I remember playing NFS Most Wanted with my brother back in JSS 1 or 2. It was one of those late nights when the whole house is quiet, but two foolish boys are awake, bathing in the blue light of a TV like it’s holy fire.
My brother… God. The guy drove like water. Fluid. Clean lines. No crashes. Not even a disrespectful scratch on a parked car.
Meanwhile, I was there shouting, “Let me play now! I’m good!” with the confidence of a man who had never touched a brake pedal in his life.
He warned me. He actually warned me. Said I might not get it immediately, that the controls might take some time. But when arrogance has entered your bloodstream, you don’t hear things like that.
I grabbed the pad.
And the number of traffic violations I committed that night? Honestly, the police should have materialized in the living room. I hit cars that weren’t even on the road.
I drove into walls that weren’t even in front of me. Pure chaos. But Dayo just laughed and said, “You’ll get it. Keep going.”
Two days ago, I reinstalled NFS Most Wanted. Just for nostalgia. And as soon as I started playing… bro, I laughed. Because everything felt easy. Smooth.
Like all the ghosts of those crashes had finally forgiven me. I remembered my brother, and suddenly that old memory felt warm.
And that’s when it clicked: nobody becomes good in one moment. You don’t wake up perfect. You just pick something up and start.
You struggle. You fail. You fail again. Sometimes, you drop it for months. Sometimes you come back like nothing happened.
Some people have talent, and some people have head starts… but the skill doesn’t care. Skill rewards the ones who return.
If you truly want something? If you keep coming back to it even after all the embarrassing crashes and broken pride?
One day you’ll wake up, grab the controller, and realize the thing that used to humble you now obeys you.
And that’s the day you understand:
You weren’t the problem.
Time was just doing its thing.
A little over a year and several rounds of procrastination later, I finally built something
"Iya Oloja" is an open API for Nigerian market data.
You can explore it, use it, and contribute markets from your state/LGA.
It’s live: https://t.co/1jqMfIkMmf
And if you like it, please checkout and star the repo too: https://t.co/7aKHinR0JQ
Loved my dad. He taught me to not leave money on the table because of your ego.
There’s no money that is too small to make especially if it is within your benchmarks.
Some products would bring him just a little profit and some would bring a ton but he would always tell his workers; as long as you make a profit, and empty the warehouse, take what is on the table, based on your judgement of what the customer can afford, and keep it moving.
If you work in an industry where AI can efficiently do a bulk part of your tasks, this will give you the opportunity to serve customers who were previously below your threshold.
Learn, adapt, and like my father would say, never allow your customers find alternatives. Do everything you can to avoid it.