One thing the real estate business does to you is that it makes you move around a lot - you'll relate with area boys, community leaders, village youths, owners of the land and everyone. As an Igbo guy I know we're hustlers - forget it, no one hustles more than us. We have eyes to see opportunities, and when we spot the opportunity we can market it to those who need it. The goal is to secure the bag - that's our special gift.
Because of our culture which is "Aku ruo ulo" (wealth must be brought home for you to be honoured among your people), we have a business culture of chasing money to be honoured at home. The South East is highly competitive - we have age grades and different platforms where people come to show they've arrived. So for these reasons, the purpose of that business is to earn him a chieftaincy title, a mansion built at home, enough wealth to be able to influence things at home and around his kinsmen.
So you'll notice that most of our businesses generate huge cash volumes but lack structure - no organization that stays even after the man is old and dead. Most times the moment the business helps him walk out of poverty and he's achieved recognition, he loses interest - the business dies. This is our weakness. THE YORUBA BUSINESSES: Now the Yoruba businessman or woman doesn't hustle like us - he or she may not have the eyes to see the opportunities around like we do, but something makes them different: organization.
They're organized. I watched a video where Chijioke Igwendu interviewed an Igbo Nollywood actor and asked why the Yorubas have suddenly taken over the cinemas and Nollywood when it was Igbos who built Nollywood - the actor said "Yorubas have taken over because they're organized." That's very correct. If you remember, those sponsors of Nollywood movies did so because there was an opportunity to make money - they cashed out and became rich, but they didn't have a structure that sustained their art even after cinemas and Netflix came in.
We lost. The Yoruba entrepreneurs are not interested in speed - they're interested in longevity and sustainability. Example with real estate: PWAN Group started about 13 years ago, an Igbo company, discovered a business model that enabled it to sell lands quickly - they introduced the network marketing system into selling lands and sold out so many estates all over Nigeria. But they lacked that deep-rooted organizational structure to sustain the speed; when the weight got too much, the company went down.
Now I've watched the ones run by Yorubas - Landwey and Redbrick Homes/Amen Estate - start and how they're being run: they're not interested in speed or high volumes; they operate like any tech company in the country today, with the same organization and structures. They stayed in one location, selling and developing one estate at a time. PWAN kept selling without giving allocation; Landwey came in, started selling and allocating immediately and people began to build - they didn't sell beyond what they couldn't handle.
BOTTOM LINE: This lesson has to do with the culture of both ethnic groups. In our culture you're in a haste to succeed because there is pressure from kinsmen - the shame of being slow wakes you up and makes you look for sharp approaches to arrive quickly. Money is your power and right to speak in Igboland. The Yoruba person is not under that pressure - if he can feed his family and have a roof over his head and is wise, he will still command respect.
Yesterday I went to see the Baale of a community - his house is the poorest in that area, but the life of the people around revolves around that small open house. In the East such a man wouldn't be able to talk in his village. This lack of pressure gives them time, peace of mind and rest to patiently build businesses that survive times - today the biggest corporations in the country are owned by them.
There is something to learn from the Igbo approach, and something to learn from the Yoruba approach too - if we can combine the two approaches, imagine what businesses we'll build? (Written by Ugoji Maximillian; copied as shared)
