Beyond the shores of Africa, when the average person thinks of entrepreneurship, investment, and management giants, names like Jeff Bezos, Richards Branson, Steve Jobs, and even Sir Alex Ferguson will arguably spring to mind for the average Jo. . These names, over time, became associated with stories that originally spawned from big dreams. Dreams that one day may well become myths for generations not yet born. But for us, the witnesses of posterity, we are like insects trapped in the amber of the events of our time. Trace these events and you will find an origin story of a spark of genius that became so bright and hot that little suns were soon born and with them came galaxies. Those galaxies soon had smaller but not minor stars that seem to follow in the wake of the suns around which they revolve. In simple words, many Witnesses of our generation have come to aspire to be like Richard Branson and Steve Jobs to name a few. Many will try, but not everyone has the spark to see them through to the end; for those who come, yours will be to become the little stars that stand out from the rest.
These events have shaped the course of history in such a way that the legacy of humanity is constantly changing. All this has been possible as Maya Angelou said, someone, “dare to dream”. But not only to dream, but dare to dream big!
We then sail back to the shores of Africa and sail further on land to Nigeria (possibly the largest economy in Africa). We replay the origin story of the giants of entrepreneurship, investment and management and what you get is akin to a shoreline littered with jagged rocks, some surreptitiously placed, others placed in such a way that maneuverability is next to impossible. One wonders then why we can also boast of having our own giants, the Aliko Dangotes, the Otedola, the Tony Elumelus, to mention just a few. Indeed, it is an impressive list. One long enough to make the average African Jo begin to nurture the possibility of a dream, a dream that will grow to equal any that can be had on any continent and in any part of the world. Like a hurricane, that dream can grow, just as well as it should. Before long it takes shape, like a storm that rages until it threatens to become a spark, a spark that can match any other on the face of the earth, that spark of genius. Then the moment arrives, inspiration at its peak, desire at its peak… and in the end nothing happens. There is no spark, not even a waning glow that we can pitifully call a dying ember. Then comes the frustration, bitterness, and disappointment that begins another origin story that is directly the antithesis of the previous dream. And behold, the man of sharp corners is born. A kind of dark spark if you can. Equally brilliant, but everything an alter ego is and can be. Note that he is still the same person. The one who dared to follow in the wake of the little suns. The potential star that is part of an ever-expanding galaxy. Now here lies a wonder, a sort of reverse flash, a black hole, now determined to suck in as much as it can at all costs and give nothing back. All because he dares to dream big?
When it comes to the average statistics for the lifetime of small and medium-sized businesses in Nigeria, the numbers are dismal. 6 months is the time it takes for reality to settle its bite on someone who starts an SME. The environment to start, let alone maintain, an SME is almost non-existent!
The harsh reality is that in Nigeria, the so-called famous but not so famous giants have tightened their grip on the few industries that are thriving in Nigeria. With a gloom on the horizon, Nigeria’s business landscape is as dark as the clouds gathering for a rain storm. Here there is little mercy for those who do not resign themselves to being hard as nails. The irony of that statement, as in that circumstance, is that even nails rust, just like the dreams of millions of people who once aspired to reach the heavens and build their dreams skyward like a tower of Babel defying even to the gods. who runs the sphere of the Nigerian economy. The vicious cyclical distribution of wealth has actually become a noose stretched out to strangle the skinny neck of the dreamer who is the average Jo or, better still, the “average Joseph.” We all know the ancient story of the tower of Babel. Where a group of inspired dreamers came together to build the world’s first skyscraper in an attempt to reach God or challenge his creative omnipotence. The dream was short-lived as God brought down the tower on and around them and scattered them with a curse of tongues to the four winds of the earth. The lesson, whoever dares to challenge God, beware because his dreams in the end will be worth no more than a bitter testament of rubble placed at his feet. That is a similar story to the circumstance of building your dream here in Nigeria. The gods in this case are really not to blame if you are foolish enough to dare to challenge them with your big dreams!
The tombstone in the memorial post-mortem to innovation may well be in the shape of Africa’s largest economy. The price paid is so priceless that one shudders to think of the millions, if not billions, wasted while perceiving the bounty in the bureaucracy of silly political trickery. The consolation of ignorance oxidizes any dream faster than any moisture, especially those built with an iron will. Lately, a new trend is starting to take root, it’s a trend mentioned above, the “black hole attitude”. Increasingly, admiration for this kind of thinking is becoming the norm. It is made possible when day by day there is a downward spiral of respect and encouragement for the innovative mind, this downward spiral is fostered by “short-term thinking”, a phrase that becomes more and more corporeal in the last part of the last. year. This phraseology is a term widely used by Larry Fink, who was a stock trader and later co-founder of “the world’s largest money management firm, BlackRock, which he runs to the present and controls assets approaching $5 trillion.” . A man who is one of the most powerful players in global finance” has spoken out so openly against this decrepit mindset. He posits that short-term thinking has a negative effect on the innovative mind’s ability to dream. Unfortunately, innovation as a skill is becoming more and more unpopular in the center of business, organizations and corporations, be it in the public or private sector here in Nigeria. This is fostered by “short-term thinking.” As a result, we are creating a generation of monsters who see routine and plagiarism in the workplace as activism. We risk twisting their lives at the expense of the judgment of posterity which, all other things being equal, should have acted as a litmus test for assessing the cost of our actions today. In the end, however, the sad truth may be that the very generation that should have acted as a mirror for us is at risk of being dragged into the quicksand of a misguided sense of superficial justifications, an end we are currently plotting for. the roadmap. their downfall and our ultimate demise.
We do not know what the long-term cost of such actions will be or even what currency the price we will pay will be.
In the end, Larry Fink may well be the unassuming messiah. To his detractors, he will not be considered a team player, a term now used to blackmail the innovative mind at the expense of dashed dreams. His words, though disembodied, seem to leave a lingering tone in the eyes, like someone who has been looking at a bright light for too long a moment and suddenly looks away. It succinctly asks fundamental questions that linger: “What is happening today in Moscow, Beijing or Brooklyn? Why did the market move 0.2%? Banks are the same way: their business is about the speed of the market.” money. Very few people are talking long term.” And the narrative goes on and on, pulling the noose ever tighter around our necks that will ultimately leave Africa’s largest economy a wild wild west, a wasteland without an oasis of dreams to quench the thirst for change. true and significant. innovation. We run the risk of waging a battle for the wrong crusade, a crusade that should be a campaign against short-term thinking in an attempt to change the system of decrepitude. Ironically, we can only truly achieve this by adopting a long-term thinking mindset because like it or not, passively or actively, we are all fiduciarily or directly responsible for the fate of the dreams of generations to come.