How Femi Otedola Works

So now, you know, he started in the oil and gas industry by supplying diesel, right? This guy will arrive at his work by 6:30 a.m.

in the morning.

That's when he arrives at his office.

Meanwhile, the resumption time was 8 a.m. in the morning, so he got to work before his staff got to the office, and he would stay at work till 7 p.m. in the night and sometimes 9 p.m. And that is not all.

That's not even all.

When he stays at work to that late, he would then drive to Apapa.

Apapa is the port in Nigeria where all the ships come and berth.

All right? He would go to the port, and he would stay there till, like, 3 a.m.

or 2 a.m. in the morning to ensure that his ships is loaded with petroleum products before he would now drive to his house in Ikeja.

Then he was still staying in, at Ikeja.

This is while his competitors were sleeping.

This is while his staff were all sleeping.

There, here's the principle: you own a business, your staff should see you leading from the front, not from the back.

And it just sort of relates to even Elon Musk in, in the book by, um, uh, Eric Jurgensen called The Book of, The Book of Elon, where Elon Musk will sleep at the factory floor in Tesla when they first started.

In fact, some of his staff were saying that, "Oh, there is a hotel directly in front of the factory.

Why don't this guy go and, you know, rent a room in the hotel?" But he slept on the floor so that the people see that he is leading from the front.

Question I wanna ask you is: what are you doing after your competitors go home? That extra mile that you will push yourself may just give you a competitive advantage.

You know when two horses are running in a race, horse that wins just by a nose will win five times the prize money.

Question: did the horse that won, is he five times faster? No.

Is he five times smarter? No.

But just that simple and small competitive advantage can lead to a lot of things.

Like they say, small keys can open big doors.

That is the first work ethic that we have learned from Femi Otedola.

The second work ethic that we learned from Mr. Otedola on how it works is the way he recruits.

He recruits.