Eccl.9.11 - I returned, and saw under the sun, that the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, neither yet bread to the wise, nor yet riches to men of understanding, nor yet favour to men of skill; but time and chance happeneth to them all.
Every year begins with a lot of hopes and aspirations for me. A lot of goals are drops by the way as the year evolves, mostly due to unrealistic time frames in most cases and if I may add technical issues ( For instance through the first half of 2020, I had to code with one-half of my laptop screen blind, for half of the year 😂) how that happened is a story for a totally different day. One key thing that defines every goal we set is the fact that we are subtly preparing for an opportunity to become. Someone said life is a Journey of Becoming and that is essentially true. We are always preparing, setting goals and just hoping that things fall in place. But just as we prepare I want to share a few things about opportunity which you might find extremely helpful for your journey. Life is a Journey of Becoming.
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The truth as we all grow up is that we slowly learn that opportunity tends to be location and people sensitive. Meaning, there are a lot of things you cannot become just because of the limitation of your location and your circle of friends (relationships). How true is this? It might not be totally correct but consider this analogy:
Usain Bolt ⚡ is considered the fastest man in the world 🌎. Now imagine if Usain Bolt were to be from a place like Uganda or Syria where sprinting is not a national sport compared to Jamaica where Bolt hails or a place plagued seriously with unrest and no time to even consider competing for the Olympics. The chances that he might not have considered going into racing is high and probably we might never have seen a Bolt in our lifetime. Probably if Bolt were to come from India he would have ended up playing cricket rather. Now you get my point. In as much as we talk about opportunities; location, relationships and timing are to be considered when talking about the Economics of Opportunities. The media has become our biggest tool to find opportunities beyond the confines and limitations of our geography and social circle. Social media allows us to transcend the constraints of location, create relationships with people who are doing the things.
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BIG THINGS HAPPENS
As the year rolled fast into March 2020, the Major Nigerian systems shut down due to covid-19. School went on break and phewww, were my dreams getting shattered or what. I decided to utilize the free time to study more and code. The space made me redo some javascript and python tutorials. I built some projects. I played around with facial recognition and made some progress too. The most beautiful part was that I was able to publish a book "Addiction: a guide to breaking free". The experiences were humongous for me, I learned a lot and failed sometimes. When it looked as if the excitement was going to end I got a message from a graduate of a Masters degree program from my campus who had previously started a developers community on campus. During his time they had a Developers Students Club but time and other things obstructed the accelerated growth on campus and we had another inactive year after that.
So from the blues I got a message on WhatsApp to reapply for Google Developers Students Club Lead for my campus.
For 3 days I just scrolled past and wasn't interested, the truth is that a year earlier I had applied but wasn't even contacted at all, after that incidence I vowed to take my personal development more serious. I wrote a few articles, started a solo developers community on campus, did an intro to technology class online, became more intentional with my github and made a few contributions to stack overflow.
The good news came, after an interview and I was selected as google developers students club lead for my campus. And I must say it's been a rollercoaster of learning and connecting with amazing people.
Being DSC Lead made me push my thinking to a global scale and has helped me push the bar for leadership development. Aside from becoming DSC (Developers Students Club) Lead. I got my first job as a developer at an amazing branding agency. Clarylifeglobal Global pushed my resolve to learn. Our creative director is a walking example of consistency, growth and focus. Simeon Taiwo has been a gift too and a lot of the insights I've had this period leveraged his mentorship. Okay let me dive into the major scope on the economics of opportunity. Clarylife Global Team | L-R (Simeon Taiwo our Creative Director, Me, Oreva John, Victory Robert)
THE LOOP OF TIME AND CHANCE
I know we are told that we were all born for greatness and that is true but 2020 taught be that greatness is a responsibility. You have to make your resolve to be great and clearly decide just how great you really want to become. I'm not speaking as someone who is great, not yet. But this year gave me some privileges to sit with greatness and boy!!! Great people are conscious about just how far they want to go and have intentionally decided to pay the price to get there. In the race to success and greatness, your disadvantage isn't an excuse. It's true you feel you were born to the wrong race, you were born to the wrong home, you're not smart enough but hear what king solomon wrote years back about this in the bible, I repeated it earlier at the beginning:
Eccl.9.11 - I returned, and saw under the sun, that the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, neither yet bread to the wise, nor yet riches to men of understanding, nor yet favour to men of skill; but time and chance happeneth to them all. Time and Chance; Time and Opportunity, that's a better way to put it. Time and Opportunity are key assets of equality, they are equally available to every man whether black, white, yellow or brown and they are tools that will define how we utilize the brevity of our lifes. Time and Opportunity.
Opportunity depends on Time and the window of time births opportunity. So in the economics of opportunity the major variable is how to identify opportunities when they come and how to utilize them fully in the duration of their relevance.
MAJOR VARIABLES IN THE ECONOMICS OF OPPORTUNITY
1 .Knowledge Knowledge is the best thing to gather, while we wait for a portal to open. And this is the most knowledge rich age in human history. Data is being added to our base per second. There are free courses from Udemy, Edx, Coursera etc. Deciding to gather knowledge builds our mind so that we become prepared when a chance opens up. For someone like me from developing Africa, there's no excuse because the internet became the tool that gives me access to resources of the developed world. Earlier on I said I was going to explain why I dropped some goals and picked new ones, the answer is "Knowledge". When you begin to learn, you gradually begin to make better choices. Opportunities hardly ever come shouting "Hey there!!! I'm Opportunity". The ability to identify Opportunities is a skill and I will borrow some words from Mensa Otabil: Opportunities come in 3 forms in the midst of chaos. as a challenge. as a calling drawing from the strengths of your gifts.
Most times the difficult times are a test to bring out our best. For Instance in having to lead a developer community or an arm of my fellowship on campus, the demands were quite daunting but deciding to stand up to the task has been a huge opportunity to build your leadership skills. MIT's motto reads "Mens Manus", meaning hands and mind. Investing the the mind and deciding to work is very important in a competitive age like ours. It just can't be overemphasized.
The Tool of Time Time is another relevant tool to opportunity. Imagine having the chance to apply for a job that you are extremely skilled at when you're 95yrs old. It sounds like an awesome opportunity but timing and age just wouldn't make it a right fit for you. Time is equal for all men because it defines the duration of preparation and determines the available energy to dispense in getting work done.
Relationships Relationships are a source of revenue. We're not serving inanimate objects. We're all working with people and for people. It's not really easy sometimes but it's necessary now. Prosper Otemuyiwa wrote an article on "Who is speaking on your behalf". It's an eye opener on the power of networks and relationships, it's a must read.
People will always be informed more than you are and they will always be aware of openings and opportunities more than you are. Wisdom demands that you connect to these high speed networks to remain informed too. Sometimes all you will need will be a recommendation, a referral or an advice based on experience. Relationships especially the relevant ones are highly valuable assets for utilizing opportunity. Respect people, treat them well, honour them and you'll be shocked that even where competence wouldn't take you to, a contact will. Talking of Relationships too, keeping the right circle is extremely important. John Obidi said something that got me thinking: Continued exposure to a persons excellent expression of their gifts, quickens your own unique expression of that same gift. Cultivating a network of excellent people around you unlocks your personal store of excellence, it's resonance in reality.
After all is said and done people, people, people are our most valuable assest. This year especially has taught me that people are gifts and as I said earlier relationship is a vital revenue just like money and wisdom. Aniedi Udo-Obong , Erica Hanson, Auwal MS, Miri Nudelman, Adaora Atuegbu, Simeon Taiwo, Oreva John, Moshood Adedayo, Ebuka Umeh, Marvin Komi, My family on campus (CASOR and CFES), DSC Leads Sub-Saharan Africa, DSC Core Team Rivers State University and so many beautiful people who I call gifts were so instrumental to my growth this year. It has been totally amazing.
- The God factor With respect to all creeds. I've learnt a few things in the past year too. There's a possibility that transcends the scope of order, a reality that can determine accuracy and precision in the midst of chaos. All I've said wouldn't be complete if I do not mention my spiritual journey too.
My convictions in the christian faith was strengthened and I divulged a lot from the wisdom of scriptures. 2020 brought me closer to understand the character of Jesus the Christ. Someone who's 3yrs of ministry affected civilization. I pray to work more in love even better because love is a tool that allows us think beyond ourselves and if we can indeed think beyond self we are able to understand better ways to serve humanity better. I leave you with this: 1John.4.8 - He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love. As we strive for Opportunities to serve humanity, Love will be our greatest asset. We truly cannot change the world if we do not love our neighbors as ourselves.