DROP THE BONE

A few hours ago, I received this message from a friend & I thought it wise to share.

I was in a car commuting from home to my daily errands. The car was speeding at about 80kms per hour. Suddenly, I saw a dog running so fact trying to overtake the car so that it could cross the road.

I was frightened that the car would overrun the dog. I was praying that the dog would increase its speed and cross the road safely. The car was fast approaching the dog. Then, I saw the dog suddenly increase its speed and was able to cross the road successful. Pheew, I sighed, thanking God it wasn’t hit by the car.

But, there is something I noticed that fell off before the dog suddenly increased its speed. I asked the driver, could you please reverse. I need to see what fell off. When I saw what fell off, one of the greatest lessons sunk into my thick skull.

The dog let go of the BONE.

It was that SIMPLE, it reached a point where the dog had to let go of the bone in order to gain speed and save its life. Men, the dog is SMART… I thought.

What’s the LESSON? Let go of the bone.

There are bones we have held onto in 2017.

If we succeed to let go of the 2017 ‘BONES’, then we will do wonders in 2018 and years beyond.
There are so many types of bones which for sure have held us back. Let’s make the painful decision of letting go of the bone.
- Failure to seek new thoughts or new ways of doing things is a BONE.
- Doing things in the same unsuccessful manner, year in year out is a BONE.
- Thinking that money alone is the source of your happiness; that’s the HARDEST BONE.
- Going to work late and acting irresponsibly is a BONE.
- Not worshiping God, be it in a CHURCH or MOSQUE; that’s a tricky bone, even the hyena cannot handle.
- Watching our friends fail; yet we could have helped them succeed…BONE.

These are only few examples, the list is endless.
Let’s drop the BONE, so that we have a prosperous 2018 and years ahead. Bones lag us behind from reaching our God-destined potential.

Happy New Year 2018.

THE MAN, FELA DUROTOYE

Fela DUROTOYE is a Nation Builder & the Chief Executive Officer of the GEMSTONE GROUP, a Leadership Development Institution aimed at raising leaders of excellence and exemplary values who would be committed to building Nigeria into a most desirable nation to live in by Wednesday the 31st of December 2025.

Fela DUROTOYE is considered one of Nigerian’s leading strategists and business consultants with expertise in Culture Transformation, Service Leadership & Workforce Activation.

The list of corporate clients in the private sector that have been assisted by Fela DUROTOYE in their quest for phenomenal service leadership culture and corporate transformation management spread across different spheres of the economy.

His clients in the Banking & Finance sectors include Access Bank, GTBank, First Bank, Zenith Bank, First City Monument Bank, Diamond Bank, Fidelity Bank, United Bank for Africa, Skye Bank, Stanbic IBTC Bank and Standard Chartered Bank, ARM Investment Management, Vetiva Asset & Management Ltd and Cordros Capital.

His clients in the Oil & Gas sector include Shell Petroleum Development Corporation, Oando, Total, Addaxx Petroleum, Masters Energy, Bell Oil & Gas and the Nigerian Liquefied Natural Gas Company.

In the telecommunications sector, his clients include Airtel, MTN, Etisalat and Multichoice Nigeria.

In the Manufacturing & FMCG space, his clients include, Peugeot Automobiles, Printserve, Lafarge, Procter & Gamble, Unilever, Nestle, Sanofi Aventis and Pfizer.

In the multilateral and public sectors, the client list also includes Eko Electricity Development Company (EKEDC), Benin Electricity Development Company (BEDC), African Finance Corporation, The European Union (EU Nigeria office), The Economic Community of West African States(ECOWAS) as well as the state governments of Lagos, Oyo, Kwara, Abia, Anambra, Bayelsa, Rivers, Ondo and Ekiti.

Fela currently mentors over 13,000 leaders in business, enterprise, education, religion and the professional services sectors on the platform of The Fela Durotoye Leadership Network.

Fela has a Bachelors (B.Sc.) degree in Computer Science & Economics along with a Masters (M.BA) degree in Business Administration from the prestigious Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife where he wrote his M.BA thesis on The Management of Change in Complex Organisations.

He is also an Alumnus of Kennedy School of Government Executive Education program of the prestigious Harvard University, Boston (Massachusetts). He has completed the High Impact Leadership for a Better Society program at the prestigious Yale University, New Haven (Connecticut). He is also attended the Future Candidate program at The Leadership Institute, Arlington (Virginia) all in the United States of America. He is also a certified leadership coach of the John Maxwell Team.

In 2015, Fela completed the Executive Seminar program on Strategy, Innovation & Governance with specific focus on Sustainability for NGOs and Corporate Organizations at the prestigious Lagos Business School (LBS).

Also in 2015, Fela concluded the supernumerary police training program at the Nigerian Police Training School Ikeja and received the Distinguished Student Award at his graduation and passing out parade.

Fela Durotoye is a guest lecturer on ETHICAL LEADERSHIP at the prestigious STANFORD UNIVERSITY| Seed Program to CEO’s of businesses with operations across the African continent.

He presently sits on the board of several companies across the spectrum of Nigerian’s economic space such as O NAPHTALI (leading scratch card print company in Nigeria), and BUBEZ FOOD COMPANY.

He is currently the chairman of the boards of Directors of some of Nigeria’s leading companies HOMEBASE MORTGAGE BANK LIMITED (a foremost mortgage institution led by Mr. Femi Johnson who is also the president of the Mortgage Bankers Association of Nigeria), I-ASPIRE MEDIA (Operators of Nigeria’s premier inspiration and leadership radio) and ORBRA ICT (manufacturers of cutting edge smartphones, tablets, smart devices and accessories).

Fela is also on the advisory board of Nigeria Canada Forum (NCF) based in Regina Canada.

Fela Durotoye has been at the forefront of the movement to build a New Nigeria. He is renowned for history making on the national or global stage. Over the past decade, he has built a track record of National Transformation projects, many of which are so bold and audacious; near impossible tasks.

For instance, in December 2009, he championed the largest urban renewal project in Nigeria’s history known as MUSHIN MAKEOVER. Fela mobilized over 2,000 volunteers to paint 296 houses across 7 streets of the Mushin suburb of Lagos, AT NO CHARGE to the owners and resident of the buildings.

Perhaps Fela’s most significant contribution to Nation Building is the VALUE SYSTEM which he developed and is currently being endorsed and actively promoted by over 30,000 Nigerians across all gender, tribe, social class or religious affirmation.

The 10 Values have now been articulated into a PERSONAL CREED of ten lifestyle statements namely:
0. MAKE A POSITIVE IMPACT on everyone you meet and everywhere you go.
0. BE A SOLUTION PROVIDER and not a part of the problem to be solved.
0. BE A ROLE MODEL worthy of emulation.
0. BE YOUR BEST IN ALL YOU DO particularly the things you are naturally good at.
0. DO THE RIGHT THING AT ALL TIMES regardless of who is doing the wrong thing.
0. VALUE TIME and make the best use of it.
0. CARE & SHOW RESPECT TO ALL through your words and actions.
0. CONSCIOUSLY BUILD A GREAT LEGACY starting now, today and everyday.
0. LIVE A LIFE OF INTEGRITY AND HONOR.
0. MAKE YOUR FAMILY, NATION AND GOD PROUD.

The 10 Values have been adopted by individuals, organizations, professional associations (such as Association of Private Educators of Nigeria, the Nigerian Institute of Mechanical Engineers and the Mortgage Bankers Association of Nigeria), and more recently government agencies and parastatals.

In 2014, the government of Anambra state formally endorsed & adopted the 10 Values for the citizens and civil service of the state, also in November 2014, the government of Lagos state trained 500 of its top civil servants across all ministries & agencies on the 10 Values.

The VALUES INFUSION project is the largest non-governmental effort at reorienting the citizens of a nation and integrating a value system into our nation’s consciousness in recent times.

In 2014, the Deliver The Future Project was founded and embarked on a leadership and personal transformation tour to tertiary institutions such as University of Ibadan, Ahmadu Bello University Zaria, Benson Idahosa University etc.

The aim is to leave its trail in academic excellence by encouraging the academic and non-academic staff of schools to improve the standard of communication and process of knowledge transfer to create a more conducive learning environment.

AWARDS & RECOGNITION

Fela has won several national and international awards for his leadership development and nation building activities including the prestigious Nigerian Achievers Award in 2009. In recognition of his contributions to the field of Human Resource Consulting, he was honoured with the “Excellence in Human Resource Consulting Award” by NIPRO, a body of Nigerian Professionals based in the United Kingdom and the United States of America, at their global convention in Miami, Florida in December 2004.

Also in July 2005, he was awarded the most prestigious Award of Excellence, by the Chartered Institute of Personnel Management of Nigeria (CIPMN), in recognition of his excellence and professionalism in extending knowledge frontiers in Human Resource Management.

Others awards include, Nigerian Achievers Award Institute (NAAI), Fly Network Africa Integrity Award, City People Young Male Achievers Award and the prestigious Role Model Award given by the Independent Corrupt Practices Commission (ICPC).

In 2006, he received the Heart of Africa Award by the Federal Ministry of Information and Communication in recognition of his efforts towards building a new Nigeria.

In 2011, Fela Durotoye was recognized by the Universal Peace Federation and the Youth Federation for World Peace as a United Nations Young Ambassador For Peace.

In 2017, Fela received an Honorary Award from The African Young Entrepreneurs network in recognition of his efforts towards advancing youth enterprise and nation building in Africa and particularly in Nigeria.

He is married to Tara, a renowned makeup artist, beauty entrepreneur and Chief Executive Officer of the House of Tara and together, they have 3 boys the first of which is Mobolurin, Demilade & Morolaoluwa who think their dad is a SUPER HERO!.