Wednesday, the 12th of May 1971
was a particularly remarkable day for Sisi Addy and Bros Toks as they welcomed
the newest member of their family in Ibadan South West Nigeria.
They named their third child and
second son, Oluwafeolami; meaning (God has enlarged my territory).
Together with his brother Pade
and sister, Jibike, the family moved to the university town of Ile-Ife, also in
South West Nigeria in 1972; where Fela grew into one of the liveliest kids on
the campus’ staff quarters. Ile-Ife would come to hold a special place in
Fela’s life as he was thoroughly educated there. First at the Staff Children’s
School (1974-1981) where he was a member of the Boys Scouts, School Band and
played the lead role in the “Tragedy of Meggini” and then on, to Moremi High
School (1981-1986) where he became the lead singer and keyboardist of the youth
band, “The Midwaves”, who regularly featured on TV.
The College Years:
Fela moved onto the University
for his Bachelor’s Degree in Computer Science & Economics (1986-1991). The
entrepreneur, during his Masters Degree in Business Administration (MBA)
(1995-1997), Fela started “The Pool Bar”, which was the number one Hang-Out on
the campus.
Interestingly, during this
period, he had a 4-day one-on-one encounter with GOD in April 1997. It was
during this experience that Fela became born again and life took on a whole new
meaning.
Having obtained his MBA and
spurred on by his new found relationship with Jesus, Fela moved on from
Ventures & Trusts to Phillips Consulting in 1998, where he rose to head the
Customer Service Group until 2000 when he returned to acquire an M.Phil in
Strategic Management at, yes you guessed it, OAU, Ife.
Marriage
Proffessional Experience
In 1998, he brought his
experience to Philips Consulting, a management consulting and training outfit
based in Lagos, where he rose in an unprecedented career path and excelled to
head the Customer Service Group. In this
role, Fela designed and facilitated several customer service and personal
mastery training programmes and retreats. Based on his unconventional approach
to facilitating, Fela became a household name in many organizations, including
Diamond bank, Chartered Bank, Societe Generale Bank of Nigeria, where he
managed streams of Customer Service Management training programmes and retreats
on behalf of Phillips Consulting.
The Executive Chairman of
Phillips Consulting, Mr. Folusho Phillips, declared that “I saw Fela preach the
gospel of Customer Service, according to Saint Fela Durotoye and I watched in
amazement as he converted all the souls of his listeners involved”.
In 2005, Fela Durotoye was
invited by Mr. Phillips to return to Phillips Consulting to speak to all the
staff on the topic, “Becoming a Successful Consultant”.
Today, Fela Durotoye is the Chief
Executive Officer of Visible Impact; a social enterprise set up to tackle
social and environmental challenges and limitations with the aim to build
people into super-achievers and responsible leaders, build corporate
organizations into global market leaders and responsible corporate citizens, as
well as assist governments in developing blueprints and programs that create a
desirable environment for their people to do great things.
He is widely regarded as a nation
builder, corporate strategist and unarguably, Nigeria’s most sought after
prolific business strategist and corporate activator.
Few Out of Fela’s Numerous
Projects
Eden
Eden is a Christian Lifestyle +
Entertainment Ministry set out to facilitate a vibrant Christian lifestyle
established by Fela Durotoye on 30th September, 2000 at Obafemi Awolowo
University, Ife. Presentlys, Eden is fully operational in some other
institutions of higher learning in Nigeria which includes University of Ibadan,
University of Port-Harcourt, Ladoke Akintola University of Technology, Olabisi
Onabanjo University, University of Benin and the University of Lagos e.t.c.
VISIBLE IMPACT
VISIBLE IMPACT is a social
enterprise set up to tackle social and environmental challenges and limitations
with the aim to build people into super-achievers and responsible leaders,
build corporate organizations into global market leaders and responsible
corporate citizens, as well as assist governments in developing blueprints and
programs that create a desirable environment for their people to do great
things.
A budding business conglomerate,
Visible Impact is divided into 5 groups:
Consulting
Project Management
Multimedia
Investment Holding
Foundation
Project RAISE
RAISE is an acronym for Revive
Academic excellence In Schools & Educational institutions).
In November 2006, Project RAISE
was unveiled to the Nigerian media.
Using Fela Durotoye’s book, ‘The
17 Secrets of High Flying Students’ as a tool that delivers to students,
principles that make them super achievers, while the entire RAISE plan
guarantees an educational system that is believed will make Nigeria the worlds’
centre for academic excellence by December 31, 2025.
The project received the
endorsement of the Honourable Minister for Education, now World Bank Vice
President, Mrs. Obiageli Ezekwesilli.
Gemstone 2025
GEMSTONE is an acronym for a
Generation that is Empowered, Motivated & Stirred To Operate with Natural
Excellence.
Background
“2.10PM Tuesday November 23,
2004, VICTORIA GARDEN CITY, LAGOS, NIGERIA. Fela Durotoye experienced a divine
visitation. During this encounter, he received a mandate from God:
“Go and build me the people that
will build Nigeria into the world’s most desirable nation to live in by
December 31, 2025.”
Over time, Fela received a
structured model for building a Generation that will be Empowered, Motivated
& Stirred To Operate with Natural Excellence (GEMSTONE).
Thus, GEMSTONE is a structured
model that can be replicated in any other African country. Upon the
implementation of the GEMSTONE model & platform by African nations, Africa
is poised to become the world’s most desirable continent to live in.
The Vision:
“By December 31, 2025, Nigeria
will be, undoubtedly, the world’s most desirable nation to live in”
The Mission:
Speaker’s Corner
SPEAKERS’ CORNER is an incredible
platform established to empower, motivate, network and mentor upcoming speakers
to realise their dreams of becoming the world’s most sought after speakers who
will influence their nation positively. This is the platform for aspiring and
established motivational/inspirational speakers to network and learn from one
another as well as a means of discovering many of the hidden motivational
speaking gifts in them.
The facilitators have included
Niyi Adesanya (CEO, 5th Gear Consulting), Lanre Kupoluyi (DFID Consultant to
the Ministry of Education, Federal Republic of Nigeria), (Richie Dayo Johnson –
UK based Internationally Renowned Toastmaster), Prof. Pat Utomi (Director,
Lagos Business School), Otunba Gadaffi (CEO, DMT Toilets Ltd.), Mr. Folusho
Phillips (Executive Chairman, Phillips Consulting), Tara Fela-Durotoye (CEO,
House of Tara), Rev. Sam Adeyemi (Senior Pastor, Daystar) and the host, Fela
Durotoye.
These individuals have endorsed
SPEAKERS’ CORNER as an incredible platform to mentor, guide and give direction
to many Nigerians.
This nation building effort is
provided FREE OF CHARGE to the participants.
24/7
24/7 is a reality TV show that
will reveal how we all can join hands to build and refurbish schools
nationwide.
The program will show how six
schools from each of the nation’s geo-political zones are transformed.
Each school will be rebuilt in
exactly 7 days with about 1,200 workmen working 24 hours non-stop in shifts;
while the students, teachers, administrators and parents go through a mental
transformation session called the Future Leader Academy within the same 7 days.
The Future Leader Program
The FUTURE LEADER program is a
mentoring project aimed at attaching young people who aspire to be great in any
field with someone who is already legitimately doing great things in that
field. According to Fela Durotoye, amazing things will happen in our nation if
you as an individual will decide to:
1. Make a positive impact on
everyone you meet and everywhere you go;
2. Be a solution to problems and
never a problem to solutions;
3. Be a role model worthy of
emulation;
4. Be the best in all that you
do, particularly the things that you are naturally good at;
5. Do the right things at all
times, regardless of who is doing the wrong thing;
6. Value time and make the best
of it;
7. Care and show that you care
through your words and actions;
8. Consciously build a great
legacy starting today and every day;
9. Live a life of integrity; and
10. Make your family, your nation
and your God proud.
YES!
The YES project is aimed at
facilitating Youth Economic Summits nationwide and raising a generation of
global-minded entrepreneurs from the shores of our nation
True Nigerian Project
The True Nigerian project is
aimed at infusing our nation with 10 PATRIOTIC values
1. Make a positive impact on
everyone you meet and everywhere you go;
2. Be a solution to problems and
never a problem to solutions;
3. Be a role model worthy of
emulation;
4. Be the best in all that you
do, particularly the things that you are naturally good at;
5. Do the right things at all
times, regardless of who is doing the wrong thing;
6. Value time and make the best
of it;
7. Care and show that you care
through your words and actions;
8. Consciously build a great
legacy starting today and every day;
9. Live a life of integrity; and
10. Make your family, your nation
and your God proud.
10. SUPERSPEAKER
The SUPERSPEAKER is a reality TV
show aimed at inspiring an entire nation to greatness as we search for
Nigeria’s next most talented inspirational speaker.
Lessons From Fela’s Teaching
Fela cites many examples of young
people doing awesome things in Nigeria, including his wonderful wife Tara,
acclaimed to be Nigerian’s pioneer bridal make-up arti’st and an award-winning
beauty entrepreneur. He passionately speaks of people like Funke
Bucknor-Obruthe and Ibidun Ighodalo in events planning, the Okunoren Twins in
fashion, TY Bello in photography and Cobhams Asuquo in music. “Young people are
doing extraordinary things here in Nigeria and around the world if they can, so
can you” says Fela Durotoye.
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