by Adedeji Ademigbuji

A teacher from Special Education Centre for Exceptional Children, Uyo, Akwa Ibom State, Mr. Imoh Essien, has emerged the 2016 Maltina teacher of the year at the grand finale in Lagos at the weekend.

For the feat, Essien was rewarded with N1million in addition to N500, 000 he received as state champion from Akwa Ibom.

He will also get N1million for five years, a training programme abroad and a block of six classrooms for his school.

Essien, a teacher of Computer, Basic Sciences and Physical Education, disclosed that he draws his teaching inspiration from his fun-loving personality with which he is able to help children with special needs.

He added that a strong emotional and mental stability is vital to positively impact children with special needs, a job he has done for twelve years.

An English teacher from Borno State, Mohammed Lawan, who was the first runner-up last year, repeated the feat in 2016.

Ogwu Patrick from Government Day Secondary School, Adankolo, Lokoja, Kogi State, emerged second runner-up.

Managing Director, Nigerian Breweries Plc., Nicolaas Vervelde, explained the firm operates with the philosophy of “winning with Nigeria” and has championed causes that add value to the society since its inception in 1946.

He stressed: “Everywhere in the world, teachers play a vital role in sustainable national development by training, coaching and modeling which is critical to determining the quality of education”.

He informed that the company recently handed over a twin 3-bedroom staff residence to Federal Government Girls College, Onitsha, in honour of 2015 winner, Mrs. Roseline Obi.
Minister of State for Education, Prof. Anthony Anwukah, commended the initiative and described it as laudable.

He advised teachers to invest in themselves to raise their standard, adding that the ministry looks forward to signing the Memorandum of Understanding with Nigerian Breweries on the Maltina teacher of the year initiative.

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It's hard to stand out in the modeling industry. When you consider the vast majority of fashion shows, most of the models are tall, thin teenagers and twenty-somethings. It's in no way reflective of the real U.S. population, especially given that the average woman lives to be 84 years old.

This is what makes Yazemeenah Rossi so exceptional: She's a 60-year-old woman with a successful modeling career, and she can rock a swimsuit campaign just as well as (if not better than) Kendall Jenner.

After successful campaigns with the fashion label The Dreslyn and the lingerie brand Land of Women, the France native has been making headlines left and right. Upon meeting Rossi myself, I quickly understood why she's become so popular: She is just as magnetic in person as she is in her photos.

Rossi is tall and ethereal with striking white hair. "I kept my hair natural because I found it very beautiful, and I couldn't stand the idea of putting chemicals on my head," she explains. "I've always found it ridiculous to hide the truth, to 'fake' it."

If you're wondering how difficult the look is to maintain, Rossi says it's as easy as leaving your hair alone. "I never blow dry [my hair] and use very simple, natural products," she says. (She doesn't even go to a hairdresser - she simply trims her hair herself.)

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Good morning beautiful people, I hope you had a good night rest, ready to carry on yet again. On our journey to sucess in business and career, and indeed life,  it is vital to learn from others who have attained success in their different endeavours. So to kick-start your day, be inspired by these Business men and women. 

 

 (in no particular order)

"I built a conglomerate and emerged the richest blackman in the world in 2008 but it didn't happen overnight. It took me 30 years to get to where i am today. Youths of today aspires to be like me but they want to achieve it overnight. It's not going to work. To build a successful business, you must statr small and dream big. In the journey of entrepreneurship, tenacity of purposeis supreme"

-Aliko Dangote GCON, Founder/ CEO, Dangote Group
 Nigerian Business Magnate(Networth: $18.3 billion(2015 Forbes)





"Always delver more than expected"
-Larry Page, Co-Founder/ CEO, Google Inc
 American computer scientist and internet entrepreneur(Networth:$29.2 billion(2015 Forbes)

"Experience taught me a few things. One is to listen to your gut, no matter how good something sound on paper. The second is that you're generally better on sticking with what you know. And the third is that sometimes your best investments are the once you don't make"

-DONALD TRUMP , CEO, The Trump Organization
American business magnate, billionaire, investor, socialite, author, television personality, and candidate for President of the United States in the 2016 presidential election(Networth: $4 billion(2015 Forbes)

"Don't do things the way they've always been done. Don't try to fit the system. If you do what's expected of you, you'll never accomplish more than others expect".

-HOWARD SCHULTZ , CEO, Starbucks
American Businessman (Networth: $2.9 billion(2015 Forbes)

"The thing that i learned early on is you really need to set goals in your life, both short-term and long-term, just like you do in business. Having that long-term goal will enable you have a plan on how to acieve it. We apply these skills in business, and yet when it comes to ourselves we rarely apply them"

-DENISE MORRISON, CEO, Campbell Soup Company($7.7 billion company(Forbes)
American Business Executive

 

"If someon offer you an amazing opportunity and you are not sure you can do it. say yes - then learn how to do it later"

 Richard Branson, Founder, Virgin Group
 English businessman and investor(Networth:$5.1 billion(Forbes 2015)



                                       


















"Surround yourself only with people who are going to take you higher"
-Oprah Winfrey
American media proprietor, talk show host, actress, producer, and philanthropist.
(Networth: $3 billion(Forbes 2015)

"You become the average of the 5 people you hand-out with"
Drew Houston, Founder and CEO, Dropbox
 American Internet entrepreneur(Networth:$1.39 billion)






"If you are hardworking and determine, you will make it and that's the bottom line. I don't believe in an easy way through"
Isabel Dos Santos
Angolan Investor(Networth:$3.3 billion)

"The harder you work, the luckier you get"
Mike Adenuga jnr., Founder, GLObacom
Nigerian business tycoon(Net worth: $3.8 billion(2015 Forbes)


-All the best

-         By Richard Branson

 

 

1.       Follow your dreams and just do it: get involved in the things that interest you. Don’t just set out to do something for the sake of money, if you are going to create a business, make sure it is your hobby, passion or something you enjoy. You will live a much better life that way. I think lots of people have lots of great ideas, but very few people actually go out and try to put them into practice.

2.      Make a positive difference and do some good: The first thing to do if you want to become an entrepreneur is basically to have an idea that is going to make a positive difference to other people's lives. A business is simply that.

3.      Believe in your ideas and be the best: There's really no point in doing something in life unless people feel really good about it and proud about it. You've got to have passion for it and you've got to be able to inspire other people to have a passion for it too. You’ve got to make sure that every aspect of what you do is better than the competition.

4.      Have fun and look after your team:  I 100% believe that it's important to have fun and if you're not having fun anymore with what you are doing, it might be time to move on.  Make sure that you've got the kinds of people running your companies who genuinely care about people, who look for the best in people and who praise and don't criticize. People are not that unlike flowers. If a flower is watered it flourishes and if a flower is not watered it dries up and dies and I think the same applies to people.

5.      Don’t give up: It's extremely important not to give up. There have been situations in my adventures, like crossing the pacific in a balloon, where the odds were stacked very heavily against us surviving. Being an entrepreneur is not that dissimilar to being an adventurer. You have plenty of situations where your back is right up against a wall and you've just got to work day and night to make sure you overcome the difficulties a particular company finds itself in. Brush yourself down the next day and move on into something else. I think I’m reasonably good at dealing with failure and not letting it get me down for more than an hour or two, as long as I put everything into avoiding it.

6.      Make lots of list and keep setting yourself new challenges:  I make copious lists because I think it's the little details that make for an exceptional company over an average company. Details are very important and I think it's important to keep setting your-self new challenges and targets. I do believe that the first of the year is a good time to write down your goals for the year. Unless you actually organize yourself and write down the kinds of things you want to achieve, there's a danger that as time slips by, you don't achieve a lot.

7.      Spend time with your family and learn to delegate:  One of the early things you have to do as an entrepreneur is learning the art of delegation. Find people who are better than you to run the companies on a day-to-day basis, freeing yourself up to think about the bigger picture and spend time with your family. That's very important, especially if you've got children, they are what's going to be left when you're gone. I know I'm a good entrepreneur, but I'm not sure that I'd be a very good manager and there is a difference. My mind is always thinking ahead and wanting to create new things. I just think once I've set something up, its better if someone else runs it. I can dive in and out and be a pain occasionally, but the day-to-day business is better for somebody else to do.

8.      Try turning off the TV and get out there and do things:  My mum brought us up very much to get out there and do things, don't watch other people do things, and don't watch television. I think that was a good way of bringing up kids. With my own kids, we've spent quite a lot of time in the Caribbean and we never watch television there.  

9.      When people say bad things about you, just prove them wrong: There are people who hang onto the coat tails of successful people and try to sell a few books on the back of their name. It's unpleasant but you know that if you sue them or kick up a fuss, all it will do is publicize the book. So I've had to learn the art of ignoring people like that. I think the best thing to do is just to prove them wrong in every single way. This particular book, (Branson: Behind the Mask by Tom Bower), says that our spaceship programme is a white elephant, later this year we will prove them wrong.

10.  Do what you love and have a sofa in the kitchen:  You only live one life, so do the thing that you are going to enjoy. When life boils down, this might sound like a little much coming from me, I do have my own little island in the Caribbean, but when we are on that island, we tend to just live in the kitchen. The truth is, so long as you've got a kitchen which has space for a sofa, and a bedroom, and a partner that you love, you don't necessarily need the add-ons in life. Then, if you're doing something that really interests you, it will result in a much more enjoyable life rather than just doing something for the sake of making money.

Richard Branson left school at the age of 16 and set up Student Magazine with one of his friends. He went on to start Virgin Records in the 1970s and is the founder of the Virgin Group. In the 1980s he formed Virgin Atlantic airline and the 1990s saw the arrival of Virgin Mobile and Virgin Trains. He is one of the most successful businessmen in the UK and an icon of entrepreneurship. His latest project is Virgin Galactic, which he hopes will one day become a space tourism company.

                                

 

+ 7 Tips to help you enjoy friendship and still be productive at work

 

Friendship is a beautiful thing and true friendship has a way of enriching lives. Many people spend approximately 50 hours per week in the workplace and because so much time is spent at work, they often develop friendship within the workplace. But what role does friendship play in the workplace? What effect does it have on a worker’s productivity and total wellbeing in the workplace?

Since the right group of friends can greatly influence your career positively and a wrong set can get you to be underproductive or even fired, is it better to keep your personal and professional lives separate or to cultivate friendship on the job? Well, hold your thought and check out a few good and bad sides…

Good…

1.     Having a friend at work makes your job more enjoyable and even enhances your productivity, creativity and general attitude/ feeling to work and the organization.

2.     Workplace friendships lead to more cohesive team work. So, that means a high level of engagement and activeness in your work roles.

3.     Friends at work are more likely to provide a range of support for each other as compared to those with just professional relationship, thus reducing or preventing job burnout. Ever need a friend at work to stand in for you because you are running late or not showing up at all? Yes, the list is endless.

4.     A friend on the job who is in a privilege position can keep you informed about the inner workings of your company and update you on current developments. Your mere co-worker is not obligated to do such.

5.      Workplace friendships help to retain employees in their organizations. The more embedded employees are, the less likely they will be to leave the organization. The perception that you fit and belong, that you have a connection with a friend or friends at work  and what you would have to sacrifice if you were to leave your job can embed you in that company. Imagine that the bulk, if not all of your friends are your co-workers and leaving the job means friendship is gone. It’s never easy and so, workplace friendship may be an important factor in retaining employees.

 

Bad…

 

1.     Workplace friendships can lead to competition, envy, gossips and distraction from work, and this of course can impede your productivity.

2.     Socializing too much on the job can cause you to reveal personal or professional information to inappropriate persons who may divulge same to management or a co-worker. I mean, you reveal issues you’re having with your spouse/ family or what you really think about managers, coworkers and your job, and then you hope your friends at work won't divulge that information, intentionally or unintentionally, to anyone else. Well, you know how that usually ends.

3.     Workplace friendships can lead to cliques being formed, which in turn encourages favoritism, exclusivity and negativity. Ever been left out of favour, incentive or reward at work just because you don’t belong to that clique? Yes, I know that feeling but, never mind.

4.     Workplace friendships are great, but they can burn out fast too. If you leave a department or change position/job, the similar circumstances that originally brought you together are now gone, and so is the friendship. Most likely than not.

5.     Frequent disagreements and other situations that can create animosity and conflict of interest among workplace friends can affect work and team spirit.

6.     If you try to befriend your boss or superior, your coworkers might question your motives. If your boss befriends you, accusations of favoritism may arise. Problems can also arise if your boss/friend has to supervise or evaluate you.

7 Tips to help you enjoy friendship and still be productive at work.

1.     Remember why you are there. A job provides financial security and you go to the office to get that job done, not to take a break every second to gossip/chat with your pal or dash out of the office.

2.     Be discreet about your friend’s confidence and think carefully about the type of information you choose to divulge.

3.     If you are befriending a co -worker of the opposite sex, try and keep your personal and professional lives separate. Don’t blab about your relationship during work hours. It’s important that your other co-workers take you seriously as a professional.

4.     If you are beginning to bond with a co-worker, take your time, slowly allow the person into your life, with an increasing amount of trust. Don’t go overboard too soon, revealing things about your personal or professional life, because you never know if the relationship will blossom into a long lasting friendship or burn out fast and half the things you said come back to bite you.

5.     Try not to be exclusive, only talking or clicking with some co-workers while leaving the rest out. Politely include the ones that are not your friends in conversations or mutual events to avoid feelings of jealousy and animosity.

6.     Cultivate friendships outside of work, that way, if and when your workplace friendship goes awry you will be able to balance out the time you spend with your work friends, and in case, your work situation would be less stressful while you gradually put a distance between the two of you. 

7.   Same-level friendships are the easiest to maintain. So before you decide to befriend your superior, think of the cost. Again, it’s almost a natural instinct to complain about work or your boss to a work friend. But know that if that friend is friends with or connected to your boss, your venting may work against you.

Be Inspired! Be Friendly! Be Productive!

-Aitee


photos credit: getty images