Brand & Marketing Designer | I help brands craft high quality visual designs that boost visibility and drive sales | I bring creative ideas into reality
When you are in Rome, you behave like the Roman.
That it is fine and acceptable elsewhere doesn't mean it will work here.
It is our culture and our way of doing things here. Don’t change it by copying the western world.
This is a huge lesson.
One of my most expensive habits early on was staying quiet.
I would sit in rooms full of opportunity and say nothing. Not because I had nothing to offer, but because I was afraid of looking foolish.
I told myself I was being humble. I was only being timid.
And timidity carries a price nobody warns you about.
Opportunities do not announce that they passed you by. They go to the person who spoke, who asked, who raised a hand while you rehearsed the perfect sentence in your head.
Closed mouths do not get fed, and quiet brilliance often goes unseen.
Do not gree for timidity.
Ask the question. Make the introduction. Say you are interested before someone bolder does.
The world seldom rewards the most talented person in the room. It rewards the one brave enough to be seen.
I earned $120K a year working for Shell in 2012.
Ten years and multiple promotions later, in 2022, that figure has doubled to $240K a year.
In 2023, I stumbled on an internal, confidential, document that showed the salaries of my superiors.
I saw that even if I were promoted multiple times again, the best I could hope for in another 10 years was another doubling to around $480K a year.
This may sound crazy saying it out loud but that wasn’t cutting it for me.
I simply didn’t want the next 10 years to be a repeat of the last 10.
I wanted geometric progression, not an arithmetic one.
On my 40th birthday, in 2023, I was asked to make a wish as a blew the candles on my birthday cake.
“Get the hell out of Shell,” I quietly whispered. Months later, I was out.
In 2024, my businesses grossed $500K; in 2025, they did $1M - geometric progression.
It required me to be delusional about my abilities, to bank on the faithfulness of God and to trust that inner voice that always nag at me that I could be more, I could do more and I could have more.
The company I worked in had 3 rounds of layoffs in my 10 years there.
Here are my observations in general
1. If your department is getting too big with many people being recruited, be careful. During layoff, your department’s hair may be the first to be shaved. There were only 2 of us in tax. About the only department not affected in all the three rounds. A number game.
2. If you are doing same work and your pay is continuously rising due to general annual payrises over time, egungun be careful. A young guy that will do that work for less your pay and grow may be favoured during layoff
3. If you are in Admin and other less technical roles, be careful. Especially if your pay is high
4. If you have had issue with a senior Oga before, be careful
5. If you have great interpersonal skills, it may save you. Grapevine had it that someone was in the layoff list until the eve of the layoff day was spared because of this soft skill. Name removed and they were posted to another department where their non-technical but human skill was considered a strength.
6. If you are multi-talented, it may save you. If you’re an accountant, for example, be the MC at your corporate event, volunteer for roles, participate in other activities. Don't likit yourself to accounting job.
7. Corporate institutional memory residing in you may also save you. You led an ERP change process? You led a major project? You’re the go-to for some fixes? But this may not be enough if a younger guy that worked with you is considered ripe enough.
8. Finally, plenty bootlicking . But not always enough. In fact, it may work against you if power changes hands and the camp you have been bootlicking are gradually eased out. I know someone stuck in one role because of this.
I first posted this last year.
@General_Somto This sad to watch
Judging from the clip it shows she's running a one man business. I don't think it is possible to run business alone. You need support, you need the right system, you need to put the right structure in place. You can't be everywhere
I hope she found her goods😪
This sad to watch
Judging from the clip it shows she's running a one man business. I don't think it is possible to run business alone. You need support, you need the right system, you need to put the right structure in place. You can't be everywhere
I hope she found her goods😪