It is work no be luck

And why Asake is one of the best Lyricist out of Nigeria

I have had the most fascinating weekend.

I announced my new role which was already an open secret and the reactions had been fascinating to say the least.

Below was my mood as I received praises and congratulations from well-wishers (and those who don’t wish me well but I can’t tell). The picture below depicted my state for the most part of it, but that’s not the point of this newsletter.

Na me dey reign (rain) or whatever Layi said

Of the many comments about my current workplace (I mean, my CEO was dragged with fiery incense just few weeks ago), and how the workplace will magically get better because I am there (people must think I have a magic wand of excellence at this point, well, maybe I do), one tweet that stood out for me was the one below.

The fact that I am extremely lucky having worked with Cowrywise, Africhange (I assumed the writer meant) and of course, now Moniepoint.

It was at that moment, I remembered the great philosopher, Asake who sang and I quote;

It is work, no be luck.
Seeing is believing, you’ve gotta trust yourself.

There are many things I have done in this life, many projects I have applied to, and applied myself to, many jobs, many scholarships and other engagements, and none, I repeat none has stretched me like this current role.
At my fourth and final round of interview, my friend who was present recorded me visibly shaking in intense successions because of how difficult and intellectually challenging the conversation was. I geniunely was saying God abeg as I answered different functional, competence-based and behavioural questions.

I have seen a lot of people attribute success to luck, and maybe because I have a lot of high-achievers who put an insane amount of effort into achieving their goals, I find that narrative slightly disturbing.

One of the accentuating factors driving this idea is that we are from an extremely religious society where everything is by luck or by His Grace. (Well, I don’t disagree but even apostle Paul said Faith without works is dead).

Like Timothy Chamelet announced, it’s okay to acknowledge that a certain above average efforts went into achieving a goal (This role was my fifth application to Moniepoint in less than three months, and yes, I got huge Ls in the first four roles).

I think it is why I love when people tell us complete stories, like when Destiny shared his story about doing 800 interviews before getting his first US role post-Harvard, like when my friend shared that she wrote GRE four times before she got her desired score to get into an MBA. (I have written GRE twice, flunked twice and I have no plans to write again), so you can imagine the kind of resilience required to write it four times.

As we progress, and we see progress, let’s not call them lucky because a lot of work goes into succeeding, especially in a country where nothing is handed over to you except you are an APC supporter. (Infact supporting an evil incompetent government must be a really hard work, don’t you think?)

Happy new month dear reader, I hope you had a great weekend.

Always remember you celebrate your wins, because you d

As the habit is:
Movies to watch:
K2.
Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan.

Songs to listen to;
ADML- Greatman Takit
In Jesus Name- BNXN

Things to read:
Cursed Daughters; Oyinkan Braithwhaite.

I am having a Youtube live this Saturday where I will be yapping about my career and everything in between. Click here to join. and share with anyone who has career related questions.