Tosin Tope-Babalola is a peacemaking ambassador for the United Nations, ex-banker and a serial entrepreneur. In this interview wiith Deborah Mustapha, he speaks about his life experiences, and why entrepreneurship is the future for youths in Nigeria.
You are a man of many parts. What exactly do you do?
I am currently a brand analyst, consultant of repute and a publisher, the author of five published books; top on the list and most recent is THE CEO (Chief Executive Officer), a book on business start-off, sustenance and business expansion.
What have you learnt in your line of work?
I am a graced man. One of the vital lessons life has taught me is that the pathway to success can be extremely lonely but one lesson grace has taught me is that God is all you need. I never got much of support in all the strides of life I have had to take, my challenges and struggles are well documented but I am eternally grateful to God for helping to keep my passion for success alive and giving me the daring spirit that cheers me on on difficult turfs.
My experiences will make an epistle but summarily, let me say I am a man that consciously detached myself from the excuses my past present and carved out a future of success I so craved for. Fortunately, grace answered to me and here I am today.
How can you differentiate failure and success?
Failure is not a word I relate with. Failure is a non-existing word unless the person being evaluated identifies with it. In other words, you haven’t failed until the person involved agrees that he or she has failed. I think what we generally call failure is “ a process of learning how not to do something”. If the person concerned sees it this way, he tries a better way and… the rest becomes story!
On the other part, no one can also define success except the person involved too. Success is winning in the direction of your purpose so whatever you achieve, if it is not in the direction of your purpose, it’s not success. Unfortunately, people watching judge success though the lens of material acquisition, like cars, houses and other stuffs. If my purpose is to mentor people into business successes, the number of cars I drive and houses I have will still not make me a success if I am not raising those people into business success.
You ventured into business early…
I conceived the idea of owning a branding business an undergraduate. I felt people in my environment were not intentional about an excellent outlook in their printing. It was a problem I identified and decided to tackle. The rest is history.
Being a CEO and a pastor, how do you manage both callings?
I reproduce myself a lot. I believe that’s what leaders should do, I have done that so well on the job and even in church so if I am not in church the church keeps running and same goes for the office. I am also very intentional about structures. Everyone knows what to do even when I am not there because the structure for operations is in place. I am however a diligent man who also found grace so God helps me to get through these things one way or the other.
Being an entrepreneur, what can you say about entrepreneurship?
It’s a thing of delight to me. Earners take from the society but entrepreneurs give to the society because they pay salaries. That in itself, gives me a sense of fulfillment. Very demanding but very fulfilling.
Your words of encouragement to the youths who prefer white collar jobs to business.
You can become rich working for people, but you will never become wealthy. You can be sacked on a paid job, you can leave your business to your coming generation . You can hunt for a white collar job for life, you don’t need to hunt for business, you can start right away.
and then