Nothing good comes easy, they say, that’s the law that govern success, success is not by chance, rather it’s trophy won at the end every successful battle, the battles of success comes in different forms just as success itself comes in different forms, be financial success, academicals success, marital success or even political success, the bottom line is you must fight for it, “if you need to eat a good meal, you should be ready to work hard” .
Many a times I have heard people talking about this particular personality called” success” while some believed is something that comes naturally others believed it comes by chance, I personally used to believe that is character present in every body but waiting to be developed until fate proved me wrong, I have seen great men, wealthy entrepreneurs, successful business men and women, and I have also seen poor men, struggling business men and many unsuccessful entrepreneur, at a time I began to think and doubt my believed that “success is an inborn character waiting to be developed” then I realized that if I too want to be successful, I need to have a clear knowledge of what success actually is, this new zeal to discover what success is made of, I began studying the life, the good and the bad times of every successful man I come across, and then I found out one single quality about them.
THEY FAUGHT FOR SUCCESS
To every history made there is always story attached to it, and to every trophy won there is always a battle attached to it, that is why today I choose to share some of the success story I have heard and you see the most common thing among them is they fought for it.
Cosmos Maduka(coscharis group);
A lot of us must have heard of this guy, if not for anything other thing, but for the fact that his company is the one of the largest suppliers of BMW cars in Nigeria and west Africa. Mr. Cosmos story was not a bed of roses from the beginning rather it was a mattress of shrubs decorated with thorns just like many of us, but what made is life stand out was the fact that he was able to the mattress not just into a bed but was able to secure the bed no matter what happened, cosmos lost his dad at the age of four, having no other choice, he started hawking a akara for his mother at the age of seven, considering the poor financial status of the family, young cosmos was forced to stop schooling at elementary 3, in 1970 he moved to lagos with his uncle and was working as an automobile apprentice for his uncle, at night since is uncle has no place of his own to stay, he would go and sleep at his friends place. While young cosmos will sleep at the shop till dawn at end of every work day, this continue for some time till 1975 when his relationship with his uncle fell apart, for attending a church camp program and absenting himself from work, without his uncle’s permission, which lead to his uncle immediately terminating his apprenticeship and subsequently settling him with the pitiful sum of 200 naira(1$) to punish him.
(THE VALUE OF 200NAIRAE AS AT THAT TIME WAS WORTH A LITTLE MORE THAN TODAY).
With his settlement, he founded an auto spare parts business called Maduka Brothers with his brother which eventually shut down, and they parted ways due to ideological differences. This separation left him with an additional 100 Naira, and a total of 300 Naira ($1.5) as working capital.
With just 300 Naira ($1.5) in capital to have another trial at entrepreneurship, Cosmas Maduka started a new business as the sole proprietor. He began by buying and selling motorcycle spare parts from Boulos Industries. The major product that was turning in a lot of returns for him was Boulos’s new innovation, motorcylce crash ban. He would buy several of them and remove the address of Boulos from the carton so that people wouldn’t know where he was buying from. Within a short period of one week, his capital rose from 300 Naira ($1.5) to 3,000 Naira ($15).
By the age of 19, Cosmas Maduka decided to get married to a beautiful woman called Charity. A short while after his marriage, he started importing products, but was struck with a great misfortune when he received the wrong consignment. This loss led him into several debts, and his landlord which he owed several months rent ended up locking his shop.
With nothing in hand, Cosmas had to start all over again. He picked a weight scale that he had received as a gift from his marriage, took it to the market, and started to charge 10 kobo from everyone who measured their weight. This daily routine got his wife in deep tears because of what her husband was going through, remembering their previous comfortable state.
After saving up a little capital, Cosmas Maduka teamed up with a friend of his, Dave, to start a new business called CosDave. Not long after their new business partnership, they fell apart due to disagreements on decisions made. This new breakup prompted him to start yet another business called Coscharis. The name Coscharis was formed by the combination of two different names; his name, Cosmas, and his wife’s name, Charity.
Cosmas Maduka’s big break finally came when in the same year 1982, the Nigerian government granted ten (10) motor companies import licences, and his Coscharis motors was selected. Ever since then, his company has continued to grow sporadically, with several branches around Nigeria. Today, his personal net worth according to an interview with Forbes Africa 2015, sits at over $500 million US dollars and counting.
As of 2016, Coscharis motors is not just one of the largest automobile dealers in Nigeria, but is also the exclusive distributor of BMW automobiles in Nigeria.
So you see considering the obstacles before cosmos, he never gave up, he fought his way to the top, he didn’t wait for life to tell him take, rather he took it from life by force, just know whatever business you are doing today, thousands of people are doing too, so you just need to buckle up your belt and fight, success is always about struggling, if cosmos maduka can do it, you too can do it, just be yourself!!(ojiezele destiny)
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