Chukwuma Ogbekile, an entrepreneurial life coach and public speaker has stated that there is going to be an entrepreneurial revolution in Nigeria, and Africa in general if the people are willing to pay the price.
Ogbekile whose entrepreneurial adventure dates back to his secondary school days when he decided to practicalize what he was taught in Agricultural Science to ascertain its veracity said this during the occasion of his book launch, ‘Paying the Price for the Prize’ held on August 28, 2021.
Ogbekile took off with experiments from what he was taught by owning a small garden, a compost manure pit, and a partitioned animal house where he reared both goats and birds.
The result, it was observed, gave him the courage and confidence to leverage changes around him by intuitively shifting resources within his reach to high yield areas.
“My entrepreneurial courage derives from my past entrepreneurial success stories,” he said.
According to the author, many of the adolescents today believe getting to their expected destination is an un-surmountable mountain.
He pointed out that there is no mountain anywhere rather, everyman’s ignorance is his mountain.
Despite studying Economics & Statistics at the University of Benin, Ogbekile believes his adventures into Certifications in Marketing, Project Management, Cloud Computing, and Facility Management have helped in polishing and propelling him for the task before him.
As the Founder and CEO of Colorvine Facilities Limited, and Food Crux Agro Ventures Limited, he has garnered a handful of entrepreneurial experiences spanning over a decade.
This, no doubt lays credence to the fact that he is not a theoretical entrepreneurial life coach, but a practitioner of what he preaches.
Consequently, he affirmed that subduing ignorance in life, especially ignorance of one’s potentials and willpower, activates great light that miniaturizes the so-called mountains of the river in the book’s context.
Some youth, he said, who are not so guided take the wrong routes of life, hence the reason for many of the vices we see all around us.
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They are offshoots of actions of a class of people who know what they want; seen some other persons living it out, but do not know how to join these “fortunate few” who are being celebrated. Hence, they go on doing it the way they understand.
This according to the author gave rise to the burden for the book which he believes will help a great fraction of our population (the youth) found leverage in his understanding of the intellectual work of late Prof. Chinua Achebe: ‘Chike and The River.’
In this book, he opines that rallying on the understanding that as the river was before Chike, so are challenges before those who intend to advance in life.
The book then goes on; drawing strength from a great number of men and women who have surmounted life’s challenges to cross their own river life presents them.
While the “River” means so many things to so many people, Ogbekile’s focus here is that the intimidating unemployment reality facing us in Nigeria can be surmounted if only we can follow the steps outlined in the pages of the book.
Nigeria is about to experience it is own Entrepreneurial Revolution as the US and China have had theirs.
This is sure if we would pay The Price for The Prize.
The book was recently unveiled at the University of Lagos and has ten chapters in all. According to the author, for those who seek self-actualization, this book is out to demystify the presumed challenges that have kept them from a firm grip on that which they have desired to achieve.
While it is not intended to be prescriptive in general terms, Ogbekile says, however, entrepreneurial spirit shines bright in its margins and letter to give one the courage to dare the fears that have kept him in the same spot.
The youths in Nigeria clamour for the opportunity to grow and achieve but complain of environmental factors that prevent initiative and kill ambition.
However, we can, because we think we can, not minding the potholes and the bumps that are all over the place. What is required is a positive mental attitude for us to reach our altitude and this is the underlying theme in the book – Paying the Price for the Prize – Leveraging the Entrepreneurial Opportunities in Our Age and Environment to Stardom- is recommended as an inseparable companion.
It is a book for those who have achieved as well as those who are seeking an opportunity to start up. It is a book for every shelf, for every library, and every intellectual age.
The opinion was vividly expressed by Engr. Arthur Osaretin Ushiagwu who chaired the occasion at the unveiling of the book which had a copious endorsement by Pat Utomi, a renowned management economist, and Tunde Lemo, former deputy governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).
