HOW DO I MANAGE WORKPLACE POLITICS AS A WOMAN

Politics is not only synonymous with leadership at federal, state or local government level. In the workplace, there is corporate politics at play, it is therefore important to know how to comport one’s self and prevent being a casualty of workplace politics.

CONCLUSION:THESE 5 THINGS MAY PREVENT YOU GETTING YOUR DREAM JOB AS A WOMAN

Hello,
In the previous post, we started 'These five things may prevent you from getting your dream job'. Here is the conclusion of that post with a short personal experience.

 

THESE 5 THINGS THAT MAY PREVENT YOU GETTING YOUR DREAM JOB AS A WOMAN

Hello,

These are five major ways women let themselves down when they are earnestly searching for a job actually, the last one is no fault of theirs). Working on the first four points will increase your chances of being employed. Let’s get to it.

ARE THERE JOBS A WOMAN SHOULD NOT TAKE?

Hello,

The opinion widely held by Africans is that there are a few roles and jobs that women should not hold. We examine whether this is so.

SHOULD WOMEN WORK?

Hello,

Trying to answer the question should women work without relying on your culture, experiences and values takes research and willingness to learn so putting aside all previously held beliefs, extensive research on the subject matter began. Here is my finding:

Sexism comes to play when the same question is asked for both genders and the answers given are different.  For example, the answer to ‘Should women work?’ and ‘should men work?’ should be same. (Further reading)

Women who find themselves in the work place do not assist in bridging the gap between male and females present in the work place and would more readily give males a chance at work than their female counterpart. (Further reading)

WEALTH PRESERVATION AND WEALTH TRANSFER (SERIES FINALE)

Hello,

Wealth preservation and transfer will be the final post on the taking control of your finances as a woman series. I have confirmation that our resource person will do us the honour of writing on wealth preservation and transfer and I am eager to have her point of view but in the meanwhile, here is mine.

Wealth preservation includes all the decisions taken and actions geared towards ensuring acquired or created wealth is not lost. This can be done by reducing investment charges and other charges which deplete your funds, also by investing in extremely low risk instruments and ventures.

Quick reminder, we have examined Basic survival needs of a woman, Saving as a tool in financial planning, Cutting down cost, differentiated between savings and investment while emphasizing that they are not one and the same, wealth creation where we advised you to increase your source of income, in an earlier post series we have suggested you start with education and mentioned that it did not have to cost you (you may wish to see how HERE), wealth management and also talked on what to do when you have fallen off track with financial prudence.

Wealth transfer can mean the passing on of wealth from one to another

WHAT DO I DO? MY FINANCIAL PRUDENCE JUST SUFFERED A SETBACK

Hello,

Wealth preservation and transfer will be the final post on the taking control of your finances as a woman series. I have contacted a lady who is very passionate about wealth preservation and transfer; pray she guests here so there can be an exchange of knowledge.

It is important to state that every post in this series is very important if you are to take control of your finances. Please read all 10 of them if you haven’t done so.

Also, it is important to share these posts with friends and family so they can encourage you in this journey, join you if they will or just be available to discourage you from splurging. 

WHAT DO I DO? MY FINANCIAL PRUDENCE JUST SUFFERED A SETBACK.

If you have been with me on this journey of taking control of your finances, you will agree with me that it has led you to the place of financial prudence. I was glad to receive positive feedback from you especially concerning the ‘practical ways to get out of debt’ and ‘Savingsas a tool in taking control of your finances’. Thank you.

You may have been written out your expenses for the previous month, drawn a budget from there, and examined every item of your expenses and effected the desired changes but one or two months, even ten months down the line, your ‘financial control’ weakens and you splurge in a moment of indiscretion, What do you do after?

WOMEN AND RETIREMENT: HOW DO I RETIRE SEAMLESSLY?

Hello,

60 is the retirement age of Nigeria's workforce. There have been arguments for the adoption of a new retirement age. Some make a case for the adoption of 65years and some others 55years, whatever happens, one thing is certain we will not work at our jobs forever.

It is very important to clear the misconception that a lot of people hold. They believe all that matters is proper planning for the moment when retire and get a lump sum called gratuity, only then they try to start the business of their dreams. The problem with this is that they may spend their gratuity learning the business of their chosen fields through common beginner mistakes.

INVESTING as a way to take control of your finances

Hello,
Thank you for visiting everyday and being patient enough to understand about wealth creation,wealth management and now we are in the last phase (wealth preservation and transfer).

Previous posts include saving, cutting cost, getting rid of debt as ways to take control of our finances. Endeavor to click on the links to see them if you haven't done so already. They hold a lot of great insights.

PRACTICAL WAY TO GET OUT OF DEBT

Hello,

We have all being in one form of debt. We may have become indebted by favours done us or properties volunteered to us. We may even have been indebted for a few hours, days or months. The most important rules for being indebted can be found here (If you must be indebted, do it right).

This post focuses on the burden of having a debt to pay. If you had read the ‘previous post’ and followed it through, you may have learnt one or two things. If not, this one is for you.

WHEN SHOULD I TAKE A LOAN?

Hello,

In Economics, we learn about the sources of finance. Loans are one of the sources of financing. We also hear that debt is good for business but many of us wonder is debt really good?

HOW DO I CUT DOWN MY COST (TAKING CONTROL OF YOUR FINANCES AS A WOMAN) CONTINUED

Hello,

So sorry this did not come top of the morning, had internet connection problems (could the rain have been responsible for it? I don't know) but here goes:

This is a continuation of the previous blog post; if you have not seen it, please go here and start there.

HOW DO I CUT DOWN MY COST (TAKING CONTROL OF YOUR FINANCES AS A WOMAN)

Hello,

There are many ways you can cut down your cost; you need to know what you spend money on, how you spend money and what you need to spend money on.

Let me rephrase, you need to keep track of your previous expenditure, understand your spending habit and create a budget (have a criteria for items making it to your budget – urgent and important) and look for alternatives (hitching a ride or walking).

FINANCIAL PLANNING: SAVING as a tool in taking control of your finances as a woman

Hello,

Let me start with a few wise words which my lecturer in the university taught. It may have its base in education but I consider it wise. Here goes:

Do not buy what you can rent, do not rent what you can borrow, do not borrow what you can beg for.

It basically means take the least expensive option always.

Common also, people mistake savings and investment to be interchangeable. They are not synonyms, investment is money set aside for creation of wealth and savings is well, just savings (kept aside for emergencies and future occurrences).

TAKING CONTROL OF YOUR FINANCES AS A WOMAN: YOUR SALARY IS NOT SUFFICIENT?

Hello,

In the second post, you must have read that no 9 – 5 job can be called wealth creation. At best, you are helping another create wealth which is good in a sense but not what you set out to achieve. This is not to say that it is wrong to have a job, many people begin from working jobs and using salary to create wealth.

I honestly have not come across a person who is so content with their pay cheque at month’s end; this goes a long way to show that wealth is a thing of the mind. While struggling to create wealth, one has to be ‘content but hungry’. Content enough to know that it is not money that makes a person happy. The pursuit of money is almost never ending but you need to be hungry enough to want to ‘get up’ and create wealth (Trust me, the process is not a blink).

If you feel your salary is not sufficient to meet your needs, guess what? Half or more than half Nigeria’s population feel same. The only difference between most is their ability to manage scarce resources.

A WOMAN'S BASIC SURVIVAL NEEDS

Ever heard of Abraham Maslow? If you took a course in human resources management, you did and you heard about his hierarchy of needs. Researchers or Scientists may argue about the ranking or sufficiency of his 5 needs theory but we cannot argue about the truism of his physiological (basic) need.

TAKING CONTROL OF YOUR FINANCES AS A WOMAN: WEALTH CREATION

Hello,

Wealth creation is the deliberate multiplication of your resources. In most cases wealth creation benefits beyond the creator of wealth, the community and the economy are beneficiaries of wealth creation also.

TAKING CONTROL OF YOUR FINANCES AS A WOMAN

Hello,

Welcome to another significant for your success series, for this one I have pulled out my accountant and finance hat and topped it with my research belt laced with some experience. There are going to also be 10 (ten) posts geared towards giving you control of your finances.

 From accounting we understand that in order to maximize finance we need to make the most profit. In order to make more profit than we already are making, we would need to drive down cost and increase income. At the end of these blog post series, we will be able to effectively take control of our finance.

Beyond this, we will talk about wealth creation, wealth management and wealth preservation in different ways. We start tomorrow.

If you missed the ‘how to succeed as a woman series’, please take the time to read them now. Do your friends the favor of sharing and asking them to subscribe to these blog posts.

PEARL

PLAN, PLAN, PLAN

Touchdown! Yipee!

What if I told you that your time is not maximally spent? Would you agree with me or disagree?

If I also said half of your time is not spent on activities that will ensure you succeed, will my claim be speculation or truth?

I had created a chart to upload for self assessment as a way to validate my claims but I am having problems uploading so I will add that on later. In the stead, you can create a time sheet for your self assessment by writing out the 24 hours in a day, beside each hour write out what you spent that time for and lastly tick beside the activity if it is productive.

I would need you to honestly assess yourself, tick the third box only if that time was productively spent. please do this for a minimum of a week, start with yesterday.
Bear in mind that traffic for those who reside in Lagos or Port harcourt  is not a productive activity, if you are not driving you are in control of that time and if you are driving in the traffic, you have access to the radio (catch up on the news for the day or tune in to a station you can learn something fun). You may only take a few minutes to cool down from work stress. Better still, it could be your low cost stress relief time (refer to part 7- the seventh post after the introductory post on 'How to succeed as a woman'). Please honestly assess yourself and time management.

Read part one to ten of this series again (this is part ten, read your way back to one) and feel free to engage me in the comments section or by mail. I look forward to hearing from you.

I will make two requests of you,
1.) Subscribe to my blog posts, visit and read regularly
2.) Share accross social media with friend's and family, if you find it interesting, so would they. Thank you

PEARL

HOW TO MAKE FAMILY CHEER LEADING SQUAD ONE

Hello,

A successful woman remembers that she would prefer the presence of both her parents and her partner's attention at all times and know it is the same way (or to a different degree) her kids, wards and partner will prefer to have her time, input and attention in their lives. It is often better to have your family (Nuclear and extended to some degree) satisfied and prevent them from turning into clogs in your wheel of progress.

Do I really have a vice?

Hello,

Make no mistake about this, it has taken me weeks to get this together and years to get together this strategies from being curious about what made successful people thick. These are proven strategies I have been sharing for the last seven posts and we have yet two more to go in the series. If I were you, I would go back and see previous posts.

Why do I bother to share? Women (and everyone who reads the blog posts) need to be empowered in these economic times and find out what may have prevented the success which we all crave. 

List your top 5 vices.

I really do mean what I said, List your top 5 vices

Now lets get to it, do not get defensive or spiritual on me like this story of a person who went for a job interview and was asked what his weakness was and answered 'following the lord'. How is that a weakness? I think the candidate would have been more truthful saying 'lack of discipline in christian activities'. 

When we make our vice seem positive or excusable, we do not acknowledge it for the damage the vice/weakness does so please drop the self righteousness and critically examine yourself because success is what we are concerned with. If you need some examples of what vices are, here goes:

1. A shopaholic who cannot resist a 'good deal' or Always compelled to buy aso ebi every week

2. Lack of discipline with food

3. A talkative who does not have a limit to what they say and may pass on information to their competitors (also a proud, boastful attitude)

4. Drama queen or king

5. Mrs Emotional, overly sensitive... the list goes on, basically anything you find hard to put in check.

Let me pull a shocker and make this blog post short.

TAKE CONTROL OF YOUR VICE. With success, discipline is not optional.

Let me throw in a bonus, women also need to learn how to save ( blog posts about this coming up subsequently).
Remember we have two more posts on the how to succeed as a woman series. Do me a favor, leave me your comments, like, share on your social media platforms and subscribe to my blog posts. Thank you.

PEARL

HOW EXPENSIVE IS STRESS RELIEF?

Hello,

This is the seventh post on the how to succeed as a woman series and we are almost at touch down. If you have missed the previous posts from lastweek, go HERE, HERE, HERE, HERE and HERE.

NO! I did not suggest a massage. Please read below to know more about the topic.
As you aim to succeed, it means you may not have idle time especially at the onset when you set out to achieving. Personally, I think success is not an idle man's friend so you may never really have idle time, you may find you need to consciously create the time to rest or do anything.

Seeing that you are going to get very busy

learning, planning, doing, why not think of the best way to relieve stress ahead of time so you do not lose time to stress.

It is important to plan consciously creating time rest but every now and then, there is the tendency to schedule work and lose track of time and soon we are burnt out and stressed.

How do you relieve stress? It is important to know the things that take stress off you. For some people it is a massage, for others, it is a holiday. For me, it is all of these and more but since I do not have the luxury of taking holidays frequently, I have found my lowest cost stress relief method.

My method goes back to studying, I had times when I was beyond stressed. I remember walking down the rows of products at Sainsbury, Morrison et al. They were close to my house in Fishponds and immediately feeling better. I also do the same in Nigeria here.

I have also found that taking walks help also but I favour walking round supermarkets, malls and shopping centers because for that time, my focus is on the beautiful row of products before me which means NO TIME FOR THINKING ABOUT WORK.

I encourage you to find your low cost stress relief before you get stressed. you cannot afford long, frequent breaks to 'clear your head' when you are focused on succeeding and retirement is still far away.

Enough said! Find your low cost stress relief method if being efficient and successful is important to you.

Do not be selfish about these strategies, share accross your social media platforms and subscribe to my blog posts. Please leave your comments below also, Thank you.
PEARL

HOW DO I NOT FEEL LIKE A FAILURE? NO JOB! NO PARTNER!

Hello,

If you have made it thus far, Congratulations, it shows you are benefiting from this series, remember this is part six of a ten part series so stick with me. If you have not read the past five posts, please do so.

You may say I have no job, how do I cope or start succeeding? Or I have a little education (or a lot of it), I have removed all stereotypes from my mind, I have even tried planning e.t.c. but I have also been searching for a job without success.



The unemployment rate in Nigeria is very high and most people who find work are not suitably placed, their capacity for performance is being underutilised. It is tough but remember tough times hardly outlive tough people. Remember Part 4 where you were advised to play with work/ work with play?. While you are applying to jobs, you may as well.
Remember Part 1 where we said get a little education (If you did not read it, you cannot understand it), it also comes in handy here. It is important to be busy while applying to Jobs.

Scan your environment, if no one will employ you, you have to employ yourself (Entrepreneurship). A mentor advised me never to look at myself as too big or educated to do any job or business including travelling to villages to buy from farmers and package for sale. While I did not do that exactly, I went to learn how to bake and would sell to my neighbours who had shops thus making money in hundreds (Did I mention I have an international M.Sc Finance?) while still blogging and play-earning with the radio. If you cannot get a job and still insist on working in a 9am-5pm, volunteer for free at an organisation and improve both your curriculum vitae and chances of getting employment.

It is also easy to feel like a failure when you do not have a partner in our society especially when you are approaching your mid 30's. Society seems to rubbish whatever achievement we have and think we got them by some preposterous and loose means. this is where Part 2 comes in handy for us.

Firstly, remember no other person holds the key to your happiness but yourself and you deserve a pat on the back for not accepting any 'Tobi' as your partner just yet.
Disabuse your mind of the stereotypes and do not get desperate, just be findable.

More important, read Part 2 : you are not a failure because you have not found a suitable pair, there is still more to life. most people find when they stop bothering themselves about it and focus on working on themselves to be better versions, they get positive result.

Lastly, We should not derive a value for ourselves from the number of relationships that did not work out for us. The reason I bother with these is because it is important to let the extra weight of worry go so you can focus on achieving.
FAILURE IS THE LAST BUSSTOP OF LIFE, THERE IS NO REASON TO FEEL LIKE YOU HAVE REACHED IT BEFORE YOUR LIFE IS OVER - PEARL

PEARL.

YOU NEED HELP, ASK FOR IT

Hello,

This is perhaps one of the really important blog posts for women who want to succeed because many women are constantly being overwhelmed with work due to traditional roles or profiling. In these days when both man and woman are expected to both contribute to family earnings, it is becoming accepted that women are in the work place but society has not adjusted it stance on domestic chores and raising the family.
SEE MORE>>>

CAN WORK EQUAL PLAY?

Hello,

Let us get straight to it, I am sure you have benefited from the previous three posts (Part 1,2,3). If you missed the introduction as well as previous posts see 'Introduction' , 'Part 1' ...

Just as a reminder, we are looking at how to succeed as a woman. The aim of this series of blog posts is to give you a front row access to the lives of successful Nigerian women and show what has helped them be successful so we can replicate or move closer to success.

SEE MORE>>>

PLANNING LIFE TO THE BEST OF YOUR ABILITY

Hello,

I am glad we have made it thus far, I hope you have put to use what you have learned from part 1 and 2? If you missed them, go back and check them because they will definitely benefit you.

PLAN LIFE TO THE BEST OF YOUR ABILITY. Do I sound like an anti- faith individual who could use some faith right now? Are you the 'leave it to luck and happenstance, it will turn out fine' kind of individual? Or are we a mixture of both?

SEE MORE>>>

How to succeed as a woman part 2 : I'd end in the kitchen anyway?

Hello,

Happy to continue the series we started on how to succeed as a woman.

TRUE OR FALSE: How many of the statements below are True
a) 1      b) 2        c) 3         d) 4        e) All of the above    f) None of the above

1.) The man in the family is expected to be the provider
2.) A woman does not have as much pressure as her male counterpart regarding climbing the work place ladder quickly
3.) The chances of having solutions to most monetary problems are high with a wealthy partner
4.) A truly successful woman is known by the success of her home. A neat woman is also known by her living conditions
5.) Most women aged 20 - 40 in my/your state of origin are happily married or on the way to marriage.


For most of us, we see this as true or a widely held belief. Society has taught women that they have no need to aspire to be great, doing okay is good enough and women should be dependent on men ( Fathers, husbands, and appalling but inclusive boyfriends and male acquaintances).

Now this is the point where you read the above 5 statements again and try to justify that there is nothing wrong with each of them.
Let me save you further stress and show you the original 5 thoughts that have been dressed up to look like the 5 above.

READ MORE>>>

DOES EDUCATION HAVE TO BE WITHIN FOUR WALLS?

Hello,

Welcome to the how to succeed as a woman series, this is part one.

The general perception of people is that Education has to be within four walls and involve an outflow of funds, well, not necessarily.

Every successful woman I have seen has a flair for learning, whether they get a formal education or not. Getting an education is not a function of how much money you have or what your paper qualifications say, it is a function of willingness to learn and desire to become better.

 In these days that we live in a computer and technology age, every form of education has become free. Do you doubt me? get an internet enabled phone (yours or a friend's), type www.google.com in  the space provided above for a link and search 'how to' anything. It is amazing the amount of things you can learn.

If for any reason, you are like me and you love to see what you learn, please type www.youtube.com instead of google.com and then 'how to' anything.

The other day I was trying to be a better broadcaster and I used google for help in pronunciations. Is it not amazing that a lady who hated to write examination on phonetics can now sound confusing words through the help of the web?

Have you imagined how people who cant cook to save their lives all of a sudden become proficient?

GET EDUCATED I SAY, GET EDUCATED!

Until you love learning and cant have enough of it, you may not be successful because the road to success is filled with a lot to learn. GET LEARNING!

Check back tomorrow for part 2.

I have enabled the comments section for those who do not have a gmail account, please leave your comments I will love to hear from you and will appreciate you sharing with friends and family.

PEARL

INTRODUCTION: How to succeed as a woman

Hello,
It feels good to be actively blogging and doing what I love to do beside radio presenting and being a Mum.

A while back I had written a couple of posts about successful people, I have also posted on pregnancy (What to expect, my experiences and the experience of a friend, the foods I loved to eat). Feel free to check previous posts. Today and in subsequent posts, I will blog about something that is almost a cross between them, 'HOW TO SUCCEED AS A WOMAN'.

If at any point you have looked at Mrs Folorunsho Alakija, Ngozi Okonjo - Iweala and other women who may or may not have their own families but have made a success of their lives, you will agree with me that their current state does not give you a peep into their past efforts. Why not join me to step on the shoulders of these 'giants' as we navigate through life. If you are a woman or you know a woman, you need to read the next 10 posts and share them with friends and family so stick with me and get a front row access and the possible passcodes these women have.

Also, the comments section has been enabled for non-google mail users, please subscribe to my blog and leave your comments. See you tomorrow.
Merci

PEARL

Faster or Farther

Hello,

This post title is a question, take a minute to ponder and answer it.

Faster or Farther?
One day, my Father told us of something that happened when he was recently employed as an accountant by the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (N.N.P.C.). A colleague of his told him that 'in NNPC, it is either you choose to go very fast or very far but you cant have the both of them'.
Of course, my Dad elected to go far while some others by their actions showed they only cared about going fast.

I have realised that this question stares us all in the face at one time or the other.
Let me take the liberty of explaining far or fast (what it means to me).

FARTHER: To get ahead, to continue in positive motion towards a goal and be ahead (when it matters) in comparism to a similar subject (my definition - I hope I have not confused you.)

FAST: To speedily make motion (my definition once more).

In this sense, the option before my father as well as everyone else was:
Acquire so much money by all means necessary on the job, be financially well off than your peers through bribery, corruption e.t.c (a.k.a Focus on now) OR be satisfied with your pay, do your job and rise slowly, steadily financially & otherwise (Focus on the future).

I have seen a lot of examples and have come to the conclusion that the 'grab all I can find' mentality does not lead very far but at the end of the day it is up to you... faster or farther?