LIVING YOUR OWN LIFE

William H. Cosby popularly known as Bill Cosby got it right when he said that,'I don't know the key to success but the key to failure is trying to please everyone'. We live in a world that is filled with people suffering from a disease which is more psychological than it is physical, it is called the 'Approval Addiction'. People will do everything and anything to gain the approval of families, friends and peers alike. It is a natural tendency for people to want to be appreciated for who they are but many take it overboard by doing so many things they would not on a good day do but just because they want to prove a point like the young man who begins smoking because he wants to prove to his friends that he is a man or a young woman who wears skimpy dresses just to gain the approval of her girlfriends. A wise man said, 'People are the funniest of God's creations because they spend money they don't have to buy things they don't need to impress people they do not like'.
  Trust me when I say that nobody wants to be left alone even in the midst of the crowd but it is best to be alone and be safe than to be in the wrong crowd reminding me of an innocent sixteen year old who got twenty years because he was in the company of his friends who unknown to him were robbers.
 Friend God performed the biggest miracle and that miracle is the one to who I am speaking to at this moment, of the over six billion people on earth, you are unique, nobody has your ideas, gifts, skills or talents anyone who attempted to be you would only be second best.
  The word is to begin from this moment to begin to live the life your Maker arranged for you not the life others believe you should be living for no one else knows you more you know yourself. A man of God at a seminar I attended years ago made a profound statement which still rings in my head till today, 'Never allow people build your world for they will always build it too small.
 When Chief Nduka Obiagbena declared that he would make an all coloured newspaper, he was seen as crazy but he did it anyway in spite or despite the naysayers and This Day Newspaper stands as the testimony of one man's resolve. So friend live your live and though people may mock you at the beginning they will celebrate you at the end. To your success.

ENTREPRENEURS, WHO ARE THEY?

Entrepreneurs are no magicians but they create what people call 'magical'..When left alone in the desert, they will dig water out of the sand, when faced by mountains, they will create a tunnel or reduce them to molehills.
Entrepreneurs can create parks from desolate lands, cities out of forests. To those who only see an empty vacant piece of land, they see and go ahead to build estates. On the swamps, entrepreneurs create skyscrapers that soar to the heavens. The job seeker sees a stone but the entrepreneur sees a statue within the stone.
   Entrepreneurs don't just look, they see not just what is but create what is not. Give entrepreneurs sand and they will turn it into gold, these special beings have transformed garbage sites to gardens. An entrepreneur can start a shop and turn it into a supermarket. He or she can with a laptop create a cybercafe. When pushed over the cliff, entrepreneurs develop wings and soar. An entrepreneur when pushed into the river will learn how to swim and bring along fish with him to the shore.
  An entrepreneur has dreams, aspirations and ideas that continue to live even when he or she is no more. Entrepreneurs are the best selling authors whose bitter experiences become the best books read. They not only motivate themselves but serve as motivators to others, they are seemingly ordinary people that produce extraordinary results.
 Entrepreneurs are not just dreamers but doers as well. Entrepreneurs may not have seen the four walls of a classroom or may have even dropped out along the way but are educated and enlightened for most of the world's richest entrepreneurs were school dropouts. Entrepreneurs start with nothing but end up owning everything. Entrepreneurs are those who bring ideas from the world of the invisible making them both visible and tangible.
Entrepreneurs are those who dream and never go back to sleep until their dreams are lived. Entrepreneurs are first seen as madmen before they are hailed as great men. They are people who give life to their ideas creating wealth from nothing. Entrepreneurs are people who can put everything on the line for what they desire. They don't waste precious time, energy and resources reinventing the wheel rather they improve on it. They reproduce themselves and help others reproduce themselves. They discover the talent in themselves and others and harness both to the maximum.
Entrepreneurs are those who employ the best heads and hands from the best universities all over the world though they never went to the university.

DARE TO 'THINK FOOLISHLY'

A song book vendor selling his goods ringing a bell

A disastisfied worker at MacDonald's whose fracnhise plan had just been politely turned down

A worker at MacDonald's

A banker who left her job to start selling poff poff

A journalist who read Yoruba in the university hiding from the hit group of a bloodthirsty tyrant

You may wonder why this list of unknown people and how it concerns you, let us take of the veil and see who they are now

Ayo Animashaun, the creator of the Hip Hop World empire

Prince Dona Okonkwo, owner of Tetrazzini restaurants

Don Jazzy, Africa's leading music and producer

Quincy Ayodele CEO of Quincy Herbal Slimmers

Dele Momodu, creator of Ovation Magazine

The above persons and even more dared to go against the accepted norm, they dared to 'think foolishly' and just look at where their seemingly foolishness got them.
To anyone who will make it in this world, you must be willing to look foolish to the whole world who will laugh at you at first but will want to reckon with you when you become successful. So dare to look foolish before the world and trust me you will be having the last laugh

A WORD OF HOPE

On behalf of all of us at Aspire Magazine, we commiserate with our brothers and sisters in America and all over the world who lost loved ones fourteen years ago on this fateful day which in 2001 was on a Tuesday morning there in America but evening in Nigeria. Only God Almighty can heal the pain on the wound opened fourteen years ago. It is well with you and God Bless America

WHO WANTS TO BE A MILLIONAIRE

I am sure most of us if not all of us have watched this game show or even played it online with thousands of contestants battling for the ultimate prize which only one person takes home at the end of the day.
The big question still remains, 'Who Wants To Be A Millionaire' one which everyone can answer.
First, who is a millionaire? A millionaire is not just someone who has a million dollars or pounds, euro, rand, yen or naira in the bank but someone who has sold one item to one million people and has made a gain of minimum a dollar on it.
It is that simple, rather than wait to get to the hot seat which is like playing the lottery with one million other people in line, go out there and see how you can meet the needs of a million people with a target of making a dollar gain on it.
Friends, it is the gospel truth that there a long list of people waiting to hand their money over to you in exchange for a product or service. Here are the simple steps
1 Find a need that people cannot do without
2 Create a innovative way of meeting the needs of your clients
3 Get feedback from your customers
The world is filled with entrepreneurs who are meeting the needs of their clients from all works of life and are reaping the dividends, you are the next millionaire in awaiting.
Now Who Wants To Be A Millionaire

FROM STREET TO PULPIT- THE TARIBO WEST STORY

The streets like a farm has always produced fruits, some delicate and others hard. While it has produced many villains it to a great extent has produced heroes from all walks of life some of them being the likes of Ghetto General Daddy Showkey. Daddy Fresh, General Pype, Oristsefemi, not to mention the likes of Sunday Oliseh, Emmanuel Amunike, Taribo West amongst many others.
   Taribo lived what Jay Z called 'a hard knock life' growing up in the dangerous streets of Shomolu which he likened to the Bronx. The gangs ruled the streets and if you were not with them, you definitely against them and for young Taribo who did not want to incur the wrath of the mob stuck on them like white on rice.
Taribo got by on his proceeds from his share of their crime deals but was more interested in street football until one day that things took an unexpected event, his best friend and fellow member in the gang was stabbed to death by the members of a rival gang for failure to return a bag of money which they claimed belonged to them. He watched powerlessly and helplessly as his friend bled to death which made him run back to Port Harcourt, his place of birth where he turned a new leaf focusing more on the round leather game which earned him a place in the Flying Eagles Squad of 1991 and losing out narrowly in being selected among the USA 94 Squad.
 From that moment there was no stopping the young man as he got a contract to play in the French League with first division club Auxerre where he won the French league under the management of Guy Roux.
Taribo was among the victorious team at the Atlanta Olympics in 1996 clinching the gold medal from the favourites Brazil and Argentina and played for the senior national team, the Super Eagles from the year 1998 till 2006 when he hung his boots after an illustrous career in Internazionale and later rivals AC Milan and then Partizan Belgrade.
 He is now Pastor of a church as well as a role model to young people from the streets as he said that God had changed him from an arrogant footballer to a humble servant of God
Friend if he could make it from his rough background so can anybody else.

SWEET VICTORY