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Channel / Source:
TEDx Talks
Published: 2014-12-22
Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4o_O_v8gQpg
I %HESITATION thank you I will it's always a good thing when this is such good things about you but for those of you who didn't get my name my name is my needs it's very simple money dish yeah you can buy them money my needs I guess my parents will knew my love for money and that's why they need me my knees so %HESITATION any good
I just wanted to emphasize that you know even though you look at me and you feel this and we both standing in front of you I'm actually not illegal I was born in Africa and I'm second division after good so I'm as after good as some of the sitting in the audience but had the privileges of studying and some of the best universities in England and
America but ideally came back to Africa to pursue my lifelong ambition which was entrepreneurship and I really want to play well from would be five years book was a few days talk is to basically shared with you my own to put million Jody but before I want to do that and what the stakes the stage by just talking does it producing a global business a bit
so that you can understand the context of my own definitive journey our business globally escorted offee global group in Nigeria need existed for more than thirty five years under the name of my body and it's a conglomerate as has been said before the look at me it means operated media sectors but took Amigos can because stuff commodities getting the logistics healthcare in a big way in
terms of total voted they do ya I would go nobody's upwards of thirty billion nine on and you know we are truly a global company have you have operations in Dubai trying all good deal India all your little one and Ethiopia and as we speak we keep on opening up more and more geographies and in Africa but some of you might be wondering I mean I
think the brag about myself about my company why am I telling you all of this the reason I'm telling you all this is to basically shared with you about my Jody had to still use some of about call above the success and actually the main purpose of what I what I want to shake today is talk about the failures so I wanted to basically say to
you that a lot of successful people do not talk about their feelings it basically when we talk about basics their successes and I find that it's a very good opportunity for me to be in bed ex you talk about I feel as and you know what I learn from them and that's something which I would focus on so it might not surprise you that my multiple
millions Joni has had media's ups and downs and that's very natural I mean you cannot be known to put up a twenty five years without having failures but some of you might not know and some off you do not might not realize that some of the fields would really bad and the vet I made bad it means I've been back up to more than two times
in my twenty five years Johnny I've actually had situations that I've been back up and it was so serious that at some point my wife who used to live in the league us and no no mean got based out of Dubai but is to live with me let us use to actually sleep at night in the car because that was the only thing I she could
have access to the sea and I did have enough money to really fix the generator so it was you know those work days pitch of any drug which will be challenging for me and when one talks about bankruptcy I always like to share one of my funniest Studio One bankruptcy ya some of you must be familiar with Donald Trump in New York today so I mean
many Donovan was once while taking a walk in Central Park with his friend and he sees a somebody's got a panhandler in America the club's biggest part hello yeah so easy low barn handler and he does is very %HESITATION jock you know these guys actually the children need so the guy says to him don and what do I mean this guy is richer than me richer
than you so what what number does him he says friend this guy is a busy to I am my list of billion dollars so this guy's differently for each other and me so that was exactly my situation I was owing people millions and in fact billions on my house when I was back up yeah I think even another lady this so the speaker before me some
%HESITATION Cynthia here to talk about the fact that she was with a lot of money so bankruptcy is not fun guys apart from a block from the fact that I was only people a lot of money in it you know a lot of good it does a lot of people I was with a lot of money one of those challenges which I feast and which is
very peculiar to being an entrepreneur in Nigeria and I guess they might have been killed probably Africa is that in this environment when you all people money it's not a similar thing it's a criminal offense and everybody tries to shake you down so I've been shaken down by the police I've been taken down by customs I mean shit going down by immigration I Michigan down by
excess excess now I'm back every possible as well agency possible and then beat me by should own it is what they did is they just came to my office and had asked me for money I've actually been in the cell I've actually leaving the cell it up up up you know and I remember it all very clearly in my in my own experience you know going
through the same and you know you know how they do it because you know you have to wear the clothes and all that and you go there and I was introduced to the president although Sam who was going his Excellency I can go and meet his Excellency with the chairperson of the cell I need to do this myself to him and then he said to me
I still remember it really purely to be he said to me welcome bill would give us a fighting so but it was well I think in life you realize when you read your determined and when you put your mind to it at the end of the day knows situation is permanent and you do it I realized that I you know I I think I got the
mental toughness which I still get rid get be of course another thing which I'd like to share with you in terms of failures is for those of you in the audience who aspired to be entrepreneurs who aspire to be successful one day I'd like to give you is the biggest source of challenges in our business is not the competition it's not all day it's basically all
the stuff sometimes applause will big the biggest challenges and in my own experience of twenty five years all being an entrepreneur I have lost hundreds and hundreds of millions of dollars a night off who frogs by style so guys that always happens of course in my own experience of fifty five years I've had situations where my factories my warehouses that burned down they will floods and
all kinds of issues like that so in the end if somebody was to be an entrepreneur if you lost me my mum talked to him would be the Darling little boys a few you know both of you load of Murphy's law right Murphy's law says wonders exceed save everything which could go wrong will go wrong yeah if you lost me in my experience everything that can
go wrong with not good on once a keyboard long ago good on that please state thanks so be prepared for it guys if you want to be an entrepreneur yeah so I wanted to share with you next please is on my little things and what I learned out of all the feelings I had and that type of act how do you get out of the big
food in my experience the very one gets out of the big wood in business when one is facing all the situations is very very simple stop digging I think again though where you get out of a big hole is stop stop digging and what do I mean by stop digging what I mean by stop digging is the first thing one has to do when one is
in a situation like this you know in the business failure situation in my experience what I did is I confronted the brutal facts and on the business situation off because it was easy I look at the business is I look at the business of what you're making money losing money look of the business is I wanted to keep this is I want to sell with this
is I wanted to of those down and that was quite simple but one of the things which is extremely important in the situation of business failure is to look at the issue of state Korda management and my most important speak for those words my stuff and the people I work with a lot of money banks and credit those with the stuff what I did and I
feel it will tell me is I remember I blood on my soft in the town hall meeting doing them openly and clearly the company's in trouble don't worry we'll get out of it one day we get a fake this I think that the plan of action but at the same time I thought the stuff that whoever wants to leave let them leave quickly and other than
lethal and of course some of the most the left and it'll %HESITATION that you know that's what happens when people eat us up with he was seeking sinking ship but with my credit those this strategy which I used and I would recommend to anybody in a situation like that is Mitchell went over to me over communicates so I made it a point to communicate with them
to talk to them Mitchell before they call me to call them many people used to think this way boy's gonna be from Nigeria site or the bank managers and all that is that coming have requested me in the morning study good good good you a bit of the bag that this guy's still not used to log on to me so you know in in situations like
this it's all of what worked for me is over communication I think I would like to I would like to end by on the issue of business failures without telling you what is the most important issue all about business failures I think the most important issue in business failures is managing your own state managing body motions managing your thoughts many jingle or one of women being
the first thing I did is and it's something which is a habit I still have to be is every morning often I would wanna will I still need inspirational books or something which was really simple some box it does this wouldn't have paid but today in life I did in the very inspirational blackballed to heal people's stories I do know that some all has a lead
of sipping you up for the would be and the second thing I did is in the evening I just a stock isolate the objective to join them very simple five things which I'm good about my life and some of the gratitude journal and inspirational stuff in the morning put me in the condition that I was able to deal with all these issues and challenges in my
life I would just like to say something about what my experience taught me and one of the most insolvency biting thing for me is even yesterday when I was coming believe fate I'd heard about a fair lawn gratefully directly is also good if you think that given all of the cluster sets because I was always look the modus you must be and I never had the
privilege of visiting it but it's to the special who come here and you can feel the energy you can feel the people you can feel the basically it's a culture of excellence so you can give us in the heartland of the problem but I am very glad look if I see something to mold my contribution in terms of solving excell my talks about funding ex is
that what made you god needs what Africa needs is role model inspirational companies we need a lot more who goes and happens in Africa and it's your job young guys do get the you guys are up to it please go and go for it had cleared those companies and I would say in conclusion but in my own little me my company my group and my endeavors
also trying to bid and contribute good spatial companies in Africa so thank you I you be the really good audience I thank you for giving me the opportunity to share my thoughts and in the end I just like to dedicate my my speech today to my folks and my grandmother who taught me that values all boarded buttoned and things thank you and good day
