One-on-one with the poor billionaire
MARSHAL Chiza who is one of Zimbabwe’s fast rising authors and motivational speakers is fast becoming a brand, as he recently started giving motivational talks to local football teams.
He sat down last week with Sunday Life senior reporter Peter Matika about his rise to being an author and much sought after motivational speaker at just the age of 19.
He also spoke about his latest book Poor Billionaire, which has seen him landing a $50 000 deal with a UK-based publishing company that bought all publishing rights to the book for a year.
PM: At your age you have managed what many would manage to accomplish in years, tell me your secret or perhaps tell me about yourself.
MC: I’m just a simple boy who has chosen to become a gentleman. I had a humble upbringing. I was raised in a family which believed that success is for a select few. But I’m glad today I’m among the few. I chose to go up and be a success because I realised that the bottom is crowded. PM: When did you start writing? MC: 2000 years ago, I was the man drawing antelopes and other markings on cave walls and rocks (he said jokingly). Well I can say writing has been in me since birth. Just to quote Jack Driscoll; “If I don’t read, I get lonely. If I don’t write, I forget who I am.”
When I was young I used to get lost; not in the streets or outside but in books, especially in the enchanting world of motivational books, while others read New General Mathematics I could jump and read some motivational books by John Maxwell and this triggered me to start writing my own book and caused an itch that could only be scratched by writing.
PM: For those not in the know how many books have you written so far?
MC: So far I have published three books titled; Success In No Time, Poor Billionaire and Destiny Sagacity (which I co-authored with 6 other authors from Sadc countries)
PM: Tell me more about your book Poor Billionaire?
Poor Billionaire; to be honest with you, the first mind I had before I turned the book to a motivational book was a political mind. Do you remember in 2008 we were all millionaires, billionaires, trillionaires yet poor? But I turned that mind to a motivational mind. From its title to conclusion Poor Billionaire translates your initial curiosity into a well-rounded delivery of information and wisdom. This may be the most important book you have ever read.
Money is not everything, but money is something very important. Beyond the basic needs, money helps us attain our life’s targets and goals, the things we care about most deeply like our family, education, health, charity, adventure and fun. It helps us get some of the life’s intangibles like freedom, the opportunity to make the most of our skills and talents, the ability to choose our own course in life and financial security. With money, much good can be done and much unnecessary suffering avoided. But we often have weird attitudes about money. “When we don’t have it, we often believe that money will make us happier. When we do have money, however, we tend to want more.” The odd thing that we all know is that money cannot buy happiness and money cannot heal any soul. But unfortunately, we’ve been steeped in a society so heavily mediated that we have started believing the lies. There is absolutely nothing inherently wrong with money. We all need money. It’s just that when we put money and possessions first, we lose sight of our real priorities and life’s purpose. One of the ways a wise man can be identified is by the way he handles money. Wisdom is not discerned by the amount of money one possesses, but by one’s attitude towards money, by the way it is acquired, and by the way it is used.
Poor Billionaire therefore focuses on issues which we face in our day to day lives like; one can be rich physically, but be poor mentally, the inbuilt riches which every person carry and understanding that money is not everything.
PM: What makes you different from every other author?
MC: I have told myself that in order for me to make a difference, I have to do something different, I always strive to do something completely different from what came before.
PM: What is your biggest achievement so
So far everything seems to be an achievement in my life. Writing books, featuring in the world’s top channels like CNN, CCTV, Nigeria TV Live just to mention a few. PM: Who do you think is the best author? MC: I always say I’m the best author. If I do not believe in myself, no one else will. If I do, sooner or later people will start believing in me.
PM: What are the problems you have faced in your writings considering you are a young author?
MC: I have faced all sorts of discouragements and hate from all angles but I’ve decided not to listen.
PM: What advice will you give to aspiring authors?
MC: Well, I don’t care whether they are 10 or 100 there are three important aspects;
1. Don’t write it right, just write until its right. This is the problem most writers are facing; they want to put everything in order first.
2. You have to be a reader because it is the great writers who teach us how to write. Get the concept, not the content from the writers.
3. Don’t compare yourself with anyone, do your own things and have fun of it.
PM: Perhaps your last words!
MC: Remember success is not received but achieved. Be careful in this life because you might die unknown. Let not your death be your expiry date, leave a legacy. Forget about your past misfortunes because you cannot change that, actually yesterday is a past paper, today is a newspaper, tomorrow is a question paper; so during this process, write your life story well otherwise your life can be reduced to a tissue paper.
PM: Where do you see yourself in the next five years?
MC: I’ll be a billionaire by then!