Nexus between Culture and Development

I’m one of those who believe strongly that things would get better in Nigeria and Africa by extension, and certainly doing as much as I can to help in that renewal process. I also maintain my belief in the fact that our standard of living would improve, and that many more would have fair access to resources, but the journey would no doubt be a tough one).
My experience from participating in several (and I really mean several) development initiatives, forums, conferences, newsgroups, societies, seminars…e.t.c over the years has taught me that we need more than NGOs, motivational speakers, civil organizations, vibrant Pentecostal churches, Foreign Direct Investment, “Revolutionary” Ideas….(the list goes on) in order to birth and experience true sustainable development.

I haven’t decided to run for public office just yet, but I’ve started to pay a great deal of attention to the dynamics of attaining critical strategic leadership roles in this country called Nigeria. No matter how hard we try in our individual capacities to champion development initiatives and encourage each other to ‘do the impossible’, if the right people do not SEIZE POWER (pardon my dictatorial tone) and do the needful, we would discover the struggle might never end.

Culture has indeed been proven to be one of the key determinants of development in the 21st century. I should clarify here that I’m not referring to rites, traditions…e.t.c
I’m referring particularly to prevailing work ethics, reward systems, life-style and how each individual interfaces with the society.
I’ll draw on a revolutionary statement made by Daniel Patrick Moynihan in order to articulate my ideas and facilitate quick understanding of my recent deductions.

The central conservative truth is that it is culture, not politics, that determines the success of a society.
(However), The central liberal truth is that politics can change a culture and save it from itself.

Without mincing words, the predominant culture in quite a number of African countries (including ours) over the years has been that of exploitation. There has been that scarcity mentality that compels people to “maximally utilize” opportunities that are meant for serving others. This has compromised our ability to plan for the future, and all we have focused on is instant gratification. This pretty explains the decay over the years.
However, we must note that this barbaric ‘culture’ of absolute greed and lack of foresight did not come from no-where. Many do refer to decades back as the ‘good old days’. I do not have any proof that those days were as good as claimed, but the question is what happened over the years?

Simple! Politics (implying leadership) created a new ‘evil’ culture. A key aspect of our culture that deteriorated is our rewards system. Over the years, I’ve seen countless examples of dedicated, committed and hardworking people that lead poor and miserable lives, and this literally breaks my heart. People with integrity in our ministries, agencies and parastatals were either forced out, short-changed or rewarded with early retirement.
We literally grew used to narcissistic leadership to the extent that when someone with integrity takes up a strategic position, we begin to celebrate as if that has now become an exception to the rule (rather than it being the normal thing)

In essence, POLITICS has CHANGED our culture over the years into a barbaric self seeking way of life. The CHANGE we seek would also be HEAVILY dependent on a new kind of politics.
I choose to challenge us all that our real power lies not in our vote (as popularly believed. That should be easy to understand since our vote actually has not really mattered – ask Maurice Iwu!). Our power lies in our ability to get ourselves together by FORCEFULLY taking over politics and leadership from barbarians. When we do this, we would use the power entrusted into our hands to create and enforce an environment that frustrates mediocrity, and celebrates excellence, achievement, hard-work, dedication to duty and positive innovation.

Having a few good leaders here and there from time to time would not give us the sustainable change we desire. Building great businesses and running successful private enterprises here and there may not be enough.

There is no substitute for the people that uphold the law, interface with the international community, control our natural resources, determine the destinies of significant proportions of our human assets (that’s the plain truth), have direct responsibility for and determine the socio-economic temperature of a society. The role of presidents, ministers, governors and senators is so strategic that we can no longer afford to give lame excuses for not participating HYPER-ACTIVELY and seeking to attain those positions. (We must be armed with prerequisites including a right heart, knowledge, skill, tenacity and high impact networks and teams)

It’s great to have wonderful initiatives and try to influence government and society. However, there’s a higher calling and that is to be directly empowered by the LAW and CONSTITUTION of a sovereign entity to effect direct change that does not necessarily require the emotional support of all.
That only comes by attaining the earlier mentioned strategic leadership roles.

Once again,

The central conservative truth is that it is culture, not politics, that determines the success of a society.
(However), The central liberal truth is that politics can change a culture and save it from itself.

Managing Financial / Investment Risks

You don't get successful just because you take risks. You get successful because of your passion for the work, the quality of your work, your focus to be successful and your attention to detail!

Greater risk = Greater reward……..right?
Well in my brief experience and study, I believe that’s true to a certain extent but there needs to be a clarification. Risk as understood by an entrepreneur or investor should imply opportunity and must relate to something he sees that no one else (or only a few) can see. His ability to discern more than others has to be a bye-product of insight, study, research, information and experience. Very importantly, he has to have learnt from the mistakes of others and must access and harness the wisdom of past greats (such as Warren Buffet, George Soros, Rupert Murdoch, Tayo Bamiduro…..e.t.c.)

I have made flawed investment decisions and demonstrated poor financial judgment in the recent past, despite all the information at my fingertips. This is where the concept of execution comes in. Knowledge is of little value except it’s applied and acted upon. We have reached a point in human evolution where there is such proliferation of knowledge and information that you could access almost any data or information you need in a split second. What is however lacking is the conviction and will to act on what we have learnt.

The next keywords are Greed and Impatience. Why should a person desire to exploit an opportunity (should we call it opportunity or THIEFotunity) that promises 10000000% ROI (return on investment) on initial capital in just 7 days? The simple answer is greed!
True enduring wealth is built brick by brick, and is based on genuine ideas (though many times stolen, but better to steal ideas than to steal real money/assets!).
More importantly, enduring wealth is a function of how much wealth (in terms of a unique value proposition and problem solving) has been exchanged for the resultant liquid assets and monetary rewards.

John Bogle (Founder of the Vanguard Group and named one of the investment industry’s four "Giants of the 20th Century" by Fortune magazine in 1999) remarked that hyper-creativity in inventing financial instruments (such as Consolidated Debt Obligations) constituted building blocks for the recent near-recession and global liquidity crisis. In-short, people get so greedy they invent ‘new-ways’ of draining everything out of little, and adding little value back. The consequences are always inevitable!

The motive of true investors should be to finance/support the offering of a unique experience and value-proposition to clients/customers in order to deservedly profit from such activity. Real and quality investors always pursue win-win scenarios where the sum of the whole is always greater than the individual units. They pursue what economists call Pareto-Efficiency (i.e. a condition where a party cannot further extract value out of a system without negatively impacting the other parties). Prof Colin Gilligan remarked at a recent British Council Seminar titled The New Rules of Strategic Marketting that you've just got to delight and excite customers. People want to spend, but they seek value-for-money.

Here’s an excerpt I recently came across. It’s a Book review (Why We Want You to Be Rich – Robert Kiyosaki and Donald Trump) by Matthew Paulson.
It is informing and there are points to take out. I’m sure you’ll enjoy it.

Donald Trump and Robert Kiyosaki's New Book is Not Looking Out for You!
Why would anyone read a book about how to handle money by two people who have both filed bankruptcy? Only people who do so poorly with money have to throw their hands up in the air and admit defeat that they cannot pay all of their bills file bankruptcy. Now, there are some perfectly legitimate reasons to file bankruptcy, such as a huge medical debt which could never possibly be repaid, but when people file bankruptcy because their business fails or they spent too much money, chances are you should not be soliciting financial advice from them.

Financial author, Robert Kiyosaki and Donald Trump, CEO of the Trump Organization, have recently written a new book about how you should handle your money. The book, entitled "Why We Want You To Be Rich" is Kiyosaki and Trump's attempt to get together to write a book about their "financial secrets." In the book, they offer specific advice on how to invest money and become very wealthy. It sounds great to begin with, but there's a problem.
Both Kiyosaki and Trump's corporations have filed bankruptcy. Why anyone would accept financial advice from them defies all logic and reason.

Taking financial advice from them would be like taking dieting advice from the 400 pound guy who lives down the street. It's just not smart! If you're looking for financial advice on how to become very wealthy, do what millionaires do! There's a very well written book by Thomas Stanley called The Millionaire Next Door, which will tell you what millionaires do and how their behavior makes them wealthy. The book tells us that millionaires save large percentages of their money, invest it wisely, and spend very little.

Trump and Kiyosaki have another message. They tell us that they have a new way of thinking, which involves defying traditional investment logic. They tell us not to invest in mutual funds and work hard "because that does not make you rich." They say that investing in mutual funds is playing it safe, and it won't make you rich.
They tell us that "safe is the enemy of rich." There is some truth to this, the greater the risk, often the greater potential gain, but they get it wrong because they ignore risk all together-that's why they filed bankruptcy!

When you let too much risk into your life you are asking for trouble. You could put all of your money on black in Vegas, but not many financial counselors will tell you to do that, because there's too much risk!
You don't get successful just because you take risk. You get successful because of your passion for the work, the quality of your work, your focus to be successful and your attention to detail. Kiyosaki seems to believe that the only thing you need to be rich is the desire to be rich, and this simply is not true!

This book really does not offer anything new. It's simply a rehash of Kiyosaki's previous books and Trump's view on personal finance, which no one should take seriously. There are plenty of much better books from people who actually have money and have held onto it for a long period of time that will enable to you become very wealthy, but it requires hard work, dedication, and much more. The Millionaire Next Door by Thomas Stanley and The Total Money Makeover by Dave Ramsey would be a good place to start for those who really want to do what it takes to be rich.

Strategy of Subversive Rationalization for Development – More Science and Less Faith?

Here’s an extract from a rather lengthy but highly intellectual and engaging article on how to apply the afore-mentioned strategy for uniquely and uncontaminatedly modernizing Nigeria and Africa.

PS: You may need a dictionary to fully grasp the message of this short extract as the author utilized his full arsenal of words and expressions.

The strategy (of subversive rationalization) emphasizes the internalization of the scientific method and rational modes of thinking as well as the assimilation of key scientific knowledge, as the epistemological foundation of any kind of modernity. It also stresses the necessity of renovating conformist, traditionalist or totalizing belief and knowledge systems, worldviews and cultures, that stand in the way to essential changes on the road to modernity - a mega-project of autonomization, individuation, rationalization, demystification and feminization processes (less patriarchal forms). Modernity is also a project of democratization, liberalization, secularization, trans-nationalization, systematization, technocratization and humanization processes.

The strategy relies on scientific knowledge, which offers only incomplete and patchy theories of the real but nonetheless possibly the best models of reality, for reordering and reconstructing the African reality and for engaging it with up to date, robust and economically efficient technical know-how. More generally, it relies on calculative thinking and on the scientific tradition as the most viable civilizational horizon of a budding region, whose tortuous and uncertain transition to modernity may necessitate an imaginative strand of thinking.........................

In summary the strategy of Subversive Rationalization uses the power of scientific thought to launch a counter hegemonic offensive in order to subvert disabling traditional and repressive knowledge-power orders that stand in the way to a new realism, or to the rejuvenation and reconstruction of the African reality. The strategy may be valuable for bringing about a post-totemic, post-enchanted, post-Abrahamic, post-phallocratic, post-colonial and post-fragmented regional space and in moving Africa forward into a distinctive, creative, secular, democratic and authentic form of modernity.

You would concur that there are resounding, though unconventional truths in this discourse and the author certainly displayed advanced knowledge of theoretical development strategies for our continent. However, as much as I agree with the author that we need to apply proven methods and standard processes in accordance with logical procedures and empirical rationalizations, we would be critically mistaken to assume that total dependence on experiential and scientific knowledge would be effective as a panacea for our present challenges.

There is more than meets the eye to every occurrence and this is not superstition. How do we explain several instances of people (and societies) who seemingly ought to have completely lost hope based on prevailing circumstances, but still eventually came out victorious and later experienced such prosperity and peace that none could have predicted. If we were to solely depend on scientific methods to predict eventual outcomes, we would have been wrong on many occasions throughout human existence.

My view is that we ought to keep hope alive, have strong faith and display such defying confidence (not arrogance) that no matter how bad a situation might have been, there is still that possibility of experiencing victory and emancipation.

This realm is certainly above science and methods. Science, technology, formal methods and proven strategies are critical, but abstract ‘resources’ such as faith, confidence, tenacity, ethical traditions and constructive beliefs could prove even more decisive in making Nigeria and Africa uniquely and uncontaminatedly modern.

Finding our way back to what's REALLY important

What do we really place value on? Without going into any deep analysis, this question simply attempts to help us articulate and express the things we truly hold dear.
There is a tendency for us to start cracking our heads on what ‘the answer should be’ rather than being sincere and revealing what the answer really has been.

We know that knowledge, not acted upon is basically of little value, but it becomes wisdom when applied. When we fail to place the things we claim to hold dear as top priority, we are practically engaging in self-deception which eventually bears thorns and ultimately leads to the valley of dissatisfaction and regret, but I’m certain no one desires such end result.

Even I that speaketh have also had to (and still) constantly re-evaluate and re-examine my life in order to ascertain what exactly it is that I’m living for, so that I myself may not be a castaway after I had become a channel of inspiration to others.

Many of us have somehow found ourselves living a utopian (sort of American or is it Nigerian?) dream of prosperity and total self satisfaction and actualization, and have lost sight of what’s really important. We have become consumed with an intense desire to reach El-dorado and would stop at nothing to attain ‘success’ by accumulating resources, building financial empires and businesses, touching the lives of the poor and being accepted and recognised in society as an achiever and trail-blazer.

Nothing wrong with all these, except of course there is something wrong with the things that are CORE!

Tommy Tenney outlined FOUR aspects of our lives that I strongly believe are central.

A) Family
We all love our families but there’s that tendency for us to become familiar with them to the point where we begin to take them for granted. We have enormous obligations and responsibility to our families, especially our conjugal families (that in which you are a parent). Those times when we were nothing, had nothing and were just plain ordinary, they believed in us, loved us and kept us going. I stop to think about it; that if I loose all, who are those that would stick around and attend to me? My family certainly would be amongst the few and that sure holds for most of us.

B) Friends
Friendship is an intense word that has slowly lost its true meaning over the years.
“Faithful are the wounds of a friend, and are to be trusted above the kisses of an enemy” – Proverbs.
Friendship indicates people with whom we have close personal relationship of mutual affection and trust.
It could also mean one who defends or supports a cause, i.e. your cause. When you meet people whose supposed friends are mainly those that they’ve only known for a few months, then there might be problems with such people. This indicates they do not have the capacity to sustain and nurture their friendships. There should be those select few that we have a high level of commitment to over the duration of our lives. These are the people we share our dreams with, and reveal our inner-most feelings to. These kinds of relationships should be held in high esteem, and must never be affected by change in economic status, location and other potential dividers.

C) Character
Character incorporates all the values and fundamental beliefs that determine how we live, react and respond regardless of the environment and context. It marks the distinctive qualities that indicate who we really are.
Character answers the question - ‘who am I?’
Scripture helps us understand that it isn’t what goes into a man, but what comes out that defiles him. There’s always that tendency for our behaviours and reactions to be contextually influenced (also known as eye-service or politicking), but our true nature lies in how we conduct ourselves when no one (or nobody that’s either familiar with us or can exercise a degree of control over our lives) is watching.
We have an incredible amount of commitment and hard-work to invest in our lives if we really intend to build and maintain strong character. Though a good name is worth much more than silver, character is the underpinning factor that actually enables us to achieve this.

D) Eternal
Now this is one sensitive, highly critical, by far the most important but often neglected aspect of our lives. There has been much debate about whether we continue to persist after our bodies ‘shutdown’, but even scientific studies today have revealed that there is indeed intelligent design, and that there is a purpose for life. Life in this dimension is not an accident, but is simply a strategic short passing phase. Though short, our lifetime here would ultimately determine what we make of the after life which would ultimately persist infinitely. We ought to constantly live as commuters on earth. When we have such a mindset, we would not cling to the things that are of little eternal value. Heaven is indeed real and the things that would influence our place and reward in heaven are more often than not the soft things. Actively expressed love for humanity, strong character, less emphasis on material wealth and self actualization, and confession of, unwavering faith in and love for Christ and THE WORD constitute the basics and fundamentals for eternal relevance.

Final Words -

I believe many of us do have a genuine desire to lead relevant and high quality lives that would leave an enduring eternal impression, but often find ourselves falling short of expectations. We must however realise that though we fall (and still continue to err) we must never give up but must continually strive to lead noble lives that are worthy of God’s calling. True strength is in our ability to admit our failures, return to the true source of life and improve upon our past mistakes as we totally depend upon the Spirit of God to help and divinely enable us to be true SAINTS.

Will-Power - How much can we achieve?

Here is an excerpt from Daniel Goleman, The EQ (Emotional Intelligence) master on the subject of will-power. He provides us with some insight into why we seem to perform better at the things we do first, and then experience a dip as we attempt other things.

Daniel Goleman – …….A slew of studies suggest that we each have a fixed neural reservoir of will power, and that if we use it on one thing, we have less for others. Tasks that demand some self-control make it harder for us to do the next thing that takes will power. In a typical experiment on this effect, people who first had to circle every ‘e’ in a long passage gave up sooner when they then had to watch a video of a fixed, boring, scene. The same loss of persistence has been found when people resist tempting foods, suppress emotional reactions, even make the effort to try to impress someone.

This all suggests we have a fixed will power budget, one we should be careful in spending. Some neuroscientists suspect that self-control consumes blood sugar, which takes a while to build up again, and so the depletion effect.
But the good news is that we can grow our will power; like a muscle, over time the more we use it, the more it gradually increases. But doing this takes, of all things, will power.

As the muscle of will grows, the larger our reservoir of self-discipline becomes. So people who are able to stick to a diet or exercise program for a few months, or who complete money-management classes, also reduce their impulse buying, how much junk food they eat and alcohol they drink. They watch less TV and do more housework. And this ability to delay grasping at gratification, much data shows, predicts greater career success.

(complete article at http://www.danielgoleman.info/blog/2008/04/20/build-your-will-power/)

This article basically strengthens the proposition that though we have the ability to accomplish anything we set our hearts and minds to achieve, we obviously cannot do everything!The balancing act is in determining which specific (well defined and relatively few per time) activities we would apportion our time, will power and resources to.
Many do have the belief that they can overcome every single weakness and in-competencies that they have, but that in my opinion is some unrealistic goal.What’s critical is finding out or discovering (and not choosing) our areas of natural strength. We must then learn to polish and exploit these inherent abilities for maximum profit.

For illustration purposes, a 4 x 4 could never outperform a McLaren or Ferrari on a smooth race track, no matter how hard it tries. Reverse the equation by changing the circuit to rough sandy terrain. The speed-masters would hardly move. By their very nature and inherent design, each machine already has competitive advantage as a function of the environment and frame of reference.
Indeed, we do have will power and as much as we could develop it through constant use, we still do have limitations. Paradoxically, those limitations are to our advantage.

A research carried out on different sets of kids exposed to confined and unfenced playgrounds showed startling results. The kids in the well demarcated playground were adventurous and moved about freely through all nooks and crannies of the playground.The other kids (in the vast open playground) were less adventurous, stayed put in a small place, and exhibited less creative tendencies.

I believe the learning point is that we’ve all got limited but sufficient measures of will power to achieve what we are specifically (and strategically) designed (and perhaps destined) to achieve.