Olumide Emmanuel is the Chief Executive Officer, Commonsense Group and a Wealth creation coach.
In this interview with Nairametrics, he outlines 4 key factors potential and existing investors should consider before partaking in any crowdfunding. Excerpts:
It is observed that several businesses die after the founder’s death. How do we make wealth cross-generational?
The reason why a lot of businesses are not cross-generational is because we don’t have cross-generational thinking. Majority of the people that go into business go into business for survival. If you are going into business because of what to eat, building a cross-generational business is not in your template. The reason it is not happening is because the first generation, who pioneers, are always a-generating-generator. By the time you get to the second generation, most of them here would have had a better life because they were born into a better life. They become a maintenance generation. But the third generation is an entitled generation. They are born into wealth, they have never seen poverty before. And that is where the business dies. Every generation needs to be a generating generation to continue the perpetuity.
As a wealth creator, what is your view about the situation in the country?
Crisis create opportunities but people don’t understand it. One of the modules I created is where money hides. I have what I call 10 places where money hide. One of such places is in people. And we have well over 200 million people in Nigeria. The reason why you see people come to Nigeria to invest is because of its population, because people equal to wealth. Money hides in people. Money hides in problems. Every time you see problem, it’s actually money. One man’s problem is another man’s opportunity. So when you talk about Nigeria, it is loaded with people and loaded with problems, it therefore means Nigeria is a land of numerous opportunities. That being said, I think one of the challenges we have, is our educational system.
Most of the people that have produced the results that we are talking about, I didn’t take them through any four year training. I sit down with people, we do a one week entrepreneurship programme or a two week entrepreneurship academy or I sit down with them in a three day meeting and I load them with a Master Class of all kinds of information, give them guides on what to do, then set them up in a one year mentorship. Once you have the right information, by year two, you start applying. If you start applying, within one or two years, you will start seeing results as far as you are applying consistently. Anyone can change their lives within five years.
Everybody goes to school to come and look for a job, yet we are not teaching them about money. So, entrepreneurial education has got to be part of our curriculum from primary school level. Once people have the right kind of understanding about finances and wealth creation, they will become free from the miseducation of just going to school to acquire a degree to look for job, and they will understand all the options available for them and they will be able to make better decisions.
Since crisis creates opportunities, why do you think people are withholding investment in Nigeria?
The mind is so powerful. These opportunities have always been there but we don’t programme our minds to see them. Our minds in this part of the world have been so programmed by the environment and politicians. During the lockdown, many people became billionaires by producing face masks and sanitisers. 7Up had to diversify into manufacturing 2Sure sanitisers and now they are doing soap. It is because they sat down to think of how to reposition themselves. If we continue to wait for favourable conditions, we will never get anything done. Until there’s a change in the way we think, many things will not change.
Should people ask you what they can invest in, what would be your response to them?
I tell them invest in yourself. Your financial intelligence. Many of us go to school and we have never read a book since we left school. What you know determines how far you go. If you are not informed, you will be deformed, if you do not aspire, you will expire, if you are not updated, you will be outdated, if you are not in the know, you cannot be in the flow, those who know will rule over those who do not know. It’s about giving our attention to learning. So, invest in yourself, your personal development. Invest in your gifts, your talent and potentials. Invest in your passion. One of the pointers for passion is that it’s something you are willing to do even if nobody pays you for it. Whatever you do consistently with passion, ends up producing money.
Can you please shed more light on how to detect what to invest in?
If you want to invest in something, find out the people behind the investment, because people will buy into you before they buy into what you are selling. Number two, what is their track record, what have they done before, what have they produced before. The next thing is to test the waters. The second name for investment is risk. For every investment, there is a risk factor. You then need to do informed and calculated risk. By the time you are doing all the due diligence and studying, you would have gotten information to know how volatile that sector is. Calculated risk is investing money you can do without. However, in Nigeria, you can do everything right and still be wrong. So, calculate the risk.
You rightly admitted that something was not right with our school curriculum. What have you done, as an individual, to change the narrative?
Actually, we have done so much. We have engaged the educational sector. We started from the university level up to the National Universities Commission (NUC). I have recommended The School of Money book to help them create Entrepreneurial Units, and entrepreneurial courses in different universities and as we speak today, I am aware of five private universities and about 10 other public universities, who as a result of our efforts, have such units. We have come up with what is called The Learn to Earn Academy. We run our business school called Success Business and Leadership School. It’s a free weekly school to help people with the right information to succeed in leadership. And then we have come up with the student’s version of The School of Money book and the plan is to give out 10 million copies. We have given out about 4 million already.
Does one have to be an entrepreneur to be wealthy?
Each time such question pops up, I tell people you don’t need to be an entrepreneur to be wealthy, but you must be an investor. For career persons, I have created what we call the Seven Steps Process of Creating Wealth through Your Career. So number one is to start early because like I said earlier about seasons of life, there are some things that once their season is past, you will have to put in extra efforts. Number two is to give it all it takes.
Once you have identified your career, plug in and give it all it takes especially when you are in the morning season of your life. Number three, get all the certifications you can get. You must earn certifications that are recognised globally. Number four, network strategically because what you know and who you know determines how far you go. In every industry, there are gatekeepers. If you are networking strategically, when the boardrooms of life are meeting about your case, there will be no voice to speak for you. And I will say, be an investor. Every 10 to 20 per cent of the money you make from your income, you save so that you can invest.
What are the top job creation vehicles Nigerians can use?
The vehicles of wealth creation is first, entrepreneurship, which is starting your own business. Two would be the money and capital market. That is still a place to play. Three is intellectual property. Having your own product. Coming up with something that belongs to you. Four is the real estate. The real estate is the only vehicle of wealth creation that is also a vehicle of wealth retention. It is also a vehicle that will help you hedge over inflation and edge against devaluation. As naira is messed up now, tie it down in real estate.