Oops! Im 30 years today! 30 is the iconic age when you become too old to play video games.. and also too young to talk about "Good Old Days!". By tomorrow, i will be one day closer to being 40! Thanks God! As a birthday present for myself, i have tried to answer some of the frequently asked questions that i get from upcoming enterpreneurs, or from friends that wish to move up their career ladder. How did you start? Office Politics- How do you excel in a multinational corporation? How do you mitigate the risks of failure? How do you manage work-life balance as a career person. There is no single answer to this (sorry to dissapoint). But herein, i have summarised top 10 Decisions that shaped me in the last 15 years.Perhaps you can pick direct answer to some of the questions. 1. Know Thyself: Nothing precedes self discovery. Know what you want out of life. People will constantly sell you their opinion of you as your future. You need to sit back and determine who you really are and what you want out of that job or business. Based on my early performance in science courses, especially Biology, my counsellor advised me to study medicine. I walked out of that counselling room more confused than i went in. When i got into the university, i had such a good score in Engineering Drawings ( thanks to my High School Teacher) so much that my lecturer advised that i should consider transferring to architecture or perhaps some more drawing intensive course like mechanical or civil engineering (Did he forget Fine Art?). During my final year, i knew about telecommunications so well that my lecturer advised that i do communicaitons electives (i needed easy distinctions), instead of the control system options that i chose( besides, Telecoms companies were out there waiting to hire). My lecturers were right, going by the data they had. However, looking back, i think i made most of my decision so far based on what was fun, would make life easier for others and aligned with my set goals. I love medicine and respect my Doctor friends, but i do not wish to playfully forget medical knife inside a patient. My lecturers imagined that i would run a straight PhD program immediately after NYSC and perhaps end up as a lecturer somewhere. But here i am today, building an Automation company. Figure out how everything adds up before you climb that ladder. 2. Capitalize on your Experience: I had my first major business baptism when i was just over 15 years old. i had just finished from High school and had to wait for JAMB results (typically 1 year). I was quite good at playing video games ( i even had a "pro pad"). All i needed was the first payment and i would play all day cos very few people could beat me in Abeokuta. I loved gaming so much that i forfeited any holiday computer lessons in 1998 and opened a game center business with family support. This was my school of hard knocks. Thereafter, i became a serial micro enterpreneur, looking for the business and the fun side of every other situation i found myself. Between our family game center business and GIL Automation today, i ran careersng, i ran alljobsnigeria, i even opened email and taught people internet browsing, Linux OS, co-started a cybercafe on campus, setup squid proxy servers for cafes in towni and sold refreshments at convention grounds. Some of these business ventures died in the works, some died after the 10th customer, i sold some to gain other leverage etc. There hasnt been one single streak of career success. I have made mistakes and got lucky, but i make the best of NOW. 3: Know Thy Love: One more observation from my serial enterpreneur story above is that i loved video games ( simulations, 3D, virtual reality)..and only made revenue from what i love doing. I still look at my secondary school report that says.. Brilliant result but Gbolahan is too playful. I read about temperaments at 16 and i sat down to access my seeming weaknesses. The only way i could move forward was to capitalize on my strength and work on my weaknesses, or convert those i couldnt change. i had to love myself and make the best of my deficits. I started out with internship in the oil&gas industry and i enjoyed the global nature of the industry. With the right skill, i could work anywhere in the world! In picking what solution to offer to the industry, i factored what i loved doing into the equation. manufacturing was a no go area due to no infrastructure. So i started with systems integration. It involved innovative solution, hardware, software and networks etc together to accomplish a control objective. it leveraged my love for computers, for programming and for being the first to know. Today, we have engineers that are better than i am and we offer more services. But if i didnt start with what i had and loved, perhaps we wouldnt even be here. If you have a choice. Start with what you know and love. Theres a gift in you that constantly seeks your audience. Turn it on! 4: Change your thought, Change your life: Early business lessons thought me to learn from my competitors and to pick the biggest challenger in my industry. But 4 years into running GIL Automation, i knew i couldnt win without first winning in my mind. i had competitors with 10-20 years experience, 50 times bigger etc. I wasnt catching up on contracts and couldnt beat their experience. They were multinationals and called us LOCALS. More companies got them opportunities because they had the experience, structure and brand. It was almost becoming a rat race and perhaps, we would be second best for life. But then, through my mentor, i learnt about the power of positive thinking. Success in your career is really a game of the mind. So i learnt to bite more than i could chew an we started an aggressive globalization plan. We started seeking global alliances and created a larger than self brand. We spoke of our brand as though we were already a Fortune 500 company. We revamped our website, got expatriates and started management meetings. Looking back in the last 2 years, we have gradually won more because we changed our mindset. Being Nigerian wasnt a show stopper anymore..it meant we knew Africa more than any competitor. Being a young company was no more a weakness, it meant fast decision making and no bureaucracy - Personalised customer experience. Lack of infrastructure in Nigeria suddenly became an opportunity to grow by 500% consistently over 10 years once the power industry kicks. We have a new story to tell our customers. I changed my mindset and now see things differently. If you loose the battle in your mind, your confession will align with the harsh realities in Africa and then you get stuck...like others! 5:Set Goals, Score Goals: The real reward for set goals is the lessons learnt while trying to achieve those goals. Today, i just missed my target of employing 100 engineers by my 30th birthday ( few numbers short) or getting a PhD by 27, but i have learnt a lot in trying to achieve these. As Good to Great puts it, Set Big, Hairy and Audacious goals.. Delay gratification but measure performance. For me, meeting target is principally solving the problems that confront humanity in every way i can. When i graduated from school, most engineering graduates would have to work in banks or ministries etc. By 2007, i became worried that most engineering and technician role are being filled by expats because Nigeiran engineers lack the right training and skillset. So i set a personal goal to stimulate technology transfer so engineers can do engineering in Nigeria. We set target exams for our engineers to achieve, and they aced it with ease. So i started the long walk into replicating these skills, which is still a work in progress. Whatever you can not measure, you cant improve. 6: Get a lifeline: If i knew things would be this easier with a right partner, i would have been married right from campus. God gave me the best wife for a partner and my family is now one of the main motivation for growth. I am still trying to wean myself from my workaholic life, but i see that nothing overhauls your efficiency better than standing for something in life. You need to define what runs the adrenalin through your spine, what is worth being remembered for and what you would do even if charts go south. I purposed never to start my business while working for others, or to cheat my employers ( For fear of karma). I gave in my best and resigned first before even filling my papers for registration, but i had my mind focused on where i was going. There are fundamental decisions that need to be made as you progress in your career.. whis important, what are the boundary lines, your values and your priorities. What are the things to stop doing etc. There is no hard and fast rule on what is right values or otherwise. But not having what to stand for makes you vunerable. 7: Have Faith: Theres a God that puts things in order. Having faith gives you the assurance that all will be well. If you live and run a career in emerging market like Nigeria, you have to be ready for all kinda news. Office politics is a constant and there is every good reason for everyone else to succeed. If all you depend upon is sound reasoning, hard work or business logic, expect rude shocks! God factor has helped me in so many uncountable ways. Doors of opportunities have turned positiive for us when i least expected and we have been favored beyond our hardwork. We got our first major government contract without any lobbying. Such doesnt happen everyday in our society where the rules keep changing. It doesnt rain everyday. With God, you can have a reason to forgive easily, to overlook and to smile even in tough times. Its a key differentiator when the chips are down. 8: Get a mentor: As a young career Engineer and later as trainee CEO, i had my own idea of career success. I wanted NO bad news, wanted to measure growth by how much we beat our competition and wanted to beat competition by doing what they do better. With a mentor, my energy was channeled in the right direction. i learnt early enough to think market growth and to learn to be unique. I would only be the second best if i copied..no matter how hard i tried. I also learnt that experience can only be built over time and that trust is earned...never given! I have only met one of my business mentors once in my life. He has started a company, globalised and sold out . I had an hour session with him early 2012 and that saved me years of toiling on wrong strategies. I dont have just one mentor. Having a mentor reduced my chance of failure by almost 50%. Get someone that has been there and done it! 9:Build Relevance: This is an area of work in progress for me. Im very press shy, i do not enjoy excessive attention and love my works to speak for me instead. I seldom return call and I decline press interviews since i see them as showmanship. However, i have now learnt through my mentors that your net worth is directly tied to your network. Money flows in the direction of Power. Once you reach the accelerated growith phase of your career or life, you will need to put a face to your works. People do business with people not companies. People promote people, not CVs. Trust is better built with hand shakes. Who you know is more relevant than what you do. Your network opens the door for you while your service delivery keeps the door opened. I still have a lot of catching up to do, but i now know better. Get off those skype calls and emails. Go have lunch with your boss. visit your customers in person. People make decision with emotions and justify with logic. Build that connection. Touch the right spots! Surround yourselves with the best in your field. Command attention. Dress good. 10: Never Give Up: You can not beg your way to the top. When life throws me a hard knock, I console myself by dreaming again. I bite more than you can chew. Be the best and never give up. I get as many good news as otherwise in a week. If you give up on the bad news, how will you live to savor the good news. Theres growth opportunity for you in that company, find it. Get one more degree, get certified, get better at what you do. Whatever the case is. Keep afloat till the break comes. I hope that this helps and wish you the very best of good success! As for me, I do not know how far i will run with my many dreams over the next 10 years, but one thing is sure, whatever comes my way, i will give every day my best shot and have all the fun i can get from it. I will do all i can to make my dreams come true and i wont quit dreaming. I will create time for those that are special to me and be the change that i seek. You have one life on earth... live it on purpose. (MOVING UP IN 2013? HERE IS MY 10 KOBO) CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER GIL AUTOMATIONS AND CONTROL LIMITED
Posted on: Sun, 08 Sep 2013 18:59:02 +0000
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