Good morning, dear friends of LO and welcome to another Monday the first in the month of February 2023. Last week was a special edition dedicated to a legend who died living his normal self. Dear friends I have an equal opportunity today to celebrate a living legend and believe it friends, it is more worthwhile to celebrate a living legend so that he could appreciate how much we appreciate him! I met Foluso Phillips precisely July 2001. I wanted a change in career, I wanted consultancy. I had the fortune of a gracious woman: Morin Desalu (was then Morin Babalola) supporting my search for consulting employment. She asked if I had spoken to Foluso of Phillips consulting upstairs? Of course, not; I did not know Foluso, not sure I have heard of Phillips consulting. Morin was on 3rd Floor and Foluso or Phillips Consulting rather was on the 5th floor of UBA House Marina. I met Foluso, I got engaged and the rest is history. So I knew Foluso our FOP and FOP knows me.
John Maxwell famously said the role of a leader is to add value to those around him. FOP delights in adding value to others. He always want to take you higher than where you are. He is openly creative always looking for the next “thing to happen”. In PCL we changed things regularly and FOP is the finger behind it: setting us loose!. He added value to me beyond everyone expectation including his own expectation. I remember once we discussed and he said “ Ao m’ogba to se’kona” (we did not know when you turned the bend). Since my days in Phillips Consulting I have become a different person in terms of living those inherent virtues I had but could not express. I learnt self-expression through FOP: a good listener, mentor, and builder. I remember when I started leading the Retreat assignments for Corporate Institutions and Businesses: FOP will be there shadowing. After about two occasions he said Leke you guys can do it I have no business here anymore. That was a wonderful encourager and builder.
I love FOP specially because you know where he is with you. Whether he speaks or not you know his stand and that has always been helpful.
Severally He told me the story of Phillips Consulting: how he started it, from the convertible house office (if such exists) to a dream of occupying the tallest building on Marina. That dream came to pass. That is entrepreneurship par excellence. He had a vision, knew the problem to solve and went for it. He built an institution we are all proud to be associated with: Phillips Consulting Limited. It is therefore not surprising he led several other economic fora and institutions because that is what he believes in and he is pushing to a point of no return.
Rosa Parks in one of her quotes says “you must never be fearful about what you are doing when it is right” I saw that in FOP and I learned it from him. I remember atimes, the financial figures are not good yet the focus, the belief, that energy and passion remained unchanged.
I just want to share this with my friends that there are several things that make life interesting, productive, leading to an enduring legacy. According to Harold Smith “the real measure of man’s worth is how much he will be worth if he lost all his money”. FOP you are worth more than Gold or Silver represented by values you have created in hundreds and thousands of people who passed through or interreacted with PCL. It is beyond money.
TAKE AWAY:
Someone said “being a “good man” is something you do not something you are”
FOP you are a good man. That is my testimony happy 70th birthday.
