← Konnected Minds Podcast with Derrick Abaitey
Konnected Minds Podcast with Derrick Abaitey
98% of Church Members Are Broke: The Truth About Prosperity Gospel & Why Hard Work Beats Prayer Alone
01:28:32
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A lot of Christians have been sold an idea of Jesus that isn't true.
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I have two papers here. These are two research papers. This research paper talks about church and poverty in Africa. The other talks about prosperity theology. 98% of the church members are broke.
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You don't have to be Christian to be rich, which means that an unbeliever who works harder than you thinks better than you will make more money than you. As a believer who chooses not to, you are likelier to find a poor Christian from Burundi than you are to find a poor Christian from the United States of America. Stop trying to make the Bible solve problems it was not designed to solve. A lot of believers tend not to pay attention to labor and are only looking for favor. If you remove labor and depend on favor, you will be broker than the brokest.
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A
How do you tell the millions of youth in Nigeria that if you start practicing this mindset, your life is going to change?
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B
As an individual, there is time and there is no time. Every time you celebrate plus one, it's my birthday is also minus one from the years in your life. Not everybody will make it for two main reasons.
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So I've just been given data.
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B
Tell me.
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They say statistics is showing that in the next five to 10 years, Africa is going to be to have the most youthful population in the world.
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B
Absolutely.
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A
And there are many great leaders who have started talking about this and they are looking at Africa now. How should young people prepare for that?
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B
Our population is both a blessing and a curse. You have to focus more on the blessing that it is than on the curse that you might already know it to be. In the sense that overpopulation, there's limited resources and too many people vying for limited resources. Yes, I get it. However, the blessing that it is going to be. For example, by 2050, Nigeria is predicted to have about 450 million people and that would take it up to, I think, the third or fourth most popular, fifth most populous country in the world. That's very interesting and very strategic. Now you see in other climates like Scandinavia, Denmark, Sweden, Norway Finland and Iceland, all of these guys have declining numbers. So in demography there's something called replacement level fertility. I'll explain what that means. It means that for every couple to replace themselves in the in the society, they need to give back to 2.1 children currently in Nigeria, I think it's about 4 point something to 5 point something for the average number of children being given birth to by a couple. In some other parts, I think Congo and some other countries is even higher. Now guess what? The statistics says for Europe in countries like Italy is less than 2%, less than, less than 2 in countries like Denmark is crazy. In fact, in parts of Scandinavia the government pay the citizens to give birth because their population is seriously declining. In fact, even in countries like Japan is not really as high as it used to be because they have like the highest number or a very good number of old people, but they're not getting as many new people. Ch. Now what does this do to you as an African? It means that by 2050 automatically the workforce in the entire world will be needing you.
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A
That's true.
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B
Now we can sit here and talk about AI. No AI, this one, no D1, this one. Hey. As long as the youthful population in the world will be needed, then you will be needed. And so what this means is that the entire world and the production forces of the world are going to be gravitating towards Africa for workforce solutions sooner rather than later. And so there's something you can do. You can position yourself both in competence and in exposure, and particularly in the competence that comes from exposure. And so begin to study the trends, begin to understand where the world is headed. But also don't get too obsessed with where the most of the world is headed. And also make sure that you take the back seat sometimes and have a bird's eye view to other places that opportunities might lie in weight that the world is not gravitating towards. For example, right now as we have it, there seems to be very solid AI obsession and few people are agro conscious. You forget that the world that the AI is powering will also need to eat. And so only smart people for example, are moving a lot more towards agricultural extension and so on and so forth. And so here's what I'm just trying to say is ensure you expose yourself to trends. Ensure, most importantly that you expose yourself to with knowledge wise, read wide. And also most importantly, be a resourceful person. A resourceful person is someone who, no matter the niche he finds himself, will always be of value, have skills that transcend industries because industries could pack up anytime soon, I repeat, have skills that transcend industries. I'm postulating that before the end of 2060, companies like BYD and Changan will have more vehicles on the streets than some very popular brands if the popular brands don't adapt as fast as possible. And so what this means also is we're now getting more into sustainable energy, right? What does this spell for oil and gas? Are oil wells going to be drying up soon or not? What will happen with climate change? What does this mean to my job? I don't know if it was just here in Nigeria, but what was it like for you guys? 2nd 20 and 10 with respect to cyber cafes, where people wanted to get things done, to do few y forms and do so many things, they had to go to what, Internet cafes? Internet cafes. Is it just me? But you also had to print through a printer and then many times you have to photocopy and after a while you have to scan. People who own scanning machines made millions of. But guess what, brother, Right now, every single person that has a smartphone has a scanner on their phone.
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A
That's true.
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B
And so imagine at the the peak of that particular industry, you went to spend a million dollars to buy new printers and new cyber cafe machines because at that point it was centralized. But you joined so late because in a not too distant time, there's going to be a decentralization and there was going to be a commonality of what was appreciated and seen as, hey, now everybody's got Internet. And so the question would be, the most important thing I want to say to everyone is that you must learn to embrace the Japanese philosophy of Kaizen, which is continuous improvement through learning. Hey, the world is moving fast, brother. You and I are retiring TV stations every single week. We've got, we've got two of the most watched podcasts in West Africa on business, I think perhaps top 20. Yeah, yeah, realities. 20 years ago or 10 years ago, the both of us needed you TV stations. Guess what? Greatness has now been made common, quote and unquote. And this means that you need to learn to move fast, brother. In the next 20 years. What we're saying now might not be what we're going to be saying, which means you must learn to know when the world has moved and not be caught up in the past. And the best way to do it is to be somebody who is eternally open to learning and growing themselves, somebody who is open to exposure, somebody who will tell himself that, ah, yesterday's solution will not solve today's problems. And so I have to keep on moving, have to keep on learning. So I would say that that's the most important skill that you can ever get. Navaravikant put it so brilliantly. He says when you learn, you update your priors, what you want held to be true. Are you humble enough to change your position and your opinion when superior facts are presented to you? That's the question I have.
- [09:36]
A
I have two papers here. These are two research papers. They were both actually done in Nigeria. Now this research paper talks about church and poverty in Africa. The other talks about prosperity theology. Now we're seeing this a lot and I've got something to read to you that there are several research papers that has looked at the relationship between Christianity and poverty across Africa. Now one study actually found out that is a higher religious participation correlated with persistent poverty in sub Saharan African countries. In recent times I have seen that a lot of people are beginning to slowly believe that some church members do not understand the prosperity message and how the kingdom wants us to do. Well as Christians. What's your view on that, my brother?
- [10:33]
B
The first thing I would say is if this were to be a debate, I'd have first and foremost asked you to do some concept clarification as to exactly what you mean by the prosperity gospel. Because when you make a statement, the burden of proof is on you. So at least explain how you came about that conclusion. But for the sake of this conversation, I'll go a different route. And so the question you asked is related to the prosperity gospel that would you say that the church or a lot of churchgoers or Christians have not come to the fullness of how well rather God will have them be or how much money God will have them make, if I'm not mistaken.
- [11:21]
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Really coming to understand that, you know, it is okay to become to be a Christian and build wealth and not be solely dependent on the church as in, you know, a form of an institution and also on the other side of which is, you know, the leaders of the church making the members understand the role they have to play when it comes to building wealth.
- [11:47]
B
Absolutely. Thank you very much. And so I think it's a very interesting conversation that has to be approached with as much caution as possible because it's extremely delicate. Now what we have are two extremes that are thoroughly more pronounced than the balance that the scriptures actually, when viewed in full context promotes. I'll explain. On one hand, there's a bunch of believers who are told that Christianity is a passport to financial prosperity but the question will be, does the Bible teach that? On the other hand, we have a bunch of believers who have been told time and again by their pastors that they should shun everything that has to do with earthly prosperity because heaven is the goal. You hear statements from that extreme like, take the world and give me Jesus. And so to them, the fleeting riches. In fact, not even just the fleeting riches, but a comfortable life, right, is at variance with what the gospel promotes. Now, I'm showing you two sides of the extremes. On the side that, in my opinion, right, I've made a mess of the Gospel of Christ by making it feel like your spirituality is usually parallel to how much is in your bank account. There's a very, very, very, very terrible issue from that angle. On the other hand, also the other extreme that believes that believers should not strive right, to do better in career, in life and have a given level of affluence are also wrong. And so what we have are two extremes that are more pronounced than the proper balance. And in about a minute or two, I think I want to put that to bed very quickly. Now, on one hand, what exactly is the gospel? There is no such thing as the prosperity gospel in and of itself, because the gospel in itself, in the context of the Bible, is good news. Good news about what? It is good news about salvation. It's got a thorough salvific theme. The Bible says in Romans 1:16, I'm almost ashamed of the Gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God unto salvation. For everyone who believes, it is the power of God unto salvation, which means that the gospel in and of itself, in the right context, is salvation themed. Now, salvation from what? The word salvation, deep in its roots, is a Greek word, soteria, which actually is found from a deeper root word, sozo, which means deliverance. Now, it is deliverance from something into another, which means it is safety and salvation for man from his sins. So when you talk salvation in and of itself, right, it is safety from sins. Now, when you talk about sins, right, you need to understand that the salvation that a believer receives in Christ Jesus first and foremost is safety from the sin problem. Okay, are you getting this? Yep. So man is in his sins. Man has fallen short of the glory of God. We've sinned against God. The sin problem has been passed on from the first Adam through to his offsprings. Are you getting my point? Including our progenitors. And so here's the point. Now there's a sin problem, and Christ came to put to bed that sin problem. Now you need to know this. The sin problem is a leveler. The problem of sin doesn't care about race, doesn't care about tribe, also doesn't care about the fatness of your pockets. And so the gospel in and of itself is good news to all mankind with a specific context on salvation, saving men from their sins. Now I'm saying this because it is very interesting, because if you say that the gospel is to give men more money and give them affluence, then the question will be why then do I need this salvation that the Gospel preaches if I can have money without believing in him?
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Okay.
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And so anything that you can have outside of Christ could not be the reason Christ came. And so if people could be wealthy. Yes, before the redemptive sacrifice of Jesus, by the redemptive sacrifice, I'm talking about his burial, his death, his burial, his resurrection, and then his glorification to the right hand of God. Now here's the point. The point is Jesus is the only solution to the problem of sin. And the good news is that Jesus has solved the problem of sin. And so if you try to modify that gospel and make it look like the gospel is come and men will be rich, then people will look at you and tell you, I don't think I need this gospel because without Christ I was already fine.
- [16:48]
A
Is that not what exactly sometimes it looks like is happening?
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That's it. That's the false gospel. That's the false gospel. The Bible doesn't teach that this is important. The Bible doesn't teach it.
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But you agree that we see this
- [17:03]
B
on the screens, that we see it on the screens doesn't in any way whatsoever verify it. It doesn't make it true. It doesn't at all. And so that's exactly what I'm trying to say. The fact that something is popular doesn't make it the truth. And the fact that something is less popular doesn't in any way make douse its veracity. And so this is very important.
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Let me stop you here for a minute. So if it's your first time watching Connected Minds or you have been here before but still have not subscribed, do us a favor, because majority of the people that watch our videos have not subscribed. This doesn't help us grow beyond what we expect. So help us by hitting the subscribe button. Thank you. Now let's get back to the conversation. As a believer, what position must I take to really decipher what is coming towards me?
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B
Your position, first and foremost must be to Shun the two extremes, Okay, I only talked about one extreme. The other extreme are the other believers who now feel that spiritual growth is at variance with material possessions. Now they believe that if you're saved and if you're a Christian, you should not look to amass anything for yourself as a person. So now let me explain the right balance and the right perspective every believer must take. The perspective is this. First and foremost, come to Christ for who he is and principally at the core, what he offers. What he offers you is eternal life. Eternal life cannot be bought with money. Eternal life could not have happened or could have been had outside of Christ Jesus. So what makes a person saved is that they believe wholeheartedly, right? That Christ died for their sins and by reason of his death, burial and resurrection, he's giving them eternal life.
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But I'm broke, okay?
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B
So now here comes the balance, okay? This is it. I think we need to ensure that when you. So I don't believe in the tag, the prosperity gospel. I believe so strongly that there's a biblical look, let me put it this way. I believe that as every Christian, right, every single believer ought to have a Christian worldview. Many people are Christian but do not have a Christian worldview. It's important. Your theology must inform and influence your philosophy. This is very important. So you might want to make sure that that is properly corporate and spelled out because a lot of Christians have been sold an idea of Jesus that isn't true. And so the right perspective that the believer must have with respect to the concept of prosperity like people call it, is this embrace what the Bible says first and foremost. The Bible never ever at any point draws a distinction in terms of social class. It never tells you that the richer Christians are more Christians than the ones who are not Christian, okay? In Christ and before him there is no Jew, no Greek, no poor, no rich. What that means is that my salvation is not more valuable, dated by my pocket. The salvation of a rich person, right, is not higher in effectiveness than that of what somebody who is not saved. However, the same Bible that tells you that all are equal before God and that God is no respecter of persons also shares you obvious and practical principles for growth. The Bible for example, tells you let he will still steal no more and let him work that he might have enough to give others. The Bible also tells you there's no food for lazy man. Which means someone put it so brilliantly that every principle that you find in every self help book in the entire world is embedded in the Bible. Because when you Read through the book of Proverbs, read through the book of Psalms, read through the Epistles. You see clearly what the Bible stance is. That every believer should be hard working. That every believer should do the best that they can to ensure they fend for their families. That every believer ought to be able to also understand what perseverance is. Now, a motivational speaker will call perseverance diligence. They'll tell you even when the going gets tough, you must learn to reframe failure. Well, it's also embedded in the Bible. And so here's what I'm trying to say. When you take the Bible for what it is as primarily a textbook on salvation, right? Start from there and then also embrace the other principles that it teaches. It teaches hard work. It also teaches doing and being your best. No one will go through all of the Bible cover to cover understanding its principles and think that the Bible wants you poor. And then also no one will go through the entire Bible cover to cover and come up with a submission that the Bible says that if you are not rich, you are less spiritual.
- [21:48]
A
Look, I did a survey on my platforms And I had 98% request that I should have this conversation. 98% out of about a thousand 800 people that responded.
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B
Interesting.
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A
That made me feel as if my Christian brothers and sisters are looking for answers as to why some church leaders have made prosperity the core agenda for their message and their people. And then also why some Christians, which is what you said, don't understand the fact that they should work hard and not use biblical quotes as marketing strategy.
- [22:32]
B
I think that you have to get to a point in your Christian walk where you understand what it means to be made in the image of God. The Bible says in Genesis 1, it says, Come, let us make man in our own image. Now, the image he's talking about there principally he says, and give him dominion over the entire earth. Now, any believer that thinks that all they need is Jesus and the world can take itself have actually not come to the full consciousness of who they are in God. Because God being a creator and being an intelligent designer, has empowered every single person on the face of the earth, and more so believers to actually extend the dominion that is seen in heaven on the face of the earth. Which automatically means that if God created everything and put money in charge, also the entire world has been put in my care. That means that as a believer there's a natural curiosity you must have my daddy made these things and therefore I want to know more about it. I don't know where believers get and have the excuse to be mediocre. You definitely didn't get that from God. You definitely didn't. And also the popularly quote statements like, the same way it is hard for a camel to go to the eye of a noodle, so is it hard for a rich man? I think the biggest disservice that many believers do is that they lack a maniacal understanding, which means many don't know how to study their Bibles. And so what happens is that many of them read the Bible without the context, right? And like the popular statement goes, when you take the context out of anything or when you take the text right out of the Bible, what you are left with is corn. It means you're a con man. So here's what I'm trying to say. For you to thoroughly understand the context, you must check the pretext and the post text, right? To understand exactly what the Bible is trying to say there. But here's all I'm trying to say. It is that God also worked with people who were extremely visionary. Most of the first people he worked with, right when you read through the Pentateuch, Genesis, all the patriarchs of old were actually people who for example, God did not in any way whatsoever withhold them from the material possessions that they had. The fact that God blessed Abraham and we saw tangibly that he actually blessed him and the Bible records that he grew more in influence, he had more cattles, he had more goods, also shows you that God is not against what you call prosperity.
- [25:11]
A
Well, I mean, for the average person even listening, that may be okay, let's say Abraham is Old Testament. You can even use your life or even my life as an example that you are a believer. You still have businesses that you're doing that is paying you, and I do myself. So the example may just be just the two of us that people are watching. But for me, I also think that some pastors have the duty and the responsibility to re educate church members.
- [25:42]
B
Yeah, I think they do. I absolutely think they do. So I think we just need to learn to put priority first right now. By priority, I mean the priority of scriptures. And the core of every single thing that the Christian faith is hinged on is the fact that that salvation is the most important need of all mankind and that salvation comes through only one person, his name, Jesus. And so every pastor must know this. Before you ever teach about the material blessings of Abraham, you must first and foremost educate your members on the real blessing of Abraham, which is righteousness by faith. The Bible tells you later on in Romans 4, quoting David, talking about the fact that the real righteousness by faith is the blessings of Abraham. That's what it really is. Let me explain this. I don't want to get too theological. The very first time in the Bible that you see anyone called righteous right was in Genesis 15:6. The Bible says that Abraham believed God and it was counted unto him for righteousness. Now it was his faith that had righteousness be imputed upon him. Now pay attention to this now when you see a recall in Apostle Paul's Epistle to the Church in rome in Romans 4:5, he's talking about the real blessedness and the real blessings of Abraham being righteousness by faith. The fact that God has chosen to impute righteousness upon the undeserving. Hey, Pastor, that's what you must preach. That's the core of the Bible. Anything I repeat that anyone can have outside of Christ could not have been the main reason Christ came out of the top 100 people on the Forbes list. I don't think you have up to 25 professing Christians. I could run you through the numbers, from Elon to Warren Buffett to what's the Facebook guy, Zook. I could even go to Ivan Campat. I could even go to Carlos Slim Helu of, you know, of the times, Carlos Slim, that displaced Bill Gates at some point as the richest man in the world. How many of these guys scabbach and pray in tongues every single day? These guys have simply employed and word with the principles that God himself has put in place that govern the earth. The principle of seed, time and harvest. The principle that he who works hard and works smart will reap the dividends of his hands. And so here's the point. You don't have to be Christian to be rich. But the wealth that Christians have is greater than material possession, which is that no matter how wealthy a man is, if he lacks eternal life, all of the money he has is at best and at most ephemeral, which means he won't take you to the other side of the world. It won't go into his coffin with him. And so a believer has a lively hope, a lively hope that transcends the corridors of this world. A lively hope that is bigger and deeper than any dollar, every pound and every dinary I could ever summon. This is important. And so that's exactly what pastor should be preaching at the core. And it does. And this is important because you should try not to pander to the current economic realities. Preach the gospel in and out of season. In the same vein, tell your members to put in their best. Show up at work every day, put in their best. Because the principle of sit down and harvest works. The Bible tells you. He says, listen to me, he said, I know you've heard before that you should curse your enemies and bless those who bless you. He said, but calm down. Jesus speaking in the attitudes to be the beatitudes in Matthew 5. After the beatitudes later on, towards the end of the chapter, he goes on and says, instead, be like your Father in heaven, who causes rain to fall both on the just and on the unjust. Which means that an unbeliever who works harder than you thinks better than you, will make more money than you as a believer who chooses not to. And so being a Christian should not take you into an era of false comfort or also an era where you do away with the things you should be improving upon. This is very important.
- [29:47]
A
Is it a mindset that needs to be decoded?
- [29:49]
B
I think it's a mindset. A mindset etched in proper balance. There has to be a balance. On one hand, the wealthier I am does not equate to how much God loves me or how close I am to Him. However, the works of my hand, right, are proof that I believe in a Creator God and that I will do what the Word teaches. Let me explain. One of the things that happens is that on the other hand, now a lot of believers tend not to pay attention to labor and are only looking for favor unbeknownst to them. The Bible says he will bless the works of your hands, which means that if there are no works in your hands, there's nothing for God to bless. You have to give him something to bless. And so here's what I always tell people when I hear people say stuff like, oh, as you graduate now, may you get into the favor market and not the labor market. I tell them, shut up your mouth. The Bible doesn't teach that. The Bible preaches that for the believer there will be favor in the midst of labor.
- [30:52]
A
That's right.
- [30:52]
B
Not that favor is found regardless of labor. No, absolutely not. You will be broker than the brokest if you choose not to walk with your hands. And so are there advantages that believers enjoy in Christ Jesus, even materially? I would say it depends on how you put it. And you must ensure you stay in context. A believer has a supernatural advantage in that through the Holy Spirit, God can direct you in your business. He can help you see what is unseen to the natural man. He can tell you what to avoid. He can tell you who to employ. That's an advantage. And when you add that to your labor, absolutely, you get acceleration. But if you remove labor and depend on favor, you'll be hungry. I'll stop here, man.
- [31:42]
A
If you make it to the end of this conversation, I'd love to know, but at this point, how is this conversation going so far? Stick here, because it's just about to get even deeper.
- [31:52]
B
Okay.
- [31:54]
A
I walk into a church and congregation of 200 people. The financiers is just four people at the front, and then the church elders, you know, occupying other seats. 98% of the church members are broke. And then the pastor is also broke. How do you think the members will relate with that pastor?
- [32:17]
B
That's a very beautiful question. Well, let me start by saying this. Poverty or wealth are not the proper metrics through which to check a vibrant church. For example, the Bible teaches very much so that the poor will always exist amongst you. In fact, in the Bible, we've seen several cases where specific churches were known to be lacking materially. Look at the Macedonian church, for example, right? The Bible lets us know that the church was lacking and people gave. Now, let's even be clear. He was talking about the Macedonian church that despite their great poverty, they gave. Now, here's what I'm trying to say. How we measure the faithfulness of God to us as believers is actually beyond what he gives us in the now. It is what he gave us in His Son. Let me put it this way, and someone said this so brilliantly, I think it was C.S. lewis. He says, anyone who has Jesus and has everything has everything. He says a man who has Jesus and has nothing still has everything because Jesus is everything. I take that again. A man who has Jesus and everything has everything. But a man who has Jesus and nothing still has everything because Jesus is everything. And so we need to look at this contextually. What makes a church poor? First and foremost, through the eyes of eternity. A church is rich because they have eternal life and we will live forever. That's number one. However, let's talk about things in the context of material possession. What makes a church rich is also the same question as to what makes a society poor. Many times we forget that the people who attend churches are actually from a particular vicinity. And so let's look through it. For example, if you're not part of the Asian tigers, you're not part of the G20 and the likes, right? It is typical, for example, for most sub Saharan African countries to experience issues of squalor and excruciating poverty. Yes or yes? Now, you are likelier to find a poor. This is important. You are likely to find a poor Christian from Burundi than you are to find a poor Christian from the United States of America. Now, here's exactly where I'm headed and I need you to get this. What makes a local assembly poor, right, is many times tied to several things. Geographic issues, socioeconomic or social, ecogeographic issues, I'll put it that way. Right. Where they find themselves and so on and so forth. Sometimes it's the economy, it's just bad, right? And this is the point. Now, these are consequences of the fall of man, quote unquote. The fact that many times from the corruption of the leaders and so on and so forth. But here's my point. If a Christian get saved and he was born into a poor community, you don't expect a magic turnaround in his financial fortunes because he is Christian or just because he accepted Jesus. He's still in a poor community that has social amenity issues. This is important. And here's exactly what I'm trying to say. The fact that somebody is saved and is a Christian does not excuse the economic realities in his surroundings. That's important. It is very important. This is very important. And so there's that. But I don't want to digress and I want to just flow and in a minute or two talk particularly about the reality that you mentioned. So the pastor is poor, members are poor, most of them, and then there's one or two that are rich. Well, glory to God. I'm not trying to glorify poverty here. What I'm simply trying to tell you is that your poverty or your wealth, both of them are indifferent in the lens of salvation. However, here's what you must note. The Bible itself talks about the fact that, look, in the early church, people sold the rich, sold their properties to fend for the poor. Guess what? The reason you have the poor existing among the rich is actually so the rich can uplift the poor. And so when you discern the body, your perspective is different. That the four who are wealthy amongst them must seek to find ways to uplift the believers in their midst. The Bible tells you, do good, particularly to those of the household of faith. And so principally the Bible nowhere ever shows us an example of a church where everybody is wealthy. We will never have that reality. Never ever. Either you go from here or you go to Tegucigalpa, capital of Honduras, or you go over to Bali, Indonesia, or you go to Wherever you want to go to. Either you want to go to New Zealand or everywhere. There will never be a church where every single person's needs are met. Brother, your needs might even be met, but not all your wants are met. I want an LX600. You going to buy it for me?
- [37:34]
A
Man, I think you should stop.
- [37:36]
B
I love it.
- [37:37]
A
I love it.
- [37:37]
B
This was totally unprepared for me. But you've done. I wish I had more time to. To outline my thoughts, but. But it's done an incredible job.
- [37:45]
A
Now you spoke about economy, you've spoken about, you know, mindsets. But I really want us to take it deep as a self leadership coach. Even in an economy like this, like many sub Saharan African countries, how does one develop the mindset to grow wealth?
- [38:06]
B
That's interesting. I think it's very important. Now you're talking. So now I'm going to be talking to you as a self leadership and business strategy enthusiast. Right. I'm not going to be quote and unquote. Yes, referring to ecumenical activities. Right. I think many times also as believers who are business enthusiasts, we also need to know where to quote and unquote draw the line. Stop trying to make the Bible solve problems it was not designed to solve. The Bible is a textbook on salvation, not the biology textbook, which means that it's not designed to give you all the biological details. Neither is it designed to give you economic details. Does it have economy in it? Yes, a bit. Does it have biology in it? Absolutely. But we must not mine on the major and major on the minor. The Bible is a textbook on salvation. And so here's what I'm trying to say in context like this. My goal is not to overly quote scriptures and try to apply it to a context that it was not deliberately designed to solve. The Bible is a textbook that was supposed to show how the sin problem was solved once and for all by God. This is important. Now let's talk self leadership at the core. You see, I think the very first thing is a perspective issue. One of the things that you find prevalent in societies that are going through a hard time is that there's a lot of complaining, a lot of talking and a lot of blaming. And so what that does is whether you like it or not, it does two things. First and foremost, it's a proceed of the wrong mentality. But second of all, also it breeds a wrong mentality in others. Every human being that you know is a product of three things. What they hear, what they see and what they say. I'll break it down very quickly. What do you hear? I think many times we have the tendency to downplay what we hear a lot. You see, there's a difference between hearing and listening. Hearing is biological. Listening is psychological. There's a reason your teachers will tell you, hey, I'm talking. Listen. Well, they tell you to listen because it's something you must do consciously. However, hearing, nobody will tell you, hey, stop. Hear. No. Because automatically you're hearing. Your ears are never closed until you choose to close them. Now, what this does is that most of us have the tendency to downplay the importance of hearing to your subconscious and unconscious mind. And we only focus on the consciousness of listening. Let me explain this, Derek. Who you are today is not by reason of what you have consciously emitted, okay? But more for what you have unconsciously heard. There's psychological research called theta brain waves. It's been proven, for example, that 95% of a person's belief system is what they have inculcated and have imbibed before the age of seven. And this is so dangerous because it means that who you are at the age of 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15 is usually a result of the things you imbibed from when you were much younger. And that's extremely dangerous. It means that you're a product of your surrounding automatically. So every time you heard people call you foolish, stupid boy, you are a dullard, the teachers will tell you you're a dummy. Your last position. All those statements might look like things that were said and fell to the ground, but absolutely not. If they've ever fell to the ground, they fell to the ground as seeds that germinated in your mind. Listen to me. As a child, your brain is unintelligent. That sounds paradoxical, but I'm going to explain exactly what I mean. It means that as a child, you are unable and incapable of seeing what is true and what is not true. And so your subconscious and unconscious mind could take a joke as fact, could take a wrong opinion as truth. And so when people tell you, oh, you're stupid, you're foolish, you're never going to make it. Hey, those things have sown seeds in your heart. And guess what? That's why some kids grow to the age of 9, 10, 11, 12 and automatically see themselves as backbenchers. They see themselves as people who will never amount to anything because at some point in their lives, a teacher had told them that. And so what happened is that subconsciously and unconsciously, they've taken the opinion of a person as rule and as fact. In their lives, not because they are incapable, but have talked to themselves without thinking to themselves that it is true, that they are incapable because someone's opinion made it. So this is important. And so what you hear is extremely powerful. That's why we always advise parents to give children words of encouragement. The words of encouragement are ridiculously powerful because they do much more than you could expect. They sow seeds. You're all born tabula rasa. And that means that it's like a canvas. The moment you're born, you begin to paint on it. And so it's usually a context of what is being painted in your mind. That's number one. That's what you hear. Also what you see. What you see because you see your eyes and your ears are gateways that the gateways to your life. They are not just organs of sight and hearing. They are gateways to your life. And so that's why you see, what do you see? Parents play the strongest role here. You see, the family is the smallest unit of society, but yet it's the most powerful because embedded in the family are the primary mirrors of possibilities that children see. As a mentor and speaker who has the privilege of coaching people even on a personal level, I've been a mentor to quite a number of people. I since cases of mentees and just people at random struggle so much in life with relationships because at some point they saw daddy hit mommy.
- [44:39]
A
Yep.
- [44:40]
B
And so imagine being the age of 6, 8, 9, 10, and what your sights can recollect is seeing daddy raise his hands at mommy. What happens is that might look like a singular action or a series of actions time and again that somebody could do away with. But it never happens that way because your mind keeps record. It always keeps record. Now what happens is that the record that was kept was stored up somewhere in your mind. Every human being is like an iceberg. Everyone sees what's on top. No one sees what's beneath. But what's beneath is what powers what's on top. And so what's on top is your conscious mind, but what's beneath is your subconscious. And unconscious is much more powerful than your conscious mind. So what happens is this. Whenever your eyes and your ears stick seeking things, they take them down. And occasionally, if I'm not occasionally, every single day, what you see on top are the things beneath that are floating. And so you see someone is rude. Well, he didn't just wake up rude. Don't get me wrong, there's the Hippocrates angle of people being sanguine. Melancholic, phlegmatic and choleric. Absolutely. There's that where you have natural tendencies, right? Behavioral. It's the nature nurture argument. But I even lean way more on nurture than nature, because everything natural can be suppressed by nurture. And so here's the point. The eyes, what it sees. And so such a child grows up and begins to think that it's okay to beat women. Not because it could have been naturally wicked, but because that experience of the series of experiences that he had made him feel that it was permitted. Has it ever happened to you that you used to do something all your life, all your life, all your life, because you thought it was permitted or because you thought it was true? And it was not because of anything else, but principally because of what you saw your parents do? This is interesting and very important. And so there was a very incredible story I once heard. I think it was of a young lady, right? She used to. Every single time she got married, and every single time she used to break fish into two. Into different pieces, cut fish into two different pieces. And then one day her husband had to ask her, why do you do this every time? She said, oh, my God, I do this because when we were growing up, we did not have a big fry pan. Yep. And so even now, when I have a big fry pan, I still think small. It's like an elephant that was caged in infancy and tied to a tree, but has outgrown the tree, but doesn't know. So that's a mindset issue that sometimes I'm about to go to a particular place and I'm on a call, maybe trying to wrap up a business deal or having a meeting at the office while I'm driving on the car speaker and I get to my destination, easy peasy. And I'm like, how did I get here? That's it. And so that's exactly how mindset is formed and shaped. And so the third one that I haven't mentioned is what you say you see. What you see confirms what you heard and what you saw. Words are powerful. In fact, I think that's some psychological, I think psychiatric and sociological research. I don't have enough data on this. Now, that has even further buttressed the angle that what you hear yourself say is more powerful than anything else. In fact, there's a reason, for example, that you fight thoughts not with thoughts, but with words, because your mind keeps record of your words. This is important. So what happens to most of us is that because we've had it tough, we've heard it tough. We've seen it tough. The worst thing to now make is that. Or the worst thing we now do is that we confirm it tough. And all I'll just say is this. There's some sense of legitimacy to statements like, it's tough. Can't you see it's tough? And I get it. Absolutely, I get it. But listen to me. It's always going to have to be hard. Everything worthwhile and everything that will stand the test of time will be at the other end of pain. If you want a well ripped body,
- [49:32]
A
you're going to work for it.
- [49:33]
B
You're going to have to work for it. Yeah. There is absolutely nothing glamorous that is not gotten or sustained by pain. If it was dashed to you, bequeathed to you, you will need some sense of pain, discipline to keep it. And so here's what I'm trying to say. No one ever promised you an easy life. And even dear Christians, Jesus didn't promise you an easy life. He said, in this life you will have tribulation, which means in this life you will see Shaggy. Right? Which is fact. Now, away from that and let's narrow it down to your context. Everything worthwhile will require some push. For some, it's harder. But understand this. There was no promise to me ever that for me to make the most of my potentialities in life is ever going to come to me on a bed of roses. This is primarily important. And so here's what I would say to anyone who could be struggling with a negative mindset. It is this. First and foremost, find mirrors of possibilities, no matter how small. There's a saying that I always re echo. I don't care how bad things are. All I need is one person who has a semblance of a good life. All I need is no matter how minuscule, no matter how granular, no matter how Lilliputian or diminutive, an example of quote unquote prosperity or an example of success might be in my environment. No matter how tiny, no matter how 0.000000001% might be, I would hold on to that example as a symbol of possibility and an example of what is possible. And I can walk towards it. The fact that there's at least one person or two people who have got out of poverty in your lineage is proof enough that you can too.
- [51:30]
A
Has it always been like this with you? Have you always had this mindset?
- [51:34]
B
So I'll put it this way. I'd say I've always been someone with very elevated levels of willpower. However, no matter how high in willpower you are, willpower is very perishable, which means it must be supplemented and improved upon and added to every single time. So, yes, I would say, naturally, I'd always been the go getter. I'd always been that kid that would tell you, oh, I'm going to come first and I'll try to come first. I'm going to get first. I always be the person that, oh, it's possible, yes. However, no matter how natural these things might look for you, it's only a matter of time before the environment was against that mentality and begins to make you become like it. And so if you choose not to keep on upgrading your experience in your mind, you will become like your environment. And so I would say it wasn't enough that I had willpower stored up in me growing up. What I always do is I always select my exposure. I'm extremely selective with my exposure.
- [52:38]
A
But, like, how do you tell the millions of youth in Nigeria that this is the mindset you need to have, and if you start practicing this mindset, your life is going to change.
- [52:50]
B
Can I be brutally honest with you, brother?
- [52:52]
A
Yeah, go ahead.
- [52:53]
B
I'm blessed with a solid following. I have over a million social media followers. By the grace of God, I have millions of people who have at one point in their lives heard me before, listened to me before. I've had tens or hundreds of thousands who have been at conferences that I've spoken at. And I give God all the praise for that. But you see, I will not stand here to tell you that everyone who has come in contact with me or will come in contact with me will make it. Not everybody will make it. We need to start becoming brutally honest with this for two main reasons. Alex Omozi puts it so brilliantly. He says that it's hard is the reason not everybody is doing it. Because if it were easy, everyone would be doing it. The reason you have very few conglomerates, the reason you have few multinationals in West Africa, the reason you have feel overwhelmingly successful individuals is because the road and the path of success is very rocky. There will be boisterous moments. There will be moments where you question why you started in the very first place. And so one of the things I've come to understand is this, and I've stopped this. One of the biggest mistakes I used to make early enough is to assume that everybody wants it badly. Huh? Some people are just comfortable with being mediocre. And inasmuch as you want them to be better and do better. You also have to have the humility that is needed to say, hey, I can't force you to become who you are not willing to be. You can't force people. I've seen people who are just comfortable with being snakes on a rock that leave no impact. I've seen people who are just comfortable with growing up in life, going to school, 6, 334, education system, and after that, getting married and dying. I've seen people who care absolutely nothing for impact. And so understanding this, knowing this will save you time, save you energy, and then make you fix your concentration on people who want to do and be better. For example, 99% of the people who are going to listen to this podcast right now are, are people who are hell bent on improving themselves.
- [55:45]
A
Yes.
- [55:46]
B
Anyone who is not hell bent on personal development, where exactly are you going to start from? You have to at least give me some tools to work with. There's got to be some raw materials for growth at the basest of levels. The raw material has to be a willingness to at least be better, a willingness to move from point A to point B. I'm not saying you should move to Z. I'm saying at least, at least show some fight, show some hunger. There has to be. And so I've also found out that if you're someone who doesn't have that fight normally and that bite in you normally as a person, I think you need to be extremely particular about your exposure. So many phlegmatics have a slower approach to things, not really particular. Cholerics are natural. Go getters. I want to do this, but you need to conduct a SWOT analysis on your life and understand that if you find some things natural to do, that's great. But there are some great things in life that might not come to you naturally. It doesn't mean that they are not yours. It means that you require more effort in those areas than in the others. And so I would say select your exposure. Stay around friends. That will push you. Has it ever so happened to you back at school? That is a bad class you are not so proficient at. But it was a friend of yours who was great at that subject. What did you do?
- [57:08]
A
I learned from them.
- [57:09]
B
You learned from them. You learn from them not just by telling them you need to learn from them, but by becoming around them whenever they were reading.
- [57:16]
A
I went to the library when they were in the library.
- [57:18]
B
Because the greatest power of exposure is that whenever you are in close companion with the people who have what you want, what you want, no matter how small, rub off on you.
- [57:38]
A
You know, you've said some really interesting things about, you know, not forcing people, allowing the people who genuinely want to change their lives, you know, to take the message and receive it. The reality on the ground is that Africa is hard. Yeah, I've lived in the UK for many years. I moved to Ghana six years ago. If you compare the systems in Europe and what we have in Africa, as you mentioned, even when we're speaking about a religious topic, is that the system? Naturally, I don't know how they do it, but it's almost as if it's been programmed for the young people to not do well. What's your view on that?
- [58:18]
B
I think we need more young people taking the bull bites on. And so what I mean is, I get you, brother, but what you just said is simply re echoing the statements. In 99% of downfall yellow buses in Lagos and in many of the Meccas or the small vehicles transporting people in Ghana, everyone is complaining. And even in the quote unquote, sinner climbs like United Kingdom, there are still citizens complaining. I think for me, I don't want to add to the statistic of people who are complaining again on this podcast by coming to tell you. I mean, I'm saying I don't want to come on this podcast to tell you and add to the number of viewers who are saying things are not working, things are these things, and that I think one of the first things I'll say is you need to do much more than complaining. Now, on one hand, I talked about the fact that even in the midst of hardship, your reality could be different, which means that you can find a way to listen. It was Peter Drucker, 20th century economist and philosopher, who said that the best way to predict the future is to create it. So you can create your own future. Yes. In the midst of hardship, however, the hardship can determine how high you go. This is important. And so what I will say is that particularly for young people, the continent of Africa actually has the highest youth population in the world.
- [59:49]
A
Yes.
- [59:50]
B
We should do much more than complaining and begin to strive to be policymakers. I'm going to put it this way. I think that we caught bad leaders too much slack. Okay, we cut them too much slack. The reason all of the countries in the world. What are you. You tell me about the best cities in the world, from Helsinki to Oslo to Amsterdam to one of my, one of my favorite places in the world, right? Rome, Italy, to all of the nice countries that you talk about and down to Singapore, right? Singapore being the nearest example of what we currently are and the future we should try to get into. Right? You saw that it wasn't a case of people constantly complaining. It was somebody choosing to take their lives by the scruff of the neck and make a meaning out of it in governance. There's a case of Lee Kuan Yew. He took Singapore literally from third world to first world. Not by complaining but by getting embedded in politics. I think this is the first time I'm actually saying this publicly. I think we need an intense wave of political participation and that is exactly what will lead to our emancipation. Here's what I'm trying to say. I think we know more than we do as young people. We have left the old cargoes in power. We've left people with analog thinking dictate a digital generation. What are we doing about it apart from complaining, brother? Ghanaians complain, people complain. Nigerians complain. People from Benin Republic complain. Africans complain. Everyone is complaining, brother. But are we going to do much more than complain? So here's what I'm going to say. It's not enough that you are angry. You must find the way to redirect your anger towards productivity when your fundamental
- [61:49]
A
needs have not been met in a system. The conversation we're having never gets in
- [61:57]
B
when your fundamental needs have not been met. Talking physiological, you're talking full shoulder clothing, my brother. That's is even the stronger reason you should be angry and find ways to influence policies. I will never incite violence. I'm a man of peace, person of peace. And so this conversation is not pushing people to incite violence. But there's a way you can say enough is enough in the most peaceful way. This is seen in several ways. So for example, you can't tell me that the quality of leaders that Africans have are the direct representation of every single person. What we have is a kakistocracy rulership by the worst of us.
- [62:45]
A
Let me stop you here for a minute. So if it's your first time watching Connected Minds or you have been here before but still have not subscribed, do us a favor because majority of the people that watch our videos have not subscribed. This doesn't help us grow beyond what we expect. So help us by hitting the subscribe button. Thank you. Now let's get back to the conversation.
- [63:10]
B
What's happening is we are making the worst of us rule the best of us. And the best of us are complaining that the worst of us are ruling the best of Us. What did you expect?
- [63:23]
A
Who is choosing?
- [63:24]
B
Who is choosing these guys? Come on. And I'm re echoing the sentiments of God in heaven. It's a democracy. Out of God's autonomy, he has granted man volition. Volition is the ability and capability to choose. Your choices matter. And he has said, hey believer. Hey child, choose. You put him in power the previous four years he performed poorly. And at the till end of the first tenure he began to package things well, he dropped the dollar, he did many more things and made them feel good and feel better. And all of a sudden they package rice, gave you some sweeter words, put some money in envelope, Right? Aha. You get what I'm saying now? And all of a sudden the same person who was complaining three years before is now putting what thumb to paper for the same person who was responsible for putting you in excruciating poverty. The same person who has done all manner. And then you are worried and you are surprised. Later on, such a society will definitely have corruption eating deep into its fabrics. Such a society will obviously have, you know, malfeasance, being deodorized. And so I'm not here to sugarcoat things. I'm just responding to the direct question that you gave that bro. There's nothing any speaker would tell you that would change that reality. Leadership is ridiculously powerful. Much more powerful than you think. A right leader will birth other sets of leaders and in turn there will be a trickle down effect and a multiplier of that across an entire world. We've seen it happen there, brother, with El Salvador, we've seen it happen with Singapore. I think we downplayed the power of effective leadership.
- [65:16]
A
Well, I mean look, that also fits into one of your specialties, which is self leadership coach. Because if the people are led, they lead themselves. Well then they can choose a good leader to lead them.
- [65:29]
B
Yeah, absolutely right.
- [65:31]
A
But if they can't even lead themselves, well then their choices will be terrible.
- [65:35]
B
Absolutely. Because you can't put the car before the horse. Exactly.
- [65:39]
A
But you see, to top it, this all off, everything we're saying that is fantastic.
- [65:44]
B
Now somebody is sitting there right there
- [65:46]
A
in the comments saying that not everybody wants to be an entrepreneur.
- [65:50]
B
Absolutely. If there were ever anything like a reincarnation, which there isn't, I won't be an entrepreneur in my next life. This life is not, is not this entrepreneur life. It's not as glamorous as you think. Honest brother, you know what I'm talking about. Because people only see the results.
- [66:11]
A
Yes.
- [66:11]
B
And did not have a peeping through the process.
- [66:13]
A
Yeah.
- [66:14]
B
And what's crazy is that people have found a way to glamorize the results that they've seen, not knowing that the number of entrepreneurs who ever make it out, first of all, are just about 3% compared to the ones that got in. Now, out of the ones that make it out, extremely few ever make it to the pinnacle. So what happens is that many have nebulous hopes and aspirations to be like the extremely tiny number one in a million of those who ever reach a pinnacle. Think of Africa. How many unicorns are in Africa?
- [66:53]
A
Well, I mean, look, I have a paper here. It says 80% of small businesses fail within the first five years. First five years. And this, this actually.
- [67:02]
B
And in the first 10 years, only 4% remain standing.
- [67:05]
A
There you go.
- [67:06]
B
I can continue going on with the statistics. I can read it off the top of my head. And I'm going to tell you why this is crazy, because I think first and foremost, let me put a balance to this. Entrepreneurship, right, is synonymous for risk taking. And where there's high risk, there's a higher tendency for failure. So what I see most times are people who hate failure but love entrepreneurship. Ha ha, ha, ha ha. How paradoxical. In fact, it's like an oxymoron to hate failure but love entrepreneurship. That's number one. So what happens is they don't love entrepreneurship. They love the proceeds of entrepreneurship that they have seen from a very few of the entire populace. And so this is very interesting. We must engage this and tread very carefully. So they don't love entrepreneurship, they don't like risk taking. They don't want to climb the stairs. They just like the view. They like what the world feels like from the mountaintop, but they're not ready to hike. Let's be honest, brother, brother to brother, West African to West African, right? Because me and you are brothers. We are brothers. 80% of West Africans I'll start with that will become quote unquote entrepreneurs, first and foremost aren't even entrepreneurs. They're self employed. If I'm going with Robert Kiyosaki's cash flow quadrant, because the difference between self employed and being an entrepreneur, however, most of people will claim to be entrepreneurs. Stumbled on it. That's number one for many. They saw it as the only means for survival. No job, no job, no job, no job, no job. Okay, let me start something. Which by the way, I absolutely commend. But I think we need to now this is important, give entrepreneurship is kudos when due. But brother, I'm not going to stand here and watch you Talk down on 9 to 5 hours corporate professionals. I want to give you statistics that could be very gut wrenching. I Dare say that 80% of the top five wealthy people in every society, or let me rephrase this now, I dare say that about 60 to 70%, maybe not reaching 80% of the top five wealthiest people in every society are actually nine to fivers by nine to five. As I'm talking about people who are corporate professionals, quote, unquote, work for somebody, at least at the base level. I'm not saying that the only thing they do is to work for someone, but they are masked, at least at the core, foundationally money, because they worked for someone, they offered value to someone, and in exchange of it, they got money. So here's what happens. We forget that, yes, out of the top 5% that I said, I said that out of the top 5%, 60 to 70% of them are people who work for others. But what happens is this. Many of us don't see that. And we only focus on the 30% of people in that area who those people work for. But those 30% are extremely few, extremely few. And you need to embrace the fact that it is okay to become wealthy off the back of working for other people. So what happens is that people who understand the corporate world so well are those who now look and say, how can I give value in terms of labor and get money in place? So what I do with that money is what then determines the trajectory of my life. And so foundationally, at least, you have to work for someone or at least give value one way or another. And let me tell you one other thing also, I think many times we forget the balance and continuity that having a corporate job offers you the level of security it does offer you. And people aren't talking about this, I dare say, and I'm saying this also, please, I need to be very real with people. I'm privileged to maybe be on a top 1 to 5% echelon, right on the socioeconomic strata, at least as an entrepreneur in my society. And I can tell you 100 how much firefighting got me here, how much feeling on the way got me here. I see how much hustles got me here. But in the same vein, what if I told you that there are corporate professionals in their thousands who can have the life that I have, quote, unquote, right, at least monetarily, by actually building a career and finding fulfillment while at it. Why do we keep making people feel like being A corporate professional. And having a job is second fiddle to entrepreneurship. If everybody was an entrepreneur who work for you brother, entrepreneurship is powered by entrepreneurship. We need to talk about this because nobody talks about this as much. Most of the greatest discoveries the world now enjoys and appreciates were actually not proceeds of the direct thinking of the entrepreneurs. Instead we're brainchilds of the entrepreneurs. An entrepreneur creates a habitable structure in which innovation can thrive. And this is very important. And so innovation is going to thrive. Yes, but it's only with the structure the entrepreneur has created. But the entrepreneur starts the job, the entrepreneur finishes it. And what this means is that we need more entrepreneurs. PlayStation is a discovery attributed to Sony. Yes or yes. But you see, it actually wasn't the founders of Sony who started PlayStation in and of itself. PlayStation was actually an innovation that was recommended by an employee in Sony PDF, Adobe PDF. The PDF idea itself was actually an innovation of an employee. The same thing with the Gmail. I don't think Mark Zuckerberg himself has been the person responsible for 90% of the products and experiences and innovations that you see Meta launch. And so we need to create a balanced society Entrepreneur, my brother, we, we said this but the average oil and gas worker, yeah. Will not have this conversation with you. I see the average tech bro who is making a million dollars a year by being a senior programs leader something somewhere will not have this conversation with you. Wealth, I repeat, can be built not only from entrepreneurship, but in fact more so from entrepreneurship and from being a corporate professional. It is not necessarily about how you get the money, it's about what you do with the money. This is important, right? What if I told you that in fact entrepreneurship is powered by corporate professionals in the sense that most of the companies that IPO get to initial public offering level. Most of the companies that are on stock market, every single one of them has their stocks being bought. By who? By who is the vast majority. In fact most all companies and most organizations globally will tell you that the employees people working in the system should actually be some of the people who own principal number of the shares. Do you know what the is paid African is right now? Or West African? The CEO of Seplat, I see he earns about 400 million naira per month. The CEO of MTN Kao Toriola is an employee employee and he's wealthier than 99.9999% of entrepreneurs Africa wide. This is hot stuff, but I think it has to be said so Olusola,
- [75:36]
A
is there anything we could have discussed that we have not a million and
- [75:41]
B
one things, but I think we have discussed sufficiently for this conversation. But if I have any parting words to anyone, and that's because I've seen you direct some questions and some statements towards people who just want to do better. I'd like to talk about something that I've called the conundrum of time. For lack of a better way of putting is this. As an individual, there is time and there is no time. On one hand we tell ourselves we're running out of time, which means that what you need to do, do it immediately, do it fast, do it early. But on the other hand, there is still time. And I want to bring balance to this. Because this particular thought was further strengthened when one of my mentees asked a very important question. He said, hi Olusola, what would you say is one of the greatest blind spots for 20 something year olds? I thought deeply, I sighed and I responded. I said, it is what I call the conundrum of time and a lack of balance of this phenomenon. On one hand, there is no time, which means that the best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The next best time is now, which means that you need to learn to move your ideas from the arena of the mind where they are magnificent and become a doer and an executor. You need to be somebody who tells yourself that, hey, I don't have all the time in the world. The Latins have a phrase, momento moro. It means remember your mortality, which means you don't have all the time in the world. The moment you realize that you can die tomorrow, it must remind you that all of the giftings on my inside need to be manifested as soon as possible. I need to make kinetic all the potential on my inside. This does a lot to you and it lets you also understand that the world doesn't reward the greatest of ideas. The world only rewards ideas in motion. And I always tell people this is the first side of it, that clarity does not come before movement. Clarity comes because of movement. It's only when you move that the part becomes clearer on the way. So we need to build a breed of executors, people who are able to shorten the time between ideation and execution. The world is full of strategists. There was a very interesting data I once heard about that of the first 10 most popular words on people's bios on LinkedIn is the word strategy. And ideation. The word execution is not in the first hundred. The world has many talkers but few doers. But then also this must stir up something in you that I have to act and act fast. That the world will not reward my good intentions. The world will reward the works of my hand that I bring forth. So why waste time? This is important. On one hand, talks about urgency, but the second part is that there is still time. It means that inasmuch as you've built and developed urgency, maturity also means that you must develop patience. You must have and develop the patience to watch your seeds grow. No matter how much in a hurry you are, you can never fast track the gestation process of a child. Nine months is nine months in the womb. You can't love the child so much that you pray out the child in five months. You can't love the child too much that you pray out the child in six months. Do you have the patience to watch cement dry? What this means is that no matter how great and mighty the seeds that you sow in your life are, you must also develop the patience to watch your seeds germinate. Which also means that not everything that I start now will become great overnight. They will become great over time and not overnight. And so there's a balance. The first one is the urgency to step out fast, because every time you celebrate plus one, it's my birthday, it's also minus one from the years in your life.
- [80:05]
A
That's true.
- [80:06]
B
But secondly, on the other hand, you must also develop the patience to see the works of your hands all come to fall. The patients to understand that you will not become a dangote overnight or an otedola overnight. The patients to understand that Kwame Nkrumah was not made in a day. Every good thing takes time. Understanding the fine balance between both will elevate your life and thoroughly transform your perspective. But I think everyone must have a sense of urgency, right? Because laid backness is a crazy issue. And you see, this cuts across two ways. Both to the rich, the already wealthy, the ones who were born into wealth, and even the ones who were born into poverty and squalor. Particularly for those who have a semblance of comfort. Growth does not happen in the midst of comfort. And there's also no comfort in the midst of growth. For anything to grow, for anything to expand, there's got to be motion. And so this is the law of inertia in place. Until an external force is applied. It will remain at that state of rest or at that pace that is already been moving in. And so I think that everybody must just learn to be uncomfortable, just be uncomfortable at some point.
- [81:38]
A
Okay.
- [81:39]
B
Yeah. You know, there's a Japanese philosophy called the misogi. It means that every single year, you must try to do something that you have a higher chance of failing at than succeeding. And so think about that a bit. The Japanese people always have one thing in a year that they want to anchor achievement and success in the year on. Every year, you must try to do something daring, come out of your comfort zone. Attempt to do something that you might not even have a strong chance of being great at, or something you might not be capable of easily succeeding at. Something you have a higher chance of failing at than succeeding. What's your misogy for 2026? You must dare to do something challenging. That's the problem. Every single time I do something challenging, I expand my mind. I improve my possibility metrics. I improve it, I believe. You know, the thing is, a lot of people think that audacity comes overnight. They don't know that audacity is like seed that is planted and keeps growing till it becomes bigger. Listen, there's a school of bravery everyone has to enroll in. And bravery is not only discerned in the greatest or the biggest occasions or the biggest decisions you ever make in your life. It begins from the small decisions you make that lead up to the big one. I give an example. You won't just wake up one day and say, I want to run for presidency. You must have proved your mettle.
- [83:14]
A
That's right.
- [83:15]
B
I've had some given level of proof of concept in the smaller things, which means start now, start doing hard things now. Start developing audacity in seed form from this moment. Wake up tomorrow morning and say, you know what? I'm going to step out and make calls to all the stakeholders for my business. I'm going to share more about my business. You know what? This year, why do we keep on making 20 million rand revenue globally? I want to do 100 million.
- [83:46]
A
That's it.
- [83:46]
B
I want to do this, I want to do that. I want to keep on moving and rising. And before you know it, one day, everyone thinks it happens. It happened overnight. Unbeknownst to them, it was the law of compounding. So the final words will be this. Embrace the law of compounding. Whenever you make a commitment to improve yourself, at least 1% every single week, at the end of an entire year, you've improved yourself by about 68%. I think it's 58 or 68%. Not even 52, not even 52% because of the law of compounding. And so this is Important. Whereas if you choose not to improve yourself, understand that you don't even have to choose not to improve yourself before you start declining. Because nature above vacuum, if you are not advancing, you are retreating. If you are not flowing, you are stagnant. And stagnant water smells. And so I would say in seed form, little by little, poko apoco, just seek to be better, seek to make brave decisions. And before you know it, in five years time, you will not be able to recognize yourself. Tony Robbins puts it this way. He says, I believe that many people overrate what can happen in a year and underrate the impact that can happen in five years.
- [85:05]
A
My brother, in the pursuit of success and greatness, which one of these or both is more relevant, motivation or discipline?
- [85:17]
B
Absolutely, discipline. Motivation is extremely perishable. I like to put it this way. I think it depends on how you define motivation, okay, because there's extrinsic motivation, then it's also intrinsic. Intrinsic is obviously internal by personal pursuit. And also I think in that sense, discipline can work hand in hand with the motivation, with the motivation. Because a very large part of intrinsic motivation stems from discipline, where even when the going gets tough, you keep on moving, keep telling yourself, I'm going to get better. So absolutely, discipline, discipline, discipline. Discipline is what you do when no one is watching. Discipline is how you keep on moving and pushing yourself, even when statistics and reality might seem to negate it. And so, yes, I would say discipline 100. If you keep waiting to feel like it, you get nothing done. Knowledge is greater than feelings.
- [86:17]
A
Wow.
- [86:18]
B
Yep. Commitments are greater than motivation. Eubank Jr said so brilliantly. He said that I've had to learn to keep the promises that I make to myself. Yeah, it says when I'm working out and I tell myself I'm going to do 10 reps, I don't stop at nine, because when I stop at nine, I'm training myself to quit. And so when I'm in the 10th round, or rather the 9th round of a boxing match later on in the future, I could be telling myself that it's okay to quit right now. And so your body keeps record, it keeps record of every single thing that you do. And so what I would say is commitments are more powerful than motivation. Do you keep the promises you make to yourself? Do you? There's such a way that you commit and your body and your feelings will follow instead of the other way around. So sometimes we wait for our feelings to be atop and then our body should follow, but that is not the way a high Flyer is wired.
- [87:24]
A
Thanks a lot. I've really enjoyed it.
- [87:26]
B
It was a pleasure from. From screen to to person, watch the great work you do. And I need to say this, and it's not just me blowing your trumpet, but I think what you're doing with this podcast is one in a thousand.
- [87:41]
A
Wow.
- [87:42]
B
Scratch that. I see one in a million.
- [87:44]
A
Wow.
- [87:44]
B
As far as the African continent is concerned.
- [87:46]
A
Yes, brother.
- [87:46]
B
I'll tell you why. I think what stands you out is not just insightful conversations you have here is the consistency. But not just consistency, like we said behind the camera, because people can be consistently mediocre, but the consistency in choosing change and improvement every single time. Right. And so the fact that you've always shown up every single week for two years. Kudos to you. Kudos to your team. Because many times I sit where you are and I know how hard it is to even churn out one episode. Yeah. Great work. You do. Yeah.
- [88:21]
A
Thank you.
- [88:21]
B
I need to tell you thank you.
- [88:22]
A
Thank you. I really appreciate it. I really appreciate it. You know, sometimes you need to hear this and recently I've been posting some of the messages people have been sending to us because it's hard, man. It's a lot of work, you know, to do it. We just packed the bags and said we are going to Lagos. But if you made it to the end, drop it in the comments and would love to know and share this. Let other people know that indeed, this was a superb conversation. High pitched as well on YouTube. My name is Derek Abayte and I've been speaking with Olusola. Take care of yourselves and don't get into trouble. I'm out.
- [89:02]
B
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