<p>My thoughts traveled back to when I was the most sought-after actor in the Hausa film industry. Within my first three months, I had already acted in over ten films, all as the lead actor. My name, Hilal, became a household name. Everywhere I went, people followed me in groups like a herd of cattle. If I went shopping, I didn’t have to pay because people would beg me to take whatever I wanted for free.</p><p>In just my first year, I acquired three cars, over three hundred and eighteen designer outfits, twenty wristwatches, ten leather jackets, sixty pairs of shoes, and more socks and singlets than I could count. If I wore something three times, I wouldn’t wear it again.</p><p>Slowly, young men started imitating my style. Whatever I did, even if it was silly, they copied.</p><p>Within two years, I had a fully furnished office with luxurious chairs so comfortable that visitors would often fall asleep in them. I had over twenty employees who obeyed me more than their own parents. Some followed me simply because they wanted my help in joining the industry, while others did so out of sheer admiration.</p><p>I was like a king, and whatever I wanted was done immediately. If my workers could control their breathing, they would have done so for me.</p><p>Then, everything changed.</p><p> </p><p>—</p><p>One Sunday evening, I went to collect my earnings from my latest movie Ragas, but the film wasn’t selling.</p><p>"People are getting tired of you," a distributor told me. “They say your recent movies have poor storylines.”</p><p>From that day, my career started to crumble. The film flopped, and I had already spent a fortune producing it, expecting high returns. I had borrowed money to fund it, but now I couldn’t even recover a fraction of my investment.</p><p>My financial troubles escalated, and soon, producers who once begged me to act in their films abandoned me. My workers left—except for Lauriyya.</p><p>One Wednesday evening, after multiple creditors had visited my office demanding their money, Lauriyya made a suggestion.</p><p>"Hilal, I have an idea," she said.</p><p>"Go ahead, Lauriyya," I replied.</p><p>"You should sell some of your assets to pay off your debts," she advised.</p><p> </p><p> </p>
