Walk the walk!

My attention was drawn to a Tweet by Hotels.ng CEO, Mark Essien. The tweet goes thus:

Mark is right. If not for his Twitter profile, and the fact that people wouldn’t just stop hailing him, you wouldn’t know he has created anything serious.

He goes about his daily life like nothing is happening.

But in case you didn’t know, he’s the guy that recently got the attention of Mark fuc**ing Zuckerberg and Wife. They couldn’t help but invest US$24 million in his company (some people will start saying I’m wrong now).

This epoch-making event was seen worldwide because major news outlets (both local, international and even those outside our terrestrial ball) plastered it on their front page.

Yet, when you meet this guy (or check out his tweets), you just wouldn’t know he’s got a big head. Well, you’ll know ‘cos of the intelligent things he writes (but they’re definitely not him blowing his own trumpet).

He’s passionate about tech. He wants to see Nigeria top on the technology chart. He wants Yaba(con Valley) to be known worldwide. He’s willing (and ready) to help.

He attends seminars, conferences, tech events — I was surprised when I got to know he was among the mentors at Founders’ Cafe (I bet not many know much about that event) in Abuja. He gives his valuable 2 cents every now and then.

I think we should all just be like him. Leave all the hype. Yes, your startup was accepted into YC Fellowship Program or 500 Startups just invested in your startup. Yes, it’s a good thing to talk about it (I’ll even help you) but who you epp??

The tech industry here needs more doing and less talking. Let’s all be like Iyin jare. Let’s all walk the walk!