Mindset: a World of Difference

If you took all the wealth from the wealthy and 'give' it to the poor, come back in a year to check the score; I can guarantee with 90+ percentage certainty that you will find the poor have traded all the wealth to regain their poverty and the wealthy, who lost their wealth, have traded their lack for their original wealth, some exceeding where they were before.

I see you have doubt, let me prove it to you; I follow the story of average people who win large sums of money in lottery. Two principles comes to mind, ONE: easy comes, easy go and TWO: if you didn't have the capacity to earn it, you won't have the capacity to keep it.

Read these few headlines from the UK:

“…A couple from the West Midlands have been declared bankrupt – four years after scooping more than a £250,000 on the National Lottery…The pair were declared bankrupt at Wolverhampton County Court this month with over a £19,000 debt allegedly owed to Marston Brewery…”[1]

 “…A hospital porter who scooped £10million on the Lotto is having his home repossessed after blowing the lot. John McGuinness, 44, landed the huge jackpot in 1996 - but now OWES £2.1million. And with no prospect of him paying it back, the bank has won a repossession order for his £500,000 mansion, the sole asset left from his win…”[2]

I know what you are thinking, "if I get even just half of what they had, I would be very careful how I spend and invest it" Right? WRONG!!!…the truth of the matter is, “…Whoever can be trusted with very little can also be trusted with much, and whoever is dishonest with very little will also be dishonest with much…”[3] hence the premise that if we take care of the pennies, the pound will take care of themselves.

People don't get wealthy by accident neither do people get poor by accident; it is in what we do or don't do. But what we do/or don't do is determined by our mindset. Mindset is a make-up of belief system, belief system determines what one thinks and does and consequently ones destiny. Belief system is made up of simple faith one picks over the years through what we hear, see, feel, meditate upon and experience be it positive or negative.

Jesus Christ once told a fascinating story of a man who needed to trade his negative belief and fear for positive mindset and faith (in people and business world). He said a wealthy master wanted to travel on business and left Five Talent[4] to one servant, Three to another and One to the third (notice He said, "each was given according to their ability").

When the master came back later that year he demanded the three servants to give account for what they have done with what he entrusted them with. The one who had five traded well and had five more as profit, likewise the one with three had three more. The one with one talent said "I was afraid" and so ''I hid'' what was in my power to invest and he returned the capitial with no profit. His master was angry and said, "the least you could have done was to put that talent in the bank as fixed deposit and gain interest on the capital" (Mattew 25:14-30)

So many people are like the servant with one talent, out of fear (negative belief, mindset), ignorance and financial illiteracy, they refrain from investing and trading the little that they have.

In my previous article, I wrote about why school top graders don't make it to be top earners; the bottom line is in mindset i.e. what we believe deep down inside about money, people, business world etc determines what we do, be and have.

People with poverty mindset have acquired a tendency to trade their assets for liabilities while their counterpart wealthy folks have learnt to trade their liabilities for assets through and through. Think about this, if I gave you One Million right now, what will you do with it? write down the very first thought that came into your mind…you may want to read my article Poverty is a Mindset.

You can begin your journey by LEARNing To TRADE:

2Financial Illiteracy for Literacy (knowing what counts to be a better and smarter earner)

2Ignorance for Knowledge (about money, business world, politics whatever you're into…)

2Fear for Faith (fear of failure, making mistakes, unknown, risks )

2Timid for Boldness (guts to act when you know the time is right)

2Passiveness for Proactiveness (don't wait for luck, make it happen for you)

2Sickness for Health (we need to be spiritually, mentally and physically healthy)

2Negative Mental Attitide for Positive one (your attitude will determine your atltitude in life)

2Dishonesty for Integrity (you will never enjoy/keep what you earn through deceit)

2Wrong company for the Right one (your network will determine your networth)

2Arrogance for self-confidence (it's a thin line between the two tho')

Illiteracy, ignorance, fear, timidity, passiveness all these, and the like, are liabilities; if you possess any of these tendencies wake up and trade them for their counterpart assets. it all begins in the mind–set before it can manifest in the flesh.

LEARN to trade your LIABILITIES for ASSETS; remember, "There are no hopeless people, only people who think hopelessly" (Windred Newman)

//Tim J Kyara

Teacher/ePastor/Engineer

Teacher of the Word www.light2mypath.blogspot.com

Clean Humour 2 Health www.laughin2health.blogspot.com  

Financial Freedom Fighter www.timkyara.blogspot.com

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[1] www.expressandstar.com Wednesday 20th July 2009

[2] www.mirror.co.uk/sunday-mirror/ Sunday 10th Feb 2008

[3] Luke 16:10 NIV UK Bible Copyright © 1984

[4] One Talent at the time is believed to be about 30kg of Gold

Why Top Graders aren't Top Earners!

For many years this has bugged me, how comes people who had top grades in school never seem to be the top earners when we come off school? How comes major businesses and top positions in government and private sectors are not occupied by those who got top grades in school? Forbes¹ lists Said Salim Bakhressa(64) as No. 30 in Africa's 40 Richest with net worth of US $0.52bn (Tsh 0.86trillion). Aliko Dangote(56) from Nigeria ranks No.1 with net worth of US $16bn (Tsh 26.4trillion). Carlos Slim Helu(73) from Mexico holds No.1 in the world with net worth of US $74bn (Tsh 120trillion). Both Dangote and Helu have Barchelor of Arts Degree.

At the age of 14, Mr Bakhressa left school to start peddling potatoes mix on street, he later opened restaurants from whose success got him into Azam Products widely used in Tanzania. Today, his Bakhresa Group employs over 2,000 people and is Tanzania's largest conglomerate. The company's interests include grain milling, beverages, packaging, ferry services and petroleum trading (source: Forbes Online¹)

Mr Bakhressa employs hundreds of gradute and a score of University Professors and Drs both from within and outside Tanzania…doesn't this strike you as odd? In my naïve mindset I assumed that if I succeed in school I will 'automatically' succeed in life. I grossly underestimated the value of informal education—school of life where the tuition fees are extremely high.

In my informal research I have come to a conclusion that there are five reasons as to why top graders in school are not top earners in real life. I have listed them below, not an any particular order:

1. Life is not fair

Most top graders will play fair, after all life has been nothing but fair to them; excellent grades in school and warm feelings from teachers/tutors have given them false sense of security towards harsh reality of life. Meanwhile their counterparts will approach life fearlessly and with aggression knowing that whatever they intend to acquire must be 'taken, won over' not simply handed in silver platter, they have learnt how to survive by being 'shrewd', not necessarily rough and unfair.

2. Time ahead

Top graders spend over half of their chronological life in 'formal education' and the remainder of their life in some kind of research and idealism in academics. Their counterpart start early in life on 'informal education' getting education on 'street wisdom'. By the time I graduated with honours from University, my Friend Abdallah, who didn't go to secondary school, has been on 'Street University' for 10yrs, no wonder I am one of his tenants in one of his houses.

3. Attitude towards risk

Top graders will run risk analysis on an opportunity, apply logic and reason; they will call their fellow top graders who are 'experts' on that particular venture for their opinion and refer to past data on similar ventures then and only then based on these premise make a decision and most often late if ever. Meanwhile, their counterpart top earners will perform a reasonable due diligence on the same venture, which is usually a practical approach in trying to understand what can go wrong and what they can do to limit their loss should the venture go south then dive in; they will waste no time on hypotheticals and theoretical possibilities and bla blaas.

4. Gutsy Spirit

Top graders will hide their fear of loosing the little they have when opportunity shows up by saying they are being cautious and careful on whom and what they invest in; in most cases this will be nothing but lack of 'guts' to act. Their counterpart top earners will have more or less same fears but they have one fine quality, 'guts'. Guts is acting in spite of fear not in absence of fear, it is the spirit to dare when everyone is folding their hands. Top earners realize early in life that 'if you have to get what others don't gat, you have to be prepared to do what others don't do'. It is of no surprise to find that most new ventures, areas of opportunity in new places, are captured by the so called average Joes in school and school drop outs.

5. Nothing to Loose

Do not play down or under-estimate what a person with nothing to loose will and can do. Top graders, well they are 'top graders', they have their dignity and 'persona' to loose should a venture they attempted go south hence they would want to make sure 200% that they have crossed all T's and dotted all I's before they even think of venturing into an opportunity. Meanwhile their counterpart top earners start off with nothing to loose 'but their chains of poverty', to them uncrossed T and undotted I is still a T and an I hence they waste no time on them…no wonders 90% of top graders work for top earners—most of whom never graduated from high school.

Can we Change?

Now that we've seen the top five reasons why top graders are not top earners in real life, a million dollar question is…can you convert a top grader to be a top earner? Well, the answer is YES but only if they accept to be baptized in fire so that their minds are 'renewed' to think differently. You see, it all in the mindset—paradigm, the pattern of thinking…top grader thinks of avoiding risks, top earner thinks of knowing and managing risks; top grader sees problems in every opportunity, top earner sees opportunity in every problem. Top grader is looking for security (employment) while top earner is looking for financial freedom (innovate, create ideas and own business in form of shares and stocks), top earners see employment as bondage and restrictive whilst top graders see employment as opportunity for steady and assured income.

Now you know the reasons, you decide!!!

NOTE: I do not want to be misunderstood here, I do not undermine the value of formal education; if I did, I will be making the same mistake top graders make when they underestimate the value of informal education. I believe, to succeed in any undertaking in life, you need to have both the skill of a banker and a gamblerJ i.e. the learned and the streetwise!

¹Forbes online, www.forbes.com (13 May 13, 2013)

//Tim J Kyara

Teacher/ePastor/Engineer

Teacher of the Word www.light2mypath.blogspot.com

Clean Humour 2 Health www.laughin2health.blogspot.com

Financial Freedom Fighter www.timkyara.blogspot.com
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