Will the children of this generation and the ones to come have any hope of decency? It’s amazing how early the children of this age get conformed and informed of the wrong things. I was seeing this movie where an African American child of about four years was in his school bus with his breasting feeding mum and other students going on an excursion. Suddenly the baby starts crying and the mum tries to breast feed the baby when the children start chuckling. The child was ashamed and when he couldn't stand it he hid his face in his hand in embarrassment
When I was younger if we saw something of this sort you act like you didn't see it and continue doing what you were doing. How dare you laugh or say something to show you saw anything? Back in the days where I come from the kids will all get slapped for even looking and then laughing even makes it worse, then they might have to explain what they saw and why it tickled them.
But truth be told it’s not about the kids, it’s about how much our present parents have embraced civilization and have let down the moral standards. In cities, you barely see a married woman tie a wrapper, yeah I also said I won't let my wife tie wrappers when I get married but now some women just have to go by wrapper tying. The infiltration of low waist and all sorts have started exposing what shouldn't be exposed.
With single ladies I could care less but when married women join the band wagon and don't get covered up well, I can just imagine how flushed their children’s faces will be when mum tries to get out of the car, tries seat or even bend to pick something and her butt first gets the feel of the air. When some kids get to see this much often especially from their own parents or teachers, who can reprimand them when they see other exposed ladies out there and laugh? Besides we forget that excessive exposure to these stuffs erodes moral values of these kids.
I'm not saying single ladies should go ahead wearing pants less their size I'm just saying if they have lost the moral code the married ones should be the model for them and the growing ones. Don't be the agent of distraction for young men out there and also don't let your child deal with the embarrassment you might cause him when your dressing lacks some decency.
Some tips to ensure you avoid distraction
When you dress, try bending, seating and taking positions that might make your pants drop to check if it still remains intact
Put on a belt to hold you firmly incase you just lost some weight walking and it drops*winks*
Avoid wearing tops that hang above or just seats at the waist. Put on clothes that cover down to the butt
Tuck-in can do some help to
And finally if these tips seem hectic to follow, just do a WRAPPER
Wednesday, March 2, 2011
Tuesday, March 1, 2011
Why did I get married?
The subject topic above just makes you remember the movie by Tyler Perry, for those that have seen it. It’s one of my favorite movies. A movie I don’t mind seeing over and over again. It’s a classic but well for those that follow his movies you just realize that he is a talented young man that promises satisfaction for your money.
For those that haven’t yet seen the movie, it’s about four families that got to a point in their marriages that they started asking themselves and their spouses “why did we get marrie
d”. They sought solutions in so many ways even in taking a vacation but nothing seemed to change but it rather got worse for them. It got so bad at the vacation that one of the couples had to divorce his spouse and started going out with his ex best friend. For more, check out …. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Why_Did_I_Get_Married_Too%3F!!!
I waited throughout this movie to find out if Tyler will by chance answer the question he posed, but the movie ended leaving more questions to be answered like should Christians just divorce and remarry as if it were an evening date? How much should you bear before you divorce? Who do you actually talk to when you have pressing marital issue and you can’t talk to your spouse? Which sex remains loyal after friends marry? Men or women! The questions seemed unending and I crossed my fingers hoping for a part two…. You know the saying-“save the best for last”
I hoped for not just a better part two but also wished the questions that stood glaring in part would be answer but the drama kept unfolding as the movie rolled. And for folks that already have phobia for marriage the part two didn’t promise anything better. But as long as you have a desire for something you can’t help but pull it towards you. Fortunately I stumbled into a message titled “Junk in the Trunk” and by the time I was through I found some answers to why people ask “why did I get married?”
One of the reasons especially for Christians is that they are pressured not to live a life filled with fornication. Most believers since they can’t handle the guilt of living in fornication decide to tie the marital knot. While trying to solve one problem they end up creating 10 other ones. They try to get right with God and get wrong with marriage. They make a temporal solution for a lasting problem. They just get married to discover that it takes more than sex to get married.
Secondly they try to avoid loneliness, so they think some kind of companionship is better than no kind of companionship and they settle down to have a company because they want to avoid having dinner alone, put on clothes and no one to zip it up. Yeah though loneliness can be a terrible thing, but you can be married and still be lonely and you can be single and still not be lonely also. They forget that short term problem solving creates long term misery.
Thirdly they get married to get away from self awareness. Single people should first learn how to date themselves. Some people run from themselves and don’t want to spend time by themselves alone. They then give themselves to someone in marriage but not only that they don’t know who the spouse is, they don’t know who themselves are. Spending time dating yourself, loving yourself helps you to esteem yourself. If you don’t have a plan, goal, purpose or even a strategy, you don’t have anything to offer. If you do have a good plan, it shouldn’t be built upon whether you find somebody or not. Your plans should be able to be carried out with or without a man
Spending time alone helps you discover who God is, who you are and who will fit you and be suitable for you. There was this scenario, two men were brought forward and one was well suited up while the other wore a pair of jeans and a tee shirt. The supposed will be that the man well dressed in his suit was the one with a good career and hence well paid/affluent and the other they will say he's a scrub, he should go get a job and all sorts but when they asked the man in the jeans and T-shirt he said he is an attorney then the crowd cheered.
The lesson drawn from it was that if a man with a job or a man in affluence can't be ascertained from how he's dressed why do men think by just seeing them we can know them. And if you can’t tell a well paid man from his looks which is visible how can you tell a wife-beater, an unfaithful partner or any invisible quality and trait by just looks alone. How can you tell a trunk that has the junk? Do all trunks have junks?
Maybe "how can you tell a trunk that's got a junk" should be the sequel to "why did I get married"
For those that haven’t yet seen the movie, it’s about four families that got to a point in their marriages that they started asking themselves and their spouses “why did we get marrie
d”. They sought solutions in so many ways even in taking a vacation but nothing seemed to change but it rather got worse for them. It got so bad at the vacation that one of the couples had to divorce his spouse and started going out with his ex best friend. For more, check out …. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Why_Did_I_Get_Married_Too%3F!!!
I waited throughout this movie to find out if Tyler will by chance answer the question he posed, but the movie ended leaving more questions to be answered like should Christians just divorce and remarry as if it were an evening date? How much should you bear before you divorce? Who do you actually talk to when you have pressing marital issue and you can’t talk to your spouse? Which sex remains loyal after friends marry? Men or women! The questions seemed unending and I crossed my fingers hoping for a part two…. You know the saying-“save the best for last”
I hoped for not just a better part two but also wished the questions that stood glaring in part would be answer but the drama kept unfolding as the movie rolled. And for folks that already have phobia for marriage the part two didn’t promise anything better. But as long as you have a desire for something you can’t help but pull it towards you. Fortunately I stumbled into a message titled “Junk in the Trunk” and by the time I was through I found some answers to why people ask “why did I get married?”
One of the reasons especially for Christians is that they are pressured not to live a life filled with fornication. Most believers since they can’t handle the guilt of living in fornication decide to tie the marital knot. While trying to solve one problem they end up creating 10 other ones. They try to get right with God and get wrong with marriage. They make a temporal solution for a lasting problem. They just get married to discover that it takes more than sex to get married.
Secondly they try to avoid loneliness, so they think some kind of companionship is better than no kind of companionship and they settle down to have a company because they want to avoid having dinner alone, put on clothes and no one to zip it up. Yeah though loneliness can be a terrible thing, but you can be married and still be lonely and you can be single and still not be lonely also. They forget that short term problem solving creates long term misery.
Thirdly they get married to get away from self awareness. Single people should first learn how to date themselves. Some people run from themselves and don’t want to spend time by themselves alone. They then give themselves to someone in marriage but not only that they don’t know who the spouse is, they don’t know who themselves are. Spending time dating yourself, loving yourself helps you to esteem yourself. If you don’t have a plan, goal, purpose or even a strategy, you don’t have anything to offer. If you do have a good plan, it shouldn’t be built upon whether you find somebody or not. Your plans should be able to be carried out with or without a man
Spending time alone helps you discover who God is, who you are and who will fit you and be suitable for you. There was this scenario, two men were brought forward and one was well suited up while the other wore a pair of jeans and a tee shirt. The supposed will be that the man well dressed in his suit was the one with a good career and hence well paid/affluent and the other they will say he's a scrub, he should go get a job and all sorts but when they asked the man in the jeans and T-shirt he said he is an attorney then the crowd cheered.
The lesson drawn from it was that if a man with a job or a man in affluence can't be ascertained from how he's dressed why do men think by just seeing them we can know them. And if you can’t tell a well paid man from his looks which is visible how can you tell a wife-beater, an unfaithful partner or any invisible quality and trait by just looks alone. How can you tell a trunk that has the junk? Do all trunks have junks?
Maybe "how can you tell a trunk that's got a junk" should be the sequel to "why did I get married"
Thursday, February 24, 2011
Be Courageous
Seating in church today and I heard the worship leader sing and i beheld Gods glory fill the room. You just know that it was not the function of a good worshiper but a gifted one. Shortly afterwards the Pastor –David Ogbueli came on stage and the sermon wasn’t just a normal word, it was a message fresh from the throne of God, you can tell how much people get blessed from a message by how much the congregation get excited or by how sober they become, but in all it was just the food every soul and spirit needed to grow. Therein again I saw a gift of God manifesting then I took it upon myself to look just again a dance group- Dare to Dance, came on to make a presentation, and the whole crowd was blessed and at this point I started wondering why I was towing this line of discovery the good gifts, talents and abilities of God.
I then came to see that we all carry a dimension of God in us. This side of God we have can't be expressed as passionately, effective, endearing etc by anyone else save us. When we fail to do or use this gift we rob him of his Glory, we fail to make men say wow God has come to be with us through this man. We fail to help other recognize God has blessed them and can help them do what they should do.
I know there are so many things I love to do that don't just make me happy but also puts smiles, gives hope, produces Faith in people but fear has always kept me from doing them. Fear of how they will take it? Why do you think you can do it and all? I started this work about two weeks ago and I'm dropping it now just because of these same reasons and procrastination set in. I hear God saying no matter how it is do it.
You might never play like Ronaldo, or Jordan, dance or sing like Michael Jackson, worship like Don Moen, Preach like TD Jakes, lead people like Obama or Moses or whatever it maybe but just the way you do it pleases God and brings Glory to him. Don't be like the man with a talent that returned it back to him same way just for fear. Be like the others that used it, got better and multiplied it. The law of use says when you make use of gifts, abilities, talents they get more useful and commercial. Practice makes perfect they say.
Remember Joshua was a great leader but at he had to fight this battle of how, what etc, he looked at Moses and couldn't see how he could lead the people of Israel, but God knew he could and would and three times in the first chapter of Joshua God told him be strong and of good courage, be not afraid. He went ahead to win battles and lead the people into the promise land.
If there's anything you know you should have been doing and you are yet to start, or have started then dropped it or have even started, God is telling you again be not afraid, be courageous and strong, be not dismayed for I am with you wheresoever’s thou goes..Joshua 1:9
Again I say be courageous!!!! Do it, God is with you all the way
I then came to see that we all carry a dimension of God in us. This side of God we have can't be expressed as passionately, effective, endearing etc by anyone else save us. When we fail to do or use this gift we rob him of his Glory, we fail to make men say wow God has come to be with us through this man. We fail to help other recognize God has blessed them and can help them do what they should do.
I know there are so many things I love to do that don't just make me happy but also puts smiles, gives hope, produces Faith in people but fear has always kept me from doing them. Fear of how they will take it? Why do you think you can do it and all? I started this work about two weeks ago and I'm dropping it now just because of these same reasons and procrastination set in. I hear God saying no matter how it is do it.
You might never play like Ronaldo, or Jordan, dance or sing like Michael Jackson, worship like Don Moen, Preach like TD Jakes, lead people like Obama or Moses or whatever it maybe but just the way you do it pleases God and brings Glory to him. Don't be like the man with a talent that returned it back to him same way just for fear. Be like the others that used it, got better and multiplied it. The law of use says when you make use of gifts, abilities, talents they get more useful and commercial. Practice makes perfect they say.
Remember Joshua was a great leader but at he had to fight this battle of how, what etc, he looked at Moses and couldn't see how he could lead the people of Israel, but God knew he could and would and three times in the first chapter of Joshua God told him be strong and of good courage, be not afraid. He went ahead to win battles and lead the people into the promise land.
If there's anything you know you should have been doing and you are yet to start, or have started then dropped it or have even started, God is telling you again be not afraid, be courageous and strong, be not dismayed for I am with you wheresoever’s thou goes..Joshua 1:9
Again I say be courageous!!!! Do it, God is with you all the way
Crawl to the rope
Even with the horrifying and gory nature of the wrestle mania I have come to learn one great lesson which is CRAWL TO THE ROPE. Because I was torn between believing if the wrestling matches were real and if it were staged to entertain people, I had to put a stop to watching them but real life issues have come to make me love the teachings from the tag team matches…
One beauty of the tag team match is that a team with a mix of a strong and weak partner stands a chance of winning even two strong partners in a team. As the rule stipulates only of one person in a team is allowed to be in the ring to fight and the only reason another member can be involved in the same fight, same time is only when he get close to his partner and shakes him.
This is one error Christains forget in battle when they blame God for their misfortunes that He is a Just God and doesn't break rules and ranks. He stands by the ring while we battle, cries when we get battered by the enemy, streches out his hand as long as he can to save us but we for so many reasons forget the secret is in determining to crawl to the rope and above all willing to shake our Master and warrior.
I remember a battle where a team had two brothers and their opponents were Triple H and some other funny guy I can't remember his name. The guy was in the ring while Triple H stood by the ring, and like it goes he was beating and having fun with this guy and was about to win when there was an overturn and the opponent hit him for awhile and rushed to the ring to shake his partner. They both decended on this guy to a point he couldn't move. Then I remebered the scripture that says a demon goes out and brings in seven more wicked demon than himself and I'm wondering why did that man seat and wait while the demon retreated to re-attack. It further says the beating the man now recieves leaves him worse than the first.
Back to the wrestling, finally after this the guy gets a chance, crawls to the ring, shakes Triple H and he jumps in, the rest of the match became history. This is exactly how we allow our advesary the devil take advantage of us and we fail to remember that our partner Jesus is streching out his hand standing by the ring hoping we might just crawl to the rope give him a shake and let him take on the battle. He has a record of always defeating our enemy so bear in mind that he won't let you get any closer to the rope but if u stay determined knowing that the battle is the Lords and you in it as a disguise; Victory will always be yours.
"Be of good cheer I have overcome the world and everything in it." If you didn't just get anything just know that the next time you find yourself in a battle, it is staged. All you need to do is stand, hit a few blows and get him in to deliver the victory.
Thank you Jesus!!!!!!!
Tuesday, February 22, 2011
80/20 Rule
I believe it’s fundamental to every business person – to every human being – so if you have never heard of this rule, please read on and absorb everything I’m about to tell you, it could potentially change your life.
The 80/20 rule sounds like a statistic and in some ways it is. Personally I’m not a big fan of mathematics and beyond basic web statistics like pageviews, impressions, and unique visitors – and when I stretch myself – conversion rates and split testing, I try and avoid all complex numbers. I work better with feelings, ideas and concepts.
The good thing about the 80/20 rule is that you don’t have to understand statistics to be a believer. Yes it has foundations in economics and yes, it was “proven” using statistical analysis by a man named Pareto, but it is not meant to be understood only by economics professors.
Here’s what the Wikipedia has to say about it:
The principle was suggested by management thinker Joseph M. Juran. It was named after the Italian economist Vilfredo Pareto, who observed that 80% of income in Italy was received by 20% of the Italian population. The assumption is that most of the results in any situation are determined by a small number of causes.
I can’t remember exactly when I was first exposed to the 80/20 Rule but I know when it first really hit home. I was in my local bookshop and I picked up a copy of Living The 80/20 Way by Richard Koch. Koch took the 80/20 Rule and made it his own by writing a series of books on the topic. Living The 80/20 Way fit me well because it discussed living life productively seeking maximum satisfaction by focusing on your passions (Koch has written other books focusing on the 80/20 Rule for business and managers that I didn’t enjoy quite as much). At the time I sometimes accused myself of being lazy for not “working hard” but I realized what I was doing was living an 80/20 lifestyle and in fact probably being a lot more productive than those working harder than myself.
What Exactly Is The 80/20 Rule?
By the numbers it means that 80 percent of your outcomes come from 20 percent of your inputs. As Pareto demonstrated with his research this “rule” holds true, in a very rough sense, to an 80/20 ratio, however in many cases the ratio can be a lot higher – 99/1 may be closer to reality.
It really doesn’t matter what numbers you apply, the important thing to understand is that in your life there are certain activities you do (your 20 percent) that account for the majority (your 80 percent) of your happiness and outputs.
You may have expected me to say that 20 percent of your activities produce 80 percent of your financial rewards, and that is true, there are probably a handful of activities you do each week that produce your income. You can definitely apply the 80/20 Rule to most aspects of your business or working life, however I believe your overall happiness and satisfaction are much better variables to focus on. Money certainly plays an important role in your happiness and your money is influenced by 80/20 relationships, but it is only a component that leads to your overall well being, which should be your primary concern.
80/20 Examples
There are many economic conditions, for example the distribution of wealth and resources on planet earth, where a small percentage of the population controls the biggest chunk, which clearly demonstrate the 80/20 Rule. There are businesses examples such as 20 percent of employees are responsible for 80 percent of a company’s output or 20 percent of customers are responsible for 80 percent of the revenues (or usually even more disparate ratios). These are not hard rules, not every company will be like this and the ratio won’t be exactly 80/20, but chances are if you look at many key metrics in a business there is definitely a minority creating a majority.
At a micro level just by looking at your daily habits you can find plenty of examples where the 80/20 Rule applies. You probably make most of your phone calls to a very small amount of the people you have numbers for. You likely spend a large chunk of your money on few things (perhaps rent, mortgage payments or food). There is a good chance that you spend most of your time with only a few people from the entire pool of people you know.
I’ll present to you how the 80/20 Rule applies to my life and how I have used the concept, although not always deliberately – it’s just the way I construct my life (for maximum pleasure!) - To improve the efficiency of my output and enhance my overall lifestyle.
My 80/20 Life
In my life I’ve noticed plenty of 80/20 ratios and generally they relate to my core competencies and passions. I really enjoy writing articles such as this, recording podcasts and interacting with other business people through Skype and blogging. In terms of rewards, the two-to-four hours or so per day that I spend writing – when I’m in the creative zone and my best work comes out almost effortlessly – is my money time. My articles and podcasts work hardest to generate income for me, create business opportunities and allow me to express myself creatively. I get the most financial and intrinsic satisfaction from this time.
I expect you could tell me a similar story about your life. During times you really enjoy yourself your output is at its peak. Your passion activities probably don’t pay your bills at the moment, which unfortunately means that you can’t sustain your life by indulging only in what you enjoy. I’ll talk more about transforming your life to a financially stable and personally fulfilling 80/20 format later in this article.
During some times in my life I struggle and waste time performing activities I don’t enjoy or I am not good at. For example bookkeeping is not high on my fun list. I don’t always like managing keywords in Google AdWords campaigns because I don’t have the patience to thoroughly test the variables and track the numbers. The same can be said for things like Google Analytics. These activities are more numerical in basis, I’m not a numbers person so when possible I leave these tasks, along with other activities like programming, graphic design and proofreading to other people, the specialists who enjoy them.
Some of my time is spent procrastinating or working inefficiently doing activities that provide very little benefit. This often occurs when I am tired or below peak physical condition. I sometimes lack the mental throughput to motivate myself to be productive (and boy, my writing stinks when I’m tired!), but I’m working on it and getting much better at reducing time wastage. When I’m in this state it’s smarter for me to study – read books and eBooks – because I’m not capable of producing quality output, but taking input – learning – is a good use of time when I am not there 100 percent mentally.
80/20 Business
When I look at one of my businesses, BetterEdit.com, it’s very clear that a small handful of repeat customers account for most of the income. The customers who become long-term users, who gain the most from the services and fit well demographically and socially with the business model, are key. They provide 80 percent of the value but only represent 20 percent (or much less) of the overall people that use the business. My job is to determine the best way to attract and convert more customers into long-term users.
With blogging I learnt (and teach in my Blog Traffic Tips newsletter) that there are a handful of activities that I do every day that produce the most results. Breaking things down further, there are usually a key 20 percent of elements within an individual blog article (think article headline) that have the most dramatic affect on results. The numbers of course are not clean 80/20 ratios but there are definitely dominant factors at play.
In a business sense, finding the 80/20 ratios is crucial for maximizing performance. Find the products or services that generate the most income (the 20 percent) and drop the rest (the 80 percent) that only provide marginal benefits. Spend your time working on the parts of the business that you can improve significantly with your core skills and leave the tasks that are outside your best 20 percent to other people. Work hardest on elements that work hardest for you. Reward the best employees well, cull the worst. Drop the bad clients and focus on upselling and improving service to the best clients.
How You Can Live an 80/20 Lifestyle
When you start to analyze and breakdown your life into elements it’s very easy to see 80/20 ratios all over the place. The trick, once your key happiness determinants have been identified, is to make everything work in harmony and avoid wasting time on those 80 percent activities that produce little satisfaction for you.
The message is simple enough – focus on activities that produce the best outcomes for you. This applies to both your business/working life and your “other” life (I think they are all part of your “life” but people often prefer to distinguish them). The problem for most people is how to make a living from what you really enjoy, so let’s focus on that…
I’m sure you have heard the phrase “struggling artist”. The stereotype where a creative person, musicians, actors, writers and artists, struggle to get discovered and work long hours on horrible day jobs, often in retail and hospitality, until hopefully they finally break out, get discovered and become famous. It shouldn’t surprise you that the ratio of struggling artists who actually become famous enough to live off their craft also follows an 80/20 Rule – only a small few of the overall total manage to get that far.
The same can be said for entrepreneurs. How many of you now reading this article are working day jobs, jobs you probably don’t like much, while you work hard after-hours to get your dream business up and running?
In truth, and this is a sad fact, most people in the world work jobs they don’t like and only truly live their passions on weekends and outside of working hours. Only a small sample actually lives their passions day in and day out, how they want to and when they want to. If you want to become one of the special few so you can live your passions on your terms there are a few things you can do.
Focus On Your Passions, Not Material Possessions
The simple fact is not everyone can be a famous artist. Not everyone will start a million dollar business. I’m not going to tell you stop striving for those goals, I’m working on them myself, however you can work smarter TODAY to find greater fulfillment, and that is what living an 80/20 lifestyle is all about. Best of all, your likelihood of becoming one of the famous artists or entrepreneurs is enhanced if you tweak your life to follow the 80/20 Rule because you tap into what you do best more often.
The first thing you must decide, and this is often the hardest step, is to determine what it is exactly you have passion for. Some people can answer this question easily – “I want to be a famous pianists/singer/poet/author”, “I’d like to run my own real estate agency/coffee shop/advertising company” etc. Others may have a general idea “I don’t want a day job” or “I want to run a business” but the specifics are not sorted yet. If you are not sure what your passions are all I can suggest is test yourself. It’s usually easy to determine what you DON’T like so keep doing that until you find what it is you DO like.
Outputs Vs Inputs
I’d like to make a point about outputs vs inputs before moving on. Most humans are good consumers – we are good at taking inputs. Chances are you can easily rattle off a bunch of things you do enjoy about your life: eating out at nice restaurants, consuming junk food, reading books and magazines, going to parties and dance clubs, watching movies and DVDs, listening to music, meeting new people, surfing the net, having sex, playing sports and shopping. All of these activities more or less are inputs which mean you consume the outputs of other people.
You may consider the activities I just mentioned passions but it’s hard to find a sustainable passion if all you do is consume. To foster an 80/20 lifestyle you need to locate activities that are passions for you because you create output for others to enjoy. Yes you can get paid to have sex, watch movies, eat at restaurants and read books, but chances are you won’t find it fulfilling or sustainable for very long OR you will be required to provide something back as part of your involvement – that’s your output, the value you create.
It’s okay to love eating out at restaurants and claiming your passion is food, if your intention is to also create output by starting your own restaurant, or a restaurant reviews website or a newsletter or magazine or becoming a chef. If you enjoy listening to music you might also enjoy producing your own music or covering the music industry as a journalist on your own blog.
Only by producing output for other people to enjoy or make practical use of can you expect to convert a passion into a sustainable income. You should understand this already as I suspect the times in your life that you have created something for others or worked on something that benefited other people you experienced the most fulfillment. If you suffer from a lack of direction now, if you are depressed because you don’t even know what your passions are to start applying the 80/20 Rule to, you need to do one thing – start being creative and giving back – produce output! You won’t find fulfillment only by consuming.
An 80/20 Lifestyle Blueprint
To start living 80/20 today you have only to do one thing – focus your energies on what you enjoy.
Part time work – Part time passion
Many people work a full time job and work after hours on a business or hobby or creative talent. If this is you I suspect your ratio is not 80/20 and probably closer to 20/80. You spend way too much time at a job you don’t like, you are probably not very motivated to do it well so you don’t fall into the vital 80/20 employees for that company, and by the time you get home you are too exhausted to spend time on your passion. You feel like you are getting nowhere fast. This lifestyle is not good for anyone since all the relationships fall into the 80 percent that produce 20 percent of the value. You get very little from it and the people you work for get very little from you.
If this currently describes your situation what you need to do is start changing those ratios. Reduce the amount of time you spend at a job you don’t like and increase the amount of time you spend on your passion. You may say you can’t do that because you need the money but I suspect you don’t really need as much as you think you do. Most people can live off part time work but choose to work more because they want more things. You may see your peers enjoying material goods which creates desires in you. Your wants start to outweigh your needs, which is probably the biggest pitfall in our modern, advertising driven, materialistic society.
I’m not saying you have to live like a pauper but I know that your real happiness comes from spending time doing things you enjoy the most, not from earning more money. Chasing the dollar for the sake of the dollar does not work. Chasing passion often leads to a greater income because the quality of your output is so much higher. Focus your energy on increasing investment in your core strengths and you will reap rewards.
Drop your working hours to three days per week and spend more time attracting more clients, booking more singing gigs, finding more time to write your novel or to develop your invention or code your software or find investors or whatever it is you really want to do.
For those of you who have no intention of turning your passions into money generating enterprises this is still a good option. If money isn’t your primary concern but your music is, why do you spend so much time working to earn more money than you need? Yes you need to plan for the future and build assets, but clearly for your musical soul it’s not something that needs to take the majority of your time and energy. You can be happy without that mansion by the sea and you never know, if you spent more time on your music the eventual album sales may one day lead to that mansion by the sea. If not, at least you will be a lot happier for following your enthusiasm rather than the dollar.
If financial freedom is important to you and a big part of your plans look at this step as phase one and work to convert your passions into income generating propositions. Grow your business client-by-client, gig-by-gig or sale-by-sale. keep adjusting your work vs passion time ratio as your business grows to support you and you no longer need your job income. Look for 80/20 activities in everything you do and drop any inefficiencies as soon as you can.
Don’t Let Fear Stop You
The biggest factor that stops most people from chasing their dreams and working towards their real goals is fear. Fear of the lack of security, the reduced paycheck and of the unknown future keeps people locked into routines that are not satisfying. That path leads to sadness, depression, poor health, low income and ultimately an early death. Who wants that!
Don’t let fear be the reason for not achieving your goals. Stop, reassess your real passions, remove the money equation long enough so you can think without worrying about finances, and make plans to move towards your 80/20 lifestyle activities. Maximize what you are good at. Find the activities that produce the most results for you and your business and put your energy where the big rewards are.
Written by Yaro
The 80/20 rule sounds like a statistic and in some ways it is. Personally I’m not a big fan of mathematics and beyond basic web statistics like pageviews, impressions, and unique visitors – and when I stretch myself – conversion rates and split testing, I try and avoid all complex numbers. I work better with feelings, ideas and concepts.
The good thing about the 80/20 rule is that you don’t have to understand statistics to be a believer. Yes it has foundations in economics and yes, it was “proven” using statistical analysis by a man named Pareto, but it is not meant to be understood only by economics professors.
Here’s what the Wikipedia has to say about it:
The principle was suggested by management thinker Joseph M. Juran. It was named after the Italian economist Vilfredo Pareto, who observed that 80% of income in Italy was received by 20% of the Italian population. The assumption is that most of the results in any situation are determined by a small number of causes.
I can’t remember exactly when I was first exposed to the 80/20 Rule but I know when it first really hit home. I was in my local bookshop and I picked up a copy of Living The 80/20 Way by Richard Koch. Koch took the 80/20 Rule and made it his own by writing a series of books on the topic. Living The 80/20 Way fit me well because it discussed living life productively seeking maximum satisfaction by focusing on your passions (Koch has written other books focusing on the 80/20 Rule for business and managers that I didn’t enjoy quite as much). At the time I sometimes accused myself of being lazy for not “working hard” but I realized what I was doing was living an 80/20 lifestyle and in fact probably being a lot more productive than those working harder than myself.
What Exactly Is The 80/20 Rule?
By the numbers it means that 80 percent of your outcomes come from 20 percent of your inputs. As Pareto demonstrated with his research this “rule” holds true, in a very rough sense, to an 80/20 ratio, however in many cases the ratio can be a lot higher – 99/1 may be closer to reality.
It really doesn’t matter what numbers you apply, the important thing to understand is that in your life there are certain activities you do (your 20 percent) that account for the majority (your 80 percent) of your happiness and outputs.
You may have expected me to say that 20 percent of your activities produce 80 percent of your financial rewards, and that is true, there are probably a handful of activities you do each week that produce your income. You can definitely apply the 80/20 Rule to most aspects of your business or working life, however I believe your overall happiness and satisfaction are much better variables to focus on. Money certainly plays an important role in your happiness and your money is influenced by 80/20 relationships, but it is only a component that leads to your overall well being, which should be your primary concern.
80/20 Examples
There are many economic conditions, for example the distribution of wealth and resources on planet earth, where a small percentage of the population controls the biggest chunk, which clearly demonstrate the 80/20 Rule. There are businesses examples such as 20 percent of employees are responsible for 80 percent of a company’s output or 20 percent of customers are responsible for 80 percent of the revenues (or usually even more disparate ratios). These are not hard rules, not every company will be like this and the ratio won’t be exactly 80/20, but chances are if you look at many key metrics in a business there is definitely a minority creating a majority.
At a micro level just by looking at your daily habits you can find plenty of examples where the 80/20 Rule applies. You probably make most of your phone calls to a very small amount of the people you have numbers for. You likely spend a large chunk of your money on few things (perhaps rent, mortgage payments or food). There is a good chance that you spend most of your time with only a few people from the entire pool of people you know.
I’ll present to you how the 80/20 Rule applies to my life and how I have used the concept, although not always deliberately – it’s just the way I construct my life (for maximum pleasure!) - To improve the efficiency of my output and enhance my overall lifestyle.
My 80/20 Life
In my life I’ve noticed plenty of 80/20 ratios and generally they relate to my core competencies and passions. I really enjoy writing articles such as this, recording podcasts and interacting with other business people through Skype and blogging. In terms of rewards, the two-to-four hours or so per day that I spend writing – when I’m in the creative zone and my best work comes out almost effortlessly – is my money time. My articles and podcasts work hardest to generate income for me, create business opportunities and allow me to express myself creatively. I get the most financial and intrinsic satisfaction from this time.
I expect you could tell me a similar story about your life. During times you really enjoy yourself your output is at its peak. Your passion activities probably don’t pay your bills at the moment, which unfortunately means that you can’t sustain your life by indulging only in what you enjoy. I’ll talk more about transforming your life to a financially stable and personally fulfilling 80/20 format later in this article.
During some times in my life I struggle and waste time performing activities I don’t enjoy or I am not good at. For example bookkeeping is not high on my fun list. I don’t always like managing keywords in Google AdWords campaigns because I don’t have the patience to thoroughly test the variables and track the numbers. The same can be said for things like Google Analytics. These activities are more numerical in basis, I’m not a numbers person so when possible I leave these tasks, along with other activities like programming, graphic design and proofreading to other people, the specialists who enjoy them.
Some of my time is spent procrastinating or working inefficiently doing activities that provide very little benefit. This often occurs when I am tired or below peak physical condition. I sometimes lack the mental throughput to motivate myself to be productive (and boy, my writing stinks when I’m tired!), but I’m working on it and getting much better at reducing time wastage. When I’m in this state it’s smarter for me to study – read books and eBooks – because I’m not capable of producing quality output, but taking input – learning – is a good use of time when I am not there 100 percent mentally.
80/20 Business
When I look at one of my businesses, BetterEdit.com, it’s very clear that a small handful of repeat customers account for most of the income. The customers who become long-term users, who gain the most from the services and fit well demographically and socially with the business model, are key. They provide 80 percent of the value but only represent 20 percent (or much less) of the overall people that use the business. My job is to determine the best way to attract and convert more customers into long-term users.
With blogging I learnt (and teach in my Blog Traffic Tips newsletter) that there are a handful of activities that I do every day that produce the most results. Breaking things down further, there are usually a key 20 percent of elements within an individual blog article (think article headline) that have the most dramatic affect on results. The numbers of course are not clean 80/20 ratios but there are definitely dominant factors at play.
In a business sense, finding the 80/20 ratios is crucial for maximizing performance. Find the products or services that generate the most income (the 20 percent) and drop the rest (the 80 percent) that only provide marginal benefits. Spend your time working on the parts of the business that you can improve significantly with your core skills and leave the tasks that are outside your best 20 percent to other people. Work hardest on elements that work hardest for you. Reward the best employees well, cull the worst. Drop the bad clients and focus on upselling and improving service to the best clients.
How You Can Live an 80/20 Lifestyle
When you start to analyze and breakdown your life into elements it’s very easy to see 80/20 ratios all over the place. The trick, once your key happiness determinants have been identified, is to make everything work in harmony and avoid wasting time on those 80 percent activities that produce little satisfaction for you.
The message is simple enough – focus on activities that produce the best outcomes for you. This applies to both your business/working life and your “other” life (I think they are all part of your “life” but people often prefer to distinguish them). The problem for most people is how to make a living from what you really enjoy, so let’s focus on that…
I’m sure you have heard the phrase “struggling artist”. The stereotype where a creative person, musicians, actors, writers and artists, struggle to get discovered and work long hours on horrible day jobs, often in retail and hospitality, until hopefully they finally break out, get discovered and become famous. It shouldn’t surprise you that the ratio of struggling artists who actually become famous enough to live off their craft also follows an 80/20 Rule – only a small few of the overall total manage to get that far.
The same can be said for entrepreneurs. How many of you now reading this article are working day jobs, jobs you probably don’t like much, while you work hard after-hours to get your dream business up and running?
In truth, and this is a sad fact, most people in the world work jobs they don’t like and only truly live their passions on weekends and outside of working hours. Only a small sample actually lives their passions day in and day out, how they want to and when they want to. If you want to become one of the special few so you can live your passions on your terms there are a few things you can do.
Focus On Your Passions, Not Material Possessions
The simple fact is not everyone can be a famous artist. Not everyone will start a million dollar business. I’m not going to tell you stop striving for those goals, I’m working on them myself, however you can work smarter TODAY to find greater fulfillment, and that is what living an 80/20 lifestyle is all about. Best of all, your likelihood of becoming one of the famous artists or entrepreneurs is enhanced if you tweak your life to follow the 80/20 Rule because you tap into what you do best more often.
The first thing you must decide, and this is often the hardest step, is to determine what it is exactly you have passion for. Some people can answer this question easily – “I want to be a famous pianists/singer/poet/author”, “I’d like to run my own real estate agency/coffee shop/advertising company” etc. Others may have a general idea “I don’t want a day job” or “I want to run a business” but the specifics are not sorted yet. If you are not sure what your passions are all I can suggest is test yourself. It’s usually easy to determine what you DON’T like so keep doing that until you find what it is you DO like.
Outputs Vs Inputs
I’d like to make a point about outputs vs inputs before moving on. Most humans are good consumers – we are good at taking inputs. Chances are you can easily rattle off a bunch of things you do enjoy about your life: eating out at nice restaurants, consuming junk food, reading books and magazines, going to parties and dance clubs, watching movies and DVDs, listening to music, meeting new people, surfing the net, having sex, playing sports and shopping. All of these activities more or less are inputs which mean you consume the outputs of other people.
You may consider the activities I just mentioned passions but it’s hard to find a sustainable passion if all you do is consume. To foster an 80/20 lifestyle you need to locate activities that are passions for you because you create output for others to enjoy. Yes you can get paid to have sex, watch movies, eat at restaurants and read books, but chances are you won’t find it fulfilling or sustainable for very long OR you will be required to provide something back as part of your involvement – that’s your output, the value you create.
It’s okay to love eating out at restaurants and claiming your passion is food, if your intention is to also create output by starting your own restaurant, or a restaurant reviews website or a newsletter or magazine or becoming a chef. If you enjoy listening to music you might also enjoy producing your own music or covering the music industry as a journalist on your own blog.
Only by producing output for other people to enjoy or make practical use of can you expect to convert a passion into a sustainable income. You should understand this already as I suspect the times in your life that you have created something for others or worked on something that benefited other people you experienced the most fulfillment. If you suffer from a lack of direction now, if you are depressed because you don’t even know what your passions are to start applying the 80/20 Rule to, you need to do one thing – start being creative and giving back – produce output! You won’t find fulfillment only by consuming.
An 80/20 Lifestyle Blueprint
To start living 80/20 today you have only to do one thing – focus your energies on what you enjoy.
Part time work – Part time passion
Many people work a full time job and work after hours on a business or hobby or creative talent. If this is you I suspect your ratio is not 80/20 and probably closer to 20/80. You spend way too much time at a job you don’t like, you are probably not very motivated to do it well so you don’t fall into the vital 80/20 employees for that company, and by the time you get home you are too exhausted to spend time on your passion. You feel like you are getting nowhere fast. This lifestyle is not good for anyone since all the relationships fall into the 80 percent that produce 20 percent of the value. You get very little from it and the people you work for get very little from you.
If this currently describes your situation what you need to do is start changing those ratios. Reduce the amount of time you spend at a job you don’t like and increase the amount of time you spend on your passion. You may say you can’t do that because you need the money but I suspect you don’t really need as much as you think you do. Most people can live off part time work but choose to work more because they want more things. You may see your peers enjoying material goods which creates desires in you. Your wants start to outweigh your needs, which is probably the biggest pitfall in our modern, advertising driven, materialistic society.
I’m not saying you have to live like a pauper but I know that your real happiness comes from spending time doing things you enjoy the most, not from earning more money. Chasing the dollar for the sake of the dollar does not work. Chasing passion often leads to a greater income because the quality of your output is so much higher. Focus your energy on increasing investment in your core strengths and you will reap rewards.
Drop your working hours to three days per week and spend more time attracting more clients, booking more singing gigs, finding more time to write your novel or to develop your invention or code your software or find investors or whatever it is you really want to do.
For those of you who have no intention of turning your passions into money generating enterprises this is still a good option. If money isn’t your primary concern but your music is, why do you spend so much time working to earn more money than you need? Yes you need to plan for the future and build assets, but clearly for your musical soul it’s not something that needs to take the majority of your time and energy. You can be happy without that mansion by the sea and you never know, if you spent more time on your music the eventual album sales may one day lead to that mansion by the sea. If not, at least you will be a lot happier for following your enthusiasm rather than the dollar.
If financial freedom is important to you and a big part of your plans look at this step as phase one and work to convert your passions into income generating propositions. Grow your business client-by-client, gig-by-gig or sale-by-sale. keep adjusting your work vs passion time ratio as your business grows to support you and you no longer need your job income. Look for 80/20 activities in everything you do and drop any inefficiencies as soon as you can.
Don’t Let Fear Stop You
The biggest factor that stops most people from chasing their dreams and working towards their real goals is fear. Fear of the lack of security, the reduced paycheck and of the unknown future keeps people locked into routines that are not satisfying. That path leads to sadness, depression, poor health, low income and ultimately an early death. Who wants that!
Don’t let fear be the reason for not achieving your goals. Stop, reassess your real passions, remove the money equation long enough so you can think without worrying about finances, and make plans to move towards your 80/20 lifestyle activities. Maximize what you are good at. Find the activities that produce the most results for you and your business and put your energy where the big rewards are.
Written by Yaro
Saturday, February 5, 2011
TRUE FRIENDS
2011 is already 36 days down the line and we still counting, did we make each second that passed count? Where are we making the adjustments and how many goals have we met by now? In your relationships, how many have u built and how many have you dropped? How many people around us do we have as TRUE FRIENDS?
Visited an ice cream factory and what I saw kept me thinking where do friends draw the line between helping you and destroying you. I ran into some ladies one of them about 400kg (if I’m not exaggerating) and her other friends where about normal in size. I didn’t understand why she had to be there…..but she wasn’t my problem in all fairness, I just had an issue with her friends she came to the factory with.
It was obvious she had a bad eating habit and an ice cream factory shouldn’t be anything in her list of hang out spots but the problem here is were her friends scared of enforcing the no go area rule to help her or were they trying not to bruise her ego and still play “I’m loyal to your government”. Looking back, I see me doing almost what her friends did but now I don’t wish and won’t do it to anyone of my friends. I pledge to be true to all my real friends and I just added it to my list of resolutions and hope you all stay true to me so I can be a better person……
Have a wonderful 2011
Visited an ice cream factory and what I saw kept me thinking where do friends draw the line between helping you and destroying you. I ran into some ladies one of them about 400kg (if I’m not exaggerating) and her other friends where about normal in size. I didn’t understand why she had to be there…..but she wasn’t my problem in all fairness, I just had an issue with her friends she came to the factory with.
It was obvious she had a bad eating habit and an ice cream factory shouldn’t be anything in her list of hang out spots but the problem here is were her friends scared of enforcing the no go area rule to help her or were they trying not to bruise her ego and still play “I’m loyal to your government”. Looking back, I see me doing almost what her friends did but now I don’t wish and won’t do it to anyone of my friends. I pledge to be true to all my real friends and I just added it to my list of resolutions and hope you all stay true to me so I can be a better person……
Have a wonderful 2011
Its cougar town
The wise man and king-Solomon said that there is nothing new under the sun and to my amazement I see almost a reoccurrence in everything, from fashion to cars to house designs and to anything trendy...but there seem to be one I don’t think has existed before now. If u think it has, maybe you have to share. It’s COUGAR TOWN
I can’t tell if it has happened before but just like the life span of man has been gradually reduced from over 900 in the days of Adam to 50 in some countries now, we have seen the age men and women get married gradually push up from late teens and early twenties in our parents and grandparents era to early thirties and late thirties now, God forbid it gets to early forties. But the concern here really isn’t for on the guys, cos once a guy got some necessities, he can do it even at 50.
The talk is now on the ladies, a time has come when she crosses a certain age without no real relationships she gets pressured and after say about a few more years down the line is either she resigns her fate to become either a "mature lady" or its "welcome to Cougar town”. The problem here is in Africa and especially Nigeria we frown at COUGARISM...if there's any word like that but in true word does it really matter? Could it really be a trend in the near future or will it continued to be frowned at, Cos I have seen folks do it here and there. Wouldn’t it really help the female folk get the pressure off their shoulders if its generally acceptable, cos in the long run its about living happily and fulfilling purpose...what are the dangers if any, how many of you won’t mind doing it????
Please don’t read and walk away....drop a comment it can help clear the confusion in some peoples head
I can’t tell if it has happened before but just like the life span of man has been gradually reduced from over 900 in the days of Adam to 50 in some countries now, we have seen the age men and women get married gradually push up from late teens and early twenties in our parents and grandparents era to early thirties and late thirties now, God forbid it gets to early forties. But the concern here really isn’t for on the guys, cos once a guy got some necessities, he can do it even at 50.
The talk is now on the ladies, a time has come when she crosses a certain age without no real relationships she gets pressured and after say about a few more years down the line is either she resigns her fate to become either a "mature lady" or its "welcome to Cougar town”. The problem here is in Africa and especially Nigeria we frown at COUGARISM...if there's any word like that but in true word does it really matter? Could it really be a trend in the near future or will it continued to be frowned at, Cos I have seen folks do it here and there. Wouldn’t it really help the female folk get the pressure off their shoulders if its generally acceptable, cos in the long run its about living happily and fulfilling purpose...what are the dangers if any, how many of you won’t mind doing it????
Please don’t read and walk away....drop a comment it can help clear the confusion in some peoples head
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