MY 4.49 GRADE POINT AVERAGE; $200,000 GRADUATE SCHOLARSHIPS; AND THE ADVANTAGE OF A DISADVANTAGE.

                                                              1.

"...And they drew Joseph up and lifted him out of the pit, and sold him to the Ishmaelites for twenty shekels of silver. They took Joseph to Egypt..." Genesis 37:28

...

“They have posted [released] our final results” a friend told me in a very very trepid but rather familiar tone. I had to contend with the ever epileptic internet connection to check my results. “Did I make it, Did I not?” I thought, with my heart palpitating. Finally the internet ‘conceded’, and my eyes got fixated on a 4.49 Cumulative Grade Point Average (CGPA) on my computer screen, my breath ceded for a sec ... “4.49?!!! How [the h$%] did this happen?” I have never been so perturbed my entire life. Just some few days ago, I was quite confident of a first class CGPA.

A quick probe finally led out the facts: few months prior, a friend had helped to submit an assignment for one of the classes I offered in my last semester at Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU) in Nigeria. Unfortunately – or rather not – the assignment was submitted with an incorrect matriculation [identification] number. Because of this peccadillo, the 5 marks allocated for the assignment (which I still believe I am totally entitled to) was not added to my class grade; as such I ended up with a 67B in the class (which led to a 4.49 CGPA). Had my 5 marks been added, it would been a 72A, with the much anticipated First class honors.

Well, this got really messed up by the ‘ridiculous’ obstinacy of a university professor in my department, who insisted I WAS NOT A ‘FIRST CLASS MATERIAL’ and a 4.49 cGPA was my rightful place. I was forlorn, to say the least. Finally, my only chance of graduating with a first class honors from OAU got slid off right in my face.

If you are not familiar with the Nigerian GPA system used in most varsities, this is how it works: If you are fortunate to garner a GPA from 4.50-5.00, that’s a first class honors. With a 3.50-4.49 cGPA, then you land yourself in a second class upper division.

In a country replete with unemployment, and deplorable investments in science jobs, trust me on this one: a 4.49 cGPA is the last thing you had wish for.

Not surprising, looking back at my struggles at OAU, I developed a very strong aversion towards the decaying educational system. [Which I believe is characteristic of most tertiary institutions in Nigeria, after all, OAU has constantly ranked the best] Here is why: I will fail woefully, if I try to count the number of lectures I received while standing on my feet because of the lack of available seats in a university lecture hall; or the number of candles I used up for my readings because of the epileptic power supply. In fact, the latter would be an impossible challenge.

I once told some of my American friends that I read with candles throughout college, the utter shock their countenance posited was one to remember. This is very sad, because to some of us, we have grown to think that this is the norm, which reminds of the popular Fela Song: suffering and smiling. That’s why I was critical about the argument that a person submitting an assignment for me was lack of academic integrity. On the contrary, considering the gross ineptitude of university management in Nigeria. Our ‘leaders’ should be reprimanded for any poor academic performance, certainly not otherwise.

...

As I was called upon to receive the best graduating student’s prize for the department of Microbiology in 2012, I had a very rare ambivalent feeling: I was gleeful – my achievement was one that I am totally proud of – at the same time, irked: I felt cheated.  There and then I promised not to enslave myself in an educational system that almost frustrate effort; more often than not, fail to reward hard work; and needless to say, tainted by some mentally challenged university professors that should have lost their jobs long before we are even born.

                                                              2.

"They tried to bury us. They didn't know we were seeds"

...

Little did I know that a 4.49 GPA could be a potential advantage – an advantage of a disadvantage. Soon after my final exams, I headed to the NYSC, harmed with little information, I began to delve for graduate schools abroad. I have believed that my success will be the best revenge, and that I had no options except for the very best. Several months went by and I constantly spent half of my allawe (monthly stipend the government pays NYSC corpers) on MTN modems to surf the internet so I can garner as much information as I needed on graduate schools. Even though the internet supply was an epileptic one, I wouldn’t give in. Just within few weeks, I had sent over 200 emails to graduate schools abroad enquiring about educational opportunities and scholarships. In short, I have never been so focused!   I did all the required exams, and in the end I applied to more than 10 graduate schools abroad. A friend once told me “that was way too much effort Bif”. To which I replied “I think I should have done more, you need to graduate with a 4.49 cGPA to think the way I do”

Praying for the best and expecting the worse, I had saved some money doing my NYSC to repeat the process again, the next year. And I am damn sure I wouldn’t be hesitant to do it the third time even if I failed the second attempt.

As God will have it, it went through during the first attempt. I got admissions in all the schools I applied except one; with scholarships from the University of Newcastle and The Catholic University of America (CUA) in Washington DC. Shortly after my NYSC I left for Washington, DC.

Few months ago, I graduated with a MS degree in Biotechnology from CUA with a 3.95 CGPA, (4.0 scale) an almost perfect cGPA; a wonderful research in the field of functional yeast genomics with Dr. John Choy; and Doctorate scholarships from 4 graduate schools!

Permit me to put on my economist cloak, and put a value on all the graduate scholarship I have been offered since my graduation from OAU: it will be well over $200,000.

These are the lessons learnt:

One, In Malcom Gladwell’s words: “We have ... a very rigid and limited definition of what an advantage is ... We think of some things as unhelpful that in reality leave us stronger and wiser.” This is the apt pith of this piece. My 4.49 cGPA left me stronger! No doubts

Two, someone opinion about you doesn’t have to be your reality. Take Charge!

In conclusion, Taking glory for all the positives that have happened would be fatuous and almost suicidal. After I lost the 4.49 ‘battle’ at OAU, several professors, families and friend stood by me, and gave very inspiring messages. Their words and support kept me going.

More important, is the story of a man who think he can do it alone and found himself swimming in a big ocean against the tides. Soon enough he drowned. He forgot that when God is on your side the tides moves in your direction.

LESSONS OF HISTORY

The richest wisdom on earth are unequivocally embedded in history. Reading Lessons of History by Will and Aeriel Durant was yet another verification to the claim. As they rightfully stated “the present is the past rolled up for action, and the past is the present unrolled for understanding.” Here are some of the peaks in the book. The book is replete of several historical examples, but I have decided to glean that off and go straight to the pith.

HOW TO SURMOUNT CHALLENGES: 

Initiatives, creativity, clarity of mind, energy of will, and intelligence are at the heart of the required qualities to surmount challenges.

“If we put the problem further back, and ask what determines whether a challenge will or will not be met, the answer is that this depends upon the presence or absence of initiative and of creative individuals with clarity of mind and energy of will ... capable of effective responses to new situation (which is almost a definition of intelligence). If we ask what makes a creative individual, we are thrown back from history to psychology and biology – to the influence of environment and the gamble and secret of the chromosomes”

I think the former has a more preponderance on creativity than the latter.

WHY HISTORY REPEAT ITSELF:

“History repeats itself in the large because human nature changes with geological leisureliness, and man is equipped to respond in [almost] stereotyped ways to frequently occurring situations and stimuli like hunger, danger, and sex [among others]”

ON MONEY MANAGEMENT:

“The men who can manage men manage the men who can manage only things, and the men who can manage money manage all”

ON RELIGION:

“As long as there is poverty there will be a God”

As a Christian, I find this statement very worrisome. Yet, the practice of Christianity [and most religion] today virtually exemplify this. Needless to say, the message of salvation has been subdued by the plenoxia of worldly materials.

THE CONS OF INDUSTRIALIZATION:

“Gradually, then rapidly and ever more widely, the Industrial Revolution changed the economic form and moral superstructure of European and American life [and other part of the world albeit more gradually]. Men, women, and children left home and family, authority and unity, to work as individuals, individually paid, in factories built to house not men but machines. Every decade the machines multiplied and became more complex; economic maturity came later; children no longer were economic assets; marriage was delayed; premarital continence became more difficult to maintain. The city offered every discouragement to marriage, but it provided every stimulus and facility for sex....The authority of father and mother lost its economic base through growing individualism of industry. The rebellious youth was no longer constrained by the surveillance of the village; he could hide his sins in the protective anonymity of the city crowd... education spread religious doubts... the old agricultural moral code began to die”

The cons of industrialization cannot be best stated.

THE SECRETS TO PEAK PERFORMANCE

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MAXIMUM NEURO-HARMONY AND COGNITIVE CONTROL

3 TYPES OF FOCUS

I wrote out some notes from Prof. Daniel Goleman talk at google on his new book: Focus: the Hidden Driver of Excellence. He stated the 3 types of focus anyone with a sphere of influence requires.

Inner focus: The ability to manage oneself.

Outer focus: The ability to read other people effectively and be able to persuade other people.

Systems awareness: useful for strategic thinking – ability to be aware of what is going on in our world with respect to technology, the economy, and so on. For example, if your boss gave you a query at work, that is a threat. So is global warming. However, intuitively, the latter is usually relegated to “nothing”.

INNER FOCUS

Here I will focus on inner focus: the ability to work at one’s best. This is sometimes called Good work, and it occurs when we have “maximum neuro-harmony”. Good work tend to reflect when we fulfill 3 main requirements.

The best set of skills for the job

Love for the job

Perfect alignment of the job with one’s ethics.

To also get to the state of Good work, psychologists have figured out that cognitive control (also called delay in gratification) is non-negotiable.

TWO STUDIES

The famous marshmellow test. Four year olds were given 1 marshmellow, and they were instructed that if they could wait 10 minutes without eating the marshmellow, they will get an additional one. Some grabbed and some waited. About 14 years later, the kids that delay gratification (waited for 10 minutes) had a 200 point average advantage on the SAT.

In a similar study in New Zealand about a thousand 4-8 year olds were tested for cognitive control. 32 years later they were tracked down. The study revealed that their cognitive control predicted health and financial success better than their IQ or the socio economic status of their family.

Hence, there has been a push to teach cognitive control to kids.

ON GOOD IDEAS AND ERRORS.

 “...IT’S PRETTY OBVIOUS, THE MIDDLE TOP IS THE SWEET SPOT”

Benjamin Franklin wrote: “Perhaps the history of the errors of mankind, all things considered, is more valuable and interesting than that of their discoveries...” In the same vein, British economist William Stanley Jevons also stated “In all probability the errors of the great mind exceed in number those of the less vigorous ones.”

Error is one of the 7 reoccurring patterns associated with innovation, which Steven Johnson detailed in his book Where Good Ideas Come From. Indeed, it takes an enlightened mind to see error as a smooth path to innovation.

When you win, you will probably throw a party, I’d guess. However, when you lose, it triggers a totally different action – you ponder, you question, you explore, and challenge assumptions. Verily, nothing begs innovation than the aforementioned quadruplets. William James. Quoted: “The error is needed to set off the truth, as much as a dark background is required for exhibiting the brightness of a picture”.

According to legend, Thomas Edison carried out 1000 experiments before he invented the light bulb. In other words he failed 999 times! That’s humongous for one experiment. Think about this, an error means a deviation from correctness, so if there is probably one – or very few ways – to make the bulb light up, and say, there are two thousand potent theories to try out. How the hell will he get to the correct 1 without ‘getting drenched’ in errors? Well, math tells us it’s possible – with a probability of 0.0005.

Edison knew he had to tolerate failure because the path to correctness is riddled with errors.

The message should not be misconstrued, errors are to be avoided when possible, but the nature of most problems make error inevitable.

Visualize a graph with an inverted U curve, which plots success on the y axis and error on the x axis. You don’t want to be at the two extremes – bottom left or right. The bottom left spot rarely exist (that’s the pith of this article) and for the bottom right: run from that. That occurs when you don’t plan and make degenerative mistakes as opposed to generative errors. It’s pretty obvious – the middle top is the sweet spot.  

KEYSTONE HABITS AND HOW I KILLED 3 BIRDS WITH ONE STONE

 

Last summer I had a plethora of important goals to achieve; I had to quickly recruit some germane arsenals to boost my focus – the subject, which has unarguably become a rare commodity in our world today (You probably don’t have to own an iPhone to fathom this). I did a will-power experiment, scored myself holistically on a weekly basis – as bona fide as I could – just for a sole reason: as a vessel for motivation.

Few months after, I was listening to an audiobook, The Willpower Instinct by Kelly McGonigal. In the book, she pointed out to some research that showed how exercise incited several positive habits like eating healthy, increased productivity, smoking less, amongst others.

Hurriedly I stretched for my last summer will power experimental data and to my astonishment, a trend emerged.  Oblivious to me, I had killed 3 birds with one stone – The morning I ran; One, I was more likely to stick to my almost-tasteless oats meal versus a carbohydrate-laden food; two, read an extra 30 minutes; and three, spent less time wasting away on the internet. In short, the positive correlation between my exercise regimen and will power was almost absolute!

Charles Duhigg in his best seller book – The Power of Habit –  calls activities like my last-summer-exercise “Keystone habits”. Here is the book:

“Keystone habits start a process that, over time, transforms everything...Keystone habits say that success doesn’t depend on getting every single thing right, but instead relies on identifying a few key priorities and fashioning them into powerful levers...The habits that matter most are the ones that, when they start to shift, dislodge and remake other patterns”

Apart from physical exercise, here is another example: Food journaling. Studies has shown that people who kept a daily log of food consumed, has a much higher chance of eating healthy, and consequently lose more weight; only with the use of food journals.

In fact, Duhigg in his book stated that some studies has shown a positive correlation between making your bed every morning and developing apt budgeting skills, a sense of well-being, and increased productivity. Lastly – and more important – is the habit of positive thinking. This will probably have one of the greatest positive ripple effect I can imagine.

The gist is, look for a habit that will give you the ripple effect that you desire: I had guess if you had the opportunity to kill 3 birds with one stone (versus 3 stones), you’ll grab it.

THE GOOD AND THE BAD OF HERD MENTALITY




FreeImages.com/A Berg

As a rule, we reckon and conform to the behavior of the majority. Because, the default nature of human dictates that the correctness of a behavior is directly proportional to the degree at which other people engage in such behavior.

Here is an instance: doing my youth service I read about a research that shows that – more often than not – the louder an applause, (say after a performance) the more likely you are to join in, famously dubbed the clapping contagion. This apparently explains the reason for the canned laughter I see in Papa Ajasco and other comedy series when growing up.

In my opinion – and I think most evolutionary biologists will concur that – this wisdom of the populace play an imperative role in human survival and evolution. But is it always the right way to go? No no!  In some cases it could be salutary, in some other cases – menacing.

Think about it, in some part of the world, it is popular to choose a particular career, whether one is competent in the field or not. It reminds me of the trendy “science-class-art-class-proelior” in high school. Where the supposedly ‘smartest’ candidates SHOULD be in the science class – an epitome of pluralist ignorance!

Even the Yorubas will say “Ki Lamonrin se be eni, ija ni nda” (Demanding that such and such a person emulate one exactly leads to a fight). The point being – when we employ social proof, our idiosyncratic attributes should be at the hub of our decisions.

LOWBALLING: SOME IOWA ENERGY USERS, AND HOW MY DAD TRICKED ME INTO GETTING "As".



How can you influence and persuade others into doing the things that you want? This is a question pertinent to everyone – from politicians, to marketers, to managers, to students, to even parents raising a child. Here is one important overarching lesson I have learnt from my book of the month, “Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion” by Robert Cialdini: we commit better to our responsibilities in the absence – or in some cases, in just an iota – of extraneous strong pressures.

The book stated an impressive study carried out by some psychologists in 1980:

At the beginning of a winter season, a group of energy users in Iowa were trained on energy saving techniques; persuaded to save energy; and they all agreed to save energy. However, the researchers found that at the end of the winter, they failed to save energy.

The same study was carried out on a similar group, except for the addition of a public recognition reward for any household with substantial energy savings. As you might have presumed, there was a surge in energy savings. After the compliance, the reward was then intentionally withdrew by the researchers. Then, one will expect a drop in energy savings, on the contrary, they did not only maintained their present energy savings but it actually increased. So, what happened? In short terms, psychologists will say “their commitment grew their own legs”

 Here is the book:
 "...These people has been lowballed into a conservation commitment through a promise of newspaper publicity. Once made, that commitment started generating its own support: The homeowners began acquiring new energy habits, began feeling good about their public spirited efforts...began appreciating money saved on utility bills... with all these it is no wonder that the commitment remained firm even after...newspaper publicity  was kicked out"


As I was reading through this study, a similar personal experience came to memory.

Here is my story: My change was not over the winter, and has nothing to do with energy saving, it was during my transition from primary school to high school. In the earliest days of my primary school my academic performance was abysmal, but it got pretty good after my transition to high school and continue to soar ever since.
 
Just before the ‘transition’ I remembered my Dad promised me several gifts – most notable - a N1,000 note, only if I assume the first position in my class (it used to be a lot of money in those days. haha!) While I remembered achieving the feat on several occasions, I failed remembering my Dad giving me the N1,000 note (wittingly or otherwise, however, I will list towards the latter). Did that negatively affected my subsequent performances? NO! Why? Just like in the case of the energy users, my commitment grew its own legs.

How? I began to see myself as being ‘book smart’; friends began hailing me for my academic intelligence. This metamorphosed my self-image, and the consistency pressure began to form. The Yoruba proverb “Akin yago fun elesin ana” [One does not pave the way for the horse rider of yesterday] has definitely lured me into maintaining my performance, not the N1000 note which I did not receive in the first place.  
Social Psychologist called this compliance tactic – lowballing. In summary: One, make a promise to ensure compliance; two, the compliance may generate personal commitments; three, retract the promise; and four, observe the results.

Just like several other tactics, lowballing is not a panacea for compliance. An obvious pre-requisite for the success of this tactic would be that the compliant must have a propensity for the compliance task. The ‘trick’ wouldn’t have worked on me if the N1,000 note was promised and retracted for doing well in, uhmmm... say, a drama competition. Nah!

LESSONS FROM A NAVY SEAL: WHY YOU SHOULD STOP WORRYING.




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 Worry (n): to feel or show fear and concern because you think that something bad has happened or could happen. Verily, all of us have engaged in this recalcitrant proclivity. Last year I came across the statistics that 90% of what we worry about never happens. If that is anything to go by, then we have successfully inundated our lives with time-wasting activities, talkless of plausible impairment of our health [Think about it!] Why I believe it is insurmountable to completely jettison worry, a substantial reduction could be a life changer.

Among several other lessons, I was reminded of worry today as I read through the book “No heroes” by Mark Owen. Mark Owen was one of the Navy SEALS who participated in the Osama Bin Laden raid. In a rock climbing drill he relayed in the book, he said after he ran out of camming devices, he got frozen at some 300 foot, up on the rock! [Almost a 100m dash length!!!]  Loss his front sight focus, became nervous, anything that could plausibly define worry.

One of the instructors came around and gave him a quick coaching.... “Just stay in your 3-foot world” he said...“Focus on what you can affect. You keep looking around, and none of that shit can help you right now, can it?...”

Are you focused on what you can affect? Or completely out of your 3-foot world? My advice – better stay in your 3-foot world! Monitor your thoughts, keep busy, and count your blessings. These are simple [simple but not easy] strategies that can be very salutary. In Dale Carnegie’s how to stop worrying and start living [one of my favorite books], he posited a tactic for handling worries – Mentally accept the worst, and peacefully do your best to improve the worst case scenario.

...

Final Sentence: STAY IN YOUR 3-FOOT WORLD! 

SUCCESS AND YOUR ENVIRONMENT

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KENYAN’S PRE-EMINENCE IN DISTANCE RUNNING AND WHY YOU SHOULD VET YOUR MILIEU.

...56 medals at the Olympics games, despite boycotting the 1976 and 1980 games. Kenyans continue to astound the world with their sublime performances in distance running. What galvanizes intense curiosity in this Kenyan phenomenon was the fact that about 90% of the top athletes are from a single enclosed area in Kenya – Nandi hills.  

So, what miracle might have happened on the Nandi Hills? Geneticists concluded that although genes cannot be ruled out completely, there is a stronger force in action. In the Book, “Bounce: Mozart, Federer, Picasso, Beckham and the Science of Success”, Matthew Syed gathered that Nandi Hills are areas of high altitude; and the altitudinal training the inhabitants are subjected to unequivocally boost endurance. But clearly that wasn’t enough, here is a text from the book

“...when you also factor in the remarkable fact that many Kenya’s top runners ran extraordinarily long distances to school, sometimes in excess of 20km per day (because of the non-existence of public transportation)...gives a persuasive explanation of this running phenomenon” 

Clearly the structure of their environment played the major role in this huge success.

Vet your Milieu!

So here is the point: check your environment. Your milieu – social and physical environment – just like in the case of Kenyan athletes, will always determine your success. While you might not bother to run on hills or jog up to 20km every day, you might want to think about your company. Jim Rohn said “You are the average of the five people you spend the most time with.” I have found this statement to be of utmost veracity. Again, is your physical environment riddled with distractions? Drifting you gradually away from your goals, or are you constructing your own ‘Nandi Hill’?  

HOW YOUR BRAIN CAN CHEAT ON YOU

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DOPAMINE AND THE SCIENCE OF ADDICTION

Have you ever thought of why you had to check your email inbox all day long in anticipation of a message you ain’t expecting? Or why about 315 million adults are addicted to illicit drug?

Well, for the most part, there is a great deal of congruency in the aforementioned questions - from behavioral addiction to drug addiction, neuroscientists and psychologists have nailed it down to a pleasure chemical called dopamine.

History first: 1954. James Olds and Peter Milner discovered that the stimulation – by electrical voltage – of certain region of a mice brain engendered a ‘strange’ pleasure that galvanized an experimental mice to repeat the same action for hours – pressing the lever that actuates the stimulation. Further experiments with humans lead to the discovery of the reward system and dopamine.

What the heck does this mean? The reward pathway works like this: 1. Receive a signal 2.Take an action (e.g food/internet/video game....) 3. Achieve your goal and get rewarded for it. And guess what? The cycle continues – creating a ‘compulsive loop’. The reward often come in the form of dopamine release into the brain’s pleasure center, making the action pleasurable, and increasing the probability of behavioral alterations in the future.

Now you can guess while illicit drugs can be more addictive than normal actions like eating – the latter can release as much as 10 times dopamine compared to the former.

But does taking these actions really rewards us? This was one of the theme in the book – will power instinct by Kelly McGonigal, a professor at Stanford University. She opined that the reward dopamine promises or gives is a false one, because after engaging in such actions, we do not really feel better about ourselves. In fact, in most cases its the contrary especially if it’s a habit we battling.

This natural process messes with our will power and explains while most of us struggle with will power challenges. This reminds me of the fact that humans are not naturally wired to be successful and explains while only about 1% of the entire population really ‘stand tall’.

Battling with a bad habits? difficult? Quite understandable. Fathoming the simple science of addiction can help increase our awareness – that our brain is about to ‘cheat’ on us – and maybe that will desist us from taking repetitive unsatisfying actions. Creation of ‘physical walls’ between ourselves and our will power challenges also happen to be a helpful tactic.