YOUR BRAND INFLUENCERS

We are the CEOs of our lives which is our first multi-zillion company and a brand in itself. So we have the liberty to hand pick our stakeholders (Mentors), our departmental heads ( Inner circle/friends), staff  (acquaintances) . Each individual is a brand of his own.

These people would in the long run, influence a lot of your life's decisions and direction. They have a way of determining if your brand which is you in this case, will sky rocket in a couple of years from now or nose dive. Are your brand influences actually friends or heavy luggage that sap you of your last ounce of strength, motivation and the zeal to lead a most productive life?

 Am not going to give you  LadyI's guidelines to picking friends, but I can tell you a bit about my friends and mentors. My mentors are those who look like the tomorrow of me that I see. Also, while learning from them, its not mandatory to do exactly all they do in cases where you find faults.

If there is one key lesson I have learnt about mentor mentee relationship, is that its healthier when its a symbiotic relationship. While the mentee hasn't gotten to where he or she wants to get to, he has to think of ways to translate from being a parasite to adding value to his mentor, which may seem impossible. Make him see you as a valuable asset. Well, no one ever says you cant also outgrow a mentor which actually happens in most cases. Permit me to give you some examples for better clarity. If you have been following up on here, you should already know where I work. I have an amazing mentor at work who goes the extra mile for me and a couple of others and spends over an hour a week in some cases teaching us to speak and present better. I got thinking of ways to also add value to him when I remembered one contact I had, who I believed will be an asset for him and the kind of work he does. So I called him up and asked if he would like me to link him up with my contact. In his words he said " Ahh, I can give up my months pay check to have him as a contact " . The rest is history. Now its clear to him that I also have his good interest at heart.

I learned long time ago back in University that we are the average of the friends we keep. Some people hunt for new friends as though they are impulsive shoppers and at the end of the day they realize that they hadn't totally made the right choices. My inner circle friends do not give me a headache and have been very instrumental to my growth over time. I don't carry baggage(s) around all because I think the individual is  physically presentable but mentally and potentially unpresentable.

My mum has an old saying" Friendship is not by force" If its not working or yielding the expected fruits and efforts made are futile then let him/her go. Truth is, you wouldn't die. If you can't boast of a friend who through association has made you more motivated and better then you may need a friend review.

I guess my point has been made though. In any case, I would like to use this means to appreciate my mentors Oprah Winfrey,Gina London,Fisayo Soyombo, Dr Muyiwa Oludayo, Adesewa Josh,Flourish Chukwurah , Karen Ubani and an honest list of others. To my friends Lois Eko, Ebunoluwa Okeowo, Shadrach Olarewaju, Oghuan Unuigbe, Mohyin Ipinera and my newly married friend Ebube Okeke and a handful of others. I love you all deeply.

P:S Would like to know your friendship principles

Much Love,

Lady I