“Success, like happiness, cannot be pursued; it must ensue … as the unintended side effect of one’s personal dedication to a cause greater than oneself.” – Viktor Frankl, the great Austrian psychiatrist.Â
Lanre was my colleague. He always teaches me wisdom through his action; he is a young guy my age, married with a baby boy. In 2005, I saw him do something I use to consider a taboo, he loaned money from the bank to the tune of 500K naira. Knowing him to be a smart guy, I asked him what he wanted to use it for. He told me he wanted to buy more slots in NOSPETCO; he told me he had been doing NOSPETCO for the past 2 years and he presently had 4 slots and wanted to increase it to 6 thus his taking the soft loan. Since I did not know what it was then, I asked him and he told me it cost 320K to get a slot and you would be paid 40K per month and your capital would remain intact. I could not believe my ears, I was immediately taken by it but before I could ask him anything about it, he had read my mind so he replied the unuttered question.Â
“I know it is very risky but they have been paying me for the past two years without defaulting and besides I am taking this risk because of my future. I want to be on my own; working for someone can never give me the kind of money I want. If I lose this money, I know I have tried but I would blame myself if I do not try to get out of this rat race and what do I have to really lose; I have a job to pay back the loses. Is that not why I have the confidence to take the risk? Dipo, I won’t advise you to go into it; I am only going into it because of the future I see.â€Â
I was at first taken aback with the statement though I did not understand the full implication of it. I collected the address of the office and visited but did not place any investment due to lack of ready funds. A year after the discus, Lanre resigned from the company and divested his money from NOSPETCO to start up his printing business. The last time I saw him, the guy was doing well for himself; he has a business that gives him a monthly net profit of 1 million naira (the magic word here is the NET ACCOUNTING PROFIT) and he was boasting of customers like First Inland Bank. He really saw into the future because he could never have accomplished that in 10 years working for my then company. I was really proud of him and after reviewing his statement above, I got the key that unlocked the nugget.
Everything in life is a risk; you sleep, you marry, you go to school, you get a job, etc. Most people are familiar with risk when it comes to money; they do not have a sense of the composition of risk and why they should take one. If you are not risking, you are definitely not living. I started a story in one of my article titled “The Winning Factor†about how I wanted to be rich but I got a pointer that my mindset was more of survival than that of wealth consciousness. I worked very hard in order to live below my means; I simply invested in order not to be poor; I wanted to escape from being poor rather than gravitate towards wealth. The difference in mindset was massively huge but very subtle and most people are conditioned to working very hard to live below their means. They simply avoid any perceived risk and hold very dearly to their money, job, etc.Â
These sets of people are not different from the young rich ruler that called Jesus a good teacher and asked what it would take to have eternal life. Now, let me do some description; eternal life means life that frees you from earthly circumstances; you would not be affected by the cares of this world. Jesus pointed him to the Mosaic Law but he shocked and obtained Jesus love by his observations of these laws. Jesus knew what his problem was instantly; the rich young ruler was holding on to what he believed could save him; his money. Despite the fact that he was young, rich and influential (which is the height of most people’s dream),  he still lacked eternal life and he sought for it but was not ready to risk his money to get hold of his dream. This is the situation that most people fall into; they have a dream but are not ready to take any risk; they instantly become afraid; fear becomes their best friend. Â
What would happen if I lose my money? I would become poor is their mindset but they fail to see it that if they lose their money, they would gain eternal life. If eternal life is their objective, then why are they bothered about losing their money? This simply means their dream is merely a day dream (a wish if I may call it). Peter, one of Jesus disciple was also worried about abandoning his career to follow Jesus but Jesus assured him that you cannot lose in the end but you would gain far more than you thought you lost. This is the secret of every wealthy guy you see serenading your street with the latest cars and flying the latest jets. They did the necessary risk for the dream they perceive.Â
A friend of mine came to me and inquired about the New Nigerian Club; this guy was on a 6 million annual salary. He wanted to know about the board contest and how much was the take home. I started by telling him that the New Nigerian Club is not about the board contest alone but about rebuilding a New Nigeria. The board contest and the deals are mere attractions but participating in the board contest was a sure investment. I told him 700K if he can win the contest through and through with extra commission on his personal referrals and also enumerated the deals that provide discounts on Land, Starcomms, SilverBird Cinema, Health Care, Fitness Club, Virgin Nigeria, DSTV, Sweet Sensation, etc. I told him the 30K was too little compared to the value proposition that NNC was offering. He looked at me and said he wanted the 700K and the Land deal especially but he had to think about it to pay next year.Â
Now this is 30K compared to the monthly salary he receives not to talk about his 13th month together with profit sharing. Why I was not happy was because he asked me about it and wanted the offering but was skeptical about placing his 30K. The fact that he wanted the winnings but was not ready to part his money got me concerned. Okay, suppose he was going to pay in future; this was where I actually had the issue. The way NNC is going, it’s likely to increase its membership fee to may be 100K (just speculating gauging from the huge value it is churning out) and from next year the membership cycle would be compressed to 6 months from the bonus 1 year given on the prelaunch. It is always better to be the first in any investment no matter the perceived risk as long as you can see the bigger dream, the risk can never compare to it.Â
Any time you see the dream, forget the risk; it always going to be worth taking and always try to be the first to participate because cleaning out in any investment platform requires the first participation not the later participation. If it is share, the private placement guys get a better deal than the initial public offer and the initial offer gets a better deal than the other offers. If it is MLM, the first guys always cycle (if the fulfill the MLM condition of effective marketing), if it is HYIP, the first guy always dashes out before it crashes. If it is property, the first guys always get better deals before any other, What I am trying to say is that if you have a dream, don’t be hindered by the risk involved and always try to be the first.Â
TO BE CONTINUED
