FACT: I never experienced poverty as a child. But as a startup entrepreneur, I’ve suffered such severe lack of money, that my parents and siblings had to help with paying my rent, kids’ school fees etc!

Now, no offense to the reader, but if you’ve never experienced SEVERE lack of money, for prolonged periods(read: years!), you’re not likely to understand that it can damage a person’s self esteem and confidence, if s/he is not careful.

Especially when you’re unable to provide for your dependants.

I’m here today because I used my poverty to CHALLENGE myself to succeed, by diligently creating value adding solutions for clients.

NB: The above is easier said than done. Also, it is noteworthy that living and working in Nigeria made it much worse, for me than it would have been elsewhere

My exciting series of achievements since relocating to Benin Republic a year ago, prove the foregoing statement accurate.

So, if you’re outside Nigeria working as an entrepreneur, believe me when I say you may be much better off than you would be, if you were based in Nigeria.

Here’s why I succeed today:

All the times things were really bad for me (and it was – as James R. Cook said – often in peaks and troughs) – I followed Jim Rohn’s advice.

Mr. Rohn, was a very wise man.

He said “Do NOT to bring your need to the market place”.

In other words, keep your problems to yourself. Go out and offer your solutions to your target audience, so they can give you what you need e.g money – to solve your problems.

Many people think if they don’t have, they need to tell prospects they approach that they don’t.

Big mistake.

Like I told a young Facebook friend – Charles Adeyemi – my life is an open book. So I have no secrets.

But that is no reason to go around telling a potential client my problems.

Simply put, my finances are not his/her business. What I owe him/her is a solution to any need s/he has!

If you want to win high paying clients on a regular basis, I recommend keeping the following points in mind at all times:

1. A potential client does not want to know your money problems

Therefore, announcing them to make him/her feel sorry for you, will NOT inspire his/her confidence in your ability to solve any problem s/he has.

If anything, the opposite effect is what will be achieved!

In other words, a person thinking of paying you to do a job will likely develop cold feet, if you start recounting your financial problems. S/he may reason that your problems may keep you from doing a good job. Or that you could even divert his/her money to meet your needs at his/her expense!

2. Your not having money does not diminish the value you can add to others, that they would gladly pay for.

Indeed your knowledge and skill are not determined by the money in your bank account or pockets.

No matter how hungry you feel from being unable to eat due to lack of money, the other person will not know it unless you tell him or her.

And why would you want to do that?

How does it serve your purpose as an entrepreneur, to short change yourself in that manner?

Many people who make this mistake think they’ll get favours by telling their prospects how bad things are, so the latter can feel sorry for them.

Sadly, that only weakens their negotiating power. And that’s why they often fail!

3. Even if the prospect you tell your problems decides to hire you or buy from you, there’s a good chance a naughty one will take advantage of such inside information you reveal to cheat you.

Knowing how “needy” you have made yourself out to be, they would simply apply psychological pressure on you to make you accept unprofitable payments from them.

I’ve seen this happen too many times. That’s when a consultant agrees to implement a client project at rates that leave him with little or no profits.

S/he will rationalize that half-bread is better than none.

Once again: Big mistake.

This is where I’m different.

Prospects/potential clients with a habit of cheating those who work for them, have often found me a hard nut to crack…

This is because I am not afflicted with the above kind of mentality.

This is not an attempt at bragging or self-glorification.

But the truth is that my wife, kids, and parents/siblings can attest to the fact that in my darkest hours as an entrepreneuer, after falling flat on my face, I repeatedly pulled myself back up, to win high paying income projects, by doing the opposite.

I have negotiated and won projects paying N150,000 to N350,000 with empty pockets. And 95% of the time I got paid 100% in advance.

This attitude of mine, is why I’ve achieved the success I enjoy today.

I refuse to let my personal circumstances dictate the level of confidence with which I offer my solutions to potential buyers.

I’ve lost count of the number of times I’ve done it.

Like I tell those close to me, it is virtually impossible for a prospect or client to tell whether or not I “need” money when discussing paying for my products or serbices. I do not negotitate based on fear or need.

Regardless of my circumstances, I learnt from painful past experience to focus on the value I can deliver to the buyer.

That’s why I offer the above insights into where I’ve been. But I only offer full details in my talks and learning events.

EXAMPLE: The day I got paid an open cheque for N200K 100% in advance, to add a billing system to a client’s hotel software, I barely had enough fuel in my car, to get me to the premises of the hotel client!

Yet, when the client asked me to drop my fees, I refused, and confidently told him if he did not want to pay it, I would rather not take the job.

Many times in the past, that attitude had made potentially exploitative prospects tell me “You will not get clients with this your refusal to be flexible. You must know your customer will always be right”.

And I always responded by telling them I was very clear in my mind about the kind of clients I wanted.

That I knew the benefit such clients would get from using my solutions. And that THAT knowledge was what informed my pricing, and that it also determined how far I was willing to lower my fees.

Then I would end by stating that if my fees, and terms were not acceptable to them, we could agree to disagree, and part amicably.

Painful past experience from giving in has taught me it’s better to be idle, than to take on poor paying projects on terms not favourable to me.

It’s interesting when you know what you want, and you have the courage to confidently state it to those you wish to serve. What happens over time is that more of the kind of people you want to work with get attracted to you.

And most incompatible prospects will naturally be repelled. It’s a law of nature.

However, for it to work for you, it is essential that you adopt the right mental attitude described in this article.

If you do that, you’ll find that even when you have no money, you WILL be able to negotiate successfully, and win high paying proejcts with clients of your choice, thereby turning your circumstances around.

This is a lesson many true entrepreneurs learn, that enables them achieve long term success.

They realise that the road to success will not be a straight one, and that there will be many peaks and troughs (success and failure respectively) for years, before things stabilize.

This tells them that adopting a mindset that can enable them competently function even during the “troughs” of failure, is the key to their ultimate success.

Now that you’ve read this article, I urge you to apply the wisdom it contains to succeed inspite of your poverty!

Related Article:

How Exposure To Poverty & Trial-By-Fire Can Be Deliberately Used To Prepare People To Succeed