eTECTIVe:


With or without God, everyone still makes money moves.. While U are alive U still have to count for something and it involves d legacy U have left behind

Very wrong....

hostkobo:

you are right on point MrMcJay.

Some Nigerians surprise me with their comments. So because Mr.P's pop is a billionaire, he shouldn't hustle on his own? Or because he didn't succeed at his bid, he isn't successful.

yes he has the money to throw around and engage in risky deals, but life is all about risk. It is those that have taken on head to head the riskiest risks and have won that stand tallest at the end of the day.

We can learn from the rich, we can learn from the poor.

Jealousy is worrying so many people in this country

regards
HK

My brother, most people are suffering from the worst form of poverty - intellectual poverty. You know the thing about intellectual poverty? It makes one unable to pay attention.
Without paying attention, you can't identify opportunities.
Wuthout identifying opportunities, you can't make progress.

nuttyhnic:
Rich man story.

I read everything!

i did it, you can do it also.
This nothing but an insult to an average working Nigerians intelligence. Of course I expect some people to see this is as inspirational! There are countless of them on the internet.

One thing they never address
1 you flew to London
2 you flew to Netherland
3 you got a house to stay in London
4 you set up a company in London
5 you set up a company in Lagos and had staff that were negotiating oil deals for you

All these things would have at least rounded up to almost a million pounds.

Come on man. Tell this to your rich friends when you are having cocktails

Do you realize how much money you wasted. And still you are not broke or poor

You are a privileged kid boy. Don't mess with our minds telling us you are one typical hustler.

All these rich kids davido,cuppy etc should stop telling us about their hustle we don't care.

I'd rather listen to the fish seller that trained her kids in school with her proceeds.

Everything on the internet is there for everyone to choose to read or not. The way you are ranting it sounds as though you have been forced to read at gunpoint!

americanson:
He has something about his father but doesn't want to accept it... they are both silent operators. Imagine the South African designer asking him if he wants a bull logo done for him and he replied he is not a bull but his father is the bull... the man asked what are you and he said he is a lion. He seems like a guy who likes challenging his father's steps and wanting to prove a point to his father at all cost.

Yes. Else his successes will always be attributed to his father even if the father did not have a hand in the process. I like his spirit

Gungnir:


Very wrong....

U don't know any successful people who either dont believe in God or belong to any religion?

eTECTIVe:


U don't know any successful people who either dont believe in God or belong to any religion?

I know enough, my point is, you had exalted money above God. And you seem to think all wealth is the blessing of God...

chronique:



True. I started biz all by myself with no mentor nd nobody dropping a dime. I have seen some of lovely ideas which I carelessly submitted to companies with the view of them sponsoring it,being tweaked and reproduced on grand scale and I had no idea who to hold. I'd even carelessly posted those ideas on Nairaland way back... That was just the naive and inexperienced me back then. I once sat and talked with my dad about financing some of my lofty ideas. He looked me in the eyes and told me the ideas were actually great and juicy but were too risky to finance. As someone who was in charge of credit risk in one of Nigeria's biggest first generation banks,he felt it risk was too high despite the ROI being very high. He simply told me what the banks were interested financing, were businesses that could easily show how the 1 naira can become 2 naira with minimum with the barest minimum risk. Moreover, there had to be such existing businesses on ground... It was the same old archaic way of Nigerian banks lending money to businesses. From that day onward,I decided to keep all my ideas to myself until I have enough money to push them. This year,I'd be testing the waters with one.

If only I had mentors or financiers back then,things would have different. But I have few regrets. Those experiences have become valuable to me.

Yeah, that is why I am fighting hard to raise money all on my own.Nigerians hardly invest in "idea" and i hate the feelings that comes with people looking at you like you are stupid when you talk about an idea.

Your dad is right by Nigerian standard.. banks are only interested in financing instant gratification ventures... that is invest today, get paid tomorrow with monster interest. That is why they will support Dangote than you and I.

.I had to force myself last year to start strike my first biggest multimillion naira deal with a commission of 2-10Million naira per deal, It is a supply based initiative...

Once i have gotten enough pay from this idea, I will move on to the next dream business which is a franchise of sort to revolutionize a sector within Nigeria like the man behind Pure Water industry...

May major worry is that i would like to reduce "COPY CATS" in this industry and I have been wondering if it is possible, by law, to prevent people from using same model or going into similar business... I am very certain that people will dive in as soon as they see me doing it.

Inspiring i must say

Tension532:
i swear even the mods didn't read this

i did. it is that part of the history that only money can write. He is great, i must admit

wo so ever read dat long epistle to d end must be named endurance

SmartyPants:


Everything on the internet is there for everyone to choose to read or not. The way you are ranting it sounds as though you have been forced to read at gunpoint!

It's pathetic. Nigerians are always bitter with rich people. I mean what exactly has Paddy done wrong by sharing his experience?

Wow!. Learnt a few lessons from his experience. One thing I loved about his story is that he didn't just sit back and be basking in the europhia of family business. He used the family business as a stepping stone to TRY and make something for himself. Many of his peers wouldn't try that.


Those of you shouting Daddy's money upandan,what were your fathers doing when his own was making the monry? ... No be hin send una papa message o.

americanson:


Yeah, that is why I am fighting hard to raise money all on my own.Nigerians hardly invest in "idea" and i hate the feelings that comes with people looking at you like you are stupid when you talk about an idea.

Your dad is right by Nigerian standard.. banks are only interested in financing instant gratification ventures... that is invest today, get paid tomorrow with monster interest. That is why they will support Dangote than you and I.

.I had to force myself last year to start strike my first biggest multimillion naira deal with a commission of 2-10Million naira per deal, It is a supply based initiative...

Once i have gotten enough pay from this idea, I will move on to the next dream business which is a franchise of sort to revolutionize a sector within Nigeria like the man behind Pure Water industry...

May major worry is that i would like to reduce "COPY CATS" in this industry and I have been wondering if it is possible, by law, to prevent people from using same model or going into similar business... I am very certain that people will dive in as soon as they see me doing it.

You can't stop people from doing your kind of business but you can find ways to monopolize it from the onset and once you see people running into it,you crash your prices significantly to make it not attractive for most competitors. That way,you get to retain a significant portion of the customers, and make do with very low profits but high turnover. I've got something that ticks that line and that's exactly what I plan to do. Make the initial cost quite high and make a lot of money and once people delve into it,crash your prices so it becomes unattractive to them.

I worked with Paddy in the upstream business. Yea...the OML 30 / 42 experience was something else and he was spot on with that. You've got to give it to Paddy, he is extremely intelligent and always on the ball. He would go far!

mccoy47:
Sadly most Nairalanders would not read this piece but would rather prefer to comment trash!


But in a way i think luck shun on him, cuz imagine if he had gone ahead ahead to aquire the company with thousands of staff, 6000bpd production capacity and the crashing oil prices of 2013-2017.
He probably wouldn't have sailed through

The only sensible comment I have seen.

Interesting piece. Young man with extreme business acumen. With this kind of mentality he would probably surpass his father.

I respect rich kids who try to build for themselves and not just wait on thier parents.


And yeah, he actually was fortunate not to have bought the field. Oil prices crashed not long after.

This would have to be my best read this January. So many lessons hidden in this story, but only the discerning can grab it.

Thanks for the story shared and lesson learnt.

That is O & G business for you. The same oil that crashed to $30 per bbl is now hovering around $70. It still would have made business sense to buy it notwithstanding the drop in oil price. Companies survived the price crash and today operations are looking up in the industry. What many did was to renegotiate service rates and cut down on luxurious spending to stay afloat. Buying an O & G asset is not just about the production rate at the time but the prospects in the block in terms of proven reserves. You may choose to drill when oil price is down at low cost and sell when price goes up.

Whaoo, so much to learn from this.

It's always good to be aggressive as a business person, positively aggressive, though

Gungnir:


I know enough, my point is, you had exalted money above God. And you seem to think all wealth is the blessing of God...

U completely missed my point... Which is everyone makes money moves, whether dey believe in God or not which is why some are ready to sell their soul to

HOLYDICK:
Nice try bro.....but my mama always taught me....ALMOST doesn't count.

Just my take

I doubt if you actually read the whole piece - for if you did, you will understand that he was trying to encourage us to trust our instinct and secondly, the Messiah you seek might be a close friend to the least of your friends.

1. He would have won the contract if he went against the advice of the professionals he hired.
2. He would have found and partnered with the unknown last bidder if he had opened up to Remi (his friend) when then met in London.

eTECTIVe:


U completely missed my point... Which is everyone makes money moves, whether dey believe in God or not which is why some are ready to sell their soul to

I did get your point. Hence why I agreed on your previous post.

A very nice tale of ambition.

Nearly kwa.


U need an Igbo brain on ur team.

Checked86:

i did. it is that part of the history that only money can write. He is a great, i must admit

u be mod

222Martins:
Why do i have this feeling that he is trying to get a pat on the back or prove to society how smart he is or prove to society that he is not a daddy's boy?? Every business man has once in his life backed a deal that didn't sail through and they never made a fuss out of it. Dangote and Femi Otedola didn't sail through with their Blue Star Consortium backed by Tony Elumelu, Cecilia Ibru, Jim Ovia and others.

Now in retrospect, Nearly does not kill a bird!!! In big deals, there's no second place. It's a winner takes all game. I understand he was trying to stay within his circle of competence which is within the oil and gas industry. But with the kind of money and circle of friends he has, he would have just bought out or back a tech startup and ride the waves.

Update: Now for those that may have opposing views, i have read and re-read the article time and again. Aside the euphoria of the write-up, i observed the "I" factor. He credited himself too much, trying too hard to make us understand how smart and brilliant he is. You paid your team thousands of dollars and you don't want to listen to them, you would have gone it all alone and save your money. He should go thank his God the deal didn't sail through. Just like one of my mentor's do say:

"If you are the smartest person on your team, you are in trouble."

2. He lacks personal business experience. He got too emotionally attached to the deal. If there's one thing every businessman knows, it's that there's always another deal opportunity coming.

You missed the point. Such stories are valuable because they contain a host of tangible lessons that can be learnt, by others. His story can be captioned in one word: "experience," or the lack of it.

In Nigeria, we always ignore such stories, even when there are one or more lessons we could pick from it, that would benefit us.

Project managers often do something at the end of a project. It is called 'Post-project implementation Close out Review or Post Implementation Review.' You sit back and take stock of what you did wrong, and what you did right. Take note of the bottle-necks, challenges and difficulties that marred the project along the way, and draft strategies on how to prevent such incidents in future. Or you conduct a root cause analysis of the project flaws, with a view to minimising or eliminating such flaws within the said project, now or in the future.

Foreign countries that boast of better infrastructure, well-executed trade deals, improved commercial transactions, expertly managed projects and experienced professionals, are able to do so, because in part, they have learnt from their mistakes, in order not to repeat it. And that is what Paddy has done with this piece. It just reminds me of George Santayana's words.

Very nice write up with a lot of lessons to me learnt.

JideTheBlogger:

stephenmorris: Remi then revealed the biggest bombshell of my Chevron Netherlands adventure. The managing director of Petrogas of Oman was a close friend of his and he knew he was bidding for Chevron Netherlands at the time. If I had told him what I was up to when we saw in London, whilst I was searching for the last bidder, he would have introduced us. I was blown away. There it was that whole time. That mystery last bidder that I had searched so hard for was there for my taking and it passed right by me.

I went back home that night and made myself the strongest drink. History couldn’t tell this story. I would have to.

I swear this part got to me! Can you imagine??! For him to have discovered the reason for his failure, staring him in the face - it was his sense of caution that cost him the deal, his failure to trust Remi with information at that time, because he didn't want his deal, to be jinxed by giving out info to a fellow Nigerian! Kai! I would have shed tears, if I was in his shoes!

MrMcJay:
Just look at the comments on this thread and you'll realise that more Nigerians suffer from intellectual poverty than financial poverty.

The lessons to be learnt from that article are more than what some Nigerians learnt in their entire time spent in school and they don't have the wisdom to read and pick a lesson or two.

10 Years from now, Paddy would be a billionaire under 40, some people who picked lessons from this article might have surpassed Paddy in wealth but our dumb friends would still be shouting "I receive" in Church not knowing that their Pastors are also reading and picking lessons from this post.

You are so-oo-oo right!! And that is why we keep repeating the same mistakes over and over again as Nigerians, both in our public and private lives. We learn nothing, from our failures and our past experiences. Why??

LUCKIE2014:
Lesson 1. As a business owner, it is sometimes best to follow your instincts when making strategic business decisions rather than relying solely on experts opinion

Lesson 2. Never be afraid to share your ideas with close friends and families, you never can tell where that "win factor" needed to enhance your ideas may come from.

Lesson 3. Never allow ego or pride to cloud your judgement when doing business.

Not a big fan of the man, but I think it was an excellent piece.

Very true! There are still more lessons in his piece. I counted about 12, but I will share just 7 that struck me, shortly.

222Martins:
Why do i have this feeling that he is trying to get a pat on the back or prove to society how smart he is or prove to society that he is not a daddy's boy?? Every business man has once in his life backed a deal that didn't sail through and they never made a fuss out of it. Dangote and Femi Otedola didn't sail through with their Blue Star Consortium backed by Tony Elumelu, Cecilia Ibru, Jim Ovia and others.

Now in retrospect, Nearly does not kill a bird!!! In big deals, there's no second place. It's a winner takes all game. I understand he was trying to stay within his circle of competence which is within the oil and gas industry. But with the kind of money and circle of friends he has, he would have just bought out or back a tech startup and ride the waves.

Update: Now for those that may have opposing views, i have read and re-read the article time and again. Aside the euphoria of the write-up, i observed the "I" factor. He credited himself too much, trying too hard to make us understand how smart and brilliant he is. You paid your team thousands of dollars and you don't want to listen to them, you would have gone it all alone and save your money. He should go thank his God the deal didn't sail through. Just like one of my mentor's do say:

"If you are the smartest person on your team, you are in trouble."

2. He lacks personal business experience. He got too emotionally attached to the deal. If there's one thing every businessman knows, it's that there's always another deal opportunity coming.

You this Nigerian man sitting idle in your two bedroom apartment, have you no shame?

Paddy is 29 years old and he put himself out there so well that top businessmen praised his efforts. Who are you to cast him? He tried to use wealth to create more wealth. The little wealth your father left for you have you ever TRIED to use it in creating more wealth?

He has done well. He has gained knowledge, made a good network and his name is definitely in their head now. You can't hear Paddy in business and not think twice about it.

You should learn one or two from the write up because he passed very valuable messages.

mccoy47:
Sadly most Nairalanders would not read this piece but would rather prefer to comment trash!


But in a way i think luck shun on him, cuz imagine if he had gone ahead ahead to aquire the company with thousands of staff, 6000bpd production capacity and the crashing oil prices of 2013-2017.
He probably wouldn't have sailed through

he probably would have still reached for a joint venture giving the oil production to a more suitable company leaving just management to Catalan ..remember he only needs the afro European portfolio

americanson:


Yeah, that is why I am fighting hard to raise money all on my own.Nigerians hardly invest in "idea" and i hate the feelings that comes with people looking at you like you are stupid when you talk about an idea.

Your dad is right by Nigerian standard.. banks are only interested in financing instant gratification ventures... that is invest today, get paid tomorrow with monster interest. That is why they will support Dangote than you and I.

.I had to force myself last year to start strike my first biggest multimillion naira deal with a commission of 2-10Million naira per deal, It is a supply based initiative...

Once i have gotten enough pay from this idea, I will move on to the next dream business which is a franchise of sort to revolutionize a sector within Nigeria like the man behind Pure Water industry...

May major worry is that i would like to reduce "COPY CATS" in this industry and I have been wondering if it is possible, by law, to prevent people from using same model or going into similar business... I am very certain that people will dive in as soon as they see me doing it.

Can I send you a mail? Will like us to discuss and share business ideas. Thanks