DTee

Lawyer | Corporate Governance

[Mazi Nathan @rukky_nate]

My friend made 20 million naira last month.

He is 26.
No degree.
He is a Computer Science dropout.

First salary: 50k.
Last month: 20 million naira.

What changed?

He stopped looking for jobs.

And started selling his dad’s land.

[Adepeju Jaiyeoba @pjlalah]

I didn’t start in a top tier firm, never worked in one, had no back up family fund, no fall back funds and no trust fund. Was the daughter of a public primary school teacher who spent afterschool in Isheri frying Garri, fetching water and watching our mum use our unpainted wall as blackboard for our school work revision.

While I’m still on my breakthrough journey, here are few things I’ve learnt so far:

1. Use your early years for learning. Yes, you may or may not be well paid but ensure you are learning. In my early years, If I’m not getting it from the firm, I ensured I was getting it from the news, law reports and friends in more active practice than I was.

2. Keep showing up: Some days will be good, some days, tough and other days outrightly bad. One thing you can’t stop doing however is showing up.

3. Never be comfortable doing nothing. Take on more tasks, more work and ensure you challenge yourself always. In my early years, I recall walking to my supervisor to ask for work once I see that I had nothing to do. I didn’t dress up, leave Iyana Ipaja for Lekki at 5am just to come do nothing.

4. Seek value adding opportunities. This is life. Where you arrived with a wobbly wooden ladder, someone else got there by an elevator. Don’t despise your wobbly ladder. Appreciate that it’s helping you move ahead in a place where some are still on the ground. Do not, however, be filled with unnecessary admiration of your wobbly ladder, focus on how you can make it better, how you can get an iron ladder, how you can build a staircase, how you can own your own elevator and finally how you can fly, outpacing even the elevator.

The goal is to keep moving.

5. Imagination and innovation should be your companion. Books, movies and the internet has helped us a lot in promoting equal access and opportunities. Take full advantage of this. Keep the vision of where you want to be in mind at all times. Make sure everything you do is taking you a step closer to where you want to be. It’s okay if outsiders do not understand you and how you are moving. You alone know your goal, your map and your journey. Every single time you look at your vision, ensure you improve on it. Do it better.

Also, that you have not worked in a top tier firm does not mean that you cannot admire them from afar, watch what they are doing, listen to the interviews of their visioneers, and aim to build something similar if not better than what they have built.

6. Whether one naira or one million naira in fees, so long as your name will be on it, ensure excellence. What this means is that you must maintain a general standard of excellence and never be one to have adjustable level excellence based on fees paid per client. Be clear in your expressions, sound in your reasoning and knowledgeable in the advisory you offer clients.

Again, as I am still on this journey myself, I hope to continue to learn more and share as I encounter them. 🙏🏽

[Ben X @Benn_X1]

Spent 2 hours on the phone yesterday with a classmate from secondary school.
He used to top the class. He’s now a chartered accountant, and with his experience, if he worked at any of the Big 4, he should at least be a manager or senior manager now. But this is not the case. He can barely feed after paying rent and transport fare to work.
He did everything he was supposed to do: go to school, graduate with a good grade, and find a good job.
I’ve always been this audacious 😂. I told him about the rat race in SS2, thanks to my father who had a lot of books in his library. I read Rich Dad Poor Dad and many other books as a teenager, and very early in life I was able learn from the experiences of others through books.
You cannot win the rat race, even if you do, you’re still a rat!

My former classmate was convinced that accounting was a waste of his time. He had an opportunity to travel abroad for his masters which he turned down for ICAN. He still thinks he’d have been better off if he had gone to the UK immediately after graduation. He was bitter that while he can’t afford basic things, yahoo boys around him can. He blamed everything from the government to nepotism even in private companies. Basically, he believes it is impossible to get a good job in Nigeria without connections.

I let him finish all he had to say and asked few questions. He graduated from a top private university in Nigeria whose students usually intern at Big 4 firms. I asked why he did not do any internships, try to get a scholarship like his schoolmates, apply for graduate trainee positions like others in his class.
As I continued with my line of questioning, he realised that even though the govt has been terrible, and every other external factor seemed to be stacked against him, there’s something he still could have done, but he didn’t. I gave concrete examples of people without accounting backgrounds who now work at big 4 firms, and told him I got an offer from KPMG before opting for tech.
He did not know about GMAT or GRE; Dragnet test was new to him. I then asked how exactly he’s justified in saying he tried his best if he did not even do the most basic things.

What you do in the first 3 years after graduating from university will go on to define the rest of your life. If you live on easy mode, the results you have will show it.
It was sad because I know how brilliant he is. I introduced him to an acquaintance who is now a assistant manager in PwC (we used to write aptitude tests together back in the day). I know nothing will change until his explanation for his current situation leads him to the realisation that he is not a spectator but an active participant in his life’s journey.

When you blame external factors, it does not end with thinking there is something you can do. It leads to the conclusion that if there is a better govt in office or if you relocate abroad, your life will be better. This is not true; the underlying problem is lack of responsibility and ownership.

[Gideon Odoma @gideonodoma]

Also, Christians who seek to honour Christ don't cohabit. They don't put themselves in a place where they can be tempted. Plus, they know that premarital sex is a sin. Like, until you're married, you're not married, even if your wedding is one day away. They know that our God, who is all-wise, wants our best and would have legitimized fornication if it is required for a successful marriage.

Christians who honour Jesus give NO PLACE to the devil. Cohabiting gives PLACE to the devil.

DICTIONARY. Cohabiting:
Share living quarters; usually said of people who are not married and live together as a couple.

– Reposted. From Jan. 2024

[DTee @D_Tee_]

To keep showing up when you don't feel like it is the foundation for greatness.

You will not always feel like doing the little things that make a difference, and you really do not have to.

You only need the discipline to show up again and again.

[DTee @D_Tee_]

@agirlnamed_esth Congratulationss

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[Dauditor ACA @rand0muser98]

My method of reading is having to rewrite most parts of my notes 😂