By Bilyamin Abdulmumin
Our careers are a good example of the law of diminishing returns. Without any deliberate effort to influence it, most of the time, a successful career follows the curve given by Figure 1.
At line A-B from the curve, one would battle it out from the grass (A) up a point of a social ladder (B). While at the top, one fortune would keep burning for some time depending on the peculiarities. Then the fortune would begin to decline, where he or she may step down all the way from the summit back to the rag (D) again. In other words, laws of diminishing return would take its toll.
However, if one didn’t allow the allure of success to overtake, for instance, if he or she heed to the advice of those who spoke from experience, the law of diminishing returns can be controlled, that is, Figure 1 may be made to look like the one given by Figure 2.
In the second curve, an ideal situation is depicted, where one fortune (BC) would keep burning indefinitely (note this is an ideal situation).
Examples:
We, now and then, would wake up to pitiful stories of heroes whose careers were once booming but only at the end to become caricatures of themselves. They would become desperate, languishing with one problem or the other ranging from poor health conditions where the individual involved become unable to foot medication bills, to living conditions where he or she eke out a meager existence.
One such predicament that has made the news around the country couple of weeks ago is the story of Kingsley Obiekwu a former super eagle, a member of the Atlanta ’96 Olympics Gold medal-winning Dream Team
According to a report, after Obiekwu dropped down to the lowest bearable point, he broke it out, he made his situation known to the public. Luckily, his predicament would be shown an exit door, as the Nigerian super eagle player and its current captain blessed his account with a 2 million naira. Ahmad Musa was widely appreciated for showing the kind gesture to his fellow Nigerian super eagle
There are several kinds of rag-to-rich-to-rag stories like Kingsley’s above. Christian Chukwu’s story is just one of them.
Chukwu was a Nigerian football player, who even became the head coach between 2002 to 2005. But in 2019 Chukwu found himself battling with his life. On his watch, his health deteriorated without the financial ability to change the situation. Fortunately, like Kingsley, Ochukwu would enjoy a windfall from a fellow countryman, as Femi Otedola, a Nigerian multi-billionaire businessman, made a donation of fifty thousand dollars to him. Similar to Ahmed Musa, Femi Otedola was also celebrated for the generosity he has shown to a fellow man
Magajiya Danbatta was another rag-to-rich-to-rag figure whose heroics came from Hausa music during the 1970s. God milked her garri to reach a point of the fortune curve, where her songs became household names, as the result, her sensitization songs, at the time, helped promote children’s enrollment in primary and secondary schools in the North. Reports had it that many academicians parade themselves now as professors and doctors are direct results of her breakthrough songs.
Magajiya’s situation trumped all that of Kingsley and Chukwu, as she was reduced to begging for alms to survive; this is the worst dropping down from stardom status. When the news of her predicament was broken, it immediately reverberated across the country. Within a short time, the idea of fundraising became reality. With a twinkle of eyes, donations start coming from thousands to hundreds of thousands of naira until the fundraisers declared it closed
Magajiya would be building a brand new home, a business shop for daily income, food, cloth, among other things.
What lessons can we learn from these lamentable stories?
Kinsley’s advice:
“active sportsmen and women should save and invest their earnings to avoid running into hitches when they retire.”
A reason why we should take the Kinsley advice to the bank is because no advice ring bell better than the one that has spoken out of the experience
Christian Chukwu advice:
The guardian newspaper observed that the former Nigeria players and it once head coach didn’t develop himself with other skills, unlike his colleagues such as Segun Odegbamis, Adokiye Amesiemekas, Patrick Ekejis, and Felix Owolabis who did not make a similar mistake: they went on to get an education, veer into other professions and take other (extra-curricular) jobs that today stand them in good stead
Other worthy of mentioning advice given is insatiable fancy for social status (resisting temptation) and saying no to even family and friends members
To protect one’s fortune from flowing rag-to-rich-to-rag curve, prematurely, one has to not only lament but a chance to find out and learn from the root cause of the victims’ predicaments, hence taking their advice seriously.
