A Changing Man to Change
To those who roll like a stone I tell in a preacher’s voice that nothing good comes from changing ones prospects at short notice. It is like a traveler’s checkered life of constant movements from one location to another and in short, The Disoriented. Come reckoning time, it would be seen that the fellow had let Lack of Purpose characterize his thoughts and actions as well as made insignificant progress. He is The Rolling Stone, whose reward is zero success, except where he was lucky, A Patched-Up Elevation.
Quite likely, Lawrence is still wallowing in the disgrace he brought himself by being oddly unfocussed on career matters. Lawrence had with the radiant eyes of The Midday Sun and overflowing expectations knocked at his father’s door and violated his siesta, because he wanted to break him the excellent news of having finally chosen a trade for himself.
“Oh! What I’d been waiting to hear from you,” rejoiced his father, poorly managing to keep up with the high spirits that went with such a remark and twice rubbing off from his eyes the tell-tale signs of his interrupted sleep.
“So, what’s the name of your chosen trade father” Sylvester went ahead in a tone loaded with curiosity.
“Handset Dealership, Dad” came Lawrence’s reply. “The sale of handsets, their spare parts and recharge cards”
Excitedly, Lawrence disclosed that he had enrolled as a trainee for repairs of faulty handsets, so that he might occasionally offer such service to people who could not afford new ones in the immediate. Father Sylvester was particularly pleased with the last information. It was not often that one discarded one’s current handset for a new one, because the former had spotted an irritating fault. Many would for reasons of ‘Handicapped Finance’ repair their old phones for their reacquisition.
Now, Lawrence Sylvester Jnr., Twenty-Seven, had delved into handset dealership. From Lagos he picked a bagful of them between Nokia and Motorola with their chargers, batteries, earphones, multiple chargers, power banks and a handful of other accessories. Thanks to Lawrence’s father’s supportive N300.000.00, he also paid for a store for the display and sale of the gadgets choosing a good site. Lawrence did not forget to celebrate in a grand style his opening of the stuff as part of effort to magnet a surging crowd of customers in the future.
And soon customers started trooping to the venue, Lawrence attending to them, exchanging his products for money and repair services for same…
For eight months, this remained the status quo with Lawrence having nothing to worry about apart from how to expand his business through settling up branches of it in the same town.
Sadly, on the ninth month, a gradual twilight began to set over the business owing to spreading stories that Lawrence often completely spoilt faulty handsets or replaced a device in a handset left with him for repairs!
A growing vengeful population of customers! Became the case. The customers not only decided to stop sending their handsets to him for servicing but ceased purchasing the new ones with genuine warranty in his stall. Inexorably, the business began to flounder like a vessel in tempestuous waters and Lawrence Sylvester Jnr. said to flee from it… Then fled!
Just like that! Eyes unblinking. his nostrils not twitching.
“But, I thought you had rolled up your sleeves solely and finally for Handset Dealership, “Lawrence father whined, when he once again walked into his presence to announce that he had switched business, this time to Educational Services. By this, Lawrence meant a store with a set of computers and photocopiers that would be handling the typing and duplication of written assignments and projects by students.
Lawrence eventually admitted that his exit from the Handset Stuff was all too sudden - rather hasty - but tried to make out a case of one whose Path to Success and Glory was being unfortunately dogged by Unfriendly Mysterious Forces. His father, calming down, expressed optimism that his new trade prospect would turn out to be the business he should have considered all along. This opinion he reinforced with another supportive sum to Lawrence, although it was only nearly half the amount he had given him earlier.
Thankful Lawrence waded fast into his Educational Enterprise but couldn’t brave it beyond six months, in effect, making his previous handset dealership comparatively luckier in terms of duration. Either he did not want to or could not afford to keep paying the three workers he had engaged in the business: the two who were taking care of Computer Services and the one who faced The Photocopier. This time, Lawrence dared not disclose to his father why or how he had grounded yet another enterprise he had been doting upon.
Next, was the showing of Live Football Matches on Cable to Enthusiastic Soccer Lovers and collecting money from them. The World Cup, the Nations Cup, English Premier, Italian League, French and German. But somehow he could not last long either in this brisk business, although he had succeeded in sustaining it for nearly one year. Envious friends, it appeared, had gone ahead to set up two or three similar, but more well equipped T. V houses in the same neighborhood. This led to a shocking depreciation in number of soccer lovers, who came to his theatre to watch the leagues and tournaments. And Lawrence was dead certain that it was time to bid definite farewell to the business. Then bade farewell!
Not quite two months later it was time to give yet one more business a chance. This Lawrence muttered to himself but with a confidence almost in ruins. The confidence still did not show brighter colours in either his eyes or cheeks, when his lips vocally forced out that “One should be stupid to stop making a fresh try.”
The Lucky Business Lawrence had in mind was the Kiosk-Centered Point of Sale, ‘POS’ as acronym.
Mr. Lawrence Sylvester had forgotten that his igneous rock reason for quitting his Viewing Business Center for Live Football Matches International
and Local was its eventual invasion to the point of provocation by many other profit-eyeing football lovers…
Angering fellow Nigerians who would neither stand by nor sit down and watch while another guy and age-mate kept coasting home with all the windfalls of a trade which they themselves could comfortably float for not being recently deformed nor all along malformed on Laboring Bones.
That’s right! Into the POS Poodle Lawrence dived spiritually prepared to close his eyes to the fact that the business had long festooned all the nook and cranny of their Rail City, with The Competition really a cut-throat one. Beautifully, he was the armed with the wonder-working notion that “One’s customers shall continue to be one’s customers and nobody else’s, competition or none.”
But unfortunately, the thieves in Rail City competing to raid this micro- banking outfits evilly chose to hit his first, after he had received from a depositor the whopping sum of N350000:00 and it was a successful transaction
Since then, Lawrence has tried four more enterprises and killed them with nothing but a weightless bank account to show for his pains.
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