If they say I can’t, And I say I can, I have to choose whose word I believe, And then prove it! It’s tempting to choose what they say, because it’s easier to prove; Just do nothing
You’re Powerful
Competing with Artificial Intelligence
I was just reading an article about how artificial intelligence (AI) is going me to make me obsolete in a few years, which was a little disheartening. As I thought about the article, it occurred to me that there are few areas I can always have the advantage over AI if I work on them. One thing that came to mind is learning how to show more empathy and care. On these, I know I’ll have the edge over AI for some time.
Skill Matters: Life Trading Values, By Olurotimi Odejayi
Olurotimi Odejayi
The word “value” (in economics), means “a measure of the benefit that an economic actor can gain from either a good or service.” Source is at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/value. That is, a fair return or equivalent in goods, services, or money for something exchanged. The topic means that it is expedient for the youth to exchange the societal needed values for the corresponding payments in cash. Simply put, I give value and I am paid back in turn.
The Beginning is “the trade by batter” concept
The real essence of living is for man to fulfill purpose and this is possible through a proper understanding of how life works. One major principle is the truism that “Nothing ventured, nothing gained, and something ventured, something gained.” And this is possible when you give up your expertise for an exchange for cash. This all started during the Agriculture Age wherein you exchange agricultural products (Crops and farm animal) for benefiting from gained utility. The word utility means “the satisfaction you derive from the economic value of a good or and service consumed”. What people pay for is the value they derive from using a product, goods as well as services experts render. This is the 21st century, when you no longer practise trade by batter concept, what is obtainable today is the Trading Value Concept. This concept advocates the idea that you give-up your acquired skill in exchange for money. It is your skill that dictates what economic value employers of labour will place on you. You will be well remunerated if you have the value to trade off. What then is skill? The word skill here means “your ability to do something well.” The simple formula, Skill equals to Knowledge plus Ability, is a good example.
You can acquire relevant skill through any of these nine ways:
- Practise personal development.
- Master a field of specialization only.
- Undergoing trainings in your field e.g. go for internship programme.
- Amassing many years of working experiences in a field of endeavour.
- Network with other professionals for knowledge sharing.
- Acquire relevant professional certification(s) in your field.
- Update your knowledge via reading, practising, mentoring, creativity, e.t.c.
- Teach others whatever you know.
- Embrace innovation in your business.
- Dare to do critical thinking.
The Conclusion is: Continue reading “Skill Matters: Life Trading Values, By Olurotimi Odejayi”
Thinking begets Creativity, by Olurotimi Odejayi
Olurotimi Odejayi
To be creative requires having a clear mind for thinking as well as for receiving inspiration. This however demands that you have prior skill in a particular field of endeavour and be familiar with the kernel of this field of endeavour. This is preferably what you have been practicing on a daily basis. This daily practice gives you an insight into how you can go about doing things in your own unique way. The next thing is for you to ponder. By this, I mean you think deeply so as to be inspired. This must be a specialized kind of thinking that I call “out of the box” thinking, which should eventually produce a newest distinct concept or idea.
“Out of the Box” Thinking!
The phrase “out of the box” is an expression that describes non-conformal creative thinking. The term is used as an adverb to describe the thinking or as an adjective to describe the ideas. It requires openness to new ways of seeing the world and a willingness to explore new ways going forward. Out of the box thinkers know that new ideas demand inner introspection and pondering. They stay put on this pondering status until a new way to doing things eventually come up. This further needs nurturing and support; they also know that having idea is good but Continue reading “Thinking begets Creativity, by Olurotimi Odejayi”
Two Things You Can Still Do This Year, by Darasimi Oshodi
by Darasimi Oshodi
Sometime ago, I took my wife to the hospital for treatment of cough and catarrh. It was our first time of visiting that hospital to see a doctor so we had to obtain a new patient’s card. We paid for the card without stress but it was not the same with obtaining the card. Since my wife was not feeling too well, I had to help her obtain the card while she sat down. The queue that confronted me where I was to obtain the card was scary but I did not have any option but to fall in line if I wanted to get the card. There were about five disorderly lines (the disorderliness actually accounts for why I cannot be exact about the number of lines) being attended to by two persons – the number later increased to three.
While waiting to be attended to, I observed something: some people who just joined the queue were attended to before those they met on the line. A man who was behind me found his way to the front and he was attended to before me. My first reaction to the man’s attitude was to wonder at his impatience and disregard for order. But it didn’t take me long to come to terms with what I concluded was the reality of life. I thought to myself that there was no need to blame him because his action only exemplified that life will hand to you what you demand of it and not necessarily what you deserve. In life, some people wait for a good fortune to drop on their laps like ripe mangoes while others go about life with such a determination to make life give them what they want. This does not mean I support disorderliness. In fact, I am a firm believer in the first come, first served principle.
Another observation I made while waiting to get the card was that patients who knew hospital officials enlisted the support of such officials to help them get whatever they wanted quickly. This also did not anger me because I have come to realise that relationships can help you get ahead in life or take you where your knowledge or status may not take you. These patients who knew hospital officials were only enjoying the benefits of the relationships they had developed. And I am not one to blame the hospital officials for calling in favours in their workplace. Where else would they call in such favours if not in their workplace? Continue reading “Two Things You Can Still Do This Year, by Darasimi Oshodi”
Superstars and Superflaws
By Darasimi Oshodi
Lance Armstrong, Oscar Pistorius, Aaron Hernandez. Why are superstars falling from grace to grass? Pistorius’ and Hernandez’s cases are still in court so it is subjudice, using the legal parlance, meaning one cannot make any conclusive statement on them, at least not in public. The sports world was shaken earlier this year when Armstrong admitted that he had been using drugs for a very long time despite repeated denials. He admitted he used performance-enhancing drugs during all seven of his Tour de France wins. During his confession, which he made to Oprah Winfrey, one of America’s top show hosts, he said, “I view this situation as one big lie I repeated a lot of times. I made those decisions, they were my mistake and I’m here to say sorry.”
One question that probably has been running through the minds of sports followers/lovers is why our revered sports heroes fall from their place of exaltation to great depths of ignominy. Why do people we have come to admire and hero worship turn out to be pretenders, hypocrites and at times criminals or lawbreakers? These individuals were once stars who were famous because of their dazzling sports career but due to crucial errors in judgment and sometimes, persistent ill habits, their names and careers have been tarnished. Check this short list:
Tiger Woods: Top golfer and former champion Tiger Woods was charged with infidelity and extra-marital affair. The scandal cost him his marriage and sponsors. It is believed he had extra-marital affairs with as many as 17 women. Woods accepted that he was a sex-addict and was admitted to re-hab. Only recently has he managed to get a few sponsors back though his form remains shaky on the golf course.
Mike Tyson: A former undisputed heavyweight boxing champion who had the record of knocking down his opponent in the first 91 seconds of the fight. He was arrested for rape and was later sentenced to six years in prison followed by four years of probation. Apart from rape, he has been embroiled in different controversies but his most remembered controversy was when he bit both ears off Evander Holyfield during a match.
Ben Johnson: Johnson tested positive for performance enhancing drugs after winning the 100 metres sprint at the 1988 Seoul Olympics and was forced to give up his medal. He later admitted to having used the banned substance the previous year at the World Championship and was stripped of that title as well. He attempted to stage a return but failed another test and was banned for life.
Marion Jones finished with three gold medals and two bronze at the Sydney 2000 Olympics, a feat that had never been done. But Jones was stripped of her medals after she admitted to using performance-enhancing drugs. After the Sydney Olympics in 2000, Jones was accused of taking steroids by her ex-husband, among others. Tests proved nothing but Jones confessed to lying to federal agents about her drug use. She returned the five medals she had won and was also handed a six month prison sentence. She had been accused of using illicit substances from her school days. As if that was not enough, she was also accused of being part of a check-counterfeiting scheme linked to her former coach, Steve Riddick, her sports agent Charles Wells, and her ex-boyfriend, Tim Montgomery.
The stories related above are sad because the characters involved were, at one time, on top of the world but came crashing down and even out of our consciousness. What must have caused this? Simply put, lack of character. All of these sport stars either lacked character or lost their character at a point. They got to the top but could not stay at the top. At different times and fora, I have heard that ability/talent can take you to the top but character will keep you there. This is indeed true of the characters in the aforementioned stories and many other celebrated personalities who have been disgraced. The absence of character has caused many to fall from grace to grass in all spheres of life. The list is endless.
So what is character? Character is much more than just what we try to display for others to see, it is who we are even when no one is watching. Good character is doing the right thing because it is right to do what is right. People without character live hypocritical lives. The personality they present to people is different from what they are in their closet. And eventually their secrets are exposed bringing them great opprobrium. There is a saying in Yoruba land, where I come from, that character is like smoke and that no matter how hard one tries to hide it, it will eventually be detected
From these stories, I have again learned that character is essential and must be maintained at all times. While we all have our weaknesses, we must ensure to deal with them. Why? The weakness we don’t deal with will deal with us. The vice that we don’t overcome will overcome us and may disgrace us. If we must stay at the top, we must maintain good character. As we enter the year 2014, let’s check ourselves and identify weaknesses that we need to deal with and then go ahead and deal with them.
P.S: I pray that justice will be rightly dispensed in the Oscar Pistorius’ case.
The Demystification of Jose Mourinho
By Darasimi Oshodi
“I don’t feel comfortable enough to tell you what I think about the game. We’re in trouble. It is a concern [conceding so many goals]. I don’t like it, I don’t organise my teams to be like this.”
Jose Mourinho, December, 2013
I have got a huge respect for Jose Mourinho, even if I don’t particularly like him because I am a faithful supporter of Arsenal and considering the fact that Arsenal have never beaten a team coached by Mourinho as far as I know. Truth be told, Mourinho has had phenomenal achievements as a football coach: two Champions League Cups, seven league titles in four different countries, going nine years undefeated in home league games, among other achievements.
He has proved to the footballing world too many times that he is the king of tactics and I think he is the most tactical football coach in the world currently.
I believe he is a special one. I don’t agree with the special one tag that he has been carrying since his first sojourn in English football. He is indeed special, just as my favourite coach, Arsene Wenger is very special. In fact, there are many special coaches around: Sir Alex Ferguson, Pep Guardiola, Jupp Heynckes, Marcello Lippi, Harry Redknapp, etc.
Mourinho came to the English Premiership on the heels of his success in the Champions League with FC Porto, which was a very significant achievement on its own. As coach of Chelsea, Mourinho took the English football arena by storm by winning two titles in his first season in England. Chelsea lost only one game during that season.
After an unceremonious exit from Chelsea, he went to Italy as coach of Inter Milan in 2008 and he won the Italian Serie A (2009), (2010), Italian Cup (2010). In fact, in 2010, he led Inter to win a treble: the Serie A, the Italian cup and the UEFA Champions league.
He left Inter and came to Spain as coach of Real Madrid in 2010 and this was where his unraveling began despite the fact that he started on a very bright note. It got so bad that he did not win a major tiltle in his last season in charge at Real Madrid. Before the 2012/2013 season, he had led Real Madrid to victories in the 2011 Copa Del Roy and 2012 La Liga. He never won the double in Spain; a feat he had achieved with his previous clubs. It was during his last season at Real Madrid that the Mourinho effect started wearing off on all of us. The same Jose Mourinho who had looked unbeatable now looked very beatable and this was proved again and again during that season. The Mourinho whom we had all thought would always win a final lost to Athletico Madrid in the final of the 2012 Kings Cup and that was when Mourinho was finally demystified. Continue reading “The Demystification of Jose Mourinho”
The Ten Thousand-Hour Rule: Becoming a Champion
By Darasimi Oshodi
“Champions do not become champions when they win an event, but in the hours, weeks, and months, and years they spend preparing for it. The victorious performance itself is merely a demonstration of their championship character.”
The statement above is credited to Michael Jordan who is arguably the best basket ball player ever.
Jordan’s long time coach, Phil Jackson reveals that it was hard work that made him a legend. When Jordan first entered the league, his jump shot wasn’t good enough. He spent his off season taking hundreds of jumpers a day until it was perfect. He says Jordan’s defining characteristic wasn’t his talent but the humility to know he had to work constantly to be the best.
From childhood, Serena and Venus Williams would go to the tennis court at 6 o’clock in the morning before going to school and when they returned from school, go back for tennis practice. Any wonder then the two of them have dominated women’s tennis.
Kobe Bryant spends his free time endlessly practicing jump shots. Workers at his club, the Los Angeles Lakers say he is always doing the same thing at their practice facility at all hours of the day and night.
It is reported that Demosthenes, a great orator of Ancient Greece, stammered and was inarticulate as a youth yet became a great orator through dedicated practice which included placing pebbles in his mouth.
I read that Tiger Woods’ father started teaching him golf at eighteen months. So it should not be too surprising that he took the world of golf by storm at age eighteen.
The Beatles performed live in Germany over 1,200 times between 1960 and 1964 and by the time they went back to England they had become inimitable. Those hours spent performing paid off.
Bill Gates gained access to a computer in 1968 at the age of 13 and spent thousands of hours programming on it. His efforts have been hugely rewarded. Continue reading “The Ten Thousand-Hour Rule: Becoming a Champion”