DEBT IS A VERY BAD THING

You may not know me personally, but take this from me: DEBT COULD BE A TERRIBLE THING.

As long as you owe someone, you remain their servant, no matter how talented or respected you are.

Yesterday, while driving to work and enjoying my heavenly sandwich, I spotted Emeka in traffic and nearly lost my appetite. Why? I remembered how badly I suffered in his hands after I was duped of the money I had borrowed from him to fund a certain business opportunity.

Let me gist you.

When I went back to Emeka to explain what had happened, he empathised with me and even offered a payment plan since it was clear I couldn't return the money all at once.

Sometime after, we were both invited to serve as panellists at a supply chain management event.

I was the first to share my thoughts on a topic, which Emeka later disagreed with. But my take must have sounded more compelling, because I was asked to expand further. Crazy me (forgetting that my oga at the top was seated beside me), I took a whiteboard marker and began giving illustrations. My explanation turned his earlier point into a mere subset of mine. The audience applauded, the moderator didn’t even circle back to him.

I was too caught up in the moment to notice Emeka’s expression.

The next day, he called me, praised my views briefly, then asked me to bring some materials to his office to broaden his understanding. Naive me, thinking this was a mentoring moment, gladly showed up.

But he quickly cut to the chase: “Something urgent came up, I need my money immediately.”

Before I knew it, I was sweating in his air-conditioned office. The car I drove (company car, by the way), he grabbed the keys. I begged, seriously begged, until he accepted my land documents as 70% payment.

Why? Because I forgot I was sharing a stage with my lender.

That month, I got another speaking invite on a supply chain topic but I declined, not because I wasn’t prepared, but because I didn’t want to risk “vomiting” the remaining 30%.

I eventually finished my sandwich, but with a warning ringing in my head: DEBT IS BAD.

Even though we sometimes can’t avoid it in business, never forget: the debtor will always be servant to the lender.

BEWARE.

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