It's Not a Race: Dealing with the Success of Others in Business

Hello, and welcome to the show. We're taking today's recording from my desk and of course, the kids are home, so I expect to hear the usual interruptions in the background. Now, this is your first time listening to the show. The goal of this show is free business education. So stick around because you might learn a thing or two. And if you find that you've gotten lots of value from it by the time you're done listening to the episode, please share,

promote. I'll talk about the show so that your friends and family members in Nigeria and abroad can benefit from the questions that we tackle over here. And if you have further sales or marketing questions, then you can call SMS or WhatsApp me on 08064662140. The country code is +234 for those of you who are not Nigerian. So today on the show we're going to look at the question, what to do when your friend gets £15,000,000.

Yes, I repeat, what are you supposed to do when your friend gets £15,000,000? And some of you are wondering where did that come from and why? It's very simple. So it is the context. My friend, Well, not really a friend because we went to the same school together. I mean, at this point it's more like an acquaintance. I mean, you know how it is in university, you know, you meet people, you know, you guys chill out once in a while, interesting conversations, that sort of thing.

But then you graduate, you know, you get families, you move to different cities and then in after time you kind of fall apart. Now Kyodo runs an outfield called Caena that is CAENA and I think they're in the analytics business and they do fundraising for startups. So not just fundraising, but you know, sharp finance related stuff for startups. And he's based in the UK. So he's one of those people who didn't come back, you know, so a bunch of us, you know, moved out, did the masters, you know,

worked a bit and then came back. Well, he's one of the people who stayed behind. Now Caddy and I, the reason why we know each other is because back in OAU days, I think he was in the, I think was an engineering department or something like that. So I was in law and then, you know, you know how it is now, you know, I was in law, some people in hockey, some people in medicine, you know, stuff like that. So I think it was one of those engineering people.

And apart from way to OU, we also work together on a couple of committees. There was this body that we were both members of, that's the NFCS, that's the Nigerian Federation of Catholic Students. I'm not sure if it's still in existence anymore. So yeah, we both served on a couple of committees then. So, and it has the back story. That's how, you know, over 2 decades ago. That's how, you know, Caddy and I met, you know, to be frank, I

kind of remember how long it's been since we've known each other. So one day I was just minding my business now, just chilling on LinkedIn because that's the only social media that I have. And then I saw the News Live and direct that Karate had just exited his company or he had been bought out in his company to the tune of £15,000,000. And I repeat 15 big ones, 1,000,000 lbs, not 15,000,000 Naira. I see £1,000,000. So of course once I saw it now my reaction was like ah correct,

carried in on makeup, carried in on cash out, you know, and I thought let me call him to congratulate him. They're just no, let me just ask you, the phone is probably going to be busy, you know, as the news has just dropped. So you know, people just be bugging up his phone, you know, that kind of thing. So it's OK, I'll just holler the guy later. Now then I was minding my business. Now is there anything just dawned on me?

I now had a WTF moment and I was like 50,000,000 lbs. I just brought up my phone. I just checked the calculator because I have the currency app it's inbuilt into my phone and I just I ran the numbers and if the nobody thing gave me was 32.3 billion naira, I say haha. I say no no no, no, no, no no no. I hit C erased. I did the thing again £50 million. The number came back, 32.3 billion naira is then, you know, I started to have my own WTF

moment. Some of you might be thinking, no, no, this unrealistic, this kind of thing never happens. But actually, yeah, it does happen all the time. It's just the peculiarities of the naira in relation to the dollar and relation to the pound. So there are people who raise money in dollars, you know, get finance financing in dollars and in pounds and then come and start businesses in Nigeria, which I think one of the reasons why fintech companies were the rage, you know, a while back in Nigeria because you can go to you know, America or the UK,

you're going to raise some small coins. You know, you raise maybe like $5,000,000 or something. But The thing is by the time you raise 5 M in dollars and you come and you know, you translate into naira, you know, the thing now becomes, you know, huge now becomes, you understand now as a huge. So it's one of these things. So don't say no, it's not possible. These things don't happen yet they do happen. If all you have to do is pay attention to the right blog post or subscribe to the right newsletters.

You always hear about all this Nigerian company, this Nigerian startup raise $10 million seed funding or founder also so, so and so exits you know $3,000,000 is that that that? So it happens all the time. So it is doable in case one of those people who think Oh no, these things don't happen. Anyway, so back to what I said. Now, like I said, I was having my own WTF moment. Now, I remember that before Carrie D left his job in investment banking and went into the startup because it's something that he's been public about and it's something that some of us talk about.

You know, his wife, he was in support of him resigning to get the job. Or by the way, this is a, a big thank you to wives, girlfriends, husbands, you know, supportive spouses who get fully behind when someone decides that, OK, you know what? This is the business we're going to run. This is how we're going to do. This is how we're going to do that. I mean, there's some of you that are absolute troopers. You just go 100% like I'm your ride or die.

We'll make this thing happen. So this is just to say thank you to you spouses that stand behind those of us who don't take the traditional career out yet. Let me put it that way. So that was my first WTF moment. I was now thinking, ah, man, his wife supported him, he resigned and man, that's a good, that's a good ROI. Like £50 million, that's good. Return on investment, 32 billion naira, that's, that's some good cash.

That's really good. So that's my first WTF moment. I was now thinking, where's my own ROI for my wife? I mean, like Cardi has done this thing. Yeah, sure. It took a very long time, Basha. The thing clicked eventually and depending on how you look at it, my guy is 15 M good in pounds or 32B good in naira. Now, of course, when these things happen, it's not as if they'll just drop the whole money inside your account like that.

No, no, no. These things are, you know, typically structured, you know, receive some cash upfront. Maybe you now receive some company stock and then there's some deferred payment here because I want you to remain and as a consultant or something, something, something. So whenever you see the headlines and you hear that your classmate just cashed out £50 million, you know, it's not as if they transferred £50 million to his account.

Bam. It means the total worth of everything is £15,000,000. But it doesn't mean that that's all the cash you receive. So small cash went on your hand. Small bonus will come like this. This one will be deferred when you hit this milestone, this one. So there's a way that these things are structured, but the thing shies any which way, any which way, it's not a bad deal. So does my own WTF moment. I was now thinking, you know,

where's the arrow wife for my own wife now. Now for people who have supported me in my own in my own journey. And then I will started thinking no more. I would want to do this to myself because when I was younger, I really had a lack of focus, you know, going into law. It's not as if I decided I kind of fell into law. The next thing you know, I'm doing photography, The next thing you know I'm doing music production, the next thing you know, me and my brother wearing this export business and the next thing you know, I'm making documentaries.

I just like I it's my fault self. Why didn't I just stay and focus? And then I now started getting into anger issues, you know, like serious anger issues, like I'm the one that did myself. But then I remember the one sermon that I listened to a long time ago, long, long time ago. Now, even though I'm Catholic, you know, it doesn't stop me from listening to material from other preachers. And there's this guy that I like, TD Jakes Bishop.

TD Jakes, a pastor, he writes books and then he also does movies and stuff like that. I think, I think he's a correct guy if you're looking at things from an entrepreneurial point of view. I think TD Jakes, that's the guy to look to. Because if I consider him more as a businessman than a pastor, to be honest, that's just the vibe I get from him. So I saw this material about where TDJ was talking about how A1 period in his life, like he was having some mild beef, like serious beef, serious jealousy issues because he was staying there in his own small church,

you know, small congregation. Meanwhile, his people, his contemporaries, all of them building mega churches. Anyhow, mega church here, mega church here expanding 2 branch, 3 branch, 5 branch each branch mega church. And he said was in a really bad spot. And so one day he just realized that he needed to just relax and free this thing. And so he prayed to God. I told God, I look, this guy is blowing, this guy is hammering,

this guy is he's making it. Father, Lord, you know, I thank you for their life and I thank you for the blessings that all of them are enjoying. Continue to bless them, continue to progress them. My father has progressed them. Me too. Bless the worker of my own hand. Bless the worker of my own hustle so that your own good time, my own will blow. And now it's a simple prayer. The first time I heard it, the reason why I struck a chord in me was because, I mean, there's some people who will never admit to this, but for those of us who do, it's not an easy thing.

So for TD Jakes to admit, it's not an easy thing. For me to admit, it's not an easy thing staying there, minding your own business. You know something happens to one of your boys and of course you're happy. But then the WTF moment, now sing, sing and now start feeling one kind because somebody else is making progress. So if you're like me, you're just chilling and your classmate has gotten £50 million. If you're one of those people who's prone to these sorts of feelings, I understand perfectly well.

Just know that you're not alone. There's a couple of us who are dealing with these sorts of things. When that happens, honestly, I really think the best thing we can do is just free it and give it up to God, The Heavenly Father. God, they don't make up the guy, don't hammer £15,000,000. Continue to bless him, continue to progress him, continue to move him forward, you know, continue to move him until he arrives at his promised land.

But then me also, Heavenly Father rid me of these feelings. Be with me, help me, grow me, help me to become a better man. I mean, of course, if you're a woman listening, help me to become a better woman. And then also bless me for the work of my hands and prepare me so that I'm fully equipped, I'm fully prepared, and I'm ready for when you take me to the place that you are prepared for me. That's most honest, most basic thing that you can do for those of you who have those feelings,

for those of you who never have these kind of feelings. OK, no problem. I guess just turn off the episode then or skip to another episode. Let me talk to people who go through these WTF moments. That's the best you can do. Thank God for the person's life. Ask God to continue to bless the person. Ask God to help you and to heal you. And ask God to to prepare you, to shape you, and to mold you for when your own time comes.

Because truth of the matter is to build a start up to the level that other people are willing to say or more. This, this, this thing is tight. Let me collect it from you. Are you collect £15,000,000. You know, it takes a lot. That's a whole level of discipline. There's a whole level of skill. There's a whole level of yeah, I know I talk about operating procedures a lot, but there's a whole lot of frameworks in place. I mean, think about what it takes to build a team like that.

When you're managing people, managing locations, managing inventory. It takes a lot. So that's the best you can do. Let's pray. Ask God to keep blessing the person. Pray to God, ask Him to bless you. Ask Him to keep working on you and to prepare you for when your own time comes. And then there's this thing about social media. Unfortunately, because we have social media now, the problem is a whole lot of us are having WTF

moments every single month. That's the problem. It's not as if this thing hasn't always happened. It has. It's just that in the good old days, by the time you hear that Carly has, you know, blown and has gotten 15 M pounds, The thing is, you know, you'd only hit a class reunion or something. You only hear that kind of just maybe like once in a year. But because of social media now, everybody's connected and people are trying to, you know, hype themselves, trying to blow themselves up.

Everybody's putting up the highlight reel. We get to see these things every month or maybe every week. So maybe that's just a problem now. So for some of us, we need to take it easy and maybe not consume social media that much. Or when we consume social media, we just take it with a grain of salt that everybody is just showing their own highlight reel. They're showing the best things. They're not showing necessarily the worst things.

So maybe we should take some of these things with a pinch of salt. Anyway, the biggest clicker I'll be the biggest thing at the end of the day was remember I said when that news dropped on the Internet said was April first. It turns out the whole thing was an April Fool's joke after all. So Kara did not make out with 15 M So no, he does not have 32.3 billion naira, but still, check out his stuff. Like I said, the company's Kaena CAENA and check him out, see the kind of things that he's into.

If nothing else, all those of you listening to this podcast to be inspired and to broaden your horizons. You know, we Nigerians were sharp or smart. We're aggressive, we're go getters, we're working in different fields, we're doing different things, we're all in different kinds of endeavors. So I always want people to go outside, go and see what we are doing. Go and see what sharp boys, sharp games, sharp sharp babes,

sharp girls, women are doing. So look at this company. Look out there, you social media the right way. You follow me on LinkedIn. Follow people like him on LinkedIn. Small time it will, it will show suggested. You can also follow these headlines, follow these kind of people as well. Open your eyes, broaden your horizons. See what we Nigerians are doing out there in the world, both home and abroad. But most important lesson is this.

Yeah, he did April Fools on all of us. He doesn't have 15 M, But The thing is, those of us who are like TD Jakes and me who have these WTF moments, you know, when you hear that somebody don't make up the guy on blue, the guy don't elevate, you know, the guy don't transform, the guy don't materialize, you get into these WTF moments, whether is it proposed or not, there's some work we need to do on ourselves. We need to get ready with hard work, with patience and perseverance and with prayers and we'll get there.

So that's why I made today's episode. Just in case you're like me, you're just minding your business next year, you're here, they're a guy that has £15,000,000. And then you now fall into the what the this is what you do anyway. So that's all for today folks. If you've got questions that are sales and marketing related, of course, I didn't see anything sales and marketing related today. But even though the focus of this year is business education,

typically I look at things from sales and business, business development perspective. So who knows, maybe one day if I run into carried, yeah, I might. Yeah, I think I should do that. If I run into him, we should make that an interview session. I think will be a good thing for you guys to hear, not just the personal side, you know, how did he decide? Because remember when we talk about starting a business, the framework that I put over here is starting a business in three easy steps involve making sure you have the right idea, making sure that there's market demand or that the business is doable,

it's feasible, and making sure that you can have the right selling framework around that idea. So be nice to have a job with him or some other individuals like him. So how did you decide? How did you know this was the right idea? How did you come up with the MVP? How did you achieve product market fit? How are you guys sure that there's market demand? How are you guys sure that this idea was going to work? How did you come up with the selling frameworks?

How did you get your first set of 10 clients? 20-30, Fifty 101,000. Yeah, that'll be a good conversation to have anyway. So if you have sales and marketing questions now, remember you can call SMS or WhatsApp me on 08064662140. The country code is +234. So thank you very much for your time and attention. I'll catch you guys at the next episode. And God willing, no matter how long, hopefully we'll all get to the point where we can wake up one day, open our bank accounts and see that we have £15,000,000

richer. So I'll catch you guys at the next episode.