Speaking, today, to the Youths of Heroes of Faith Church.

Financial giants are those who stand head and shoulders above their contemporaries in finances. There are about 2000 billionaires globally. I am not one of them yet; however, I have read and studied some basic characteristics about billionaires and the very rich people of the world.

How do people become financial giants or financially great? (I am not talking about stolen wealth, but legitimate wealth)

Strong desires

A lot of financial giants cultivated strong desires to be rich and were committed to becoming rich early in life.

To cultivate is to grow and care for something. It is a deliberate action, not an afterthought. It involves the 6 P’s of wealth—planning, principles, procedures, philosophies, practices, processes.

Outside third world politics, where corruption is rife, you can hardly get very rich through politics in developed democratic cultures. Any society where political office holders are richer than business men and women is a den of corruption and elite capture.

Value and Starting Small

Most financial giants started small. Being poor involves passing over opportunities regularly. Most of these financial giants started small like Bill Gates, who started from a garage. However, they have value for information, opportunities, little sums, ignored opportunities, relationships, duties, favours, trust, and time.

Commitment

They passionately pursue anything they set their minds to do; they are committed to their businesses. I hear a lot of erroneous preaching about grace that makes a lot of Christians live very casual lives; they treat everything with levity. You cannot succeed in life without commitment.

Christopher Morley rightly said, “Big shots are only little shots who keep shooting”.

When you see a necessity entrepreneur, in their heart of hearts, they are not ready for stress. In fact, they prefer to be employed to do “soft work”. Such people can’t stand the challenges of doing business, particularly “church folks”.

Risk Taking

Financial giants are willing to take risks and invest beyond their tribal and national boundaries. The Chinese are all over the world investing and making money. The Jews are a nationality that are all over the industrialized world investing. The Ibos from southeastern Nigeria are in most major cities of the world.

Respect for Money

Frugality is a common virtue that financial giants cultivate very early in their lives. They live into old age with it and hand it over to their children. While the poor (and over-simulators) make mockery of them during their early stages, they eventually overgrow their mockers with time and eventually silence them with evidence.

Hard and smart work

To become a financial giant in any field takes a great deal of effort; every preacher, boxer, footballer, actress, or singer you see, who is rich and successful, has put in so many hours of work.

Someone applied for a teaching job in our school and asked in the application that he hopes the job won’t be too tiring. My family built that school with stress and it involves hard work to run and improve on it. There is nothing that brings real and genuine wealth that is not stressful.

When you hear, “It is favour, not labour, that brings success or wealth”, be very careful.

Financial Giants, Maslow’s Pyramid, and C.K. Prahalad’s Pyramid

Abraham Maslow’s Pyramid of Motivation shows the different levels of human needs. The first level includes needs like food, mobility, shelter, clothing, and sex.

Anyone that can tap in the base of the Maslow’s Pyramid and is diligent and frugal will definitely become a financial giant.

Love and a sense of belonging.

Anybody that can provide a medium for communication, interaction, and socialization to feel loved and express love will become a financial giant. That’s the secret of the music and movie industry. We want to feel love, feel the pains and joys of others. We want to see ourselves in the movies and songs. That’s why You Are My African Queen by Tuface Idibia sold very well. I heard it in the middle of nowhere by 2 a.m. in faraway Madagascar during a 17-hour journey.

When you treat men like royalty, you get their loyalty. When you treat men like trash, you don’t get their cash.

Entertainment (in any form) is all about building love, a sense of belonging, and a sense of self-esteem and comradeship. From football to music, fans love the clubs and music icons because they generate a deep feeling of being loved, relevant, or worthy to be pleased and entertained. Liverpool Football Club says, “You will never walk alone”.

They serve large populations.

Many financial giants are from nations that have large populations or they service a segment of the populace globally. Professor C. K. Prahalad of Michigan University propounded his theory of the Base of the Pyramid or BoP. He postulated that 4.5 billion people, as at then, out of 7.5 billion of the global population live on less than 2.5 USD daily. He said that if one can meet the basic needs of these people at affordable prices, there is a lot of wealth at the base of the pyramid.

The wealth of the rich is from the pockets of the poor. Meet the basic needs at affordable prices and you will be socially, politically, and economically relevant.

Business is Business

Financial giants are not sentimental when it comes their businesses. Many people who become financial giants know that money is the blood of business. They deliberately set out to be rich and they believe in giving the best services with the interest of their customers in mind. However, they insist that you must pay for their services or products.

They cultivate relationships

Financial giants form networks with people who can elevate their businesses. They form networks with other financial giants.

Many financial giants are not religious fanatics. They know that Money is an Idiot and has no religion. They trade and render services across religious boundaries. They display their faith by their integrity and credibility. They avoid religious disputes and argumentations. They know that money runs away from areas of dispute.

Finally, financial giants strive for financial independence and freedom.

You can get the complete message here.

God Bless You