A few days ago, I did one of my regular broadcasts on Mentoring Masterclass. I focused on After Graduation, What Next? What I did not tell you was how the topic was provoked.
Isaac, a graduate who lives close by defers to me as his mentor and I play my role well, supervising him as one of my mentees. I praise God for vindicating me concerning him today. Let me tell you the story.
He graduated three years ago, with the mindset of getting a job in Chevron, Shell, MTN, Central Bank, etc. Buoyed by Pentecostal declamations that there is nothing God cannot do, he believed a job was waiting for him in one of the places. However, things have not worked that way. 
After three years at home, he got in touch with me some months ago after reading one of my books, Discover the Secrets of Mentoring. When I heard his story, I told him to stop sleeping at home or cursing Buhari.
‘If you don’t have any entrepreneurial skills to start on your own, and you like to work and learn, look for any organisation like schools, companies, firms around your vicinity where you can go every morning without incurring transport costs.
Go there and tell the boss, you are an unemployed graduate who is ready to work for free rather than sleep at home, pressing phones.
The secrets behind this, I told him, is that you are getting out of home every day, mixing with people, getting exposed, getting information on opportunities elsewhere and you are on the move. If you remain at home, everything remains on the same spot. You will be exposed to insults and all sorts.
I assured him that despite the fact that he is working free, some Oga like me would be magnanimous to squeeze something for him at the end of the month.
Three months ago, Isaac went to a school in the vicinity. He read Banking and Finance. The female proprietor accepted him as a PA. The mama was old enough to be his mother, so he worked with her with great respect.
According to him, when he started, going home every day, mama would him N500 or N1k. He would take breakfast from the choice food mama brings to the office every day. After work, he would drive her home and have his dinner there. At the end of the first month, August, mama dashed him N30k. The following month, N45k. Last month, mama gave him N60k.
Mama, in her 60s, is a widow, and all her children are abroad. Whatever mama does not need in the house or she likes to replace with new ones sent to her by her children, Isaac picks them: flat-screen TV, freezers, gas cooker, rugs, upholstery chairs, tables, etc. Isaac said he has all manner of things in his room now. His tummy is growing gradually.
Tuesday this week, Isaac walked into my library and said ‘Daddy, come and see something outside’. He took me to a Toyota Camry and said… ‘Mama travelled to the US yesterday. She said I should be using this Camry till she comes back in January next year. Oga, I don get motor!’ he laughed.
The message here is you can get yourself into your dream. Life does not have to be stationary because of the current mistake in power. You have the power to dictate your life. You also have so much to learn from relying on the experience of the elders around you. Get a mentor. The shortest court between where you are and where you are going in life is mentoring.
Your children have no reason to remain at home deceiving themselves that there is no employment. There are a billion vacancies in Nigeria but employers of labour cannot meet up with the standard payment requirements. If they find people who are humble enough to penetrate them the same way as Isaac, they would be glad to get them in.
Hope you learn something from this?
