It has been a strange year. A dollar could very well sell for 500 naira soon, a self-admitting Ponzi scheme like MMM is now wildly popular and Donald Trump, the eccentric billionaire, has been elected the next president of the United States in the most offensive fashion possible. Three things that would have been hard to predict just a little more than a year ago are part of our everyday reality right now.

“Never stop learning and adapting. The world will always be changing. If you limit yourself to what you knew and what you were comfortable with earlier in your life, you will grow increasingly frustrated with your surroundings as you age.” – David Niven

MMM and the candidacy Donald Trump, these two obviously are “suspect” entities. This is not up for debate, even their supporters would not stress legitimacy as part of their arguments.

Naturally, all through my life I have been taught to treat people with respect and be as humble as possible. But this year I have seen a man with no respect whatsoever for anybody but himself rise to earn the position of the most powerful human on earth.

And in the matter of the pursuit of wealth, I was taught that shortcuts always look faster but end up taking longer.

Money is neither my god nor my devil. It is a form of energy that tends to make us more of who we already are, whether it’s greedy or loving. – Dan Millman

The world never stops changing. Moreover, a wise man never stops learning. Morality aside, success rarely ever happens by chance. To be successful at anything at all, good or bad, you need to get a couple of things right.

Here are two main points I can identify and learn from this two.

1. Pick the right audience, then pick the right message.
If you get this right, you not only have a passionate followership, you also have a followership that is aggressive and proactive.

Donald Trump:
For years now, America has been going through some obvious cultural changes. Issues that have been historically controversial has swung for the liberal left while the conservative right, despite still not in agreement have been culturally silenced.

Which issues? Legalization of same-sex marriage, legalization of abortion, gun control, Immigration policies, etc.

As a result of liberals winning the cultural war, America now identifies as a liberal state. This is so even as a large percentage of their population are still have unyielding opposing views to this issues. Worse still people who have contrasting opinions about this issues are labeled different types of tags (homophobic, racist, sexist, etc.)

Right or wrong, conservatives have been largely ignored, labeled and ridiculed for some time now. Donald Trump saw this and decided not only to speak to them; he was talking for them. In fact, he was talking like them.

Jeremy Shapiro and Anna Newby describes in detail the emotional nature of the Republican and Democratic political divide in their article Republicans are from the heart; Democrats are from the head.


MMM:

Let’s face it; this is Nigeria, where the government cannot even pretend to care about the well-being of the masses.

The average Nigerian have been waiting in hope for the current administration to change his life. I do not even need to remind us of 2015 and how people were so passionate about the then opposition party and its presidential candidate.

More than a year later, as bad as things were during Jonathan’s time, things are so much worse now.
People are frustrated, and tales of unpaid salaries, cut back on allowances, companies folding up, and reduction of workforce have become standard in recent times.

Then comes MMM, put money somewhere and go and sleep. Wake up 30 days later and collect your money back with a 30 percent addition. Whew! Even the usually rational amongst us must have considered and reconsidered this MMM thing many times over.

Even though everyone knows about the illegitimacy of this “scheme” including its participants, it is ironical that people like me who have blatantly refused to do it (not because of a lack of money) are seen as the strange ones in this society.

If you want to test this hypothesis, post something negative on your Facebook timeline right now and see what the reactions will be.



2. There is no such thing as bad publicity.
Court attention as much as possible. The more people talk about you, the more awareness your brand gets. Inspire debate and if possible, court controversy. Controversy brings discussion and discussion brings awareness. The most controversial products are the most talked about products and as a result the most popular product.


Donald Trump:
Over the past year, I made it a point to follow The Daily Show on Comedy Central and see the latest gaffes and antics of Donald Trump. Trevor Noah hardly had anything else to do on the show than to make jokes about Trump and his double mouthed advisers and supporters.

I found it really funny watching the media make a mockery of Donald Trump’s candidacy. CNN was busy all year trying to “expose” Donald Trump.
Donald Trump was attacked on all fronts. He was negatively labeled in every possible way – sexist, racist, bigot, misogynist, intolerant, etc. Every negative interview, audio recordings and video footage were unearthed and exposed to the world. The media dragged him.

So many media polls pointed to a Hillary Clinton to the point that Donald Trump even threatened to reject the results if he loses.

However, in retrospect, this helped his “they do not want me to get there” conspiracy rhetoric. He just assumed the role of the victim even when he was the aggressor. The more the media dragged him, the more popular he became and the more passionate his followers grew.


MMM:
Regarding publicity, I must say that every government official, agency, and body that has spoken out against MMM have contributed immensely to the current popularity of MMM.

How? They are the reason why the most powerful MMM rhetoric carries so much weight today– “the government does not want you to make it.”

Whenever you come across an MMM promoter, you will find out that all of the press releases put out by the likes of CBN, SEC, and even the National Assembly is used by these people in there pitches to prove to their naïve audience that “government does not want them to prosper…” “…Which is the only reason why MMM is opposed by the powers that be” “MMM is giving power back to the people…”

Since this is the Nigerian government and the Nigerian people we are talking about here. I am not shocked to see this narrative gaining traction. I am only concerned for the people who will end up having the short end of the stick when this MMM thing eventually comes to an end.



Parting Shot:
To the people who are actively promoting MMM even with the knowledge that it will crash and when it does, so many people will get burnt, but say to themselves “at least before the thing crash make I make my millions abeg”. I leave you this quote.

The man who has won millions at the cost of his conscience is a failure. – B.C. Forbes

Source: http://theidealmale.com/2016/11/20/the-rise-of-trump-mmm-and-the-lessons-inherent/

Your write up is good but point of correction

More than a year later, as bad as things were during Jonathan’s time, things are so much worse now.

Things were never bad during Jonathan time. We saw the rise of the middle class, product availability and price stability.
The only problem was the massive corruption which should have been checked

AnodaIT:
Your write up is good but point of correction
Things were never bad during Jonathan time. We saw the rise of the middle class, product availability and price stability.
The only problem was the massive corruption which should have been checked

If things were not bad under Jonathan, how was APC able to convince Nigerians that they need change?

What is happening now can be likened to the case of a woman who divorced her husband because of infidelity, but now her new husband is not only unfaithful but also a thief. Either way, both situations are bad. Because the present situation is worse than the other does not make the previous husband a saint all of a sudden.

Thank you for reading the article, I am glad you liked it.