🚨 الأسطورة ليو ميسي:
"قلت ذلك بعد المباراة الماضية، إنني موجود داخل الملعب أيضًا بفضل زملائي، لأنني أعلم أنهم يبذلون مجهودًا إضافيًا، ويغطون المساحات عندما لا أستطيع الركض كما ينبغي.
أعلم أنهم يفعلون ذلك من القلب وبشكل طبيعي، لأنهم يشعرون بذلك.
كما قلت وكررت مرارًا، أنا سعيد داخل هذه المجموعة. منذ وقت طويل لم أتمكن من قضاء وقت مع عائلتي، ولم أرَ زوجتي وأطفالي، ووالداي وإخوتي في الأرجنتين.
قبل أيام فقط في ميامي حصلت على فترة قصيرة لألتقي بعائلتي.
لكننا نستمتع بوجودنا معًا، ونقضي وقتًا رائعًا، ونعرف تمامًا لماذا نحن هنا. منذ سبع أو ثماني سنوات وهذه المجموعة تمنحني الكثير من السعادة، وقد استمتعت بكل لحظة معها.
ولم يكن من الممكن أن تنتهي رحلتنا اليوم، لأنني أشعر أنه لا يزال أمامنا المزيد لننافس من أجله.
نحن هنا لننافس أي منتخب، كما نقول دائمًا، سواء أخطأنا أو أصبنا، لكننا سنبذل كل ما لدينا داخل الملعب، ولن نتوقف أبدًا عن المحاولة."
Imagine all the opportunities we’ve missed as a country because we lacked representations.
If Alex Onyia had not made the push to get these kids to Rome, Onyedikachi might not be going home with gold today. But the bigger issue is that these kids wouldn’t have gotten the chance to see what they’re capable of on a global stage.
This is why representation matters. Nigeria needs to be present.
Compared to my peers, I have never achieved anything in my life and career at record time.
Never.
I am the queen of trailing behind.
I would fail exams multiple times.
Fail aptitude tests
Fail at interviews
Fail at getting promoted
I stayed in roles and grades for longer than I should have.
For me, life seems to drag.
It is a pattern, and that is the story of my life.
I would try really hard, but I would fail.
I would debrief on why I couldn’t hit key milestones and see some valid reasons; sometimes, they wouldn’t make sense.
This bothered me every time I introspect, but then it stopped bothering me.
At least not so much anymore.
The reason is that I am pretty resilient.
My journey is complex, thorny, uncertain and quite complicated, but I seem to stay the course.
I realised that I do not get demotivated, no matter the number of ‘No’s I get.
It just fuels me instead.
I think that’s a superpower (what do you think?).
And I show up again and again and again because I want it badly.
So, whatever I have achieved so far in my life is not because I am good at it from the first time; it is mainly that I have become so resilient that I stay on the hill until I get it.
This is my story.
I have begged before I got
I have scraped before I ate
I have stayed knocking before the door opened for me.
There was hardly any magic or any leverage.
My leverage is my resilience, and I use it to my advantage.
That’s how I win.
Maybe that's how you win, too. I'm not sure, but you know better.
Go and be fantastic today.
#Orebukola
I learnt beadmaking during my NYSC days in Lafia, Nasarawa State.
So when I got back home after my service year, I started making bead bags, flower pots and matted bags for sale alongside applying for jobs.
For context, at the time, I was already a chartered accountant with a first-class degree in accounting.
My mum would tell her friends and colleagues about my little business, and they would place orders, and I would stay up all night making those pieces for them.
Then one day, something happened.
My mum got back from work, and she said, ‘Ore, one of my friends placed an order for a bead purse; please help me make it for her’
My dad, who was also there, got instantly furious, and he said: ‘This is not my vision for her life, stop bringing her these orders, I want her to focus on getting good job opportunities’.
That was a reset moment for my mum and me. We just quietly dispersed, and it was the last order my mum ever brought me 🤣
I then refocused my time and energy on the aptitude tests I kept failing, began passing them, and landed a bank role and later a PwC role to kick-start my career.
Day 1 of many as a Director of Accounting Policy!
A new career milestone I am thankful for.
One of my previous bosses once said to me: “Idris, you are a star. You will always shine wherever you go”. Here is me taking a chance on myself, once again!
New Slack update 😊
I took a lot of things for granted in life.
I'm just realizing some of the privileges I had growing up, especially effortlessly affording basic things of life. I was never a buttie, but I didn't know some of these things. Food, school fees, and basic clothing were never a problem. Never needed to do any work for income purpose during my dependency years (ie until after NYSC).
I didn't know until last year - at age 43 - that there were people that needed to do site work before paying school fees of even cheap public universities like OAU.
This doesn't mean I didn't know people were struggling then. I had a couple of friends that struggled to raise school fees when OAU raised school fees to N2k in 2003. But they were helped by religious and social communities (MSSN, family & friends etc). So it never became severe to the extent of dropping out. The people I knew that struggled had some form of support.
Realizing there were people that couldn't even get social and communal support breaks me. Meeting a young man that scored 295 in UME, got admission into OAU, but dropped out in second year because he couldn't afford accommodation (100 level accommodation is almost free, subsequent ones you find your level, at high cost) is depressing.
Small ideas that would quietly make the world a better place:
1. Fridges should tell you what you can cook with whatever is actually left inside them.
2. Elevators should let you cancel a floor you pressed by mistake instead of riding it out.
3. Every TV remote should beep when you clap so you stop losing it in the couch.
4. Danfos and kekes should have a "we not get change" sign before you climb in.
5. Shopping carts should have a running total so you never get surprised at checkout.
Add yours ⬇️
Norway just banned generative AI for school kids aged 6 to 13 starting this August.
Teens aged 14 to 16 need teacher supervision.
Those above 16 can use it independently.
The goal is to protect reading, writing, and math.
What do you think about this?
I got access to some shareholding information about 20 years ago, I saw about 100 Dantatas listed. Probably everyone 18 and above in the family listed as shareholder, many being teenagers.
I opened my mouth.
Those families have set up their children for life.