BUILDING WEALTH STARTS FROM PLANNING AHEAD AND UNBROKEN DEVOTION TO EXECUTION

WEALTH CAPSULE 1

“By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail.”
-Benjamin Franklin

“Good intentions might sound nice, but it is positive actions that matter.”
-Tim Fargo

“Unless commitment is made, there are only promises and hope, no plans’
-Peter F. Drucker

I have discovered over time, that the best time to catch my Billionaire friend in his best element is either a Sunday or a Monday evening. So, I intentionally planned my next visit for a Sunday evening. As it has been the practice, I signal ahead that I would be coming. My name gets registered at the gate of his estate and the gate of his home.

After observing all the required security protocols, I was ushered into his expansive, beautiful garden. At first, I was a bit startled by its dazzling beauty. You would think I was in Eden. My friend was exercising, hopping here and there, and enjoying Fela Kuti’s WATER NO GET ENEMY. My feet felt the gbedu; however, I was not here to dance. I was there to learn- get behind me, Fela! (I said in my mind.) My friend is a lover of Fela, his music, his dance, his style. He had a giant sculpture of Fela, with his signature saxophone.

My Billionaire friend was so engrossed with his exercise that he barely noticed I was in the garden. When he saw me, he did not stop. He simply signaled he would be with me in a few minutes. 15 minutes later, our conversation began:

“Sorry, my boss. That is how I recharge myself. I am actually doing two things; recharging my body and my spirit simultaneously. First, vigorous aerobics regulate blood flow in my body and strengthen my muscles, and is an energizer to my soul. We all need it, you should try it sometimes. I actually thought you would join me, but I quickly reasoned you would consider that to be worldly . Anyway, we have agreed that everyone should abide by his calling. I respect that”.

“So my boss, let us get into the business of the day. So please tell me, what you have you been able to make out of our last discussion—any action you have taken?”

Sure, sir.

I ordered a copy of the book you shared with me, 7 HABITS OF HIGHLY EFFECTIVE PEOPLE, by Steven Covey. I took time to read it, summarized and shared the review with my readers. I also engaged three of my friends in discussions around the lessons in the book, and we formed an accountability group. We agreed to ensure we implement whatever tips you share with us.”

“Incredible! I am impressed with this. Ayo, tell me what came over you. It seems you have suddenly found a kick. Tell me, what happened?”

I do not know, sir; however, the thought of being accountable is more than enough motivation.

“This is good, and I am encouraged. Please keep this up. Don’t ever drop the ball.”

Yes, sir. And thank you for creating the time to share those powerful tips with me.

“It is my pleasure, my boss. Today I am going to be sharing what I consider to be the most important step to take, if you truly want to build lasting wealth. I am going to be sharing with you what I have titled:

BUILDING WEALTH STARTS FROM PLANNING AHEAD AND UNBROKEN DEVOTION TO EXECUTION.

“But before we start, let me ask you this question: who wrote the script you are currently acting out?”

I was surprised. Script? I don’t understand! We are not into filmmaking or something like that.

“I mean, who wrote the script of your life you are currently acting out?”

I still don’t understand, sir. I thought you said we should be discussing how to plan for building wealth.

How did the script stuff come in?

“My boss, you have been playing out a script. It is just that you probably are not aware of the author of the script. It could mean that up till this moment, someone else had crafted a script for your life, and you have been playing this out without being conscious of it.”

I was even more confused.

What is he talking about?

“I hope I have not lost you, my boss?”

Well, I’m lost, sir.

“Let us do it this way. Since I know you are a churchman, let me suggest you pull out your phone and search for a Bible app and go into the book of Genesis. If you can find The Message Translation, that would be fine.”

He asked me to read chapters 1 and 2 aloud and suggested that I listen to myself while reading.

I complied and read the chapter one verse after the other, slowly and listened as I read. As I read, I was getting different interpretations in my head.

“When you get home, I want you to go over the chapters again. You would see that the personalities mentioned at the beginning created a script which they were acting out. When what they saw initially did not match what they put in the original script, they re-wrote the script and executed the content, until they finished the drama. You could see that at the interval, they were saying: this is good; this is good. Which means that, what was created matched what they had in their script. In chapter 2, God finished his own script and appointed man as his mini scriptwriter. So, God has delegated the project of writing the script to every being that he created.”

“The question is: who wrote the script you are currently playing out in your life. In most cases, you have probably been playing out scripts written for you by parents, friends, business associates, the environment, economic situations and others. If that is the case, you have been operating by default. It does not have to be. Starting from this moment, you can intentionally re-write the script of your life and take full responsibility for playing it out, including taking the blames when you fail along the line.”

I was already sweating inside. It was tough to accept. So I am not the author of the script of my life I have been acting out! Other persons have been pulling the strings!

“My friend, I can see that you have been quiet. Not to worry. The reason we are meeting and having this discussion, is to ensure that from now on, you will write your own script and act it out intentionally; so that you are no longer living by default.”

That is comforting, sir.

“I know. You are not alone. How would it make you feel, if I told you that over 90 per cent of the people you encounter, are playing the scripts of life created by other people? That is tragic. Someone put it nicely when he said that many of the people you see on the road are actually deeply asleep, even though they think they are awake and living.”

This is getting more philosophical, sir. Can we get into this planning stuff?

What do you mean by a wealth plan? Please explain, sir. Break it down, sir.

“It is not complicated. The building of wealth is the same as building properties and agricultural land, dams, bridges and so on. The building of wealth is a worthy goal as all these others. Thus, in this circumstance, we are discussing the specific goal of achieving the set goal of building Wealth”.

“If a man intends to achieve any set goal and he intends to be successful at achieving that set goal, then the goal requires planning. Planning, in this case, is about defining your goals, defining your strategies, defining your tactics and setting out programs for achieving your set goal, of building wealth. Strategies are identified and defined, about how you want to ensure that your set goal of building wealth is achieved, as desired. Planning here, is in terms of developing strategies toward the set goal of building wealth. It involves developing good tactics and ensuring that facilitating programs are drawn, towards achieving the set goal of building wealth. That is what I mean by planning”.

What is a wealth plan?

“A wealth plan is a detailed form of looking at the micro and macro environment and devising ways and means of achieving wealth creation. In other words, it involves the continuous processes of designing and review of economic and political environment, available investment vehicles and instruments, prevailing financial policies and indices, available opportunities and other qualitative and quantitative inputs, for building wealth. This is what wealth planning is all about”.

How do you go about wealth planning?

“You go about planning wealth by ensuring that you scan, explore and understand the wealth creating synergies around you. In other words, you need to broaden your knowledge base, to achieve your goal of building wealth. This involves the non exhaustive gathering of knowledge, through classroom exposures, or self education by reading relevant books and articles and/or mentoring by experienced investment/ wealth building experts”.

What will be the content of the plan? What areas does the planning cover?

“The content of the plan has to do with determining what your best wealth building investments would be, given your skills, passion, knowledge base, the extent of the reliability and predictability of your political/ economic environment and the relative performance of the various available investment vehicles in your environment”.

“This is all coming from my own experience, in planning to build wealth. I commenced the gradual process of building wealth, from looking out for the simplest book to read, before I was 20 years of age. The book, is titled: THE RICHEST MAN IN BABYLON”, by George Samuel Clarson. That book exposed me to the strategy of savings and that as a student, one could begin to build wealth by buying company shares. In those days as I can recall, one hundred shares of Nigerian Breweries went for fifty-one kobo.

One hundred shares of Guinness was about sixty-one kobo, one hundred shares of Blackwood Hodge was about sixty-eight kobo. Mobil was offered then, at about fifty-eight kobo per share . The buying of such low quantity of company shares, marked the beginning of my building of wealth. The mindset to have is that of accumulating wealth by building it gradually from small savings and being frugal in spending. That is also one sure way, of preparing for a good personal economic future.

I thus found myself not wasting Scholarship funds and those obtained from weekend private teaching as an undergraduate and during my post graduate studies, via buying of blue chip company shares. These shares acquisitions later expanded into investments in other wealth creating instruments, like Gold coins, buying cheap land in my surroundings and the buying of other investment instruments. All those small investments, eventually grew into accumulating some comfortable, but not humongous wealth for one’s future living”.

What happens if you don’t have a plan?

“I want you to go back to Genesis 1 and 2 again and ponder on the creative process employed by the personality mentioned there. Many people have got their lives upside down. They do last, what they should do first, and first what they should do last. Lasting success cannot result from such a way of living.”

“I have encountered individuals who embark on humongous personal living buildings, without having established some multiple sources of income for sustaining the maintenance of such personal properties. Invariably, such people truncate their ability to build wealth and are ultimately unable to sustain the maintenance of such personal living buildings. God is a process-driven being. He is deliberate in everything He does, and if we are truly His image, we should act in the same manner. God usually visualizes the project he wants to embark on. He sees the end from the beginning and carefully activates in sequence all activities that would be necessary to accomplish that project.

He would do first things first, middle things, at the middle and last things, last. In his creative work, God created light before the sky and the sky before the land and land before vegetation and vegetation before the stars, the moon and the stars before the living creatures and the living creatures before human beings. Just think about this, for a moment. Assuming that God created living creatures before vegetation or human beings before vegetation and living creatures, what would have happened? That would have been a recipe for confusion! And God is not an author of confusion. Good planning helps you put the first thing first and the last thing last”.

“When you live your life without having a plan, you should not blame others if you die in penury. Every youth should have a plan for his /her future. And you must be completely devoted to that plan. Your plan must be absolute , only changing for the better, at enhancing and safeguarding your responses to the dynamics of the macro economics of your environment. The prioritizing of buying Aso-Ebi should be out of it, the issue about frivolous expense of unending partying, should be out of it, the issue of buying unnecessary expensive fashion items should also be out of it. The truth is that, building wealth in general, entails the continuous saving of scarce resources, which must be devoid of consumptive and wasteful living. It is a journey of absolute focus”.

“Anybody who makes a journey without having a plan should blame his/herself, if he goes astray on that journey. It is very important that, you have a solid plan, keep monitoring and continuously reviewing it, in response to your macro economic environment and evaluate one’s achievement. This helps in paying attention to areas where improvement is needed”.

This is serious, sir. But why do people not plan generally?

“In general, particularly in many parts of Africa, people tend to believe in miracles. People tend to believe some supernatural forces will eventually take control, especially when such people are deep into some type of religion that believes that “God will do it”. Such people end up not planning and end up being dependent all their life”.

How did you take care of distractions and resolutions?

“Building of wealth requires avoiding distractions and complete devotion towards execution of wealth-building plans. To take care of that, one must be focused. One must not allow peer groups to make one deviate. One must avoid consumptive expenditures, one must find mentors, and one must relate and look up to heroes to guide one and ensure one is completely focused”
.
What will planning accomplish for me?

“Planning helps you accomplish your goal of building wealth. Building wealth is a gradual process. When you want to build wealth in a gradual process, it will last. This again has to do with our core indigenous values. Wealth building should be based on our core indigenous values of wisdom, knowledge, honesty, hard work, contentment, and love for others. These are very important core values which can be found in our indigenous culture for which reading widely will expose anybody interested in building wealth to acquire this knowledge. In general, building wealth means being focused, being organized and being determined. Determination is very important. You must set out with a defined goal, and you must keep your eyes focused on the goal.”

“In general, building wealth is a serious business. It is not for the weak-minded, and it requires a lot of determination and hard work. Hard work in terms of being frugal and continuously acquiring knowledge, such that the process becomes well built and well sustained. Building wealth is a very serious business, at which end it creates a comfortable existence for any wealth builder from middle age to his ripe old age.

Wealth builders never lack, wealth-builders always have savings, and wealth-builders have strong positions of assets, well spread, proportioned and managed fixed assets, liquid assets and investment assets, all together in their portfolio. And they ensure their wealth is spread to overcome different prevailing investment asset risks and different portfolios. Such that their investments and assets are kept comparatively stable at overcoming possible economic turbulences. In other words, the building of wealth, involves understanding various investment risks; credit risk, economic risk, interest rate risk, operational risk, systemic risk, market risk, liquidity risk, etc.

They should all be taken care of, in the process of wealth building. Good wealth building, is achieved with portfolios that have inbuilt protections against different investment risks, such that the economic stability of the wealth builder is always assured. In general, youthful wealth builders are better positioned to take investment risks, as compared to elders, who are not encouraged to take such investment risks. Indeed, young wealth builders better positioned to speculate, in their possession of greater risk appetites. They have greater ability to overcome and withstand the dangers of failed speculative investments. It is however advised that, as youthful wealth builders age, they must gradually move away from high-risk speculative investments, to principal guaranteed investments for the better protection of their wealth in the long run”.

Wow! This is serious.

It occurred to me that I have a long way to go in this business of building wealth. But I have got to the point of no return. With my friend serving as my guide, I know I would make progress, even though it would be tough and slow.

“I think we are done with the topic for the day. Any other thing you want me to address?”

Not really, it’s just I would want you to advise me on how to resolve this dilemma

“What dilemma?”

A number of people who read the introductory tips you shared with me asked that I reveal the identity of my billionaire friend. In fact, two of my close friends asked that I reveal who my mentor was.

My friend replied in a calm voice: “How is that a problem for you? So if you bring them here to listen to me, would that make them implement the tips?”

Not necessarily, sir.

“Then why are you bothered? Sometimes it’s funny how people react. (a grey smile was plastered on his face.) They major in minor things. How would disclosing my identity help them in wealth creation? This is the same problem with our country. Instead of looking for individuals who would tackle our complicated problems in which our country has found itself, we are busy with irrelevant pursuits”.

“My friend, leave those people. We shall see at the end of the day the difference between those who implement what you share and those who are busily majoring in minor things”.

I think that is okay, sir.

“Okay, my boss. See you next week”

I must confess, I left his place sober. I could see that I had a long way to go in the journey of wealth building. But I was also encouraged by the fact that my friend has agreed to stand by me.

Let us catch up next week.

Yours money-wisely,

FROM INSIGHT TO ACTION

o Take each aspect of wealth building and develop long term, medium term and short term goals

o Isolate how many of the goals you plan to carry out in the next 12 months .

o Then take them on day by day , week by week and month by month without looking back.

o Get your partners to hold you accountable for every aspect you are focusing on moment by moment