Paying for mentoring and guidance is like paying for a fresh pair of eyes and an extra brain.

But it’s not always an extra brain because the person you’re paying has accumulated a couple of brains to theirs already.

Yesterday, a stock recommendation I paid for made $35 in one day.

In one day.

Bring out your calculator and punch – times by 520.

That’s over N18,000.

In. One. Day.

This year alone, I’ve bought the 72IG Implementation Program for 2 people (almost 100k).

I also paid for Motley Fool’s 1-year sub for $99.

I just bought a program about webinars.

I know how to do webinars.

I’ve collected 250k from appearing for less than 2 hours on a webinar.

But I feel there’s a lot of room for improvement.

And I just paid for it.

One of my favourite Twitter accounts dropped a link to their book & I whipped out my card to get it immediately.

I randomly bought an e-book from one of my students weeks ago.

It wasn’t because I needed it per se.

Rather it was because I was impressed by what she was doing and wanted to encourage her to keep going.

I can’t get a Masterclass sub at the moment because my schedule is too tight & it’d be foolish adding more stuff.

Not because I can’t afford to.

The reason I haven’t paid for my Toastmasters annual sub is that we moved from physical meetings to online because of COVID-19.

And I’m not a big fan of watching screens because of my eyes.

It’s why I struggle with watching movies nowadays.

Plus, I miss most of the online meetings because of my sleeping schedule.

I might put together over 800k for Errol Gerson’s live coaching program.

Looks like it’s worth it.

But it wasn’t always like this.

There was a time I couldn’t afford any of these things.

Make I no even talk go far sef.

2 years ago, I couldn’t.

So, what changed?

I spent my entire NYSC year reading at least 2 hours every day (I don’t even read as much nowadays).

I ended up reading 60 books before the end of NYSC.

I spent the next 1-year writing articles every Sunday on a free WordPress blog.

For 52 straight weeks, I wrote at least 1 article per week and published it.

It didn’t matter if it was garbage or didn’t make much sense, I published it.

During this time, I would wake up by 3 am daily, read for at least one hour, then copy out a sales letter by hand.

I’d do this before going to work every day.

I still write letters out by hand every morning before going to work.

I did this morning too.

That’s aside from the voluminous sales & marketing materials I kept going through – some I didn’t even understand at the time.

I still do – some I don’t even understand.

I was also practising Spanish for at least 15 minutes a day.

Most of these things were free.

Maybe all of them.

The only thing it was going to cost me was data, time & attention.

I didn’t have money, but I had time.

And I had small money to pay for data.

That was all I had.

I’m saying this because most people start crying when they want to get something that might change their lives and they are told to pay.

They start asking why they can’t get it for free.

Or they complain about being ripped off.

Well, the truth is most of what you need to succeed is on the Internet for free already.

What it’s going to cost you is TIME & ATTENTION.

But the truth is you’re not ready to suffer.

You’re not ready to sweat.

You’re not ready to bleed.

You’re a baby boy or baby girl for life.

Go to YouTube.

Use Google.

Read Quora.

Read posts on Medium.

Go on Twitter and follow accounts that teach what you’re interested in.

Some of the stuff posted for free on Twitter are things you’ll learn for hundreds of thousands of dollars in Masterclasses.

Subscribe to free email subscriptions.

Get free books online.

Go to a library in your area.

Attend free seminars & conferences & webinars.

There are so many of them.

Is there a seminar in another city? Travel and go there.

The Queen of Sheba travelled from Ethiopia to Israel to see King Solomon.

She ended up getting premium dick, got pregnant for him and a successor to her throne.

Pregnant for a man who had 700 wives and 300 concubines but only 4 children – a master of the pullout game 😁

She changed the destiny of an entire nation.

My life changed from an Akin Alabi seminar I attended during NYSC.

I just sat there in the audience and told myself, “One day, I want to work with these guys I’m seeing on stage and I don’t know how, but it’s going to happen.”

Go to Church (your Pastor/Priest still has something to say).

Get a free WordPress blog.

Go to parties and socialize.

Comb through your emails.

There’s something in there.

Buy a notebook or diary and write.

Fuck that!

Write in your phone’s notes.

Someone I know wrote 150 songs in one year (2 songs every week) because they were trying to get better at songwriting.

But just know what’s most important in all of this is to TAKE ACTION with what you learn.

People have gone to work with Facebook, Apple and other big companies from skills they’ve acquired on YouTube.

All for FREE.

The data you use to scroll through Instagram every day, use it to read a post on Quora.

The time you spend looking at people’s WhatsApp status, use it to read a book (physical copy or on your phone) for 15 minutes.

Grab your PC and watch coding tutorials for only 30 minutes.

Practice what you’ve seen and watch your life change.

A friend I used to force during NYSC to code for just 30 minutes a day now works with a tech company.

And that’s aside from the other companies & side projects she regularly freelances on.

But if you feel you don’t want to waste time, then bring out your wallet or card and pay.

The only difference is you’ll spend most of your time sorting through some stuff that might be irrelevant.

But do it anyway.

After all, you don’t have money.

But you have time.

If you don’t want to pay, then do the work those people who are asking you to pay have done.

I remember a story about a woman who met Pablo Picasso in a cafe.

She walked up to him and asked him if he could draw her.

Sure, why not? He accepted.

In 10 minutes, he was done.

When she saw the drawing, she was so blown away by the sheer beauty of it.

She asked him how much.

He told her $10,000.

“What?????? It took you just 10 minutes,” she screamed.

“You’re not paying me for the 10 minutes it took me to make a drawing of you.”

“Rather, you’re paying me for the 20 years it took me to learn how to draw you within 10 minutes.”

When you pay, you don’t only pay for value at the moment.

You also pay for close association and experience.

You also pay for perspective.

My friend told me how he paid 50k for a seminar and learned just 2 things.

According to him, those 2 things were what changed his business.

Those 2 things helped him to scale his income from 1 million to over 10 million.

2 things he paid N50,000 for only.

Don’t go and tell someone who has paid for where they are today with blood, sweat & tears to mentor you for free.

Who are you exactly?

And why should they even listen to you?

Some of the stock picks I’ve seen on Motley Fool are even on my stock watchlist.

Yes, I’m that good 😁

But I’ve also seen some I never knew and have never heard of.

That’s the importance of paying for things.

Nigeria is hard already and we’re all trying to survive.

So don’t come and tell me the information I’m giving you is too expensive.

If you can’t afford it, go online and read and do your research.

I can’t even deny it.

I’m also lucky to have a mentor who gives me whatever helpful info he has which he believes will help me too.

Even when I don’t ask.

But one thing he keeps saying is, “Uche, I’m giving you all these materials because I know you’ll read them.”

My mentor drops millions of naira on courses and programs every year.

He never complains about any of them.

What he’ll tell you is no matter how bad it is, you’ll always learn at least one thing.

I also have a couple of people who pay for stuff and I get the opportunity to see them for free.

This means it’s also on me to use my time, energy & effort to get anything meaningful from these gifts.

As it’s on you too.

Use your kafa!

There’s nothing for free out there.

You either pay with money or time.

The videos you’re watching for free on YouTube, you’re aware YouTube is going to pay those guys, yeah? 😁

But it’s not me who paid for it though.

So, how about the hours you spent?

The data?

YouTube will pay them for being able to make you spend time watching their videos.

The sites you visit will get paid via Google’s ads placement program.

Don’t be foolish.

You’ll always pay for everything – one way or another.

I’ll end this by finally accepting to pay for my Toastmasters sub this year 😁

And just to add, I’ve lost money paying for information too.

The first time I paid for information was in my 1st or 2nd year at the University.

Some guy had a trick for beating sports betting companies on their virtual games.

It was around N4,000 or so.

And for someone who had it rough during university years, N4,000 was a lot of money.

I didn’t even know you needed a PC, and I didn’t have one.

I paid 100 euros for a project that never worked while in the university.

I borrowed money from my mother and paid 50 euros for something else that didn’t pan out while still in university.

Bought a guide on how to receive money from PayPal from Nigeria when I was hustling for a freelancing foreign transcriber position.

I no later use am.

We’ve put over half a million in a project that didn’t meet expectations.

I’ve got money stuck in places.

Maybe it’s the universe, I don’t know.

Just know you’re going to lose money while trying to make money too.

All the professional courses I did during NYSC look like I wasted money.

But I turned down a job from one of the top 5 fashion designing & styling houses in Nigeria, and another from a top 5 Nigerian bank.

But I probably wouldn’t have made it to those interviews if my CV didn’t make sense.

I’ve wasted time too.

Watched over 10 hours of weight loss videos in January because I was trying to develop a product.

Read a bunch of stuff too.

Ended up scrapping it because there was no big idea.

Do you know what I’m going to do by this time next year?

God willing, I’ll take what I know about the stock market, add it to what I’m learning from my paid sub, maybe collaborate with someone else and create a stock market product.

And then sell it to people.

And don’t ask me why I wouldn’t just teach people for free.

Last year, I was talking to a bunch of people about the stock market and they claimed they wanted to learn.

I went through the stress of putting together a Zoom class and guess how many people attended?

Zilch. Nada. None. Nobody.

I don’t care what you think.

But I hope this helps you.

Because that’s the way of the Shaolin.

– Uche

PS: The stock pick I mentioned earlier is Upstart Holdings.