SAKA: HOW LONG WILL YOU BE A SALARY-EARNER? ARE YOU A LEARNER?

‘Kayode Oyero

“The first principle to be obeyed on the pathway to becoming your own Boss is to throw out the fear of probable loss.” –Olumide Emmanuel, C.E.O, Common Sense Group.

“Goodmorning Uncle Saka.”

“Haa, Fatai! how are you?”

“I’m fine Sir!”

“It’s being quite a while- O to jo meta. You remember that you have an Uncle today, after a very long period of your absential forgetfulness of me.”

“Ojo kan pelu Sir. It’s not like that Sir! It’s just that my hands have been tied lately.”

“Okay, I understand. So, it is after it was untied that you know the way that leads to my house.”

“Sorry Uncle, My apologies.”

“Any way, no problem and how’s Risikatu and the children?”

“They are in good shape Sir!”

“Glory be to the uncreated Creator of heaven and earth.”

“His name be praised.”

“And Fatai, how is work?”

“Uncle Saka, work is just fine!”

“What happened? What is happening? Why just fine? Wetin be the matter?”

“Uncle, work has been going well, but, but, ehmm, ehhm.”

“Fatai! Fatai! Fatai! How many times did I call you- E melo ni mo pe E?"

“It is three times Sir!”

“Fatai, thank God you counted accurately. Stop talking with tongue in cheek. Tug out of your shell. Don’t be like the proverbial snail that over-protectively bury its head in its shell because of the fear of Sunlight. Jewo fun mi- confess now, after all, our people say a lifeless body cannot hide from the person that will perform its burial ritual of purification before it is committed to mother earth. Yes, Oku ki I fara pamo feni to ma a we E. And more importantly, problem shared is problem halved so says Oyinbo people.”

“Ehhm, you see, Uncle, you’re correctly right. The issue that burdens my heart is that my retirement and retrenchment age is fast approaching and encroaching. And the thought that when it comes, I will no longer earn Salary is the beginning of my worry. In fact, it is just unthinkable for me to think that it will come. Uncle Saka, that is all that bothers me.”

 “Alright, Fatai, let me ask some questions.”

“Go ahead Uncle, I’m all ears.”

“Okay, Fatai, how old are you?”

“Uncle Saka, I clocked fifty last April.”

“Okay, that’s right, and many years have you been working this work you have been working?”

“Twenty years Sir!”

“Fatai, thank God you dare did not lie, because alreadily, I know the answers to my questions before I asked them. Abi, sebi I was the only one who carried all your responsibility on this my slump shoulder when we mysteriously lost Papa and Mama in an inexplainable manner?”

“Yes Uncle!”

“Fatai, what is the status of your savings?”

 “Saaayy-vin!”

“Yes, the money you have in the bank.”

“Haaa! Uncle Fatai, sorry that I forgot to inform you of the best celebration of elaboration that ever-happened in the history of our Village!”

“Fatai, what are you talking about- ki lo n so?”

“Uncle, you know April is my birthday month.”

“Yeees, bring me out of the dark jare.”

“And that was the month you travelled to Lagos to perform the ‘I don port deal’.”

“Yeesss, how’s that supposed to affect the money in your bank account.”

“Uncle Saka, eehmm, ehhm, that account is now red.”

“What! Fatai! What happened to the entirety of your life savings? I mean that robust interest-yielding sum that you told me you have been saving for two solid decades?”

“Ehmn, Uncle, you see, I used it to celebrate my fifty years birthday anniversary in grande-style. Yes, in a heaven-and earth-knows manner. Aye gbo, Orun mo!”

“Shut up! I say shut your trap! Again, I say padlock that your stinking dirty and unwisely foolish mouth!”

“Sorry Uncle- E ma binu”

“Shut up! Don’t talk when I am talking. Sorry for yourself. You ignoramus! O ma seun oo! Omo eni O ba j’oni, a bayo- it is good for one’s extention to take after one’s wiseness. I still can’t believe what I heard with my one and half ears. Fatai, you mean you squandered and wasted your entire life-time savings on a nonsensical ordinary one day birthday, all for the sake social glamour? I am disappointedly disappointed in you.”

“It was not ordinary Sir, it was extra-ordinary. In fact, the village Patriarch- Baale promised to coronate me with the title of Amuludun (village welfarist) as a result of the wide feast I made in my name.”

“Fatai! I say shut up! O ya, kneel down on your knees. Abi, no matter how big and grey-haired a child is, he is still a child before his parent and his Elders. You’re truly and really a bush illiterate. When will you wake up from your official foolishness of wasting and lavishing your hard-earned money on frivolities while priorities like having an investment or floating a business is unattended to?

Fatai, from today henceforth, in fact, right now, you need to have an investment mentality and remove that salary-mindset that occupy all the nook and cranies of your mind. Fools waste money, average people spend money while wise people invests money.”

“Fatai, are you a fool?”

“Yes I am.”

“Why are you a fool?”

“Because I wasted money.”

“That is very good! B’omode ba ti mejo E lebi, koni pe lori ikunle- if an accused confesses being guilty, the Judge might necause of his sincerity tamper justice with mercy. O ya, Fatai, by the authority conferred on me as the Olori Ebi (family head), stand up from your knees.”

“Thank you Sir”

“ Fatai, you see whenever money wants to escape your hand, ask yourself if the money will yield more money for you whether on the long or short run. People who have Salary-mindset will find it difficult to become wealthy. Like extremely wealthy. Yes, because, as the money comes, they spend it lackaidaisically without no plan. They live for today and not for tommorrow.

 Fatai, do you have a land in secret whether in Lagos, not necessarily, Ajar or Victoria Island. Even Agege?

“Uncle, No!”

“Do you have shares in any establishment?”

“Uncle, No”

“Fatai, you are a waster. Money wasted is destiny –wasted. That ceremony you say you celebrate when I went hustling at mtn for the production of the ‘I don’t port’ jingle, did it add a kobo to your life?”

“No, Uncle.”

“Fatai, now I know that the spirit of poverty is tormenting you. See, when money gets to your hand, the first thing you must do is to pay the investment bill.”

“Uncle Saka, like how many percent should that be in a month.”

“Ori e ti n pe bo- your brain is becoming charged. At least thirty percent.  See, life is an acrobatic display. If you have today and you don’t invest so that your money will work for you when your bones will be too tired to work, you will lack at your old age. Gather gold before you get old.”

“Okay Sir!”

“Any ways, it is not too late for you to reverse your money-spending mentality and your civil-salary mentality to an investment-mentality. After all, the only biggest room in life is the room for improvement.”

“Okay Sir, but Uncle, what about how to manage and manoeuvre the many risk in entrepreneur?”

“Yes, your brain is no more booting it is now almost completely charged!- O ri E ti n pe bo!

You see, Success in its simplest form is 'the ability to go from one failure to another without loss or diminishing enthusiasm'. No dream is attainable on the platter of no obstacle and disappointments. You need to know that disappointments come before ground-shaking appointments. You see, you must firstly appease disappointments which can be likened to an unwilling secretary in order for you to gain access to the willing Boss which appointment, in this case success. When you start you own business, you must not go weary in the face of challenges. You must forge ahead and be ditamiiiinned like Kano Nwankwo.

Finally, finally, Fatai, put this one I am about to tell you in your left palm so that you will not eat with it. Know that persistence is the only resistance to failure! Don’t because of say you may record loss, now kill the opportunity to become your own Boss, your own Oga patapata. The future is cheap when you buy it today. Spend money on necessities not needs.”

“Uncle, what are needs and what are necessities?”

“Abere ona ki i sina- he who seek direction from the right source stands a little chance of being misled. Fatai, needs are those things you can do without. For example, exorbitant wristwatch and clothings and other fanciful ornaments like gold, diamond, silver, diamond, and many other objects of glamour. And for necessities, they are things you can’t survive with. Chiefs among them are moderately modest clothing, food, and shelter.”

“I seeeeeeeeeeeeee!”

“Fatai, don’t be like that prodigal son in the Bible. Leave prosperity for your posterity and your children. Don’t leave them in poverty.”

“Thank you Uncle Saka. I brought this Agege bread as a token of appreciation”

“What! what an insult? Do you know how much mtn paid me for that ‘I don port’ jingle?” (O.J.O |09, 13)

…Kip da Optimism Alive