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My challenge as an entrepreneur (1) – Fola Daniel Adelesi

I have had series of challenges as an entrepreneur but I really thought about sharing some of these challenges so that they can be useful to you and posterity. All that glitters is not gold is a statement you must have heard before but it is alright if you are hearing it for the first time today.

When I was about to finish from high school my dad bought me a complete computer system and till date I see that gift as the most prized possession he could have given to me in hi life time. Every other thing I have gotten from him has not mattered to me as much has the computer has. It was even bought at a time when my purpose in life was not very clear to him and he didn’t know what I was planning to do with myself after leaving high school. Yes I wanted to go to the university but I had an in depth yearning for something much more than a university degree. I wanted a kind of satisfaction that only fulfillment of purpose could provide. Not before long I got used to the computer and every monetary gift I had accompanied the purpose of the computer which at the time was not known to my father.

He taught he had bought a computer I could just use to develop myself and be more employable by the society. To a great extent he was mistaken. While he was seeing a more employable person I was seeing a person developing so much to employ more people and desperately impacting lives positively in every continent. I guess that it was the difference in vision – my father’s motive for the computer and my own interpretation of the use of this great gift – that made my father and I clash on some occasions.

Whenever he gave me my weekly or monthly allowance, I would use the allowance to print articles I had written. I would make photocopies and distribute in fellowships, schools, organizations and even on the street to anyone who paid attention. He frowned at the fact that the money was for food and not for printing. He expressed his annoyance over and over again for the fact that I was focused on printing articles that could change people’s lives but he regarded the printing I was doing as waste of time and waste of resources. He had this very authoritative voice so he didn’t have to smack you for doing something he didn’t like all the time. His voice could easily penetrate your spine from a distance. I revered him and would not disobey him most times but the only thing I wouldn’t give up among the many things he didn’t want me to do was to stop writing and printing articles that could change people’s lives.

These articles that were written by a 17 year old at that that time were changing some lives that got it. That kept me going against all odds. It was not that my father didn’t like what I was doing but he appreciated a combination of energetic work and mental work while emphasis was on energy. I knew my body make up so I only appreciated mental work. If I have my way I would pay for anything that cannot be carried out with the brain so that I can concentrate on using my brain.

My challenge as an entrepreneur (2) – Fola Daniel Adelesi

I was and still remain a very restless person but I must say that I am purposefully restless. I never fold my arms and wait for things to happen. When people are asking why things are not happening I always think about what I can do. One of the things that I think is wrong with the youth of today is that they do not know how to channel their restlessness and inability to channel your restlessness will make you a disaster to your generation rather than being an asset.

Even when it looked liked I was moving too fast with some things I always knew that I was moving fast in the right direction. I knew my passion was not an unnecessary obsession for some out of this world issues that will take me no where. I was fully resident in my parents’ house and I was boiling with several ideas that will literally dispense millions upon millions. I could not share some of these ideas because I simply sounded like an unrealistic optimist. At other times I knew their minds were not developed enough to comprehend the ideas I wanted to share so I always looked for another person who could understand the ideas I wanted to share. Let me use this opportunity to warn parents who do not listen to the ideas of their children simply because they think the children are merely optimistic. When a man carries fire for something he will go to any length to get the things done. If he does not get the required attention at home he will go for it anywhere. The problem here is that when the right counsel is not given at home the wrong counsel could be given elsewhere. That is what you sometimes get for not believing in the dreams of your children. I may suggest to you that you get a counselor for your children if you do not know much about the filed of their dreams

A lot of times because our parents do not know much about the field their children passionately desire to go into, they simply condemn the field, lord another over them and eventually kill their destinies. When this happens the children only end up living a desired destiny pictured by the parents. The parents’ desired destiny, I make bold to say, can never be anywhere around the original predestination of any child so parents should simply guide their children into destiny and not out of destiny.

There were a number of times I was denied the opportunity to run with my passion. My parents taught I was too young. Every time they taught I was too young I always taught about something. They would always tell you stories about how they did some challenging things before they were your age. They will say this to you over and over again but will never let you off their apron string. That was one of the things I hated the most about being a young entrepreneur.

I had a number of things I wanted to do. I had a number of people I could talk to. One advantage in my favour was that I was young and a number of people wanted to listen to me but my parents did not understand that youthfulness was an advantage for entrepreneurs. I could make my mistakes early enough and learn in the secret without any fear of being disdained. I was not yet conscious of any social status so it was the best time to get things done, slump as many as possible times and get going.

My challenge as an entrepreneur (3) – Fola Daniel Adelesi

Despite the literary caging that did not allow me to get out in the most slippery times to learn my lessons early enough, I always found a way to do some of the things that I wanted to do but it was painful to me that there were limits because of parental control. When internet came on board I could do some of the things I wanted to do on the internet but the challenge was that I did everything with my allowance and after doing things with my allowance I really needed to go out to get results but the hindrance always came when I needed to go out for results. I remember being invited to a number of meetings but I was never allowed to go for those meetings. I wanted to work for free in some places but my dad never allowed me to work for free. My intention to work for free was really to learn everything that I could learn because I had known early enough where I was going. Since I had known where I was going I did not want to waste time. There were times I was practically annoyed with my dad and he knew it but he taught he was helping me by being protective.

Despite these restrictions that didn’t allow me do the things I really wanted to do, one other thing that got on my nerves was that my dad would see other young people on TV and would begin to compare me with those on TV. He would ask me to look at my colleagues and see what they were doing but he never admitted that he did not allow me go all out for the things I wanted to do. Also remember wanting to work in a radio station even when I was already in the university but he denied me that opportunity. The only thing the radio station wanted from me was a letter from the university I attended. I had presented the letter and the only thing that was left was to be fixed in a department in the radio house. I was to resume work the following Monday but my parents said they were only going to use my and just let me go without any reward.

Parents in so many places do not allow their children to enjoy a lifetime opportunity simply because they after money. They worked all their lives for money and would not want their children do anything without money. One thing I have come to realize is that so many of our parents, if they were not strictly working for money, would have gained a lot more than money was giving to them. This mentality was being passed on to me but something in me was so strong – like an immunity against such mentality – that would not allow me take everything they said about money hook, line and sinker.

That same radio station where I had been given the privilege to work for free is now proving a little hard to get. My challenge was not to get a job. If it was about a job, I have more than enough in my hands. I have so many titles in my library that I need to churn out. I have so many undelivered lectures on human capacity building so my problem was not the job. I know where I am going so the reason I wanted to work for free was to get a mental leverage through the knowledge that would be gathered while working for others. I think one of the challenges I had with my parents was that they did not understand the importance of building a profile. I was building a profile for the places I wanted to go into. I needed a profile to be able to forge ahead with some things. I also had it on my mind that nobody was going to ask me how much I have been paid for whatever experiences I had gathered. When I got into the university, outside of my father’s full view though my university was just one hour thirty minutes drive away from home, I took up a secret job.

My challenge as an entrepreneur (4) – Fola Daniel Adelesi

While working for somebody else who didn’t really see who I was, I learnt a lot. I had some expectations and I must confess that some of the expectations were not met. Apart from the fact that the expectations were not met I expected a better treatment from this person who was the boss. We had an agreement that I was to be paid but while working with this guy I still had Edible Pen running. My conferences were up and my consultations were up. I had some students from the university coming to me and I did business proposals for them. I also had a number of young adults coming to me because they admired some of the things I was doing. They also liked the way I talked and really wanted to invite me to speak in some meetings.

From time to time I was going to speak and I was returning to the office of the guy I worked with. I wondered for months why the guy didn’t pay what he had agreed to pay. I knew the office in an out, or so I think, and I knew that the problem of the office was not really funds. I think it had to do with mismanagement and that he had more than the people he really needed. This is one problem that some other young businesses face. They think they do not have enough money but when they check their cash flow they will realize that they actually have more than enough money to run the business, pay salaries of people working for them and then to do all the things they really need to do for the business to survive. At some point I made moves to counsel my boss who was about six or seven years older concerning his business. I talked to him about saving some money for some time and then turn the money over into investment because I am not a party to investing for a long time. He heard all of these but did not make any move.

For some reasons I was glad at the end of the day that he did not pay me for more than six months of work with him. I really got tired of the job but was learning some thinks. I had become a computer literate not by going to a computer school but by learning the computer from people around who knew how to handle the computer. I asked questions and spent several hours on the computer. This was how I learnt to use the computer. When I started working with this person, I also learnt how to work on the audio and this has helped my public speaking today. I don’t do anywhere to speak without recording my speeches once my laptop is available and my mp3 player is available. He did not teach me how to use the mp3 player for the audio production but I found out a software I could use while working with him. In the process I handled video camera when we covered events and he did the editing of the videos. I also handled business proposals, my own field that I brought into the business, for some of the ideas we generated to work with.

While all did not end well or as planned let me say to you that if any other thing was lost, I still gained something that will forever be useful to me in my public speaking. There are copies of my cds that have been sold in several places today simply because of that discovery I made while working with him. It was more than six months of work without pay but I found out one thing that is fetching me much more than he could have paid me if he made attempts to pay.

My challenge as an entrepreneur (5) – Fola Daniel Adelesi

It is a mistake for people to always shield you from making mistakes.

I did say to you that I got a job and I got one thing that our parents are trying to shield us from. Sometimes it may not be the parents that are shielding us from this thing. It could be friends or siblings and it could also be our spouses. They always think we should not make mistakes and must shield us from making mistakes in life. It is a mistake to always shield us from making mistakes.

I have not said that you should not help people who are walking blindly into some destructive things but some times you need to let people go into what they want to go into and let them make the mistakes but don’t be too far away because they will need your help to go through the hurts they may experience. Our job in most cases is not to prevent the hurt but to help the wound heal faster and to make sure that the lessons have been taken but so many people have taken up the wrong jobs.

When I have the privilege to guide some younger people through some things, I tell them what I need to but I know so well that they will still make mistakes no matter how much I talk. For this reason I do not try to sound like the super counselor who knows just how everything will work out.

One morning I got an idea and I put a call through to my boss. I asked a few questions and we were set to go. This was even before I began working with him. I prepared the proposal for the idea since he said he could put what was on my mind in my hand. I went to him with the proposal and both agreed to send out the proposal. As a first point of call my alma matter, Mayflower School, where I had been a revered Senior prefect was to get the proposal. I went in to talk to the principal about it but she asked me to see her the next week. I went again to see her the next week and in thirty minutes it was a done deal. Nice proposal had gotten us about the biggest “real” single figure in that office. Everyone was happy but something was ahead of us.

I will tell you about what happened later but I think should get one or two lessons here. After the approval of the proposal we began calling more often and even traveling to the school where we were to do the first project. Days crept into weeks and weeks into a few months before the mobilization for the project was eventually paid. I know we made some mistakes during this time.

Most of the trips were made by two people because we wanted to be taken serious. That was not bad but we chattered taxis when we could go with cabs. Whose decision that was is irrelevant but the fare we paid for the taxis was two times what it would cost two of us to go with cabs from the garages though we were able to beat time and had convenience. I have to beating time and convenience in the story because that is what some people are always using to kill their business. They never want to sacrifice. They want it really big.

If you always want it big then prepare for the big mess!

My challenge as an entrepreneur (6) – Fola Daniel Adelesi

While we were trying to have it big in some ways where we could cut costs, we were already eating into the pillars of the business. We looked forward to the figure on the cheque and to an extent was running the business on a cheque that had not come in. some of the profits from other ventures in the business were diverted into getting the project done. By the time the cheque was issued, our transportation expenses alone had taken more than ten percent of the figure given to mobilize the project.

I was not absolutely in control but my integrity was at stake. I had gotten the proposal approved by integrity and that same integrity was about to be soiled. A business that was already running on some other pet projects before suddenly hung on the funds from one. Over and over again I heard stories about why some of the things that needed to be done had not been done. We needed some recordable cds from Lagos and nearly everyday we had people going into Lagos if we didn’t want to go but I just cannot explain why the cds were not purchased.

We needed to do some animations from the system. The animation was done at a snail pace and was never completed even as I write this article – two years after. Whenever I talked it looked as if I was a puppet. People around at the time taught I was unnecessarily fretting over something that was going to be done in a jiffy. I noticed some other indifferences concerning the project but I did not take my stand. I did not want to hurt anybody more especially because I think we would have some other business deals together in the future. My destiny is too bright to be soiled by a mere unstable emotion running against another person that I may need in my life.

I hate to bore you with unnecessary details but the job was never done. The school kept calling and I looked like a fraudster. Nobody said it to my face but you could tell by the looks when you see the people involved. I have some lessons for you on how I handled the situation.

At no point did I allow my emotion to run wild even when my integrity was at stake. If anyone was going to be arrested it would be me so the other party was nonchalant. There were no agreements written down corning the projects. The proposal was written in my name because it was my idea but the quotation was sent in the venture’s name. I was more obvious to the client and had been a student trained by the client so I was to be held responsible for repayment.

In all of these, I learnt how to limit my trust not by making people feel I don’t trust them but by committing their trust to paper with their ink endorsing it. I later heard, while I was on break that the same guy had traveled out of the country. No phone call, no email no text messages!

. My challenge as an entrepreneur (7) – Fola Daniel Adelesi

At whatever time the important issue is to make sure you are not held down by the things you have gone through in life. You may be pulled down but don’t stay down. Just keep going because what makes you a superstar is not the funny stories you have been a part of if the victories have not been recorded yet.

Sometimes people look at me and they just wonder what keeps me going but they don’t seem to understand. They always have one or two comments about my seemingly strong personality but they are not aware that sometimes I am as strong as they think. What is strong is my conviction about new possibilities even when it seems as if all is gone. What is strong is by belief that it cannot be over until I have gotten what I want so I keep keeping on at any time. It is the fact that I cannot remain a failure that keeps me going.

In October of 2004 I woke up in the middle of the night and as I was about to settle down to start work I received an idea. I had a few poems at that time and I was really thinking about what to do with the poems. I knew that I was not just writing so that I could have several files filled with articles that I have written. If I was the only one that needed he article and poems I was writing I could as well stop the writing and enjoy the ideas in my memory. I had a long standing desire to publish a book so an idea came concerning what to do.

I was to invite a few other young writers who had poems ready to be published to submit some of their poems. We, all the people who would submit poems, were to work together on how to raise funds for the book and plan the book launch at the same time. I already had a plan for all the things that needed to be done but I wanted the people to be fully involved so I allowed suggestions at every stage of the project. Funds initially posed a challenge to us but I had enough passion to keep pushing the team until we got the required funds. How did I get the funds? I am going to say a little about that because that is one question so many entrepreneurs are always asking. Before setting out to raise funds, I wrote down the names of a few people who could support the project if we get a chance to discuss with them. I was not just hoping that we would get the chance to talk to them about the book project because that would amount to nothing so I took action. I carried the papers everywhere I went and I talked to as many people that cared to listen.

It was in the talking that the miracle happened! As I went from people to people talking to them about my project, some people taught I was joking because they could not imagine a student doing that kind of a thing. They taught about funds and felt like it was going to be very difficult to get the book published. I did not bother my head about all the negative words that I heard. I had charged myself well enough in my room for every negative thing I was going to come across. Eventually I found someone who already had a connection with one of the men whose name I had written down. When I got this contact I knew I could connect with every other person. It was one important contact. This person whose contact I got was the vice-chancellor of the school at the time. I didn’t get it by just wishing someone would help. I opened my mouth to talk about the dream that I was carrying inside of me.

Until I talked nothing happened!

My challenge as an entrepreneur (8) – Fola Daniel Adelesi

After getting one of the most important contacts required to get the project moving, the project began to move at a faster rate. We, the guys who submitted poems, decided to move as fast as possible because we just taught that the vice-chancellor might retire at any moment so we simply had no time to waste.

While we were working on the project, I wanted to delegate without giving anybody a fixed position that will box that person into a corner. One of the things that a lot of people use as their excuses for laziness is the job specification that was laid out for them. They will not do any other thing simply because they have been told some specific things to do as holders of some offices. I wanted to avoid this. I really wanted to raise a versatile team and because I had not known them well enough I felt that the first thing to do was not to assign positions. I wanted to run the team for some time on varying delegation so as to be able to test the ability of the people in different capacities.

They wouldn’t let me go too far with this. One morning a few folks in the team of 7 key guys coordinating the project came to my house to discuss the issue of job specification through offices being assigned to each person. I would have been happy if the real intention of their hearts was about the responsibility but it was simply about the position and not the responsibility. I allowed myself to be pushed, a great mistake that so many other leaders make, so I called for a meeting. The purpose of the meeting was to conduct an election just as they had requested. I did not vote in the election so that they would not have the impression I was trying to sideline someone. It was a free and fair election and everyone on the team clearly saw who won and who did not win.

Immediately the elections were concluded I also made another important mistake. There was someone on the team who had given us a link that was vital to all that we were doing. This person didn’t have a pleasing personality to a few other people on the team. Even the ones he related with still had one or two things against him but I decided to keep him in the team by compensating him with a position so I created an office that we did not initially agree on. Though there were a few promptings to do what I did but the most important thing was that I was the leader of the team and all decisions concerning the team ended on my table. This decision cost me the entire team!

You will be amazed that keeping one person on the team can make the whole team ungovernable for you. Now when I teach in seminars and I have to talk about team building I always tell them that you should never bring on board the person you cannot fire! If you have one person you don’t want to fire as a result of sentiment, that person may rise to a level where the only alternative to firing that person is for the organization to die. I did not let go because I taught of what the person had done. I wanted to appreciate him for that contact he gave but in doing that the organization crept on until it died after the first project that brought us together.

My challenge as an entrepreneur (9) – Fola Daniel Adelesi

If you do not fight your desire to please everyone you will be pleased with being a failure!

I should have sorted one thing from the commencement of the organization and that has to do with clarity of vision for the organization. I had clearly expressed what the organization stood for in nearly all the meetings that we had and I didn’t fail to let them remember the slogan that summarized the vision. It was on the letter heads, the papers of the organization and everything that had to do with us.

That was a great mistake because I should have known that it is not everybody that reads and that it is not everyone who even reads that understands. A lot of people just stare at letters and pretend to know the meaning of the words but the problem is that they are too proud to ask questions about what someone is doing.

From the commencement of the organization there was division. There was division because some people bought into the vision and some others bought into the produce of the vision. While some were crazy about the opportunity to have a say in the society through writing, some others were envisaging the resources that would be generated from the projects. It was true that the number of people who bought into the vision were more than the people who were only playing along but the more dangerous issue was that the few who didn’t really get what the whole idea was all about had more influence than the people who understood it. They had a louder voice and did a lot of talking. The people who got the gist were waiting for the next line of action. They didn’t have enough force to go on such that the few who did not really understand us would be “negligible” – at least in opinion – till we got things done.

Division as far as I am concerned now means “di” (two) and vision. If you already understand the meaning of vision then you should know “di” means two. That means there were already two visions under one person’s leadership! Two visions cannot thrive under the leadership of one person because the person will run with his vision but will at some points keep meeting with brick walls because some of the people he wants to run with already have another vision to run with.

I could not bear the politicking that was going on under my noise. I was not in for too much of talk but action. I saw myself spending more time trying to do some reconciliation rather than move on with the vision. Unfortunately the people I was trying to reconcile spoke two different languages. I obviously understood the language of one party but did not understand the language of the other so reconciliation seemed like a very big issue. I resorted to killing the organization since it was becoming ungovernable. My strategy was simply. I had told one of the people I would kill the organization but they didn’t want me to so I pulled a surprise one day. We were in the middle of a meeting when I told them I was relieving myself of the position of the president. I asked them to continue, deliberately, because I know they had lost the vital thing needed – vision - to continue. They tried effortlessly to bring me back. So they went on with the organization but could not do that for too long. The organization died as expected.

If that was the right decision is not an issue to debate now. All I could not bear was to run an organization with two different visions. It does not mean you should kill everything that does not seem to be working right now.

My challenge as an entrepreneur (10) – Fola Daniel Adelesi

It important to know when it is common sense to compromise because some people under the guise of determination are determined to go ahead in the wrong direction. It is not the strong determination in the wrong direction that gets you where you are going. The more important issue here is direction.

As much as I agree that the organization could have been sustained, I would say to you that it was killed because I had a premonition about people getting funny. I was supposed to use the real name of the organization to run the project but I used another name because I didn’t want them to mess the organization. I knew from the scratch that I could still go on with the real name if they fumbled with the other name so I used a name that I didn’t really need.

For some time it looked as if nothing was happening but I moved on. One thing I have always wanted to prove to a team is that no team at whatever time can put me on hold. All I did was to forget the team that I could not communicate with but I did not forget my vision because I understood the vision clearly and could run with it. I had come to realize that if someone would not help I could always get another person who would so I do not make people feel that I cannot survive if they don’t help. With or without them my vision will run.

I kept pumping money into the things that I believed in. I could not pump in the kind of money that would get the pictures on my mind into my hands but I started with something. A lot of times what I did was to use the pocket allowance from my parents to fund the things I was doing. I remember clashing with my dad on several occasions because I had exhausted the money in my account. The problem was not that I was asking for more. The challenge was that he would always ask how much was left and often times nothing was left but I would give him a figure just to impress. Unfortunately even the figures I gave did not impress him. He kept wondering why my account would run into red so quickly.

Some of the things I did with the money included producing stickers and bulletins and trying to organize seminars. In January of 2004 I started putting some of my quotes on stickers because I didn’t just want the quotes to lie dormant in my files. I ran into trouble again because the stickers were to be sold but I don’t think I sold half of what was produced. What happened! I gave them out! I put in money to produce something to be sold but I kept meeting people who liked it and claimed they didn’t have the money. I could not stand to hear people tell me they did not have the money especially when it was obvious they needed the words on the stickers so I kept giving out and sold to a few people who were kind enough to buy. All goods were out but capital was gone because emotion had come into my business! So there was no money to produce new stickers and I kept waiting on my allowance. That meant having to go on hunger strike having put money in business but again I gave out more than I sold!

My challenge as an entrepreneur (11) – Fola Daniel Adelesi

One other thing that gave me a little headache was my bulletin. Like I had always done, my allowance from home was a capital for the next thing on my mind. This time I wanted to publish a bulleting. I had written several articles and wanted to start publishing them one after the other. It was a good idea more especially because I was among a lot of young people who in all sincerity did not know what to do with themselves. They looked so intelligent but I will say that was because they were getting good grades. As for me you cannot use good grades as the parameter for intelligence because anybody can garbage in and garbage out to get the good grades.

I waited for another allowance to come but while it was coming I had negotiated with a printer who was to do the printing. I had initially searched the entire town effortless to get a printer. The problem was that there were no sign posts to tell me where they were but I desperately needed them for the idea I was trying to execute. Eventually I found a sign post on a building with an old architectural design where a tailor was doing her business. I wondered how a printing sign post got to the tailor’s shop but later found out that the tailor was the printer’s wife. I approached him and discussed the idea with him. He wanted the job so he promised heaven and earth. I looked forward to the job because I had given him specifications for then job.

When I was giving out the materials needed for production I had specified that I wanted two columns, some quotes on the front page and an advert space at the back. He didn’t meet up with the time he gave as delivery time. For me I was get uneasy when people give me time and don’t keep to time. If you can’t meet up with the time then you should not have given it in the first place. It was a suspense packed moment for me because I could barely sleep until the bulletin was finally ready.

The bulletin did not come alone when it was coming from the press. It came with a shocker! I looked at the printer and was stock for words. I managed to say thank you for the job delivered. He had changed my specification and that was one thing that can make anybody get on my nerves. When I give specifications it is because I have a picture in mind and I want to replicate the picture, not the picture on the printer’s mind. The job that should have been a double column was done in a single column. My digital picture was messed up because it was blurred and it looked more like a painting than a picture taken with a digital camera. The font size was a little too big for that size of bulletin and the advert space he left at the back could only contain a sentence! The bulletin was again printed in blue, though I do not remember specifying colours for him. It was more of a tragedy than a bulletin. I could not sell a quarter of what was produced. I gave out more copies of the bulletin. At a time I became ashamed to give it out. I still have several copies of that bulletin in my office today – for history you know!

My challenge as an entrepreneur (12) – Fola Daniel Adelesi

2004 was a great year for me and I had gradually gathered momentum for the things I wanted to do. My name was fast becoming a household name within the campus community. My articles had appeared in magazines produced by students and lecturers alike. Some of them had pictures and some didn’t. My stickers with very strong quotes were all over the place and they were in a sense strategically placed. I said strategically placed because some of them were on the doors of the lecturers and there was no way you would enter without seeing those stickers. They were right in your nose!

Some even told me about an incident in one of the offices one day. A female lecturer who didn’t like to talk too much was being disturbed by some students. She is perceived to be, and indeed she is, one of the finest lecturers in the department. She was in her office when someone made a derogatory remark. She only came out to show them the sticker that was on the door! Coincidentally it was the sticker I had given to her and the words read, “Some people’s mouth have fetched them money and other’s have fetched them death. What will your mouth fetch you?” It was the perfect answer in that situation so the only she added was that it was one of their colleagues who had produced the sticker and she returned to her office. When some people meet me the first thing you would see on their faces was the surprise that I was so young. They had seen materials from me on different places and had met me without any preparation so the shocker was that I was even very young.

All of these were stuffs I was working on so that I could launch my first conference. I had tried to launch my first conference in 2004 but it was not an ideal time. I had not been able to get some people who would buy into the vision and I had not really studied the campus very well because it was a multi campus system without a resident hostel. Students were everywhere you could a town around the university and in every thing you could manage to call a shelter instead of a house. I also needed to plan my resources and publicity strategy. When I looked at everything I eventually waited till 2005 before launching the first conference. Waiting was hard but it paid off because I had met more people who could give me the required support. I had met people who watched me and tried to understand the things I stood for so it was not difficult to convince them when I wanted to launch out.

My conference was titled “THE RELEVANT PEOPLE” because we wanted to teach people how to be relevant. Adedamola Adewole and Sijuade Otegbeye were the first speakers I invited to share my platform. They had been my big brothers in the faith so it was not a hell trying to get them down. I used my allowance, as usual, to print the small posters we used. I couldn’t pay for a venue so we had to negotiate one but unfortunately my intermediary with the users of the hall didn’t deliver my message. We got into a mess a few days to the conference and were told we could not use the hall or else we would have to pay! All I wanted was the conference so I agreed to pay the money I didn’t have. I had sent out letters to a few people to help us raise fifteen thousand naira (N15, 000) for the conference. Somebody raised my hope by telling me that this is what someone can pay for! The person kept asking me to come back until the conference was over! One day it was it cheque book that was not available and the other days something else would be the issue.

Someone was kind enough to send one thousand naira (N1,000). I took it gladly and moved on. The conference attendance revealed that I had more than a hundred people in attendance. Whao! That was a huge success for a starter! I really had 95 chairs prepared for the people and I remember some people had left because of one personal schedule or the other by the time I was speaking. After the conference my second speaker, Sijuade Otegbeye, told me that his first conference was not this successful so I was encouraged. The speakers were amazing but I had no pay cheques or envelopes for them. I gave them all the honour I could because there was no honourarium for them.

After the conference, my vice president, Adeyemi Johnson Awobayo was stranded in town for about three days because we had given all. Someone even came to ask for alms and we had to give. I tried raising funds during the conference because I knew the people were going for a holiday but it didn’t work. Some people would say they were so poor that the only food they had was gari (grounded cassava). We didn’t even have that. We took empty bowls from one room to another to get the gari that makes some people say they were poor. Some months later I was still paying off debt for the hall we were not supposed to pay for because I delegated a responsibility that was not carried out yet the person concerned assured me that the stage was set.

My challenge as an entrepreneur (13) – Fola Daniel Adelesi

The challenges of the first conference were not enough to stop me from achieving what I wanted to achieve. That was not enough to stop me from going on. One of the interesting things I have seen in life is that some people look at you and may call for you a failure for the same endeavour they have never tried only to realize that they would have been worse off if they tried it. Despite the fact they have not even tried it I still make bold to say that they are worse off because they are still standing at a spot waiting for the perfect time to do something and waiting for enough resources to get things done. They never get those resources and never get anything done so in all humility brought by the shame of stagnation, they acknowledge that they are still lagging behind for not attempting any thing.

I have made it a personal resolution that I am not going to listen to people who have not attempted anything yet they look like the best of critiques you may find around. Someone once said to me that there no monuments erected to remember critiques. Look around you and you will see that every monument is in honour of those who have contributed something to the society and not those who just wake up and perfect everything with their mouths. I kept writing more poems and I kept writing more articles for people to read. I had a dream to publish magazines but I did something very simple when I did not have the money to publish that magazine. I collected people’s emails wherever I went to speak and also collected their phones numbers. I, sincerely at that time, did not need their phone numbers. All I wanted was to be able to send them some of my articles. What I did was simple. I would prepare and article to be mailed and the mails were always sent as blind carbon copies (BCC). With this feature all the people who were receiving the mails did not know who else was receiving the mail or how many of them were receiving the mail. I could not start with my magazine but I had the computer right in front of me so I did not wait!

At some other times what I did was even simpler than sending mails on the internet. I simply took a sheet of paper and picture somebody on my mind. As I picture that person I begin to write words of encouragement to that person. Often times when they got my papers they would say a very big thank you and that I did not know what the short notes meant to them. I remember doing this over and over again to people who were around me. Again, I did not wait for a magazine before I started writing words of encouragement. Later I began using text messages to do the job when it looked like I had a very busy schedule and didn’t have the time to write short notes to several people. I also took advantage of the fact that I could send the messages to several people. All of these things I did were not in anyway the real pictures on my mind. The pictures on my mind were so big but humility and genuine passion have taught me that no matter how big a dream is, there is always a small way to start except you are not ready to do anything. Your dreams can’t get so big that there are no humble ways to begin. On several occasions I would type a one page article, make several photocopies and distribute. While others were seeing a one page article I was seeing a global magazine. The most important thing was that I wrote every article as if the global magazine was ready for publication. I didn’t underrate the reach of my articles. Today they are all over the world.

My challenge as an entrepreneur (14) – Fola Daniel Adelesi

I have found out that the willingness to pay for something will lead you to another thing only if you know the true value of what you are paying for and why you are supposed to be paying. I do not open my wallets, give out money and just close my eyes. Even when I have to pay for the things I cannot do, always know that there is more to paying for that thing than just wanting it done at all cost.

This will lead me to telling you one more thing about the first conference that I organized on 19th March 2005. When I was preparing for the conference I was also making preparations for audio production and some people out of share concern for the cost of things were advising me to forget producing audio cds. They asked me to simply go for cassettes which seemed to be easier and cheaper to produce at the time. I looked at them and insisted I wanted the audio cds. I did not only insist on the cds because I wanted the messages recorded, I wanted to be able to look back after several years and say thank God I did it. In all your endeavours you will find people who will counsel you regarding what to do and sometimes will ask you to go for what is cheaper. As much as I agree that they love you, I must also confess that they may not be helping you. While they gave their counsel for reasons based upon the cost of the production, I was looking at the nearest future when things would have changed. I was looking at that time when I would be able to tell people how I started some of the things I did.

It was really a dangerous thing for me to take counsel from some people at that time not because the people were negative but that they would offer seemingly good advice that would make you compromise. You will not know that you have compromised on the consequences of compromise are evident and you will start asking why you did not do what you were supposed to do. I went ahead to call a big brother who knew something about audio production and was already into it for business. He gave me his bills and it looked like it was not going to be possible. I wanted it at all cost so I was not daunted by the cost of the production. Since my fund raising plan through letter had failed I could not pay the mobilization for the crew members for the audio cd. The funny thing was that the plan b for fund raising also failed making it more glaring that we didn’t have the funds for the audio production. At the end of the meeting we could only pay about a quarter of what was required. I got the edited cds in good time and I was glad I went for them.

What hit me about the whole issue was that after the first time I paid someone to produce my audio cd, I developed and unquenchable thirst for knowledge in the area of audio production. I searched and searched until I found some things that could help. Some of my findings cost me about six months of work with no pay! I moved closer to someone who was running a multimedia outfit and was supposed to work for a pay. I already told you about that. When I eventually found some important things with some of my personal research in other places, I began producing my audio cds myself. I no longer needed external service because what I paid the first time injected some passion for the knowledge into me. I even found out that it was cheaper to do it myself! I could have looked at cost and not produce those first cds but the sacrifice of breakfast and lunch to get them done have paid off. I now make money from the production I learnt!

My challenge as an entrepreneur (15) – Fola Daniel Adelesi

My second conference was a little funny and I must confess that it was not what I expected that it turned out to be. Being an entrepreneur in a student environment where there are no hostels could make your activities very unpredictable even to you. A number times I have noticed some petty traders almost panicking because the students are going to be on vacation for some time. They come to you asking questions like, “When is the school resuming?” You could easily tell that some of them were too old to have children who are still in the university. It was so obvious it was their businesses that warranted such questions.

One day I got into the shoes of these traders because I really felt what they must have been going through for years! I had publicized a meeting and I had started selling tickets to the people who were going to come. Every typical student has so much on the priority list and sometimes you have the kind of priorities that make you forget the definition of priorities. For this reason some of the people did not buy the tickets right away. They promised they were going to buy the tickets a day to and some promised they were going to buy at the venue. I gave tickets to some other people in some areas because I wanted the sales to be easier and also faster.

The sales weren’t any faster. It just went on at snail speed and it took some extra effort to sell the ones I sold. I was communicating with the guys selling the tickets and at the same time communicating with the guys working to put the venue in order. I also needed to keep in touch with my speakers and still prepare my own notes. What went wrong! Some days to the meeting I noticed a lot of people were speculating trouble. It was almost exactly a year after a terrible crisis in the university campus and some of the tale bearers had fallaciously, I believe, said that they have noticed there was always a problem in the university in June of every year. The news spread like wide fire and by the middle of the month nearly everyone had traveled. My programme had been scheduled to hold on the 16th day in June 2006 and that coincidentally was the speculated date for trouble.

Some people traveled with my tickets and a number of the people who promised to pick up tickets that traveled. My guest speakers showed up but only 21 people showed up as against the attendance of more than 100 for my first conference. Here’s the implication. The chairs rented were supposed to be paid for through the toll for every participant. The sound system was rented and must be paid for. The money realized from those who showed up only catered for transportation of the guest speaker, refreshment and then we were left with bills to pay again. No body had speculated crisis some weeks before! Even when it started a few days to 16th of June it was like a rumour. Nothing eventually happened but that had already put me in trouble again. Some months later I realized that one of the people who was supposed to have assisted with selling tickets had kept the tickets under her mattress. The handbills given to her were almost intact under her mattress and I taught I had someone assisting! To a great extent it was my main speaker that bailed me out. I did not give him honourarium but I gave him all the honour I could so when he heard some of the things that had happened he issued a cheque of ten thousand naira (N10, 000) which went a long way in solving the problems. My allowances sorted the rest.

My challenge as an entrepreneur (16) – Fola Daniel Adelesi

Despite all the problems I was encountering with all of my conferences I did not just give up and I must confess that giving up was the last thing on my mind. I even think and would say to people that the right time to give up is when you have succeeded with what you are doing because you would not need to give up at that time.

After the first and the second conferences I still organized more conferences and still ran into debts not because I deliberately went out to borrow money but that the whole programme did not go according plan. One of the things I did was to review my publicity strategy and I discovered that my publicity strategy was not the issue. You really need to know that I fasted and prayed for some of those meetings and they still turned out to be what they were. At some point I noticed that one of the challenges was that the people had a wrong value system because I had to evaluate some of the other programmes that were going on in town. I took a good look at the organizers and the purpose of the programmes.

It was so obvious that the people’s attendance in party related programmes doubled attendance in programmes that had to do with human capacity building. In some other cases I would say that these things were happening because everybody needs to go through a process so it was my time to go through a process of success. I have not seen anybody who gathers millions of people in open fields today who did not begin with a gathering of two, three or four. As a matter of fact somebody like Bishop David Oyedepo would say that he started his church with three and a half people. Whenever people wondered why it was three and a half he would tell them it was half because the attendance of the fourth person was not guaranteed so he was regarded as half.

One of the things I had on mind was to go with my alternative plans. I had several other packages for human capacity building and one of them included partnering with organizations and conferences to equip their members. I sent out several letters and like you would expect some people did not just pay attention to my letter until I began to make phone calls. Sometimes I had to go to those offices again and again. Some of them would look at you and you could tell they simply did not want to give you a chance because they don’t know if you can deliver.

Some people tried me out and they were more than amazed after the delivery. Partnering with organizations and churches paid off for me because I didn’t run into debt. It was also easier to gather the crowd. The organizations or churches had the crowd, the venue, the generator and would fuel it. They sometimes did not need to print any handbills because an announcement would do. All I needed to do was to go in there and speak. This was a lot easier for me but it was not a substitute for my conferences. I continued with the partnership because it was originally part of the package. So I did not use it as a bail out plan. There is no way my conferences can be restructured to fit into the programmes of another organization especially because we are running with two different visions.

My challenge as an entrepreneur (17) – Fola Daniel Adelesi

Where to start something is not as important as starting what needs to be started! Every thing that needed to be sold was created in my room! Every service was cooked in my room and that was where I made all the necessary calls before going out to offices. I had a computer desk in my room and it was just a few feet a way from my bed so I could work till whenever I was tired and get in bed. Sometimes I slept for just two hours before returning to the computer system again. There were times I tried sleeping for just an hour but getting up after one hour would be very difficult. That’s when I realize that I had been working for too long without any rest so it looks as if somebody hit my back with bricks when I wake up. Sometimes after working for so long without realizing it, I wake up the following morning and just remain in bed because I can’t even lift my hand. There were times I was even too tired to pick my phone and make necessary calls.

Now I have learnt that if you do not rest you may soon go and rest in peace. I used to work so much that I begin to feel guilty if I stand for just a minute without doing anything so serious. I always question the results of what I am doing. I remember asking someone to get adequate rest and the person who was beside me said, ‘see who’s asking someone else to get adequate rest.’ That statement hit me. Sometimes it is common sense to sleep for two hours, wake up and go for games rather than return to work immediately. A movie could do the magic because some people will not take a two hour break so when they break down they are forced to go for more than two weeks break. I must confess that there were times I only knew I was working hard by the pains I felt in my body. Thank God for pains. If not some us will just work and drop dead all of a sudden.

I tried registering my company myself because I knew I would not be able to do business with some people if I didn’t. From the out set I wasn’t planning to be a local champion so I needed to do things the right way. I went the Lagos State branch of the Corporate Affairs Commission to do a name search for the business. I paid for the search and for the first file. I was to return the following week but the name was nowhere to be found. I returned the following week to check the name and it still was nowhere to be found. I kept checking until I got tired of looking for a name that was not lost. I was spending too much on transportation and nothing was forthcoming.

At a time I got a big idea and decided to invest something into it so that the returns from it would pay back the money. It was a project that some people were supposed to be a part of simply by advertising what they did with just N1000. Guess what! I invested my school fees in the project! Almost immediately there was unrest in school so the advertisement for the project flopped and only about five people responded. I could not go on with the project, my school fee was gone, participants were not forth coming, and above all I looked deceptive to the few people who gave me money. It was more infuriating because what they gave me was not up to quarter of the school fees that I put in. Corporate Affairs Commission had frustrated my registration because of ineptitude in a jet age when I could sit at home and do all registration from my computer making payments with my debit card. Upon all these, the deadline for payment of school fees was approaching and there were threats of forfeiting studentship!

My challenge as an entrepreneur (18) – Fola Daniel Adelesi

Well I did not forfeit my studentship because someone temporarily bailed me out. In all of the situations I would say to you that money never scared me. It was a simple issue for me. There was no amount of money I spent that I could not earn. What I mean is that I had created products and services there were worth much more than whatever I was collecting from anybody so my debt was the kind of debt that you would call leverage because they were primarily to keep things running. I never borrowed to eat and in so many cases I did not deliberately borrow. Things just didn’t work according to plan so they turned out to be debts.

One of the ways in which I repaid my debts was by using the income from the products and services I had created. For example in 2005 I bought a newspaper on a Saturday in the month of June. While going through the paper I saw an advertisement from Yoruba Tennis Club, USA. All I needed to do was to write an essay to be a beneficiary of the scholarship that was being advertised! Writing that, for me, was a very simple thing to do. I had written several essays and had gotten certificates for those essays. As I write this I have two certificates from Goi Peace Foundation, Tokyo, Japan for essays written in 2004 and 2007 respectively. I have another from Kharis Awards, Ogun varsity Christian fellowship and some others. As a matter of fact, certificates are part of the interior decoration in my office to day. I wrote in for the Yoruba Tennis Club and posted my essay to US as requested. The postal service was supposed to cost about two hundred and fifty naira (N250) at that time but I remember I didn’t have all that money. I didn’t even have enough money to go to the post office so it was my vice president, Adeyemi Johnson Awobayo, who helped with the posting.

By January of the following year (2006) I walked into an auditorium only for me to realize that someone had been looking for me. I did not know why but it had something to do with my essay. Don’t let me bore you, the essay for which I did not have two hundred and fifty naira (N250) had fetched me twenty thousand naira (N20, 000). Another funny issue was that I had to make a series of phone calls to know who was holding unto the cheque. When I found out who was holding unto the cheque and where he lived, I didn’t have enough money to go to his house and return to my destination. Some how I could not get the required money but trust me! I didn’t sit down and hope for the money. I went to the man’s house to get my cheque but could not cash it because it was a Saturday and the banks don’t work on Saturdays. It was even a crossed cheque and I didn’t have a current account at the time.

When I was returning to my destination I begged the driver of the bus to bear with me that I didn’t have enough money. He did! I had to borrow some stipends to be able to get to the bank and sort the money. The bank where I was running my savings account was so blind that all they could see was a student who had a cheque and not a young entrepreneur. They told me that they do not allow students to run current accounts. I was mad! I made more enquiries and took my leaflet to another bank. They gladly took it from me an in no time the account was running. So it was a pay cheque from an essay that opened my first current account.

My challenge as an entrepreneur (19) – Fola Daniel Adelesi

Before the new bank had agreed to open a current account for me, I had been to that bank over and over again trying to talk the branch manager into one project or the other. I went to that bank on several occasions and got several, “I’m sorry, no response yet.” At a time I felt there was kind of immunity inside of me and that immunity was against giving up. I just had more than enough passion to keep running even in the most discouraging situations. I was so convinced that my ideas were unique so I knew that the problem was not with the packaging of the idea.

Let me say to you that despite all the “NOs” that I got from my bankers, I was building a rapport with them. My relationship was only further strengthened when I went to open an account with them. I remember the manager once strategically turned me off at a time when she asked if I had an account with them. I didn’t but just believed that they could still help if they bought into the vision. I didn’t think that they really had to wait for me to open that account before supporting my vision. Even after opening the account they still did not get down with my projects but one thing their refusals did to me was to keep working and to keep tasking my brain. Today I teach people how to raise capital for businesses not because I read up some information somewhere but because I had been turned down over and over again and still succeeded with the projects.

My doggedness and passion for doing things as seen by the banker eventually paid off. I was meeting nearly every new account officer and every new person in their marketing section. As I was meeting them I was building my rapport and was also getting very vital information form them. I learnt a lot about how bankers relate the young entrepreneurs and how they did with the already established ones. I also found out how banks could give organizations money even when some of those organizations still owed the banks. I learnt the importance of figures and not physical cash. Above all, I learnt about the weight of recognition because it is not a joke to get a banker’s recommendation. You could be in for a great time if your banker believes in you well enough to be able to recommend you concerning monetary issues.

At a time when I needed to sort some of my projects the bank was able to give me an overdraft to get them sorted but do not forget that I had been in a relationship with the bankers for nearly four years and consistency of character was not against me in the weights and balances.

At the time I took the overdraft, a university owed me 40 percent of the overdraft and at seven days to go they had not paid! Never panic is one of my personal slogans in business. If you don’t then you will realize that it is easier to get your solution. Panicking makes your solution look elusive. For this reason I have learnt to always remain calm no matter how serious cases seem to be to other people. There is a lot of strength in being calm and not in talking when you are trying to figure out what to do.

My challenge as an entrepreneur (20) – Fola Daniel Adelesi

I told you that a university owed me 40 percent of the overdraft the bank had given so I am sure you want to know where I got the remaining 60 percent. The 40 percent that the university was supposed to pay did not get to me until the very last day that the overdraft was to expire. Before you say thank God let me say to you that I was already in another state trying to get approval for the 60 percent left when the cheque for the forty percent was issued.

There was no way I could make it back to town before the bank would close. I had no one I could call for assistance so that the bank would at least see that a part payment was made. I became a little restless but was in Lagos to defend a proposal from which I was going to get the remaining money. I wanted that money paid that day. When finished defending the proposal I got an approval for the proposal. My bills were approved and I was asked to print everything for the boss. I felt a great relief but there was another issue on the way.

Just as I dropped copies of the proposal on the desk of the boss, I was asked to return on Monday for the payment! Friday was the deadline for my overdraft! My banker was waiting for me. I rushed bank to town and just as I was returning to town I got a sarcastic call from the banker. There was no money in my account but he said, ‘thank you for keeping to our agreement. I have seen the money you paid into the account.’ I didn’t know what he was talking about and could not figure it out until he came out plane. Then I told him that there was a cheque leaf that could serve as part payment. He was a little happy. He requested that I send it immediately. Bank had officially closed by 3pm. I was only able to send in my 40 percent payment by 5pm. By the time I got to the bank the guy in charge of the cheques had registered all so my cheque had to wait till Monday. That was serious for me but I did not spend the whole day thinking about it. I have learnt never to always put pains on my neck. I don’t have to work myself out because I can’t even change things.

I simply calmed down and waited till Monday. When the long awaited Monday came I rushed down to Lagos to get the remaining 60 percent from the client that I had done a proposal for. Thank God he opened the crossed cheque for me so I moved straight to the bank to pay in the money.

It was such a great relief to get out of that though it was almost late. When you plan certain things and even pray about them, let me shock you that they may not still work out at the exact timing you are trying to run with. In those times when it looks like things are not falling into place at the exact time they were anticipated to, you will often realize that patience is a great virtue. Calmness shows that you are strong and a positive mind confessing the opposite of what is seen will reveal your inner man.

You must have heard it said, times without number, that ‘circumstances don’t make men. They only reveal men.’ What you are going through will not necessarily change you. It will make you stronger in the paths you have chosen.

My challenge as an entrepreneur (21) – Fola Daniel Adelesi

Dealing with personal pains and rumours at some very crucial points in my life were some of the challenges that I faced and I will not say that my approach towards the issues were 100 percent fantastic but through it all I mastered the art of keeping quiet as often as I could.

When I was done with my first book, HOPE OF THE ZEALOTS, which was a compilation of poems from 18 other young authors and me, I had to face some of the most unrealistic assumptions. One of the things that I had going for me at this point was that all the papers I used, starting from when I put the idea on paper to when I began inviting people to be a part of what I was doing were intact. I could produce the papers for anyone who was interested and in some cases I did. My papers in the first place revealed that I had not forced anyone to let go off their intellectual properties. I did not take the poems behind anyone. They were not poems downloaded from the internet! Everyone who participated had willingly submitted the poems published. I also got them to submit their pictures though we did not use that eventually and all the letters I wrote to sponsors and the manager of the publishing outfit were properly kept.

The people who did not know all of these started shouting that I had published people’s poems without their permission. Some of them said that I also published the poems without attribution (acknowledging the authors by mentioning their names next to their works). Fortunately I had a copy of the book in my hands the day a concerned fellow came to tell me about the rumour. I simply brought out a copy and showed him the content page were all titles were listed under the authors’ names. Then I proceeded to show him the first few pages of the book. He knew immediate that he had been fed with the wrong information. One annoying thing is that those who will make the loudest noise concerning you are those who are not doing anything! They are always idle. The only great thing they have prospered in is rumour mongering. Unfortunately the rumours that may destroy you will never get to your ears in good time and the people who are spreading it will move and laugh with you as if all is well.

Except people confront me with issues I don’t go all out trying to address rumours because sometimes that attitude is a proof of either guilt or immaturity. When they confront me sometimes I don’t say anything beyond the fact that it is not true. I only talk extensively with the people I respect and submit to. In all situations you will always need some people to confide in. You may look so strong while going through those times of persecution from the mouth but in your inner man you are a broken person and you know there is no strength left in you.

These were some of the most vulnerable times for me because they were times I needed someone to talk to without being prejudged for whatever reason. I got people to talk to in some cases and in some others it looked as if the real people are out of the reach of anybody. It was a time for me to learn independence even when you really, really need people to help you!

My challenge as an entrepreneur (22) – Fola Daniel Adelesi

Having a laptop was a great leverage for me as a person and it sure is for all other people who mean business in the twenty first century but at the time it became so obvious that I needed one I could not, physically, afford it. In my mind I had come to a conclusion that there is nothing I cannot afford even if my bank statement does not confirm what I said. It is not the statement from the bank that says how much I am worth. It only reflects how much I have helped the bank in paying their staff salaries! That’s the way I think so I don’t let anyone box me into a corner by what the bank statement says.

I sat down to think and while I was with a few of the guys who were on my team in producing my first book, we thought about discussing the issue with the vice-chancellor of the university because we were students at that time. Sometimes I wonder what gave me the guts to walk up to some of the people I have walked up to. I may come back to ask after doing something, “How did I do that?” Well it has always been God and that is why my guts don’t fail and there is always a vital lesson to learn when they do not yield what I was really looking forward to.

We called the vice-chancellor and fixed a meeting. Every other thing one the agenda that night were not real issues. We only brought them up to take some time. The main agenda was the laptop. When the time finally came to talk about it I leaned forward on the leather seat in the inner sitting room of the vice-chancellor’s lodge. I did not waste too much time talking about it. I told him we needed a laptop. I told him why we needed it and said that we would be glad if the university would help.

Amazingly he simply told us to put it into writing and that work would commence on it. You can’t imagine, neither can I describe, how happy I was that night. The following morning the letter was ready and was sent to the vice-chancellor’s office immediately. The promise had been made, the letter had been written but we had come to a waiting period. I am not sure you know about bureaucracies and how frustrating they can be but if you do then you can imagine that we almost gave up. We waited several hours in the reception to know how far our letter had gone. When the letter got to the bursar we also had to wait for weeks to get approval. In all of those times we were confident that we were going to get the laptop because we had the promise and we got the promise not just from the vice-chancellor but from a man who is careful with words and conscious of integrity – Professor Afolabi Soyode, VC, Olabisi Onabanjo University, 2001-2006). I will continually be indebted to this great man for believing in a group of young people whose future were not glaring when they started out.

What’s the lesson here? Some entrepreneurs can’t ask for help even when it will help them to move to the next face of their businesses or projects. I have also been there and there were times I felt that I could have asked for more (in terms of my consulting bills) but I did not because I was afraid people would think my mouth is too big. I am not saying you should not be realistic when you need to ask for something and I am not saying you should go all out begging without differentiating between business leverage and begging to always eat. Always have it in mind that when nothing is ventured then nothing will be gained.

Learn to open your mouth because ability to open your mouth is a business capital on its own. When you open your mouth, don’t forget to say it right!

My challenge as an entrepreneur (23) – Fola Daniel Adelesi

After the first laptop I must say that series of other laptops have shown up for my business purposes. The exit of one usually led to the entrance of another. The exit of the first one which was a generous gift from a kind hearted vice-chancellor was a painful thing for me but I had to look away from it. I am going to talk briefly about it and talk about the other laptops just as they posed their challenges to my business as a public speaker and author who also has audio materials for sale.

If you have been following my series carefully then you must have read about the group I put together to publish the first book and how I also withdrew from the group because some people had divided the group and practically wanted to dictate how it should be run. The first and the most important issue for me is that the leader of the group whose vision is still very clear should be the one dictating the pace. There were unnecessary demands for some of the few things the organization had especially from the people who did not really need. One of the victims of such demands is the laptop.

I also wanted to be generous with it but at the same time I had to guard it jealously so that we could enjoy it for a long time. At this time, there was a distraction because the laptop became a subject matter in our meetings and we were not spending enough time talking and planning for the project on ground.

While this was going on, Edward Wise, a guy I had worked with when he was running Zion Culture, a multimedia outfit, made a reference to something Arch Bishop Benson Idahosa said. He said that when people steal from you, be it your ideas, properties or any other thing, it always look like taking a cup out of the ocean. The ocean does not feel the absence of a cup of water. When he was directing his words to me he told me not to bother because those were people fighting over one thing that my vision generated and that if my vision generated one, it will generate much more than what they are fighting for. That was how I had to forget about the first laptop and I don’t know its custodian as I write.

Some of my computer works had to wait till I was at home where I could use my desktop and others had to be done in cyber cafes. A few months later I put in for a screening exercise where I was finally selected along with another lady, Abosede Abike Dipeolu who I prefer to address as Tosin, to represent the university in the Nigeria International Model United Nations’ Conference which was scheduled to hold in Port-Harcourt, Rivers State, Nigeria. We needed a laptop and time was not on our side so the Deputy Registrar for students, Mrs. A.A Odusanya gave us her laptop. After the conference, I got to know her better and our performance during the conference gave the two of us, me and the other participant, easy access to the Directorate of student affairs and some preferential treatments.

Maximizing opportunities had been a part of my vocabulary for a long time so I took advantage of that to collect the Deputy Registrar, Students’ laptop to do a lot of the things I needed to do. Initially the laptop stayed with me overnight and then I graduated into days and into weeks before I graduated into months. I had it for months but something went wrong. When I was to return the laptop it was already developing faults I did not know about. I only taught it was slow and could be formatted to get the best of it again. When it got to the experts they said it was the board! Unknowingly I had been using it on my mattress since my room was my office and the heat the laptop emitted was not escaping. The Deputy Registrar did not hold it against me. She asked me to send it to the engineer for fixing but she paid!

My challenge as an entrepreneur (24) – Fola Daniel Adelesi

A lot of people have asked me questions about how I fund the publishing of my books especially because they knew I did not have any income apart from the honourarium I was given after speaking in some meetings. Some of the envelopes given during those times could barely cover for transportation back home and in so many cases there were no envelopes at all. I just look at myself and laugh when I remember that my first envelope after speaking in a meeting while still in secondary school or call it high school was two hundred naira (N200). That was a budget for a high school modest launch!

With time I started packaging some of my lectures on CDs for sale and it was not bringing in so much profit because some people didn’t want to buy from a speaker whose face was not familiar to them. Others who wanted to buy only expressed desires. They didn’t have money, or so I taught so I sometimes got so angry that they could not afford a cheap CD and would give it out to them. The only other income that I got was my allowance as a university student at that time and I have talked about how the allowance I had not received had gone into somebody else’s pocket already because I had done conferences that left me with debts. So I obviously did not save enough money to be able to publish a book.

Apart from my first book which was sponsored by the university management, the second was a little hectic. What I refer to as a little hectic here would mean terribly hectic to another person. From May 22nd 2007, I started writing for sponsorship of my book. I wrote directly to the head of the organization. I wrote to the manager of the publishing outfit in order to negotiate an installment payment mode. The head of the organization was not responding so I started writing to him through some of his subordinates who were held in high esteem. The subordinates also helped by writing internal memo and attaching them to my original letters. This went on until May 2008. Remember I had been writing since May 2007. I printed several letters and made several photocopies as a proof of follow up. I made series of endless calls and sent emails but there was no result. I had tried a couple of other places and I remember very well that one of the people I approached said that the money I was requesting was enough to start a publishing out fit of my own. I wrote to some others who simply filed my letters in their cabinets and that was it.

Finally, my 23rd birthday was approaching in year 2008 and I wanted the new book to be one of the things I could point to. I had a goal but some bottle necks were standing in the way so I changed my strategy. I woke up one morning with ten naira in my pocket and I opened my mouth to say that I am not coming back to this house with anything less than ten thousand naira. Though I did a little calculations of some money I expected but that will not make up to ten thousand. Just as I walked out of my room, less than five minutes after speaking in faith, I was called upon and offered fifty thousand naira. I will talk more about this partnership later. With the fifty thousand, I called the publisher, paid forty so that he could commence work and I used ten thousand to prepare the launching. Some books were made available and the launching yielded more than two hundred thousand naira already received. Sounds nice but read about the challenges of the launching.

My challenge as an entrepreneur (25) – Fola Daniel Adelesi

Let me say emphatically that my launching was a success because of some of the challenges I had gone through. You have read some of them and I am still going to talk about some of them now and even later. I am sure you have not forgotten I said that I prepared my book launch with ten thousand naira. That sounds ridiculous to some people and by now you might be asking what kind of launching it was.

Don’t forget that I did several conferences and seminars that landed me in debts so I greatly utilized the lessons from the previous seminars when I needed to do my book launch. Don’t forget that I had been writing and speaking consistently with or without pay so I was building relationships and gaining credibility from students and lecturers at the same time. Don’t forget that it was consistency that helped me scale through the screening exercise where the representatives of the school at Nigeria International Model United Nations were selected.

After my selection to represent the school I met with the Dean of student affairs and the Deputy Registrar, students. I also met with the Welfare Officer of the university who accompanied us to Port-Harcourt and Abuja respectively. I sustained my relationships even after the conferences so when I needed to do my book launch it was much easier than it would have been for many other people who do not have the kind of relationships that I have. I needed to use one of the big halls in the university without paying a penny. The university does not charge for the halls but again I am sure you have not forgotten the bureaucracies I told you about. I sometimes wonder why it takes donkey years to do what can be done in a few minutes and executed in a few hours.

I did not have to go through all of that again. I only directed my letter to the Dean of faculty of Science, the one who would approve the letter, through the Dean of Students, Professor Dolapo Alabi, the one who knew me so well. He simply wrote a sentence on my letter and asked me to take it to the faculty of science. By the time I went back for my approval I realized that the letter was approved the following day. Now let me tell you the gravity of that instant approval. I once requested to use the same hall that I used for my book launch. I wrote my letter well in advance and kept visiting the office in charge to get my approval. Days after days and weeks after weeks went by without any approval yet and the conference date was drawing near. I fixed a deadline when I expected to get the approval. I changed my venue since they did not meet my deadline and started my publicity with the new venue in view. You will be surprised that the letter requesting approval from the university for an auditorium was sent to the Directorate of student affairs a day before the conference was to be held and at a time when non of the staff could perform a magic. The officer who would attend to the letter would only see it in the morning, the day for the conference, and would still send it back to the faculty for final approval. If I waited for all this imagine what mess would be made out of the conference.

I took a great advantage of my relationships (built since year one) with some top management officials to give the book launch a face lift. The Vice-Chancellor was hooked up in a meeting and could not attend the launch but there was a strategic plan on ground. I had successfully brought Mr. Chika Nwaozuzu, the Faculty Adviser of Nigeria International Model United Nations’ Society (NIGMUNS) from Abuja since we had participated in their conferences and I had been appointed as Secretary General of year 2008. I knew that the Vice-Chancellor would gladly host Mr. Chika so what I did was to talk to the Dean of Students, Professor Alabi. Professor Alabi was talking to the vice-chancellor and I was talking to Mr. Chika. That was the secret of getting Mr. Chika to meet the vice-chancellor and I took great advantage to present my books to the vice-chancellor. He talked about youth endeavours and he launched my book publicly. Trust me. I took pictures with all the principal officers of the university and a hot shot with the vice-chancellor. Don’t miss hot shots when you can get them. You never can tell where they will be useful.

My challenge as an entrepreneur (26) – Fola Daniel Adelesi

One of the things that I have settled in my mind is that challenges will never end. You will have to live with them for the rest of your life because it is challenges that will reveal who you are and they will be your tickets to access some locked doors. You don’t get promoted in life if you do not have some challenges you are dealing with and the challenges will make you credible enough to talk to some other people. Some people will tell you point blank that you are not qualified to talk to them if you have not been through what they have been through.

Your challenges are the certifications you have to counsel people around you. Don’t just grab the microphone when you only have the theories. I will advise you wait till you have been beaten, battered and bashed before you plan to address a group of people who have learnt the art of smiling through pains. You have read about two of my successful book launches and you may be thinking they were amazing. Before you start calculating without any reality in your mind let me give you a bit of what I went through after the launching.

Several cheques came in during and immediately after the book launch and some others did not come in instantly. As for the ones that I got immediately, some did not give me any problem but others did. I remember entering a bank and was told to contact the owner of the account. I am sure you know what that means. I got cheques from different banks and had to go from one bank to another nearly everyday. All these were not the real challenges since the money was coming in and I was doing some of the things I wanted to at the time. My real headache came with a cheque from an institution. It was a chque of N25,000 but I had to start counting days and then weeks and then months for the cheque to be finally approved. I was told to write a letter formally requesting action to be taken on the donation made publicly. After writing the letter I needed to wait for some time.

Several issues came up in the organizations and there were industrial actions in between. My letter was received in July but the approval for the cheque did not come until October. October! Yes you saw what I wrote clearly. Waiting for a cheque from July to October meant traveling for two hours from one state to another almost every week, though I had some other things to do there. So don’t think I was going solely for the cheque. It was not an interesting thing for me at all because the cheque had been spent before it came so the figure was just as useful as the paper on which it was written. Even though it tarried, I waited for it and it came to pass. One other thing I did not fail to do was to make sure that there is a copy of that cheque in my file. You know that the big name on the cheque can be a reference point for me later.

Waiting can be frustrating sometimes but it does help so wait for it.

My challenge as an entrepreneur (27) – Fola Daniel Adelesi

I can call this one the voyages of an entrepreneur and I am sure many other young entrepreneurs would have experienced the same thing. Except for those who have some big leverages to start with, you sure would be able to identify with this one. On several occasions in the city of Ago-iwoye, if you know that town in Ijebu North Local Government of Ogun State, I have had cause to walk from a place called Ita-Merin to Igan road and then to the campus area of Olabisi Onabanjo University.

One of my highly revered friends, Oyinkansola Alabi, who was staying behind on campus at that time because she was retained as the campus pastor of Springs of Life Fellowship, wanted my service and I had to go over to see her. She was staying in Lecturers’ quarters, Awa, Oru at that time and I was staying in Ago-Iwoye. When she sent her message I was actually walking down to Ita-Merin from Igan road so as soo as I got her message I just took one of the things I was going to need in her place and started another walk from Ago-Iwoye to Awa, another town within the local government just to do business.

There was a day I needed to get some materials for my audio production and printer from the computer village in Ikeja, Lagos, Nigeria. I had enough cash to go down but there would be no cash to come back but I had a choice. What did I do? Business must continue so I went on to the village to get the things I wanted to get. When I had gotten all the things I wanted to get I started walking from Ikeja to Ojota. I really do not know the distance but I might just get someone to tell me the distance so that I can tell you later.

I needed to travel one morning but I did not have any cash to travel. It was an important journey so all I could do was to visit Pneuma Bookstore, one of the book stores that sell my materials. I did not even have enough cash to move from my house to where Pneuma Bookstore is located so I did something very simple. If I was to go by a bus I would have boarded a bus from Mile 12 to Ojota and then go on a bike from Ojota to Ikosi road in Ikeja. Since there was no money I had to trek from Mile 12 to Ketu Bus stop. From Ketu bus stop I turned right and walked straight down so that I could use a pedestrian bridge connecting Ketu to Ikeja. When I was climing the bridge I was in ketu but by the time I was climing the bridge I was already in Ikeja. What a wonderful bridge! The bridge I am talking about is very close to Seven Up bottling company and Pneuma Book Store is on the street behind Seven Up so I patiently walked down through the street.

Getting to the book store was a great relief but I had a shocker-in-waiting when I got to the book store! The security guys told me that the bookstore was not going to open, for that day, until it was 12pm. When I looked at my wrist watch it was barely 9am! I was not going to be allowed to stay in the premises without a purpose so I had to walk out of the premises back to Mobolaji Johnson Avenue, where Seven Up is located. I walked the length of Mobolaji Johnson Avenue and connected with some other streets whose names have I cannot remember but I was headed for the Elephant Cement House which was on a street behind Lagos Television in Ikeja.

The voyage within the Elephant House was another issue. I wanted to see Mr. Debo Abodunrin of CMOE consulting. I left his complimentary card at home but I remember he said the office was on the fourth floor of wing F. The security guy at the door misled me. I was in the backyard but I was thinking it was wing F. I moved round the whole complex from first floor to about the sixth floor. I walked from door to door but did not see any name. Unfortunately the number of the man was on the card that I left at home. The endless search took my time until it was 12pm so I walked from Elephant House back to Pneuma Book Store on Ikosi road. The store had finally opened when I got there and was glad to see that they had sold some of my CDs so I gladly walked up the Mr. Kunmi, the Manager of the store. When I finished talking I realized he couldn’t help. Yes they are my CDs but I did not inform him that I was going to come for some cash. So he gave me a date that was a about two weeks away from the day I went to the store. Again, I began another walk back to Seven Up so that I could use the Pedestrian bridge connecting Ikeja to ketu. I continued from Ketu to Mile 12 and then to Agiliti where I had my first office. I have done series of walking. I only mentioned some.

My challenge as an entrepreneur (28) – Fola Daniel Adelesi

Rejection is a consistent road bloc in the journey of any entrepreneur and our responses to the rejection will simply reveal who we are. Some people withdraw into self-pity after the rejection and the aggressive nature of some people comes out as a result of the rejection. I am not usually surprised when I see young or old entrepreneurs fighting the receptionists or fighting the security guys just to see the “man-in-charge.” Some of the receptionists or the security guys are simply wicked and they sometimes ask the kind of questions that dummies will not ask you so I do not know what name to call them though I do not wish to call them names.

Unfortunately it infuriates me more because I am in the field of Human Capacity Building so I wonder why people employ some misfits into their organizations. The word “misfit” in this context is appropriate because anyone who works with you and has not been trained in the ethics of your business especially the way your visitors should be treated would start out on a plan of action to ruin your business. So many business people think they are making money but if they are aware of how many millions and billions are being turned back from their receptions then they would realize they are not making any money.

I remember walking into a computer manufacturing company with an idea to be sold to the company. I told the receptionist I wanted to talk to the Marketing Manager and the receptionist was asking, “what for?” If the receptionists will take questions on behalf of the Marketing Manager then the Marketing Manager is useless! I gave a hint on why I needed to see the Marketing Manager and the young lady proceeded to ask me some other foolish questions. I kept calm but I was furious within. I felt like lashing out at her because if she knows the definition of business and if she had read her employment letter then she would understand that it is not her job to “sieve” people who come into the organization. A lot of us are like the proverbial books that should not be judged by the cover. Some people have met me and are really surprised by my real personality. Sometimes I look too small compared to the capacity of the person they have heard about so when they are looking for me they expect to see a tall guy with a broad chest always dressed in suit.

People should always have it in mind that there are some of us who do not have identity crisis so we can wear anything and still know so well who we are. I do not need a suit to tell me who I am and I don’t have to wear what everybody wears so that I can be accepted in the society. I want to go to places where I am accepted just the way I am and not where I have to dress to look like someone else.

In some other offices where they don’t seem to look at what I wear, they just collect the letters brought to them and file the letters. The letters sometimes never get to the appropriate quarters. Let me warn you if you are involved in this kind of act in your office. You cannot hinder the progress of others and keep progressing. If you want someone to be stuck on one spot, most times you would have to be there to keep the person on that spot. You will stay down to keep people down! The way up is to let people go up! I have had to make several phone calls consistently to follow up some proposals but you often find out that the people in charge are doing nothing about the proposals but they keep assuring you that they are doing something about it. After some time their phone lines become inaccessible. Out of every ten people you meet, you may find only one acceptance but it is not a reason to stop. I had to keep at it and I kept learning. Rejection can be discouraging but it does equip your inner man from time to time.

My challenge as an entrepreneur (29) – Fola Daniel Adelesi

There are two business rules you must not violate. The first is to put your passion before your profession and the second is to professionalize your passion. Simply put, these two rules can be rephrased to mean that you must only build a business around your passion and take your passion as a serious business. And understanding of this rule helped me in some of my challenges.

Keeping streams of income because of cash flow is one of the issues a lot of business people will get involved with but unfortunately a lot of business people will lose their focus because they want to keep their cash flow by increasing streams of income. Don’t let me go too far with words and forget the real issues. When some business people see that the sales of a product is skyrocketing, they drop whatever they initially chose to sell and they go for the new product with skyrocketing sales. At the end of the day too many people who should not be in a field get into the field and make that business reach its peak faster than it should. According to the law of diminishing returns, that business then begins to go down sooner than expected. At this time all the people who have rushed into it begin to rush out of it.

Sometimes this happens because so many business people do not have a plan of action. They simply want to go into business and the truth is that some of the people who want to go into business do not really know what they want to sell. They only want to sell whatever is selling. They don’t have anything they have sat down to think about so that they can present it to the market in a unique manner.

When sachet water business started in Nigeria one could easily begin to imagine where all the people who started the business used to be and you definitely would ask what they were doing before the business came into the scene. Some other people who were rendering some other vital services to the community left what they were doing when motorcycles started offering commercial services in towns. Again, where all these people used to be is an issue and the more important thing is what were they doing before? I have been tempted to go into a number of things as well so I understand what some of these people are going through.

So many people have come to me with some Multi-Level Marketing schemes and you can see some of them talking almost aggressively about the programmes. I looked at some of them an simply kept quiet. Initially I was being diplomatic about turning these people down but when I realized that they were going talk me out of my focus I became straightforward with them. sometimes I was blunt. A lot of these guys who have gone into marketing are people who should have their own products but they do not have the patience to sit down with their brain child and make it work. They are more concerned about cash flow and streams of income instead of sticking to what they are cut out for. you may succeed in some other things but never as much as you would have if you are doing what you are cut out for.

When people try to talk me into marketing a product right now I just show them my series of audio and video CDs, my books and other products. “I have enough products to market,” I now say to them so that they don’t talk me into what they think I can do. So many people have been talked into what their friends think they can do and not what they should be doing.

My challenge as an entrepreneur (30) – Fola Daniel Adelesi

Placing priority over perfection rather than starting something is one great challenge that critics will make you face and if you listen to them well enough you will soon pack up because you will forget that it is important to start in a crude manner instead of waiting till it can be done perfectly.

I studied Mass Communication in the university and I majored in Public Relations in the last two years of study. While searching the internet one day about the history of telephones I realized that the telephone was an accident. Read what I found out :

Bell had built an experimental telegraph, which began to function strangely one day because a part had come loose. The accident gave Bell insight into how voices could be reproduced at a distance, and he constructed a transmitter and a receiver…

If you read that paragraph clearly then you would see that even the telegraph that they had built was an experimental telegraph. If they had not built and experimental telegraph they would not have invented the telephone that you and I enjoy today.

One evening I was trying to sell copies of CDs to a group of friends but there was a new person among them who did not know me before that day. He collected the CDs and all he could do was complain about some things that needed to be done. He complained about the graphics that even a blind man can feel and say this is excellent for a start. When I examined him I realized that he was not even doing anything in business line so lashed him intelligently and walked away. Please not that I did not abuse. All the friends at that time were students of law. I had been told initially that when a lawyer knows he cannot win a case he sometimes resorts to adding some nuisance value to the issue to confuse every other person. When I said that to him his fellow law students pitied him.

Some other people pick up my first and second books but they don’t see anything positive. All they see is what is not right about what you have done. I look at them and wonder what planet they came from. Unfortunately those who will condemn your works the most are those who have not attempted anything huge enough to be called a task. Some of them have not succeeded at half of what you have done. When you make bold to ask them questions about what they are doing you will realize that they are the kind of people who will tell you they are waiting for the right time or the perfect time. Some of them claim to be waiting for enough resources but they will heckle those who have done something.

Let me boldly say that it is mediocrity or the fear of failure that makes some people do nothing and still claim to be waiting for the right time. What I advocate is to start what you have to in whatever way you can but keep improving on what you do. Sam Adeyemi is a speaker that I revere and he has a taste for quality in book production. One day when I visited a friend of mine who was student chaplain in Covenant University, Shade Oduekun, one out of a set of triplets who sister, Fehintola Oduekun was Senior Prefect girl when I was Senior Prefect boy in Mayflower School, I was shocked to see one of the first prints of Sam Adeyemi’s books. It was a copy of “The Parable of Dollars.” I simply could not match the packaging of that book with the Sam Adeyemi I now know. He started from somewhere and kept improving.

Ibukun Awosika, the CEO of the Chair centre, will tell you to start anyhow! She said she started her office from an uncompleted building and her instruments were those of the carpenters whose services she asked for. I have not said you should not do things well but make sure you start and keep improving. The automobiles should be a good example for us all. Many of us cannot imagine that the cars we admired 30 years ago are the same cars we ridicule today. Go on the internet and see the first models of automobiles. Start anyhow, keep improving but don’t pack up because of perfectionists. Some of them will not buy your products even if you improve on them so develop hypertension because of some jobless people?

Ediblepen (talk) 18:26, 4 October 2009 (UTC)