Lagos – Ozisco.com

Self-care could get you a hat-trick

Last week Monday, I exhausted every means possible to get a hold of a client involved in a deal I was spearheading. I emailed, called, texted, and left a voicemail, but he did not respond.

The next morning, he replied to my text apologizing for being unreachable since he was stuck in back to back meetings. He then suggested we set up a call for 5pm later that day. I asked for an earlier time in the day, but he was firm that he was only available at 5pm. This was a problem. I had a soccer game starting at 5:10pm, and knew our conversation would take at least 30 minutes. There was also a looming deadline, so it was critical we spoke soon. I had to decide whether to take the call at 5pm and risk missing the soccer game or reschedule the meeting to a different day and risk missing the deadline. Playing soccer brings me a lot of joy, and I also thrive on going above and beyond for my customers, so this was a difficult situation.

This dilemma reminded me of a conversation I had a few weeks back with my mentor. He encouraged me to prioritize self-care as part of my daily routine to live a more balanced life. He shared that more than exercising regularly, self-care is any activity that we deliberately do to take care of our mental, emotional, and physical health. According to Forbes, neglecting self-care means not knowing your worth. By making time for self-care, you “maintain a healthy relationship with yourself as it produces positive feelings and boosts your confidence and self-esteem.”

The common challenge with self-care is making adequate time for it. Tchiki Davis, Ph.D, author of Outsmart Your Smartphone, recommends twelve strategies to get started with self-care. To resolve my earlier dilemma, I relied on her “say no to others, and say yes to your self-care” strategy. Below is how she explains it:

Learning to say no is really hard; many of us feel obligated to say yes when someone asks for our time or energy. However, if you’re already stressed or overworked, saying yes to loved ones or coworkers can lead to burnout, anxiety, and irritability. It may take a little practice, but once you learn how to say no politely, you’ll start to feel more empowered, and you’ll have more time for your self-care.

I told the client that 5pm wouldn’t work since I had a soccer game starting at 5:10pm. I suggested we reschedule for the next day, and he accepted. In parallel, I worked to ensure we had enough runway so we could still meet the deadline.

The soccer game started promptly at 5:10pm, and by the end of the first half, my team was down 1 – 4. During the half time break, I encouraged the guys by reminding them we were better than our first-half performance. All we needed was to focus on getting one goal at a time. Within the first 5 minutes of the second half, I scored our second goal, getting us to 2 – 4. We made some technical changes, which allowed our team to score three more quick goals within ten minutes, putting us ahead at 5 – 4. I then added another goal with five minutes left in the game, putting the score at 6 – 4. Our opponents got a quick break and scored a goal with two minutes left, putting the score at 6 – 5. Knowing they would increase the pressure, I reminded the guys that offense is the best defense. Since our opponents committed more of their guys to attack, it left their defense vulnerable. We took advantage, and my teammate provided a perfect through pass. I then dribbled past two defenders before hitting the ball past the goalkeeper on his left side. The score was now 7 – 5, with twenty seconds left in the game. When the referee blew his whistle to signal the end of the game, we had managed to come back from three goals down to win the game 7 – 5. I thought to myself, had I taken the call and missed out on the game, I wouldn’t have been in a position to help my team and be a part of such a memorable comeback story.

The next day, the client asked about the soccer game, and I relived the drama all over again. Even better, we met the deadline, deepened our connection, and progressed our discussions. This experience was a reminder to prioritize self-care because it earns trust with clients and it is good for business.

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The Most Interesting Thing About Investing in Africa: Innovative News Platform About Nigeria

Akin Akinboro (left) and Mobolaji Sokunbi (right) are the Co-Founders of The 234 Project

The following post is from the e-book, The Most Interesting Thing About Investing in Africa, which features a series of conversations with entrepreneurs, community leaders, students, executives, and doers both home and abroad driving economic empowerment in several parts of my beloved continent of Africa.

***
Mobolaji is a results-driven Marketing Executive and Entrepreneur. In his capacity as a marketing manager, he established a track record of successfully recruiting and training top sales teams, managing a $150M+ sales campaign P&L, and driving innovative strategies across multiple business units. He has a remarkable gift for identifying and evaluating intricate challenges in an organization and successfully communicating solutions and recommendations to senior leadership. His experience spans across notable companies including Dell, Procter & Gamble, and The Southwestern Company. In his capacity as an entrepreneur, Mobolaji consistently makes things happen from a business development standpoint including as the co-founder of The 234 Project. He is passionate about sharing the untold stories of Nigeria’s greatness and publicizing the achievements of Nigerians around the world.
***
Akin exhibits a masterful set of skills in his work as an Enterprise Systems Engineer and Entrepreneur. Pertinent to his work as a systems engineer, Akin enjoys bridging the gap between IT experts and non-experts alike. Throughout the course of his career, he has established a solid foundation in product & solution development; and he is very experienced in leading efforts related to solution design, infrastructure architecture & implementation, test & testing frameworks, and project management. This experience has allowed him to excel in a variety of engineering roles with major technology companies such as Oracle and Dell. In his entrepreneurial endeavors, Akin is involved in a number of successful ventures including co-founding The 234 Project. He believes that the future for Nigeria is bright and thus essential to the world. Akin is passionate about impacting lives positively and encouraging others to find sustainable solutions to everyday challenges.

Investment: Online Platform to Tell the Positive Stories of Nigeria | The 234 Project

SITUATION
There are many fascinating things about investing in Africa, especially investing in projects that empower young minds. To that end, Mobolaji and Akin sought to develop a deeper understanding of the growing interest in startups and self-employment among young Africans, particularly young Nigerians. This perceived interest seemed to be buoyed by a number of factors like high levels of youth unemployment, lack of opportunities at more established companies in Nigeria, and the foreign investment shift from BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India, China) to MINT (Mexico, Indonesia, Nigeria, Turkey) countries with Nigerian startups at the beneficiary forefront of this shift.

Upon closer examination, Mobolaji and Akin discovered that young Nigerians were not only motivated by economic factors, they were also motivated by the opportunity to live out their own definition of success; and so, working with a startup or being self-employed in Nigeria offered them the best chance to stay close to home and stay even closer to self-actualization.

Historically, many young Nigerians yearned to leave Nigeria for greener pastures in North America or Europe (see Forbes article on Brain Drain). They tended to identify with a skewed version of professional success in life i.e. the “non-African” version. Nowadays, with the widespread use of the internet and mobile phones, more young people in Nigeria opt for a career path which allows them to think global but act local.

In his interview, Mobolaji expressed that he had always wanted to reach out to young Nigerian professionals in Nigeria… “to be a mentor or offer some advice from the standpoint of [his] experience in sales and marketing”. The 234 Project now allows him to take his mentoring to a whole new level– the project is an ongoing investment to tell a different story of Nigeria.

“For some time now, if you ask people, particularly westerners, what they know about Nigeria, you’re likely to hear about terrorism, corruption, the Niger-Delta violence, or those kinds of negative stories; before you hear many westerners and sometimes even Nigerians say anything positive about Nigeria, they probably would have already gone through a list of negative things,” he noted.

In 2011, I was at a stopover in London Heathrow Airport and I met a young man from Katy, Texas (United States). He worked for Shell and was on his way to Port Harcourt, Rivers State (Nigeria). He was reading a thick book about the dangers of living in Nigeria. We got into a conversation about his trip and I could tell he was petrified about going to Nigeria. At that moment, I thought to myself, what if this young man also had easy access to the positive elements of living in Nigeria? Imagine a platform that would have shown him great places to eat and visit while living in Port Harcourt.
-Mobolaji recounts his experience on a business trip

Akin and Mobolaji believe that Nigeria, known as the Giant of Africa, has positive stories to tell– from technology to politics, from politics to entertainment, from entertainment to fashion, there are people making positive waves…

While attending a youth event in Johannesburg, South Africa for the MTV BASE Meets show, First Lady Michelle Obama (wife of the 44th President of the United States, Barack Obama) was spotted wearing Nigerian label Maki Oh by the young designer Amaka Osake. Michelle Obama took to the stage wearing a chiffon blouse from the Spring/Summer 2013 collection. – Source:africanfashionguide.com

The 234 Project is not in the business of denying that there are negative things to report about Nigeria, instead the project is simply advocating for the other side of Nigeria’s story.

The cinema of Nigeria, referred to as Nollywood, grew quickly in the 1990s and 2000s and became the second largest film industry in the world in the number of annual film productions, placing it ahead of the United States and behind only India. In 2013, it was rated as the third most valuable film industry in the world after generating a total revenue of NG₦1.72 trillion (US$10 billion) in 2013 alone, placing it behind India and the United States.
– Source: un.org/apps/news/story (UN News Centre)

ACTION
Akin and Mobolaji, in collaboration with their global team (a collection of young, brilliant minds), are building out an online platform with global access to tell the positive stories of Nigeria– from positive stories that impact celebrities to politicians, from boardroom bosses to classroom champions. The platform will be used to create and share content.

There are two value proposition pillars that they are keeping in mind:

Stewardship;
Empowerment

Stewardship – they are employing a network of young people in Nigeria to help create the content.
Empowerment – they are then connecting the content they create to action items like raising awareness, project fundraising, and professional networking.

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RESULT
They have implemented some key performance indicators that are part of an ongoing evaluation process to measure the success of the project on multidimensional scale. Notably, in five years, the groundwork is in place to create hundreds of jobs (across different disciplines such as videography, writing, editing, and more).

Investment: Online Platform to Tell the Positive Stories of Nigeria
L = 50
I = 30
C = 40
Business Idea Metric: 120

To learn more about The 234 Project, please check out the online community

The 234 Project is active on social media: Twitter – @the234project | Facebook – The 234 Project | Instagram – @the234project

25 Tips To Review Before Driving In Lagos

Lagos is the heartbeat of the economy in Nigeria which means life is fast there. It is not a place for the weak-minded. So, it’s no surprise that the driving condition in Lagos is a reflection of the city’s unique culture. As a driver and a passenger, the experience is scary but can be quite thrilling at the same time. One thing is for sure, if you can successfully drive on the crazy streets and highways of Lagos, driving anywhere else will be effortless.

I consider myself a decent and polite driver; however, when I got behind the wheels in Lagos, I felt my driving style completely mutate into something I couldn’t recognize…but I knew I needed it to survive. Here are some tips I picked up as a driver and passenger.

The lines demarcating the lanes are recommendations; at best suggestions. Actually they are opinions. It’s acceptable to ignore them. Just ignore them. If you see an opening, go for it, that’s your lane. In Lagos, you can create your own lane.
The roads are so bad in many areas that the sight of good roads could make you want to accelerate. Go ahead and accelerate. Enjoy it while it last.
Traffic lights are also suggestions. Red means go. Green means go. Yellow means go. Basically, just go. It’s always a pleasant surprise when a driver adheres to the traffic light.
Try not to make awkwardly long eye contact with any of the street vendors unless your intention is to purchase something. By the way, you can buy just about anything from those vendors…even a new car!
Signaling with your hand is more effective than using your signal light.
The majority of traffic jams are caused by drivers slowing down to avoid multiple potholes on busy roads. #fixthebadroads
Everyone is always in a hurry and impatient because their time is apparently more important than yours. Deal with it.
When you cut someone off just stare them down as you do it. They will respect your audacity. And it will also make you feel like the “OGA ON TOP” of the road.
It’s safe to assume other drivers do not have insurance. In the words of one of the taxi drivers that gave me a lift: “Wetin be insurance?”
Be advised that the yellow taxi buses can stop anytime and anywhere so don’t follow too closely, unless you have brand new brake pads and comprehensive auto insurance.
Expect pedestrians to cross the busy highways and freeways. Watch out for them.
It doesn’t matter where you are going just know that there will be traffic.
If you’re involved in a fender bender with a yellow bus taxi driver he would more than likely beg you to forgive him by lying flat on the ground. Forgive him and move on, it’s not worth the argument back and forth.
Keep one hand on the steering wheel and the other hand next to the horn.
Honking your horn is part of the driving culture in Lagos. It’s just a convenient way to let other drivers know that you do not trust their decision-making skills.
The only person to trust on the road is you. Remind other drivers and pedestrians you don’t trust them by honking your horn loud and proud.
Expect to get into screaming battles with pedestrians trying to cross the busy roads. Be careful because they may put juju on you.
If you have any paraphernalia related to the Nigerian Police, Army, Air Force, or Military, then make sure it is displayed visibly for others to see. It will help you bypass those random police checkpoints.
There is nothing random about a random check by the police. The police officers are skilled at sizing you up as you pull up. If you do get pulled over, make sure you have some lose cash (you know why) or a lot of time to spend arguing back and forth with them about random things like showing your permit for tinted windows.
Non-injury accidents are taken care of at the scene of the accident. In essence, there is no veering off the road. Both drivers would more than likely step out of their vehicles and engage in a screaming match in the middle of traffic.
Okada drivers always feel they have the right of way even when it’s obvious they don’t.
Always lock your doors and wind up your windows as you drive, especially when stuck in stop-and-go traffic at night.
One-ways are more like two or three ways. If the road can fit three cars why restrict it to just one car when three cars can go multiple directions? The unapologetic perpetrators are the Okada and Keke drivers.
Okadas are like water. They find voids in traffic, unassigned lanes, sidewalks, and just flow through. Watch out for them.
Many drivers liter. Watch out for trash flying out of vehicles in front of you.

An Okada driver transporting 2 passengers on a cloudy day in Lagos

What other tips would you add to the list above?