Years ago when I was in secondary school. Our playtime was eclectic. We play football, and several catch up games. Sometimes we sneak out with our friends to get our favourite snacks. It was fun. We sit in classrooms and listen to different teachers teach their subjects. But most students assumed that all that was about school was the classes, assembly line, quiz and debating sessions etc . They didn’t know there was an after school. Where students do the tougher job of going through written notes, solving more questions, and mastering their tables. Times of asking their private teachers, parents or friends about what they didn’t understand in school. We met in school the next day assuming that there was only one school - the one where we played and waited for the closing bell to ring.
One school is the platform, the market square. The other school is the power room.
The marketplace is the place where everyone comes to trade, do business, act, perform etc, it is not where they live, or think, pray, anticipate, strategize, prepare or speculate. Your office, school, market, industry, ministry is your marketplace. The hours we spend in the marketplace are few compared to the hours we spend in the power room. The marketplace is filled with a lot of assumptions but the power room is filled with clarity.
In case you are wondering, a power room is where you prepare and get fortification. for some, its diabolical.
You cannot be operating from the open, from the market square. That is too risky.
You must do it from the power room.
A lot of people operate from the market, in the middle of distractions. No plan, no strategy, no insight, they just live each day as it goes. They react and respond to market forces, not create ripples, reactions or original impact. No anticipation and forecasts, they are just there, fighting the wind.
We operate in the marketplace but we launch from the power room. If you do not have one, you are disadvantaged already. It is dangerous and makes you vulnerable.
There are lots of vulnerabilities in the open. This is majorly because you are at the mercy of market forces. You will be caught in the web of combat, and in the grip of gushing water. Whatever happens in the marketplace is a result of some people’s premeditation, plan, strategy and forecast. By the time you arrive at the market square, preparation is late, the best you can do is catch up and not get ahead. You will settle for the crumb and fight for less than you are worth. Because what is unfolding and happening right in front of you is a script that was written in the other room by those who launch in the power room.
Most people have a space in the market but they do not have a power room. Your power room is your leverage, your marketplace is the platform where you play it out. Those who launch in the market are open books. You will be found out.
Have you seen a power house that is built in the glare of the public? No.
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©Abiola Iyiola, 2026
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