Daily Independent (Lagos)
1 November 2008
interview
Ayo Animashaun of Smooth Promotions Limited is a busy man who has the time for only work and family. While he was growing up he had a dream, believed in it and worked hard to achieve it. Today, this father of two, who hates to make his private life public, is a force to reckon with in entertainment journalism. He told Anthonia Soyingbe how he started his Hip Hop World Magazine by mortgaging his sound recorder for N1,000 in 1990 and hawked his publication. You are a big fish in entertainment journalism.
Tell us how it all started?
I have always been passionate about music. When I was 17, I decided I would not work for anybody. This is because I wanted to see what I could do with myself after I read a book and discovered that whatever the mind can conceive, it can achieve.
What is the title of the book?
The book is titled Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill. From that moment I decided I was going to be on my own. Ever since then it has not been so easy but the grace of God has always been sufficient for me. I have paid a price because life itself is like a jungle, you make a mistake you learn from it. You will be so lucky if you don't make the same mistake over and over again. I developed myself because I love music. I am doing what I am doing now because I have passion for it. If you love what you are doing even if you are not being paid for it then you will definitely succeed. When people sometimes tell me that I am a workaholic I tell them I enjoy what I am doing and so I am catching fun doing it.
At what point did you discover you have passion for music?
I grew up in and around music. I enjoy listening to music. I knew I would not be an artiste but I knew I would do something with music. I was just having fun until I stumbled on the business. I used to write lyrics for some of my friends and when I started doing that I decided to put it in a package (book). After a while I started selling the publication.
Those people you were writing lyrics for back then, are they still in the industry?
A lot of people left the industry and a lot of people were not patient enough for the industry to grow. When we got into the industry, it was not as rosy as it is these days. Those who were in the industry then will attest to it that it was tough; you had to be passionate enough to be in music in Nigeria then. I had a lot of friends when I began to publish who are professionals in other fields of endeavor that were not so happy with what I was doing because music then won't pay your bills. Not too many people would go into what will not pay their bills.
It must be paying your bills now.
I thank God that I am able to cater for my family.
What brand of music do you love to listen to?
I listen to every kind of music but I have flair for hip-hop, I listen to R'n'B. I grew up to love different kinds of music, I love Michael Jackson and Fela's music. My dad used to play Fela's 'Gentleman,' 'Yellow Fever' and some of his records whenever he was driving me to school.
Was your father also a music lover?
My father loved music.
His love for music must have influenced you?
Apart from the fact that he played and danced to music whenever I was around him, nothing more about him influenced me to love music. I just love music.
Going by what you have said so far, it would seem your parents were against your ambition then. How did you manage to get their approval?
Not even did they want me to publish then because their desire was for me to do something else.
They sent me to school and all I wanted to do was to publish songs. But there was no publication like that when I started so I forged ahead. It was a very big challenge when I started. My parents felt I was a brilliant kid who had the potential to excel only if I can do something else, so they initially felt bad when I decided to go into what I am presently doing.
You have not told us how you managed to get their consent for the publication.
I didn't convince anybody I only did what they wanted me to do. They wanted me to go to School, which I did. I didn't look for a job because I thought I could draw my own business from what I love doing. It was just a start and people wondered where I would get money to start my own business if I didn't get a job. But I knew that with determination and hard work I would surely succeed. When I was starting everything around me meant something for me. I used to have a deck (cassette recorder), which I mortgaged for N1,000. I added to that the N300 I had in my hand before I came out with Hip-hop World magazine in 1990. I published 300 copies and I got myself a wheelbarrow, which I used, in hawking.
There was a trade fair in Kaduna State then I got a bell, spread my books on the floor and I was calling people to come and buy at a reduced price of N6 instead of the normal price of N10 that I used to sell then. My classmates all laughed at me but I was not moved because I knew what I wanted out of life and I knew where I was going. I was determined to be the best in whatever I chose to do.
Were you not discouraged that your friends laughed at you?
I am from an average home; I saw everything that was good from my house before I saw it somewhere else. When my dad died I was 18 and he gave each of us an estate. He told me before he died that my destiny was in my hands and that I was the architect of my own future. He also told me that he didn't inherit anything from his parents that it was hard work that made him.
I don't look at people's reaction in whatever I do; if I have a meeting and there is traffic jam, I will get down from my car, take a motorcycle and move to wherever I am going. Those days, after appearing on Morning Ride on NTA Channel 5 by 8 a.m. I would be in Oshodi with copies of my publication on my head soon afterward. I was determined to succeed; determination and hard work made me. I was not listening to people because it was not about them neither was it about me but it is about who I wanted to be and achieve. If I failed it was up to me and if I succeeded it was up to me but I chose to succeed.
Why didn't you look for a sponsor to make things easier for you?
I didn't have experience. In any case, a lot of people don't know how sponsorship works. The people sitting behind brands have people they report to so they can't afford to make a mistake with the brands they control.
I didn't expect anybody to come and invest in me because I didn't understand the industry. I had not done anything tangible in the industry before then so I didn't expect any reasonable brand to invest in me even if I begged from morning to night. When you give a novice money what will he do with it? Brands only invest in people who are brand's themselves and you can't be a brand if you don't have pedigree. Nobody wants to take a risk so I didn't even expect any brand to invest in me. Besides, nobody will identity with you when you are starting especially when there is no sign that you will succeed.
Do you have any prior knowledge in journalism?
No, I studied Business Administration.
What effect do you think your course of study has on your business success?
Some of the most successful people on earth didn't study business administration rather, they are people who have business acumen; they are people who are consistent and believe in what they are doing. I learnt how to do business by rising when you fall. My course of study prepared me but the greatest preparation is combining the practical and the theoretical aspects. I was in school when I started and I read a lot of books that said successful people do what they want to do not minding what happens to them when they are doing it.
How rosy has it been since you commenced?
It has never been rosy and it is not rosy now. I thank God for His grace. It is easier to get to the top but to there is a different challenge. This is because people are watching you, they want to perform better than you so it is quite challenging when you are on top. I don't fold my arms and tell my staff to do everything; I work myself because I believe a leader should lead by example. I am a workaholic and I don't have much time to play.
Be the first to Write a Comment!
AllAfrica aggregates and indexes content from over 125 African news organizations, plus more than 200 other sources, who are responsible for their own reporting and views. Articles and commentaries that identify allAfrica.com as the publisher are produced or commissioned by AllAfrica.
