By Bayo Ogunmupe
Several years ago at a restaurant in highbrow Ilupeju, Lagos, I sat down for brunch with a man I knew very little about. I took the appointment because a friend recommended him to me as his benefactor, an intellectual and millionaire businessman. All I knew about him was that the man is the proprietor of the college where my friend works. I took the meeting because I was searching for career answers. What I found was the most beneficial information I've ever received from a networking interview. I am here now to tell you the story.
This conversation with a moneybag offers me the key to living life on my own terms. He walked in to pick me up from The Guardian library. He had never been to The Guardian that was made famous by his kinsmen who edited the newspaper for decades. Sitting at table at the restaurant he introduced himself. I could tell right away I was chatting and dining with a very confident, assertive and proactive gentleman. Little did I know, he had retired for 18 years. He looked so smart at 70. In spite of being our first meeting, I forswore the newness and ordered for a beer instead of coffee.
He asked me how things were going and told me a little more about himself. After a decade and a half studying and working in Germany, he returned to head a German pharmaceutical company in Nigeria. The company was the first to manufacture drugs in Nigeria. One more little piece of detail: they sold it nine years ago for $70 million to another German pharmaceutical company. My ears perked up, He now had all my attention. He then explained that his partners founded the company with the sole aim of selling it to make a profit for they had no intention of serving their entire lives out in Nigeria. Thus, they didn't just have an exit strategy. They had a comprehensive road map and plan that addressed exactly how they intended growing the business and then marketing the business to find a buyer.
I listened more as he asked me what were the next steps with my real estate agency and writing career. I told him I had just finished publishing my first book. He was impressed. As we were wrapping up, he turned to me and said: "Well, Bayo, I'm really not sure I can help you that much. Unfortunately, I have been out of work and retired for 18 years now." I stared in anguish. He hit me like a ton of bricks. Realizing I was onto something, I quickly asked, "What is the best advice you can give me, considering your all round success?" Here is what he said: "You sound like you have a lot of great ideas. But great ideas don't work. They don't take you where you want to go. You have to get specific. I recommend you write out in detail how you envision how the next five years of your life unfolds.
"Write out your objective; your goals, write out your specific steps and process of how you plan to achieve success. What you think and envision you become. They provide what it takes to reach your goals. For you to become a successful man of letters, you must put together a bulletproof plan, with specific detail, for exactly how you will achieve your goal. Not only for your book but for every area of your life. That's how success works. It's exactly what I did when I was your age. It's the only reason I was able to succeed in business. What I wrote, spoke and dreamed over time became my reality. Give this a shot. I am sure it will work." Later that weekend, I began in earnest to execute that advice. I live today and everyday executing tasks from my plan. I no longer needed a wake-up call or someone to intercede between me and God.
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