THE WINNING STRATEGYHOW TO BECOME SUCCESSFUL

A basic PowerPoint presentation

BY SILAS D PHIRI

260972020305

Introduction

There are three kinds of people in life. There are businessmen, scholars and

scholars/businessmen. A scholar is a specialist in a particular branch of study. He/she is a

person who is highly educated or has an aptitude for study. The scholar suffers from a

condition I refer to as social polio; this disables him/her from socializing as much. They are

more inclined to studies and research. The scholar/businessman is quasi-social. They are

inclined to both business and social aspects, in short they break even. The business man has

good social characteristics, does not engage in research or many studies, but instead utilizes

the ability of intellects to achieve his/her goals. They are backed by a natural strategy that is

aimed at generating income. A businessman, businesswoman, or businessperson is someone

who works in business or commerce. The term can refer to the owner of a business, an

executive at a business, or a lower-level manager at a business. At its most general, a

businessperson is anyone engaged in commerce or industry. These are pro-social, they

portray or denote behaviour which is positive, helpful, and intended to promote social

acceptance and friendship for business purposes mostly. Not everyone can be a scholar or

businessman; some unique individuals however share both characteristics.

People such as Warren Buffet and Hakainde Hichilema are both scholars and

businessmen. The essence or intention of this book is to help you find a category

that will best help you formulate the right strategies in life. It also gives you the

chance to read about people who fall under different categories and are

successful. Every category has its own flaws and advantages, and can be used to

achieve success. You don’t necessarily have to be a businessman or very educated

to become successful, the key is taking advantage of what you are good at.

Athletes can be classified as businessmen as they require natural talent to generate

income. Talent is natural and cannot be learnt at school. Most books have focused

on organizational strategy but have neglected the individual who works there or

doing business. My aim focuses purely on the success of individuals and strategy

at individual level with examples of people who are successful because of good

strategy.

Chapter 1: How to Categorize Yourself

According to Michael Porter an organization exists in an environment. The strategies

that it formulates will be based on the existing environmental factors such as

political, social, economic technological and legal aspects. PEST analysis is a scan of

the external macro-environment in which an organization exists. It is a useful tool for

understanding the political, economic, socio-cultural and technological environment

that an organization operates in. It can be used for evaluating market growth or

decline, and as such the position, potential and direction for a business. Political

factors include government regulations such as employment laws, environmental

regulations and tax policy. Other political factors are trade restrictions and political

stability. Economic factors affect the cost of capital and purchasing power of an

organization/individual. Economic factors include economic growth, interest rates,

inflation and currency exchange rates. Social factors impacts on the consumer’s need

and the potential market size for an organization’s goods and services

Social factors include population growth, age demographics and attitudes

towards health. Technological factors influence barriers to entry, make or buy

decisions and investment in innovation, such as automation, investment

incentives and the rate of technological change.

He also further notes that an organization also has internal factors such as

strengths and weaknesses; these include resources, capacity, capabilities, and

human capital. An individual person is not any different from an organization,

they have strengths and weaknesses, they exist in an environment and are

affected by political, economic, technological and legal issues. Your strength

can be your ability to grasps concepts or learn quicker, developing applications

and so on, in that instance you can be a scholar. If you can easily convince

people and setup business deals, or you are already selling and buying

commodities, then you are likely a businessman. . If you can do both, it’s most

likely that you are the unique type that can be a business man and scholar

Chapter 1: How to Categorize Yourself

The first step is to establish your strengths and weaknesses and see where

you best fit in. Most people have failed to be successful because they have

not categorized themselves and in the end choose a wrong category. The

next page will give you the opportunity to list your strengths and

weaknesses, in this way; it will be very easy to categorize yourself. Once

you have categorized yourself, it is thus important to know why you are

and why you need to be in that category.

STRENGTHS WEAKNESSES

1. 1.

2. 2.

3. 3.

4. 4.

5. 5.

6. 6.

7. 7.

8. 8.

9. 9.

10. 10.

CATEGORY

Chapter 2: Why Categorize Yourself

Categorizing gives you an identity, a feeling of belonging or being affiliated to

something. A group of lions is called a pride. A group of mostly female lions is

called a pride, and a group of male lions is called a coalition. The pride contains

female lions and their young offspring, and usually has fewer than 20 members. A

coalition of male lions usually includes less than 10 individuals. A group of

elephants is called a parade and a group of Tigers is called a streak or ambush. A

tigress and her cubs may also be referred to as a streak or an ambush. Once you

are categorized, you can either walk with pride, parade or ambush your success.

You will know whether you are business minded, a scholar or both. In this way,

you will be able to come up with the best strategy that will be effective in

achieving your goals. When one knows who they are or where they belong, it is

easier to create synergies, groups and syndicates of like minds.

It is not a coincident that business people hung around together, neither is it a

coincident that nerds also hung around together. However, the scholar/ Business

man cuts across both barriers

Chapter 3: Attitude

Attitude can be a strong value or behavior for or against something. It has been

noted, though not really proven that if you hate a teacher you are most likely

going to fail their subject. You might think you like success but in real

quintessence you hate it, this is because you neglect the doctrines you need to

uphold in order for you to be fruitful. Misdirection is also an enemy to successful.

This book choses a category approach which will help individuals understand

who they are and what direction they need to take. Positive attitude towards

something will guarantee you good results. This is because of the interest you

take in getting to know what you are doing. It is the only way you can become

good at what you are pursuing. Categorization becomes important in the sense

that you can only have a positive attitude to something you know and belong to.

If am not a banker, I would probably have a negative attitude towards it, but In

essence I may know a lot about banking and would be a good banker. This is

what I refer to as unrealized or repressed potential. This situation occurs when

you are wrongly categorized and display negative vibes towards your actual

category.

Chapter 4: Relationships

Relationships create bonds in each of the given categories. One can only

make and develop the right relationships when they know who they are.

These relationship are not only business or formal based, but also carry

some informal aspects. Emotions are shared, failure and success as well.

Everybody needs a shoulder to lean on, and advice in times of failure. It is

almost impossible to be successful without relationships.

Chapter 5: Challenges of each category

Each category has its own challenges. This book summarizes a few challenges you

are likely to face as you pursue your dreams. My approach assists you in knowing

actual challenges you might face and related to your category. It exposes you to

successful people who went through different kinds of situations to get where they

are. Inspiring stories such as that of Li Ka-shing. Li Ka-shing was born in

Chaozhou in Guangdong province, China, in 1928 to Teochew people. Due to his

father's death, he was forced to leave school before the age of 15 and found a job in

a plastics trading company where he worked 16 hours a day. In 1950 he started his

own company. From a school dropout to a business owner of multimillion dollar

group of companies. Li was no genius, he was an ordinary human being. Alekperov

is also an inspiring story. He had to work in extreme conditions on oil platforms.

On one occasion, an explosion on his rig threw him into the stormy Caspian Sea,

and he had to swim for his life, despite the trauma, he still persisted and achieved

his dream of becoming successful.

The point I am trying to put across is that whatever you think

you might be going through, someone out there probably went

through the same or even tougher situations. The difference in

outcome was how each person responded to the problem.

Every problem except death always has a solution, temporal

or permanent. If you lack capital for your business look for

someone who has, but does not know what to do with it.

Establish consortiums, start small and grow. Scholars can use

their knowledge to generate money, the problem with most

scholars is that they end up as company slaves.

Chapter 6: Persistence

This should be the most important topic in this book. Whether you are

categorized, have a positive attitude, already doing business or a scholar, without

persistence you are most likely to fail. Persistence is the ability to strive on in the

midst of trouble or crinkum crankum. An economy goes through 4 cycles. There’s

the recession, depression, recovery and boom. An individual goes through similar

situations, you might be facing a problem in your business, which can be your

recession. If the problem becomes worse that’s your depression, and when you

find a solution that becomes your recovery. The boom comes in after the

recovery, this is when your business can be fruitful. A scholar will go through

similar challenges. Studies are never easy and will expose you to situations that

make you wish you never started school. However the secret is to be persistent

during these trials, as well as making the right choices.

Chapter 7: Self Confidence

Self-confidence has a lot to do with how you feel about yourself. How do you

motivate yourself even when others are looking down on you or your ideas? Li is

a good example of a self-confident man. He did not care what he was going

through and what people thought about him selling plastic bags. Once you have

categorized yourself, it is important to be confident and true to who you are. If

you are a scholar or businessman be proud of your category. Most people divert

from their true calling due to loss or lack of confidence. The story of a man who

had 100 barriers to freedom is a good example of why we should never give up

on our dreams. The man gave up after jumping 99 barriers. Just when he had

reached the last wall, he felt tired and gave up, and instead started going back.

Just because he could not see where he was going, he lost confidence In his

ability to accomplish his mission and thought he would never make it

Chapter 8: Self Discipline

In most circumstances, people fail to succeed because they lack discipline. Each

category requires a level of discipline and commitment. If you are a businessman,

you are required not to misuse funds or capital for pleasure. For a scholar, be

committed to your studies, research and make use of your mind to take advantage

of what’s going on in the markets.

Chapter 9: Talk less, Listen and Learn More

Some proverbs state that there’s more wisdom in listening than in talking. This is

because the more you listen, the more you add on to your already existing

wisdom. Most people spend more time talking and miss out on what others have

on the table. Ninety percent of the time, we fail to realize what is wrong with

ourselves and only takes someone out there to help us notice. This also now

brings us back to the issue of relationships and why they are important. The

people we build relationships with have the ability to impart knowledge and help

us realize who we truly are. Categorization becomes important in the sense that it

is most likely impossible for someone in a different category to understand and

advice you correctly, in most cases, though not every case, good business advice

can be given by a good business man. For a scholar, a businessman may not give

you the right advice on how to do logarithms.

Chapter 10: Basic Understanding of InvestmentsRegardless of category, one should at least have a basic understanding of investments.

Investing is essential to making money. You have to invest money to make money.

Whatever your motto may be the idea to invest money is larger now more than ever and

continues to grow more and more each year. By foregoing consumption today and investing

the savings, investors expect to enhance their future consumption possibilities by increasing

their wealth. By the mid 1990’there were roughly 3 million households in America that

qualify as “millionaires. So far, American Stock markets has produced 300 billionaires

while in Asia, the stock markets have made more than 100 investors as billionaires. An

investment is the current commitment of funds to one or more assets that will be held over

some future time period. Investments can be classified into financial assets and real assets.

Investors have a choice of these assets based on their objective of investment. Financial

assets are paper claims on some issuer, such as the federal government or a corporation.

Marketable securities are financial assets that are easily and cheaply tradable in organized

markets (Financial markets). They include certificate of deposits, bonds, common stocks

and mutual funds. Real assets are tangible assets such as land, building, machinery, gold,

silver, diamond, and art.

The investors can be an individual, a government, a pension fund or a corporation

(company). Thus Investors can be classified as Individual investors and Institutional

investors. Any investment program will be successful if you follow some basic rules

and apply them sensibly. Get Rid Of Debt: As a common rule, you should not have

debt while making investments. The reason for this is that you cannot be sure that

you will receive a tax-free return from your investments that will equal or exceed

what you are paying in interest on your debt. Of course, this rule does not apply all

the time as you could simultaneously be paying back your home loan while

contributing to a retirement fund. Know the difference between Investment and

Saving: Investing means taking risks making it grow for medium to long-term

goals. With savings you are building up your resources; with investment your

money is working for you.

Chapter 10: Basic Understanding of InvestmentsSaving money is not investing. With saving, you earn nominal interest below the

inflation rate. Investing means seeking total growth of your money, which

includes, importantly, capital gains. Set Goals: Set investment targets. These

should be medium to long-term. Separate goals may include retirement, an

overseas holiday, or paying for education of children. The main reasons for

separating your investment targets are: the different time spans required to reach

each target; the priority accorded to each target; and the investment risk you can

afford to take to reach a target.

Chapter 11: Performance of Your InvestmentInvolves a number of complex methods which cannot be discussed in this book.

Performance measurement allows you to determine the success of your investment.

You have to evaluate risks that are being taken, the reasons for success or failure of

the investing. This in turn, could lead to revisions in the process. You will have to

look at expected returns, associated risk & certain tax considerations that may affect

the returns. Investors must measure & compare actual performance with anticipated

performance. To analyze the performance of individual investments, investor must

gather current market information & abreast of international, national, economic &

market developments. Indexes such as Dow Jones (DJIA) & bond market indicators

provide market behavior. Performance of individual investment vehicles—stocks,

bonds etc, can be measured on both pre-tax & after-tax basis using holding period

return (HPR). HPR measure total return on the investment during investment

period. HPR can be compared to investment goals. In this instance, one category

can do a cross reference or build a cross relationship with other categories for

advice, the most important thing is that you chose and maintain a category

Chapter 12: Successful people and their categories

• I made an analysis of successful people and categorized them from studying their biographies. These include successful people from Africa, America, Asia, Europe

and Latin America

AFRICA

Aliko DangoteAliko Dangote is a Nigerian billionaire owns the Dangote Group, which has

interests in commodities. The company operates in Nigeria and other African

countries, including Benin, Cameroon, Ghana, South Africa, Togo, Tanzania, and

Zambia. As of January 2015, he had an estimated net worth of US$18.6 billion.

Dangote is ranked by Forbes magazine as the 67th richest person in the world

and the richest in Africa. Dangote said, "I can remember when I was in primary

school, I would go and buy cartons of sweets [sugar boxes] and I would start

selling them just to make money. I was so interested in business, even at that

time." The Dangote Group was established as a small trading firm in 1977.

Today, it is a multi-trillion naira conglomerate with many of its operations in

Benin, Ghana, Nigeria, and Togo. In the 1970s he attended Al Azhar University,

Cairo, Egypt, where he bagged a degree in business studies and administration.

Dangote has expanded to cover food processing, cement manufacturing, and

freight. The Dangote Group also dominates the sugar market in Nigeria and is a

major supplier to the country's soft drink companies, breweries, and

confectioners. Dangote has also diversified into telecommunications, and has

started building 14,000 kilometres of fibre optic cables to supply the whole of

Nigeria. As a result, Dangote was honoured in January 2009 as the leading

provider of employment in the Nigerian construction industry. He said, "Let me

tell you this and I want to really emphasize it...nothing is going to help Nigeria

like Nigerians bringing back their money. If you give me $5 billion today, I will

invest everything here in Nigeria. Let us put our heads together and work."

Dangote can be categorized as a scholar/businessman as he qualifies for both.

Though he has always been a businessman.

Dr Deji Adeleke

He is a successful businessman and a billionaire. He was born on March, 6, 1957

in Enugu. Deji Adeleke used to be married to Dr. Vero Adeleke who passed away

in the year 2003. Deji Adeleke is the Pro-chancellor at Adeleke University in Ede,

Osun State of Nigeria. Dr. Deji Adeleke is the founder of Pacific Holdings

Limited, a company which specializes in investing in various sectors across the

country.

He is a scholar/ Businessman

Dambisa Moyo

Dambisa Moyo (born 2 February 1969) is a Zambian-born international

economist and author who analyzes the macro economy and global affairs. With

post-graduate degrees in business, public administration, and economics from

American University, Harvard, and Oxford, Moyo currently serves on the boards

of Barclays Bank, the financial services group, SABMiller, the global brewer, and

Barrick Gold, the global miner. She worked for two years at the World Bank and

eight years at Goldman Sachs before becoming an author and international public

speaker. She has written three New York Times bestselling books: Dead Aid:

Why Aid Is Not Working and How There Is a Better Way for Africa (2009), How

the West Was Lost: Fifty Years of Economic Folly – And the Stark Choices that

Lie Ahead (2011), and Winner Take All: China's Race for Resources and What It

Means for the World (2012).

Dambisa is the definition of a scholar.

ASIALui Che Woo

He was born in Jiangmen, China in August 9, 1929. He is Chairman of K. Wah

Group, owner of Galaxy Entertainment Group. As of November 2013, he is the

second richest man in Asia. Then in January 2014, with a worth of US$21 billion,

he was named the second richest man in Hong Kong. He established the first K.

Wah Company in Hong Kong in the 1950s. Its major member companies include

K. Wah International Holdings Ltd. Galaxy Entertainment Group, Stanford

Hotels International and K. Wah Construction Materials Limited. Today, K. Wah

has developed into a multi-national conglomerate involving properties,

entertainment & leisure, construction materials and hotels with over 200

subsidiaries and more than 33,000 employees in Hong Kong, Mainland China,

Macau, North America and Southeast Asia.

Lui was also awarded the degree of Doctor of Laws, honoris causa by the

University of Victoria in 2001; the degree of Doctor of Social Science,

honoris causa, by the Chinese University of Hong Kong in 2002; an

Honorary University Fellowship by the University of Hong Kong in 2002;

the degree of Honorary Doctor of Laws by Concordia University in 2004,

and the degree of Doctor of Business Administration, honoris causa, by the

Hong Kong Polytechnic University. In addition, Lui was awarded the Gold

Bauhinia Star (GBS) in 2005. In 2007, he was honored as the Business

Person of the Year in DHL/SCMP Hong Kong Business Awards and

presented with the Lifetime Achievement Award by American Academy of

Hospitality Sciences.

Lui is a scholar/businessman

Li Ka-shing

• He was born in Chaozhou in Guangdong province, China, in 1928 to

Teochew people. Due to his father's death, he was forced to leave school

before the age of 15 and found a job in a plastics trading company where he

worked 16 hours a day. In 1950 he started his own company, Cheung Kong

Industries. From manufacturing plastics, Li developed his company into a

leading real estate investment company in Hong Kong that was listed on the

Hong Kong Stock Exchange in 1972. Cheung Kong expanded by acquiring

Hutchison Whampoa and Hong kong Electric Holdings Limited in 1979 and

1985 respectively. A Harvard Business School article summarizes Li's career

in the following way: From his humble beginnings in China as a teacher's

son, a refugee, and later as a salesman, Li provides a lesson in integrity and

adaptability.

• Through hard work, and a reputation for remaining true to his internal moral

compass, he was able to build a business empire that includes: banking,

construction, real estate, plastics, cellular phones, satellite television, cement

production, retail outlets (pharmacies and supermarkets), hotels, domestic

transportation (sky train), airports, electric power, steel production, ports, and

shipping. Li's businesses cover almost every facet of life in Hong Kong, from

electricity to telecommunications, from real estate to retail, from shipping to

the Internet. The Cheung Kong Group's market capitalization is HK$647

billion (US$82.9 billion) as of December 2009.

Li Ka-shing

• In 1950, after learning how to operate a plant, Li founded a plastic

manufacturing company in Hong Kong with funds borrowed from family and

friends and contacts he cultivated as a salesman. Li avidly read trade

publications and business news before deciding to supply the world with high

quality plastic flowers at low prices. Li learned the technique of mixing color

with plastics that resemble real flowers. After retooling his shop and hiring

the best technicians he could find, he prepared for weeks for the plant visit of

a large foreign buyer. Impressed with the quality of Li's plant, the buyer

placed a large order. A few years later, Li grew to be the largest supplier

plastic flowers in Asia and made a fortune selling them

• In 1958, unable to renew the lease for his company, Li was forced to purchase

and develop a site by himself. An opportunity to acquire land arrived after the

1967 riots were in full swing when many people fled Hong Kong. As a result,

property prices plummeted. Li, believing the political crisis would be

temporary, and property prices would eventually rise, bought parcels of land

at low prices. By 1971, Li officially named his real estate development

company Cheung Kong ( 長江實業 ), named after Cheung Kong, (Chang

Jiang or the Yangtze River) the longest river in China.

• Li is a great businessman. Anybody with persistence can do what he did. He

is not a scholar, neither both but a pure business man

AMERICAWarren Edward Buffett

He was born on August 30, 1930. He is an American business magnate, investor and

philanthropist. He is the most successful investor in the world. Buffett is the

chairman, CEO and largest shareholder of Berkshire Hathaway, and is consistently

ranked among the world's wealthiest people. He was ranked as the world's

wealthiest person in 2008 and as the third wealthiest in 2015. In 2012 Time named

Buffett one of the world's most influential people. Buffett was born in Omaha,

Nebraska, of distant French Huguenot descent. He was the second of three children

and the only son of Leila (née Stahl) and Congressman Howard Buffett. Buffett

began his education at Rose Hill Elementary School. In 1942, his father was elected

to the first of four terms in the United States Congress, and after moving with his

family to Washington, D.C. Warren finished elementary school, attended Alice Deal

Junior High School and graduated from Woodrow Wilson High School in 1947,

where his senior yearbook picture reads: "likes math; a future stockbroker."

Buffett displayed an interest in business and investing at a young age. One of his first

business ventures, Buffett sold chewing gum, Coca-Cola bottles, or weekly magazines

door to door. He worked in his grandfather's grocery store. While still in high school, he

made money delivering newspapers, selling golf balls and stamps, and detailing cars,

among other means. On his first income tax return in 1944, Buffett took a $35 deduction

for the use of his bicycle and watch on his paper route. In 1945, as a high school

sophomore, Buffett and a friend spent $25 to purchase a used pinball machine, which

they placed in the local barber shop. Within months, they owned several machines in 3

different barber shops across Omaha. The business was sold later in the year for $1,200

to a war veteran. Buffett's interest in the stock market and investing dated to schoolboy

days he spent in the customers' lounge of a regional stock brokerage near his father's own

brokerage office. On a trip to New York City at age ten, he made a point to visit the New

York Stock Exchange. At 11, he bought three shares of Cities Service Preferred for

himself, and three for his sister Doris Buffett (founder The Sunshine Lady Foundation).

Warren Edward Buffett

In 1947, Buffett entered the Wharton School of the University of

Pennsylvania. He would have preferred to focus on his business ventures;

however, he enrolled due to pressure from his father. Warren studied there

for two years and joined the Alpha Sigma Phi fraternity. He then transferred

to the University of Nebraska Lincoln where at nineteen, he graduated with

a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration. After being rejected by

Harvard Business School, Buffett enrolled at Columbia Business School

upon learning that Benjamin Graham taught there. He earned a Master of

Science in Economics from Columbia in 1951. Buffett also attended the

New York Institute of Finance. The basic ideas of investing are to look at

stocks as business, use the market's fluctuations to your advantage, and

seek a margin of safety. That's what Ben Graham taught us. A hundred

years from now they will still be the cornerstones of investing.

• Warren Buffett is a scholar/businessman. His ability to make good

investments was amplified by his education. He utilized his ability to learn

and grasps investment and stock market concepts and operations. His visions

and business background is probably the reason he chose to study business

administration and economics. He categorized himself as a scholar and

businessman

Bill Gates

Starting in 1987, Gates was included in the Forbes list of the world's wealthiest

people and was the wealthiest overall from 1995 to 2014 excluding a few years after

the financial crisis of 2007–08. Between 2009 and 2014, his wealth doubled from

US$40 billion to more than US$82 billion. Between 2013 and 2014, his wealth

increased by US$15 billion. Gates is currently the richest man in the world. Gates

was born in Seattle, Washington on October 28, 1955. He is the son of William H.

Gates, Sr. and Mary Maxwell Gates. Gates' ancestral origin includes English,

German, and Irish, Scots-Irish. His father was a prominent lawyer, and his mother

served on the board of directors for First Interstate Banc System and the United Way.

Gates's maternal grandfather was JW Maxwell, a national bank president. Gates has

one elder sister, Kristi (Kristianne), and one younger sister, Libby. He was the fourth

of his name in his family, but was known as William Gates III or "Trey" because his

father had the "II" suffix. Early on in his life, Gates's parents had a law career in

mind for him

At 13, he enrolled in the Lakeside School, a private preparatory school. When he

was in the eighth grade, the Mothers Club at the school used proceeds from

Lakeside School's rummage sale to buy a Teletype Model 33 ASR terminal and a

block of computer time on a General Electric (GE) computer for the school's

students. Gates took an interest in programming the GE system in BASIC, and was

excused from math classes to pursue his interest. He wrote his first computer

program on this machine: an implementation of tic-tac-toe that allowed users to

play games against the computer. Gates was fascinated by the machine and how it

would always execute software code perfectly. Gates graduated from Lakeside

School in 1973, and was a National Merit Scholar. He scored 1590 out of 1600 on

the SAT and enrolled at Harvard College in the autumn of 1973. While at Harvard,

he met Steve Ballmer, who would later succeed Gates as CEO of Microsoft. The

Poker Room in Currier House at Harvard College, where Gates and Allen founded

Microsoft

Bill GatesA lot of people have actually been inspired by his story. But not everyone can be

like Bill Gates, hence the need for you to properly categorize yourself and look

up to your ideal and actual role model. He can be classified as a unique scholar

and businessman. Despite him dropping out of school, he still had a rare ability to

grasps concepts and develop applications, with or without Lecturers.

EUROPELeonid MikhelsonHe was born on August 11, 1955 in Kaspiysk. He is a Russian businessman,

CEO, chairman and major shareholder of the Russian gas company Novatek.

According to Forbes, his personal fortune was estimated at US$15.6 billion as of

2014. Mikhelson began his career as an engineer after graduating with a degree

in Industrial Civil Engineering from the Samara Institute of Civil Engineering in

1977. He started working as a foreman at a construction and assembling

company in the Tyumen area of Siberia. One of his initial projects was work on

the Urengoi-Chelyabinsk gas pipeline. In 1985, he was appointed as Chief

Engineer of Ryazantruboprovodstroy. In 1987, he became General Director of

Kuibishevtruboprovodstroy. In 1991, Kuibishevtruboprovodstroy was one of the

first companies to undergo privatization after the dissolution of the Soviet Union.

Mikhelson continued as Managing Director at the company, which has been

renamed NOVA, until October 1994. He then became General Director of its

holding company, Novafinivest, which later became known as NOVATEK. From

2008 until 2010 Mikhelson was Chairman of the Board of Directors for OAO

Stroytransgas and OOO Art Finance. He currently holds the position of Chairman of

the Board of Directors of ZAO SIBUR and serves on the Supervisory Board of

OAO Russian Regional Development Bank. SIBUR is a gas processing and

petrochemicals company operating 26 production sites across Russia with

headquarters in Moscow. Mikhelson owns 57.5% interest in Sibur, as well as 25%

of Novatek. Mikhelson often partners with Russian billionaire Gennady Timchenko

on business and investment projects. They are partners and majority shareholders in

Novatek and Sibur.

He is a scholar and businessman

Alekperov

He was born in Baku, one of the earliest centers of the international petroleum

industry. His father, who died when Vagit was a boy, worked in the oil fields all

his life and inspired Alekperov to follow in his footsteps. Alekperov's father was a

Muslim and his mother, Russian Orthodox. Alekperov is religious, but does not

define himself as either Muslim or Orthodox. He was eighteen when he landed

his first job in the industry. Alekperov graduated in 1974 from the Azerbaijan Oil

and Chemistry Institute. As a student he also worked as a drilling operator in

Kaspmorneft, a Caspian regional production company. After graduation, he

continued to work there, and by 1979 he had advanced from engineer to deputy

head of a production unit. He had to work in extreme conditions on oil platforms.

On one occasion, an explosion on his rig threw him into the stormy Caspian Sea,

and he had to swim for his life.

Alekperov moved to Western Siberia in 1979 and worked at Surgutneftegaz

between 1979 and 1985, earning his reputation as an industry expert. He was

ascending positions and by 1985 became first deputy general director of Bashneft

production company. In 1987, he became general director of the newly created

production company Kogalymneftegaz. In 1990, Alekperov was appointed deputy

minister of the Oil and Gas Industry of the Soviet Union and became the youngest

deputy energy minister in Soviet history. At that time, Alekperov promoted the

establishment of vertically integrated state-owned energy companies, which would

bring together the wide range of organizations in the energy sector that were, at the

time, reporting to different Soviet bureaucratic institutions. As deputy minister of

the oil and gas industry of the Soviet Union, Alekperov was engaged in the

formation of the first vertically integrated state-owned energy company, Langepas-

Uray-Kogalymneft, which was established in late 1991 as a subsidiary of the

Ministry of Fuel and Energy. In April 1993, Langepas-Uray-Kogalymneft became

LUKoil Oil Company, with Alekperov as its president. He is a scholar

LATIN AMERICAJorge Paulo LemannHe was born on August 26, 1939. He is a Swiss-Brazilian investor. He is ranked

as the 26th richest person in the world by Bloomberg Billionaire Index, with an

estimated net worth of US$25 billion as of February 2015, He is Brazil's richest

man and Switzerland's second richest. As of 2015, Forbes Brazil listed Lemann

as the top entry for the Richest Brazilians list. In 1939, Lemann was born in Rio

de Janeiro to Paul Lemann, a Swiss immigrant, who founded the dairy

manufacturer, Leco, and Anna Yvette Truebner, a Brazilian of Swiss origin.

Lemann attended the American School of Rio de Janeiro. His father died in a bus

accident in 1953, when Lemann was 14. In 1961, he received his Bachelor of

Arts degree in economics from Harvard University. He also participated in the

Wimbledon.

He is a scholar/ business man

The table below will help you choose which of the individuals above are best suited for your

encouragement and match your goals and strategies. Spot out issues concerning education, business focus

and background.

Role Model You Common Characteristic

Conclusion

Most people are misguided and follow the wrong examples and people. The question now is are you a

businessman, scholar or both. Recognizing and knowing your category is vital for goal achievement.

Many people opted to be inspired by the Bill Gates story, which is not a bad thing, but they ended up

neglecting their true inspirations. Many motivational books are shallow. They portray one individual and

how they made it, with more emphasis on doing business. Success can be achieved in many ways as I

have already proven in this book. Not everyone is a computer genius like Bill Gates or Steve Jobs, and

not everyone is a business man like Donald Trump with a fat capital inheritance. But you can be like

Dangote, Li or any other successful person. The topic of categorization should be a focus area in strategic

management or social sciences