Rethink with Ayodele

I was chatting to a friend recently when I mentioned Dee W Hock to them and to my shock they’ve never heard of Dee. Still, the interesting thing is that we interface with the work Dee dedicated about 40 years of his lifetime to — Visa (the financial technology company that powers 47% of credit/debit cards issued globally). It’s massive bruh!😤 Dee lived a very quiet life, but he published a number of books, articles, blogs, and tweets that provided a different perspective on life and provoked questions that over 90% of us would not ask in our lifetime. In addition to his Twitter page, he maintained a very simple website where all his writings were hosted.  A few weeks before my discussion with my friend, I randomly thought about Dee and I went through his X/Twitter account to re-read some of his tweets. At that moment, I remembered his website and wondered how it would be managed.  Well, I checked, and I noticed it’s been redesigned. Now, it serves as Dee’s legacy beyond VISA....

I know it’s been a while but I just randomly thought to share only of my prayers. This prayer is one for accountability and responsibility, and I hope you say these words:  Lord I thank you for the blessings in my life,  I pray I’m not carried away by the bliss thereof that i am not available for your purpose for me.  Help me to know that which you’re doing and help me be a part of it.  All that I have and am, is yours and I pray to be a great steward that’s accountable and responsible for the blessings.  Thank you for answering me always.  Your Son, Ayodele 

So a few days ago, a lady had innocently posted for the relationship X’s audience about her initial indifference about her husband and how she didn’t think he was attractive enough at the time. (Honestly I didn’t take too much time to read because, you know — it’s too much and a very chaotic street on X).  Whilst her post was innocently targeted at her audience, she indirectly triggered emotions and trauma deeply buried in the a lot of people who were her husband’s junior in secondary school. For context, I was also his junior and I can relate to a lot of these comments/stories. It was so bad that after I graduated, my dad said “none of his kids will ever step on a unity school” again and he made sure of that.  We all agree that bullying in schools is not an uncommon practice in schools; this doesn’t make it right neither have we founded a structure to eliminate this terrible act that influences and shapes kids through their formative years into young adults. The stories from ...

One of the amazing things about the Nigerian startup scene is the communities where founders learn, network and share their experiences. I belong to 3 of them Collective Founders Initiative, Unicorn Founders (I’m manifesting this) and PremiaBN. If you’re in tech or looking to be in tech and wants to join a community, you should consider one of these.  I saw a question someone asked on the Unicorn Founders platform and I found it very interesting. The question reads:  “As a passionate founder who wants the best work done always, how do you insist on and demand excellence from  your team without being overly emotional about it.”  I posted a response to it and I thought I should share on my blog. See my response below:  Your team needs to know/trust that you know what you’re doing (or saying) and you’re committed to the outcomes. Clarity is key to delivery. Sometimes, because of the level of detail and context we have, we don’t do the great job of communicating cle...

I didn't have any idea of what to write because it is one of those days when I am in my feels and also not feeling up to it. I feel a little bit sad because it's an estranged friend's birthday and as much as I would want to wish them a happy birthday (probably send a gift), I am not quite sure of the reaction. It's also quite interesting because we have two different ideas/views of what the cause of the issue is and at this point 🤷🤷🤷. (Happy birthday to you) But while contemplating on whether to write or not, I thought about the need for my resolve for this blog - making sure that no 2 days go by without my writing something. This is considering different things happen during the course of my day and it's worth reflecting and sharing in a place that's much saner than Twitter (now X) - here. In the moment , the word consistency popped in my head and I was wondering what I'd consider to be the most consistent thing from my everyday life and my answer was a...

    Chess is a game I wish I dedicated more time to learning beyond the rudiments of movement which I learned from the free version of chess pro on my first desktop computer. On the other hand, I spent some time playing draughts aka checkers with my friends after exams in secondary school. Seun (who we popularly called Àgbè) was the best player in school and would beat us in rounds. Haha 😂. One of those afternoons, it felt like I was going to win, I had 2 kings and a 2 other tiles while he had 3 tiles and a king. For a moment, I excitedly boasted about winning and reveled in the idea of winning him for the first time.  Guess what? I lost 😡.  One of the many lessons I learned from playing draughts was the willingness to concede a tile or even my king (in some cases) so that I can ultimately win the game. This lesson stuck and today, it’s one that I use in my dealings with people especially when meeting new people.  For someone with some level of social anxiet...