Tag: Investing

Don’t Let Them Brainwash You

People always use the words “manipulate” and “brainwashing” in negative ways.

But it’s so wrong.

Of course, I’m not trying to argue with y’all, but let me tell you a story.

You see, 2 years ago I got an offer to work with a top 5 Nigerian bank.

I was just done with NYSC 3 months before, recently moved to Lagos, the selection process was crazy but I’d scaled through quite easily.

Didn’t have a background in traditional finance but I planned to do an MBA within 2 years.

Everything was perfect, or at least I thought so. And it looked like my stars had aligned.

But there was a small issue.

You see, just before that job offer came in, I’d been teaching Spanish on the side as a way to get by while waiting for a job.

The first client I had suggested I get a job in sales.

He’s a big time sales manager in one of the biggest wine distribution businesses in Nigeria.

I won’t say I really understood because everything I knew about sales, especially in corporate Nigeria was those bankers with wornout shoes walking under the sun begging people to come bank with them.

Didn’t sound appealing at all.

Just at the beginning of October, my client had to cancel because it was the start of the ember months and it was the season for serious business.

I was in a rut.

My only source of income at the time and I didn’t have a place of my own – I was sleeping around Lagos like an ashewo, fam 😁

As fortune would have it, I stumbled on this tweet.

I said as fortune would have it because my notifications were turned on for Toyin Omotoso.

I jumped on it and he replied, I asked to DM and we booked a date for the first meeting.

Subsequently,  we agreed on 2-3 sessions every week for 2 hours per session.

I’d leave my friends house at Satellite Town on those days we agreed on by 10-11am in order to beat traffic for 4 o’clock meetings in Lekki.

Omo😆

Now, this is where it gets iffy.

You see, something crazy happened during those meetings.

After I was done teaching Toyin Omotoso Spanish, we’d start talking about stuff in general and next thing he’d start talking about sales and marketing, direct response,  copywriting and lots of stuff.

I had no idea I was being brainwashed – in a good way 😆

Because when the job offer from the bank came in, I was in a bus at CMS when my phone buzzed that afternoon, I wasn’t so sure I wanted it anymore.

After our class that day, I told him I’d gotten a job and he was happy for me, congratulated me and all.

But then I told him I wasn’t sure about the job anymore. 🤔

I said I wasn’t sure if it was what I wanted out of life.

He told me to go take the job, and if I didn’t like it, I could leave.

Mind you, there wasn’t any job offer on the table from him.

But that was all I needed to hear to validate my feelings.

After the first day of work, while in the bus on my way back home, I kept asking myself:

“Is this what I’d be doing for the next 2 years? Living like this?”

It was around 11pm when I got to my street, I took out my phone and called 2 people: my good friend KCee who I always bounce ideas off and my mother.

My mother said 12 of the most shocking words I’ve ever heard:

“Whatever you decide to do is fine by me. I support you.”

It felt like a strange load had been lifted from my shoulders.

Made me wish I had dropped out from uni when I wanted to.

Never did because of her.

I knew it would break her heart so I just stayed on.

So this was crazy!

When the girl I used to ride the bus with called me the next day as she didn’t see me around, I made up some flimsy excuse.

I never went back.

I quit after one day.

I went back to teaching Toyin Omotoso Spanish and after each session he took my brainwashing and manipulation programming up a notch.

He’d print out tons of sales letters and give them to me to copy out by hand over the weekend and show it to him at our next meeting.

He’d give me books on sales, marketing and direct response to read.

The stories I was hearing then.

People running direct response campaigns and making millions.

Someone making one million Naira in a day.

From words.

As in the ABC?

You have no idea how things like this rewire your mind & recalibrate your brain.

But fam I kid you not, at some point it felt like pouring water on stone because I was a complete rookie.

I didn’t understand zilch. Nothing. Nada.

Big headed olodo 😑

This week makes it 2 years since then.

The internship program ends in October and the girl I used to ride the bus to work with sent me this message weeks ago.

Did I make the right decision?

Lol, yes I did.

Because hunger wire me like thief between December and January 2020. 😭

But roughly 3 months after I turned that job down, I got an offer to be an apprentice copywriter under Toyin Omotoso’s tutelage.

Now, I’m currently the Digital Content Manager, Chief copywriter and content creator at Expertnaire.

2 years later, I’m in the sphere of Copywriters who are good enough to charge $5,000 per pop.

But job titles, money and growth aside, I’ve had a more peaceful and fulfilled life.

I’ve grown like weeds, my guy.

There’s something CJ Johnson always says on Twitter:

Keep reading those books and listening to podcasts and brainwashing yourself.

I want to add keep taking risks, betting on yourself, manipulating your mind and brainwashing yourself.

Like the title of this article says: Don’t Let Them Brainwash You, instead do the brainwashing yourself.

It’s worth it.

– Uche

PS: If you’d like to be brainwashed too, then you should read this 👇🏿

https://tinyurl.com/f55p2rwy

Why You Shouldn’t Pay Anyone For Mentoring, Teaching or Guidance.

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.

Gratitude Journal: 2021, Part 1

It just clocked in my mind this morning that within the last 4 months I’ve written copy for 2 projects that have grossed close to 1 million Naira each.

That’s over $4,000.

One of them with ZERO ad spend.

Yes, you heard me, ZERO.

I know it might not be much. I know 😁

But one of the guys in I & my partner’s E-Commerce Mastermind group sent me a message that he did 700k last month.

Then he told me he’d been doing Affiliate Marketing since November and hadn’t made a single sale yet.

Shared a couple of ideas with him, and within a couple of hours, he made his first sale.

Lol, see how happy he was 😆

And that’s aside people in my small community that I’ve taught things that helped them increase their income.

Some of them made their first dollar online.

All these within the last 4 months.

I’m not trying to brag.

But around this same time 3 years ago I was a broke and frustrated Engineering graduate working at a Bet9ja shop on a 10k/month salary and struggling to make ends meet.

Then I quit & started teaching Spanish.

And now I’m in sales and marketing.

Lol, it’s been a crazy journey so far, crazy, crazy, crazy!

But I’m glad I listened to my first Spanish client, Tope Sanni who told me to get a job in sales and marketing.

I’m forever grateful for the opportunity 🙌🏿

I’m also glad I listened to my instincts and turned down that bank job in 2019.

I’m also forever grateful to Toyin Omotoso for taking a chance on me when he didn’t have to 🙌🏿

He sent out a glowing recommendation of me to his list last week.

Could never ask for a better mentor.

Thanks to Godwin Woha, the first ever mentor I had.

He read a questionnaire I filled, told me I waxed lyrical and advised I take my writing seriously.

Thanks to HillCity too for the opportunity to meet him asides other opportunities.

Thanks to my partner in crime too Emmanuel Adiotu.

Thanks for pushing me, man 🙌🏿

I almost forgot Duolingo. Lol.

I haven’t even been practising my Spanish for a long time now.

But I’m dedicating at least 15 minutes every day for the rest of the year.

Because they helped unlock most of these opportunities I have today.

I have no idea why I’m up this morning counting my blessings.

But maybe it’s because today is the last day of the first half of this year.

And 2021 has been so good to me so far.

Thanks to God mehnnn.

Let’s do more for the rest of the year.

A Business Lesson From That Night In Porto.

If there’s one money lesson I’ve learned, but I had to be reminded of again from Chelsea winning the Champions League it is to by all means avoid sunk cost fallacy.

Sunk cost is the misconception that you need to pump more money or time into a bad investment and ‘force’ it to become profitable, or else all the time and money you already invested would have been for nothing.

People spend more time at a job that doesn’t fulfil them because they feel if they put in more time then it’d get better.

People stay in a relationship that drains them hoping their partners will change if they could just show them a little more love.

It’s a fallacy!

In reality, you end up wasting the new investment as well. No upside.

There are two important rules of business, knowing when to get in and when to get out. Of the two, knowing when to get out is the most important.” – Hymie Levy (The Power Of One)

I’m a stickler for determination and holding on, but whether in a relationship or business, sometimes it’s better to end it. At least for your mental health.

Not everything will work even with consistency.

Sometimes an idea might not be saleable or the market might not like or want your product or it can’t just work.

What many people do is they try to force it into working because they’ve either spent too much time or money on it.

But that’s hustling backwards.

I understand the motivational industry tells you to keep trying. But sometimes the best solution is to walk away & cut your losses.

Sometimes, the best solution is to pivot, re-strategize and come back from a different angle.

We have so many companies, musicians, artists who started with a particular product idea or concept & when it wasn’t working they had to go back to the drawing board & rebrand.

Or sometimes even change direction entirely.

There’s no shame in that.

You don’t have money & time to waste.

You shouldn’t be flogging a dead horse.

This is what Roman Abramovich proved when he sacked Frank Lampard despite his status as a club legend and replaced him with Thomas Tuchel.

Business and sentiments are like oil and water, they don’t mix well.

Know this and know peace.

If You’ve Been Wondering About What Happened To GameStop And On The US Stock Exchange A Few Weeks Ago, Then This Is The Simplest Explanation You Can Find Anywhere.

To start with, there’s a community called WallStreetBets on Reddit (a forum like Nairaland).

And the common discussion on WallStreetBets is financial investments and the stock market.

So, a group of users managed to find out a hedge fund called Melvin Capital had taken a substantial short position in GameStop (a gaming company).

But what’s a hedge fund?

A hedge fund is simply a group of people polling their funds together and letting an investment manager manage this money by using it to invest in different ways or categories.

And what’s a short position?

A short position is simply predicting the price of a company’s stock would go down.

Say the current price of rice is N25,000 and I believe it will go down to N12,000 in a few weeks. Maybe because I have some information about the harvest season or inside information from the Ministry of Agriculture or whatever.

But then I don’t even have a single bag of rice. So, what do I do?

I go to my friend Chinedu and ‘borrow’ his bag of rice on credit. I sell it for N25,000 and hope to buy it back in a few weeks when it goes down to N12,000 or less and return it to Chinedu.

Now the upside of taking a short position is limited, but the downside? Infinitely limitless.

And what does that mean?

Let’s say supposing the bag of rice doesn’t go down to as much as N12,000, I still make a profit (N25,000 minus whatever I sell it for). If it goes below N12,000, I simply make more.

But what if the price never goes down and instead keeps going up?

What if the bag of rice becomes N30,000? Buying the bag of rice and returning to Chinedu will cost me a loss of N5,000.

What if it becomes N32,000 or N45,000 or even N50,000 or N75,000?

I’m bleeding heavily from the losses at this point.

Now, conventional wisdom will advise I hold on and wait for the price to go down. But what happens when Chinedu wants his bag of rice?

The few weeks I promised him is up already and I’m supposed to return it. Or maybe he hears about the increase and decides to cash in by selling. Or maybe his wife and children are hungry and he needs his bag of rice to feed them.

What do I do?

It’s none of Chinedu’s business. I just have to find a way to return his bag of rice however I deem fit.

This is exactly what happened to Melvin Capital.

Because GameStop stocks had been falling for quite some time, they were betting on the idea the stocks would keep going down.

Knowing this, retail traders from WallStreetBets piled into the stock.

And the result was simple. As usual, when lots of people are buying into a particular stock, the prices go up.

In this instance, the stock prices would go up causing Melvin Capital to lose their money and the traders to gain. But that’s not where it even ends.

A short squeeze will also happen.

This is when those who bet against the stock are forced to buy back into their positions to avoid losing more money. And what then happens? The stock’s price keeps rising like yeast 😁

At this point, the guys on WallStreetBets are turning thousands of dollars to millions.

Whereas Melvin Capital will go on to lose their initial short position of $55 million and still incur more losses of up to $2 billion before being bailed out by another hedge fund.

Spectacular something I tell you!

This is the point where Chinedu reports me to his DPO friend at Maroko Police Station and I’m forced to sell my car just to return his bag of rice.

Another spectacular something! 😁

Well, the truth is shorting despite how many billionaires it has made is crazily risky. Simply because it has a limited upside but an infinite bottomless downside. And everyone hopes the price of the stocks they’ve bought will keep going up, but there are a couple of reasons why you might decide to take a short position.

It could be intuition. Or it could be inside information. Or it could be forecasting based on management or product rollout or government policies. Or just plain old prediction. There’s a lot of reasons. But it’s crazily risky.

GameStop went from around $3 in early 2020 to over $300 a few weeks ago. It’s now trading at around $50. A crazy rise and fall.

So, be careful out there, kids.

Why This Is The Wrong Time To Buy Crypto.

On the 5th of February, the Central Bank of Nigeria sent out a circular banning the buying and selling of cryptocurrency.

I’m supposed to tell you all the reasons why you shouldn’t buy crypto or why you should sell if you have any, but I won’t.

Instead, I’ll tell you where crypto is at, and then the ultimate decision lies with you.

Here we go.

1. Cryptocurrency is gaining so much acceptance around the world right now.

Aside from Elon Musk, the richest man in the world, constantly tweeting in support of it, many people and institutions are in love with crypto right now.

2 days ago, the largest payment network in the world, Visa, with over 40M merchants on their platform partnered with Anchorage to enable customers to buy and trade crypto more easily.

Coinbase is also offering cards to their customers.

This means customers can spend directly from their Coinbase accounts without needing to move funds to and from their bank accounts.

Coinbase cards will also available in a virtual card format. Meaning you don’t even need to have a physical card.

Add this too:

And this:

And this too

2. The cryptocurrency market in Nigeria is so massive right now.

Someone reported that the value of BTC/NGN trades on Binance today was worth N13.4bn. That’s more than the volume of trade on the Nigerian Stock Exchange at N5.6bn. Binance is just one exchange platform.

Plus, Nigeria has the second-highest peer to peer crypto transaction volume in the whole world. In a way, whatever happens in the Nigeria cryptocurrency market will likely affect the wider crypto world.

And with the recent ban, market psychology and basic laws of demand and supply predict many people will panic and sell. Which means prices will likely drop. Which means you can buy more crypto at cheaper prices.

Plus, whether you like it or not, this present government won’t be here forever.

Looking at crypto’s rise over the years, how do you tell your children in future about how you chickened out because they government banned crypto?

Imagine selling your Bitcoin and then maybe it hits $50,000 or $100,000+.

So, if you can manage to, hold on to your crypto like your pastor advises you to hold on to Jesus.

On the other hand, if history is anything to go by, then cryptos are about to have a spectacular rise.

Why?

Because any time the government or a governing body places a ban on something or calls something taboo, people end up getting more of said thing. Think about drugs, porn, alcohol, weed, sex etc.

On one hand, it’s human curiosity.

On the other hand, just like Eve in the Garden of Eden, we are all drawn to things we shouldn’t be drawn to.

But don’t forget this isn’t financial advice. It’s just my opinion 😁