HENRY AGBAI
In an interview with Popular Entertainer and Executive Director Henry Emole AGBAI He acknowledged and spoke on being loyal to fault “ over loyalty hinders growth “ in the entertainment industry.
“loyalty can be a fault. It’s hard when you are so hyper-focused on work or overly committed to some random new obsession to pay attention to the fact that this thing you are aligned to is no longer aligned to you. They’ve gone perpendicular and you’re still a square. The reason why the phrase even exists (no one knows where it originated) is that people don’t realize it’s OK to move on to some other business partnership or explore some other new avenue of success. They are stuck looking in one direction while the object of their interest is no longer interested.
And, there’s another problem. Loyalty is overrated. You may be the brain behind a particular successful production but they barely know you exist. And that problem plays out in many relationships and businesses . When you are extremely loyal, you end up over-focusing on something or someone that is not showing the same loyalty back to you. Some relationships, particularly in marriage, have equal amounts of loyalty and that’s invaluable (not to mention rewarding and fulfilling), but in business, there is barely an advantage to being so loyal. That’s why it doesn’t make sense to be loyal to a brand or an idea or even a person at times because it’s not reciprocal. There are times when you need to break from the idea, the brand, or the person because that’s a smart decision.
One of the main reasons why a business fails is because someone was overly loyal and refused to adjust and change. A business owner gets stuck insisting that there is only one way to sell a new gadget or there is only one person who is good at handling the customer support lines. It’s the loyalty that ends up creating the friction. It’s the loyalty that prevents a company from pivoting and trying something new.
There are times when it is better to hold loosely to something because, in modern work culture, you either adjust quickly or you fail quickly.
