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Reinventing Yourself After Covid-19 Lockdown

By
Oleghibe Moore Kingsley
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0

“It is your reaction to adversity, not the adversity itself that determines how your life story will develop.” Dieter F. Uchrdorf (A German aviator).

The Nigerian economy nay world economy would never be the same again. The advent of COVID-19 came so sudden and caught everyone napping and panicky. Even the world powers were very much unprepared as they thought it is another epidemic like the ones that came before it. African governments were busy waiting on the World Health Organization (WHO) for direction. In fact, people had rumoured that COVID-19 was a pandemic for the whites only and that; it does not kill the blacks. Before everyone realized it, it had crippled everything that binds us together and tore the economies into shreds. As at the time of writing this article, over 88,264 Africans have contracted COVID-19 with over 2,832 deaths recorded in the continent (source: africannews.com).

Businesses in all sectors of the economy have stymied and moldered to a state of inactivity and redundancy. Most companies furloughed – placing staff on temporary suspension; and some employees have already been disengaged. Inflation is hitting the north and prices of goods and services are following the same direction. Every country’s central bank world-over is struggling to keep the economy and prices of goods and services stable or at par. Devaluation of our currency is on a free fall as measures put up by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to stabilize the naira against its counterparts in the foreign exchange market are not yielding any results, at least for now. And the continuous dependent on government handouts and palliatives are nothing but a flash in the pan- temporary and fugacious. Government, particularly our type, does not have the muscle to carry the “don’t-have” and cater for their needs much more than the teeming Nigerian youth who account for more than 60% of our population. So, there is a need for you to reinvent yourself. Take charge and be responsible for your life. 

Man must survive after all and that is the first law of nature. And to survive means one must engage in legitimate means of livelihood otherwise, criminality will be on the rise. It is based on the aforementioned, that this article is needed to pivot one into the right directions. Except one is a hamster wheel. Hamster wheel is that repetitive and unfulfilling activity that will not produce any positive result. Sadly, many of our youth and adult generation fall in this category. Doing the same thing and expecting to get different results.

Now, the big questions going through the minds of my readers are: 

  • How do I reinvent myself?
  • Are there systems I can follow?
  • Can I succeed as an entrepreneur or self-employed?
  • How can I create that needed change?

Truth is, there are some people in Nigeria who are not bothered about the effects of the lockdown. One even said to me that the lockdown can continue as long as the government wishes. That comment is from someone who appears satisfied and fulfilled and does not care about the adverse effects caused by the lockdown. You can be fulfilled and sound braggadocio like the person I talked about. In fact, the young man just opened a new outfit and has employed some youth. You too can break the growth ceiling of your life and attain that desired comfort of affluence and utopia that you seek.

To reinvent one is to rediscover who you truly are by adding those values that can make you marketable and acceptable in the society. It also means the retooling of one’s mindset by bringing in positive emotions and positive energy into whatever you have set for yourself as goals or targets. Positive energy refers beyond just mere thinking of good things but includes one being able to turn things around for one’s good.

I say it everywhere, success principles and systems are universal. If they can work for Aliko Dangote or the Bill Gates of this world, they can work for anyone. One needs to understand the underlying principles of success. Until one is open to new knowledge or ideas, the person remains in the hamster wheel. To seek new ideas and creativity through innovation, one must be humble to learn and garner new ideation, skills and knowledge. Jack Canfield the author of the Success Principles said “take 100% responsibility for your life and be very clear why you are here on earth.”

Everyone can succeed as an entrepreneur. There are four quadrants in the cash flow: the employees, self-employed, that is the entrepreneurs; the investors and business owners. And the beauty of the quadrants is that you can be in more than one at the same time as a way to guarantee yourself of financial freedom. The entrepreneur requires either rendering a service or inventing a product. And of course, COVID-19 has opened up lots of new opportunities that aspiring entrepreneurs can take advantage of. Some of these will be listed in the concluding part of this article. 

Change is one thing that people are averse to. People hate change because it upsets the status quo. But change is a constant thing which must happen. One needs to introspect on his environment. What are those things that my environment needs that I can help to create or solve? This is called studying the Gap Need of your immediate society. It is in solving other people’s problems that one can successfully be fulfilled and earns legitimate income. 

I have suggested and enumerated some nuggets to help you reinvent yourself. First and foremost, one must be a man of dreams; you must turn them into desires. And only when desires become intense; it is then you will have the energy and innate or internal drive to overcome all the obstacles that arise on your paths (Brian Tracy). Truth is everything you ever set your mind to achieve is a possibility. So why are you under-estimating your dreams? Lunch out!

Again, be very receptive to new ideas, information and knowledge. The day one stops learning the person starts dying. Do not be lost in the wind of COVID-19. Do not fizzle out in the shuffle of life. Take advantage of the numerous free online courses to add to your skill sets and values. Ask questions on how you can improve yourself. Your solution may just be a call away from you. Never die in silence. There is a purpose for which everyone was created. Yours cannot be different or be in isolation. Wake up!

 

Besides, celebrate every success and never die in it. What this nugget simply means is the idea of one not letting any success be achieved to be one’s last. Set higher goals and aim at achieving them. Imagine the best marketing employee in a firm not being able to surpass his own feat and becomes retroactive thereafter. Management would be left with no other option than to relieve the employee of his position.

In addition, do what no one has ever done before. Be the first to be identified with a particular novel idea. Innovation and creativity are twin words that can be achieved by anyone who sets their mind towards it in every human sphere without fear or limitation. What is that talent you are hiding from people that can turn you to an instant millionaire? What is that gift you have not shown that you only know about? Commodify it and see yourself as the next millionaire. 

Finally, learn from the mistakes of others. You need to get mentorship and be guided by that man or woman you admire in your neighbourhood, church or mosque, academia and anywhere. The experiences you will garner from your mentor(s) can help you avoid possible failure traps or failure paths. Who is your mentor? If you do not have one, look out for one now.

Build a community of wealthy and successful people around you. Your network is your net worth (Porter Gale). Try as much as possible to network. You can start from your family and friends and gradually expand your horizon of networks. Join organisations that share the same aspirations with you and build around them. Brand yourself. The world is closer than you ever think. Talk to people about your ideas or intentions. Many would listen and not act but do not be deterred. Meet the next person and keep on trying and using your positive emotions. You will make it with time. 

Conclusively, I urge you not to work alone. In my next article, I would share the jobs or professions that can be relevant to you in this period and years to come. Your thinking trajectory- path should be redirected into hot jobs demand, so that you can acquire the needed skills on them and stay relevant in the scheme of life.

I leave you with the words of William Arthur Ward: “adversity causes some men to break, others break record.” Where do you belong?

Muslims and Eid Celebration in the New Normal

By
Mutiu Iyanda
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0

As Muslims end the 30 days of fasting today, they are expected to troop out tomorrow for congregational prayer, signifying the end of Ramadan and the commencement of another month (Shawwal). Eid al Fitr is the festival of breaking the fast. It is a festival that entails large meals with extended families and visits to the houses of relatives and friends. These traditions and other demands of the celebration will be altered across the world as governments and stakeholders continue initiating and implementing various measures to contain spread of Coronavirus that has infected million of people and killed thousands since late 2019.

Among the Muslims, this period is a tough time. From the beginning of the month, they were forced to change some of the traditions associated with the 30-day fasting. Majority of them in Asia, Africa, Europe, America and other continents avoided night congregational prayers and daily lectures. During the month, they hoped the virus would stop before the end of the fasting for them to observe Eid as being done previously.

To assist governments and stakeholders mitigate the effect of the virus, Muslims in many countries have pronounced the cancellation of communal events, while a number of people are seeking knowledge about how to celebrate this year’s Eid. Available information indicates that the interest in Coronavirus has been the focus of Muslims and others since May, 15, 2020. This is not surprising since the virus is impacting country and people differently. According to a report, Muslims are not expected to have the same experience during the celebration. In this regard, our analyst examines some of the old and new ways.

Exhibit 1: Public Interest in Eid and Coronavirus between April 23 and May 23, 2020

Source: Google Trends, 2020; Infoprations Analysis, 2020

The Old and New Ways

As pointed out earlier, Muslims visit each other during the Eid celebration and attending large gatherings where they eat and socialize together. Coronavirus has altered this as there will be no congregational prayers outside mosques, communal breakfasts and parties. Limited family gatherings are also expected from tomorrow till next two days. In the last three days, governments and stakeholders in charge of management of the virus have been informing Muslims and their leaders on the need to avert congregational prayers and communal gatherings. Where it is practically impossible to have more than 10 people, stakeholders expect strict adherence to social distancing and other health measures such as wearing mask washing hands with hand sanitiser or soap under running water.

Our checks reveal that Imams and other Islamic leaders are devising innovative ways of making this year’s Eid celebration memorable despite the pandemic. Information indicates that these leaders are planning virtual sermon. The sermon will be aired on local television and streamed on social media in countries such as the United States, Canada and Italy. In some countries, the idea of giving congregants instructions on how to do the Eid prayer at home is being suggested.

Insisting on Old Ways

In its interim report before the beginning of the Ramadan month, the World Health Organisation proffers measures that should be taken physical gatherings during the month. As some Muslims prefer going out to the praying grounds to adaptation of some new ways noted earlier, following the global health organisation’s guidelines would go in a long way of reducing the spread of the disease.

Here are the measures:

  1. Consider holding the event outdoors if possible; otherwise, ensure that the indoor venue has adequate ventilation and air flow.
  2. Shorten the length of the event as much as possible to limit potential exposure.
  3. Give preference to holding smaller services with fewer attendees more often, rather than hosting large gatherings.
  4. Adhere to physical distancing among attendees, both when seated and standing, through creating and assigning fixed places, including when praying, performing wudu (ritual ablutions) in communal washing facilities, as well as in areas dedicated to shoe storage.
  5. Regulate the number and flow of people entering, attending, and departing from worship spaces, pilgrimage sites, or other venues to ensure safe distancing at all times
  6. Consider measures to facilitate contact tracing in the event that an ill person is identified among the attendees of the event.

Trump Signs Huawei’s Biggest Challenge

By
Ndubuisi Ekekwe
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4
US has also pushed against Huawei

A few months ago, I wrote that the biggest ban the United States could exert on Huawei would not come from any product made by Google, Facebook or  general Silicon Valley. Practically, Huawei can find alternatives to those solutions, even if they are sub-optimal. Yes, it can make its own mobile operating system, replacing Android. It can find some European companies like Qwant for search. In a ride together a few years ago in Casablanca Morocco, the CEO of Qwant shared his vision of “search privacy”. Yes, a search alternative that is not Google or Bing is available!

U.S. plans to restrict access of critical components into the hands of Huawei as the trade war with China intensifies, and the battle for the future of 5G technology is waged. Largely, U.S. has many tools through two vital companies in the world of microelectronics: Cadence and Synopsys. More than 99% of the leading chip designers depend on these firms. Without them, it will be hard for Huawei to make its own microchips (to overcome the bans) in ways that foundries can manufacture them effectively. If U.S. blocks Huawei, call that move extremely “severe” but not “existential”, yet, because China will respond. Simply, China can block Chinese factories from offering “labour components” for American firms like Apple, Dell, HP, etc. If that happens, iPhone may be off market!

But there are two things Huawei cannot do and cannot find solutions at the moment: semiconductors machinery, and advanced CAD tools for analog chip design. Cadence and Synopsys control the global market for the latter at more than 99%, especially for high end chip designs. While Mentor, Magma and others register on the chart, Cadence is the leader. Interestingly, the top five players are Americans.

Then on chip manufacturing, while we hail TSMC, Globalfoundries and Samsung Electronics, all of them depend on semiconductor tools supplied by American companies. Without those companies, these companies cannot operate.

So, to cripple Huawei, the U.S. recently said that no American semiconductor machinery  can be used by any semiconductor foundry that does business with Huawei. Magically, nearly all foundries in the world became affected; TSMC is rumored to have dropped Huawei. If Huawei cannot get a foundry to help on its chip fabrication, it has a big challenge. At the moment, it does  not have the capacity to build these factories without relying on American machinery and equipment. This is Huawei’s biggest test! With this ban, it is now an asymmetric warfare and I expect a surrender even as the UK plans to wean itself off of Huawei by 2023, on 5G.

Taiwanese Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., the world’s largest contract semiconductor maker, has stopped taking new orders from Huawei Technologies, one of its largest customers, according to the Nikkei Asian Review. The report said the decision was made to comply with new United States export controls, announced last Friday, that are meant to make it more difficult for Huawei to obtain chips produced using U.S. technology, including manufacturing equipment.

 

Apple’s Greatest Risk is Washington DC Packaged in Huawei

How to Make Remote Work More Productive

By
Progress Ibrahim
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0
Virtual event or meeting has gone mainstream, benefiting Zoom

You will be happy to know that innovation should produce a better result. I was addressing a team one time, I used the concept of innovation of strategy to illustrate this.

 We know if a new strategy is better than the other in performance and not in description or how it works. So, we only need to replace an existing system with a new innovation when it has been tested that the innovation is better in output.

 At the end of the day, we ended up concluding that a new innovation in marketing should be able to produce better marketing results than an existing one if not there will be no need for its replacement.

Why do we need a car instead of a horse, when the two have similar purpose? It is simply because the car is more efficient than a horse. This applies to all forms of innovations.

In this article, I will provide you a great analysis of how you can achieve better results through remote working strategy.

Now , let’s get started.

How to Make Remote Work More Productive

When you critically look at the concept of remote working, you will discover it has two components. It has the management and the team or the employer and the employee. So, in order to achieve a desired result from remote working, the two sides of the equation need to be balance with the following;

Remote Work policy:

The remote work policy should contain policies or regulations that guides the employees. It should define what the roles of team members will be as they work remotely. It should define the do and the don’t of remote working. 

This is basically the bible that guides remote workers and their employers. This will keep them in check. An example is the Codecitty remote work policy which addressed the security of the company in relation to remote workers. 

It is the management of the company that will provide this guide.

 Discipline Factor

Being at home could be a moment to wine and dine but don’t lose sight of the remote working task. While there are many distractions at home, you have been given a level of trust by your employer. 

So, what will help you to stay on course is discipline. With discipline, you can avoid distractions in order to focus on  your remote working tasks. This is what every remote worker must learn to do and inculcate  as a habit.

Target Factor

The management should set a benchmark for the work being done remotely. It will be required that everyone meet the benchmark. We don’t just want work but we want work that will produce the expected outcome.

 So, employees should give remote workers targets to reach on a daily basis. Without a target there will be no parameter to measure poor performance and great performance.

 Virtual Supervision and Evaluation Factor

 The major difference between remote work and office work is lack of contact. Through the power of technological innovation there can be virtual contacts. So, the supervisor of every team should ensure strict supervision of remote teams in order to deliver on the targets. 

We have zoom, with impressive business model, Google meet, with impressive business model, Messenger room, with impressive business model, Whatsapp, with impressive business model etc for virtual meetings between the supervisors and the team.

Then, evaluation should also be done at the same time. It should either be weekly or everyday to know if the remote workers are measuring up to the target standard set by the supervisor.

 In my first article on remote work, I analysed how you can use it as a manager to cut cost. You can read that analysis here. With these two materials, you should be equipped to know how to explore remote work now and after coronavirus.

Far Away from Home: Sharing Stephen Akinremi’s experiences as a Nigerian studying in the Netherlands amidst the COVID 19 Pandemic

By
Rasheed Adebiyi
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17

Stephen Akinremi is one of the thousands of Nigerian students spread all over the world seeking knowledge and education from countries with better structures and processes. He is currently in the Netherlands for a Masters’ Degree. He had his first degree in Geology at Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile Ife. He had a chat with Rasheed Adebiyi on his experiences as a student in Netherlands and the fear that comes with hearing from home in this period of Coronavirus pandemic.

Stephen’s and his colleagues’ impression about the way Nigeria has handled the COVID 19 pandemic so far.

To be away from home and get to hear all the issues surrounding Nigerian government’s manner of handling the pandemic crisis could be more psychologically draining than one could imagine. When asked the impression he had about the Nigerian government’s efforts at containing the pandemic, he responded that he and some of his Nigerian colleagues usually paid serious attention to some of the issues being discussed in the media concerning Nigeria’s response to the pandemic. They shared in the sentiment that Nigeria did not respond early enough. They didn’t also like the fact government palliatives and relief materials did not get to citizens. This is unlike the experience they had in the Netherlands where citizens’ welfare is given top consideration. However, like every other Nigerian Diaspora, they talk endlessly about the situation at home and end with a sigh of helplessness. He said: “we are not just happy about situations at home whenever we have conversation on Nigeria and the way the government has been responding to the pandemic. All we just have to do is just sigh and just pray and hope that one day Nigeria will also be a country that has a system that works. Unlike here where we have constant power supply, we read about people at home in lockdown without certain amenities, especially power. It is really frustrating. Here, there is a welfare system that takes care of the citizens especially when there is a job loss. A Dutch man or woman would be paid 70% of his monthly salary to enable them to cope with the situation until they are able to secure another job. ”

His transition to the Netherlands and the Cultural Shock

For a foreign student in a new setting quite different from his home country, there is bound to be some kind of shock as a result of cultural, social and environmental differences. Stephen was asked how he has been coping. He categorized the shocks he has experienced into different types. First, he talked about the student-lecturer relationship and methods of lecture delivery and grading. He was amazed by the little gap that the system allows between the lecturers and students. He responded “The cultural shock I will first start with is the educational system, there are a lot of differences between what is obtainable here and what I passed through as an undergraduate in Nigeria. To start, the system of teaching is different and it’s actually better here. Also, the student to lecturer relationship is more cordial than we had it in Nigeria. They don’t even call them lecturers, they call them teachers. The relationship is different and it was a shock for me when some of my lecturers had to keep correcting when I referred to them attaching Sir or I put Dr in front of their names and things like that. They would ask you to call them by their first name. This promotes some kind of a personal cum informal relationship. I remember back in my undergraduate days in Nigeria, I barely had anything to do with any lecturer. The situation was just be on your own, attend classes, write exams  and pass. But here you have reasons to knock at the door of a lecturer, ask for any meeting at any point in time. That was really different for me and I had to start to adjust to it gradually.”

He delved into the method of lecture delivery, the grading system, and the fact that students are briefed on the expectations of each course, how they will be graded and how they will evaluate if a student has been able to achieve the stipulated outcomes. This is unlike the Nigerian system where students do memorize concepts and pour them out during the examinations.

Stephen equally made reference to the open social interaction in the Netherlands. He spoke highly of their willingness to relate with foreigners who do not speak their local language. He described his experience, “the lifestyle back in Nigeria is different from the society here but I think the Netherlands is very better compared to other European countries because they speak English a lot apart from their local language. The language would have been the first problem  for me but due to the fact that the Dutch speak English well even as a non English speaking country. When you are interacting with them and you just say “English please” or even when they say good morning in their language and you are saying good morning in English, they already sense that they need to switch to English for you. This happens everywhere you go, the supermarket, the hospital and other places. I know it’s not the same in Germany. I visited Germany and I’ve also read a lot about Germany. The system is so different completely. You hardly get over the cultural shock in terms of language. I almost got lost trying to find my way when I was trying to get a ticket for a train to connect to my nephews that I was supposed to meet, I almost got completely stranded because there was nobody that was ready to speak English to me even when it appeared they actually understand it”.

Differences in the Nigerian and Dutch food are another shock that Stephen has to cope with. He eats the local dutch food when he needs to socialize. However, he does not derive the kind of satisfaction he gets from eating Nigerian delicacies. He has to cook Nigerian food for himself. On the food, he has this to say : “if the only option I had was to eat the native food it would have been a big problem for me but since I still have option to, at my own time cook my own kind of food, so that really helps, and I must also say that the University really planned a nice orientation for us that really helped introduce us to the culture, the good, the bad and their general lifestyle. I’m not a person that is very adventurous when it comes to food, but we’ve had to eat the native food on many occasions and I just had to manage, when I just have to eat to socialize I would just have to eat to socialize but it’s not the same. I still cook Nigerian food for myself in my own room. that’s what I cook and I eat, but when we have to go out for functions, for social gathering, I just try to eat but we’re different, definitely we’re different, so that was a big shock for me,”

His experience learning amidst the pandemic

When Stephen was asked to share his experience learning amidst the global health crisis, he spoke glowingly about the ease of learning online in the Netherlands. He said : “taking online classes during the lockdown is very simple here. The whole system is something easy to navigate through. They made everything easy for us. They gave us a week for us to be able to adjust and  practice with the system. We were allowed to practice with the conferencing tools that we are going to be using. So, it’s easy to adapt. It’s easy to change over to the new system. The only challenging part is that it’s affecting our psychology and mental health because there’s no physical interaction you are just in your room learning all day. There are some things you do not have to think about. You don’t have to think about power and the internet. We are living in the faculty hostel, so there’s internet. They connect us directly to the school server. Even our licenses for all of our softwares that we use are still very active even in this period.

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