May 2006 - Six (6) Conversations With Six Different Individuals About The Nigerian Factor (True Stories) - Continued

2. The Nigerian Factor And My Conversation With A Prospective Business Partner

Sometime in 2003, as a result of sending out over fifty(50) copies of my proposal for a partnership to run my flagship seminar titled "Self-Development and Spontaneous Coaching For Perpetual Career Advancement", I had meetings with certain owners or decision makers in training and/or consultancy outfits.

Web www.spontaneousdevelopment.com

One of them was S. B. He is an Engineering lecturer in a certain institution of higher education. But during his spare time he actively ran a private training and consultancy outfit of his own -delivering courses to staff of a wide array of companies within and outside the state.

He had sent me a text message one morning, asking that we meet in his office on the campus later in the day. In my usual excited manner(which I still show in relation to my work today), I drove to the campus and after missing the Engineering block thrice, and asking for directions repeatedly, finally found a good place to park near his office.

Meeting and speaking with this gentleman was a most pleasant experience, I must say. He was so warm and open. Open infact to a fault. I say this because within 30 minutes of my arrival he had told me practically everything that I was doing "wrong", and which had kept me from getting as many opportunities to do work for the organisations I had written to.

Specifically, he stated that he was particularly impressed with the four page outline paper I had sent to him about the flagship seminar, and wanted to know if the concepts described in it were truly mine. I answered in the affirmative. Then he said "I think we can do some things together". Next he asked "How many of this proposal did you say you circulated to other companies?" I said "Over fifty".

"And none of them has responded to your proposal to deliver this training to their staff?". I answered that most had not, but a few that had contacted me, such as a certain well known business school, seemed to be more bothered about checking to see if I was not a "small boy".

In fact the young lady who phoned me from the office of the Programmes Director upon meeting me(the phone connection had broken off as she was speaking to me, and I had decided to visit their office since I was close by to get the full message she wanted to pass across) simply looked me up and down then said "I only wanted to let you know that the programmes manger received your proposal and said to tell you the person who will be discussing with you has traveled to the UK. When she returns, she will get in touch with you." I don't think that person ever returned from the UK. More on this in another article I will be writing in July 2006.

That was when he said "IT"

S.B went on to say he was convinced the reason why most(NOT all) of these other organisation's representatives who had received my proposals had not responded despite my repeated efforts was that I had not offered the individual who received it a "piece of the action". In his words, "they won't tell you - they expect you to go and find out and then do the right thing". (The "right thing" here being offering some form of gatification - see what I mean in my definition of the Nigerian Factor as being "what makes doing the wrong thing acceptable, and doing the right thing condemnable")

S. B. then showed me an invoice for a course he was running at the time for staff in a particular company and said that for EVERY ONE of the fifteen current attendees of the course, he had agreed to give N3,000($30.00 US Dollars approximately) to the Training Manager of that organisation. I did the quick math in my head and realised the Training Manager would be making N45,000.00 for doing ABSOLUTELY NOTHING!

S. B. then said THAT was why I was not getting called. He went on to describe in considerable detail some of his own experiences and how he eventually came to understand what it was all about, and made the needed adjustments, following which things began to "fall into place".

We parted that day with an agreement that he would study my proposal in detail and I would call him 2 days later to confirm another meeting date to decide how we could work together to market the seminar. By this time I had through my comments effectively indicated that I was not comfortable with giving anyone anything, to do work I believed they would be asking me to do because they felt a NEED for the results I would be delivering.

Maybe he just did not say it. Maybe he knew that since I would not play ball, our chances of successfully selling the course to any of those he had access to would be slim. That would explain why every time I subsequently called him, he would say he had been too busy to look through the proposal, and ask me to call back again. This went on for a while(weeks actually) until I "got the message" from his tone, and stopped calling.

Bottom line again. S.B had told me what I needed to do if I wanted to get more of the results I wanted. What he told me to do showed he understood that the Nigerian Factor as I have defined it on this mini site, stands in the way of anyone who wants to honestly pursue authentic success via patronage from others within the Nigerian society.

How is this useful to you. Well, you should know that today(1st June 2006), now, as I type these words, situations like those described in the stories I tell on these pages are what FRUSTRATE many people in the Nigerian society, making them settle for lives of crime - the most common these days being the business of email/internet fraud.

If you find it difficult to understand/appreciate the foregoing, then chances are high you are one of those insulated from the negative impact of this situation. THAT however should not prevent you from being SENSITIVE to what others have to go through, and taking some action to help them overcome the limitations imposed on them. If you fail to do this, the situation you think is not YOUR problem will grow till it does become YOUR problem.

Take a stand today, like I have, and like so many others have done so we can all work to improve the society. When only a few are comfortable with the situation, that is evidence that society has FAILED or is FAILING. Life is not about being better off than others. Life is only truly worthwhile when a large majority(or better still virtually ALL) members of society are able to live lives of reasonable comfort, without being threatened by the successes of others.

If we in Nigeria/Africa can begin to live with consideration for the well being of others, our societies will evolve to ones that can truly be referred to as developed in not time at all.

So I ask you now - WHAT are you going to do?

Avoid Being A Victim Of Entrepreneur Abuse™!
READ 7 Signs That It's Time to Fire a Client

By Donna Gunter
What happens to your business when you keep clients that are not a good fit? All of your time and energy is drained in serving these clients, you lose any enthusiasm you ever had for your business, and you no longer have the time or desire to go out and market yourself and continue to fill your client roster. Check your client roster against these 7 signs -- is it time for you to shake out your client roster?

Read the comments posted by Tayo Solagbade on this very useful article, at http://www.ezinearticles.com on May 29, 2006 04:10:26