Very Important Advice For Every Employee As 2025 Turns Up

If you are working for anyone, I advise you as follows: Don't see this as “one of those things you meet on the internet”. Don't only read this but also take time to reread and meditate on it. Shun laziness to read it in between the lines and to the last word and see. It has all you need to be super-successful and live in abundance as an employee starting from January 2025.

Based on a post shared by a Facebook content creator named Onu Ndubuisi recently, these pieces of advice are what every worker needs to stay productive, safe, and finally successful enough to retire happily and early. The points might sound like what you already know, but as you go on, you see bright 🌞 new light that will have you shouting “wow! wow!!” like a siren🚨😆.

Among other key take-aways, Onu advises, “never be a case study for living a miserable life after retirement, but be a model for (other people) to also think about retiring”. How can you pull this off? Here are the points to take seriously…

 1. Do All You Can To Build A House Early Enough

It doesn't matter whether the house is in a rural or urban area. What matters is that you have your own house as early as possible. As Onu said, “building a house at 50 is not a feat. Don't get used to government homes. This comfort is so dangerous. Let your whole family have a good time in your home”. 

2. Go Home To Your Family After Each Work Day

Onu’s advice here is mainly for people who give too much of their time to their work at the expense of their families. To such people he says, “don't stay at work all year round. You are not the pillar of your department. If you die today, you will be replaced immediately and operations will continue. Make your family a priority”.

This piece of advice also applies to you if you are in the habit of going from work to a beer parlour or a similar place - which is even more dangerous than staying back at your workplace. Not that you shouldn't unwind from time to time, but that you shouldn't allow this to become habitual.

3. Do Not Focus On Getting Promoted By Your Employer

Instead of focusing on getting promoted by your employer, work on promoting yourself. As Onu advised, focus on mastering your skills and be excellent at what you do. If your employers choose to promote you, that's okay. But if they don't, stay positive for your personal development through your work.

In other words, learn to work for yourself while working for someone else. Use your job as an opportunity to develop abilities that will uplift you whether or not anyone else promotes you.

Many employees today are unhappy because they worry about not getting promoted. This mindset works against their progress. So, let them learn from this young mentor here.

4. Avoid Workplace Gossips

As Onu wrote, “avoid things that tarnish your name or reputation. Do not join the moving train that bites your bosses and colleagues. Get away from negative gatherings that have only people’s lives as a point of discussion”. 

This piece of advice reminds me of two places in which I once worked. In one place, the environment was so toxic that staff members engaged in physical fights as a routine. And, it was really dealing with the workers’ productivity. As I discovered, those fights were as a result of a rumor-mongering culture among the staff members.

I got my next job from there in less than a year. As if it was planned, the new job required new employees to sign a document promising to abide by a set of work ethics. One of these codes of conduct forbade employees from discussing about anyone in the office. The penalty was disengagement.

And oh, how I enjoyed my stay in my new workplace! I never missed my former workplace for a second.

5. Never Compete With Your Bosses Or Colleagues

Don't try it even if you think you are smarter or older than them. Doing so is neither necessary nor beneficial to you in any way.

As Onu advised, don't compete with your bosses or “you will burn your fingers”. And, don't compete with your colleagues or “you're going to grill your brain”. 

6. Have A Side Business

In agreement with this point of view, I always advise workers to start side businesses that do not conflict with their 9-to-5 jobs. A business that conflicts with your regular job will work against your productivity, set your employer against you, and possibly get you laid off. This way you would have killed the goose that lays the golden eggs 🥚🥚🥚.

Why do you need such a side business? As Onu put it, it's because “your salary (alone) will not support your long-term needs”. 

How can you start the side business? Onu advises, “save money” from your salary. He also advised workers to get loans from their employees. Such loans would be deducted directly from their salaries every month. He warns that such loans should be invested in a business or in educating their kids or acquiring landed property and “not to buy luxury”. Instead “buy luxury with your profit” he says.

And I add, buy luxury only with a small percentage of your profit. Reinvest the rest until the business stands fully on its own and can finance itself. Even then, have the habit of reinvesting at least 50% of your profit if you want to rise fast enough.

Onu advises that you work at the business. If it fails, you start another. You do this until you start one that works well. Once this happens, you retire to run the business. According to him, “most people or retirees fail in life because they retire to start a project instead of retiring to continue leading their projects”🤔

According to him also, “pension money is not to start a project, buy a stand or build a house, but it is money for your maintenance or to maintain yourself in good health. Pension money is not used to pay tuition fees or to marry a young woman, but to take care of yourself”. Lol🤣 

Who agrees or disagrees with Onu on this? The point however is that you should start a side business long before retirement.

7. Keep Your Personal Life Away From Your Workplace

As Onu advises, “keep your marriage and your family private. Let them stay away from work. It is very important”. A word is enough for a wise.

8. Don't Get Familiar With Your Bosses 

In Onu’s exact words, “staying around your boss will alienate you from your colleagues and your boss could finally drop you when he leaves”. Hmmm! How thoughtful! As a popular saying goes, "overfamiliarity breeds contempt".

And I must add: While you should have good relationship with your colleagues-at-work, let such relationships be based on mutual respect. In other words, don't get familiar even with your workplace colleagues.

9. Do All You Can To Retire Early

“The best time to plan your outing was when you received the job confirmation letter. The other best time is today. From 40 to 50 years old, be outside,” Onu wrote. 

Yeah, he means you should have retired by the time you're between 40 and 50 years old. How possible is it? This is possible if you follow these nuggets from item 1 and all through.

10. Join “Positive Unions And Associations At Work” And Be An Active Member Always.

As Onu put it, “integrate positive unions and associations at work and always be an active member. This will help you a lot when a possibility occurs”. 

But, what does he mean by "positive unions and associations at work"? It means associations geared towards building you up in contrast to those geared towards promoting destructive habits (like clubs where you only focus on eating and drinking).

11. Take Days Off Work To Prepare For Your Future

Hmmm! What does Onu mean here? He says you should use your off days for “developing your future home or your projects. Generally, what you do during your days off is a reflection of the way you live after your retirement. If it means that you spend your off days while holding a remote control watching series and movies on Netflix, expect nothing different after retirement.” Wow!!!

What do YOU think about this point of view? Share your thoughts in the comment section 👇.

The Right Attitude To Retirement

Onu might as well be a retirement expert based on his views on the topic. So, I'm devoting a special section to what he wrote concerning this.

To start with, he says, “always (as in, always) remember, when you retire, never be a case study for living a miserable life after retirement, but be a model for your colleagues to also think about retiring”. Please, pause to think about this.

Again he says, “don't retire just because you are done or are now a burden on the business and just wait for your day to die. Take your retirement young or while being energetic to enjoy the alarm clock, to have a cup of coffee, to enjoy the sun, to receive money from your company, to visit a beautiful place that you missed and to have a good time with family. Those who retire late spend about 95% of their time at work than with their families and that is why they see it difficult to spend time with their family when they retire but end up looking for another job until they have no other job, they die early”. 

Other unique views of Onu Ndubuisi on retirement include:

1. “It’s important you retire in the house that you built while you were still active rather than the government housing so that when you retire, you can easily integrate into the society that raised you. It is not easy to adapt financially to live in a rental house when you’re retired when (all the while) you had the opportunity to build your own house”. 

2. “Never let your employment benefits make you forget your retirement. The job benefits are just intended to relax, finish while the weather is moving. Remember when you retire, no one will call you a boss if you don't have a viable business”. 

3. “Do not hate to retire because one day you will retire either voluntarily or involuntarily”.