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History

How Zing4Life! was discovered, why Seers was formed, and the evolution over the years

As you may already know, our flagship discovery has been Zing4Life! …top secret of the world’s truly great achievers; for a truly fulfilling life! And that has been our foundation, and thus underpins everything else we do. You may click here for more about Zing4Life! Else scroll down to continue with the history…

Since 2000, we have made it our obligation to understand the difficulties (or challenges) people face, and the reasons behind these difficulties; this has been the focus of our research activities. Most importantly, we have taken up the duty to prevent these difficulties, or at least, mitigate or otherwise solve them. And we are excited about how our effort is seriously helping people!

To help recount what triggered the quest, the effort and results, meet our Lead Founder…

Hi! I’m Egyir; I am an Architect, a Designer, and a Life Coach; passionate about harnessing my true or hidden potential, and helping so many people to also harness their true or hidden potential. I am the lead founder of Zing4Life! and Seers (you may click here for more about me) and I am pleased to present to you how Zing4Life! was discovered, why Seers was formed, and the evolution over the years…

Outline

The genesis

A year before getting married, I relocated to a different part of town and joined a church in that new location. I then joined the youth fellowship and along the line got elected to lead the fellowship; I soon reckoned that I really needed to learn ‘Leadership’ otherwise it was going to be very difficult leading the highly heterogeneous group it was; comprising people with vastly different orientations, some highly educated graduates and others having little or no formal education, and inbetween.

It is worth noting that I had been a student leader throughout school; primary school I moved through cupboard monitor, class captain to school prefect; secondary school I became a house captain, and during university years I moved through group leader, publicity secretary, projects leader, and organising secretary for the graduate (postgraduate) students association – GRASAG. However, through all those stages not once was I (or were we) taken through the principles of good or true and effective leadership, and not once had I read any book on leadership; let me confess that I once came across a book titled ‘How to lead’ but there was no desire to read it because, as is the case with most people, I thought I was okay in my leadership; that attitude of: “what could possibly be different in that book that I didn’t already know, and what would I even lose not knowing what was in the book.” In that sense I was suffering from the number one problem the educated middle class suffer from: unconscious incompetence, i.e. not knowing what one does not know and thus being comfortable and confident while ignorant. Possibly, the closest to a semblance of leadership training I had (or we had) were character studies from the Bible; woefully insufficient. Sad!

So I headed to my favourite bookshop and got leadership books; while there, some general self-help books caught my attention so I got them as well. I read those books diligently and that was the beginning of an unforgettable experience; it was as though I was receiving education afresh! I can boldly say that the education I received from reading those books was as valuable as the education I had received in my 6 years of university education, and in some cases even more valuable! 

Education and schooling are not the same thing. What goes on inside the schools is often not education. And the results may well be that it reduces productive capacity rather than to increase it

The shock

One of the most shocking discoveries (that actually marked a major turning point in my life and career; there are other turning points) was Harvard University’s sad finding about Education that points to the fact that formal education is able to harness up to only 22 percent of people’s true effectiveness and greatness in life. Interestingly, it had been corroborated by other research carried out under the auspices of the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching. Indeed a lot (if not most; I’m inclined to say 80%) of what you learn in school will have little or no direct use in your life and work, so you will necessarily have to learn completely new knowledge, skills, and attitude for life and work after you graduate. In other words, of all the knowledge, skills and attitudes you need in your life and work in order to be effective and truly fulfilled, only a little of that (about 20%) will be part of what you learn in school.

In essence, education and schooling are not the same thing! And as Prof Sir William Arthur Lewis succinctly puts it… “Education and schooling are not the same thing. What goes on inside the schools is often not education. And the results may well be that it reduces productive capacity rather than to increase it.” You may click here to see the meaning of education.

Sadly, most of the problems you face (or are likely to face) in life stem from this.

Ideally, the religious organisations should be filling in the gap, and providing that needed complementary education, especially since they have access to people right from the cradle to the grave and wield such a great influence on them (much more than what schools could ever dream of) but our religious organisations have not taken the bull by the horn, and are failing abysmally (see ‘What the Church refuses to teach about Christianity‘ for more about that; you may click here). For this reason the onus is on you and I to seek the much needed complementary education on our own, and also help our people to do same. So for instance, during my school years from nursery and primary levels all the way through 6 years of university education, we were never taught how to use the right methods and techniques to study effectively nor how to manage our time effectively in order to get more things done in a relatively shorter time without burning out, etc. And for all these more than 40 years that I have been active in church we were never taught those essential life skills either; I had to fall on self-help books to train myself on those essential life skills, and several other very critical life skills that all the pillars of culture (including school and church) are ignoring.

The ponder and wonder

Why hadn’t anybody drawn our attention to this fact that formal education harnesses so little? And why hadn’t anybody drawn our attention to self-help books while in school (as part of our education) and emphasised their equal importance as the mainstream courses that we were being taught?

And if what the mainstream educational system teaches is able to harness up to only 22 percent of people’s true effectiveness and greatness in life, how can we harness the remaining 78 percent and get more people to be truly or fully effective and truly great?

The quest

Well, it was better late than never, so the book corners (or sections) became my favourite places in the supermarkets; there was a time I went to the supermarket supposedly to buy baby stuff for our little girl and I ended up buying books rather than some of the baby stuff I was there to buy; it was that crazy! Within a couple of years, I bought and read more than 100 self-help books, in addition to the Hebrew-Greek-enabled Bible. I read a lot of them 3 to 5 times, underlining key portions and making notes as though I was going to write exams. And the researching (and learning) has continued since; especially focusing on human and organisational performance-improvement techniques and strategies. On the average I was sleeping for only 4 hours a day; it’s been that intensive!

The examples

For the first time I became aware of the statistically proven fact that of all the people that go to work, only 18 percent truly feel good about going to work, the remaining 82 percent wish that they did not have to go to work; that means if you randomly select 100 people and ask about their work life, 82 of them (i.e. a whopping 82 percent of people) will not be enjoying their work life, and so I needed to take steps to be part of the few who would truly enjoy working life. I came across the 4 popular, very surprising and easily avoidable habits that make life difficult, and so many valuable principles for living a meaningful and a truly fulfilling life, no matter the sphere of life or endeavour one finds himself or herself in; truly amazing principles!

I encountered the 5 stages of leadership for the first time, and I became conscious of the fact that I had mostly performed at the low stages, just like most leaders and that there were tried and tested leadership principles for growing from one stage of leadership to the higher stages where ‘magic’ happens, and that being either laissez-faire, or democratic leader, or otherwise autocratic leader was like being a half leader and not a full leader. For the first time, I encountered principles for managing emotions effectively, and with that I could avoid stress and also get people around to be more productive and more fulfilled. I encountered very powerful time-management techniques; truly revolutionary techniques to get more done in a week than most people get done in a month; life became more interesting! For the first time I encountered the 8-step creative thinking process, and with that I could come up with amazing ideas, and powerful or creative solutions to problems or difficulties around me. That is why I agree with Brian Sher that, indeed, “When you know the right things, the boundaries around your life suddenly disappear!” Life became so much more interesting and amazingly more meaningful for me. Indeed life can be so much easier, less stressful, and more fulfilling than you may think.

Particularly on the issue of learning to manage emotions effectively, I was so happy when the World Economic Forum (in 2016) ranked Emotional Intelligence (EI) as one of the top 10 skills employees needed by 2020 to succeed in the workplace; at the same time I was sad because the World Economic Forum (WEF) was very late, in that, EI did not suddenly become important, it had always been important since time immemorial and I knew that the very moment I chanced upon that almost 10 years earlier. There are a lot of other principles or skills that are so important but that which may not find its way on the World Economic Forum list anytime soon, if at all. I share most of them in Zing4Life! 

The conviction and resolute response

I came to the firm conviction that… “The greatest tragedy in life is that majority of people have accepted to be less than they were born to be and are thus accomplishing far less than their true capabilities.” Hitherto, I had gotten to understand what it meant to say that… ‘Ignorance is a significant part of the problems of Africa!’ And the problems persist because, as already stated, the mainstream education is predominantly partial education; it is able to harness up to only 22 percent of people’s true effectiveness and greatness in life. Note that the mainstream education will largely remain this way for a very long time; it will continue to harness up to only 22 percent of people’s true effectiveness and greatness in life. And the religious organisations which could have served to complement the formal education system, are also not teaching those principles and neither are they drawing their members’ (or followers’) attention to this very necessary complementary education.

I felt that my greatest contribution towards the development of humanity, especially Ghana (and Africa) was to share my findings; I was thus moved to collate the best and most effective principles, techniques and strategies that can harness the true (or hidden) potential of any individual (or group of individuals) no matter the person’s background and current circumstances. i.e. irrespective of a person’s age, gender, looks, financial resources, educational background, etc! I call that Zing4Life!

The commitment and persistence

It took more than 7 years of intensive research and development on my part to collate those amazing principles, techniques and strategies that constitute Zing4Life! And through constant research and development I keep improving upon them, because I want Zing4Life! to be current and remain the best in the world; to date, I have covered more than 1,000 self-help volumes by way of books, articles, audios, videos, etc. so as to keep Zing4Life! current, relevant and the best! (You may click here to see my library.) Those principles, techniques and strategies are amazing; they guide you on your current goals and future aspirations: how to make them better (or exceptional) and also get to achieve them easily and quickly! I am thus truly excited to be leading in coaching people to live a truly fulfilling life; with amazing insights from a rich pool of rare and privileged resources and experience.

The above presents a delightful opportunity that you can be part of; you may click here to see this fantastic opportunity!

Zing4Life! is made up of the right and complete set of actions required to tap and use your true, inborn (or hidden) potential; essentially, Zing4Life! is the foundational knowledge required to harness the 78 percent true (or hidden) potential that the formal education system ordinarily does not unearth.

The base reference manuals

I have written 13+ special books (or manuals; the Zing4Life! Series) to outline and teach those Zing4Life! principles, techniques and strategies. There are bundled versions of the training manuals as well. For more about Zing4Life! and the books (or manuals) you may click here.

The organisations

With the firm support of my wife, I was further moved to found ‘Seers Foundation’ and later ‘Seers Consult‘ (and allies) to serve as possible vehicles for teaching or implementing the Zing4Life! principles widely across the globe; especially Ghana (and Africa). Join us; you may click here. In any case, this is a worthy cause and an onerous task that requires a lot of support, especially your support. Even a ‘little’ support can make a huge #impact! Support us to positively transform #more lives; you may click here.

So Zing4Life! constitute our Main Training, and over the period we have added other options as Auxiliary / Complementary Training. And you may notice that beyond the training we have opted to offer branding services, and support services; as part of the means to foster the businesses of our trainees and clients. Seers Foundation was the first entity to be formed; it was incorporated on 14th April 2008 with registration number G-23,969 and was officially authorised to commence activities effective 15th April 2008. Interestingly, it began as IDS Foundation well before 2006; it was to provide ‘Interior Design and Sanitation‘ for the human minds (especially in Africa), following the apt description by Zig Ziglar to the effect that the poor attitude of most people stemmed from ‘stinking thinking;’ the idea behind IDS was to eradicate ‘stinking thinking,’ especially in Africa. It was later changed to Seers Foundation, following further research and consultations with various stakeholders.

On 2nd November 2016 Seers Consult was also incorporated; interestingly that also began as Instraq, and was later changed to Seers Consult officially on 20th January 2017.

Records of some of our activities are as compiled under our Gallery.

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