By Paul Arkwright, former British High Commissioner to Nigeria
Femi Otedola’s entrepreneurial career started young. When he was seven years old, he started cutting the nails of visitors to his parents’ house in Lagos, charging a small fee and recording his earnings in a pocket book to keep track of the transactions.
It was the start of a remarkable journey to becoming one of Nigeria’s leading business moguls, a major philanthropist, and one of Africa’s richest men.
“Making It Big” tells the exhilarating story of Otedola’s rollercoaster ride through the notoriously cut-throat landscape of Nigeria’s business environment.
From starting and building Nigeria’s largest diesel importation and distribution business, to its calamitous and sudden collapse, and his re-emergence as a power player across the country’s oil, power, banking and property sectors, his story is one of resilience, opportunism, and extraordinary self-belief.
While Otedola’s account of his life provides the backdrop, his book is as much about providing today’s budding entrepreneurs with the insight and tools to forge their own successful paths.
Each chapter contains guidance and examples of the attributes needed for success. Otedola doesn’t lay down a template to follow: he acknowledges that everyone must find their own way.
But using his own successes – and failures – he sets out some broad principles designed to inspire those who follow, from how to identify and recruit the right people in order to strengthen the team, to how to spread risk and minimise exposure to debt.
There are plenty of nuggets of practical advice. But Otedola’s wider approach to becoming a successful entrepreneur strikes me as particularly valuable: the importance of finding mentors as well as role-models; looking after your health to maximise performance; simplify and delegate (something he admits he got wrong early on).
These are hard-earned lessons. Those seeking to emulate Otedola would do well to heed them.
Beyond the biographical and pedagogical elements of “Making It Big”, Otedola reveals much about his personal philosophy.
There are moving passages about his relationship with his parents (notably his adored father) and children, about his inner religious life, and his approach to philanthropy. It says much about the kind of man he is that, unlike many in his position, he has steadfastly refused to bring any of his children into his business empire.
Indeed the book contains a chapter with the blunt title: Leave Family Out of Your Business. He describes this as “tough love”: better to help his children make their own way, and own their mistakes, than to hand them an easy route to a comfortable position in the higher reaches of his companies.
As a keen observer of the intersection of Nigerian business and politics, I found the chapter on engaging with political authorities particularly revealing.
There can’t be many countries where political power and business clout are so closely intertwined. Otedola’s skill at building load-bearing relationships with leading politicians is remarkable.
His fascinating anecdote about persuading then President Obasanjo to deregulate the diesel market demonstrates Otedola’s resilience as much as his powers of persuasion – and the importance of personal networks built up over decades.
It’s a pity the book doesn’t take us up to the present day and the rise to the Presidency of the ultimate businessman-politician, Bola Ahmed Tinubu. I’m looking forward to an updated revised edition.
“Making It Big” is a great read. Otedola’s style is engaging and direct, with honest and revealing personal insights into his life and philosophy.
The book’s structure, not least the Takeaway sections at the end of each chapter, provide the reader with succinct and distinctive food for thought. I recommend it strongly: as a primer for would-be entrepreneurs; a beguiling insight into how Nigeria operates at the interface of business and politics; and a compelling account of how one man fought back – and won.
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