The Central Laws of Productivity (Book excerpt)

A very poor young man desperately wanted to become rich. He set out to consult with the oracle regarding the possibilities of making some money rituals. The witch doctor told him there was no problem, that it is achievable. “In order to get rich quickly, you will need to follow some basic instructions”. He was eager and attentive. "The instructions surround certain rituals which you shall observe daily in other to go through a rite of passage unto riches". He was happy and ready to follow through. The witch doctor said the process will take twelve full moon (equivalent of one year).He was to wake up every day at 4:00am to make some incantations.  He left excited, knowing that in about a year's time, he would have become very rich.
"Here is the sacred horn of the gods, wrapped with red cloth; you must henceforth, feed this horn daily.If you don't, the red piece of cloth shall turn out as your very blood flowing on the highway! Your head shall turn out as the detached horn of the animal which you are holding right here!” The young man was afraid at that warning and determined to follow every instruction. Each morning, he wakes up to consult the oracle as instructed. After a period of twelve months, he returned to the witch doctor to report for final rite of passage into riches.
Upon removal of the red piece of cloth, there was some money.
The young man was asked:  “did you follow every instruction given?”
 “Yes I did”. He replied.
“Did you make those incantations each morning for the last twelve months?”
 “Yes I did.” He replied.
Both went out into a thick jungle wherein the witch doctor asked the last question.“Before we proceed into the final ritual, can you explain how you did each morning? I just want to be sure you did not offend the oracle”. Narrating his rituals, he replied: “I woke up at 4:00am to consult the oracle, touched my head with the sacred horn. I fed the horn with $20 bill each morning. I put away the sacred horn with the red cloth for the next day.” The witch doctor nodded. “Oh! I can see how you have the ability to become rich because you can follow basic instructions. How much do you have in total right now?” The witch doctor asked.
The young man quickly calculated the money that was fed into the sacred horn for twelve months, and announced: "$240 in total sir.”
The witch doctor nodded again. He looked up and down. Then, suddenly, laughed in scorn of the young man. Then, he became angry and sternly, announced: “Young man! You have succeeded in leasing for yourself a piece of land, at the rate of $240 per Annum; for the next twelve months.You must wake up as early as 4:00am according to how you have done from the beginning. Do not break that ritual! You must consult the oracle briefly, run down to this farmland and start planting yam-seeds. Your wealth has been hidden in this soil. The gods has commanded that you start farming on this piece of land. In the usage of your muscles lies your passage to riches. This shall be your next ritual. Now, you must be careful to obey the voice of the oracle! Because failure to bring out bountiful harvest from this land in twelve months means you shall surely die! That young man worked so hard. He became a successful farmer. He was able to feed himself, his family and his task master.
The moral? -Productivity births economic freedom! Do not wait for anyone to rescue you. There are no dream-sponsors around any more, unlike in the olden days. Your dreams is in your hands. It is your responsibility. And if you have any vision, just go out and pursue it with tenacity, because there is no magic in crossing from poverty to riches.

Taking Radical Steps Towards Job Creation-Survival Strategies 101...

We use to know an old man who had a farmland in a remote village; where we went to serve the nation during National Youths Service Corp. That man surely needs a hand to operate his big farm. He needs someone to move his Agribusiness onto another level. He is truly an illiterate. He is obviously going to be suspicious of us. May be we have come to take his means of livelihood away from him. Just may be we came to steal his farm through our big grammar.

But wait a second...what if we humbly go to earn his trust? What if some of us decide to step outside our comfort zones, step down into his world and join that old man in his venture of building a means of livelihood for more than just one family but for a whole community. That man has a farmland but his frail body is too weak to cultivate it alone. What if we agree with him to get fed for free while we in turn give our assistance in terms of knowledge, expertise, human capacity and more? I am just wondering if we will have this great number of unemployed university Graduates in our population if we start taking some radical steps!

Okay, I can see you squeezing face already. I don’t have any clue about farming and I don’t know anybody by the name: Old Man living in any village who practise such Agribusiness. Besides, i can not go to live in any village. I understand. All I am talking about is that you look around you. May be there is a Tailoring center with a sewing Mistress on your Street, or there is a Food Canteen with dilapidated structure. Can you see any Auto-Mechanic without helping hands...Okay. You may try to go humbly, submit yourself to this bunch of illiterates! Yes! You mean i should become an Apprentice, No way!

Well.. may be this might be one of the ways you can start adding values to other people`s businesses. They will in turn show you how they do what they do in order to acquire some handy skills that can help you make a living. May be…just may be!  We might cross some boundaries into capacity building! Its an hard, but the only way to survival. I am talking about Survival Strategies 101 for Fresh Graduates who have been waiting for a job for the past five years! I am talking about pragmatic step towards skill acquisition for poverty reduction.

How to Create New Economy from Doldrums in Third World countries.

So we were at this job test in one of the third world countries and every fresh Graduate is waiting outside the test venue to be called in. the norm is that all those with a cumulative Grade point of 2.1 and above are invited here. Those are the smartest brains ever. You see those who graduated with 2.2 and below; they are toast!  They have nothing to offer! They are dummies and as such, they have been weaned out. So they can’t be here except of course by some connection to somebody in power.

But while we were waiting for the Test to kick off. Several connections of old friends, old student unions and fraternities were forming outside the job test venue. We started gisting, talking about so many things. Some of us were catching up on old times, another upcoming job test, and another job advert in the Dailies. We are discussing the last interview which we attended but we were not picked. Out of the 300 percent that was interviewed, the company picked just three people. And it was so bad that it left us sad. They picked someone who they knew. It was not on merit…too disgusting.

 Anyways, did you watch the game between Arsenal and Chelsea?

-Oh! I miss that one because there was no power supply.

We had to fuel our Generator to watch it; the electricity source in my neighbourhood was disconnected

-So did you watch the match between Manchester United versus Liverpool FC in the UEFA?

Oh! That was brutal!

-It was a bloody!

Those guys were Real Red devils!

-O yeah! I saw that…

Just about some few meters from us, there was another group where some folks were interested in the Politics and the Government.

I am no more interested in the Tribunal trial. They are a set up! They are not doing anything to the rogues they caught!

-Oh! Yeah! I am not going to vote for their Party in the coming election.

Those guys are rogues. They claimed to spent 11.5Billion on constructing the new Expressway way.

-Just look at our roads, does any of this road look new…we have no job, there is no good medical facility, no free education system and no electricity.

So we went on and on… blabbing in our circle, creating a niche of unemployed whiners in our small group discussion. Nobody discussed idea or innovation that we could birth in a radical way. We felt we were too small in our own eyes to make a difference in such economy. What can we do? This is the way it’s going to be forever.

This is all true of our life in the third world countries. We were standing in the middle of masses of talents, potentials and human resources but all we know to do was just talk!  We actually exchanged phone numbers and we went away afterwards to our individual home to make some free midnight calls. Guess what our call was all about. It was all about the lady we wanted to date and probably marry but our poor economic state has been delaying such dreams from coming to fruition.  Sometimes, we actually do some conference call and ask: How are you doing.

Were you picked from that last Job test to come for their next phase of interview?

-Oh! No I was dropped. Hey! Sorry…

 Well I was luckily called yesterday to come for an interview. Just hope it works out. Pray for me.

This is the life out there in the third world country where opportunity is limiting and often overcome by deficit of chances.

Amongst those of us who were standing out there were fresh Graduates from all disciplines. There were Graduates from Banking and Finance, Engineering, Economics, Agriculture, to mention few.

I was just thinking that what if we start a radical approach to job creation. What if we start a Bottom –Up approach kind of revolution?  What if we deliberately synergize as a Company of skilled providers and began to market ourselves better. What if we start a business empire where all we need to move to the next stage is in the team. What if we use each other’s brains to move one another to another level of Job creation? What if we all go home and convince our family members to withdraw all their money from all those big Banks and start investing into us. What if we shun the old banks and start transacting within this new Bank! What if we began to grow, expand, compete and become a threat to those old banks? We started out small but we may end up big if we all convince our Parents to bring in their monies, their middle class salaries and retirement Pension Funds into this new bank.  I know we may not depend solely on the inexperience knowledge of Fresh Graduate Bankers or Lawyers.

We can look amongst for those folks whose Uncles and Aunts were fired lately from those big Banks in the name of recession. We can invite them to run it with us. We can invest into the thrown-aways …and based on their experiences we can create a lasting movement of people who understood the system and are ready to re-invest into the system that spilled them out.

We can start using the money gathered into this small bank to fund new small businesses. And this will bud gradually into an economy. What if? What if?! What if we start doing something intentionally and radically? This Relevance!