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Hello and welcome to the show. Today is going to be a noisy episode because it's a full house, the kids are home and I'm not in the audio booth, so let's head straight to business. Today is going to be a round wing episode because there are a number of things that I want to touch on. So this is not going to be one of those organised episodes, but the first thing I want to tackle is a couple of ideas about how to transition out of the sales role because I have made podcasts in the past, podcast episodes in the past where people are considering I'm about to take a sales job.
I would love to try out something sales marketing related. How do I get into the profession? So today I'm going to do a podcast episode where we'll look at what to do if you happen to be on the way out. Because I've always assumed making this podcast, that a whole bunch of us have embraced our identity as salespeople and are fully trying to take on board all the skills, all the principles, all the concepts that we discuss here and use that to move our businesses and our careers forward.
But it never actually crossed my mind that there are some people who will come in and taste and decide that, look, this is not for me and decide to come out for whatever reason. So with today's episode, I'm going to start exploring the subject. What do you do if you've come in, you've tasted this world of sales and you figure, like, man, this thing is not for me. I want to transition out. So we're going to start exploring some of these things.
But like I said, today's 1 is going to be a rambling episode. I'm going to take my time, give it more thought, and then come up with that episode where I give a much more structured approach about what to do if you're on your way out. But for now, let me just start the conversation. And before we get into the details, like to do the usual shout out. And today I'm going to be shouting out. Sul Sulami. I'm sorry. Hold on.
How is this going again? OK. Sulami Adekunle Abubakar. Yeah. Sulami Adekunle Abubakar. Sorry for pronouncing your name incorrectly because, well, First off, it's this is the most it's a stranger by name. I haven't come across that name before. And well, anyway, so Salami Abubakar, he's in in sales and engineering and he says that he's gotten so much value from the podcast, especially since because I'm putting out so much good stuff.
And because of that, I'd like to say thank you very much Salami, for the kind words. I'm going to continue doing my best to provide the value and if you are truly deriving value from the podcast, then make sure you share it as far wide as possible so that other people can come here and get the goodness as well. Then updates about the radio show. So it looks like the radio show is going to be green lit for January the 14th, 2025, Tuesday,
January the 14th. So if that's the case, I'll let you guys know. So now those of you who are Buja folk and who would like to use that opportunity to get some free coaching, you know, call me live on the air and let's see how we can brainstorm some of the problems that you're facing in your businesses. So let's go back to the focal point for today or one of the focal points for today rather, since today is going to be a rambling episode.
Now I had a conversation with an individual. I do not have his permission to talk about this publicly, so I'm going to use a fake name. So let's call the guy Tony Starks. Now Tony Stark has been involved in a sales role working for a company in Nigeria for the last four years. And he figured that is now time to leave. And the reason why Tony Stark would like to leave is because he figures that with the amount of input that he's putting into into the profession, the level of output that he's getting is not commensurate.
So he feels like he's throwing in a lot and he's not getting a lot in return. Then he also pointed out that there's a lot of no in the business. You get lots of no's. And for him, handling the no was becoming a problem. And sometimes the no's would even make him withdrawn. Now, for those of you who are listening to this and who are not involved in sales, you guys might be wondering that guy like that's a bit much, but actually he is telling the truth When some of us because I grew up in a civil service home.
Yes, later on, once you become a, a marketing executive and all and start getting exposed to some of these things, small, small, and I probably would start selling cement and you know, you start getting involved with some stuff. But growing up in a civil service home, you know, it's not as if you are exposed to this whole thing of talking to strangers, trying to hustle business and you know, this and this and that and that.
So for people who are coming to this thing cold, you haven't had any prior experience, the nose can be, can be, can be quite unnerving. In fact, the first time somebody shouts at you, it's it's a shock because luckily for me, I've only been shouted at I think maybe like two or three times. So I've been in business for a while. I mean, wedding photography, that was definitely like a decade and 1/2, I would say. Yeah, I've only been shouted like three times.
But to be honest, the first time somebody will unleash and shout on you is like, what? In fact, the first time my wife witnessed somebody shouting on me, my wife cried as if she cried and cried and cried. I said, yeah, poor babe. Anyway, that's it. That's a topic for another day, but I'm just trying to say that there's a lot of rejection and stuff that goes into this thing, and it's not for everyone. It's not for the faint of heart.
Now, at this point, when I was having the conversation with Tony Stark, I was about to tell him that, look, there's ways that we can handle this and I wanted to set some expectations. And these are stuff that I would have said if Tony Stark didn't go ahead and give me one other medical context that is that is a pivotal, that is critical to how I decided to handle the conversation. So you guys, please pay attention. So before Tony Stark moved into the key critical medical part,
what I wanted to say was this. Well, by the way, Tony Stark, if you're listening, this is not me telling you this. I'm just admitting that while you were talking, this is stuff I was getting ready to tell to you until you revealed to me more information. That was that. OK, you know what? I need to pipe low. This is a different thing. So what I wanted to tell Tony Stark was like, hey, dude, this thing can get harsh. And sometimes we don't have the right expectations because especially those of us born here, you know, Niger Primary school, you know, that kind of thing.
We are used to a certain level of, you know, input output. You know, you study hard, you get a lot, you don't study well, you know, you fail your exams, that sort of thing. But unfortunately the correlation in sales is just not that. It's not the same. Because you put 10% into sales doesn't mean you're going to get 10% back, and because you put 100% into sales doesn't mean you're going to get 100% back. In fact, the level of rejection,
the level of failure, the level of whatever is high. It's just that we do our best to make sure that we improve our ability to find the right people. And that's why this whole thing of ideal customer profile isn't is important. We need to be able to find the right people to talk to, initiate conversations with them the right way, figure out the problems that they have, come up with an effective and relevant proposal to show that we can meet their needs, and then we try and close the deal.
So we try and get better over time, but there is no 100% in sales. There's nobody who talks to 100 people and closes 100 deals. Take it from me. It. Does not happen. And if you find somebody who closes 100% of the deals of the people that he talks to, one of one, the person is a magician. Go and learn from him. And then #2 it just means that this person has harnessed one really important skill that is foundational to sales, and that is qualification and the discovery Qualification is when you're trying to narrow down people and discovery is when you're trying to figure out their problems.
So if somebody is closing the deal 100% of the time means this person has become a dawn and assassin. The person is a total killer. He knows how to only or she knows how to only approach the right person at the right time who has the need and is ready to go ahead. And that is really, really hard. It's statistically near impossible. So when it comes to sales, there's no 100%. So those of us who went through Nigerian primary school,
Nigerian secondary school, Nigerian university, we need to adjust our expectations. In fact, if you talk to 100 people and you close 50 deals, you're a superstar. You're a stud like you're a sales God. So 50% gone is not even realistic in most situations. So we already have to adjust and know that especially if you haven't received any kind of training or support from your line manager, from your Aga, from your CEO, from your founder, from your whatever,
don't expect that you're going to talk to 10 people and close 5 deals. So that's the first thing we need to make sure that we have realistic expectations. So the whole point of sales trading or sales coaching, the kind of things I do is that first of all, we're going to try and figure out what your baseline is. OK, normal, normal, no training. You talk to 10 people, you close to deals with sales training. We're trying to see how OK, you can go from 2 deals closed every 10 people or you can move from 2:00 to 3:00, maybe from three to five, maybe from 5:00 to maybe 7.
You will never get a 10 / 10, not possible. But these are the things that we try to, this is how we try and increase it. Small, small, small. So First off, you need to get in, be in the game for a while. Yeah, I've been in it for four years, but without the right training and support, all that helps you to do is to establish a baseline. At least now you know what your baseline is. You go look for some training, go look for some coaching, go look for some materials, go look for some podcasts, go look for some books, go look for some, I
don't know, whatever it is that helps you learn. And then you should be able to increase the baseline over time. But we need to have realistic expectations when we come in. And if you're coming in without Niger primary school thing of there's such a thing as 100%, you're, you're going to be sorely disappointed. So this is part of what I wanted to tell Tony Stark in the beginning, that look, we need to have realistic expectations.
There's no 100%. And then of course, there's this thing in sales when we want to make sure that we're even working on the right thing in the 1st place because you can be throwing 100% effort, but if you're working on the wrong thing, you are not going to be getting the results. Let me give you an example. There are lots of people, Niger people and I'm sure it's a universal thing who they like to rush to presentation, any small thing, presentation or presentation, presentation,
presentation. So you can be throwing 100% of your effort into presentations. And this is one reason why I tell people, calm down. Don't be starting with presentation. Let presentation be in the end, because you can make a beautiful presentation, but if you give a beautiful presentation to the wrong person, you will not close that deal. It's not going to happen. It's the wrong person, The person can't make the decision or the person does not have a need.
So the 4-5 hours that you wasted in coming up with our PowerPoint presentation is equal to 0. And this is some of the problems that we face. Sometimes you are talking to the wrong person. I keep saying it. If you spend 3 months building relationship with the houseboy, it's it's to no avail. The houseboy can't decide on anything. You need to be talking to the ogar or to the Madam. That's the person that will be able to say OK go ahead, let's do this thing.
So some of you are working very hard, but you're working hard on the wrong things. Some of you are trying to presentation, presentation present like becoming down. Presentation is the end. It's not the beginning. Some of you just rush quickly to presentation. Oh, OK, I understand. No problem. I'll send you, I'll e-mail you a proposal. Did the person say e-mail me a proposal? The person hasn't asked for a proposal yet.
You're starting off this whole thing already talking about proposals and you forgive my rant. I'm not trying to say that sometimes, yes, we're working very hard, but working very hard on the wrong things. So these are some of the things that we need to pay attention to, have realistic expectations. There's also a thing as 100%. Then also we need to make sure that as we're working hard, we're working hard on the right things, that our input is the right thing.
So these are the kind of things I wanted to tell Tony Stark, but I didn't tell him because he came up with some more information, medical information that was really, really important that we have to take on board and that I'm hoping that you guys listen to this podcast today are going to take on board as well. Then I also wanted to tell Tony Stark that, look, this thing about handling knows. Yeah, I understand it can be personal.
I've even told you guys that I've been shouted at three times. If I had that first shouting, I could not believe what had just happened. So is it me that they're shouting to like that as in a whole me? Because of what? Because I'm chasing 250K Me anyway, where was I? So yeah, I understand. But I want to tell you now, look, sometimes we take these things personal when we should not. Because when people reject you, it's not really you they're rejecting, it's the value proposition that they're rejecting.
So like me right now, if I come and I'm talking to you, Orga, let's say you bring me into your organization because you think you guys need sales training. And I go there and I'm talking to you, Orga. If you orga says no, it's not me he's saying no to. He's saying no to the fact that he doesn't think you guys need sales training in your organization. And so because of that, it's not a problem. I'll dust myself off when I
leave because it it's one of those things who who how to say he who lives and fights today lives to fight another day. So I didn't close this one. No problem, we move tomorrow, I'll close one is one of those things and it's the attitude you need to take. So if you are waiting photographer and somebody shouted at you, the person might have had a bad day. If the person says no, it could be no for any number of reasons. But it's not you that the person is rejecting, it's the value proposition.
Maybe they don't think the photography is good enough for their wedding albums and not whatever. But you don't have to take it personal. Is the value proposition as a whole that the person is saying no to? What you need to do is to learn how to look for people who are aligned with the kind of value propositions you provide. And then it'll be easier for you to close sales and for, you know, bank accounts to be going up and up and up.
But we should not be taking this rejection personally. There will be times when the rejection is personal. If you have bad breath, halitosis, you know, you smell, I don't know, you dress like a witch, then yeah, the rejection is personal. But the good thing is in those cases, people are already trying to tell you because, like, if you smile, you know, your mum sees probably already telling you that look my son bath before you go out.
So if you're one of those people that your wife is giving you signs that look, my husband dressed like this or do this or your husband is telling you wifey, I bet, why don't you do it like this or, or babe, did you brush your teeth this morning? Yeah, if you're getting those comments, then OK, yes, when people say no, when they reject, yeah, the problem is you for sure. But for most of you listening to this podcast, you have not gotten to that stage yet.
And God willing, you will not. So no, that is not you. It's just the value proposition that they're saying no to. And when that happens, dust yourself off and try again. Like Aliyah said, look for people who are aligned and you'll be fine. So to the wedding photographer like me now who's listening to the show, you're trying to sell a certain style of photography and people are not digging it when they say no, Don't feel personally rejected.
Like what is wrong with me? There must be a problem with me. It's like I will stand up and say, look, I know the value that I provide for this kind of photography. Let me go and look for the people who dig this style of photography and let me talk to them. And that is how your rates will go up. So if OK, like my friend Doctor Mike, Doctor Mike's wife does interior decor. She doesn't like the northern style of the interior decor because she says it's too gaudy,
too flashy, that any small thing is gold and drapes and blah, blah, blah. She likes things to be, you know, understated. You know, some of that Europeans, well, that's Swedish, you know, kind of aesthetic, you know, elegant, but small, small, small. If you're an interior designer. And that is what you do. And you go and you talk to Alhaji, and of course the Alhaji will tell you, no, it's not you that he's rejecting. It's the value proposition.
You might feel like they're rejecting it personally, but no, it's not you. The Alhaji wants it big and gaudy. He wants it gold, he wants it flashy, he wants the drips. So when people enter his house, they will see that Alhaji has arrived. So it's not for you to take it personal and be angry and start trying to change yourself or you get depressed, but stand up and start looking for people like who are the people that like this style of thing that I do?
This is where prospect income comes in. You see, we're now back to this whole thing of ideal customer profile. Who is my ideal customer? Who should I be chasing? I start going after those people. It is then you now start having conversations where in fact, like I remember 1 bride I met and the bride said, oh thank God, I was tired of being photoshopped. When she said that, my heart was really glad. I was like finally somebody who gets what I am trying to do.
It's the same thing if you're an interior designer, keep looking for people who have that same sort of aesthetic that you're trying to promote and somebody will tell you, ah my dear, I am so glad you came because the last five people I spoke to, everybody was showing me gold and everybody was showing me heavy drapes and I don't like it. Thank God you came and then you'll be happy. So let's take, let's not take rejection personally.
It's not you, it's the value proposition. You solve it by going back to the drawing board and by trying to figure out who might be interested in my product or my service. Where can I find these people and start going there. Only if you sell pure water or I give you bread. But then you spend all your days working around Maitama, between maybe Hilton Hotel and Zenith Bank and all those places, don't be surprised if you don't move market.
You know that's not where your market hangs out. Same thing if you sell a luxury kind of product and you go and set up your shop in Maraba or Maraba one way or the outskirts of town the other way, you know, after Wahladah and stuff like that and nobody's buying your stuff. I mean, you are in the wrong place. You're in the wrong crowd. And in summary, what I'm just trying to say is let's not take rejection personally. When people say no, it's the value proposition that they are rejecting.
So this is the kind of stuff that I wanted to tell Tony Stark before Tony Stark dropped the bomb on me and told me some really important information. Now, Tony Stark pointed out that he has had a clinical diagnosis for depression and this is something that's been going on since uni. Now you see that this is something that is totally different because even before I met Tony Stark, I have been saying time and time again on the podcast that mental health issues are serious.
And I told you guys about how I ran into trouble with the road safety and how they say I should go for they say I should go and see psyche that I must be mad. I mean those idiots, they're the ones that are mad the young people to obey traffic laws but you don't enforce them. How do I put it? You know, no Rd. signs, you know, things like that. I mean how are people supposed to comply with laws that they don't know? I mean, are we supposed to just magically know that this is not a place to make AU turn even though it looks like a place where you can make AU turn but you did not put a sign where you're supposed to.
You're not supposed to make U turns anyway. Anyway, this army offers psychiatrician. And that is, that is when I discovered that in Nigerian hospitals, we actually have mental health professionals who are there and nobody's going to see them. Nobody. There were nine of us then that road safety said we should go and check whether we are mad or not. And by the time we were leaving, I was the 9th person. There was absolutely nobody else for the doctor to see.
Every other part of General Hospital in Area 3 was full. Emergency was full, Maternity was full, everywhere was full. Mental health place 03 doors. I don't know if the three doctors were there, but only nine people. So we should take advantage of these sorts of things. If you work 9:00 to 5:00 and you're doing your, what's it called your, is it insurance contribution or something, you should be able to see these people for free.
You have to pay for your medicine, but you can walk into General Hospital or whatever goes in the hospital and you should be able to see these people for free. If you want to be a private patient like I was back then, consultation when this rubbish Rd. safety happened, consultation I paid I think was like 6K or so. But let's just assume that things have doubled or tripled and let's say now consultation IS15K. Back then, the consultation that 5K6K was for three weeks.
So you pay for your thing care, you'll be able to talk to the doctor for three weeks straight. But we need to be taken advantage of some of these things because there are some of us that are stressed out, depressed, having psychological issues, and we just don't know. Or maybe people interest have been telling us that it's spiritual. So these professionals are available in our government hospitals, General Hospital. OK, Well, Mum, she told me they don't call them general hospitals anymore.
So I'm not sure what their calls are, but you understand what I mean. All those places that are government hospitals, these people are there. Let's go and see them. Because we find out about these things early sometimes it's the beginning of saving a life. You find out there's a problem, you talk to the professional, you're going through counselling, they're giving you medicine, you're making one or two changes. It's the beginning of saving a life.
Because as one of my classmates, you know, we all thought he was weird in secondary school. Where was the correct guy? And the first time my sister met him, my sister said, Terry, there's a problem with these guys and I problem how this has always been. Now, you know, after university, the guy just woke up one day and then he drank, you know, this thing that he used to for fumigation. Our voice was a shock like like him, 'cause he was a cool guy in our life of the party, very bubbly fellow, you know, stuff like that.
But apparently he was going through some issues. So mental health professionals, they're here, we need to be talking to them. So you think you're stressed or you think you're depressed, just go in there and have a chat. Worst case scenario to Doctor Otayla, Oh, young man, you don't have problem because like me, that's what the doctor told me. That was only different thing. Anyway, the doctor told me, long man, you don't have problem.
What happened is just stress, like you're broke right now, money is not coming and that's the problem. He said take this medicine, the thing will make you sleep. By the time you wake up tomorrow, you'll be fine. I said, doctor, Are you sure? He said sure, I took it and then I slept like an elephant. I woke up the next day and I was fresh and that's it. My problems are over. I just need to sleep. And I had enough vim and we got to face the next day.
But for stuff for for people like Tony Stark, you actually do go to the doctor and you figure out, OK, you have a problem now you start solving it. You're talking to a professional, you're going through counselling, you're taking your medicine. So for Tony Stark, I told him that look, now that you have a clinical diagnosis, we should not play with this thing because I have seen in my family and I've seen amongst my friends,
because that my friend who drank this, this liquid for fumigation, you know, he's not the only one that my classmates, unfortunately, he's not the only one we know that has taken his life. You know that we've had a few tragedies, you know, may that souls rest in peace. So I don't joke with these things. OK, if this one is clinical, then good. Please, by all means, it's not a matter of trying to feel like you're a tough guy.
Please, by all means, remove yourself from the situation. It is not going to be helpful. If you think it's not helping you. If the doctor says it's not helping you, then please remove yourself from the situation. So now the conversation on how to turn around this, that with the skills that you've gotten so far in sales and selling and all these sorts of things, and with the interest that he has and with the skill set, what kind of alternative careers can we come up with a plan now to transition into?
So that's what the conversation was now about. So he told me a little bit about himself, things that he has done in the past, things that he likes about sales and things like that. And so I told him, OK, look, based on what you said, this should be so excuse me. So excuse me, I was like, so I told them, OK, I think that this should be the exit plan. Based on the skills that you have, you might consider a career in account management.
This is what account management means. Account management is also part of the selling function. But account management begins when you close the deal because when you're toasting people, you bring them into the business. When they are now your customer, you now have to do fulfilment, that is you have to do what you promised. Now after I do fulfilment, you have to do relationship building, you have to do follow up and toasting.
That's because you want people to come back and do business again. So that's what account management is now. Tony Stark works with a Nigerian company that provides software to enterprise businesses. Enterprise business just means big business. So they provide software to big, big clients like let's say Zenith Bank. So sales is me, I'm going out and I'm talking to MD of Zenith Bank. I'm trying to get them to become our customer.
Account management begins when MD signs the cheque and then Zenith Bank now becomes a customer. Account management is when is the person in the business who now calls the IT people in Zenith Bank. They say, OK, now that people have become our customers, this is how you're going to set up this software. You need this kind of computer, you need this kind of software. You need to do it like this, you need to do it like this.
We teach them all. This whole thing is called onboarding. Onboarding is when you're trying to teach, set people up so that they can successfully use your product or service. All that is onboarding. So account management does that. We onboard you. Then customer success is also part of account management. What that just means is this software, this solution that people are buying from us that they should be successful using it because if they are not successful, they will not come back.
If MD signs the cheque, MD's and its bank signs the cheque, then OK, let's use these people. We'll pay them 250 M every year, but then at the end of the year, MD says, hey, give me a report, do you will use the software? Did the software help us make money and say MD, we didn't use it or we used it, the software didn't work, MD will swiftly just cancel the contract and then that's how we're going to lose 250 M next year.
So customer success is part of the account management function. The goal is to make sure that as these people are using this thing, let them be getting value from it so that at the end of the year we can come back to them and say, hey, Zenith Bank, you guys, this software is working well. Abby, you guys have gotten progress. Abby is helping you grow. Abby OK, if that's the case, it is now time you guys should renew for another year.
And your bill is 250 M. So that's the whole thing. So this is also a selling function, but it has less amounts of new because if you're doing account management and you do relationship building, well, you call these people, you know, every two, two months or whatever, you know, somebody in the company you like to do follow up once in a while, you go and drop hamper. You know, like people in the insurance industry, they do that one a lot.
You know, like during December, my wife received 2 hampers. You go and drop hamper, you know, things like that. You make phone calls, you attend baby dedication, you know, relationship building shop and then customer success. You make sure that the product of the service that they bought from you guys that they're driving value from it. So if you do a good job in account management, most of your people will actually say yes when it is time to resume to renew.
Now this is where in one area where you can expect that if you have 10 clients that maybe eight or nine of them can renew. When it comes to account management, Oh yeah, you can expect good numbers like that. In fact, with account management, you can expect 10 / 10 that you closed 10 customers in 2025. You do account management very well. You can expect ten of them to renew in 2026. It's possible. It's highly doable. So I told him you can transition to account management because the level of know there is less.
But unfortunately, he had already resigned, you know, So I say, hey, yeah, if you hadn't resigned, actually you and I would have come up with a plan. Let's approach a line manager. Let's see how we can start that conversation. Let's migrate you into account management roles. Then if you have sales and selling skill set, you can also do customer service roles, excuse me. And then also told Tony Stark, they can also do marketing and strategy roles because this skills that you learn when you're doing sales, they work well in account management, they work well in customer service,
they work well in marketing, they work well in the strategy. So those are some of the avenues. Now, since I've already done 30 minutes, I'm going to just wrap this particular end of the discussion up now. And then later on I will come back and come up with a proper episode. Like OK, for those of you who are already in sales, you want to transition out, you want to leave. You're saying that Tavish and I listen to your podcast.
You lied to me, you seduce me. Sales is not as good as I thought it was. I want to leave. What's the game plan? I'll come up with a podcast episode about that. But summary is. We need to have the right expectations. We need to make sure we're working on the right things. That is only when we know whether the level of input doesn't match the output. We also should not take it personal when people tell us no. They're saying no to the value proposition.
They're not rejecting you. And by the way, if they're rejecting you, then it's easy to work on. Go and see the doctor, cure your Bo, go and see the dentist, you know, fix your teeth, whatever it is, or learn how to dress well. And that should take care of that problem. But. If you suspect that is a problem, if your baby is telling you, your wife is telling you that, hey babe, what's up now? You're down, you're Moody, it's like you're depressed.
What's happening, blah blah blah. If mumsy is telling you this, popsy is telling you this, wifey is telling you this, you know blah blah blah. Also, if you're a girl for instance, and your boyfriend is telling you like hey it's your job self, they're stressing you too much blah blah blah. If there has been a constant conversation, please pick yourself up. Go to any of these government hospitals. Just go and pay the consultation thing.
These people are there. Nobody's talking to them. Go and talk to them. Worst case scenario, they will tell you, a young lady, you don't have a problem. Maybe it's monthly, monthly and they're OK, no problem. At least now you know there's no problem. Or you might be a young man like me and the doctor tells you that, oh look, what you're going through is normal. You're a young father, you've not been sleeping. Business is not going very well.
It is not depression. You're sleep deprived. Take this medicine, drink it. It will knock you out tomorrow. You'll be fine. So best case scenario, yeah, that's what happened. But worst case scenario, if there's a problem, at least we would have started. We will know and we'll start working on it now. So you don't wake up like some of my ideally departed classmates, and then you commit suicide. So mental health is real.
We should be paying attention to these sorts of things. And it's one of the reasons why I made today's episode. So those of you who want to transition out, these are ways of thinking about it. And if you suspect that, look, this thing is weighing me down, go and talk to somebody, please, please. And there are people available in the government hospitals. I don't know about private hospitals. And I know that if you go to the private hospital, you pay serious, serious, serious money.
So go to the government hospital first. Go and talk to those people. Even if you go to the government hospital, you're not sure who you're supposed to talk to. You go and talk to the regular family doctor and you tell them the problem. They're the ones who now tell you that, oh, OK, perhaps you should go and talk to somebody in the psychiatric department or the psychology department or the psycho, whatever department.
They will refer you, but please go talk to someone. All right, before I sign off, let me just do a new segment. I'm going to call this LinkedIn Diaries. On LinkedIn, there's a friend of mine who's talking about moving to Kenya. Makes sense. I understand, you know, Nigeria can be. Very, very, very. Frustrating. But The thing is, for those of you who want to pick up and run to Kenya or to South Africa because you're dealing with big questions like what is best for my family?
Can I get more out of life, you know, should I leave Nigeria? Yeah, I understand. But The thing is you're only just moving to a different environment, but you're still going to face the same challenges. And the same challenges are going to be career advancement and how to build a business. Because if you move to the UK and you start doing care work, you have to think about career advancement. How can I stop this care work and move into something that is more, you know, administrative and you know, blah, blah, blah.
For those of you who end up in the UK, you know, and are doing work in alternative energy is still the same thing. How am I going to build my career? I came in at entry level. How do I move to management or how do I build a business in this environment? For those of you who are in Dubai, for instance, because there's people that do oil drilling in United by Arab Emirates, One of my classmates is currently in drilling.
He left really early and the pace fantastic. I'm Robapie, Brazil, interesting job that we don't know about here in Nigeria. So he's doing oil drilling, some other, I know one or two people. One guy used to be a wedding photographer, you know, he left really early and he ended up in construction in Dubai. Apparently the money there is sweet as well. He says that Dubai is hot as hell, but the money is sweet. And anyway, so the same thing you go to Dubai, you still have to face all these problems, OK,
Currently I came in at entry level. How am I going to advance my career or how am I going to build a business in this Dubai that I'm living in? You know, so it's not just salary, salary, salary means of let me build business. Let me see what I can hand on to my children. And for those of you who are going to other parts of the world like Malaysia and India, because those are the hubs that people are doing remote work right now.
You know, you're going to live in India, live in Malaysia, People are looking for remote workers there. So you're going to take advantage of that or you're one of the Nigerians who are doing teaching jobs over there. You know, it's, it's a good thing. I know someone who actually is doing that. She was actually a sales person for a sales associate for a popular nightclub here in Abuja and she ran for politics. So I thought by now I should have rented the house.
And then I was like, hey, how far now? A long time, blah, blah, blah. Turns out she's in Malaysia and that's what she's doing. She's doing teaching and she's doing remote work. And apparently the pay is good because even though you're living and working in Malaysia, but you're being paid in dollars and then quality of life, you know, so she has an extra, there's some extra amount, you know, just do the math. You know how you collect money,
maybe like you know, $700.00 a month by the time you do the exchange rate, you know, the money is now looking big, big, big, big, big, you know, that sort of thing. But it's still the same for those of you who are in Malaysia or India. I've come in at entry level. How do I build my career? How do I get senior management or how do I build a business? Let me not just be doing answering. Yes Sir, yes, Sir, yes, ma, yes, ma.
So whatever it is that we're going to go to, we're not going to be able to run away from some of these challenges. Either way, you won't have to worry about your career or your business. But bottom line, what I'm trying to say is those of you who are trying to run to Kenya, don't think that by running to Kenya, you guys are escaping. You might be escaping some things, but the challenge is still going to be the same. But granted, yes, Niger, yeah,
we have our issues, hyperinflation, security challenges. I understand UK and Dubai sound a whole lot sexy in Nigeria. But then again, it depends on your context because there's some people that life is crappy in Niger, but then you go to the UK and it's like you take a huge step down in socioeconomic status and quality of life. So it depends. Also, another one of my classmates in OAU can use his real names. Let me just call him Frodo.
By the time all of us were leaving the UK and people were like, hey Frodo, how far? When are you leaving? Frodo asked the question. He said, what am I going back to? And in his own case, it made sense because Frodo had and has nobody back in Niger. At least some of us when we're heading back to Nigeria. My wife had already gone the year before, Mumsy was still in Lagos. At least some of us have some house that we can go to so that we can start again, whether entering Mumsy's house to start again or whether you're going to go and meet your wife and then you are going to start again.
Some of us are things we're going back to. But Frodo had nobody. Mumsy and Popsy were dead siblings scattered all over the place, not much job prospects. So for Frodo, yeah, we understood. It made a lot of sense for him to stay back in the UK. And right now, he's happy with his small wife and with his sorry as his small wife, with his small house and with his wife. And he has gotten all his legal certifications, and he's practicing in the UK and it's good for him.
So it depends. You know, there are lots of things that we ought to consider, but the summary that I want to say is keep on your grind. This whole thing of I go to Canada and my life will be fine. I go to Kenya and my life will be fine. It's not that simple. Lots of more factors to consider. In fact, somebody asked me today when am I moving to the UK and I told the person, yeah, I'll move back to the UK, but not now. I'll move back when I'm a billionaire because now I have more options.
I'm not going to move back now and then, you know, you know, that whole rat race thing. But when I'm a billionaire, I'm going to have more options. Any but that's broadcast episode for another day. So yeah, maybe I'll move and join you guys in the UK or Canada, but not now when I'm a millionaire. When I'm a billionaire, then yeah, I'll move. I'll come and join you guys and then we can all flex together. So. Yeah, that's it pretty much.
So thank you very much for listening to the episode. If you suspect that things are kind of rough, like you're kind of in Tony Stark situation, going to talk to somebody in the hospital, these people are there, they love to help. It's their job. People who study psychiatry, mental health, psychology, all those things they study, it's not because. They didn't know what to go and do. It's because they're interested in these sorts of things.
How are people healthy? How do we keep people healthy? How do we keep people in the right frame of mind? If you'd love to connect and explore opportunities with me, the phone number is 08064662140. Country code is +234. For those of you who are not Nigerian, connect with me on socials LinkedIn. So I spend most of my time. The name is Tavishma Aide. That's the person's name to look for. I'll let you guys know when the radio show is up.
And please, if you have been following me on Facebook and all those other places, unfollow me now. I've already started the process of. Of what's the word deactivating those accounts? I'm not going to be there any longer. So thanks for your time and attention. I'll catch you guys at the next episode.