The Mango That Delayed A Meeting

There’s this guy, Kemi, senior manager at a bank on Victoria Island. Big investor meeting at 9am. Suit ironed, slides perfect, driver on standby.

7:30am he’s walking to his car and sees his neighbor’s kid, maybe 8 years old, sitting on the curb crying. Kemi stops. Kid says a mango fell from the tree and cracked his phone screen — it was his dad’s old phone, only way they talk to their uncle abroad.

Kemi checks his watch. Meeting in 90 minutes. But the kid looks like the world ended.

So Kemi goes back inside, grabs ₦15k from his wallet, hands it to the kid and says “go fix am.” Kid stops crying immediately, runs off smiling.

Kemi gets to the office at 9:15am. Meeting already started without him. His boss is not happy. Kemi thinks that’s it — he’s blown it.

But the investor? He was the kid’s uncle. The one the kid was trying to call. Later he tells Kemi: “I saw everything on the CCTV from my brother’s house. I wanted to see what kind of man I’m about to do business with.”

Deal got signed. Double what they asked for.

*Moral*: The thing that looks like it’s making you late is sometimes the thing that gets you the deal.