A Way to Invest Confidently in 2020

As we start a new year, I’d like to encourage you to take advantage of the opportunity to start fresh and get the right mindset. One thing is constant for all of us: time.

It’s limited and moves on quickly. The passage of time can either be your friend, or your enemy.

A more direct way of looking at it (if you are a successful investor, at least) is the passing of time can be a very good thing. With each passing day, week, or month, you could be seeing your cash flow increase as well as the growth of your long-term wealth.

However, if you are not an active investor, the passing of time is your enemy. Time lost won’t return and instead of acquiring assets and building your cash flow, you may feel as though you are getting further behind.

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Nigerian Graduates Mentality and Why They Can't be Employed

This article “The Mentality Of A Fresh Nigerian Graduate” is based on how some of our graduates in Nigeria thinks. Some of them believe that the government should do everything for them

Some of them believe once they graduate they will get a job in an oil company, but they are woken up to the shock reality of unemployment and no existent jobs.

In this article the writer proffer solutions to most of the problems and challenges these fresh graduates face.

Now, let’s get talking.. You need to pick up your pen and read this as it will surely change your Life.

Nigeria is a country filled with many problems awaiting solutions, but her Citizens are blind to identify solutions to these problems. Some of these problems have been there for ages, while some are new, begging for solutions.

I once heard of a Lebanese man who came to Nigeria, when he saw how the country was and the attitude of her Citizens, he declared that “there is so much money on the streets but the populace could not see them“.

1. IDENTIFY A PROBLEM & CREATE A SOLUTION AROUND IT

What he tried to say is that there are so many problems which if anyone could find solutions to, he would be smiling to the bank with a fat account.

No thanks to the Nigerian educational system that keeps putting the mentality of Job seekers in its students ☹☹

After four or five years, a graduate cannot boast of any skills which they can use to create a job, rather what the systems thought and is still teaching them is how to be job seekers.

I once read a book titled “IDIOTS WITH B.S.C” by Collins Oscar, in the book the writer overheard a particular graduate complaining of so many things that are wrong in this country, how the system kills innovations and so on.

The writer told him that that is why he is a graduate, the country expected him and the rest to provide solutions to these myriads of problems in this country.

Some of these graduates have been told that after graduation they will probably get a job in an oil company, with fat salaries, allowances, official cars and so on, only to graduate and realized that they were all lies.

They lament about the government not providing jobs for its teeming youths who are graduates.

2. WE ARE BEEN TRAINED/TUTORED WITH OUTDATED MATERIALS & SOFTWARES

Before I proceed with this, let me tell you a short story about a friend of mine (True life story) ☹☹

A friend of mine graduated from a Nigerian University (Studied Computer Science and Graduated with 4.5 CGPA) and he decided to travel to the US to work and earn some money but on getting there, the story changed.

He couldn’t get a good job because he was trained with FOTRAN 2001 version in the year 2015 (Very very Outdated) when the Company he was seeking Employment at is already using a very recent Computer Program (Version 2016 in the year 2016).

My Friends was advised to start schooling again (from the very beginning) in the US and guessed what, in less than just 2 months, he can handle everything he was taught in Nigeria for 4 years.

The problem is that our Education system is not improving and the Lecturers does not see a need to improve on what they know thereby releasing junk graduates into the system who can’t fit into the System with their knowledge.

3. OUR EDUCATION SYSTEM IS NOT EFFICIENT ENOUGH

Most road-side mechanic are better than Universities Lecturers & Professors.

Some of these graduates studied engineering in the school, after years of stay in school, they could not construct an ordinary machine to grind melon  😢😢

imagine if one of them construct a grinding machine, he will employ thousands If not millions and liberate himself and his generation from poverty.

Some of these graduates are so proud to learn the practicals of their chosen career.

For Example

A graduate who studied mechanical engineering  in school should humble himself and learn the practicals and hands-on-training from the roadside mechanic. It will help!

But most of them see the roadside mechanic as never do well, but they forgot that he has many years of practical experience even more than their Lecturers & Professors in the Universities and for them to access this knowledge, they have to humble themselves.

Indeed most of these graduates will never take on low paying jobs, rather than find something doing, they go about feeding fat on their family and friends.

We know the country is hard but we no longer want people that all they do is cry and complain about what is wrong and what is not working. We need people who will change the narratives of this country.

Nigerian graduates should start to change their mentality by investing in their minds, they have to do away with employee mentality that they were groomed with.

Learning never stops so they should keep learning new skills, go for that training, instead of going to clubs and buying expensive things they could barely afford just to show off.

They should also find something worthwhile doing while awaiting their dream jobs, they should humble themselves and volunteer. I tell you there are a lot of things you will learn by Volunteering for organizations, individuals.

4. TECHNOLOGY IS AN OPPORTUNITY TO GROW

Technology is also another platform that offers a wide range of opportunities for our teeming unemployed youths.

There are jobs that never existed six or ten years  before such as Digital Marketer, Social Media Manager etc

Technology creates avenues for people to take on a new career. They should also learn a short-term skill to make a living for themselves. Short time skills such as Web design, Graphic design e.t.c

Go for a Training, Seminar or Workshop today, your life will never remain the same.

5. THEIR MENTALITY SHOULD CHANGE

Lastly their mentality should also change from employee to employers mentality. The flood of unemployment ravaging our nation is too much for us to curtail.

We no longer want graduates that will come and join the already saturated unemployed youths. We need those that will create jobs, opportunities, investment for others.

They should start that little business, from there the work of their hands will be blessed. They should also not despise the days of their little beginnings.

The End!

Written by:- Adetayo Omotoyosi (A Writer, Poet, Philosopher and a Laptop Specialist based in Lagos)

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Are You Eligible For Marriage but Still Single? [Read this]

There are things to be done and there are things you have done; the one with higher percentage determines what you will become.

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Letter To Nigerian Youths [MUST READ For All Youths]

Throw Away That DEGREE, Otherwise You Will Die Poor!!!

Most of the educated people in Nigeria are poor. Majority of the educated earn less than N55,000 for a salary before tax and other deductions. When the deductions are put into consideration, the net salary comes to around N50,000. The net salary then suffers from loan deductions of up to N15,000 leaving the salary at around N35,000. The landlord then demands for his N15,000 and monthly shopping takes away N10,000 leaving one with a N10,000. The bus will demand for N300 going to and from work and relatives get another N2,500. The whole salary is gone and borrowed money starts operating. The borrowed money includes short loans and salary advances.

The difference between poverty and prosperity is property. A prosperous person has property to his name while a poverty stricken person has no property to show. Using this understanding, therefore, most of the degree holders are poverty stricken, borrowing money to buy chicken and chips, pizza, and a car?

The biggest excuse for getting paid such low amounts of money and having to sit and work for another person for 30 days is THE DEGREE  mentality that one possesses and that’s all. This has made most of the degree holders very poor to poverty stricken and will die that way most likely. A degree holder does not know how to generate money unless that money is generated for the employer. A degree holder is so dependent on the salary that he can do anything to get a job but will not think of starting a business of his own to employ others.

Interesting Facts!

1.   A degree holder is not prepared to sell chips but is very happy to work for hungry lion (companies).

2.   A degree holder is not prepared to sell popcorn in the street but is very happy to work for Dangote outlet in the city and mum river-sides.

3.   A degree holder is not prepared to sell second hand clothes but is very happy to be employed by Zenith Bank which the business of selling stocks and looking for customers in a scorching Sun.

4.   A degree holder is not prepared to make N150,000 monthly doing his own business but is very happy to work at the till in a bank getting paid N25,000.

5.   A degree holder is not prepared to start a company and grow it in two to three years but will spend three years searching for a job.

6.   A degree holder is not prepared to sell food to students but will be happy to be reporting to a boss with no qualifications as Office Assistant as long as he is paid N30,000 for a salary.

7.   A degree holder is so eager to get out of this country and work in another country than spend time to develop his own country.

8.   A degree holder staying in a foreign land (Nigerian) is very keen to condemn Nigeria but never contributing to the development of this country.

9.   A Nigerian degree holder would rather sweep the streets of London or USA than start a business to make money in her father land – others work in people’s homes doing some work (cleaners).

10. A degree holder in Nigeria will watch porn on his laptop but never sit to write a book using the same laptop to sell and make money.

11. A degree holder will blame the government for lack of jobs even after he was on government bursary for him to have his degree.

12. Nigeria is blessed with young people who have master’s degree and others are doctors in different technical fields such as IT and Engineering but all of them have failed to create a cartoon character or develop a movie from the same instead very happy to buy Tom and Jerry for their children thereby promoting American and UK.

A school I visited, there was a man that is of very humble background. He does not speak English but sells Coke, Fanta and Sprite at N80 each making a profit of N10 on each drink. He also sells chips at N50 making a profit of N17 on each portion. Not less than 80 students buy chips and a drink every single day. This means he makes a profit of N27 for a drink and chips and a total profit of N2,160 per day…every single day. In ten days he makes a profit of N21,600 in twenty days N43,200 and in thirty days N64,800.

The degree holder working in a bank at the till gets a salary of N45,000 every month.

Why are the degree holders poor?

Because they have decided to pride themselves in a degree and failed to think better than a man who does not have even a certificate to his name.

Degree holders spend their time liking articles on LinkedIn and Facebook but never have any care in the world to implement what they like. Poverty starts from the mind, a mind that just likes things but never to implement those things.

If you want to progress, keep that degree and start thinking better than someone without a degree. There's no white collar Job anywhere!

Be prepared to get your hands dirty and work like an ox for your business. Your hard work will pay off.

Yours Sincerely,

"A Concerned friend"

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You Will Be Working With Robots Sooner Than You Think [Is this True?]

Microsoft founder Bill Gates recently suggested that robots primed to replace humans in the workplace should be taxed. While Gates’s proposal received a mixed reception, it mainly served to stoke an erroneous narrative that humans need to fear robots stealing their jobs.

The whole idea of implementing a robot tax is premature, though not quite 50 to 100 years in the future, as Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin believes. Before we can start talking about the capitalization of artificial intelligence (AI) and taxing robots, we need to investigate, decipher, and tackle serious challenges in the way of making robots work effectively for the general consumer and in the workplace.

Robots will be able to perform tasks that significantly impact the traditionally human workforce in irreversible ways within the next five years. But first, people who build and program all forms of AI need to ensure their wiring prevents robots from causing more harm than good.
It remains to be seen how important maintaining a human element—managerial or otherwise—will be to the success of departments and offices that choose to employ robots (in favor of people) to perform administrative, data-rich tasks. Certainly, though, a superior level of humanity will be required to make wide-ranging decisions and consistently act in the best interest of actual humans involved in work-related encounters in fully automated environments. In short, humans will need to establish workforce standards and build training programs for AI and robots geared toward filling ethical gaps in robotic cognition.

Enabling AI and robots to make autonomous decisions is one of the trickiest areas for technologists and builders to navigate. Engineers have an occupational responsibility to train robots with the right data in order for them to make the right calculations and come to the right decisions. Particularly complex challenges could arise in the areas of compliance and governance.

Humans need to go through compliance training in order to understand performance standards and personnel expectations. Similarly, we need to design robots and AI with a complementary compliance framework to govern their interactions with humans in the workplace. That would mean creating universal policies covering the importance of equal opportunity and diversity among the human workforce, enforcing anti-bribery laws, and curbing all forms of fraudulent activity. Ultimately, we need to create a code of conduct for robots that mirrors the professional standards we expect from people. To accomplish this, builders will need to leave room for robots to be accountable for, learn from, and eventually self-correct their own mistakes.

AI and robots will need to be trained to make the right decisions in a countless number of workplace situations. One way to do this would be to create a rewards-based learning system that motivates robots and AI to achieve high levels of productivity. Ideally, the engineer-crafted system would make bots “want to” exceed expectations from the moment they receive their first reward.

Under the current “reinforcement learning” system, a single AI or robot receives positive or negative feedback depending on the outcome generated when it takes a certain action. If we can construct rewards for individual robots, it is possible to use this feedback approach at scale to ensure that the combined network of robots operates efficiently, adjusts based on a diverse set of feedback, and remains generally well-behaved. In practice, rewards should be built not just based on what AI or robots do to achieve an outcome, but also on how AI and robots align with human values to accomplish that particular result.

But before we think about taxing robots and AI, we need to get the basics of the self-learning technology right, and develop comprehensive ethical standards that hold up for the long term. Builders need to ensure that the AI they are creating has the ability to learn and improve in order to be ethical, adaptable, and accountable prior to replacing traditionally human-held jobs. Our responsibility is to make AI that significantly improves upon work humans do. Otherwise, we will end up replicating mistakes and replacing human-held jobs with robots that have ill-defined purpose.
Kriti Sharma is the vice president of bots and AI at Sage Group.

SOURCE: ONE YOUNG WORLD BLOG

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African Changemakers Fellowship Program 2017/18

Deadline: 30 June, 2017

Apply now for the African Change-maker Fellowship Program. The Fellowship select impressive visionaries and train the next African Emerging Leaders. The fellowship will focus on the following areas:

1. Social Entrepreneurship
2. Economic Development
3. Social Innovation
4. Social Intrapreneurship

For full details, click HERE

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UNESCO - UNEVOC Skills In Action Photo Competition 2017

Deadline: June 30, 2017

Calling all youth photographers! Would you like to win a tablet or camera? Then enter the 2017 Skills in Action Photo Competition. As part of its activities on the forthcoming World Youth Skills Day (WYSD) 2017 on the 15th of July, UNESCO - UNEVOC invites you to participate in the Skills in Action Photo Competition.

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