I've Worked For Two Billionaires. Here's What I Learned From Them

I have spent decades “being educated” – in college, graduate school, numerous professional certifications, and now a PhD program. All of that schooling and training helped shape the person I am today, but at no point in my life  has there been a more profound education than my time working for Enver Yucel andOprah Winfrey.

Enver and Oprah are two extraordinary people. And on top of that, they’re both billionaires. On the surface, they appear to be totally different people. They are in different industries, have different family structures, practice different religions, and speak different languages. However, once you get past their written biographies and dig deeper, you will notice they possess many of the same successful habits.

I had the opportunity to work with both Oprah and Enver for 6 years collectively and those were, hands down, the best professional experiences of my life. I worked my ass off for them and in doing so absorbed everything I could.

It’s my honor to share with you what I learned from them. Here is Part 1 of the 20 successful habits I learned working for two billionaires:

1) Invest in Yourself

This is a very simple concept, but something you would think someone who has “made it” would stop doing. Not at all for these two. I saw them both spend a significant amount of time dedicating their resources to self-development (whether it be a new language, exercise, social media classes, etc). The moment you stop investing in yourself is the moment you have written off future dividends in life.

2) Be Curious…About Everything

What the average person sees as mundane or overly complicated is not viewed the same way with a billionaire mindset. I once had a 30 minute conversation with Enver about the height of the curbs in Washington DC versus Istanbul, Turkey.  Billionaires are incredibly curious; what the rest of the world thinks is a problem and complains about — that’s what these people go and work on.

3) Surround Yourself With “Better” People

I hope this is why they kept me around. Seriously, I never knew my bosses to keep anyone less-than-stellar in their inner circle. There were many times I thought to myself, “Damn, they have dream-teams built around them.” Jim Rohn had it right, “You are the average of the 5 people you spend the most time with.”

4) Never Eat Alone

The last time I had dinner with Enver, as well as the last time I ate dinner with Oprah, there were easily 15 people at our tables, respectively. Coincidence? While most of us derive our key information from blogs or the newspaper, power players get their information from the source (other power players), directly. However, just because you can’t call up the Obamas and break bread with them doesn’t mean eating with others in your circle doesn’t carry value. In one of my favorite reads of the last few years called Never Eat Alone author Keith Ferrazzi breaks down how you can identify “information brokers” to dine with you.  I’ve seen first hand how enormous the benefits are of this strategy.

5) Take Responsibility For Your Losses

I was working for Oprah during the time she was taking heat from the media about poor network ratings. I was also working for Enver during the closing of one of his prized divisions. What I witnessed them both do in response was powerful. Opposed to covering the losses up with fancy PR tactics, both stepped to the stage and said in essence “I own it and I’m going to fix it” and dropped the mic. Guess what?  They sure did fix things (It’s widely noted Oprah’s network is realizing ratings gold and Enver’s assets have probably doubled since the division closing).

A GOOD TEACHER CAN NEVER BE FORGOTTEN

Following the recent uproar about the Queen’s College Biology teacher who was accused of sleeping with innocent female students, I went down memory lane. No, it’s not actually a memory lane. It’s something I remember every day. Something I had wanted to write about for years but I just told myself “zip it”

I want us to pick out two lessons from this story. Firstly, parents shouldn’t even think their kids are too young to feel something fantastic about someone. Parents should know that there is no age limit to infatuate about people. Finally, there are still good, incorruptible teachers out there. Teachers that are bound by oaths to protect the wards in their care. I met one and I’m forever grateful.

Let me deviate a little bit. Most of the cases of the kidnapped girls we have around (like Ese Oruru and the likes) also stem from the facts that parents are not doing what they are meant to do. Parents are guardians and they should by all means be a monitoring spirits over their kids especially when they are still growing. Poverty shouldn’t be the reason for allowing your child to have unnecessary rights and privileges. Apart from the kids who were raped by strangers and complete mad people, 85% of rapes cases, forced marriages and kidnap are perpetrated by people known to the families of the victims. Negligence is playing a lot of roles in what we see today. Parents should brace up and do their part.

I was opportune to have some privileges as a growing child. One of them is attending a private Nursery and primary school, one of the best in my state back then. That rare opportunity afforded me everything I needed to build on later in life. Coupled with this; I had the best teachers any child could ever wished for. I am most grateful. Of all the teachers, one stood out. Uncle Sola my first crush.

As a child, barely 7 years old, I really didn’t know anything about love or infatuation or whatever you call it but one thing I know for sure, I really LIKE uncle sola. He was my teacher in primary four but even before he became my teacher, I had always Like him. Funny as it might sound, Uncle sola likes me in return. Ours was mutual. Mutual LIKENESS.

He picked up interest in me from when I was in primary 2, right before he became my teacher and sincerely, it was pure, brotherly, undiluted, unstained, agape love. I was so close to him as a child to the extent that in the absence of other students, I call him by name. (Now, I know Ayodeji will say Yippee, I said it)

Uncle Sola is unarguably handsome, neat and from a rich home. Rumour has it that his mother didn’t want him to pick up the teaching job but he ignored her and went ahead to pick up the job. He was a good teacher.

I always wait for him to resume every morning as I stay glued to the barbed fence to catch a glimpse of this handsome, finely built young man. I was barely 7 years old. He walks in a way I cannot describe. His smile can melt the stony hearts and his skin; you don’t have to look for Ramsey Noah again.

What most students didn’t know was that, as I wait to catch a glimpse of him, he was always ready to see me too. He would walk gently to my side and say good morning brainy. Those words were the things I needed. I could live my life on them.

As I got promoted to primary four, needless to say that from my primary 2 through primary 3 I had female’s teachers who feel the same level of love towards me. I was always clinching the first position except for primary 1 because I had a double promotion from Nursery 1 so I skipped Nursery 2 and it was hard coping with the rest of the class immediately.

Primary 4 was my best year so far. First, because uncle sola was going to be my teacher and he had told me on several occasions how he can’t wait to have me in his class. I feel the same way too. Unfortunately, I was meant to leave for JSS1 from Primary 3 but Uncle Sola was among the chief protesters who told my father I was too young for such leap.

Primary 4 came quickly and I was right there in Uncle Sola’s class. My best year ever. I sincerely wish we have more teachers like uncle sola in this country. Well, maybe to me, I saw in him a perfect gentleman. The first thing he did was that he made sure my table was directly beside his own. He monitors my work, progress and development as if I was his little Sister. Despite the fact that I take my lunch to school, I still get to eat from his food. He doesn’t eat without leaving some for me.

Then one day, I had an issue with him. Anytime he gives me food to eat, he expects that I use his spoon. Without wanting to sound too picky, I hate saliva with a passion. I don’t do saliva with people and that started from my early age. So, I normally exchange his spoon with mine every time before eating his food until I was caught.