EPISODE 3.
EXAMINE YOURSELF. ARE YOU PREPARED TO COME ALONG?
You are now ready to take our aptitude test and the score should determine if you can be rich or not. You really need an academic mind to collect, sort and analyse data/information. You need a huge volume of information (database) to avoid mistakes and be able to correct them when you happen to make any. It would be better if you could avoid them because they come with cost or detriment. Application of knowledge (information) is referred to as wisdom. You really need to learn from others’ mistakes by reading business related books. You cannot make mistake because mistakes can be costly and devastating. Its multiplier effect could even bring down your empire. It would be better for you, if you do not make any mistake at all. You could avoid mistakes through high level planning and execution of your plans. That is the benefit of logical statistics and decision making. What is the level of your education? You necessarily, do not need to be a University graduate but if you are the better. Psychology teaches that our intelligence level is set by our genetic inheritance but our environment helps us to stretch and achieve our attainable levels. You really need an adequate intelligent to adapt to your environment. This is not necessarily the result of education regime. Education plays a major part. Can you understand what happens in your locality? Can you document events and draw plans on paper? If the answer is yes as the score, then you should be okay. If the answer is no, then you need to buy and read lot of books to understand what goes on around you. For the fact that you have found and are reading this material you are okay. Your knowledge is not going to be limited; it needs to be very vast across the board. You will need geography, mathematics, English, biology, physics, chemistry, some logics, some marketing principles and more so some financial analysis stuff. Can you think in terms of quantitative ethics? If you cannot understand and analyse your products and customer reactions to them then you are not in business. Before you carry out the physical processes, you will need to formulate mental plans. If you miss it, you have wasted your labour, time and material that you put in to the process. Imagine a café selling food which did not meet the taste, required standard and selection of its customers. They cannot make any sales. Even if they gave it away for free no one wanted it. The starting point of every form of production process is mental plan. You need to invest in yourself. Riches are the result of the transformation of our mental business ideas in to reality. To formulate the ideas, you need adequate information. A simple mind cannot orchestrate business. The quality of your mind matters a lot. It is rather hard to say that the mental age (MA) of an adult is below his chronological age (CA). This is due to our level of life’s experience. How do you fare? Do you think you are in control? If yes, then brace up yourself for the next test. But if no, get lot of books relating to your dream – business idea – and you should shape up. It would be good you if you develop a structural methodology of solving problems. Time should always be of essence. A problem not solved or resolved timely becomes complicated and would not be the original problem, therefore, would require more resources to solve it.
You need to be very shrewd to succeed in business. It will be good if you look up the meaning of shrew in dictionary. Study all the words used to define it. Check if you have such qualities. Among them would be, “Showing astute powers of judgement, clever at inventing, ingenious, crafty and judicious.” These are the main qualities of a good and successful businessman. Without these qualities you can never formulate a business idea, let alone carry out one, therefore, no resultant product. In this area too we draw on our mentality to shape our decision making and reactions to situations and circumstances. You therefore need an uplifted mentality. How is yours? If the answer is no, no worries, you can always make it up by listening, observing and reading the success stories of others.
How would you describe your nature? Are you an introvert or extrovert? It is said that you could be one from birth, it is meant to be the result of our genetic inheritance from our parents. But you can develop most of the characteristics of each. For example, you would be required to do lot of talking (an extrovert) but when the going gets tough you will need to back track and sit quietly to listen, analyse and plan strategies to avert what went wrong (introvert). To succeed in business, you need to be the blend of the two. Investigate these characteristics and try to develop and emulate them as soon as possible before you embark on the journey towards riches. Could you be like baby Michael Jackson on stage singing to thousands of audience without flitching or are you like a royal who is expected to be reserve in everything you do? Have you been watching Dragon’s Den lately from BBC? Some fellas have got brilliant ideas but they could not talk their way to the cash they needed. How would you rate yourself? Are you introvert or an extrovert? One very important word you want to associate with is ‘bold.’ This does not mean aggression. Are you as bold as baby Michael Jackson on stage performing his act before huge crowd? Can you go out there and do your own thing?
How is your health? You need to be of good health to carry on business as you are going to have lot of sleepless nights. You would need to get up before your customers wake up. If you are absent at your shop or production plant you loose custom. If you destroy your body, you may not be able to cope with the pressure and stress. It is hard and difficult to get rich. How do you think you have done in this area? You would need to appeal to your customers before they deal with you. If you have poor health habits everyone would try hard to avoid you. Imagine an audition for film production; it is only the healthy good looking ones that are selected. This does not concern the profile of your face, but your self-presentation. How do you want to appeal to people? The way you appeal to people would make you acceptable or be rejected by them.
The adage says, “Show me your friends and I would tell you your character.” We are influenced by our close associates. In this area, the question is simple but hard to implement. How many rich people do you know and how many rich people know you? If you do not have any close rich associate, then I advise you to go ahead and find few ones to flock with. Their experience, their chit-chats and influence, money cannot buy. They could even serve as your initial market.
Are you honest? You cannot succeed in business if you carry out dubious business (fidelity). Honesty is the best policy. What about your morality? Do you uphold very high virtues? These qualities attract customers to you. These virtues glue your customers to you like flea. In their absence everyone including your colleagues try hard to avoid you. How do you fare?
The conceptual framework of riches is the production of ----goods/services ------ sold to------population (the market). The initial point is production of the goods and services. But formulation of the plan starts from the end point. How many people do have as your market? Do you live in a city or near a city? A market means huge population with a high purchasing power. If you live in Rome, Paris, London, New York, Beijing, Tokyo or Washington, I cannot see why you should not be rich from production of goods and services to be consumed by the numerous people holed in these cities. If you live in the Arctic, I do not see how you could get rich. Or if you produce traffic lights with only one customer, the government, I do not know how you could get rich. These cities hold more than ten million people. If you can make an annual profit of a cent on each person, your target profit should be more than ten million for a year if your production session runs for one year. Easy, isn’t it?
From here you need a dream; business ideas. How do you formulate an idea? This is the big break through, holding all of us back. It would be digested and discussed in the next Episodes.
You cannot run away from yourself. If you do not get the above scores right, you cannot proceed to the next stage. Just as the governments or Colleges do, if you fail their aptitude tests they would not employ or admit you into college, easy! You are now ready to take on the formulation of business ideas aptitude test. Good luck. You need the scores from these levels to get through. Till then, work hard on your scores.
