A child born in Nigeria is more likely to end up poor than rich. Children naturally imitate their parents. Since culture is transferred consciously and unconsciously from one generation to the other, parents transfer the poverty mind-set to their children.
These children hear when their parents argue over small amounts of money. Junior hears when daddy says out of frustration, “Do you think I pluck money from trees? Do you want me to turn myself into money? Do you want me to go and steal?” Such statements communicate to Junior that it is difficult to make or get money.
Daniel Patrick Moynihan, a social scientist once said, “The central conservative truth is that it is culture, not politics that determines the success of a society. The central liberal truth is that politics can save a culture and save it from itself.” You see, being rich is a mind-set and being poor is a mind-set. While we are expecting the government to transform our country with a magic wand, we may be overlooking the real issue. The quality of life in our country may never be better than the quality of our thoughts. It is our culture (mental models) that determines our success. If our culture believes that wealth belongs to some particular set of people and the other set has to work for those people to get money, then money will never flow to everybody and that creates a scarcity mentality. For generations, this has been our culture but it is time to change the status quo. Money is not scarce, it is everywhere. A lot of people go about looking for money, when they are supposed to be looking for needs to meet. Wherever there is a need, there will be money there. Meet that need and money will surely come to you.
You will succeed!
About Sam Adeyemi: Sam Adeyemi is unarguably Nigeria’s No 1 success coach and one of the country’s leading experts on personal development and self mastery. Thousands of lives have been transformed through his inside-out coaching programme.