“Chai! I thought of this idea first o. I just wasn’t sure it would work out fine! See Mr A making it big. Chai! I wish I did that!”
The worst type of feeling is regret, majorly becaause you just can’t turn back the hands of time. So you had this great idea but couldn’t harness it and now you somewhat regret it. I too had this great idea of owning an online retail outfit even before the likes of Jumia and Konga came along. Think I’m kidding? I wanted a situation where Nigerian’s could buy things from the comfort of their homes with just a few clicks. Where they could pay in naira and get their goods delivered to their doorstep without having to go through the stress of currency conversion as it is with shopping in sites like Amazon and Ebay.
I just couldn’t make anything of my idea for so many reasons.
PEOPLE SAID IT WAS RIDICULOUS
When the Wright brothers were working on the first airplane, a lot of armchair critics must have said things like: “If God wanted us to fly, He would have given us wings”
A question for you, “Is man not flying today?”. The point is, 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 shinning. I wish I knew this earlier(sobs).
Moral lesson: Never live your life based on what people say.
PEOPLE SAID THERE WAS NO MARKET FOR IT
There’s market for every idea that solves a problem. Wish I had known that earlier as well. 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.
Moral lesson: If it solves a problem, it sells!
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 and it turned out to be a failure?’.
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.
Moral lesson: Fear will kill you – if you let it!
I HAD ‘GREAT’ PEOPLE AROUND ME
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.
Moral lesson: 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 say:
“I wish I did that”
Geeftdayvidz
