Poly I. Emenike, whose book Entrepreneurial Spirits will be publicly presented in Lagos this week, is an exceptional member of an exceptional human species or social group. The group consists of those men and women who have tramped their way from rags to riches, from extreme poverty to extreme wealth. Words associated with them include dogged determination, sweat, vision, sufferhead-with-a-purpose.
The group is sizable; but their story is not generally known beyond their village community or progressive town unions. There’s an entire generation of them in Igboland, for instance, dating back to the 1940s and 50s.
The best known fact about this group is that they never learned to read and write—some learned to scribble their name and scratch out a signature. They were known to lament this fact with some frequency, and some vowed to give half their wealth if only they could properly learn to read and write. But most of them never did. And this was the mid-20th century, the beginnings, at least for us, of the Age of the Book.
Emenike is exceptional in that beyond basic literacy, he worked his way from a primary education through secondary school to university. He earned a B.Sc. and M.Sc., and is soon to receive a Ph.D. from the International School of Management in Paris. Along the way, he accumulated wealth. His career is a resounding testimony of the inestimable value of books, reading, and education.
The man enrolled in secondary school at age 32 when he already had wife, children and a thriving business enterprise! Incredible, isn’t it? He may be the only billionaire with such a profile.
Emenike is also exceptional in that his story is known beyond his village of Nanka, Anambra State. By setting down his memoirs in a book, he has propelled himself into the stratosphere inhabited by folk heroes of the Age of the Book.
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How did this incredible man achieve this feat? That is the burden of his nearly 400-page account. First of all, he anchored himself on a book with the telling title Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill, an American. The book (Hill’s third and most famous) was published in 1937. America is rich in preachers, motivational speakers and self-improvement books, some fake or over-blown, some genuine, commonsensical, and a gold mine of ideas and techniques for making something of oneself in the world.
Napoleon Hill (1883-1970) evidently belongs in the latter category. He is billed as “Founder of the Science of Success.” His signal slogan was: “Whatever your mind can conceive and believe it can achieve.” He is said to have interviewed 500 millionaires to find out the secret of their success, and then distilled his findings into a repeatable methodology and system founded on 17 Principles. Repeatability is a defining element of the scientific method; and Hill is said to have influenced thousands who have achieved wealth by scrupulously implementing his “17 Principles.”
This, in fact, is the story of Poly I. Emenike. He was 23 and a trader in rubber slippers in Onitsha when he stumbled on Think and Grow Rich in a bookstore—or rather, it was Hill’s fifth book, Success Through a Positive Mental Attitude, which referred so copiously to Think and Grow Rich that he was forced to find and read it. This was for him a revelation, a moment of epiphany. From then on it was forward march. He never looked back. And, step by step, he achieved every one of his stated goals.
As Hill directed, Emenike wrote down the goals he wished to achieve, the actions he needed to achieve them, and a timeline for achieving them. He read the list aloud to himself twice a day, and engaged his energies in pursuing those goals. He experienced many disappointments but never gave up. Hill had counseled:
“Every adversity, every failure, every heartache carries with it the seed on an equal or greater benefit.”
“The majority of men meet with failure because of their lack of persistence in creating new plans to take the place of those which fail.”
“When defeat comes, accept it as a signal that your plans are not sound, rebuild those plans, and set sail once more toward your coveted goal.”
Emenike evolved from a petty trader to a merchant importing huge consignments of foreign goods, an industrialist manufacturing pharmaceuticals, and a philanthropist endowing universities and funding scientific research. When he decides to become a crusader for revival of the reading culture in Nigeria, as I hope he will, considering how his life was transformed by reading, Emenike will become a household name.
Napoleon Hill’s 17 Principles might equally be applied to achieve communal goals. For instance, every village or village cluster in Nigeria should have, as a matter of routine, a well stocked library; a well equipped and staffed primary school and secondary technical school; a well equipped and staffed hospital; a water supply system fed from a man-made reservoir filled from deep-sunk boreholes; non-stop electricity from solar-cum-gas turbines; and comfortable income earned from working in agricultural or manufacturing industries within the catchment area. We certainly have the imagination, energy and resources to achieve it.
I omit the details so the reader can experience the delight of discovery in reading this fascinating book. Entrepreneurial Spirits is published by The Napoleon Hill Foundation, P. O. Box 1277, Wise, Virginia 24293, USA. It will be launched at the Nigerian Institute of International Affairs, Victoria Island, Lagos on November 26.
Onwuchekwa Jemie
