Akinwale Ekundayo

First of all, nothing is the same anymore . . .

A friend’s office just laid off almost all their staff because their business model may no longer be attainable . . . Access Bank [One of the foremost Nigerian Banks] just lain off about 1500 Marketing Department staff, and more Customer Service, Tellers, Cleaners, and Branch Operations staff will be laid off soon. These are inevitable; everything has changed!

The reality of this is that your present savings (if you have any) have lost 25% of its value already; it’s going to keep losing more value because we don’t produce significantly much for export in Nigeria, so we earn much less in foreign exchange. Crude oil is less than zero in value on international markets at the moment; people are even paying to take the oil off their production facilities. This is the new economic reality.

So, we are in A RESET and everything you know is about to return to their ORIGINAL DESIGN

What does this mean?

The most valuable assets in life will return to *food (including water), clothing, and housing. Other things will be regarded as luxuries.

Fast foods and entertainment hubs will know a major dip; we are in austerity.

Fanciful packaging will disappear; fanciful events will no longer hold. Everything will return to answering the question: “what exactly is the value offered”

People will build less; professional services outside accounting, legal services, and health services will not see much patronage anymore.

Massage parlors will no longer see customers like they use to; people will start learning to DIY [Do-It-Yourself] many things, including their own laundry.

Even Netflix will soon stop selling as much as it did during the lockdown; people are still in their former habits and no doubt, the lockdown has increased their sales. But three (3) months from now, less than half of their present patronage will be left. People will repurpose their funds and find cheaper ways to entertain themselves.

So, most of what we have considered as work before now may have gone already!

Here we are, how do we find our way in the middle of all this?

  1. No one is here on earth is without what it takes to live well. If mosquitoes have proboscis to suck blood, and birds have beaks to pick or tear food; humans have all it takes and you do too!
  2. If you look within you for the way out, you will not find it there. It was never meant to be there. Instead, what you have in you are answers, the pathway is outside of you. It is around you and with you; but not in you . . .
  3. Every person has these three things and no one is in a famine of them – Skills, Problems, and Resources. You are meant to Discover (realize) and explore these three in pursuit of your life’s purpose. This purpose is never known from the beginning; do not believe much of what motivational speakers tell you. It is not lost so you don’t need to find it. It is a realization you come into after putting these three things to work.

 

SKILLS

Skills are not necessarily certified knowledge that you have. Certificates are for other people to believe that you have those skills. They are things you do effortlessly already, and you enjoy doing them. They are cooking, drawing, running, dancing, making things, etc.

An Accountant is simply someone who understands bookkeeping and has good knowledge of how numbers can be used to inform decisions. His or her certificate only says that he or she can do these things. By the way, these days, people have these certificates and cannot do these things; so they don’t get anyone to use the skills they don’t have, even if the certificate says they have them.

I am sure you get my point that having the ability and capacity to do certain things, with practice and experiences that helped to fine-tune them is SKILL. In light of present focus for people after COVID-19 [food, clothing, housing . . . let’s add logistics and education] skills that apply to problems in these areas are the ones that are valuable now. You may want to review what you do as work or business.

 

PROBLEMS

We have a lot of them, especially now after COVID-19; and they are more obvious! Before now, we were pretending that we do not have them. We kept up appearances; but now, the bird has come home to roost! We cannot escape it; we cannot run away from it! Those who conveniently avoided them before now have done so at their peril. Now, only those who embrace problems will survive (let’s not even talk about living well yet).

So, what problem are you able to solve? Which ones are you really solving?

I mean real problems! Not pseudo [false] ones. See, without major problems that you are solving creatively [mark that word], you are at the mercies of those who are solving them.

Can I trouble you a bit? Some of us need to relocate to a village right now and manage a farm with that MBA! Some of us need to change our wardrobe to Ankara and sandals and ditch the suits and fine shirts if you want to survive. You have to find a real problem and go for its solution from its source.

In delivering solutions, by the way, there is a whole value chain – Conception, Creation, Production, Packaging, Distribution, Delivery, etc. All these stages are necessary before the final product gets to the final consumer. You really don’t have to reinvent the wheel; if something is broken in that value chain, that is where to go, not where the chain is working fine already! So for example, in the construction industry, the question to ask is what are the problems?

  1. Rent will increase – production and accessibility problem
  2. People will downsize and more luxurious excesses will see less patronage – management and redesign problems
  3. Cheaper houses will be in high demand – design and construction technology problem
  4. Management from off-site will become the reasonable option – management problem

Each of these problems has its niche in the value chain. You don’t have to own a whole construction company to solve some of these real problems. Focus on the niche with a problem you can solve and take it head-on.

 

RESOURCES

Life’s resources are three – Minutes (time), Money, and Men (people)

We all have these three; we just don’t have enough of it, most time.

So, each one gets 24hours at a time; each naira at a time; and each person (new relationship) at a time . . . If you get all at once you will either die immediately or be killed [think about it]! So you will have to get it as you go [can you now see why purpose is a journey]

However, these resources are layered: Minutes (Time) is primary, Money is secondary, and People are tertiary

Remember school? If you don’t have primary education, you cannot have a secondary one. If you don’t have a secondary one, you cannot have tertiary education. Really, you cannot jump! So, if you have no time to spare, you will not have money; if you don’t have money, you will not have people. Money and popularity without good management of your time are like desiring Secondary School Certificate, First Degree, Masters, and Ph.D. without Primary Education. Ko le wek [“It will not work” in Hannah’s voice].

So, what you do with your time is the most important thing right now. Take stock of your lifetime and see where you spend all your life’s resources. In this austerity, take back your time and you will be better for it. If you are spending your time doing a job that is not responding to the issues we raise earlier, you are about to be sacked; and if you get sacked, it will be the best time to commit that your time to what truly matters in your life – your own work.

Locate your life’s work, the values you can create, and the opportunities that abound for you. [Read “If All Is Well, Why Am I Like This?”, a book written by AkinWaleEkunDayo, available for purchase from our store.]

Remember, Nigerian economy is suffering a set back at the moment. So, if you have saved funds, convert them to dollars/pounds/euro and keep them until this dip is over.

32,426 Thoughts on “Finding your Way”