May
20
2009
“Sorry for the password on yesterday’s article, I will remove the password as soon as I get clearance”
Last week monday a collaboration effort started between Visible Impacts – Project RAISE , the New Nigeria Club, The Future Movmement and Generis Solutions. The objective of this project is to inspire 1,000,000 secondary school leavers to excel in the forthcoming S.S.C.E exams and J.A.M.B and to sustain this number and more for the coming years. The current facts on ground are alarming – Out of the 1,188,142 that took S.S.C.E only 188,136 passed S.S.C.E with Credit in English and Maths and 3 other subjects. Out of the 1,145,961 present for J.A.M.B exam 548,543 candidates scored above 200. This means that over 1 million people certainly have sat at home and would do both exams again in the next 1yr, and guess what they’ll have a good number of fresh takers joining them.
Like all great initiatives, it rises and falls, not on the excellence of the idea but on the commitment of the people and the ability of the system to reward it’s key drivers. I have led a number of informal organizations in my life, and what I have learnt and vowed to do my best not to repeat is that great ideas collapse if the real needs of those that are driving it are not met. I remember feeling remorse after my tenure as the president of my university department, I chronicled my thoughts into my hand over notes – “directing people that you have no power to reward or punish requires truly inspirational leadership, or it will be frustrating”. It is however more frustrating if you as a leader are powerless to meet their urgent needs. This thinking has formed in my mind into a philosophy, a philosophy that if you observe me closely you will realize, I will never engage in any activity that will not create a way for the people that I consider principal to the achievement of the goals, to be duly rewarded!
It is with this philosophy in mind that I am glad to announce to you that we have just set up a system where we can create inspirational role models, teachers and trainers for over 1,000,000 nigerian students in the next 1yr, helping them to succeed. Continue Reading »
Nov
14
2008
I usually write my titles before I start writing. The titles usually motivate me to write. Looking up at this title today, and seeing what lies ahead of me, I know that this must be a lot briefer than it should be.
Right now I’m in Ikeja, I’ll be in Maryland by 3pm, and I need to be in the UK for a meeting tomorrow morning – Billionaires in Training. I need to also be back almost immediately as I have other meetings and engagments all over the place. I really desire to write everyday, this is my ideal, but atimes things just swing into accelarated mode, that I catching my breath is a struggle. Blogging is still a first love for me, I feel like telling the whole world to join me online as well, and let’s position ourselves as Nigeria’s New Media.
Tomorrow will make it exactly 3yrs after I made my first. 3 sentences post on blogosphere. I remember starting then, going on for about 3 days then having a 5 months break before I posted again. In those 5 months, I could very much have stopped, but somehow, I kept getting reminders like this post, and decided to go for it. Today, I’m 1 blogger, with about 450 posts, 9000 comments, and 400,000 visitors. I didn’t know how powerful having a blog was, until I gave it a good shot. Today, it’s helped me to achieve a lot, and if you digest this history lesson, and take a few tips from it, it might help you too. Continue Reading »
Jul
21
2008
Once upon a time two 13yr old boys decided to each ask their fathers for the key to their father’s brand new BMWs. They met together to agree which of their fathers was nicer, and which loved or cared about them the most. They were in JSS 3, and a lot of their classmates claimed to be able to drive, except them. Some of them also claimed to drive their fathers cars, but not them. It wasn’t good, they thought, they believed that the only way to sort things out, was to ask their fathers.
The first boy, whose name I’ll refer to as Chike, decided to ask his dad as well. He explained to his dad that he wanted to drive his fathers BMW, and that he was feeling very aloof as all his classmates were driving except him. His father laughed heartily and told him to go face his books, that when the time was right, they’ll sit down together and have that conversation again. He went to his room with tears laid eyes, his father had not even given him sufficient attention before dismissing his proposition.
The second boy, whose name I’ll refer to as Segun, asked his father the same question, explaining the issues on ground and how driving this car to school will increase his social standing. The father, being a very understanding father, who understood the value of a social life, decided to indulge him and gave him the car keys. After a lot of struggle… starts stops and sharp movements… he got the hand of how to move the car. In the course of one full day, he scratches the car, steals from his dad to fix it before he finds out, gets to impress and hang out with wrong company, and gets into big time trouble! Continue Reading »
