INSPIRATIONS FROM MR TUNDE LEMO, A BANK MOGUL

Be inspired by the testimonies of Mr Tunde Lemo, a banker and philanthropist who rose to become the Managing Director of Wema Bank Plc. until he was pulled to the Central bank of Nigeria as a financial regulator.

Lesson 1:  Life

He was once asked one key life lesson. He emphasized that even when you have had a bad start in life, you could always redesign your life and neutralize those seeming disadvantages. He said “I did not start with good grades in my early years in school. But when I realized that I was not disadvantaged in any way, I woke up one day and reasoned that I had to re-write the script of my life. That paid off. I rewrote my School Certificate exams and I made Division One. I also finished my University degree with First Class Honours. That also propelled me to put in my very best from the start of my career till I retired.” Mr Tunde Lemo now consults for corporate and public institutions. “You too can always turn a setback into an advantage”.

Lesson 2:  Career

Mr Tunde advice: Do more than you are paid to do. “The first lesson I learnt in my banking career is that if you must make a success of your endeavour from day one, you need to be different from others. I made up my mind that I would do more than I was paid to do. I saw a lot of my colleagues just putting in the minimum, just getting by. I refused to join the crowd. Interestingly, I was not bothered whether I was rewarded or not. My attitude was that even if my current employer did not reward me, I would have learnt some skills that I could employ to run my own business. I was putting in my  best, and I didn’t  know that  those little  things  were  being watched. Ultimately, I made it to the top as I was made the Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Wema Bank five years after joining the bank.

Lesson 3:  Integrity

Mr Tunde Lemo hammers that integrity pays. He reminisced, “I remember a deal where we were to be offered some huge amount of money by the client, but I told the person that whatever he intended to give us, he should add to what was due to the bank. Eventually, the deal went bad. But, thank God I was spared the embarrassment that followed. One key lesson I learnt as a public servant is that if you are after public applause for decisions you are making, you will make little progress, and this ultimately, destroys the society. Your job is to make decisions that are in the public interest, who most times do not even know what is good for them.

To be continued in the next quarter by God’s grace…