Whenever I meet influential people, I ask them to sign my books. This was by Cosmas Maduka of Coscharis. Before you go, you’ll also sign my book. This is Chris Delvan; I don’t know if you know him. He sings. This is Femi Adebayo, the actor. And this is VDM here. He signed and wrote the date. It was two weeks ago when he had this issue with Dangote. I think he was rushing to Benin to go and make some videos. He went early that morning with the first Green Africa flight.
Prior to my university, I had this low self-esteem. I thought I wasn’t good enough. I thought I was an olodo. Throughout secondary school, I would always seek help and copy in the exam hall. So I never knew I had potential in me. I’ve always had books, but I never read them. I hated reading. I ran away from anything that looked serious. In my 200 level, first semester, I saw my result and I was shocked. I was scared for my life because I saw lots of bad results. And my roommate, Joseph, had first class from year one, first semester. His father was a lecturer. One thing I knew about him was that he was always going to the class to read while I was sleeping. Joseph’s dad threatened him right from year one. No one threatened me. I thought school was just like: come and play around, find a way, pass exam. It didn’t make sense to me seeing Joseph study so hard. Secondary school was like you could always find your way around everything. They carry everybody along; everybody will move. They won’t want students to repeat classes.
I didn’t know there was something called carry-over. Carry-over really shocked me. Sitting down with my junior colleagues was what gave me sense. I saw that Joseph’s result was standing out. A young guy. He’s currently in Germany. He came out with a clean first class. Same department. Same everything. Same level. But the difference was that he was reading. I found out that after God, reading is the second thing you have to do to be successful in life, and it has been my drive till now. I tell my colleagues. I go around with books. I move with books. I’m crazy about books. I’ve spent close to ₦200,000 at that man, Sunday’s bookstore. You can ask him. He buys for me at wholesale price. I save 10 to 20 per cent of my salary, or at least 5 per cent. And I buy every few months. If I have enough, I stop so I don’t overwhelm myself. If I’m not exaggerating, I have more than a hundred books. I can’t even give a number.
When I started reading, I became more confident in the exam hall. I literally started to cross my legs while writing exams. I never saw that coming. I now started reading back to back. My head became hot because I’d never read for that long in my life. I started reading from the beginning of the semester. My course adviser is one of the instruments God used for me. She gave me a plan, and it changed my life forever. After lectures, I bathe, I cook, I eat, I sleep, I don’t eat after waking up, I read, and do my assignment. My result changed. I began having As and Bs.
This is my second time reading this book (Brian Tracy’s The Psychology of Selling). Before, I used to rush my reading, but I felt I didn’t get the gist of it. So I learnt the habit of taking my time. It’s not about the number of pages, but what you are getting. Now, I can remember almost everything I’ve read here.
I told my fiancée we’re going to build physical libraries all over the world. Money gives you an advantage. It’s really powerful.
As narrated by: CHUKWUEMEKA GODWIN (LAGOS, NIGERIA).
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