I excel most when I help people build out their ideas. I have a lot of them myself, but they usually end up as experiments.
My strongest skills are absorbing knowledge, organising it and finding clarity. Throw me into something that interests me (what doesn’t) and I can figure out how to get started pretty quickly.
It’s easier to do when I’m not also figuring out the mission, people, partnerships, operations e.t.c. And it’s not that I can’t do those things or that I hate them. I just don’t excel as much or as fast.
I guess I’m a topical kind of mind, and anyway, this is the only way to do many things without breaking.
Across Paystack, Wuruwuru and Helloworld, I’m currently working on 20+ projects. Some are small, others big. Most are delegated, and I only actively work on a few. I spend most of my time thinking, planning and writing.
I take things slow and only hope to make some progress every week. My time is better structured so I can reflect continuously and don’t go too off-track. I’m better at prioritisation and know when to ramp up on something.
Projects with strong partners progress well, but when I have to carry things, they take a really long time. I’ve made a mental note to pay closer attention to work ethic when I pick partners and collaborators in future.
A few years ago, I read in a magazine about a Japanese designer who claimed to work on 400+ projects at a time with a dozen people at his studio Nendo. I couldn’t wrap my head around it at the time, but now I get it. If I work with more people like me, we can do so much together.
My goal is definitely not to match Oki Sato’s count of ongoing projects, but I want to be able to make as many things as I want to see in the world.
And the way forward is to apply myself to other people’s visions.
Inspired by a conversation with Yomi Osamiluyi
