Andrew Gani-Ikilama TRUE WEALTH chapter 3
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This document appears to be an excerpt from a book about attitudes and wealth. It discusses how attitude is like a system of thoughts that influences one's perspective. It provides examples of positive attitudes, like Alfred Nobel changing his invention of dynamite to help people through the Nobel Prize after initially being seen as harmful. The document also discusses cultivating a positive attitude through gratitude and forgiveness, and choosing one's mental focus each day. It shares a story about twin brothers with different attitudes to illustrate this point.
Andrew Gani-Ikilama TRUE WEALTH chapter 3
- 1. ANDREWANDREWANDREWANDREW FINDING IT AND KEEPING ITFINDING IT AND KEEPING ITFINDING IT AND KEEPING ITFINDING IT AND KEEPING IT WEALTH TRUE GANIGANIGANIGANI----IKILAMAIKILAMAIKILAMAIKILAMA
- 2. TRUE WEALTH Andrew Gani-Ikilama PREVIEW COPY. 息Andrew Gani-Ikilama PG 2 息 2015, Andrew Gani-Ikilama FIRST EDITION JANUARY 2015 ISBN: ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and recording, or by any information storage and relevant system, except as may be expressly permitted by the copyright holder. All requests for permission should be addressed to Andrew Gani-Ikilama, Founder/Dean, Wusasa Business School, Plot 5605 Independence Way, P. O. Box 2520, Kaduna, Kaduna State, Nigeria. Publisher: WBSPublishing, Wusasa Business School, Plot 5605 Independence Way, P. O. Box 2520, Kaduna, Kaduna State, Nigeria. wusasa.business.school@gmail.com Printed in the Federal Republic of Nigeria by CuttingEdge Design & Promos, cuttingedgebrands@gmail.com +234 (0) 8177 007 190 All proceeds from this book will go towards supporting the work of Knowledge For The Blind Initiative. This non-profit set up by andrew Gani-Ikilama provides knowledge for quality life to persons living with blndness.
- 3. TRUE WEALTH Andrew Gani-Ikilama PREVIEW COPY. 息Andrew Gani-Ikilama PG 3 CHAPTER ATTITUDE Attitude is the one thing about you that must always smell. Its either a sweet fragrance or a sour stench. Whichever, it is your choice to make. Andrew Gani-Ikilama When I use the word attitude, like Joyce Meyer I am referring to a system of thoughts, the mental posture, the mind- set, the way a person views situations of life. Whats fantastic to one person will be a total letdown for another simply because of the attitude each holds on the same issue. So for example, I eat meat but my sister Linda Lawrence does not. Our attitude on the subject of meat totally differs because she is a vegetarian while I am not. Meat is not as volatile an issue like crude oil, religion or even politics, but can still cause a major discussion as decisions are made on what to cook. A great mathematician developed a formula wherein each alphabet of the English Language was given a numerical value. Starting with letter A having a value of 1, letter B having a value of 2, letter C having a value and so on. When used to 3
- 4. TRUE WEALTH Andrew Gani-Ikilama PREVIEW COPY. 息Andrew Gani-Ikilama PG 4 calculate the words knowledge and hardwork, you will end up with less than 100 points each. Knowledge equals 96 while hardwork equals 98. But, the word Attitude has a value of 100. Keith Farrell in his classic book titled Attitude is Everything defines attitude as everything and he concludes that the most valuable asset you can possess is a positive attitude toward your life. Another famous quotation on attitude is that a bad attitude is like a flat tire. If you dont change it, or I add fill it with the correct air, you cant go anywhere. It was David Joseph Schwartz that said How we think shows through in how we act. Attitudes are mirrors of the mind. They reflect our thinking. Life is actually 10% of what happens to us individually and 90% how we react. You may be the happy owner of a Honda Civic car and is one day driving along when a tire goes flat. Your options are to get a tire shop to repair it or you may choose to buy a new one and get it installed. If your tire is say size 17 rim and I sell you a size 16 or size 24 tire, what I just did was give you a bad attitude. Bad in the sense that it is the wrong size tire. Nothing in this world will make it good. You have to change the tire or face the effects of the bad attitude which in this case shows up as a tire that is the wrong size. Alfred Nobel woke up one day to find that an obituary had been published. It had all the information in it correct except that it was referring to his brother but had his own name as the deceased. Alfred realised that the biography on the obituary referred to him as the inventor of dynamite that was being used to kill numerous people. He wasnt happy that his invention was being looked at as an instrument for death. He decided there and then to in advance write his obituary through his actions. He instituted a prize for peace which came to be called the Nobel Prize and recognizes different aspects of human development. His real obituary was a reflection of the attitude he worked on and corrected. A celebration rather than a judgement.
- 5. TRUE WEALTH Andrew Gani-Ikilama PREVIEW COPY. 息Andrew Gani-Ikilama PG 5 The use of words also shows our real attitude in life. In the book titled Shehu Musa YarAdua: A life of service edited by Jacqueline W. Farris and Mohammed Bomoi, it is recounted (page 164) how when the late General Yaradua as Chairman of Habib Bank was sent a poorly prepared report by an Asian national. Inviting him to a meeting, he stated rather bluntly: Either the person who prepared the report is a fool or the person receiving the proposal is a fool. As it is not in my character to insult anyone, I can assure you I am not a fool. So you may want to look at your proposal again and decide who is the fool. No wonder even in politics, he believed that there should be honour amongst thieves. Attitude is one aspect of humanity that never is able to hide itself. While in detention under controversial circumstances, he was able to smuggle a torn slip of paper from his prison cell on which he had written Please do not worry too much about me. I am okay. It is the sacrifice some of us must make for our country to be free. No matter the circumstances of life, attitudes which are as deep as our DNA will always remain. That is until a deliberate decision is made to change the undesirable attitude. There is a fictional story about a set of twins named Seymour and Fillmore that demonstrates the lesson on attitude. Seymour was an unwavering optimist. Every night he went to bed excitedly looking forward to daybreak and new adventures. Fillmore in contrast was perpetually sad. He always looked for the black cloud over the silver lining. He was so negative that he said his name was a sign that he was not complete ...fill more. Since the boys were identical twins, their parents felt their personality difference was an indication of abnormality so took them to a psychologist. The psychologist suggested the parents use the boys next birthday to help them understand and possibly resolve the personality difference. He gave them specific instructions which the parents agreed to carry out. On their birthday, the parents invited Fillmore to his room where
- 6. TRUE WEALTH Andrew Gani-Ikilama PREVIEW COPY. 息Andrew Gani-Ikilama PG 6 they gave him a nicely wrapped up box. He opened it and immediately started protesting, I wanted a laptop, not a PC. This was in spite of the fact that his parents had just given him the most modern computer on the market. Anyway they left him and went downstairs proceeding to go to the back of their house and on the way shouting for Seymour to follow them. When they got there, they gave him a box that was not so nicely wrapped and contained a very smelly substance. He opened it gleefully and on discovering it was a box of horse manure cried out joyfully, This is great! With all this manure there has to be a pony around here somewhere! Thats the power of positive attitude! While we have little control over the events in our lives, we do have control over our responses to these events. How can a sour attitude be changed to a sweet attitude? Be careful what you focus on. Be mentally alert to the fact that through each day of your life you will nonstop be receiving conscious and unconscious messages. People will send theirs. The media will deliver some more from all their advertisers and from their in-house programmes. Messages will comes from family members, colleagues, classmates, your emotions. The list is endless. By focusing on how you choose to feel, you alter your state of mind to feelings to match your mood. When you wake in the morning, invest a few minutes visualising your day and calling into your day positive experiences. Choose at that point in time to embrace all the goodness the day will bring and to forgive any badness that may arrive as you go through the day. Why forgive? Because this is the one issue that leads anybody into a negative attitude. Two of the best antidotes to a negative attitude are gratitude and forgiveness. When we move beyond the hurt, anger, criticism, blame and guilt we are free to forgive, love, count our million of blessings and move on. Yes. Move on to greater awareness, self discovery, health, love, achievements and an entire life.
- 7. TRUE WEALTH Andrew Gani-Ikilama PREVIEW COPY. 息Andrew Gani-Ikilama PG 7 A friend of Keith Farrell had a very rough life. He was not able to succeed at anything. He owed many people, even owed the United States government student loans. He was in a bad situation. The man heard of a United States Military program that would allow him study in university full time, paid for by the military in exchange for one weekend a month as a reservist. So he enrolled. Though he faced many challenges along the way, he kept his side of the deal and overcame each challenge. Keith Farrell tells us in his book that the man succeeded in acquiring an associate degree, two bachelors degrees and is the president of his own small business. I totally agree with the unknown philosopher who said A positive mental attitude and definiteness of purpose is the starting point toward all worthwhile achievement. Romans 16:17 says Now I beseech you, brethren, mark them which cause divisions. This was I did when at a point in my life somebody embarked on a campaign against me. Out of wisdom that was definitely bigger than me. I assessed the situation, sought out counsel and with a healthy dose of divine guidance I chose to leave the environment, marking the people that were choosing to cause divisions as I moved on. Attitudes do not just happen. They are the products of our choices. Because we have made the conscious effort over time to make those particular choices, our mental system now adopts it as the default mode and makes the choice for us. This now becomes our attitude towards the issue. As a child I was not used to eating hot spicy meals. But I enjoyed eating snails. What formed this attitude for me was simple. Daddy didnt eat pepper while Mummy did. Mummy ate snails while daddy didnt. Now as an adult I have had to make my own choices. No problem eating snail meat. As for hot spicy peppery meals, well a good supply of cold water handy helps a lot. A very interesting teaching on attitude is the one taught by Jesus Christ on servant leadership. He said that whoever wants to be the greatest must flip his thinking on its head and
- 8. TRUE WEALTH Andrew Gani-Ikilama PREVIEW COPY. 息Andrew Gani-Ikilama PG 8 the servant. He taught that servant hood is the true leadership. Now he wasnt saying that servants are leaders or that leaders should call themselves servants, even though some people have taken the instruction literally. He was talking about our attitude. For you to be successful you need to have an attitude of service. Look at great men like Sir Winston Churchill. His view on service was that he must lead England through the war to victory. Even in the face of defeat on some battle fronts, even when supplies were dwindling, he kept a resolute face, a strong voice and always formed two fingers into the victory sign. His attitude was unwavering and victory was the result for his people. Forgiveness is what you owe yourself. Plug into it. It returns responsibility for your life back to you. You can dance again. Dream big dreams again and have a happier life ...with the right attitude. Winston Churchill was the one who said Attitude is a little thing that makes a big difference. Joyce Meyer in her book The Power of A Positive You gives five rules for achieving and keeping the right attitude 1. Maintain the right attitude when the going get rough. 2. Realize the tough times wont last forever. 3. Do not make major decisions during a storm. 4. Stay in touch with the control tower. 5. Try to keep things in perspective. These are such simple rules that rather than bother you with any details, I will end by suggesting you start work on adjusting your attitude so you can soar into wealthy living.