Yes I have a blog. I have had it since 2007 and this is my first post for 2012.
I once had a goal of putting up at least 2 posts per month, but it takes discipline to blog regularly when blogging is not your day job. Like it take to do a couple of other things. Things like working on an attitude, creating (and running) a start-up and waking up in the morning and getting to work at 9.
Lately, I've decided to imbibe the culture of getting to work at 9, a culture that is extremely hard to start, when you don't have a boss to vet you. I decided to do this to set an example to my (much younger) co-founder and future employees. Despite the fact that I work late nights, hence go to bed late, I've had to force myself to sleep early over the past few day. I've not done badly in waking up early, but I've never gotten to work at 9 at the dot.
It's almost a year since we wrote the first code on TiketMobile, at Start-up Weekend Lagos and placing 2nd at the event. Since then, we have spoken to potential investors, done a brute force on implementation, lost direction, pivoted strategy, re-implemented and gained strategic partnerships (in that order). What has been most interesting -- and important -- to me is pivoting strategy. This we have done a number of times over and at different levels. Once you decide on the direction you want to go and determined what you need to do, it pays to hit hard -- hit as long as is required to drive the nail in.
We've worked hard, gone to the market to get data, released a series of buggy apps, gotten several feedback from internal testing processes and finished up on what we are ready to release as a public beta. Our app is based on our own targeted market data, gotten from real-life market research, which we did in our own little way. Thanks to Co-Creation Hub, Nokia and Futurise for the amazing experience of the Growth Academy (G.A.), which gave us key directions on how to lay basic foundations for growing that enterprise of the future. I should (ehm... would) write about the G.A. soon.
I've discovered (and I'm terrified at) the amount of impatience I exhibit on regular day-to-day activities. Impatience and irritability. Lately, personally, they have cost me a few regrets. I'm hoping to nip it at the bud before it becomes a monster and destroy big things. I know habits die hard, but I'll try. I'll be disciplined.
Wish me luck.
