Celebrity life coach, Dr Lanre Olusola, popularly known as “The Catalyst,” is Africa’s premier life, mind and behavioural change expert. In this interview, he told SEGUN KASALI his life story.
WHAT is the most significant life event at the early stage of your life?
The most significant part of my journey in life was when I was two years old and my father died in a plane crash. I am the last born of six children. It was the Nigerian Airways flight. My dad, who was working in Dunlop, had gone to the United Kingdom to study. As a little boy earnestly waiting to see daddy, I was told that the plane malfunctioned and crashed as it was about to land. That significantly shifted the dynamics in my family. And you know how it is in families; my father was the most educated and the only one taking care of everybody in the family. Consequently, my mum had to go learn how to make hair and how to sew. So, that was how she survived and raised the six of us.
Were you a mummy’s boy thereafter?
I would say I was mummy’s handbag but I was not mummy’s boy because I was quite independent and the fact my dad’s demise reshaped our family to the extent that everyone was given attention. I was always going everywhere with her. She used to carry me to church everyday because she was in the choir and liked taking holy communion every day. So, in that regard, I was the handbag. However, I was this guy that quickly had to be independent because she had to do hair, she had to sew, and she had to take care of other children.
How did you gain independence so quickly?
In Form 2, Form 3, I started a holiday job in Shomolu and at that time I was just 12 years old. So, it was in a quantity surveying firm and I was their errand boy. I would sit down at the reception and they would send me on errands and I get paid after 30 days. I would do that work during the holiday so that I can afford to buy school sandals and school bags. I went to Igbobi College, which was a missionary school mixed with children of the rich and poor. I can’t remember the salary but the pay could carry me for the whole term.
Was your mum aware of this job?
Yes, she was because the amount she gives me as ‘omo boy’ won’t be enough. I needed to make some money to add to it so I could afford literary and debating society, fashion parades and the likes. One needed to be able to fund one’s own lifestyle.
Are unforgettable memories that you had while running those errands?
The fact that they would send me to go and buy food and newspapers exposed me to the streets. Due to that, I was able to hold my own on the street. This means that when you work among the louts and all manner of people and interact with that environment every day, there is this confidence it gives you and you are able to survive each day. You begin to believe there is no situation or circumstance you cannot handle. When they send me to go and buy food, I would haggle over the price and if you are able to get some change as an 11-year-old boy, you then keep the change in your pocket. I was able to get into people’s minds and at the same time, develop business skills. I did that consistently until when I got to Form 4 or so.
And your education was not negatively affected?
Not at all. I did the job during the summer holiday. The most beautiful thing about the firm is that it had an encyclopedia. So, I would sit down and study different countries. So, when people came back from holiday saying they went to London and the like, I wasn’t idle with nothing to contribute. I always knew about the locations and activities of some of the countries they went to. So, I won’t just listen. I would contribute.
Is it correct to say this exposure early in life put you ahead of others in school back then?
I would say it gave me a lot of self-confidence. There was a lot of peer pressure in the school at that time; many boys were smoking and drinking at the time. One of the things I never did was drugs and I believe the exposure was what kept me, alongside a statement from my mum that if you take drugs you will run mad. And I knew my intellect was my greatest skill. So, no matter the peer pressure I was able to hold myself. So, being a guy around Shomolu, I knew how to survive.
How do you mean?
When I was in the university, I travelled to Benin. And I was with my friends in the hostel and members of a particular cult group came to execute a hit. I was never in a cult and a lot of my friends were not. When the cultists came in, they asked everybody to lie down. I knew lying down would be the end of the game. So, I went down on my knees and engaged them eye to eye. I told the guy, ‘I cannot lie down’. The guy smashed a bottle of Coke on my head. We went back and forth about that for about 15 minutes. I believe that was what saved my life. One of my friends that had laid down heard me scream and suddenly looked up to see what was going on, and he saw that the guy that stood over him was his classmate. The guy looked at my friend and gave him a dirty slap, called out his name and said ‘omo, what are you doing here? What are you doing here? Oh! We cannot execute what they asked us to do’. And that was how those cult boys dispersed. That ability not to cower in the midst of danger, I learnt that as a little boy in Shomolu. So, it has really shaped who I have become.
But being a fine boy must have caused a lot of distractions for you?
Yes, it did. I was the number one in a social club called RHO in the University of Lagos then. I got the nickname ‘Kupi’ which was from my surname ‘Kupoluyi’. I was the one in charge of organising parties. When it comes to bringing those chicks to the party, it was me. I was the fine boy with no pimples Kupi. And guess what, I worked all through my years in the university. And I had a lot of carryovers until my third year.
How did you get out of it?
I felt ‘how would I go home and face this woman’. I had to ‘borrow myself sense’. I started to double jack. I realised that everybody respects you because you are at the top of the social food chain and based on that reputation people wanted to be friends. So, I accessed the brainy people and they began to teach me those courses. As at the time I was in my fifth year, I had cleared all my carryovers. So, by that time, I began to harmonise my social and intellectual life.
What did life present to you after university?
I worked for three years after I graduated and left to set up different companies which I did for 15 years. One day I was praying and I heard the voice, saying “shut down all your businesses and go and transform minds and lives for me.” I didn’t take it hook, line and sinker. I struggled running different businesses and I was known in the businesses that I was into at the time. I was the one clothing all those leading banks –Standard Trust Bank, Lead Merchant Bank, First Bank and all of those new generation banks. So, shutting down those businesses was not easy. It took me six months to really process what God was saying. I had to go back and ask God questions that ‘this thing you want me to do, what exactly is it?’ And I started researching. Eventually, I had clarity in what he wanted me to do and he pointed me to the direction of coaching. I found one of the top coaching academies in the United Kingdom and I went on to study coaching there. The rest is history. I am currently doing a Ph.D in coaching at Oxford Brookes. It might interest you to know that God instructed me to change my surname. At that time, my surname used to be Kupoluyi. I changed my surname to Olusola and started the coaching industry in Nigeria.
How did you meet your wife?
I used to work with Ultima Communications Limited. At this time, I was an assistant sales manager. And for you to go into sales, you need to understand installation of equipment. So, one day, I was in the office and the phone rang and a customer called to say ‘CNN was not working’. So, I asked where he lived, it was on the same street as my office. This was about 7:30 pm. So, I said ‘I would come and take a look at it’. So, I went, looked at the problem and resolved the issue. He was impressed because I solved it in record time. He took my contact details and promised to call me anytime he had a problem. He was the managing director of a bank at the time. Once there is heavy rain, the dish would shift and once this happens, there will be no signal. He used to come back home at 7, have his dinner, and sit to watch CNN and sports till he goes to bed. So, anything that disrupts that routine is a major problem for him. One fateful day, he called at night to help him fix his dish. I went and fixed it. I was about to leave when a young girl descended from the stairs. We greeted and the dad said ‘This is Mr Lanre. He always helps me to fix problem with the dish. He is such a very kind young man. She thereafter went out with her friend and I went away. Remember I said I was a member of a social club called RHO Club. At this time, she was in the university, but I had graduated. However, there was this tradition that anytime the current students are having a party, they invite former members. I was invited tk a pool party where I saw her again. I ran after her ehn, no be small thing. It was from there that we became friends and that got integrated into their family.
In this coaching business, when did you get the breakthrough?
The first breakthrough came when Oby Ezekwesili became education minister during Obasanjo’s regime. I got a call one day. Apparently, a few people had observed what I was doing with universities and university students. She was trying to recruit 10 consultants in 10 critical areas to work with her to turn around the education sector. At that time, a lot of our secondary school students were failing WAEC and GCE. She wanted someone that could drive academic achievements and also improve performance of the university students. So, I got a call from her, saying ‘I would like you to come work with me’. That was the first breakthrough I got. I later went to Abuja for about three and a half years and worked as an education consultant, using my coaching expertise. At that time, the World Bank and DFID sponsored the project, so I earned dollars and stayed at Transcorp Hilton. I was on the project consulting for the World Bank, DFID, and Ministry of Education for three years. I saved all what they gave me because all the expenses were borne by them. In the third year, they wanted to start a big project in Lagos and they sent me to Lagos to start that one.
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