Which 3 or 4 books are you currently reading?

Allow me to say that you are either reading or your mind is decaying.

The 4 books that I am currently reading are:

1. Route to Financial Success – Faiz Versey (Botswana)
2. Retire Rich through Property – Jason Lee (South Africa)
3. Winning Invisible Battles – Bishop David Oyedepo (Nigeria)
4. Research Methods for Business Students – Saunders, Lewis and Thornhill (England)

I am very grateful for books whether local or international; hence my library has various books from all over the world touching all disciplines – family, spiritual, ministry, motivational & inspirational, financial, career, business and health. However, for two major reasons, for the past few years; I am beefing up my library with books from SADC and Africa at large. My reasons are:

1. To support local writers. I am privileged to be a best-selling author and I know the hustle of writing a book and selling it. If it was not for Africans, I would not be a writer. Let’s support our writers. Many times people complain that Africans are a shameful and consuming people that produce nothing. So then if we are really eager to see Africa shining; when our brothers and sisters write books, why not support them by buying their books, inviting them to speak at corporate functions and of course paying them well? That is the only way we can fully transform the continent.
2. The world believes that Africans do not read. That might be true. But with all due respect, people sometimes do not read because they do not understand the setting of the book and the author. While some things apply across the world, some things can only be understood by a certain people. In other words, some books can help anyone internationally and globally, but some apply to Africa only. I am talking about relevance here.
3. African books appeal to us because we share many things in common as Africans. I remember when I published my best-selling book ‘15 Secrets for Personal Financial Success – A Simple Guide to Financial Freedom’; we quarreled with my publisher in UK for 45 minutes on mobile phone because he was refusing to bring the book to Africa saying: ‘there is no market in Africa. People there do not read books. We are in business Wilbert and not a charity. We will therefore not reduce the price as you suggest and we will not bring the book to Africa where there are no buyers. ’ I retaliated in anger, ‘look, I wrote that book for Africans who understand my culture and background. My people here think that finance is difficult because of the finance books which they have seen here which have difficult terminology. Now I have simplified finance for my people and you deny them an opportunity. NO! You in the first world have enough authors. This book has to come to Africa. I did not write it for money, but to serve my people. I do not mind you selling the book anywhere you like, but I demand that copies must come to Africa.’ It was a fight until the book came, transformed lives and companies in Botswana, Zimbabwe, SA and beyond. When I later published my two other books: 16 Mistakes Singles Make – A Guide to Successful Dating & Courtship that leads to Blissful Marriage and What you have is Enough – how to become wildly successful in finance and business starting from where you are now, I decided to avoid conflicts with international publishers and published my books locally. Guess what more lives and companies have been changed. While Africa has been the laughing stock of the world, tables have turned in our favor. So I advise you help Africa shine.
4. The research done in Africa can mainly benefit Africans. For example, I did an 8-month long research in 2015 on the challenges of small, medium and micro enterprises in Botswana. 100 SMMEs took part by filling in structured questionnaires and 3 commercial bank managers were interviewed. Part of the findings of that research was included in my second book – What you Have is Enough– how to become wildly successful in finance and business starting from where you are now. Which country or continent do you think benefits most from such a book? Does the book help everyone across the world in the same way?

Last words: We are extremely grateful to all authors all over the world. We are benefiting a lot from your books. Nevertheless, we need to support African writers to encourage them to research and write more. This I believe will reduce Africa’s over-dependency on other continents for everything. Imagine that the amount of research output from Africa is so tiny, yet we have many educate people in Africa! Imagine on YouTube, almost all the useful videos you find there are done people of other continents. When will Africans arise and begin to teach others about different things on YouTube; rather posting only comedy videos. By the way, I value comedy videos and I think posting them YouTube is a step in the right direction. We need to go further than that and share videos that teach about various issues of life. By so doing Africans will be of help to the rest of the world. Thank you.

Written by Wilbert R. Mutoko Copyright © March 2016

No part of this article can be used without referencing the author.

CHANGE THE QUALITY OF YOUR LIFE

Food for thought – So you want success?

 

If you want to change the quality of your life, change the quality of your thoughts and your emotions. How do you change your thoughts and emotions? You do this by changing what goes into your heart, spirit and into your mind.

 

What have you been listening to of late? What have you been reading? What have you been watching? Is it making your life, career or business better? What are you planning to read, watch or listen to?

 

What do your children listen to, see and read? Are you going to increase watching, reading and listening to quality stuff that can make your life better?

See you at the top!

For your success

By Wilbert R. Mutoko copyright © March 2016

When success knocks on your door

Have you ever noticed that sometimes success comes to you in disguise? Have you seen how you can easily refuse new challenges because it is natural to enjoy the comfort zone? Remember the time in school when they chose you to become class monitor and you refused? Remember the time when you were chosen to be the next manager and you turned down the offer? What about when your coach voted you to be the team captain and you said ‘NO’.

Sounds familiar, right? When success knocks on your door, be ready to say, ‘yes I will give this a trial.’ Be willing to get out of your usual place of comfort if you want to achieve more in life. Be ready go the extra mile.

If you want to pass more at school. Develop guts and confront your weaknesses. Instead of hating that marker who commented you as a …; go to them with a heart of humility and ask for clarification. If you have such a teacher or lecturer who is tough on you, then success is knocking at your door.

So you want promotion or a pay raise at work? Instead of only doing only what you were hired to do, ask for more responsibilities from your supervisor. Do your work well and ask if your leader has any work overwhelming them which you can help. Promotion does not just come. You have to work for it. You are not promoted because you have stayed in the workplace longer than others, but for the value that you are adding. So the next time you push for a promotion or pay hike; ask yourself ‘What extra value have I been adding of late?’ If your leader/supervisor has problems or too much work to do; then success is knocking at your door.

So you have been job hunting for a long time? Do you not think that success is knocking at your door? Probably the fact that you have not yet found a job could mean that you can start your own business. For how long shall you complain and keep searching for a job?

Do you have a problem that is giving you sleepless nights? Do you know that there are many other people suffering from the same problem? What if you design a solution which will help you and others? Do you realize that success is knocking at your door?

So you are in business? Are things not going the way you wish? Probably your solution lies in your unhappy clients or disgruntled employees. Never take unhappy clients and employees for granted. Research suggests that less than 10% of unhappy clients and employees will ever tell you openly that they are not happy with you. The majority of people will leave you alone. Before your best employee ditches you, it is your duty to find out what better things you can do for them. Before your best clients leave you; it should be your sole mandate to always find out how you can please them more. Your clients are the reason why you are in business. Otherwise, remember there is competition, and 90% of your clients will leave you without telling you what wrong you  have done. So, the next time an employee or client confronts you for poor service or misconduct; listen carefully to them and address the issues they bring up. This is because an employee or client upset with you could signal higher levels of success knocking at your door.

Similarly, when you get an opportunity to travel to a new place, take it up. If no opportunity comes along for travel; you have to create an opportunity for traveling so that you will see what you have never seen. That could take you to the next level.

When success knocks at your door …

Copyright © 2016 Wilbert R. Mutoko (Best-selling author, Success Coach, Motivational Speaker, Trainer, Business Development Expert & Educator)