Financial Structure; Our Only Hope
In the past, gathering resources to execute ideas was more tasking than it is today. Say for instance, you wanted to shoot a short film and promote it, you were in for a world of trouble. You’d have needed proper cameras, equipment, a crew (who you’d pay a salary) etc. Simply put; MONEY. These days, you’d still need money, though considerably less, compared to the resources you would have had to make readily available in the past for a project of such size, there is a favorable difference, you could shoot a short film with your iPhone, promote it on social media, and depending on your level of skill, gain massive recognition. All this has potential to be the penultimate stumbling block to mainstream success. Thank you, internet.
The internet has made it easier for us to promote our businesses, both small, medium, and large. Using social media alone to share your work, your reach is immeasurable. Being that it is a “global village”, you and your product are perceived in the way you’ve curated your content.
The success of your product depends a lot on the perception of you as a brand, and how. you make people feel when they look at whatever you’ve created. I believe strongly in conveying emotions through the content you put out, because at the end of the day, you’re selling something to the end user. That “something” should allow them a glimpse into your mind. Perception is key because that’s most likely all you have to convince someone of the quality of your brand in one glance. Remembering MTN ads, circa 2004, comes with a barrage of emotion. In my mind, I’ve attached those top quality ads with how I felt growing up around that time. For me, if the perception of your brand does not provoke your audience into feeling something, then you’re lacking something.
There is a very noticeable trend in the way things are being done by the youth at the moment. They do not want to just go with the flow of things in delivering their products to the end consumers. There is a conscious effort to make art, while also sustaining their lifestyles through their art, and consequently, the business side to their craft is born. Also, the youth have started to stamp their authority on the business side of their individual crafts. Irrespective of building relationships with other brands and individuals, creatives have begun to create structures which have previously been lacking in general business practices in this part of the world. With all the strides made my individuals in this part of the world, the top guns have begun to notice all that the kids are doing. They’re like aliens bringing warships into a new world, ready for the taking.
At this point, lyrics from Kyrian Asher’s “This is my homerun” comes to mind; “let kings wage war, let knights be moulded…” NO ONE SHOULD BE ABLE TO COME TO AFRICA TOO EASILY TO HANDPICK THE BEST TALENT, AND SAY, “I’m going to make money off you”. Sorry, I raised my voice back there. I’ve said this to you before but it can not be taken for granted; we need structure. A proper structure devoid of worldly sentiments like religion and tribalism, that’s what we need to grow and take on the west. We aren’t lacking in talent or brainpower, so one would ponder why we have not really developed as a nation, (i.e. Nigeria) or as a continent. We’ve unconsciously allowed external forces control our resources and thinking, which has created sub-standard models of their (the west’s) economies. Let’s face it, in the last 50/60 years, we have not made giant strides, as our efforts have been rendered null by backward thinking, and and that hurts the most
I promise you, what we need to do is not as difficult as our leaders have perceived, that has made them envisage a near future of looting public funds. We all know we have the funds, but lack the execution. The execution of plans to further African economies should only come after the creation of proper structures within all our industries. The kids are already pushing hard with music, no doubt. The kids are also prodding age-old patriarchal pyramids, waiting for them to fall like Icarus when he flew too close to the sun. Businesses need to be treated as newborns who need guidance to avoid toppling from little obstacles on the way to succeeding in whatever fields. I’ve seen too many bright ideas go to waste over little problems. I take solace in the fact that, I’m surrounded by bright minds and ideas waiting to take the world by storm. My brothers at Baroque Age, the guys at TalkingDrum, (shoutout Agbawo) and the guys at Unigram, to name a few (no pun intended), are showing different ways to defeat and ageing system. We are all creating different ideas with the help of our various communities on twitter – allowing us to leverage resources off each other – to establish new structures fueled by pure, unadulterated hunger, as well as poverty, and a lack of emotional resources.
We need an Innovative Economic structure. Point. Blank. Period.
