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“jack robinson”
By Felix | January 26, 2008
June 2004… that was precisely when I started my voyage into the streets of
It was on the streets that I met boys who would go to the café everyday for 2yrs, without making a dime and still have an unflinching optimism that they will make it someday, and not just by word of mouth, but by consistently putting their effort and time into the business. Now consistency is what a lot of people in everyday legit businesses lack in other to grow, yes the things I did cannot be praised in anyway and I can’t give any excuses to make them look good, it was wrong and wrong. But I learned a few things that today still make me stand out in the corporate or real business environment.
Before we get lost in that thought line, let’s get back to the main dish of today…
Because of the long months I spent in school away from Lagos, when ever I came back, a lot of changes take place in my environment, I remember sometime towards the end of 2003, just before my degree exams, I came back home from school and “small boys” had suddenly become the “big boys” in the area, they spent money like it was going out of fashion, partied in the hottest clubs with the hottest chicks, drank the most expensive wines and drove flashy cars, I mean their lives looked to me like everyday was a vacation.
This gave me serious food for thought, because I felt… hey I am smarter and more qualified than these boys to be thinking of how to ask my mum for money whenever I needed something, because I was fresh out of school with no job (don’t get me wrong though, I was always given what I asked for), but the fact that I could become independent and be the one giving instead moved me to swallow my pride and be tutored by one these boys…
June 2004, was when I started, I went to the internet café everyday for 2 months consistently, I had to work at nights (
Now the process was … daytime go to the café go through google or other search engines and recommended sites and directories where email addresses of foreigners can be extracted, store them. Night time bring out a software that will send “the format” to these emails en masse to thousands of prospects, bearing in mind that every email address is important, the one you let go might just be the one, next day follow up on the ones that reply and blah blah blah… don’t want to go too much into details before I turn this into a “guy man manual” but more or less that’s how it worked, and this is just one branch I have explained here, like any other business there are different branches with areas where everyone had some form of specialty and I found mine, we’ll go into that another time.
In other not to bore you with too many details for now, 5months down the line Nov 5th, where the story on bang bang! Started, I bought a car and 2 days after, I was in a cyber café very engrossed with responding to emails I had received the previous day, that I didn’t notice that 2 police officers were sitting by my side, I got arrested, not for the first time in my life, but for the first time on the job!.
The routine was different from my previous arrests, like the night at the beach when my friends and i got into a serious fight with ‘area boys’ at the beach and they remobilized and came back in numbers brandishing daggers, broken bottles, sticks and cutlasses, it was big time trouble, I tried to get my guys not to run, because as a single tight unit, we had better chances of either negotiating our way through, or fighting (which didn’t look like a very good idea at that time) or … I had been in similarly circumstances in school where I had negotiated or as we put it then, “chanced” my way through by virtue of the rep I had built over the years in school as a fearless and gutsy “hard man”.
… now, because this was a different set of friends from the ones I had in school, before I could say “jack robinson” they had fled in 7 different directions, so this made us easy prey for the area boys. When I didn’t see anyone by my side, I also ran towards the ocean, I am a good swimmer so I wasn’t afraid of this direction and I knew it would be hard to be followed in that direction… lol, but somehow the side of my eye caught site of one of my friends who at that time was staying with me and was my closest friend, he had been overpowered and it looked to me like if I didn’t intervene, he was going to be badly beaten and hurt, so I turned back and went towards danger trying to plead on his behalf when suddenly from behind me was… ???
Topics: my story |
January 26th, 2008 at 3:25 pm
He has got me this time! Just as I was getting very interested in the story, it all terminated. Abeg..Abeg please lets have the full story about the fight thing.
Hope nobody died!!!.
Thanks man, you are truly doing a good job here keeping us well entertained and also informed about what goes on in the street. I truly would love this blog renamed “Street Life”.
January 26th, 2008 at 7:11 pm
Change is a fact of life,it is d speed n magnitude of it dat determines if a change,amounts to a revolution or d normal graduation of all d indices of life dat comes with d expansion of tym,space n knowledge.
And dis u ve showen to bi true!!as i read thru dis article all i found myself doin was simply smiling!!
smiling not only 4d fact dat i know how it all ended,but simply grateful 4ur new begining..
January 26th, 2008 at 8:32 pm
Behind you was what????,yea i get it feed us a bit at a time and keep us glued,something u learned from the streets too (lol).
I’ll be back.keep it up n fresh.
January 26th, 2008 at 9:33 pm
salutamu_ maritamu……….sail on!
January 26th, 2008 at 11:55 pm
January 27th, 2008 at 7:25 am
WHAT was behind u ? .. lol great writing felix you have my full attention but u always have now havent you. humm and i thought i knew all of you .. ya joke on me huh.. keep it coming you are doing a wonderful job.. hagd xxx
January 28th, 2008 at 7:30 am
Maybe a mermaid came from behind to save you, or …………..
January 28th, 2008 at 11:02 am
Nice one Felix!!!!!!!!!
Really captivating even for us that already know the story,am still glued to reading it.Its like reading one of Steven Kings books. Keep it up dear.
January 28th, 2008 at 11:48 am
@imelda, lol@steven kings book.. it is crazy
@felix, hell of a life u have lead so far and yet the best to come ..wink xxxx
January 28th, 2008 at 11:49 am
Hmmm…..
January 28th, 2008 at 12:16 pm
Yeah i think i can finish the story…cos at that point the world suddenly came to an end.Ol boy you don die, this life you are, is a new one.LOL
January 28th, 2008 at 12:17 pm
Nice one man no more suspence,or else.:)
January 28th, 2008 at 1:17 pm
@debra,yeah and my brother is crazy too.
@ felix,just keep getting us all addicted to your site.love you.
January 28th, 2008 at 3:51 pm
@imelda… lord dont i know it lol.. but i have always seen the good in him and never lost the faith and never will he means the world to me.. have a great day
January 28th, 2008 at 4:10 pm
Ha! Hope dis wont be like ma first luv letter…..gosh it was soo long
No more suspense…. hmmm….oooooo!!!
January 28th, 2008 at 5:29 pm
For real, could this be real?
January 28th, 2008 at 6:27 pm
Too much suspense and I don’t know but there was no message in this one for me in fact I don’t think for anybody, I read for value. If it won’t contribute to me then it might not be worth might time.
Felix for the sake of guy like me I think you can balance it. Give suspense and story to those who like the thrill but remember to leave the moral of the story for guys like me to catch. Then I guarantee you we will all ask for more.
Cheers
January 28th, 2008 at 7:40 pm
Hmmmm,
if you don’t write a book before you leave this world, you’ll have gone without maximising your talents.
January 28th, 2008 at 11:01 pm
Oya bros..wetin dey pursue you oo?!
January 29th, 2008 at 12:50 am
@ biola … it’s a long story… read between the lines maybe you’ll catch a thing or two if not on this page maybe on subsequent ones… cheers
@all … thanks for the comments, and not to worry we’ll finish the story together, stay entertained and also learn something that can help someone.
Peace n a fist!
January 29th, 2008 at 10:37 am
One thing i ve learned from ur entertaining story is that it’s good for one to stretch out his/her helping hands to friends and neighbors in time of needs and crisis.Assuming “God forbid” you kept off during the time you went back for rescue,you would ve gone straight to heaven? …..Abi how u see am?
……more grease to ur elbow..oO
January 29th, 2008 at 2:00 pm
@biola, in every story there are chapters and not all chapters have a messages, most set up the scene for the message. hagd xx
February 10th, 2008 at 4:12 pm
Is this where you got that hand injury, hmn really cant wait for the full story.
…and Felix, this one wey different chicks just dey comment some kain comment… nawa o!
Keep it up and enjoy.
May 29th, 2008 at 11:06 pm
@tola, are you jealous of the ladies in the house or are you his girl and if you are you should be happy for him that people take out time not only to read from his site but also to comment on what he has written
May 29th, 2008 at 11:08 pm
uncle she na true de thin wey she talk abt the wound
May 29th, 2008 at 11:11 pm
when suddenly from behind you was POLICE
May 30th, 2008 at 1:41 pm
@tola:ok maybe uve known him not for too long!! but for those of us dat go way back with him!! my guy is blessed amongst women!! hahhaha…no harm(winks) jokes apart!! jst like loveth said!! bi happy to c his improvement n neva mind dem chicks commenting out here besides a couple of us here go way bk wif him(I 4 one)nonetheless felix is one fella dat deserves d best..
CHEERS!!
May 30th, 2008 at 4:33 pm
@ Becks, AMEN on that.. Felix is a wonderful man and i for another go way back with him, Felix n i have a bond that NO ONE will ever understand he is apart of me my heart n life and forever will be.. I WILL NEVER put stepping stones infront of his success,
@ Tola… build a soul up not down..no room for jealousy in a heart for if it is there, it cant grow or learn to love.. wink
@ Felix,, love u plenty xxx keep up the great work God has chosen for you to do and pay no attention to narrow shallow minds.. xxx hagd sweets