MUSINGS: Time to Drop the Cliché!

This is going to sound refractory, or even a little atypical, but as much as Lagos traffic denies Lagosians valuable time that could be spent on productive engagements, it gifts us with beautiful moments of arguments and thought provoking conversations. 

If you are a lover of the radio, you must be familiar with this programme that is slated to coincide with the usual rigorous drive home in the evening, ‘Chaz B’, I think it is called. I am not a lover of the radio, but since I hitch a ride with my colleague home, I dutifully listen to whatever floats his boat, be it a track off Kendrick Lamar’s ‘To Pimp a butterfly’ album or Brilla’s noisemaker host, Murphy Jemba’s show.

So, yesterday the topic discussed on the Chaz B show was whether or not people would like to work together with their spouses, in the same office space or as business partners. People called in, and although some comments got me laughing, I cannot but share my two cents on the issue. 

A caller’s opinion, albeit popular as I later found out, stuck with me. He said he couldn’t be business partners with his wife because women like money and are unable to draw a line between personal spending and business expenditure. Several other men called in to share the man’s sentiments and although one other man praised his wife for being a prudent housekeeper worthy of business partnership, he was thoroughly overshadowed by the negativity that characterized the comments of others. I am wondering why hardly any woman called in to weigh in on the matter but that’s hardly the point I’m trying to make.

My first reaction to the show was very straightforward. It is important to know your partner, exhaustively. Truth is, be it on either side of the sex fence, not everyone is business oriented. The reason a lot of people would rather be employed and carry out the instructions of someone who sits at the helm of affairs is not hard to figure out, crowns are shiny and attractive, but uneasy lay the heads that wear them.

The crux of this gist is that I am greatly appalled by the generalization that women are not good business owners and that they are mostly bound to ruin a partnership with their husbands. I personally know women who are the brain-boxes in businesses jointly run with their spouses and although I find a number of people would disagree, the basis of their differing opinion scarcely adds up.

‘Experience.’ The one word that has influenced the decisions of many people and suffices as the most gigantic excuse of all times. What is in fact bemusing is how I have realized that unmarried men would allude to the experience(s) of their uncle’s father-in-law’s friend as the reason to not partner with their future spouses and miss the possible opportunity of creating business empires.

Are you asking me if I think that there are no women who are capable of ruining businesses? Of course not. Do I think women are good managers? Yes, just as there are good men managers. Should married people necessarily enter into businesses with their spouses? Not at all. What I did expect in the course of this argument is for people to raise crucial points on how conflicts can arise in the work place and leave a dent in the relationship of spouses or how time-flexibility should be considered especially if there are toddlers in the family and the rest of that.

We can do better than call one in ten women who run businesses beautifully, the exception. What is exceptional about them is the opportunity to make a difference, not the denial that is so attributive of everyday occurrences.

And this even has nothing to do with feminism.

Have a great week guys and thanks for stopping by!

By Bisola Agboluaje