BUCKET OR PIPE; WHAT IS YOUR CHOICE OF INCOME?

I woke up this morning with writing something I know a lot of people can learn from especially in this era of different economic downturn. I didn’t know exactly what to write about but the lord put this topic in my mind and I know that there are some people out there who need to read this. My mentor Adeolu Akinyemi (MD, Avenues to Wealth) likes sharing this story in his Financial Intelligence seminars, although he narrates it in a more beautiful way and coincidentally I was reading this same story in his book “Creating Your Wealth Map Today” published by Grace House just yesterday evening on my way to Ife from Ibadan.

I used the original illustration of the story from the book Burke Hedges, “The parable of the Pipeline” in my new book “THE ULTIMATE LEVERAGE; Achieving Whatever You Want in Life Easily” to explain how you can leverage on your mind, your determination to achieve what you want in life but in this write up, I want to talk about this parable from the angle of Financial Intelligence.

In May 28, 2012, Vanguard wrote

“Statistics from the National Population Commission (NPC) reported a population of about 167,912,561 as at October 2011. According to the population reference bureau, youths constitute about 43% of this population of the entire nation, unemployment  has equally risen as the Ministry of Youth Development recently reported 68 million youths as being unemployed”

If 68 million youths are being unemployed, and do not have a constant source of income because there is no job, what about the undergraduates in Universities, Polytechnics and Colleges of Education who also constitute an outrageous figure on their own. What is going to happen to fresh graduates?

Bucket or Pipeline, which of these is your choice? Before I relate the story behind the parable of the pipeline, it’s good you read this preview.

“We hear a lot about job security these days. But the simple fact is, if you have a job, you have no real security anymore! Today, job security is out. Lean and mean is in. which means the next job to be downsized could be yours! So how do you create TRUE SECURITY for yourself and your family in a hired-today-and-fired-tomorrow workplace? The answer: Create your own security by building pipelines of residual income.”

“Once upon a time, long ago, two ambitious young cousins named Pablo and Bruno lived side by side in a small Italian village. The young men were best buddies and big dreamers. They would talk endlessly about how some day, some way; they would become the richest men in the village. They were working. All they needed was an opportunity.

One day the opportunity arrived. The village decided to hire the two men to carry water from a nearby river to a cistern in the town square. The job went to Pablo and Bruno. Each man grabbed two buckets and headed to the river. By the end of the day, they had filled the town cistern to the brim. The village elder paid them one penny for each bucket of water. “This is our dream come true!” shouted Bruno. “I can’t believe our good fortune.” But Pablo wasn’t so sure. His back ached and his hands were blistered from carrying the heavy buckets. He dreaded getting and going to work the next morning and vowed to think of a better way of getting the water from the river to the village.

“Bruno, I have a plan,” Pablo said the next morning as they grabbed their buckets and headed for the river. “Instead of lugging buckets back and forth for pennies a day, let’s build a pipeline from the river to the village.” Bruno stopped dead in his tracks. “A pipeline! Whoever heard of such a thing?” Bruno shouted.

“We’ve got a great job, Pablo. I can carry 100 buckets a day. At a penny a bucket, that’s a dollar a day! I’m rich! By the end of the week, I can buy a new pair of shoes. By the end of the month, a cow. By the end of the six months, I can build a new hut. We have the best job in town. We have weekends off and two weeks paid vacation every year. We’re set for life! Get out of here with your pipeline.” But Pablo was not easily discouraged. He patiently explains the pipeline plan to his best friend. Pablo would work part of the day and weekends building his pipeline. He knew it would be hard work digging a ditch in the rocky soil. Because he was paid by the bucket, he knew his income would drop at first.

He also knew it would take a year, possibly two, before his pipeline would start to pay big dividends. But Pablo believed in his dream and he went back to work. Bruno and the rest of the villagers began mocking Pablo, calling him “Pablo the pipeline man.” Bruno, who was earning almost twice as Pablo, flaunted his new purchases. He brought a donkey outfitted with a new leather saddle, which he kept parked outside his new two storey hut. He bought flashy clothes and fancy meals in the inn. The villagers called him Mr. Bruno, and they cheered when he bought rounds at the tavern and laughed loudly at his jokes. While Bruno lay in his hammock on evenings and weekends. Pablo kept digging his pipeline. The first few months Pablo didn’t have much to show for his efforts. The work was hard – even harder than Bruno’s because Pablo was working evenings and weekends too.

But Pablo kept reminding himself that tomorrow’s dreams are built today’s sacrifices. Day by day he dug, an inch at a time, “Inch by inch it’s a cinch,” he chanted to himself as he swung his pick axe into the rocky soil. Inches turned into one foot... then 10 feet... then 20...100...

“Short-term pain equals long-term gain,” he reminded himself, as he stumbled into his humble hut exhausted from another day’s work. He measured his success by setting and meeting his daily goals, knowing that over time, the results would far exceed his efforts. “Keep your eyes on the prize,” he repeated over and over, as he drifted off to sleep accompanied by the sounds of laughter from the village tavern.

The tables are turned. Days turned into months. One day, Pablo realised his pipeline was halfway finished, which meant he only had to walked half as far to fill up his extra time to work on his pipeline. The completion date was advancing faster and faster. During his rest breaks, Pablo watched his old friend Bruno lug buckets. Bruno’s shoulders were more stooped than ever. He was hunched in pain, his steps slowed by the daily grind. Bruno was angry and sullen, resenting the fact that he was doomed to carry buckets, day in and day out, for the rest of his life. He began spending less time in his hammock and more time in the tavern.

When the tavern’s patron saw Bruno coming, they’d whisper, “Here comes Bruno the bucket man,” and they giggle when the town drunk mimicked Bruno’s stooped posture and shuffling gait. Bruno didn’t buy rounds or tell jokes anymore, preferring to sit alone in a dark corner surrounded by empty bottles. Finally, Pablo’s big day arrived – the pipeline was complete! The villagers crowded around as water gushed out from the pipeline into the village cistern! Now that the village had a steady supply of water, people from the surrounding countryside moved into the village and it grew and prospered.

     Once the pipeline was built, Pablo didn’t have to carry buckets anymore. The water flowed whether he worked or not. It flowed while he ate, it flowed while he slept, it flowed on the weekends when he played, the more water flowed into the village, the more the money flowed into Pablo’s pockets! “Pablo the pipeline man” became as known as “Pablo the miracle maker.” Politicians lauded him for his vision and begged him to run for mayor, but Pablo understood that what he had accomplished wasn’t a miracle; it was merely the first stage of a big, big dream. You see, Pablo had plans that reached far beyond his village. Pablo planned to build pipelines all over the world! Recruiting his friend to help, the pipeline drove “Bruno the bucket man” out of business and it pained Pablo to see his old friend begging for free drinks in the tavern. So, Pablo arranged a meeting with Bruno.

“Bruno, I’ve come here to ask you for your help.” Bruno straightened his stooped shoulders, and his dark eyes narrowed to a squint. “Don’t mock me,” Bruno hissed. “I haven’t come here to gloat,” said Pablo. “I’ve come here to offer you a great business opportunity. It took me more than two years before my first pipeline was complete. But I’ve learned a lot during the two years! I know what tools to use, where to dig, how to lay the pipe. I kept notes as I went along and I’ve developed a system that will allow me to build another pipeline... and then another.... and then another.”

“I could build a pipeline a year myself but that would not be the best use of my time. What I plan to do is to teach you and others how to build a pipeline... and then have you teach others... and have each of them to teach others... until there is a pipeline to every village in the region... then a pipeline in every village in the country... and eventually a pipeline in the world!”

“Just think,” Pablo continued, “we could make a small percentage of every gallon of water that goes through these pipelines. The more water flows through the pipelines, the more money will flow into our pockets. The pipeline I built isn’t the end of a dream. It’s only the beginning.”

Pipeline dreams in a bucket carrying world. Years passed. Pablo and Bruno had long since retired. Their worldwide pipeline business was still pumping millions of dollars a year into their bank accounts. Sometimes on their trips throughout the countryside, Pablo and Bruno would pass young men carrying water buckets. The childhood friends would pull over and tell the young men their story and offer to help them build their pipeline. A few would listen and jump at the opportunity to start a pipeline business. But sadly, most bucket carriers would hastily dismiss the notion of a pipeline. Pablo and Bruno heard the same excuses over and over.

“I don’t have the time.”

“My friend told me he knew a friend who tried to build a pipeline and failed.”

“Only the ones who get in early make money on pipelines.”

“I’ve carried buckets all my life. I’ll stick to what I know.”

“I know some people who lost money in a pipeline scam. Not me.”

It made Pablo and Bruno sad that so many people lacked vision. But both men resigned themselves to the fact they lived in a bucket-carrying world... and that only a small percentage of people dared to dream pipeline dreams. Look at this story, and then ask yourself if you’re a bucket carrier or a pipeline builder? What category do you fall into?

WRITER’S NOTE:

These two men were ambitious, they wanted to be rich, they had their dreams and goals, things they want to achieve and they are hard working. But they did different things with their opportunities, why? It’s what you do with the opportunities that come your way that differentiate you. Choose today which of the two you want to use, do you want to be a bucket carrier or a pipe builder? Neither of the two are easy, one however plans for the future. Bucket carriers enjoy more on the short hand while the Pipe builders enjoy more on the long term because they are investing for the future. I chatted with a friend yesterday night and found out she is currently serving and I asked her what next? And just like most other people said she’s going for her Masters. After that, what next? I asked. Job and marriage is next on the list. Any plan for passive income, extra income? She wants to start her business when she’s retired. What I have discovered lately is that if you want to be rich and successful, you must have a plan, a strategy or a map. Pipe building is all about you building your Passive income profile. Pipe building comes in five different ways and if you want to start to start laying this pipes to secure your future you have to understand what it is all about. These five pipes are

1.       Real Estate: When you invest in properties or build a house where you are paid rent monthly or yearly, you are earning passive income, rent is coming in, whether you are sleeping or you are working, your money is coming in. You don’t need to work every day to get your rent; in fact you even get the rent in advance.

2.       Paper Investment: This is the second pipe called “Investment in Shares” what you earn from this is called dividend. This dividend is paid to you based on your level of investment or equity.

3.       Intellectual Properties: You get royalties from intellectual properties. If you have talent, you can sing, you released a album, or you wrote a book, or you made a new invention, you can get royalties from all these things. You don’t have to work or do anything, your royalties comes to you easily. Students are advised to tap into this system of pipe building because it is very easy if you have the talent.

4.       Automated Businesses: If you have a Company that has reached the level that whether you are there or not, money is coming in. You can travel up to year and money is still coming in smoothly, then you are sure of passive income from it but this can take time.

5.       Network Marketing: This is the last and most important of all. It is cheap and can generate you passive income that is very high, all it will require is some sweat equity and a little amount of money. I constantly advice students to go for Network Marketing.

For students who wants to build their future, who have a plan to tap into Passive Income, that wants to build pipelines so that by the time they’re through with school they can have sufficient passive income to cover their expenses, I advise them to plug into Network Marketing and Intellectual Property. But for those who are older and are no more students, you can start by been an entrepreneur. Have your own business, invest, plug into a Network Marketing company. Avenues to wealth is the best Network Marketing Company globally that have a product that appreciates day by day. If you want to learn more about Network Marketing and Avenues to Wealth, Please check out www.avenuestowealth.com/tobintino or www.creatingwealth.co/icp6/tobintino  I wish you an exciting day.

Tobi Delly

Author; THE ULTIMATE LEVERAGE: Achieving whatever you want in Life Easily.