So, yeah, a friend of mine called me this evening asking me for money, and I told him I wouldnāt be able to help him, not because I donāt care, but because I had warned him long before now.
Earlier this year, dude crossed his first 100million naira. Instead of preserving a good portion of that money and strengthening the business that produced it, he bought a car worth about 70million naira and started a building project, which he eventually had to abandon because the money was no longer enough.
I actually advised him against that decision. I told him he should have put at least 50% of the money back into his business and allowed the money to keep working for him. But then again, people will always do what they have already made up their minds to do.
Now, things have turned around.
He has been given a quit notice on the farmland he rents for his oil-palm business( yeah! We are both involved in the oil-palm farming), and suddenly, the money he thought was abundant has become difficult to find. He is now running from pillar to post, looking for a way to raise capital.
So, yeah, I advised him to either sell the car or the abandoned house project and redirect whatever money he could recover back into the business, cuz that would be the first alternative that would cross my mind if I were in his shoes. Lol. Iāve lost count of how many times Iāve had to part with my landed properties just to keep my business afloat. But dude said there was no way he could sell or downgrade his big-boy car. According to him, that is the very car he uses to maintain the big-boy image around Lagos. Either way, there is no circumstance under which I would lend him 50million naira.