Some friends on social media have been asking me why my activities on all my social media profiles have reduced recently and the reason is quite simple; social media has the capacity to over magnify and exaggerate little successes and you need to put some control in place so as not to be carried away by social media popularity.

Most people who post pictures of different activities on social media are living a fake life. The new cars, clothes, houses, and phones that some of your friends post online that is making you to be jealous, having unnecessary headaches and depression don't belong to many of them.

Some of them post those pictures because they have low self-esteem problem and they want you to believe that they are ahead of you and the truth is you are ahead of many of them. The only difference is that you don’t post pictures faking a life you are not truly living.

Some of my friends on social media met me in real life and they were like they were expecting to meet one big man and if you have met me before you will know I am a down to earth person who still wears a rubber palm once in a while.

I am a realist and I don't pretend to be who I am not. When I started getting those feedbacks that a lot of people who haven't met me before always expect to meet one big man and are always disappointed whenever we meet that I am not as big as they thought then I began to sense that there is a problem somewhere.

Someone saw my wedding pictures and asked me if I did my wedding in Nigeria or abroad. Another person chatted me up that he has 6 million naira as the budget for his wedding and asked if I think it will be enough to get him my type of wedding whereas I didn't spend up to 40% of his 6 million naira budget.

So I began to sense that some of my activities on social media are misleading a lot of people and some people expect to meet an angel not knowing that despite my activities social media, I have my personal struggles, challenges, difficulties, and weaknesses and I am not by any means perfect.

The story of how I started a business with 200 naira while I was on campus that broke the internet four years ago still inspires a lot of people and I am happy about that but the story doesn't inspire me anymore. If I still have to go around to tell that story after four years of leaving campus without any other significant achievement then I am a failure.

If I should tell you what I had achieved in the last year, you probably won't believe it and it is because I haven't been posting pictures like before. I have discovered recently that people who are truly successful post fewer pictures on social media.

My plan going forward is to focus more on sharing thought-provoking articles that will help people to have a better understanding of different issues like I have been doing recently because I know it will be more beneficial to people than just posting pictures.

If I die tomorrow, I want my social media timelines to be one of the legacies I will leave behind. I don't want people to see just pictures on my timelines, I want people to be able to read my articles, make reference to my works and see some of the little impacts I am able to make.

I will encourage you to stop killing yourself because of people's pictures that you see on social media, beautiful pictures don't mean life is perfect for anyone.

Be thankful for who you are and be ready to work hard to become a better person.

#IamVincentAdeoba

One of the common beliefs ravaging our society today is the belief that our youths don’t need to work for anyone. While the intention of the belief in itself is to encourage youths to be creative in solving problems, some youths are using it to cover up their mediocrity and lack of willingness to learn basic business principles of how to run a successful and sustainable business from successful firms and individuals.

The minds of some of these youths are clouded with the belief that they don’t need to work for anyone to succeed and yet nothing is working for them. They believe all they need is a capital to start a business.

Some will always site the stories of how Mark Zuckerberg, Bill Gates, Michael Dell, Oprah Winfrey and several others who dropped out of school to start their own business. What some of these youths don’t know is that their Nigerian B.Sc. certificate would not get them a cashier job in many of the developed countries.

The developed countries of the world have excellent education system where a high school certificate is almost equivalent to the glorified B.Sc. certificate received from a government-owned university in Nigeria where students still sit on the floor and lecturers who still use chalk to write on a blackboard are proud that they are using their undergraduate notes to teach their students same course 20 years after.

I’m not saying it is bad to want to start your own business. In fact, we need as many new businesses as possible to reduce the number of jobless youths who are roaming our streets. But have you ever asked yourself why no single business/company from Africa can compete with other brands globally? The reason is not far-fetched, many of our businesses were started and owned by people who don’t want to work for anyone.

The fact that you have a beautiful idea doesn’t mean you will succeed if you start a business around the idea now. I think we are at a point where we need to advise our youths to first learn about a business before starting one so that we won’t be having businesses whose addresses and names only exist in the logbook of Corporate Affair Commission.

Some of the businesses that are doing well across Africa today are businesses that are owned by people who have years of corporate experience. People who have worked in well-structured companies and are leveraging on the experience they have gained over the years to manage their business.

But an average Nigerian youth nowadays doesn’t want to work for anyone, he just wants to start his own business and become an overnight successful entrepreneur. Ask such youth to write a business proposal, he has no idea. Ask him about business structuring and his plan on how to scale up his business in the nearest future, he is totally clueless and he doesn’t want to work for anyone.

I was once culprit of such belief. I remember also saying I won’t work for anyone after I graduated from the university and a mentor who has a better understanding of business told me I need to change such belief and I don’t think I need to tell you how much money I lost before I discovered that I needed to learn how to manage a business from a successful firm before I venture into mine on full time basis.

Look at some of the successful small businesses around in Nigeria, they are owned by the Igbos and it’s because they have an apprenticeship system popularly called ‘Imu-Ahia’ that mandated that you must first work for an accomplished business owner for a specific number of years to learn about a particular business before you would be allowed to start your own.

An average Igbo youth won’t tell you that he doesn’t want to work for anyone, he understands that working for someone to learn about a particular business is one of the prerequisites for success in business. He’s ready to learn as much as he can before he ventures into his own business.

An Igbo youth can be selling memory cards and build a big store from it, the reason is that he is not just selling memory cards, he understands the core principles of business unlike an average graduate who believes all he needs to succeed in business is just capital and a year later you won’t find the business anywhere.

Africa youths must be ready to do away with “I don’t want to work for anyone” mentality if we want to start building businesses that will employ more than one person.

If your talents, skills, business can’t feed you at the moment, I will advise you to get a job to gain practical experience on how to manage a successful business and start your own business later. Otherwise, you may end up as a victim of "I don't want to work for anyone" ravaging disease.

#IamVincentAdeoba

"The greatest thing a nation can lose is her conscience"

Three years ago, I was traveling from Ogbomoso in Oyo State to Osogbo and the old car I boarded developed a fault in a small village called Abogunde.

While the driver was fixing the car, I decided to take a walk around the village. What I saw was terrifying. I came across the only primary school in the village which also serve three other nearby villages and the condition of the school left me in a shock.

Children were seated in classrooms built with mud and with big cracks on the walls. I shared my concern with the school headmaster about the fear of the building collapsing who later told me how they have written letters several times to the education authority but there has not been any response from them.

Immediately I heard about the building that collapsed at Lagos Island yesterday, my mind went to that school in Abogunde. Who knows if the building has also collapsed with no press to report the incident? Better still the kids might still be lucky to be learning in such unsafe and unconducive environment.

Over 80 children left their homes yesterday morning with the excitement that they were going to school to learn, just like every other child they deserve to learn in a safe and a conducive environment but that was not the case.

The collapsed building which sent 8 of the innocent kids and an adult trapped under the rumbles for hours to an untimely grave is a representation of who we are a nation. The collapsed building symbolizes the continuous collapse of a nation who is so blessed but chose the path of poverty and mediocrity.

In my opinion, those little kids were murdered by the society that is responsible to protect and nurture them. They were sent to an early grave by corruption, mediocrity and a failed leadership that plague Nigeria at every level.

According to a report, the building has been marked for demolition a long time ago but nothing was done until the building later collapsed killing those innocent kids. Your guess on why the building wasn’t demolished all this while is the same as mine.

The said school on the third floor of an old building was a private school, the question we need to ask ourselves is which authority approved the third floor of an old three storey building as a school for primary school pupils and if the school is operating illegally, why has no one done something about it all this while?

Even if the building didn’t collapse yesterday, it was certainly going to collapse later on. No government in a sane society will approve the third floor of an old building as a school for such young pupils. This is an evidence of how we are sinking as a nation.

A sign of how mediocrity and corruption have found their way to every aspect of our society and the fact that the present system we are running is not only unsustainable but that it is a system capable of destroying itself.

If the Nigerian government had in the least heed numerous calls to fund the education sector and curb the corruption in the sector, we won’t have lost those kids. If Nigeria was working, we would not have a government-approved private school on the third floor of an old three storey building in Ita-Faji, we won’t have over 13 million children the same size as the population of Rwanda roaming the street across Nigeria.

We prefer to spend our resources on senators, governors, and other worthless political actors for wardrobe, clubbing, womanizing, security votes, and frivolous foreign trips than building schools and providing a safe and conducive learning environment for our children.

There are over 17,000 private schools in Lagos State alone and you can check out the buildings some of these schools are using, you will be tempted to ask if we have a government at all. The state governments are intentionally killing the public school system as a way of reducing what they spend on education and this had led to an offshoot of mushroom private schools across the country.

Only a few parents are willing to allow their children to attend public secondary schools not to talk of public primary schools which in my opinion is gradually fading out. This will leave primary school education in Nigeria in the hands of individuals and my fear is where is the regulation that will prevent the type of tragedy that occurred in Ita Faji yesterday.

Dedicated to the memory of Prof. Pius Adesanmi

#IamVincentAdeoba

Some people graduated with the belief that someone will help them to get a job after school. It’s not bad to expect people to help you, what is bad is when you behave like people owe you.

If you want to get a good job, you need to get skills, invest in yourself and make sure you graduate with a good grade.

I know a corps member that got a placement in Deloitte, E&Y, Afrinvest and other firms for his NYSC and was later retained. He didn’t get those opportunities because he believes someone owes him a job.

Right from school, he invested in himself, he read books, attended conferences, wrote professional exams, learned about Excel, Sage 50 and he graduated with 2:1 which is the minimum grade requirement by many firms.

If you can use your skill set to create value for people, you won't need to look for a job for long.

You're responsible for your life. If you’re sitting around waiting for somebody to get you a job, you are only wasting your time. The truth is no one owes you a job after school.

If it means learning a new skill to get a good job, do it. If it means sending 200 emails, do it. If it means waking up at 5 am, do it. You owe it to yourself to be the best person a firm will want to employ.

Success is never given it must be earned.

#employability

Some people graduated with the belief that someone will help them to get a job after school. It’s not bad to expect people to help you, what is bad is when you behave like people owe you.

If you want to get a good job, you need to get skills, invest in yourself and make sure you graduate with a good grade.

I know a corps member that got a placement in Deloitte, E&Y, Afrinvest and other firms for his NYSC and was later retained. He didn’t get those opportunities because he believes someone owes him a job.

Right from school, he invested in himself, he read books, attended conferences, wrote professional exams, learned about Excel, Sage 50 and he graduated with 2:1 which is the minimum grade requirement by many firms.

If you can use your skill set to create value for people, you won't need to look for a job for long.

You're responsible for your life. If you’re sitting around waiting for somebody to get you a job, you are only wasting your time. The truth is no one owes you a job after school.

If it means learning a new skill to get a good job, do it. If it means sending 200 emails, do it. If it means waking up at 5 am, do it. You owe it to yourself to be the best person a firm will want to employ.

Success is never given it must be earned.

#employability

A few weeks ago, I wrote an article on why graduating with 2:2 is no longer an option in Nigeria. Even though some people couldn’t get the message I tried to pass across in the article, I believe it’s an article every undergraduate needs to read especially those who are in school and still have the opportunity to work harder to get out of the 2:2 circle.
There is a serious job deficit in Nigeria. Thousands of graduates are pushed into the labour market every year, the truth is no one is creating jobs for these graduates. You have to get into the labour market and be ready to fight hard to get a job. The labour market is a place where only the fittest survive.
The available jobs are not enough for 1st class and 2nd class upper graduates if we’re to restrict the opportunities to them. Unemployment rate in Nigeria is 18.8%, it’s one of the highest rates in the world and we’re not doing much to address the problem. Many youths are jobless and one needs to be strategic in his job search after school to get something reasonable.
If you don’t want to go through a hell of struggle after school, I will advise you should try to graduate with at least 2:1 especially if you’re not connected to a politician and your dad doesn’t own a company. If you reject this advice and you’re from a poor background, I’m afraid you may end up passing the baton of poverty to the next generation except you’re considering business and you have what it takes to succeed in the Nigeria harsh business environment.
Nevertheless, graduating with 2:2 isn’t the end of the world. There are two types of 2:2 graduates, we have those who are smart, intelligent and goal oriented but were just unlucky to graduate with 2:2 or graduated with 2:2 because of the course they studied. I know some school that 2:2 is like graduating with 1st class. We also have another set of graduates who graduated with 2:2 because they were unserious and lazy.
I know some 2:2 graduates who got a job before the 1st class graduates were invited for an interview. I also know some 2:2 graduates who ventured into business after school and they have 1st class and 2:1 graduates now working for them. That you graduated with 2:2 doesn’t mean you can't succeed or you can’t get a job.
There are some companies that recruit 2:2 graduates but I must tell you the truth, they’re few. Majority of companies don’t recruit 2:2 graduates and one can’t really blame them. Some companies still end up receiving over 100,000 CVs from 1st class and 2:1 graduates for few job opening. You can imagine the number of CVs they will get if they’re to allow 2:2 graduates too to apply.
Let me share few tips with you that can help you get a job as a 2:2 graduate:
1. Start with a small firm to gain experience, companies are less concerned about grade at experience hire level. You can always switch to a big firm via that channel.
2. Network, the best and fastest mean of getting a job is through referral.
3. Put in for professional exam in your field, it can give you an edge even with 2:2 grade.
4. Be strategic with your job search, banking sector recruits 2:2 graduates than others.
5. Learn useful software in your career line
6. Invest in personal development to get every necessary skill
7. Consider a pro-bono service for a willing firm as that may pave a way for a permanent engagement.
Let me remind you that graduating with 2:2 is not a crime, there’s still a good job out there for you, so don’t give up and don’t write yourself off.

A few months to the end of my National Youth Service, I asked myself an important question “Vincent, where do you want to be in five years?” For few minutes I couldn’t provide an answer to the question. I was looking at the sheet of paper on the table. I had plans but I had never thought of the plans from five years perspective.

After few minutes, I wrote some things I had in mind and what I would love to achieve five years after service. I served in Lagos even though I never enjoyed serving in Lagos. I was hoping to serve in a village in the North or Eastern part of Nigeria where I will be able to save.
My PPA didn’t pay me and the #19,800 Federal Government was paying was rarely enough to sustain me in a month. The transportation cost alone was close to one-third of my monthly allowance not to talk of feeding expenses. Cost of living is high in Lagos which why I don’t advice people to serve in Lagos except you have a relative you can stay with and you are sure of a PPA that will pay you something substantial in addition to your monthly allowance.

I was visiting Ibadan occasionally during service because I was seeing a big opportunity in the education sector. Ibadan has a population of over three million people and more than one-third of the population are in primary and secondary schools. That’s approximately 1 million students. I saw a big market and I was ready to tap into it. All I needed was to develop a product or a service that is affordable and that will solve a specific problem. I had already published a book on academic excellence and produced a video disc on the same topic.

I wrote all my plans down. I registered a business name and I was ready to move to Ibadan after service. Some people saw it as a crazy decision. “How can you move to Ibadan after serving in Lagos?” My plan was to look for a job opportunity in Lagos but go to Ibadan to start a business once I can’t get a job. The probability of getting a job that will well is higher in Lagos than Ibadan but the cost of starting a business in Ibadan is cheaper than Lagos. I got a cool self-contain at Oluyole Estate at a very good price, I knew I won’t get such in Lagos, not at that price.
A few days to my Passing-Out-Parade, I booked an appointment with my mentor to share my five years plan with him and to ask for his advice. I told him I will be moving to Ibadan anytime soon. He asked me some questions which I provided perfect answers to. He was impressed with my plans and how detailed it was. He even asked me when I planned to get married and I told him.

My mentor said, “Vincent, you’re not moving to Ibadan, you will be in Lagos”. I started arguing with him, “What if I don’t get a job in Lagos?” I asked him other questions and he said: “You are a very smart and intelligent you guy, I know you will get a job soon”. I told him about the unemployment rate in Nigeria and some senior colleagues I know that are still looking for a job several years after graduation. A few days later, I got a job. I knew it was preparation meeting opportunity. Opportunity will always knock at your door if you’re always prepared.
Going to the real world after service with a plan can be disastrous. Your plan doesn’t necessarily have to be a plan after NYSC. We all need a master plan our life. I always ask youths where they want to be in five years’ time and the responses I always get are responses that shows cluelessness and lack of sense of direction.

One of the reasons I always encourage undergraduates to learn a skill in school is because it helps to plan your life better after NYSC. But it’s sad many youths have no other option than to be sleeping at home all because they have nothing else to offer beyond their certificate. Whereas, there are opportunities around them that they can key into to become an employer of labour instead of waiting for a job in multinationals and big firms.
My advice:

Learn a skill in school or during your service year – baking, catering, photography, makeup or whatever you have passion for
Learn software – Photoshop, Microsoft Excel, or any Data Analytic tool. You can be making a lot of money in your room if you’re good in any of this software
Look for a business opportunity and start small
Come up with a solution to a particular problem
Create a product - write a motivational, story (book), an academic game
Look into the agriculture sector, it has an enormous opportunity

The best thing is to plan your life like you will never get a job after school.

The era of going to school just to get a certificate is now over. A few years ago, all you need was to go to the university to make 1st class or 2:1 and you will have jobs waiting for you after graduation. In fact, 2:2 graduates don’t struggle much to get job those days. The economy was good, automation and robots were not taking away jobs.

I’m a strong advocate of academic excellence and nothing makes me glad than seeing a 1st class or 2:1 graduate with necessary skill set. In this era of technology, all your 1st class or 2:1 can do for you is to get you a job, succeeding at the job will be determined by the skills you acquired in school. That’s why most companies do place their new hires on three to six months of probation before making their contract permanent.

I have met some 1st class and 2:1 graduates who have no knowledge of Microsoft Excel or PowerPoint, some can rarely make presentation before five people without sweating profusely or committing blunders. I was once in 1st class before I dropped to 2:1 but trust me that decision was the best for me. There was a semester I made 5.0 GP, which is the highest GP you can have in a single semester in any Nigerian university except in University of Ibadan.

I knew I wasn’t going to look for job after school. I told myself, it was either I get a job without going through unnecessary stress or I become an employer of labour. I make my first 1 million naira on campus selling purewater, bread, groundnut and the likes in the hostel, I employed four managers before I graduated. I learnt about marketing, customers and inventory management, internal control and gained practical knowledge of all I was taught in the classroom in my room.

I contested for legislative election in my year 1 and for president in year 4. It was during the campaign for those elections that I developed public speaking skills. As President, I managed millions of naira and I organized a summit that had over a thousand participants, I also met my mentor when I was serving as president. I became ACCA student ambassador in my year 4 and had the opportunity to attend training organized by them. I also attended several paid and free seminars and conferences.

The interviewer at my first job interview thought I was a “yes sir graduate” who will take any form of treatment just to get a job. We argued during the interview and he was shocked a fresh graduate could engage him in an argument during an interview. I knew what I was made of and I wasn’t ready to take nonsense from anyone.

Stutern Graduate Report shows these are the skills graduates believe they are equipped with by the course they studied:
Critical Thinking: 55.2%
Problem Solving: 49.9%
Team Working: 57.3%
Written Communication: 44.8%
Spoken Communication 42.2%
Knowledge of Job 42.7%

The tragedy of the above data is that majority of graduates can’t boast of 50% knowledge of their dream job after spending four years studying a course related to the job. That’s an evidence of how students are so concerned about grades rather knowledge of their course. While I will encourage you to go for the best in your academics, it is never an excuse to neglect personal development because employers are much more interested in your soft and hard skills.

My advice:
If you are still in school, do business, join departmental leadership, volunteer for NGOs, join the press, public speaking group and by all means, acquire Microsoft Office Skills.

If you are a graduate without employability skill, don’t be afraid to start.

It will be tragic to be a 1st class or 2:1 graduate who has nothing to offer beyond the certificate.

I gained admission into the university in 2011 at 20 years. I thought I will graduate by the age of 23. In developed countries, you don’t need to pray and fast to graduate on time. In fact, I heard that you are told the day you will be graduating from the university right from your year 1 registration point in some countries.

But being a Nigerian who went to a government-owned university, my dream of graduating at 23 years never came through. I graduated from Obafemi Awolowo University and I don’t think I need to tell you the strong relationship between OAU and incessant strikes.

Within my first two months campus, I experienced my first strike action. The school management sent us home because of a proposed protest scheduled for our matriculation day. We didn’t resume until three months after. We proceeded again on ASUU strike in 2013 which lasted for six months. We had other internal strikes and I ended up spending close to five years for a course I should have spent less than four years for.

Graduating from the university in 2015, I stayed at home for another one year before I was mobilized for the compulsory National Youths Service (NYSC) which also lasted for another one year. I finished NYSC in 2017 and I was 26 years going to be 27 by the end of that year.

I had always been an entrepreneur right from campus and I was really doing well. I had made up my mind not to look for a job after NYSC, I just wanted to face my business and go for my masters degree because I knew my chances of getting a job was slim considering the 26 years age requirement by most of the employers of labour especially the big firms. In fact, many of them now request that you must be 25 years and below to submit application for their graduate trainee recruitments.

It took the wisdom and experience of my mentor for me to realize that going for masters degree at the age of 26 years without any job experience wasn’t the best for me. That is one of the reasons why I encourage youths to have mentors who can guide them along their career and life decisions.

If I had gone for masters, I would probably graduate at the age of 28 that is if there is no strike action within the two years and getting a good job at that age without previous experience will be be difficult.

At 28, most companies expect you to have nothing less than 2 years of experience and having M.sc. is not equivalent to that two years of experience.

You need to be strategic about going for masters degree if you are yet to get job experience and here are my advice:

1. If you are 23 years and below, going for masters if you don’t quickly get a job is cool
2. If you are 25 years and above, I will advise you to first get a job to get experience and do your masters degree later.
3. If your long-term goal is to end up in the academia as a lecturer, masters is cool.
4. If you don’t have that goal, writing professional exams may be better than going for masters immediately after graduation.
5. If your goal is to own a business later on, going for your masters may be the best decision.
6. Before going for masters, calculate the age you will be done with the program and look at the age requirement in your industry.
7. Life is about doing first thing first and you must know how to prioritize your life.

This is an advice from me, please feel free to disagree and share your views.

You may also want to read this https://www.nairaland.com/4358447/graduating-second-class-lower-no

#IamVincentAdeoba

https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=1849160375103415&id=100000284120324

I have been encouraging undergraduates in my engagements especially on campuses not to consider second class lower (2:2) any longer as a grade to graduate with. The Nigeria labour market is competitive more than ever before and to think you will get your dream job with second class lower grade may be impossible.

The least you should graduate with is second class upper (2:1). Many of the big firms and multinationals rarely give any candidate with 2:2 grade opportunity to write their tests not to talk of getting to the interview room to show what you are made of. You need to give your academic all your efforts while on campus to make sure you don’t go below 2:1 even if it means graduating with 3.50 CGPA on dot.

I know a lot of smart people who are still at home looking for a job just because they graduated with 2:2. Some of them wrote professional exams thinking it will quickly increase their chances of getting a good job but still they are missing a lot of opportunities for not doing enough to get into the 2:1 circle.

What an employer of labour will first request for in Nigeria is not the number of qualifications you have but what you graduated with from the university especially if you are trying to get in through the graduate trainee recruitment.

In recent time, employers of labour in attempt to save energy from having to remove 2:2 CVs from their job entries always make sure they include minimum of 2:1 in their requirements and some already set up their system in a way that it automatically remove the CV of any graduate with 2:2. The only job that banks are magnanimous enough to allow 2:2 to apply for is cashier job.

If you are still on campus, you need to be more serious with your study and if you are a graduate with 2:2, here are my advice for you:

1. Put in for a skill acquisition program with a vision to build a business around the skill later.
2. Start a business with little capital and be resolute.
3. Get into the tech space to see if you can come up with a disruptive idea.
4. Go for masters abroad if your parents can afford it or look for scholarship opportunity.
5. Pick up any job opportunity that relates with what you studied even if the pay is poor and make sure you learn as much as you can on the job.
6. Develop relationship with people in your dream companies as that may help you get in through their experience hire recruitment (This is key).
7. Start your professional exams
The worst thing that can happen to you is to sit at home wasting your life because you are yet to get a job. If the paid jobs are not forthcoming. Look for a pro bono service and be committed to it. Volunteer for programs and make sure you network with people.
No matter what, don’t give up on yourself and never believe that you can’t succeed because you finished with 2:2. We have a lot of people who finished with 2:2 and are successful. Your life is up to you, don’t loan it to your certificate.

#IamVincentAdeoba

Source: https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=1842653119087474&id=100000284120324