Temitope Shote

A product designer who builds brand and systems thinking into product work. Building a community of people solving the same problems.

[Dreamax @dreamaxhq]

Thinking about starting a tech career in 2026? Forget the hype.

We broke it all down in “The Honest Guide to Starting a Tech Career in 2026.” Read for practical tips that distinguishes you.
https://t.co/UrjQWZ1pzo

[Rue 🦇 @RuezW0rld]

When a person becomes wise, the first thing they give up is showing off. They no longer feel the need to prove their intelligence, success, strength, or worth to anyone. Wisdom is knowing that validation gained from others is momentary, but self-love lasts much longer.

[Dreamax @dreamaxhq]

The Dreamax app is live on Playstore. Download now and continue learning on your own terms.
https://t.co/mfGIlFqiUb

[liminal @Liminal1988]

One day your future self might look back and thank you...

[Nathaniel Bassey @nathanielblow]

Hello !
You might just need this.
Please Read.

When you work with a leader or someone that stretches you beyond your comfort zone, and truly wants you to be a better version of yourself,
You have no idea what God is doing for you.
My late mentor, Pastor Eskor Mfon was never really
a professional musician per se, but was a great worshipper and one that had an ear for good music.

He would come into our choir room after we had spent hours rehearsing. He’d sit, cross His legs, rest his jaws on his palm, close his eyes and listen to what we had done. After a while, he’d shake his head, smile and heave an interesting sigh “aaaaahhhh !”, and then say to us “okay okay well done o, but we can’t give God this kind of worship tomorrow, let’s start again…” And believe me, another 2-3 hours of work…. He’d tell us, “you know we can’t take people to a place we have not been to ourselves…”
He would share scriptures, explain what ministry was all about, then sit with us as we slugged it out.

Anyway, those days would later become the foundation of my music ministry today.

Hmmm, There were days I thought “this stress is just too much” just to lead worship ??? But what did I know ? Poor boy ! My eyes opened one day, and I caught it.

The inheritance I got from him was not money and material things, even though he took good care of us. But the values, principles, work ethic, mind shift, wisdom, spiritual intelligence and understanding, emphasis on prayer, word, purity, integrity, character, excellence etc.

Today I honour him everywhere I go, because in hindsight, He was God sent - To a young man who only had talent, but with very little or no sense of direction.

So, to anyone out there, connecting with this post and perhaps in a similar place, I say receive GRACE to maximize the moment. Learn and glean all you can now, never despise the process, instead appreciate and honour it. For not everyone is privileged to have another man or woman who leave their own thing to sit on your matter, just to make sure you excel in life. It is a blessing !

And in case it appears to be taking longer than it should, may be, just maybe. you are cut out for the BIG TIME. And in no distant future we would be reading your own inspiring story.

But Please note ! Only make sure the person or leader is one that meets the criteria above - I.e, one who truly desires to see a better version of you and wants you to fulfill your prophetic destiny. And Not just one who seeks to hijack your life, control it and put in under lock and key.
Blessings
🙂

[Ugochukwu Madu @UgochukwuCFR]

A prospective graduate student did something that blew my mind.

With over 200k combined followers on LinkedIn and X, I’m used to receiving lots of DMs from people reaching out for mentorship, study abroad guidance, financial support, among other requests that, most times, I’m unable to grant due to factors beyond my control.

But there was this one person whose message was different. He mentioned that we share similar research interests (health communication) and wondered if we could collaborate on a research project. His message ended up in my spam folder and stayed there for two months (August to October). One morning, I wanted to clear my spam folder but decided to quickly scan through the messages before wiping them all clean. That’s when I saw his message. The rest is history.

Today, two empirical papers we worked on have been accepted for presentation at two of the top conferences in our field: AEJMC and NCA. In fact, we’ll be receiving a Top Student Paper Award for one of them.

He reached out for a research collaboration and ended up receiving premium mentorship, life coaching, recommendation letters, and graduate school application support, all for free, without even asking.

Most people approach networking with a take-first mindset instead of leading with a value proposition. I ask people to use the value-exchange approach. Come with something to offer. 99% of people who reach out only want to take, so when you come ready to give something, it sets you apart.

You don’t have to be an expert. You just have to be someone willing to bring value, even while learning. The only research experience he had was his undergraduate thesis, but he has a curious mind willing to learn. He’d ask questions like: “What if we frame our title this way?” “Why did you include a xyz in the abstract?” “What’s the difference between a problem statement and a thesis statement?” “What’s CBPR? Is it a research method or an approach?”

I was thinking about him today, and it hit me just how impressive his CV has become, especially his research accomplishments. Most graduate students in my field, including me, didn’t have AEJMC and NCA conference papers on our CVs, let alone a Top Student Paper Award, before starting graduate school. These are conferences even professors submit papers to and sometimes get rejected.

He’s been busy bagging admissions and funding offers here and there, and I’m so proud of him.

[‏ً @omgsidewalks]

I saw a post on Reddit that said that “The underlying purpose of AI is to allow wealth to access skill while removing from the skilled the ability to access wealth.” And I don’t think I’ve ever seen AI described so incisively.

[𝕾𝖎𝖗 𝕮𝖍𝖗𝖎𝖘 @eagleseyeinc]

learn to go where wealthy people go. you don’t have to spend like them, you just have to stop feeling like you don’t belong there.

i remember when i couldn’t afford the lifestyle i wanted yet.

every friday evening, i’d walk into a high end hotel lobby, order one coffee, sit in the same corner and open my laptop like i belonged there. nobody knew i was going back to a small brokie apartment after 😂 all they saw was someone comfortable in that environment. week after week, something changed.

i stopped feeling like an outsider. i studied how people spoke, how they carried themselves, how deals were discussed and how confidence looked in real life.

one night, a man approached me cos he assumed i was a regular. that conversation opened a door to an opportunity i wasn’t qualified for on paper but i carried myself like i was. do you know that months later, my reality caught up with that environment i had been exposing myself to. nothing magical happened. i simply stopped seeing that world as theirs and started seeing it as a place i belonged too

i will repeat this again;

if you spend all day at a fish market, you’ll leave smelling like fish even if you never touched one but spend your day in a perfume shop and you’ll carry the scent even if you didn’t buy anything, that’s how environment works. it rubs off, whether you realize it or not. the scent of your environment will always follow you.

wealth starts with familiarity before it starts with money. your mind has to accept a reality before ur life can build it. learn something, buena suerte.

[Ayò-Bánkólé Akíntújoyè @AyoBankole]

Obi Ezeude built a multibillion naira business - Beloxxi by selling only one type of crackers biscuit. Till today, they're still not diversified and still make only crackers - though now in variants. As at 2016, they raised about $80m capital for a minority stake. Going by that, they're likely a unicorn by now. Another makes multibillions from kulikuli distribution.

Yes you can build a unicorn styled successful business out of nigeria by selling one product. The problem is that we benchmark our success metrics with the USA market standard, when we are not selling to the same market and the same dynamics or purchasing power. Another factor is the opacity around company performance and numbers, except for those who are publicly listed. Most companies operate in secrecy and seldom disclose their numbers, valuation or indices even after fund raises. So it's tough to properly value them and assess their impact.

Our market creates its own unicorns. It's just that we keep assessing our businesses from the same lense as those that operate in America. I think it's time for us to also develop parameters to value our own companies and maybe create an African Unicorn category - or a new name for it.

[A1 @ThatA1Guyyy]

@flygodT Everything I know now is as a result of my 9-5 in a PR Agency. Nothing beats learning and being in the field, experiencing things first hand.

That’s also the only way you can understand how to build and run a company.

Life is in stages. You must serve.

[Toriss🦋 @toriss__]

I hold great respect for people who carry intentionality into the minor things. Like,saying they’ll call back even when it’s unimportant and actually doing it. There is a certain maturity in that kind of reliability that is just so refreshing to witness.

[blue @bluewmist]

The older I get... the more I understand why people disappear into cooking, art, music, gardening, books and quiet lives.

[Your Designer @Daviowhite]

Imagine a unified digital experience where accessing your Nigerian Services like international passport, NIN registration and more, all happens securely in one place.

I designed AccessNG, a unified system built to streamline public infrastructure, simplify applications, provide feedback and put citizens first.

See detailed case study
https://t.co/wfimJ1gXki

A thread 🧵

[dele osunmakinde @deleosunmakinde]

There is a rising pressure in this generation. A pressure to “do something for God.” A pressure to “start something.” A pressure to “not waste your anointing.” A pressure to “step out before it is too late.”

And for many, that pressure is not coming from the Holy Spirit. It is coming from comparison, from expectations, from platforms, from voices that equate visibility with calling.

Let this be settled.
Not every believer is called to start a ministry.
Not every anointing is for pioneering.

Not every grace is for building a platform.
Some are called to be planted. Deeply planted. Faithfully planted. Quietly growing. Strongly rooted in a local church, serving, building, strengthening, and maturing within a body.
And that is not lesser.
That is biblical.

In 1 Corinthians 12, the Scripture says God sets members in the body as it pleases Him. Not as pressure dictates. Not as trends demand. Not as people suggest. As it pleases Him.

That means your place is not discovered by pressure. It is discovered by divine placement.
And when God places you, He sustains you.
But when pressure pushes you, you will spend years trying to sustain what God never started.

This is where many are exhausted today. They started something out of excitement, expectation, or persuasion, and now they are carrying a weight that grace never authorised. They are building without clarity. Leading without conviction. Labouring without peace.
Because they responded to pressure, not to calling.

Let us bring Scripture into this.
In Acts 13, Paul and Barnabas were not roaming around looking for where to start a ministry. They were in a local church. They were serving. They were part of a leadership community. Then the Holy Spirit spoke and said, “Separate me Barnabas and Saul for the work whereunto I have called them.”

Notice this.

They did not appoint themselves.
They were not pressured into starting something.
They were not compared into ministry.
They were not shamed into stepping out.

The Spirit spoke.

The church discerned.
Hands were laid.
They were released.
There was clarity.
There was witness.
There was alignment.
There was no confusion.

If God is calling you to start something, you will not need ten voices pushing you into it. There will be a deep persuasion within. There will be alignment in your spirit. There will be confirmation through Scripture, through godly counsel, and through the witness of the Spirit. It may be stretching, but it will not be confusing. It may require faith, but it will not require you to violate your peace.

God does not lead His people by harassment.
God does not guide His children by anxiety.
God does not reveal calling through intimidation.
The Spirit leads.

Now hear this clearly.
Honour is not slavery.
Submission is not the suspension of discernment.
Loyalty is not the abandonment of divine conviction.

You can respect leaders, receive from them, learn from them, and still not obey every suggestion they make about your life. A leader can see potential in you and still be wrong about your assignment. A pastor can desire expansion and still misplace people in roles they were not called to carry.

You must not convert someone else’s excitement about you into God’s instruction for you.
Your calling is not decided by who believes in you the most.

Your assignment is not determined by who is most persuasive.
Your ministry is not born because people say, “You can do it.”
It is born because God said, “This is what I have called you to do.”
And until that is clear, remain where God has planted you.

There is no shame in staying planted.
There is no shame in growing quietly.
There is no shame in serving faithfully.
There is no shame in saying no to opportunities that do not align with your conviction.

In fact, it takes maturity to remain where God is feeding you when there is pressure to prove something elsewhere.

[Temitope Shote @temitope_shote]

@kavthedzynr Thank you! I have done the needful

[Temitope Shote @temitope_shote]

📢 Build in public, build in public(I have heard you😄)
It seems this is one of the options going forward. Learn, push, iterate, repeat.

[Google Gemma @googlegemma]

Gemma 4 can run on phones without an internet connection! 🤯

It can perform local agentic tasks, such as logging and analyzing trends. When connected, it can also make API calls.

Want to try it yourself? Get the Google AI Edge App on iOS or Android. (🔊 Sound on for the demo!)

[roshnara @ferroshious]

as a designer you really have to learn to question everything. for example, the first step of my design process is questioning whether i should’ve become a designer in the first place.

[Figma @figma]

How a designer sees the world