I am a firm believer in the saying, “There is magic in new beginnings. Trust the process.” I have had the pain and pleasure of starting all over a few times in my career and life generally. Some of these life resets, which I like to call starting over, have happened either intentionally as I attempt to change the course of my life’s trajectory or by a conspiracy of fate and fortune and life happened to me. These new beginnings cross all areas of life. From my career to my relationships, new beginnings have both blessed and cursed me (as they do with everything in life).I can imagine people reading this and cringing at the word “cursed.” The human mind is programmed to reject what it doesn’t like or understand. So, once again, blessed and cursed! Your strength is your weakness, and your blessings are your burdens. With life given to you by the Creator, lies the unpredictability of the tenor of that same life and the almost mischievous tease of an event called death that is waiting to take that same life away. The older you get, the less time you have! Yes, blessings and curses. I, however, believe that those “curses” are not necessarily bad and can form a launchpad for more blessings if well understood and dimensioned. Everything has a good and bad side. From sun to water. It all depends on how you see, perceive, and engage with the issue, event, or concept. You can only appreciate the good when you understand and know the bad. In my mind and the way I look at life, bad is a perspective. I don’t see bad, I see a journey to good. Something I must continue to work on until something positive occurs.
The above is a short summary of how I engage in new beginnings, i.e., another chapter and story that will unfold and be told. A story I must have control over, irrespective of the odds and obstacles ahead. I always choose how I respond to any stimuli. Reaction means REsponse to an action. If I am in control of my response, Then the action or stimulus I am responding to isn’t that significant in determining my outcome. I only see positives. I can only see good. I only see hope! I choose what I see and remember!
In my career, I have had some colorful resets. Leaving Engineering for Finance in the 1990s, or Gtbank for Lead Bank in the year 2000, When I had the chance to learn and work with my boss to start Bond Bank, despite all the headwinds (including economic, professional, and personal) stacked against the idea, I took the plunge, and what a reset that was. I saw it all, the good, the bad, and the ugly, and I am so grateful and blessed for the opportunity. The universe sprinkled its cosmic dust on me again when I was privileged to work with the great minds of Capital Alliance at the beginning of the current democracy and the possibilities of the country were unfolding at a rapid pace under our new democratic President, General Olusegun Obasanjo, and also when I finally decided to take the entrepreneurial plunge and set up Synergy Capital. What a ride that was. From 2006 to 2019. Those years not only consolidated a lot of learning for me but also opened my eyes to possibilities. The robust and complete colors of the rainbow can not describe the range of emotions, experiences, and learning I was exposed to in those 13 years. And as the curiosity itch intensified and my desire to explore what lay outside my comfort zone deepened, I pressed reset again, and viola! Platform Capital was born. This reset has been my toughest, most painful, but most liberating to date, and as I said earlier, I have been blessed and burdened by that.
I have often been asked how one moves on and engages in new beginnings. I will share a few pointers.
1. Don’t look back. There is nothing to be gained from looking back. Focus on the future. You can’t drive a car by looking at the rearview mirror, or you can’t run forward looking backward.
2. Experiment with selective amnesia. Choose which memories you want to feed. Many of your actions and emotions will be influenced by the memories you feed.
3. There is no relationship between yesterday and tomorrow. The only thing they have in common is you. Because something worked yesterday doesn’t mean it will work tomorrow. Test all assumptions.
4. Act decisively and intentionally. Even the wrong action is better than no action. Overanalysis isn’t helpful. The taste of the pudding is in the eating.
5. Embrace the new circle of people in your new reality or create a new one and seek relationships. Don’t romanticize the past. The people in your past will be in your future if they are meant to be. People of destiny will always find each other.
Keep your feet on the ground and your mind in the sky. Be ambidextrous. Live today, but dream and prepare for tomorrow. Tomorrow is only kind to those that prepare for it.
More pointers in our book “A Love Affair with Failure”
As Ramadan, a period of deep reflection, appreciation, and planning, comes to an end, I am looking forward to what lies ahead over the next year. There are so many transformational milestones ahead. I am grateful to God.
Salam
# gvgg.. we move
