After world war two in 1945, Japan was in ruins. Hiroshima and Nagasaki have been wrecked by atomic bomb. Factories have been burnt to ashes. Nearly everyone was jobless.
- How would a devastated nation with no natural resources, only 10% arable land, feed over 100 million people?
- What creative processes could take them from this poverty to prosperity?
- What strategies could they employ to create the wealth of the nation they envision?
No crude oil, cocoa, gold or diamond; no raw materials to create products. They had one primary solution; continually develop the capacity to import raw materials, add value to them, and export.
This was the foundation of a people that came from wreckage to build the third largest economy in the world today.
Let’s establish some points.
To succeed in anything you have to SELL what you have. Agreed?
- Students sell potentials and academic prowess for grades
- Job seekers sell competence on Resume and interview
- Employees sell time and skills for money
- Entrepreneurs sell ideas and vision to raise funds from investors and to assemble the best team members
- Religious leaders continually sell doctrines to maintain a devoted congregation.
- Couples have to continually sell their commitment to each other and to the relationship
- The politicians have to sell manifestos
Your ability to sell can make the difference between success and failure.
“…But what if I don’t have something to sell?”
Japan as a country had every reason to remain a poor nation. But they didn’t accept the perceived reality that they had nothing left after world war. Rather they asked the question, “What do we have? How can we use what we have to survive?”
Create Wealth out of the Intangible!
Jews make up only 2 percent of the total US population. Yet;
- 45 percent of the top 40 of the Forbes 400 richest Americans
- One-third of American multimillionaires
- 20 percent of professors at leading universities
- 25 percent of all American Nobel Prize winners
…are all Jewish.
What is the secret of these people? Do they possess some kind of supernatural power? Or are they exceptionally favored by the Almighty?
According to Steven Silbiger, in his book, The Jewish Phenomenon, the Jews believe that real wealth is portable. That real wealth is knowledge.
If everything you have today is taken away from you – your cars, houses, bank account – and you are left to start all over again, how will you survive?
This is the life the Jews of old have learned to live. A tribe constantly prone to attacks and displacement can only run with what they can carry along. And this has molded their perception about real wealth being portable.
Real wealth is portable. And with internet and information technology, creating wealth out of the intangible has become more simplified than ever.
Sometime ago, I read an article about a mobile application called ‘Yo!’ All this app does is let you send a single message ‘Yo!’ to your friends and vise versa. Nothing more.
The owner was so ashamed of the app that he refused to put his real name to it. But guess what?
The stupidly simple app, as the owner calls it, has over 1,000,000 (No! it’s not a typo; one million) users and generated over $1.2million for the owner from investors.
Yo!
Funny enough the owner didn’t even build it by himself. He hired someone to do it for him. And this ‘stupid’ idea is creating wealth for the owners.
What if you don’t have the programming skill or huge fund to create something?
Let me introduce you to the ‘Content Creation’ industry.
We live in the idea-driven age; a time when you can sit at home or office, put an idea to work, and make money, at least, to pay the bills and then some more.
The content creation/online publishing industry is huge. Massive. Gigantic.
We consume content every day. Each time you get on Youtube, Search on Google, Visit Wikipedia, Listen to the News, Watch your favorite Soap Opera, Nollywood movie or StandUp Nigeria, you are consuming content created by other people.
Each time you logon to Facebook, you either create or consume content. And Facebook is making a hell of money from these activities.
There are millions of eBooks and audio messages on Amazon Kindle bookstore; millions of blogs posts, news and articles; millions of personal and business videos on Google; millions of podcast (audio) messages for free or fee download; hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of online courses and trainings.
Who do you think create and publish these contents?
…everyday people like you and me.
- I have written and published eBooks on Amazon Kindle.
- I have created an online magazine that generates revenue from advertising and partnerships.
- I have created online training to teach other people what I have learned
The intangible products in each case is nothing but content. And it didn’t require a huge capital or mathematical genius to start.
That is what the ‘content creation, online publishing’ business is all about.
Use intangible, portable knowledge to create and self-publish eBooks, blog posts, newsletters, video, audio etc that meets peoples need, establish your brand and create wealth.
Before you get all excited, let me remind you that this is just like every other business. I am not here to hype things up and make you believe that you can get rich overnight.
It requires strategic and smart work; lots of it. Especially now that the barrier to entry is so low.
If you have the passion for sharing knowledge and information, and are not afraid of the word ‘WORK’, you’ll be on to a rewarding journey of creating portable wealth.
Your thoughts!
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Thank you for your alert (i. e. in your last post) for publishers and authors in Nigeria who are interested in targeting Nigerians/Africans with their Kindle contents.
I just want to point out that Nigerians can also write contents that relate to Kindle markets outside Africa and get paid by cheque. Though Nigerian Kindle authors will have a cut off their royalties, it is better than writing for a market where the audience are yet to have access to buying Kindle contents. Regarding your upcoming Kindle publishing how-to post (as promised above), I suggest that your content should cover Kindle publishing in general first. The aspects of audience targeting and marketing or promotion can then follow.
My experience (as a Nigerian who is an author of bestseller Kindle ebooks and who has received an Amazon cheque in payment of royalties) stands as a proof that Nigerians can easily write for cash through Amazon KDP.
It will be nice to have thousands of Nigerians as Kindle authors through your blog.
With my best wishes.
Thank you for sharing your experience and suggestion Joe.
Good to know you already got it figured out.
No doubt, Nigerians can write for the international audience and make good sales from Kindle. I still make sales through this medium. It happens that my content is mainly targeted to Africans, and a lot of potential authors I’ve discussed with fall into this category. The local market also need to be explored through other publishing platforms.
My coming tutorial will cover the A-to-Z of Kindle publishing for Nigerians. Then, we’ll take it from there. 🙂
Best regards
Great, the japanese really knows the sources of wealth
Hi Ikenna, I’m TJ McDuke, I’m a blogger like you, wanted to discuss some things with you, how can we speak directly??
Hi TJ,
You can send me an email via the contact form.
Cheers.