2021: Flops and Love

This is the first time I’ll do one of these, I don’t think I take Life too seriously to do reviews but one thing I know about people that write these things is that they are quite intentional about the trajectory their lives take and I want to be intentional about these things too.

This year was not a very good year for me, I flopped a whole lot with my education and even with my career but I had a few good wins and I am proud of that.

The Flops:

I graduated this year with a degree in economics but with a 3.4 CGPA, I don’t regret much in life but I feel terrible for not giving my family the courtesy of a 2.1 because everyone in my family played a huge part in ensuring I fed and was alright when I was in school.

The second thing is that I am one of those guys who got a job even before finishing school. I had been doing terrible work by doing multiple jobs. It broke me when my boss said “I had only been doing the bare minimum and walking away”.

The third thing is fitness, I have always been overweight and as of now, my BMI is near obesity. I had a handle on this between January and April but just lost it and now it’s pretty bad. What’s worse is how comfortable I am in my body. I want to feel some urgency but I feel nothing.

The fourth flop is coming to the realization that I am a pretty self-absorbed person and I have not been the best elder brother to a younger sibling anyone could ask for (little tears in my eyes at this point). I talk a lot about posterity but this year, I realised that I have really been focusing on my welfare alone. My brother voiced out how I had been treating him poorly since we were kids and when I actually stopped to listen, I realized that he was right and if anyone were to look at it properly, he had been more of the elder than I had been.

I can’t start telling you about all the times he helped me in school and even beyond.

The Wins

The first win has to be me deciding to build my career. I have been confused about what I want to do since I got into the University, I know I had always wanted to do business and build a company but I didn’t really know the skillsets I wanted to pursue.

So, after trying coding, design, content marketing, data analytics, product management, financial modelling and a host of other things since 2017. I decided to stick with product management which I got serious about in August 2020 when I interned with Helium Health. The internship ended this year and the next month, I got a job at Brixlar. While working with Brixlar, I got consulting gigs from multiple places and compared to the salary I started with, these gigs paid well. As a student, I think I was earning well.

Another great thing that happened this year was that I consulted for a German firm in the middle of the year as a product owner. It opened my eyes to the expected standards of a product manager globally and made me realize how far I am from those standards. I should also mention that I was headhunted this year for a PM position by a firm in the US that was well above my pay grade, I made it to the final interview and was rejected afterwards.

This year, I went from an intern who felt the need to be supervised to actually owning stuff and making product decisions.

I interacted with potential customers more, did several product discoveries and one of the firms I consulted for is going to be a hot African startup (you will know when it happens).

Another huge win for me was starting KoinsandKash with my friend and brother Udo. We started a while back but cemented our commitment to building this full time and not chasing clamorous jobs after school. It’s been worth it so far and I am certain we would raise a pre-seed next year.

Another win for me is being a good friend and son. I actually was intentional about doing more stuff for my friends and my mom. I have always made sure my mom gets part of my income and sustaining that has been the best part of the year for me.

On Love and Relationships:

It dawned on me this year that I really don’t want things like marriage, children or owning a car. Every time I think about my future, I think about that scene in black widow where Natasha lives alone in a trailer on a plain grassy field with mountains around. I’d really like to have that.

I did a lot of collecting numbers this year because I wanted to talk to women more but all those conversations ended with nothing ever happening. I actually got to the talking stage with one person but I wasn’t ready to be a boyfriend that subbed as a sugar daddy. In all honesty, the only woman I want to give anything to is the woman that gave me life.

I realized this year that I like love and the happiness people seem to have but I think I’d like love to end and so that I can go back to my own company.

The Way Foward:

This year would be about me marching into my 2nd year in product management. I am fully committed to skilling up and 5xing my current income. It’s going to happen either through my business or gigs but I am going to put in the work to get there.

Another thing that I have to make work is on physical fitness and general health(especially my eyes). I want my BMI at optimal levels, I need to be sure I won’t have heart problems as I approach thirty.

Lastly, being a better brother, son and friend is something I am going to work towards. I also need to decide what I intend to do for further education.

If you are reading this, I hope you have a great year. These aren’t all my flops or all my wins. Next year, I definitely will come back to this with a bang.