wrong they feel worried. They are far from reality in interpreting the events that happen to them. No one has the right to place expectations without consent on anyone. You shouldn't expect me to do every of your bidding except we had a prior agreement to that. So rampantly placing expectations on everyone is a sure way to be disappointed.

Someone else. When is someone else the cause of our disappointment? It is when the person breaks his word. If your friend promised to help you with a task and eventually didn't, then the disappointment you experience is caused by him and not you. And this is the only type of disappointment I consider healthy. There is already a mutual agreement about the expectations, and not that only one party knew of the expectation or agreed to it. 

Now, how do you handle disappointments? 

I like the principle in the following quote  by Friedrich Nietzsche -- "I'm not upset that you lied to me, I'm upset that from now on I can't believe you." You learn from it. You separate the cause from the effect. You focus more on "moving forward". Just like Friedrich, he was focused on what will happen "moving forward".

Yes, happy new month! Hope your November was one to remember.

image: androidnigeria.com.ng

This year has been a very eventful one for me. I learned a lot of very useful life + business changing lessons. Lessons like:

• Showing up. I took up many projects this year that I wasn't sure I could deliver on. I also got some deals just by showing up. I now totally agree with the guy who said 80% of success in life is by simply showing up.
• Let the customer tell you the problem and not the solution he wants. This has been one of the most important lessons I have learned this year. I have saved myself headaches and from the error of turning down the project after hearing the client's description of what he wants done. In all cases, it turns out that when I tell them to describe the problem they want fixed there's a big mismatch between what they want done and the solution to the problem they have. So now, I don't make my decision on a project until I have let the client explain (repeatedly) what the problem he is having is. Then I tell him what way we will use to solve it, rather than take his original suggestion of what to do.
• Exposure matters as much as expertise. You can be the best, but if no one knows about it then you won't get much good from being the best. In business, you need to be everywhere. Spend on advertising. Let yourself/business be easily discovered. It matters way more than being the best. What people want is solution to their problem, not wasting time searching for the hidden talent who can fix it best. The moment they find someone convincing enough, they stop searching. So you have to make it very easy for them to find you. And if you also work hard on being the best, you will be having frequent jackpots. 
• Only action and results matter. This year I have come across people who have beautiful principles about life and seem to know a lot about the secrets to success, yet their life doesn't seem to reflect their wisdom. The results aren't just there. Then I have come across people who look clueless in comparison to the other group, but they have the life I was expecting the other group to have. They have the results the other group kept talking about. And guess what I nailed the cause to? ACTION. It doesn't matter whether you can beautifully describe your reasons or not, only your actions generate results. Don't ever confuse talking with action. Ever wondered why the people who talk the most about money and wealth (motivational speakers) are not the richest people and the people who don't talk (Amancio Ortega, Bill Gates, Wale Adenuga, Aliko Dangote) are the ones getting the results. 
• No one is having it easy. 
• Hardwork always pays. All the work I did last year for free are earning me money now. There is no work I have done, even for free, that didn't end up generating me money. 

These are the ones I can mention off the top of my head. I hope the year has been an equally eventful one for you too!