Why do some ideas tend to take off and become reality setting a trend in human existence whilst others never make it past the realm of transient thought? Are there traits that mark out those who see their ruminations manifest into reality from those who don’t? What can you do to tilt the odds of seeing your ruminations evolve into reality? This series aims to address these questions and highlight simple steps that every dreamer can take to see their ruminations manifest into reality.

Every world shapers had one thing in common. They all esteemed their ideas highly enough to translate them into reality despite the odds. Jeff Bezos summarized his experience of starting Amazon saying” every good intentioned, high- judgment person we asked told us not to do it”. He defied the majority and the rest is history.The first of my observations of translating ruminations to reality is that you must value and esteem your ruminations if you wish to see them become reality.

Giants value and esteem their ideas.
Don’t toy with your thoughts; they are your tools to your destiny and greatness
Look out in the next few days for the other steps Giants take to convert ideas to tangibility.

For more of Dr. Ayodele’s insights in developing habits of greatness buy his groundbreaking book – Footprints of Giant from amazon now.

We are witnessing the dawn of a society where our teenagers are systematically being coached  into becoming “consumers” even before they “producers”; the next generation of consumer junkies is already being prepared so that once they start earning they start spending.

At the same time the Government is getting rid of Educational Maintenance Allowance for college students and tripling student loans for teenagers seeking to go to University; potentially leaving them with debts equivalent to the amount it cost many of their parents to buy their first house. To coin a phrase “it’s the perfect storm”.

So what’s the solution? Well the answer is quite simple; education! Teenagers need to understand how the financial and commercial system works to prepare them for the coming storm, and it’s never too early to start.
Education should start in the home with parents who should teach their children:
•    The value of money
•    The importance of saving
•    How to budget
•    Financial self sufficiency
The lessons then need to continue into the mainstream education system; teaching our children about:
•    How financial institutions operate
•    Credit cards/debit cards/cash cards
•    Mortgages and loans
•    The importance of avoiding debt
•    The importance of practicing money from your first pay cheque

Our teenagers are defenseless against media driven onslaught which screams spend, spend, spend, and buy, buy, buy with no thought for the future. Unless our children learn from the excesses of the previous generation they are doomed to make the same mistakes and end up broke!

If they couldn’t see it coming, then how could we, the masses, who have had no financial education and really don’t understand stock markets, money markets, interbank lending rates or even the true cost of credit. In fact we have all probably learned more about the world of money in the last 6 months than we did throughout our entire schooling, college or university years.

I wonder why money is not on the curriculum? It seems strange when you consider that so much of our adult life is spent in the pursuit of it and that so many of our problems as adults are linked to it. It strikes me as odd, that 95% of people in the developed world are financially illiterate and don’t understand basics like:

• How do banks make money?
• What is the true cost of cheap credit?
• How does credit scoring work?
• Who exactly is our country indebted to?
• Who does the government borrow money from?
• Why do the worst off pay the most for borrowing money?
• Why were people on low incomes offered 100% mortgages?
• Who will pay for the bail out of banks and big corporations?

Financial illiteracy is no doubt the reason why most of us bought into the illusion of success created by the irresistible offer of easy credit. However, our ignorance clearly served the interests of a few, who profited from our limited vocabulary by veiling their deceptions in language that we were not trained to understand.

Consumer ignorance is not an accident. It is a carefully crafted and skilfully executed strategy to protect the interests of a few at the expense of the many. It really wouldn’t help them if ordinary people could see through their scams and schemes designed to entice and enslave the unsuspecting. It wouldn’t help their cause if the general public became financially literate. Worse yet it would cripple them if the public could read and understand their fine print or indeed if they discovered alternatives to credit.

Mis-education
Mis-education occurs when ‘the promise of education is broken by the process of education.’ Education promises an equal opportunity for all and an increased capacity to achieve. However if the process itself omits or obscures the most important and critical subjects, then the whole experience is misleading and detrimental for the people who rely on it!

On the strategic level this is usually quiet deliberate and calculated but on the operational and delivery level, teachers often have no idea that they are part of a plan to steer students towards one goal and away from another. This book attempts to show why the basic assumptions upon which our education system is built are no longer true. It also attempts offer a strategy for those who realise that they have no option but to re-educate themselves for success!

Limited choices
When people make choices, they can only choose from the options that are available to them at the time. They typically choose the best of the options that they are aware of. Even if they make a bad or destructive choice, like joining a gang, they do so for reasons that seem good to them at the time or because it is the best of several options available to them.

The problem is that our perceived options are always limited by our level of knowledge and skill! For example, if you have no entrepreneurial knowledge, skills, tools or experience then your career choices are limited to a job or to government benefits or to crime. Starting your own business is not even be considered, because it is simply not an option.

Mis-education occurs when realistic and sensible options are obscured by expectations that the student will go another way. In other words, if your education is designed to qualify and equip you for one option only, then it is easy to assume that it is the only option available. It may even become impossible to imagine another way.

When society expects it of you and parents want it for you and then school prepares you for it, you pretty much assume that it is the thing to do! Other options are simply off the radar. If you do later discover another way, you would literally have to re-educate yourself in order to comprehend it, let alone choose it!

Mis-educated
There is a big difference between being uneducated and being mis-educated. The uneducated person is basically uniformed while the mis-educated person has been misinformed and subsequently mislead. The uneducated person is ignorant but knows it, while the mis-educated person is ignorant but doesn’t know it.

Is it possible that the majority of people in the developed world were mis-educated and mislead to embrace a formula and philosophy that only works for an elite few but that leaves the masses in misery? A formula that maintains the status quo and balance of power in favour of a few and at the expense of the many. A formula that is guaranteed to fail those who use it because it is based on a hidden agenda!

The game has changed

What if the game has changed but people are still being taught to play by the old rules and old
strategies? What if they don’t even know that the game has changed? This is exactly what lies at the root of our economic woes. We already live in a new economic era but the masses neither know it nor, more importantly, what to do about it. At the heart of our economic woes; rising inflation or deflation, deflating currencies, unprecedented job losses, bank failures, home repossessions, credit crunches and recessions, is that fact that average people have been mislead to rely on a formula that doesn’t work! Consequently they don’t earn enough money, they are in debt, they are dependent on employers and governments and feel powerless to change their own circumstances for the better. The masses receive little or no financial education, no leadership education, no business education and no success education. They are fundamentally educated
for employment purposes and have no idea on how to achieve independence outside of the job market. Even though the job market is shrinking so that more and more people are looking for fewer and fewer jobs and in spite of the fact that no employer can guarantee you a job for life, we are still being educated for employment purposes, with a job being both the point and the prize of the whole process!

The process and the prize!
The result of this philosophy is mass disillusionment, suspicion and mis-trust of the whole system. Let me explain; many people fail in education because they don’t think that the prize is worth the process. Remember, the prize in education is a job. If you do well you may even get a good job with plenty of prospects. However, the thought of long hours, low pay, a steep ladder and basically re-living their parents nightmare, doesn’t particularly appeal to many youngsters. Perhaps they are put off by the plight of those who do succeed in employment-based education? Those who succeed and achieve degree level often come out of the system in debt and are forced by desperation into jobs that are not even remotely related to the subjects that they studied at the highest level. I’m sure this all sounds bleak and that many will see this as an unfair or extreme position. However what they cannot deny is the fact that few come through the system and into the dream that they were promised all along. This book attempts to explore this phenomenon and to offer a way forward for people who want more for themselves and for their families.

Change; love it or hate it, it usually happens anyway.  Even if we don’t, all around us does and that will either work for us or it won’t.  The current world economic climate is forcing change.  Whether in our spending habits, or the things we value or put our trust in or how we view ourselves, it’s changing. The thing about some changes is that we’d rather no one see the transition. For example as a tree changes through the seasons it goes through a time of losing all it has, looking like it’s on it’s way out, bare and baron.  Then slowly but surely you begin to see new growth and then, what seems like all of a sudden it comes into the fullness of it’s glory.

One of natures most radical change process is that of the caterpillar to butterfly but have you ever heard a caterpillar scream in its cocoon?  Seems like a really nonsense thing to say but we often pray for what could be called the ‘Butterfly Syndrome’.

The ‘Butterfly Syndrome’ where we go from green to glory all under the safe covering of a cocoon out of the sight of those that would be appalled by the transition and judgmental on what is a momentary state of being.  Or who might encourage us to turn back and stay as we are for fear the process is too painful or ugly.  A place of transition in secret, where it just happens hindrance free and out of our hands.  Doesn’t that sound wonderful?

As we loose the ability to scurry around on multiple limbs eating until our hearts are content, on to being carried from place to place on wings and the wind, looking much more attractive lets add.  Free from a sluggish outward appearance to a much more streamlined and agile physicality or mentality that allows us to explore the world from many a different angle.

However it’s never been a consideration though that the caterpillar is in the cocoon screaming, praying “Lord, if you could allow this cup to pass from me, yet not my will Lord but thine be done” or perhaps something less spiritual.  That he is rejecting the process fiercely fighting against it.  We can mistakenly look at his situation from the outside, at the stillness and assume acceptance of that change. But what if the caterpillar is screaming and no one can hear or help?  The idea of being locked away doesn’t seem so attractive.  We may be seeking a transition without trauma, but does such an experience exist?   No, is probably the short answer to that.

In essence change is somewhat painful, often brought about by crisis and sometimes ugly.  What makes the difference is our approach to it.  Knowing where we want to or will end up will help in using mind over matter when pain starts to strike or people comment on the way we look.  There are also bonuses to having this transition happen out in the open, people can help us through it.  And what about when we do come in to our glorious place of change, at least they will know we paid our dues to get there.

Spiritual Development To be effective in the Kingdom, everyone needs to grow spiritually. Four steps to spiritual development are. Read the Bible every day; Pray every day, Join a Bible led Church and get involved in a ministry.

Emotional Development Emotional development helps to protect you by taking control of your feelings and acting rationally. We are responsible for our emotions. The purpose of emotions is motivation; internal signals and social signals. Emotions are aroused by our common senses. When you understand the process of emotion arousal you gain self-control.

Physical Development Physical development is simply development of the body. We all need to know how to maintain good health and value our bodies to give us strength. To develop our bodies we need good nutrition; our body need regular exercise and good rest.

Mental Development The most valuable possession that human being have is the mind. Human beings have the ability to think. All issues of life spring from our minds. We are what we are today because of our thinking yesterday. Mental development helps our mental capacity to perceive things and make proper decisions in life. We increase our capacity by increasing our Knowledge; wisdom and understanding.

Time & Time Management The universe operates according to eternal Laws set By God. One of these laws is the law of Time. Times and seasons are already determined. Winter autumn; spring and summer cannot be changed. When you learn how to obey these laws you are safe; you need to know what to wear in winter. If you do not value your time you will lose it. We do not have any other time than today. Time constantly changes. Time is a movement and waits for no one. Success comes only to the people who are at the right place at the right time doing the right thing.

Purpose Our God is a God of purpose. He does not do anything by accident. He created you for a purpose. You were created for a reason. Our responsibility is to discover our purpose. Our daily routine; our experiences; our pains; our likes and dislikes; our environments; our education; our gifts and talents and our dreams prepare us for our purpose in life.