Patrick Ogungbola
MD/ CEO, BLUEHEDGE REALTORS
This is wishing you a happy new month and a happy Nigeria independence.
This time last year, the topic of our article was ‘The Real Independence’. The article is still very much relevant today, you can read it here (http://bit.ly/2dVPpWf). Truly, the real independence is ‘economic independence’.
Our article for this month is centred around an experience this writer had with one of our company’s marketing platform. As a real estate company, we market our properties through different marketing media (online and offline).
Few days ago, I observed an anomaly in some of our property adverts with the marketing company which I brought to the notice of our relationship manager working with the company to rectify. Her response shocked me, she simply replied that my request is ‘impossible – it can’t be changed’.
Your obvious question would be, ‘What could that request be?’
We have been using this marketing platform to advertise our properties since 2013 whereby we pay through annual subscription. Then, sometimes last year (2016), they came up with a proposal that they won’t be considering advert subscription again, but that they will be sharing part of our commission upon successful conclusion of any transaction, and to this end, we were requested to sign an agreement with them. This didn’t go down well with our office, and hence, we refused their proposal.
Few weeks after this period, we observed that they have changed all our property adverts to theirs, whereby when anyone wants to make an enquiry on any of our properties, it is their contact details that will be displayed.
However, sometimes this year (2017), someone called us from their company that they have reviewed their policy, most especially for those of us that did not sign up for their 2016 ‘new’ policy. To this end, we were informed that we can continue to run our usual subscription plan, and hence, we paid for one year plan, and our account with them was reactivated.
Recently, while reviewing our property adverts on their platform, we observed, to our utmost dismay, that our adverts that were posted before the reactivation were still displaying their company’s contact details, instead of ours.
This was the request/ complaint we brought to their notice to effect the change. Hence, we were surprised when our relationship officer from their company emphatically said, ‘it is not possible, it can’t be changed back’. This response got us infuriated, and the reason is obvious. If they could change our contact details to theirs when we didn’t go with their initial policy, why can’t they change it back to our contact detail now that we have re-subscribed with them.
When the relationship officer observed that we will not succumb to any flimsy excuse (which they called reason), she had to connect us to their I.T. manager who also repeated ‘the impossibility statement’. When he couldn’t convince us any further, he told us that the master database of their platform is domiciled and is being maintained in South Africa, and that is the only place where the change can take place. Even with this excuse (or reason), we insisted that the change should be effected, because that is what we want. The irony of this incident is that what seemed not possible to them was made possible after much pressure and insistence, even though it will be sorted out in another country.
We live in a world of limitless possibilities. Impossibility is simply a state of mind. The things people said was impossible many years ago have been made possible today. Many postulations, theories and laws have been broken in today’s world. Before the Wright brothers (Wilbur and Orville Wright) invented the first powered aircraft in 1903, many scientists had propounded theories that objects can never fly in the sky; the rest is history today. With the rapid rate of technological discoveries and inventions, ‘impossibilities’ are being turned to ‘possibilities’ on a daily basis that the greatest mistake anyone can ever make is to say something is impossible. Even if anyone feels that something isn’t possible, the best the person can do is to look for ways and means of making it possible. The future belongs to those that can turn the impossibilities (problems) to possibilities (solutions); and that is exactly what the world is looking for – solutions. Almost everyone easily identifies problems, but only few people are willing and ready to proffer solutions to the problems. No doubt, you will only be rewarded for the solutions you create, and never for the problems you identified.
The things that seem impossible today are the things that have not been imagined, thought about and tried or attempted. The Bible says, ‘ALL things are possible to him that believe’ (Mark 9:23); the emphasis is in the word ‘All’, that is, everything is possible. A man can never go or grow beyond the limit of his thinking, as a man thinks in his heart, so is he. No wonder Henry Ford said, ‘Whether you think you can, or you think you can’t, you’re right‘. Mahatma Gandhi supported this assertion when he said, ‘Man often becomes what he believes himself to be’
Check out any great thing anyone has ever achieved. Belief comes first, not resources. Henry Ford never knew how a car would look like yet, he believed he would design one. Sir Edmund Hillary believed he would climb the tallest mountain, Mount Everest, even when no one has ever succeeded in the feat. Thomas Edison failed 1000 times in the process of making light bulb, but he never gave up until he succeeded. John Logie Baird, the Scottish inventor who invented the television set and the first recording device, Tim Berners-Lee who invented the World Wide Web (http://www) and made it freely available, and Mark Zuckerberg who invented ‘facebook’ and which affords everyone to be connected with their loved ones, amongst several others encountered serious challenges, but they never gave up until they achieved their desired results.
Many people’s dream, hope and aspirations have been dashed because people they hold in very high esteem had told them that ‘it’s impossible’. The truth is, the fact that it has not been done before does not mean it can never be done. Inventors are the first set of people to invent (or create), and that is why they are called ‘inventors’.
While establishing our company – BLUEHEDGE REALTORS, people that were very close to me emphatically said that it will fail; they said, ‘Do you know how many companies you’ve established and have failed, what gave you the impression that this would be an exception? Because the vision was peculiar to me, I ignored every discouraging words, and we forged ahead. Today, BLUEHEDGE REALTORS currently operates in four (4) offices in Nigeria, with the head office in Lagos, and branch offices in Abuja (FCT), Port Harcourt (Rivers State) and Uyo (Akwa Ibom State); and this is just the beginning.
A dream is peculiar to the dreamer, hence, it will be very foolish and out of place for someone who didn’t see what you saw to tell you that it can’t be done, and it will be much more foolish for the dreamer (owner of the dream or vision) to be discouraged by any negative advice from other people who had no dream. You are not yet a failure until you accept and believe someone else’s negative statements as your reality.
The person you are today is the product of what you chose to believe few years ago, and the person you will be tomorrow is dependent on what you choose to believe today. There’s nothing wrong if the whole world doesn’t believe in you, but everything will be wrong if you don’t believe in yourself. It is a choice and at the same time a decision only you can make; no one can make it for you. Never say never, it is absolutely possible to reach your goal; remember, ‘All things are possible’.
As usual, we want to remind you that we care so much about you, and that when it comes to your real estate investment, we are always here to give you the very best service you can never get elsewhere. That is our promise, and will always be.
We wish you the very best in the month of October 2017.
Thank you.
