A man of books and letters
am on the Board of Directors of a few companies. But the important thing is seeing the companies I back as a team.’’
If his aspiration comes to fruition and Mayokun became a governor today, for him, it would be team work. ‘‘I may be a technocrat and have experience in petroleum engineering, economics, journalism, business, administration and statistics. I don’t mean I know it all. My kind of leadership is to look for indigenes and best hands in the field for most of the positions.’’
Just as love is music to a woman’s heart, this excites him: ‘‘Start- up is like a new born baby with limitless potential. The fact that you can conceptualise is a God-given talent and not everybody can do it. Having an idea is like a dime for dozen. Anyone can have an idea, but taking it to the next level requires resources and faith. So I get excited when I see people who take risks. I give advice and when they take the advice, things become easier. Sometimes people do business and it fails, it doesn’t make you a failure.’’
As he evaluates potential investment, he looks forward to passion of the founder in a start-up: ‘‘I look forward to the passion, personality and ideas of the founder when you invest in a start –up. I invest in the person not necessarily the business. Once I find all of these, I don’t let him or her go.’’
Has any of his investment gone badly? oh yes. Adopting a saying from the petroleum institute that eight out nine wells dug for crude oil end up not being productive or economically viable. So, what he does is to invest in ten businesses. He’s sure one will and make up for the losses suffered.
Drawing inference from his recent opportunity to talk at a forum of highly influential people in Ogun State, one he’s passionate about and more crucially, looking into the future, he thinks high net worth entrepreneurs at the top have not done enough to encourage the younger ones. And so, adding his share of voice to the on-going conversation on mentorship, he’s writing a book on leadership within the Nigerian space. ‘‘Politicians and leaders of industries are too silent, and there’s no vacuum in nature. The coming generation will pick the wrong signals from their life style. We should speak out more and talk about all these things. At the forum of influential people in Ogun state few days ago, I told them mentorship is the key. You don’t fight evil with evil. We should serve as examples to people in the society.’’
Like the old adage says, opportunity meets preparation. This word aptly describes Mayokun. He has spent year’s reading books, attending several international business, start-up and investment conferences. He kept hunting relentlessly for his maiden opportunity and it came in the nick of time.
The man of letters and an ardent lover of books is inspired by words: “I have over 500 books in my physical and digital library. I’m a man of books and letters. You can call me a bookworm. When people take their time watching television programmes, I think in terms of how many chapters of a book I’ve consumed. It has shaped my life in course of doing that I’ve read about Nigeria, Africa, and development in other climes. I’ve travelled there and I’ve done all I could but I refuse to give up on Nigeria. I believe that with my leadership in Ogun state, there’ll be a paradigm shift in how things are done. I believe that the power to shape our lives presents us with our greatest opportunities to change the world around us. ‘‘I am an African, and I refuse to give up on Africa. The tides will turn, our ships will come in, and we will berth at the port of true development, and take our seats at the table of global relevance.’’