If you thought I had hung up my pen, sorry to disappoint.
What I have learned first-hand in the 10 years I have spent studying and building tech and business projects is that starting might be difficult, but it is merely 1% of the challenge. The real test is when the heat is turned on as you try to get your project to work well and acquire new customers.
When the heat was too much back in 2012, I goofed, shut down Gistcaster permanently and moved on.
Moving on helped me to seriously re-develop myself, explore new worlds and maybe I am a stronger man now… but I think I do regret shutting down Gistcaster. In retrospect, I keep asking myself: what if I didn’t shut it down, how big would it be now?
Things that could only be classified as third world problems or Nigerian problems stopped me from writing my daily post for several days in a row, a perfect chance to run away from the project and even though I got a phone call or 2, a handful of emails and messages on Facebook inquiring about the whereabouts of the #TMP, I am honest enough to know that if I do not resume writing #TMP, it will not be terribly missed…. Just like Gistcaster circa 2012.
However, I will be the one to miss #TMP.
One of the many lessons my Gistcaster story taught me is that sometimes, you are not doing these things to help people and solve their problems, you are doing this to help yourself by giving you a chance to build up capacity and acquire skills.
I am not the best programmer in the world, but I am heads and shoulders above the rest because of all the real life projects I dared to embark upon. I always push my skillset to the brim, taking on things I am clueless about how to build and then figuring out a way to build it. Working on Gistcaster is what drove me deep into learning everything I know today. Before Gistcaster, I was a 19 year old guy who loved programming, after Gistcaster, I became a young man on a mission to design and build the future.
Writing #TMP for me everyday is not really about the loyal audience that is learning a lot from the posts or the critics who shark around, it is about me and all the capacity I am able to develop. It is about defying the Nigerian constraints, the financial constraints and pushing out the post.
Every single post that is published is a testimony!
It is about having a platform to discuss the future of work, the state of the industries we play in, what companies are getting right (or not) and how the world can be a better place.
It is about having a platform to publish my own opinions and not making excuses for having them.
It is about having a platform through which some impact can be made in other people.
These are the reasons I have to continue writing #TMP everyday.
Falling down is not the problem, the problem is when you decide to stay down. Building a startup is not a sprint, it is a marathon, little setbacks along the way should not stop you.
