Living On The Coke Side Of Life (Part II)

In my last blog, I started sharing the story (and lessons to learn) from a product that has become one of the most powerful brands in the world – Coca-cola. I shared on how this brand has travelled to more parts of the world than any other product known to man. Go to any nook and cranny in the world, and you are likely to find a bottle of Coca-Cola there! It’s amazing. This brand is sustaining several glass industries in the world. It is sustaining thousands of sugar plantations all over the world. How did a recipe from a relatively obscure part of Atlanta turn into a global brand, enjoyed by over 1 billion (yes, 1 billion) people every day? How did this brand become the most recognized product in the world, as well as a common link between cultures and countries, people and places?

In the last post, i shared two of the lessons to learn from this brand (please refer to the last article posted) and in this post, i will be sharing two more.

Add value and get value back

This is one of the most basic rules of success. There are many young men and women today who go into business, looking at what to get! Getting value (monetary or otherwise) is not difficult, if you know the right thing to do. And the right thing to do is “Add Value”! May I say that your current level of income is a function of the value (either real or perceived) that you bring to the table? The more value you give, the more value you get.

One of the striking things about Coca-Cola is the value they seek to bring to their consumers and customers. A look at its renewed vision shows clearly why it’s the leading brand in the world

• To refresh the world...
• To inspire moments of optimism and happiness...
• To create value and make a difference.

What value are you bringing to the table? What value do you want to be paid or compensated for? What problem are you solving for people that they should pay you for? Coca-Cola is refreshing the world. They are inspiring moments of optimism and happiness. They create value and make a difference…..and we are all rewarding them with market share!

May I say that your current level of income is a function of the value (either real or perceived) that you bring to the table?

Ideas rule the world

I recently read a story about Bill Gates, perhaps the richest man in the world that interested me. He was traveling through a particular airport and was asked by the custom officers if he had anything to declare. “Nothing, but a billion dollars worth of ideas” he declared. Interesting, isn’t it?

Take a moment and look around your environment. Everything you see from your laptop computer to Post-It Notes® started as an idea. The universe itself started as an idea in God’s mind. The software in your two and a half pound brain spends twenty-four hours per day producing and processing ideas. When your brain is in sleep mode we call the idea production "dreaming." When you are awake and looking out the window, we call it "daydreaming." When you are awake and focused on a task we call it "thinking."

The greatest problem faced by developing countries is not money problem. It is not power problem. It is an idea problem. Ideas are superior to money. They bring in money. Ideas are more powerful that the best currencies in the world. Infact, permit me to say that ideas are becoming a currency of the future. For example, exchange an idea with an associate at lunch. You both walk away with two ideas. If instead, you just exchanged one dollar bills at lunch, you'd both walk away with one dollar. Ideas rule the world.

The greatest problem faced by developing countries is not money problem. It is not power problem. It is an idea problem.

The brand Coca-Cola started as an idea in someone’s mind. In 1889, a man, by the name Asa Candler, bought a formula and a 3 legged brass kettle containing a mixture of lime, cinnamon, cocoa leaves, and the seeds on a Brazilian shrub from a druggist, Dr John Pemberton. Together with an idea he had about marketing, he turned this formula into a money spinner! Ideas indeed rule the world.

I hope we can take a cue from these great lessons from the Coca-Cola brand, and also line on the Coke side of life! It’s an interesting part of life to live!

Living On The Coke Side Of Life

About this time last week, while on vacation in Atlanta Georgia, I had the opportunity of following the story of one of the world’s biggest and most popular brands. Several things interested me about this brand. This brand has travelled to more places in the world than the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. It’s in more hands than the Bible. It has penetrated into cities, towns and villages that the gospel has not dared! It is perhaps the largest consumer of glass in the world today. This brand is sustaining several glass factories and sugar plantations around the globe today – perhaps the largest consumer of both. I am sure you can guess the brand I am talking about now. I am talking about Coca-Cola. Coca Cola sells 1.4 billion servings each day. You could show someone a Coke can and they'll be able to tell you what it is, even if they live in Tokyo. No other brand is as recognizable as Coke is.

This brand has travelled to more places in the world than the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. It’s in more hands than the Bible

A visit to the World of Coca-Cola Centre will be inspiring for anyone. You will practically see how this dream, and this product evolved to be a world brand and then you ask yourself – why not me; why not now? A friend of mine always put it in a nice way – if not now, when. If not me, then who!

It was in 1886, and in New York harbour,workers were constructing the Statue of Liberty. Eight hundred miles away, another great American symbol was about to be unveiled. Like many people who changed history, John Pemberton, a civil war veteran, and Atlanta pharmacist (yes, pharmacist!), was inspired by simple curiosity. He loved thinkering with medicinal formulas, and one afternoon, searching for a quick cure for headaches, he stirred up a fragmant, caramel-coulored liquid in a three-legged pot. When it was done, he carried it a few doors down to Jacob’s pharmacy. Here, the mixture was combined with carbonated water and sampled by customers who all agreed – this new drink was something special. So, Jacob’s pharmacy put it on sale for five cents a glass. Pemberton’s bookkeeper Frank Robinson named the mixture Coca-cola, and wrote it out in his discticnt script. To this day, Coca-cola is written in the same way.

If not now, when. If not me, then who!

About nine servings of the soft drink were sold each day. Sales for that first year added up to a total of about $50. The funny thing was that it cost John Pemberton over $70 in expanses, so the first year of sales were a loss.

There are a couple of lessons to draw out from the Coca-Cola story

Start with what you have

This is one of the prominent things in the Coca-Cola story. Sometimes, we are bugged down by trying to figure out all the tiny details before starting anything. We want to have everything ready to go before we take any step. Most times, we focus on what we don’t have rather than what we have. Pemberton started the Coca-Cola company with what he had – a formula. At that time, he didn’t have any business or marketing experience. He could have held back because of the many things he didn’t have but he didn’t.

There’s a story that explains this in a deeper way in God’s word. In II Kings 4: 1-7,there is an account of a woman that shows the power of starting with what you have. The woman, a widow, had a peculiar problem. He late husband left her and her sons huge debts to pay! And as far as she was concerned, she didn’t have the wherewithal to pay these debts. She did what was very logical to do – she ran to the man of God for help (since he husband was also a prophet when he was alive). I am sure she was expecting a display of a miracle. However, the man of God asked a very instructional question

“Elisha said, "I wonder how I can be of help. Tell me, what do you have in your house?" "Nothing," she said. "Well, I do have a little oil."

As far as she was concerned, she had nothing, except a little oil. Guess what? That little oil was enough to get what she wanted. This woman was focusing on what she didn’t have. The man of God drew her attention to what she had! What do you have? May I challenge you to start with that, and then see how you attract and get what you need.

Don’t be afraid to fail

In case you are not aware, Coca-Cola did not make any profit in the 1st year! First year sales closed at a loss. Infact, Pemberton, who invented the mixture, died 2.5 years after his discovery. However, the seed of greatness for this brand has been sown and just needed time to germinate.

One of the best lessons I ever learned was that it was OK to fail. It is OK to make mistakes. Failure has a wonderful way of teaching you lessons, sometimes very painful lessons, that you can use the next time you tackle a problem. You may not learn the lesson the first time, or the second, or fifth time, but eventually each failure will teach you something you can use later.

Don’t be afraid to fail. Every successful person has failed at some time. Everybody that plays it safe, they’re never going to fail, but they’re never going to be a big success,”

How did I learn this? By recognizing one crucial thing – no one starts off being the best at something. All the greats of anything did it through hard work, something you can read about in Malcolm Gladwell’s Outliers and his 10,000 hours idea (that to truly master something you need to spend 10,000 hours on it). And you know what? The first thousand hours were probably filled with failures.“Don’t be afraid to fail. Every successful person has failed at some time. Everybody that plays it safe, they’re never going to fail, but they’re never going to be a big success,” said Peter Kim, Hudson Jeans CEO, requoted from a Los Angeles Times article.

(To be continued)

Things More Important Than Money

One of the myths of entrepreneurial success is that you must have a lot of money. “It takes money to make money”, I have often heard. Of a truth, when starting a business or an enterprise, the value of having enough money cannot be overemphasized. However, there are several other things that make for success other than money. I have read tonnes of stories of successful men, who started with little or no capital and went on to build great business empires. How? You may ask.

Well, I believe there are actually some things that are more valuable than capital that can lead to your entrepreneurial success. Let me give you the list.

1. Time.

Time is more valuable than capital. Infact, God never gave anyone money. What he gave us initially was time. You go and invest the time to get money. In my opinion, time is the most evenly distributed of God’s gift. Everyone on the planet has exactly the same amount. The US President elect has 24 hours. A beggar on the streets of Lagos has 24 hours. How you spend these 24 hours goes a long way in determining how successful you will be. Some waste it and amount to nothing. Some set it aside to be invested in an enterprise that brings value to the marketplace with the hope of making a profit.

How valuable is time? Time properly invested is worth a fortune. Time wasted can be devastation. Time invested can perform miracles, so you invest your time.

2. Courage.

Courage is more valuable than capital. If you've only got N100 and a lot of courage, I'm telling you, you've got a good future ahead of you. Courage in spite of the circumstances. Humans can do the most incredible things no matter what happens. Haven't we heard the stories? There are some recent ones from Kosovo that are some of the most classic, unbelievable stories of being in the depths of hell and finally making it out. Its humans. You can't sell humans short. Courage in spite of, not because of, but in spite of.

3. Ingenuity.

This is all about putting your brains to work. Probably up until now, you've put about 1/100 of your brainpower to work. What if you employed the other 99/100? You can't believe what can happen. Humans can come up with the most intriguing things to do. Ingenuity. Haven’t you heard of people who made millions using other people’s money? They’ve got the idea, the ingenuity. I believe strongly that ideas rule the world….not money.

What's ingenuity worth? It is probably worth more than a fortune. It is more valuable than money. All you need is a $1 and plenty of ingenuity. Figuring out a way to make it work, make it work, make it work.

4. Desperatation

Desperate people do desperate things. I do not mean this in a negative way. However, when a young man is determined and desperate, there is no limit to what he can do. I read about the story of Bill Bailey who went to Chicago as a teenager after he got out of high school. And the first job he got was as a night janitor. Someone said, "Bill, why would you settle for night janitor?" He said, "Malnutrition." You work at whatever you can possibly get when you get hungry. You go to work somewhere -- night janitor, it doesn't matter where it is. Years later, now Bill is a recipient of the Horatio Alger award, rich and powerful and one of the great examples of lifestyle that I know. But, his first job -- night janitor. Desperation can be a powerful incentive. When you say - I must.

I will share the other things in the 2nd part of this article coming up shortly

Meanwhile, I am using this medium to invite anyone in Ibadan, Oyo State, to the maiden edition of Billionaires in Training. It will take place at Jogor Centre on the 31st of January 2009 at 10.00a.m. There are limited seat available. Individuals are to pay 2000 NGN per person, while couple would pay 3000 NGN. If you are interested, please call Yinka on 08062851294

See you at the top!