How I got lucky in career and business
What differentiates a successful person from a not so successful person?
My late dad believed the answer lies in how a person spends his/her time.
As a child, right from my elementary school days, my late Dad used to make me plan my daily activities — regardless of whether it was the school term or holiday breaks. He used to say that “everyone has 24hrs in a day, and the difference between the successful and the not so successful lies in how they spend their time”. I agree with my dad even more today!
Some months ago, I was invited to speak to an audience of young professionals and budding entrepreneurs on my journey as an entrepreneur. In preparing for the webinar, I reflected on my career journey and highlighted some points that I believe contributed to shaping my path. Given that my speech was well received, I decided to put it together in an article and share with a wider audience.
Build great habits
My late dad used to ensure that activities like studying, reading, and praying (as a muslim, I pray 5 times daily) were adequately incorporated in my daily activities. With such practices, you may presume that I had the best grades in school but nothing could be further from the truth. I struggled with school work as a young lad to the extent that my primary 5 school teacher (Mr. Odufuwa) concluded that I needed divine intervention. He was wrong. It turned out that I just was not focused and was more interested in playing. That changed when I had to sit for the primary school leaving examination (Common Entrance as it was called) at the end of Year 5 and I came out with one of the highest scores in the examination and also made Head Boy in Year 6! Apparently, those practices that my late dad enforced were gradually building strong habits that continue to serve me till today. Some of these habits include: planning, praying, reading and executing.
From an early age, I was made to understand that reading is a life skill. At age 9, I read the famous Rich Dad Poor Dad by Robert Kiyosaki, based on my late dad’s recommendation, and I believe the book played pivotal role in how my career and business life is shaping up. The book ignited my interest in investing and entrepreneurship.
I started learning actively about and investing from when I was 14yrs old. I also started planning about how I was going to build a great business around the same time.
Play to your strengths (and tame your weakness)
Having clarity on your strengths and weaknesses would aid you in making better decisions.
In my early high school years, when I was more interested in music and faffing, my academic performance was generally poor with the exception of business related courses such as economics, business studies and accounting which I aced effortlessly. In hindsight, this difficult period enabled me to realize that I had strength in business related activities. I leveraged this insight in setting long-term goals and guiding my academic and career decisions. For example, I decided to study either accounting or finance as 1st degree, and I turned down job offers that did not align with my strengths and long-term plan. I also decided I was going to run a financial services business with the mission to deepen financial markets in Africa for the ultimate benefit of creating wealth for society at large (this has since evolved to empowering businesses to maximise value and reach full potential). I believe that if businesses are empowered more individuals will prosper and society at large benefits.
Be pragmatic
By the time I graduated from the University in 2009, it was clear that to achieve my goal of running a financial services business there were 3 main pathways:
1. start from scratch; or
2. acquire an existing business; or
3. rise through the ranks in an existing firm
For the kind of business I wanted to undertake (financial services) it was almost impossible to start from the scratch without experience due to the specialized skills required and high regulation — so that ruled out starting from the scratch at that time. Next option was to acquire and run an existing business. This was also ruled out by lack of experience and obviously capital — it wasn’t like my parents were on the Forbes List. Thus, the last option I had was to rise through the ranks (i.e. working with an existing financial services firm — since I was also gaining experience and earning, this would keep options 1 and 2 open).
Be deliberate
I commenced my career working as an intern and youth corper at FSDH Merchant Bank (formerly First Securities Discount House Limited). During the NYSC period, it was commonplace to see people do activities that are not directly related to their long-term goals. But I was determined to gain relevant experience during this period. This meant staying in Lagos, where majority of the top financial services firms were headquartered. I later worked with Access Bank Plc, PwC and ARM, where I gained quality experience and expanded my network, before founding Leonine.
Always be learning
During my career, I prioritized Learning over Earning. This principle was tested when I left a high-flying career at Access Bank to join PwC, not only taking a massive pay cut but also joining at a lower grade.
In all my career moves, 3 principles guided my decisions:
1. Gaining relevant experience
2. Expanding relevant network
3. Increasing my earning power (note that this does not necessarily mean immediate payoff)
Your network is your net-worth
I never worked in any organisation except that I deliberately built strong relationships across board (internally and externally) and strategically with the leadership. This helped me when I made the final decision to start Leonine. One of the critical steps I took was to write a list of 20 captains of industry and schedule a face-to-face meeting to get their thoughts and advice. This ended up being not only a mentorship session, but also a sales pitch as over 70% of our sales in the next 12 months could be traced to that list. As one of my mentors put it, ‘what you know’ is the 2nd most important factor to an entrepreneur. ‘Who you know’ may be the most critical factor.
Build a strong support system
When I decided to startup Leonine, I had been married for about 3 years, and had a son that was less than a year. My wife was not working at the time, so, , the decision to quit my job and start up Leonine was a weighty one. One would get opposition from even family and friends borne of their love and fear but for me, having a wife that had my back was very critical in my journey because she believed in me and supported me 100%. She was ready to ride the tide with me regardless of the outcomes.
Work with the best people
Most businesses typically mirror the values of the founders. I have always had clarity about my values right from my teen days. So, when I decided to found Leonine I wanted to get people that had compatible values with me and the firm I was building. Luckily, I did not have to look far to find a strong and compatible partner in Yinka Ojikutu.
Yinka and I spent a great deal of time thinking through our personal values and the values that we wanted Leonine to be built on. The importance of values and culture to the success of a business cannot be overemphasized. We settled for the following values: Trust, Excellence, Empathy, Teamwork and Learning. These values drive everything we do at Leonine, from recruitment decisions to service delivery.
Conclusion
Luck happens when preparation meets opportunity.
Over the last twenty years, since I commenced preparation for my career, business and life, the following principles have played important roles in creating luck for me:
- Build great habits
- Play to your strengths (and tame your weaknesses)
- Be pragmatic
- Be deliberate
- Always be learning
- Your network is your net-worth
- Build a strong support system
- Work with the best people
I believe that thriving businesses are an integral part of the growth and development of every society. My journey so far has led me to running Leonine, where we are laser-focused on helping businesses maximize value by providing financial advisory, training and tech-enabled finance services.
Since we started officially on 1 March 2018, we have worked with over 100 businesses across our different lines of business. I and my Leonine Heroes remain fired up to continue to support businesses in maximizing value and reaching full potential.
It is still day one.
