[color=red][size=90][b]Episode 2[/b][/size][/color]
[b]As an unemployed graduate walking daily from one firm to the other in search of the ever elusive job, and with the soles of my only pair of shoes, almost grazed away to the hilt, i was so happy when John offered me a job as a features editor. i was thus one of the very first workers to be employed by Hot News.
I read Classics at Unibadan. right from my first year in the university, i had been involved in magazine publishing. either hall, departmental or other similar magazines published on campus. as a matter of fact, i had been an editor in my second year and an editor-in-chief in my third and final years. by the time i graduated, i was well versed in magazine production, at least, as far as the rudiments of the trade were concerned.
During my interview, i disscussed the magazine business so knowledgeably that John later confessed that he knew he would found me very useful. as a matter of fact i would have the news editor’s office, which was a notch higher than my office, if not for Ike Nwachukwu, a young handsome man of about twenty-seven years, who read Mass Communication at Unilag and who also had two years post graduate experience in one of the leading newspaper outfits in the country.
We were ten workers including the publisher, who started the magazine outfit which was situated in a three-bedroom flat along William’s Street Surulere. the beginning was quite rough despite the fact that each one of us put in the best he or she could. at my own end, i make sure that i brought up a special story every week that would thrill my readers. however, despite these efforts, the sales were quite daunting. the situation got so bad that the salaries of those of us who were senior staffs had to be slashed by 10% and those of the junior staffs by 5%.
John Fawowe, a man from a village in Ogun State, was a very tenacious human being. a man who believed so much in his own shrewdness. for he continued to tell us every day, ”I could not have calculated wrongly. i know thing will work out…, things will definitely work out. let us continue to persevere for success belong to him who understands discouragement as a fillip to succeed”.[/b]
[color=blue][size=90][b]TO BE CONTINUED[/b][/size][/color]
