How To Create Wealth From Nothing

INTRODUCTION

            We all have our imaginations and ideas, sometimes we even imagine so much that we visualize them in dreams, there is nothing wrong with that. What are your imaginations in life; may be to become the richest man in your community or state, being the author of the best selling book in the country, owner of a big firm that employs so many workers, best music artist in the country, the funniest comedian in town, or whatever? I still assure you that nothing is wrong with you having such big imaginations; in fact it is encouraging to dream big, just like Joseph in the Bible.

            I want to ask you again, have you ever imagined yourself being in London or Tokyo, when you knew obviously that you cannot even afford a fare to Abuja? If you have, how did you feel about it? I guess you felt so happy, and wished it could come to reality, of course, it can. Nothing is impossible for you to achieve, as long as you believe and work towards it, I am a living witness, and this book is one of my testimonies. No wonder Adolf Hitler once said, “Impossibility can only be found in the dictionary of a foolish man.”

            This book is written to encourage, guide, and direct you on how to convert your daily imaginations and ideas as a youth or an adult, into physical money that can be spent. All the facts, illustrations and references used in this book, are well-researched and are reflections of real life experiences based on testimonies; I dare you to apply them.

            Achieving the status of financial freedom has never been a reality to majority in life, whereas to many, it is like blinking their eyes, which is a natural phenomena, why? Read on and discover things yourself.

I once stumbled upon a Bible verse, Ecclesiastes 10:19, which says; “Money answers all things.” Therefore I urge you today to desire money, if you are the type that ignores it.

            As a young person, who came from a poor home background, I have always asked myself, why didn’t my parents make it wealthy in life? While asking myself this critical question, I also pondered in my mind, why won’t I make it in life?

            Desiring to be wealthy is never a sin, because I know quiet sure that many people crop this idea in their hearts that being wealthy means being a sinner, considering the scriptural verse which says that money is the root of all evil. Mind you, money is like a new computer system which responds to user input, so whatever you desire to use it for, it shall answer; if you desire to use it for evil, it will answer you and vice versa.

            This handbook, HOW TO CREATE WEALTH FROM NOTHING is a handbook written from inspiration and passion to affect lives financially, especially among the youths. Every word written in this book came out of years of hard work and persistent research and findings. It is basically written for those in the developing nations like Nigeria, though it can also be applied in some developed nations, but the result might not be as positive as in developing nations.

            Please, if you are nurturing a belief that having too much money is not good, I want you to change that belief right now, else close this book and find something else to do with your life because in the next four to five chapters ahead, we shall be discussing issues concerning the acquisition and management of excess money.

            As I asked in the sixth paragraph of this passage, have you ever wondered why your parents didn’t make it prosperous in life, if eventually you happened to be among our group (those who have humble background), then ask yourself, why won’t I make it prosperous in life? As you struggle with an answer to those questions, I want to urge you to prepare your mindset, as I unleash the principles of financial prosperity in the next five chapters to come.

            Lastly, I want you to put away every doubt in your head and take this book as a class discussion, bearing in mind that your success with money does not necessarily depend on your educational status; because the number of degrees you carry does not always guarantee that you will be very successful in life rather, it is your ability to understand and transform the basic principles of prosperity and wealth creation through physical transformation of your imaginations and ideas, that can assure you a bigger future.

            It is my belief and prayer that by the time you are through with this book, your financial status will never remain like it was in the past, amen! Please don’t read and wait, procrastination kills zeal, therefore, act as you read! I wish you the best in all your financial endeavors, and may this book lead you to that road of your financial prosperity in life! I didn’t hear you say, amen?

Defining your life

Discussion one: What do you want from life?

            As a way of defining your life, you must know what you desire from life. If you do not have a desire, I don’t think you will have an achievement in life. Until you desire, then you can achieve. Take for instance, an uncle of yours just came back from the big cities for the celebration of Xmas, and after the Christmas is over, he wanted to go back to the city, so he summoned a family meeting.

            During the meeting, he asked each and every one of you what you guys wanted him to do for each of you. In response, some of your cousins asked for their school fees, house rents, and capital to start up a business, etc. so it gets to your turn, and you requested nothing.

            Now your uncle went inside and wrote checks for each of your cousins according to their request, and when it gets to your turn, he turned towards you and said, “I can see that you are okay, anyway, study hard, so that I will take you to the city one day”, he then deep his hand into his pocket and gave you a $10 note as pocket money. How would you feel; may be angry or upset?

            But if I were you, I wouldn’t feel bad because I requested nothing, so he gave me what he felt was okay. This is how life operates, if you request nothing from it, it will give you whatever it pleases. This is the reason you need to define your life desires. Ask yourself, what do I want from life?

            Some people wants to be Professors, medical doctors, Engineers, lawyers, pastors whereas some want to be company owners, giant industrialists etc. all these are desires, in fact, wants. I desired to be like Chinua Achebe, Napoleon Hill and Robert T. Kiyosaki, so I cultivated the habit of writing different things at all time. It is only when you know what you want, that you can start working towards achieving it, so what do you want?

            Knowing what you want must reflect in your daily life; you cannot dream to be a footballer and then you hardly or never make out time to go for a football practice. You must show that passion for what you want, desire it and then pursue it with passion.

            You can’t be dreaming of being a professor, but deep inside your heart you know it for sure that you hate to read, you hate anything that has to do with book, in fact you love selling things. If you find yourself in a situation like this, you should think twice, you do not know what you want, pray over it.

            I knew I was meant to be a writer because in every minute of my life, something runs into my head to write about, it might be an incident or a story that I heard or even a paper that I red. Because of this passion, I started an online writing career, where I wrote on many topics, this started in 2006, and I won an award as the best writer of that month of September.

            Most times, what we want in life is always different from what our inner mindset wants, which is the ultimate of what exactly we want in life. Some are gifted enough to identify this without much hassle, whereas many may waste years running around not knowing exactly what they want from life. Though, I mustn’t divorce the fact that we can also develop an interest other than our natural gift.

            For you to identify what you want from life, you need to listen to your inner heart, what it tells you when you are alone. Whenever you are alone, there is something that always runs into your head, it happens so often, find out what it is.

            Defining what you want from life can go as far as setting out the age you wish to achieve a particular goal, and the age you wish to retire from active service.

Discussion two: Define your life target

            What is a target? A target can be seen as a set out goal or destination. Remember, in our previous discussion, we talked about defining what you want from life, in this discussion, we are going to dwell much on how to define your life target, which comes after you must have carved out what you want from life.

            Yes, you have defined what you want from life; maybe you want to be a millionaire, a philanthropist, an industrialist, the governor of your state, blah blah… blah. Haven known all this that you want, how much have you taken out time to define this target? This is a question you need to ask yourself.

            It is very common in life that when you want to get to a particular destination that you have never been to, you first visualize yourself in that destination even before getting there. Take for instance, you have never been to say London, and an uncle of yours promises to take you there during your long vacation, if you can be honest with yourself, from the day he promised to take you to London, you shall start to visualize yourself in London.

How To Create & Keep Wealth by: Nwiro Ngozika

              You have a target of being a millionaire or an industrialist, but you have less than a hundred dollar currently, how do you achieve this? This is why you need to define your target in life. Somebody who has this vision has defined his or her desire, but has not defined the real target why?

            Being a millionaire or an industrialist is a status which you have not defined how you wish to achieve this status because, there are millionaires in the movie, music, marketing, building, and engineering sectors, so in which of this sectors do you desire to achieve that status of being a millionaire? You know when we are small; we wish a lot that we even wish we weren’t born.

            It is not always about desiring and wishing, we also need to strategize our desires as a way of bringing them to a reality. It will be very vital for you to answer these questions, “What do I really want to achieve?” then ask yourself this second question, “If I continue on this route I am, will I get to my desired destination?” Haven answered those two questions correctly; you need to finally ask yourself, “If I finally get to that destination, will I be fulfilled?”

            Now, how do you define your target in life? In a very simple but comprehensive manner, I have outlined below, the steps you need to take when defining your life target:

Step1- Write down the career or business you desire to venture into

Step2- Write down five good reasons you desire to engage in that career or business

Step3- How long would you love to stay in that career or business (mind you, any career or business you are into for up to ten years and you do not witness any positive change, please change course because success is not a slow process)

Step4- Write down what you want to achieve at the end of your stay in that career

Discussion three- Plan how to get to your target:

            Nothing works in life without adequate planning. A great philosopher once said people fail in life not because they planned to fail, but because they failed to plan. Another important thing in planning is your working group, which helps in the execution of your plans. Solid plans can never be achieved alone; this is why you need a working group if you must succeed in climbing up to the top of that ladder of life. This was proved to us in the Bible, on Genesis Chapter 1:26, when God said “Let us create man in our own image and likeness…” Ask yourself, who are the ‘us’, and why didn’t he do it alone?

How To Create & Keep Wealth by: Nwiro Ngozika

              From that chapter of the holy Bible, we could clearly understand that God had a working group during his creation process, most importantly in the creation of man, he never thought of doing it alone, so he used the clause: let us create man in our own image and likeness. This verse clearly explains to us that we cannot achieve great things in life working alone. This was also made obvious in God’s creation process in Genesis, he made heavens, earth, light, stars, moon, etc alone, but when he wanted to create man, which he knew was a great achievement, he called upon his group, so you need a working group to succeed in life, form one today if you don’t have any already.

The second lesson we should learn from the creation process is planning. God made adequate plans before creating man, he wanted man to rule over all creations, so he didn’t first create man, which was his final destination in creation, he first paved way for the arrival of man. Had he first created man, when there was no light, no heavens or earth, and no food, may be man wouldn’t have survived it, so he planned to make provisions for the survival of man first, before creating him. And today, we see some couples making big mistakes in life, by not planning for the children they  want to bring into this world, all they know is to sleep together and manufacture kids without adequate plans for their welfare, it is highly uncalled for.

            Even God himself, who has the sole power to do all things, both the possible and the impossible, made adequate plans before creating man. He made consultations, and made sure everything was properly put in place before the arrival of man. He also taught us that we need adequate planning in whatever we do, during the coming of his son Jesus Christ, he first sent John the Baptist to come and pave way for Christ (Mathew 3:3).      

            What is your target in life, may be to own a prosperous business? Then how far have you gone with the plans of getting to this target? Planning is the first step towards achieving great things in life, if you do not plan, things will surely hit you by surprise.

            Okay you want to own a prosperous business outfit? In what sector of business? Because we have so many sectors; agriculture, commerce, building, etc. why do you prefer this sector? What special skill or service do you have to offer in this sector that others previously in it has not offered to the market? How much capital do you have at hand or within your reach to venture into this business? Then, how profitable is the business and how sooner will you recover your investment capital?

            Haven answered those vital questions, you aren’t done yet, go further and ask yourself, what are the manpower requirement for this business, is it one you can bear? What about the location, will it favor the success of the business, in terms of patronage? Does the profit justify the time input?

            All these, you must put down on a paper, in a carefully thought manner, examine each question critically before jumping into answer because, the answer might be simple but far from what you may think it is.

            It is a very common practice in Nigeria today for people to go financially stressed during the month of January, why? Because they do not plan well, haven known the fact that this month has always proved to be the most financially stressed month of the year, why then should you spend your life savings on the celebration of Christmas that will still come again and again.

            I know quite sure that many people reading this book, will not fancy this part of the book, but that is the truth that I am telling you, don’t spend your whole savings on a merriment. Plan ahead of time; always plan for days like the January period.

            In a summary, let us now examine how one can plan getting to his or her life target. Follow the model below in a very careful manner and try to replicate it wisely in your life, best of luck!

Mr. John has a dream of owning a prosperous business outfit.

-remember, he has no particular business in mind, but he desires owning a successful business outfit, and he is definite about this. And again, Mr. John has less than three hundred dollars in his savings.

Step1: Mr. John has defined his life desire, to own a prosperous business outfit.

Step2: He needs to define his target now, because owning a prosperous business is not just a target, it is too big to bet targeted, so he needs to define the sector or field he would own this successful business. So what does he do?

HIS ACTIONS:

To make this dream a reality, he needs to put his sleeping brain to work. So Mr. John starts to look around his environment (his residential area) for a likely business opportunity, this he did for a week, two or even months, depending on his ability to identify opportunities.

Finally, he finds one. Guess what? There is always an intermittency in the supply of electricity around his environment (may be once a week), and the residents in this place love partying and stuffs like that, though they hardly own big generating sets. There are a lot of beer parlors and mini shops that sell soft drinks too.

            Mr. John goes to one, two, and three of those beer parlors and asked them how they keep their drinks chilled because every time he went to buy drink from them, it was always chilled despite the fact that they have poor electricity supply. One of the owners of those beer parlors told him that they usually buy ice blocks from a far away town. So why don’t you buy it from within? Mr. John asked, “Because we don’t have any of such places where one can buy ice block here, in fact people here don’t see the need to establish one since we can always buy from there, and at a cheaper rate, because they deal in large quantity”.

            “So how much do they sell one for you, I am sorry if I may ask?” “You are asking like you are planning to establish one here, are you?” “not really madam, I just feel like knowing because I love the way your drinks are, always chilled” “anyway, thanks Mr. John but, if you are considering establishing one, it might not move because the one I am talking about has dominated the business, in fact people love buying from them, so it will be difficult for you to draw them out plus, your own will be costlier because I know you will start small while running constant generator which consumes a lot of petrol” “oh that was a wonderful advice madam, but please how much do they sell one block to you, I want to know?”

            The woman pondered a bit before replying, “it depends on the size, like the size of this one over there…” pointing at a huge ice block in a container, “…is sold for a hundred and fifty naira, and that is the medium size, as for the biggest size, it goes for two hundred and fifty naira” “thanks madam, glad discussing with you, may be during the weekend, I will bring my friends here for a drink” “you are always welcomed Mr. John” he left.

Note: Mr. John has identified a good business but there is a strong competitor he must beat if he must make it in this business, so watch out his next step.

            Mr. John has to trace the location of this ice block outfit that supplies ice to people around his environment. He finally got there impressed, with the size and prosperity of the business; in fact they had up to eight workers; five guys and three beautiful young girls. He befriended one of the girls.

            Through the girl, he gets to know the machines required to start the business, the cost, and even the processes involved. Do you see why you need a working group if you must succeed in your plans? Remember, Mr. John has two working groups now, first the Bar woman and secondly, the ice block girl. In summary, he needed at least $1500 to start the business, and he has less than twenty thousand naira currently.

            The next thing Mr. John needed to know was the profitability of the business before he ventures into it, so he approached the same girl, who now assured him of huge profits if he will be able to establish it. “But the start up capital is too much, are you sure you gave me the right statistics?” Mr. John inquired, “of course it is, that is why I have not established one myself, it is even costlier than what I told you if you want it bigger as ours.” So how do I raise the money, was the next thought that ran into John’s head, watch out!

Step 3: The search for the start up capital

            Remember, John just graduated from a Polytechnic and has no job at hand. So he has the following options to raise his start up capital:

Option 1- getting a job so as to save from his salary

Option 2- obtaining loan from a bank

Option 3- borrowing from friends and relations

Option 4- seek for a business partnership

            Considering option 1, John knew it will be a bit difficult for him because it has never been so easy for him to secure a job since three years that he passed out from NYSC, so it wouldn’t be easier now that he needed it urgently, so he scrapped that option, though he kept on sending his CV’s to firms.

            Option 2, John knew for sure that this option was completely impossible for him to achieve at the moment, because he has nothing to offer as collateral to bank, so he is not eligible for that option. The next two options are, borrowing from friends and relations, and partnering with somebody.

            These last options seemed more suitable than the rest for John, so he went for the two. First, John approached the girl at the ice block investment; because he heard her mention that she would have loved to own one herself had it been she had the capital to start it. So John approached her, and she agreed to partner with John on 70% to 30% agreement. That’s to say, John will provide 70% while the girl completes the remaining 30% of the business capital, and same way, profit and loss (if any) will be shared.

            Yet, John has not up to a hundred and twenty thousand required of him. He had to approach one of his cousins who worked with a firm in Lagos, so he agreed to lend him a hundred thousand naira to repay back in six months time, John agreed. Like that, John gathered the money he required to start the ice block making business in partnership with the girl he met at the already existing ice block investment. What next? Setting up the business and conquering competitors.

Step 4: Setting up the business

            Before setting up the business, John went back to that bar woman to inform her of his final intentions, and to assure her of good service delivery, at the same time seeking for her assistance in advertising the business, while he promised her of good discounts on purchase. Not only that, he also told his neighbors, neighboring beer parlors, restaurants and drink shops about his business. Finally, he set up the business.

Step 5: Conquering his competitor

How To Create & Keep Wealth by: Nwiro Ngozika

              Remember, before John ventured into this business, he knew his strongest competitor, and he researched about his weakness, and now he has one of them on his side. What next, price and consistency?

Price- instead of selling his own for the usual hundred and fifty naira per medium ice block and two hundred and fifty for the biggest size, to make a profit of fifty naira and seventy naira on each respectively, John decided to sell his own for a hundred and thirty naira and two hundred and twenty five naira respectively.

            Don’t forget, he has saved his customers a lot of money; transportation cost plus a discount, and even the comfort. Though, his profit was small, but he had a huge turn over in a day. He even made provision to sell smaller ice blocks for kids and teenagers who love licking ice. Shortly, he introduced the sell of ice cream and yoghurt. Gradually, customers withdrew from going to that far away town to buy ice block, and they were all diverted to John’s Ice Block.

Step 6: Daring for more success

            John didn’t relax, because owning just an ice block making investment was not enough to take him to his financial dream, because he knew that one day, someone else could open up the same investment or the supply of electricity might improve or something else, so he needed to venture into something else, but in the same sector he is, so he incorporated a cold room for frozen foods like; chicken, turkey, fish, etc.

            As if that was not enough, John started fish rearing and poultry, and gradually into making of sachet pure water, and as I am talking to you today, John has a flourishing cold room, ice block making investment, a prosperous fish pond, poultry farm, bottled water industry among other smaller investments.

Question

What did you learn from the above example, I know that you are inspired to start something by now, but if you still lack the courage, please don’t give up, read on as we continue on the next discussion.

Discussion 5- Checking and balancing your planned time

How To Create & Keep Wealth by: Nwiro Ngozika

              Always remember that time remains one of the greatest resources for the creation of wealth in mankind. We all have the same amount of time in life, no matter how rich or poor you might be, the time is the same, 24 hours a day for all of us, we can’t add or subtract from it, we can only use it properly or misuse it.

            Bill Gates, Warren Buffet, Tata, Mr. Forest etc, all have the same amount of time as your grandfather or father who died without achieving any great thing. The only difference is that they were wise enough to manage their time more appropriately. So if you must be successful and happy in life, you must learn to use your time appropriately.

            Haven planned your life; you need to check and balance the timing to see if you were above or behind your timing in life. How do you accomplish this?

            Take for instance, you had a target of owning an investment worth say, a hundred and fifty million naira before the age of forty, and you were twenty when you had this target, you should be able to workout your expected achievement at the end of each year or two years as you wish, so that before the end of that particular period you have a pre-knowledge of your set target, which will enable you to evaluate and access your achievement for each year.

            This is exactly what I call checking and balancing your planned time. Lets say you have the target we mentioned above, and you have sat down and worked out your minimal annual achievement to meet up this target, and it requires that your savings at the end of the third year from the time you had this target should be a million naira and above, and at the end of the sixth year, you should own at least two plots of land with a savings increase of six million naira.

            If at the end of the third year, you weren’t able to save up to a million naira, and at the end of the sixth year, you were also not able to buy a plot of land plus an additional savings increase of six million naira, you should know that your planned time is not balanced. Therefore, in order for you to meet your target, you have to do extra work than usual in the preceding years, and you need to have a backup plan, to ensure you get there.

            This is one of the reasons most people don’t achieve their life goals; they fail to check balance their timing.

            Failure to time your plans in life, might lead to failure because you will not be able to examine your progress and achievement, and before you know it, it hits you by surprise. This is also the reason we have so many children inheriting poverty and suffering in Nigeria today, simply because their parents failed to time themselves.

How To Create & Keep Wealth by: Nwiro Ngozika

              Most parents fail to time themselves while growing up to be adults, in regards to the age they wish to get married, the things they need to achieve before getting married and the number of children they wish to give birth to avoid poor parenting and welfare of their children, the type of education they need to give the children to prepare them for the future, etc.

            Failure to plan this, has led to several unwanted babies, unplanned marriages, early marriages and poverty driven homes in Nigeria. You will see somebody who is plying Okada with an idle wife or someone with an income less than five hundred naira a day, getting married and reproducing children like pig, in this situation, how will you blame the government for increase in poverty when people refuse to use their number six.

            In summary, whatever you do in life, please do not forget to time yourself, time matters in life, and it waits for no body, whether rich or poor.

Being Financially Wise Helps

Discussion 1- Say no to waste:

            Waste propagates poverty, and it is the greatest enemy of financial prosperity. Wasteful people always find it difficult to rise to the top. Christ also taught us not to be wasteful in life, when he fed five thousand men at a gathering, and after everyone was satisfied, he ordered his disciples to gather the remaining food in a basket, Mathew 14:20 “Everyone ate and had enough. Then the disciples took up twelve baskets full of what was left over.”

            If it were today, those left over would have been thrown away, but Christ taught his disciples to be conservative with things, a life we all must emulate if we must succeed in our struggle for financial freedom.

            You cannot claim to be financially wise, when you are good in wasting resources and money. Even in companies, they are always conscious of waste, in fact every company’s struggle is to produce more with minimal resources, which means to cut down waste.

            If you do not need a suit, why buy one just to impress people who care less about you? I quote one philosopher saying, “the problem with most people in life is that they buy things they don’t need with money they don’t have, to impress people they don’t even like”. Some people have formed the habit of doing things they never wished to do, just to impress others. I have a friend, he works with a bank, and as you know, bank work involves working almost 12 hours in a day, so he never had much time to do some things.

            It now happened that a young pretty female student just moved in, just a room before his, so he thought of how to impress this girl, he went and installed a Digital Satellite television, bought a plasma television set, and added more suits to his wardrobe. One Sunday afternoon, I visited him in his apartment, and I became amazed, so I thought may be he won a prize at his work place or that he got promotion.

            So I asked, he replied, “one pretty student just moved into the next room, men, I have no option than to impress that chic, in fact I want her to start falling for me, even without asking her out.” So I asked him, “How?” “You know you are old school, she will think I am a very rich guy, plus the fact that I am a banker, you know Nigerian girls love money” “and what are your plans on the monthly subscription charges, you know it is too expensive for your salary?” “Men I don’t care, as long as I will have that girl, what’s money for, is it not for spending?” “but this doesn’t make sense, stop spending money like that, if the girl will like you, nothing will stop that, and all these you are doing might not even turn her on anyway, I know some girls, its better you learn to save than to squander money!”

How To Create & Keep Wealth by: Nwiro Ngozika

              “how much will I save from this chicken salary, of course I will be promoted soon, then I can start saving for a house, a car and may be marriage” “I have told you, learn to save, that’s my word, there is no job security in this country, especially in this your field, anything can happen” “don’t tell me you are praying for me to be fired?” “No! I am only advising you as a good friend, even though you are working, you can still own your own business” “you seem to forget that I am a banker, we don’t have time. What I should be thinking about now is how to upgrade myself to ensure I am promoted soon, and not business.” “You are asking of a business you can start, why not start the supply of suits to your colleagues at the office, I have somebody who is into that, and I bet you, he is making it pretty good!”

            My friend couldn’t take my advice, in fact, he started hiding things from me, because he thought I didn’t want him to enjoy life, and he always saw me as old school, so I learnt to be an observer.

            Not quiet long that the global economy melt down occurred, he was among those enlisted for retrenchment, and he did not save up to a hundred thousand naira, his Digital satellite television subscription got expired, no money to subscribe, those numerous suits he bought became obsolete, no money to replace them and no one to buy them either, and he doesn’t enjoy wearing them again, and now he is asking me the kind of business he can start.

            Living above your income is a serious crime to becoming wealthy in life. If you must be rich, you must learn to live below your income, I do not advice you to even live within your income, it is better and safer to live below your income, if you desire to be rich in life.

How To Create & Keep Wealth by: Nwiro Ngozika

              To me, waste is anything you do that doesn’t add a financial value to your life or one that does not solve your basic needs. For example, buying six pairs of shoes that cost more than eight thousand naira, when you can comfortably make use of just two, is real bullshit and waste. Why buy a car, when you do not need a car other than to impress the opposite sex, and may be neighbors? All these are waste.

            Because you want people to believe that you are rich, you went and organize a multi-million naira wedding ceremony, and after that, you and your family go starving, what sort of rubbish is that? Or because you want to impress your wife, you went and borrow money to celebrate your child’s birthday, and after the birthday, you start life afresh, does it worth doing at all? Ask yourself the question.

            I have seen people borrow money, just to celebrate the Christmas, and after Christmas, they start starving, start running around for their children’s school fees and all of that. I know for sure that we are not perfect, but we can do our best to minimize waste in our lives, and manage it more efficiently, it has to do with practice and use of our self-control mind, it is a gift naturally given to every human, don’t ignore it.

The major causes of waste in our lives can be classified under these headings:

- Self gratification

- Greed and envy

- Fake life

- Habit

Note: Nigeria was used as a case study; most of the ideas written here can equally be applied in other countries, especially in developing nations.

 For currency conversion purposes, $1 = one hundred and fifty Nigerian currency (naira, as at December 1, 2010.).