I almost wept

My friend Beejay called me up one Saturday afternoon. It's been a long time we had been in touch. We used to be seat mates way back in our secondary school days. Beejay is a young man whose passion for advancement is
contagious. Beejay was in town and he wanted us to have a chat over lunch to keep me abreast of the latest development from his end.

We fixed a day in the coming week, Lunch hour precisely. And the meeting point happened to be the popular Chicken republic at road block in Akure.  I knew it would be a thrilling and interesting encounter with him again. So all day at work, my mind will occasionally wonder in anticipation of my jolly friend's arrival.

It was lunch time, and I wasted no time.

I soon arrived at the venue and in less than 3 minutes that I got there, my friend walked in majestically. Beejay now had all the masculine, macho-like features of a man, unlike the slender me who just wore a beautiful shirt and a suiting black trousers on a black pair of shoes. Beejay was wearing a grey suit, looking handsome and absolutely breath taking.

We sat at the table after exchanging an attention catching pleasantries. The euphoria of meeting an old school friend elicited that kind of greeting.

We ordered for a sumptuous meal for lunch with chilled drinks to balance the equation.

After settling down, he could not wait to tell me about his experience lately at his workplace. Beejay works for one the top notch consulting firms in the country.

 There was a project they were to emback on, and Beejay was assigned to lead the team. While trying to execute the project, there were instances where it looked like the Millions invested in the project were going to be lost.

Everything was on Beejay's head, the pressure from the boss and coworkers demanding visible result on the spot. He narrated to me that all the logistics of the project was jointly designed by all members of the board. But since he was in charge of executing the project, all the fault has to be borne by him. The future of that project was bleak,no hope in sight and all eyes were on him. Some were waiting to mock him. Beejay said with astonishment "BIYI I SAW THEM MOCKING ME, I ALMOST WEPT".

He found a way around it, and to cut the long story short, the project was a huge success that got him a promotion with better pay.

I learnt from Beejay's story, and this is the lesson:

Sometimes it doesn't matter who and who was involved in some sort of policy formulation, if you are in charge of the execution, you would be held accountable for the mistakes of others and unless you find a way around the seemingly insurmountable wall, they will be waiting to mock you.

The gist is that, as leaders we must always conciously take initiative.

And when we don't take initiative we face the consequences of being mocked by those who stand by to do so.

I am Agboola Biyi Micheal a BLESSING to my GENERATION, and an ASSET to NATIONS.