2024 was definitely a year and a half. For Nigeria and Nigerians, it followed the overarching theme of being a country of contradictions – even though those polarisations have been further exacerbated largely by abominable leadership. On a lighter note, I know someone who said he didn’t believe in God. I was shocked to see him share his Spotify Wrapped for 2024 and Nathaniel Bassey topped the list of his most listened to music artists – e get the way the country touch am, my guy unlock Yeshua Hamashiach. Mine was no different, big shout to Jehovah El Aguero – pulling that clutch in the fourth as always. Anyway, here are some thoughts you may find useful during the year. I curated some major keys from my journal and here are selected ones I wish to expand on.
Double Down On Your Identity
One of the things you have to own is who you are, what you represent and how you move. This sounds like nothing but the more you come into the arena of your destiny, you will realise something like Russell Crowe in the original Gladiator film that your opps are not just those that physically fight you but also the voices in your head. Paul gives a powerful piece of advice to his protégé: “Do not let anyone treat you as if you are unimportant because you are young.” When I used to read this, it never dawned on me until recently that I could be part of that “anyone” – in other words, we could inadvertently self-sabotage our own dreams. Thankfully, over the years, I have developed quite a tough skin – I can shut down the noise and reinforce my convictions. You should listen to Gaisebaba on that insightful podcast with Femi Lazarus, some of you don’t fix traditional boxes and if you’re waiting for validation from a status quo that won’t acknowledge you – you will wait for a very long time. Some people love dead heroes, they only give flowers to people on the ground.
A lot of the challenges we face today can simply be traced to an identity crisis. People will cast aspersions on your name, and undermine you by suggesting you are a fraud or that the feat you achieved was a fluke. Don’t let anyone under the guise of being your mentor end up being your tormentor. To borrow Eleanor Roosevelt’s words, “Don’t let anyone make you feel inferior without your consent”. It usually doesn’t mean much when such talk comes from random folks but when it comes from those you imagine should know better, it will hurt. Don’t follow people blindly, yes, including yours truly. The best of us are still human, everyone has their own biases and agendas. For example, if someone you respect becomes a brand ambassador for sugar, don’t start consuming sugar as a diabetic simply because you want to show how loyal you are – that’s being stupid. Use your akonuche and pursue your own strategic interests.
Systems Over Goals, Discipline Over Motivation, Team Over Talent
Every New Year, most people ceremonially set new goals for the year to be achieved on the most significant scale possible – nothing is wrong with that. However, a new year comes along every 365 days – you may not have the luxury of such a period to make drastic changes to your life. What that means is that you need a system that overlaps one goal into the next or another. For example, if your goal for this year is to buy a car, that should be an outcome. One system you can set up to ensure that outcome is a sales or revenue system – not necessarily a savings or car acquisition fund. The natural consequence of a successful sales system is that you will have the required funds to buy a car and even other things that you may consider important to you.
Similar to this is motivation: motivation is great but I will be lying to you that it is sufficient to reach your objectives. There will be days when you don’t feel like doing anything; discipline is the difference between how you respond to that feeling and the person next door who chooses to indulge in inertia. If I only write when I am in a great mood, I will end up a failure because as much as I enjoy writing – I don’t always feel like opening up my laptop and scribbling my thoughts. It therefore means that I cannot depend on aspire-to-Maguire vibes to get things done because maturity means mastering how to maintain momentum. Adults are not necessarily people who have grown older but people who have developed the discipline to do things that might appear boring but are productive.
It’s great to master your skills but 2025 is not the year to brag about it because as we have seen, people who are not half as talented as you are securing the bag. Your team are your enablers, refiners, amplifiers and monetisers. It doesn’t necessarily mean you must hire a slew of staff members, it just means that after you successfully identify what your minimum viable product is and you have developed it – it’s time you learn how to deploy it. Your social media pages should be a part of your marketing team, YouTube can be part research and development team, a record label or talent management firm can be a part of your monetisation team – friends and family can be a part of your advisory team for starters. However, when you come into the big league, you hire experts and professionals. Alone you can go fast but with an effective team, you can go further – you need teamwork to make the dream work.
Bet On Yourself
A lot of people are waking up to the huge popularity of podcasts and OTT platforms over legacy media. Thankfully, I have been ahead of the curve, particularly since the pandemic. There is one guy I will gladly recommend, Patrick Bet-David, the host of the PBD Podcast. I love listening to smart people talk and he intermittently drops odd pearls. There are four points he mentioned one time that can help you take your game to the next level; these are traits the 1% of the 1% who dominate their spheres of influence deploy:
• Out-Work: It’s hard to defeat a person who is willing to outwork everybody else. It’s not a guarantee of success but the more a person is willing to take chances, the higher the probability of their winning. You must be willing to do what the 99% aren’t ready to do; put in a shift and a half. If your contemporaries are putting out content twice a week, you can decide to make yours five times a week. Let people know that you are the gold standard on what it means to be a workhorse.
• Out-Improve: It’s hard to defeat a person who is constantly evolving, innovating and developing new paradigms of doing something. The CEO of one famous phone manufacturer had this to say after it lost its dominant market share to new players and was acquired by another company, “We didn’t do anything wrong, but somehow, we lost”. They got comfortable with their products simply being durable when the market was willing to sacrifice a little bit of durability for a product that had multiple utilities and complex functions. Another word for improvement is innovation.
• Out-Strategise: It’s hard to defeat a person who can think ahead of the curve, knows what chess moves to make and understands how to plot a counter-offensive. It’s like a protagonist in most movies, after a while his or her opps will simply give up because the main character somehow always finds a way to manoeuvre or navigate the booby traps. Being a strategist doesn’t in any way mean that you will not get blindsided here and there but it shows to anyone and anything coming against you that you will not just lie down and let them run over you.
• Out-Last: It’s hard to defeat a person who is playing the long game. Some organisations are still in existence today after many decades simply because they weren’t thinking of only short-term wins. That’s why one of the dumbest things a start-up can do is engage in price wars with a legacy business; it is better you out-innovate them because owing to their economies of scale, they can absorb huge interim shocks to their bottom line. The same applies to personal circumstances; sometimes the storm is not yours to fix – it’s yours to survive. Bonus: history is always written by those who survived. If you want to control your narrative, just outlast everything and everyone who is out to stop you.
The Excellence Of Execution
Yes, ideas rule the world but it is also true that ideas are a dime a dozen. Think of execution in terms of photographic resolution or cinematographic definition, the same picture can either be low resolution or high resolution – the difference is a combination of the grade of the camera itself and the skill of the photographer. One of the many reasons the English Premier League is dubbed “the most exciting league in the world” is owing to the excellence of its production. The storytelling, commentary, production value and public relations when combined with the football itself make the league stand out. Bidemi Olaoba is a great recording artiste but the high-resolution nature of his live performances stands him out. The examples are endless.
It’s really a roundabout way of saying you should be the best at whatever you do because excellence is a universal language. Be so good at what you do that your name comes up in important conversations. Someone I respect so much once told me he enjoys my political commentary and asked if I ever have intentions of running for public office, I told him I am just being an active citizen – I have such desires. Another person also said she loves my commentary on faith, she was also shocked when I told her I have no intentions of starting ‘anything’ along those lines. My point is this, excellence is your way of communicating to people that you can operate at a much higher level if the opportunity presents itself. The first time I ever heard the phrase, “the excellence of execution” was from WWE Hall of Famer, Bret ‘The Hitman’ Hart. He described himself as “the best there is, the best there was and the best there ever will be.” Now that’s an idea worth sharing.
Patriot FC
I can’t end without a note about Nigeria. The handwriting is on the wall, 2025 will be a wild year – events that will fundamentally shape our existence as a collective will occur and those in power won’t see it coming. This is not smoke and mirrors, I am laying it out in plain terms. If you know anyone in the political class; from the federal, state and local governments – tell them to do right by the people. If the rubber hits the road, the old antics won’t be enough this time. To every patriot, you must take ownership of saving Nigeria – stop outsourcing your responsibility to some influencer or popular figure. Some of our faves will sell out and become confidential human sources and assets, don’t let that surprise you. Some people have become too ashamed to defend the indefensible owing to the reputational damage that comes with it, so the new strategy is to recruit by hook or crook, those that have decent social capital for psyops and social engineering. Also, Nigeria is bigger than any one person, if salvation comes from an unlikely source or alliance – brace yourselves to discern and be open to it. Remember to put country over personality even when you are emotionally invested in certain people. Nigeria is all we have, we have to fight for it. Selah.
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