Virtue, Vice, and Values: Navigating Good and Bad in Business & Relationships

Hello and welcome to the show. It's a wonderful Saturday afternoon and I just finished the meeting. So I found a nice cool spot next to a basketball court where I'm making this recording. Now, the guys have finished playing, so you shouldn't hear any shouting and grunting, but you know, they're just hanging around jesting. So you should hear some of that coming in through the background. Now, today's episode is going to sound a little bit philosophical, and I apologise for that.

That's if you're not interested in these sorts of things. Well, The thing is, I've been trying to look for other Nigerian podcasts to listen to because I'm aware that a whole host of you, the reason why you found me is because I mean you precisely you were looking for Nigerian business podcast, Nigerian marketing podcast, Nigerian sales podcast, you know, those sorts of things. Now for a very long time, I assumed I was the only one.

And I think 3 years ago, I did a brief search around, didn't find much. And, you know, that was back when I kept proclaiming myself as the only podcast, Nigerian podcast on on sales. Anyways, since then, I found out a few more people have come on board. I mean, come on stream. I mean, how do you say it? So there are more Nigerian podcasts out there. And I've been listening to a bunch of them and, you know, they're OK.

Why? My own opinion, Sometimes they get a little too light and a little too fluffy and start talking about some of the easy stuff, you know, motivation, being authentic, you know, blah, blah, blah and all these things that at the end of the day may not help you boost your sales because being authentic, being true to yourself, having values and you know, all that soft talk like, yeah, it's important, but those are not the main reasons why people buy from you because you are value driven, you're authentic, you desire engagement, you're, you know,

and all these other things. Those are not the main reasons why. And that's the reason why on my own podcast I've I've tried to focus on the tactical and the strategic things that you need to move your business forward. So I'm telling you from a, from a strategic point of view, this is what's important. This is what is not. This is what we're trying to achieve. And then from a technical point of view, I'm telling you that,

you know, this is the next step you're going to take to do this, you know, send a message like this or talk in terms of this or when you call sound in terms of this or you know, this is where you should prioritize phone calls over visits, visits over emails or whatever. So we get real tactical. But anyway, today's episode basically is I want to talk to you guys right now to tell you people why Nigerian business people should not have values.

Let me repeat and I want you guys to give me a while to explain what it is I'm trying to say Nigerian business people should not have values because it's something that has come up on the other podcasts that I've seen out there, business podcasts, Nigerian podcasts talking about how we ought to have values. I am telling you that Nigerian business people, we don't need to have values. Now, the reason why I say Nigerian people shouldn't have values is because when you look at Western Europe and Northern America, those societies are materialist and atheist.

So what that means is they believe that only matter. Matter is the only thing that is real. You know, whatever you can see, touch, taste, smell, measure, you know, those are the only things that exist. That's the only thing that is real and that God doesn't exist. So excuse me, I'm sorry. Those kind of societies, you know, you need to look as if morals are grounded in consensus. So if we all think this is good, it's good.

If we all think this is bad, this is bad. And because of that, there's no such thing as objective truth. Now, because human beings have a strong religious instinct, you will find that people are looking for fulfilment in all kinds of things. And so for those of us who are involved in entrepreneurship business, you know, we end up trying to find fulfilment in what we do, trying to find fulfilment in our work, you know, which is why people are talking about doing something that gives you life and this and this and that and that.

But unfortunately, this is not the purpose of work and that's not the purpose of business because I am here right now delivering value to you guys, but it is not your you dear listener listening to the podcast. And whoever, whichever one of you end up working with me on a paid consulting basis or a paid coaching basis, it is not your duty to validate me. I mean, you have your own concerns. So this is just a simple value exchange.

And so it has nothing to do with the kind of fulfillment that we're trying to find in in life and in work. But the reason why I say Nigerians, Nigerian business people, maybe even African people should not have values is because all these value talk is against this backdrop of matter is the only thing that is real. God does not exist. It is left to you to determine what is the basis of reality. And so left to you, you're the one who determines what is important.

You're the one who determines what it is that your values are. But now I say Nigerians are Africans should shouldn't have values. Things are different with us because our view of reality is much more nuanced, is much more metaphysically nuanced. We have a slightly different view of reality and a different view of relationships. And so for people like us who still haven't fully embraced this whole thing of matter is the only thing that is real and that God doesn't exist.

So I'm the one who determines what is right. And so because of that, I have to determine values for myself and for my company. What we should have in this part of the world instead is we need to have an orientation towards virtue. So stop all this value talk. We need to have an orientation towards virtue. Now. Virtue just means the habits that you imbibe on a daily basis that keep moving you towards the ultimate good or the proper goal of being human.

So those things, those habits, some of you were saying those values and say, well, if you want to call it value and share, no problem. But the different thing is this. In the West, they can say, yeah, I'm going to determine what it is that is good for me. So it's I will determine my values, you know. But over here, the values just exist. You either choose to align with them or to not where they exist objectively. So some things are good for all times and some things are bad for all times.

And that's why in this part of the world, we still talk about traditional virtues, or some people would call them cardinal virtues, like people in the church, the old school Christians, you know, Catholics, OK, we don't have Orthodox in this part of the world, but you know, Catholics, Anglicans, you know, the real old school types, Methodist, Wesleyan's, you know, we'll talk about virtues and the cardinal virtues, all the things that point us towards, all things that are good.

Now, because of some of you listening to this podcast who don't like to hear the name of God, I'm not going to say that. But of course, you know, if you talk to Catholics and if you talk to the older school Christians, you say that all of virtue orients you towards God because that's the ultimate good. But let's sidestep that conversation. Yeah, because this is not a religious podcast. And you're wondering, how does this tie into business?

Dorian, I'll get there quite soon. We'll wrap this up. I'll wrap this up very quickly. So traditionally when people talk about virtues or the cardinal virtues, the idea of the cardinal virtues are the those virtues, those habits or those dispositions that we do on a daily, on a weekly, on a whatever basis that point us towards the ultimate good, the ultimate good things. So the cardinal virtues are those basic virtues that we need that will help us discover all the other virtues, you know,

like courage, like courage is a virtue. There's nobody that is going to say cowardice is a virtue if you're a coward. You know, like when I was in school in, in, in, I've forgotten my school show. What's it called again? Greg's Saint, Greg's Obalande. You know, if you like courage, you call you an Ole, as in like you're an idiot, like you're Dons, like you're feeble minded. So there's no society where cowardice is a virtue.

So courage is considered a virtue. But before we get to courage and all the other things in ancient Greek and ancient Christian thought, when you hear cardinal virtues, you usually think about these sorts of things. You think of prudence, you think of justice, you think of temperance, and what else? There's one more I'm forgetting. There's no more forgetting. But anyway, for now, let me just stick with ones like I remember.

There's prudence, there's justice, and there's temperance. Now, prudence is the virtue of practical wisdom that is getting into the habit of trying to figure out what's right, what is wrong, what is expedient, You know, those sorts of questions. Prudence. So all people, whether you're a man or a woman, you should be working towards achieving prudence. You should be working towards making sure that your head is correct and that your heart is correct, so that every given point in time, in every given circumstance, you stand a reasonably good shot of trying to figure out is this right?

Is this wrong? I'd be, may I do it because it's just expedient. Then there's the virtue of justice. Justice is giving your neighbor he's due. And then of course, you know, humor, you give yourself your due. And then there's temperance. And then temperance is self-control when it comes to goods or self-control when it comes to relationships. So temperance just means self-control as I'm using stuff, as I'm using my car, as I'm using my phone, as I'm using social media, temperance,

self-control in my relationship with people. And you know, this is where even though it's it might be a sweet life, you know, those of you who are runs guys and runs girls, you know, it might be like a sweet life for now, but you're being intemperate because you anyway, let me stop preaching. So temperance, self-control when it comes to goods or relationship. So in my own opinion, instead of the Nigerian business person waking up every day and trying to determine what is the value of my business, what is the value of my corporation?

What is the value of my this? And then you now start talking about values of authenticity and collaboration and blah, blah, blah, and then making all these fancy signs and putting them all over your office. Just wake up and focus on the traditional virtues. Be prudent. So as a businessman, as a businesswoman, what is right and what is wrong in this situation? It's that simple. Right and wrong already exists. Am I aligning with it or am I

not aligning with it? And let me conduct my business accordingly? What is just this person that I'm interacting with, my potential customer, my potential client? What does this person here deserve? Mima, what do I deserve? Because there might be situations where you know, you're paying attention to the other person and you know, you want to make sure your person is set up right, but then you're not paying attention to yourself.

You're not set up right. You're running at a loss. You know that's not justice. So justice, What does everyone here deserve? The other person, my customer, my client, what do they deserve for me self? What do I deserve? And then Temperance or being Temperance, Abby, any Check the dictionary and let me know. So how can I be sure that I'm not using people inordinately or using resources inordinately? So me, I have to balance those sorts of things and you do as well.

Do I remember that my clients are human beings or am I just using them as a means to an end? I want to drive Brabus. I want to drive Bentley. I want to drive SLK, you know, I want to live in a mansion, solar panels completely cut off from Napa. You know, I have to remember that you guys are human beings too. So I have to be temperate. So for Nigerian business person, instead of waking up going through all these random funny exercises that people go through, you come up with all these wonderful values.

You come up with wonderful posters that plastering it all over your office or on your computer or whatever. No, no, no, no, no, no, no virtue. Virtue already exists. Discover the virtues and just align. There's no need to go around and start trying to to reinvent anything. Am I prudent every day? Do I do what is right? What is wrong? Am I trying to be just giving everybody that just deserves the thing that everybody justly deserves?

And then am I temperate? Am I using people as a tool or am I just squandering resources? Anyhow, So I know that's just some of what I wanted to say because too many people Nigerian business podcasts and look, be careful the podcasts that you listen to, you'll be listening to all these people talking about how, what are your values? Value, authenticity value, collaboration value, these value, you'll be following them. Our value, value, value like the value thing is going to lead you nowhere.

You will feel good and it's plenty of virtual, I say virtual, virtual signalling you feel like you're you're a good person and that's part of world culture. But really it's not going to go anywhere to grow your business. The fundamentals that grow your business are the fundamentals that we talk about over here on the podcast. How can you figure out who your customer is or your client is? Who's the ideal customer profile?

Where do they hang out? Now they know where they hang out. How can you approach them and start a conversation with them? What is the best channel to establish a conversation with them? How do you maintain relationships? How do you figure out what it is that people want or that people need? Now that you know the want or the need, how can you make an effective proposal or presentation so they can see that truly, truly you are the best, you are the greatest and end up doing business with you.

After they do business with you, how do you continue to engage them in conversation to find out that they are happy? For those that are happy, how do you get them to come back and buy from you again and refer you to other people? For those that are unhappy, how do you continue the conversation so you can figure out what went wrong and how you can remedy the situation? For those you've been able to remedy the situation, how are you going to get those people to come back and do business with you again and also refer their friends, their family members,

and their associates? These are the fundamentals that are going to take you via business. Not all these authenticity, you know, authenticity truer self valued. Is that that like none of that. So all these steps that we've talking about, we've talking about now the fundamentals that move your business forward. Your guiding light is going to be either virtue or vice. You're either being virtuous or you're being vicious.

Virtuous just means you're doing habits on a daily, on the minutely, on the monthly, on the weekly or whatever. You're engaging in habits that continue to Orient you, dispose you, move you towards the good. Vicious just means you're engaging in habits that continues to Orient you towards the bad. So we have this framework for selling. We just make sure that we're selling in a virtuous manner and we shall be fine. When we sell, are we being prudent?

What is right or what is wrong? When we sell, are we being just, I mean, making sure everybody gets what they deserve? When we sell, are we being temperament, sorry, temperance? Are we using the virtues of temperance? Am I sure that I'm not just using people and resources inordinately without paying attention to the inherent dignity that everybody has as a human being? That's all you need to do if you don't believe me.

For all these people that say my value is this, my value is that, my value is that. And we are the ones who decide what is good and what is bad. Have you noticed for those people, when they come in contact with Ponzi schemes or when they come in contact with Enron, they'll say no, what Enron did was bad and the Ponzi schemes are bad. If you just said that it's up to me to determine what is right and what is wrong and to determine the greatest value.

Why can't I decide that I want to have a Ponzi scheme and be intemperate with people and use people as resources? On what leg do you have to stand on to say that what I'm doing is wrong? You don't have a leg. But then if there's objective truth and there's objective good and we're supposed to Orient ourselves towards it and that is the proper goal of being human, then you can see that we have a stand, a grounding in business and relationships to say, well,

why do I think we do, you know, pure or they say, oh baby, fuck off. So be careful what you listen to. All the people that are talking about is fluffy stuff. I beg just ignore them. What you need now is a solid framework to move your business forward. You need to know the strategy. You need to know the tactics. All these people virtual signalling, ignore them. Where you going to get your moral compass from? The same way that human beings have gotten their moral compass.

You know, for the last however long that human beings have been in existence, this sort of thing that's right, this sort of thing that's wrong, you can objectively determine it. How do you know you're on the right course? Are you living your life virtuously or are you living your life viciously? So I'll stop there so I don't turn this into a podcast episode on philosophy and morality and everything. What I'm just saying is ignore these podcasts that sound good.

By the end of the day, they're just giving you fluff. Be your true and authentic self. Anyway, so thank you very much for your time and attention. If you'd love to connect with me for a strategy session for a business audit or you have questions you'd like me to answer, the number is 08064662140, country code +234. If you're not Nigerian, that's my WhatsApp number as well. Thank you very much for your time and attention.

I'll catch you guys at the next episode.