Life threw stone, I turned it to coldstone! My story of resilience

The years 2015 to 2019 were dark year in my diaries. In the spate of those years, I lost my jobs, Lost almost four businesses, lost my land in a prime place in Lagos, health deteriorated, almost lost my heart; and all of that…

In all, three things were standing very firm – My faith, My energy, My marriage.

LOST OF JOB

I had been in a well paying job, having left my struggling, but well packaged life of an insurance sales man. I had done this for over 5 years, making a modest and honest living from my well-pride trade. Less than 2 years on my new job, the company was going through some crises, and mass downsize. Not wanting to get the bitter pill of a job sack on my resume, I threw in my resignation and decided to pursue a personal journey of entrepreneurship – My long life ambition. The first port of call was to set up a school. I couldn’t have thought of a better thing to start with at that time, owing to some facts. My wife is a trained teacher who was working at Chrisland schools – one of the best rated schools in Nigeria at the time. Before venturing into corporate environment, I had been a teacher myself for nearly four years, with laurels and testimonies to attest to my brilliance in the field. These were eras when teaching was an easy stop gap hustle for me as I struggled through my higher education. With these, I thought that it makes sense to start out with a school set up. Once this survives, I could live my wife in charge of my booming school (so, I had projected) and continue with another business conquest. Alas! the journey was rougher than I ever imagined. This is a story for another day.

BACK TO unCOPORATE WORLD

Seeing that succeeding as a school owner (or any business for that matter) wasn’t as rosy as it seems, I had to opt for another (corporate) job, leaving my wife to hold forth that baton, while I keep on injecting the required energy, fund and corporate direction our business needs. Getting another job was the only option available in the face of mounting bills, family demands, basic home provisions, land lord wahala, and all of that. I must confess, this face was tough, and there was no end in sight. It almost as if the world will collapse on me. My wife carried the burden with me like a colossus. We never loose our minds, and somehow, we manage to throw all manners of smiles to family and friends, so much that a lot still dream to be like what we looked at that time.

It is worthy of mention that the new job wasn’t paying well. Simply put, the corporate job wasn’t cooperating for an odindin MBA holder and CEO like me. The pay cheque could barely keep us from dieing in the struggle, especially as we still had to support our business with the meagre amount. Within these periods, we had trimmed down our life style and finance so much. I had resulted to using my car for transport business on weekends, plying Lagos to Abeokuta and having to cope with the Agberos wahala in both states. Had Uber, Bolt and all these bus hailing app been available at that time, I would have pass this face of my life with swag! But no, NURTW, RTEAN, and other touting colleague were calling the shots for an homeboy like me. There were so much drama on this mission that, all the eyes, saw, the tongue cannot tell. So, this part is better left to be told in a series.

IN SEARCH OF THE GOLDEN FLEECE

My job not paying well, bill mounting, business crumbling, family growing, health concerns, and all…. I had to search for another job, then another, then another.

In the midst of all these, another business idea struck, birthed from one of the challenges in my school (and several other school at the time).

I identified a peculiar problem affecting more school owners like myself.

Sourcing for good books for student towards resumption on time can be a very daunting task for school owners. Quality books, with good content, at best price and delivered at the right time; were rare possibilities. Most time, schools had to settle for the books their supplier-agents introduce to them. Books publishers too, were groaning in the pains of redundant stocks, returned stocks, poor inventory systems, poors books supply chain, collapse bookshops in the country and all of that.

I found a solution! Books and Sundries Limited (My registered, trading name) was Birthed!

I launched a website http://www.nigeriabooksonline (now shut down), where all the aforementioned challenges were effectively addressed. The whole idea was to create a platform where schools order school books online, get instant notifications for publishers, get the books delivered to them at the comfort of their schools (and to parents homes) through 3rd part logistics, etc.

After several months of strategies and implementations, some major book publishing companies were signed on my platform. These include the Legendary Lantern books (Litramed Publishers), PAN African University Press, Bookcrafts Limited, among others. over 2,000 books titles were already listed within 6 months. Several other publishers were on our waiting list as they prefer to join when the site has attracted enough acceptability. The actual target was to enlist 10,000 books within first year of launching the site. So, the likes of WABP Limited, Evans publishers, Melrose publishers, Textworths, Rasmed publishers, Learn Africa Publishers, etc. were on the sure wait list.

Within this period, I had coopted 2 other partners to make the project a 3-man co-founder, get partnership sign up of some giants publishers in the industry, sign up partnership with 3rd party logistic companies like Deliverybros.ng, and GIG; completed partnership with Nipost ecommerce for Nationwide delivery; attended some national exhibitions, and all.

Business was looking so good and about to become the biggest thing in Nigeria Book Tech industry. With partnership support, some money was raised to execute this venture as another rounds of my lifetime savings sunk into this project…. Behold another round of disappointments. Project failed! Story of how and why this project failed is better told in another forum. Lessons learnt from this venture has proven very useful in my subsequent dealings. They will also be useful for aspiring entrepreneurs. Plenty Pain, Plenty gist!

BOUNCING BACK

Remember, all through my misadventures, my school still stands! In fact, it has always been my last result when any of my told and untold ventures failed. So, anytime I go on any finger burning endeavours, I come home to lick my wounds and thank God that my first love (school) still stands. My wife, in the middle of it all would help nurse my wounds and urge me on, bearing the direct effect of my faux pas.

All the while, I kept my head straight, keeping eyes on the ball, in pursuit of excellence. Again, I changed Job, re-located my school business from Ogun State to Lagos as the slow growth of the school in Ogun state was having a bad turn on my business. Redrafted my strategies, relaunch another business, DE-FEEK CARRIERS, a logistics operation positioned for big gigs. We keep up the struggle, as we progress in search of the golden fleece. Full stories on this will be told once pepper don rest well.

SUICIDE THOUGHT?

Never!

My religion forbids this, You had to stay strong and be hopeful in the face of adversity.

My self believe is too strong to allow any doubt to succeed and my humble beginning has taught me that, life couldn’t be as hard as I was raised… So, I have practically seen the worst while growing up, seeing my mother bear it all. And to cap it all, My wife remains a strong pillar that could bend 360⁰. There are more to tell on these. We are both committed to my success, Our success!

Good news – Road don dey clear….

MY ADVICE

When Life throws you lemon, try turn it to lemonade. Never give up as all clouds has a silver linings. It will never be dark forever. Keep strong, keep your head straight, seek help where necessary, and change strategies when your magic wand becomes impotent.

Firm up, you can do it!