Herbert Wigwe, Access Bank CEO and Group Managing Director

Herbert Wigwe (0:00)

History will only favor the brave. If you don't try something, you don't get it. It's not just as simple as that.

And if you want to understand, and you are truly as good as you say you are, go and do it.

Michael Gervais (0:19)

All right, welcome back or welcome to the Finding Mastery podcast. I'm Michael Gervais, and by trade and training, I'm a support and performance psychologist, as well as the co-founder of a company called Compete to Create. And this conversation, these podcasts, the whole idea behind them is to learn from people who are on the path of mastery, to better understand what they crave, what they're searching for, what their psychological framework is, which is really how they make sense of the world and themselves in the world. And then we also want to understand the mental skills that they use to build and refine their craft.

I want to take a minute here to announce a really exciting event that we have coming up. As you continue to navigate the challenges and opportunities of 2024, I want to pose a question. What are you doing right now to be great with stress? How are you working with stress on your pursuit towards your most important ambitions and goals? And I just want to get right to the heart of the key elements, one in particular, for what it takes to excel in today's high heat, high stakes world. Because stress is not the problem that we think it is. Stress is a synonym for change. And our ability to be agile with change, that is the real opportunity at hand. So if you're wanting to unlock extraordinary results and sustainable performance in your life, it's not about avoiding or reducing stress. And as simple as that sounds, it's very tricky to do, but it is about fundamentally changing your relationship with it. And that's why I'm so thrilled to invite you to a special event. It's a free virtual event that we're offering, and it's called The Power of Embracing Stress. It's on Wednesday, March 6th at 2 p.m. Pacific. So to sign up, just head over to findingmastery.com/training, whether it's advancing in your career or improving your health or cultivating stronger relationships, I think a new approach to stress can be one of the most powerful unlocks for you in your life. So join us for this free virtual training, The Power of Embracing Stress, on Wednesday, March 6th at 2 p.m. Pacific. Go to findingmastery.com/training to sign up. Once again, that's findingmastery.com/training. And I'm really excited to see you there.

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Now at that time, though, Herbert had spent over a decade at Guarantee Trust Bank, and he was in line to become kind of the next one, the next executive director in charge of institutional banking. And for him to even consider leaving and going off to this new venture to raise up Access Bank or to acquire Access Bank was like this big deal. And it was a massive opportunity. But at the time, the bank was ranked the 65th largest bank in Nigeria. And so most people were like, don't do it. This is not a good idea.