As a youth corps member in 2011, I participated fully conducting the 2011 general election; precisely in Kaduna state, Nigeria. It was then I truly knew Nigerian politicians and how they think.
As we were conducting the presidential election, I knew fully that former president Goodluck Ebele Jonathan was going to win. The determination to swing the election in favor of the Peoples’ Democratic Party, PDP, was so high and serious that if you ever dared prevent any malpractice, you might lose your life to it.
But what you saw in the news media was that the election was free, fair and credible. Because majority of the news media outlets supported the incumbent Government then and thus the News they made available.
The post-election crisis which was majorly caused in the north due to election manipulations was also not reported as being caused by election manipulations but was blamed on General Muhammad Buhari and he was accused of promising to make the country ungovernable if he didn’t win.
This propaganda continued until it had its way into the campaign of the PDP for 2015 general election. They painted their main opposition candidate in the presidential election with all bad names using all form of strategies. They even released documentaries titled “The Real Buhari” and other documentaries to attack other top party members of the APC.
This was one of the greatest mistakes the PDP made and one of the major reason they lost the central power to APC. The greatest favour they did to Muhammadu Buhari that made him president of the federal republic of Nigeria was to display hatred towards him in their campaigns.
And that’s the power of hate. It was one of the greatest powerful forces that worked for Muhammadu Buhari to be the president.
The members of the PDP themselves realized this after they lost the election and started blaming it on themselves within the party.
Here is the business lesson, don’t be afraid of haters and critics. It’s a good thing to have them.
If you’re going to do something great in life or business, you are going to definitely have haters. People will criticize you for doing something beyond their own beliefs or way of doing things. Even when you’re doing what the majority see to be the right thing.
The right thing to do against your haters is not to back off
A lot of great businesses and dreams have been killed because of criticism. This majorly happens because people back off when they feel too much hatred and criticism. Don’t let it happen to you.
Prepare your mind that you’re going to have haters and make sure to develop a thick skin to deal with them. The best way to deal with them is to fight them indirectly fight them by doing more of the good works that make them hate you. This way you will multiply your haters and their activities especially what they say against you. And this is how they will promote you.
This is good for you because haters are going to promote you and make more people know about you more than your admirers.
Haters promote more than admirers
Imagine the billions of Naira the PDP spent on promoting hate messages against their main opposition candidate and , APC. This promotion brings in more admirers for Buhari and his party rather than more haters which was the initial aim and target of the PDP.
If you’re currently following the US presidential election campaigns, you will notice Donald Trump is intentionally using the strategy of hate for gaining attention. He is polarizing the potential voters with his campaign messages in a way that a big number of them will hate him. And so that, these haters can go ahead and promote him. It’s like a 419 game whenever I think of it. If you believe he will build a wall to prevent people from entering America if he eventually wins, you don’t understand what Trump is currently doing. You’re just listening to him. All he’s doing is getting a huge number of haters, who will go ahead keep talking about him and all the stupid things he saying.
If you believe he will build a wall to prevent people from entering America if he eventually wins, you don’t understand the game Trump is currently playing. You’re only listening to him without reading his motives. All he’s doing is getting a huge number of haters who will go ahead to keep talking about him and all the stupid things he saying.
And as you can see, it’s working for him. That’s one major reason he has spent far less money on his campaign compared to how much Clinton has spent so far.
Again, the fact is haters are great promoters. They will talk about you and promote you far more than your admirers can ever do.When you get them, value them and focus on the great job you’re doing to multiply them.
This way you will get more admirers who will endorse you and support your dream in the process.
Like I said in part one of these series of posts; if you look at the Nigeria political scene, the group of Nigerians who are calling themselves “Wailers” and “Hailers” are all set up to promote each other if they don’t know. The interesting fact is that the “Wailers” are promoting the present government than the “Hailers” without knowing. They are more active on social media vigorously talking about the government policies than the “Hailers”.
Instead of putting your energy into promoting recession and other pathetic situations the leaders have brought us to while not put that energy into setting up strategic ways to promote your own brand, product or ideas and build something that will benefit you and this world for a long time to come.
You see, I don’t trust politicians. I’m not a die-hard fan of any of them. I just watch them fun and also learn some ideas in the process.
And I think, I have shared some ideas that can also benefit you in these series of posts:
Part 1: The “One Thing” that Can Earn You Millions If Not Billions
Part 2: The “One Factor” You Need To Move from Nothing to Extraordinary
Part 3: President Buhari, the Behind The Scene Strategies Of APC And Other Stories About Marketing
And this you’re reading is part 4.
I hope I have shared ideas that will help you take control instead of being controlled by circumstances.
And…
Take Control, it’s the only thing that pays
Olusola
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