Look, A 2019 Review about my boring self.
Parte after parte ah yeay!
Oh sheeet! this is the part where I’m supposed to start writing 😅
Where to begin? 🤔
Work
2019 was the most stressful work year I ever had and I say this with hot tears rolling down my eyes 😭 because I won’t even pray for my enemy to go through what I went through in this Lagos of a state.
For the first 6 months of 2019, I battled with 3 jobs — a full-time design job at Yaba, a full-time NYSC PPA job at Ijede, Ikorodu and a sort of part-time job running the family business in Apapa.
Yes, you can guess how stressful it was doing all 3 at the same time and I had to report every day.
My routine for that 6 months — I would leave the house 4:30 am, get to Ijede, Ikorodu at 7:30 ish am, leave Ikorodu to Yaba at 4 pm, arrive Yaba at 6 pm and work till 9:30 and head home. When I get home, I still work till like 12 am, trying to meet up deliverables (I believe every techie can relate to this, lol) and handle other things that needed attending too.
In the 7th month that followed, I got a job offer and the location did it for me because it was way close to Apapa where the family business was and where I stay. Brethren! it is with severe pains that I say, my village pipu got me clean shot. After about a week I resumed, company decided to move base to Sangotedo, Ajah, ah! I sha started another round of stressing 😢
Commuting in Lagos is killing! People that live close to work don’t know what God has done for them. Btw, if you live on the Island and looking for a rommie of have spare space, ejooor epp my life 😭
Personal and Career growth
2019 was really an interesting year. I did a couple of courses, read a number of books and joined a startup.
It was pretty exciting joining a startup that was barely 2 years old. I have learnt a lot over the last 6 months, switched roles, almost quit, but we are still here. I will be writing about my experience in details later.
I attempted so many side projects and course assignments. Some I finished, some procrastination been wan kill my enemy. But las las, to Jesus be my glory 😆
Course assignments that stood out for me in 2019, would be the one I did with Praiz UX for IDEO’s Introduction to HCD course. You can find all about it here https://medium.com/praizux/lessons-from-human-centred-design-project-9d0028274adb.
The next is one I did with Gregory Onyeahialam, Florence Dairo and Ayomidotun™ for IDEO’s Prototyping course.
Ohhh fun fact — myself, Praiz UX and Mudia Imasuen tried to write a book on designing for forms in Nigeria. Sadly, we couldn’t finish in 2019, but fingers crossed in 2020 😏
Friends
I made good friends this year. I usually just stop at acquaintances but this year, I expanded my circle of friends for the first time in over 7 years and some of them have even become family. I have to say, I don’t regret it. These people (mentioning a few) — Mudia Imasuen Praiz UX Deborah Bashorun Emmanuel Adigwe Gregory Onyeahialam edidiong isong Brownson Etimbuk Charles Njoku pushed me out of my zone and I owe my growth in 2019 to them 🤗
Oh! btw, we started a design family called TgifPixels 😄
Mentoring
I didn’t expect the number of reach outs I had in 2019. I was amazed that the little I posted on Twitter drew so many people who found me worthy of imparting knowledge into them. Although some of those people ghosted after I gave them small work 😒.
All in all, I’m glad I was able to help the few who stuck around and were ready to put in the effort.
Community
The design community keeps growing every day and I couldn’t be more excited. We need more people with the users at heart actively involved in products people use every day. I still think we need more females designers, I don tire to dy see men face biko.
I joined an amazing community called Asa Coterie towards the end of 2019 and it has been wonderful.
The year also ended with a big win for the TgifPixels family. We were able to successfully drag all those design twitter pipu out to finally see each other for the first time. I was blown away at how much love and oneness was shown that night. There is hope for Nigeria after all, who knew 😂
I look forward to what 2020 holds for the entire community.
Business
Remember earlier I mentioned I was handling the family business part-time. Well, in the last quarter of 2019, I had the biggest surprise of my life from my dad. He handed-off the business and gave me 100% control to run full time as the new owner. Choi! Right now, I am the guy responsible for paying people’s salaries. I officially hate month ends 😑
My new year resolution?
Stop opening so many f**king tabs at a time!!!!! 😭 Also, sleep more — how hard can this be?
Oh crap! wait...Mudia Imasuen and I have plans to be sleepless this year 😓
Alrighty boys and girls, this where Imma sign out! Have yourselves a great 2020!! 🍾
Shyone out.
