Robert Kiyosaki said, “It’s not how much money you make, but how much money you keep, how hard it works for you, and how many generations you keep it for”. There has been an appalling and sympathetic dearth of financial intelligence among the youths. People like Mark Zuckerberg, Bill Gates, Aliko Dangote, Jimoh Ibrahim, among others, were navigating the business world when their colleagues were reveling in youthful exuberance. Your investor’s edge will always set you apart among your colleagues. Most of our youths lack financial intelligence and money management skills. Money management is based on a mindset that dictates that money should be used in a way that yields the highest value possible for any amount spent.
There has been a trendy discussion on many social media platforms of recent about Sir Shina Peters and Jim Ovia. The perpetrators of this uncanny comparison forgot to pin-point the evolution of these two models that changed the way we now do banking and music. I want to emphatically say that investment is not all about money! I am going to be opening our eyes to what I would like to call “wholesome investment.” How we handle money is a critical part of investment but it is not everything. Before I go into my own idea of investment, I would like to give us a piece of this uncensored and jaundiced piece of comparison that has been gone viral on social media:
“In 1990, Shina Peters built a house with N20 million naira; the same year Jim Ovia started Zenith Bank with the same amount. Today, you and I don’t have a room in Shina’s house but I have an account in Jim’s bank and probably you do too. Shina’s house was built in Iju Lagos and remains there till date. Jim’s bank started in a corner and now has over 500 branches in Nigeria, and many international branches. Millions upon millions transact business in Jim’s bank daily. Shina’s house is becoming dilapidated…. In 2015, he SPENT more money to renovate the house and bought a Nissan Pathfinder with N10 million…additional liability, while in the same 2015, Jim’s bank MADE a profit of N105.7 billion.
