TMCnet News
Lessons from my father shaped my life, grew my business [Sun, The (Nigeria)](Sun, The (Nigeria) Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) -Myke Ikoku,Chairman / CEO Obiron Group Those whose kernels were cracked for them by a benevolent spirit should never forget to be humble, according to an Igbo proverb. Myke Ikoku could afford to be proud , because his kernel was not cracked by any spirit- benevolent or malevolent. If anything, he cracked it all by himself, through the grace of God, hard work, diligence and focus. But in spite of that, he has maintained a level of humility that is at once disarming and infectious. Meeting him for the first time in his office at the highbrow Allen Avenue, Lagos recently, he was without any airs. Donning a patterned long sleeves shirt over a pair of chinos trousers, he was humility personified. During the encounter, which lasted for over an hour, the son of a former headmaster left an indelible impression on the reporter. His story is a classical case of grass to grace. After his apprenticeship , he began trading with the N1, 500 settlement package at the famous Ariaria Market, Aba, Abia State as one of the ubiquitous appricos hustling for customers for a commission. Today, he sits atop the Obiron Group, an impressive business empire with tentacles in manufacturing, real estate, hospitality, entertainment and publishing as Chairman/CEO. He is perhaps the single largest investor and employer of labour in Imo State. His entertainment and tourism outfits include the All Seasons Hotel, Nv Nite Club, Nv Lounge, Mimi's Place, Myke Records and Nv Magazine. He has no fewer than 1,000 people on his pay roll. In this interview, the foundation member of the popular Obigbo Forum talks about his lifestyle, business, decision not to accept any chieftaincy title, electing to be addressed simply as 'Evangelist" as well as his latest move to represent his people- Nwangele Federal Constituency (Imo State)- in the House of Representatives on the ticket of the All Progressives Grand Alliance, APGA. At the beginning… _ I was born in Port Harcourt in the South-South region, but I grew up in the South-East. I attended six primary schools because my father was a teacher; a headmaster to be precise. He kept taking me from one school to the other whenever he was transferred. I had my primary education in the South-East but in different schools in the old Imo State. I started my secondary education at Holy Ghost College, Owerri, but completed it at Boys High School, Nkwerre, my own village. Foray into business My take off capital? To be honest, I cannot tell you how much I started with because in those days we were not keeping accounts. The practice was 'you sell, you plough back'. But my major seed capital came from doing business because I started as a trader in the sense that I learnt how to trade. After completing my apprenticeship, my master settled me with N1, 500. That was between 1984 and 1985. How we did business then was that we didn't rely only on our own money. People who didn't have shops brought their goods to your shop to display and tell you to help sell them. If they tell you to sell item 'A' for N10, you sell it for N15 and the extra is your own. That is aprico. I was a king of aprico in Ariaria Market, Aba. I did it very, very well and it paid off for me. It was when I started divesting into more corporate businesses that I started keeping formal accounts. It was when I started importing goods that I was told I must have an auditor/ accounts person to keep the books. The Obiron brand _ After my secondary education, my father couldn't send me to the university because there was no money. We are five in my family and my elder sisters were the ones that were already being taken care of before I completed my secondary education. When I finished, my father was not financially buoyant. Because I didn't want to put him under too much pressure, I decided go and learn trading. I went to Aba to acquire knowledge in buying and selling. I was into pharmaceuticals because people from the side of Imo State where I come from are known for that. Then I came to Lagos, Ajegunle, to be precise. Because God knew there will be problem in pharmaceutical business, he gradually steered me away from it. On one of my business trips to Hong Kong, somehow, I got into OEC (people that brand electronic products). That was how I ventured into electronic business. I now divested from pharmaceutical business into electronics because I found out that I was going to make more money, more profit. I then created my own brand. That was the attraction and it became a success. That was how I started selling electronics like stabilizers, electric irons and ceiling fans. I was one of the first people that discovered China when China was manufacturing quality products; not now that they manufacture 'Nigerian standard'. When I discovered that a lot of people had taken after me, and the Chinese had started reducing the quality of what they do, I said, 'It's time to move again' because it's my brand (Obiron) and I didn't want to spoil my name by selling sub-standard products. So, I divested again and by divine guidance, I went into confectionaries. In 1991, I built Obinocha Industries, the biggest confectionary in the South East. It is sited in Ogi, Imo State. It's still there. We are into bread, biscuits and sweets. I have left the business for my younger brother to run. The scope of my business now… _ I thank God, we are into real estate, we are still into our electronics business and into hospitality and tourism. We are into entertainment too. Our fingers are in so many pies. Further education and what mo-tivated me I studied sociology at the University of Lagos. I am also a fellow of the National Institute of Local Government and Public Administration. I needed more knowledge so that I can be more successful; that was the main reason I decided to go to the university. I am still a learner; as I am talking to you, I am learning. By the time we finish this interview, I would have learnt one or two things from you. I am open to education, I am open to learning. I am not an introvert and I don't take decisions all alone. That is why I always work with professionals. What I don't know, I look for a professional that knows. It will only cost me money to hire the professional but at the end, I make more money than I spend on the professional. This is what prompted me to go to the university because I do not want to be the regular Igbo trader. I am happy I took that decision. To be honest, it was not a part-time programme. I did a full-time programme. For three years, I left my business in the hands of professionals to manage. I attended school everyday. I didn't study like a big man. I passed through the school and the school passed through me. After that, I went to do a course at the National Institute of Local Government and Public Administration. It was God that pushed me to do it not knowing that He was preparing me for politics. Lessons from my father What I am today is the result of my background, because my father taught me how to identify seasons –there is a planting and harvest season. As a teacher, he carried me along and made sure I was deep-rooted in everything that they do at school. Because I am a teacher's son , I had no option but to be educated. I had to pass my exams and if I failed, my father did not spare the rod. Alongside my father, my mother, a petty trader, also played a major role in shaping my life. Further education and what mo-tivated me I married quite early. At a time my mates were busy going to clubs, I was busy raising children. I am 45 but I married at 24. I had myfirst son at 25 and two of my sons are in the university. One will finish this year, and the other next year. My daughters, three of them, are in high school (what we call A-level here). As a young man, I told myself that if I wanted to be successful in life, I needed a woman who can control what I do, who can check some of my excesses. A girlfriend cannot do it, but a wife can stop me from being at the wrong places. When I tell people that I was married at 24, they think I was forced into marriage. Never. It was a decision I made by myself. It was not forced on me by anybody. Maybe that was how God wanted it. These are what shaped my life. My family background combined with my decision to marry early greatly shaped my life. When my friends were busy chasing shadows, I was committed to a family and that programmed my life. No chieftaincy titles please You may be wondering about the appellation evangelist when I don't own a church, but I know that the Bible told us to go to the world and evangelize. So, if you can do that, you are an evangelist. My father had advised me never to take any chieftaincy title. He told me that if I wanted a title, I should go to the church. And since everybody wants worldly title which in my case I don't like, I chose to be an evangelist because it is a title I know its source and I can defend it. My business nuggets What I have learnt about business is that you should always be the originator not the imitator. If you are the creator of an idea, it gives you room to expand. But when you borrow or steal ideas from people, you won't drive them far. Again, I also learnt to be dynamic; I don't stay in a line of business for too long because the law of gravity must set in if you do not constantly reinvent your business idea. You must keep your eyes on the ball so that before others catch up with you, you would have re-branded and repositioned. It's difficult, but it takes the grace of God to do all of these. Eyes on House of Reps I have followed the trends of events in my state; I am a stakeholder in Imo State, I know what we are suffering. Businesses are going down because people are not coming for fear of kidnappers. They call our place Sodom and Gomorrah. They say if you want good time, go to the South-East. Why? It's because there are no jobs for our people. Now, if you are in the position of these young people, you complete secondary or university education and there is no job for you, your parents die out of sickness and hunger, if you see where somebody planted yam won't you go and take the yam to eat so as not to die? That is the major reason our people have embraced crime . I am lucky that I can train my children well but if they finish from the university, are they going to live in the sky? Their next door neighbours are those uneducated, hungry and jobless guys. How comfortable will they be in the midst of angry and hungry people? My children will be at risk and all the investment I made in them in terms of education and proper training will be under threat because their neighbours are angry. I considered this and decided to throw my hat in the ring. All the people that have been going into the executive and legislative arms of government are only interested in what they are able to get for themselves and their families. So, I asked myself Why can't some of us that have played our roles in the private sector come in and transform the public sector to the level of the private sector where we have recorded marginal successes? That's my major motivation. That is the reason I have decided to go into politics. Why House of Representatives? At 45, I think age is still on my side; I want to have a good foundation first. I have an idea of what I want to do if I get there. Though, I know it is going to be difficult, if I have one, two or three people who share my philosophy, that politics is service, not business, then I will not have problems. I am not going into politics to look for houses to buy. I built my house in the village as early as 1992. I have houses in Lagos and Owerri. I built my first house in 1989 in Akute (Ogun State). I bought the land for N30,000 way back then. Akute is now where people are rushing to. I was successful because my father left no money for me; if he had, maybe I would have been busy squandering the money. All I think my children deserve from me is good education. Don't keep property for them because if you do, before you are even buried, they might start fighting over the property. I only want to leave a mark by enriching the people. How do I do that? By using their money to meet their needs because there is a limit to which my money can do that. And where I feel I can contribute now based on my age, is the House of Representatives. I want to go and make laws. I want us to make politics service-oriented, a part-time thing. I am not desperate because if I lose, I have a home, I have what I am doing. So, for me, it is not a 'do or die thing'. If it works out, fine. If it doesn't, there is still more time for me. Igbo to the core I am an Igbo man and will continue to be an Igbo man. I have no choice because I didn't tell God where I should come from. I decided to relocate parts of my business to Igboland because my father lost his printing press in Port Harcourt after the war. That experience made me think home anytime I want to invest. That was why and how I took my business back home. Then in 1992, I employed 92 people. Two of them were from Calabar while 90 were from Imo State. It was the success of the business that led me into hospitality business. I recall that in 2002, during the administration of Governor Achike Udenwa, there was a conference in Imo State where he told sons and daughters of South East to come home and invest. Of all of us that were invited to the conference, I was the only person that heeded his 'come home and invest call.' It was immediately after the Otokoto saga, which drove many people away from Owerri. I thought about the call and I said to myself, 'If I'm not a member of Otokoto, why should I be afraid of Otokoto?' That was how I ventured into hospitality business. When I built All Seasons Hotel, I employed 121 people. As a young man, I was creating jobs for my people. At the age of 30, I had over 200 people working in my organisations. My aim is to eradicate poverty, stop our girls from going into prostitution, remove crime from our streets by create jobs. This is what I expect politicians to do but they don't. And that is why I hate them. I hate politicians. I see them as a bunch of wicked, ungrateful and demonic people who only believe in what they can grab. If somebody had told me that I will be in politics, I would have told the fellow, 'You're joking.' But again, if all the good men shy away from politics, who will save us? God can never come down from heaven to do for us what we can do for ourselves. Everyday, they say we need prayers. We have prayed enough. What we need now is action. God has already answered our prayers but we just refused to act in accordance with God's injunction. first son at 25 and two of my sons are in the university. One will finish this year, and the other next year. My daughters, three of them, are in high school (what we call A-level here). As a young man, I told myself that if I wanted to be successful in life, I needed a woman who can control what I do, who can check some of my excesses. A girlfriend cannot do it, but a wife can stop me from being at the wrong places. When I tell people that I was married at 24, they think I was forced into marriage. Never. It was a decision I made by myself. It was not forced on me by anybody. Maybe that was how God wanted it. These are what shaped my life. My family background combined with my decision to marry early greatly shaped my life. When my friends were busy chasing shadows, I was committed to a family and that programmed my life. No chieftaincy titles please You may be wondering about the appellation evangelist when I don't own a church, but I know that the Bible told us to go to the world and evangelize. So, if you can do that, you are an evangelist. My father had advised me never to take any chieftaincy title. He told me that if I wanted a title, I should go to the church. And since everybody wants worldly title which in my case I don't like, I chose to be an evangelist because it is a title I know its source and I can defend it. My business nuggets What I have learnt about business is that you should always be the originator not the imitator. If you are the creator of an idea, it gives you room to expand. But when you borrow or steal ideas from people, you won't drive them far. Again, I also learnt to be dynamic; I don't stay in a line of business for too long because the law of gravity must set in if you do not constantly reinvent your business idea. You must keep your eyes on the ball so that before others catch up with you, you would have re-branded and repositioned. It's difficult, but it takes the grace of God to do all of these. Eyes on House of Reps I have followed the trends of events in my state; I am a stakeholder in Imo State, I know what we are suffering. Businesses are going down because people are not coming for fear of kidnappers. They call our place Sodom and Gomorrah. They say if you want good time, go to the South-East. Why? It's because there are no jobs for our people. Now, if you are in the position of these young people, you complete secondary or university education and there is no job for you, your parents die out of sickness and hunger, if you see where somebody planted yam won't you go and take the yam to eat so as not to die? That is the major reason our people have embraced crime . I am lucky that I can train my children well but if they finish from the university, are they going to live in the sky? Their next door neighbours are those uneducated, hungry and jobless guys. How comfortable will they be in the midst of angry and hungry people? My children will be at risk and all the investment I made in them in terms of education and proper training will be under threat because their neighbours are angry. I considered this and decided to throw my hat in the ring. All the people that have been going into the executive and legislative arms of government are only interested in what they are able to get for themselves and their families. So, I asked myself Why can't some of us that have played our roles in the private sector come in and transform the public sector to the level of the private sector where we have recorded marginal successes? That's my major motivation. That is the reason I have decided to go into politics. Why House of Representatives? At 45, I think age is still on my side; I want to have a good foundation first. I have an idea of what I want to do if I get there. Though, I know it is going to be difficult, if I have one, two or three people who share my philosophy, that politics is service, not business, then I will not have problems. I am not going into politics to look for houses to buy. I built my house in the village as early as 1992. I have houses in Lagos and Owerri. I built my first house in 1989 in Akute (Ogun State). I bought the land for N30,000 way back then. Akute is now where people are rushing to. I was successful because my father left no money for me; if he had, maybe I would have been busy squandering the money. All I think my children deserve from me is good education. Don't keep property for them because if you do, before you are even buried, they might start fighting over the property. I only want to leave a mark by enriching the people. How do I do that? By using their money to meet their needs because there is a limit to which my money can do that. And where I feel I can contribute now based on my age, is the House of Representatives. I want to go and make laws. I want us to make politics service-oriented, a part-time thing. I am not desperate because if I lose, I have a home, I have what I am doing. So, for me, it is not a 'do or die thing'. If it works out, fine. If it doesn't, there is still more time for me. Igbo to the core I am an Igbo man and will continue to be an Igbo man. I have no choice because I didn't tell God where I should come from. I decided to relocate parts of my business to Igboland because my father lost his printing press in Port Harcourt after the war. That experience made me think home anytime I want to invest. That was why and how I took my business back home. Then in 1992, I employed 92 people. Two of them were from Calabar while 90 were from Imo State. It was the success of the business that led me into hospitality business. I recall that in 2002, during the administration of Governor Achike Udenwa, there was a conference in Imo State where he told sons and daughters of South East to come home and invest. Of all of us that were invited to the conference, I was the only person that heeded his 'come home and invest call.' It was immediately after the Otokoto saga, which drove many people away from Owerri. I thought about the call and I said to myself, 'If I'm not a member of Otokoto, why should I be afraid of Otokoto?' That was how I ventured into hospitality business. When I built All Seasons Hotel, I employed 121 people. As a young man, I was creating jobs for my people. At the age of 30, I had over 200 people working in my organisations. My aim is to eradicate poverty, stop our girls from going into prostitution, remove crime from our streets by create jobs. This is what I expect politicians to do but they don't. And that is why I hate them. I hate politicians. I see them as a bunch of wicked, ungrateful and demonic people who only believe in what they can grab. If somebody had told me that I will be in politics, I would have told the fellow, 'You're joking.' But again, if all the good men shy away from politics, who will save us? God can never come down from heaven to do for us what we can do for ourselves. Everyday, they say we need prayers. We have prayed enough. What we need now is action. God has already answered our prayers but we just refused to act in accordance with God's injunction. The post Lessons from my father shaped my life, grew my business appeared first on The Sun News. (c) 2014 The Sun Publishing Limited. All Rights Reserved. Provided by SyndiGate Media Inc. (Syndigate.info). |