We all have moments of doubts – those are human and natural. They have asked you to lead a session in the company workshop, suddenly doubts set in. “I am not sure I am ready; maybe next year”. Unfortunately, no one was born a CEO, and every CEO or ED had a yesterday where he/she was none.
I give talks to bank CEOs, hedge funds, VCs, UN, etc. But I can never forget my first presentation before a legend. I had been flown to a really nice place in Washington state, United States. I was going to speak before the then richest man in the world, and a peerless philanthropist. Bill Gates is a legend.
To be asked to be in his presence was an honour. And to be asked to speak before some of the smartest human beings on earth was even amazing. But there was a burden: if a man makes an average of $1.5 million per hour, you cannot waste his time.
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I developed a strategy; if they stop me before 5%, the Ovim Abia village boy has not grown. If before 25%, the Lagos guy needs help. But if I finish, it’s globally advancing.
I finished. Then, Bill came, “great presentation.” In days, his team followed – and I became convinced it was indeed “great”.
How do you prepare for big moments in your career? Do not waste precious opportunities where leaders can see you audition live. Understand the moments that matter and win them, in 2020.
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It can be both exhilarating and overwhelming sometimes, but again, looking at the potential reward, you realise that you don’t really have many options, other than producing your best version.
Serious and business-minded people can easily get bored, if you struggle to get going, so a speech of 30 minutes could be over within the first three minutes; people don’t spend quality time listening to things that don’t inspire.
At the end of the day, you are at your excellent level when you are yourself, once you try to become someone else, everything crumbles.
When you know what to say and how to say it, the rest of the job is down to how you manage the nerves. The closer you get to ‘big’ people, the more you realise that they are simple and ordinary too, just like yourself; humans are largely the same.
Nice one.
They are humans like us – except the multiples, most things are the same.
very relatable and inspiring.Thank you so much for sharing this, really needed to hear this!
Thank you, Prof. for this insight. The lessons herei are learnt. Always prepare to seize the moment.
Nice Read Ndubuisi Ekekwe! There’s always something to learn from you. I sent an email
regarding :Research on Big Data and Analytics in Agri-food supply chains in Nigeria, to the Zenvus and Tekedia email addresses. Please can I get a response as soon as possible?
My sincere apologies. We have max’d capacity for another external collaboration at the moment. We are working with some schools already and we have to cap due to resources. I do hope you understand, please.
Many thanks for the reply. We completely understand. Can you kindly point us in the right direction though to any other person/resource?
Very inspiring thank you for this – “understand the moments that matter and win them.” Even the little moments before the big ones a preparation for the big one as well.