A young guy approached me to mentor him. I agreed. A short while after, he asked me for money. I declined. The next day, I sent him some personal development initiatives. He never responded till date.
I became friends here with a lady. I would later meet her at an event in Abuja. She eulogized me and told me she would love me to mentor her. I told her I don't mentor ladies as a matter of principle. She requested for my personal contact details so she could stay in touch.
I obliged. By the time we concluded the event, she came back to meet me and gave me a funny story about an emergency trip she had to make. Long story short, she asked for money. I declined. I was shocked at her audacity. Thereafter, I noticed her negative remarks on my posts.
I didn't waste my block button.
What many need are financial partners and not mentors. A mentor is not a meal ticket. A mentor has his own challenges and responsibilities too. A mentor cannot help everyone.
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The Network Advantage: How Mastering People Skills Can Take You Far
One of the things I always tell younger colleagues anytime I have the opportunity is to never neglect building their network and improve on their people skills.
No matter how brilliant you are, your inability to network or build people skills will limit you.
After I finished my National Youth Service in Port Harcourt, Rivers State early 2000, it was my good friend who brought a newspaper publication (Guardian on Friday) all the way from Bayelsa State and showed me that a new bank was looking for employees.
In life, there are many critical moments when we have to take decisions that may have far-reaching implications. There was a time I was faced with such a moment in my career.
I worked for an international financial institution and I just got an offer from a local financial institution. I had just returned from a foreign trip which was a reward for meeting set targets when I got the local offer.
I was confused. The local offer was alluring but the institution at that time faced serious challenges. It represented a new terrain- one that wasn't clearly defined and littered with possible regulatory challenge and uncertainty.
I did my National Youth Service at Port Harcourt. During that period, I lived with a former schoolmate's uncle at Nkpolu Rumuigbo, a small community along the way to Choba where the University of Port Harcourt is located.
A few days before we rounded off the National Service early 2000, I became very troubled. My heart was filled with fear and worry. The monthly "allowee" of N7,500 was about to come to an end.
I remember this amount because I used one month's allowance to buy a gown for a girlfriend then (story for another day).
On this day 25 years ago (May 30, 2000), I started a banking career that has now spanned seven financial institutions. On that day, I resumed at the Banking School located at Elephant House, Apongbon in Lagos.
I was part of the first set of entry-level trainees (we were called Banking Analysts) that were hired by the erstwhile National Bank then.
The actual date of resumption was May 29, 2000 but it was postponed by a day because the then President Olusegun Obasanjo declared May 29 as Democracy Day. So I resumed with 65 others the following day which was a Tuesday.
Building Social Skills: A Necessary Ingredient for Success
I discussed a few minutes ago with someone on how I consider having social skills a necessary ingredient for success in life.
I mentioned two different characters in the Bible and what was the major difference in their situation.
The sick guy by the pool of Bethesda in John Chapter 5 had been in that sick condition for 38 years. His greatest limitation as far as he was concerned was that he didn't have anyone to assist him by pushing him into the miracle pool whenever an angel stirred it up.
A DAY AT IKOYI CORRECTIONAL CENTRE: GREATERBAYO @ 50
On Saturday March 29, 2025, I visited Ikoyi Correctional Centre along with my wife, daughter and some colleagues. I had reached out to Ikoyi Correctional Centre (former Ikoyi Prisons) in the build up to my 50th birthday.
The major consideration was if there were inmates who had options of fines that could be paid so they could be free. In biblical Israel, every 50th year was a jubilee where people are released from their debts, freedom for all slaves and returning property to those who owned it.
So freedom for inmates was paramount on my mind.
However, we found out there were a litany of needs and after due consideration, I settled for 3 major projects viz:
1 Payment of fines for 8 inmates (initially 7 inmates but one more was added) at a total cost of N3,940,000