Pocket of Thoughts™ by Saint Akanji

This piece does not intend to vilify the character; Bozo the clown. Bozo the clown was a character that was played by the trio of Lawrence Weiss, Robert Lewis Bell and Vance DeBar "Pinto" Colvig at different times. Bozo the clown represent a child's fantasy as every clown character is. The truth is that the least status anybody would want to be in business is a Bozo because nobody takes clowns serious. Today, Bozo is the legendary Apple term that describes a state of utter mediocrity. A Bozo is an idiot. Retrospectively, the most profound professional counsel I ever received was in form of an acronym. This counsel came from the CEO of a company I worked with. She said in her well-polished American accent " Femi, you are really gonna go far if you learn to K.I.S.S; Keep It Short & Simple)". I must confess that I am still a huge work in progress as far as keeping things simple is concerned. This piece is about the golden rule of brevity. W...

        There's something interesting about entrepreneuring that's very similar to painting. The greatest entrepreneurs and impresarios are those that see life as a canvas. These people see their enterprises as canvasses for them to articulate their view of life. In a sartorial fashion, today's entrepreneur no longer bask in the euphoria of thick plans. Instead, they are agile enough and smart enough to dump the business plans. They unleash the canvas.     In this piece, I will be revealing by way of reiteration a gem. I can say with every confidence that this is one of the best kept secrets in the start-up community and I'm glad to be in a position to spread it. As you know, I don't need any permission to do this. I have chosen to make it (anything that's got to do with the start up community) my personal bone of contention and to this end, I remain very unapologetic! By the time you finish reading this blog post, I hope you will become e...

    The way I see it, there is a race into the clouds. This is more than a metaphorical expression. I mean we are literally relocating into the cloud. I will explain in very plain terms how this is the case. Many have come to terms with technology and its attendant impacts. What is for certain unclear is where this is heading to. Evolution is the name of the game. In the future as it seems already, our lives will be lived predominantly in the invisible realm. In the next 20 years, a lot of what we prize as golden today will belong to the museum of aged artifacts. The future as we know it is very ubiquitous.     I travel back in time to when I was a kid. Back then, there was nothing like cable TV. The local TV station ran from about 4pm to 12pm mid night. The popular cartoon back then included Spider Man, Tom & Jerry e.t.c. We had very limited content and had to make do with what we had. Back then, having a color-TV as we referred to it was real pri...

      Here's a glimpse into what my CV looks like as an early adopter:   1.     I registered my first website by Freeservers ( www.onifemi.8m.com ) a decade ago (2003). This was during my IJMB programme. At this time most businesses in Nigeria didn't even have a clue about the strategic role of a website. Very few knew or had email accounts. I decommissioned this site last year.   2.     I opened my LinkedIn page since 2003. This was before I graduated from college. I opened my Facebook page about the same time. Although I closed it at a point.   3.     I was one of the first people who had the opportunity to listen to Akon's maiden album (The Pot of Gold). Seems highly insignificant but you needed to be there when I invited my friends for an album listening party. It was surreal. The same for Asha's first album. In these two cases, it took the radio stations more than two mo...

This is an excerpt from Dr. Myles Munroe Message at the Asuza conference at Tulsa, Oklahoma. This was 1990. The message was titled: The Power of Purpose 1. God is a God of Purpose 2. Nothing in life is without purpose. 3. Not every purpose is known. 4. Where purpose is not known, abuse (ABNORMAL USE) is inevitable. 5. If you want to know the purpose of a thing, don't ask the thing. 6. Purpose is only found in the mind of the creator of a thing. Only the maker of a thing knows the true purpose. 7. Purpose is the key to fulfillment. For the full video, visit : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yl-8CN0KaPQ   Image Credit: Google Image

  This is an excerpt from Jim Collins Drucker Centennial celebration speech. (Paraphrased) Build and assemble a personal board of directors. These people should comprise of individuals who are chosen not for their accomplishment(s) but for their character. Turn off your electronic gadgets. Spend more time in the place of thinking. Firm up your three circles. What do you love to do? what are you genetically programmed for? What do you do better than most people. Don't go through life trying to be interesting. Be interested! What is your questions to statements ration? Can you double it? If you woke up tomorrow morning and you have 20milliion dollars and cancer. Develop a stop doing list. Implement your stop doing list. Life is short. Unplug the opportunities that distract you. There is nothing like a one-off opportunity that's worth losing your focus by. Find something that you have so much passion for and...

      BUSINESS PLANS ARE DEAD! Yes! VERY DEAD!!!   Gone are the days when all you needed to get a business running was to carry out a feasibility study, write a business plan and go forward with incorporation e.t.c. By the time you are done reading this, the chance is that you will throw away that business plan because you will realize how thoroughly unsustainable traditional business plans have become. My goal is to introduce to you a new way of thinking about starting a business because as you would soon realize, business plans are DEAD!   One of the greatest lessons I have learnt in life and indeed business is that, " it is not what you do but how you do it that matters " This gem is even more relevant within the confines of the topic at hand. New businesses are faced with great odds; a rule of thumb posits that 11 out of 12 start-ups will fail under 3 years of incorporation. Whether or not this is accurate, the fact is that the percentage ...

        11 out of every 12 start-ups will fail under 3 years of incorporation Rule of Thumb     Few days ago, I sent a mail to a random business guy. In that mail, I shared with him two critical insights on his venture. As an unrepentant believer in everything starting up, I have chosen to make it my bone of contention to bother about this nucleus. By the time you are through with this, I am sure you will gain some level of insights that will help you shape your next big idea. I present the insights here and now.   Insight No1 Let me start by stating my understanding of the philosophy of many start-ups around the world which I would summarize as this: “Startups solve real problems using ingenious business models. Most start-ups today are not necessarily riding on the platform of superior technology or offering. For the most part, they operate a business model infrastructure driven by very unique value propos...

      Not to know what happened before you were born is to remain a child forever.   There is a generation shift happening as you read these lines. At the minimum, the rise is dramatic and may seem very unceremonious but yes! There is an immutable rise. I am not referring to some galactic or celestial movements but to the rise of a new specie of humans. Genealogical investigation reveals that the earth welcomed the arrival of this new specie at the wake of 1970s. By the time you finish reading this, the chance is that you will be able to connect the dots. It is such an interesting time to be alive. There are multiple theories around the dateline for the industrial revolution but tying it all up, it is true that we did indeed transited from a highly Neolithic age of crude sophistication to a new productivity era. This era marked the rise of machines. Wikipedia account of industrial revolution puts it like this “The transition to new manufacturing ...

      Less is more. Ludwig Mies van der Rohe     It has been proven that when it comes to basic maths, most humans relate to and enjoy performing addition more than subtraction.   I have learnt one or two things about the power of distraction and in this piece I espouse the danger that we face when we fail to maintain discipline with respect to pruning. Anything that takes one's time surely takes part of one's life. It therefor means that we need to be deliberate and disciplined in maintaining a very strict regime of simplicity. Everything in life must be within the premise of reasonability. This is key and of noblest recommendation.   When I decided to drop my Blackberry phone, it seemed very unlikely and highly preposterous that I could survive. As a tech junkie that I was (I am finally getting over devices), I had developed such a deep level of fondness for the device so much so that it contro...

    Dear son,   How are you doing today? (You know I am aware of this but it is good that I find out by asking). Trust me, I know one or two things about fulfilling all righteousness too.  By now you should know I love humour. You can do better by not taking your life too serious you know. Hey! that's not a license to throw all caution into the wind. I am only saying that you should cast your cares on me. I got your back. You and I are one extraordinary unit.   You stormed out of the house today. I was really looking forward to spending sometime with you. I had so much to tell you. Creating time for me will save you a lot of wasted energy and resources you know. I am always speaking. All you have to do is tune to my frequency. And, I am a call away too and my network is robust enough to handle all traffic. The only thing that can frustrate this is your sin. If I behold any iniquity in your heart, I will not hear you....

    In this piece, I share a time in my life when failure didn't even cross my mind. In retrospection, I am having to admire the spirit of an obsessed 16 year old who despite the stakes didn't consider the possibility of failure, stepped up to the plate and achieved merit success. Now older, I really would love to be that me. I'd love to go back to that time when I didn't care about what I had to lose. I want to go back to that time when my faith moved mountains. This is the story of unflinching faith and pursuit.   I finished senior secondary school at a virgin age of 16. This was 2003.   I had such an enjoyable stellar experience back in college. It was six years of great learning and growth. The boarding school experience toughened me up for life. Prior to this time, I was comfortably a level five sissy who didn't have much fight in him. I remember how I got bullied by kids who were not as healthy as I was. I was undoubtedly the tallest amongst th...