A series of events over the past few days have left me feeling low spirited, frustrated and defeated. I feel like a fraud and a failure. I’m not the person living the life I know I should be.I’m not achieving my goals or following my dreams. To encourage myself I decided to rewrite one of my favorite poems by Marriane Williamson, “Our Greatest Fear” that I came across in my usual morning readings.

What is My Greatest Fear

My Greatest Fear Is n­ot that I am Inadequate,
My Greatest Fear Is That I am Powerful Beyond Measure,
That I can do and achieve beyond my wildest dreams
It is my Light, ­not my Darkness That Frightens Me,

I Ask Myself, who am I to be Brilliant and Wise?
Who am I to be Wealthy and Respected?
Who am I to be Handsome and Loved?
Who am I to be Talented and Fabulous?

But the real question is, Who Am I not To Be?
I am a Child Of God, a Prince in His Kingdom.
My playing small does ­not serve the World.

There is ­nothing enlightened about shrinking
So that others won’t feel insecure around Me.
I was born to manifest the Glory Of God within me.
It is n­ot just in some people out there; it is in Me too.

And, as I let my own Light shine,
I am consciously giving you permission to do the same.
As I am liberated from my own fear,
My presence automatically liberates You.

~The Apprentice~

I don’t have a wristwatch. It’s not for lack of desire. Lord knows I’ve always wanted one. For years I’ve longed for one. It’s just that the one I want costs $10,000- Mutwalo gya doola as they say. Ok i know what you must be thinking. He’s lost his black mind!

But here’s the thing. It’s a fantastic watch. Actually, to call it a watch feels like calling a Bugatti Veyron a car. It’s a time piece. Swiss made. A heritage that goes back to the early church. A name that even the most ignorant hip-hop rappers know. It’s the Brietling Super Avenger Chronometer.

The Breitling Aero Marine "Super Avenger" with white face and leather strap.

The hand made watch from Zurich Switzerland is part of a long standing tradition of excellent time pieces made for the most demanding professionals in aviation and navy for the last two hundred years. It’s worth every damn cent.

I love the company slogan-Breitling, Instruments for professionals.

Now you may say, well that all sounds well and good but $10,000? Thats a whole car, 3years living expenses or a great deal of aid to the suffering people in Haiti. All very True. But consider this. Whether I buy this or not there will always be other people in need, disasters, famines and so on. (and it’s my lovely wife who is obliged to buy it for me-he he he)

The belief we commonly have is that if I use $10,000 today, i have irreversibly reduced the worlds wealth and millions will suffer for it. Er No! That is what is commonly referred to as the scarcity or poverty mentality. The belief that the resources in the world are finite and there isn’t enough to go around. Untrue.

There is plenty to go around. Hundreds of thousands of these watches are being sold worldwide and still the worlds wealth increases as do it’s problems. And believe me, when I can spend $10,000 on a watch, think how much I could spend on charitable giving? At least 10 times that amount for sure.

I believe though, at the end of the day, it’s important to know what you want and to go for it-legally of course. And I want a $10,000 watch made by a 200 hundred year old Swiss company that I can pass on to my great grandson. Why not?

Should I fail to get it, there’s always the $4500 Tag Heuer Carrera

Shalom

A friend of mine and long standing business owner Mr. Karangi Karibui of 5th Dimension Architects flattered me by endorsing my blog and the beliefs I aspire to. He thought my readers would be blessed by this poem written in 1927 by Max Erhman. I hope you enjoy it and thanks Karangi!

Desiderata

Go placidly amid the noise and the haste, and remember what peace there may be in silence.

As far as possible, without surrender, be on good terms with all persons. Speak your truth quietly and clearly; and listen to others, even to the dull and the ignorant; they too have their story. Avoid loud and aggressive persons; they are vexatious to the spirit.

If you compare yourself with others, you may become vain or bitter, for always there will be greater and lesser persons than yourself. Enjoy your achievements as well as your plans. Keep interested in your own career, however humble; it is a real possession in the changing fortunes of time.

Exercise caution in your business affairs, for the world is full of trickery. But let this not blind you to what virtue there is; many persons strive for high ideals, and everywhere life is full of heroism.

Be yourself. Especially do not feign affection. Neither be cynical about love, for in the face of all aridity and disenchantment, it is as perennial as the grass.

Take kindly the counsel of the years, gracefully surrendering the things of youth. Nurture strength of spirit to shield you in sudden misfortune. But do not distress yourself with dark imaginings. Many fears are born of fatigue and loneliness.

Beyond a wholesome discipline, be gentle with yourself. You are a child of the universe no less than the trees and the stars; you have a right to be here. And whether or not it is clear to you, no doubt the universe is unfolding as it should.

Therefore be at peace with God, whatever you conceive Him to be. And whatever your labors and aspirations, in the noisy confusion of life, keep peace in your soul.

With all its sham, drudgery, and broken dreams, it is still a beautiful world. Be cheerful. Strive to be happy.

A couple of months ago, I was speaking with the Rogue King, about what drives us to do the things we do and make the choices that we do. He suggested to me that perhaps we should look deeper, to our core values.

So what are our core values? Well simple put they are the things we believe in the most that direct what and how we think about our life. There are hundreds of values that we each hold but some hold more power over us than others. For example some peoples core value is love. For others it’s family or power, money, religion etc.

It is important for us to know and choose our core values are because they color everything we do in life. It’s like our constitution. A person whose core value is Family for example will make all decisions about what they do around their need for family. The career he chooses, the car he drives, the type of person he marries. It’s all connected.

I decided to look at my own core values and I thought I’d share with you what I have chosen to be my guiding values in order to achieve my dreams and life purpose.

Love

I live and give love to all around me including myself. I give love regardless of how I feel but as directed by Gods word.

Responsibility

I am 100% responsible for my life and the results I experience. Everything I am, have or experience is a result of the choices and actions I’ve made in the past. I always have the ability to choose my response in life.

Integrity

I live congruently with my beliefs and principles and do not compromise them. My word is my bond.

Positivity

I maintain a positive attitude at all times, always looking for the upside in every situation. I believe every problem is an opportunity disguised.

Faith

I put my complete trust in God and the gifts, skills and talents he has placed in me.

Teachability

I am a constant learner, always striving to get better each day, in every way.

Courage

I stand and face my fears each and every day to accomplish great things. I seek opportunity and not security.

Compassion

I extend kindness, compassion, understanding and grace to all who need it.

Giving

I am a generous giver of my money, time and resources for the highest good of all.

Self Discipline

I maintain strong control over my will, emotions, passions and thoughts at all times keeping them focused for my greater growth

Diligence

I work hard at everything I do with the utmost care, excellence and attention to detail.

Excellence

I hold myself to the highest standards in all  that I am and do. I do not live according to the worlds standard but to Gods

Health

I work diligently to ensure y body is in great physical condition through healthy lifestyle choices

Creativity

I believe in using all of my God given creativity to imbue my life, relationships, work and passions with fun, excellence and impact

Personal Growth

I constantly seek to improve on every area of my being through learning and application. The better I am, the better my life will be.

Vision

i always have a clear Godly vision for my life which i pursue daily.

Peace

I seek to live in peace with everyone in as much as it depends on me. I gaurd my inner peace and I’m guided by it.

I am still discovering more of myself and adjusting accordingly. Some values we have don’t benefit us and it’s imperative to identify them and remove them while picking out ones that pull us forward. I’d like to hear some of your core values so drop me a line.

Shalom

Hey everyone, Happy new year to you all and welcome back. It’s great to be alive and back again for a new year. You could be sick, in jail, or dead or dying but nope, here you are reading this blog. So lets thank the Master for life and another chance to do things better.

The beginning of the year is a particularly intriguing time. It’s perhaps the only time in the year (except for our birthdays) that we really take time to reflect on the past and future seriously. Thats why resolutions are generally made at the start of the year.

For the last three years I’ve been in the habit of not making resolutions. I find that new year resolutions generally set me up for failure. They are usually not made with the right convictions and then followed up with really weak efforts. By end of March, I’m caught up in the waves of daily life and nearly forgotten most of my resolutions . Then the end of the year comes and I beat up myself because I didn’t even make a scratch in my resolutions. Does that sound familiar?

My solution to this crap cycle is to have a constant set of personal goals that I work on regardless of whether its a new year or not. I find this to be much a more progressive and fulfilling approach. Have your 3months, 1year, 5year and 10year goals at all times. They give direction, focus and hope.

An interesting alternative for new year resolutions is having an overall Yearly Theme. I found this on Steve Pavlina’s blog, an individual whose material i find to be exceptionally deep and insightful. His approach is to have a general theme for each year. For example 2008 his theme was Health, 2009 Relationships. This gives you a nice framework that helps you focus on a particular area of your life for one whole year whilst still working on your regular life goals.

Whatever you choose to do for 2010, what I can say is any resolution, goal or theme is better than just floating through the year and seeing what happens. As the saying goes “if you don’t know where your going, any road will take you there”.

I read somewhere that we tend to overestimate what we can accomplish in a single year and underestimate what we can do in ten years. It hit me so hard to realise that we’ve just completed the first decade of the century! Think about that for a moment. 10 years. I think of all that i could have achieved by now if i’d only made serious commitments and goals ten years ago!

Heck, i simply decided to have flimsy resolutions and see where the year takes me. Now I’m still as far away from achieving my dreams as i was 10years ago! That is disturbing. I’m certainly not going to make that mistake with the next ten. I encourage you not to make it either.

So I bid you health, wealth and love in every aspect of your life in 2010. May be prosperous, may you become a greater person than you ever dreamed, may you conquer giants and love and be loved deeply. And may the Master be your guide, your strength, your refuge and your hope in this year and beyond. Amen

Let’s make 2010 a spectacular year.

Shalom

“I hope you live more, love more, laugh more, dare more, take mind blowing risks and achieve more in the new year.” New years SMS from a friend

Today in my mail, I discovered a pleasant bonus in one of my weekly inspirational newsletters. The 13 absolutely unbreakable laws of success by Brian Tracy, one of my favorite motivational speakers. Here it is in simple and no nonsense breakdown of things you must learn to do to achieve great and lasting success in your life. I give you, the 13 Absolutely Unbreakable Laws of Success.

1. The Law of Control:

You feel good about yourself to the degree at which you feel you are in control of your own life.

2. The Law of Responsibility:

You are completely responsible for everything you are and for everything you become and achieve.

3. The Law of Direction:

Successful people have a clear sense of purpose and direction in every area of their lives.

4. The Law of Compensation:

You are always fully compensated for whatever you do, positive or negative.

5. The Law of Service:

Your rewards in life will always be in direct proportion to the value of your service to others.

6. The Law of Applied Effort:

All things are amenable to hard work.

7. The Law of Overcompensation:

If you always do more than you are paid for, you will always be paid more than you are getting now.

8. The Law of Preparation:

Effective performance is preceded by painstaking preparation.

9. The Law of Forced Efficiency:

The more things you have to do in a limited period of time, the more you will be forced to work on your most important tasks.

10. The Law of Decision:

Every great leap forward in life is preceded by a clear decision and a commitment to action.

11. The Law of Creativity:

Every advance in human life begins with an idea in the mind of a single person.

12. The Law of Flexibility:

Success is best achieved when you are clear about the goal but flexible about the process of getting there.

13. The Law of Persistence:

Your ability to persist in the face of setbacks and disappointments is your measure of your belief in yourself and your ability to succeed.

Shalom

Lately, I’ve been thinking about what some of the sites and blogs really successful people visit regularly. I mean, have you ever wondered what blogs Gates, Buffet, Branson or Madiba visit regularly to learn, or get encouragement? Well, i’m definitely not in the league of those dudes, yet; but i felt i’d share with you my favorite watering holes. I’m confident that alot of these will help any one grow their business, their relationships and themselves. So here it goes, in no particular order.

1.Crosswalk.com

A complete portal for Christian content, featuring blogs, devotions, financial, marital and career advice articles. This is where I start my day. Nothing like a fresh word from The Master to set my heart on the right path for the day. An excellent site.

2. The Art of Manliness

I am a man and true manly men in this day and age are an endangered species. This site is dedicated to recapturing and rekindling the dying art of being a man. I love it cause it breaks things down as simply and straightforward as can be. No being politically correct here. Just sweet, kick-in-the-butt advice on what Manliness is all about. A must read for all males!

3. Problogger & Daily Blog Tips

These are both community sites for professional bloggers. They have excellent articles on blog writing, monetization, SEO and memberships. A great resource for those who want to make a living or business from blogging.

4. Steve Pavlina’s Personal Development for smart people

This has to be my all time favorite blog for personal development resources. This guy has some questionable spiritual beliefs but overall, his insights and advice are timeless. I keep going back again and again to the archives section and always find something new to read and learn. Awesome resource. Highly recommended.

5. CNET Crave

This one appeals to my love of all things geeky, techy and gadgetry. It helps keep me informed about all the happenings around the globe. Considering that it’s a part of the CNET family, it’s a definate trusted source. A daily stop for technophiles.

6. Inc.com

A wonderful community for all things Entrepreneurial. It has articles, showcases, blogs and advice. It’s a great stop for inspiration and growth for small business owners.

7. Enterpreneurs Journey

A lovely site that appeals to both Entrepreneurs and Bloggers. Yaro Starak is accomplished in both these areas. He has a wonderful insight, avudde wwala (he’s come from far). He’s what you’d call a blogger entrepreneur, a guru in internet marketing. His posts are usually quite long but well worth the read.

8. Six Revisions & Hongkiat

I am by profession, a designer. Web, Graphic and Motion. These sites are a daily source for inspiration, trends and tutorials for me. A great help in my daily work. Highly recommended to all designers. DesignKingdom.ug is my own initiative to offer the same value to Ugandan artists, similar to these two sites.

9. Income Diary

A blog created by 20year old Michael Dunlop. It’s all about blogger entrepreneurs with interviews, advice, tips, success stories. I love this cause it makes an emphasis on showing you how you can live the internet lifestyle, those who are living it and how practically you too can live it. Inspiring is the word.

10. Darren Hardy’s blog

Darren is the editor of Success Magazine. His blog is obviously all about achieving success in all areas of your life. It’s updated only about once a week but a great resource nonetheless.

11. Dan Millers Blog

Dan is a Christian Entrepreneur and Life coach. As a Christian myself, it’s important to me to achieve my success in an honest and integrity based manner that glorifies The Master. Dan has excellent articles and posts that help me see what all other success gurus talk about in light of biblical principles. Love-lu-lay.

So ofcourse I have a ton of other sites I visit regularly but these are the ones i feel most drawn to regularly. I would advise everyone of you who visits tons of blogs to use Google Reader to effectively manage all your different feeds. Blogspirit will help you manage all your Ugandan blogs.

I’m always looking to add more wonderful resources to continue my personal growth and I would like to here from you. What are some of your daily reading lists?

Shalom

“Always keep learning. It keeps you young.”-Patty Berg

“In a time of drastic change it is the learners who inherit the future. The learned usually find themselves equipped to live in a world that no longer exists.“-Eric Hoffer

“There are three kinds of men. The one that learns by reading. The few who learn by observation. The rest of them have to pee on the electric fence to see for themselves.“ -Will Rogers

After much straying and squandering of my inheritance, I have finally decided to consolidate my personal brand and as such have moved the Apprentice blog to its rightful place.

Welcome to the permanent new home of the Apprentice. With a little digging around, I’m sure you will easily discover the true identity of the Apprentice. It’s been fun being an anonymous monk but I am now too old for hide & seek. Now I must step out of the shadows and be who I was born to be. Do check out the About the Apprentice page to gain a little more understanding of who i am and where this blog fits in. Big hairy and audacious eh?

So yes, I am the infamous Apprentice. Some of you may be surprised, others not so much. But I can say this though; I’m definately not the Emyrs!  In the words of Lex Luthor “I am the villain of the story”

To your fun, success & prosperity…

Shalom

“You see, I don’t want to do good things, I want to do great things.” – Lex Luthor

“ I’m just interested in people who ruled the world before they were thirty.” – Lex Luthor

“One journey has ended. A new journey is about to begin.” – Jor-El

Yes, thats right. I really have nothing to say. Well rather, i’m just too lazy to say anything.

Those who have been keenly following me on BlogSpirit will have noticed I haven’t posted anything in a while. This morning, the Rogue King asked me in simple words “dude, do you still blog?” Now that coming from someone who knows me better than most and sits right next to me really bitch-slapped me out of my lazy bloggers stupor-hmmm, this calls for a new word. I think,   “bluggard” is the word. A sluggardly blogger.

So i confess, I’ve been a bluggard lately and i’m not proud of it(though i am proud of the new word i just forged-i should put my compilation on wikipedia It really is the same thing that happens in life, you just get lazy about a certain area of your life for just a day or ten and the next thing you know, a whole lifetime has passed you by and rust and overgrown weeds have over run you.

It shall not be so with the Apprentice. I will be giving you all some good content more regularly to enhance your living pleasure. Maybe I should tell you all about the case of the runaway maids? I’ve had two maids just up and stealthily flee from my house in the last 3months. Am i doing something right? A question for debate.

Till then I leave you with these infamous words from Mr. Lionel Luthor in Smallville…

“I have returned.”

Some more Lionel Luthor quotes

“You know, I never knew who was more insane. Don Quixote, jousting with imaginary enemies, or his partner Pancho, indulging his wildest fantasies despite the danger to everybody else”

“Coincidence. That’s an explanation used by fools and liars.”

“Knowledge comes from finding the answers, yes, but understanding what the answers mean is what brings wisdom. Men who didn’t understand the difference have been the ruin of some of the world’s greatest civilizations.”

“Never underestimate the value of lunatics and eccentrics, Lex, every Arthur needs his Merlin.”

“Well, for a woman with no heart…she certainly had a lot of blood.”

“When you’re rich, you’re not crazy. You’re eccentric”

As many of you who follow this blog know, i’m an avid reader of all things success & growth related. I am passionate about Entreprenuers who have changed the world, people like Richard Branson, Steve Jobs, Michael Dell, Larry Page & Sergey Brin among others. I study them, i try to emulate them, i definately want to make a positive impact on the world the way they have. But what is and entrepreneur exactly and why are there different types? I’m glad you ask.

What/Who is an Entrepreneur?

The classic definition of an Entrepreneur is “a person who organizes and manages a business undertaking, assuming the risk for the sake of the profit.”

An Entrepreneur can be anyone of any age who has an idea and builds a business around that idea to provide a product or service to as many people as need it. They see a need and fill it. They are passionate about their idea, product or service. They are visionaries. They tend to see opportunity where others don’t and this often leads them to take risks that most people wouldn’t.  The entrepreneur is at the heart and soul of progress, innovation and capitalism. Entrepreneurs create wealth and opportunity, not merely for themselves but for everyone around them as well. Entrepreneurs are sometimes born but more often, they are made. Any body can be an Entrepreneur. Why not you?

That being said, people are different with varied motivations hence the different types of Entrepreneurs. The top three types are;

The Wealth Creation Entrepreneur

This particular individual creates a business with the ultimate goal of reaching the largest available market whilst making the highest profit. These are the guys who build businesses like Google, Microsoft, Sony, Apple, Facebook and so on. These entrepreneurs generally make the Forbes list of wealthiest people in the world over and over again. They don’t think small, it’s not in their vocabulary. They deal with vast sums of money and are responsible for thousands and tens of thousands of peoples livelihoods. These guys are good for any country. Their bank accounts will usually start from 1million dollars a year to billions. They can be extremely innovative businesses that cahnge the way we see the world like Facebook, Twitter; or they can be pretty run of the mill like Wal-Mart or Toyota.

The Lifestyle Entrepreneur

This individual creates a business around their passions but their primary goal is not vast profits but rather a rich and flexible lifestyle.  A lifestyle entrepreneur doesn’t expect to make six figures a year doing what they love to do. They just want to be able to live their life doing what they love and being able to support themselves and their family as well. They are finding much happiness doing what they love to do. The business allows them to work extremely flexible hours, travel the world and afford a life that you associate with millionaires.

Interestingly enough, you wouldn’t actually need to make 1million dollars a year to live an exceptional lifestyle. If you do the maths, most of us probably don’t need more than $100,000 yearly to make a great life.

Most entrepreneurs fall in this category. An interesting sub category that has become quite popular with the establishment of the internet is the Internet Lifestyle Entrepreneur. He builds a business on the internet that allows him to work from anywhere at any time. This has manifested itself in the form of ProBlogging where one makes a business out of their blog and earns income from advertising or selling stuff through their blog.

The Social Entrepreneur

Now this one is quite interesting.  A social entrepreneur is someone who recognizes a social problem and uses entrepreneurial principles to organize, create, and manage a venture to make social change. Whereas a wealth creation entrepreneur typically measures performance in terms of profit and return, a social entrepreneur assesses success in terms of the impact on society as well as in profit and return. They often operate through non-profits or charities but increasingly, they are doing so from a private standpoint.

Just as entrepreneurs change the face of business, social entrepreneurs act as the change agents for society, seizing opportunities others miss and improving systems, inventing new approaches, and creating solutions to change society for the better.

One of the best examples of Social entrepreneurs is Muhammad Yunus, founder and manager of Grameen Bank in India, who was awarded a Nobel Peace Prize in 2006.  He essentially invented the concept of Micro finance banks by giving ridiculously small loans to poor people, even beggars and yet still managing a 95% repayment from borrowers. He definately changed the world of banking.

So there you have the three main types of Entrepreneurs. I personally gravitate to something in between Lifestyle and Wealth Creation. Richard Branson is my hero. Hell of a business man and hell of a life-ist too. What kind of entrepreneur are you?

Shalom