Who Wants To Be A Millionaire is a programme that runs on several television stations in Nigeria. It is sponsored by a telecommunications company.
Contestants on the programme are allowed to win prize money ranging from five thousand naira up to a maximum of ten million naira.
They are also expected to follow certain rules that pertain to the contest and the more questions they answer correctly, the more money they will win. In the programme, contestants have three forms of aids (life lines).
For any question that a contestant does not know the answer, he could ask the audience in the studio for help, phone a friend anywhere to provide the answer or alternatively use what is called a 50-50 chance; in which case, of the three options provided to choose the correct answer from, two wrong answers are deleted.
Of the remaining two, the contestant would now pick the correct answer. A contestant in one of the episodes was asked a question, he didn’t know the answer, ignored his life line, tried to guess the correct answer, failed it and that was the end of the road for him. He probably could have become a millionaire that day if he had used his life lines, but he didn’t and he went away with very little prize money. This is the case with many people. They have all that they need to confront the challenges of life, yet they don’t, preferring to rely on themselves until they hit the rocks.
Read books, listen to CD/DVDs, attend empowerment programmes, network, have mentors and life coaches that you can tap from to increase your knowledge and wisdom.
All that you are looking for is within. During the Great Depression, a man named Mr. Yates owned a huge piece of land in Texas where he raised sheep before financial problems brought him to the brink of bankruptcy. Then, an oil company, believing there might be oil on his land, asked for permission to drill.
With nothing to lose, Mr. Yates agreed. Soon, at a shallow depth, the workmen struck the longest oil deposit found at that time on the North American continent. Overnight, Mr. Yates became a billionaire. The amazing thing, though, is that the untapped riches were there all along. He just didn’t know it!
What of this one? He was a poor man, so poor he couldn’t feed himself and so for 20 years was helped by the town in his poverty. He owned a wide spreading maple tree that covered his poor cottage, from where with the use of bucket he tried to catch the maple sap during the spring.
He didn’t make a great deal of maple sugar from that tree. But one day, he made the sugar so white and crystalline that the visitor did not believe it was maple sugar; thought maple sugar must be red or black. He said to the old man: “Why don’t you make it that way and sell it for confectionery?”
The old man caught his thought and invented the “rock maple crystal,” and before that patent expired, he had millions of dollars and had built a beautiful palace on the site of that tree. After 40 years of owning that tree, he awoke to find it had fortunes of money indeed in it.
Here is another story to buttress my point. A man from California, who owned a ranch, read that gold had been discovered in Southern California in 1847. And so he sold his ranch and started off to hunt for gold.
His successor put a mill on the little stream on that farm and one day his little girl brought some wet sand from the raceway of the mill into the house and placed it before the fire to dry, and as that sand was falling through the little girl’s fingers, a visitor saw the first shining scales of real gold that were ever discovered in California; and the man who wanted the gold had sold his ranch and gone away, never to return.
Yet another story. A farmer who had lived on the same farm all his life, but now he desperately craved a change. So, he decided to sell the old place and buy another, more to his liking. He listed the farm with a real estate agent, who looked over the property and prepared an advert for the newspaper. The agent read to the farmer this very flattering description: “Beautiful farm house, ideal location, excellent barn, good pasture, fertile soil, up to date equipment, well bred stock. Near town; near church; and near school with good neighbours.”
“Wait a minute,” said the farmer. “Read that again.” And again the description was read: “Beautiful farm house, ideal location…” “Changed my mind,” said the farmer. “I’m not gonna sell. All my life, I’ve been looking for a place just like that!”
All that you are looking for is within. It has always been there. Dig deep and you will be shocked that it has always been there.
You will succeed!