I just want to share my story today, with the hope that it motivates, inspires people and that they also learn a lot from it. There is this wealthy businessman who had dealings with my dad in the past before he became rich. He employed me because of the respect he had for my dad. The man is very proud, arrogant, and in a way, he looks down on his workers. Even my dad can testify to how arrogant this man can be. This man is a workaholic. He has never owed us salary and our pay is good, but because of this, he uses us like slaves. Even on public holidays, he expects us to come to work. Whenever I complain or he notices from my face how moody I look, he will tell me that if I can’t keep up, I should resign. For some reason, he always treated me differently. He gave me a kind of special treatment because of the respect he had for my dad. So at times, I was the only one who could speak out and tell him what the other workers were thinking. His response was always the same, that we should resign, that there are many people who would jump at our vacancies. There was one day I could not take it anymore. I went straight to his office and told him that this is my last month here, and I came to give him my two weeks notice. He looked at me and said I must be joking. I told him I wasn’t. He asked if I had gotten another job, I said no, and that I do not plan to work for anybody again. The time had come for me to be my own boss. He asked if I had a plan, I said no, but I have a strong will and that though this is a hard choice, the hardest choices require the strongest wills. He was still trying to understand what was going on while I kept dropping motivational quotes. He said, “You’re just a young man with a dream.” I replied, “If your dreams don’t scare you, then they’re not big enough.” When I was about to leave his office, he said something that really hurt me. He said if I resign, I wouldn’t make it. He said it’s not like he was trying to discourage me, but I obviously didn’t have a plan. Because of that, I made a promise to him. I told him that in three years time, I would be a multimillionaire, and I’d wear this same clothe I’m putting on now, drive the latest Benz, and come back to his office to remind him of this day and how he didn’t believe in me. Month-end came, I resigned. Though I told him I would be back in three years, you know how life can be, man plans, God laughs. This is the fourth year now, and like I told him, I’m about to put on the same clothe I promised to wear, go back to his office, and beg him to employ me back. Omo! Life is not Nollywood. I have seen serious Shege. And I have also learnt a very big lesson. Dreams and reality are two different things. Theory and practical are also two different things. You can plan something perfectly in theory, but once you start executing, you’ll encounter challenges you never knew existed. I am not sharing this story to discourage anyone from stepping out or taking huge risks, but I just want to tell you to make sure you are certain and that you have a safety net to fall back on. Wish me luck guys, as I go and plead for my former job. With the motivational quotes I dropped four years ago, I just hope he won’t tell me, “You could not live with your own failure, where did that bring you? Back to me.”