Adebayo Adegun – Preparedness + Opportunity = Success

I was that child who grew up eating a bowl of rice 🥣 without a grain left in the plate. In fact, I picked and ate the grains that slipped sideways. My plate of soup was licked clean. My dining etiquette was zero.

When we started CrossTie Solutions, I had the opportunity to attend a CEO Masterclass at a business school where I would learn dining etiquette 🍽️. I thought it was expensive and wasn’t essential for my role.

In 2011, I got invited by a multinational company for a meeting over lunch at the Oriental Hotel 🏨. It was a Chinese Restaurant. To avoid embarrassment, I only ate what others ate and used the cutleries they used 😆.

I was confident until a white man sitting opposite asked me to pass the pepper. I stretched out my hands over the meal to give him. He paused. Others were stunned. I was bewildered. He asked me to pass it to the next person until it gets to him. It was embarrassing. We ended the conversation. I lost the contract.

I rushed back to take the CEO Masterclass and paid a double fee. Why am I sharing this? Take a look at yourself right now and imagine where you want to be 💭. Are you prepared? It wasn’t raining when Noah built the Ark.

Preparedness + Opportunity = Success