Why I paid to have Rihanna

TUNDE OYEDOYIN

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 (WhatsApponly); E-mail: tu5oyed@gmail.com

A laurel rested upon quickly wilts — Ray Kroc, founder of McDonald’s

While at the ever busy Euston Station last month to check out Chimamanda Adichie’s latest work, “Dream Count,” Rihanna was not by any stretch of the imagination on my radar.

As it turned out, yours truly couldn’t resist her charm and brain when the opportunity of taking a masterclass from the glamorous 37-year old billionaire landed on my table.

Make no mistake about it, there’s more to Rihanna than having belted out hits like “Umbrella” and other famous tunes. Don’t be fooled by the flaunting of her elegant frame nor the eye-catching cleavage and being among the “real housewives “ of showbiz either.

This Barbados-born Americana is as much a successful entrepreneur who knows her onions as well as any other businessman or woman you can think about. She’s got solid money intelligence. It didn’t actually dawn on me that I could be taking notes from her till I walked inside the W.H Smith store at Euston station on that Saturday.

It all began when, as is one’s habit to glance through the newspapers and magazines’ stands whenever inside a W.H Smith store, I couldn’t miss her recognisable name and image on seeing it splashed across the cover of Harper’s Bazaar magazine with the title “Rihanna Uncovered.” Here’s the thing, I don’t remember ever reading the magazine nor owning a copy till then.

Of course, you can’t judge a book by its cover, and neither judge a magazine featuring a global superstar. So, yours truly needed to quickly cut through the chase by flipping the thing open to the page of the interview. I fancied it. In fact, I didn’t have to read as many as three paragraphs to know I had to own a copy of that April edition . It would have been a case of the “Gods are not to blame” when you see a billionaire talking and then walk away without getting a slice of their wisdom. The cover price of £2.50 is even less than the price of a coffee that yours truly grabbed while at a cafe not long ago.

As an aside, the interview was conducted after 4.30am when the busy mum of two and her partner had just returned to their apartment from a night out. I’d once had to track Seun Kuti to a Camden hotel and wait till around 1am for an interview several years ago. On that occasion, he had performed at the Jazz Cafe till late.

One vital lesson from her is that you pack as much into a day as possible. She also reminded the journalist that she agreed to just an hour. Time is money.

Among the other takeaways is that she has created more than one source of income. She’s even staying hungry. Seems she has personalised Ray Kroc’s quote cited above that “ a laurel rested upon quickly wilts.” Despite making it to the billionaire’s club, Rihanna is still working. So glad I grabbed the opportunity to have her hand down some nuggets of money intelligence.

business a.m. commits to publishing a diversity of views, opinions and comments. It, therefore, welcomes your reaction to this and any of our articles via email: comment@businessamlive.com