Olajumoke Adenowo

"Be discreet, remember your best friend may have a best friend who is not your own best friend."

"Discretion is necessary in leaders. I practise a simple principle if I have not been instructed specifically by someone to tell another person specifically mentioned by name the information they just divulged to me, I automatically assume I am not to tell any living being. Have you ever been betrayed by someone you trusted and confided in?"

"African entrepreneurs must be the alternative government and take up the task of human capacity development....We must see our staff, not just as resources for the business, but as human beings whose potentials we are to discover, develop, and deploy."

"God is not a waster of talents or resources. It would be a waste for God to say to me, do not practice architecture after the years I’ve spent honing and perfecting my craft."

"I really don’t think in terms of challenges. Whatever I went through then exercised and developed my faith."

"The size of a project or the budget is not what challenges me. The subject matter intrigues me. The real challenge is delivering world class buildings and spaces in our environment."

"I get annoyed when I see purposeless living, weak leadership and when people lie. Although I am mature enough to overlook blatant liars, it is just too irritant to me. I can’t also stand weak leadership as it results in inequity and injustice at the family and national levels. It agitates me to see things being done without purpose, that is, when people do things without asking the right questions."

"Finally, I believe you can’t give what you don’t have – an unfulfilled mother cannot raise fulfilled children. She can’t raise balanced and well-rounded children who are able to take our continent out of the morass and the vacuum of leadership it is in."

"Marry right; if you must marry, marry someone who believes in YOU. Your gifts and talents, your vision and your future. Don’t marry because the guy has a fine car or is rich or whatever other ephemeral reason people choose spouses for these days."

"Marry someone who respects your intrinsic worth! Be prepared for marriage it’s not by force, girls don’t marry boys, mature men marry mature women."

"Be very careful to follow your passion do what you love because it’s hard work."

"Don’t roll away the ladder after you have climbed it, please Big Sis – let others climb up."

"Running your own business may be a viable option for some women with children, flexible hours are key and this option, while challenging and not risk-free, does offer some latitude in structuring your time. I must warn ahead… there are no closing hours."

"If you find help where you expect or not, Sisters, determine to be all you can be. Pursue your dreams, you owe it to yourself. You owe it to your children, you owe it to your country and you owe it your creator."

"Heterosexual men don’t marry men; don’t be a man, it’s not a competition. We are different but EQUAL, stay feminine, stay different."

"I also believe that in an ideal situation, the woman should be able to choose when to work – according to the seasons of her life."

"There is no point losing your marriage if you have married a man who has made it a deal breaker in your marriage."

"It takes wisdom to stay married and have it all you can be a lioness at work but when you get home metamorphose into a kitten."

"There can be only one head in a marriage and I may be old school, but the man is that head and must at least feel he is the head no matter what rough patch he is going through."

"Note, you can’t love what you are doing all the time. You must sometimes get through some serious boring, tough grunt work just to reach your goal of engaging your passion. Stick at it, it’s all part of the journey."

"May I be bold enough to ask that women who are now in positions of influence should make life easier for those coming behind. You know what you suffered, instead of ensuring others coming behind have as rough a ride as you did, why not be a mother and not a rival?"

"Why doesn’t anyone ask if a MAN can have it all? It’s actually a no- brainer. No one ever has it all; all resources, power, money. The laws of physics, economics and time-space dynamics make it impossible."

"Men were more suited to this physical work and it fell to the women, who without a doubt are the primary nurturers of children, to take care of the children."

"I need to clarify that my definition of work in this context is a woman pursuing her passion, and deploying her innate gifts and talents in the service of humanity for financial profit."