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Street Wise
By Felix | March 10, 2008
Wow! That’s how i can describe the meeting. It was the bomb. This meeting was supposed to last just 2hrs and we ended up staying more than 6hrs. We had about 27boys in attendance and 21 of them signed for the network we are forming from this to reach out to other boys on the streets also.
I was at the venue around 8:30am to get things set, and the first set of boys came in a few minutes before 10am, they started coming in trickles at first and this got me worried and I remember that I didn’t put something into consideration before fixing the time of the meeting, the major thing being the previous day was Friday and boys definitely hang out on Fridays and that makes Saturday morning bad timing, but even with this I still had 27 boys out of the 40 invited.
The meeting started 11a.m with Emmanuel Utomi speaking on Never too Late to Start. This was a fantastic opener as he started with the story of how he moved from a life of failure to one of success and becoming a role model worth emulating and not because he had the perfect circumstances, because he made a decision and stuck to it. He ended on a beautiful note with a quote “Your environment is a chameleon”. Here he told a story of how if he transformed in that meeting room into the President of the U.S.A and the real president of the US was missing and he had a tracker in his wrist watch that they could track him with and were able to trace him to Elomaz hotel where we had the meeting, what the environment would suddenly turn into… with the picture he described, he left to our imagination how many secret agent will suddenly be present in that environment and how the environment would react or change because of who is present there at that time.
The second speaker was Praise Fowowe who also described the four chapters of our lives and how we could move from any level of involvement in a vice or addiction into becoming a fighter for that cause. He also used the story of his life and a few of the people in his network on how they were able to cope through sexual addiction into living a sex-pure-centric life and building a network of youths who are also actively involved in creating a sex-pure-centric generation. This was also an inspirational session for us and this left the boys hungry for more.
Then my mentor and boss Adeolu Akinyemi came on stage and took over the show … (lol). He started with a sound track “Yahozee” by Olu Maintain. His presentation was very creative as it as each slide had a line from the song and this kept our eyes glued to the screen. He quoted Lucky Luciano one of the greatest mobsters that lived… “I realized late in my life that it took the same effort to make an honest Million dollars as it took to make a dishonest million dollars”. This grabbed everyone’s attention as he was hitting the nail on the head. He went ahead to give us the formula for creating wealth which is W=V*K(N).
I am sure this looks strange to a lot of us. Let me break it down W stands for Wealth which is equal to V which is Financial worth of Value multiplied by K the quotient of the value by the number of people having access to this value.
In simple English, why would a footballer earn more money than a banker for instance, this is because the value he adds which is playing football for entertainment reaches out to a larger number of people. If you pay N50 to watch a match in the stadium and we have 40,000 watching that singular match in the stadium paying the N50 plus the number of people viewing on TV, this shows why the footballer earns more. Another example is if I had a drycleaner who washes for only me and I pay him N5000 monthly, now if he can give the same value to me and 50 other people and we all paid N5000 monthly, he earns a lot more.
As simple as this formula might look, it is the formula for building wealth and it can be applied by anybody and there is no wealthy person today that does not apply this formula knowingly or unknowingly.
He ended on a beautiful note also of the story of an old wise man that had the answers to every question people asked in a particular village, and this made the young men in that village despise him, One day they came together and planned to disgrace this old man in front of the whole village, so they asked him to come out on a particular day in front of everybody in the village to answer their question, now one of them was to hold a butterfly in his hand behind his back and they were to ask him if the butterfly was dead or alive, and in the determination to embarrass the old man, if he answers that the butterfly is alive, the boy will crush it and show everyone and if he said it was dead, he’ll open his hands and let it fly off.
On the faithful day when they asked the old man in front of the whole village he answered them saying… Alive or Dead it’s in your hands. And this hit everyone in the room like sledge hammer, because the principles Deolu had shared with us, whatever we decide to do with it was in our hands.
With the inspiring and motivational talks from the 3speakers stated above, it was my turn to use my story of how in a period of one year, I had moved from the street into applying everything the 3 speakers had shared with us into becoming a success, I made a decision and started all over again (Emma Utomi) into becoming a fighter for the cause ( Praise Fowowe) and the becoming a huge success by applying the wealth principle and knowing that it was in man hands what I became when I made the decision to leave the street.(Adeolu Akinyemi).
I simply started from a picture of my before and Now, the contrast was too glaring and then I went into the differences between my finance… when I was n the streets, I used to make like sometimes $6000 in 3 to 4 months and today without going into details, one of the expenses I incur monthly is the $1000 I send to the US to a woman who helped make me take this decision because it was when I swindled her to the tune of almost $20000 that’s my conscience pricked me, because she sold her house to get me to over to the US and meet her, we became so close that at a point I couldn’t live with it anymore, I had to tell her the truth and being the angel that she is, she forgave me and still kept in touch till date and I remember when I told her I was going to pay her back, she just laughed and felt it was never going to happen, because she knew I didn’t have the money too, but I thank God that for the past 7months I have been sending her $1000 at the beginning of every month and yesterday was her birthday I know she’ll be reading this post so I’ll use to opportunity to say Happy Birthday Debra, yes that’s her name and she comments on almost every post here.
Let’s get back to the potatoes of the day, not to worry, I’ll tell the story of how I was able to swindle her off that huge sum and how we became best of friends another day.
From My Finances, I then went into the sort of Relationships I have today and a perfect example was while on the streets whenever I see a police man, I fidgeted, because I was always feeling guilt and I looked for the next escape route, but today I have been able to establish a relationship through my involvement with the New Nigeria club with the likes of Public Relations Officer of Police I am opportune to speak with the Commissioner of Police on a one on one basis and I have also been to places like the headquarters of the EFCC to invite them for programs. In the area of Investments, the difference is also glaring and Events wise, on the streets, it used to be the clubs and parties only, but now I am sort after to speak to youths on financial empowerment and I have become a Positive role model.
I then went ahead to tell them how I was able to achieve all this in a period of one year! It was no fluke and it is possible for anyone to leave the streets and achieve the same feat if not more in the same time, what it takes is a conscious deliberate effort in applying the right principles and getting a mentor who would follow you through.
I told them how I started with what I had then as my advantage, ICT knowledge and my Street Skills. These were qualities all of us in that room possessed and all they needed to do was make the decision and then apply the principles. When I say streets skills, I am sure a lot of you out there will not understand, but in the streets is where you meet boys who have an unflinching determination to make it in life and with the drive they possess and the ability to fail with enthusiasm and still get up and go again and again, if the business men and entrepreneurs in Nigeria today had this, we’ll have more successful people everywhere. It only on the streets you’ll see a guy who has been hustling for 4years without making a dime, getting up every day and still going to the café to try again each day with more enthusiasm.
I ended my speech on this note… I AM STILL SAME PERSON, SAME SKILL WITH A DIFFERENT PERSPECTIVE. And that is the difference between me and the guys on the streets now. I also went ahead to let them know that; You don’t have to wait for perfect circumstances, what you needed was to start now!
When I was done, we then went into a 3hrs no holds barred questions and answers session, where we rubbed minds more and then ended the day with getting them to register to the network which will be started up this week. The network will be actively involved in mentorship, providing information, organizing seminars and taking them through the next steps.
Topics: Streets Skills, my story |
March 10th, 2008 at 11:08 am
Felix, kudos to you on the first step of your networking initiative. It’s a good and noble cause. As it is with every endeavour, there will come times when u don’t think you have strength to continue. I pray now and always will that God will be there for you every step of the way because the end results can only glorify him.
p.s. Happy birthday Debra
March 10th, 2008 at 12:39 pm
LOL u are the best u know that Felix n i love u dearly.. ty sweetie xxx.. while reading this as u were talking about befriending the police now days.. i had a vision of a ummmm reformitory for street boys that were pick up by the police and jailed.. instead of throwing them in jail .. just a thought here .. think about maybe opening up a home for these boys keeping them in this home instead of jail and teaching them day in and out a better way of life, set something up with the police that instead of transfering them to jail bring them to this home to help them, instead of locking them up only to rebel.. just a thought.. but oh if anyone could make that come true i know it would be u Felix.. just seems a waste to me to lock up boys that are misguided and using their intelligence in a criminal way instead of a healthy way of life. what a better way to reach those that need guidance.. just a thought here…
@ shola ty very much..at this age kinda wishing these birthdays would stop..lol..wink
have a wonderful day all.. felix love u dearly.. and am very proud of you.. keep up the wonderful work.. latta xxxx
March 10th, 2008 at 2:54 pm
keep d flag flying, God is ur strength.
March 10th, 2008 at 5:04 pm
SPEECHLESS!!!!!!
You are too much. This is just the start of a revolution. FELIX God would keep being by your side and i thank him so much for letting someone like Deolu in your life. Right now you have people who look up to you,its amazing cos its only by his power (God) I give you all the thanks.
March 10th, 2008 at 9:00 pm
Now my friend wat more can i say,uve said it all…hence uve rendered me spechless but have given mi a course 2smile as i read thru dis article..1 SILENT WHISPER 2U DEAR1..KIP DA CAMP FIRE BURNING…
P.N.F
March 11th, 2008 at 1:17 am
Bro,you are the bomb and i pray to God for your life.Kip it up bro.Kudos 4eva.
March 12th, 2008 at 12:06 am
You got a good thing going keep it up would be the best advice anyone could ever give to you,intresting stories a little at a time would do more good,to insure WE log in for the right reasons.u know jesus thaught by stories.
March 12th, 2008 at 1:08 pm
Several minutes after reading this and am still very much speechless. Felix I had no idea what you were before now. But I must tell you that since you called me last year and we started doing business, I have had no cause whatsoever to suspect you might have lived that kind of life sometime before.
You are a miracle and I know we can still have a lot more of those miracles. I quite appreciate your new crusade and I want to say that you can count on me to support you on this.
March 12th, 2008 at 1:43 pm
@ all … thanks for your comments, i appreciate it… will be needing your support along the way, cos i know it not going to be as easy as it looks at the beginning.
Peace n a fist!
March 12th, 2008 at 2:22 pm
I go thru quite a few blogs but I never tarry I just flip thru the webpages. Something about your blog hooked me and I couldn’t help staying and reading your articles ( I hardly read a lot of blogs)….I do have a feeling that God is taking you to where you have not even imagined..if you stay on course…God bless you
March 13th, 2008 at 3:00 am
Felix,
This is SPLENDID! Believe Me!
Please enlist me in this cause of yours, will be glad to work with you on this.
Leave your contact details on my blog and I will definitely get in touch with you.
God bless your soul real good man and keep the fire BURNING!
March 13th, 2008 at 8:11 pm
Felix,
Okay we chatted tonite, please lets work on this street wise project, it may well be the beginning of a new revolution for the boys in the streets. if they hear your story, I’m sure a lot of them will leave their shady ways. A lot of these boys just need someone to look up to and i believe if you play your cards right, you will not only go places, but you’ll be amazed at the places you will land in.
Keep it up and give people hope. Hey…don’t let temptation of those things pull you back… he he
March 28th, 2008 at 12:18 pm
I was there from the begining of the programme and was really moved till the end. Felix you are my broda and so glad to have been your partner in this worthy course.
Our country will definetly change in our time only if each one is willing to reach one; only if each one is willing to teach one.
love you bro.
April 9th, 2008 at 11:45 pm
for this cause came you forth…the broken are masters at mending, keep it up man.
May 21st, 2008 at 5:35 pm
Hi Felix,
Utterly amazed ,inspired and moved is the only way i can describe the feelings i felt when iread this article.
For sure your past experience was not an accident but a design by God.
It reflects on the whole concept and principle of salvation, i am sure u understand what i mean by this.
By Gods’ Infinite GRACE, this project will illuminate and resuscitate many young bright minds that are still on these part of plain IGNORANCE.
You just keep on keeping on, u have support!
ciao!
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