It was a mixed boarding school
Not the kind of boarding school you'd be excited to attend though
It was a strict military-style missionary boarding school where :
99.9% of the teachers and hostel masters were self-righteous and always felt like:
They were God's personal hitmen on earth (sent to cast away demons and kill witches and wizards... while warning everyone about the second coming of christ)
And that they had the power to decide who made heaven or hell!
Boys had their hostels, dinner hall and classrooms.
Same for the girls too.
Boys weren't allowed to talk to girls
And we weren't allowed to even worship together (Like sit near each other during fellowships)
And you could be expelled for anything
But there was this boy...
We stayed in the same hostel cubicle (A1)
And shared the same bonk...
Mostly... the same bed..
Lying side by side
- Sharing stories,
- Talking about women... life.. fantasies...
- And plotting new ways to sneak in Contraband
Either through the Tuckshop,
Security at the main gate...
Or through the farms behind the school...
Farms with dozens of untraceable routes that led to the surrounding remote towns where you could buy stuff... and smuggle it back without getting caught.
He liked me a lot...
And I liked him too
I was 13 at the time... in SS2
And by just being too close for comfort...
We were risking getting expelled
We started out as friends in SS1...And got really close
One thing led to another...
Emotions kicked in
One night... we kissed
It felt good.
We did it again... twice.. and a third time
After a while... it got boring and disgusting.
We stayed friends until we passed out,
But we never made out again
I think we just knew deep down we weren't cut out for that same sex thingy
That was over 14 years ago.
So what's the lesson here?
Well... the way I see it
We developed feelings, we explored and we never thought
"What's the worst that could happen?"
We never asked ourselves...
"What if you get caught kissing? That could mean instant expulsion from School, What will you tell your parents? The shame... the stigma... etc"
We never feared what would happen if things went wrong
All we were focused on was..
"Let's explore and see"
And when it turned out it wasn't as exciting an adventure as we thought
We promptly pressed the STOP button
And continued as very good friends
Who looked out for each other in a crazed military-style boarding school system designed to break your spirit.
Which brings me to a point I'd like to make:
I was talking with my friend Billion yesterday
He's running an ad campaign that's doing really well and he told me he's scaling his budget to N30,000 a day
And that even though he knows it's a risk (like he could lose money)
He's not bothered one bit
Because instead of worrying about:
"What if I lose money on these ads?"
He's more focused on the all important key point:
"What if increasing my budget to N30,0000 a day blows this thing up and pulls in 10x sales that make me N50k-N100k a day?"
That's where his focus is
And the lesson is obvious right?
This thing of ours is almost as risky as kissing a boy in a missionary school
You could get expelled from Facebook...
Get banned by Google
Heck, you will.... at some point... lose money
Either on ads or cost of production or something in between
But then again....
If you're thinking like Elon Musk (who became the richest man in the world by simply taking risks most wouldn't dare think about)
You realize... very simply... that:
Life... business... relationships... and everything else is a Gamble
And rather than focus on the negatives:
Which will screw up your mind...
Cripple your imaginations
And hold you back from taking action or making progress
Why not just say fuck it and focus instead on...
"What if this works?"
"What if I lose money and learn something even more valuable that ends up bringing in extra millions in windfall for my biz?"
"What if I end up hitting.. even surpassing my income goal for this?"
"What if this leads to my sought-after breakthrough?"
"What if I don't fail?"
You get the point?
Joe Karbo said it best
"Eliminate the negative. Accentuate the positive."
And of course...
Risk takers always get a seat at the high table
Stay frosty
A.
P.S: One of the biggest risks I've taken in life wasn't even kissing a boy in boarding school, knowing I could have been expelled
It was turning down...
- An automatic Federal Government appointment in Abuja with armed robber's salary (and scholarship up to PhD level in any university in the world)
- A proposal to work with the Nigerian Navy
- A proposal to join Zenith Bank as a graduate Trainee with a N150k salary for starters
And for what?
Copywriting?
Did it pay off?
Saying it paid off would be an understatement
And I'm not saying take same risks as I did
All I'm saying is...
If one of your goals for 2021 includes:
Focusing on using Copywriting to make a lot of money for yourself
Understand..... you're taking a risk
And whether or not it pays off depends on...How obsessed and disciplined you are.
And very importantly...
The road map you're using.
Because no matter how obsessed and disciplined you are
You'll never make any progress if you're headed in the wrong direction.. Or doing things the wrong way...
And If you're not already signed up to the FCI Class of 2021
You can still join here
Bonjour.