“Last month’s winner was, Ikotun Adebisi, he wins a hosting account with nairahost and a pack of 200 minibooks to do with as he pleases – pls Join me in Congratulating him”
I’m currently writing from somewhere under OAU Ife health sciences building, and it’s 1.01am. It’s been unduely long since I had internet access, and it’s alse been a long tiring day. I moved straight from the Aiport from Abuja to Ife, yesterday, and it was a very long journey. I went in the company of a team of great people, My Wife (Temitope Akinyemi), Christian Love and Joshua Adeyemi. We set out from Lagos at 4pm only to arrive at OAU ife at after 2.00am in the morning. I’m greatly troubled for this nation, that what we have refused to solve collectively is beginning to hunt us individually. May we rise up and connect!
The journey was filled with loads of intruiges that culminated in a totally trapping situation when in the pitch dark night in the middle of nowhere, we suddently entered a ditch and lost two tires! We had only one spare tire and were trapped for sure, it was dark all around, and there was this sensing in the air, that if we waited too long where our tires went flat, we might discover the people that are responsible for setting the trap if any. With two tires down and only one spare, we decided to keep moving on against all odds, and in that journey of 10hrs (sufficient time to fly to the US direct). In that journey however, there are key lessons to learn and apply to life. We headed for Lagos Ibadan express way at around 4pm. When we got about 40km from Lagos, we discovered a deadlock in the road. Both lanes of the express had cars facing our direction. Apprently there was an accident ahead and everybody had turned back. After studying the situation and seeing that it was hopeless, we decided to turn back as well, with the thought of considering other options.
Lesson 1 – If you really desire to achieve anything in particular in this life there are quite a number of alternative routes. If your heart is willing, you head will find a way.
When we turned back, we were not sure of which route to take, we decided to make a few calls to people who had taken any of the other options before. Our best bet we heard was heading towards Epe. Getting to Epe took us 3 amazing hours.
Lesson 2 – Not knowing which way to go is not a crime, not asking is. The secret of success is to ask. If you have nobody you can ask, you need help.
After we got to Epe and started heading towards Ibadan, visibility had gradually started reducing, and the road was a rugged road. After a while we saw a car that drove past us, and we felt it was sensible to follow him closely. We followed and kept moving till we got to Ijebu, headed for Shagamu and Lagos Ibadan express way. By the time we hit Ibadan it was 10pm. We contemplated sleeping over in Ibadan, but there seemed to be a consensus to follow through to our destination. I never travel this late, but this night I decided to venture.
Lesson 3 – Venture into the unfamilar atimes but carefully. Doing what you have always done will give you same results, trying something different helps you appreciate new possibilities.
After we got to Ibadan and we were heading to Ife, the real management and life lessons began to pop out. After we landed into a few unseen gallups, I instructed the driver to be careful but most importantly to follow the commercial bus just ahead of him. At different times, even my wife told him to follow from behind not by the side. 2 mins after the last command, we suddenly landed in a ditch that took out two tires in one swing.
Lesson 4 – Follow the experts. When taking instruction from someone who is successful in the field you desire, simply follow. Don’t try to create your own modified version just yet, learn to follow first, it would have saved us 2 tires.
Lesson 5 – In the absense of experts, go slow
We decided to keep driving until we saw light. We drove for a few kilometers, until we saw some light and some people. We decided to stop by a vulcanizer stand. He claimed to have seen 15cars that night alone – talk about foul play.
Lesson 6 – Don’t get stuck in the dark, keep moving until you see the light. Whatever you are doing that seems in darkness, quit it and bring it to the light. Problems get created in darkness, not solutions.
Ofcourse they could not find us an extra tire, the cars tire was 19inches and they couldn’t muster it. Just shortly after we got there, we saw another car behind us who had apparently had the same problem with an elderly lady there. They had just lost 1 tire though, so their’s was going to be easy to fix. We chatted with her and her son for a while, while the son started changing their tires. We changed the one we could change as well, but we were definitely stranded. The elderly lady however volounteered to detour off her own course and take us to Ife.
Lesson 7 – Relationships are everything, it’s not how long, it’s how well.
To BE Continued…
