Starting From Scratch — My Lessons From Seyi Abolaji’s Masterclass
Where do I start from? How about from scratch?
Saturday 3rd of November 2018 and I could have been anywhere. From staying back with my friend/host in Remo (I was invited the previous day as guest speaker at Babcock University where he lectures), on my bed (introvert, anti-social, whatever!). I really could use ANY excuse of not having to leave the comfort of my home so early to attend a function by 9am! Haba! Don’t you people rest?
Ironically, my daily routine involves waking up really early (I suffer from something akin to Insomnia 😢) so I got up early as usual, did all whatnots and was ready by 8:30am. I had factored it’ll take roughly 30 mins to get to the venue (Victoria Island), being a Saturday. Even better, because I wasn’t driving and had to rely on Taxify (this is not an ad), which means more time to put a few thoughts together, scribble some notes on my phone and just generally relax. It’s been a hell of a week after all!
A little bit of backstory at this point to understand how I got here. Ever since my unsuccessful application for the SEED Programme in June, I’ve been fascinated by just about everything Stanford and so it was, that when I got the notification from Stanford Seed Transformation Network about the masterclass, I made a note to attend but as the day kept approaching and until the D-day, I was forced to confront obstacles of all sorts which included the lure of my comfy bed, the temptation of my friend’s wife’s delicious soup and orishirishi, and finally my car going for repairs presented me with the perfect excuse to cancel but it now feels like such an achievement to not have given in to any of those urges, the best decision I’ve made in recent times. Phew!
I was initially going to make this about how relatable most of the lessons were, citing certain examples of mine, to buttress the point and further emphasize the parallels that often exist with ENTREPRENEURSHIP but I’ve decided to dive right it in and make it simply about the lessons learned from the class itself.
So I arrived at the venue at 9:15 am (2nd person on the list). Sadly, we still have a horrible culture of time-keeping in Nigeria (Does any one have ideas on how to solve this problem? Thinking a ‘MINISTER OF TIME’ won’t be out of place since we now have ‘COMMISSIONERS OF HAPPINESS’). I joke! Anyway, the organizers decided to start by 9:30am, not minding the attendance. I usually don’t sit at the front during gatherings but I did this one time, so I had a clear view of all the proceedings, even if I wasn’t sure what to expect.
Turns out the facilitator, Seyi Abolaji (the other half of Nigeria’s home grown brand “Wilson’s Lemonade”) is a master presenter indeed. He was mesmerizing as he was lucid. Not that He did anything fancifully, actually He kept it simple by going to his prepared notes, which just made everything appear so easy — my first lesson of the day by the way: Keep it simple!
He started by sharing a brief story of how he and his older brother, Seun started the company with just Two Thousand Naira (N2,000) — you read that correctly! but that wasn’t the interesting part for me. He told us how they despite growing up in the U.S., identified the opportunities that the rest of us ‘locals’ usually let slip by. First, he narrated how his parents braced the odds to try to give them a decent life, interpreted as “relocating to the U.S. as immigrants”. Then cue all sorts of odd jobs to meet their target of raising their kids and giving them better choices in life. They obviously succeeded at this target — the kids turned out great and even managed to attend good schools — Seyi was on the football team at same Stanford University but that’s where the twist of fate occurred. They (the kids) DID NOT feel compelled to tow the same paths as their parents and other relatives abroad. If anything, they did the exact opposite by coming back to Nigeria. According to him, he abandoned his GOOD job with GOOD pay after University and instead, bought a one-way ticket to Nigeria after getting challenged by one of his lecturers to identify opportunity where others couldn’t. And so it was that Wilson’s Lemonade was started. Lesson: Confront your fears early and quickly.
He mentioned how they discovered that everyone (their cousins, friends etc) were always apologetic, saying “sorry” to them for the things that weren’t working — bad roads, no light, etc but as this continued, they only saw OPPORTUNITIES. Also, most of their peers at the time only had ambition to join the labour market to “wear a suit” and finally, one that stuck — the ambition of most young people at the time was to leave the country (I dare say this is even worse now). The latter two for them represented “Less(er) COMPETITION!” Lesson: Keep your eye on the competition (What are they not doing?).
It was never easy (probably still isn’t if you asked me), but in his words “It’s a lot better now than when we started”. He narrated how they used to crush the lemons, mix, taste the lemonade by themselves using water from a local restaurant to now CREATING THEIR OWN FORMULA, having their own staff and their factory based in Ota (Ogun State). Lesson: Be Intentional and realize that it will only get better if you do it the right way (with purpose).
Another piece of information that stuck (maybe the most vital), He and his brother (who by the way, he makes a mental note to always refer to as his partner) visited Coca-Cola several times. They made friends with everyone from the plant manager to the machine operator — each one of whom appeared to nurse the same burning desire to one day take all that knowledge of working at the biggest beverage company in the world to start their own companies but guess what? The barrier of entry would always be too high! Why? Because according to him, “They simply know too much!”. The machine guy believes he only needs to acquire that machine, which he’s also aware would cost a couple of millions, so he’s working so he can save up enough for the purchase. Lesson: You need LESS of capital and knowledge to start, JUST START!
He talked about managing failure by addressing that one time amongst many others, where they failed — changing the product pack from square bottle to ‘sexy’ round bottle in order to fit in just because everyone else was doing it. This was against the grain of their culture to BE DIFFERENT. They’ve since reverted to the original (which ostensibly was regarded as “Ugly” at inception but has grown on people so much that it has now become classic! Lesson: Stay true to your values, don’t change to please everyone. Focus and listen to the inner voice of your true consumer but be ready to fail anyway! You’ll keep learning on the way.
For all of two hours, Seyi Abolaji held everyone in the audience spell bound and helped strengthen my resolve but more importantly, he’s given me more ammo to take to the battle front. I also recall his opinion about Nigeria needing more of PRODUCTIVITY and less of CHARITY and I couldn’t agree more. He argues that the advanced countries have more than enough luxury, hence can afford to adopt more of the latter but I digress.
In summary, the entire class was based around Leadership, Failure, Identity, Curiosity, Values & Culture, Innovation, Marketing, Setting Goals and to round off, He took us through a practical work-out session on how to manage finance and do basic accounting without the aid of “consultants” and all the abracadabra that usually follows (I really needed this as I’ve suffered a lot in this regard).
What Next? For me, cue how fired up I was to go implement some of the lesson notes, starting with the “Wilson’s Pledge”. Seyi, if you’re reading this, I hope I have your permission to borrow some elements from that to create something for my organization?
Side Note: I have met and been in touch severally with the second half of Wilson’s Lemonade (Seun), so this felt like completing the circle for me and in a similar vein as I’ve done his brother, I’ve challenged Seyi with an insight (derived from brand loyalty and consumer behavior), one that I believe could bring a whole new dimension to their product. That not withstanding, I have no doubts in my mind that this truly inspiring story has birthed a genuinely formidable brand, run by truly remarkable people who only have one place to go, UP! Kudos to the visionaries and the rest of the Wilson’s Lemonade team.
“The cowards never started, the weak died along the way and that leaves us!” — Phil Knight (Founder of Nike from his book Shoe Dog).
