Steve Jobs said “you can’t connect the dots looking forward, you can only connect the dots looking backwards“. I couldn’t agree more.

Looking back, real estate is one thing that has dotted my life even before I was born.
Real estate fed me, schooled me, clothed me and of course housed me.

My dad was into real estate. His real estate company built as well as managed commercial and residential properties. My Dad himself was a serial landlord.

One of the many benefits of growing up in the “real estate world“ is that it instills the value of hard, hard work into your system.

Dot One: Properties

When I was studying for my Bachelors Degree in Real Estate Management, some of my friends brought cars to school which they just took from home because they were just “sitting around“.

My dad and I had a conversation, where I hoped he would allow me take one of his cars to school. Rather, he said “Kunle, anyone who wants to drive a car should go out and buy one for himself”. He dashed my hopes!

Needless to say, he never gave me a car. He didn’t “officially” let me drive any of his cars! My dad always told me that I can get anything I want because according to his words “God gave you a brain so that you won‘t trouble Him for everything you need. He expects you to use it to think and work“.

Hence my decision to get my own car. Turns out, to get a car, you need money! To get money, you need a job! So, I got a job in a property company that developed and managed commercial real estate. Saved every penny I made and got myself a car.

Dot 2: People

Turns out when you own a car, your expenses go up and you need more money.
I didn’t know! So, I did what most kids do, asked my Dad for more money.. “Kunle, anybody who buys a car should be able to keep it on the road“.

Needless to say, he didn’t give me extra money. To keep my car on the road, and still be a student, I decided to start selling popcorn. The idea was set up a popcorn store, employ staff and the profit will cover my expenses.

It worked! Worked so well, we started serving chicken and chips, Ice cream etc.

This led me to the fast food dot, but more importantly taught me about people, leadership, customer pampering, delegation….

The fast food business grew to over 30 employees in just about 3 years. I thought “hmmmm, we could probably become the African MacDonalds“”. Off I went to study for an MBA with a focus on franchising. In fact, my thesis was on Franchising.

Dot 3: Profit

What I learned is, when you meet the needs of people, you’re adding value to them. Their way of saying “thank you“ is paying for the service. If you’ve done a fantastic job, they’ll tell their friends and family, which most of our customers did.

In fact, I remember those days before exiting the fast food business, around the Christmas holidays, our customers would bring us greeting cards, sometimes with inside. To say thank you to our staff members!

Profit comes from adding value.

In the final analysis, profit comes from people. People buy products, people make the products, people provide services, needless to say, people are the lifeblood of any enterprise. Take good care of people, and profit will also receive good care.

Looking backwards, my dots have been connecting with people, taking good care of people; and it’s been profitable for all stakeholders.

Dot 4…Probably too many dots

Wouldn’t want to bore you with the dots of my life, I’ll stop here.

“But Kunle, you have a real estate degree, you have an MBA, you have experience in property development and property management, plus you’re a skilled business man, why do you need to buy a franchise when you have all these elements in place?“

Whenever I hear that question, I find it hard to explain.
I’ll tell you, what I tell them from the famous quote I read:

“If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go with others.“

I want to go far….hence I’m going with ROOOMS©