How a cart pusher turn to CEO

•How cult member, drug addict turned Pastor
•Spent 12 years for 4-year-degree

Olakunle Soriyan, by all means, is a silver spoon kid. But he became a refuse collector, house to house fumigator and eventually the Chief Executive Officer of a money spinning venture. What could have led this uptowner into ventures usually associated with the dregs of society?

But for Providence or self determination, Olakunle Soriyan might have become a street urchin despite being born with silver spoon. Though, Soriyan, had taken many decisions in life which he has lived to regret, his being a Principal Transformation Strategist of the Olakunle Soriyan Company and a Pastor at Fountain of Life Church, now has told another story.


For a man who spent his youthful days managing social vices ranging from gang-violence to drug addiction, tasting everything from chewing gum to cocaine and embracing the lowly status of a refuse collector and road-side local fumigator; as well as a cheap barbeque man, despite being born with the proverbial silver spoon, Soriyan has really come a long way. “I was born very well in a very good home.

In 1982, when I was in Form 3, I had a Mercedes Benz car that took me to school every day. If you had a regular Mercedes Benz 230 taking you to school every day at that time, you were a very rich man. In those days, people who were upcoming drove Volkswagen Beetle cars while successful people drove Mercedes Benz.
Volvo was driven by middle class and it was only comfortable people that drove Mercedes Benz. “OG 1415 R, yellow car, was a supreme machine respected everywhere took me to school every day and brought me back.

So, I was born with something like silver spoon. But my father managed a polygamous system, which had inbuilt capacity to self-destruction. If I have enemy and I can know the enemy, I will not advise him to marry a second wife.

It is one of the greatest exercises of futility. But that was my own story,” he began his story. “I gained admission into a secondary school at the age of nine. I passed common entrance while I was in Primary Four because I was extremely brilliant and I got to secondary school as the youngest in my class; I was nine years old.

I finished secondary school without any discipline because I was young and in boarding house, I could not appreciate discipline. So, it wasn’t long that I finished secondary school that I couldn’t gain admission and I ventured into many social vices, from drug addition to all many vices.

“By the time I gained admission, I joined a cult and it was not an interesting life. By the time I was in 400 Level as Economics student, I was not in my final year because I was doing seven to nine carryover courses per semester from Year 1. I had tasted everything from chewing gum to cocaine.
So by the time I was in 400 Level, I could not talk normally because I always salivated and my words would drop and I was a cult member. “I got to a point where my nuisance value on the campus had increased so much and I had become something close to a virus. And on campus the only way to deal with virus is by rustication. I left the university proudly because I felt that academic was good riddance to bad rubbish.

I was convinced that academic could not define my own future and I am still correct. But I have also learnt that while academic cannot make anybody, it can support and that support is worth getting. I left the school two months to final exams. My decision was a heart break for my family.

But I left.” Having wasted four years at the Lagos State University (LASU) without anything to show for it, Soriyan rather than sitting down to think about how to pick up the pieces of his life continued with his deviant behaviour. His words: “One year after I left school I gave my life to Christ and that was the point of change in my life. If I had given it to Sango or whoever, I would have said it proudly.
My story was that I gave my life to Christ and the only way I can define my life from that point is that I went mad and by that madness I have done a lot of great stuffs.

“First of all, I returned to the same school I had left to start from the scratch. again; same faculty, same course, same lecturers but children for classmate and I did another four years making eight years for a four year degree and yet the school did not give me my certificate. I remained in that school pursuing my certificate for 12 years.

About four years ago or there about somebody committed suicide in UNILAG for having extra year, then it dawned on me that extra year could kill. I had eight extra years, which means I must have died eight times. But how did he spend 12 years for a fouryear- programme? “I did 12 years on campus studying one course in the same school because I needed to get my degree.

For eight years I was trying to get my degree, after the first four years, I left and did another four years. In fact after the first four years in a lot of the courses I did, I didn’t know whether it was a conspiracy or not but there was no even trace that I did those courses. So, I had to do them again the third time.

“So tactically speaking, it is like I did 100 Level three times, 200 Level three times, 300 Level three times and 400 Level three times. It was in the 12th year that the school gave me my degree, which was Third Class. If it was even a Pass, I would still rejoice and give testimony because at that point what I want was a degree. I got that degree and moved on.”

Sharing more light on his success story, the Principal Transformation Strategist of Olakunle Soriyan Company, revealed that his journey to greatness in life was very rough but he was able to achieve his present status through the help of God and hard work. His words: “I was a refuse collector in Lagos State. Before pushing cart from house to house became popular in Lagos State, I am the one that started it; nobody pushed cart and refuse before me.

When I did refuse collection and saved some money, I began to fumigate from house to house; carrying fumigation machine as an undergraduate in LASU. I moved from there and began to sell barbeque at Charley Bus Stop in Gbagada. “The night I started I was arrested by Operation Sweep for illegal hustling, which is understandable.

They brought me back the next day and everything was burnt. So, I had to start all over again. Doing that barbeque, I made my first N1 million. That is history now. By God’s grace today I am married to a queen and I am not doing badly.

“If you read my profile you are going to see nothing but my story and my journey of pains and struggle and how I have come through because the truth is that what role has providence played? Is there any human being that can delete providence from his success? Providence is the difference between me and the pepper seller on the street.

I can tell you that I am a planner and strategist but I have made most of my biggest breakthrough not thorough strategic planning but by error, trial and Providence. “So, I understand the limit of the human brain that he doesn’t deliver so much human value.

It helps us to think and talk in a particular way that gives us attention but in the final analyses our opportunity are in the hands of providence.” Having tasted what life is all about, the cult member turned Pastor who is fondly called PK can confidently talk about shame, failure, transformation, renaissance, success and greatness.

His passion for a better society was the brain behind the establishment of Olakunle Soriyan Company, a researchdriven nation-building and total management firm single-mindedly focused on using original and home-grown methodologies to solve complex problems peculiar to businesses, government, families, youths and individuals in Africa and the so-called Third world.

Soriyan, despite graduating with a ‘Third Class’ in Economics is a voice to be reckoning with in some sectors in the country, especially in the corporate world has become critical to the interest of very intelligent business and corporate leaders, opinion leaders, top government officials at various consulting and training intervention as well as cabinet retreats.

Today, credible people from profit and non-profit organisations from diverse sectors and industries consistently engage Soriyan as Speaker, Facilitator, Trainer, Negotiator, Mediator and even a Preacher.

TEMITOPE OGUNBANKE
Source: www.nationalmirroronline.net