Arowosafe, Samuel O.

On the day we stole Nigeria’s crude oil, we bribed the Nigerian army to look the other way, then the ‘IGP Squad’ came to offer us protection for a fee. UNDERCOVER: With Police, Army On Your Side, You Can Also Become An Illegal Crude Oil Bunkerer fij.ng/article/undercover-wi…

40 Things I Learnt At 40 (1-10) After turning 40 last week, I compiled a list of 40 things I’ve learnt through the years. Broken into life, entrepreneurship, career choices and romantic love, I’ll be sharing 10 per day for the next four days. On Life 1. The best of men are men at best. Frailty is one of the hallmarks of human nature. The best of humans you’ll ever meet will be imperfect. 2. Never take vengeance (not to be confused with justice) on anyone in your personal life, no matter the hurt they’ve caused you. Just give it time. The pain will erase with time. And time often returns to haunt the villains, whether they admit it or not. 3. Loyalty is a less available trait in humans than commonly thought. And this is because loyalty is often confused with a lack of options. Nobody can be said to be loyal to you until they no longer need you — usually because they’ve been exposed to options on par with what you offer them or even higher. 4. When people talk, listen attentively to the things they say. But listen more attentively to the things they do not say — that’s the real information you need. 5. Nobody (including this writer) is indispensable but some people are irreplaceable. They are indispensable because life will continue without them, anyway; but they’re irreplaceable because life will continue not in the same way. Thankfully, depending on multiple factors, you will only meet one to five irreplaceable people in your entire life. 6. You don’t have to win all the time to be a winner; you only have to win a few times — a few important times. 7. The grass is sometimes greener on the other side but mostly greener where you water it. 8. Life is unfair; yes. But that’s one side of the story. The other side is life is fair in the sense that it gives us 24 hours each. We often underestimate how much of life’s unfairness we can level with the use to which we put our every 24 hours. 9. In every decade of your life, you will lose one to three special people to death. Break your past years into decades and you will find this to be already true. Make everyone feel loved while they’re here; nobody knows for sure who’s next. On Romantic Love 10. If you find someone who loves you, that’s good. If you find someone who respects you (not to be confused with obeisance) even in the bad times, that’s better. If you find someone loyal to you, that’s the best!