Aliko Dangote started a telecommunication company and failed.
He also started a textile company and failed terribly.
He started a Dangote Airlines and failed a few months later.
He then started a tomato sauce factory that also failed after a few months of operation.
Aliko Dangote this time started Dangote Millers which he failed to maintain and ended up selling it to South African company for $200m before buying it back at half the price he sold it.
This time Dangote started Dangote cement which became his first successful business. Sugar business followed and so did oil refinery.
Failing doesn't mean you won't succeed, it means you're learning. (Akech Andrew)
Around this time - January 4th, 2020 - I walked into the LG office at Bode Thomas, chest out, confidence intact.
A banker. Secure. Certain. Untouchable.
I strolled in to “flex” and picked up a 55-inch TV.
The bank had an initiative: staff could walk into accredited stores, make purchases, and repay monthly. Simple. Or so I thought.
There was a delay.
The manager - an Indian man - kept looking at me from a distance, checking his system… then my ID… then the system again.
I stood there unbothered.
I am staff of the bank. As far as I’m concerned, you can go to the moon and confirm.
Finally, he nodded.
“Give him the items.”
What I didn’t know — what I couldn’t have known — was that our names had already been circulated as disengaged staff.
They were under strict instruction not to release anything to us.
Yet somehow… I passed the scrutiny.
Grace wore my ID card that day.
That same night, Michael Chidike, who reports to me at office, called.
He couldn’t log into his system.
I calmed him down.
“Technical issue. Nothing to worry about.”
Then he mentioned a sweeping exercise on Thursday and Friday.
Again, I dismissed it.
“Our unit is understaffed,” I said.
“Why would anyone cripple the unit?”
My brothers and sisters - I was dead wrong.
Looking back now, everything makes sense.
That was why in 2019, I was aggressively collecting every available loan and sinking it into the yoghurt business.
That was why my weekends disappeared into factory work, experiments, and vision.
That was why the debt felt heavy - almost uncomfortable.
I thought I was being reckless.
I didn’t know I was being positioned.
I didn’t know God was pushing me ahead of the storm.
I didn’t know the new year was already pregnant with uncertainty.
But heaven knew.
Today, I understand:
Sometimes pressure is not punishment - it is preparation.
Sometimes urgency is not panic - it is divine timing.
So hear this clearly:
👉 Whatever you need to do - do it now.
👉 Stop postponing your dream.
👉 Stop waiting for perfect certainty.
👉 Move while you still have breath, strength, and opportunity.
Because when the shaking comes -
only what you’ve already built will stand.
No delays.
Get it.
Build it.
Make your dream a reality.
How is your day going?
To rule over any given sphere of life, to take over territories; is to wrestle against principalities, powers, rulers of the darkness of this world, and spiritual wickedness in high places! The name of Jesus conquers them all!
Distractions are dangerous to your advancement—they’ll steal your future, one bit at a time. Advancing is about what you let go of—not just what you move toward. You can't fill your day with distractions & expect to go where you want. Your priority is focus—stop the distractions.