Mr. Maduka became A Car Apprentice At age 7 And Today He is A Multi-Millionaire !
In today’s Nigeria, the name Cosmas
Maduka is nearly the same meaning with Coscharis Motors. And why wouldn’t it be since
the bearer of the name is the multi-billionaire Chairman/CEO of
Coscharis Group of Companies and sole distributor for BMW in Nigeria.
Dr. Cosmas Maduka’s success is one that everyone knows of, but let’s go through his journey to success together.He was born in Nnewi in Anambra State into poverty. He lost his father at the age of four years and had to resort to assist his mother in hawking bean cake (Akara) and climbing palm trees before the age of five. Three years later, when things seemed to get worse instead of better, he was sent by his mother to his maternal grandparents in order to lessen her task of providing for him and her other three children. At age seven, little Cosmas had to withdraw himself from Elementary Three to serve as an automobile apprentice to a maternal uncle in Lagos.
“My maternal
uncle lived at Ebutte-Metta in Lagos and had a store at 88 Griffy
Street, near Oyingbo Bus-stop. He took me to work as an apprentice for
him, and people laughed at me and questioned what I could learn at my
age", says Cosmas.
The uncle Cosmas was to learn from had
no home of his own but was squatting with a friend, hence, Cosmas had to
sleep at the store while his uncle locked him in and went home with the
keys to the store.
Cosmas was born into the Catholic faith,
however, he had deserted the faith as a young man. He was later to find
back his Christian faith when a friend invited him to the Redeemed
Christian Church of God at Ebutte-Metta while still in Lagos. It was
here he found again his Christian faith and was not ready to let it go
again.
The answer to those who doubted Cosmas’
ability to learn the trade was proved wrong at age of nine, he effectively
mastered his craft and would, on behalf of his Uncle, travel alone to
Nnewi to purchase items. At the age of 14, his boss was so confident in
his abilities that he sent him to work in one of their branches at
Sokoto and later, at Nnewi, where he was born.
There was no
contract binding himself and his Uncle together, all through this time. This was later going to
cause a fatal setback for him, or the launch pad into his success,
depending on how you look at it.
In 1975, at the age of 14 while still at Nnewi,That is when his service in the employ of his Uncle was terminated. Cosmas had a church camp he had to attend. His boss came into town on the fourth day and on discovering his absence, sent for him and his elder brother. Upon their arrival, he gave him N200, asking him to go concentrate on his new found faith.
sundayadelajablog.com
In 1975, at the age of 14 while still at Nnewi,That is when his service in the employ of his Uncle was terminated. Cosmas had a church camp he had to attend. His boss came into town on the fourth day and on discovering his absence, sent for him and his elder brother. Upon their arrival, he gave him N200, asking him to go concentrate on his new found faith.
Speaking of the event, Cosmas recalls
“It was done to punish me, but having known a little about God, I looked
at him in the eyes and said, `God hardened the heart of Pharaoh to show
His might in the land of Egypt. I served you well, and I don’t deserve
this. But if this is what you have to offer me, five years from today,
you will be amazed at what you’re going to see out of this”, he
painfully recalls.
With this setback, Cosmas embraced a
positive attitude. Speaking of this, he says, “I’ve always been very
positive from my childhood and this often made people laugh at me to
scorn. I still recollect those days at Oyingbo Bus-stop when school
children would mock me, and I would tell them I was going to be better
than them in six years. I do not know why I was so confident, but the
truth is that my mother inspired and encouraged me always.”
After being dismissed from his Uncle’s
employ, Cosmas teamed up with his elder brother who had concluded his
apprenticeship and was ready to set up a company, Maduka Brothers,
selling spare parts. This partnership was not to last as they later had
to part later due to ideological differences, leaving him with a capital
of N300.
It was with this capital that he started
his own enterprise of coming to Lagos to buy goods. His first
breakthrough came when he went to Boulous Enterprises to purchase motorcycle
spare parts. It was here that he stumbled on a new innovation called
motorcycle crash ban. He bought several of this and then removed the
address of Boulous from the carton so that others would not know where
he bought them from.
Recalling the incident, Cosmas says“I
sold everything the next day and joined the night bus again to Lagos to
buy more. I did that four times in one week and my capital rose from
N300 to over N3,000. I settled down in marriage at age 19, and I
ventured into importation with the little capital I had. Lo and behold, I
received the wrong consignment and therefore, had a serious setback
which left me indebted even to my landlord for months. My shop was also
locked.”
This major setback notwithstanding,
Cosmas was willing to start over, hence, he searched out a scale which
he got as a wedding gift, took it to the market, and from everyone who
climbed it, he got 10kobo. Upon knowing what her husband went out to do
each day, his wife cried and then decided to pick up a job to support
the family.
With proceeds from the scale enterprise,
he was able to team up with a friend, David and they set up a company
called CosDave. His partnership with David also had to end due to
ideological differences which led him to finally set up the popular
Coscharis Motors, now Coscharis Group of Companies. Speaking on the idea
for the name, Cosmas says “Coscharis is a combination of three letter
words from my name and that of my wife, Charity.”
For Coscharis, the real breakthrough
came when in 1982, the Nigerian government decided to grant import
licenses to 10 Nigerian companies and Coscharis was one of those
selected. From then up till now, the company has continued to expand,
and as of today has several subsidiaries.
From his experience, Cosmas advises: “You can start any mean job as a stepping stone to where you want to be.”
We can also glean this one lesson that it isn’t about where you start from, but where you end up.
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