WHAT A LOSS?

Apart from the Guber elections this weekend, my wife started her ice cream business three days before the elections and I was available to act as VOLTRON on the mercies of Obasanjo’s two days public holiday. I was around on the second day to witness a flood of retailers lining up to collect blocked ice cream; the whole place was in disarray and there was no time to do anything else except attend to customers. The business actually surprised me because two days into it, the human traffic was unprecedented; this was a good indication of my wife’s sales prowess. Another thing that surprised me was that after the retailers were gone for their morning ride, consumers started walking in to buy in retail and the wholesale model immediately transformed to retail. My wife and I had to change the vision statement from being the best supplier of blocked ice cream to being the best supplier of cold non-alcoholic, non-bottled drinks because retail customers that walked in were more interested in Juice and the Burn Energy drinks I bought from Ayo during his Intern Show final task. All the euphoria of sales came to a temporary halt when the business made a huge loss.

 

 

 

Have you ever made a loss before? Funny question, right? Well, losses are inevitable; it’s a good indication of imperfection and should not be taken too seriously to the point of emotional rubble. Though the point at which you made the loss might be excruciating, a broader perspective to loss should be ingrained in your mindset, so you may transit it with ease and be able to understand the lessons it brings with it. Have you lost your fiancé? Have you lost your job? Have you lost out in that recruitment test or is it the final interview? Have you lost your husband or wife’s confidence? Have you lost your money to coup is coup (lol)? What ever the loss is, it comes out with a nugget of wisdom and follows the same pattern that if clearly understood would pray for losses to come early in any venture you undertake.

 

 

For you to master any project whether it is relationship, business or recruitment for a job, there would always be something overlooked, which would eventually come as a loss agent whether it is lack of communication in relationship or apt skills in recruitment process. Loss becomes inevitable and it is how you handle the loss that differentiates a champion from a loser. When you integrate loss into your personality, it is like rubbing your body with your own feces. Feces are body solid waste matter composed of undigested food, bacteria, water, and bile pigments and discharged from the bowel through the anus. Do you associate with the feces because it came out of you? The reason why we get affected by loses is because of its emotional implications rising from the perception of peers, siblings, parents, etc. You feel because you made a loss, you would be perceived as a loser which in itself is true but no one can define you except you project such definitions.

 

 

When my wife made a loss of about 6 bags of Ice cream to fermentation owing to what we can not explain, I smiled though she was not happy at all because she had ordered surplus inventories that her freezers could not accommodate. The implication of this action means excess carrying cost and constant loss of sale. She was so down emotionally that I had to encourage her with the word of God citing Isaac’s constant dispute after digging his well and how he had to move on to build another one. I made her understand what it took to dig a well and after all the time, energy and economical impute someone comes to take it from you. How does she think Isaac would have felt? It would have been a huge loss to him but he moved on to dig another one and it was also taken from him until he found the one that did not bring dispute which he eventually named Rehoboth. On attaining this Rehoboth, Isaac grew economically and socially that the king of the land had to make a covenant with him. This is what happens to people that transit loss with excellent attitude not giving up; remember Isaac still dug well until he came to his rest. He did not change the project so do not change your quest for marriage because you lost that wonderful babe/guy, do not change your profession because you failed that test and do not change the business because you made a huge loss; if you stick with it, you would find rest and the governor of your state would sought you out.

 

 

That is loss, it is necessary for maturity, for perfection and for rest in any endeavor, you find yourself. I have learnt to embrace it as a sine qua non to successes. So, I smiled because it came at an early stage of the business though she did not understand the reason for my lack of interest in the loss. I simply told her what I always knew, the manager of a business can never love the business more than the investor; you can not love your life more than the person that gave you life. Do not fret yourself over loses in life, they are just prerequisite to success if you learn from it and transit it quickly. My loss of money in coup is coup during NYSC produced a NOSPETCO write-up that houses a density of budding and seasoned investor which brings free flow of information and earns me money monthly from my advertisers. My loss in early recruitment aptitude test produced POeT Manual that improved my streams of income and so many loses that I can’t enumerate at the moment. For every loss, there is definitely a gain,,,,,,,,,,,,

 

 

 

THIS TOOK PLACE ON FRIDAY AND AFTER TRANSITING HER LOSS, MY WIFE WAS LATER CALLED TODAY (16-04-07) BY THE COMPANY TO REPLACE THE LOST PRODUCT. GOD KNOWS HOW TO REWARD HIS OWN.  

 

 

 

By Dipo Tepede

I am a Project Management coach. I specialize in making delegates pass any Project Management certification at first try. I successfully achieve this fit through practical application of the knowledge and integration of our Project Management eLearning school at www.pmtutor.org. Welcome to my world.....

12 comments

  1. Dipo,

    After studying a number of posts on this site and this in particular, I must commend
    you for the uniqueness of all your presentations.
    This particular article has truly inspired me and given me a better insight to some of
    the challenges we face in life – the aspect of Isaac capped everything you said here,
    thus giving some ‘Life’ to this piece. In life, though losses may seem bad and
    demoralizing at the beginning but with a bit of hind-sight, we can see things
    clearly after ruminating on the ‘gains’ in the ‘loss’.

    Well done bro and warm regards to your wife and daughter

  2. @ALL,
    PLS I WOULD LIKE TO INVEST IN ONE OF THESE INVESTMENT PLANS BUT I’M NOT SURE WHICH ONE I SHOULD PUT MY MONEY…PLS CAN SOMEBODY TELL ME WHICH OF THEM IS MOPRE RELIABLE….
    I WANT THOSE ONES WITHIN THE RANGE OF 2,500..THANKS

  3. Nice business I will remember to call her to supply one of these days when I am in naija for a party

  4. i want to know if EFCC Put a Hold on all investment,like the Penny wise and all other investment here in Nigeria,cos am so much worryed cos i just put my money in Pennywise..plss i need to know?and i need to know more about other investment,cos am New on to all of this.plss i need to know?

  5. hey dipo, am quite happy for your wife.well its one of those lessons on “not staring too long at a closed door so that u’ll know when another door of success opens up to you” chao!

  6. @ Dipo,

    Pls can u remove the seminar advert below from all ur blogs. It’s pretty outdated. When is the next on ecoming up? I’ll love to attend.

    Happy for your wife.

  7. Great post. I believe every loss is actually an opportunity to learn and the price to pay for acquiring the experience. Losses will always be recorded, but they should not distract us from our main focus, as there’s no use crying over split milk. Rather, we should start planning how to get more milk, and how to keep the new milk from splitting.

  8. Folashade, I am really happy for you. It goes to show that there is gain is always waiting in every loss.

    @ Dipo, most of comments in some of the posts are missing, can you do anything about it?

  9. Well said Dipo.

    I’ve been at this point numerous times but most times I’ve continued the eventual success always dwarfed the loss.

  10. I really like this-this is why!

    I first read the article on tuesday when i got my result for a course i did. i was most unhappy cause i only had a pass after i had put in so much effort. I read this and only said i’ll put in more EFFORT in the other courses. I decided not to cry over spilt milk and move on.

    But guess wot?

    I just received an email from my professor lecturer apologising for an error he made, I actually made a distinction and not a pass.

    I just got the email a few minutes ago and thot i should return to ur site to say thank you.

  11. You could not have said it any better Dipo.
    Loss in a business or any other area in life should not be seen as the end ( no matter how sad it may be or how much was put into it) some times all it does is open your eyes to others things that you would not have normally ventured into if not of that loss…

    We should learn and grow from our loss.

    All the best with Mercy’s biz and all the support your giving her
    ( now that is romantic ) 🙂

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