Obama – Josh OKELLO

Balancing Family Time & Work

Posted on May 21, 2015 by Josh

By Josh Okello

There is no such thing as a balance between family and work. Irrespective of how great or big your company is or the amount of work you have as a leader, family should be your top priority!

In most of my literature, I always describe success as happiness therefore we cannot be successful in our businesses or organizations if our families are going through rough time. It is hard to make a successful company when our families are not happy. Leadership starts at home therefore it is important to understand these tips:

Money is not everything
One of the greatest boxer Floyd Mayweather once said; “money is not everything but it is the only thing.” This statement is very wrong. Money cannot buy you a happy family, this is something you have to do by yourself and the best way to do it is to increase your time with them.

Time
Some of the greatest world leaders I know of try to create time for their families. An example is Barack Obama the president of the united states who tries to have dinner everyday with his family. That is a great success. Try and do something with your family at least everyday.

Find a Fun Activity
My father used to be a music teacher and he nurtured music in our family. He taught us music and started a family choir that we still have to date, nearly two decades after he passed away.
This was our bonding time with him and it was always fun to be around him. What is it that you are good at that you can share with your family? Click here to listen to or download my free music.

Remember Your Vows
One thing I admire and still cannot fathom is the motherly love. Our mothers and wives deserve respect from us. If you exchanged vows on your wedding day, then go back and read it again. If you follow everything you promised to do with or for your partner then I will encourage you to continue being a responsible man. If you do not follow your vows to the latter then I do not have to tell you what to do. Do what is necessary.

Do you think your husband, wife, father or mother deserves to be treated the way you are treating her now? He or she is worth more. Vows are not only for the wedding day, but a public binding agreement that must be followed. You do not have to abandon your work for the family but creating at least two hours a day to have fun and add value in your family is one way of attaining business success.

Be Productive
The reason why we fail to go home in time and hangout with family or bring work home is because we procrastinate in the office and take a load of work home with us. As an entrepreneur and a leader, I understand that there is always more to be done but there is also a family to show love to. If you are not their for your children, who will? If you are not their for your wife or husband, who will? All these can come if we redefine and redesign what family and work means to us. A happy family leads to success at work.

Joshua Okello is a B.A graduate in Business Administration, International Development and Philosophy. He is also the author of the book Strategies of Entrepreneurial Leadership He has exceptional skills in organizing, coordinating projects and capacity building initiatives with key emphasis on livelihood programs; microfinance through savings and credit led models; business development services and entrepreneurial leadership. He is also the founder and Executive Director of Succeed Africa Relief Organization, a Canadian Christian Organization geared towards giving hope and transformation in lives of the chronically poor in Africa.

60 Inspiring Quotes by Joshua Okello

Posted on December 21, 2014 by Josh

Are you feeling discouraged or inspired? successful or failures? What if somebody told you that you were designed and destined to succeed? These 60 quotes by Joshua Okello will make you think differently about yourself and push you towards doing more than you can imagine:

Change just never happens until we act
Your efforts to change a life might be a beacon of hope to others
No money or power earned will ever fulfill you emotionally as the ability to help those less fortunate than you
You can’t simply buy a good reputation. It can only be earned by honoring your promises.
Finding strength in your failures is one way of being successful
The mind grows only through use, and it atrophies through idleness
Great entrepreneurs are those who keep hope alive even when nobody is supporting life
To have faith means to proceed without plan B.
Planning is the key to success. Plan and again I say Plan
A leader without a plan is like a magnet without poles
When you don`t get a miracle, be the miracle to someone else! Spread
I am humbled by God’s grace in my life. Give thanks in all conditions
Never sit around failing to try, go out there, try to fail, challenge yourself, learn new things and fail as fast as possible
The importance of having faith a long side our business plan is because it helps us overcome the hurdles of failures.
We are reluctant to adventure because of fear of failure yet we forget that some wish for opportunities to adventure even if they are going fail.
For sustainable development to function in developing countries, change should not be bigger and complex than they can handle.
Infinity should be your limit. Get repeated failures and repeated success.
Great leaders never make big and drastic changes, they keep them super simple.
Some things cannot be taught in entrepreneurship, they must be practiced and they are; risk prone, tenacity and persistence.
Nothing is as important as encouraging future leaders today.
Leadership is about dealing with people, treating them equal and building them. Your followers define you.
Organization success heavily depends on its leadership
It is my leadership imperfection that makes me strive towards building a better team
In leadership, you just never wish. You have to act on your wishes.
In entrepreneurship, know that some offers are not worth taking.
Stop learning and jump on the implementation train
As a leader, knowing is not enough, apply what you know.
Success is not attained by waiting, get going!
The only fight you will ever lose is the one you abandon. Never, ever give up.
Virtue is not given by money but can create money. Be good to all
If you keep waiting for great ideas to arrive, they may never arrive. Be active in finding them and they’ll come to you
There is no higher honor we can ask for than being servants of the Gods people
Change just never happens until you act
Your efforts to change a life might be remembered forever.
No money or power earned will ever fulfill u emotionally as the ability to help those less fortunate than you
Reputations are earned by honoring promises.
Finding strengths in your failures is one way of becoming successful.
Failure is part of the success equation.
Remember to put a smile on at least one persons face everyday/.
The mind grows only through use, and it atrophies through idleness.
Great entrepreneurs keep hope alive even when nobody is supporting them
If the world does not understand you, pray that they will but better off if you can offer them something better to make them understand you.
What are you living for? Change lives through your actions and words.
To make a difference in one’s life, you don’t have to be brilliant, rich, beautiful or perfect. You just have to care.
Only if everybody was fired up to positively impact humanity for the best.
To have faith is to proceed without plan B.
Planning is the key to success. Plan and again I say plan.
You are going nowhere as a leader without a plan
Leadership of any kind needs guts.
When you don`t get a miracle, be the miracle to someone else!
I am humbled with God’s love in my life. Give thanks in all situations
Never sit around failing to try, go out there, try to fail, challenge yourself, learn new things and fail as fast as possible
I believe that I am the best the world has ever given.
How about writing a book on your failures? Cannot fill a book? Then you have not tried that much.
In game of cards never hold your cards too tight, get rid of the ones you do not need.
Network for personal growth and create more opportunities in your career.
procrastination is the mother of failure
Leadership is like a game of cards, get rid of the cards you do not need.
I have fail so many times, academically, as a leader, as an entrepreneur & that is why I am propelled to succeed.
It is a waste of time waiting for work to get easier, instead, get stronger

Think Differently

Posted on August 17, 2014 by Josh

A leader is anyone who believes deep down in their hearts that they are destined to do great things. For why think if you have nothing better to think about? Society has made us understand and agree with numbers. This is not to challenge statistics because statistics is one of the true ways of understanding our world until it is doctored then it fails to accomplish its mission.

All along, I have been highly against big numbers, I like listening to both parties and pay attention to the underdogs. It always raises my conscience when multitudes are for an idea. Why would I not want to think differently? It is easy to get trapped in the torrents of mass following and get swept away by the kinetic energy of numbers. But sometimes numbers are not enough.

God blessed us with minds so that we can think. Everyone has an obligation to think and we can chose to use our minds or fail to not use it. The decision is yours. One thing I do not like is conforming with the norms of a society. Only if people can ask “why?” then we can make the world a better place to be in.

How many times have we been lied to by politicians and we still endorse them for more than one term in office? This is just one evidence of humanity has refused to use our minds. Companies reason for us and we respond by flocking in their stores shopping for those things we think are good for us yet we fail to ask “why?”

A leader is one who sees things differently and questions the normal practices in our daily lives. Entrepreneurs fail to ask themselves “why” and that is where everybody goes wrong. Why would I start a new business? Why come up with a new idea yet the world seems to be moving well with all the ideas that are helping shape it at the current time? Above all, why think?

We always drum the support of change yet we fail to understand why we need change. We generate new business ideas and we fail to ask why we need new business ideas. One of the problems that our leaders have lied to us about is democracy. Democracy is the practice of crazy demons. All we need is theocracy which is the crazy theology and that is what I am offering here. My gospel is; if you have brain, then you have no reason not to think.

One of the reason why I like challenging the status quo is to understand how many people governed by rules and laws of this world understand what those laws are. People become successful because they fail to abide by rules or simply ignore them. As a leader, you should ask yourself why you are not challenging the status quo and again do not just challenge the status quo because you want to cause trouble. You are blessed with a brain to use wisely not to waste your thoughts on things that add no value in people’s lives. Feel free to think, it is not a sin.

Leadership

Posted on March 11, 2014 by Josh

It is better to lead from behind and put others in front, especially when you celebrate victory when nice things occur. You take the front like when there is danger. Then people will appreciate your leadership ~ Nelson Mandela

The first responsibility of a leader is to define reality. The last is to say thank you. In between, the leader is a servant. ~Max DePree

By Okello Okello

Over the years, I have believed that business is the most important factor (apart from God) in our lives especially with the metamorphosis brought up by globalization. As I started writing more and more on business, innovation and entrepreneurship, I came to learn that without leadership, there is no success. So before a business is founded, there must be someone in charge. Leadership therefore stands triumphant over all else that pertains to success in our communities.

Think of a family set-up, there is always a breadwinner, who is most of the time the leader of the family, children and other members who either form nuclear or extended part of the family fully rely on the leader. These people needs a leader who can provide, take care, protect, support, advice and be a role model etc. It does not matter whether you are from a single family or with both parents, you still need a leader and if you are the leader, then you must be ready and willing to show your team the right way.
Leadership is also needed in our faith based organizations. There must be an individual who holds all the responsibilities and can be held accountable for all successes and failures of the organization. I am talking about successes and failures because most of the times, leaders performances are scaled in between the two points.
Institutions and community centers also need leaders. People who can report the management and affairs happening in the institution to both the government and the public. They take part in overseeing operations of different projects, and they also plan the future of the institutions they work in.
Politicians are also leaders who are engaged in daily errands and affairs of a country. They manage the country’s economy and hold the jurisdiction that governs their nations and states. Political leaders are most of the times the head of their countries security.
Businesses also need leadership. For success in the market that is either highly regulated or open, there needs to be a person with strong leadership skills. Somebody who is good with finances understands the market patterns, an organizer, a planner, a manager and if most likely a people person. In general, we cannot live without leadership because leadership transforms chaos into order.

Now that we briefly understand how leadership is important, ask yourself; “What if I was the one to be in charge?” Some people do not consider themselves’ leaders and often times decline a position that puts them in lime light. But can we really hide from leadership? At some point in life, you must be a leader. Either leading an organization, a ministry, a community group or your own family. It is therefore better to familiarize yourself with leadership and be ready to be called upon at any time.

In the history of the bible, God used people who were not considered naturally born leaders, therefore it is never wrong to decline that you are a leader, but if God has anointed you to become one, then what you need to do is to heed his calling.

Think of Moses and how he was anointed. He was a man of no charisma, was not fluent in speech and was the one who God picked and used. David was the last born of Jesse, and we know in our societies today that last born’s are always the spoiled ones. Probably it was the same back in the days and that is who God anointed. It is therefore good to understand that leaders are people who are anointed by God to fulfill a purpose and a need that is affecting His people.

What then is leadership? Here are a number of definitions of the word leadership.

Leadership is the ability to give a social aid to a mass of people who come together to achieve a common goal.
Leadership is doing the right things. (Peter Drucker).
Management and maintaining order in an organization
The guidance and direction of a group of people
The time when a person holds the position of a leader (Merriam Webster Dictionary).

Leadership is laying yourself down for the sake of other people. Not to say that the definitions above are wrong, but I like to give a different approach and view to leadership. As a leader, are you called to lay yourself down to the people you lead? Are you fully in charge of the situations and ready to be responsible for the good and the worst that your organization might encounter? Are you ready to stand for your employees and be a voice of those who are in need? Are you ready to show love? A leader is a person who considers these questions and tries to live by the standards that uplifts the people they are leading.

As the son of man gave himself to be nailed on the cross for the sake of the world, we should be in a position to stand firm for the people we represent. Some have called this type of leadership “Servant Leadership.” In the history of the world, Kings ruled and reigned, Judges lead and dominated, presidents have expressed and shown power in different ways but very few have been there to lay themselves down for the sake of their people.

In the world today, we should be in a position to differentiate market celebrities and leaders. Most of the people we call business leaders are good examples of market celebrities, they are there to dominate without love, promote themselves and finish their rivals. Where is love? How are they laying themselves law for the sake of the common people?

It is good to understand that there are social leaders, spiritual leaders, business leaders, consanguinity leaders and this work is to generalize all of them to come up with shared traits and also how to empower people to take up the role of leadership with a lot of confidence.

Please if you find this blog informative, share it on your social media, comment, follow, favorite and let other people learn from it too. That is the spirit of entrepreneurship. We are here to support each other. No one knows everything that is why we share, exchange and learn from one another. God bless you.

Leadership, Management Dilemma (I)

Posted on March 5, 2014March 6, 2014 by Josh

By Okello Okello.

Should a manager lead? or should a leader manage? I am generally speaking about management, not specifics such as micro or macro management. Leadership is one of the tightest ropes to walk in life and the balance it needs is more than you can imagine. Most CEO’s in organizations always get mixed up by the myriads of roles that come simultaneously under their titles. This post is going to extract and display some of the greatest dilemma that most leaders go through knowingly and or unknowingly.

1. Power and Responsibility

Of cause leadership automatically puts you in power and most leaders always find it a challenge to differentiate power and responsibility. This is also where leaders start to use their responsibilities despotically and the result is always a devastated team. Leaders should know that they are in a delicate position and everything they do and say is keenly being monitored by those under him or her.

As a leader, first you should learn your responsibilities. Once again, learn your responsibilities before you exercise power over anybody. Know your limits, understand your people and know how much pressure you have to mount on your team otherwise you are bringing more harm to your team and to the organization.

2. Give Incentives

Every Good Worker Deserves Favour! Always reward your best performers and remember to discipline your non performers but remember to do it with love. Give them second chances and be polite especially when dealing with failures. It is not a must that the incentives must be in currency form but even thanking your team can mean much to them and can be a source of motivation to a lot of people.

Take your team out for lunch, order pizza online and celebrate victory, give your team a half a day break to show them that you are concerned and appreciate the quality of work they do.

3. Dealing with Failures

You are having angry customers who are unsatisfied by the work your team has done. You have called your team in a board room and they can read tension on your face. Their heart is racing and their faces can read that “At the end of this meeting, one person must be fired!” Dealing with failures is more like giving incentives only that instead of giving tangible rewards, you are going to educate your team instead.

Please remember that we are not equal. Some are more gifted than others and for them to make it to your company, they have shown some wisdom or strengths that you wanted to tap into. Therefore, avoid calling names and do not shout. Self control is more than important in this case. If someone fails, always remember to give them a second chance. Nothing inspires people like telling a failure that they can do it. Be ready to show them the way, that is why you are a leader and not just an employee.

You are dealing and handling someone else future, therefore take a lot of caution on what you say. Encourage them and never set your hands flying in disgust. Show love, motivate and encourage non performers in your company and if the same problem continues then shuffle your staff, maybe they are the right people in the wrong seats. Always remind them of their calling and educate them to be great performers.

4. Change Top-Down

It starts with you! Yes as a leader, you should be a role model to people not a scare-craw. Mind your language and treat people with respect. It does not cost a penny to pay respect yet it rewards more than the revenues you can earn. Simple rule, “The Golden Rule.” In “Our Lords Prayer,” there is a line that says “forgive our trespasses as we forgive those who trespasses against us,” This should be a leaders prayer at all times. Learn to forgive, and change your self before the team you are leading change for the better. And always remember that “True transformation only comes from God” (Unknown).

Entrepreneur Taxonomy

Posted on March 4, 2014March 6, 2014 by Josh

By Okello Okello

Taxonomy is the science of elucidating groups of biological organisms on the basis of shared facets and rendering nomenclature to those groups. In this post, I am going to classify entrepreneurs as a special group of species homo-sapiens-sapiens. This is not to say that entrepreneurs are of different species from any other human being but they hold distinctive characteristics that set them apart from all else.

Some have called them weirdo’s, they are always in their own world, they like to cause chaos, they can be authoritative, and never give up. Entrepreneurs like to go against the currents and are great risk takers. They have faith in their efforts but plan before they leap. Strategy is always their main tool, they slip but never fall even if they fail in a particular area, they understand that failure is part of success, but some of the unusual traits that most entrepreneurs share in common include;

1. Status Quo

Entrepreneurs delete these two words in their dictionary. They always go against currents and nothing can stop them from going for their vision. Once they set up their minds in achieving something, they will go for it even if there are tough barriers of entry. The ability to start a business is by itself against so many statistical facts. It is also good to point out that entrepreneurs who are value driven tend to perform better than the profit driven. Since there are no definitive features to qualify these people as specie of their own, this qualifies everybody to be a potential entrepreneur only that some differ at the degree of resilience and persistence.

2. Tenacity

This is the ability to grip something firmly for so long before you let go. Entrepreneurs can hold an idea for so long before they let it slip off their hands. Mostly they are never worried of time it takes before they see their dreams come true. Tenacity drives them in tough economic times and since they understand the sinusoidal market behavior, they can predict light at the end of the tunnel.

3. Self-Belief.

As the name suggest, to be an entrepreneur you must have self confidence and believe in your self before anybody else believes in you. “Whatever the mind of man can conceive and believe, it can achieve” (unknown). Most entrepreneurs believe in themselves and their potentials. After all, it is never wrong to try, if you are trying the right thing. “It is only when you hitch yourself to something greater than you that you realize your true potentials” (Barack Obama).

4. Duo-Contemplation

Duo-contemplation is a word that I coined after being in strategic management for over two years. It is the ability to match two contrasting ideas in preparation to any unforeseen occurrences. Most entrepreneurs do not have this mentality and the single line of thought makes it very hard for organizations to bounce back in the market in case of any contradicting happenings. Successful entrepreneurs never take one side of thought and ride with it, they look at all facades and calculate a tentative solution for both. This elevates their management skills at all times.

4. Design a Master Piece.

Leonardo daVinci is crowned for his master piece Monalisa, Michelangelo contender for the title of the archetypal Renaissance man, also rival of Italian Leonardo da Vinci is known for his master piece Pieta. In recent years, Martin Luther King junior was known for his phrase “I have a Dream,” Barack Obama was propelled to presidency of the United States of America by a simple phrase “Yes We Can.” These are master pieces that were crafted by the artists themselves. Successful entrepreneurs develop master pieces, things that make them standout and unique. These are also ideas that later down in history are considered to have revolutionized an age. As an entrepreneur develop your own master piece.

Entrepreneurs are few in numbers, though through technological advancements and a paradigm shift that has happened in the work force globally, there has been a rise in the number of people who start their own businesses. Question to you; Are you falling under the classification of entrepreneurs? Yes You Can!