Did you achieve set goals in 2017?

I wanted to give myself a break till the end of the year to focus on writing my book "From Clueless to CEO" based on my story of transforming my rough ideas into a company with a highly talented Co-founder. It still surprises me and humbles me at the same time that a highly skilled friend of mine was willing to take a risk on my ideas and join me in building a company that is going to transform Africa. If you're interested in reading the book. Drop a comment in the section below or send me a personal email to munachiso_ejieji@yahoo.com.

HOW SETTING GOALS TRANSFORMED MY LIFE

Although this section is somehow going to be in book in a different format, it is pertinent that I give an insight to how my Entrepreneurial journey did start.

I recalled in the evening of one paltry, boring day in May of 2016. I decided that something needed to change and perhaps on the advice of my dad constantly repeating the importance of planning my life. I decide to do a 50 year open ended plan on where I wanted to be in my 70's. I was 22 at the time.

I'm gonna look this good when I turn 72. Money has just started falling on me. Watch this space for before and after pictures. LOL.

I cut the 50 year plan down into 10 year milestones. I further cut the 10 year milestones into yearly milestones. I never visited the plan till a couple days ago and I realized that out of 20 set goals (pretty lofty goals at the time), I achieved 12 out of them.

To all the haters in the house. Take a sit at the back, while I sip on my "Tequila Sunrise" from Jabi Boat Club.

PS. You can have one when you stop setting overambitious New Year Resolutions and start getting real with yourself.


Funny thing is, the 8 goals I didn't achieve were all related to learning how to code. I tried learning it, but...

It can be quite frustrating to learn.... Let's agree to disagree that not everyone is built to be a coder.



Some of us are just meant to be dreamers and storytellers. That is why collaborations and partnerships are key to building great companies.

Africans need to imbibe this ideology and acknowledge the paradigm shift in business towards partnerships and throw away that "I am the only captain on this ship" mentality. It begs the question why we don't have African 'Unicorns' that have stood for decades!

Big Shoutout to HubbonNG's Co-founder, Uche Ozoemena for agreeing to be part of a journey of a thousand miles. I am glad to have taken the first few steps with you and I am sure that together, we are poised for greatness.

PS: We need investors so that we can start paying ourselves salary. As we are now, we are just doing it for the gram (and the vine!)LOL

Africans have began to unlock these potentials in partnerships and that is why we are building great Startups!

TO YOUNG  ASPIRING ENTREPRENEURS

Set goals! 

Not those flimsy New Year Resolutions, trust me when I say this! Those don't work!

Set 10 years, 5 years, 2 years and 1 year goals for yourself!

It helps you put things in perspective and enables you to plan your life. It would even help you to calculate even the number of hours in a day that you would be required to start up that business or  achieve your goals whatever it might be.

PS. This isn't even only for business people. It's for everyone! School students, parents, grandparents, babies in diapers! Everyone!

Yes even you reading this post. Set achievable goals and work towards them!

WHAT MAKES ME ANGRY

I felt that I should also use this medium to vent! 

We have this vicious cycle of continuous celebration in Africa that needs to be curbed. Honestly speaking!

Happy New Week, Happy Born Day, Happy Natal Day, Happy Womb Escape, Happy April Fools, Happy Almost Christmas.

Please help me ask them sir.

Quick question: Is it just a Nigerian problem or an African epidemic?

PS. If you're wondering why I've posted "one too many" pictures of Barney Stinson. This is my own private rerun of "How I met your Mother" TV show. I am advertising for them. They just don't know it yet.

 We need to get to work to build our continent instead of faffing about sending messages by virtue of just being alive, there's no prize for that.

In my opinion, I am even angry that this year is coming to an end because I want to achieve more. I had a heart-to-heart with my Dad and he's probably going to read this so I just do well to articulate my thoughts well in this post.

He asked that I return to the village for Christmas, but I felt that I didn't have much to celebrate that there was still a lot of room to build up traction for HubbonNG especially at this "celebratory" period. People would definitely be sending parcels, sending gifts and ordering various items. Definitely "HubbonNG" would have to be around to "capitalize" on the very many opportunities this holiday period would bring.


Let me briefly scan this post to ensure I didn't "sub" him. LOL

I really don't want to go to the village. All I want to do is....

I am also angry that we would be going into 2018, because personally I feel that I didn't maximize this year to its full potential. 

This is because I set huge, hard BUT  highly achievable goals!

Plus next year my parents are celebrating their Silver Jubilee and I have big plans for them! 

They have done well and they really need something special and I can't do that by sleeping on the "proverbial" bicycle.

Plus I set goals to be on Forbes 30 under 30 and I would be 24 next year.

There's really no time to waste time! LOL

Plus I need to get married. Dear Wife get ready to propose!

BIG PICTURE

Let it not just to be about me. 

Just as I have a lot way to go in this journey to success, so also does Nigeria have a long way to go to earn in its rightful place in the committee of nations as the "Giant of Africa". I see Nigeria which when it begins to operate at optimum level being a member of the UN Security Council states with the USA, UK, France, China and Russia.

We have a lot of targets to set for ourselves

1. Reorientation of Mindset

2. Patriotism

3. Belief

4. Excellence

5. Execution

You must have expected that I put "stamping out corruption" and " eradicating nepotism and tribalism" as the targets we should have but if you look deeply, these are symptoms of a much greater issue.

If we have the right mindset as a people and are patriotic with the belief that Nigeria and Africa as a whole would be great, we would bring on excellent people to execute the great plans we have to make our country and indeed our continent to be great!

I believe Africa has all it takes to transform the world. We just need to be "woke".

Young African Leaders, we ought to be like Garfield here, let's wake up our nations!

THERE MUST BE A PURPOSE TO ANYTHING YOU START

I remember when I started this blog and I sought ideas from a vast number of people and I was getting mixed thoughts and ideas, particularly creating a blog based on gossip, which I couldn't naturally because I normally don't even know who Kim Kardashian or Kylie Jenner are.

Haha! I'm definitely lying, but there's a point I'm getting at.

PS. A little white lie doesn't hurt anyone.

I understood that blogging about Entrepreneurship was not mainstream but I made it a goal to use this blog to attract fellow millennials to the budding Startup Ecosystem and the community of fellow Young people creating great solutions for African problems. 

I did this to inspire young people to be "solution providers". A mentor of mine (albeit from a distance)  Fela Durotoye believes that if you are not solving a problem, you are definitely part of the problem to be solved. My goal is to inform young Africans that it is indeed possible to solve our problems despite how "multifaceted" and "octopus-headed" it might be at times.

The hardest step is always that first step. Let's make it together!

On a secondary note, the ideology in the International media about Africa is extremely warped and as Chimamanda Adichie rightly put it, Africa suffers from the "Danger of a single story". Despite our "growing" democracies and the wealth "disparity" in Africa, there are indeed young people creating amazing solutions to challenge and overcome our very many challenges and these people equally need their voices heard and their stories told.

They also need  investors to bet on their amazing solutions to be the next unicorns of the future! 

PS. I am included by the way!

I am playing my part to transform Africa from "the dark continent" to the "land of great opportunities".

And I am, well, "we are" getting there.

ACHIEVEMENTS

StartupTalk begun on a free blogger account and as a documentary for my growth process and it has transformed to a "online business newspaper".

Lol! More like an informative business comic book. We all know that they're enough boring newspapers to go around.

It has now been officially "acquired" by HubbonNG for an "undisclosed" fee. You can now find StartupTalk on it's new domain HERE

Don't ask me, the fee is undisclosed! Just be happy for HubbonNG!

A couple days ago, we got to 10,000 views on the blog and there are advert gigs/ partnerships/ collaborations lining up. This year isn't over yet and next year presents so much opportunity.

PS: If you run a restaurant, relaxation spot, spa etc. As a growing blog, we are ready to set up a mutually beneficial deal to grow both our hustles. Get in touch with us through our email, hubbon.ng@gmail.com.

We are giving email now, because we have blown! 

Yeah look at us!. Yeah you reading this!

What we've been able to achieve in 8 months of launching the blog is absolutely phenomenal and the potential for growth of the blog into a much greater platform is totally inspiring.

Reminder

SET ACHIEVABLE GOALS AND EXECUTE THEM!

Thanks for enjoying the read!

Best regards,

Ejieji Muna

(HubbonNG)