1. What inspires you?
I’m a very detailed person and I firmly believe that for projects to succeed, there must be proper planning from inception, as well as delegation and holding people responsible for their required actions. It’s all about “Team Work”
2. How do you unwind?
I like to watch sports – football & rugby. But my favourite sport is Motorcycle racing.
3. Best book read?
The book I wrote. It’s called “The Anointed One, The Power of Love” It’s a spy thriller based on religious historical facts, mixed with past and current political figures. It has a child born in Russia of a Jewish mother and a General in the Red Army and when he was an infant, someone tried to assassinate him, and his father sends people around the world to find out who tried to kill his son, which leads to some surprising conclusions of who was behind the plot to kill him.
I wrote it while I was working and living in Libya. At night there wasn’t much to do, so I decided to write something, it took about 90 days to write and perhaps another 90 days to re-write and edit.
4. Best film watched?
There are so many great movies but one that I always never get tired of watching, again and again, is the Humphrey Bogart film “Casablanca”. It is a classic and I would recommend it to everyone to watch.
5. Favourite football club or any other sport that strikes your fancy?
My favourite football club ever since I was a child is “Manchester United”. When I was young, Manchester United was scheduled to play a European Cup match in Belgrade, Yugoslavia, having eliminated Red Star Belgrade to advance to the semi-finals of the competition and after the football match. Their plane crashed and killed most of their players, but they rebuilt the team and won the European Championship some years later. Since then, I have remained a loyal supporter. It shows that even in a disaster something good can become of it if you work hard and never stop fighting to be better.
Also, one of my favourite sports is Motorcycle racing. I love the speed and when the riders are in the corners, they put their knee down to get better lean angles and they pass each other at ridiculous speeds. If the rider is in first place throughout the race, he could end up in sixth place because of the passing abilities. Usually in Formula One car racing, when someone is in the lead, they usually win but in motorcycle racing, you never know. I also like sailing, but in Nigeria (Abuja) I never get to sail, but when I go home to my house in Brazil (I live on an Island off the coast of Brazil called “Ilhabela” which means in Portuguese “Beautiful Island”) I have some friends that let me sail with them. I love the feeling of just the wind taking you along with no engine noise, just the wind and splashing of the water off the boat.
6. Most Embarrassing moment ever experienced
It’s still embarrassing today when I think of it, but when I was younger just starting out my career in Project Management, I was at a cocktail party with my boss and work colleagues. My boss’s wife just had a baby a few months earlier and I commented to her, congratulations, are you having another baby, she replied, no, I’m just fat. I nearly died from the embarrassment, but she was a nice lady and said don’t worry.
7. Happiest moment ever experienced
Every day that God gives me another day in my life makes me happy, especially if I’m healthy. There are so many things that I have been blessed with, a wonderful wife, daughter and granddaughter. In fact, my granddaughter wanted to visit me here in Abuja, she lives in San Francisco and has many African American friends in school and said she wanted to come to Nigeria. She came 2 weeks ago, and she loved her trip. I said to her, how would you rate your visit to Nigeria, she said 9 out of 10. I laughed and said, I wish I had a teacher like you that gave such good points. But for her, she loved the differences here compared to her life in San Francisco, she spent a lot of time with her grandmother, she swam every day in the pool here at the Transcorp Hilton and bought African artefacts from the thatched huts at the hilton for her friends in San Francisco.
8. What is family to you?
Everything, it is the meaning of life.
9. Turn on’s?
Striving for perfection, but no one ever achieves it, just trying to achieve it in every way is what turns me on.
10. Turn off’s?
Rude and lazy people.
