Time is a perishable asset. It is never enough, particularly when you are full of ideas. In this jet age, when everything is happening so fast, you are either innovating or upgrading or both. Optimise your best moments. In other words, make the best use of your time.
It was Jack Welch who said “if the rate of change on the outside is faster than the rate of change on the inside, the end is near”. Many inventions die prematurely, not for lack of quality but because the owners of the ideas are insensitive to change.
It is not just enough to use your time, you would have to anticipate possibilities and start proferring possible solutions before it becomes an emergency. Sometimes, the impact is so huge and sudden that your idea may become obsolete within a short period.
Anytime I remember the drastic change in communication system and how the Nigeria Postal Service (NPS) managed their customers, I remember Jack Welch. I remember how the NPS would lock my post office box by the 1st of February for delay in payment for subscription renewal.
Without any prior communication, NPS would lock my box to compel me to physically visit their cash office to renew my subscription. If you delay in payment, they could allocate your box to another subscriber within the first quarter. They did that because there was high demand for post office boxes.
This immediate past year, I completely forgot that I had a post office box, let alone renewal of subscription. I was driving through the post office sometimes in October and I remembered. I stopped to check. Managers of Nigeria Postal Service have no reason to lock the boxes anymore because communication system has gone beyond the physical.
I renewed my subscription, but this time not because I had to, it was because I wanted to. Jack Welch was right – “change before you have to” – It is either you change or you will be forced to change, but while at your peak, optimise your time and make it count because it may not last forever.
©️Akin Oluwadare Jnr
03 February 2025
