UNEMPLOYED PEOPLE ARE PROUD PEOPLE

No one should call himself unemployed. If you are not employed ,deploy your skills. Most unemployed people are proud people; they are unwilling to start small. Some market women sell oil and build houses and even send their children to the university. You are there saying that you cannot sell oil because you are a graduate! Imagine if you sold oil but this time with style, packaging and intelligence. Let me tell you about Charles(Not his real name).Charles was my neighbor many years ago and so whatever I sharing is first hand and true. When we met he was preparing to go for service. After the usual long wait, he was posted to Abuja. There, he was privileged to work in ECOBANK. This was possible because the personnel manager who was recruiting was from his tribe.

It was a great experience for Charles because that was the first time he was leaving his State. However, before the end of the service year the personnel manager was transferred to Kaduna. He had promised to assist in helping Charles get retained in the bank. But now with the personnel manager transferred, Charles knew his chances were slimmer. He pulled a call to this man who still promised him that he would pull a few strings for Charles. Well, at the end of his service year, Charles had to return back to his State, hoping that he would receive that miracle call. He waited for 3 months! The call never came; and even though he pulled other calls through, all he received were promises and hopes.

Finally, Charles picked up his certificate and began roaming the streets, looking for a job. He was in every Government establishment ,dropping his CV and attending one aptitude test after another. I watched with keen interest how that he went about his endeavors. One day, I called him and said to him, “How about starting something, anything. No matter how small”. Well, after some time, Charles threw his pride away and began a laundry business! And guess what? In 3 months he had his own Lister Generator, his own shop and two people working for him !I saw him a year ago and asked him, “Are you still looking for a job?”.His response were: “Me? A job? Can they really pay me? What would happen to my business?”And now he had more hands working for him.

YOU NEVER KNOW HOW MUCH YOU CAN ACCOMPLISH UNTIL YOU TRY. The moment you throw away your pride, you can start where you are with what you have and get to any where you want to get to. Charles started his laundry business with just N4000! And he got that money from his friend. Next, Charles dressed good and went to the banks in his area. The bankers gave him their clothes because he looked good and spoke good. Charles also created a system that enabled the bankers to pay at the end of the month. With about 20 bankers giving him N10,000 every month to do all their laundry, He was making N200,000 monthly! Now that  excluded the other customers that came to him. Recently, Charles has introduced a new system. He comes to your home with a tricycle and picks all your laundry. All of this miraculous transformation happened in just one year! How about that for a success story! Like I said this story is one I am personally involved in. It is completely true.

UNEMPLOYED PEOPLE ARE FEARFUL

Fear of failure hinders all progress. Henry David Thoreau once said “If one advances in the direction of his dreams and endeavors to live the life he has imagined ,he would come upon success unexpected in common hours”. That is what happened to Charles and that is what can happen to you too! Like I said earlier Action paralyses fear. What we need in Nigeria  are courageous men. We need the courage to start. Let me quote one of my favorite quotes by 15^th century German philosopher Johann Von Goethe. He once said: “Until one is committed ,there is hesitancy ,the chance to draw back, always ineffective, concerning all acts of creation and initiative…The moment one definitely commits one self ,the providence moves too. Whatever you can do ,or dream you can do, begin it .Boldness has genius ,power and magic in it. Begin it now! All sort of things occur to help one that would otherwise have occurred. A whole stream of events rising in one favor all manner of unforeseen circumstances and meetings and material assistance which no man could have dreamed would have come his way”

If I were you, I would write out that statement and brood on it for a very long time. Fear has no place when there is action. So arise today. Awaken the entrepreneur within you. Without doubt, you have all it takes to be a mega entrepreneur. You are Nigeria’s hope. It has always been a privilege for me to speak in meetings. There are very few invitations I do not take. Speaking is my passion, especially when it comes to talking entrepreneurship.  Well, in the course of one of my speaking engagements, I met Rebecca(Not her real name).She was then in school and was desperately looking for something to do because of the financial conditions of her parents. When we met, I asked her what she could do? She could bake and cook well. “Use that to make money”, I said to her. And she did! All she needed to start was N1500.She produced cakes and went to corporate institutions, especially banks to sell them. They loved the cakes and soon people were asking her to bake their children’s birthday cake, their wedding cakes, and so on. Today, Rebecca drives a car from that business. Believe me it is barely five years from that time we met. It can happen to you too! All you simply have to do is start.