The year was 2009, sometime around October. I had quit my job in April and had concluded on a few freelance gigs.

I wasn’t sure what next career wise, but I remember I was praying a lot. Praying for clarity of purpose. I do that sometimes when I feel stuck.

I remembered Lola Esan was on annual leave and so I decided to call her. As I didn’t have a job at the time, it wasn’t long before the conversation jumped to what I could do to earn some money before the year ran out.

We had both been in HR Consulting for a few years. I also had some experience in HR management.

We brainstormed. First things first, who could be serve? We were considered young in an industry of HR veterans, so who would listen to us? We decided we would focus on up and coming HR professionals. We would run some form of workshop that helped them jumpstart their HR careers.

We brainstormed again about the title of the programme. We settled for ‘HR Bootcamp Seminar.’

We worked on the outline together. We reviewed it. I added some topics to it and began to think about speakers. As we didn’t have much time to plan, the easiest place to start was former colleagues and friends. So, I called Omorinsola Ashiru, Emeka Dibia, Demola Ojo, Dr. Nduka Okoisor and of course there was Lola and I.

I scouted around for venues close to my house. I found a small hotel that had a small hall that could seat 100 people.

It appeared we had it all figured out. It seemed like we were ready to roll. We had a seminar title, topics to be covered, speakers and a venue. What next? The price yes. It would be NGN5,000. A fee people could spend without thinking too much about it.

Then, Lola had to go back to work. Annual leave was over and her job needed her attention. Urgh! Now what?

I had to decide whether to continue with the plan or let it be.

Should I continue alone?

This was it. Make or break. Planning versus execution. Dream versus action.

By now I was caught up in the process so without thinking too much, I decided to focus on doing the work that needed to be done.

The seminar needed a flyer. I called Sylvester Aigbogun, another former colleague. He was a graphics designer. I sent him the seminar details. The flyer would need contact details so I purchased an extra mobile phone line and shared with him. As contact persons, I put 2 names Ekene and Chinelo. Truth is, it was really just me, the extra names on my birth certificate came in very handy.

In a few days, the first draft of the flyer was ready. I had registered a business name ‘Kendor Consulting’ in January of the same year 2009. I would use the company name to promote the programme. The top of the flyer would read ‘Kendor Consulting Presents’ followed by a big title ‘HR Bootcamp Seminar.’

Everything was looking good. I had no idea this was the easy bit.

To be continued.