Tablets of success
The Starting point
The starting point for any successful undertaking is formulating a clear vision supported by goal.By vision, in this context I mean a level where we want to be in future whereas goals are objectives that are to be achieved in the short-term। Many people have difficulties in believing that nothing is impossible to achieve. In fact, to some extent failing to start is starting to fail; this is because if you do not make up your mind to begin say a business venture or studying for a professional course such as ZICA then you may be starting to fail business or career-wise!
The Starting point
The starting point for any successful undertaking is formulating a clear vision supported by goal.By vision, in this context I mean a level where we want to be in future whereas goals are objectives that are to be achieved in the short-term। Many people have difficulties in believing that nothing is impossible to achieve. In fact, to some extent failing to start is starting to fail; this is because if you do not make up your mind to begin say a business venture or studying for a professional course such as ZICA then you may be starting to fail business or career-wise!
The Vision-Individuals
Visions for individuals could range from:
-Owning a multinational company such as Microsoft, Yahoo, Total etc
-Becoming a Head of state
-Becoming a qualified chartered accountant
-Becoming a chief executive officer
-Building a mansion by the year 2015
The Goals-Individuals
Goals for an individual could include among others:
-To complete ZICA Technician in one attempt
-To sit for at least a paper at every sitting
-To reduce the number of informal creditors (Kaloba) this year
-To be the best student in taxation next sitting
-To learn how to speak French before the end of 2008
The Vision-Companies
In the case of a company, a vision is normally centered on what the members (shareholders) aspire to achieve at strategic level. It could include pronouncements like:
-To be the best copper mining company in the world
-To be the most preferred cellular network provider in Zambia
-To be the ultimate bank of choice in the world
-To be the cheapest and reliable transporter on the regional front
-To offer the best banking facilities on the continent of Africa
The Goals-Companies
Goals for companies could include:
1. To improve cash flow position
2. To offset all outstanding statutory liabilities
3. To improve employee’s welfare
4. To reduce idle time to acceptable levels
5. To attain and maintain an acceptable gearing ratio
Realising goals and Visions
For this article, I will only concentrate on individuals and will endeavor in future to focus at length on the other side of the coin-the corporate entities. Having labored to identify the above visions and goals for both individuals and corporate citizens, it is imperative that we focus on how the visions and goals can be attained. Perhaps one item that I need to point out is that we should develop a habit of listing down our goals and Visions at the beginning of very year and reviewing them at the end of every year. If this kind of thinking is implemented, people will have an opportunity to gauge themselves at any given moment during the course of the year whether the gap between realizing their goals and visions is widening or otherwise.
Visions are attainable as long as we play our cards right and also set our priorities in correct order. For example, if someone’s vision is to become a chartered accountant within two years, they should work extremely hard towards realizing this vision by breaking nights and remaining on track all the time. It is pivotal that one plans how he will achieve this vision of becoming a chartered accountant probably by incorporating goals like completing fundamentals level within year one and professional level by year two. This is possible and many people known to myself have managed to achieve this. It is also worth mentioning that you can complete your course within a period that other people might consider “mission impossible” by paying attention to my tablets of success outlined below.
The tablets of exam success
1. Planning and tabulating clearly the levels that you intend to clear at each exam sitting
2. Devoting more time to your course. This is very vital and the most common excuse for people doing professional courses is that they do not have time! Time will always be there but the problem is managing it prudently. For example, if one is busy with work from 08:00 to 18:00hrs. They will still have all the time to do something productive between 18:00hrs and 07:59hrs the following day. However, the common mentality locally is that when people knock-off they engage themselves in unimportant activities-misplaced priorities! To a large extent, readers should appreciate that every success comes at a cost which is normally an opportunity and not sunk cost! In any case, no one has climbed the ladder of success with their hands in their pockets!
3. Never miss an exam sitting. Consistency is a facilitator of good results vis-à-vis exam success. No matter how tight your “program” could be, always try to sit for some papers at each exam sitting. It is extremely common for candidates to defer exam sittings for whatever reasons whether genuine or not. Most common excuses are that I am busy at work so I do not have time to study even after students have already made payments for exams. Shame!
4. Dividing your time for various courses evenly with a negligible bias towards those that are challenging to you e.g. it could be mathematics and statistics that gives you a lot problems hence you need to commit a bit more time towards this course.
5. Revising all the topics extensively including those that you may dislike such as variance analysis in management accounting or incomplete records in financial accounting.
6. Doing away with the probability concept when approaching professional examinations. It is becoming a common practice for candidates to specialize in certain straight forward topics and ignoring challenging ones. Surprisingly, some candidates have even gone to an extent of surfing the internet to check for anticipated questions and topics. This is suicidal because if your probability fails you, it means you have donated to the “Exam” benevolent fund unwillingly. What appears to be true is that the examiners are equally aware of these tricks and have tried to catch candidates napping by setting exam papers that cover the full breadth of the syllabus and also quite commonly repeating questions and topics as evidenced by numerous cases in the recent past.
7. Form study groups. This should be a small and manageable group were you are able to share ideas and tackle questions together equitably. Careful, there are some people whose interest is just to accrue benefits to them only while doing little or nothing to benefit their colleagues.
8. If your numerical skills are bad or below average in Mathematics and statistics, cost and management accounting, financial accounting etc, the best you can do to sharpen your blunt skills is through solving a question (s) every single day.
Being content-the consequences
It is sad that some people are content with their current salaries and conditions of service and therefore do not see the importance of furthering their studies, this is utter short-sightedness and should be discouraged at all costs. It is a dangerous way of doing things especially for people who run families as such situations lead to much more desperate and serious problems like suicide attempts, denial in society, inferiority complex, street kids etc.
Individuals that do not see the need for advancing their careers and education require counseling and prayers because they only realize the significance of education when they are shown the door either through retrenchment, dismissal, re-organization, redundancy or the company they work for is liquidated like was the case of Zambia Airways, ZIMCO,NIEC and so on and so forth. Many people will recall that the demise of most parastatal companies in Zambia had a big impact on the economy to the level were unemployment levels sharply went up and the death rate is also widely believed to have briefly gone up within the broad confines of victims of liquidation, privatizations et al, through common cases of depression and other health complications directly connected to loss of employment.
Conclusion
It is not good to behave like a person who misses a scholarship because they are not in possession of a passport। In this vain your qualification, will act as a passport to more greener and rewarding opportunities anywhere. If you want to make it in your studies, try applying my tablets of success and contact me for tailor-made advice if they fail you.
Visions are attainable as long as we play our cards right and also set our priorities in correct order. For example, if someone’s vision is to become a chartered accountant within two years, they should work extremely hard towards realizing this vision by breaking nights and remaining on track all the time. It is pivotal that one plans how he will achieve this vision of becoming a chartered accountant probably by incorporating goals like completing fundamentals level within year one and professional level by year two. This is possible and many people known to myself have managed to achieve this. It is also worth mentioning that you can complete your course within a period that other people might consider “mission impossible” by paying attention to my tablets of success outlined below.
The tablets of exam success
1. Planning and tabulating clearly the levels that you intend to clear at each exam sitting
2. Devoting more time to your course. This is very vital and the most common excuse for people doing professional courses is that they do not have time! Time will always be there but the problem is managing it prudently. For example, if one is busy with work from 08:00 to 18:00hrs. They will still have all the time to do something productive between 18:00hrs and 07:59hrs the following day. However, the common mentality locally is that when people knock-off they engage themselves in unimportant activities-misplaced priorities! To a large extent, readers should appreciate that every success comes at a cost which is normally an opportunity and not sunk cost! In any case, no one has climbed the ladder of success with their hands in their pockets!
3. Never miss an exam sitting. Consistency is a facilitator of good results vis-à-vis exam success. No matter how tight your “program” could be, always try to sit for some papers at each exam sitting. It is extremely common for candidates to defer exam sittings for whatever reasons whether genuine or not. Most common excuses are that I am busy at work so I do not have time to study even after students have already made payments for exams. Shame!
4. Dividing your time for various courses evenly with a negligible bias towards those that are challenging to you e.g. it could be mathematics and statistics that gives you a lot problems hence you need to commit a bit more time towards this course.
5. Revising all the topics extensively including those that you may dislike such as variance analysis in management accounting or incomplete records in financial accounting.
6. Doing away with the probability concept when approaching professional examinations. It is becoming a common practice for candidates to specialize in certain straight forward topics and ignoring challenging ones. Surprisingly, some candidates have even gone to an extent of surfing the internet to check for anticipated questions and topics. This is suicidal because if your probability fails you, it means you have donated to the “Exam” benevolent fund unwillingly. What appears to be true is that the examiners are equally aware of these tricks and have tried to catch candidates napping by setting exam papers that cover the full breadth of the syllabus and also quite commonly repeating questions and topics as evidenced by numerous cases in the recent past.
7. Form study groups. This should be a small and manageable group were you are able to share ideas and tackle questions together equitably. Careful, there are some people whose interest is just to accrue benefits to them only while doing little or nothing to benefit their colleagues.
8. If your numerical skills are bad or below average in Mathematics and statistics, cost and management accounting, financial accounting etc, the best you can do to sharpen your blunt skills is through solving a question (s) every single day.
Being content-the consequences
It is sad that some people are content with their current salaries and conditions of service and therefore do not see the importance of furthering their studies, this is utter short-sightedness and should be discouraged at all costs. It is a dangerous way of doing things especially for people who run families as such situations lead to much more desperate and serious problems like suicide attempts, denial in society, inferiority complex, street kids etc.
Individuals that do not see the need for advancing their careers and education require counseling and prayers because they only realize the significance of education when they are shown the door either through retrenchment, dismissal, re-organization, redundancy or the company they work for is liquidated like was the case of Zambia Airways, ZIMCO,NIEC and so on and so forth. Many people will recall that the demise of most parastatal companies in Zambia had a big impact on the economy to the level were unemployment levels sharply went up and the death rate is also widely believed to have briefly gone up within the broad confines of victims of liquidation, privatizations et al, through common cases of depression and other health complications directly connected to loss of employment.
Conclusion
It is not good to behave like a person who misses a scholarship because they are not in possession of a passport। In this vain your qualification, will act as a passport to more greener and rewarding opportunities anywhere. If you want to make it in your studies, try applying my tablets of success and contact me for tailor-made advice if they fail you.
Contacts: syansley1@yahoo.com or ansley@accamail.com
By Ansley Syanziba
“The views in this article are those of the author and Hardknocks assumes no responsibility whether legal or professional”
By Ansley Syanziba
“The views in this article are those of the author and Hardknocks assumes no responsibility whether legal or professional”
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