Wahala.

It's a vibe. An aesthetic.

Photo by Dulcey Lima on Unsplash

Hey there. I know. It’s been a minute. You’re probably asking—Chidi, where’ve you been? Where did you go? Maybe you’ve wondered. Maybe you haven’t. Either way, you are likely just living your life.

Which you should o. Biko.

But here’s a fact—I would love to know how you are doing. How have you been? What’s happening? And can we connect soon? Can I help you with anything?

Let me know.

Me? Well, all things considered…we still dey here, right? Resilience? There’s been a lot of that.

And I can also attest that plenty of gratitude dey inside body too. I am sure if I took the stories of just five to ten of us and did a nice feature story on BBC Africa or YouTube, folks would be in awe of how people are managing, creating, handling, lifing, living, falling, get-upping, losing, winning.

Folks are doing what we do, making life happen. And that’s all we ask, right?

One of my Sunday routines is to watch a show called CBS Sunday Morning. It provides some of the most inspirational stories that give me jet fuel going into the week—it’s like a magazine collection of people, situations, visuals, and stories that show humanity doing what I listed out above—managing, losing, creating, handling, lifing, winning, living, falling, get-upping. Today’s show inspired me to share a couple of nuggets that I hope will provide some Akabanga sauce to this broth of life we are whipping and serving up.

The first inspiration is this guy they did a feature on named Barry Diller. Long story short…Oga Barry is one of the most powerful and successful media execs in the world. You have watched and used many of his products, shoot some might have even gotten married off of one (Match.com). But the thing he said on the show that kicked my ass was that as successful as he is, he gets bored with success once he achieves it. As in once he accomplished something, he moved on to the next adventure. I’ve been a Diller fan from back in the day, especially when I learned he is what they call an “infinite learner”.

Infinite learners. I can say without any vanity that I find myself somewhere within the spectrum of this rather quirky and esoteric class of doers. In fact, I feel that is what draws me to the kinds of people and work that I am drawn to, and these four gems below give some insight into the infinite learner’s mindset:

• Revel in your ignorance. Basically, start at zero, come in with a clean slate. In my world of product management, in entrepreneurship, this is what sets the big boys and girls apart from the also-rans. Doing discovery is starting at zero.

• Don’t copy anyone else’s success, study it, break down what worked, and then remix it. Make it yours. There’s no such thing as an original idea, it’s all remixes.

• Find the counterpoint to conventional wisdom. My goodness, I love this one. It is wearing trado pants with a tee and blazer in a room full of suits. Showing vulnerability when everyone is displaying the facade of strength. Being the one who is not jumping on AI just because everybody is AI’ing, but is already looking at how to effectively use it to stay unique and stay the difference maker you have always been. This mindset will cost you in many cases, but this is where the smoke resides. Walahi.

• Embody a beginner’s mindset. Stay curious. Adaptable. Nimble. Open to new ideas. The worst thing about experts is that they are not learning mode, they are pretty much know-it-alls. Stay learning. Even if you know, act like you don’t know. You may end up knowing something you didn’t know before.

Ok, so that was a cool story to chew on.

The second piece that resonated deeply was about an entrepreneur who was doing well until the Trump tariffs were put in place. Beth Benike is running a flourishing business called Busy Baby, but the tariffs are now threatening her business, Existentially. An order of goods for her inventory is now stuck in China because the bill to bring them to the States is $245K. Eish! Almost 10x what she used to pay.

Of course, she is desperate. In trouble. Things are not looking good at all. Her little boy found her crying in frustration in her bedroom after the tariffs were announced. But. She decided to lean on a mantra she picked up from her days in the military on how to adjust to the enormity of the serious wahala in front of her. And I am taking this one to heart…hook, line, and sinker.

Three words: Improvise. Adapt. Overcome.

Simple.

• Improvise—use what you got. Make do with what you have

• Adapt—focus on the things within your control, obsess about your doables. Don’t even waste an iota of a second on stuff that is outside of your realm of control, the undoables.

• Overcome—get going. Push, keep pushing, stay pushing.

Of course, this was a note to self. And a note to all. Wahala will always be there. But so will we.

We keep pushing.

(and abeg, let me know how you are doing. please…I would love to hear from you. Almost for my own sake).