I
hate to come off didactic especially because I don’t fancy being considered a
preacher. Despite my dislike for the preacher tag however, I must put forth to
my dear readers what the fathers have laid in the tables of my heart to share
with them this week. This week, I won't be talking about my roommates or about
the over-flogged issue of the Olayimika’s
error ridden first months. I won’t even be talking about the Students Union
election which seems to be the subject of every discussion now.
I
would rather let my ink flow in a different direction. The fathers would have
me talk about me. About my first start up (which never happened) with the hope
that you won’t make the same mistake I made.
I
must state categorically that before Jumia or Konga, there existed (in my head),
ShopNow. Whether you believe it or yes, ShopNow was born out of the desire to
see Nigerians shop for local goods online, pay in naira and have their goods
delivered to them in no time. ShopNow couldn’t become a reality because of a combination
of factors.
For
one, people said my idea was ridiculous. And to my dismay, I forgot that when
the Wright brothers were working on the first airplane, a lot of armchair
critics said things like: “If God wanted us to fly, He would have given us wings” So when those
arm-chair critics came knocking at my door, I let them in and in their very
nature, they destroyed my focus. And Jumia and Konga stole the show from me!
The point is, as I have learnt,
there will be some people around whose primary objective will be to point out
the ridiculous in your ideas. Listening to these types of individuals only
spells doom to your start up. I wish I knew this earlier(sobs). You have to learn to not live your life based
on what people say. Any new thing
seems odd at first but with time people get used to it and it becomes a norm.
I
was also told that there was no market for my idea. Nobody was ready to
patronize a Nigerian online shopping outlet when they could readily shop at
Amazon or Ebay. Now however, I have learnt that there’s
market for every idea that solves a problem. I was afraid that my idea won’t
sell in Nigeria. It seemed better suited for developed countries and I
unfortunately had a handful of ‘correct’ people around me who assisted in
providing wrong statistics. Know this, if the idea solves a problem, it
sells!
I
won’t blame the failure of ShopNow on just the people around me when I also
share in the blame. It was partly my fault because deep down, I was afraid of
failing. Sadly, almost all of us have this fear in
us. Nobody wants to fail. We take extra care and avoid taking risks oblivious
of the fact that we are taking a more dangerous risk by not taking risks.
Considering all
what people had said about my idea, I was like, ‘what if after investing a lot
into this, it turns
out to be a failure?’. “What if this idea
fails?’ What if…? I simply gave too much thought to a lot of unnecessary ‘what
ifs’ which landed me in the valley of regrets. And I must tell you, regret is the worst type of feeling in the
world. Especially because you can’t go back in time to undo what has been done
already.
The problem with me
then as I have come to realize was that I didn’t know the definition of
failure. Thomas Edison had over ten thousand tries on the light bulb before he
got a breakthrough. When asked how it felt to have failed that much, he
replied, “I never failed, it just happened to be a ten thousand step journey”.
You fail when you stop trying. The truth is,
fear will kill you - if you let it!
Now I understand
what that man meant when he said, “you’re just as good as the people you move
with”. I had people who were very evasive to change and who were great at fighting same. Fijabi was
always quick at pointing out that nobody wanted an electronic alternative to
shopping. Salako was very good with figures, figures of the population of
Nigeria that couldn’t browse the internet and hence couldn’t shop online.
Now I turn a deaf
ear to such people or find a way to cut away from them.
Move with great
minds!
Now I have learnt
not to live my life based on what people say. I have also learnt to take risks
and not live in fear. And for me now, no matter how unfeasible an idea is, I
put in all I’ve got. What’s the worst thing that could possibly happen?
Atleast, it won’t be as bad as having to regret not doing it later.
By: Prof Gee
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Gift Uzor
(Prof Gee) is a writer, design enthusiast and entrepreneur. He is particularly
in love with advertising and UI/UX design. When he is not causing trouble with
his pen or coming up with roof-breaking brand ideas, he’s buried head-deep in
the works of David Carson and Seyi Owolawi. He owns Earlcreativo Media. Contact
him via: +234(0)8168056060, earlcreativo@gmail.com
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