Mr Lado

I can't explain it, but it seems your fortune changes based on your location. That is why a moving man meets his luck. Keep moving and don't be static. When you find your place, consolidate. A word is too much for the wise.

I have mixed feelings about this after being burned a lot and constantly meeting time wasters. The truth is, we don't know what the future holds. I have had to seek help from the people I least expected, and they were willing to help because I had never turned them away when they approached me as strangers in the past. Happiness in life is NOT always about calculations and reciprocity; it is more about love and serendipity. Protect your space, but also give room for happiness to come in unexpected ways. I was in this space in life, having chased away all the people I thought were wasting my time, when a friend randomly came into town and invited me to dinner. Three times, I almost turned down the offer because I didn't see it as productive and was recovering from malaria, but my driver insisted we go. I met my wife there. I have many similar stories of invitations from people who were not even friends at the time turning into opportunities worth millions. Serendipitous discovery makes the world go round. Extreme curation limits opportunity.

I was talking with my wife yesterday morning about family and legacy and how things can go completely wrong when you don't think big enough. I was looking at that massive house the Nigerian rich guy built in the 70s and wondering what would have happened if he lived simpler and invested that money in other assets. The thing is, we will never know. He lived his best life and was happy. In the 80s, a relative spent $900m to build a wood-processing factory in Benin City, largely funded by cash generated from their wood-export business—with very little financing. I don't think that factory is functional today. I only learned yesterday for the first time that he had passed away. His first son left the family business early and broke out on his own. He never really made as much money as his father did. His father was the biggest Edo timber baron. I still remember visiting them every Christmas with my Dad, and I recall the hold the man had on local politics and the lumber and rubber industry. All of that is gone now; he and my dad have both passed away. Just like wealth, influence is ephemeral. They made the right move to start processing locally for export after exporting raw lumber and rubber for a while, but things didn't eventually pan out. One particular mistake I think they made was not investing enough in the talent pipeline and depending solely on outsiders. The factory had a lot of technical issues, and their boiler for the wood dryer blew up once. When it came to capital, they also didn't invest enough in other industries like banking, which was ramping up in Nigeria in the 90s to hedge their bets. Many rich people invested in the young bankers, and it paid off. Also, unlike Chief Ibru and others, they didn't invest in other countries and in other currencies to hedge against currency risks. In their Benin home in the 90s, my cousins used to boast that they had a “safe of last resort” that held the cash equivalent in Naira of $20 million at the time. If all else failed, the family had that cash to build up from. Banks were failing in Nigeria at the time, so I understood that ultimately flawed logic. The man was not literate, so he made those kinds of blunders. His son, however, had a PhD, but he left to run his own business. In contrast to my relatives, when Oceanic Bank was being set up. Chief Ibru wired only a million pounds in to pay for the license. He had diversified wisely. His wife and kids eventually ran the bank, but it is now defunct. So, maybe they both still suffered the same fate. All of this happened to very wealthy Nigerian families that I know very well within my lifetime. Did I learn lessons from them? I don't know yet. I have been reviewing all I have done in the last two decades, and I don't have $20m cash in a safe and can't yet wire £1m to start a bank. Chief Ibru told me point blank what to do over 20 years ago. If I had invested in fisheries, as he advised and as the late Emmanuel Ijewere corroborated, would my life have been different? Maybe. Instead, I didn't listen, and I invested in tech startups. Those startups have created wealth on paper but largely unrealized. One thing is for sure: even when they are realized, I won't be overinvesting in the same asset class again. I don't want to make the mistake of having $20m cash in a safe. This is exactly what digital assets were for me with FTX. I was wiped out. Startup investments aren't that different from crypto or stocks, and they are riskier. If I survive it all this time around, I will listen to Chief Ibru and sell fish, but maybe in a different “asset-light " way. It is important to read the signs. Learn from the good and avoid the bad. Always be learning.

Life may seem random, but you make sense of it and get the best out of it by seeing hidden patterns. Some may not even be hidden and are in plain sight, but most people will not see them until someone reveals them through action. Always have a bias for action after seeing opportunity.