"Loss will teach you to value me" she said

I would never the able to get her back but when I get a chance at the next one, that's if I ever do. I would hold on tight and run with it like my life depends on it.

The content in this article is extracted from Full Steam & Hard Left #40.?A?weekly newsletter on Personal development based on real-life lessons.

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Hey there,

This may not be as emotions-triggering as the last newsletter. At least not for you, but for me, it is. I may also come off as dramatic about the whole situation, but by the end of this newsletter, you will understand why.

I hope your week went well. Mine was alright, but it also featured a recollection of something strange that happened this year.

It’s those things you think about sometimes that are funny, saddening, weakening or disappointing at the same time or at different points.

Let me get you in my shoes for a second.

Have you ever had something in the palm of your hand that was so damn good, and you were so sure that it was all yours? Nothing in this world could take it away from you, and suddenly, it vanished. You no longer have the authority over it. You’ve lost it forever and would probably never get it back.

Wait, pause. I’m not talking about your relationship with that boy or that girl. I know you thought you had that handled, too, but you didn’t, did you? Oh well, my condolences.

Back to my gist.

I’m talking about an idea. It could be;

• A business idea
• An event idea
• A product idea

That thing that you were sure could give you the big break you needed or was at least the next big direction or thing you would have found fulfilling, and due to some issues, it came to a point where it was gone, and you could no longer do anything about it again.

If you’ve already come this far, then you are definitely interested enough in whatever I’m about to say and how it concerns you, so here we go. Enjoy the tale of how I lost something.

The main Gist

You may or may not be familiar with the origin of this newsletter. Whether you are or not, it was inspired by a mentorship event I attended at IITA Ibadan in 2022. Over months of trying to push something or birth something from the knowledge acquired at that event, Full Steam & Hard Left came to be.

What you may not know, however, is that FSHL was not the only brainchild of that event, and the delivery process of this other idea was a little bit different from that of the newsletter.

It was on the evening of day 1 of the event. We had had impactful sessions and were now being ushered into a space with the 2 founders/organizers of the mentorship program, Victor & Bolaji of FourthCanva.

These 2 amazing co-founders came straight out of the Federal University of Technology, Akure, with both parties having different, seemingly incompatible skills that later merged to become the Lagos-based Design agency called FourthCanvas.

Bolaji is the disciplined, routine-driven kind of guy, everything you would expect from a Man-O-War, which he actually was. Victor, on the other hand, is the more creative guy, and sometimes creativity doesn’t come with organization/structure by default.

They told us the story of how they started and how Bolaji’s discipline and Victor’s creativity balanced out to enable them to build a creative agency.

I then asked a follow-up question on how possible it was to start something similar with friends, and then Victor pointed out that it might be necessary for 1 of the friends to be the one to start the conversation, and from there, it would take actual planning and consistent dedication.

A light bulb turned on over my head, and immediately after the session, I called my guys (fellow designers). We discussed some of our failed/ “just there” ventures and how we could learn from them to build something worthwhile. Inspired by the story of Victor and Bolaji, the 3 of us decided to work on something together.

Without an actual idea, we started to cook and trusted that something would come up.

A few months later and after a couple of discussions both online and offline, we had an idea to create a Creative Community that was going to be characterized by;

• A design community
• A Creative exhibition
• Specialized client service.

We were gradually making progress. We picked a name and started adding more structure to it. It was looking good. We named the brand “Blank” and noted that we wanted the agency to communicate that we were a blank canvas and were enabling creatives to create better.

It was all looking good, but we got a little bit inconsistent and external factors and realities started to suffocate the idea and its execution till activities were completely halted.

Now, this is the freaky part:

Earlier this month, one of us, Adura, shared a link with me, and he said the most strange thing I’ve heard this year.

Remember that stuff we were working on, some people already did it.

When I checked the link, it became a lot more strange.

• Same brand name
• Same objective
• Same structure

It was just too similar. It was as if someone was in those meetings with us and ran away with the idea. But that wasn’t the case; we were not connected to the current founders in any way.

I had always known that ideas come and go quite easily, and once you have one, you are supposed to act on them immediately.

But this was rather strange. It was almost like the idea looked us straight in the eyes and said to us,

“Loss will teach you to value me” and then went on to someone else.

I’ve learned not to throw things away, especially opportunities. Even now, I’m more convinced that immediate and timely action is a non-negotiable for success.

I intend to be more intentional about implementing my ideas than ever as I get the strength to do so.

I want to suggest that you do the same. Or not, it’s really up to you.

That’s it from me today. Enjoy the holidays.

Cheers.

In Summary

• I must have said this a million times already. If you have an idea, don’t sleep on it. It doesn’t even have to be perfect. Do it.
• Success loves speed. Act fast.

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