The storybook of my 2018
Last year I was supposed to do a review of 2017 but for some reason, a lot of bad things happened and not sure I wanted to be vulnerable, just yet.
In September 2017, I completed my course at Lancaster University and between then and when I graduated in December I had to find a job to sustain me in the UK (else I was gonna go back to Nigeria, possibly even missing my graduation — Dec 13).
For sustainability, I said, I did what was supposed to be one of the most humiliating things I’ve ever done in my life — work as a Waiter, of course, I wrote about it. It was supposed to be humiliating, but I took it as a chance to tour the bustling city of London, so win-win-ish.
Got back to Nigeria on January 27 (or 28) 2018, and tried to be jobless. To me it was an opportunity to do the things “I love(d)” like going places, greeting people etc. But the way my bank account was set-up, I was burning through saved-up cash too fast and I would need a job.
One of my visits saw me attend Softcom’s event in February, where my long-time friend and boss, Yomi asked me to do NYSC with them. Gladly, I would and I did. I had worked there in 2015 as an intern, and this was an opportunity to return “back to my roots”. Went through a series of interviews & conversations and I landed a job there as a Product Manager for their first Business-to-Consumer (B2C) product — Eyowo.
Started with Eyowo in March, didn’t know what I was getting myself into — Nigeria’s FinTech space — all I knew was that at the beginning of December 2017, I had worked with a Financial expert and former Diamond Bank board member, as such, I learnt one or two more things about the workings of the financial system. My learnings with him formed an Op-ed piece titled On banks and Financial Services. That article started my journey to 100 stories in 2018.
Shortly after I joined Eyowo, I registered for my NYSC and got posted to the North. Up North? Yes, Borno to be precise (not Bauchi, if you know you know 😃).
My decision to go to Borno was strategic — automatic redeployment after camp. But where would I camp? Katsina — put in a temporary camp separate from the ones they put the original Katsina-posted Corpers.
Travelled by plane within Nigeria for the first time on April 19, 2018, headed straight for Kano cause no airport in Katsina. From there we drove to Katsina, in what turned out to be an over two hours journey.
Katsina was dusty at the time and hot, like on some days it was 42⁰C!
Sha, the camp came and went. Met Teju, Lanre, Ore, Mercy, Jerusha and a host of other cool people. Disappointed myself but we move 💪.
Got back to Lagos, May 10 and I was shedding skin like a snake that is moulting. Like, I’d raise my shirt up and I’ll see dried skin drop.
June 17, I launched my personal site with the first blog post being a spotlight on a home tutoring company.
This was such a big deal to me because I had written for more than two years on the internet without controlling my own personal space online. Medium (this site) was good until it wasn’t, getting a site in one’s name would do better for brand building than piggybacking off a third-party like Medium in this case.
Now the challenges I faced trying to float this site, no be here, they were so enormous I thought of running back to Medium. But right then, when I was still considering it, I decided to make my site commercial. Like a “Linda Ikeji for tech news”, where the only reference here to “Linda Ikeji” is in the use of a personal name not in the type of work or writing we do.
How is that going? Not gonna lie, it’s tough trying to get people to acknowledge you as a reputable source of tech news if your name is not prefixed or suffixed with the word “-tech-”. But I do not think we (benjamindada.com) have done badly.
There has been so much to learn and I had been compiling them into an article for you guys looking to launch a personal blog in the coming year but been too lazy to finish.
As part of making my making my blog commercial, I decided to hire associates that would run the blog in July. They would be involved in writing articles and driving the blog’s numbers. After a very selective process (< 10% acceptance rate) for something “not so serious”, we emerged with 2 people who became the first associates of benjamindada.com. At the time, we weren’t really making money but I paid both of them almost 2x Nigeria’s minimum wage from my 9–5 salary.
In the first month of hiring them, we did well, published our betting series which bought us some confidence and set the bar of expectation high for us.
But by the next month, they had gone quiet and were not responsive. Didn’t even communicate to us why they went quiet, we were so annoyed, yet decided to reach them, but to no avail. So, we moved on without them.
And yes, my mum celebrated her 50th birthday 🍷. We had a small in-compound party and it was surprisingly good.
Can’t remember anything spectacular that happened in August. *runs to check Google Photos timeline*. Went on my first-ever 6D ride (Wall of China), attended a landmark developer conference in Nigeria— Concatenate. Visited Softcom/Eyowo’s Abuja Office, while at the same time seeing FarmCrowdy’s (they were in the same building).
The following day, I visited ThriveAgric — a FarmCrowdy competitor, LOL.
Flew back to Lagos. Moro playfully came to do a photoshoot in my office (Eyowo), plus, I met Susan for the first time.
I gave a speech to a bunch of teenagers at the CITY Summer Leadership camp.
My family moved houses.
On the first day of September, my friend and two-time course mate from secondary school and University celebrated her 23rd, we turned it up a lirru bit. It was like an opportunity for a reunion for those of us that went to the same school. As usual, I acted as the group’s photographer (had to find the one that had me in it, LOL)…cause GoOglE PixEl takEs The BesT PhoTos, KMT.
Went to a concert in Abuja at Transcorp Hilton hotel, and it was boring 😞 , and I can promise you, I wasn’t even expecting too much. SeyiLaw was there but man was handicapped, couldn’t help the show.
My workplace partnered with NACK to run a pop-up event, Praiz, Teddy A, Uti Nwachukwu and a bunch of cool people showed up.
In October, I met Donaldson for the first time, had a small chat with him at a restaurant in Ikeja. Donalson does some Digital marketing work for my blog and he’s been very enthusiastic and engaged.
I also met Omojuwa and he knew me already from Twitter, yay! Your boy be doing bits.
Had an office party at Banana Island we stayed that night 😄after doing Karaoke, it was my first Karaoke ever, LMAO. I sang Assurance by Davido, hehe. Don’t ask me for who 👀.
October 24, representatives of benjamindada.com visited the US Consul General’s house in Ikoyi for a meet and greet, pre-Ingressive summit.
I and Moro represented the blog that evening. Moro helps with Operations and designs for the blog.
We (benjamindada.com) were one of the media partners for the annual Tech Meets Entertainment (TME) Ingressive Summit which happened this year, yay.
Attended the wedding reception of Bukky’s — my former coursemate — sister. This was pivotal cause I hadn’t turned up that much in a while.
In November, benjamindada.com partnered with Google Dev Fest to roll out what turned to be one of the most attended developer events in Lagos — one of the world’s populated cities.
We — Krypton — played the finals of the Softcom Champions League at an astroturf in Lekki. I scored 2 goals and made 2 assists in the tournament.
Sadly, we lost. So, no $1000 for us.
November 16, I celebrated my birthday. How? By doing a photoshoot.
December, we had an ‘80s Christmas party after which we were off to a company retreat in South Africa. There we visited Johannesburg and Cape Town and I overcame(?) my fear of height by zip lining.
P.S — this post officially marks my 100th post for the year! So, done and dusted!!!
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Ugh, that was a lot to write. In summary, in 2018:
- got back safely from the UK
- started my NYSC
- launched benjamindada.com
- acted as media partners for 5 events; TPLDA, GDG Dev Fest, Atlassian User Groups Lagos, and two Ingressive-led events
- visited South Africa for the first time
- completed my goal of writing 100 things in this year
I failed to:
- read 3 books; read just 2
- complete a Product management certification; started and did about 60%
- start saving for a car; funds got diverted towards more pressing issues
— — — — — — — — —
Next year, we go again.
- save towards a car
- read (or listen to) 12 books
- complete that Product Management course
- get published in reputable international media organisations like the FT, and Quartz
Wow! thanks for reading this!
