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Adding Value: Investing in Yourself
By Henry Ukazu
Greeting Destiny Friends,
My strong Christian faith has taught me that the best investment ever is the one invested in God, and I am unapologetic about it. This is because when you invest in God, you put your trust in him, and when you put your trust in him, he invest in you by providing all you need to succeed. Isn’t it true that when you work in God’s vineyard, he will work in your vineyard?
You may be wondering whether this article is spiritual, or why it has a spiritual undertone. Well, there is nothing spiritual about it, God, in his infiniteness is introduced to prove a point and pass a message. Having said that, it is imperative to note, on the other hand that another of the best investments anyone can make is to invest in himself. When you invest in yourself, you attract unimaginable value, and people will definitely appreciate you the more.
It is generally said that there’s no free lunch anywhere. Anything you want in life; you must have to work for it, especially if you are interested in making an impact in the society. Uninformed minds always believe they can find a benefactor out of the blues by sheer luck, but they fail to realize that before a benefactor will invest or support you, you would have invested in yourself by either learning a skill, acquiring education, offering a service or selling a product.
Investing in oneself comes in different forms; investing in your future savings (having a retirement plan); investing in children’s education; investing in your spouse or family, buying properties, acquiring education, learning a skill, abstaining from crimes, sex etc. just to have a fruitful life.
It can also mean working on yourself by taking proper care of yourself, detoxifying your mind to live a more meaningful life.
Investing in yourself adds value to your life. When you learn more, you will earn more. When you know you are valuable, you will have a certain level of confidence. Nothing gives you greater confidence than knowing that, regardless of your challenges, or problems that may rear their ugly heads, you are confident you will solve them.
One of the biggest advantages of investing in yourself is that people will be inspired by life and accomplishments. I always use myself as a case study. If I can author a book, anyone can be a bestseller. I used to be a horrible writer, but with determination to succeed, good mentors and more importantly, the grace of God, I have been able to hone my writing skills.
When you invest in yourself, it is easier for people to invest in you. Investing in yourself does not come cheap though because it can be financially tasking, especially when you have to pay for education, attend courses which might even require you flying internationally or locally, lodge in hotels, etc. However, with the advent of technology and social media, one can add value to his life by engaging people on several social media platforms who offer free training opportunities for personal development.
When you rightly invest in yourself, you will reap the blessings that come with it. Investing in yourself is paying now to play later. Most times in the journey of life, we tend to look at how long it will take to finish a programme, learn or learn a skill and then become discouraged. We fail to understand that, sometimes, you will have to go through the process to reap the fruits. It’s just like having a book with nuggets which is capable of transforming your life, but because the book is disguised as three hundred pages, you find it hard to open it, forgetting that, when you read and understand the contents, you can implement all you have learnt and start earning a huge amount of money.
You may be wondering how you can invest yourself. You can invest in yourself by reading books of interest, traveling, acquiring education, having a mentor/mentee, learning a skill and learning from other people by engaging them or observing what they do.
Investing in oneself takes a lot of effort. People, who have genuinely succeeded in life didn’t get there by accident or on a roller coaster. They invested heavily in themselves and in their businesses. Did you know that people will believe in you first before they believe in your business? Hence the more reason you have to invest in yourself.
Do you know that investing in yourself gives you credibility? You will get more credibility when people know that you are an expert in your craft. You will become an authority.
To invest in yourself, you must be goal oriented. When you have goals, you will do all that is positively necessary to see your goals come to light, and this might entail taking control of your plans by putting yourself in the driver’s seat.
Did you know that when you are involved in a relationship that didn’t work, the best thing you can do is ask yourself the following questions; what were my mistakes and how can I amend it? If you were the major cause of the problem, you must work on yourself by forgiving yourself so you can heal. Above all, you must take care of yourself because that’s very important.
In conclusion, in all you do, you must take care of yourself; that’s the first law of investing in oneself. You can easily do this by resting, taking a good nap, healthy eating, going to the gym, forgiving yourself and practicing meditation amongst other healthy habits.
Henry Ukazu writes from New York. He’s a Human Capacity & mindset coach. He’s also a public speaker. He works with the New York City Department of Correction as the Legal Coordinator. He’s the author of the acclaimed book Design Your Destiny – Actualizing Your Birthright To Success and President of gloemi.com. He can be reached via info@gloemi.com
By Henry Ukazu
Dear Destiny Friends,
The importance of timing cannot be overemphasized. Timing is everything in life. It is critical to one’s success. You can lose your money and get it back in many folds. You can even lose your health and get it back all things being equal, but when you lose time, you can hardly get it back again.
The importance of timing can be seen in crops. Every crop has a season, a good farmer won’t plant maize when it’s time for oranges, nor will he plant pears when it’s the season for mangoes.
Time is very instrumental to the success and failure of anyone. Imagine having a meeting or interview at 9:00am and you arrive at 10:10am, it will take the grace of God to be interviewed. As an employee, apart from one not being able to diligently do his job, one of the fastest ways for an employee to lose his job is by being late to work.
When I was in New York Law School studying Taxation law, I did a course titled, the Problem of Timing. During the semester, I learnt about cash and accrued income. Let me do some academic exercise here. In cash income, just like the name entails, one is paid in cash as soon as the work is completed. It’s just like going to the market to make a purchase. One can either pay directly with cash or with debit or credit card. But Accrued income refers to revenue a company has earned by providing goods or services, but for which payment has not yet been received, one will have to do the work first before getting paid. This is applicable when one works in either a public or private organization where one is paid either weekly, bi-weekly or at the end of the month depending on the stipulated mode of payment.
It’s important to note that before the money is paid either in cash or accrued, one would have earned it. It’s just like one learning g before earning, and one will have to update to upgrade. These are just the practical principles that will work with life.
In the same way, in life there’s a seed time and harvest time. It’s a universal principle of life. Whether as a parent, entrepreneur, student or employee. As a parent, if you don’t train your kids very well, they will grow up to reflect the opposite of what you desire. As an entrepreneur when you invest in your business, you will get the reward in due time. As a student, if you take your studies seriously, your grades will improve, and as an employee, you stand to get promotions and opportunities when you add value to your work. In summary, one will have to put in the work before recognition comes on.
To understand how seedtime and harvest work, imagine where parents tend to like one child more than others just because they see potential in him, or he’s smart, hardworking or even creative. They fail to understand that every child is different and as such their timing can be different. Some kinds take time to develop.
I personally believe there’s something so unique about each individual which God has deposited in everyone of us. It’s just a matter of time for it to manifest. Your timing of manifestation is different from your siblings and colleagues.
Personally, I didn’t mature fast with my contemporaries. Overtime, I have seen much improvement in my personal and professional life. Maybe because I have added value to my work with the assistance of mentors and good friends, or God had to humble my colleagues and mentors . Why do I say this? During my formative years, I had little or nothing to show for it. I was looking at my contemporaries as mentor and seeing my mentors as small gods whose feat is unattainable, but now, the reverse seems to be case as I have developed capacity some of my colleagues are yet to attain, while I have even surpassed the achievement of my some of my mentors in some quarters.
In all these, they are all surprised how it happened. Some are yet to comprehend or articulate the feat. It’s just like watching a film where everyone slept and woke up to see the game and tides have changed. The secret behind it is the seed time and harvest time. I was probably learning the trade while in the wilderness, and when the training season matured and ripe enough to be harvested, I became attractive to almost everyone who loved the seed I was producing.
There are litany of examples of people, who have been in the wilderness during the seed planting season. Let’s take a case study of Joseph in the Bible, his journey to stardom took a little twist. Despite the travails he experienced in the hands of his siblings who sold him, his experience while in the jail, and with Portiphar’s wife, who tried to seduce him; they were all set ups for success. The moral here is Joseph seed time and harvest time was quite different, it wasn’t a smooth journey. Ordinarily, one would have cursed his siblings or his friends who were with him in prison and forgot him after they were released. But at the end of time, everything worked out for his favor. Joseph’s seed days were his dark days while in the wilderness.
Another inspiring story of note was that of Pastor Ibukun Awosika, the former board Chairman of First Bank of Nigeria. She once shared a pathetic story during her formative years of being in business. According to her, she sojourned for about 15 years. She cried because lines were not adding up for her and she wouldn’t do what her contemporaries were doing to get opportunities. At a point in her business, it appeared like she was in a race of own life because everything seemed to be against her, but at the appropriate time, lines began to fall in place for her. Appointments, business opportunities, favours and goodwill began to fall in place for her. Again, she had a fair share of seed time.
An interesting question I would like to ask you is, what’s your seed time? Have you ever been in the wilderness when you appeared to be fixed? It’s unfortunate many people are not willing to pass through the storms or experience seeds and harvest time. Amidst all these, one must do some work before they get opportunities. However, before such opportunities will come up, one will have to plant the seed.
In conclusion, seed time and harvest time is critical in the journey of life. Take a seat and determine what seed you would like to sow and what you’ll like to harvest.
Henry Ukazu writes from New York. He works with the New York City Department of Correction as the Legal Coordinator. He’s the founder of Gloemi. He’s a Transformative Human Capacity and Mindset coach. He is also a public speaker, youth advocate, creative writer and author of Design Your Destiny Design Your and Unleash Your Destiny . He can be reached via info@gloemi.com
By Eric Elezuo
The Senate has suspended Senator Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghen for six months over her sexual harassment accusation and other disputes against the Senate President, Godswill Akpabio.
The Senate also withdrew her salaries for the period of the suspension, as well as her security details.
The chamber however, soft-pedaled on the salaries and allowances of her aides, who it was argued would not have any source of livelihood within the period.
Globacom is welcoming new customers on its network with the introduction of the e-SIM. The e-SIM activated in any Gloworld shop or Dealer outlet comes with an introductory free 5GB data when the customer buys a data plan of N1,500 or more.
Customers already on other networks can now join the Glo network with e-SIM as an additional SIM. Existing Glo customers can also enjoy this “SIM-less” freedom.
With the e-SIM, customers no longer have to worry about space for a physical SIM on their phones. The e-SIM is a software-based digital chip built directly into smartphones or wearable devices, thus eliminating the need for a physical SIM card for customers.
The use of e-SIM enables customers to have seamless switching between phone numbers without a physical SIM. It is ideal for upwardly mobile people who travel frequently. The e-SIM also guarantees security, as unlike physical SIM, it is harder to remove from devices. It is also eco-friendly and reduces plastic waste.
Globacom’s launch of the e-SIM enables enables it to cater to high-net-worth individuals and enterprise customers, and it also reinforces the company’s commitment to providing seamless and future-ready services to its customers.
A customer seeking to activate the Glo e-SIM needs to check the compatibility of the mobile handset by dialling *#06# on his or her phone. If an EID number reflects on the mobile screen, the device is e-SIM compatible.
“The customer can then proceed to the nearest Gloworld shop or Glo Dealer outlet to migrate to e-SIM. The process takes only a few minutes and the customer can thereafter begin to enjoy the use of an e-SIM”, the Marketing Department disclosed.
