By Damiete Braide
Many Nigerians will be yearning to read the books written by Dr Lance Musa Elakama, former Deputy Director-General of the Nigerian Stock Exchange, entitled Starting and Growing Your Own Business; Principles in Capital Management; and The Ground Rules for the Journey of Life as they Relate to the Existence of Man in the Society.
The author, who is also the proprietor, Oak Business School (Monotechnic), told the gathering in Lagos during the book launch that writing was an act of giving and hardly does one gets gets rich by writing a book.
“Only a few authors can confidently say that they got wealthy through the proceeds from their books. If it were so, I think professors would be the wealthiest people in the world, because many of them have several books to their credit.”
Writing a book, he said, wasn’t an easy task, because it required dedication, determination, tenacity and the burning of the midnight oil. “At a point, you develop inertia and stop writing altogether,” he noted.
The primary purpose of writing a book, he remarked, was to share, impact knowledge and wisdom to others, not necessarily to make money. “Therefore, writing a book is an act of giving back to the society, and I feel very fulfilled that through these books, I am giving back to the society,” said the author.
In his lecture entitled “Three Kinds of People and their Fundamental Styles of Social Interactions”, the author noted that, by conventional wisdom, highly successful people had some things in common, some of which included absolute integrity, self respect and respect for others, empathy, handwork, opportunity, etc.
“Generally speaking, there are three kinds of people, and they are: ‘Givers’, who are always giving without expecting a reward for their act of benevolence. The second set are the ‘Takers’, and they are always taking and never giving; while the last is the ‘Matchers’, and they always strive to preserve an equal balance of giving and taking,” he said.
Eghosa Imade, a former schoolmate to the author, said: “I have known and interacted with Lance Musa Elakama, for two years, short of one-half of a century; which is why I feel eminently qualified to state as follows: Musa is an avid reader, the evidences as in his impossible suffixes.
He is an assiduous and untiring worker, which I witnessed this proposition, first hand, when he was finance manager and company secretary while I was the company accountant at a company in Badagry (1988-1990).
“It is fitting that Musa turned out these volumes simultaneously, perhaps to underscore his profound professionalism, outlandish erudition and sparkling education.
Femi Awoyemi, Ike Onyechi and Michael Fadeyi reviewed the books and stressed on the importance of reading, with the belief that, for an individual to succeed, he/she must develop himself through continuous learning.