“If you do it the way they have been doing it, you will also end up the way they have ended up, and get the result they got”
Second year medical students of MBBS were attending their anatomy class. They all gathered around the dissection table with a corpse specimen.
The Professor started the class by telling two important qualities as a doctor. The 1st is that NEVER BE DISGUSTED FOR ANYTHING ABOUT BODY, e.g. He inserted a finger in the dead man’s anus and tasted it in his own mouth. Then he told the students to do the same.
The students hesitated for several minutes but this was their first major test and nobody wanted to fail. But eventually everyone inserted their fingers in the dead man’s anus and then tasted it.
When everyone finished, the Professor looked at them and said: the most important 2nd quality is OBSERVATION. I inserted my middle finger but tasted the index finger. Now learn to pay attention.
Moral: Life is tough but it is a lot tougher when you are not paying attention.
Thinking you know all about money and don’t need to learn any new thing is a mirage and a deception because things are constantly changing and rules too are constantly changing. Take communication for instance. Things have changed and the rules have changed.
From smoke signal
To talking drums
To talking
To letters
To phones
To email list
To discussion groups and boards
To websites
To blogs and micro blogs
To photo sharing sites
To social-networking sites
To video-sharing sites
To Wikis etc
To ignore the change and new rules may spell doom for anyone. The rules of money have changed and since change is the only constant thing on earth, personal and general changes are inevitable and can lead to new trends. For instance, communication changes led to the new communication trends of today. The terrorist event of September 11, 2001 in the United States and similar moves since then changed the way we travel and created a new trend in air traveling process and the aviation industry.
NEW RULE ONE
Knowledge is the New Money.
Few years ago, I was speaking at a conference in New York and one of the participants asked me a question that I have been asked in different platforms from Ghana to Botswana, Italy to France, London to Ireland, etc especially in this period of global “recession”.
“WHAT WOULD YOU ADVICE ONE TO INVEST ONE’S MONEY IN AT THIS PERIOD?” My answer is always the same and it is INVEST IN YOURSELF MORE NOW; INVEST IN YOUR PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT. This should take priority now than other investment vehicles because knowledge is the new money and what you know determines how far you go. In the hunting age, it was energy and skill. In the Agrarian age, it was exchange via trade by barter. In the Industrial Age, it was coins, then paper currency. The Technological and Information Age, it is card and now information which is today’s and tomorrow’s money. Those who know rule over those who don’t. Knowledge helps you to be creative, innovative, full of ideas, ahead of others, and have more substance with ease.
I started travelling to the United Kingdom in 1997; that is fifteen years ago. Due to my investment mentality and understanding of the power of opportunity, I immediately searched out investment opportunities. From my next trip in 1998, I started traveling with loads of goods to sell in the United Kingdom. Sometimes I travelled with as much as sixteen big bags and boxes of goods and had to go through all kinds of stress and processes to complete the journey. Because of my goods, I always had to go through the “goods to declare” doorway at the London airport and face searches and charges that I had to pay. My customer-base grew. I made good money but I outgrew that stage and changed strategy over time because I realised that knowledge is the new money.
By investing in my personal development and becoming a wealth creation agent, I now go into the same United Kingdom with just a bag and nothing to declare or be charged for and I make more money. Because I no longer carry bags of goods to sell, but loads of information, principles and strategies to sell. The goods that brought the money used to be in my bag, but now they are in my mind and my brain. Though, they are invisible, they are more valuable and more productive. Knowledge is the new money my friend, and it is time to know more to make more.
To Be Continue…