As Ekiti celebrates it’s silver jubilee, I must commend the doggedness and creativity of Ekiti Youths.
Contrary to what a lot of people believe, Ekiti is actually a fertile land that squeezes out creativity and resilience in you.
I am very proud of my impact at home and I’m proud of every young Ekiti Enterpreneur bringing innovation into their business. However, here are a few things that I’ve noticed during my stay here and hope we improve on as we strive to make Ekiti a hub of innovation and industrialisation.
1. PHD Sydrome (Pull Him Down)
The truth is that, you can’t understand everything.
Also, you can’t be aware of everything and not everything can be run through you, but when you hear or come across something innovative and unique, down talk it down or look-out for it’s failure, rather support and if you’ll love to be a part of it, reach out. We can always achieve more together.
2. We need to collaborate more:
I discovered that the secret of many thriving businesses in Lagos and Abuja are based on collaborations.
Young guys in the media need to do more partnering and featuring, while business guys need to do more feature photoshoots and promote thier businesses collectively.
We need to do more together to grow and get noticed globally. Our location doesn’t really matter.
3. Grow more relevance outside Ekiti:
This is a secret that has worked for me over the years. Realising that a prophet is not without honour except in his home, that means a smart prophet needs to learn to grow more acceptance and relevance outside his home. Home is wired to celebrate your growth and success and benefit from it and this you find in Ekiti State. We celebrate our stars abroad, more at home and this isn’t a bad thing if you ask me. It only means I need to shine more beyond my “home shores”.
Young Ekiti Enterpreneurs need to learn to save to travel, go for Conferences and relevant trainings.
Read more widely and shine more globally.
The lessons you pick abroad will make you shine and keep you relevant at home.
4. Be bigger on IMPACT and little on MONEY:
In the creative industry, money is very important and I dare say that it’s the fuel of creativity. But if we can look out to solve more problems in Ekiti State and profer sustainable solutions to them, the big bales will roll in and it will come with double Joy; One of fullfilment of purpose and the other of satisfaction.
On a final note, the next 25 years of Ekiti can experience rapid development and growth, than the previous 25 years did, if we all propose in our hearts to fix all the issues we daily complain about and BE DIFFERENT.
Congratulations to Ekiti at 25.
Congratulations to Nigeria at 61.
God Bless Nigeria.