Grass-to-grace stories are not the exclusive preserve of Nollywood, going by the story of a National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) member who became the Chief Operating Officer (COO) of an aviation company where he sought youth service placement many years ago.
As told by ‘Lara Yeku, an author and Head of HR, Food Division at Flour Mills of Nigeria Plc, this is the story of her uncle who got an unusual opportunity simply for showing respect to an elderly security guard 20 years ago.
According to her, showing respect for people, no matter their station in life, could make all the difference between stagnancy and success in life.
“Twenty (20) years ago, my uncle who had just finished his NYSC (National Youth Service Corps) orientation camp was looking for a place for his primary assignment.
“He had no connection and didn’t know anyone. While going from one company to another in search of a placement, he got to an aviation company and prostrated to greet the elderly security man at the gate. He went on to explain that he was looking for a placement opportunity, the security man who was moved by his show of respect culturally as a yoruba man, said he was impressed that such a tall and heavily built man with sound education prostrated in public to greet him.
“He told my uncle that they were not accepting corp members that year has HR had given him instructions to turn all requests down.
“However, he told my uncle to wait while he went to speak to the HR.
“He went in and returned after a few minutes and granted my uncle access to the HR dept. He was the ONLY NYSC member who was given a placement that year in that company. There were several other NYSC members who came to that security man but he turned them all back.
“Today, my uncle is a C.O.O in that aviation company,” she wrote on LinkedIn on Friday.