Productivity tips, Tech tips and Poetry to boost your day

[A personal story inside] We are Hiring a Web Developer - PHP/WordPress

2021-10-12T23:34:00.003+01:00

Good morning (hoping you're reading this in the morning). Some good news to share. But first, I must tell you the truth that this good news sprouted out of a rejection. I applied for a big thing that I was confident I would get and then I didn't get it. Rather I got a rejection email that summarized all I have worked for in the last 7 years of running my business as just the works of an unknown low impact hustler.

I am used to reading good news and not believing they were intended for me. In the semesters I made the dean's list in the university, I would act like I must have been lucky. When I got a scholarship from Mobil, again, I kept telling people it was luck (unearned grace). When I got my first job straight out of NYSC (finished NYSC February, got the job in March), I was sure it was not my works that sealed it. Starting my own business, gaining some international opportunities, getting Microsoft's biggest award to a non-employee and many other good things I am daily grateful for; I've always seen them as the results of unearned grace more than my know-how.

The one thing I went for with a belief that I tick all the boxes to getting it got me a rejection. For once, I felt the works alone ~~could~~ would get me it. Rather, I got a rejection that was explained in several paragraphs, not the typical - thank you, despite the strength of your profile, we got many other awesome applicants and just couldn't take everyone so we are sorry to let you know that you should apply again in the future. This one was a thorough two page explanation of why I am not awesome and why I should desist from applying again.

How then did this good news I am about to share shoot out of this harsh rejection?

Without mincing words, it turned my 180 degrees view into a 360 degrees view. It brought into view many things I have been blind to. Especially that the very reason you are special is very reason you are not special. To someone. So just do it. Heck, just do it.

Don't wait for anyone's validation, especially, the experts. Whatever you have been getting prepared to do, just do it.

The one thing I have been wanting to do and always feeling that I am not yet well prepared to do, is having a full-time inhouse web app development team. And I am happy to let you all know that I am going to just do it.

So if you have a cool candidate to refer, thank you and here's what you can share with the person:

UrBizEdge is hiring for a Web Developer Role - PHP/WordPress preferred

Apply at https://vip.urbizedge.com/webdevjobrole

The job description: 1) Manage our existing PHP/WordPress deployed products 2) Build new product prototypes 3) Weekly/monthly product sprints 4) Willing to learn and work in an agile manner.

Thank you!

A Cool Way to not Need a Generator In Your Quest for 24/7 Electricity

2021-10-08T15:59:00.001+01:00

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Today's post is on behalf of a great friend, David. I think you'll find his product useful if you are still in Nigeria like me.

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Author: David (Michael's friend)

There is so much to achieve as working professionals, remote workers, freelancers, and the likes if we have an enabling environment. In this age and time, being in a space that allows you work optimally without any interruption to work may be the difference between a struggling professional and one that is thriving. One of such enablers for productive work is constant power supply. In fact, having an alternative to the current grid supply should be seen as an investment to your work-tools. As professionals, we know that our work-tools like laptop, internet, power supply and phone are non-negotiable.

Let me introduce you to an innovate alternative to power supply. It is a solar generator. Unlike what we currently have in the market where you get a lead acid battery and an inverter separately, this solar generator is quite different. It is movable; meaning you can use it at home and also take it outdoor to your businesses, beach, or places where you need power supply.

It is a compact solar generator (with 1kVA inverter and 1500Wh lithium-ion battery). It can power basic household appliances like TV, lights, fans, laptops, etc. for 8 hours or more depending on the load on the battery. The device can be charged via solar or grid. I have been using it for close to 6 months and it is one of the best work-tool investments I have made in recent times given the fact that I work from home and I also rely on constant power supply to deliver on jobs.

The current market price is about N530,000 - N590,000 due to FX but it has been highly discounted for this group for N480,000.

Kindly contact +2349133159663 on WhatsApp to get the product at the discounted amount.

For more info on the product, please check http://enlightenergy.com.ng/

Why I Think There's Creativity, Wealth and Happiness in Contentment

2021-09-05T22:38:00.001+01:00

My favorite movies are ones where someone turns an adversity or a weakness or a disability or being an outcast into a source of strength. My favorite heroes are the zero to hero ones, the grass to grace ones and the ones who made it in spite of the odds/environment.

One question I didn't ponder about these heroes is - couldn't they have run away from the adversity or the demeaning environment?

Today I am going to share the other side of my Nigerian coin. The other side of the gloom and doom that's eerily visible in the country.

I think being in this country gives us all the conditions and ingredients needed to be a hero. Whether one is successful or not is a different matter.

We have all read about how the current most powerful country got that status a grace de World War 2. One of the lowest points for humans on earth, if there was life on Mars, moon and Venus, I think many of the people who put all their energy into making the most of the gloom would have shifted their focus to emigrating to Mars, moon and Venus.

Again, many of us have heard of Carlos Slim and many of the world richest men who got their big lift in life from staying + investing when others couldn't wait to get out. That was how Carlos Slim hit it big, he simply bought at very low prices from those hurrying to get out of Mexico during the lows of 1980s. Just like we are having our own lows right now.

Sometimes, like now, I tell myself that I have more to gain from staying than leaving. Yes, I can't argue away the risks that mount with the insecurity and poor leadership. If the other times don't overwhelm the sometimes, I hope to write novels that will capture life and our daily struggles so that the generations after us will read them to know what life was like for us (same way we read Charles Dickens to know what 19th century England was like, how Mark Twain captured 19th century America and how Molière captured 17th century France). I hope to also find many underpriced assets and investments to own and I hope to be very contented with the Nigeria I am served.

As for the topic of this post, it sure does take a good level of contentment to stay back to tap into the creativity that comes from dancing in the rain, calmly thinking while surrounded by a large conflagration and wealth often comes from tapping into opportunities people are too busy focused on something else to see. Most importantly, happiness comes from within. If you are not happy in the current Nigeria, you most likely won't be happy anywhere. There is always something to complain about in even the heaven to our Nigerian hell - tax, racism, cold, food, neighbours, strict laws and language. You are either a happy person or an unhappy person. Yes, an unhappy person can be temporarily happy -- it's his birthday, he won a lottery, something pleasant just happened to him. Events are always temporary happenings, and if they are the source of one's happiness then that happiness is a short lived one. True happiness comes from within. And I know that I am a happy person.

Are you?

I'm Rocking Windows 11 and Loving It

2021-09-04T23:38:00.004+01:00

Last month I installed the new Windows 11 on my Dell XPS 15 and it's been all wow. The look and features of Windows 11 are very impressive.

It brings the same beautiful look and slick appearance people always say make Mac a more lovely OS than Windows.

The taskbar is now different looking in a beautiful way. If you ask me to describe how everything looks like on Windows 11, I can give you a one word answer: Amazing!

You can read up on the Windows 11 and its cool features: https://blogs.windows.com/windowsexperience/2021/06/24/introducing-windows-11/

The one I am most thrilled about is the ability to run Android apps on Windows 11.

Do You Need a Personalized Premium One-on-one Data Analysis or Power BI Class?

2021-09-04T01:05:00.001+01:00

We are thrilled to announce the launch of UrBizEdge’s Personalized for me, this special pack allows you to pick the topics/areas you want to master in Excel and Power BI to achieve your objectives and aspirations. You will also have a trainer take you through applying these to your reports. Our goal is to help you further develop your skills through a personalized learning experience.

With over 7 years of experience, UrBizEdge thus has a unique perspective on the evolution of jobs, industries, organizations, and skills over time. Today we are expanding our current programs by delivering a personalized, comprehensive, course designed just to fit your evolving business needs. Another key advantage of this special pack is having both consulting and training at the cost of just training.

How to Get Started?

If interested, take a look through these topics listed below and let us know which ones you want to set up a customized one-on-one class around.

Based on your selection we will then have the class structured into an appropriate number of days. The price for this premium offering is N50,000/day. For most people, 1 or 2 days cover their unique focus areas. We have had huge success delivering this model for many managers and super busy executives who would rather just have a class structured around their needs and usage scenarios with a very personalized touch.

Modern Excel:

New Formulas in Excel
- XLOOKUP which is the replacement for VLOOKUP, HLOOKUP, and INDEX + MATCH combo
- UNIQUE to remove duplicates and create dynamic dashboards/reports
- FILTER to have a dynamic filter and create dependent dropdowns
- SEQUENCE
- SORT, SORTBY
- RANDARRAY
- LAMBDA
Power Query – the ultimate data transformation and cleaning tool in Excel
- Combining data/reports from multiple sheets super easily
- Combining data/reports from multiple files super easily
- Pulling data from multiple sources and cleaning/transforming them
- Unpivot (a magical data transformation tool)
- Unrivaled column splitting
  - Split to rows
  - Separate numbers from texts
  - Split by case change
  - Split on every x number of characters
- AI Insights
  - Text Analytics
  - Vision
  - Azure Machine Learning
- Groupby (SQL type action)
- Append Queries
- Merge Queries
  - Standard Merge
  - Fuzzy Match to handle inconsistent spellings
Power Pivot
- Handling data of more than 1.05 million rows
- Data Modeling (creating relationships between datasets and more)
- DAX formulas
- Integrating with Pivot Table
Deep Dive into Pivot Table and Pivot Charts
- Using Pivot Table to create very interactive dashboards
- Slicers and Timelines
Data visualization and Charts
- Understanding all the new 18 charts in Microsoft Excel
- Combo chart
- Sparklines
- Conditional formatting as a visual
- Icons and smart arts (infographics)
Formulas Deep Dive
- IF, AND, OR, IFS, SWITCH, XOR
- SUMIFS, COUNTIFS with wildcards (especially * and ?)
- ISNA, ISERROR, ISBLANK, ISLOGICAL, ISFORMULA, ISREF, ISTEXT, ISNUMBER
- VLOOKUP, HLOOKUP, INDEX + MATCH combo
- EDATE, EOMONTH, TODAY, NOW, DATE, TEXT, YEAR, MONTH, DAY, DATEDIF, NETWORKDAYS,
- CONCATENATE, CONCAT, TEXTJOIN, FIND, SEARCH, MID, LEFT, RIGHT
- SUMPRODUCT to replace VLOOKUP, SUMIFS etc (a must know for anyone claiming Excel expert level)
- INDEX (one of the most versatile formulas in Excel)
Creating Dashboards in Excel
Planning and Strategy Tools in Excel
- Goal Seek
- Scenario Manager
- Data Table
- Solver
Integrating Excel with Data Science tools
- R (using BERT)
- Python (using xlwings)
- JavaScript Office APIs
Power Automate in Excel
Excel VBA
- Recording macro
- Coding from Scratch
  - Userforms
  - Modules
  - User-Defined Functions VBA

Power BI:

Mastering Power Query in Power BI
- Power Query handbook with M codes
- Advanced Editor use
- Column profiling
- Diving into the deep end of Merge and Append
- Magic of Right Click
- Mastering the Power Query interface
  - Enabling the Formula bar
  - Query Settings
  - Query Dependencies
DAX deep dive
- Must know DAX formulas (CALCULATE, FILTER, SUMMARIZE etc)
- DAX Studio
- Debugging incorrectly working DAX formulas
- Optimising your DAX
Data Modeling
- Relationships
- Cardinality
- Direction
- Synonyms
- Date Table
Visuals and Report Creation
- Native visuals
- Imported/marketplace visuals
- Symbols and Unicode icons
- Report layouting
- Row-level security
Report Publishing, Dashboards, and Power BI Service
AI in Power BI
Power BI Settings

In summary,

You get to choose the topics you want to master.
You get to choose the date to have the class.
You get more options of venue (our place or your place).
You get to have the trainer work on your report for you during the training.
You get to improve on the new areas of data analysis you are weak at without being forced to go through areas not important to you as is often the case in general training classes.
The best part is that we are setting the fees at a very affordable rate that’s the same as the general classes while you get a personalized training.

Don’t delay. Take advantage of this offer before the price is raised. Reply to us now or call Hope on 0703-990-2445 or Faith on 0913-137-0701.

Always Look Where You Want To Go

2021-09-03T02:14:00.001+01:00

"Mike, don't look at the wall or the traffic cones, rather look where you want to go. That is the trick to riding a motorcycle. Don't look at the obstacle you want to avoid but at the clear path you want to take."

That is what my riding instructor said all throughout my learning to ride a motorcycle.

Today, I think it is true for riding through life itself.

Everyday we are flooded with images and news of what is not going well for us or around us. There are too many things we want to avoid and steer clear off, but not everyone puts in the conscious effort to focus on where they want to go and not what they want to avoid.

As a friend, I want to share with you that important lesson I got from my instructor. At first, it sounded like a childish way of forcing me to act differently. I thought that no expert rider sees a pothole right on his path and takes his gaze away from it. That is not how we drive cars and I was sure that to avoid a pothole one needed to keep his eyes on it rather than away from it. But the more I ride, the more I find out that as unconventional as it sounds, it is actually the only way to ride a motorcycle.

You see a corner you want to take, you look beyond the corner. You see a path you want to take, you don't look at the cars you want to avoid but at that path between that truck on the right and the bus on the left as that is the way to ride between them.

I strongly believe that we should go through life with the same approach. If you want to go to Canada, don't look at all the roadblocks in front of you but have your gaze on the path you hope to take. If you want to enjoy Nigeria, then don't feast on the bad news streaming out daily rather set your face on the goodness you desire. If you want to marry a great person, then don't come up with why they don't exist, but set your mind at ease and open to finding him/her. If you want to have a great career don't let the stories of how hard it is be your daily meal rather let the inspiration from those already living that dream work life be your constant meal.

If you love comparing, there will always be people doing more with less than you have and people doing less with more than you have. You can choose to beat yourself up and kill all joy on your way to getting to where you want to go, or you can choose to ignore the pressures and focus solely on where you want to go. Soak in the beauty around you, enjoy the journey, feel the breeze, let the gyrations flow through your body and open your senses. Sometimes the journey is just as important as the destination, don't let the obstacles ruin your ride.

I Now Mine Cryptocurrency on my Razer Blade Laptop

2021-09-02T00:51:00.003+01:00

This past two weeks I hooked up my Razer Blade Pro 17 model 2020 to Nicehash and have been mining crypto at the rate of about $2.5/day

So far I have made $15.49 from about 8 days of leaving my laptop to mine overnight when I am done with work for the day. My laptop's GPU is Nvidia RTX 2080 Super Max-Q and has a total power limit of 100W.

I get about 33 MH/s (mega hash per second) which is the way the crypto mining performance is measured. The more hash you can do, the more money you are basically printing.

Originally, I was doing about 28 MH/s then I read on Reddit that I can bring down my computer temperature and boost the MH/s if I overclock the GPU's memory and underclock the GPU's core clock. So I overclocked the memory by +895 and underclocked the core by - 502. And it worked as described - the laptop ran slightly cooler at 70 degrees Celsius and the hash rate jumped to 33 MH/s

I am feeling excited about the possibility of doing it on 24/7 scale but it would require getting a dedicated device (either GPU based setup or an ASIC miner).

After scouring the net, I found that one can buy an affordable and profitable dedicated miner, hook it to the internet and have it permanently on. For 3 days I was drawn to Goldshell Mini-DOGE miner that sells for $699 and makes you about $2.50/day. And it consumes a meagre 235W which is super impressive for a miner.

Sadly, it has been out of stock for weeks and no information on when one can grab one from the manufacturer's sales store. When I searched for other sellers, they have theirs listed at twice the official retail price. I settled on buying from a seller on Aliexpress who was selling his for $960 with a power supply unit (PSU) so he is not marking up his own very much as Goldshell sells at $750 (I heard) if its coming with a PSU but I am check to go click checkout for the past one week.

Now I am considering getting a GPU based miner. Maybe buy a gaming desktop with a Nvidia 30xx series GPU card. Saw one today that will mine me $4.70/day but is priced at N980,000. It's a great PC and can do more than just mining.

I am sure the allure will wear off before I can sell my stocks to raise the money. But for sure, the mining bug has bite me.

Join our weekly data analysis and business intelligence interactive webinar sessions + Win Great Prizes

2021-09-01T17:55:00.008+01:00

How would you like to learn from industry experts from around the globe every week, investing just 1 hour each Sunday afternoon/evening?

Is it free?

Yes and you get to win prizes from our sponsors. Prizes that range from $100 cash/coupon, mentorship, training resources, training coupons and physical gift items.

What do you have to do?

All you have to do is join the meetup community and attend the weekly 1 hour sessions.

Join the Financial Modeling and Valuation Learning Community at https://www.meetup.com/Financial-Modeling-Valuation-Learning-Community and participate in the 1 hour interactive sessions that hold every Sunday at 2:00pm to 3:00pm UTC+1

Join the Microsoft Excel and Data Analysis Learning Community at https://www.meetup.com/Microsoft-Excel-and-Data-Analysis-Learning-Community and participate in the 1 hour interactive sessions that hold every Sunday at 4:00pm to 5:00pm UTC+1

Join the Power BI Learning Community at https://www.meetup.com/Power-BI-Learning-Community and and participate in the 1 hour interactive sessions that hold every Sunday at 6:00pm to 7:00pm UTC+1

Where can you see what the previous sessions have been like?

To see what you have been missing so far, you can check out the YouTube playlist, https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCidg3bIqr7TQHz6MEWWbLng , for all the past sessions. We have had speakers from all over the world: Nigeria, Ghana, Morocco, Pakistan, Australia, United States, United Kingdom, Ireland, Canada, Brazil, New Zealand and other countries. And big names like Bill Jelen, Marco Russo, Matt Allington, Reid Havens, Celia Alves, Chandoo, Danielle Fairhurst, Alan Murray, Liam Bastick, Ken Puls, Victor Momoh, George Lungu, Ahmed Oyelowo, Charles Otoghile, Evans Otalor, Microsoft internal team, Ramon Bello, Leon Gordon, Bernard Obeng and many others.

What do you stand to gain?

You get to learn new ways of doing things better, get to know what’s new, see how the experts use the tool you love, get new insights and be at the forefront of trends in this analytics space. And your productivity, career, exposure and skills will be better week on week.

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Yes, we have onboarded many generous sponsors who are offering exam discount vouchers, training coupons, gift items, cash awards and many goodies to our community members. So don’t delay, join as many of the communities that interest you and be part of this sweepstakes weekly.

Can you have the joining details again?

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Join the Power BI Learning Community at https://www.meetup.com/Power-BI-Learning-Community and and participate in the 1 hour interactive sessions that hold every Sunday at 6:00pm to 7:00pm UTC+1

We look forward to seeing you this Sunday!

How To Not Be Overwhelmed By Other People's Successes

2021-07-11T12:06:00.005+01:00

How do you genuinely feel happy for friends, family and peers who just zoomed past you (success-wise) without feeling sad or that you need to overtake them (catch up)?

Some people try to talk down the success - oh, it's going to be temporal, they'll be back to their previous level; he's paying a much greater unsustainable price for it; and so on.

Other people try to find a balance by finding and focusing on three people who are currently struggling for every one person who has zoomed past them success-wise. They ease the pressure on themselves by saying - afterall, I am doing better than A, B & C.

A few people genuinely just don't care.

Wanna guess which category I am in?

I used to be in the "just don't care" category. You could win a billion dollar from the lottery number I picked for you and I wouldn't care much. I would simply tell myself that it was not my time to come into such type of money or that destiny has something else in store for me or God knows best. I had a store of those type of sentences to break me from feeling envious of another person's success.

Then I went from age 20 to past age 30. My time would come no longer sounded as good as it used to.

I began seeing plenty people doing not as well as I was at a point, some even openly expressed how much they envy my state in life, zoom ahead of me. I found a convenient sentence for the first. Found another good enough sentence to dismiss the second. Can't remember on what count my sentences started failing me but I sure can tell you that I am now in the two other categories at the same time. When someone zoom ahead of me now, I first check if I can pin it to an unsustainable high price they are paying or a transient occurrence. If I can't pick a hole in the way they zoomed past me, then I switch to finding a balance in focusing on others I had zoomed past.

So how should you handle other people's successes without putting undue pressure on yourself?

That's a question I am trying to work out a refined answer for. I have an approach I am taking now and I hope that by sharing that approach with you all, I can get some feedback from you all and come into the refined answer I am seeking.

Personally, I am not a fan of "the end justifies the means". I think that regardless of the easing of the pressure that talking down another person's success achieves, it is inherently not a good thing to make a habit of.

Finding a balance in focusing on other people who are facing some tough times is also a bad activity and sets you up for a much worse situation when one of those people zoom ahead of you in the future.

So I am trying to modify the "just don't care" option. Now that I can't say my time will come with the confidence I used to when I was much younger, any sentence with "my destiny" in it sounds lame, and "God knows best" gives a feeling of tragedy. How then do I genuinely not care?

I found another sentence - enjoy your journey. Enjoy your own unique journey through life.

What do you think?

The Sad Reality of Consulting Gigs in Nigeria

2021-06-26T22:00:00.003+01:00

Running a consulting business in Nigeria is nothing like what you read in the books or hear from other consultants in developed countries. I think the only right way to successfully run a consulting business in Nigeria is to use the KPMG/PwC approach.

What is the KPMG/PwC approach?

As the owner/manager, don't get involved at all in the project execution.
Play golf, go clubbing/partying, socialize and do lots of grand impression creation to win big clients/projects
Have a very active and assertive legal team to handle both clients and staff
Have more project managers and supervisors than the number of people doing the actual work
Institute a lot of red tapes and processes to ensure clients do not talk directly to the people doing the real work and every request is checked with a supervising manager to be sure it is within scope
No emotions. If CBN or FGN suddenly issue a policy that makes the project useless, not your headache. Client must pay up.
Ultimately, let your love for money/revenue be way more than your love for the field you are consulting in. In choosing between an exciting project and a higher paying zombie project, there shouldn't be any hesitation in picking the zombie project over the exciting one. It is only for the sake of PR or ethics, that you choose a less paying project over a higher paying project
Have very strong internal policies that prohibit employees from deviating from the documented deliverables. No going an extra mile for the clients.

Is anything wrong with this approach? NO.

They why my negative title to this post? Well, for people like me who went into consulting because of the love for the field (data analysis), it is an almost impossible approach. I find it almost impossible to pick socializing over getting involved in the project execution/implementation. I absolutely will pick low paying highly exciting project over a zombie project. And I hate red tapes, having the client pass through numerous gatekeepers to get any message to the guys doing the actual work. So it is either I let go of the business side of consulting and act as a technical staff in my company while letting someone else manage the business side using the effective approach already mentioned, or I get out completely from the consulting business in Nigeria.

Guess which option I picked? Correct! Only a first time reader of my blog would need help with the answer.

I have done many consulting projects for clients in Nigeria and outside Nigeria, and the experiences have been consistently worlds apart. Even when I was inexperienced and had no skills in managing projects, I still found the foreign projects more enjoyable than even a higher paying local project.

Why?

Somehow, the foreign clients stick more to the project scope. They are usually very honest with admitting upfront that an out of scope need/request has come up and ask if I am willing to take it up as a separate project with separate timeline and additional costs. A Nigerian client usually begs you to add this "small change", often chaining the "small changes" in a long link of spaced out requests; makes no mention of new timeline or additional payment.
Many foreign clients allow a hourly billing setup. I am yet to meet a Nigerian client (company or individual) that allows me do a hourly billing setup for their project.
Nigerians have two buckets for consultants: the artisans bucket and the draconian bucket. If you are not making life difficult for them (red tapes, lengthy processes, many auxiliary staff to deal with, approval processes, lots of request declines), they treat you like their carpenter, mechanic, tailor and hairdresser. They pay no respect for your time, call you at odd hours of the day, have non ending urgent but small requests and just plain remind you of how you treat your mechanic.
Project procurement process in Nigeria has a disproportionately high "messed up" ratio. There are too many projects where the internal staff are using it for their own personal gain and not for any corporate benefits. Either a government ministry or agency is using it to unlock some budgeted money, so they come up with easy to approve but unneeded projects; or a non-profit needs to meet an empowerment KPI and sets up a poorly structured project hurriedly. I don't want to mention the absurdities I have seen in the for-profit companies.

So what am I rambling about?

Consulting is lucrative in Nigeria but requires an approach that creates unneeded frictions and overheads. Some use the honest approach I laid out in the beginning paragraphs. Sadly, I see some other consultants use the artisans approach (since that's what the clients treat them like): they put bugs in their solutions, create problems that keep the client coming back, be untruthful and manipulative, and just plain remind you of your worst mechanic.

Thank You + I Got a Razer Blade Pro 17

2021-06-19T19:03:00.001+01:00

To everyone who called me, messaged me, emailed me and visited me to encourage me to write again: thank you!

I have found not writing daily just as difficult as writing daily. I thought about it daily. I missed the therapy it gave me. I missed the emails I get from you all. I missed taking forever to reply. I missed the mind purge. I missed the ideas bounce. I miss many of you.

Not writing daily has its surprising advantages. It removed the tendency of making conclusions in one day just because I had to write about whatever occupied my mind each day. Writing has a way of making me choose a stance, doing a hurried research so I can have an introduction + body + conclusion. Even when I write to get your ideas, it is after sharing my inclination.

Not writing daily, has also made me feel quite important. Or should I say like a billionaire. Important people do not write about their own lives daily and billionaires try to stay incognito. Imagine I get into a political race or company board tussle, all the armo my opponents need to rubbish me is readily provided by me on my website.

There were days I wished some of my employees were not subscribed to my blog. And I wondered how far back they read. Luckily, I think I talk and act in harmony with the way I write. But still I didn't feel comfortable with my wife, my family members and my work colleagues knowing more than I tell them directly. My wife hates that she finds out on my blog first (whatever I wrote about).

One thing I can say for sure is that: I didn't find a balance. The right frequency to write at and the right amount of sharing. I think that balance does not exist for me. So I just have to oscillate between not sharing and over sharing.

And you? How have you been? How have you been daily handling the news?

I have stopped reading the news. The little amount that sips into my day unsought still manages to fill me with big worries. The kidnappings are no longer just somewhere far away happening to someone unknown. Currently, there is a classmate of mine whose sister was kidnapped on 4 June 2021 and we are all still praying for her safe release. The towns where massacres are happening are no longer ones I have never heard of or many states away. I am worried that it is like a storm and if it is not abating, then the difference between the person being pummeled and the person not experiencing the storm is just time, t. The best self development and preservation strategy is, perhaps, emigrating. And as a close friend says, get out first before overthinking where to go; you will have it easier to move from any saner/better country to your paradise country.

This month I bought a gamers laptop - A high end Razer Blade pro 17 (2020 edition).

The specs are epic:

10th gen Intel Core i7
8 Cores/ 16 Threads that speeds up to 5.1GHz
16GB RAM that I have upgraded to 40GB and will become 64GB RAM in a few days
4K touchscreen at 120Hz
1TB SSD that I have upgraded to 2TB (using the speediest SSD type that has a RAM shape)
8GB Dedicated Graphics card
L3 cache of 16MB, L2 cache of 2MB and L1 cache of 512KB

My high-end Dell XPS 15 is now struggling to handle my data analysis work. It gets hot so quick that the fans go crazy and the CPU starts underperforming (thermal throttling), I just had to get a 4 fan, vapour chamber cooling gamers' laptop that is optimised for performance rather than for sleek looks and battery live.

What do you think about my comeback?

Join me at the Global Excel Summit 2021. Grab a ticket today!

2021-01-25T14:12:00.003+01:00

I am the one at the far left

Come join us and 30+ other presenters and enjoy 4 days (6-9 Feb 2021) of Excel goodness.

Grab your ticket at https://globalexcelsummit.com/tickets/

And something special for you, you can get an insider peak into the event and 3D virtual platform at https://globalexcelsummit.atolye.live/login

Use your email (any email) but use this password ges2021

Don’t forget to grab a ticket at https://globalexcelsummit.com/tickets/ There are free tickets, cheap tickets and value-packed tickets. The choice is yours.

See you at the Global Excel summit next week!

What I Have Been Up to Lately: Meet Chef Michael (moi)

2021-01-16T18:59:00.001+01:00

We got a new neighbour last year November. One of the members of the household is a professional chef. He agreed to teach me how to cook intercontinental meals. We have done some classes in December. I have augmented my learning with some books and YouTube.

Result. I have been cooking all kinds of new things these days.

On Christmas day I cooked Spaghetti Bolognese.

A week before that my teacher had taught me how to cook both Spaghetti Bolognese and Chinese Fried Rice.

When my mother-in-law, sister-in-law and brother-in-law visited us three days after Christmas, I cooked them a special meal. It was not something they were used to but they praised me and did some takeaway for my sake.

I have been grilling chicken and gizzards this new year than I have done all the previous years of my life combined.

I even now cook rice differently. My spaghetti and noodles are now like what you see in their adverts and packaging.

I have more spices than anyone I know: Yaji, Chili Pepper, Jollof Rice Spice, Ground Ginger, Onion Powder, Stock Mix, Pepper Soup Spice, Ground Tumeric, Cayenne Pepper, Curry Power, Ground Nutmeg, Thyme Leaves, Rosemary Leaves, Meat Tenderizer, Black Pepper, Whole Oregano, Bay Leaves, Sazon Everything Mix, Oyster Sauce, Dark Soy Sauce, Light Soy Sauce, Ground Crazy Fish, Ground Cameroon Pepper and Ground Red Pepper.

I now know the difference between Olive Oil, Canola Oil, Sesame Oil and the Vegetable Oil I have always known. Especially the huge price difference. Come see me shout when someone touches my Olive Oil in a way I do not approve.

I have also been baking more. I sold close to $800 worth of Ethereum at $580/Ethereum to buy a very expensive LG gas cooker that has temperature dial, timer and a broiler. The next day, Ethereum started its meteoric rise. Now it is at over $1,200/Ethereum. Talk about bad timing. Now I sweat the cooker like it's its fault.

I baked mince pie.

I made chin chin.

I am now the latest convert to stir frying. I have chopped more carrots, more celery, more onions and more garlic than I have ever before the last one month. You would think I am practicing for a competition.

I have been reading so much now and learning a lot about the world of cooking that it's like I am entering a whole new planet. Just yesterday I bought suya spice from a suya seller in my neighbourhood. I read the bestseller by Samin Nosrat, Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat: Mastering the Elements of Good Cooking and it has been very eye opening. I now season meat long before I cook or grill them. I boil water till its steaming furiously before putting in rice or spag or any main food. I play with temperature settings masterfully when using the oven and when stir frying.

I guess if the Excel and Power BI world comes to an end, I will be welcomed to the culinary world. I guess I can then rebrand as UrBizEdge Cuisine. :)

What do you think about my chances?

Invitation to our special webinar session with the Excel Legend, Bill Jelen aka MrExcel

2021-01-07T10:45:00.000+01:00

Happy new year! And we (UrBizEdge) have been lucky to get Bill Jelen (whom I consider the most popular Microsoft Excel legend) to be our special guest this coming Sunday.

You can RSVP at https://www.meetup.com/Microsoft-Excel-and-Data-Analysis-Learning-Community/events/xtlsvrycccbnb/

It will be a very open and interactive session.

This year I am becoming more deliberate with planning and following through with the plans made. I think I have been too unstructured and spontaneous in many of my business and personal dealings.

And you, what big change are you making this year?

Invitation: Join UrBizEdge Live Session with Microsoft HQ Excel Team Managers on New Features in Microsoft Excel

2020-11-25T23:54:00.000+01:00

Microsoft is doing us a special honor. Three managers from the Excel team at Microsoft HQ are going to be guest presenters at our Dec 6, 2020 live meetup session. You don't want to miss this opportunity to learn directly from the people behind the amazing Microsoft Excel and hear them answer your questions.

The event page is https://www.meetup.com/Microsoft-Excel-and-Data-Analysis-Learning-Community/events/xtlsvrybcqbjb/. Register to attend so you get the calendar invite.

Title: What’s New in Excel for Office 365

Guest Speakers:
Guy Hunkin, Microsoft (Principal Product Manager, Excel Team)
Itai Goldstein, Microsoft (Product Manager, Excel Team)
Dror Yashar, Microsoft (Senior Product Manager, Excel Team)

Description:
During this session you will learn about new and exciting ways to explore and analyze your data in Microsoft Excel, including the ability to ask questions and get answers using Natural Language in "Excel Ideas" and new powerful Excel Data Types that expand what you can do on the grid. Unlock new scenarios and simplify the creation of your spreadsheets with the latest core capabilities like brand-new Dynamic Arrays, latest XLOOKUP function and more.

See you in the online live class session!

Joining link is https://vip.urbizedge.com/excel-live

(c) https://class.urbizedge.com

Recording of past sessions are available at https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL0kdLm6FekrMWYBcervKPF_eAZk9dnoSI

To Leave Nigeria Or To Stay

2020-11-12T19:45:00.000+01:00

I am in between deciding to emigrate or stay. The entire interest started two weeks ago. Maybe the #EndSARS events triggered it. I was very unhappy with how our government officials lie, deceive us and hold what was meant for them to just share as palliatives. No truth, no shame. The "no army", the "no shooting", the "Ikoyi court burning to bury a case" etc all made me feel like it was time to have another option of where to be even if I still run my business here.

image: finglobal.com

I tried engaging immigration consultants online: https://migrategroup.com/ and https://www.canadavisa.com/

MigrateGroup were very helpful and did a comprehensive free evaluation of my options. They did a profiling of my biodata, career and qualifications. We went through the options of emigrating to USA, UK, Canada, Australia, Spain, Germany and New Zealand. It became obvious that Canada was going to be the easiest and shortest to gaining a permanent residency and second citizenship.

CanadaVisa.com were dodgy and seemed only interested in getting more money from me after I paid a $19.99 for an evaluation only for them to tell that I need to pay another $500 to get the evaluation. I felt like walking into a trap. So I told them to keep the $19.99, I was no longer interested in their service.

Then after reading a lot of people's experiences of migrating to Canada (https://www.quora.com/There-are-so-many-negative-stories-about-people-s-experiences-after-migrating-to-Canada-and-obtaining-permanent-residency-Are-there-any-positive-stories-out-there-Is-it-really-a-bad-idea-to-migrate-to-Canada, https://www.quora.com/What-has-been-your-experience-migrating-to-Canada and https://www.quora.com/Do-you-regret-moving-to-Canada), I decided to quit the Canada option.

In fact, I decided to quit the whole emigration idea. That was a week ago.

Then this week, the fever restarted. And it was UK this time. I got some motivations from friends to emigrate to UK. Thankfully, I am aware of the UK TechNation Visa programme (UK Global Talent Visa programme). It seemed straightforward and I think I stand some chance of getting it.

Still I see no immediate necessity for emigrating. But looking at the direction of things and the shameful way government is handling everything, I feel sure that things will relatively (to UK and Canada) get worse in Nigeria and I might be back to considering this same emigration in 10 years time. So I concluded that it is better to just do it now and not ever get to a future that I start wishing I had do it earlier.

What do you think?

I am currently considering applying by myself (no consultant's paid help) for UK Global Talent Visa and Canada Express Entry. Ensure that I take my wife along (which both programmes allow at an additional cost).

I will also find a way to keep running my business here. Luckily, my team are a bit more able to work without my supervision/intervention.

Nigeria Is On the Path Of High (even Hyper) Inflation. Here are the Worrying Facts.

2020-10-26T15:51:00.002+01:00

I hope you are in good health and safe. This October has been like a 2020 amongst the months of this year.

Today I came across something worrying on BusinessDay newspaper (26 Oct 2020, page 29)

In particular, this part:

Here's the text extract:

Data compiled from the breakdown and highlights of 2020 budget performance presented by the Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Zainab Ahmed, showed that in the first 7 months of the 2020, that is between January and August 2020, N2.5 trillion in revenue and spent about N6.25 trillion creating a record budget deficit of N3.7 trillion. At this pace, analysts suggest that the government may generate roughly about N4.3 trillion in revenue, spend N10.7 trillion in expenditure and end the year with a historic deficit of almost N6.4 trillion! To put this figure into perspective, Nigeria budgeted to spend just N6.06 trillion for the entire year in 2016. Today the deficit is on track to exceed that figure in just one year. In fact, total government spending in 2018 alone was N6.94 trillion according to the government. This means that the government is creating debt today at a record pace never before seen in Nigeria’s history.

This reckless behaviour by the Federal Government has now pushed the budget deficit to revenue to 174 percent as at August 2020. The debt service burden has worsened to 85% this year as a total of N2.1 trillion was used to service the national public debt compared to revenue generated of just N2.5 trillion as at August 2020. As at H1 2020, the Debt Management Office reported that the national public debt had reached N31 trillion.

Analysts from EUA Intelligence told Businessday that they fear that if the 1 year treasury yield was more market reflective and rose to a price of around 14% on local debt and 8% on Eurobond to reflect the rising rate of inflation in the country and current market average market yield on Nigeria’s Eurobonds, it will add an additional N1.08 trillion to the national debt service, which will put the debt service ratio of Nigeria from 85 percent today to 128 percent, effectively almost bankrupting the nation but forcing it to pay far more in debt service than it is able to generate in revenue.

“If the country fails to take adequate steps to improve its revenue performance, then it must cut its spending significantly rather than increase it. The excessive spending has failed to generate the promised economic growth and is on the verge of pushing the country towards a debt overburden situation which is terrible for the economy,” said an analyst from EUA Intelligence.

With the government now planning to increase its personnel expense which analyst forecast will hit N3.3 trillion this year (after posting N1.9 trillion personnel expense as at August), the only feasible way to pay for the salary increment as our finances are today is to carry more debt which unfortunately is dangerous for the government’s finances today.

Other facts I want you to know are:

Source: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyperinflation

Almost all hyperinflations have been caused by government budget deficits financed by currency creation (aka printing more money).

Source: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyperinflation

Now my deductions:

Our situation shows all the signs of factors that lead to very high inflation (and hyper inflation):

1) Huge budget deficit

2) Low and reducing tax receipts

3) Investors now no longer interested in low yield government bonds

4) Point 2 & 3 mean government will have to do more money printing (seigniorage) to cover the deficits

5) High and worsening unemployment rate, anti-business policies and low confidence in government = an economy where seignorage only leads to price level increase rather than boost productivity

6) Capital controls already in place (which is always a very bad sign and one that signals the government is not able to achieve much anymore with the normal fiscal and monetary tools)

My personal and business considerations:

Hold as little cash and non-asset backed investments as possible. So today I sent redemption requests to Investment One and Meristem to take out almost all the money in my company's money market fund with them. Those funds are where the next year's office rent, tax payment reserve and money to fund products/expansion are in. But right now, I want to put them in a better than Naira place.
I am re-evaluating my personal investment portfolio. Until now, I do a target allocation of 20% US Stocks, 10% Cryptocurrencies, 30% Nigerian Stocks and 40% Real Estate. I am thinking of switching temporarily to 20% Cryptocurrencies (with a huge chunk in stablecoins) and 20% Nigerian Stocks. Ordinarily, stocks should hedge against the effects of high inflation, but reality doesn't always work out that nicely in the short to medium term. And I fear that some companies may go under. I am favouring export-based and food companies. So I intend to put more of my stocks allocation into companies like Okomu Oil and Presco.
Focus on scaling up the aspects of my business that earns us foreign currency. For now its very small but has many growth potentials that I have been overlooking because I was busy chasing the bigger local opportunities. Now I will consciously grow it even if it means spending some time away from the local opportunities.
I recently got into Estonia's e-residency program and got registered as an e-resident of Estonia. I had to go to London last month (perhaps another story for another day, did 3 Covid-19 tests in 3 weeks). With the e-residency I was able to register an international arm of my company in the EU and get access to many startup services that are not normally available to Nigerian companies with less tax burden than I face here in Nigeria. Now, I will be working extra hard on realising the global opportunities potential that comes with it. Not so I can emigrate but so that I can have as much of my business diversified away from the happenings in Nigeria as possible, just as I have done same to my investments.
Decouple from the system as much as possible. By system I mean the Nigerian systems. You don't want to put all your foreign investments in a Nigerian financial institution. If they go under or get very stressed, you will get that stress or even see your money go under too. That's the nature of custodian/counterparty risks. I stay completely clear of Nigerian financial institutions dollar funds and their foreign currency investment accounts. In fact, I prefer a setup where I can access my money without needing a Nigerian bank. I don't want the stress that comes on the financial institutions during a difficult period as a hyperinflation period would cause to trap my money.

What do you think?

Am I overthinking things, overreacting or missing something important? Do let me know.

Thanks!

We are hiring for Data Analyst, PA/admin and Intern roles. Know someone who's a fit?

2020-09-29T11:41:00.003+01:00

This year has been a very peculiar one. Everyone's needs have gone up while income haven't gone up (many have even seen it gone down). And as it is for individuals so has it been for companies. However, some needs can't be deferred for long or the damage becomes more than is justifiable.

For us as a company, we have pushed it out far for too long to add to our technical team and hiring a PA/admin. We started an internship program this year and we have kept it running even during the lockdown period. We have seen it be a very mutually benefiting one. The talent, energy and vibrancy of the interns we have had is one that shows that more than complaints of deficiency in our educational system, there is a bigger deficiency of opportunities. A UK, US or Canadian student easily get to do multiple relevant internships before graduation while a Nigerian student struggles to get one. We are happy that we are contributing to increasing that opportunities pool.

I am glad to announce that we have 3 roles we are accepting applications for:

PA/Admin Role: https://forms.gle/rJ5a53ibnDRbFMvh6 to see full details and application process.

1) To assist with planning and admin tasks

2) To help with presentations, executive meetings with clients and minutes

3) To handle business correspondence for the CEO

4) To help with business research and reports.

Business Intelligence (BI) & Data Analyst Role: https://forms.gle/adK6foAheLiauCbM9 to see full details and application process.

1) To work on Excel, Power BI and Financial Analysis projects

2) To facilitate Excel & Power BI training classes

3) To create video and written tutorial/training contents

4) To coordinate webinar sessions.

Intern Role - https://forms.gle/NrowCU9m6wYJM2em8 to see full details and application process.

1) To learn and support the data analysts

2) To help with admin tasks

3) To learn and provide support for our products/services

4) To mange www.msexcelclub.com

Help pass on to anyone you think needs to see this. Thanks!

My Illustrated Guide To Fundamental and Technical Analysis of Nigerian and US Stocks With Free To Use Templates

2020-07-29T22:28:00.002+01:00

Before I bury you in the slides, here are the templates and resources I referred to in the slides. Enjoy!

https://www.macrotrends.net/ for US stocks fundamental analysis data
https://www.macrotrends.net/stocks/stock-screener to screen US stocks by fundamentals
http://vip.urbizedge.com/economy for historical and macro analysis for Nigeria
https://vip.urbizedge.com/add-in for Excel stocks analysis app for Nigeria
https://vip.urbizedge.com/stocks for US stocks portfolio analysis and portfolio setup
https://vip.urbizedge.com/fstocks for Fundamental Analysis checklist
https://nairametrics.com/ for Nigeria stocks and macro news/analysis
https://www.stearsng.com/ for Nigeria economic analysis
http://seekingalpha.com/ for US stocks analysts' publications
https://www.morningstar.com/ for US stocks fundamental analysis
https://www.tradingview.com/screener/ for stock screening based on both fundamentals and technical signals
https://www.tradingview.com/chart/ for charting
https://finviz.com/ for US stocks signals and screener
http://vip.urbizedge.com/economy for Nigerian stocks charts
https://vip.urbizedge.com/stocks for US stocks portfolio setup & analysis
http://www.investmentng.com/forum/12-annual-reports-and-financial-statements/ to download annual reports of companies in Nigeria
https://www.annualreports.com/ to download annual reports of companies in the US

You can download the high quality PDF versions via https://urbizedge.blob.core.windows.net/urbizedge/Fundamental%20Stock%20Analysis.pdf and https://urbizedge.blob.core.windows.net/urbizedge/Technical%20Stock%20Analysis.pdf

👍

I Am Now A Baker. I Baked My First Meatpie Today. Wanna Do Pizza Too.

2020-07-29T00:15:00.000+01:00

Today I went to a store that sells baking ingredients and asked for ingredients to use for baking meat pie. My wife is still surprised. I ended up buying the following:

Flour
Baking powder
Nut meg
Margarine
Sugar
Electric mixer
Mixing bowls
Measuring cups
Carrots
Meat (was told how to create minced/diced meat from normal meat, much cheaper)
Potato (not sweet potato)
Eggs

After some hours of reading online and watching YouTube videos with conflicting information, I created my first meat pie.

My wife loves its crunchy taste but I was hoping for a non-crunchy meat pie. I don't even eat crispy fried chicken. You should see how I fight KFC staff when they put crispy chicken instead of the regular chicken in my ordered food. So now, I am begging my wife to eat all the meat pie I have spent 5 hours (learning) to bake. She's the captain of the crunchy team.

I suspect it's the two tablespoons of baking powder I put that's made it more like a cookie pie. I am researching online. If that's the actual cause, may the Microsoft Excel of the owner of the website crash.

That minor issue aside, it has been a very enjoyable process. I am even to begin a one month baking school/class next week. I can't wait to stop paying Domino's Pizza. I came across a YouTube video of how to make pizza at home. Especially the pan pizza. I am definitely going to try it. Wanted to this night but when the lady started mentioning pizza sauce, cheese and those other stuffs I didn't have, I decided to stick with just the meat pie today.

I started with cooking the meat after slicing them thin to make dicing easier afterwards. I bought N1000 meat from my regular butcher/meatseller. He knows he cheats me because I always leave the person I meet there. He agrees to my price faster than he agrees to other peoples' price. I hope they just put a fixed price on meat like the suya sellers now do. I put in good amount of water in a small pot, added curry, added one cube of Maggi Naija Pot and added some salt. 30 minutes later, I had produced the nicest soft meat. I then diced the meat.

I used my wife's potato chipper to create easy to dice chips from the carrot and potato. She helped me dice them.

I then watched 4 videos trying to figure out which is the (most) correct one. The creators better stick to their baking and not go near computer programming. One said 4 cups of flour + 1 spoon of baking powder, another said 2 cups of flour + 2 table spoons of baking powder, still another said 3 cups of flour + 2 tea spoons of baking powder.

In the end, I mixed the following:

2 cups of flour
2 table spoons of baking powder
1 small sachet of nutmeg
Enough margarine to make the mixture feel like breadcrumbs (or garri, as one online teacher said)
1 table spoon of sugar
A small pinch of salt
1 egg (used half for the mixture and the other half for the inner lining of the meat pie at the point of baking)
Quarter of a cup of cold water (real cold water from the water dispenser). Don't know why it must be cold water, not warm water.

I mixed them. And mixed them. And mixed again until it looked like what I saw in the YouTube videos. I then placed the dough in the refrigerator for 30 minutes.

It's so rich, you can see the nutmegs

I put small oil in a small pot. Placed on the cooker. Poured the diced carrots, diced potato and diced soft nice meat into it. Stirred for 4 minutes. Added small salt and black pepper. Added small water. Left for 8 minutes. Added 2 spoons of flour. Stirred for 3 minutes. All looked awesome. I could see the meat pie coming together. Baker's Street would want my special meat pie fillings recipe. Without exaggeration, it is patent worthy. Just take a look at it.

I took a glass bottle of groundnut and rolled out nice circular flat thin doughs from small cuts from the entire dough.

Put them in our halogen oven set to 170 degrees centigrade. Went back to the videos to sort out which to follow regarding number of minutes to set it to. Everyone agreed on the temperature but duration was as wide apart as 25 minutes is from 60 minutes. I went with 30 minutes.

I hope I have delighted you with my personal story of how I made my first meat pie. I also shared the photos with the owner of the baking school I have paid to begin class next week. I want to go pick up my Suzuki 600cc (power) bike from my trainer this week so can't afford to start the baking class this week. With my work load, I can only squeeze out small time for one small side class at a time and settle with sleeping very late at night.

Ungrow

2020-07-28T01:08:00.001+01:00

Growing up I was the dreamy type. I would watch a movie and dream it a sequel overnight. I would read a book and suddenly become close to the characters in the book. I loved rearranging events with my eyes wide open.

Today, I no longer dream. I have too many chats/emails/requests to respond to. Work to do. Meetings to wake up to.

Growing up I knew there were enough opportunities, wealth and fame to go round. Nobody's ever dimmed mine. When I met very successful people, I saw them as only ahead of me. Maybe by a few steps or a few years.

Today, I see too many lost and out-of-reach opportunities that I simply shift my gaze to things to be thankful for.

I try to not grow up anymore. It is very hard. I try to dream again. I try to see the opportunities beckoning me.

I still want to write novels, write books that have nothing to do with work or data analysis or computers.

I still want to see events with no sense of conclusion. To not have an explanation for what is happening. To journey through each day with a creative mind and naivety.

I try to tell myself that I still have more years than I have spent already and can do all what I once dreamed of doing. That I can become fluent in French. That I can be an accomplished artist. That I can be child I once was.

I want to talk without having an agenda. I want to teach what I do not know. I want to write my deep thoughts, the ones beneath the thoughts about money and responsibilities. I want to have a clear mind, a dreamy mind that is more interested in what can be rather than what has been.

I want to try out new things regularly. To be able to pour myself into an interesting task for a year or two and then completely switch to something else.

I want to be able to look in the mirror and see the 12 year old me.

I want to ungrow.

Access All The Resources (Download Links Inside) Shared During Our Office Hours And The Recorded Sessions

2020-07-15T14:54:00.000+01:00

https://class.urbizedge.com

We have had 6 Office Hour sessions around Business Intelligence, Financial Modeling and Business Data Analysis with Excel.

You can watch the previous sessions at https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL0kdLm6FekrMWYBcervKPF_eAZk9dnoSI

These are the resources mentioned/shared during the sessions.

Power BI Value Proposition slides: https://urbizedge.blob.core.windows.net/urbizedge/Power%20BI%20Value%20Proposition.pdf

Victor Momoh's Excel Journey Slides: https://urbizedge.blob.core.windows.net/urbizedge/My%20Excel%20Journey_Victor%20Momoh.pptx

Kehinde Omisile's Excel Journey Slides: https://urbizedge.blob.core.windows.net/urbizedge/Kehinde%20Omisile%20-%20Microsoft%20Excel%20and%20Data%20Analysis%20Office%20Hour%205.pptx

Manufacturing Company Startup Financial Model Input template: https://urbizedge.blob.core.windows.net/urbizedge/CK%20Healthcare%20Limited%20-%20Financial%20Model_Model%20Input.xlsx

SaaS (software as a service) company startup financial model input:
https://urbizedge.blob.core.windows.net/urbizedge/SaaS%20Model%20Input.xlsx

You can join the communities via
https://www.meetup.com/Financial-Modeling-Valuation-Learning-Community/
https://www.meetup.com/Power-BI-Learning-Community/ and
https://www.meetup.com/Microsoft-Excel-and-Data-Analysis-Learning-Community/

Looking forward to seeing you in the coming Sunday edition!

P.S.> You can also try out our free courses https://class.urbizedge.com/p/free-teaser-power-bi-and-dashboards-for-the-busy-professional and https://class.urbizedge.com/p/free-teaser-financial-modelling-financial-planning-and-dcf-valuation

Join Our Interactive Teams Session Tomorrow To Ask Questions, Network and Learn In The Field Of Data Analysis, BI and Financial Modeling

2020-07-11T14:49:00.000+01:00

Tomorrow, Sunday 12 July 2020, we will be having a very interactive session on Microsoft Teams normal meeting (not a webinar that's mostly one way communication). We will learn from one another, I will answer questions and we will get all more enlightened on data analysis, new powerful Microsoft Excel features, Power BI and Financial Modeling.

You don't want to miss this.

Financial Modeling Office Hour 6
Time: 2:00pm to 3:00pm
Date: Sunday, 12 July 2020
Venue: Online at https://vip.urbizedge.com/fin-mod-live

Microsoft Excel and Data Analysis Office Hour 6
Time: 4:00pm to 5:00pm
Date: Sunday, 12 July 2020
Venue: Online at https://vip.urbizedge.com/excel-live

Power BI Office Hour 6
Time: 6:00pm to 7:00pm
Date: Sunday, 12 July 2020
Venue: Online at https://vip.urbizedge.com/power-bi-live

Join and be abreast of what's new and trendy in these spaces!

You can also check out our free trial courses, learn some of what our paid students learn but without paying: https://class.urbizedge.com/p/free-teaser-power-bi-and-dashboards-for-the-busy-professional and https://class.urbizedge.com/p/free-teaser-financial-modelling-financial-planning-and-dcf-valuation

View recording of past sessions at https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL0kdLm6FekrMWYBcervKPF_eAZk9dnoSI

See you tomorrow!

Join Me As I Speak Small Portuguese On A Brazilian Excel Guest Show Today

2020-07-01T00:43:00.002+01:00

Today at 7:00pm Nigerian time I will be a guest on the Brasilian Cristiano Galvao's Excel Turbo show.

I have been doing some Portuguese lessons and intend to speak a few sentences I have learned. Come and watch me say Oi and Tchau (at the minimum).

Joining link is https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dvRSlfHxnr4

I will also be sharing some personal stories that you probably don't know some of even if you have been reading my blog for 5 years now. I hope so, 'cos these days I find that difficult to achieve. Seems I have been oversharing on this blog before. 😁

I will also be sharing some uncommon Excel feature. Something I assure you that you've not tried before. So you don't want to miss all these.

See you this evening at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dvRSlfHxnr4

Te vejo em breve!

Join Us This Friday For Expert Journey Series: a Power BI MVP, an Investment Banker and an NGO space Professional Data Analyst

2020-06-17T17:59:00.002+01:00

Join us this Friday as we take you through the career journeys of three experts who will show you practical insights into building your career in this exciting field of data analysis, business intelligence and financial modelling. These sessions are brought to you by UrBizEdge, do checkout our courses (we have online classes and physical classes)

Session 1: Financial Modeling Office Hour 5 (https://www.meetup.com/Financial-Modeling-Valuation-Learning-Community/events/ncwlsrybcjbzb/)

Agenda:
1. Expert Journey Interview - Abraham Durosawo
2. Industry Deep Dive
3. Other Questions & Answers

See you in the online live class session!

Joining link is https://vip.urbizedge.com/fin-mod-live

Abraham Durosawo is a veteran investment advisory professional. He possesses years of financial advisory and capital raising experience across power, oil & gas, infrastructure, insurance, manufacturing, technology, agriculture, financial services and real estate projects. He was a member of the team that developed the Economic Recovery and Growth Plan of the Federal Government.

He is a Certified Management Consultant and Fellow, Institute of Management Consultants. Enrolled in a dual Executive MBA at the Business School Netherlands and Quantic School of Business and Technology. He is a candidate in the CFA Program. He is a Director at Unicorn Capital, Consultant to the Investment Banking Institute New York, Business Mentor with the Bid Network Foundation, Netherlands, and a Mentor with the Google Launchpad Start. He is also the convener of the Finance Professionals Network, a community of future global leaders in finance. He is a specialist in equity and debt investment instruments with a core focus on private equity and venture capital investments.

Abraham is an award-winning YALI Fellow, The Young African Leaders Initiative, where he won the 2018 star of Entrepreneurship.

LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/company/careers-in-finance/
Twitter: @FinProNetwork

Session 2: Microsoft Excel and Data Analysis Office Hour 5 (https://www.meetup.com/Microsoft-Excel-and-Data-Analysis-Learning-Community/events/hmzlsrybcjbzb/)

Agenda:
1. Expert Journey Interview - Kehinde Omisile
2. Special Demo
3. Other Questions

See you in the online live class session!

Joining link is https://vip.urbizedge.com/excel-live

Kehinde Omilise has a Bachelor's Degree in Mathematics and Master's Degree in Biostatistics. he developed flair for Excel as a diploma student of Agricultural Engineering sometime in 2003. First learnt to use Excel for analyzing Analysis of Variance (ANOVA). He uses Excel regularly for research, business solutions, visualization and analytics in the nonprofit sector.

You can connect with him via LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/omisilekehindeolugbenga/
and
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/OmisileKehindeOlugbenga

Session 3: Power BI Office Hour 5 (https://www.meetup.com/Power-BI-Learning-Community/events/cmzlsrybcjbzb/)

Agenda:
1. Expert Journey Interview - Ahmed Oyelowo, MVP
2. Live Demo
3. Other Questions & Answers

See you in the online live class session!

Joining link is https://vip.urbizedge.com/power-bi-live

Ahmed is a Microsoft Most Valuable Professional (MVP), Microsoft Certified Solutions Associate (BI Reporting), Microsoft Certified Trainer (MCT) and a Certified Advanced Financial Modeler (AFM) from the Financial Modeling Institute, Ontario, Canada.

He has developed cutting edge solutions for companies and trained over 3,000 people on Business Intelligence and Financial Modeling.

He is also a contributor to the Power BI Community blog where he writes technical "how-to" articles. This combines with other articles he publishes on his blog and videos he posts on his YouTube channel.

His business website is https://foresightbi.com.ng/ and you can get more of his amazing tutorials on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/channel/UChdiVx41iPzoucPBiI_jy_A