This is a memoir of my 18 months sojourn in Hastom Group Feb 1, 2016 – Aug. 7, 2017

ENTRY:

Prior to 1st of February 2016, I had been working with a brother in a palm kernel processing factory. The factory grew to become a partnership between my brother and two other guys in the United States so in essence I was not a partner but an ally to a partner.

After a while due to some poor decision that came from unnecessary haste, the business suffered a lot of loss. I began to have issues with my brother because he decided to sideline his partners in decision making which is hampering the forward movement of the enterprise.

So after several failed pleas to allow our partners intervene I decided to move on with my life and seeking a new place brought the boss of Hastom group to my mind. I had earlier met the boss of Hastom at a mechanic workshop subsequently I got his complimentary card and I sent him a mail. He responded and like they say; the rest became history.

...To be continue
NB: I have never been a professional writer, so review, criticism and recommendations are welcome.

INTERVIEW:

It was on Sunday after 21 days prayers and fasting at LFC Ogbomosho, I remembered I prayed that Sunday afternoon that I don’t want start the week jobless. I trekked a distance to keep up with appointment, I was desperate to get an out because going back home there was nothing to eat.

I entered the office to meet a man seated in an extreme position of the sofa, I can’t remember if it was right or left and his legs were crossed upon each other. I came in with no credence as I was not really sure of what will be required. To even be more realistic, I didn’t know all that he was into.

We had a long and fruitful talk which cuts across my beliefs, dreams, goals etcetera and he eventually made me an offer.

First Mistake:
He told me he has a dream of raising men and he asked me what I wanted either a mentorship into my business or a job. That faithful day, hunger saturated my mind I couldn’t risk a chance of monthly paid job for a mentorship that I felt is not certain.

Thus I entered into a permissive journey. It seems like it was good but It didn’t take time for me to long for my real passion.

JOB DAY ONE (1st of February, 2016)

I was keeping one hungry looking beards which I had no money to shave before my first day at work, so I was looking like a man with a lot of issues on my first day. Out of pity and to prop me to keep up, my boss asked me to change my outfit so he offered me a loan. In my poor state disguised as humility I asked for only thirty thousand naira.

I asked that meager amount for a few reasons; I didn’t want to enter into excessive debt, I didn’t want to stretch my luck too far and I didn’t even believe I should use anything of class at the time. I believe my boss would have thought of me as a charity project.

My assessment of business was that it was essentially a one man business because I met no structure on ground, so this boss had to take m through the basic thing the company was involved in which was primarily sales of farmland which we choose to call agricultural real estate.

The primary marketing platform was online ( www.nairaland.com) and the company also had three website which were not optimized and filled with excessive literatures.

I fell in love with the procedure of sales and marketing because it allows you to market without being seen at first. It was a good place to build confidence. I could write sales articles, my imagination is wide which made my boss liked me at the time and it didn’t take long for me to understand the business.
I must not forget to state my starting salary; it was thirty thousand naira.


JOB SPECIFICATION:

There were no units, sections or departments so as every procedure was opened up to me I was expected to function in all aspect. Literally I was to step into the shoe of my boss, to do most of the thing he is doing except for some roles that require real time experience in the game. procuring land from the locals was quite a lengthy , diplomatic and dangerous procedure so I couldn’t step into that and till I left the company I really never did on my own though all the process were known to me. I could literarily act it out.

So I was the janitor, the receptionist, secretary, logistics personnel, tour guide, call receiver and not forgetting my core task as a sales strategist, business developer and a personal assistant to my boss.

TEMPORAL BREADWINNER

Like I said earlier on the business I was involved in with my brother wasn’t blossoming again which has made feeding very difficult. as a matter of fact the day before I resumed job there was nothing at home aside water. In fact how we survived the first week after my job was a miracle. I got the first loan from my boss whom I used to buy a few cheap and fake materials and I also have a little amount left for house upkeep.

The truth is that the feeling is good being able to cater for oneself but better if others can smile as a result of your effort. There were about six people living in the house so thirty thousand was obviously not enough. Once in a while my brother use to drop something which was a good relief each time.

The basic expectation of anyone working is to save but I couldn’t and ultimately this took a turn on my emotions, I begin to resent everyone around me not because I hated them but because we didn’t have enough to share which made all of eventually look poor.


FIRST DIVERSION:

I graduated with a third class in chemical engineering, it obviously appears that I can’t apply for a decent job with such grade and my parent was worried and scared. So I was pressured into seeking higher degrees to correct what is left of my chemical engineering exploit. I must state that I could easily conceive a world for myself out of any scenario and chemical engineering was one of it.

I had ambition in it but whatever it is to build on it I lacked it, a major one was drive or zeal. I couldn’t explain why. I couldn’t have been an academic giant with the kind of company I kept though. School routine wasn’t fun for us, we wanted to break out of the norm, we wanted enterprise, we wanted to run the street and we tried. We had a level of success which could have been a good foundation to leverage upon.

So my parent prevailed and I enrolled for a post graduate diploma in chemical engineering. I got another loan from my boss to pay my tuition which was impressive to my parent. My boss increased my pay from thirty thousand to fifty thousand which allowed me to pay twelve thousand five hundred naira monthly.

All seemed to be going on fine but the class lectures I didn’t enjoy. Then I sort counsel from my boss and coupled with the fact that my life is being tailored around management I felt studying chemical engineering will be a waste of my scarce resources. So by the first quarter of 2017 I decided to quit without telling my parent.

Nice Write up......learning keenly from this, we're anxiously waiting for the concluding part.

bizitex:
Nice Write up......learning keenly from this, we're anxiously waiting for the concluding part.

Thank you.

DEDICATION:

I was a very emotional person which made me fell in love with future and potential I saw in the company. My boss has shown me a level of appreciation that made me trust him. I was really ready to give it all. I remembered a day we were discussing a long term perspective of the company, it has became obvious that we need to sit up and build a reputation in mainstream agriculture and I remembered telling my boss that I am willing to abandon every other thing to build a world class agricultural firm in five years.

That day I was making the commitment, I remembered that I am passionate about media but I felt I can make it secondary. I also nursed a belief that I can raise a team that can work independent of me. I didn’t know if it will work but I believed it.


BUSINESS EVOLUTION:

I must say I enjoyed our evolution in trade though they were not exactly how I wanted them. it didn’t turn out they way I wanted it not because we didn’t work hard enough but probably because our real motives were different. With all sense of respect to my former boss and his goals, I always feel our goals were different. We had a lot of options in front of us and choosing between two or more beauties can be more tedious than it looks.

The company was basically a land selling enterprise when I got in, although attempts were made into crop cultivation which were not a totally bad experience. We developed more concepts of selling our farmland through investment schemes, we created a crowd funding program in cassava which was successful, we started cattle ranching though not aggressively and towards the last days in the company, we went bullish into crop cultivation (yam, cassava, sweet potato).

It would interest you to know that with all these evolution all in less than two years, my job specification didn’t really got reduced or changed instead I had more to worry about. Body isn’t firewood, I got wearied and it was reflecting in my concentration.


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