Self-Devpt. Nuggets™

One hasn’t become a writer until one has distilled writing into a habit, and that habit has been forced into an obsession. Writing has to be an obsession. It has to be something as organic, physiological and psychological as speaking or sleeping or eating.
Niyi Osundare

Writing when done effectively, can be used to get favorably noticed. And you can also use it to influence change.

It is because I’ve experienced the above powerful truth many times in different stages of my life that I am today simply unable to give up writing.

Without my writing I would not have achieved most of the success and progress I’ve recorded in paid as well as self employment.

What do you do when you have little or no money to spend on marketing and advertising to attract buyers?

When you don’t know any powerful, rich or connected persons to open doors for you to meet important decision makers(bypassing gatekeepers).

How do you establish credibility as an expert in your subject or field before a potentially global audience of readers and potential clients?

It is my experience based conviction that writing is the most cost effective and reliable way to achieve the above.

Indeed, I have achieved all the above through writing over the past ten years.

Even in a socioeconomic environment like mine, where trust can be so hard to earn, I’ve repeatedly generated high quality sales leads and won sales using nothing but my writing.

It has also earned me valuable paid speaking opportunities. I’m building more client relationships and partnerships with people I’ve yet to meet from across the country, and as far as Singapore, Canada and the USA.

If I had not adopted writing, especially web writing, I would NEVER have achieved any of the above. I know this for a fact.

And that’s why relatives close to me will tell you that if I had to choose between eating and finishing off a new article according to my schedule, I’d do the latter without giving it a second thought.

The quote credited to Niyi Osundare above perfectly describes what writing means to me. It’s essential to my progress in business and in life.

In Paid Employment, Writing Helped Me Attract Career Advancement Opportunities

It was in paid employment that I first discovered how powerful writing could be.

In Guinness Nigeria I was trained as a brewer and line manager. I joined the company as a graduate trainee in October 1994, and voluntarily left to become self employed in December 2001.

During that time I was widely recognised – and rewarded with rapid career advancement – for my ideas, initiatives and innovations which I used my writing to bring to the attention of key decision makers.

Quite often my ideas were developed in my spare time or as I went through each day. None of it was in my job description at any time. I just identified an opportunity to make a useful contribution, and simply followed my instincts.

I worked very hard and long hours then. Just like I still do when necessary today

My latest ebook is a product of that process.

I originally wrote it as a guest post to share my ideas about how I get my writing done.

But it was over 3,500 words long, attracting requests to trim down and refine it.

It was while I was rewriting it that I discovered I needed to submit a finished ebook for the October 2012 AWAI Writing Challenge I’d enrolled for.

The thought just struck me that my long article could do well as an ebooklet at least. Since I did not have any other content in readier form, convincing myself to go this route was easy

But I was not lazy about it. I took time to flesh out relevant parts, and rewrite some. Then I prepared a cover and setup the online store.

Completing that process was more important to me than winning any reward.

Here’s an example of how following my instincts led me to use my writing to influence change in paid employment:

2 years after joining Guinness Nigeria Benin Brewery, I wrote a series of papers as a green horned brewer, arguing that a faulty formula had been used for years in computing a performance parameter called “Brewhouse Turn Around Time(TRT)”.

Using spreadsheet examples based on real brewing data, I proved my point, and proposed an adjustment to the formula to eliminate the error.

I ruffled a number of senior colleagues’ feathers, as you can imagine, but my conviction gave me the courage to push my ideas through to senior management.

The changes were eventually accepted.

Later in 1997, I wrote a management research paper based on my experiences for entry into the (now defunct) Nigerian Institute of Management (NIM)’s Young Manager’s Competition. After placing 5th at the national finals in Lagos, I discovered many senior executives suddenly knew my name.

I would later learn that my boss at the time, Greg, had announced my achievement at the brewery management meeting.

Interestingly, my entry to that event was self sponsored while I was on leave. He only got to know because after winning at the zonal finals, I’d resumed work, and had to request days off to travel to Lagos for the national finals.

What I’m trying to say here is that it was a personal goal I set for myself. I just saw the newspaper advert, and – again – followed my instincts. It was never my intention to let my boss know.

But he eventually did. And I got recognised in my company as a result of my efforts to use my writing to share ideas I had from my workplace experiences, with the outside world.

A year later, in 1998, I returned with a paper to senior management proposing the adoption of a brewery performance measure.

I called it “Brewhouse Efficiency%”(BHE) and used the weighted formula I derived for it on five years of real data, with charts.

My argument was that BHE provided a more balanced measure of the overall performance of the brewing department, unlike the TRT which only looked at one of three contributory aspects.

This paper got the attention of top management, and was discussed at the Monthly Technical Review Meetings for 6 months.

During that time, the Lagos brewery was asked to test the formula using their own brewing data. I still recall taking calls from Chizzy Uduanochie, who was then in Lagos Harp Brewery at Ogba, to explain how to go about getting correct raw data to feed into the formula.

During that year I was seconded twice to act as Training & Technical Development Manager.

I have no doubts in my mind that my 1997 and ’98 achievements influenced top management’s decision in that regard.

This especially since other more senior and experienced candidates were passed over in the process. A lot more of that would happen right into the year I left.

The above results are just a few examples of the unique experiences that opened my eyes to the power that writing effectively can confer on anyone.

So, going into self employment, especially after reading online about information publishing, I was convinced I could use my writing to earn income.

Writing Can Also Be Therapeutic – For Coping With Adversity As A Startup

A writer never has a vacation. For a writer life consists of either writing or thinking about writing.
Eugene Ionesco

It’s common knowledge that hard – and harsh – times that new entrepreneurs inevitably encounter often lead many to quit and return to the security of paid employment for instance.

I know what it feels like to enter the proverbial “university of hard knocks” (i.e the real world), from a salaried job, and suddenly find yourself struggling with a perpetual scarcity of money.

And I don’t mean big bucks. No. I’m talking about small money. The kind that I used to give away to others without a thought knowing that I had more than I needed from regular salary payments.

The idea of actually running out of cash never really seemed real to me. Until when I spent the last naira from the entitlement paid to me by Guinness following my decision to resign despite great career prospects ahead of me.

You must understand that I had my kids and their mother to worry about. Having relocated from Benin, we were living in my parents’ home till I could find a place.

Unfortunately business had not gone as planned, and I’d exhausted the funds meant for renting a place in pursuing leads and covering expenses!

The embarassment and humiliation was one I felt could kill me. And that was just the beginning.

I have since gone on to experience not having money to get prescribed malaria drugs for my child, and having to watch him suffer pains and high fever all night till I was able to borrow money the next morning.

It’s amazing how a lack of cash can help one achieve mental clarity. You initially feel a strange sense of terror. But if you keep calm and let the realisation of your situation wash over you, it won’t seem so bad.

During this period the words supposedly utterred by a few former colleagues from Guinness came back to haunt me. I’d heard that they’d called me “mad”, for choosing to resign at a time when I was doing so well.

But I refused to let that bother me. Even in my pain right then in 2003, I knew I would not be happier doing anything else.

Working a 9 to 5 job had become too limiting for me. I wanted the freedom to use my ideas and energies to serve a larger audience, without the restrictions of a structured workplace.

So I turned to reading the books that had inspired me. Napoleon Hill’s Think & Grow Rich and James Cook’s “Startup Entrepreneur” were my favorites.

Out of desperation, I began highlighting phrases and other blocks of text (e.g anecdotes about hardships other successful people experienced and survived) that I found especially helpful.

At a point, I decided to type the highlighted text in MS Word, so I could re-read them to boost my morale. Later I began writing my own anecdotes and experiences into it.

NB: By early 2004, it had grown into an 80 page ebook titled “Entrepreneur’s Survival Reference Manual(25 Avoidable Mistakes No One Will Warn You About In Starting Your Own Business In Nigeria)”.

But I did not put it up for sale. It was mainly for my personal use. Whenever I needed a boost, I got on my PC and opened the PDF.

James Cook wrote that “the entrepreneur needs no samaritans.” I decided to look inwards.

That day in 2003, I got the idea to write my 70 page Feed Formulation Handbook. Not long after, I wrote my “Proven 5 Step Formula for Learning Any Language In Three Months or Less”.

Both books were experience based. I was following the advice in Mr. Hill’s book. I had no money, but I knew stuff that I was convinced people would pay me money to get.
I did not have money to get them published normally. But rather than let that stop me, I chose to print them out, then make neat photocopies which I gave to those who paid.

So, I began telling friends and relatives about both books. The language book quickly earned buyers. I did more thinking and took a copy to Ola Fajemisin, the TV producer for NTA 2 Channel 5 whose name I’d seen scrolling across the screen for years.

I’d never met or spoken with him before. But when he arrived in his office to meet with me, I spoke to him with all the enthusiasm I could muster, proposing a weekly French language show based on my book.

When I finally shut up, he flipped through the spiral bound copy I put on his table, looked at me, and said “I think it’s a good idea. But let’s get you to appear and discuss the book on Saturday’s Morning Ride Show” and see how people call in. We’ll use that to decide whether or not to go ahead.”

That was a show many paid handsome sums to appear on. He put me on it free. My sister called to tell me her friend saw me being interviewed on TV and wanted a copy of my book. So I made more sales. And I knew I could do more.

The TV show idea did not make it due to poor response, but I’d earned useful achievement to put on my resume, and on the book’s sales page: Featured on NTA 2 Channel 5′ Morning Ride. Many clients till today refuse to believe I never paid a kobo to get that exposure for my tiny book!

In 2005, my relentless search led me to use Print On Demand publishing.

Not long after, I discovered article marketing and began using it to promote my books and services.

As An Entrepreneur Writing Has Helped Me Achieve Low Cost Name Recognition & Leads Generation

I’ll be 43 in July. This month 10 years ago, I was starting out as an entrepreneur, distributing spiral bound copies of my paper (Self-Development As A Tool for Achieving Career Advancement(A Practical Guide Based On Experience) to the HR/Training Managers and key executives in over 40 organisations across Lagos.

Notable examples included Lagos Business School’s Pat Utomi (he was not yet “Prof.” then) and Dr. J. Maiyaki of Center for Management Development, among others.
I’d typed the entire 45 page management research paper during my final weeks on the job I’d resigned from as Training and Technical Development Manager.

My plan was based on ideas I’d gotten from reading Michel Fortin’s “10 Commandments of Power Positioning” ebook.

Knowing that I needed low cost avenues to get my training and speaking services noticed by my target market, I’d excitedly adopted Fortin’s recommendations.

Using writing to attract potential clients was central to the message in his ebook.

Apart from Utomi who had his PA invite me to meet with him over my management research paper, only Dr. Maiyaki and his team went further to invite me to deliver a lecture (for which I was paid a honorarium).

Final Words: Web Writing Offers Financial Security In Today’s Uncertain Economy

Since then I have achieved even greater progress in my business using my writing – especially online.

The results I’ve gotten led me to recently sign up with constant-content.com as a writer offering my articles and services for sale.

In June 2012, I reinvented my online presence to revolve around THIS new blog as a central point for promoting my products and services.

As it is with everything else in life, one has to learn new ways to get more of the results he wants. I was excited when Constant Content sent me payment for my first and so far only sale.

But I know I need to master the art of writing what buyers want to read out there. I’m reading up on that.

Same applies to my sales on Lulu.com. I’m keen to get back to the times when I recorded sales of my books monthly.

There’s nothing more gratifying than being able to earn income from what you write or have written. The overheads are so low. And the margins potentially limitless.

I am also driven by a vision to show others how to earn income in this manner.

Especially people in parts of the world (like mine) with limited alternatives. And I’ve already started by teaching my kids what I know.

One thing is certain. I can never stop writing because I know it is the key to my dream of achieving financial freedom, especially via passive income streams from sales of my written works.

The way you define yourself as a writer is that you write every time you have a free minute. If you didn’t behave that way you would never do anything.
John Irving