ECOWAS: Parliament urges member-states to step-up integration process

The ECOWAS Parliament has called on member-states to step-up efforts to ensure the realisation of the integration of the sub-region. Speaker of the Parliament, Moustapha Cissé Lo, made the call in an interview with newsmen at the end of the 2016 First Ordinary Session of the Fourth Legislature of the Parliament in Abuja on Saturday. Cissé Lo, who spoke through an interpreter, said member-states needed to make more efforts to speed up the integration process in order to promote social and economic development in the sub-region. `Today is ECOWAS Day which is a happy day for us, and ECOWAS as a bloc should strive for more integration in different areas like security, infrastructure and health. “When the founding fathers decided to set up ECOWAS, it was because they wanted integration, knowing fully that it would lead to economic and social development. “ All we have noticed is that the integration process is very slow probably because of lack of political will. `What we will like the Heads of State to do is to speed-up the integration process. “We believe that if we really have free movement of goods and persons, a single currency, a free trade zone then we will nearly be there.” The speaker reiterated the call for enhanced legislative powers of the parliament; adding that the enhancement would enable the bloc to “truly respond to the demands of our populations”. He commended the level of collaboration and cooperation between the ECOWAS institutions and reassured that the cooperation would put in place measures that would facilitate the realisation of the ECOWAS vision. ECOWAS was founded on 28 May 1975 with the signing of the Treaty of Lagos and was established with a mission to promote economic integration across the sub-region.

Military Invasion of Gbaramatu Kingdom Unacceptable- NDYF

 ABUJA-YOUTH under the auspices of Niger Delta Youth Development, NDYF, yesterday, said military invasion of Gbaramatu Kingdom was unacceptable. This was contained in a statement signed by the National Publicity Secretary, NDYF, Comr. Zinami Iwariso, where he described the action as gross violation of the fundamental human rights of the people in the area. Iwariso also described the situation as pure harassment and sheer oppression of the Niger Delta people despite the military’s reason to search for members of the new militant group, Niger Delta Avengers and former militant leader, Government Ekpemopolo. The statement reads in part: “Today being the 28th day of May 2016 the people of Gbaranmatu woke up to the invasion of their community by the Nigerian Military. The Nigerian Military through the Nigerian Army invaded the peaceful Kingdom of Gbaramantu sometime in the early hours of the day between 8 a.m and 9 a.m. “The Niger Delta Youth Forum (NDYF) has called the invasion of Gbaramatu Kingdom as an act of impunity. The use of a blitzkrieg in the Kingdom and indeed in the Niger Delta is against the rules of engagement of the Nigerian Military, and thus must be abolished. “The concocted reason given for this invasion is the alleged search for Government Ekpemupolo aka Tompolo and the Niger Delta Avengers however the Nigerian Army in their usual style when it comes to the Niger Delta, resorted to harassment, intimidation and brutalisation of innocent people of the Community. “Brutalising and humiliating the good people of the Niger Delta will not solve the challenges of Nigeria but rather culminate in further crippling the Nation’s economy and generate fathomless problems. The military ought to protect lives and properties, not to kill innocent civilians. “We unequivocally state here that the ugly method and tactics employed by the Military is against all ethics and rules of engagement of any sort of Military operation. We further state that the act of the Nigerian Military is against the 1999 Constitution and Africa Charter on Human and People’s Rights that guarantees inalienable rights to all persons.” According to the group Tompolo remains an individual and the Niger Delta Avengers are out at sea, and it will a form of cluelessness, whereby a particularly Gbaramatu Kingdom has been brought under unnecessary victimisation, which innocent persons were abused of their legitimate rights and also maltreated in some cases in the name of the military’s “supposed search”. “Therefore, we call on the Commander-in-chief of the Armed Forces, President Muhammadu Buhari, to call the military to order and stop the endless harassment, intimidation, invasion, massacre and destroying of properties worth billions of Naira in search of Tompolo and the so-called Niger Delta Avengers in Gbaranmatu Kingdom, Warri South-West Local Government Area of Delta State, and indeed within and around the environs of the Niger Delta Region or face petitions for war crimes against Humanity. “Also we wish to remind the Commander-in-chief of the Armed Forces that when the Leaders of Boko Haram (Shekau and Kabiru Sokoto) were been hunted by previous administration, they never resorted to harassing and assaulting members of their communities. On this note, we urge that precedent be followed”, the statement added.

Russia to establish nuclear centre in Nigeria

Lagos – The Russian Ambassador to Nigeria, Amb. Nikolay Udovichenko, on Saturday announced that the Nigerian and Russian Governments plan to sign an agreement for the establishment of a multifunctional scientific research nuclear centre in Nigeria. Udovichenko, who disclosed this in Lagos at this year’s Alumni Congress of the Soyuznik Alumni Association in Nigeria, said that the Nigerian and Russian governments had been negotiating for the centre’s establishment. The theme of the congress was “Harnessing The Potentials of the Nigerian Graduates of Higher Institutions of former USSR States”. “Bilateral cooperation between Nigeria and Russia is blessed with huge potential in every avenue. “Nuclear energy development is another area with good prospects for our two countries’ cooperation. “This June, we expect to sign a bilateral agreement for the establishment of a multifunctional scientific centre in Nigeria,’’ he said. The Envoy also said that his government was working at reactivating its Trade Representation in Nigeria, to further promote trade and economic relations between the two countries. Udovichenko, who said that thousands of Nigerians had over the years benefited from quality education in Russia, also announced his government’s plan to sustain the scholarship programme for more Nigerians. The Envoy said that it was imperative for such Nigerians to use their knowledge for the development of their country, as well as strengthening ties with the Russians. President of Soyuznik and Chairman of the ceremony, Otunba Henry Ajomale, said that the association was made up of academicians, medical doctors, engineers, diplomats, political administrators and heads of professional organizations trained by the Russian government. Ajomale expressed the gratitude of the beneficiaries to the countries that formed the former Soviet Union for bequeathing a lasting legacy, with which they could contribute to the development of Nigeria. “We should not forget to celebrate our common heritage as beneficiaries of a unique programme by the former Soviet Government that gave us the opportunity to become what we are today,’’ he said. The Soyunik Alumni Association of Nigeria, is the association of Nigerian graduates trained by the the Former Soviet Union and Commonwealth of Independent States(CIS).

Chromebook Tips

So you own a Chromebook — but do you know how to use it like a pro? 

Just like Windows and Mac OS X, Chrome OS supports a variety of keyboard shortcuts. Some of these reveal extra functionality, some simply speed up repetitive tasks.

In the rundown below you’ll find ten shortcuts we think are worth knowing about. If you like what you see do give this article a share!

How to Take a Screenshot on a Chromebook

Let’s say you need to take a snap of your entire screen. To do this you press the ‘Ctrl’ and ‘Window Switcher’ keys at the same time:

If you just want to capture a specific area of the screen just add shift to the key combo, like so:

If you’re on the Dev Channel of Chrome OS you’ll also find a new “Take screenshot” option is available from the “More tools” drop-down in the Chrome Menu.

After hitting the shortcut the screen will briefly flash white and a notification to confirm its success (or failure) will follow. Just need a bit of the screen? Pressing the above keyboard combo will allow you to select a section of the screen to snap:

9. Open File Manager

Opening the file manager in Chrome OS is easy using a trackpad or mouse (especially if you pin it to the app shelf) but keyboard aficionados aren’t left out: just tap the following pairing.

8. Open Task Manager

Is Chrome suddenly running slow? it could be a rogue extension or webpage sucking up your resources.  Identify the culprit using the task manager.

7. Launch Apps on the Shelf

Applications pinned to the Shelf (the bar at the bottom of the screen in Chrome OS) can be opened using a keyboard shortcut.

The first app in from the left – count the Chrome icon as 0 – is 1, the next 2, and so on until you reach 8.

6. Lock the Screen

If you’re going to leave your computer unattended for a short period (say, whilst you go grab a coffee refill) you may wish to lock your screen to prevent anyone else meddling with your session.

To do this just press the following key combo:

5. Open the Hotdog

Opening the Hotdog menu in Chrome isn’t exactly hard, but if you’ve hooked your device up to a huge monitor it can be a fair ol’ scroll up. Save some time and open it with the following command/

4. Toggle Caps Lock On/Off

Most Chromebooks don’t come with a dedicated Caps Lock key. So how do you turn it on when you need to rant in the internet type in capital letters?

Just hit the following key combo to turn it on, and turn it back off when you’re done.

3. Logout

In a rush to quit your session? Some finger gymnastics will have you out in a snap.

2. Mirror Monitor

If you plan on connecting your Chromebook to an external monitor (or TV) at some point then the ‘Mirror Monitor’ shortcut is a neat one. Rather than add an additional workspace it simply mirrors the Chromebook’s screen.

1. Show Keyboard Shortcut Overlay

It’s a little bit meta, but the ultimate keyboard shortcut is the one that reveals all keyboard shortcuts!

Buy Airtime Directly From Your Bank With Ussd Code without the Internet

How to Buy Airtime Directly From Your Bank With Ussd Code
==> Access Bank: For access bank users, simply dial *901*amount#.
Example: To recharge N500, dial *901*500# . You will be credited with N500 airtime while N500 will be automatically deducted from your access bank account.
The minimum recharge is N50 while the maximum is N5,000. For Mtn users you must have at least N1 on your phone to use this service while other network can use it with zero naira.

==> EcoBank: For Ecobank users, simply dial *326*amount#.
Example: To recharge N1,000, dial *326*1000# and you will be credited with N1,000 airtime while N1,000 will be deducted from your account.

==> Fidelity bank: Fidelity bank allows you to recharge for both yourself and others. To recharge your line dial *770*amount# and to recharge other lines dial *770*phone no*amount#.
Example: To top up your line with N500, simply dial *770*500# and you will be credited with N500 airtime while N500 will be deducted from your account.
The minimum recharge is N100 while the maximum is N5,000.

==> First City Monument Bank(FCMB): For all FCMB users, simply dial *389*214*1*amount#.
Example: To recharge N1,500 Dial *389*214*1*1500#. You will be credited with N1500 while N1500 will be debited from your account.

==> First Bank: Just dial *894*amount#.
Example: *894*1000#. Your line will be credited with N1000 airtime and N1000 will be debited from your bank account.
Minimum recharge is N50 while the maximum is N3,000

==> Guarantee Trust Bank (GTB): Just like fidelity bank, Gtbank let's you topup both your line and also top up for others.
To recharge your line from your gtbank account, simply dial *737*amount#. E.g *737*1500#. And to top up another phone no, dial *737*amount*person’s no#.
Example: *737*2000*08055522212#.
Note that the minimum recharge allowed is #100 while the maximum allowed in a day is #5000.
Aside letting you recharge your line, gtbank also allows you transfer money from your bank to another bank account directly from your mobile phone by just dialing the respective ussd code. You can read more on that here.

==> Heritage Bank: For those using heritage bank, dial *322*030*Amount#.
Example: To Recharge N1,000 simply dial *322*030*1000# and your line will be credited with N1000.

==> KeyStone Bank: For keystone bank users, dial *322*082*Amount#.
Example: To top up your line with N500 dial *322*082*500#. You will be credited with N500 airtime while N500 will be deducted from your account.
The minimum is N100 while the maximum is N3,000.

==> Skye Bank: Just dial *389*076*1*amount# on your phone.
Example: To recharge N1,000 dial *389*076*1*1000#, you will be credited with N1000 airtime and N1,000 will be deducted from your bank account.

==> Stanbic IBTC Bank: For Stanbic bank users, simply dial *909*amount#.
Example: To recharge N1000, simply dial *909*1000# and you will be credited with N1000 airtime while N1000 will be deducted from your bank account.
Note that the minimum recharge is N200 while the maximum is N5,000 and you must have at least N5 on your phone to perform this transaction.

==> Sterling Bank: For sterling bank users, Just dial *822*Amount#.
Example: To recharge N1,000 l, Just dial *822*1000#, you will be credited with N1,000 airtime and N1,000 will be deducted from your bank account.
The minimum recharge is N50.

==> United Bank Of Africa: For those of you using UBA simply dial *389*033*1*amount#.
Example: To recharge N500 on your line dial *389*033*1*500# your line will be credited with N500 airtime and N500 will be deducted from your bank account.

==> Unity Bank: For those using Unity Bank dial *322*215*amount# to recharge.
Example: To recharge N1,000 dial *322*215*1000# and you will be credited with N1,000 airtime and N1,000 will be deducted from your account.

==> Wema Bank: For Wema bank customers, dial *322*035*Amount#.
Example: To recharge a sum of N1,500 dial *322*035*1500# and your line will be topped up with N1,500 airtime while N1,500 will also be debited from your bank account.

==> Zenith Bank: Zenith bank users can top up their line by dialing *966*amount# or *302*amount# for Mtn users.
Example: To recharge a sum of N500, simply dial *966*500# and your line will be credited with N500 airtime.

Note: *You can only perform any of this transaction on the no you registered with your bank.
*It is completely free and there is no hidden charges.
*If your bank is not listed above, then maybe your bank does not support this feature yet.
*If you think I omitted any one, just drop it in the comment box below.

Nigeria to sign visa-free pact with 8 countries

The Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mr Geoffrey Onyeama, says plans have been concluded to sign visa-free pacts with a bloc of eight African countries to promote economic partnership on the continent. Onyeama announced this in Abuja on Tuesday at a news confernce to mark one year of President Mohammadu Buhari’s Administration. The minister, who did not disclose the names of the countries making up the bloc, noted with concern that trading among African countries had been very low. He, however, said that with the new idea by the President Mohammadu Buhari led administration, “it is expected that there will be upsurge in economic activities. “ Africa is the centrepiece of our foreign policy but it is a paradox that as a Nigerian, you cannot go to an African country without a visa unlike what is obtainable in Western Europe. “To address this as a leader in the continent, the country is at a point of introducing an initiative to promote African trade as part of the country’s foreign policy of Africa as the centrepiece”, he said. Onyeama said Nigeria was trying to come up with an initiative, like the one in Western Europe where one could enter any sister country without a visa. According to him, what we are trying to do at the ministry is to promote visa-free, free movement of business people. “We want to start with about eight countries or see if they come up as a group of eight countries. At the presidential level, they agreed to that, and signed up to free movement. “If we can achieve that within a year, then other countries may want to join and we believe this is a better way to go than institutional ECOWAS etc, as countries take so long to ratify agreements. “We believe we can just start off, eight countries and they agree among themselves, then others will come in,” he said. Onyeama also added that it would not help if the continent continued to export just raw materials to developed nations. He said the Ministry of Industry, Trade and Investment was working towards enhancing doing business with ease in Nigeria. Onyeama said the ministry was working with the immigration to see rise in the number of visa issued to businessmen and investors “It is one of the cardinal strategies for the Ministry of Industry, Trade and Investment to facilitate investors doing business in Nigeria”, he said. Onyeama said the Ministry of Industry, Trade and Investment had been mandated to ensure that there was reduction in the time it took to register companies.

What is the longest a person has ever lived for?

Meet Li Ching Yuen, a man who lived an astonishing 256 years! And no, this is not a myth or a fictional tale.

According to a 1930 New York Times article, Wu Chung-chieh, a professor of the Chengdu University, discovered Imperial Chinese government records from 1827 congratulating Li Ching-Yuen on his 150th birthday, and further documents later congratulating him on his 200th birthday in 1877. In 1928, a New York Times correspondent wrote that many of the old men in Li’s neighborhood asserted that their grandfathers knew him when they were boys, and that he at that time was a grown man.

Li Ching Yuen reportedly began his herbalist career at the age of 10, where he gathered herbs in mountain ranges and learned of their potency for longevity. For almost 40 years, he survived on a diet of herbs such as lingzhi, goji berry, wild ginseng, he shoo wu and gotu kola and rice wine. In 1749, at the age of 71, he joined the Chinese armies as teacher of martial arts. Li was said to be a much-loved figure in his community, marrying 23 times and fathering over 200 children.

According to the generally accepted tales told in his province, Li was able to read and write as a child, and by his tenth birthday had traveled in Kansu, Shansi, Tibet, Annam, Siam and Manchuria gathering herbs. For the first hundred years he continued at this occupation. Then he switched to selling herbs gathered by others. He sold lingzhi, goji berry, wild ginseng, he shou wu and gotu kola along with other Chinese herbs, and lived off a diet of these herbs and rice wine

He Wasn’t The Only One

According to one of Li’s disciples, he had once encountered an even older 500-year-old man, who taught him Qigong exercises and dietary recommendations that would help him extend his lifespan to superhuman proportions. Apart from Qigong and a herb-rich diet, what else can we learn from this Master of Longevity?

How about this: On his death bed, Li famously said, “I have done all that I have to do in this world”. Could his peaceful last words also hint at one of the biggest secrets to a long and prosperous life? It’s interesting to note that in the West, we’re often taught to believe that aging is something that must be “beaten” with high tech infrared devices and state of the art medication.
His Secret To Long Health:

Li was asked what his secret was to longevity. This was his reply: “Keep a quiet heart, sit like a tortoise, walk sprightly like a pigeon and sleep like a dog.” These were the words of advice Li gave to Wu Pei-fu, the warlord, who took Li into his house to learn the secret of extremely long life.

Li maintained that inward calm and peace of mind combined with breathing techniques were the secrets to incredible longevity. Obviously, his diet would have played a large role. But its fascinating that the old living person in recorded history attributes his long life to his state of mind.
Why Is This So Hard To Believe?

With the average lifespan for the Western world currently sitting between 70-85 years, the thought of someone living over 100 years old seems like quite the stretch. The thought of someone living over 200 years old seems extremely suspicious. But why don’t we believe that people can live this long?

We have to keep in mind that some people in this world don’t live a grueling 9-5 lifestyle, they don’t have to deal with the stresses of debt, they aren’t breathing polluted city air, and they exercise regularly. They don’t eat refined sugars or flour, or any foods that have had pesticides sprayed on them. They aren’t living off of the standard American diet.



They aren’t eating fatty meats, sugary deserts, and genetically modified foods. No antibiotics. No alcohol and no tobacco. Their diets not only exclude junk foods that we so often indulge in, they also include superfoods and herbs which are like steroids for our organs and immune system.

They also spend their spare time in nature practicing breathing techniques and meditating which have been proven to improve mental, physical, and emotional health. They keep things simple, get proper sleep, and spend a great deal of time in nature under the sun. When we get a chance to relax in the sun, we feel instantly rejuvenated and call this a “vacation”. Imagine spending a lifetime doing that in the mountains, and combining that with perfect mental, spiritual, and physical well-being.

I do not doubt for a minute that if we all did the things we knew we were supposed to do, that living to be 100 years old would be commonplace. When we treat our bodies right, who knows how long we can live for?

About the author: My name is Steven Bancarz, and I am the creator of ‘Spirit Science and Metaphysics’. I am working on a new social platform is being built called ‘The Conscious Forum‘ to provide the best place online for open-minded people to discuss, engage, and connect with one another in a way never offered before.

Senator Ita Enang Reveal that Northerners own 80% of oil blocks

Trouble in the Senate Yesterday as Senator Ita Enang Reveal that Northerners own 80% of oil blocks

Supporters of the Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB) pushed their case further yesterday at the Senate, with startling facts on the sector.


Senator Ita Enang (Akwa Ibom North East) described the opposition to the 10 per cent host community fund by mostly northern senators as “misplaced”.

Enang, who is also the Chairman, Senate Committee on Rules and Business, said that those opposed to the fund should know that over 83 per cent of oil blocks are owned by northerners.

But he did not give the number of oil blocks Nigeria has.

Senator David Mark, who seemed to have been shocked by what Enang said, said the Akwa Ibom lawmaker should not be distracted (some senators were grumbling) because he was making an important point.Mark asked Enang whether he could substantiate his claim.

Enang promptly pulled out a document from his folder and reeled out oil blocs and their owners.

He said he did not intend to divide the country but to guide those who wanted to contribute to the debate to be truly informed.

He listed northerners who own oil blocks to include Alhaji Mai Deribe, Borno State and owner of Cavendish Petroleum, which operates OML 110 with an average of about N4billion monthly.

He also listed Seplat/Platform Petroleum, operators of the ASUOKPU/UMUTU Marginal Field with Mallam (Prince) Sanusi Lamido, Kano , as a major shareholder and director.

South Atlantic Petroleum Limited (SAPETRO) established by General T. Y. Danjuma, Taraba State , who is also chairman of Eni Nigeria Limited.

SAPETRO partnered with Total Upstream Nigeria Limited (TUPNI) and Brasoil Oil Services Company Nigeria Limited to become operators of the OPL 246.

AMNI International Petroleum and Development Company is owned by Alhaji (Colonel) Sani Bello of Kontangora , Niger State.

“They are operators of OML 112 and OML 117,” he said.

He said that a former Petroleum Minister and former OPEC Chairman, Rilwanu Lukman, another northerner manages AMNI oil blocks “with very key interest in the NNPC/Vitol trading deal.”

He said that Oriental Energy Resources Limited, a company owned by Alhaji Indimi, runs three oil blocks – OML 115, the Oldwok field and the Ebok field.

He said that Alhaji Aminu Dantata’s Express Petroleum and Gas Limited, operates OML 108.

Enang said that OML 113 allocated to Yinka Folawiyo Petroleum Limited is owned by Alhaji W.I. Folawiyo. Alhaji Saleh Mohammed Gambo, North East Petroleum Limited, is the holder of the OPL 215 Licence.

North East Petroleum was awarded blocs OPL 276 and OPL 283 and closing thereupon a Joint Venture Agreement with Centrica Resources Nigeria Limited and CCC Oil and Gas.

He said that INTEL is owned by former Vice President Atiku, the late Gen. Shehu Musa Yar’Adua and Ado Bayero. It has substantial stakes in Nigeria ’s oil exploration industry both in Nigeria and Sao Tome and Principe .

He said that Mike Adenuga’s Conoil is the oldest indigenous oil exploration company with six blocks. OPL 291 was awarded to Starcrest Energy Nigeria Limited, owned by Emeka Offor, which was sold to Addax Petroleum.

Enang urged the Senate to cause the immediate revocation of all oil blocks licences and their redistribution, in accordance with the Federal Character Principle.

He said: “My submission is that when you look at the distribution of those who own oil blocks and the amount of money that comes from the different oil blocks to the Federation Account and you see the owners of these oil blocks, you will agree with me that there is inequity in the distribution of oil blocks.

“The oil is produced in the Niger Delta yet it is the people of the Northeast and the Northwest and a little of the Northcentral, almost nothing of the Southwest and the Southeast, that are the persons owning and controlling these oil blocks.

“Almost nothing for the Southsouth, Niger Delta oil producing areas.

“They are quarreling with the area that takes just 13 per cent when you are producing the entire 100 per cent, you give some to the Federation Account and they give only 13 per cent of what you give and, of course, it is whatever you declared that you have produced. It is actually produced by you.

“I did not want to introduce something that is divisive.

“It is not intended to divide the country, it is intended to say ‘look, let us be realistic’.

“What some of the oil wells and the owners of the oil wells produce in a month and take as profit is sometimes more than what two or three states receive from the Federation Account.”

Enang noted that “when a group of people are richer than a state and then it is produced by you, then there is so much opposition that even the people who suffer the effect of the oil production should not be give host communities’ fund; and we have explained that the host communities fund is not only for the oil producing; it is for any of the communities that hosts oil infrastructure, which includes oil pipelines, refineries, gas pipelines and anything that is capable of causing danger.”

“If we had the host communities fund, the danger that we have been having in Arepo in Ogun State, the area would have benefited from the host communities fund.”

Enag said that other areas, such as Kaduna and some other states, will benefit from it.

He went on: “If you are producing and declaring only what you like and only the 10 per cent now being provided for the host communities and the 13 per cent which is after deducting everything, that cannot be in the interest of the country.

“What I am asking now is that oil blocs in the whole country should be revoked and redistributed according to Federal Character Principle.

“We are not saying that we in the Southsouth should have all or the Southeast should have all or the Southwest should have all.

“In fact, if there are 18 oil blocs or 36 oil blocks, we don’t mind that you give us at least four, Northeast four, Southeast four, Northwest four.

“At least, let there be equity, but then there should be the principle of who owns it and then you give us more.

“But at this time, we don’t even have it. The 13 per cent is what we are even suffering to sustain.”

Senator Olufemi Lanlehin (Oyo South) praised the maturity of Senators in considering the bill.

He urged the Senate to look at the “absolute and sweeping powers” granted the President in Section 191 of the bill.

The Section, he said, gives the President absolute and unqualified powers to grant petroleum licences to whoever he pleases.

Lanlehin prayed the Senate to use the opportunity of the bill to design a template that would grow the economy.

Senator Adegbenga Kaka (Ogun East) said he was supporting the bill with mixed feelings.

He noted that the trend of the debate seemed to indicate that senators were more concerned about how to share the cake and not how to bake it.

Kaka said the power granted the minister of petroleum in the bill should be reconsidered “so that we don’t give too much power to the minister.”

The lawmaker who insisted that the bill should be finetuned, said certain percentage of earnings should be set aside to fix electricity, agriculture and other infrastructure.

Senator Mohammed Goje (Gombe Central) said before the debate, he was completely against the bill.

He said the trend of the debate showed that the Senate was poised to do justice to the bill by removing offensive sections.

To him, it seems a consensus is being built around certain sections of the bill.

He noted that most contributors agreed that the power of the minister should be reduced, such that the minister will just be like any other minister.

Goje said: “We should not create a super minister.”

He said that definite provision should be made for frontier exploration, especially adequate funding.

He opposed 10 per cent host community fund.

Senator Barnabas Gemade (Benue North East) described the bill as very important and long overdue.

Gemade said an adage says: “Wherever you find oil, corruption creeps in and wherever you find diamond war emerges.”

He said the adage had been proved to be true.

Gemade said the bill contained good and bad provisions. He listed the good sections to include development of the gas sector, increase in promotion of local content and the unbundling of the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC).

The bad sections, he said, include the minister’s economic power.

On the host community fund, Gemade said efforts should be made to ensure that it does not degenerate to very poor management of resources as it is, according to him, in the Niger Delta Development Commission, 13 per cent derivation and others.

On the frontier exploration, he said more effort should be geared towards discovering oil in other places.

Senator Akin Odunsi ( Ogun West) described the bill as the most important legislation before the National Assembly.

Odunsi noted that the bill becomes even more important when it is recognised that the country runs a mono economy based on oil.

The lawmaker cautioned against undue sentiment in the consideration of the bill.

He agreed that the bill was not perfect but posited that it could be fine-tuned to engender development.

Senator Abdulahi Adamu (Nasarawa West) said he was giving the bill “a reserved support”.

Adamu expressed worry about the absence of transparency and accountability in the oil sector.

He said the bill appears to contradict the Constitution (as amended), especially when it is recognised that oil and gas as well as other minerals are in the Exclusive List and under the control of the Federal Government.

The lawmaker cautioned about the unbundling of the NNPC in order not to put up the corporation for outright purchase by wealthy Nigerians.

On the host community fund, Adamu said the provision would create the fourth tier of government.

To Senator Gbenga Ashafa (Lagos East), the bill will be counter productive in its present form. He demanded the definition of host community.

Ashafa said pipelines burst at times not because of vandalisation but because of the integrity of the pipes.

Senator Ayogu Eze said his support for the bill stemmed from the realization that the oil sector should be reformed.

Eze highlighted issues of details in the bill, which, he said, should be addressed at the committee and public hearing levels.

It was obvious that most northern Senators were not comfortable with what Enang said.

Mpumalanga Girl Commits Suicide After She Realized Her ‘Blesser’ Was Actually Her Biological Father

Tragedy struck in Mpumalanga last Friday after a 23 year year old ‘blessee’  committed suicide after she had se_x with her long lost father.

According to the deceased’s mother, the girl identified as one Sthabile Mkhwanazi,  long lost her father when she was still a minor and had to be raised by her mother only.

The mother described Mr Mkwanazi (the blesser) as a heartless, irresponsible man and a coward who had caused the untimely demise of their own daughter.

The mother revealed that Sthabile never got to know her dad because he had deserted his family donkey years back.

The two only got  to meet last Friday a local club but they were not aware they were the same blood.

After having hooked up in the club they  reportedly went on to have se_x at the Blesser’s sprawling guest house. As they left the  house the next morning the girl’s mother coincidentally met with the two and  identified Mr Mkhwanazi.

The girl upon learning that she had just commited inc_est with her own father was inconsolable . She reportedly failed to stomach the disturbing news and was so devastated she decided to take her own life.

It is a well documented scientific fact that, there is a high chance that if two people who are related meet and they are not aware off their relation, there is a high chance they may end up sleeping together due to a concept called Genetic se_xual attraction. This attraction is reportedly much stronger between close relatives, such as siblings or half-siblings, a parent and offspring, or first and second cousins, who first meet as adults

This is however not the first time such an incident has happened in South Africa, in 2011, The Sowetan reported that a couple in South Africa who had been together for five years had a child and discovered that they are brother and sister just before their wedding. They were raised separately and met as adults in college.

The 10 Commandments of Entrepreneurship

The 10 Commandments of Entrepreneurship:

#1 - Don’t start a company for the money. Start a company for the mission and the money will follow.

#2 - Don’t think small and start big. Thing big and start small.

#3 - Don’t sell to people you don’t love, products they don’t need. Find people you love, and serve them what they need.

#4 - Don’t ask “how can I make money”. Ask “how can I help others make money”.

#5 - Don’t find a team to work for you. Find a team you want to work for.

#6 - Don’t ask “what to I need to do”. Ask “What do I need to help others to do.”

#7 - Don’t measure your wealth by quantity of money. Measure it by quality of time.

#8 - Don’t have an “exit strategy” where you win when you end. Have an “enter strategy” where you win when you begin.

#9 - Don’t set a goal to achieve a goal. Set a goal so you can be the person you need to be to achieve that goal.

#10 - Don’t climb mountains so the world can see you. Climb mountains so you can see the world.

“It belongs to the imperfection of everything human that man can only attain his desire by passing through its opposite.” ~ Soren Kierkegaard

World’s wealthiest self-made female billionaire

What’s the rags to riches story that has led a young girl in poverty to become the World’s wealthiest self-made female billionaire?

There’s a good chance the mobile phone you’re using has a screen made by her: “The Touchscreen Queen”, Zhou Quinfei. How can her billion dollar journey help you on yours? Here’s her three big steps to success:

STEP ONE: BE RELENTLESS

Qunfei was born to a poor family in a tiny village in China. Her father was blinded in a factory accident, and her mum died when she was five. Determined to be successful, she quit school at 16 and went to live with her uncle in Shenzen, saying "I don't want to die regretting what I didn't do.”

She got a factory job making watch faces for $1 a day, and sent the money back to her father.

Bored with the job, after three months she quit, but was given a promotion instead. Guessing why, she said “Maybe it was because my resignation letter was well written and this attracted the attention of the factory supervisor”.

She kept being promoted up to management but then in 1993, at 22 years old, her factory shut down. So she decided to take her knowledge, connections and $3,000 in savings and begin her own watch face factory, which she started next doors to her old factory.

The early days weren’t easy: ”Twice I even had to sell my house in order to pay my employees salary. Much like climbing a mountain, it's not your physical strength that will get you to the top, but your tenacity and persistence."

Then, in 1997 the Asian financial crisis hit. This is when her persistence really paid off. She went to the watchmakers who owed her money and settled their debts in exchange for their equipment. So while other factories closed down, she gradually assembled an entire production suite for glass processing for next to nothing.

STEP TWO: BE OPEN TO CHANGE

Six years later, in 2003, she got a call from Motorola, who wanted a glass screen for their new Razr V3 mobile phone: “I got this call, and they said, ‘Just answer yes or no, and if the answer’s yes, we’ll help you set up the process. I said ‘yes’.”

Her success with Motorola led to HTC, Nokia and Samsung also calling. Then, in 2007, Apple launched the iPhone, and picked Qunfei’s company as the supplier.

Ten years late, Lens Technology has 32 factories in seven different locations and employs more than 90,000 staff. Their glass is used in over 50% of all smartphones in the world, and in all Apple iWatches.

A year ago, Quinfei listed her company on the stock market, making her the wealthiest self-made female billionaire in the world. Today she is worth $6.4 billion.

STEP THREE: KNOW YOU’RE UNIQUELY QUALIFIED TO BE YOU

Qunfei says when she was a child she would watch the rain falling on lotus leaves. That’s what later inspired her to create Lens Technology's patented, scratch-resistant coating on smartphones.

'Droplets of water would roll around the surface of a lotus leaf and not leave any trace,' she said.

'If it wasn't for my primary school teacher reminding me to be observant I may not have had the inspiration to think of my invention.'

Ms. Zhou also credits her detailed-oriented approach to her childhood. “My father had lost his eyesight, so if we placed something somewhere, it had to be in the right spot, exactly, or something could go wrong,” she said. “That’s the attention to detail I demand at the workplace.”

How can you see every closed door as a new opportunity?
How open are you to new opportunities that could transform your own success?
How can you use your past experiences to support your future vision?

Use Qunfei’s story as an inspiration for your own journey.

As a self-taught expert in glass, she’s a living example of how, with persistence, every glass ceiling can be broken.

My 8 favourite famous failures

Thomas Edison was told by his teachers that he was "too stupid to learn anything."

Oprah Winfrey was fired from her first job as a television reporter and told she was "unfit for tv.”

Walt Disney was fired from his first newspaper job because "he lacked imagination and had no good ideas.”

Henry Ford went broke 5 times before finally creating the Ford Model T when he was 45 years old.

While first writing Harry Potter, J.K. Rowling’s mother died, her marriage failed, she had no job, was on welfare, was diagnosed with clinical depression and described herself being as "poor as it is possible to be in modern Britain, without being homeless.” She kept writing anyway.

One of Elvis Presley’s first singing gigs was at the Grand Ole Opry, but he was fired after just one performance with the manager telling him, "You ain't goin' nowhere, son. You ought to go back to drivin' a truck.” He kept singing anyway.

Vincent Van Gogh only sold one painting during his lifetime, and that was to a friend. He kept painting anyway.

Famous philosopher Socrates’s original ideas at the time led him to be named "an immoral corrupter of youth" and he was sentenced to death. He kept talking anyway.

Each of these 8 famous examples show the difference between mindful vs mindless failure.

Mindless failure is when you keep failing without growing skills and self awareness. Mindful failure is when each failure gets you clearer about who you are, why you’re here, and how to do it better next time.

The key to mindful failure? Set up a rhythm of commitment, action, failure, learning, repeat - and keep persevering to create your own virtuous cycle maximizing failures that steer you and minimizing failures that sink you.

“The season of failure is the best time for sowing the seeds of success."
~ Paramahansa Yogananda

How does a young 30-something grow a business that fast in four years?

This week Apple just invested a billion dollars in the youngest billion-dollar CEO in China, 33 year old Cheng Wei.

Cheng Wei started his car-riding company (now known as “Didi Chuxing”) in June 2012 when he was 29 years old. Today, at only 33 years old, his four-year-old company is worth $20 billion after Apple’s investment, eclipsing the size of Uber in China.

How does a young 30-something grow a business that fast in four years? Here’s 3 steps out of the many Cheng Wei took that you can follow today:

STEP ONE - START BY EARNING WHILE YOU’RE LEARNING

Before his new start-up, Cheng Wei worked for 7 years through his 20s at Alibaba. First in sales, and then with Alipay, the ‘Paypal’ of Alibaba. Without that experience, he wouldn’t have had the expertise and insight to create a Chinese car-sharing site at the same time Uber was starting in the US.

Unbelievably, despite starting a company that today enables over one billion car rides each year, Cheng Wei still hasn’t learned how to drive. But instead of seeing this being a handicap, he says it makes him his company’s ideal customer, as he needs to get rides everywhere he goes. So every day, he's learning as he takes rides with his company's customers.

STEP TWO - BE THE CONNECTOR OF GIANTS

Cheng Wei says the early days were anything but easy: “When the company was founded, we didn’t expect to face the cruelest competition, the strictest regulation, the most complicated games among giants and capitals, and the highest frequency of media exposure in history as an internet company.”

After struggling in the early years against many competitors and government regulations, Cheng Wei made a genius move a year ago, merging his company (then called Didi Dache) with his biggest competitor, Kuaidi Dache, in a $6 billion merger. This brought together the two company’s backers - the two biggest tech giants in China, Baidu and Alibaba, in one massive joint venture. By turning all his potential competition into allies, he eliminated his competition.

“Keep your friends close and your enemies closer.”

STEP THREE - STAY FOCUSED!

Today, Cheng Wei’s company has 99% share of China’s taxi-hailing market and 87% of the private-car hailing market. Didi Chuxing operates in 400 cities compared to Uber which is only in 45 cities.

How has Cheng Wei achieved this incredible domination? By staying focused (He only operates in China) and being mission focused: To help China to be more mobile. That’s what has attracted Apple to invest $1 billion this week, their biggest investment this year.

As Cheng Wei says ““The endorsement from Apple is an enormous encouragement and inspiration for our four-year-old company. Didi will work hard with our drivers, riders and global partners, to make available to every citizen flexible and reliable mobility choices, and help cities solve transportation, environmental and employment challenges.”

That single focus gives Didi a big mission riding on the big technological disruptions coming in the next decade: to help solve the pollution in Chinese cities.

As Cheng Wei said at the Global Mobile Internet Conference in Beijing last month: “Didi intends to build out an open platform with leading machine learning capabilities where ride share solutions, electric vehicles and self-driving technologies link up riders and drivers with different needs in a sustainable and inclusive urban ecology.

(As Didi’s official registered name is “Xiaojo” which means “Little Orange”, Didi later joked on Weibo that the real reason Apple invested was both companies were the names of fruit).

What lesson can you take from Cheng Wei? How can you earn while you learn? Who should you collaborate with today? And how can you have one, purposeful, focus so you can delete the rest?

Whether you are just getting started, in the early days of your business, or facing both external and internal growing pains, Cheng Wei’s 4-year, $20-billion, turbo-charged story has one underlying message:

Stay in the right gear at the right speed at the right time, and you can always accelerate out of trouble.

"There are no speed limits on the road to success." ~ David W. Johnson

What do you and 31 year old billionaire Elizabeth Holmes have in common?

Right now, Elizabeth Holmes is under attack. Not by her customers or investors, but by the press and the US government.

She started her company, Theranos, when she was 19. It’s now worth $9 billion and has made her the youngest self-made female billionaire in the world. How? Because her company helps people check their blood easily in pharmacies at a fraction of the cost a hospital will charge.

Elizabeth’s a big threat to the medical industry because she’s openly saying “Health care is the leading cause of bankruptcy, and the lack of it is the leading cause of suffering.” If she succeeds in making blood tests cheap and easy, they lose control of your medical data and wallets. We take control.

So one thing has led to another, and in October the Wall Street Journal ran a mud-slinging piece on Elizabeth and her company, quoting 'unnamed sources' who say her tests aren’t all accurate. Now the rest of the press is on the bandwagon and Elizabeth is fighting back, saying “"We’ve seen two articles that were false, and immediately everyone reprints it as if it were true.”

Have you noticed all success stories have a big road bump in the middle, when the establishment or dark forces turn against the hero?

Are you in a similar situation where everything seems against you?

It’s happened to everyone from Bill Gates to Oprah Winfrey, from Mark Zuckerberg to Marissa Mayer, from Mahatma Ghandi to Mother Theresa, from Luke Skywalker to Katniss Everdeen.

Each have had a darkest hour, which has also become their defining moment.

It’s now happening to Elizabeth Holmes and maybe right now it's also happening to you or someone you know.

Mythologist and scholar, Joseph Campbell, calls it part of the “Hero’s Journey”. He showed that every culture told the story of the hero - how we must follow a journey with the same “Three Acts” to reach our true greatness:

In “Act 1 - The Departure” we follow the 'call to adventure'. We start a business, or take on a new challenge, which leads us into unfamiliar territory and internal struggles.

In “Act 2 - The Initiation” we meet the 'road of trials'. We are tested by external demons and dragons to see if we are up to the task. We need to be strong enough to stand tall and humble enough to seek the help of others.

This is where Elizabeth is right now. Most don’t make it through the road of trials, and give up. They never reach the prize - which is to rise above these obstacles to become the very best version of ourselves.

“It is by going down into the abyss that we recover the treasures of life. Where you stumble, there lies your treasure.” ~ Joseph Campbell

In “Act 3 - The Return” once we make it through the trials, comes resurrection and rebirth. We then return to where we began, with far greater power and wisdom to share with others.

This is all our journeys: It’s your journey. It’s my journey. We’re all in this together.

Get strength from the journeys of amazing entrepreneurs like Elizabeth’s. They’re unfolding in real time right in front of us. Keep hanging in their, and know you’re not alone.

Our world population of 7 billion as a village of 100 people

Our world population of 7 billion as a village of 100 people:

Here are our mother tongues:

12 speak Chinese
5 speak Spanish
5 speak Hindi or Bengali
5 speak English
73 speak the other 6,000 languages

Here is our wealth:

1 owns 40% of the wealth
6 own half the wealth
51 live on less than $2 a day

Here are our religious beliefs:

33 are Christian
22 are Muslim
14 are Hindu
7 are Buddhists
2 are Atheists
(And 33 believe in witchcraft, ghosts and aliens)

Here are our homes:

51 live in cities and can’t see the Milky Way
25 live in substandard housing or no home at all

And:

7 can’t read or write
10 have no job
11 have a vehicle
13 don’t have safe drinking water
14 are on Facebook
64 don’t have Internet access

If you woke up each day in this village, and knew each of the other 99 villagers personally, what would you do differently?

“I can do things you cannot, you can do things I cannot. Together we can do great things.” ~ Mother Teresa

3 Steps to 30 Million Dollars

This week Yahoo bought 17 year old Nick D’Aloisio’s iPhone app, Summly, for $30 million. When Yahoo was founded in 1994, Nick wasn’t even born yet.

What’s he doing with $30 million? As Nick says, "I can't even buy a car because I don't have a licence yet." So he’s going to buy a new bag. Why? “Mine is broken; it’s old and the strap’s not working.”

3 STEPS TO $30 MILLION

Nick’s app has delivered over 90 million news summaries in the four short months since he launched it on his 17th birthday in November. But Nick isn’t even old enough to be a Director of his company, so his mum is the Director while he sits in as Company Secretary.

What has gotten Nick to success so quickly in 15 months when so many of us are still struggling after 15 years? Here’s 3 steps his journey has in common with most super-success stories:

PROBLEM + PASSION = $300K SOLUTION

Nick’s Summly App was the solution to a real world problem that no one else was solving well. As Nick relates, “I was 15 years old and I was revising for some kind of history exam. The problem was I was trying to find information that was useful to me.”

Searching Google on his phone didn’t give him enough detail to know what was or wasn’t a useful link. So he put his own iPhone app together. The app quickly rose up the download ranks and Apple featured it in their store.

Then came a fateful email: “About a month later, the private fund of the Hong Kong billionaire Li-Kashing cold emailed me and expressed an interest to invest, but they didn’t realize I was 15...It turned out that they actually liked my age because it demonstrated I was net-native, so I’d only grown up with the Internet. They flew to London about a month later and invested $300,000. That kick-started this whole journey.”

$300K FUNDING + EXPERTISE = $1.3M REPUTATION

Nick used the money to bring in world experts to help relaunch the app. At 16 years old, he teamed up with the leaders in Natural Language Processing, Stanford Research Institute (Who create Apple’s SIRI - named after the company’s initials, SRI).

In between high school classes in London, Nick worked with SRI in the US by phone and text messages to build the new app. SRI’s solid reputation and Nick’s focus on approaching well known celebrities to help him attracted high profile investors Stephen Fry, Ashton Kutcher and Yoko Ono who invested $1.3 million. Nick made the most of his investors, with Stephen Fry starring in the launch video for Summly.

$1.3M REPUTATION + SINGLE-MINDED FOCUS = $30M STORY

With world class partners and world class investors, Nick gave up full-time school at the end of 2011, with his parent’s blessing: ““I talked about it with them and my headmaster and we decided it was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity and it would be silly not to run with it. Now, looking back, I can say it was a massive gamble. But it was a good gamble.”

From a standing start to $30 million, Nick has taken the age old 1-2-3 formula of solving a problem in a smart way, then using the resources he attracts to bring in the best talent, and leveraging that to attract the most influential partners.

What made him think he could just go and knock on the door of the best companies and most well known people in the world? As he says "I was naive. I didn't know I couldn't."

Nick is now reflecting on this week’s news: “Numbing is probably the best word to describe it. It’s a shock to be honest. The only thing I can take from this is that I’m genuinely kind of proud that I’ve been getting a lot of tweets where young people are commenting and saying, “This is really inspirational, I want to go and start my own thing.”

How many of these 3 steps in the 1-2-3 formula have you taken in your business? What can you do to upgrade your product, your talent or your partners?

Or maybe it’s time to be a kid again, be naive again, when you didn't know you couldn't. And start something entirely new.

Its not the size of the Dog in a Fight, its the size of the Fight in a Dog

Jamie Vardy’s amazing story from underdog to champion:

> Jamie had dreams of being a footballer, but was rejected by Sheffield Wednesday F.C. when he was 16 for being too small

> Not giving up, he went to work as a labourer in a carbon fibre factory, working 12 hour shifts, so he could join 7th division team, Stockbridge Park, spending 3 years earning £30 a week.

> At 20 years old he was convicted for assault after a pub fight, but kept playing football, and had to play for 6 months with an ankle bracelet and a 6pm curfew.

> In a world where footballers are transferred for millions, he was transferred to Halifax Town for £15,000 in 2010.

> At 25 years old, he was sold to Leicester City in 2012, a team that have never won the Premier League. He only scored 4 goals all season and came under fire from the fans.

> He ended the 2014-15 season with the team on the threat of relegation, with a Thai sex tape scandal that led to three of the players (including the manager’s son), and then the manager, leaving the team.

> He started this season with a new manager, Claudio Ranieri, who had been out of work for eight months after being fired from Greece after only four months on the job.

Then what happened in the last year?

Jamie breaks the Guinness World Record with 11 goals in 11 games and becomes the first player at Leicester to score 20+ goals since Gary Lineker in 1984.

He helps lead Leicester City from 5000-1 underdogs to winning the Premier League this week in what has been called the “most unlikely triumph in the history of team sport".

Gary Lineker has said of his hometown team’s victory that it is "the biggest sporting shock of my lifetime. I can't think of anything that surpasses it in sporting history. It is difficult to put over in words.. It was hard to breathe. I was a season ticket holder from the age of seven. This is actually impossible.”

Alan Shearer has said "For a team like Leicester to come and take the giants on with their wealth and experience - not only take them on but to beat them - I think it's the biggest thing to happen in football.”

This week Jamie has also been named the Football Writers’ Player of the Year.

The inspiration in the story?

Never give up. Anything can happen. And sometimes it does.

“Anything can happen. If the underdog wants a game bad enough, they can go out and get it. We just need to keep on playing as hard as we can.” ~ Ashley Langen

Big congratulations to Jamie Vardy and Leicester City!

“It’s not the size of the dog in the fight. It’s the size of the fight in the dog.” ~ Mark Twain

Start Up Mistakes

Four things make up 79% of all business failures:

#1 - Building something nobody wants (36%)
#2 - Hiring poorly (18%)
#3 - Lack of focus (13%)
#4 - Failing to market & sell (12%)

How to best avoid these failures:

#1 - Always start with the customer, not the product. Get your beta group / user group of customers and work with them to deliver what they love. People will pay you to do what they love, not to just do what you love.

#2 - Outsource to experts who manage themselves, not workers who need to be managed. Hire people who let you do more of what you do best, not people who take you away from your talents because they need to be managed.

#3 - Once opportunities begin to grow, don't get defocused. Anything that doesn't add to your customer's experience isn't worth doing.

#4 - Don't fail by having a great product that no one knows about. Don't rely on someone else to sell your product until you have more sales than you can handle. Don't make sales by closing customers. Create buyers by opening relationships.

#5 - More than all of the above, maximise failures that steer you (testing and measuring) and avoid failures that sink you (when you run out of money and time). Fail passionately and fail often, earning and learning with each failure, so it's you that keeps failing (and learning) and not your company!

"The biggest risk is not taking any risk.. In a world that is changing really quickly, the only strategy that is guaranteed to fail is not taking risks."
~ Mark Zuckerberg

And...

"Never, never, never give up."
~ Winston Churchill

Blowing up my Rockets

What’s the price when you fail?

This week, Elon Musk watched as his latest attempt at landing his Space X Falcon 9 rocket went wrong, ice froze one of the legs and the entire rocket toppled over and exploded.

That’s another $60 million up in smoke. What was Elon’s reaction?

First, he tweeted “Well, at least the pieces were bigger this time!”

Then, he posted a video of the explosion on Instagram.

And finally, he posted yesterday “My best guess for 2016: ~ 70% landing success rate (so still a few more RUDs to go), then hopefully improving to ~90% in 2017.”

“RUD” stands for “Rapid Unscheduled Disassembly” which is another way of saying “it blew up”…

What can we learn from Elon happily blowing up his rockets?

Most people would see this as an expensive failure, but Elon is a master of learning by failing, and he expects to fail epically and often.

It doesn’t cost Elon to fail as he builds it into his business model. Each Falcon rocket is expected to be lost anyway if he wasn’t testing how to land them. This one had already done its job of delivering an ocean monitoring satellite in orbit, which had already paid for the rocket.

This year, there are another 10 to 20 falcon rockets scheduled for take-off, each already paid for by the companies and governments paying Elon to send their cargos to space. With revenue secure, he focuses his time on how to test new innovations (like landing the rockets back safely).

We’ve moved from the industrial age where product development and testing took place BEFORE delivery, to the technological age where product development and testing takes place DURING delivery.

How can you increase the testing you can do? When in front of customers? When serving your customers? When delivering an existing product to develop the next product?

In the old paradigm, it was easy to dismiss testing as being too costly.
In the new paradigm, it’s NOT testing that’s far more expensive.

When Elon finally works out how to return his rockets each time, he’ll be saving himself over a billion dollars of lost rockets each year - and he’ll be able to cost his trips to be far ahead of the competition.

You don’t need to be a billionaire like Elon to test like him.
But you do need to test like Elon to be a billionaire like him.

Failing isn’t where the price is. Failing is where the profit is.

“If things aren’t failing, you are not innovating enough.” ~ Elon Musk

Will Smith...All it takes is a Will

If you’re up against adversity or overcoming challenges, this story is for you.

Will Smith's first career as a rapper led to him going broke in 1990 when the IRS came knocking. Will says, “They wanted $2.8 million and I had two dollars and eighty three cents.”

“There’s nothing more sobering than having six cars and a mansion one day and you can’t even buy gas… the next.”

Overnight, his hip hop friends disappeared and he was left trying to figure out what to do next. Early success and fast spending had led to big failure.

It was producer Quincy Jones who became Will’s white knight. Quincy was planning a new comedy for NBC, and thought of his own experience bringing up his kids in Bel-Air. He remembered one call from his daughter who was away at camp: “Dad, the water here sucks. Please FedEx Evian.”

So Quincy put his experience together with Will Smith’s “Fresh Prince” image, and created “The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air”. Will auditioned while struggling with no money, and took the job. The series became a hit, but Will had to keep paying 70% of his pay to the IRS for the next 3 years.

Given a fresh start, with just enough to money to survive, Will threw himself into acting: "I was trying so hard," he said. "I would memorize the entire script, then I'd be lipping everybody's lines while they were talking… My performances were horrible.”

Will persevered, and set himself the goal of being "the biggest movie star in the world”. He threw himself into studying other movie stars and what they did. Then he picked the right movies:

“The biggest movie stars make the biggest movies, so I looked at the top 10 movies of all time. At that point, they were all special-effects movies. So Independence Day, no-brainer. Men in Black, no-brainer. I, Robot, no-brainer.”

His mix of failure, resilience, determination - and another 20 years of work-ethic - finally led him to his goal:

Will is the only actor to have eight consecutive films gross over $100 million in the domestic box office, eleven consecutive films gross over $150 million internationally, and eight consecutive films in which he starred open at the number one spot in the domestic box office tally.

He’s been ranked as the most bankable star worldwide by Forbes and set a Guiness World Record for attending three film premieres of films he featured in a 24 hour time period.

The path to success is never a straight path, and it’s the seeds we sow in our failures that create our success.

So cut out the noise on the outside, listen to the voice on the inside, and keep your eye on the prize.

All it takes is will.

You are never too old to set another goal

John Pemberton invented Coca-Cola when he was 55 years old.

Ray Kroc bought McDonald’s when he was 59 years old.

Colonel Sanders began franchising KFC at 62 years old.

Tim & Nina Zagat were 51 yr old lawyers when they wrote the 1st Zagat guide.

Charles Darwin was 50 years old before he wrote “On the Origin of Species”.

Julia Child was also 50 years olf when she wrote her first cookbook.

Henry Ford was 45 years old when he created the Model T car.

Microfinance pioneer, Muhammad Yunus, launched the Grameen Bank at 43 years old.

Samuel L. Jackson was 43 years old before he had his first hit film, “Jungle Fever”.

It’s never too late to succeed.
It’s always too early to quit.

“You are never too old to set another goal or to dream a new dream.”
~ C.S. Lewis

— with Ray Kroc, Julia Child andCharles Darwin.

Learn How to See

Can you see order in chaos? Can you hear the signal in the noise?

Today 15 year old Canadian student, William Gadoury, hit the news for discovering an entire ancient Mayan City - by looking at the stars.

3 years ago, William got interested in Mayan cities when he learned about the end of the Mayan Calendar in 2012. As he began learning he said “I didn’t understand why the Maya built their cities far away from rivers, in remote areas, or in the mountain.”

So he began studying the patterns of the cities, and then studied the patterns of 22 Mayan star constellations. He saw the links, and when he superimposed the constellations on a map of the Yucatan Peninsula on Google Earth, they linked perfectly with 117 ancient Mayan cities.

He also found the brightest stars linked to the largest cities.

Despite being only 15 years old, William is the first person to make the correlation.

William then looked at a 23rd constellation of three stars, and found only two cities. So he guessed there must be a city in the third spot.

What do you do if you think you’ve found a city? He contacted the Canadian Space Agency, who then got satellites from NASA and JAXA, the Japanese space agency.

Scientists were blown away when they found evidence of a previously un-discovered large, 86m high pyramid and thirty buildings exactly where William predicted.

Not only was it a new city, based on its size some experts predict that it could be one of the five largest.

As Canadian Space Agency’s Daniel de Lisle says, “Linking the positions of the stars to the location of a lost city along with the use of satellite images on a tiny territory to identify the remains buried under dense vegetation is quite exceptional.”

William’s discovery is now being published in a scientific journal and he will present his findings at Brazil’s International Science Fair next year.

Also, Mexican archaeologists have promised William he can join their expedition to the area to verify the find. William says “It would be the culmination of three years of work and the dream of a lifetime.”

If 15 year old William can discover an entire city, what could you find by looking more closely?

When I met Richard Branson on Necker Island last year, a friend asked him “Do you analyse data or use your gut when making decisions.” Richard replied, “It’s not really one or the other. I see patterns. If things fit, I do it.”

Science, exploration, art, music, sport - and entrepreneurship - all share a common theme: Patterns.

When, like William, you see the patterns, you can fill in the gap - Whether it’s your next step, a new innovation, or a new, ancient city.

“Learn how to see. Realize that everything is connected to everything else.” ~ Leonardo Da Vinci

The How of Instagram's Kelvin

3 simple, not-so-simple steps to $1 billion...


Instagram sold to Facebook for $1 billion. When TIME asked Instagram founder, Kevin Systrom, if he would sell the company, he said “It’s not really on the top of our minds right now.”

Kevin is 27 years old and started Instagram 3 years, 18 months ago with Mike Krieger, in October 2010. The company has grown with just 4 staff, and had just 9 in the team as at april 2012. With the $1 billion deal that was announced, was Kevin just plain lucky, or was there some simple steps that he (and others who have had the same luck) have in common?

Here’s three steps he followed. They may not guarantee you exactly the same success - but they will increase your own good fortune:

1. THINK BIG FROM DAY ONE - THEN LEARN FROM OTHERS:

It was while Kevin was studying at Stanford 10 years ago that he had the idea of a photo-sharing site, from his passion for photography. That was before iPhones, and before Facebook. Step one is to cultivate your idea by learning from others. He met Mark Zuckerberg in 2004 and talked about his idea. Mark then offered him a job at Facebook, which had just launched (in hindsight, a cheaper option that the $1 billion he’s just paid to work with Kevin). Kevin turned him down but they stayed in touch. He went to intern at Odeo with Evan Williams, who sold Blogger and Jack Dorsey, who launched Twitter. This is where Kevin got to understand the power of social sharing. Kevin later said “Comparing Instagram to photography is like comparing Twitter to Microsoft Word”.

He then went on to work at Google. All in all, it was a full six years after having the idea of a photo sharing site that he worked with others leading the field: Getting paid for his own education before he launched his own start-up. As Kevin says, “I was given the opportunity to be in the middle of a ton of innovation, and meet some of the smartest people doing the coolest stuff in the world. When I finally did it [myself], it just felt so right."

Who could you (and should you) be working with today to lay your own foundation?

2. KEEP 100% FOCUSED ON WHAT PROBLEM YOU’RE SOLVING - AND FAIL FIRST:

When Kevin launched Instagram in October 2010, he explained in his first blog what problems Instagram intended to solve. He listed the top three problems users were having:

“My mobile photos look lame.”
“It’s a pain to share to all my friends.”
“Photos take forever to upload.”

How would he know these were the problems? Just by talking to people? No, by getting it wrong the first time. In early 2010 he launched his first attempt “Burbn” as a location-based photo app, using Foursquare. It was a one-man-band, but after a year of hard work it had failed to catch on. It was, however, a failure that allowed him to learn from his users what would work, and to attract interest from like-minded people, including his future co-founder of Instagram, Mike Krieger.

By focusing on these three problems, Instagram launched in October 2010. Kevin relates the first moments of launch: “It was 12:15am, October 6th and we had been working on the app non-stop, day and night for 8 weeks. With a bit of hesitation, I clicked the button that launched “Instagram” live to the Apple app store. We figured we’d have at least 6 hours before anyone discovered the app so we could grab some shut-eye. No problem, we figured. Within a few minutes, they started pouring in... The night of sleep we were hoping for turned into a few meager hours before we rushed into the office to add capacity to the service. Now, only a couple months later, we’re happy to announce that our community consists of more than a million registered users.”

What problem are you solving, and what are you learning by failing, that is setting you up for your own overnight success?

3. CUT OUT ALL THE NOISE:

Kevin explains the difference between Instagram and Burbn: “We actually got an entire version of Burbn done as an iPhone app, but it felt cluttered, and overrun with features. It was really difficult to decide to start from scratch, but we went out on a limb, and basically cut everything in the Burbn app except for its photo, comment, and like capabilities. What remained was Instagram.”

Kevin cut out all the noise. He then launched Instagram just on the Apple App Store (It just came to Android last week) and focused on sharing on Twitter and Facebook (Three platforms that didn’t even exist when he first had the idea). That’s it: Photo, comment, like. No other platforms. No other noise.

Simpler means sharper means easier to cut through the noise. Instagram went from one million users by Dec 2010 to 30 million users today. In 2011, Apple named Instagram the “App of the Year”. Why would Facebook buy it now for $1 billion? Because Mark already knows it will add more value than that to Facebook when it has its upcoming $100 billion IPO.

If you are already thinking big, connecting smart and focused at the problems you are solving - How could you solve them in the fewest number of steps?

A BILLION DOLLAR STORY

It obviously takes more than three simple, not-so-simple steps to get the pieces lined up and timed right for the kind of 18 month run that Kevin has had. But these three show up again and again in today’s stories of hyper-growth, and the ones I will continue to share here on Facebook and at my Fast Forward events.

As an end to this chapter of the Instagram story, here’s how Kevin relates the beginning of his photo-sharing idea. It is at the heart of his journey, as your story should be at the heart of yours:

“When I studied abroad my teacher set what I do now in motion by saying, “Give me that camera of yours.” He took my camera away and gave me a little, plastic camera. I was studying in Florence at the time and he told me that I wasn’t allowed to use my camera for the rest of the class. I had to use this plastic camera with a terrible lens. He said I was too focused on sharpness and “I feel like you’re more artsy than that.””

“He said, “I want you to use this Holga,” this plastic camera with a plastic lens that had this cult following in the ’80s and ’90. I was blown away by what it could do to photos. My photography teacher was totally right. I was too focused on being meticulous with these really beautiful, complex architectural shots. It helps to see the world through a different lens and that’s what we wanted to do with Instagram. We wanted to give everyone the same feeling of discovering the world around you through a different lens.”

It’s ironic that as Instagram hits a $1 billion value, mimicking the feel of these disposable cameras, the biggest producer of them, Kodak, has filed for bankruptcy.

Each wave that crashes is followed by another. The only question is who is already positioning themselves to surf it. Are you up for the ride?

After 35 attempts

Here's Charles. A month ago he was set to close his business. This week, he sold it for $180 million. That's why he's smiling...

After six years trying to figure out how to make games on the iPhone, Charles Forman was about to give up, with his company, Omgpop, set to run out of money by this May. Things changes three days ago. He said in an interview with the New York Times on Monday “I had $1,700 in my bank account yesterday, and now I have a whole lot more.”

So what changed? After 35 attempts at making games that would be successful, the Omgpop team finally found a hit at the beginning of February. The game, called “Draw Something” is like Pictionary for the iPhone. Since it launched on Feb 6th, it has been downloaded 35 million times. It caught the attention of Zynga, the game company behind Farmville and other Facebook game hits. A month after the game launched, Zynga just bought Omgpop from Charles for $180 million.

Do you have the perseverance to try to create a success after 35 failures? Is it worth the six years of trying and failing to reach the runaway success? This is another example of hyper-growth that comes from getting your surf board back out there again and again.

This story unfolded while I was on my recent Australia tour, where I was sharing similar stories of 'overnight' successes. This hit the headlines this week. Next week will be another story, and then another. Surf’s up! Will it be your turn next?