MUCH TALK IN BUSINESS

Ok don’t get confused with the phrase ‘Folks abroad’, by this I mean Some Nigerians living abroad who suddenly realise they need to start doing business at home. Very often, you find some who have been so long gone from  the ‘Naija Scene’, they forget the true nature of a typical Nigerian. Many dont seem to realise Nigerians are well informed, about the global economy, emerging markets and standard global practices. And you will agree with me, Nigerians are intelligent people. So you wonder why in the world your fellow Naija man would for once forget just that. Simply becuase he or she has been living abroad for years, does not make them more intelligent. 

Over and over again, I see this play and replay itself right in front of me. Once I saw this fellow who’s been living abroad, in New york specifically, and he’s sounding really american. And he’s introduced to my boss as a non-Linear Editing ‘Guru’ (then I was working with a non-governmental instituition), we needed an Editor beacause of the kind of work we were doing then. To my surprise, my Boss asked me to give him my CV., which I was glad to do anyway. But this guy was smart enough, one look at it, he knew he should be working closely with me and not trying to be my boss. It was only a matter of time, the chips came down, but the ‘monies’ had all gone down the drain.

Amazingly my Boss kept making the same mistake, getting carried away with the appearance and sound of intelligence rather than the evidence of deliverables. Just because someone is able to present himself as the ‘lagbaja from New York, London, wherever’ does not make them the ‘Man’ you need for that job. When it comes to business, you can’t go far if you are easily carried away with smooth fine talk. Everyone can talk, but not everyone can do the job. So I say back your talk not just with the walk but with the work.