What values do you think can help you stand out? Thinking right? .. Ok let me help you with these three values that can make you stand out. Do you stand out of the crowd, or you just follow what’s in vogue? Is there that special trait in you people look up to? Is there any you wish you can build up? Values are what make us unique in our own way, it makes us stand out and respected by others. Have you ever imagined a society without morals and values, where people are left to their will? How safe would such an environment be?  I will be discussing three very important values that make you stand out in every aspect of life in this article, they are as follows: Integrity, hardwork and patience let’s get to it. I will be delving into what these three values actually are, how you can imbibe them and instances you might have carried out the better part of them without even knowing you did, so as to encourage you to continually strive towards getting better. 

Three Major Values

1. INTEGRITY

Integrity is one very important value one should have. According to these words by Bob   Marley “The greatness of a man is not how much wealth he acquires, but in his integrity and his ability to affect those around him positively”. How do you know you have integrity? Do you maintain the same standard when no one is watching or you act with high pose and integrity only when people are watching? There are several instances where you can display true and sincere level of integrity, I will be mentioning a few in this article:

WORK: We all have different roles at work, let’s take for instance you are in charge of a grocery store, you have at your disposal figures you can manipulate and pin it down on the accountant or any other worker, your true test of integrity comes to play when you refrain from such act and do what is right not minding the benefit that came with cheating.

Your true test of integrity comes when you are faced with tough decisions and refuse to compromise no matter the circumstances. Or have you been ever tempted to implicate an innocent colleague at work all because you can’t stand them, and your conscience pricked you and you restrained from it. Do you keep to time and do whatever is given to you with full seriousness. Being at the right place, doing what you have to do give you high regard amongst your colleague at work. When people cannot trust anything with you, then there is a serious question on your integrity, people are naturally more drawn to people that are reliable, reliability and integrity of individuals have been tested over time. Little do some people know that characters at first are like strands, they later become cables, the acts you do daily becomes a part of you with time, also with business associates can they trust you, can your partners in business trust you with their funds and investment.

INTEGRITY AS A SOCIETAL NECESSITY: Have you ever considered driving carefully always and how impactful that would be, a lot of accidents today in the society resulted from reckless driving or drunk driving. Do you obey traffic lights? , One would wonder what impact proper driving has to do with the society at large, can you count how many families has been put in mourning as a result of deaths caused by rough drivers or drunk drivers. Also volunteering in the society, of course we have part time volunteers that help with the less privileged or elderly ones or injured in the society, but there are some individuals who are very consistent in the volunteering act, reward or no reward, they selflessly carry out the act to give back to the society at large, that in itself is integrity. Doing simple acts like helping elderly ones cross the road, constantly using the trash bin when on the streets, giving out helping hands to the poor and needy around you are simple acts of kindness and integrity. Going shopping and taking what is not yours because the shop owner is not looking is not only theft but lack of integrity. The society as a whole accords great respect to people with high level of integrity. Take for instance you are a mayor in your community, will you siphon funds meant for community development to enrich yourself, have also learnt true test of integrity is known when you are in power, as you can do and undo.

INTEGRITY IN THE HOME SETTING: When kids offend parents, its normal to scold them, but there are times we go to the extreme in scolding them and end up hurting them, its takes integrity for parents to apologize to their kids when they hurt them, and when they do that’s real maturity. Apologizing to our loved ones when we offend them prevents hurts and rancor and that’s a true sign of love, it truly takes integrity to sincerely do that. This act allows the kids to easily open up to their parents and foster children – parent relationship. Couples owning up to their mistakes and accepting correction takes courage and integrity, it depicts selflessness and humility. These not only help keep the relationship going, it helps the couples feel more real and sincere with each other. The home setting is a very integral unit of the society; children can learn true integrity in character from their homes, thereby making them better individuals when they get out there, breeding them up with the right values is a necessity.   

2. HARDWORK

Hardwork is the necessity for success that cannot be argued anywhere, I have not seen any great man or woman who got to the heights they were, without hardwork. If there is any value you must possess to enable you stand out, it should be hardwork, it not only earns you admiration amongst those around you, and it guarantees you success. But as much as hardwork is a very good value to have, I strongly believe in intelligent hardwork, it is one thing to work tirelessly on a task without focus but with so much energy and it’s another to divert such energy into the task with so much focus, the results are definitely glaringly different. Another point of note is consistency, when you are consistent with your acts of hardwork and sacrifices; it opens greater doors of opportunities for you in life.

Most people fail in life as a result of laziness, though not many even realize they are lazy. Continually giving excuses to complete tasks, been pessimistic and always procrastinating are real signs of laziness, while hardwork depicts the exact opposite, greater heights and opportunities are attained with hardwork. The truth is, if you make hardwork a necessity, you gradually begin to see yourself improve in your endeavors in life and it finally becomes a part of you. As Colin Powell rightly said, there are no secrets to success. It is the result of preparation; hardwork and learning from failure. There is no shortcut in life; short cuts can shorten your life. We all have dreams, but not everyone eventually achieve theirs, you can continue to dream and fantasize about your goals and visions, the earlier you set out to it with action and focus, the faster your achievement rate.

Back in my high school days, after the final semester in my second year, I realized my grade points skyrocketed, so I asked myself what I did differently that year as against the previous one. I realized I stayed up at night to study, reduced partying and joined some extra tutorial classes, maximize my time and schedule, it showed more effort, better results, since then I decided I was always going to give my best to whatever I find myself doing as that was the only way I could be outstanding. Hardwork does not kill, instead it makes you better and more efficient.

3. PATIENCE

Patience is a very rare virtue. Its takes a lot of courage and perseverance to be patient on anything in this life but it pays on the long run. Patience reveals a lot of things to us as time passes; it proves a lot of things with time. You can claim to truly love someone, but only time can tell if you do, as there would be trials and temptations only patience can tell if the love would last, that’s why there seems to be lots of divorce cases today, a lot of couples have lost the needed patience and perseverance necessary for marriages to work, or for relationships to thrive, they don’t seem tolerant of each other any more. Most times we give up on our dreams, not knowing how close we are to breakthrough, because we gave up and were not patient enough.  This virtue helps you to continually rise up after failure, knowing full well, that with every next attempt, success is close.

Patience and perseverance is truly the key to renowned success. Patience continues to keep hope alive and that all would work out well finally. We can’t live through life without ups and downs, it is been patient that shows we truly have high moral standards, because when things get really uncomfortable, that’s what we need to pull through. We are in a generation, where we want what we want almost immediately, we don’t normally have the patience to wait, but been impatient causes you to make bad decisions, causes unnecessary worry and stress, take acts or steps that might put you in danger and its very harmful to your relationship and person. Patience is self – control in itself and helps you to control yourself around others no matter how excited or angry you are at them, this helps to preserve your relationship with others.  It prevents you from jumping into conclusions when matters arise, you develop an in-depth listening ear and this helps to make the best of decisions.

Great things take time to materialize, let’s take for instance you want to start up a commercial liquid wash company, you don’t just snap your fingers and everything comes to be, you start with a planning process, procurement of materials and buildings, technical trainings and a lot more, it could take years before your ideas come into reality, several years later when you are invited to a business morning talk show on Television and you are asked how you got there, or what the journey was like, you can proudly tell your story and the challenges you might have encountered so far and the lessons learned along the way. If you lack this value, you can inculcate it, by practicing it, refusing to vent and lash out at any discomfort encountered, keeping hope alive and never giving up on your dreams is one way to make patience an attribute you possess. From today henceforth, promise to take life easy and live each day at a time. 

CONCLUSION

These three values mentioned above can help anyone stand out in the society or in any situation today. Make integrity a part of you, be the change you want to see in the society it all starts from you. Hardwork and diligence can never be replicated in any form, you can only achieve your dreams if you focus and continually work tirelessly without giving up towards it. Patience like I said earlier in the article, continually breeds hope, it not only gives you calmness and peace of mind, it eradicates needless worry and stress, have at the back of your mind that life is full of its challenges and we can only overcome if we are truly patient, the hurdles would be surmounted and you will definitely smile again ask yourself this, of all the worry you put yourself through, what solution has ever come out of it.

To stand out amongst the multitude you have to always and continually be of the best behavior. Living a good exemplary life requires lot of discipline and commitment and these values mentioned in this article is a must have for anyone. The bottom-line is every of our actions should be impactful and with high standard of moral and values, we never know who is looking up to us, this helps to pass the right message across especially to the upcoming generation. Live a life that counts, be a plus to your generation.        

The Nigerian Government is planning to impose a 0.005% tax on companies operating businesses in Nigeria. The tax, although they call it levy, stems from The Nigerian Police Trust Fund Act, that was passed in April, and signed into law in July.

The Act establishes fund: proceeds from which training of police personnel will be facilitated and also the procurement of security machinery and equipment.

According to PWC: The Act imposes a levy of 0.005% of the “net profit” of companies operating business in Nigeria. The fund will also consist of 0.5% total revenue accruing to the federation account, in addition to proceeds from grants, intervention funds, aids, donations, investment income, etc.

A board will be established to administer the fund and make other administrative decisions to fulfill the objects of the Act.

It is designed to last for 6 years only, after which the assets and liabilities will be transferred to the Nigerian Police.

While security and the need to improve the welfare of the Nigerian Police cannot be excused, there have been a lot of concerns about the Act.

In the wake of time where the Government increased VAT from 5% to 7.2%, people are worried that multiple taxation is becoming another heavy burden on businesses struggling to cope with so many infrastructural deficiencies.

And most of all, foreign companies operating businesses in Nigeria. Although the 0.005% (N5 per N100, 000) seems so insignificant, it places additional administration on corporate taxpayers. A situation PWC says it could create concerns around the stability of the tax regime in Nigeria.

According to the report: The Act specifies that the Fund’s income is tax exempt, but does not make provision for tax deductibility for the companies making payments. Also, although the Act refers to the contribution as levy, it should be classified as an income tax under IAS 12, as it is imposed on income/profits.

It is therefore not tax deductible based on CITA which specifically disallows taxes on income or profits of companies. One other issue that caught the eye is that the Net Profit for computing the levy is not defined in the Act. Therefore, companies should be able to interpret it the other way, which is, profits after tax, but before the levy.

One other notable issue is that the Act does not contain provisions on collection and administration of the levy. That means, a further regulation would therefore be needed if FIRS will be responsible for the administration, since any other approach will result in high cost of administration.

Also the Act provides for audit and presentation of an annual report to the president only. When the tax is coming from publicly and privately owned businesses who would want accountability, to ensure that their taxpayer’s money has been judiciously utilized.

However, there is hope that may be a new regulation that will address these concerns.

NYSC post corpers to churches and mosques.

I spoke with a corp member that just left the camp on Monday, 9th of September. He told me how he was posted to a church.

I’m not against corp members being posted to religious organizations since some churches and mosques have offices. But it seems to be the opposite for the newly posted corp member, Adekunle who is serving in Ondo state.

Adekunle reached out to me to share his disappointment. He told me, ”These people are jokers. You won’t believe what happened when I got to where I was posted for my Primary Place of Assignment (PPA). I was posted to a church.”

According to Adekunle, he said he wasn’t upset about being posted to a church, after all, some churches have schools and other organizations. But Adekunle was upset with his role in the church.

He said, ”The pastor of the church told me that I would be working with him in the parish. I will be cleaning and arranging chairs whenever they have a program. To crown it all, I will be present during vigils.”

The National Youth Service Corps officials, this is unacceptable. These corpers are graduates. They’ve spent at least four years in the university. They have applied to serve their fatherland. Would it not be better if they are posted to places where they can learn?

No parents would be happy to see their children being assigned to such a role. Would you post your children to such places?

After all, NYSC is meant to prepare them for the work environment. Cleaning and arranging of chairs would be the worst thing anyone can do for a year. It’s time we start valuing our graduates. Because there are no jobs in the country is not enough reason to post anyone to such places. It’s truly belittling.

I wish the NYSC officials will do better in this aspect.