“Dad didn’t get the chance to impact my life,” Fela Durotoye says
His dad died without really getting a chance to nurture him.
But the impact the old man made in the lives of others even before probably ever think of marrying his son’s mother would later return to hail his son.
One of such “hailing” moments came when highly rated motivational speaker Fela Durotoye met a beneficiary of his father’s impact while consulting for the organisers of a corporate training programme.
Durotoye retold the story, Wednesday, to the audience at a pre-induction training for members of the Chartered Institute of Personnel Management of Nigeria (CIPM) in Lagos.
“My father died when I was only 11 years old,” he said as the audience offered attentive ears.
“He never put N20 on top of N30 for me…technically speaking,” Durotoye continued.
“But one day I was consulting for an organisation that was training people. When they were about beginning the training session, they were introducing the consultants. It got to my turn and I stood to say ‘my name is Fela Durotoye, it’s great to meet you all’.”
What happened next was proof that though Durotoye’s old man did not really get the chance to “impact” on his son, he did impact on several others before passing on. And at least one of these beneficiaries holds his name dear to heart.
Durotoye continues: “There was this huge man. The man stopped and said ‘Hey! Which Durotoye are you?’ ‘Late Professor Durotoye,’ I told him.
“The man said ‘Oh my God! Omo oga re! Omo oga re!’ The expression means this is my boss’ son. The man came down and hugged me. He was a huge man. He carried me off the ground. ‘Your father was a great man,’ the man said.
“Then he came back to the stage, collected the microphone and told the audience: ‘His father taught me Math as a volunteering student teacher. He was at the University of Ibadan but he came and volunteered to teach Math. Before then I used to fail. I thought I would never know Math. His father made Math sweet’.”
It must have been a humbling moment for Durotoye, a man many adults – many of them several years his senior – now call “father.”
Due to the impact of his impeccable public speaking and his best selling life-coaching books, Fela Durotoye has become the adopted “spiritual father” of those who continually feel his impact.
His late father would be proud of him.
One more thing
Durotoye said the “huge man” “revealed” the late Professor Durotoye invented the art of frying dodo (or plantains) with eggs.
Seriously?
