THE VALUE OF AN OPPORTUNITY
Mr Ferdinard Okoro was a promising first-class graduate in accounting from the University of Nsukka who got retained by Shell Petroleum Company, a renowned oil and gas company in Nigeria at the age of 22.
As a promising young man, he had all to himself at this point. i.e a gross pay of N500,000 monthly, accumulated monthly allowances of N300,000 and total net pay of N800,000 monthly.
Ferdinard Okoro has been as promising as ever, felt that planning was not necessary for him at this point, considering his stable job (job security), sufficient salary and his young age of achieving so much. He began a flamboyant and reckless lifestyle of visiting pubs and dived deeply into alcohol intake with an unprecedented assurance of his job security.
Roland Okoye, a colleague and close friend of Ferdinard had a different perspective of life entirely. He had sat Ferdinard his close friend on several occasions advising him about life and the importance of investing in his future. But Ferdinard paid deaf ears to his advice.
Roland Okoye had various chains of small scale businesses such as a fish farm, a fast-food restaurant, a unisex saloon and 4 Toyota buses for intracity transportation. This makes him generates approximately 1.5 million naira profit outside his net pay. With the alternative generated revenue, he successfully got himself a 2 bedroom apartment of his own and was free from rent. He was also able to buy 2 units of 2 bedroom apartments for rental income.
Years later, there was an economic downsizing which occurred that badly affected the oil sector and this lead to Shell Petroleum Industry laying off 40% of their employees. Unfortunately, Ferdinard Okoro got affected. He had no investment, savings or even an apartment of his own. He found himself returning to the scratch within a twinkle of an eye.
At this point, Ferdinard regretted never listening to the advice of his friend and vowed to turn a new leaf if given a second chance.
How possible that would be, only God can tell because opportunities come once in a lifetime.
