On Becoming

JesuFemi
JesuFemi
Nov 8 · 3 min read

source: media.giphy.com

without commitment you’d never start, but more importantly without consistency you’ll never finish — Denzel Washington

ever read a quote on the internet or watched a motivational video on YouTube and you immediately feel like ‘Darn! i’ve got to get to the moon tomorrow!’. hopefully, most of us know that feeling. that crazy energy that makes you feel like superman without the cape. (ps: this post may have been as a result of that energy 😜) . well, if we know that feeling and probably have experienced it too, then we sure know it doesn’t last, sadly.

one of the things i learnt from my mentor at the end of 2018 was counting the cost before making any decision. i mean, it makes sense to calculate how much you have in your pocket before asking a lady to go with you on a date right? well, let’s scale that up to making really hard decisions like dropping out of school to pursue your passion , start a business or for some of my sharp brothers, trying to make extra cash by using your school fees to play BetNaija(odikwa risky o! 😂) in these moments, we sometimes wish we didn’t count the cost at all because they kill all of our positive energy and scare the hell out of us. personally, i can’t count how many plans i halted just cos i ‘counted the cost’ and it just felt bigger than me.

the beautiful thing about big risks is that if they go down right, they attract big profits and this is the singular reason why choosing to play safe all of the time is probably the dumbest thing to do. in the end, we can only enjoy the best things in life if we learn to strike a balance between playing safe and taking (calculated) risks.

For which of you, desirous of building a tower, does not first sit down and count the cost, if he has what is needed to complete it…

November makes it a year since i decided to pursue a career in data science and to be honest it’s had it’s ups and downs- from sleepless nights trying to learn machine learning, to trying to start a mini series (which i could not eventually keep up with!) where i shared my little knowledge in the field, to starting and periodically dumping a self driving car project(almost done building that car, swears 😫), to participating in an internship and landing myself a really cool job and having to temporarily dump music. i remember my first week at work, i felt like telling my team lead that i was sorry for taking the job. it was crazy!!

source: media.giphy.com

in my short experience, i have learnt the importance of doing one thing at a time and more importantly the power of iterations! most of us wants to get everything right on the first attempt or get that first version of the product we have been working on to be perfect(hello?? you should totally read lean startup by Eric Ries). i started 2019 with a lot of goals and ambitions, while lots of them have been achieved, i must confess that i failed at a lot of them too. in the end, i’m sure to leave 2019 with two things:

  1. finish what you start!
  2. be accountable

Tim Cook, in his Commencement address at Stanford’s 128th Commencement said, ‘your mentors may leave you prepared, but they can’t leave you ready…’

The point i really wanted to make with this post is that if we keep waiting for things to be perfect before we ever step out to do anything at all, we’d end up doing nothing. we never can truly measure our abilities unless we take a leap of faith and put ourselves to the ultimate test. remember, there’s no such thing as failure, just feed backs. embrace your journey, trust your process and enjoy self discovery.

JesuFemi

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JesuFemi

Redefining : •People | •Media | •technology

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