So when are you planning to retire?

By John Eche

There is a time to get engaged and there is a time to move up, on or even to retire. It is the way of mortals. It is a feature of life. Time simply keeps moving on. And it is up to those who are diligent to recognise what the time is exactly and do the things that they must per time.

In a recent statement, Kola Oyeneyin, Founder at Venia Group, Director at Volition Capital,  2020 Harvard Kennedy School Alumni and Fellow at Harvard Center for Public Leadership revealed that he was planning to give up his schedules in relation to running the Venia Group.

He wrote:

‘After almost 10 years of founding and running Venia Group. I am happy to announce this exciting transition from me to a new CEO, Adebowale Banjo. He will now be responsible for driving the group’s companies forward for the foreseeable future. Debo is a brilliant professional who up until this year was the General Manager of our insurance company. As CEO, I have no doubt that he’d do an incredible job, leading the awesome team that we have across the companies.

I will now spend the next phase of my life Co-running Volition Capital Investments Limited with my friend and partner Subomi Plumptre. As a Private Equity firm in Africa, our focus will be on helping hardworking and honest people create wealth. Through Volition Blue LLC (our Taxas based company), we will connect Africans to opportunities in the US market and those in the diaspora with opportunities in Africa.

I will continue to serve on the board of Venia Group as Chairman and support the team in an advisory capacity.

I wish Debo and Venia every success. I know they will take the company far beyond where I was able to in 9+ years and leave lasting legacies.’

It is indeed a quite touching statement but it is equally a remarkable testimony that you, my reader can learn from. Do not hold on to something continually even when there is a need to let it go. All change, every disruption, is indeed inconvenient, but it is also the way of the world. Move up, move on, move away if you must. You will survive. You will get better.

Kola Oyeneyin