PATHWAY TO PERSONAL WEALTH: DISCOVER, EXPLOIT AND CREATE SUCCESSFUL BRANDS OUT OF GAPS IN HUMAN NEEDS

(SESSION4)

Nothing matters more than knowing God’s purposes for your life, and nothing compensates for not knowing them – not success, wealth, fame, or pleasure. Without a purpose, life is motion without meaning, activity without direction, and events without reason. Without a purpose, life is trivial, petty, and pointless – Rick Warren.

Then God said, “Let us make a man like ourselves to be the master of all life upon the earth and in the skies and in the seas.” So God made man like his Maker. Like God did God make man; Man and maid did he make them. And God blessed them and told them, “Multiply and fill the earth and subdue it; you are masters of the fish and birds and all the animals – (Genesis 1:26-28)

There is an evil I have seen under the sun, like a mistake that proceeds from the ruler: foolishness is set in many exalted places while the rich sit in humble places. I have seen slaves riding on horses and princes walking like slaves on the land – (Ecclesiastes 10:5)

The greatest challenge you will ever face is that of expanding your mind. It is like crossing the great frontier. You must be willing to be a pioneer, to enter uncharted territory, to face the unknown, to conquer your own doubts and fears. But here is the good news. If you can change your thinking, you can change your life – John Maxwell

My Billionaire Friend had warned me ahead of our meeting that he would be having visitors, almost at the same time our conversation should be taking place. Expectedly, when I got to his compound after observing our usual security protocol, his executive gardener took me to a place under a fruit-bearing tree in my Friend’s garden. There were two wooden chairs, one side table, and a bottle of water, waiting for me.

My Friend was aware I was in. He was discussing with five guests including two white guys. I recognised one of the other three guests; he used to own some franchises of M. Biggs. For about 30 minutes before my Friend joined me, I decided to pay close attention to everything in the garden. I could see different species of birds, snails, two large fish ponds, a tortoise cave, hens and a few animals.

As I was observing the scenery, my mind wandered back to the Bible’s description of the Garden of Eden. Adam was said to have named all the living things. Strangely, my Friend also named every single species of animal. I could hear birds chirping, fish troubling the water, see cock and a hen making love; I also saw some artificial dams constructed to water different sides of the garden while the executive gardener was busy tending to some flowers. It was quite interesting. I muted my mind as my Friend sauntered to the side of the garden where I was sitting and the conversation started.

“Sorry, my boss. I told you I was going to be having visitors. Two of them are my friends who just decided to bring their ambassador friends to my place. They feel at home here just as you are at home.”

We reviewed the questions from the readers as usual and we had no problem in agreeing on the subject for the day:
PATHWAY TO PERSONAL WEALTH: DISCOVER, EXPLOIT AND CREATE SUCCESSFUL BRANDS OUT OF OPPORTUNITY GAPS IN HUMAN NEEDS.

“Let us get started. Ready?”

Yes sir! I am more than ready. I have been excited about today since you hinted you were going to be sharing a wealth-building secret that many wealth hunters fail to activate. I really want to learn.

“Very well then. You know I won’t hold anything back from you because I know you would also transmit the message to your readers.”
.
“This week’s discussion is about searching and discovering, existing opportunity gaps in human needs and creating successful brands to exploit and satisfy such discovered opportunity gaps in human needs, for building wealth. Put differently, wealth is thus created through discovering commonly hidden but existing gaps within human unsatisfied needs, exploiting the opportunity around those unsatisfied gaps and creating successful brands out of the products and services that are discovered from the search for unsatisfied human needs around us”.

“There are no exceptions to this wealth-building rule; it does not matter where you are from, your religion, your complexion. Once you comply with the rule, you will become wealthy beyond your imagination. This is the same principle successful people you read about, practise; the Billionaires that yearly make Forbes’ list, employ to build phenomenal Wealth”.

“These are people that have been able to discover one unsatisfied human need and have exploited and built brands, products and services that have been able to satisfy this particular need. People don’t understand that wealth-building opportunities show up daily around them in the forms of problems, challenges and complex human difficulties, but instead of praying to God to show them the wisdom to solve the human problems around them, they hop from one country to another looking for wealth-building opportunities that exist in abundance in their homeland. How tragic!”

“Sometimes I wish that many who sold their God-given businesses and travelled to the so-called advanced countries to become second class citizens were able to lay hands on the Rushel Conwell classic, THE ACRES OF DIAMONDS. They would have discovered that in the backyards they abandoned, there were acres of diamond waiting to be mined. I have travelled widely and I have seen brilliant individuals from different African countries, professors, surgeons, pedestrians, journalists, bankers driving cabs, washing dead bodies, doing all manner of crazy things abroad in the name of looking for wealth. Such people cannot be truly happy no matter the impressions they give you. They have uprooted themselves from where God planted them to be solutions providers, stars, employers of labour and gone to increase the wealth of other countries with their brains”.

“It is the height of insanity when a professor leaves his country to become executive assistant abroad to a white guy that has no school certificate and to nationals of other countries who cannot even communicate well. This calls for weeping. When a country allows its best brains to risk their lives through seas, mountains, deserts and other dangerous routes to foreign countries to become second class citizens in countries built by human beings like them, rest assured that this is a tragedy of monumental proportion”.

THEY ARE EVERYWHERE…ORDINARY PEOPLE WHO REALISE THEIR TRUE WORTH AND COMMIT THEMSELVES TO PUSH THE ENVELOPES

For the reason of space, we shall limit our examples of globally acknowledged wealthy people to only five individuals: Bill Gates, Elon Musk, Warren Buffet, Aliko Dangote and Femi Otedola. These five wealthy people searched for and discovered unsatisfied human needs, successfully exploited, created and built their brands with products and services which are satisfying hitherto unsatisfied human needs.

BILL GATES

Let us start with Bill Gates. Bill Gates is a 66-year-old American, with a wealth of about $130 billion. He built his wealth from creating his Microsoft successful brand after discovering and developing his uniquely successful software which has become the generic fulcrum of world information technology. Bill Gates built wealth by founding his software developing company, along with his partner Paul Allen and building his globally successful software brand to exploit and satisfy a huge undiscovered but idly waiting to be explored opportunity gap of human need in information technology. He built his fortune as the chief executive, chairman and chief architect of the Microsoft Corporation, which IT brand, blazed the trail in information technology of our world. He has since 2014, stepped down from being chairman and chief executive of Microsoft and gone into investing in corporations, with warehousing his investments in Cascade Investment LLC.

ELON MUSK

Another example is Elon Reeve Musk, who is exploiting the huge opportunity gap in rockets, spacecraft and electric vehicle technology. He started by first creating his X.com and PayPal brands. He then sold his PayPal brand to eBay, which fortune, provided the major fulcrum for his humongous wealth. He is currently exploiting and creating brands to satisfy the wealth-generating opportunity gaps, in human inevitable future needs for electric cars and rockets for exploring the earth’s outer space. His electric cars are the pioneer of electric cars in the world.

WARREN BUFFETT

Again we have people like Warren Buffett. Warren Buffett is a very old man of about 90 years of age but he still kicking in the investment world. He is called the oracle of Omaha. Buffett is the chairman and chief executive of Berkshire Hathaway. He started by exploiting the opportunity gap in textile manufacturing and building his successful brand. He thereafter veered into investing in blue-chip companies through courageously differing prevailing investment trends. He thus built his wealth by exploiting the unique opportunity in his sound trend analysis of the financial position of corporate entities and investing in well-chosen stocks, against differing prevailing investment trends.

ALIKO DANGOTE

Coming home to Nigeria, there were decades when cement manufacturing in Nigeria was monopolised by West African Portland Cement and hugely augmented by imports. Indeed some of us still recollect the time when our ports were blocked and we had some major blockade of our Lagos, Apapa port, with ships loaded with imported cement for Nigeria. It took the dexterity of late Colonel Benjamin Adekunle, to decongest our Apapa port.

Aliko Dangote saw the huge unsatisfied opportunity gap in the local production of cement in Nigeria and went into creating a successful brand of his, locally producing cement, eliminating cement importation by Nigeria and expanding his brand into some 13 other African countries. His brand is also currently exploiting the unsatisfied opportunity gaps in food, sugar, tomato paste and very soon, refined petroleum. Dangote has thus built his wealth of about $12 billion from exploiting and satisfying the unsatisfied needs of Nigerians and other African cement with a successful brand.

FEMI OTEDOLA

Femi Otedola discovered and exploited the unsatisfied opportunity gap with his brand in the supply of diesel and has since built wealth around this and expanded into corporate equity investments. Femi Otedola is another example that wealth can be created and built from discovering, exploiting and creating successful brands by satisfying existing unexploited opportunity gaps in human needs around us. Indeed, Nigeria is a country with numerous unsatisfied opportunity gaps, which are waiting to be exploited for satisfying burning needs. Nigerians need to take advantage of these yearning unsatisfied needs around them.

NIGERIA IS BLESSED; INDEED, WE ARE BLESSED!

Indeed, Nigeria is a country with numerous opportunity gaps waiting to be satisfied. Let’s briefly look at how to identify opportunities in Nigeria.

HOW TO DISCOVER THE OPPORTUNITIES

We discover the opportunity gaps in human needs by scanning our environments through conducting market research. These opportunities are hanging there around us waiting to be discovered and exploited by those who seek them. Knowledge is required for such discovery and exploitation of the unsatisfied need opportunities. A typical example is Warren Buffett. At only the age of seven, out of family financial frustrations and challenges, he borrowed a book for reading. The book is titled: 1000 ways to make $1000. From reading that book at that age, it fired up the determination, the hidden talent, the commitment and zeal, that has created the multi-billion dollars wealth of about $60 billion for Warren Buffett, who at some ninety years of age is still investing in trend defining investments and building wealth out of it.

There are opportunity gaps all around us that need to be discovered and it is people who discover such opportunity gaps that grow to build successful brands, create jobs and build wealth for their nations. Governments also earn incomes through taxes and FOREX from these.

COMMITMENT TO LEARNING AND PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT ENABLES YOU TO SEE OPPORTUNITIES

Not all eyes see; not all ears hear and not all minds perceive. But when you commit yourself to developing your mind, you will begin to accurately interpret events around you and why God positioned you right where you are now. When your mind is not developed, you simply pass the opportunities (in the form of problems and challenges) and go to your imams and pastors to pray those problems out of your life. Ten years ago, did you hear anything about Zoom? Zoom became prominent during the Covid-19 lockdown period when people could not move around, yet they had to communicate. The owner had been nurturing this idea for years before the lockdown period. So when the opportunity came, he seized it with both hands and legs. Today the owner is a multi-billionaire. That is how enduring wealth is built.

Spending money on personal development enlightens your mind to see opportunities that fly all around you. Step out of your comfort zone, make mistakes but get back on your feet again and soldier on. If your mind is not developed, you will not see those opportunities when they come because, in most cases, they disguise as problems. Have you not observed that while many Nigerians are jetting out of the country permanently to other countries, nationals of other countries are trouping into Nigeria to exploit the incredible opportunities that abound in Nigeria. We now have garri, yam flour made and packaged 100% in Nigeria by the Chinese and resold to Nigerians. Nationals of other countries are establishing modern factories, producing goods from here which are then re-routed. That is why the Bible says that a lazy hunter does not roast his catch.

A BIG PUZZLE

“Why are we having electricity problems? Why are the roads not motorable? Does it mean we don’t have competent Nigerians who can fix them? Look at Akinwunmi Adesina, who heads the African Development Bank. Are you not proud of what he is doing? The difference between him and others who acquire sparsely used houses in other countries of the world and/or siphon their country’s money into foreign banks is a low level of mental development. When a person’s mind is not developed, he will do crazy things. I ask you, can one person sleep in more than one room at a time? Can you ride in more than one car at a time?’

“Obviously not”, I answered.

In places we travel to, their presidents use public transportation; they stay in ordinary houses, but in African countries, an ordinary local government councillor would run around town with a retinue of cars and personal aides. Education is a leveller. When your mind is sufficiently and continuously developed, those who need what you carry will locate you whether you are in the bush or a desert.

WEALTH BUILDING REQUIRES MORE LEARNING THAN NATURAL TALENT

“This requires inborn cleverness, smartness and determination for success, with a commitment to integrity. The cleverness of identifying needs is basic in everybody. It depends on how such inborn cleverness is developed through being inquisitive and learning. Learning out of being inquisitive, learning by looking out for solutions to identified challenges and opportunities, learning to know how to build brands, learning to identify the expertise needed for developing products and services to build successful brands to satisfy the multiple of identified unsatisfied human needs”.

BUT CAN ONE PERSON SATISFY MULTIPLE UNSATISFIED HUMAN NEEDS?

“Yes, indeed Aliko Dangote is an example of a multi-billionaire who is satisfying the multiple unsatisfied needs of Nigerians and others. At my last count, Aliko Dangote is also satisfying the needs of 13 other African countries, not only cement but also the utilisation of cement to build solid cement reinforced roads of longer durability than bitumen roads. Dangote is also satisfying the needs for tomato paste, the need for other agricultural products, satisfying the unsatisfied needs for sugar, salt and soon, that of refined petroleum.”

HOW DO I KNOW THE NEED TO STICK TO?

Again knowing the need to stick to is dependent on how developed your mind is, whether you have done some diligent survey and analysis of your market, the quality of your methodology and the outcome of your market research. The mind needs to be developed by reading, learning, travelling and in the process, acquiring the instinct, knowledge and skill, to know which unsatisfied needs are commercially viable for sticking with. However, one may make mistakes at the start of one’s wealth-building journeys and thus start and fail a few times. But it would not matter, once eventual success is attained.

It is not how many times one fails, but how many times one rises after every such failure. There should be no pretence about assuming that once a need has been discovered and is exploited, then it would be successful. This is generally, not so. Some needs are discovered, exploited and eventually found not to be commercially viable or are not within one’s competency or the market size eventually turns out to be lower than anticipated, etc. However, whatever one does in this sphere, one must begin with a thorough feasibility study where one is solid enough to finance such a study. But where one is not financially solid enough for such a thorough study, then one can carry out a rudimentary study of his own, towards eventually building a successful brand out of the identified unsatisfied needs.

WHEN YOU SPOT AN OPPORTUNITY AND BUILD A PASSION AROUND IT THROUGH DEADLY COMMITMENT UNTIL IT BECOMES A BRAND, THEN YOU HAVE BECOME AN ATM!

When you have pushed a particular concept to the level of becoming THE BRAND in that area, then you can name the price. Are you aware that there are some persons of recognised successful brands, who can walk into any shop without having any cash, and they can still buy whatever they want, on a personal recognition? Someone said that you become a brand when your first name is sufficient. People would supply the surname. When you mention Bill, Warren, Elon, Jeff, Aliko, people will supply their surnames. But it takes a deliberate process to build an outstanding brand. Brands are built by investing in positioning products and services as the best in meeting the unsatisfied needs of consumers. This investment must be continuous in positioning the brand as the best for satisfying consumer needs by branded products and services, at all times. A good brand requires continuous investments and continuous monitoring of its life cycles, at all times. A typical example here is the Coca-Cola brand that has survived as a brand, for decades in satisfying man’s needs around the world, for their different products. Successful brands require continuous investments backed with solid marketing skills.

SOMEONE ONCE SAID THAT NIGERIA IS A COUNTRY WHOSE LAND FLOWS WITH GOLD AND SILVER, BUT UNFORTUNATELY, PEOPLE STAYING THERE CAN NOT SEE THESE GEMS.

Nigeria is a great country with a lot of challenges, but out of these challenges are hidden unexploited opportunities that can be harvested into building wealth. Nigeria is not different from other countries that Nigerians run to. Some people helped to rebuild their countries into what they are, where Nigerians are running to.

On a general note many Nigerians who stay within Nigeria, do not live by borrowing. Many of those we look up to in other countries live on loans, credit cards, mortgages and debt instruments. Whereas the average Nigerian takes his time, to eventually build his wealth with little or no accrued debts. Yes, the size of the wealth you may build in Nigeria, may not be as huge as what you can build outside Nigeria. For instance, the size of the wealth of Aliko Dangote is $12 billion, whereas that of Elon Musk, is about $230 billion. So, the wealth magnitudes are different, but how much of the wealth do you need, beyond satisfying your living needs, some extravagancies and helping humanity. Many globally acknowledged billionaires, with humongous wealth, are ending up being the world’s greatest philanthropists. A typical example is Warren Buffett, who has given out 99% of his wealth to charity. Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg and many others have also given huge portions of their wealth to charity. Hence, after building wealth, we should be conscious of the needy around our world.

We should use the extra wealth beyond our needs and that of our families in the pursuit of philanthropy. Philanthropy is the major way to serve God Almighty by satisfying the needs of orphans, widows, deformed and the ailed members of society. Huge unexploited opportunities exist in Nigeria begging to be identified and exploited. Therefore, Nigerians do not need to travel out of Nigeria to be wealthy. Travels for wealthy Nigerians, are limited to enjoying holidays, touring heritage sites and expanding their horizons. They identify and build successful brands to exploit the huge available opportunities in Nigeria. They build their wealth in Nigeria and are proud of what their country is offering them. We should do the same in helping to develop our country, contribute to making our country better, instead of running down our country and staying abroad.

One of your readers asked: If I work for another person, how do I discover unsatisfied needs?

I guess this has been covered extensively in our previous series. You are not inhibited from scanning your environment, discovering opportunities, creating your brand and exploiting the opportunities around you with integrity. It does not disturb your working for others. Even at the top corporate level, such is allowed under Nigeria’s subsisting company laws (Section 281 of CAMA 1990), as long as no conflict of interest exists and you respect your fiduciary duty to the company for which you work.

How did you discover your own opportunities gap, and what steps did you take to build wealth?

This has been covered in my earlier discussions in this series. Just like Warren Buffett at the age of seven, who read the book that I earlier mentioned. I read it and I put my little savings into investments. You have to start with discovering yourself via reading, learning and looking around the various financial and environmental challenges to determine what to go into and what to exploit around you. Nigerians are not taking a lesson from George Orwell’s book, titled: Animal Farms. That book teaches us that the grass is not always greener in other pastures. Nigeria is a land of opportunities. Many Nigerians who have run abroad end up not being as successful as their counterparts who remained in Nigeria, to face, overcome our country’s challenges and exploit the opportunities available in our country, Nigeria. Running to stay abroad is not the necessary and sufficient solution to our problems. We owe it a duty to our country, to grow Nigeria.

HERE IS THE CONCLUSION OF THE MATTER

In summary, building a successful brand requires knowledge and skill which obtainable from reading widely and learning. Brand building is a profession, handled by marketers with expertise, in that field. There are many marketing and advertising companies that can help to build brands. We cannot and should not do everything by ourselves. We need experts to help us to build brands. Even with that, we still need some good knowledge to take quality management decisions for success.

How do I turn the satisfaction of such need into generating wealth?

Turning the satisfaction of such needs into generating wealth entails measuring the size of the market and ensuring that the size of the market for products and services is large enough for commercial viability and profitability. Identified needs that are not of good commercial viability, should as a rule, not be exploited. Hence, some quality market research needs to be done to evaluate the size of the identified market opportunity, for one’s brand. The size must be commercially viable and profitable for building wealth. Venturing into the exploitation of unsatisfied needs, without ascertaining the adequacy for profitability, the size of the market would be catastrophic. There is, therefore, the need for some good market research to be conducted before commencing operations and such market research, may require some pilot projects to test the market for determining whether the brand being proposed would adequately satisfy the unexploited market opportunity.

Why do many Nigerians run abroad with many unexploited opportunities?

The answer to this has to deal with ignorance. It has to do with the existing myth that people hold about those staying abroad. Many times, it is mostly those staying abroad that complain mostly about the challenges of staying in Nigeria, to cover up their realisation of failures. Unfortunately, we fail to observe, that all countries have their challenges. Nigeria has its own which is unique to Nigeria.

As my Friend was delivering his sermon, as I called it, I was cut in the heart. Many of the things he was sharing resonated with me. I have seen highly placed Nigerians sell off their properties and businesses and hop abroad to continue their lives. When you get to foreign embassies in Nigeria, especially the US embassy, you would discover that some people have been sleeping there for days and even hiring hands to help them secure visas. I see medical doctors who spent up to nine years in training, queuing up at various locations for foreign job interviews.

What my friend shared with me reads like a script, like the story of David, reckoned to be the most impactful ruler of the state of Israel to date on account of his unbelievable exploits in warfare as detailed in the Bible. For years and away from the glaring eyes of the public, David was in the forest building up his warfare muscles, training on how to use unconventional weapons to kill lions, bears and other dangerous animals which were after his father’s sheep. While on the job, he entertained himself with some music, a skill that would open a door of opportunity for him later when he was invited to the palace to play music for Saul, the then King of Israel who was suffering from bouts of mental illness. To many, it looked like just a small window of opportunity, but in no time, conscious of the anointing on him, David quickly blew that window into a door, stretching it further into a cavernous archway good fortune, including killing Israel’s arch adversary, Goliath, which eventually landed him in the palace as Israel’s next king. The message my Billionaire Friend was trying to pass across is that there are many windows of opportunities around us that could lead to phenomenal wealth if we can expand the horizon of our minds to interpret things differently.

After his presentation, my Friend asked me if I would be leaving immediately. I asked him to let me stay behind a bit to process his presentation. I was left alone under the tree and I stayed for another 45 minutes in deep reflections. I took plenty of notes in my diary.

When I bade my Friend bye I went to the restaurant near his place to cool off a bit. Some of the points hit me like bullet points. I needed to digest them properly. I spent another one hour at the restaurants, digesting the points my Freind raised.

I can’t wait till next week to share my personal reflections with you as I hope you would also be willing to share yours with me.

See you next week!

Yours Money Wisely