Everyone wants to make money.

Every business wants to bring in billions.

Every startup wants to become Facebook or Google or Amazon.

But these start-ups fail or close down few years after start. These businesses collapse or make meagre profit till the owner dies. They are missing out a lot of stuff but there is one major mistake all of them make.

If you’re starting a company or a business, it’s very important you note this so you would not end up in that same hole. I’ll give a short story to explain a point.

Eight months ago, I had a very crazy idea that I felt would generate millions of naira for me. The next thing was that I sprung into action and began to make plans on different ways on how I’d make money from the business. I was drawing up a profit structure without considering a lot of things. I wasn’t concerned about the value people would get from it. I was just concerned about how it would reach people, I was just concerned about how to make money.

Guess what? I got stuck. I got frustrated. I couldn’t see reasonable sources of profit. It went on for months and thank God I didn’t launch. So I had to dismantle all my plans and began to create a value system. Who are the people I’m reaching, what do they love, why do they love it, what can I do? How do I reach them? Would they want it this way? Would they want this or that? How would they react?

I was now more concerned about how my product would influence people. How it would be of benefit. When I talk about giving value, it could be products, ideas, information, time etc. As I continued to investigate and solve the glitches, I began to see lots of profit channels from it which was a hundred times more than my former structure. This is exactly what big companies like Amazon do. Amazon focused on customer satisfaction and then built a solid structure from it.

Most start-ups don’t have any product they’re offering and those who have products didn’t consider if the consumer wants them. They just want to make a profit. Those businesses would all crash. We’re in a very busy age and no consumer would spend time to buy what they’re not deriving satisfaction from either emotionally or physically or anyway. I have not yet launched my idea because I’m still working on the different values people can get or how they can get it but I’m quite sure it would be a success.

Note this: If Facebook was not able to solve or bridge the gap between social interactions all over the world, between different persons across countries, it would have failed.

If Amazon, Pepsi, and Coca-Cola did not focus on consumer satisfaction, they might as well have gone out of business.

All these are values and it is one similar key ingredient most start-ups leave out.

When building a profit system, be conscious of the value it’s giving. Your profit structure should bank on the value systems you put in place. Want to increase your profit structure? Then increase your value chain!

As the gory images of killing and maiming, burning and looting litter the social media, we are pathetically reminded once again that the scores are far from being settled. Cut across corrupt, inept, insecurity, and now xenophobic lines; integration is far from achievable in Africa.

There is concern that South African trend of xenophobic attacks on migrants of African origin is setting a precedent of contagious reprisals. Since the government has failed to address the issue head on, many believe that the recurrences are suggesting that the South African hooligans are doing the government’s bidding. A situation that many fear will escalate to diplomatic dysfunction sooner than imagined.

The responses of other countries who their citizens have been victims in the latest attacks suggest more of a drastic payback measure. The Nigerian Government didn’t take a seat to issue a stern statement on that matter. It says:

“The continuing attacks on Nigerians nationals and businesses in South Africa are unacceptable. Enough is enough. Nigeria will take definitive measures to ensure the safety and protection of her citizens.

“Last week, president Buhari met with President Ramaphosa, on the sidelines of TICAD7, in Japan, to discuss this. Further discussions scheduled for October 2019, during President Buhari’s official to South Africa. In the meantime, Nigeria will take further steps to ensure safety of citizens in South Africa.”

The Foreign Affairs Minister of Nigeria, Geoffrey Onyeama, in response to the xenophobic attacks tweeted:

Received sickening and depressing news of continued burning and looting of Nigerian shops and premises in South Africa by mindless criminals with ineffective police protection. Enough is enough. We will take definitive measures.”

It sounds more like a retaliatory threat from a man pushed beyond his limit. And he is not the only one who complained from Nigeria. The Chairman, Nigerians in Diaspora Commission, Abike Dabiri-Erewa also tweeted:

“Sad, reports from South Africa attacking foreigners. I can’t verify most of the videos. However, whatever decisions to be taken now can only be at the Ministerial level. AU intervention may be crucial. This is not what we should be doing to ourselves as Africans.”

But Nigerians are saying that it’s not the first time the foreign ministries will have to issue statements on attacks on foreigners in South Africa, and by the look of things, it’s not going to be the last.

It is a perception that South African Government’s response and that of her people has enabled. The South African Deputy Minister of Police, Bongani Mkongi told the press:

“The question is: How can a city in South Africa be 80% foreign nationals, that is dangerous. You won’t find South Africans in other countries dominating a city up to 80%… we can’t surrender South Africa to foreign nationals.”

On Twitter, many South Africans have been tweeting in defense of the attacks, saying that it’s a national duty. A South African Twitter user tweeted:

“You enter a foreign country illegally, sell drugs, traffic people, evade tax, and when citizens get tired and deal with you decisively, you cry xenophobia.”

This tweet represents how most South African youths feel about foreigners. A situation that many have attributed to joblessness. The Spectator Index reported that at 29%, South Africa has the highest rate of youth unemployment in the world. That, many believe has created enough force of jobless people who find employment in attacking foreigners and looting their businesses in the name of fighting crime – a job the police are there for.

The attacks seem more grave this time than ever before, with many barbaric instances of people being burnt alive going viral on social media.

However, Nigerians have been voicing their disappointment in the South African people with the hashtag #EnoughisEnough. They are saying that Nigeria does not in any way deserve to be treated this way by South Africans, owing to the fact that Nigeria played the big brother role during the apartheid regime, spending about $61 billion to liberate them from oppression. So the least they could do is give Nigerians the brotherly treatment. Many have also vowed to boycott DSTV, Shoprite, MTN and every other business of South African origin in Nigeria.

Quite a number of people are unemployed due to the lack of proper information about the real world way before they jumped on the train called university.

If you’re either unemployed or underemployed, it’s still the same thing. Now, I hear lots of people give remarks like “if I had known, I would have chased my passion this, my skills that”.

Let’s forget about ourselves for now since now we’re all facing the reality of the real world and it’s hitting us hard in the face. It has led so many people to depression and also suicide.

Made some people lose sanity, go into crimes and all. At the end, some will get out while others might not.

Let us all pay attention to our younger siblings (generation) who are about to wear the same shoes we wore which people have been wearing for decades.

Let’s talk about how we can save them from losing their feet after their university journey. Some might have stronger feet but most lose their feet after undergrad days.

Just last week, I decided to visit the pre degree students of a particular university. I would stop mentioning names. I went there, sat with them, of course I look young and I have a small stature so it was hard to take me for someone who spent 5 years in the University.

I wanted to know what life was like for teenagers. Most of them were obviously teens from ages between 14 – 19 years. They noticed I was new and all but I just faced my mobile device.

Engaged them in a discussion on why they were in school. Why they wanted to get into the University. Almost all, I mean all I spoke with do not have a clue why they were in the University.

They do not know what the course they were studying was about, where the world is with such line of course, the job offers available in that area, they don’t just know anything other than the reading and passing anything they were given in exams.

Now that’s a cause for alarm. Firstly, I will blame the secondary school systems for not having good guidance and counseling for students who are about to get into the University.

If your school did proper guidance and counseling on what you wanted to study, please comment on the post, let us know your school and we can tag your school for being awesome. Unfortunately, most secondary schools are guilty of this.

Next are the University themselves. They do not have proper guidance and counseling. They are just concerned about students coming to class, writing down notes, reading and writing exactly the same things in the exams.

This cycle keeps repeating itself and it’s high time it stopped. That’s the reason I founded my company.

Now this is one thing that amazes me that parents do and it’s also one of the contributions towards youths unemployment.

Your son or daughter finished secondary school at 14. Fine, such kid is brilliant but you as a parent did not take time to study the kid. The next thing is push into the University.

Must every kid jump into the University immediately after secondary school. What about taking a year off to really understand themselves by trying out different skills. Why send clueless kids to the University dear parents?

The school doesn’t solve the clueless problem. Rather, it amplifies it. So why not save the child by properly guiding and counseling such teen or youngster.

We all know that it’s very difficult or almost impossible to learn a skill while in the University as it would affect one’s academic life. The University curriculum is so rigid that there is barely any room to engage in real life activities while in school.

Everyone is chasing JUST GRADES. And it’s high time the school stopped exalting grades alone and also encouraging skills development. My first observation is the fact that school has longer hours of lecturing and I believe it’s harmful to the students. The school should give students some time to have for their personal lives in order to socialize, to network and self developed themselves. As much as we are trying to fix the problems for those out there who are seeking jobs, we will continue to face these same issues if we don’t have a master plan for those who are the younger ones.

This post is aimed at reminding everyone that as much as we are trying to get fire brigade systems to save the older ones, we should also look for solutions to saving the younger ones from getting to this same state.