IN last week's article, I advised readers to guard against polluting their minds with negative thoughts and emotions.

Your thoughts lead to action and these actions create habits, which ultimately determine your ultimate destiny.

Poverty consciousness will voluntarily seize the mind, which is not occupied with the money or success consciousness. Positive and negative emotions cannot occupy the mind at the same time, and if you keep on telling your mind that you are poor because you are dominated, then negative emotions will always dominate your mind and prevent it from generating opportunities and inhibit your success.

This is why each of us must take responsibility for choosing the thoughts and inspirations that translate into our actions and destiny. No matter what tribe, social or economic place you hold, if you want the most out of life, you have to go and look in the mirror and see who is really keeping you from experiencing an amazing life filled with reward, achievement and satisfaction.

The problem is that when our lives are not going the way we want, some people are unwilling to admit that we contributed to that condition ourselves. It takes courage to admit that our belief system needs rewiring.

Everything that you own or have achieved in life is a product of thoughts. Likewise, everything that you don't own, or have failed to achieve is a product of thoughts, and has nothing to do with majority domination.

Without control of our minds, we too often become lost in negative thoughts and worries that seem so real to us.

Our beliefs become unquestioned commands to our nervous systems, and they have the power to expand or destroy the possibilities of our present and future. The challenge with these beliefs of majority domination is they become limitations for future decisions about who you are and what you are capable of. Once you have taken control of your thoughts, you must move to the second fundamental principle of making money - the law of the seed, the focus of this article.

Law of the Seed: You reap what you sow

A Wiseman once remarked, "If we keep eating our seed and don't have the foresight and discipline to produce fruit in this world, how can we expect to build wealth and move our people out of poverty"?

One of the contributing factors to Africa and Namibia's poverty crisis is the habit of eating seed, and planting seed on poor and unfertile soil resulting in poor harvest. Once there is poor harvest, the tendency is to point a finger at someone as the cause of poverty in our communities. Billions of money have been invested in Africa but the harvest remains poor, the national economic cake becomes smaller and smaller, and poverty increases, people lose hope and dominate their minds with negative thoughts, they become lazy and remain trapped in poverty till their death.

I have followed the stories of many successful people in life and one thing they have in common is that they have obeyed the law of the seed. One attribute of a seed is that it can multiply, if nurtured and planted on fertile soil. The law of the seed operates for whosoever and is applicable to all irrespective of whether you are from a minority or majority group.

If a rich farmer and a poor farmer sow the same amount of seed in the same soil, they will receive the same size of harvest. If an Owambo farmer and a Nama farmer sow the same amount of seed, they will receive the same size of harvest. If a black farmer and a white farmer sow the same amount of seed, they will receive the same size of harvest. The laws of sowing and reaping aren't tribalist, racist or sexist and will work for whoever activates them and persevere and patiently wait for results.

When a seed is planted, it provides fruits and multiplies, bringing back even more seeds to the farmer. Not only will the farmer's hard work in seeding be rewarded with a harvest of fruits, he will gain exponentially more seeds with which he can plant more crops. This is missing in people with poverty minds, as they tend to eat all the fruits with their seeds. The same is true with money.

If people take their seed-money and invest it (sow it one way or another), eventually it will grow and produce its own fruit. This, of course, will take time and patience, just as the farmer plants the seed in one season and the reaping takes place in another season. Money can be made to work for the sower and then be multiplied back.

The average Namibian consumer likes to spend. This is like the farmer eating his seed before he planted it. No seed means no harvest and no growth. The farmer must plan ahead and be disciplined, while most people want to spend now.

There are many Namibians who have obeyed and followed the law of the seed, and one example that I would like to focus on and hopefully it will inspire you, as it did with me, is that of Dr David Namwandi, the founder of The International University of Management (IUM). Most of us look at local Namibian institutions like Pupkewitz, United Africa Group, Trustco Group, J&P Group, FNB Namibia, Old Mutual Namibia, Bank Windhoek, etc as if they fell from heaven, without looking deeper on how much sacrifices were made by men and women who founded and established these institutions, employing thousands of Namibians and making valuable contributions to the Namibian economy.

International University of Management (IUM) has its roots from the Institute of Higher Education, which was founded in 1993 by Namwandi sowing his own seed, persevered, and patiently waited for the harvest.

Namwandi started the Institute of Higher Education with one student and grew into an establishment catering for over 1000 students with a main campus in the capital Windhoek and three branches in other parts of the country. He invested his resources (sowing the seed) and waited for the harvest, while most of us never gave him a chance of success.

Through hard work and perseverance, the Institute of Higher Education (IHE) grew from strength to strength and was converted into a university and on October 26, 2002, the International University of Management (IUM) was launched, becoming the first private university in Namibia. While the University of Namibia for example was established with the backing of massive government subsidies and grants, IUM owes its existence to visionary men and women who religiously obeyed the law of the seed.

During the process of building IUM, Namwandi would have given up as results from his investments were not coming out as expected, however, he believed that unless a grain of maize falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed and does not multiply. But if it dies, it produces many fruits and seeds. The seeds he planted, and the sacrifice he has made have produced the first private university in Namibia that one day all Namibians from all walks of life will be proud of.

IUM has reached a point where it is not only producing fruits for Namwandi and his family but making a significant contribution to the development of Namibia. If Namwandi gave up, decided to eat his seed and joined the labour market and became an employee like many of us, or if he had taken the easier route of becoming a politician, forming a party and getting a seat in parliament and start enjoying the benefits that comes with the position of being a parliamentarian, IUM wouldn't be there today.

Success comes to those who are success conscious and do not EAT seed. Failure comes to those who indifferently allow themselves to become failure conscious and EAT their seed. Jesus Christ planted the seed of Christianity, he was crucified and died and his disciples nurtured the seed he planted and today we are proud Christians. Mohammed planted the seed of Islam. He was a minority, banished from his native city of Mecca and sent into the desert, but the seed he planted ensured that there are more than 1 billion Moslems around the world.

Don't wait until you are hungry before you sow your seed. Many people wait until financial disaster is upon them before they start sowing financial seeds in the hope to get out of the mess they are in.

Don't wait for the bad times to start sowing seed but sow in good times and the bad times, in fact, sow every time so that you have a constant harvest. The law of the seed works for everyone, whether minority or majority.