True Stories About “Mind Games Playing” in Business

Mind games playing is more or less a way of life for MANY Nigerians – whether those living in the country or based abroad.

I say this based on YEARS of personal experiences and observations from interacting with people in Nigeria (often quite closely/for extended periods) in my business and personal life.

[TIP: You have a right to disagree with the assertion I’ve made above – feel free to jump up and down, and even tear your hair out. But if you wish to engage me in dicussion about the views I’ve expressed here, be sure to observe ALL the rules of polite and intelligent conversation. Thanks in advance :-)]

I’m NOT alone. There are others willing to say it like it is.

In particular, I’ve come across more than one non-Nigerian who has noticed this negative tendency while living/working with Nigerians.

For instance, an American expatriate who spent some years doing business in Nigeria, connected with me on Skype in 2012, after we’d met on LinkedIn. com and got talking about doing business in Nigeria.

What I liked about Greg M. (his real first name and initial for his surname) was that he was willing to NOT be Politically Correct or needlessly diplomatic.

He wasted no time in stating that one of the greatest frustrations he experienced (apart from erratic power supply) while still in Nigeria, as a business person was the preference most people he had to relate with, displayed for mind games of all kinds.

I could relate quite well with what he said, and I told him so. Today, very little has changed in that regard. Indeed, it’s that peculiar tendency that led to the pre-qualification steps I put in place in my sales leads generation process (which is now 100% online based) to screen people who reach out to me, so I can be sure they are NOT time wasters…or worse.

Click the link below this post to download my 1 hour Audio Podcast titled “True Stories About Mind Games Playing in Business”.

I bring my experience based knowledge and insights to bear in informing and educating relevant others, about the antics of naughty people in society, who play mind games with the intent to manipulate, deceive and exploit unsuspecting others.

These emotionally UN-intelligent individuals CAN (and WILL, if you let them!) use their mind games to (among other things):

Make you work for them for LESS or NO pay…
Get you to share your new/original ideas, so they can later pass them off as theirs to others (e.g plagiarism)…
Establish a relationship with you, that they then exploit to make false claims to reap benefits they seek elsewhere (e.g a client that listed my name as an EMPLOYEE-in their business plan presentation for a bank loan without my knowledge or consent!).

“These are people who live their lives manipulating others. And they need to be discouraged” – Tayo K. Solagbade

Like I stated in the audio, my ultimate purpose for sharing this post and podcast bundle is to provide a public service of sorts.

ALL the stories I’ve shared are 100% true (despite the shocking nature of some), and they happened to me, personally. So this is NOT based on hearsay.

Below: Sample verbatim text transcript excerpts from the audio podcact (click here to request download NOW)…

“…For those who are engaged in the habits I describe in this audio, the truth is that you’re NOT going to like what you’re going to hear now…but the truth needs to be said…”

“…I have this example I’m going to give you. Somebody calls up your phone line. That’s why I don’t do call backs (except it’s a number/caller I know). In developed societies when you see a missed call, there’s a rule. Generally you do a call back. If you’re really a smart business person you want to do a call back – because people don’t go around making…well do they have people who are crank callers, but when you’re in business, people don’t make a habit of, for example thing we call ‘flashing’.

It’s only in Nigeria we have flashing. The mobile phone came into Nigeria then people instantly developed a negative use for it. Somebody doesn’t have airtime to call you, and you want that person to pay you for product? He’s not willing to buy N100 airtime to call you and he flashes YOU, so that YOU can call HIM, and you think that person can do business with you?

That person is NOT qualified to do business with me. The mentality is already wrong.

Look, the things I sell are not cheap. But they are not expensive either. So, if somebody wants to buy something from me and cannot call me…There’s a missed call? So? Call me back! Call again!!

Let me see the effort before I begin to think I need to do a call back – because in Nigeria what happens is somebody who has absolutely no interest in buying anything from you just sees your profile on the web and says “Hmmm…look at this guy, na wao O. Let me just talk to him and even find out….bla bla bla…”

So he begins to tell you send me this, send me that (information etc), and you’ll think you’re talking to a human being – you won’t know you’re talking to some idiot who just wants to play with you. They do that a lot. There are people who don’t have better things to do with their time, than to just sit around and try to exert power over you.

They can make you jump through hoops because they think you are so (in need)…there is a mentality in Nigeria where people who are in business think they are supposed to jump through hoops to get business. (They think) that’s how to show that they are interested in getting business….

“…I have this series I wrote (see related articles below) some time ago. I think 2005, 2004, on a theme I titled “Entrepreneur Abuse’. It was based on certain very nasty experiences I’d had (at the hands of clients/prospects) which I discovered were very commonly occurring in Nigeria, but which a lot of people in this part of the world just rationalize and assume saying ‘We don’t have a choice…we have to accept it”…

…(I say) You don’t have to accept it! I always tell people…even when I was crawling, when my brand was zero, when nobody knew me. When I did not have the kind of online presence that I have today, that enables me to get people to earn income from people who don’t see me in the flesh, I always told people: YOU have a choice!”

[Hint: Click here to view the Facebook status update I posted on 4th August 2017 (about 3 and a half weeks ago), as a precursor to THIS post and the podcast. In that Facebook update I gave a preview of the contents of the promised audio podcast. Now that it’s LIVE, I can confirm that I’ve put in all that I hinted at, plus a little extra on top. The above excerpts give an idea of what the full 1 hour presentation offers. Fill/submit the form at www.tayosolagbade.com/contact.htm to request the FREE download]