I N T R O D U C T I O N
SUCCESS IN LIFE GOES BEYOND SCHOOL
The CEO and Publisher of the second
most widely read publication in Nigeria; Complete
Sport Newspaper is named Dr. Sunny
Obazu – Ojeagbase
He is known to be Nigeria’s No. 1 Business
Success Coach, is the co-founder and Executive Chairman of Success Attitude
Development Centre (SADC), a not-for profit NGO with a mission to “raise and
nurture successful entrepreneurs whose success in business is driven by fear of
God, a burning desire to care for their families, and an unquenchable thirst to
do good in their communities.
Dr Sunny Obazu-Ojegbase is the
chairman/CEO of the multimillion company, Complete Communication Ltd, but the
path to his success was riddled with challenges and Hardnocks.
He started his romance with hardship
very early in life when his mother died shortly after he finished primary
school and his father could not send him to school; so he never went to
secondary school or university. He was deep in debt having been married at the
age of 20. He surmounted diverse kinds of challenges while starting his
publishing business with N6, 500 in 1984. Today, he has not only become a
millionaire but is raising millionaires.
HE OVERRIDES HIS DISADVANTAGES
Dr. Sunny Obazu-Ojegbase
started life on a path that is hardly easy. Apart from primary school education
which he had between 1957-1962 at St James Primary School, Owoope, Osogbo he
could not go to secondary school or university because, his mother was sick and
his father could not afford to send him to secondary school even though he
passed the entrance examination. Since he could not go to school he attached
himself to a mechanic workshop at the instruction of his parents but could not
cope staying there because the whole place was greasy, dirty and smelling; it
was so irritating to him. From there, he moved on to learn typing and short
hand that lasted for six months. After this he started apprenticeship in
printing which is supposed to last for five years but was aborted by the
Nigerian Biafra war. As a teenager, he joined the army as a means of sustenance
of his four siblings and his father; since his father, who was advancing in age
and could not provide the financial requirement for starting a printing press
where he has trained in as an apprentice.
Sunny was aware of the risk of being
hit by a bullet in the army; however, he forged ahead in his military career
believing that since it's money that drove him into the army if he had died his
need for money would have come to an end. “If I get killed, I wouldn't need
money more” He quips. While in the army, he got married at the age of 20
because of the reasoning that as an officer, death can come at anytime and they
need to replicate themselves before they get struck by death. But the
experience of being married at that early age was to him “the kind of
experience that any boy will have if he gets into what men should be doing.” He
was deep in debt and went into pool betting hoping that it will deliver him
from debts but it never did. He quitted pool betting when he received Jesus
Christ and became born again in 1974.
360 TURN AROUND
His life took a totally different
course in 1974 (at the age of 24) when he encountered a book by Albert W.
Armstrong.
“At the age of 24, I read a book
called Seven Laws of Success; it was the book that completely changed the
course of my history.
When I read this book I discovered
that I had to set a goal for myself and I had to acquire specialized knowledge along with five other keys, which included
having faith in God, taking care of one's health, persevering, and much more.
So from that point in my life, I had a turn-around. I took the message in the
book to heart and I began to implement those tips. I moved from being in debt
to being able to manage my resources up until the time I went into business in
1984.” From what he learnt in the book, he set goal of being a sports reporter
since he loves playing basketball. But realized that he needs a specialized
knowledge in that area to be able to make a success of it. He recounts, “I
discovered in my search that there were people who actually covered those games
and they were paid to do it. So I said what a wonderful life it would be for me
to have the opportunity to go and do what I enjoyed doing and still be paid for
it. I chose that as a goal: to go and be a sports reporter. Now since I didn't
know anything about sports writing, I decided to acquire it as a specialized
knowledge. That was how I got into sports writing. And from sports writing, I
went on to publishing sports.”
ON THE PATH OF JOURNALISM CAREER
The quest for specialized knowledge
made him take GCE, where he got an 'A' in English Language and correspondence
course in journalism. While he was taking correspondence course in journalism,
he was writing and sending materials for publications. He started freelancing
for papers in 1976 and in two years, he took a bow from the Nigerian army and
got a job in the Daily Times as a stringer. He was so good that he wrote for
all Daily Times titles.
He got hired as a staff of the Daily
Times when his earning as a stringer, by far supersedes, what employed staff
earn and the General Manager (publications) Peter Osubor withheld his claims
insisting that if he's so good as a stringer to get paid N600 when the staff is
paid N150 per month, he should be hired. Consequently, he was hired on April 1,
1979. He moved to the Sunday Concord after 14 months stint with the Daily Times
and eventually left for the Guardian where he became the sports editor.
A RISKY LEAP THAT CHANGED HIS LIFE
Despite his rising profile in sports
journalism beat and promising future in sports reporting at the Guardian, Dr.
Ojeagbase took a leap into the risky path of entrepreneurship after being
motivated by stories and winning germs from Napoleon Hill's motivational book.
“I made the decision after I read the book, Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill. I read the book in December
1983 and I was so inspired by that January 1984, I thought I could just get
into business.” Although he was motivated to start his business, he took heed
to the words of Jesus Christ not to start building a tower without counting
cost. So after counting the cost of starting his business he realized that he
can't start then; consequently, he put the idea on shelf waiting for its time.
Meanwhile, he remained with Guardian. It was due to crises between the
management of the Guardian and the staff, where staff salary was about to be
slashed that a voice spoke to him saying, “Even
with full salary you are barely making ends meet. Now if they cut the salary
that will make things even more difficult. Now what is the difference between
going on, surviving on the salary and jumping out to start this idea that you
have always had with whatever you have?” That was how he took the step of
faith, out of his promising job as a sports editor, into starting a new
publication, Complete Football.
Dr. Obazu-Ojegbase at that point had
a bright idea, relevant skills to implement the idea, and wealth of experience
under his belt in the realm of sports journalism but was handicapped by
capital. But before he quitted his job to start, he secured support from his
wife and partner for life. “I went home and told my wife that I wanted us to go
and start a business. She agreed.” At this point, he quitted as the sports
editor of the Guardian in 1984 to start publishing Complete Football.
SUNNY, FAVOURED BY GOD
In his quest to raise capital to
start his business, he started with what he had. He sold his four professional
cameras at Oshodi Market and got N4000. But N4000 was not enough to start the
first sports publication in Nigeria, Complete Football; so Sunny and his wife
and partner set out in search of capital. They went to Chief Olufemi Olukanmi
to give them a loan of N2500. He was lucky and favoured. “He did not even ask
me any question. He just opened his drawer and wrote a cheque for N2500 and
gave it to me and said, 'Good luck.' I said, 'Thank you sir, I need all the
luck.” That was how they started their publishing business with just N6,500
only. Before you think it was a big money then he enlightens further, “No
matter what the value of N6,500 was at the time, it's not the kind of money you
want to start a publishing business with. So it wasn't really the money, it was
the spirit behind it. It was the daring spirit.”
Entrepreneurship is about risk taking
in a quest to solve the problems of humanity and Sunny knows it well. He took
off with a contagious assurance of success that made him tell his wife, “Just
let us get out there and slung it out.” His mind has been programmed for
success by people like Tai Solarin who said, “If you don't know how to swim and
you come by the bank of a river and you want to cross, if you ever think of
your inability to swim, you will never jump into the river. But if you dare to
jump into the river, you have the option of either finding your way or
sinking.” Thus despite the uncertainties associated with businesses, he jumped
into it.
As he took the step of faith and
jumped into the risky water of publishing, God came to his help proving to be
with him in his steps. The copy preparation for debut edition of their
publication called Sports Souvenir was completed very late so much that he
didn't believe that it could be printed the following day. But to his greatest
amazement, his publication was delivered to him in the morning of the following
day. The printer was familiar with his name as a columnist in charge of S.O
Verdict in the Guardian at the Guardian. Dr. Ojegbase testifies: “God has a
hand in guiding even when I didn't fully realize it.
Not only that; for the next three
years, he was printing on credit. When we had money, we paid him. When we
didn't have money, we didn't pay. God used him to make the dream come true.”
MATRICULATION INTO UNIVERSITY OF HARDNOCKS
It was not rosy going through the
starting phase of his business as he passed through what he calls the
University of Hardnocks.
He told tales of disappointment, lack
and frustration in the University of Harknocks. As an example, once he got a
good staff member and while he was still thanking God for bringing the person
in, “he either shows up or tells you that 'I am leaving' or refuses to show up
at all.”
A major department in this University
Of Harknocks is Department of Financial Crisis. Recounting his ordeal in this
department, he says, “I was at a juncture in my life where I woke up in the
morning and saw huge bills to pay. I saw the month end approaching; I had staff
to pay and I had no idea where the money to pay would come from. I didn't know
where the money to settle those pilling bills would come from and every avenue
seemed to have been exhausted.” Further, he relayed an anecdote: “I also
remember the days when I was looking for a loan of less than N50,000 and I
would go to UBA headquarters in Lagos and it would be raining nd I wore shoes
which sole has been worn and rain water would enter.” Dr. Ojegbase has myriad
of unpleasant tales of his beginning especially the first seven years of his
business but he waxed emotional when he relate his story of disappointment and
frustration. “I remember a period”, Dr. Ojegbase started, “when magazines had
been produced, advertisement had been paid for in the paper and we say, 'Watch
out for this…tomorrow' We have gotten the readers excited, only to go to the
press and they tell you sorry, we can't release these magazines because we had
not paid them all the money and the magazine stayed there and people went to
the new stands and they could not find it.”
OBTAINED FAVOUR IN HIS WOMAN
The challenges he meet within the
first seven years of starting their business kept increasing all trying to make
him give up. He almost gave up when the challenges became overwhelming save for
the angel of God in the person of his wife. Once they wanted to publish a
particular edition of their magazine and decided to go and get money from their
agents but could not.
“All they were bringing were unsold
copies. Nobody gave us a penny. They moved to bank “and asked for overdraft of
N1, 000 and the manager looked at me and said, 'I can't do it.'”
He was depressed and frustrated up to
his neck. Back at home, he just flopped on the bed very sad and dejected. At
this point, he was a step out of business but his wife reinvigorated him. He
recalls: “My wife took a look at me and said, 'Sunny, you know we didn't have
money when you said we should go into this business. It is too late for you to
start regretting.'
At that point I felt a surge of
energy and a renewal of my spirit. I said to myself, 'If a woman is saying
this, who am I to remain despondent?”
Further he added, “If she had done what many a woman would do at that
point, by crying or complaining, I would have just said, 'Look, don't cry, I am
going to get a job.”
Apart from getting motivation from
his wife when challenges start getting overwhelming, he stays indoor for days
with motivational books until he regains his strength and feels a surge of
energy.
A PRODUCT OF MENTORING
Sunny does not claim to be a
self-made. He acknowledges the impact of other people in his life starting from
his days as a sports journalist. He has received both distant mentoring
(through books) and close mentoring by those who are ahead of him in the field.
Conspicuous in the list of his mentors is Mr. SB Osuntolu. Having benefited
from mentors, he preaches,
“Everyone needs a mentor. When you
have a genuine mentor, you hardly go astray. A mentor has seen it all; so he is
in a better position to guide you. When you have a good mentor and you take
advantage of his knowledge, he would help you cross so many bridges that could
have left you stranded.”
SUCCESS SECRETS
Dr. Ojegbase's philosophy on
entrepreneurship is that entrepreneurship
is the use of creativity to provide goods and services which eventually yields
money. “As an entrepreneur, you are supposed to be satisfying needs by
providing goods and services or both. If you are very good, you will be
exchanging whatever you are doing for money from customers that are patronizing
you.” he explains. He believes that hard work is vital for success; however,
when it is not driven by knowledge, it ends up as an exercise in futility. “If
you struggle without knowledge, that's an exercise in futility.” He states
Further, he admonishes, “So you need knowledge, understanding and wisdom in
your effort (hard work) to hit success; short of that you have wasted your
efforts.” He is a strong believer in the power of books to transform the life
of man and set him on the path to success. Little wonder, he and his wife
shared 1000 copies of the book Think and Grow Rich on the occasion of his 60
birthday. Despite that his life has been shaped by books and he believes in the
power of knowledge for fruitful efforts.
He insists that one must not stop at
just reading. He preaches that one should go
beyond reading so as to reap the fruit of acquisition of knowledge. “In
reading, you acquire knowledge but your effort should not stop at that level;
you must attain the level of application to be able to succeed. That is when
knowledge acquired become useful, otherwise you have simply wasted your
effort.” He has passed through the University Of Hardnocks and excelled in it,
he therefore offers tips for those who may be or will eventually pass through
it: “Adversity might come your way; it is a challenge but you must always be
willing to weather through it. Don't run away from it because in it there is an
opportunity that will take you to the pinnacle of success. If you run away, you
have failed. You must know that adversity goes hand in hand with opportunity.”
MADE MILLIONS; MAKING MILLIONAIRES
Having overcome poverty, built
successful businesses, made mistakes, seen adversity and surmounted them, he
with his wife, Easter Obazu-Ojegbase, founded an NGO, Success Attitude
Development Centre (SADC) where he serves as the Executive Chairman. Sunny
explains: “To mark 10 years of our discovering Think And Grow Rich and going
into business for ourselves, we launched SADC, an institution that has been
raising and nurturing successful entrepreneurs.” At his NGO he has been
involved in raising entrepreneurs through his publication Success Digest and
many books where he, in collaboration with his wife, are committed to raising
entrepreneurs that run their business with the fear of God.
SADC has been operational for over 17
years and Dr. Ojegbase is proud of their strides. “Our focus these past 17
years has been to teach people business
and income opportunities. And we have made a huge success of it, going by
the testimonies available to us.” He says Today, his publishing business which
was started with just N6,500 has grown and expanded to a multimillion company
and Dr. Ojegbase's business interest has even diversified beyond publishing.
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