Learning Opportunities
We needed a speaker session …
It was getting to two months after DSC AE-FUNAI was born. We had had our info session and weekend learnings of the Firebase Series. This was around October’s ending and we should have done the GitHub event by then in honor of #HactoberFest which unfortunately was postponed due to the #EndSARS crisis.
#EndSARS is an advocacy by we, Nigerian youths, to #EndPoliceBrutality. The protests were draining to our emotional health. It was a second round of #StaySafe in Nigeria after the COVID19 period. We had to halt DSC activities 😫.
Things later came back to normal and at some point, we had to continue with our lives. To rejuvenate the community’s energy, we, in the core team, thought of hosting a Bootcamp, where we would have different learning tracks. We started planning towards it and decided to make its launch a lively one. We successfully had quizzes and award nights. In addition, we had a speaker session to inspire learning. (That was our first speaker session).
Emeka Odibeli, CMC.
Emeka Odibeli is a Certified Management Consultant (hence the CMC). Well, it's not about the management, but about him. His life, story, and self are great inspirations to anyone striving out there. He spoke during TEDx Abakiliki in 2019. He has been a trainer on “Google Digital Skills for Africa” for some years now. Of course, he is a certified trainer on digital skills and is a certified digital marketer. He is a mentor for the Tony Elumelu Foundation where he guides winners of the TEFfund to business success. He is the founder of StartRight Consults ...
There’s much more to Emeka Odibeli’s bio. He is old in the training, mentoring, and speaking fields. Just know that he is passionate about the success of youths and has worked towards that in many ways. He was the right person for this talk. Why? because of his secret. His secret? learning!!!
Learning Opportunities in Digital and The New Normal
I approached daddy Emeka to anchor the session for the community and he agreed. He himself chose the above title: “Learning Opportunities …” and did justice to it.
On stage (on Whatsapp), he told his story of missing university results for ten years which forced him not to depend on his degree but to learn. He explained the value of learning and learning with a plan. He asked everyone: “How much have you learned? And in the next one year what is your goal for Global relevance?” Three persons answered. One answer mentioned cybersecurity which he encouraged, saying that there is a global demand for it. He himself answered the question and did so with reasons and next steps. In his words:
“So this is mine: I am now without the aid of my degree… A digital skills trainer, digital marketer, certified management consultant, and currently an entrepreneurship consultant on youth development to the Delta State government. My goal is to up my consultancy services to the African Continent.”
“So to achieve this I have to ask what the world needs and what they are looking for.”
“Why learn so much if you remain broke? Furthermore, Why boast of certifications when you remain a local champion…”
He further explained that his reason for discussing what we had learned and our intentions for relevance was to make us understand that learning should be deliberate. That learning should be tied to specific purposes and above all, it should also be about the networks we want to play into. In his words:
“Your network is always going to determine your net worth”.
“Learning should be about unlocking relevant information required to change your state of being. So we all have to make learning go beyond changing title status and make it also about financial and community relevance”
“In financial relevance, we are self-sustained… In community relevance, you are given responsibility positions and money is also attached”
“So this is where I hit my prime point. We are all here and the next year is ahead of us. In 3 years I got 120 certifications and have moved from just a trainer with CBN to a consultant. I have moved from a digital skills trainer to a digital skills consultant, from just a business owner to owning 5 companies with 2 in the UK and I have never traveled out. I now plan to train 10000 persons on digital skills for Employability, Entrepreneurship, and Education across Delta state. I have been licensed by Global Entrepreneurship Week, Startup Grind, and Techsters Startup Week for 2021. These were once dreams. None by degree and all by learning. So, make up your mind where you want to be and what you want to be and who you want to become. As the opportunities roll out, dig in, eat much, and stay HUNGRY.”
“The future belongs to WE who DARE”
He got to the end of his talk, concluded, and wished us well. Many were inspired, motivated, and amazed. No questions came from the audience except for his social media handles which he shared and are as follows
* Twitter: @odibeliworld25
* Instagram: @odibeliworld
* LinkedIn: Odibeli Emeka
The talk took place on 13th Nov. from 8 pm to 10 pm. Know more about the event at https://dsc.community.dev/e/mbzuvd/
My take-home
Wow! 😱😱😱
That was much. That evening I brought back to life resolutions I had made much earlier.
In response to my own goal for global relevance, I decided to write more. Maybe not just stories like this one, but to write technically. Follow me on Medium for more of what I will write in the future at https://obumnwabude.medium.com
Next steps
Well, it's heartbreaking that after all the vibe and plannings, we did not get to carry out the Bootcamp we intended. We didn’t have enough mentors/tutors and might have over planned or were over expecting. I’m sorry 💔.
However, around the same time, planning for the GitHub event with other DSC leads was getting serious. 26th November was already close by.
Read on the GitHub event ...
