Risk comes from not knowing what you’re doing – Warren Buffett
Every dog, as they say, has its own day. Juxtaposing that backdrop with the above quote of the legendary oracle of Omaha, Buffett, despite not having any notable wins from entering a limited number of raffle draws, yours truly was willing to take the plunge in the early hours of the second Saturday of February. Turned out to be the morning of Valentine’s Day
I was then at the Aso Ebi Valentine’s Party Vibes that the youthful and amiable founder of Aso-Ebi Festival, Princess Moradeun Adedoyin-Solarin put together at Chak 89 in Mitcham. As the event was gradually coming closer to the much anticipated raffle draw time, the young lady in charge of selling the remaining raffle tickets was urged to go round again after the MC had done a good job of asking us to buy more tickets. This was by default to raise more money for the charity supported by the Princess.
Though yours truly did give the tickets a miss when the hostesses doing the selling made the first round, I was willing to take a risk for a good cause. As a matter of fact, the main reason one did consider taking the calculated plunge was because the major donor of the prizes on offer – an Ambassador of Peace – was not just on the same table with me, she’s even of Caribbean descent.
It didn’t take forever to convince my cautious self that if the very generous lady could be supportive of raising funds for good causes and uplifting lives in Nigeria, why shouldn’t a son of the soil show more love for the efforts of the Princess. Winning anything wasn’t part of the equation at all for me.
But then, there was a pleasant surprise after a couple of lucky souls had their tickets called. Out of nowhere, ticket number 142, which was among the five in the strip handed to me, was called. After having the guest artiste confirm that that duplicate of the number was actually with me, I stepped forward, lapped the applause and also the kind words of the princess and eventually went home with a prize.
My wife was far away in dreamland when I got back in the early hours of Valentine’s Day and, in fact, it wasn’t till much later in the day that I told her that’s your Valentine gift on the table. Despite telling her it came from the raffle draw of the party, she still fancied it.
More importantly for me was to see that my £5 risk that ultimately went to support charitable causes in the fatherland paid off big time. My wife has been making use of the facial steamer ever since. Taking knowledgeable risk has paid off.
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Tunde Oyedoyin is a London-based personal finance coach and founder of Money Intelligence Coaching Academy, a specialist academy of personal finance. He can be reached as follows: +447846089587 (WhatsApp only); E-mail: tu5oyed@gmail.com
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