STORIES OF MEN WHO CHANGED THEIR DESTINIES THROUGH IDEAS.

I want to share the personal stories of three people whom I know very well as was related to me by them. I will not disclose their names here because I do not have their permission to reveal their identities in a public write up like this. I want to assure you, these stories are not fiction; they related their stories to me without even asking them. 

One of them passed on recently as an elder citizen. Let me start with his story: he shared his story to inspire me as we rode together in his car decades ago when I was still an undergraduate. In fact, things were very rough for me then and it was he who gave me money for my final year project in the university when I was almost stranded. He was a civil servant with the Kwara State Civil Service and did not like the economic prospects of the job. As he sought for a way out, an idea hit him and changed his life and destiny forever. 

He dared to pursue the idea by submitting a proposal to the ministry of agriculture to supply agricultural tractors to the ministry. The ministry was advised to sell them to farmers’ cooperatives on hire purchase.
Farmers’ cooperative groups will pay instalmentally, share the use of the tractor on an agreed basis and multiply food production in the State. But he had no money or sponsor or partner to back the purchase of the tractors. Earlier, even before the proposal, he had visited a major dealer in tractors in Ibadan and secured an agreement to purchase several tractors from them on credit. They obliged because of the volume involved – probably the number of tractors they sold in a whole year. Well, long story short, he supplied the tractors, collected his money later on, made payment to his suppliers in Ibadan and became a multi-millionaire.

The second, a friend, had his life turned around through an inspired idea. He had an idea to join the major club in his city then and subsequently have a platform to interact with successful people. As he interacted with successful people there, he observed that they were very keen about properties and were always talking about buying properties. The second part of his idea made him transform himself quickly into a property consultant. He hit the road looking for good properties for sale at good prices and sold many to his rich club mates. His life and story changed permanently. As I write this piece, he is one of the most successful property owners in that city and a former senator of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

The third is a friend in Lagos where I live. His business had been going through some challenges when he got a life changing idea that took his business to another level. His idea made him the linkman/facilitator between the owners of some prime but undeveloped land in Lagos and the financiers of a brand new prime estate. He conceptualized an estate, convinced the owners of the prime land to give their land, persuaded mortgage bankers to finance the project, and successfully brought a new prime estate to reality. His pay off was several properties in the choice estate which turned everything around. He has used that as a foundation to launch into several other areas of business amongst which are Telecommunications and Hospitality.