A friend once asked if my instincts told me Zenon was going to be in trouble. I must confess that my inner voice failed me in that instance. It happened overnight—oil prices collapsed and ruined me. I was monitoring the market on my computer and saw oil at US$147 per barrel. I had already ordered diesel worth US$500 million. Then, just like that, it began to go down. It dropped to US$110. I thought it would possibly dip below that. I calculated the odds and felt I would still be OK, but right before my eyes, it crashed to US$37.

The diesel I’d ordered when the price was astronomically higher was already on the high seas, heading for Nigeria. Now, it was worth a fraction of my purchase price. I said to myself, “I’m finished.”

I’d fallen into suffocating debt in mere seconds. What could I do? Still, I remained confident, certain that a solution would arise from somewhere. To make a dire situation even worse, the oil price crash also meant foreign currency flow into Nigeria nosedived. The Central Bank decided to devalue the naira. And with that, my debt load skyrocketed. The loans I took when the exchange rate was N117/US$1 would now have to be paid back at N165/US$1. That was a massive blow. N60 billion was evaporating before my eyes and I was saddled with N40 billion in interest.

I resisted the impulse to sell my bank shares, which would later be one my greatest regrets. I’d have made huge profits if I had done so. I had bought into Zenith Bank at N12 per share and would have made N110 billion if I had exited when the price rose to N60. I owned 2.3 billion shares, which represented an 8% ownership stake in Zenith. I had 6% of the United Bank for Africa, and I would have cashed out with N81 billion. In total, I would have reaped N191 billion windfall. But that was not to be.

My total debt from the oil crash catastrophe was N200 billion. The stock market crashed because of the oil price crash, and those shares were worth next to nothing. Such things are always clearer in the rear-view mirror, but if only I had followed my instincts.

On the other hand, when the opportunity presented itself to pay off the debts by giving up my properties to AMCON—a lifeboat in the Nigerian economic crisis—I disregarded those who advised against doing so and jumped at the opportunity. The time comes when you have to concede that if you sink, you sink, and if you grab onto a life preserver, you’ll stay afloat. On this occasion, I was ready for it. I gave up extensive property holdings in exchange for debt relief and set out to rebuild my life.

I relinquished ownership of truck parks and land in Lagos, buildings and estates in Lagos, Abuja and Port Harcourt, filling stations all over the country, a Bombardier private jet, stock in various banks and oil companies, and fuel storage tank farms near Apapa. I gave it all up to start anew.

The experience showed me that there is no absolute certainty in life. If God wants to take anything from you, it will not take him one minute. Look at me: my financial life was upended in a span of one week. Great wealth can be wiped from the books in the blink of an eye.

I look back and conclude that I had to experience what I did to be able to move to the next phase of my life. I was now free of debt and more introspective about entrepreneurship. I suppose it had to happen at one point in life or another in my life. If it did not happen then, it would later. Let us assume that oil prices had not collapsed, I would have gone upstream. I would have continued taking on more debt, pursuing more high-flying opportunities. One day, at some point down the road, oil prices would eventually crash, because the market is cyclical, and I would have found myself in even greater debt and bigger trouble.

I suffered to learn and I am better off than I was before the Zenon crisis.

SOMETIMES, YOU NEED TO FOCUS ON BEING PRAGMATIC

While I am a believer in following my instincts, I can be flexible in that regard. I look at the bigger picture and choose rigid pragmatism at times. But being too stiff can also be a problem. Ignoring your intuition can be harmful, while relying solely on it can be counterproductive. Life experience will teach you who and what to trust, and when. By and large, I follow my instincts. I am pleased with many decisions that were based on my visceral sense of what to do, such as settling my debts with my properties. That’s the best decision of my life. Separating family from my business was another excellent decision. Handing over management to a new team of professionals was also the right way to go. I followed my instincts, and I am better for it.