Young People, the best time to audition for a job is when there is no opening. And the best time for an entrepreneur to raise money in Nigeria is when he or she is not actively fundraising. Why? Because by the time opportunities formally arrive, many of the real decisions may have already been made.
Fundraising does not truly begin in conference rooms, board meetings, or investor presentations. It often starts years earlier, in dormitories, canteens, offices, classrooms, churches, villages, and in ordinary interactions where people quietly observe who you are. What you did ten years ago can determine whether your classmate, colleague, uncle, friend, or former teammate decides to support you today when they have resources to invest.
At Tekedia, I often explain that much of life runs on what I call ITT Capital: Integrity, Trust, and Tenacity. This capital is not built during fundraising rounds. It is not assembled during a crisis or activated when money suddenly becomes necessary. ITT Capital compounds over years through repeated interactions and transactional moments.
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Think about it: can your classmate confidently give you money? Can your colleague at work support your idea? Can your auntie invest in your business? If people around you have the resources but consistently hesitate, perhaps the issue is not the economy or timing. Perhaps your ITT Capital before them is weak.
Investment itself has two phases: the transactional and the relational. ITT Capital governs the transactional phase. People first watch your behavior, reliability, discipline, and consistency. If you perform well there, you unlock the relational phase where trust deepens and opportunities emerge. And from that relationship comes the possibility of long-term support.
Within that relationship, however, another important question always emerges: in moments of truth, who comes first: you or the person who trusted you enough to invest? The individual, institution, or company that believed in you should always matter deeply in your thinking. The best founders understand stewardship. They understand that money entrusted to them carries responsibility.
Get it from me: people rarely invest because they merely like an idea. They invest because they respect people and believe the builder has a higher chance to grow their money. An investor invests in YOU before investing in your company because the investor has modelled that you are going to handle this fund better than he or she can! It is a sacred economic positioning because you cannot give money to someone you think you can do better than.
Forget the pitch deck for a moment. Forget the grand narrative and the product story. The first “company” investors evaluate is YOU. If they do not like the product called YOU, they may never buy shares in the company you are building. To build a great company, first build yourself. Because before capital enters a business, confidence enters a person. As you do that, remember that no career can blossom if people cannot recommend you in your absence. And for that to happen, you must reduce the burden for them to do that by boosting your ITT.
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