Category Archives: Totally Random

Happy Birthday Joel Gascoigne!

 

Joel is one of the very few truly great guys I have met in my life. I am not ‘famzing’ because he recently raised $400k for his startup Buffer. Anyone that can live with Oo for 4  months+ and attempt to run a business with him without running mad, is truly a great person.

Few people know how I met Mr Gascoigne.

Back in ’08 I got admitted to Warwick. I was in Nigeria when  I created a group called “Warwick Internet Entrepreneurs”, he was the only person that joined. When I eventually got my visa (I get faith sha) and arrived Warwick, we met up, got talking about his projects, mine, etc. We eventually started OnePage together. Even though I was EXTREMELY self conscious about being Nigerian (my “Yes, I Am Nigerian” tees were just fronting), it was as if this dude did not realize. He trusted me more than I would have imagined.  He has no idea how much it helped me. Thanks buddy!

When OnePage did not go as planned, we needed lawyers to tidy up a few things as we decided Joel would be taking it forward. What I realized much later was that his lawyers  ( I did not have one) wanted to insert clauses that would have given him the option to “screw me” if he so wanted. He asked them not to.

There was a period we got a mini grant (about 1500 quid) to do market research. Now at that moment, we did not need any damn market research but Joel needed a computer to build the product we were to research for. I needed the ‘seed money for a space over my head. Even though there was a ‘way out’,  Joel consistently refused to do anything remotely borderline against the rule even though it was what we sorely needed. So we forfeited the grant. :(

Of course he acted as my translator on quite a number of occasions when I did not sound Bri ish enough to be understood.  I even got him to enjoy a helping of Nkwobi.

So Joel, as you turn 25 (Haha! You are damn old man! 25?? Really? You are that old??) do have fun and keep being a great person.

I am Oo, founder of GBEDU.FM where I hope to make sense of this business of music. I once tried to kill the business card with OnePage.

When Someone Blocks Your Car, Here’s What To Do.

image

One of the perils of living in the city of Igboefon is you have otherwise, normal people behave like lesser mammals. In the picture above, someone thought it wise to park right in front of my gate, and leave to God knows where.

As I type this, I am sweating in a cab on my way to Surulere where I am running late for a meeting. Late because I had to wait and hope the muppet would return.

Rather than get angry and do damage, I decided to leave the fellow with a message make e for no loss.

image

Did I do enough?

I am Oo, founder of GBEDU.FM where I hope to make sense of this business of music. I once tried to kill the business card with OnePage.

My Single New Year Resolution

I’ll Just Do It.

Quite a number of  us already know what we want to do; start exercising, launch that company, travel, ask that girl out, quit that job, read those books, call  family more, stop taking bullshit and the list goes on. My mental mode is different this year. The world ends this 2012 so there is no time to say no time. So what ever I think I should do, I will do. I hope you will start doing too.

“Whatever you can do, or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius, power and magic in it.” - Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

Image Credit

 

I am Oo, founder of GBEDU.FM where I hope to make sense of this business of music. I once tried to kill the business card with OnePage.

Maybe Beyonce is trying to tell us something.

beyonce-blackfaceMrs ‘all the single ladies’ has been in the news lately for what many see as a faux pax. She blackened her face in a photo shoot that was to pay tribute to her ‘African roots’ and Fela too. Of course she threw in a bit of tribal marks just to be quite sure.

Some commentators believe her actions are stereotypical of ‘the authentic African’ in the eyes of the European which should be criticized. I thought so as first reaction too. But now I think different.

The truth is majority of Africans or should I say real black Africans are black (real black) with the odd fair sister and cousin here and there. Tribal mark are/were our identity, we talk with an accent (our accent) even though we are losing our language fast. We have tough hair wey dey spoil comb. All that and more was what made us special. Of course, majority of our people abandoned all that for the bleaching creams, false hair, false accent, false everything.

You know what, when those people we are trying to be like want to be the real us,  they go for the ‘authentic’ us.

In the 70’s the Europeans came and told us we should not be giving our children breast milk. The proposed all sorts of baby formulas/cow and goat milk, to be given to newly born babies. Thirty years later, millions of dollars is spent in aid to Africa to teach us how to be baby friendly.

I think there is a lesson here from this episode.

Remain original, you will be copied.

Enhanced by Zemanta
I am Oo, founder of GBEDU.FM where I hope to make sense of this business of music. I once tried to kill the business card with OnePage.