A chapter from my book teaching how to build and grow lasting wealth.

1. ANDREWANDREWANDREWANDREW
FINDING IT AND KEEPING ITFINDING IT AND KEEPING ITFINDING IT AND KEEPING ITFINDING IT AND KEEPING IT
WEALTH
TRUE
GANIGANIGANIGANI----IKILAMAIKILAMAIKILAMAIKILAMA

2. TRUE WEALTH Andrew Gani-Ikilama
PREVIEW COPY. ©Andrew Gani-Ikilama ǀPG 2
© 2015, Andrew Gani-Ikilama
FIRST EDITION JANUARY 2015
ISBN:
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. No part of this book may be reproduced or
transmitted in any form by any means, electronic or mechanical, including
photocopying and recording, or by any information storage and relevant
system, except as may be expressly permitted by the copyright holder.
All requests for permission should be addressed to
Andrew Gani-Ikilama,
Founder/Dean,
Wusasa Business School,
Plot 5605 Independence Way,
P. O. Box 2520, Kaduna,
Kaduna State,
Nigeria.
Publisher: WBSPublishing,
Wusasa Business School,
Plot 5605 Independence Way,
P. O. Box 2520, Kaduna,
Kaduna State,
Nigeria.
wusasa.business.school@gmail.com
Printed in the Federal Republic of Nigeria by
CuttingEdge Design & Promos,
cuttingedgebrands@gmail.com
+234 (0) 8177 007 190
All proceeds from this book will go towards supporting the work
of Knowledge For The Blind Initiative. This non-profit set up
by andrew Gani-Ikilama provides knowledge for quality life to
persons living with blndness.

3. TRUE WEALTH Andrew Gani-Ikilama
PREVIEW COPY. ©Andrew Gani-Ikilama ǀPG 3
CHAPTER
ATTITUDE
“Attitude is the one thing about you that must always smell.
It’s either a sweet fragrance or a sour stench.
Whichever, it is your choice to make.”
Andrew Gani-Ikilama
When I use the word attitude, like Joyce Meyer I am
referring to a system of thoughts, the mental posture, the mind-
set, the way a person views situations of life. What’s fantastic
to one person will be a total letdown for another simply because
of the attitude each holds on the same issue. So for example, I
eat meat but my sister Linda Lawrence does not. Our attitude
on the subject of meat totally differs because she is a
vegetarian while I am not. Meat is not as volatile an issue like
crude oil, religion or even politics, but can still cause a major
discussion as decisions are made on what to cook.
A great mathematician developed a formula wherein
each alphabet of the English Language was given a numerical
value. Starting with letter A having a value of 1, letter B having
a value of 2, letter C having a value and so on. When used to
3

4. TRUE WEALTH Andrew Gani-Ikilama
PREVIEW COPY. ©Andrew Gani-Ikilama ǀPG 4
calculate the words knowledge and hardwork, you will end up
with less than 100 points each. Knowledge equals 96 while
hardwork equals 98. But, the word Attitude has a value of 100.
Keith Farrell in his classic book titled “Attitude is Everything”
defines attitude as everything and he concludes that the most
valuable asset you can possess is a positive attitude toward
your life.
Another famous quotation on attitude is that a bad
attitude is like a flat tire. If you don’t change it, or I add fill it with
the correct air, you can’t go anywhere. It was David Joseph
Schwartz that said “How we think shows through in how we act.
Attitudes are mirrors of the mind. They reflect our thinking.”
Life is actually 10% of what happens to us individually and 90%
how we react. You may be the happy owner of a Honda Civic
car and is one day driving along when a tire goes flat. Your
options are to get a tire shop to repair it or you may choose to
buy a new one and get it installed. If your tire is say size 17 rim
and I sell you a size 16 or size 24 tire, what I just did was give
you a bad attitude. Bad in the sense that it is the wrong size
tire. Nothing in this world will make it good. You have to
change the tire or face the effects of the bad attitude which in
this case shows up as a tire that is the wrong size.
Alfred Nobel woke up one day to find that an obituary
had been published. It had all the information in it correct
except that it was referring to his brother but had his own name
as the deceased. Alfred realised that the biography on the
obituary referred to him as the inventor of dynamite that was
being used to kill numerous people. He wasn’t happy that his
invention was being looked at as an instrument for death. He
decided there and then to in advance write his obituary through
his actions. He instituted a prize for peace which came to be
called the Nobel Prize and recognizes different aspects of
human development. His real obituary was a reflection of the
attitude he worked on and corrected. A celebration rather than
a judgement.

5. TRUE WEALTH Andrew Gani-Ikilama
PREVIEW COPY. ©Andrew Gani-Ikilama ǀPG 5
The use of words also shows our real attitude in life. In
the book titled “Shehu Musa Yar’Adua: A life of service” edited
by Jacqueline W. Farris and Mohammed Bomoi, it is recounted
(page 164) how when the late General Yar’adua as Chairman
of Habib Bank was sent a poorly prepared report by an Asian
national. “Inviting him to a meeting, he stated rather bluntly:
“Either the person who prepared the report is a fool or the
person receiving the proposal is a fool. As it is not in my
character to insult anyone, I can assure you I am not a fool. So
you may want to look at your proposal again and decide who is
the fool.” No wonder even in politics, he believed that “there
should be honour amongst thieves”. Attitude is one aspect of
humanity that never is able to hide itself. While in detention
under controversial circumstances, he was able to smuggle a
torn slip of paper from his prison cell on which he had written
“Please do not worry too much about me. I am okay. It is the
sacrifice some of us must make for our country to be free.” No
matter the circumstances of life, attitudes which are as deep as
our DNA will always remain. That is until a deliberate decision
is made to change the undesirable attitude.
There is a fictional story about a set of twins named
Seymour and Fillmore that demonstrates the lesson on attitude.
Seymour was an unwavering optimist. Every night he went to
bed excitedly looking forward to daybreak and new adventures.
Fillmore in contrast was perpetually sad. He always looked for
the black cloud over the silver lining. He was so negative that
he said his name was a sign that he was not complete ...fill
more.
Since the boys were identical twins, their parents felt
their personality difference was an indication of abnormality so
took them to a psychologist. The psychologist suggested the
parents use the boys next birthday to help them understand and
possibly resolve the personality difference. He gave them
specific instructions which the parents agreed to carry out. On
their birthday, the parents invited Fillmore to his room where

6. TRUE WEALTH Andrew Gani-Ikilama
PREVIEW COPY. ©Andrew Gani-Ikilama ǀPG 6
they gave him a nicely wrapped up box. He opened it and
immediately started protesting, “I wanted a laptop, not a PC”.
This was in spite of the fact that his parents had just given him
the most modern computer on the market. Anyway they left
him and went downstairs proceeding to go to the back of their
house and on the way shouting for Seymour to follow them.
When they got there, they gave him a box that was not so
nicely wrapped and contained a very smelly substance. He
opened it gleefully and on discovering it was a box of horse
manure cried out joyfully, “This is great! With all this manure
there has to be a pony around here somewhere!”
That’s the power of positive attitude! While we have little
control over the events in our lives, we do have control over our
responses to these events. How can a sour attitude be
changed to a sweet attitude? Be careful what you focus on. Be
mentally alert to the fact that through each day of your life you
will nonstop be receiving conscious and unconscious
messages. People will send theirs. The media will deliver
some more from all their advertisers and from their in-house
programmes. Messages will comes from family members,
colleagues, classmates, your emotions. The list is endless. By
focusing on how you choose to feel, you alter your state of mind
to feelings to match your mood.
When you wake in the morning, invest a few minutes
visualising your day and calling into your day positive
experiences. Choose at that point in time to embrace all the
goodness the day will bring and to forgive any badness that
may arrive as you go through the day. Why forgive? Because
this is the one issue that leads anybody into a negative attitude.
Two of the best antidotes to a negative attitude are gratitude
and forgiveness. When we move beyond the hurt, anger,
criticism, blame and guilt we are free to forgive, love, count our
million of blessings and move on. Yes. Move on to greater
awareness, self discovery, health, love, achievements and an
entire life.

7. TRUE WEALTH Andrew Gani-Ikilama
PREVIEW COPY. ©Andrew Gani-Ikilama ǀPG 7
A friend of Keith Farrell had a very rough life. He was
not able to succeed at anything. He owed many people, even
owed the United States government student loans. He was in a
bad situation. The man heard of a United States Military
program that would allow him study in university full time, paid
for by the military in exchange for one weekend a month as a
reservist. So he enrolled. Though he faced many challenges
along the way, he kept his side of the deal and overcame each
challenge. Keith Farrell tells us in his book that the man
succeeded in acquiring an associate degree, two bachelor’s
degrees and is the president of his own small business.
I totally agree with the unknown philosopher who said “A
positive mental attitude and definiteness of purpose is the
starting point toward all worthwhile achievement.” Romans
16:17 says “Now I beseech you, brethren, mark them which
cause divisions.” This was I did when at a point in my life
somebody embarked on a campaign against me. Out of
wisdom that was definitely bigger than me. I assessed the
situation, sought out counsel and with a healthy dose of divine
guidance I chose to leave the environment, marking the people
that were choosing to cause divisions as I moved on. Attitudes
do not just happen. They are the products of our choices.
Because we have made the conscious effort over time to make
those particular choices, our mental system now adopts it as
the default mode and makes the choice for us. This now
becomes our attitude towards the issue. As a child I was not
used to eating hot spicy meals. But I enjoyed eating snails.
What formed this attitude for me was simple. Daddy didn’t eat
pepper while Mummy did. Mummy ate snails while daddy
didn’t. Now as an adult I have had to make my own choices.
No problem eating snail meat. As for hot spicy peppery meals,
well a good supply of cold water handy helps a lot.
A very interesting teaching on attitude is the one taught
by Jesus Christ on servant leadership. He said that whoever
wants to be the greatest must flip his thinking on its head and

8. TRUE WEALTH Andrew Gani-Ikilama
PREVIEW COPY. ©Andrew Gani-Ikilama ǀPG 8
the servant. He taught that servant hood is the true leadership.
Now he wasn’t saying that servants are leaders or that leaders
should call themselves servants, even though some people
have taken the instruction literally. He was talking about our
attitude. For you to be successful you need to have an attitude
of service. Look at great men like Sir Winston Churchill. His
view on service was that he must lead England through the war
to victory. Even in the face of defeat on some battle fronts,
even when supplies were dwindling, he kept a resolute face, a
strong voice and always formed two fingers into the victory sign.
His attitude was unwavering and victory was the result for his
people.
Forgiveness is what you owe yourself. Plug into it. It
returns responsibility for your life back to you. You can dance
again. Dream big dreams again and have a happier life ...with
the right attitude. Winston Churchill was the one who said
“Attitude is a little thing that makes a big difference.” Joyce
Meyer in her book “The Power of A Positive You” gives five
rules for achieving and keeping the right attitude
1. Maintain the right attitude when the going get rough.
2. Realize the tough times won’t last forever.
3. Do not make major decisions during a storm.
4. Stay in touch with the “control tower”.
5. Try to keep things in perspective.
These are such simple rules that rather than bother you with
any details, I will end by suggesting you start work on adjusting
your attitude so you can soar into wealthy living.