Hello,

If you are reading this, then congratulations – you made it into 2010.

People seem to have the misconception that only a select few are able to unleash a steady flow of creative genius. Some even think one must attain a certain status in society before one can create an impact. That is not true at all. The fact is, creativity is very much like a muscle that needs to be exercised in order to consistently give out great results. If you don’t practice harnessing creative thinking, this skill will very much atrophy into inexistence. But keep working and this skill will soon come to you in a snap.

So how do you unleash your creative thinking? Well, the first thing is to become a human leech. No, we’re not talking about just sucking the blood out of every living being available. I’m saying that you should take in as much knowledge and learning you can find. Read everything available – good and bad, and keep your mind open to the infinite possibilities of the universe. The more you know, the more you’ll want to have, and the more your faculty of wonder will be exercised. Prepare to be amazed at little facts that add a bit of colour into your life.

Focus on a creative activity everyday. Yes, it’s an effort. Even doodling is a creative activity. Don’t let anything hinder you. Mindlessness may be a creative activity, but for people who are just starting out to unleash a little bit of creative thinking in their lives, it is helpful and encouraging to have concrete evidence, that, hey, what I’m doing is getting somewhere. So, why don’t you try it. Practice drawing for a couple of minutes each day. Bring out your old camera and start snapping photos like crazy. Keep a journal and make a point to write in it religiously. Another cool idea is to write by describing something with your five senses. Try to avoid vague adjectives like “marvelous”, “amazing” and “delicious”. Before you know it, you’ll have built yourself a tiny portfolio, and you’ll be amazed at the growth you’ve undertaken after amassing all those works of art. Who knows, you might actually take to liking those things you do everyday. Pretty soon those things will become a part of you and you’ll be addicted to these creative exercises.

Think out of the box – or don’t. Sometimes, constraints are actually a good thing. Limitations discipline you to work within your means. It enables you to be more resourceful. Creative freedom is great, but limitations enforce discipline.

Try something new everyday and let your experiences broaden your perspective. Explore a new area in your neighbourhood. Spend an afternoon in a museum you’ve not been before. Chat up someone on the bus. Opwn up to people around you. As you thrust yourself out of your comfort zone more and more each day, your sense of adventure grows and so does your zest of life. Think about it. When was the last time you did something for the first time? If it’s been a while, I tell you, you’ve been missing out on a whole lot of experiences that could’ve added to your growth, emotionally, mentally, physically or spiritually. Why don’t you try bungee jumping today? Not only will you learn, but you will also have plenty of stories to share, enabling you to practice your storytelling skills and making you the life of the party.

Embrace insanity. No, not to the point of practically admitting yourself into the mental ward. As John Russell once said:

Sanity calms, but madness is more interesting

Exactly! Every creative thought was once deemed insanity by other normal people at one time or another. Luckily, that didn’t stop the creative geniuses from standing by them. Creativity is essentially breaking through the barriers. Yes, this includes the bizarre and the downright strange. I’m not saying that you yourself should develop a creative personality that might go haywire. An example of such personality would be George Washington, who often rode into battle naked, or Albert Einstein, who thought his cat was a spy sent by his rival. It’s important that your creativity doesn’t get you detached from the real world completely. Of course, in simple terms, too much of anything is wrong.

I hope you are inspired to start thinking beyond your limits. If you take action, you’ll soon be living a life full of interesting adventures. Unleash your creative thinking this year and see life unfold.

Happy 2010 – My Year of IMPACT

Have you ever seen such a sign post as shown above as you drive on the highways of Lagos, Abuja, Port Harcourt, Accra, Johannesburg, Washington DC, Los Angeles, San Francisco, New York, Birmingham, Liverpool, Manchester, Paris or wherever in the world you may be? I doubt. However, it is interesting to note that in the journey of life, such sign post comes up every now and then. Here’s one sign post just coming up your screen:

I want to reveal a secret to you, please relax. You have already gotten to open this post, so you are ahead of a long line of people who wait a little longer to read. I’m going to share my heart with you. I hope you’ll read me with your heart as well.

Once our hearts believe, our heads can easily follow

I’ll also ask for your permission on a few things. If you can oblige me those things, this post and the mail you are about to read, will make a real difference in your life this year! Here are my few requests:

1. Before you continue reading, make up you mind to empty yourself of all prejudices and pre-conceived notions about referral based businesses. It might be tough I know, but your pre-conceived positions will limit you. Trust me. Read objectively, and look with fresh eyes.

“The uneducated in the 21st century is not one who can’t read and write, it’s one who can’t learn, unlearn and relearn” – Dr. Tunde Bakare

2. Don’t jump to the bottom, try and read this line by line and with an open mind.

3. Make your decision within 24hrs and take action. What you are reading will not be useful to you otherwise. Believe me though that it will make a difference if you consciously and delibrately make a positive move.

This are all that I require you to have in mind as you read further.

It’s one thing to read about something, it’s another thing to know it, and it’s yet another thing to practice what you read and know. I had known that there were broadly two types of people when it comes to difficult problems: the ones that walk away, and the ones that stay unreasonably to solve the problem. Where do you belong?

For a year, I refused to participate in a business opportunity that is currently transforming my life! Why did I refuse? I refused because I thought I had gotten enough of referral based businesses (Network Marketing, Direct Selling, Multilevel Marketing, Affiliate Marketing e.t.c.) and I simply had quietly decided to walk away, especially from the ones that needed “heavy cash” to join. I had made a few losses and some over exaggerated successes, but I didn’t feel good with the fact that a lot of people came out of those ventures as outright losers. I care more for value, a good name and great friends, than I could ever care for money – and these businesses were just not making it happen for me. I walked away from this opportunity for about 12 months.Thank God for the insistence of my business mentor, Solomon James.

After a long while, I decided to ask myself a fundamental question. I decided to ask for support to practically answer these questions by the company. The answers to these questions, and the position I could take made me take action. I’m hoping you see them as well.

What is the problem of referral based businesses, and can they be solved?

Problem1: The owners of the companies often times are not credible, they stay invisible, they don’t come to Nigeria, have no local registration in Nigeria and might one day just shut down their systems and dissappear into thin air.

Solution: Can we ensure that the leaders of the company are known to a lot of Nigerians? Can we ensure that they come to Nigeria? Can we ensure the companies are locally registered in Nigeria and allow Nigerians to part own the company? Can we ensure the involvement of a local credible entrepreneur like Prof Pat Utomi as the Chairman of the Nigerian company? Can we ensure that Nigerians meet all the board members and that the Chairman also meets all the foreigners?

Status: 100% Done. Agreements were concluded with Chairman in August 2009 in Mauritius and today, Prof. Pat Utomi, a revered entrepreneur is the Chairman of Holidays and Cash, Nigeria.

Problem2: Usually these companies sell products that are of no value to Nigerians. Nigerians participate only because of the financial possibilities from referring others. People end up feeling scammed when they buy products they don’t intend to use, and refuse to market to make the money they planned to make.

Solution: Can we ensure that there are many options of products? Can we ensure that once you buy a particular product you get amazing discounts on the rest? Can we ensure that people can get laptops for as low as N29,000 and get it bundled with other great products? Can we get people an opportunity to develop themselves with e-books worth $3000 as an add on? Can people buy landed property at discounted prices and still earn from referring others to any of the products? Can people buy personal branding kits? Attend special trainings as product offers? Use their privilege packs to book local flights at ridiculous prices? Save up to $800 on just hotel bills for one international trip from a pack that costs less than 1/3 of the savings? Can we make this like a real online market with a baseline of refer and profit?

Status: 101% Done. And much more to come… inverters, cameras, e.t.c.

Problem 3: These companies or “schemes” as many see them look easy before you start, but they end up being too much work. It’s as if you should never stop, ‘cos once you stop, you do not earn anymore. The boards keep splitting and you have to keep running around and “getting people”. They have absolutely no passive income potential, and it’s difficult to predict what you need to do before you earn. The bad part is once you have gotten so many people, they split so far away from you, that it doesn’t even pay you to help them.

Solution: Is it possible to have a model that actually has the possibility of generating passive income so that this doesn’t become another JOB and slave camp? Is it possible to predict exactly what needs to be done to get results? Is it possible to get results without depending on other people, just on one’s own efforts? Is it possible to help people, hear thank you and still directly help yourself? Is it possible to earn even when the person you are helping is 2000 generations and 5yrs away from you?

Status: 100% Done and Yes to all questions!

The company is far from where it was when I joined, it will be far from where it is today if you join and come in with other brilliant ideas. Without you, we have built this business into having over 6,000 Nigerians on board with people earning in dollars weekly including me. I earned $161 in my first 3 days of joining. Many of our members are also joining in Nation building initiatives – in Education, in the Power Sector, in Electoral Reforms and even in Politics. You know why it’s easy for us? Because we are free! We are not free as we want to be yet, but we determine our own timetables.

The words of William Wallace (modified) echoes in our spirits –

“You came to fight as free men, free men you are! Run, and you will live. At least a while. But years from now, you will die, in your beds on the roads, anywhere! Are you willing to stake all the days from now till then for one chance, just one chance to stand here and tell our enemies that they may take our time (5am to 10pm every weekday) and our current choices (determine were we live, when we break, when we take our vacation) but they will never take away our Freeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeedom!

So, friend, I ask you again: Are You Interested in Financial Freedom?

If your answer is YES, then Congratulations. All you need to do is CLICK HERE and read the information package I have provided. Once you are ready to make your purchase, click on the BUY NOW button. After then, you can fill your details to be registered for the business opportunity. You can call me to guide you every step of the way – +2348068941578.

Ekpo Ekpo

www.holidaysandcash.com/glorioussolutions

P.S.S:

This is a win-win opportunity and you can’t lose – except of course you ignore this message. Remember, if you always DO what you have always DONE, you’ll always succeed in getting exactly what you’ve always GOT! Also, don’t wait till your friends tell you, be a first.

I have been sitting on my system throughout the night working on this piece. Hmmm, I know I promised to send this as a dinner package yesterday, but for an unanticipated problem. I returned unexpectedly late from a training I am involved in and was quite apprehensive to make good my dinner promise. However, trust one of our major problems in Nigeria – Power Holding (nna, dem dey hold de power, no be small). Well, thank God I have a solution to that wahala – “I beta pass my neighbour” generator. Unfortunately, after switching it on, it appeared not to supply power. I was like, emmmm, dumb-founded. What kind of problem is this one, na? But you see, every problem has a solution and in fact, a solution-provider, who can be a total stranger. I learnt a great lesson yesterday. Wanna hear it?

Okay, since I’m already ranting in this direction, let me finish it. After closing very late at our training workshop yesterday, a fellow tutor was kind-of stranded. Couldn’t possibly get back to his base in the heart of Port Harcourt city that night, not the safest thing to do, u know (before dem kidnap am). So, I took him in to spend the night at my place. That’s the “solution-in-disguise” that God gave me last night, for due to a previous experience he’d a couple of months back, he started tracing the line and we finally discovered that there’d been a break in transmission somewhere. Left to me, I wouldn’t have bothered till this morning. That’s how I finally got some power to commence this work about 1am this morning. So, while I provided a shelter solution for my friend, he provided a much-needed solution of the hour. Thanks a million Lee. (By the way, till now, dem never bring light)

Now that brings me to Number 2 Key Area I want us to address. It’s what I call “The Foundation of Problems” – Your Education. By education, I am not referring to schooling. Far from it. In fact, I personally believe that in our Nigeria today, 99.9% of our children and youths are simply going to school; we are not getting educated at all. Quote me anywhere. I’ll get to explain that in the coming days. Just keep this in mind.

Education Vs Schooling

Now, I’m sure I don’t need to tell you how important the foundation of any building is. If you are able to follow the construction of a building from Ground Zero Up, you will discover that the bulk of the expenditure is spent on the FOUNDATION. In fact, the Holy Bible in Luke Chapter 6 Verses 48 & 49 gives us a beautiful parable on the importance of the foundation Read it here: http://bibleresources.bible.com/passagesearchresults.php?passage1=luke+6&version1=51

One man built his house without a foundation while the other set his foundation on solid rock. Confronted with the same situation and circumstances, the difference was clear (7Up). It’s simple, everything else that comes above it rests on the foundation. In physics, we would say that the foundation constantly undergoes tensile stresses + strains and the very day it can no longer withstand these, you don’t need to guess what happens.

Such is the importance of your education. Unfortunately today, our school system is in shambles; the so-called teachers, lecturers, tutors, professors etc etc. have chosen to convert a lifelong life-changing, younger-generation-impacting experience to a mere business and exploitation opportunity. Hardly do you find people who are really interesting in handing over the baton to a generation that they’ve raised with the highest moral standards and skills. No Sir! Our case is worse than what Robert Kiyosaki’s Rich Dad said, “Son, go to school, get good grades and get a job”. Ours is like this, “Son, go to school, make sure you graduate anyhow anyhow (by whatever means) and get that certificate”. Steven Muller said, “Universities are turning out highly skilled barbarians because we don’t provide a framework of values to young people, who more and more are searching for it”. That is the bane of our wahala.

Remember my friend Lee? Good! Lee was able to solve my power problem because he had a good education in that; no, he didn’t read Electrical/Electronics Engineering, neither is he a graduate of Mechanical Engineering; he simply had acquired knowledge from a past experience and applied that knowledge in a present situation. That is true education.

I can go on and on. But let me stop here. This and many more issues bothering our education will be discussed and ironed out right here in this centre; and together folks, we will find a lasting solution to this menace. Beginning to see the larger picture? Stay connected!

GLORIOUS