Margaret Ntifo's Blog

Your Wealth Lies Within

As a wealth and prosperity coach, I’m often asked: “How do I come up with the right idea/plan/business for generating wealth?”

I am an ardent believer in the maxim: ‘Do what you love and the money will follow’. You do not need to come up with anything. Simply learn to look within, and value yourself. You are the right idea. You are your best business. You are your wealth!

'You've Got To Find What You Love'

Not only do I love speaking. I love great speeches, and today, I want to share with you a great speech that always re-inspires me every time I read it. I must add how more powerful it is actually hearing it. Enjoy.

This is the text of the Commencement Keynote speech, given by Steve Jobs, CEO of Apple Computer and of Pixar Animation Studios, delivered on June 12, 2005 at Stanford University.

I am honored to be with you today at your commencement from one of the finest universities in the world. I never graduated from college. Truth be told, this is the closest I've ever gotten to a college graduation. Today I want to tell you three stories from my life. That's it. No big deal. Just three stories.

The first story is about connecting the dots.

Money, Wealth and Happiness

By Margaret Ntifo

‘Money, Wealth and Happiness’ was my initial consideration for the title of my e-program. Although, I settled for ‘prosperity’ in place of ‘happiness’, I still consider the latter worthy of discussion.

Happiness has been defined as a state of well-being that is characterized by emotions ranging from contentment to extreme joy. My best definition of happiness is:

1. Doing what you love

2. Having someone to love, and

3. Having something to look forward to

The ability to do what you love seems to elude most people in today’s workforce despite the fact that we spend more than a third of our waking moments at work.

Intuitive Living

By Margaret Ntifo

I played the complete stay-at-home mother role for three and a half long years, by the end of which I was absolutely yearning to be back at work, to regain my independence and most of all to begin properly repaying personal debts that had been stagnating during this period.

I could not wait to get back to work so I took the first offer that came along despite knowing that the position was far below my capabilities and qualifications. Luckily,

The Parable Of Talents

Recent events have caused me to marvel at how the number of opportunities available to us increases when we have made good use of previous opportunities. It seems like the more opportunities you realize the more is offered to you.

This concept reminds me of the parable of talents, which greatly illustrates the reasons why ‘the rich get richer and the poor get poorer.’

Almost ironically, the driving principle behind this parable is:

"To those who have much, shall more be given. Those who have little, even the little they have will be taken away."

People who accrue money tend to accumulate more and more of it. Those who don't make much money just happen to continually find themselves in situations where they happen to lose even that little bit of money they have.

Instead of focussing on the ‘unfairness’ of this principle, what would be more constructive is to realize the many lessons we can learn about life, business, investing and money from this simple parable.

Most people will be familiar with this story but for the benefit of the few who are not, I will briefly paraphrase it here.

The story is told of a master who was leaving home to travel, and before leaving gave his three servants varying amounts of money [talents]. On his return from his travels, the servants were to account for the money, which was given them. The first servant had received five talents, and he happily reported that he had in fact made five more talents. The master praised him as being good and faithful, and gave him more responsibility because of his faithfulness. He further invited him to be joyful with him.

The second servant had received two talents, and he had made two talents more. The master praised him in the same way as being good and faithful, giving him more responsibility and inviting him to be joyful together with him.

The last servant who had received one talent reported that knowing his master was a hard man he had buried his talent in the ground for safekeeping, and therefore returned the original amount to his master. The master called him a wicked and lazy servant, saying that he should have instead placed the money in the bank, which could have generated some interest at the very least.

The master had the one talent taken away from the servant, and given to the first servant who had ten talents at this time. Therein follows the analogy: ‘Everyone that has much will be given more, and whoever that has a little, even the little he has will be taken away’. Thereafter the master ordered the servant to be thrown outside into the darkness where there is much “weeping and gnashing of teeth.”

Hmm!

So what can we learn from this?

We are called upon to use our god-given talents. We are all given different talents almost according to our ability. It does not matter what that talents is. So long as we utilize our talents to our greatest ability we are indeed being faithful and much joy awaits us. Ultimately what really matters is what we do with what we are given.

The rich will continue to get richer. Let’s face it. This is a fact of life, and we just have to live with it. Focussing on the apparent unfairness will do nothing for us. The servant who had the least had the little he had taken away and given to the servant who had more. You would’ve thought that it should be the other way round, wouldn’t you? After all, that servant needed his talent more than the one who had ten talents. But that’s the way it works.

This really tells us that we have to do whatever it takes to capitalize on the gifts and abilities given to us. Most wealthy people are wealthy simply because they seized on opportunities that most people would’ve neglected. How many times have we had to watch someone else become wealthy via an opportunity that was just as open to us in the beginning?

Thirdly, playing it safe does have negative consequences. As is seen from the fact that the servant with the least who had failed to invest his money for a better return had his one talent taken away. He had an opportunity, and he failed to use it. Consequently, he lost this opportunity to someone else. As he tried to explain to his master, he was risk-averse. He let his fear of losing the master’s money stop him from earning any interest on it.

Last but not least, the first two servants were praised and rewarded for being faithful, not necessarily for their results. There is a strong suggestion in this story that faith in itself is a path to success. It is important to have faith in ourselves and in whatever we are doing to ensure our success. Creating more in life requires you to move beyond fear, which is the opposite of faith. Being fearful, distrustful or suspicious without reason will cause you to bury your talents. Is that what you want for yourself?

So why exactly have I been pondering over this parable?

I have recently been given two opportunities that frankly did not cease to amaze me. I did not go looking for these opportunities. In fact, with one of them, I had chased a similar less significant opportunity three years ago with no success. Apparently, I was not ready for it. But did I let that stop me? No. I went ahead to look for other opportunities and totally forgot about this one until I was recently offered a much greater version of it.

What I find interesting about this is I did not need the opportunity especially now that I am financially free.  So why am I being offered this instead of it being offered to someone else who might need it more than I do?

Just when I was reeling at this I had a call yesterday from someone else offering me a certain investment opportunity. Because I did not need this opportunity, I had a sense of detachment that enabled me to call the shots on this one. Despite the offer that was made to me, I made a counter non-negotiable offer and totally forgot about this. They asked for 24 hours to consider my offer. Imagine my surprise when they came back to me barely six hours later with an acceptance!

Is this what it feels like when you get to a certain level in life? It must be if the parable of talents is anything to go by.

I can only repeat here:

Never settle for the path of least resistance
Living might mean taking chances
But they're worth taking

… And when you get the choice to sit it out or dance
I hope you dance

Special Anniversary

Today, 24th November 2006 is exactly two years since I walked free of my J.O.B to begin creating the life of my dreams! What an unbelievable two years it has been!

It is also exactly one week before my birthday, 1st December (the best day of the year). So at this time of the year, I seem to have a lot to celebrate and be thankful for. The fact that it falls around the US Thanksgiving day makes it all the more meaningful and I want to say…

Happy Thanksgiving to all my USA-based readers!

Making the decision to venture out on my own took a great deal of courage, and to date it remains one of the most important decisions in my life so far. Interestingly, when I look far back I did at one point in my life want (or should I say yearn) to become a civil servant. I had a couple of friends who were civil servants and compared to what I was doing then, the illusion of security and stability of the civil service called out to me. Of course, now I know it was a mere illusion. The lesson here though is ‘be careful what you ask for – you just might get it’.

You know, I did actually enjoy being a civil servant. Most people look at it as ‘a job for life’! How sad is that? I can be rather prim and proper sometimes, as my friend Janet loves to remind me.

I just really thought that I was far capable of achieving so much more in my life than I was accepting, and a life of mediocrity was never quite an option for me. Not for long anyway. So four-and-a-half years was as long as I could take it in the civil service. My friend, bless her has been one since 1994; that’s twelve years!

Leaving the security of a full time job (however illusory) was one of the scariest, yet exciting things I ever did. I had many chances to change my mind, I am so glad I followed my heart. My personal growth during the past two years really is beyond measure. To think that this is only the tip of the iceberg!

Be Careful What You Ask For

Recently, I picked up a little notebook and was pleasantly surprised to realise that as far back as 18th Jan 2002 (that’s four and a half years ago!), I had started writing my thoughts in it. I often like to capture my thoughts on paper and love having these cute little special books at hand. I must have abandoned this one for another and completely forgot about it for that long.

What was interesting about my little yellow abandoned book was what I’d written on the first page.