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NB: This newsletter is published every Monday. Point your browser to www.tayosolagbade.com/sdnuggets to read at least ONE new post added to my SD Nuggets blog on a different category from Tuesday till Saturday (sometimes even Sundays) in line with this publishing schedule

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IMPORTANT NOTE: THIS newsletter is published online on the “reincarnated” version of my Self-Development (SD) Nuggets blog. I continue to put finishing touches to the content. If you encounter ANY bad/dead links, and you can spare the time, email it to me via tayo at tksola dot com. Thanks in advance

No. 156: To Succeed, Always Count Your Blessings During Adversity (Hint: Would You Work At Your Best If Power Supply Was Erratic?)

I am not sure how many of you on my mailing list
know what it feels like to endure YEARS of VERY erratic power supply
on a daily basis from your country’s power company.

That’s what Nigerians in Nigeria endure daily.

During my visits to Ghana (in 2005) and Cameroon (in 1999 and 2001) most people did not believe that in Nigeria, a person may go WEEKS without power – even as his neighbor continues
having it!

Why am I writing
about this?

Well, it’s because I want you all to understand
the conditions under which all the news, articles, reports and resources
you find on my website were created daily – especially from back in 2005, when I launched my former primary domain: spontaneousdevelopment.com

Today, due to the fact that I’ve relocated to Benin Republic (which also enjoys healthy uninterrupted power!), I do not have to endure the same hardship of working under the noise and discomfort of an electricity generator.

That is, except when I visit Nigeria for extended periods, as has been the case over the past 2 weeks!

In contrast to the way I work in Benin Republic’s Cotonou, many times here in Lagos, I have to work using generator power because the lights are often OFF longer than they are ON.

As
you can imagine, since I earn my living by building software, websites
and writing articles – all of which require a PC/access to the net and
of course electricity, I have to find a way to progress work given me
by paying clients if I want to make profits.

To make matters worse, since last week, the lights that went out have NOT come back on again. As a result we have to run the generator much more often.

So you find many people out here have to own
generators and buy fuel into kegs for use in these generators EVERY
single day.

But that would not be so bad if the fuel was always available
– but it sometimes tends not to be!

Every now and then Nigerians find that fuel shortages
cause long queues to build up at the fuel stations! A long vicious cycle
that affects this nation’s productivity and wealth generation severely.

I still recall coming home some months ago, earlier in this year. I had to buy fuel into 4 small plastic coke bottles at the border, to take home with me!

This was because of a prolonged fuel scarcity that made it impossible for my wife and kids to get fuel to buy. Yet I needed to do some work that night on arriving the house. So buying the fuel at N140 per litre (instead of N97 per litre) became necessary.

For those of you who live in countries
where your power supply is regular, it is likely you have no large markets
for generators and “kegged” fuels.

I want you to know how BLESSED you
are, that your country works that way, and you REALLY NEED to be grateful for it!

The money that
should be left over in a barber’s pockets out here at the end of each
day very often gets spent on generator fuel and maintenance DAILY whether
s/he likes it or not!

At your end, the cyber cafe owner never has to
quickly run down stairs to switch on his generator because power supply
has suddenly gone off, and users browsing in his cafe may lose their
work online!

Now, this epileptic (or completely unavailable) power supply problem has always been a
feature of our lives here in Nigeria.

In the past two weeks, I estimate that I have not had light
for more than four hours in ONE single day – and even that was NOT for
a continuous stretch.

It is always a case of ON, then OFF, then ON again.
If you don’t believe me, come on a trip to Nigeria and stay in a hotel
for a few hours.

I assure you that’s all you’ll need – just a few hours),
and like a Ghanaian friend who was here on official work some years ago,
you’ll quickly learn that what I say is true from hearing the hotel’s
standby generator go ON and OFF, then ON and OFF …again and again!

On a lighter note, in your country the first
word that a baby learns to say may be “daddy” or “mummy”!

But in Nigeria, the problem is so severe that one of the first “words” a baby may learn to say is “NEPA!” – which
is what our power generation company(National Electric Power Authority)
is known by – though they now officially go by “PHCN” – whatever
difference that has made.

Having said all the above, despite all these challenges and limitations
in MY socioeconomic environment, many Nigerians keep forging ahead in
their work.

Like most other Nigerians in Nigeria, who were engaged in formal business, I had no alternatives while here (before I moved to Benin).

So I gritted my teeth (figuratively speaking) and focused on finding ways to get what I had to do DONE faster and cost-effectively by improving DAILY, for well over a decade.

The fact that I actually grew my client base and even began attracting attention from foreign based prospects from as far as Asia, Europe and America, indicates that I made progress in spite of this major limitation.

How
did I achieve all that despite these debilitating challenges posed
by the unpredictability of my social environment?

The answer is that I knew (and know) “How to habitually deliver peak performances by getting
into and STAYING in “flow” or the “Zone”. If you want to know what that means, and how you can learn to
do the same thing, Google that article title and read it.

Final Words

I’ll end by noting that even though I made progress using the above, while in Nigeria, I knew I could make even better progress if I change my environment.

Eventually, I followed the creator’s guidance to relocate to Cotonou, on 1st April 2011, from where I have since taken my work to a whole new level – as can be seen on
my website and mini-sites on Excel-VB Software Development and Cost-Saving Farm Business Ideas/Solutions.

My message is therefore that while you’re still unable to move to your preferred environment, resolve to make the most of what you have, where you are, like I did. The Creator who observes you will eventually lead you to discover and seize the opportunity that you need, like he did for me!

PS: In a Bid to Save Money, My Kids Have Learnt to Service the Generator Themselves

One more thing.

This power supply problem, I must say, has added some indirect benefits to my family. And I feel a need to highlight it, just to remind the reader that adversity often has some equivalent benefit that once can reap – if YOU pay attention.

When you’ve experienced severe lack of money like I did in the past, you come to see money as it should be seen: a guest that should be treated properly, so it stays LONG with you.

And that means watching your expenses and being frugal at all times. This made me detest the need to pay to have our little generators serviced by the mostly unschooled mechanics we called in every 2 to 3 weeks.

Each time I watched them at work, it struck me that they were teenagers like my first son. That told me he could also learn to do what they did.

So, whenever I came home from Cotonou, I began challenging him and his siblings to watch the generator mechanics at work to learn how to do what they did.

I told them to pay close attention so they could do it themselves.

And I promised to give them at least half of the money that would be saved if we no longer had to call the mechanics in: THAT of course got their attention!

As of today, 25th August 2014, they have not called in those guys for routine servicing of the generator for over a month.

Instead, each time it shows signs of faltering, my kids – the 15 and 13 year old boys specifically – (as I shared in a past article) take the generator apart, clean up the various parts, then re couple and start it: ALL by themselves!

And it’s working well.The way I see it, that’s one useful benefit my kids have derived from this nuisance of poor power supply.

At least they now have a set of real world relevant skills to add to their oven-less cake backing etc – that can open doors for them in larger society in future.

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