image: knowledgemarketing.com
This month's webinar is today, Tuesday, 22 November 2016. And it's on Data Cleaning with Excel.

Time: 4:00pm -- 5:00pm

Venue: YouTube Live Streaming at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kTLxdDKrvec 

 I'll be taking you through how to prepare your data for analysis in Excel.

How to remove duplicate records.
How to break entries into multiple fields (text-to-column).
How to clean off blank cells that are misaligning your record table
And many tips you'll enjoy and find valuable.  

Don't miss it! All you have to be part of the webinar is to go to https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kTLxdDKrvec at exactly 4:00pm today from either your smartphone or PC. You can set a reminder to help you not miss it.

See you!
image: india.com
image: geekysplash.com
Forwarding other people's forwarded Whatsapp messages makes you look not good at all. Depending on the types of messages you rebroadcast the impression of you that it begins to form in the minds of people will range from unserious to plain stupid.

 But if you must rebroadcast Whatsapp messages, then you should try my tips below to avoid looking plain stupid:
  1. Don't forward those long essay messages. Especially those ones trying to explain how research has shown that we should not drink ice cold drinks with food to avoid indigestion or women should not wear high heels to avoid permanent injury to their feet or men should not put phones in their pockets due to the radiation from it. 
  2. Don't forward messages about the new tactics of armed robbers, ritualists, rapists and pickpockets. 
  3. Don't forward jokes about religion, politics and race.
  4. Don't forward obviously stupid messages. Those messages that tell you to forward to other people to see a bicycle move or see your battery charge level go up.
  5. Don't create groups adding all your contacts just so you can forward them unsolicited messages.
  6. Don't forward marketing messages from someone else. 
If you ask what I really think is best, it is this: Don't broadcast any message. It's so uncool.


In fact, I am typing this blog post from the Mac. Or Hackintosh running the latest Mac OS -- MacOS Sierra. 

 What is a Hackintosh. It is the unofficial name for having a Mac installed on a non-Apple PC. And in my case, I have the Mac installed on my Windows PC, via VMware.

 It works great and fast and cool.

 I mainly use it for my Excel and programming work. There are some projects I do that the end user runs Excel on Mac. There are some differences between Excel on Windows and Excel on Mac, especially as regards to the programming/VBA part. I then need to verify that my program can run on Mac and the only sure way to do that is to test run it or even build it on Mac.

 There are also some developer/programming tools that work better on Mac than on Windows. And I am considering dipping a toe into iOS app development. Nothing serious, just to have a taste of it and keep it as a future option after mastering the web app one that is my current focus. And for iOS app development, you need to have a Mac and better to use Mac for the entire app development process.

 Finally, it will be cool to fully explore the Mac for personal intense use. Before now, I have mostly used Mac for work. I used to work for a company where the main work PCs are Macs. I initially found it very frustratingly different but then got used to it. Now, I will be exploring it as a primary/home PC.
The problem with having a flamboyant lifestyle is you'll always be trying to keep up.

 You'll be working hard and unnecessarily at maintaining that lifestyle. Life is a series of ups and downs but when you've got a flamboyant lifestyle you make the downs a lot difficult than they ordinarily should be.

 So how do people end up with a flamboyant lifestyle?

 There are generally two ways: 1) There are some people who have it in their genes. They just don't know how to live small. It's not a function of how much money they have or presence of someone to impress. They just must live large. 2) This is the category/way must people who live flamboyant lives fit in; external influence; they just can't stand looking poorer than their friends and work colleagues.

 As for those in way number one, there's relatively little anyone can do to make them change that lifestyle. And they also have a unique advantage. God who has made them that way, has also given them special coping habits and internal lifestyle shock absorbers. They always manage to pull through all the downs in one piece.

 It's those in the way number two who can be successfully persuaded. Luckily, many of them know that they need to adjust their lifestyle but can just seem to make it happen. They are up against something easily underestimated: peer pressure.

 When you are a manager at work, it is a lot difficult to take danfo to work while your juniors, especially those who report to you, drive their own cars to work. Then you begin to feel intimidated when your subordinates are doing MBA and PMP and ACCA and NEBOSH and CFA and leaving you behind with your B.Sc. And it doesn't stop there. You deserve to live in Ikoyi like your friends and fellow club members. Your car suddenly start looking too old. Your clothes need to be fancier and more expensive. You must go to that country too for vacation. You must start living/dressing like you want to be addressed. It's just a matter of time before your lifestyle blow up. Just a little succumbing to peer pressure here and there.

 But what can you do to free yourself from the way number two trap?

 You have to find new pressure that will pull you in the opposite direction. Join a group of minimalist online. Millionaires who live simple lives. Have your own big plan that will not make you envy someone else's material progress. And don't feed the wrong pressure.
image: Getentrepreneurial.com

I have a friend, a fellow trainer/consultant. He is always complaining about everything. He complains about the consulting work he is doing. He complains about the very students he is training. And so much that I wonder why he is doing the training/consulting gig full-time like me as it seems he doesn't very much like the work.

I love my work. It's not easy. Things are not perfect. I come across difficult clients. I get students that won't get along easily. Still, I love my work. I smile at everyone I deal with. I even develop a liking for them for the sake of the work. I treat them nicely throughout the course of my work. I make sure they get that warm nice-to-do-business-with-you feeling.

Even when I was in a paid employment, I tried to love my work. To the extent of trying to get along nicely with impossible people so I can do my work well and end each day nicely.

Work fills a large portion of our lives. We spend the most of our active life at work, it makes no sense to go through it kicking, cursing and fighting. Either you find the work you love or love the one you have.

There are some people who believe growth can only come from discontent. They try not to feel comfortable anywhere, and take it as far as fighting colleagues and never feeling happy with their work. It is a wrong way to pursue growth. Rather than making things worse at work so you can be forced to look for something better, why not have a personal and career development plan you follow thoroughly that does not involve making enemies.

Altogether, what I'm saying is: regardless of the work you work, love it. At least, try to.
image: knowledgemarketing.com
This month's webinar will be on Tuesday, 22 November 2016. And it's on Data Cleaning with Excel.

 Time: 4:00pm -- 5:00pm

 Venue: YouTube Live Streaming at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kTLxdDKrvec 

 I'll be taking you through how to prepare your data for analysis in Excel.

 How to remove duplicate records.
How to break entries into multiple fields (text-to-column).
How to clean off blank cells that are misaligning your record table
And many tips you'll enjoy and find valuable.  

 Don't miss it! All you have to be part of the webinar is to go to https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kTLxdDKrvec at exactly 4:00pm on Tuesday from either your smartphone or PC. You can set a reminder to help you not miss it.

 See you!
The biggest frustration you'll face in setting up a business in Nigeria, as a first timer, is that you won't find any organised list of legal, tax and general business requirements. Like me, you might find yourself learning on the field things you should have known before starting out.
image: businessnewsdaily.com

This is not going to be an exhaustive list or ultimate list of what to be aware of before setting up your business. Just an essential checklist. Feel free to add to it via the comment box.

 1. Be incorporated/registered from day one.
Avoid falling into the trap of doing business like a road side mechanic. Using your personal account, having no registered company name and having no registration documents.

 In the beginning, when you are doing the business on the side while still in your full-time job, it may not be a big deal. After all, the money from it is an extra income and any person/company who chooses not to deal with you because you're not registered is just allowing you more time for your main occupation. But when you are full-time in business, the big clients won't deal with you if you are not registered, even if it's pepper you are selling.

 2. Do your tax registration from day one and do your monthly VAT filing.
As a business you are expected to fill a VAT form every month and file at the FIRS, whether you did any business that month or not. If you didn't do any VAT-able transaction, then you simply fill NIL everywhere they were expecting figures and you pay nothing. While failure to do your VAT for any month attract a fine, that can easily be compounded.

 Also, when dealing with some companies. You'll need to provide your VAT certificate.

 3. Have A Company Profile/Brochure, Company Bank Account and Company Address
Again, even if its pepper you are selling.

 4. Have a website and use company domain email addresses.

 To be continued... (part 2 here)
I thank God for this year. Made significant progress in my personal life and in my business. I have learned to be a better business man. Done a lot of non-technical training this year, as a participant, that have transformed me from the short-sighted techie who is always receiving instructions from other people. Now I am making the strategic decisions and taking charge.
image: PublishYourArticles.net

 I am now thoroughly used to ups and downs of being an entrepreneur. The income inconsistency. The spending upfront. The paper work troubles. The marketing expenses without guaranteed results. Client management. The pressure that sometimes almost run one mad. And how to ignore the people who think I'm running a carpentry business, that I should be at their beck and call, and I should price just slightly higher than the cost of my raw materials.

 I have restarted my French learning. Found a strategy that works well. I am now making good progress. I've restarted listening to French radio daily. I'm now able to pick out enough words from the news broadcast, songs and discussions to get an idea of what the theme (or big picture) is, but not the details. I found a website that helps with my reading skill. It has my favorite stories in a bilingual form. I also have a compilation of the most used French phrases and words that I revise to expand my vocabulary.

 I also learned all the MBA I need for a lifetime. So I dropped out of my MBA online programme from the University of Nicosia, saving myself both vital time and money. My case is not quite simple. I have, via unconventional means, done MBA almost thrice. Different universities.

 My only regret is the pace of my web app development. I have made progress but not as much as I was expecting. The requirements are surprisingly deeper than I expected and the amount of work required is enormous. I am now trying to drop a lot of things to have more time for it. I am killing the consulting aspect of my business because of it and I am scaling down the training arm to make more time for it. I have even narrowed the goal to just web app, stripped off the phone app part. I only wish my progress will be more reflective of the sacrifice made. 
image: blog.hypeinnovation.com

 There is no word that get thrown around more frequently at business conferences than the word "Innovation". Everyone describes their business by it.

 We are changing the way farming is done, in an innovative way. Now we put the seeds in the ground, we let rain fall on them and sometimes support with irrigation, we occasionally apply fertilizer as the plants grow and when they are ripe we harvest and sell them. Pure innovation. 

 We are redefining the way eCommerce is done. We have set up a nice interactive website powered by a popular eCommerce template, we allow you to add items you want to a cart, you can also checkout by paying online and providing an address where the items will be shipped to. It's innovation at its peak.

 Sometimes, I think it's a deliberate joke. Well, until I see that they genuinely believe that what they are doing is truly an innovation.

 I used to think that what I am doing is also an innovation. Teaching people how to use Excel, building VBA programs and doing data analysis consulting. No one else is doing what I am doing, at least, like I am doing. But that is not innovation.

 Innovation is doing something completely and revolutionarily new. Like being the first to build a platform that allows people to order for taxi from their phone and pay from their phone and rate/review the taxi guy and even offer yourself + your car for taxi services. Or the first to allow people watch movies and TV series on demand from any internet connected device for a monthly fee.

 Innovation is doing what no one else is doing or even thinking of doing. Anything less than that is promotion. Whenever you use the word innovation to describe your me-too business, you are simply promoting it. Whenever I use the word innovation to describe my business (well, now), I am simply doing some advertising. It is not a bad thing. In fact, my me-too business is what is putting food on my table and giving me some hope that the future is bright. I wouldn't snuff out that hope for some grammar argument. But I also won't deceive myself into thinking I am doing what I am not yet doing.

 If one day I come across a business idea genuinely new and revolutionary plus with a positive NPV, I will be sure to let you all know that I now have earned the right to use the word innovation in describing my business. But for now, I better shsh. 

image: medicaldaily.com
Today I am going to show you how enhance your intuition. Improve your gut feeling. I know it sounds funny. Isn't it called intuition because it comes from the deep, inside, part of you that you have no control over? Are we going to have to gut out our gut feeling?

 Research and common sense both say that our brain doesn't go to sleep or switch off when we stop doing brain things (thinking, problem solving e.t.c.). And I am sure we all know that. The part most of us hardly consider is that: what then is our brain doing when we are sleeping? That's the question that will form the foundation of all I am going to share with you.

 Our brain is constantly working. It is using all the information/education/smartness you have acquired to help you consciously come up with solutions and plans during your waking conscious hours, the same way, too, it is using those very resources to come up with plans and solutions when you are asleep (or at your unconscious mind level). The only difference is that the plans and solutions it helps us come up with during our conscious moments we claim as ours and are not surprised by them, but when it comes during our unconscious moments we call them "gut feeling" and "intuition".

 In essence, the difference between your strategic deliberate plans and your gut feelings is at what moment you received them. One came during your conscious moments and the other maybe when you were not 100% controlling your mind. But the processes and resources used are the same.

 Garbage in, garbage out. If you make terrible deliberate plans because you are not well educated or feed yourself inadequate useful information or not smart, then your gut feeling will be a fountain of horrible ideas. But if you improve the quality of resources your mind has access to and build up the capacity of your mind to think critically, your gut feelings will be excellent quality.

 If you want excellent and breakthrough-triggering intuition, you should feed your mind with good quality resources and train your mind to think productively deep. And that is how you improve your gut feeling.

 All the best!