A Data Driven Guide to Becoming a Consistent Billionaire

This is a truly original research and something you’d definitely want to read.

The Art and Science of Data

Did You Really Think All Billionaires Were the Same?

Recently, I became a bit obsessed with the one percent of the one percent – Billionaires. I was intrigued when I stumbled on articles telling us who and what billionaires really are. The articles said stuff like: Most entrepreneurs do not have a degree and the average billionaire was in their 30s before starting their business. I felt like this was a bit of a generalization and I’ll explain. Let’s take a look at Bill Gates and Hajime Satomi, the CEO of Sega. Both are billionaires but are they really the same? In the past decade, Bill Gates has been a billionaire every single year while Hajime has dropped off the Forbes’ list three times. Is it fair to put these two individuals in the same box, post nice articles and give nice stats when no one wants to be a…

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2016

What a year.

I could wax philosophical or just tell it as it is.

Well, I’ll tell it like it is because that’s the thing to do.

What happened to the people around me?

My immediate younger sister got married in October. Thank God. Now I am the only one not yet married of all the children. No pressure. It was a fun event and to make it even better, she married the younger brother of a friend of mine making the event both a family event and a high school reunion of sorts.

To add to the joy of that, the younger sis and her husband relocated to foreign climes to settle and work. As we speak, she’s on the cusp of joining the management cadre over there as a full-fledged manager. High-flyer blood in these veins, man.

And babies. Yeah, more babies!!!!!!

Chidera and little Uyi(boy) arrived.

Chidera, in particular, landed on her mum’s birthday ( That’s some superior logistics, bruh. 😀 )

The clan’s just growing bigger.

What did I do this year?

I panicked. My government decided it was okay to fiddle with currency controls and the naira keeps falling against the dollar. Free fall city out here. I decided I had to convert all my cash investments into tangibles and went on a buying spree of assets.

Once again, family helped. Acting on family intelligence and some backup from selected members, I completed a nice little project back home. Worth it. Yet to see it but from the drone pictures so far, that is some impressive sh**.

I came close to finding love this year. Made a lot of really good friends online and different people at different times became closer than friends. For now, I am quite happy at all the lovely strangers that turned to friends and hope not to have to hurt any of you in 2017.

What did I do right this year?

I got my menial situation right. With some effort in late 2015, I was able to get a domestic assistant to handle chores at home. This really freed up time for me and allowed me better enjoy 2016. It is a refreshing feel being able to hand off things to other people. In fact, the success of this experiment is leading me to embrace delegation in other ways.

Still on the subject of delegation, I have always had lots of tiny little projects i promised to do someday but procrastination has not allowed me do anything about them. This year was a little different.

Met a guy on twitter and commissioned him to complete one of my pet projects: translating great books into the Yoruba language. I got him to help translate Sun Tzu’s Art of War into Yoruba.  A refreshing read it was though other reviewers later criticized it for being literal translation with some nuances lost. I also got my TL to help with reviews. At the time of writing, I have already had one good reviewer provide more than 10 feedback comments and also have a graphic designer waiting to handle the cover.  It is fun achieving stuff through people.

Let me repeat that:

IT IS GREAT FUN ACHIEVING STUFF THROUGH PEOPLE.

What was my workplace like? Sigh. 

It was both good and bad. Because of prior experience and an unwillingness to disappoint, I stepped back from a role that was bespoke for me. This basically led to me having a ringside seat throughout the year to something I would really love to have being doing.

Being the samurai I am, I still ended up contributing to it even though the credit was never coming my way. As God would have, that turned out to be a blessing in disguise. Why?

The year ended with the role falling in my lap. Again.

This time its because the person running it has decided he was done working for us and exited the organisation. Someone had to do it and voila! Muyiwa’s right there.

Well, not exactly. I judged rightly that I would need some time to get into the flow so I don’t underwhelm after someone else had already performed that exceptionally so I allowed another team mate take over in the interim (with secret knowledge that he was also leaving the team too. Why is everyone leaving? ).  So far, that has worked excellently well.

Who/What wowed me this year?

This could be a separate article on its own and will eventually be but let me make a few mentions.

Phyno’s Fada Fada must get a special mention in my yearly review. I don’t speak the Igbo language but I loved the song from the first time I heard it and having a teammate translate it for me even made it better.

What’s on the horizon?

My company’s (and the rest of the industry) is ramping up to disengage staff. There is no guarantee that anyone would not be included. However, whatever the future may hold, I am leaving it in the hands of God to help me get the best choices.

I also hope to get married in 2017 ( you never know). Whatever happens, I am determined to love a bit harder in 2017 and see where it goes.

And if possible, I want 2017 to be the year I started moving even faster ahead again. I have been waiting on a lot of things. 2017 is a chance for me to begin again.

May God grant us all our dreams. 

At home.

Some days you sleep lengthwise, some days you sleep breadthwise,
Some days you don’t and you pine all night.

Some days the TV is noise, Some days it’s a colorful circus,
Some days its human voices in a quiet house.

Some days you eat it bland, some days its good to share,
Some days there’s too much for a lonely one.

Some days a quiet refuge, some days a hot cage,
Some days you fear to die alone.

Introduction

Intro to Chess

Chess pals

Chess is fun and has relatively easy-to-learn rules. It relies on the mind’s ability to solve problems, and may help reduce impulsiveness and increase patience. Mastering chess can take years, and it’s best learnt at earlier stages in life when the mind is in a formative stage.

The origins of chess are not exactly clear, but many believe it evolved from earlier games played in India almost two thousand years ago. The game of chess as we play it today has been around since the 15th century where it became popular in Europe.

Enough history. Can we dive in now? Yes? Aha.

The Aim of Chess

Chess is played between two players, one is referred to as White and the other one as Black. White starts playing first and they go on in turns.

Each player in a game of chess has 16 pieces. 1 king, 1 queen, 2 bishops…

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The Sun Tzu Commandments.

Was musing on Sun Tzu early this morning on twitter and I more or less started summarizing Sun Tzu’s Art of war. So far I have simplified as far as 13 commandments but clearly that is not all it is. Anyway, too lazy to type it out so enjoy:

Sun Tzu can probably be simplified into few terse commandments: 1. Attack where you are least expected. 2. All warfare is based on deception

— Seeker (@MuyiwaSaka) March 25, 2015

3. The more disciplined & morally motivated army/person/team wins. 4. Self-knowledge is not enough. 5. Different types of terrain, adapt.

— Seeker (@MuyiwaSaka) March 25, 2015

8. Victory means defeating your enemy's strategy. 9. Information must be sourced from other men. Spies or taletellers have their uses.

— Seeker (@MuyiwaSaka) March 25, 2015

12. If you have to move, be unstoppable. If you have to stay, be immovable. 13. There is no one way to win.

— Seeker (@MuyiwaSaka) March 25, 2015

The 2014 Review

I wrote a review last year and it was a great way to release stuff that was on my mind so i decided to do another one this year.

This is my off-the-cuff summary of my year. Rather than wait to draft something perfect, I have decided to just get it all out. I will edit as I read it more and more.

2014 was interesting to say the least. 2014 was a year of changes.

There were new tasks. New team mates. New roles. New issues to fight. New revealed flaws. New learnings. New Joys.

As before I will review it under key headings.

2014: Pride , A fall and a changed playing field.

My 2013 was a great one like I said earlier and I guess that went to my head.

In the early part of the year, I forgot a few of the earlier lessons learnt and some of the old fears and habits crept in unnoticed. I took my eyes off the ball and to all intents and purposes, as far as I was concerned, I was doing A-OK. And then a cold shock. I suffered a reverse on one of my projects due to poor stakeholder management. If I had done nothing at all, I would not have been irritated but I had delivered the bulk of the requirements before the mexican standoff happened.

I got really pissed off.  😡  Exceedingly. Luckily, I did not act out my anger.

That episode also brought back to mind a harsh truth: I am not immune to failure. I am no different ( yes, I’d like to believe I am) from the rest of the human race in being susceptible to errors and mistakes.

To compound issues, the playing field changed. My team got a star debutante and also many new responsibilities. In one fell swoop, my plan for the year just went to bits. Every where I looked, it seemed it was just one door closing after another. It was either being gently asked to ‘share’ responsibilities with someone or some outright backdoor activity by colleagues ( story for another day).

But as usual, the Man Up There stepped in and took care of things in a manner that was clearly miraculous.

First, God found a way to move on many of the different contenders. Some got better jobs and moved on. There was also a divestment of company staff and assets which resulted in people having to move on. Because of the sensitive nature, I cannot say more about this but remember that verse in the bible about plotters being put asunder and scattered? Yeah. To the ends of the earth.
Secondly, a major global project got delivered and they had an urgent need for someone to support it, so I stepped forward. It turned out to be a major boost. If I had been planning how to get recognized by my new global manager, I couldnt have chosen better. With it came visibility (which it did) but also opportunity to work across time-zones and with global standard expectations characterised less by market-like negotiation and more focused delivery. In fact, stepping forward for this role has done more for my delivery this year than anything else.

2014: Changing of the steeds.

This was also the year I replaced my beloved jalopy. If a man can love a rugged old car, I loved that car.
Yes, it could not run as fast as all these flashy new ess-you-veeees (In fact there’s a lag time from pressing the accelerator to the actual car movement ) but on a hill or in a mudflat there is that confidence you just feel knowing you could press the AUX gear and ride out like a freaking Gee. Anyway, old Sir George ( I like naming my possessions. They are not things. They are people) was already showing signs of wear and tear and developing a taste for gallons of engine oil. And so George was offloaded to a close relative for a good family-bond-maintaining fee.

The new replacement has not yet been named. Partly because it ate my holiday fund (beef) and partly because I am not sure I should give my car a feminine name ( its sleek lines seem so feminine ).

2014: Rooted to a place.

Because of some large expenses early in the year, I ended up having to give up all plans of travelling. As such this year was spent actively consoling myself with activities within Port Harcourt. Quite amazing what you can come up with when you are determined not to feel the loss of something.

2014: Year of the Passover.

It is not good to crow so loudly in the midst of so much suffering or pain. So this will be brief. Earlier in this review, I mentioned a disengagement of staff. Well, I was not touched but some of my colleagues were ( we thought we were too young to be sacked but alas ). It has opened my eyes to the need to always be happy to stay but ready to move at any moment. It is not a good thing to be caught unawares by such. Let’s just say, I am about my business now.

So what did not come to pass and what else came to pass? I’ll run through.

• Went back to church and became more regular. On my way back I should say but I am making more of an effort to achieve holiness.
• Still single 🙂 . Not yet met her. To be honest, I did not even try. Too busy fighting battles I guess.
• Clocked 30. ( Got moody actually when this happened. Interestingly I noticed something similar on the Twitter Timeline when certain single age-mates clocked the same age too. Symptoms: Lamentation, Short Social media sabbaticals, more marriage related tweets :D. Will report on further observations 😀 )
• Transitioned fully from my hesitant save-first approach to money to a more opportunistic asset-based approach ( might talk about this sometime).
• Better work life balance: I stopped overworking by default and moved to doing it on an as-needed basis. When you stop working at 4pm, its like you have a whole ‘nother day before sleeping. Almost went batty coming up with activities to fill the new space. Still finetuning this.
• Last man standing. ( 😀 The Official Secrets Act will come into play here ).

2014: Chickens coming to roost. In a good way.

Lastly, my life ordered itself somehow. This year marked my fifth year of working after graduation and all of a sudden, it seemed as if the lessons of the past five years coalesced into a more relaxed way of living. If I would hazard a guess, I might be settling into a comfortable routine way of living characterised by less stress due to well considered choices for many of my normal stressors. The work-life balance I mentioned earlier is just a part of the many alterations that just occured. If it is not too prideful to say, I would actually say that in 2014, I kind of grew up…fast.

30 and thriving.

This will be a short post.

Finally hit the big Three Zero on the 7th of October.

Dreamt about being 30 as a kid and yes I had lots of ideas about who I would be by the time I was thirty.

In some ways, they have been fulfilled and I need new dreams. In other ways, the target is still far off. Either way, I am thankful to God for having come this far and happy to still have my friends and family around to celebrate it.

Of course for such a significant milestone, it means quite a number of things to me.

The end of excuses( if they ever existed). I do not subscribe to the young-if-not-60 camp. I guess the age excuse is now dead and buried.

The end of some self-delusions. This age is a hard target for some of my habits and beliefs. Implementing that is going to be a real pain but I am confident of success in that respect.

It is also a new beginning. Read an article a while back about life being in 5-year sizes. I can say the last 5 have been quite eventful. I look forward with excitement and not a little trepidation at what the next five will bring.

So its time to ask the famous interview question:

Muyiwa, where do you see yourself in the next five years?

God knows and I pray he directs.

Cheers.

My Ideal Nigerian City

A few words to start this off. I do not have any formal training in city planning and this is just a hobby of mine ( imagining better versions of stuff around me). I am not even certain if what I am prescribing is even anathema to the real professionals. All I am doing is describing a city I would love to live in. What that means is that this particular blog is always going to be an unfinished item and will grow as I learn more and more.

So if I had to describe a city I would love to live in, what would it look like?

Let’s start with the city hall.

City Hall.

• multipurpose building with a main hall for events which can be rented out by the local government to people for a fee.
• It would also have lots of office spaces in a multi-storey complex minimising the amount of horizontal land space usage in favour of going vertical.

Moving on from there, Nigeria still relies mostly on open-air markets and even though my ideal city would ideally have a huge massive shopping mall sitting somewhere in the town centre, the open-air markets do get more patronage from average Nigerians, so it is only logical that we prescribe a better model for a open-air market. So let’s give that a try.

Markets.

Starting from the floor.

• The whole open-air market should not have an inch of open sand anywhere. In fact, it should be designed with interlocking bricks gently sloped towards closed drainage channels running lengthwise through the whole market.
• Not only that. Steel/Metal poles can be inserted into the roadways at key places to prevent vehicular traffic through the market.
• Every inch of the market should be protected from rain or the sun. If possible, massive tarp can be used to cover even roadways. The aim is to ensure commerce can go on independent of weather and also ensure the market is less dirty.
• Predefined parking spaces. Roadside markets are major sources of traffic in this country. It would make sense to ensure that anyone coming to shop would be able to stay for a considerable length of time without being a nuisance to everyone else.
• Covered ‘flyover’ road-crossings adjacent to such markets. This is for safety purposes and also to ensure that the markets do not engender another source of traffic( pedestrian traffic).
• It should also be possible to have luggage trolleys which you can use to move things around within the market. Run by baggage carriers if necessary but you can’t take them out of the market. Them’s the rules, :D.

Moving on from markets.

Transport.

• Buses everywhere. I mean predefined bus routes with buses that follow a SCHEDULE whether full or not. And also with bus passes.
• Small two-lane side roads would be strictly one-way with the other side being used for parking only. Two way after midnight.
• Red lights and stop signs everywhere. Zebra crossings well painted and all street signs visibly painted with a repainting schedule once every 2 years independent of status.
• Modern bus terminus with electronic destination boards, comfortable aluminium bench seating for passengers waiting for intra-state buses, free luggage carts for moving your bags within the park, wifi ( free or paid), fast food.

Bus Stops

• Bus stops built out of aluminium ( to last longer)
• Roofs would have built-in solar panels which would be used to power nearby streetlights.
• Built-in shopping slots for sellers who might sell snacks/recharge cards/newspapers etc.
• Dustbin receptacles at either end.
• Steel/metal benches which can also be swings to add some fun.
• Gaudily adorned with artwork you can appreciate while waiting for the bus.
• Guard rails to ensure you do not rush in to the bus without following queues or to prevent parking buses accidentally running into waiting commuters.
• Essentially it should be possible to wait for the bus in comfort, grab a snack and get on the bus in comfort, security and with no stress.
• Multilevel parking spaces in the city centre.
• Predefined parking spaces on major roads with angled parking to accommodate more natural parking (reverse parking only).

Security/Emergency Services/Crisis management.

• CCTV everywhere. You might have issues with big brother but it seems to me that we have to choose between massive surveillance and massive insecurity. I am not competent enough to say which is better but would feel better knowing someone is watching for miscreants somewhere.
• Centralized operations and crisis response centre with phone connections to all the important security and emergency services.
• Critical transport like tankers/haulage trucks/hazardous chemicals would have to have mandatory tracking installed at entry points and must follow predefined routes as directed and managed from the operations centre. In fact, they would have their movement routed and roads cleared for them so its a win-win.
• All major public buildings would have mandatory muster points and follow a mandatory fire drill schedule agreed with the city authority. Each business using those buildings would also have a mandatory fire warden.
• Enough fire stations to cover the city/town.
• Fire hydrants on every street. important because the fire service would not work otherwise. locked down to prevent everyday use for water.
• A defibrillator in every major public building and hand sanitizers installed too on walls.

Public Amenities

• Covered drains. All. Drains cleared once a year.
• A dustbin every few hundred metres on every street.
• Streetlights on EVERY street.
• A public urinal on every major street. Could be like the cool ones made of steel that also self-wash or self flush. But to be more realistic, at least small enough to sit on a sidewalk and covered enough to be discreet.
• Fruit trees as shade trees on major roadways. They would provide fruits in season and provide shade when out of season. They would also enable birds and other animals live more naturally in our cities. Tree trimming crews running on contract would trim the fruit trees once every two years.
• Publicly maintained ATM stands would be built in all major public buildings including car parks, markets, parks, stadia with their construction subsidised by the local government and security provided by the host businesses.
• Parks in each ward of the city. Even if they are just small open spaces with interlocked bricks and canopied seating spaces. Of course some nice statues and fountains to take pictures with. :).
• Walls of major public buildings would be free for use as grafiti spaces by artists but cleared bienially to enable others to express creativity.
• City commissioned wall/floor murals in major public buildings.
• Public seating on street sidewalks. Not everyone is going somewhere. Sometimes you just want to sit down and do stuff.
• Grill kiosks designed and rented out by the city so people can eat bole, shawarma etc in predefined sensible spaces.
• Predefined smoking spaces in all major public buildings to allow smoking to be done in relaxed sensible environments away from other people.
• Decentralized water infrastructure. Enable water to be pumped, treated and used on a ward-by-ward basis.
• Centralized sewage system with sewage tunnels connecting all the soakaway systems in the city together.
• Underground power and telecoms lines. Same for transformers and cable heads. The city wiring should be out of sight.

An Open Letter to Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala and Olusegun Aganga

Agùntáṣǫólò

Honourable Ministers,

I write to you as someone with a lot of frustrations about the way Nigeria works (or doesnt) for the vast majority of its citizens. I tend to concern myself mostly with economic matters as I believe that economic freedom comes pre-loaded with many other benefits for a country and its people.

First the Facts

I have spent a lot of time lately looking at the model we have chosen for our industrial development using Dangote Cement as a lightning rod. The more one looks at the numbers and the reality of the situation, the more disturbing it is.

I have put together a comparison of Dangote Cement’s profits and the world’s largest cement manufacturers spanning Asia, Latin America, North America and Europe. You can find it here on iCloud or Google Docs. The numbers, without mincing words, are frightening. A Nigerian government policy is aggressively picking…

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Live Your Life

So live your life that the fear of death can never enter your heart. Trouble no one about their religion; respect others in their view, and demand that they respect yours. Love your life, perfect your life, beautify all things in your life. Seek to make your life long and its purpose in the service of your people. Prepare a noble death song for the day when you go over the great divide.

Always give a word or a sign of salute when meeting or passing a friend, even a stranger, when in a lonely place. Show respect to all people and grovel to none.

When you arise in the morning give thanks for the food and for the joy of living. If you see no reason for giving thanks, the fault lies only in yourself. Abuse no one and no thing, for abuse turns the wise ones to fools and robs the spirit of its vision.

When it comes your time to die, be not like those whose hearts are filled with the fear of death, so that when their time comes they weep and pray for a little more time to live their lives over again in a different way. Sing your death song and die like a hero going home.

~ Chief Tecumseh (Poem from Act of Valor the Movie) ~