To Hell With Buying And Selling

He had the shop inside the street near the item main market but street nevertheless, it is still off the center of the market and it's a little difficult to have unknown customers patronize the business when all always face the market direction and psychologically view the off shop as having k-leg per se. Marcus has managed to survive in that street, coupled with the fact that he deals on second-hand motor parts, not daily-use items. Too hard to sit and welcome customers, you need to go to them to make it not like daily use items, a must-use each day. But Mr. Marcus Malu doesn't have this business acumen. If you add his lifestyle to his positioning disadvantages you begin to notice why he isn't performing.

Dreamer that made it his occupation to dream when he should be seeking customers. No one has ever seen anyone who made it in any field dreaming 10 hours each day instead of being present for the same hours and finding solutions to his problems. No wonder his friends and neighbors nick named him Marcus De Great Dreamer. He can't feed himself twice a day, his stock kept diminishing due to lack of adequate attention. He is always in the market propers away from his shop claiming to seek customers and direct them to his shop but no one has ever seen him with one he diverted to his shop rather, he always returns in the evening smelling of cheap liquor. Some say he joined the circuit group that entertained with life animals and some he was looking after the the business of a herbalist selling herbal medicine not far from there. One story is nearest to the truth although. He clamors for attention. He wants to belong by all means, he wants most eyes on him.

He sold his shop for thousands to a man who converted it into a packing store, used the money to enter into a partnership with a man in the same line he is, and joined circuit groups part-time and enjoys it when people gather to watch the performers perform with all manners of the beast, clap their hands and cheers. Marcus was soaking up all the adorations, all the attention, and was smiling, giggling like school kids. But people like entertainment quite alright but they don't have money to turn it into recreational activities so, there is not enough money to do anything meaningful with the performers. So Mr. Marcus was neither here nor there financially, so once again was living from hands to mouth. He can't even change the clothes he wears freely without feeling the pinch well. That not withstanding, he has learnt to observe and imitate from his fellow entertainers. They are not rich but they don't have money. He is imitating but finding it extra difficult not to think about how to get relatively okay not wealthy per se

His partnership started having issues. It wasn't performing according to his partner who kept physically changing and adding weight yet, the partnership wasn't performing. Invested capital was barely afloat. Mr Marcus decided to save his capital. He called the arrangement off and joined the circuit full-time. " Better to be losing from one end than two. I think I would have made it in that partnership if I were dealing with animals rather than humans. Animals are more trustworthy than humans" he was heard lamenting to his fellow performer. Maybe he came to weigh the loyalty of the beast he works with with the humans he deals with and arrived at that conclusion.  

Not long after joining the "Wonder Makers" as his group is known, he decided that he can be able to kill two birds with the stone. He used the capital he recovered from his partnership to open a consultation room claiming to possess powers to locate lost items and recover them. Some who knew him as a member of Wonder Maker decided that maybe he had all the abilities listed on the signpost in front of his 

Consultation room. From one confessing customer to fifty, at times hundreds. He decided that his circuit days were numbered but needed the marketing that came from it. He is not naive enough not to know that his customers are so poor that they can't pay upfront the consultation fee even fifty percent. But here are these poor guys who will eventually bring in the rich guys. Sure, they also want to find their money, a big one that needs not police to search for it but him. As of today, it has been those who are losing their knife files, vanity lotion, half eaten kola he put in his drawer, their hundred naira note given to them by one relative or the other. All are village people and their loses are in the class of their own. They even think and talk as if they believe him to be a pastor or something like that. He decided that the uniform he from day one decided to be wearing is sending wrong messages across to the people. "But what will one wear without appearing fake to the people?" he queried himself. He had opted for white and red garment to give the impression of seriousness and try as much as possible to keep away from preaching Bible he doesn't even know about. Yet, once on white, you are man of God to people. The same people that watch him and his wonder makers perform magic like show each week are now seeing him as man of God. Multi, you look common, coat, you look like yahoo boys, white garment, you cone across as pastor. He decided to stick to his white more often while at it.

Then, troubles started as usual from this kind of issue. An old woman who paid a hundred to locate her snuff box did not find it or never looked for it as directed and decided that a hundred naira is too enormous to let go. She got officers involved and they were too eager to make the old lady happy and came knocking demanding one thousand as compensation for even having the temerity to dupe an old citizen as the officer put it. That was the day his relatively promising business turned into gain siphoner. Officers are in a class of their own. With then, it was: If you pay once, you will continue to pay till you go broke. That was how even the poor customers, all disappeared and his little business went kaput. 

After much time self-deliberating, he decided that he would be much better in the village as a farmer and his health much better. He made his move, bought crude implements needed for farm work, and faced the direction of his village. "so, this just how my sojourn after these decades in the city came to an end? Where will I start to....." he sighed loudly and went on moodily with his packing.