JM

The foundation of real growth is mentorship. Happy Sunday.

Neo, what you have is social capital, and to a large extent social proof. If there's a Maslow's hirearchy for business, that is the peak. I can confidently say you've attained that through the valuable relationships with @Wizarab10 and co, and your own acute attention to execution and excellent delivery.

A young man starting out life needs to build to that point and that comes in two ways: referrals, and first impressions.

Folks like myself starting from scratch didn't have any referral in tech, for instance. We moved with the impressions derived from the knowledge we projected.

A young man without social capital needs to "package" to project same or guarantee a first impression of capacity. If I'm about to sign a multimillion dollar deal with someone and I see him jumping keke, I'll have a tug in my chest that this person doesn't have the capacity to handle that deal.

It's natural. This is why Investment Banks give exorbitant titles to mid level employees and call them "Vice President." In Goldman Sachs alone, you have more than 2000 "Vice Presidents," many of them not up to 30 years of age.

It's part of the same principle of social capital. Because they have clients with deals of millions of dollars and those clients need to have the guarantee that they are interacting with someone with capacity. On attainment of social capital, a "Peter Obi" can jump down from maruwa and sign a $2 billion deal, on account of his name.

We can't deny human bias. And I partly get your point, but while some 'small boys' squander money, those who are planning their futures need to package themselves till they get to the peak of social proof -- an envious spot you currently occupy.

Low-key, if you're too emotionally intelligent, you will really suffer in this world.

A major reason for this heat in Nigeria is the absence of trees in urban areas.

There's a course called "Urban and Regional Planning" but the Govt and the students themselves accepted they are irrelevant because they are not "science students."

What a country.

One of the culture shocks I encountered when I served in Ejigbo, Osun State, was that, 90% of kids in primary and secondary schools didn't understand English.

To make matters worse, they also didn't understand pidgin. I dare anyone to make a video of primary or secondary school kids in Ejigbo or Ede interacting in English. (The video below is from my hometown, Obosi, not a major city like Onitsha oo).

It was a shocker to me because I know that schools in rural communities in the South East and South South could interact in English or at least, pidgin.

You guys in the South West don't know the calamity that Tinubu has consolidated on you. If you like, keep quoting "Ekiti statistics" of "highest illiteracy levels." Experience trumps knowledge all the time.

Meanwhile, you are a mumu if you think speaking English isn't a sign of intelligence. That's literally the nation's lingua franca. If you are taught a language from childhood and you don't imbibe it, there's a huge likelihood that you have learning difficulties or cognitive impairment.

Thankfully Kwankwaso and Obi are big on education and will rectify every very soon.