So many relatives, friends and acquaintances have asked me time and time again; “why I left my lucrative job and career, to chase a world of the unknown; a world where there are more failures than success; a world that seems like a pipe dream; a world where only the fittest and the street smart excel; a world if not carefully guided can lead your family into economic ruins and turmoil?â€
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I have given various answers that even I cannot confidently defend to myself; some of them include:
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1.     MBA program: The way my MBA program is structured; I could have integrated it with my work load. The place I work was perfect for me to take time out to travel for my exams and thesis.
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2.     More Money: If you cannot make more money than your salary while working, you definitely cannot make more money on your own. If I wanted to make more money while working, I knew how to manipulate the system to get it done while still enjoying my monthly fat salary.
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3.     Freedom: The concept of freedom has been highly misplaced and misrepresented. Freedom simply means more responsibility. Since I have launched out into a perceived abyss of self employment, I have been more constrained to do what I like than when I was employed. In the work place, I have only 2 bosses; my unit leader and the customers but in the self-employment regime, I have so many bosses and they include the customers, the suppliers, the landlords of my various offices, market forces and the investment partners. I work harder and think harder as a self employed than when I was employed.Â
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4.     Ability to do what I enjoy doing: I was enjoying my work where I was employed; travelling to various countries on the company’s bill and collecting excess travelling allowances, meeting Nigerian young men from various parts of the world, eating various kinds of food and understanding various culture. I still had time to blog and do my frequent importation of goods.
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5.     Owning your own company: I owned my company while I was still working; in fact, I registered my company with CAC when I started working with Access Bank. The company account was running smoothly with inflows and outflows.
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Then why did I leave paid employment? I may not be able to put in absolute words but the writings below embody it:Â
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Nigerian young men are hoping for help.
…A real way to help themselves.
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Nigerian young men are trying, yet not succeeding. And they need a better way. Nigerian young men are hurting. I see them every day. Talk with them every day. Interact with them every day. Nigerian young men are afraid. The world changes so quickly and many feel they’re struggling to keep pace. Nigerian young men are becoming so unsure.
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Nigerian young men don’t know where to find help.
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Nigerian young men are giving up on attaining that elusive ‘Abundance’ and simply hoping they find a way to ‘Enough’. Nigerian young men keep working harder and harder, but are so uncertain as to whether they’re doing their ‘Best’. Nigerian young men are living the expectations of others instead of their own intentions because…
Nigerian young men are also lost.
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Nigerian young men are abandoning the excitement and surprise and spontaneity of their dreams, and their joys, and their blessings, and exchanging them for the predictability and the seeming security of fear–thinking what is known is better than the unknown.
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Nigerian young men would like a guide and a companion in their search.
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Nigerian young men are feeling trapped and judged, by others and by themselves. And thus they find themselves in cages of their own making; cages of fear, and longing, and judgment.
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Nigerian young men are finding too much darkness in their quests for light.
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Nigerian young men NEED help.
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I would like to help them but I would also like to do it very well; competently, confidently, effectively and with excellence, to ignite inspiration in myself and others.
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This is the concept behind POeTSolvers and the reason for floating the JOBFinder series…….www.poetsolvers.com/jobfinder
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5 comments
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August 16, 2008 at 12:35 pm (UTC 1)
Hello Dipo,
Many Thanks for your recent post. You’ve said it all. Until Nigerian Young Men Throw caution to the wind and focus on what they ought to do as against the so-called Job Security Mentality—which is an Industrial Age Mentality—They’ll still continue to live a life of illusion.
One major factor that is holding a lot of Nigerian Young Men from moving forward is the “What will people Say Mentality”. Dipo i could imagine the kind of phones calls and questions you would have received from friends and family members when you decided to LEAVE GlobalCom ‘ON YOUR OWN’….’Dipo are you mad? How’ll you take care of your family? Are you aware of the Unemployment issue in Nigeria…? etc
Life is a product of personal responsibility. It’ s better we do what (Provided it’s genuine—impact our lives and the lives of others–Just like THE POETSOLVERS PROGRAM) we ought to do and forget the cynics who ain’t capable of taking BOLD steps.
Thank You.
August 18, 2008 at 9:13 am (UTC 1)
Hello Dipo,
Couldn’t agree with you more that Nigerian young men need help. But i think the first thing they must do is to figure out what it is that they want from life or what (business) are they capable of doing on thier own. Don’t be surprised that there are young men who can not tell you vividly want they would do if they had 500K right now without first asking for time to think about it.
Leaving paid employment is not the issue but knowing where one is headed. There are many making it big time in paid employments though, with hands in other pies as well.
Knowing when to divorce the marriage between paid employment and personal pursuits, like you did, is vital.
Any help you can render, no matter how little, to Nigerian yound men will be well appreciated. But let me add, that you have already been involved in such humanitarian gestures via this blog and the many inspirational and educative info it dishes out. Unless you mean taking it to another level.
God Bless You!
Luv U!
August 19, 2008 at 11:56 am (UTC 1)
I’m glad to be back..naija young men really need help oh,for real.spent 45mins last nite trying to make a young man i met at the kiosk where i went to buy recharge card that naija has a future even though it looks bleak.what was his argument?corruption,mismanagement,unemployment,decaying educational infrastructure,nepotism and how the politician are lining up their kids to continue the ruin(plunder!) and all he could finally say was that there’s no hope for the youths.i then asked him how he has contributed to making a change and he answered that he is not a senator or a governor.but he failed to realize that no one is responsible for whatever and wherever he finds himself if he doesn’t take direct control of his future.the government even the church doesn’t have the responsibility to make you rich.the sooner our youths realize this bitter truth the better for them.with 64 million youths jobless as stated by the minister for youth and sports devt.we cannot deny that our environment is not enabling and favourable enough not to talk of the epileptic power supply which has brought our industries to comatose and our nation down to its knees.the only way to chase away darkness is to put on the light.talking and raving about who or what caused the darkness makes no sense,lets switch on the light.there is a silent drumbeat of revolution-revolution of greatness.the youths are tired and cannot leave their future in the hands of fathers who are eating all they can with no plans for their grandchildren and the unborn children yet to come.no wonder our leaders fail backward and think retrogressively.greatness first starts from within.the greatest resource is human resource.what we need is a paradigm shift-a new way of thinking,seeing possibilities,the i-can-do spirit.i believe in the naija youth who is hustling to make ends meet,the start-up entrepreneur who is on the verge of giving it all up and to those who says that naija cant rise again i say to you that out this chaos will rise a new nigeria.dare to believe,just keep making a difference wherever you are.
dipo,what more can i say to you?thank you for giving others a voice.
August 19, 2008 at 12:12 pm (UTC 1)
@ dipo,
i’m glad that you are coming to launch job finder here on OAU campus,Ife.
u are the bomb!lol.
August 20, 2008 at 5:19 pm (UTC 1)
Dear Dipo,
it’s nice to knoiw that you gave up a cosy job because of the neds of your generation, you have a loaded reward already.
You are a role model in this world where the love of many is waxing cold.