I was in Lagos last week for some work. Having some free time, I decided to visit the NSE to follow up on the crook that illegally sold my shares. Since I was there, I decided to get registered on the biometrics. NSE has been very innovative I must say.
After the biometrics, I was waiting for my stock position. In walked an old man. White hair but still erect. My phone had died. I saw he had my kind of charger so I politely asked for his.
He handed it over to me. Then he chided me. “Why is your phone dead?” I told him that I was working with it, responding to office mails. He said MY GENERATION WAS FULL OF EXCUSES. I sat up and asked why he thought so. He shrugged and looked away.
A staff at NSE brought his print out. It was long and heavy. I peered and squinted to see the values. The old man was a multi millionaire in stocks.
I took a second look at him. I had never seen him before. He was not popular. So I asked how long he had been purchasing shares? He asked why I asked?
I pointed to 730k GT shares on the print out and others.
He said since 1978. He was putting his will together. He reckoned it was soon going to be time to go. So he wanted to gift his family his earthly acquisitions. His was thinking for the third generation.
“ Are you ill?” He replied in the negative. He was just not sure when the end would come. His was a widower. All he was doing was preparing. “Like you should.” Me? I laughed.
He said this: your lack of anticipating your phone would die, having no charger on you, tells me a lot about your thinking!” “You must always anticipate all possibilities to be successful”!
He shook my hand and got up to go. I stood up, then prostrated before him. I hope those words never leave my heart!
Bless you Baba. May your children value your foresight!
That’s all for today folks. It’s Saturday night! Iya Vero calls.
Adapted from Ademola H Adigun FB wall
P.S. AIA's take: Lazy and Cheap Nigerian Youths Positioned for the Worst
The post surfaced at the right time validating my evidence-based perception of the majority of Nigerian youth with poor attitude...in a sense that, for the past 8 weeks, have been engaging 8 Nigerian final year and ND undergraduates on job and business readiness skills including leadership as part of Lifeworth Youth Development Centre of my NGO, AIA Foundation. These youths are nothing but a trash bin of excuses. I even got job for 2 of them and they invented excuses with non chalant attitude until deadline despite the effort I Invested helping them in the application process....oh my God!
