BANKER’S CYCLE

This possibly will describe the lifestyles of people working in a financial institution as bankers.  Without doubt, banking profession is an honorable and enviable one. It is a profession that is well respected and everyone sees you as being trustworthy, responsible, meticulous and mature.

Personally, I was fascinated to be a banker while I was a teenager. This resulted from the childhood perception I had then as regards what would become all the monies being deposited in the bank. I strongly and erroneously believed they would be shared among the bank’s staff from time to time. Now, I know better that banking profession is beyond my infantile imagination. Then, I also liked the corporate environment, the air-conditioned banking halls in few banks, and the well-dressed banking officials.

The matured grown up perception that finally made me to toll the banking profession as a career was due to corporate outlook supposedly financial buoyancy. But, now I have understood that being a banker does not guarantee your financial freedom but the wisdom not to live about your means should be our watchword.

When you work in a bank, irrespective of your position or take home pay, it is assumed that you have money. This assumption maybe true as you can be said to be comfortable, independent, and possibly save money, if you have a good saving culture. The upfront and access to other staff’s incentives like loan, lease e.t.c, may also lend credence to the people’s assumption.

 Unfortunately, this ill-fated misconception of people and easy access to the incentives mentioned earlier on have made some bankers to live beyond their income. There is, therefore, need to check ourselves in our journey so far, as bankers. I stand to be corrected and criticized, so as to learn as well, as we sincerely rub minds together. When you just got your job as banker weren’t you so excited? It was like you were on to a new height. You soliloquized,’ I am now 50% above poverty, goodbye to lack, wants and being dependent on your family or friends. Isn’t it?

   Yes! But the truth is many of us are carried away with the new status and we fail to manage the little or much we earn as the case maybe. We flaunt around with the latest, trendy and expensive gadgets, jewelries, suits, shoes and some other frivolities. We are happy collecting loan facilities to purchase expensive cars and other things that are irrelevant, hoarding our rented apartment with 3D TVs and other expensive home appliances. We use at least two expensive mobile phones with frequent recharging. Latest technology is good but should not be a do or die possession. You begin to live a life that is not yours. They call it swagger or effissy’, or is it packaging? I advise a break should be applied on such spending spree before your today’s swagger causes you to stagger and fall eventually tomorrow.

    It’s mind throbbing and shocking at this period of no job security from the top executives to the lowest cadre in the banking profession. Some bankers, who fully understand the concept of economics and investment, will spend heavily on cars or other frivolities worth millions of naira. This is done with no alternative or plan B in place. This is a time bomb of financial tragedy ticking away ready detonate! It seems unimaginable that a banker with no other source of income or financial succour will embark on a journey of exorbitance on liabilities rather than assets.

  The bitter truth is that those you want to impress by your show of packaged luxury might even be well off than you. In a chat recently with some of the security personnel in a bank in Lagos, the responses I got were encouraging because majority of them have at least half a plot of land in some locations like Mowe, Ibafo, Ikorodu e.t.c. Some have developed theirs. Few lease out the parcel of land for farming and livestock rearing. Some have commercial buses which give them returns. Is there any other way in which your money can work for you other than this? Such people have confidence of sustenance even if they are shown the way out of their security job.

I was so impressed when I heard this because many professional bankers never thought of securing a plot of land in those areas. They used the remoteness of such areas as their excuses. They continue referring to those places as remote areas disregarding the fact that cities like Lekki, Victoria Island, Ikoyi and Surulere were once remote areas, before being developed over time. We love enriching landlords’ pocket and most landlords especially in Lagos prefer letting out their houses to a banker or an oil company worker, because they feel secured even if they increase the rent yearly, bankers and oil workers will definitely pay.

 It is rather unfortunate that for some of us are literally working for money tirelessly, day and night. For these set of people, losing their only source of livelihood, will simply spell:                       F-I-N-A-N-C-I-A-L   D-I-S-A-S-T-E-R!

The reason the life of some bankers is always miserable anytime the company disengaged or advised them to resign, is that they find it so difficult to cope with their lifestyles. The reality of life starts to catch up with them very fast and hard. A top management staff in the industry as a senior manager was advised to resign, and to my surprise she started lamenting seriously, saying the bank had killed her and wondering where she would start from. I easily deduced her main worry from that outburst: she had little or no PLAN B. And, that she would lose the position of a senior manager, with official car with a driver, ease of securing a loan, child education support, vacation abroad and other perks at the expense of the bank, is simply unimaginable.

These lacks of future plan clearly explain the words of A.R Bernard a Spiritual leader ‘If you don’t have a vision for the future, then your future is threatened to be a repeat of the past’                                    

    A lot of bankers are easily carried away with the winds of some activities in the industry which are not relevant. They have forgotten that they are not indispensable and that with or without them the bank will go on. They should know that they are not rooted in the place but to be seen as part of their journey. Developing our career is advised but each one of us is also born with array of abilities exceptional to one. Unfortunately, only a few are actually putting theirs to use. You should think and explore the talent within for success and plan for an alternative from the day you got an appointment in the bank in order to accomplish your goal in life.

This brings to mind the quotation of Brendan Francis Behan who was an Irish poet ‘If you have a talent, use it in every way possible. Don’t dole it out like a miser. Spend it lavishly like a millionaire intent on going broke’.

In this banker’s cycle, relationship is not left out. Some people savings are literally on different bevy of beautiful ladies. Some lady bankers are in ‘managing’ relationship with the assumption that available finance will make it better. The worst scenario is for such lady to fall prey of a gold digger, jealous or betrayal of a husband or fiancé. By the time the dust is settled, fortune and friends might have gone already. If the spouse seems faithful, the actual measure of its degree can only be ascertained when the job is no more. The real foundation on which the relationship was built would therefore come to light. If it was on true love, marital bliss would be sustained and, if otherwise, marital crisis would be inevitable.

In conclusion, we should overcome the temptation of buying things that are not necessary. The full realization that we are not indispensable to the bank should ginger us to intensify the plans toward the future and to enable us harness our talents as soon as possible for sustainable alternative options. Prudence and moderation should also be our standard to acquisition of our needs, not wants. Let build our relationship on a long-standing core values which can weather the storm and the test of time.

Peter Oluwatosin Odofin is a Publisher, Writer, Blogger, an Entrepreneur and a career coach . He is currently the president of National Association of Aspiring Bankers of Nigeria (NAABN). also MD/CEO of Pet -Dof International Consulting Limited which is into Educational Consulting, Career & Self development, Travels& Tours , Branding and Publishing.