image: transformfxfitness.com

If you don't go forward you are actually going backwards, because the world will pass you and leave you behind.

We now live in a very competitive world. Gone are the days when only the royals could determine the pace of growth. A lot more people are educated in this age and are putting to active use their education. People, in quantities and qualities not previously seen, are trying to change every field of human endeavour and push the human race forward. Everything changes drastically in very few years.

Just 15 years ago, there were no mobile phones in Nigeria. Today, it's almost impossible to live without one. There was no MTN, no Globacom, no Etisalat and no Econet/Vmobile/Celtel/Zain/Airtel. No Slot. No one knew Computer Village. It's now a miracle how we lived then.

The most interesting part of this fast paced change is that it wipes out the companies and people who stand still, and empowers those who are constantly stretching themselves.

There was a time Nokia dominated the phone market. It was even regarded as a highly innovative company and object of many research papers on corporate success. Now it is dead. Both in the phone market it once dominated and even as a company. And why? It didn't move forward fast enough. iPhone and Android came from nowhere and killed it. 

Whenever you stand still, you are sliding backwards. 

In your career, if you don't keep improving and learning new skills, soon all your years of experience will look inferior to the skills of a fresh university graduate.

In your relationship, if it is not growing it is actually dying.

In your personal life, if you stay within your comfort zone you will keep missing out of the abundance around.

In all that matters to you, you mustn't stand still. Always keep moving forward.

If you ask me what are my plans for the coming years, you can be sure of one consistent direct answer -- To move into the enterprise applications development space. In short, I plan to become a programmer who builds and sells applications to businesses and business users.

Just as Reid Hoffman, the CEO of LinkedIn, said in his book -- The Startup of You -- have a plan A, have a plan B and finally have a plan Z. Plan A is that big goal that will revolutionize your entire life and business if you succeed; it is the plan you really want to make happen. Plan B is the plan you have much more luck in achieving and can fall back on. Plan Z is the no brainer that will sustain you if the other two plans are taking too long or plain failing.

For me, plan A is building an enterprise applications/solutions firm. A full B2B company.

Plan B is building a Business Data Analysis firm. Helping both companies and individuals with their data analysis needs.

Plan Z is doing Microsoft Excel training and consulting. It is the thing that I can easily make money from and do even in my sleep. All it takes from me is time. I do it effortlessly.

The real work has been in managing all these plans. I have now gotten plan Z all well set up. I now get constant stream of Microsoft Excel training and consulting opportunities that can keep me and my business breathing. And as regards plan B, I am expanding my toolset beyond Microsoft Excel and positioning myself as a well-rounded Business Data Analysis expert. And just recently I got a consulting role with an international training firm to handle their Business Analytics training in Nigeria and environs. But my big audacious goal (BAG) is to go full-time into the enterprise applications development space (plan A). To build products that I can sell to companies, charge annual license and make money while sleeping.

And to achieve that lofty goal I need to become a professional programmer. And I am glad to let you know that I am already 75% into completing that requirement. In fact, on my resume/profile I am going to put myself as a professional programmer.

image: tbo.com

So how can you become a professional programmer?

1. If you google the term "professional programmer" you will get many diverging answers mostly from people who like to make everything look very hard. Programming is hard, no doubt, but not harder than other job skills. I believe public speaking is way harder than programming and I don't see public speaking experts making it look extremely tough, discouraging newbies. A professional programmer is someone who makes a sizeable chunk of his livelihood writing computer programs. And that's all. As long as you can write a program people are paying money for and you are earning a lot from doing that, then you are a professional programmer.
2. Now that we have made clear the goal. Your first step would be to learn programming. To read books, watch tutorial videos and do some practice.
3. Second step would be to tackle live projects -- yours or someone else's. Let people know about your programming ambition/skill. Take on projects, whether for free or fee. The goal is to become creative enough to figure out solutions without express guidance.
4. Third step is to start charging for your solutions. Once you have done enough reading and practice, start charging for your programming jobs. Sign up on freelance sites, put it up on your blog and tell people within your network.

And that is how you become a professional programmer. Once you get to the last step, all it would take for you to become a sought-after expert would be time. As long as you keep putting in time doing valuable work and improving your skills through reading/tutorials, you will soon be as great as the programmers you read about.

I am currently at the next to the last stage. That is why I said I am 75% done.

Yesterday while working on the Go Where The Average Is Great post I came across a very deep article on why our education system is not designed to bring the best out of everyone.

It is a fairly long article and you can reach it all here: Quote Investigator. But I have extracted the juiciest part of the article and pasted it below. 

I hope you'll enjoy it.

A long time ago, when the animal creation was being differentiated into swimmers, climbers, fliers, and runners, there was a school for the development of the animals. The theory of the school was that the best animals should be able to do one thing as well as another; and if there was an apparent aptitude in a given animal for doing one thing and an apparent inaptitude for doing other things, the time and effort should be spent upon the latter instead of the former.

If one had short legs and good wings, the attention should be given to running so as to even up the qualities as far as possible. So the duck was kept waddling instead of swimming, the pelican was kept wagging his short wings in the attempt to fly. The eagle was made to run and allowed to fly only for recreation, while maturing tadpoles were unmercifully guyed for being neither one thing nor another.

All this in the name of Education.

Nature was not to be trusted in her make up of individuals, for individuals should be symmetrically developed and similar for their own welfare as well as for the welfare of the community. The animals that would not submit to such training, but persisted in developing the best gifts they had, were dishonored, called narrow-minded and specialists, and special difficulties were placed in their way when they attempted to ignore the theory of education recognized by the school.

No one was allowed to graduate from that school unless he could climb, swim, run, and fly at a certain prescribed rate. So it happened that the time taken by the duck in learning to run the prescribed rate had so hindered him from swimming that he was scarcely able to swim at the prescribed rate, and in addition he had been scolded, threatened, punished, and ill-treated in many ways so as to make his life a burden, and he left school humiliated, and the ornithorhyncus could beat him either running or swimming. Indeed, the latter carried off the prize in two departments.

The eagle made no headway in climbing to the top of a tree. Though he showed he could get there just the same, the performance was counted a demerit, as it had not been done in the prescribed way.

An abnormal eel with large pectoral fins proved he could run, swim, climb trees, and fly a little; he was made valedictorian.

... [and a revised version below]

The following treatise upon the higher education comes to me by way of an MIT professor, but whether the authorship is his, I don’t know. It says: One time the animals had a school. The curriculum consisted of running climbing, flying and swimming, and all the animals took all the subjects.

The Duck was good in swimming—better, in fact, than his instructor—and he made passing grades in flying, but he was practically hopeless in running. Because he was low in this subject, he was made to stay after school and drop his swimming class in order to practice running. He kept this up until he was only average in swimming, but average was passing so nobody worried about that except the duck.

The Eagle was considered a problem pupil and was disciplined severely. He beat all others to the top of the tree in the climbing class, but he always used his own way of getting there.

The Rabbit started at the top of the class in running, but he had a nervous breakdown and had to drop out of school on account of so much make-up work in swimming.

The Squirrel led the climbing class, but his flying teacher made him start his flying from the ground up instead of from the top down, and he developed charley horses from overexertion at the takeoff and began getting C’s in climbing and D’s in running.

The practical Prairie Dogs apprenticed their offspring to the Badgers when the school authorities refused to add digging to the curriculum.


At the end of the year, an abnormal Eel that could swim well and run, climb and fly a little was made Valedictorian.

image: greentribunal.in

What makes one land greener than the other is that the same seed given the same care will flourish better in one than the other.

It is more difficult to become a rich farmer than to become a rich politician. And it is because the average politician is rich while the average farmer is poor. The same goes for education -- it is way easier to become a rich educated man than to become a rich illiterate. 

The main reason Lagos is overpopulated is because almost everyone knows that an average Lagos hustler makes more money than the average village hustler. And it's same for why the US embassy is flooded with visa applicants. People know that the same diligence will bring you way more financial reward and a better life in the US than in Nigeria.

Without the skewed influence of TV, Radio and the entire media industry, we all know that it is better to go where the average is great. That is why, while growing up, our parents would rather starve than not have us go to school. They knew the average is better for the educated child than the uneducated one.

But the moment we take in too much of television and movies, we begin to lose our judgement of where the average is great. We begin to want to become a footballer, a musician, a newscaster, a journalist, an actor/actress, a heist expert and a super rich employee. Our thinking becomes clouded by the strong visuals from the TV and movies. We forget that the average footballer is not one of those playing in european leagues; the average footballer is one unknown and not-rich guy. We forget that the average musician is not among the few you see on TV. We forget that the average journalist is not at all rich or even famous. We forget that the average actor is all hustle and little to show for it guy. We forget that the heist movies we watch are far from the typical reality; robbery isn't lucrative, it is public fund looting that is lucrative. And the big one -- an average entrepreneur is several times richer than the average employee.

Albert Einstein said, "Everyone is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid."

People in the US aren't all wiser, smarter and more hardworking than us. It's the few nutheads deciding our national fate up there who have made us all look stupid. They have made the average for us worse and well below the average for the americans by privatising the national wealth/resources and nationalizing the resulting problems. They steal and go; we bear the pain. And it is a powerful illustration of how real the influence of difference in average can affect even an entire nation.

The sad part is the one we inflict on ourselves, by our individual choices. When a student decides to quit school and start trying to get Don Jazzy's attention hoping to be the next Godwin; he needs a math lesson on average. When you take a decision that puts you in the terrible average category, you are robbing yourself without keeping the loot.

Just like in business, you need to have your payback analysis right and your average success rate right. You have to go where your chances are better and the payback well worth it.

In summary, you should always go where the average is great. 

If you've been nursing an entrepreneurial dream or wanting to grow sales of your business, then today's post (a sponsored post) would be of great interest to you. 

Frankly who needs a sales and entrepreneurship seminar?

Virtually everyone.  

Are you a sales representative?  

Are you an entrepreneur who simply needs to make more sales on a tight budget?  

Are you a manufacturer, importer, or do you offer a service?  

Then this one day training is for you.  

Holding in Lagos at Kristina Jade Learning Centre we at 5 Century Phoenix bring you 

• Michael Olafusi, globally recognised Microsoft Excel genius and entrepreneur, 
• Okorie Okpanku, front line sales consultant, 
• and other motivational speakers 

as they expound various entrepreneurial and selling principles to get your product into the public domain with a moderate budget.  

Date: 26 September 2015

Time: 12noon to 6pm

Venue: Kristina Jade Learning Centre, 70b Olorunlogbon street, after Banex Hotel, Anthony Village, Lagos.

Join us as we help you unleash your inner sales guru.  Seminar fee is N30,000 for advanced booking and N40,000 at the venue. Limited slots available call 08105015105 to book your place today.

Most times, online, when making payment you get a lot of options. And usually, PayPal is one of those options. In today's post I'll share with you why you should give preference to using PayPal over the other payment options.

Have you ever made a purchase for someone and your card details are left in the person's account, then one day you get a debit alert showing that the person had made a purchase and you are the one billed. Well it has happened to me before. I helped a friend activate his iTunes account with my debit card and then one day I got three debit notifications. He had purchase some apps on iTunes and I'm the one billed. I wasn't happy at all.

But there is another that I am still struggling to avoid. Occasionally, I help people set up their website domains. It's a very easy process and I don't want them to be ripped off. The unpleasant side is I have to use my card for the $15 purchase. And the domain seller keeps my card details for renewal each year. And it is very not easy to explain to non-techy people. So I try to find a simple way to manage it.

These two points above brings us to PayPal's advantage number 1. PayPal allows you cancel from your PayPal account page any recurring payment. You don't need to have access to the site your payment detail was entered (like I didn't have to the iTunes account of that my friend). From PayPal you simply cancel the authorization for that website to automatically charge your card. And this has saved me a lot of times from websites that don't even make the cancellation page on their site easy to find. I just head to PayPal and cancel from there.

Advantage number two is that you can request for a refund. Within 180 days of making any purchase you have a buyers protection that allows you to initiate a refund request if you feel you were shortchanged. No other payment options that give you that latitude. Imagine making an online payment via Interswitch and 2 months after you call Interswitch that you want a refund as the product you bought was inferior. You'll be the subject of fun discussion in the customer care department that day.

Advantage number 3 is that your card details are safe and even protected from the seller. This greatly reduces your risk of being defrauded online. The seller wouldn't have access to bill you directly or have record of your card details. And unlike Interswitch, you don't have to enter it always (plus the annoying token extra step).

Advantage number 4 is that it is the most friendly and non-cumbersome payment process to use. All the others require too many steps and form filling. PayPal makes your online shopping life simple.

And those are the benefits of using PayPal over the other payment options.

Most people work a 9 hours a day, 5 days a week job. Mine is from the moment I wake up to the moment I force myself to go sleep so as to wake up early the next day. So I work an all (awake) hours a day and 7 days a week job. And sometimes with no break throughout the day. Yet I manage to do a blog post everyday.

I know it is an extremely intensive and consuming work life, but it's the only way I can grow my business. I am at the survival/start phase of my company and it is the phase where you give it your all. The harder you work at this phase, the quicker you'll get to the next phase and be able to slow down. 

Almost everything I am doing at this phase is foundational. In the last one year:

•  I have written from scratch the comprehensive Excel training manual I use, 
• I have recorded a 7 hours video Excel course (took months to make)
• Started a monthly Excel training program
• Published a book
• Partnered with over 6 training organizations to handle their Excel courses
• Created a roadmap for my business
• Got myself invited for a radio programme as the sole guest
• Got myself invited for a Channels TV programme to talk about my field of expertise
• Learned like crazy on the job and wrote seemingly impossible programs for clients
• And most importantly, worked like crazy to become profitable after several months of living solely on my life savings (and finishing it)

These are things you can't outsource but have to do yourself. I don't know what will work until I do them and see the feedback. But someday soon, I will come upon a blueprint that will work always and move the business from survival stage to growth stage. Then I can get a more normal work life.

So where do my blog post ideas come from? How do I keep up with the daily article writing despite my hectic day schedule?

I don't know where my blog post ideas come from but I do know that my brain works the most when it's 7:15 am and I haven't yet done my blog post for the day. It's like there is a gun to my head and I have to deliver a blog post in 30 mins or something terrible will happen. And I tell you, nothing can motivate you and make you creative better than that. I just have to write, something. Anything.

If you know how short the time I spend in writing the articles you daily see from me is, you would probably not take them seriously and understand why they often have funny grammar errors. On some days, I edit the article after it is already sent out. 

Writing daily has positively changed my life. It helps me start my day with the adrenaline rush I need to face my crazy day. It gives me the confidence that comes with knowing that I can be reliable and steadfast especially when I there is no immediate reward. And it has made me a faster, better and clearer thinker. It is one of the few things that give me an inexplicable joy. And that's why I will continue to write daily.

image: hexus.net

For people like me this is a choice of which first, because I know that I would definitely use more than one type. And currently I own three of the four types: iPhone, Android and Windows.

My first smartphone was android: HTC Dream. It was also the first android phone made. I bought it in 2009 or 2010, can't clearly remember. It was like owning a pocket PC. It had a full QWERTY physical keyboard and I used it like a computer. I filled job application forms on it, blogged from it and geo-tagged everywhere I went (using Foursquare and Gowalla). I bought it purely for it's PC-like functionality. I don't think there is any other phone I have used as intensely as it.

image: androidheadlines.com

My second smartphone was a Blackberry. In 2011/2012. Now it sounds funny, but I bought it only because of the BBM. I was made an Executive at the Toastmasters Club I'm a member of and our executive meetings were often done via BBM group chat. So I had to buy a Blackberry phone. It was the most troublesome phone I have used. That damned hourglass and the constant freezing. It got hot real quick, in a few minutes of intensive use. There was nothing genuinely smart about the phone. But nowadays, things have greatly changed. Blackberry phones are now sleek and fast, no more hourglass and constant freezing. The only problem is that they are just not as popular as before. But if you need a smartphone your mum and dad can use, you should pick Blackberry over Android and iPhone, especially the Blackberry with physical keys.

My third smartphone was another android. The Samsung Galaxy S2. In 2012. It was very expensive, even after waiting for the price to crash I still bought it for N66,000. And that was a big chunk of my salary. I thought I could use it like the HTC Dream but it disappointed me. I soon found out that android phones are not upgrade friendly and become much less useable real fast. If you are not a fan of getting a new phone every 2 years or less, and you want a phone that you can be sure will retain all its smartness for over 2 years then forget about android phones.

My fourth smartphone was an iPhone. My most expensive phone. In 2014. Even though I bought it used online, it still caused me about N90,000 and that was before Naira took up it's skiing hobby. But it has been most useable smartphone. Everything it does, it does well. Not a single thing to complain about. iPhone is more about giving you a great experience than just hardware specs and functionality. My android phone can do all that my iPhone does but not in the smooth enjoyable way the iPhone does them. So if you really want a smartphone you'll be extremely happy with and money is not a big issue, iPhone is what you should go for.

And my last smartphone was a Windows phone. I bought it mainly for testing the Windows phone apps I develop. But I did use it a little. It is not as popular as the other types and have not many apps you can install on it. It is, however, very easy to use. Does all it does well too. I see older people use it. They look great, both outside and inside. If you give your tech savvy dad a high-end one you can be sure he'll be very happy with it.

So my conclusion is this:

• Buy an iPhone if you want the best smartphone experience and willing to spend big bucks (but don't buy an 8GB iPhone, it's like buying a Ferrari tricycle -- if it exists-- that space limitation will make you not enjoy it).
• Buy an android phone if you want functionality and hardware specs. And are geeky enough to max them out.
• Buy Blackberry if you want sleekness and ease of use. And now that it can run android apps, you are not limited app-wise. (Only make sure you buy the new models).
• Buy Windows phone if you want a good looking phone, value for money and ease of use; but don't mind the app limitation.

image: stepintothestory.ca

Clear thinking is when you keep any bias, especially emotional ones, out of your decision making process. It is the opposite of cloudy thinking which is not thinking things through, usually because you're being too emotional.

Clear thinking is also more like a habit that one has to acquire. It's not instinctual for us to keep strong emotions out of our decision making process. It requires deliberate effort and practice to become a clear thinker. But the benefits are immense.

Clear thinking is when you don't jump to conclusions rampantly. It is when you put yourself at the different sides of your decision-effect sphere -- in the shoes of everyone who would be affected by your decision. It is when you have a sensible and clearly outlined reason for your actions. It is when you get all the information you need and responsibly use them before making a decision.

In one sentence, clear thinking is sensibly considering all that matters before making a decision. 

It saves one not just from lots of embarrassing moments and terrible decisions, but also from a mediocre lifestyle. A high quality life depends on high quality decisions -- clear thinking. If you always take the pain to think through your decisions before making them, for some people you might be seen as annoyingly slow at deciding on what to do but in the end those same people will recognize the quality of the decisions you make and respect you for that. They will be more at ease having you make important decisions than having someone else who is superfast at coming to conclusions/decisions.

Clear thinking also enables you to grow intellectually and be better skilled in handling the affairs of life. Since you've formed a habit of thinking things through and learning from everything that happens around you, you will inevitably grow to become a better and wiser person. You will be able to recognize patterns and a lot more cause-and-effect scenarios which will even speed up your decision process and make you very certain of what you are doing. 

There is a lot to gain from forcing oneself to be relaxed, unemotional and thorough in thinking than to be fast and error-prone. In the end, one leads to a better life while the other leads to an error-full life.

We have decided to hold a special session of our Excel training for 4^th Friday and 5^th  Saturday September  2015. It would be a special opportunity for those who couldn’t make the ongoing August 21 & 22 one. 

The registration window is short and there is a class size limit of 10. If you are interested please call 08089382423 or email info@urbizedge.com

This is a special opportunity for you to be trained at a specially discounted cost by an official Microsoft Most Valuable Professional who has done Microsoft Excel consulting for Helios Towers, Coretronics, Vodacom, Globacom, Guinness, Nigerian Breweries, GEISE and many other local and international companies. He comes with a wealth of experience that is second to none in Nigeria and he is globally recognized.

You will get to learn all you need to boost your productivity at work and your career/entrepreneurial prospects. So this is an opportunity you shouldn't miss.

The training details are as follows:

Date: 4th Friday and 5th Saturday, September 2015 (9:00am to 5:00pm daily)

Venue: Kristina Jade Learning Center, 70b Olorunlogbon street, off Alade Lawal street, Idiroko b/stop, Anthony Village, Lagos state.

Cost: N50,000

The cost covers your training materials, after training support, video learning materials, certificate and lunch. Try to pay early to secure your spot and send us your name as you would like it to appear on your certificate.

Payment Details

Account Name: URBIZEDGE LIMITED

Bank: FCMB

Account No: 2888666014

Branch: Onipanu

Title: Business Data Analysis, Dashboards and In-depth Excel Training

Training Outline

1)      Data Manipulation in Excel

a.       How Excel handles different data types

b.      Data consistency, starting with the end in view

c.       Building Datasheets that can easily scale

d.      Sorting

                                                               i.      Cascaded sorting

                                                             ii.      Sorting across rows (left to right sorting, not the usual up to down sorting)

                                                            iii.      Sorting and Conditional Formatting to identify trends

e.      Filtering

f.        Data cleaning

                                                               i.      Removing duplicates

                                                             ii.      Text-to-column

                                                            iii.      Grouping

                                                           iv.      Data Validation

                                                             v.      Conditional Formatting

g.       Data formatting

                                                               i.      Using Tables (and when to convert to tables)

                                                             ii.      Formatting for printing

                                                            iii.      Formatting for email

                                                           iv.      Data Review and formatting for 3^rd party use

h.      Named Ranges

2)      Charts

a.       Chart types

                                                               i.      Line chart and when to use it

                                                             ii.      Column chart and when to use it

                                                            iii.      Bar chart and when to use it

                                                           iv.      Pie chart and when to use it

b.      Combining charts; when and how.

c.       Dynamic Charts, using filter.

d.      Best practices when making charts

e.      Sparklines

3)      Pivot Table, Pivot Chart and PowerPivot

a.       Pivot Table

                                                               i.      Default Pivot Table

                                                             ii.      Tabular Pivot Table

                                                            iii.      Pivot Table Filtering

                                                           iv.      Making a very dynamic regular table from Pivot Table

                                                             v.      Calculations and Formula use with Pivot Table

                                                           vi.      Advanced Pivot Table tricks

b.      Pivot Chart

                                                               i.      Pivot Chart and its limitations

                                                             ii.      Dynamic Pivot Charts

c.       PowerPivot (for Excel 2010 and 2013) only

4)      Business Data Analysis

a.       Linking sheets

b.      Duplicating sheets (better than copy and paste)

c.       Inserting sheets, labeling and coloring the professional way

d.      Freezing Panes and splitting windows

e.      Conditional formatting

                                                               i.      To identify patterns

                                                             ii.      Using formulae

                                                            iii.      To make extremely intelligent reports

f.        Lookup functions

                                                               i.      Vlookup

                                                             ii.      Hlookup

                                                            iii.      Looking up the last data or pattern in a particular row or column

                                                           iv.      Overcoming the limitations of Vlookup and Hlookup using index and match functions

g.       Power Functions

                                                               i.      IF, IFERROR, AND, OR, ISBLANK, and others in the same family

                                                             ii.      TEXT manipulative functions to make a completely automated Dashboard

                                                            iii.      COUNTIFS, SUMIFS, AVERAGEIFS and others, to make dynamic summary tables

                                                           iv.      MATCH and INDEX to do the impossible

h.      Other Functions

                                                               i.      Math Functions

                                                             ii.      Text Functions

                                                            iii.      Logical

                                                           iv.      Others

i.         Formula Auditing

5)      Dashboards and Reporting

a.       Best Practices

b.      Excel Dashboards

c.       Data Visualization

d.      Having the audience/recipient in mind

e.      E-mails and Excel reports

6)      Excel to PowerPoint

a.       Linking PowerPoint Charts to Excel

b.      Embedding Excel sheets in PowerPoint

c.       Making a Powerful PowerPoint Presentation

7)      Introduction to Excel VBA

a.       Recording Excel macros

The registration window is short and there is a class size limit of 10. If you are interested please call 08089382423 or email info@urbizedge.com

image: ecopolindia.wordpress.com

As a country are we growing? Is our economy improving?

I think the answer is yes. Better than any other time in our national history there is so much internal and external action-backed optimism about the economic potential of our country. Everyday I read in newspapers and online as foreign companies are seeking a presence in Nigeria and Nigerians, both young and old, are setting up businesses.

Interest has shifted away from the petroleum industry and government contracts. People are now genuinely being creative and matching global standards in their business pursuits. Every week I see new businesses (check Venture Capital for Africa) by youths who are working tirelessly to be the next Facebook, Amazon and Google. They are not seeking jobs but looking for investors. And that is a good sign. More university students now have people to look up to among their friends who left university and started a foreign investment backed business straight away. And soon, like the music industry exploded, the entrepreneurship trend will explode. Parents will soon stop lobbying to get their children into oil companies and government jobs, but to help them start their own businesses. They will become envious of their friends whose sons/daughters got a funding from an international investor and are making waves.

I think we are already at the turning point as a nation, both politically and economically. Our priorities are getting straightened. People are now extremely hardworking and want to see the results of their hardwork. They work hard at their jobs and take every opportunity to leave for a better job. They want more from their labour. Employers now know that no one stays forever, especially their top performers, so they are forced to shape up or lose every talent they have. People are also less fearful to start businesses. They now have friends who they've seen struggle hopelessly at the start of running their business but are now living like kings. At every corner, people with the education are no longer constraining themselves to getting a regular job. They now want to start something revolutionary. They want to put their ideas to work and have all the credit.

Though things still look tough, but our people have gotten tougher. No one is waiting for a miracle anymore, they are going out with all their artillery to get that miracle they want. People are no longer waiting for some mystery man to lift them up, they are now building their own doors of opportunity and forcing the hand of opportunity to knock it.

If you ask me - Are we there yet? My answer is YES.

There is dignity in labour. Nothing can take the place of having a legitimate work. Having something of value to occupy one. And no matter how menial or intellectual the work, the worker's dignity must be respected.

The higher we rise in life the more we value the dignity of our labour. As we go up the corporate ladder, we become less tolerant to people undermining the value of our labour. We care more about how people treat us and the relative value of our labour. No senior management staff, no matter how much he is paid, will be happy to see the opinions of an entry level staff constantly given higher regard than his. 

We are naturally designed to work for a living. Work not only helps to earn money but to be gainfully occupied. It gives us a sense of high value. Knowing that a lot depends on us and that a lot can go wrong if we don't play our part is sometimes the biggest reward of work. You not only see the result of your labour in your pocket but also in the business' success and other people's lives. You are meaningfully engaged.

At the other end is when one works only for money. When the work you do has no value and you are only doing it for money. It is not a happy situation. This time it's not others who are undermining your dignity but you. You, knowingly or unknowingly, decided that you have no value to create and would be okay to just exist. You are adding no value to anyone's life, just your pocket.

What kind of work will fall under this category besides the obvious ones like robbery and fraud? Well, any work that you don't have any motivation to do beyond the money it gets you. To you, that work is meaningless. You should start plotting your escape to doing something you find value in. You shouldn't deny yourself the intrinsic joy in doing valuable work. You shouldn't do a work that makes you feel like you only exist; a work that doesn't give you joy and doesn't have a motivation beyond money.

And when you see a man doing a work of value, no matter how lowly you consider the work, you must respect him. Give him his dignity of labour though he may be a bus conductor, a LAWMA staff, a gateman or a househelp. The men we should have no respect for and we should smoke out are people who make a living from looting, deceit, fraud, extortion, mental laziness and stealing.

I just finished installing Office 2016 preview for Windows and I am extremely impressed with the improvements Microsoft has made to the Office suite. And you can get your copy here: Microsoft Office 2016 preview for Windows.

I love the new Microsoft Excel. It has got new chart types and is smooth/fast to work with.

And there's nothing to not like about the new Microsoft Word. It's a lot like the Word 2013 but a lot has changed under the hood.

The new PowerPoint is also lovely. Again, it's a lot like the 2013 one but a lot has changed under the hood.

And if you use Access, you won't be disappointed either.

Finally, the Outlook is now a much better version of the Office 2013 one. Faster and lovelier.

The next question you might be asking is -- how do I get this new Office 2016?

You simply head here: https://products.office.com/en-us/office-2016-preview 

The only requirement is that you need an active Office 365 license to enjoy it without any time restriction.