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Success Qualities Part 1b: Blowing Your Own Horn-How to Do it Right

Earlier in this Series

Introduction: What Do the Most Successful People Have in Common?

What the Successful People Have in Common, Part 1: Breaking Rules

In the previous article we discuss some qualities seen in some of the most successful people. The first quality we talked about in detail was their propensity to break rules set by society and conventional wisdom.  My friend BJ was used as an example regarding his self-praising attitude, in other ways, He Blows His Own Horns.

For those of us who were raised in cultures that spurn people who praise themselves, BJ may be the typical over-complacent type of guy. His enemies would be more than his friends.

What Blowing Your Own Horns is not.

The idea of blowing your own horns may sound like a call to pomposity and snobbishness, but that is not what I’m talking about here. It does not refer to the guy next door who thinks he’s knows more than anybody under the sun and is right 100% of the time. It does not apply to the person who is too conceited to ask for advice or seek help when he or she needs to.

So what is it to Blow Your Own Horn?
Continue reading “Success Qualities Part 1b: Blowing Your Own Horn-How to Do it Right”

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Ivory Coast’s Kolo Toure Handed Six-month ban for Failed Drugs Test

Manchester City defender Kolo Toure will miss the start of next season after being handed a six-month ban from all football for failing a drugs test.

The ban is back-dated to 2 March, when Toure’s provisional suspension began.

He is free to play from 2 September, but will also be target-tested for a period of two years from 26 May.

“This has been a difficult period, and I am sad to have missed the team’s triumph of securing Champions League football and the FA Cup,” Toure said.

“But I am relieved that I will be able to return to football in September and thank the FA’s commission for their understanding.”

An independent regulatory commission, which could have issued anything from a warning to a two-year ban by way of punishment, reached the verdict after a hearing on Thursday.

Toure admitted the offence – his first – contrary to Regulation 3 of the FA Doping Regulations 2010-11. But the panel took into consideration the circumstances behind his use of water tablets belonging to his wife.

On 4 March, Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger – who brought Toure to England by signing him – revealed: “He wants to control his weight a little bit because that’s where he has some problems and he took the product of his wife.

“He is a boy that has a clean life, a very honest living. I just think it is a mistake.”

Headed up by Christopher Quinlan QC, the commission were satisfied Toure did not intend to enhance sporting performance or to mask the use of a performance-enhancing substance.

But the ruling means he cannot participate in any football match or any other football-related activity other than anti-doping education or rehabilitation programmes, until his ban expires.

The decision completes a nightmare season for Toure, which began with him losing the Manchester City captaincy to Carlos Tevez on 18 August.

Toure was tested at the Manchester derby in February, when he was an unused substitute. The Ivory Coast defender was suspended on 3 March after his A-sample tested positive for “a specified substance”.

Toure is under contract with City until the summer of 2013. He was one of several high-profile arrivals in the summer of 2009 as then-manager Mark Hughes spent more than £100m on new players.

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Dominique Strauss-Kahn: Ex-IMF Boss Changes Housing

The former head of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has been moved to a new, more permanent location in New York City where he will await trial on sex assault charges.

Dominique Strauss-Kahn was reportedly moved from lower Manhattan to a townhouse about one mile (1.6km) away.

A lawyer for Mr Strauss-Kahn said on Wednesday his client was “very bored” under house arrest.

Mr Strauss-Kahn has denied charges of attempting to rape a hotel maid.

‘Plush’ townhouse

Mr Strauss-Kahn, who resigned last week as the head of the IMF, was seen smiling as he left the high-rise building where he had been staying, which is owned by the security company managing his home detention.

The French presidential contender, who is free on $1m (£618,000) bail, moved from New York’s financial district into a plush, four-bedroom townhouse in the city’s Tribeca neighbourhood, the Associated Press news agency reported, citing an unnamed source.

Mr Strauss-Kahn is under 24-hour guard and wears a monitoring bracelet.

His wife attempted to put him in a luxury building in another area of Manhattan last week, but those efforts were squashed when residents of the building complained.

Mr Strauss-Kahn, who has no prior criminal record, spent several days in jail on Rikers Island following his arrest on 14 May.

He is charged with seven counts including four felony charges – two of criminal sexual acts, one of attempted rape and one of sexual abuse – plus three misdemeanour offences, including unlawful imprisonment.

His accuser is a 32-year-old originally from Guinea in west Africa who reportedly told authorities that Mr Strauss-Kahn had accosted her after she entered his hotel room to clean it at the Sofitel near Manhattan’s Times Square neighbourhood.

Mr Strauss-Kahn, 62, denies the allegations and on 6 June is set to enter a formal plea.

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Africa’s Young People vital to Sustainable Development, Says UN Chief

25 May 2011 –One of Africa’s greatest untapped resources is its young people, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon stressed today, urging the continent to take advantage of the skills and talents of its youth to promote sustainable development.

Mr. Ban spent Africa Day today in Ethiopia, the final leg of a three-country, five-day visit to the continent that has also taken the United Nations chief to Côte d’Ivoire and Nigeria.

In a statement marking the Day, whose theme this year is “Accelerating Youth Empowerment for Sustainable Development,” Mr. Ban warned that “despite advances in education and economic growth, progress remains fragile, inequalities are widespread and young Africans face major difficulties in finding decent jobs and participating in decision-making.”

He noted that in North Africa this year, where protests led to the downfall of long-term regimes in Tunisia and Egypt and open conflict in Libya, a lack of basic freedoms “was among the factors that led young people to take to the streets demanding change and fulfilment of their legitimate aspirations for better lives.

“Empowering youth is essential for sustainable economic growth and sustainable management of the earth’s ecosystems and resources; the clear challenge for many countries now is to pay just as much attention to sustainable political progress.

“As Africans strive to overcome threats to peace and development, the continent will continue to need strong and dedicated support from all its partners. On Africa Day, let us reaffirm our commitment to work in partnership with Africans of all ages to realize their potential by building an environment conducive to prosperity, democracy and peace.”

He underlined the need for Africans “to realize their right to choose their own leaders and ensure that elections are a route to peace, not violence.”

Africa Day commemorates the founding of the Organization of African Unity (the predecessor of today’s African Union) on 25 May 1963. During his current visit to the continent, Mr. Ban has been trying to mobilize “global support for reducing child and maternal mortality rates.

“Progress in this area has been slower than it is on all the other Millennium Development Goals (MDGs),” he said, “despite proven policies, practices and technologies.”

Meanwhile, the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) today presented its new Africa Water Atlas that details the state of the continent’s water resources.

The 326-page atlas uses more than 100 satellite images, 225 maps, 500 graphics and 250 ground photographs and provides a brief profile of the water situation and progress towards the MDGs in every country.

“The publication makes a major contribution to the state of knowledge about water in Africa by synthesizing water issues by looking at them from the perspective of challenges and opportunities,” UNEP said in a statement.

For its part the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) is holding events throughout the week, including screenings, art exhibitions and thematic debates. Special attention will be paid to the themes of the role of women and youth in the African Renaissance and the construction of peace.

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In Africa, UN Chief Spotlights Progress in Improving Women’s and Children’s Health

 25 May 2011 –Visiting with health workers in Ethiopia, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon today spotlighted the progress made in improving the health of women and children, while also stressing the need to do more to avoid needless deaths.

“We have seen so many women and children dying needlessly from preventable diseases,” Mr. Ban told reporters at the Ambo Mesk health post in Bahir Dar, in Ethiopia’s northern state of Amhara.

“Training good health workers [and] training good midwives can save a lot of women’s and also children’s lives.”

The Horn of Africa nation knows all too well the challenges associated with ensuring maternal and child health. Every 25 minutes, another Ethiopian woman dies from complications related to child birth. Most are in rural areas, far from any clinic.

At the health post, Mr. Ban met with the staff providing essential services to communities previously living without ready access to such care.

He also visited a larger health centre, a few kilometres away, which supports the health post by providing it with supplies and on-the-job training. There he spoke with doctors and nurses about their work, as well as with some patients.

“I hope that the Government will try to expend these posts, clinics and centres and also hospitals,” said the Secretary-General.

At a major UN development summit in New York last September, participants adopted the Global Strategy for Women’s and Children’s Health, committing $40 billion in resources to a global effort to save the lives of 16 million women and children by 2015.

The Strategy identifies the finance and policy changes needed, along with vital interventions to help improve health and save lives. It is expected to prevent, between 2011 and 2015, the deaths of more than 15 million children under five, as well as 33 million unwanted pregnancies and the deaths of 740,000 women from complications related to pregnancy and childbirth.

Mr. Ban commended Ethiopia on its commitment to improve maternal and child health, including its goal of quadrupling the number of midwives. The country is a good example of how a little investment can go a long way in saving many lives, he added.

The UN chief is now in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa, where he is attending an Extraordinary Session of the Assembly of the African Union on the State of Peace and Security in Africa.

On the sidelines of that meeting, he met with the Vice President of South Africa, the President of Equatorial Guinea, the President of Senegal and the Prime Minister of Ethiopia.

UN News Center

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Dominique Strauss-Kahn Friends Trying To Pay Off Accuser’s Family In Africa

With friends like these, maybe sexual assault allegation can disappear! The Post reports that the friends of former IMF head Dominique Strauss-Kahn are contacting the overseas relatives of his accuser, “offering them money to make the case go away since they can’t reach her in protective custody… The woman, who says she was sexually assaulted by the disgraced former head of the International Monetary Fund, has an extended family in the former French colony of Guinea in West Africa.” A French businesswoman who knows Strauss-Kahn and his family says the friends “already talked with her family. For sure, it’s going to end up on a quiet note.”

Strauss-Kahn is accused of forcing the maid to perform oral sex on him in his Sofitel hotel suite on May 14. While the Manhattan DA’s office has apparently warned the accuser’s family not to accept calls from his connections, Cyrus Vance’s reach only goes so far. The source continued, “He’ll get out of it and will fly back to France. He won’t spend time in jail. The woman will get a lot of money”—possibly a seven-figure payout.

Fox News reported on the alleged exchange between the 32-year-old maid and Strauss-Kahn, which—allegedly—included him grabbing her breasts and bloody sheets:

The 32-year-old African immigrant repeatedly told her alleged attacker, “Please, please stop. No!” The sources said she had no idea who was staying in the $3,000-a-night junior presidential suite until after the alleged attack, which lasted approximately thirty minutes…The maid said she tried a variety of tactics to get herself out of the room and away from Strauss-Kahn. She said, “my manager is in the hallway,” which he wasn’t — but the former IMF chief wasn’t scared off. The single mother allegedly told the Frenchman that the job was important to her and any conflict with a hotel guest would result in her losing her job.

“Please stop. I need my job, I can’t lose my job, don’t do this. I will lose my job. Please, please stop! Please stop!” she told Strauss-Kahn, according to law enforcement sources.

Strauss-Kahn allegedly responded: “No, baby. Don’t worry, you’re not going to lose your job. Please, baby, don’t worry,” Strauss-Kahn responded, according to investigators. “Don’t you know who I am? Don’t you know who I am?”

Strauss-Kahn’s DNA was allegedly found on the maid’s clothing. His defense has suggested the encounter was consensual.

Strauss-Kahn, a leading French politician whose libido was apparently legendary in France, has been indicted on numerous charges and is out on $6 million ($1 million cash, $5 million bond) bail. He’s living at 71 Broadway, which has turned into a media circus, while his very wealthy wife is looking for other housing. But real estate brokers tell the Post that no one wants to work with him. At any rate, Strauss-Kahn has proclaimed his innocence.

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Judgement Day Posponed to October 21

Rapture: Harold Camping issues new apocalypse date

 

The evangelical broadcaster who left followers crestfallen by his failed prediction that last Saturday would be Judgement Day says he miscalculated.

Harold Camping said it had “dawned” on him that God would spare humanity “hell on Earth for five months” and the apocalypse would happen on 21 October.

Mr Camping said he felt “terrible” about his mistake.

But he said he could not give financial advice to those who spent their life savings in the belief the end was nigh.

Mr Camping had predicted that on 21 May, true believers would be swept up to heaven while a giant earthquake would bring destruction for those left behind.

His independent ministry, Family Radio International, spent millions of dollars on broadcasts, billboards and campaign vehicles to publicise the prediction.

Some followers donated their life savings or simply gave away their worldly possessions as the day approached.

Many expressed bewilderment and shock as the day came and went with no sign of the global cataclysm.

“I’ve been mocked and scoffed and cursed at,” said Jeff Hopkins, a retired TV producer in New York state who spent some of his savings customising his car to showcase Mr Camping’s warning.

“It’s like getting slapped in the face.”

‘Not accurate’

Mr Camping had not been seen since Saturday until he appeared on a show on his Open Forum radio show, broadcast from Oakland, California, on Monday to give a 90-minute sometimes rambling presentation that included a question-and-answer session with reporters.

He said that when his prediction had failed to materialise he felt so terrible that he took refuge in a motel with his wife.

He said sorry for not having the dates “worked out as accurately as I could have”.

Over the weekend, he said, he had returned to the scripture and it had “dawned” on him that a “merciful and compassionate God” would spare humanity by compressing the apocalyptic destruction into a shorter time frame.

But he insisted 21 October had always been the end-point of his own chronology – or at least his own latest chronology, as a previous prophecy that the apocalypse would strike in 1994 also failed to come to pass.

Asked if he had any advice to offer those who had given away their material wealth in the belief the world was about to end, Mr Camping said they would cope.

“We just had a great recession. There’s lots of people who lost their jobs, lots of people who lost their houses… and somehow they all survived,” he said.

“We’re not in the business of giving any financial advice,” he added.

“We’re in the business of telling people maybe there is someone you can talk to, and that’s God.”

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TASK BEFORE A JONATHAN PRESIDENCY

 As Nigeria’s President Goodluck Jonathan is inaugurated on the 29th of May 2011, for a fresh tenure of office, it may not be presumptuous to declare that the task ahead of him is an onerous one. Starting with the pre-election politics and even the elections that brought him in as President, the cumulative events that produced him as Nigeria’s President brought out the entrenched cleavages and fissures that have held down the progress and development of the most populous black nation on earth. And this is where President Jonathan has his job cut out for him. He has to make concerted efforts to heal the wounds and unite a divided nation. The poignant lessons of the election results that declared him as President, shows that Nigeria is still very much divided along the primordial sentiment of religion and ethnicity. With the south voting overwhelmingly for him and the north voting overwhelmingly for his closest rival Muhammadu Buhari. Hence his actions in the next 4 years should be geared at making his mandate a Pan Nigerian mandate.

The general high rate of insecurity in the country characterized by sporadic bomb blasts across the country, kidnapping and armed robbery in the south, violent ethno –religious conflicts in the north and the recently unresolved cold blooded murder of 10 youth corps service members who were unjustly killed during the presidential elections should also engage his utmost attention. He must resolve to do everything his powers to solve these problems.

The rabid and massive unemployment particularly among young school leavers should also constitute a major fulcrum of his agenda for Nigeria in the next 4years. The imperatives of providing jobs for every willing Nigeria who is able to work cannot be underemphasized as the country is currently sitting on a “keg of gunpowder” with the high rate of unemployment and it shouldn’t be surprising if the doomsday prognostications of experts of an imminent demographic disaster implosion is not going to start before the end of his tenure.

The epileptic power supply in Nigeria, which has constituted serious embarrassments to all and sundry making the country a choice destination for all brands of power generators manufactured from all parts of the world including obscure locations should be addressed with the utmost seriousness and sense of urgency and responsibility it deserves. The President should realize that at the point we have reached with this intractable power problem in Nigeria, he may need to step on powerful toes and make out scapegoats if necessary. He also needs to realize that he needs a lot of political will to do what is necessary as far as the power sector in Nigeria is concerned.

The incoming administration of President Jonathan, should also take a holistic look and assessment of the three vital sectors of Agriculture, Education and Health of the Nigerian economy. He may want to know why these sectors and particularly their supervising ministries have turned into a cesspool of graft, massive corruption, nepotism, indolence, mediocrity and ineptitude. He should also be interested on why these important service ministries have nothing or little to show in terms of measurable service delivery in spite of the quantum of resources that have been sunk into them over the years. The President may need to enact a “broom revolution” so to speak in order to sweep out all the corrupt elements and tendencies that have made these ministries large “empires” and “dynasties” of corruption and nepotism. Even if the President is constrained in appointing technocrats into his cabinet, he should at least see to it that these 3 ministries are over seen by tested technocrats in the mould of the Oby Ezekwesili’s, Nuhu Ribadu’s Okonjo Iweala’s Pat Utomi’s El Rufai’s Lamido Sanusi’s and so on.

A Jonathan Presidency should also begin to set in motion modalities for the practice of true federalism in Nigeria, starting with fiscal federalism as the present unwieldy structure of the country continues to threaten good governance and cannot be sustainable in the long run.

In conclusion, it is hoped that President Jonathan availed himself the opportunity the ambience the Obudu Cattle Ranch in Calabar provided during his retreat, to read valuable books on the History of Nigeria. As a firm grasp of the history of Nigeria will help him navigate the intricate web of complexities that is associated with governing Nigeria, in the next 4years.