Mr. Kabiru and the story of Pakistani gold

Should we get comfortable with being misunderstood?

Hi guys,

Hope you are well. I'm doing okay, Alhamdulillah.

Late last night, Jaiye painted an imaginary picture for me. There was a gold mining company whose operations in Pakistan had been cut short because they were out of fuel. To get a new supply of diesel, they needed to get it transported through the city center which terrorists had gained control of.

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The terrorists had a simple demand. Pay $3 million and we will grant your fuel safe passage. If not, your mining facility will not operate for the foreseeable future.

If you were a business leader in this scenario, you could either make the payment just for your company to resume operations right away, or wait for the Pakistani government to take out the terrorists and get your fuel free of charge. It is an interesting scenario because you need to take a guesstimate of a few things to come to a decision.

How much money is the factory losing per day it is shut down? How many more days of unrest do we think is likely before the government regains control of the city center? Are there any alternate supplies of fuel? Can we afford $3 million or should we negotiate the price?

Depending on the answers to these questions, different people will come to different conclusions. And that's okay.

Why I found this particularly interesting was that it drew a faint parallel to getting anything done in Nigeria.

** Disclaimer: I do not endorse or advocate for bribery, all I am doing is telling a story. Don't judge me. 😝

Like a company that needs to make a payment to a 3rd party to ensure the safe passage of their supplies, many individuals x businesses need to make similar payments just to get anything done.

Want to get a driver's license? Spend 1 month in driving school classes (like the law requires) or pay somebody to 'run’ it? For 90% of people, you know the answer.

Whether for business permits, individual documentation, university transcripts, NYSC relocation, or whatever else, the weaknesses of our system (and sometimes our personal laziness if we're being entirely honest) have enshrined a culture of making unauthorized payments to get things done.

I'm not writing this to pretend to be holier than thou and cast everybody who has taken such a decision one time or the other into my pits of hell. These things are entirely subjective, and anybody who thinks ‘can never be me’ need only wait until their time comes.

Sometime last year, I needed to renew my international passport. I was pressed for time and wanted to get it out of the way asap. After some attempt to understand the process, it was clear that we could either make a payment to someone who would help fast-track the process internally or leave the renewal process to the speed x efficiency of the Nigerian Immigration Service.

Erm, I chose the former. 😂 

** Side note: The Immigration people were way more organized and efficient than I previously imagined so somebody somewhere deserves a pat on the back. If you're not pressed for time, might be worth giving NIS’ regular operations a chance.

And at the time, it was well worth it. When I went to drop off my Passport, it was seamless. The fast-tracker came outside to receive me, helped with the necessary documentation and told me not to worry as all would be sorted quickly. I probably spent 15 minutes or less for this drop-off process.

For comparison, the previous time I had to renew my passport in 2015 was hell. I don't remember the exact details, but I do remember that it took virtually the whole day, I spent a lot of time standing, and I was hungry (and thus probably biased in my assessment anyway).

But this time, I had my fast-tracker and all was well.

So when I went the next time (likely for data capturing and or collection, I'm not sure), I was sure it would be seamless. Somebody would be waiting for me outside, I would do whatever the requirement was, and go on with my day. Alejandro.

So when I arrived and couldn't get my fast-tracker on the phone, I was worried. Now I had to wait on the queue like everybody else. 😂

And it was a looong queue. Then finally, my fast-tracker called back. He was really busy but would send Mr. Kabiru to come and get me outside. Relief at last.

Not long after that, Mr. Kabiru came outside, identified me, and pulled me aside. Mr. fast-tracker said he should tell me to move to the front of the queue, and they were waiting for me inside.

'Move to the front? Sir there are many people here o.'

‘Ehn yes now, so we can get your own done in time. Today you have to come inside by yourself, it can't be done from here.'

‘Oh okay sir. But I can't just leave all these people and go and stand in their front. It's a queue.’

‘Oga time is going.’

‘But these people will complain that I just came from nowhere, we've all been waiting since.’

‘Do you want to do this thing or do you want to sleep here?'

'Okay I'm moving to the front. And what if any Immigration person stops me?'

'Don't worry about that one. Just say you are from Mr. fast-tracker.'

And so I left my position in the queue and walked slowly to the front. There were a few people there already, who likely had their own fast-trackers. I stopped close to the entrance and said to the Immigrations guy before he even asked, 'Mr. fast-tracker said I should come here.’

I don't think he said anything in response. Silence is consent?

And it was peaceful for a number of seconds before sure enough, one of the legitimate people at the front of the queue started complaining. I think he wore a grey native and was quite elderly. The type of guy that probably reads newspapers every day and has dozens of stories to tell about Nigeria's education system under Shehu Shagari.

And then the rant started.

‘Another one has come again. I don't understand you people. You people saw all of us here queueing and just think you can come to our front because you have two heads. Do you know what time I woke up? Do you know how much we stressed to be here early? It's not right. This is the problem of today, all of you looking for a free ride. Because you know somebody or you've paid money, you'll now ignore a queue? Things are not done that way.’

Kai. I turned around to check for Mr. Kabiru. He was nowhere in sight.

Then the old man turned to me and continued.

'Young man, who told you to come to this front of the queue?’

'Mr. fast-tracker said I should move here sir.’

‘And you thought it was right? That you could just skip everybody in front of you because Mr. fast-tracker said so?’

'No, I'm sorry sir.’

It seemed my fellow illegitimate front-of-queuers had developed a thick skin to the old man's rants. But I couldn't take it. In shame, I left the front of the queue and returned to my rightful place. It was humiliating.

And on my way back, I saw Fatai who knew me from my undergrad days.

Omo I wan enter ground.

And of course, this person would have had no clue about Mr. fast-tracker or Mr. Kabiru, all they would have seen is me leaving my place and jumping the queue, losing out in front, and then having to do my walk of shame to where I started from. Yikes.

The main lesson is clear here. If I had held myself to doing what was right in the first place, I wouldn't have been in that situation. The whole thing was entirely avoidable.

Also, I felt sorely misunderstood. Because no doubt, Fatai had judged me and I would have to make my peace with that.

Ah well.

But how important is it to always be understood? Should we get comfortable with being misunderstood?

I recently watched a Jeff Bezos interview where he shared some of his early experiences building Amazon. In the early days when Amazon was just a website for buying books online, the team decided to introduce customer reviews. Now, future buyers would be able to see what other random people thought of books before deciding whether to get them.

Today, it is hard to imagine that anybody will buy something online without having access to tons of reviews, but this was the norm in those days. After this policy was implemented, Amazon ran into trouble with the book publishers.

How dare they allow bad reviews of their books to be shown on the website? They would kill sales. Amazon disagreed, customer reviews would help customers in making the right decision so it was really important.

The book publishers agreed that it was important. But then why did they have to show bad reviews? They could show good reviews only to help customers see what others thought before purchase.

Jeff stood his ground. He believed that Amazon was not in the business of purely selling books, but in the business of helping customers make a purchase decision. And by showing negative reviews, they were helping customers know which books not to buy, which he believed was just as important as showing them which books to buy.

The publishers thought he was crazy. But Jeff went ahead anyway.

But sure enough, he was right. As the years went on, the negative reviews from customers actually helped buyers know they could trust Amazon in helping them make a purchase decision.

But also, negative reviews eventually helped the publishers figure out which types of books and genres were poorly rated and didn't sell, ultimately helping them refine their publishing strategies and leading to more sales in the long-term.

Jeff Bezos is much more strategic than a lot of people give him credit for. I will likely take some time to learn more about him this year in sha Allah. But for today, the takeaway is clear.

If you are ever going to do anything new or innovative, you need to be willing to be misunderstood.

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If you found this newsletter useful, please share it with your friends. Have them read it and subscribe. I like to share personal stories and life lessons I am learning. They will be super random, but common themes will include business, personal development, human relationships, and Islam.

Gracias, and see you around.

Hameed

** Jara content:

If you happened to read the story of Dhul-Qarnayn, a particular verse will jump out at you.

‘Surely We established him in the land and granted him means of access to everything.’ - 18:84

While I might have been privileged and fortunate enough to have my Mr. fast-tracker who smoothed my path the first time, there is a much more important being who is ever in anticipation of our calls. It is upon Him we should rely when we need access to something.

Have a great week. ✨