6 THINGS STARTING BUSINESS OWNERS SHOULD KNOW

Ignorance of the law they say is no excuse, there are some important things all starting business owners should know before they begin business more like knowing how deep a river they want to swim in with one leg to know how deep it is.

1 Develop A Compelling Mission: Nothing draws the best talents to any organization than a clearly cut compelling mission because people will only follow a man or woman who not only knows where he or she is going but how he or she will get there. Even though he never lived to see his vision fulfilled, he left behind a determined set of people who eventually put a man on the moon.

2 Find The Right People: It is an exercise in futility putting square pegs in round holes and vice versa. You need to find the right people and put them in their right places. The person who has a tenor voice should be made to sing tenor and nothing else. You don't just need the lone rangers but team players who will do all in their might to help achieve, 'The Big Picture'.

3 Set Clear Goals: Starting a business with no goals is very much like going to a shooting club to shoot but they have no targets for you to practice with. You need both short term and long term goals to move your organization in the right direction else progress will be greatly hampered if all your staff went in different directions of their choices.

4 Measure Progress: There is an African proverb that says, 'When an old woman carrying a basket falls down twice, it is time to count the contents of the basket. Goals set are of little or no use if you cannot measure the progress at which your organization is making. Take a look, sit back and see if indeed you are meeting your targets, if you are then raise the bar a little higher than the previous time. If you didn't meet the target, take a critical look at what went wrong and then adjust it, this is no time to beat yourself up rather it is an exercise in honesty to bring out the best results next time.

5 Be Prepared To Resolve Problem: My favourite comic hero Batman gave Superman some advice when attacked by the Joker by bombs disguised as marbles, 'When dealing with the Joker, expect the unexpected' It is a well known bitter, hard cold, harsh fact that the examinations of life don't have a time table and they never will. Problems will definitely come, you should just get yourself prepared when they turn up for they are simply opportunities in work clothes. A wise man said, 'Prepare for the worst while hoping for the best'.

6 Reward Yourself: Life as the wise view it is a journey that is meant to  be enjoyed not endured. When eventually you do hit your target, reward yourself with little treats at first then increase them as you grow in business. Go to the beach or your favourite restaurant and give yourself a treat.

THE BROKEN JINX

The jinx was finally broken and the joke was on Jose Mourinho who had labeled Arsene Wenger a specialist in failure as well as called him 'boring for not winning a single silverware in 9 years.
  After 11 years of the two coaches meeting for the fourteenth time, Arsene Wenger was the victorious one at the end of 90 minutes of regulation time. Congratulations sir, persistence surely pays.

BACK TO BACK WINNERS

Someone said that, 'The longer victory takes the sweeter it tastes'. The tag of Arsene Wenger being a 'specialist in failure' has worn off as the Gunners gunned past their North London rivals Chelsea beating them for the first time in 11 years with Jose Mourinho as coach. Arsenal with this feat have become the first team in a long time to win both the FA Cup and the Community Shield consecutively.
 It took an Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain goal to silence the taunts of Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho who shook hands with the team players. Success is on the way for the Gunners who have stamped their authority as a team to be taken serious as the season of the round leather game nears commencement.

6 THINGS BILLIONAIRES DO DIFFERENTLY

Billionaires are a rare breed of people ( I being one of them) displaying talents others could only dream of but as they say the secrets of the successful are in their stories. Here are six things that billionaires do differently

1 They are time conscious set of people and when I mean time conscious I don't mean people who hurry and rush and still try to figure out where time has gone. They don't spend time, they invest it in productive engagements, they keep to time when given appointments or when they give out appointments. A wise man said' Your respect for time will determine to a great extent your financial destiny. Also, the rich spend money to save time while the poor squander time trying to save money.

2 They are never afraid of failing forward, Donald Trump was one billion dollars in debt yet was still making out projects. Billionaires see failing in a different light, they see it as a learning experience where they learn what to do, what not to do and how to do things better.

3 They are passionate people filled with a burning desire to do what is in their hearts to do. They wake up every morning with determination and they go to bed with satisfaction. Sir Henry Royce could not take good as good enough neither will Soichiro Honda accept a flaw in a Honda car because these and more people are passionate about their work.

4 They either create new things or do common things in an uncommon way. Ray Kroc was not the founder of McDonalds yet he did in an uncommon way what the original owners were doing commonly while on the other hand Mark Zuckerberg created a social media platform with over a billion users with the aim of connecting people. Billionaires either make things better or make better things

5 Billionaires are givers. True billionaires know that giving is the source of living, John D. Rockefeller while on his deathbed began giving his way his money in which a portion of the money went to an orphanage filled with hungry orphans, this act alone elongated his life by 41 years with a foundation in his name. Billionaires don't hoard they give examples are people like Bill Gates, Warren Buffet and others who give to charity

6 Billionaires don't take life too seriously. Billionaires are humans who live life one day at a time. Billionaires like Sir Richard Branson love life and they enjoy it to the full with people they love and cherish enjoying the best gifts of life like the rising of the sun, waterfalls, birds and people moving here and there. Life is a journey meant to be enjoyed and not endured.

SUCCESS AND FAILURE

10 TOP THINGS ABOUT SIR RICHARD BRANSON THAT YOU DIDN'T KNOW

1 Sir Richard Branson while in boarding school was a better athlete than he was a student.

2 He got the idea of owning an airline from his mother who was an airline hostess who had to pretend she was a man in order to become a pilot instructor.

3 He learned the lesson on independence the hard way as a four year old when his parents intentionally dropped him insisting that he should find his way, of course he got lost.

4 He got his expulsion letter from school overturned after writing a fake suicide note.

5 Though not a graduate, he uses the most unorthodox methods of licensing out his brand and promoting his products.

6 He sold his record label Virgin Record for a billion dollars which he used to purchase his airline from the banks

7 The name 'Virgin' was suggested by a member of his staff and the reason was because he and his team were complete virgins in the business world.

8 Though wealthy he is a lover of simplicity

9 He got his entrepreneurial spirit from his parents who in their spare time made extra income for the family

10 He created the reality show, 'The Rebel Billionaire'

10 INSPIRATIONAL FACTS ABOUT SOICHIRO 'THUNDER' HONDA

1 By average he was a poor student who played truant studying only to the tenth grade before dropping out to pursue his love, automobiles.

2 He built the Honda Empire from scratch from an initial investment of $3200 which was borrowed.

3 Mr. Honda did not become a millionaire until he was 48 ( talk about perseverance)

4 He lived not far away from Akio Morita, the founder of Sony and while Akio was born into wealth, Soichiro was the son of a poor blacksmith who repaied bicycles by the side.

5 His parents were so poor that five of his siblings died of malnutrition.

6 Even when told by the Japanese authorities that they didn't need another automobile, he simply turned a deaf ear and built the Honda Empire.

7 He suffered a setback in 1938 when his factory was crippled by a bomb and eventually destroyed by an earthquake.

8 As a part of his war against convention, he did not hire graduates.

9 After surviving a car crash that almost claimed his life, he learned to fly his own helicopter at the age of 60 ( not tired or willing to retire)

10 His staff nicknamed him 'Thunder' because of his outbursts