During a conversation with Pastor Dammy, I said something that sounded profound, although I am almost certain I heard it in a movie:

Peace isn’t free. You have to fight to get it.

We were talking about people who avoid conflict because they want to protect their peace.

It starts small. You avoid people you might clash with. You sidestep difficult conversations. You stay away from situations that could become uncomfortable.

It seems justified, yeah? But I have come to believe that this kind of peace is often just silence, and silence gives toxicity room to breed.

The residential compound where I live is a perfect example.

We have a neighbour who regards himself as the compound’s Odionwere. In Edo culture, the Odionwere is the oldest man in a community. He believes that status gives him the right to do almost anything.

Whenever a new tenant moves into one of the three-bedroom flats and connects their tank to the shared water line, he shows up within 72 hours demanding a flat fee of ₦50,000. It does not matter if they are using a tank left behind by the previous tenant.

Why?

He claims that he owns the borehole supplying water to the compound.

The funny part is that, on paper, he has something close to proof. I purchase the electricity units for the dedicated meter that powers the borehole. Every time I do, his name appears.

From what I later learned, the compound had serious water problems years before I arrived. The residents pooled their resources to sink a borehole. Somewhere along the way, this man took control of the process, became the self-appointed treasurer, and ensured the paperwork carried his name.

People found it odd, but nobody protested.

They wanted peace.

When the compound needed a dedicated electricity meter for the borehole, he made it clear that he would not pay to pump water for everyone. That is a point he repeats to this day. The residents bought the meter together, but it also ended up in his name.

Again, nobody protested.

Peace.

Then families began moving out and new tenants started arriving. Each time someone new moved in, he demanded his ₦50,000 tax.

Still, nobody said a thing.

More peace.

I wish that were the end of the story.

About three years ago, shortly after Salah, I noticed two rams roaming around the compound. I assumed he would give them away soon. No sane person, I thought, would start keeping free-roaming animals in a residential compound.

After all, I had given away my cats because his wife was genuinely terrified of them. Whenever she returned from a walk and saw them, she would freeze.

I assumed that consideration, which social media tells us is the highest form of love(lol), would be paid forward.

Nope. Nada.

The rams stayed.

Suddenly, every walk from my house to my car became a grown-up version of “The Floor Is Lava,” except I was trying to avoid animal droppings.

Then came the smell.

My house has amazing cross-ventilation, with six-foot-tall, four-foot-wide windows and architecture designed to cool the air before it enters. Now, opening those windows means allowing the smell of ram business into the house.

I spend much more money on air conditioning these days. I also spend a small fortune on incense (my wife knows the best ones to burn).

Sigh.

I spoke to the old man privately first. I approached him respectfully and asked him to remove the rams from the compound. He deflected, offered empty explanations, and made promises that led nowhere.

I wanted peace, so I let the conversation rest for a while.

When nothing changed, I raised the issue in the compound’s WhatsApp group. I assumed that a larger conversation involving more residents might help him see reason.

Lol. Nope.

Instead of addressing the rams, he started talking about how the exterior walls needed to be painted because the buildings looked unsightly.

That was when I lost it.

I called him by his full government name. I knew he was probably thirty-five years older than me, and I was already in my thirties, but I did not care at that point.

I tagged the neighbours who had lived there longer and who, I was certain, had also been affected.

They stayed silent.

One person mentioned that his pipe had been broken, but that was as far as the support went.

The old man’s son then confronted me about disrespecting his father. Our exchange became heated and came dangerously close to becoming physical.

Later that night, the conversation shifted away from the rams and became entirely about respect and peace.

I apologised to the old man in person. Not because I believed I was wrong about the rams, but because I knew I had crossed a line in how I addressed him. Apologising was the right thing to do, and I needed to be able to respect the man I saw in the mirror afterward, or at least try to be different from who I used to be a decade ago.

Three years later, there are now between five and seven rams roaming the compound.

They break pipes, eat the plants people use to decorate their surroundings or grow herbs, and scratch cars. His parking space has become their pen, so apart from the droppings scattered around the compound, we now have a central source from which the smell travels into everyone’s home.

Peace, kept.

Everyone is keeping the peace, but the resentment is at an all-time high.

The funny thing is that I am no longer angry with the old man.

When I see him, we gist about other things. We exchange gifts. He is connected to my internet. I help him solve random technical problems on his phone. We joke together.

I still argue with him, playfully but firmly, whenever he refuses to pump water to the people living in the boys’ quarters. Admittedly, they do not pay, but I am from Benin, and we believe that water is everyone’s right, regardless of economic class.

I have seen this same pattern play out in friendships, romantic relationships, and among siblings.

What people call “keeping the peace” eventually becomes a breeding ground for toxicity and resentment.

That is why I believe you sometimes have to go to war before you can earn peace.

Have the fight. Have the difficult conversation. Scream. Be screamed at.

I am not talking about accepting violence, threats, cruelty, or abuse. I mean that we should stop treating every raised voice, uncomfortable truth, or emotional disagreement as proof that a relationship is broken.

Some people never learn conflict resolution because they never get any practice. They run from every disagreement, so they never learn how to listen under pressure, apologise after crossing a line, repair damage, negotiate, or compromise.

The eruption is not the goal. Repair is.

Stay with the conversation until you reach an honest understanding, a negotiated compromise, a clear boundary, or the acceptance that no agreement is possible. Whatever the outcome, do not settle for silence while resentment grows underneath it.

Real peace must be built on honesty.

Jesus gives us peace because He paid the ultimate price for it. Peace is earned. Do not hide behind cowardice and call it peace.

If you want depth in your relationships, be willing to do the work that peace requires.

Perhaps that is why the old man and I can still talk, laugh, exchange gifts, and sit in each other’s homes. Of all the younger residents in the compound, I may be the one who has fought with him the most.

Yet, at my wedding, he sat at the family table with my mum and dad.

I love you, Alhaji A.

But those rams still have to go.

In a recent town hall meeting with some young believers in Kaduna, I basically sat back and listened to people talk about different things. The common theme was breakthrough and the waiting period. I mean, take a look at the economic climate of Nigeria, where the value of its currency fluctuates, and the absolute basics are unavailable and need to be purchased. It is not hard to see why, for most people, the future seems uncertain. Finance has become the primary language of our prayers. It makes sense; when you are drowning, you don’t ask for a swimming lesson, right? You ask for a life jacket.

A young man amongst us shared something that I believe some people had in their minds but wouldn’t want to voice out. He talked about a struggle he has when he sets aside time specifically to worship God for “who He is.” There is a nagging voice in the back of his mind. Deep down, he knows he is broke. He knows he needs a breakthrough. Every time he approaches the throne of grace, his heart is heavy with the weight of his needs, making him feel like his worship is transactional.

His question, paraphrased, was: How can I truly worship in spirit and truth when all I can think about is what I need?

That question actually sent me down a long stream of thoughts that I’d love to share with you.

Growing up in Nigeria, one thing you learn at a subconscious level is that our relationship with God is a form of transaction. As I have come to discover, this is a dangerous foundation upon which to build a relationship with him. You’ll see people in fasting and prayer crusades, praying for visas or financial windfalls, or attending church events aimed at breaking generational curses that are holding them back from escaping poverty. Meanwhile, people in somewhat stable economies never think to pray for such things. God has become our cosmic vending machine of gifts, money, status, and in recent times, “inheritance” (which, by the way, usually translates to physical things). We think that if we put in enough faith, works, service, and prayers, our breakthrough is just around the corner.

But at what point do we actually start worshiping God in spirit and in truth? Is it only when we have achieved and received all of the things we believe are promised to us?

A preacher once told a story about missionaries who went to the eastern part of the world (somewhere in Asia) to convert people to Christ. Their approach was showcasing miracles and power over death. The locals, however, were unimpressed. Why? Because they were necromancers who already used the dead to work their farms. To them, a God who raised the dead was just “another magic” to make life easier.

If we only follow Christ for the miracles, we are no different from those necromancers who follow their own deity for its powers. If the preaching of Christ isn’t enough to satisfy us without the promise of a visa or a bank alert, then we aren’t worshipping a Saviour, we are hiring a Service Provider.

We then have to ask ourselves: Is Christ enough? Do I actually, wholeheartedly believe that Christ is enough?

If the economy does not turn around tomorrow, is He still worthy? If the “waiting period” lasts another year, is His presence sufficient? We often use the phrase “Kingdom Inheritance” as a synonym for “Material Wealth,” but the true inheritance of the Kingdom is in Christ Himself.

When we seek the gift more than the Giver, we miss the point of redemption. Jesus didn’t die just to fix our balance sheets; He died to bring us back to Himself. He didn’t come to give us a better version of what the world offers; He came to give us what the world cannot offer: Himself.

Yet, this article would not be complete if I did not include the response that the young man got when he asked his question.

Paraphrased, it was this: “The fact that you are uncomfortable with the transactional nature of your heart means you are on the right track.”

We often think that spiritual maturity means having a perfectly “pure” heart, free of any selfish desires. But the discomfort he felt isn’t a sign that he is failing; it’s a sign that the Holy Spirit is at work. A person who is purely transactional doesn’t feel guilty about it; they just want the result. The fact that a person wants to love God for who He is, even while he is hungry or worried, proves that a deeper relationship has already begun.

I’ll end with this: If our invitation to Christ is based primarily on what He can do for our pockets, our health, or our other needs, we aren’t calling people to a Saviour, we are calling them to a Service Provider. But if Christ is truly enough, then our worship is not a down payment for a breakthrough; it is a response to the fact that the greatest breakthrough of all, our redemption, has already happened.

P.S, I realize that I sound super old when I say, “Young man”. God abeg.

I am writing this as a permanent reminder to myself, to always anchor me to the absolute core of why KayKav Academy exists.

Today, while sitting in a friend’s house discussing a new course we are building, he showed me his personal learning process. In that moment, it clicked again. I was deeply reminded of the exact mission behind KayKav: It is not just about teaching people skills; it is about teaching them how to learn and how to think.

The world has fundamentally shifted, and a new paradigm of learning has been born. Unfortunately, most individuals and companies are missing the point. They view AI merely as an assistant that does the heavy lifting for them. They don’t realize that the real value has shifted entirely to thinking and cognitive agility.

The job market is in a bizarre, volatile cycle…layoffs and recalls are happening in tandem. But let’s be honest: people are going to keep getting let go. Why? Because they still believe their value lies solely in their tangible output:

• The balanced spreadsheet.

• The rectangles made beautiful and functional.

• The code that runs.

AI can, and will, do all of that. The true value now lies in orchestration. Knowing how to direct these incredibly powerful prediction algorithms to solve complex, interesting problems.

You can only orchestrate the future if you know how to learn and think, and what to learn and think.

KayKav exists to leave the world better than we found it. We are committed to a continuous loop of learning and teaching across all generations. Why all generations? Because it is simply never too early, and it is never too late, to learn.

See you all on the highway of this amazing journey.

Mudia.

P.S, check out my LinkedIn Page to see how Cohort 1 of our first course went.
https://www.linkedin.com/in/imasuen/

The relationship between Israel and the church has always been a sensitive and complex one. Today, many Christians show unwavering support for Israel as a nation, often justifying all of its actions as divinely sanctioned. Yet, when we look carefully at Scripture, particularly the book of Hosea, we see a sobering reminder that Israel’s “specialness” in God’s plan has never excused its rebellion, injustice, or violence.

The book of Hosea presents Israel as an unfaithful spouse, deeply loved by God, yet persistently running after idols and injustice. God’s eternal love is not questioned, but that love does not nullify His judgment. Hosea shows us a God whose heart breaks because of Israel’s stubbornness and cruelty. Their sacrifices became empty rituals; their religious devotion was a mask for hardened hearts. Isaiah echoes this frustration when God says He was weary of their offerings because their lives contradicted their worship.

This pattern, divine blessing followed by human arrogance, repentance followed by relapse, runs throughout Israel’s history. Their covenant privilege often became a cloak for pride, which in turn led to oppression and injustice.

In many ways, the modern church reflects the same struggles. Like Israel, the church is loved and chosen by God, yet it can easily drift into blind allegiance to power, mistaking political or nationalistic agendas for divine will. When the church justifies every act Israel commits, even those that lead to destruction and suffering, it risks repeating the same blindness Hosea condemned.

The danger is in forgetting that God’s love for Israel did not mean He endorsed their evil. Rather, His love compelled Him to confront and discipline them. The same principle applies today: eternal love does not justify sin.

A Plea for Honesty and Compassion from the Church

What is missing in the church’s response is honest objectivity and compassion. Real people; men, women, and children are caught in cycles of violence and loss. To dismiss their pain for the sake of political / religious loyalty is to ignore the heart of Christ, who always defended the oppressed. It is also strange that as Christians we have a strong religious loyalty to Isreal, when they still do not recognise Jesus as The Saviour / Son of God.

If the church truly wants to honor Israel’s biblical role, it must also echo the prophets: calling out sin, urging repentance, and reminding the nation, and itself that being chosen is a responsibility, not a free pass. Hosea’s message rings just as true now: God’s love is constant, but His holiness will not allow injustice to stand unchallenged. In due time, God will bring Isreal and all it’s blind supporters to Justice

And yes, I’ve been guilty of it too. [old life]

We’ve been taught that unless you have money or visible success, you have no real value. No self-respect. No confidence. But that’s a dangerous deception. Poverty on its own is heavy. Combine it with isolation, and it’s crushing.

The Bible presents an intriguing portrayal of community. In ancient Israel, farmers were commanded not to harvest the edges of their fields (Leviticus 19:9-10). Those edges were left for the poor and widows to gather food freely. There were laws that ensured widows were cared for, so they wouldn’t feel the full sting of loss. In that society, provision and dignity went hand-in-hand.

The gist around that is that, the early christians lived in a Roman world where widows were pressured to remarry or risk losing inheritance and social standing, but the church created an alternative system that freed them from this burden. Instead of being forced into new marriages, widows were supported through communal funds, almsgiving, and sometimes by keeping control of their late husband’s estate. The church also honored certain women in an “order of widows,” giving them dignity, roles in prayer and service, and a place of respect in the community. Because of this, the poverty of widows did not weigh heavily on them, the Christian community carried that weight together, ensuring they could live with independence, security, and spiritual purpose rather than compulsion.

That was a long time ago, but now? We’ve replaced community with networking. We “connect” only upwards, seeking those who can lift us, rarely looking sideways or downwards to lift others.

This isn’t just financial poverty, it’s poverty of spirit. I’ve met people who are resource-poor but rich in encouragement, and others who have money yet are spiritually bankrupt. The most dangerous place to be is poor in both. That’s when morality bends, when desperation justifies anything; it is the point where people become Machiavellian and believe that the end justifies the means.

In Nigeria, we see this every day. Respect often comes only when money is involved. You can see the worst in people when you don’t give them what they expect. Service has lost its humanity. Even simple business transactions are cold and transactional, lacking any sense of shared human dignity.

And here’s the twist, money alone can’t fix this. If I gave you 10 million naira today, you will still face the same loneliness, the same unanswered questions about your purpose. Poverty of spirit makes money a temporary plaster on a deep wound.

Jesus offers another way. He didn’t just network with the powerful. He engaged with Samaritans, the poor, the sick, people society had no use for. He told parables where the banquet was filled, not by the invited elite, but by strangers pulled in from the streets (Luke 14:15-24). In God’s economy, community is the greatest resource.

I’ve seen glimpses of it work. Churches that intentionally hire from within. Groups that pool resources to pay school fees, support small businesses, or cover medical bills. Communities abroad where competitors sit on each other’s boards because they understand that if one grows, all grow.

But here’s where we’ve failed, we keep trying to own success in isolation. Nigerian companies still depend on foreign technology for critical infrastructure instead of building for ourselves. We rely on outsiders to process our raw materials instead of empowering local farmers with the tools to do it themselves. We choose quick margins over generational empowerment.

And so we stay dependent.

If each of us took care of just one other person, we’d create a ripple. Support doesn’t always have to be financial; it can be time, advice, or a listening ear. Sometimes, the most valuable thing you can give someone is the reminder that they matter beyond what they produce.

Scripture says, “Do good to all people, especially to those who belong to the family of believers” (Galatians 6:10). That’s not just a verse, it’s a survival manual for any society that wants to outlive the emptiness of wealth-obsession.

Because at the end of the day, poverty isn’t just the absence of money. It’s the absence of connection, care, and community. And without those, even the richest among us are poor.

This whole article began as a thought in the shower.

Something had been brooding in my mind since I saw the trailer for Him, a film produced by Jordan Peele. I can’t even recall the director’s name, but the concept left me thinking about ambition. Ambition is a powerful thing. It can propel people to great heights. It can also quietly destroy them if it is not well managed.

Lately, my social media feed has been full of the same kind of message: if you want something badly enough, you must give everything for it. The more you are willing to sacrifice, the more worthy you are of success. The heroes in these stories are the ones who grind through loneliness, endure misunderstanding, and give up relationships, health, and peace for the sake of their goals.

At first glance, this sounds noble. But when you look closely, it is the glorification of self-destruction. The film Him captures this eerily, showing the shedding of self in the pursuit of a goal. And when I look at many of the creatives we admire, I see the same pattern. Kanye West. Drake. Steve Jobs. Countless others. The ones who reach astronomical success often pay with mental stability, privacy, relationships, and sometimes even their humanity. An already released film that depicts this is called Whiplash. You should watch it.

Culture calls it sacrifice. Scripture calls it toil. In Genesis 3:17-19, after the fall, God says to Adam:

“Cursed is the ground because of you; through painful toil you will eat food from it all the days of your life. It will produce thorns and thistles for you, and you will eat the plants of the field. By the sweat of your brow you will eat your food until you return to the ground, since from it you were taken; for dust you are and to dust you will return.”

The culture of hustle is often just the curse in new clothes. Work becomes the altar, and self becomes the offering. I know this firsthand. I have worked multiple jobs (4) at once, pushing myself to burnout. This is not an argument for laziness. It is a warning against worshipping the grind.

If I am going to suffer or sacrifice, it should be for a higher purpose than my own name in lights. Jesus came to show us a different path. He said in Matthew 6:33,

“Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.”

The order matters. The devotion must be to God first.

I have watched people who live with this devotion. They are not idle. They work hard. But there is an ease to their lives, a peace that the grind cannot manufacture. Things align for them in ways that feel like a blessing, not burnout. You see it in their relationships, in the health of their families, in the way they carry joy.

Success that costs you your community is too expensive. When ambition shrinks your circle to only those who share the same hustle obsession, when every friendship becomes a transaction, when trust is replaced by suspicion, something vital is lost. That is not godliness. It is classism and self-worship disguised as drive.

Breaking away from hustle culture means refusing the sacrifices the world demands. It means understanding that selling your soul is not always a dark ritual. Sometimes it is simply the slow, willing trade of your life force for fame, money, and status. For creatives, all glory should go to God, the one who gave the gift in the first place.

Consider Michelangelo and the Sistine Chapel. History celebrates it as one of the greatest works of art. Yet he hated doing it. In his letters, he spoke of the pain, exhaustion, and frustration it brought. Imagine what he might have created if he had worked purely from love and divine calling. Sometimes the work that earns the loudest applause is the very work that breaks you.

The world’s validation will never be enough. The applause fades. The money gets spent. The recognition shifts to the next big thing. What endures is the inner peace that comes from walking in God’s will. That is something hustle cannot give.

In the end, the question is simple: what are you willing to sacrifice, and to whom? If the answer is “everything” and the recipient is “the world,” you will lose more than you gain. But if the answer is “my devotion” and the recipient is “God,” then you will gain far more than you could ever lose.

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Growing up, I never really questioned the pace of things. Speed was rewarded. Fast learners. Fast workers. Fast decisions. The faster you moved, the more capable you were seen to be. As I grew older, something in me started resisting that rhythm. It wasn’t rebellion. It was curiosity. A quiet question: why is everything moving so fast?

Over time, I’ve come to believe that this speed is not just a by-product of our systems. It is embedded in the system itself. Especially capitalism. It’s easy to praise what capitalism has done, more access, more choice and undeniably more innovation. But what gets overlooked is how it reshapes not just our economy, but our attention, our values, and even our speech.

In In Praise of Slowness, Carl Honoré writes about how our obsession with doing everything faster affects every part of our lives. It has affected our health, relationships, our creativity, and even our ability to think. The faster we move, the less time we have to question. And that’s convenient. Systems that thrive on inertia do not want people asking too many questions.

Speed demands that we fall in line. That we do things the way they’ve always been done. It rewards repetition over reflection. Innovation, ironically, has become about faster execution, not deeper thinking.

We’ve come to treat speed as synonymous with success. But when you’re always racing, you rarely get the chance to ask where you’re going, or why you’re even on the track. Well, you can’t if you are locked in the rat race.

“Fail fast” is a motto I’ve heard often. In tech, in entrepreneurship, even in education. But something about that phrase has always bothered me. When you fail fast, do you really learn? Or are you just moving past the failure before you understand it?

Sometimes we fail because something was fundamentally flawed. Other times, it may be because we didn’t understand the full context. But when speed becomes the goal, failure becomes a pit stop instead of a classroom. We patch things, we pivot, and we move on. But we rarely go back and reflect deeply. It would shock you how often this happens in everything around us, from our work to our relationships with people.

There’s something to be said about the kind of learning that takes time. The kind of learning that makes you sit with discomfort. The kind that doesn’t come with a product demo or a pitch deck.

Slowness makes room for questions. Honest questions. Messy questions. Questions without clean answers. But our culture often treats questions like friction. They slow things down. They challenge the script. They invite doubt.

I’ve come to believe that we need to embrace this friction. We need to build room for grace in how we learn, teach, and lead. Not every question is an attack. Not every pause is laziness. Sometimes, asking “why” is the most radical thing you can do.

Education should not be about producing fast answers. It should be about nurturing the capacity to sit with complexity. To let things unfold. To allow for nuance. That takes time. That takes care.

You have to become who you want to be & not what the world expects

Speed also shapes identity. It creates pressure to be the kind of person who is easily understood. Easily marketed. Easily labelled. But who you are becoming should not be reduced to who the world needs you to be right now.

There is value in becoming slowly. In not rushing to declare your brand, your path, your tribe. Sometimes, the work is not in defining yourself, but in allowing yourself to be redefined through honest living and continuous questioning.

In Conclusion

What I’m learning is that slowness is not the opposite of ambition. Instead, it is the foundation of meaningful ambition. The kind that is rooted in care, in insight and in truth.

To slow down is not to fall behind. It is to reenter the present. It is to reclaim your ability to notice, to choose, and to understand.

So today, I invite you to resist the pull of speed, not out of fear, but out of intention.

Take the time to unlearn, become and most importat of all, to ask why.

Cheers

But what if this obsession is doing more harm than good?

Youth Has Become a Benchmark, Not a Phase

Youth used to be a stage of life. Now it has become a standard to live up to. Social media is filled with posts celebrating youthful appearances and early milestones. People proudly state how they still look 25 after two decades of marriage or boast about building empires before hitting 30. The message is that thriving matters most when it happens early.

This definition of youth is tightly squeezed into the ages between 20 and 29. Hit 30 and people jokingly call you old. Many take this seriously. It creates a culture where anything that comes after youth is seen as second best.

This mindset puts heavy pressure on young adults. A 20-year-old may already feel they must own a business, support their parents, and outperform their peers. Social media reinforces this, showing everyone else’s success with time stamps attached.

But it does not stop there. News articles, family expectations, and even workplace policies contribute to the same pressure. Everything seems to come with a deadline tied to your age. People are judged not just for what they achieve, but for when they achieve it.

We Confuse Youth with Worth

The problem is not that youth is celebrated. The problem is that we mistake it for the only time when life matters. Youth has become synonymous with beauty, speed, and relevance. Everything outside of it is treated like a slow fade.

In reality, there is a richness that only comes with time. Maturity brings clarity, resilience, and wisdom. You’ve seen more, failed more, learned more, and healed more. That is not something to hide. It is something to honour.

Health Is Not About Looking 20

Wellness is not spared either. We see endless ads that promise to give you the “bones of a 20-year-old at 60” or help you “look 10 years younger.” This kind of messaging makes it seem like ageing is something to reverse. Bryan Johnson goes heavy on this with his biohacking fascination.

But real health is not about pretending you’re younger. It is about being strong, vibrant, and present in your current body. Looking young is not the goal. Living well is.

Marriage, Wisdom, and Growing Older

There are also life decisions that require age to handle properly. Take marriage, for instance. Two teenagers might love each other, but they lack the emotional experience to navigate the demands of a long-term relationship. Time adds layers of understanding that help love mature.

People often rush to meet life milestones because they believe age is the enemy. But the truth is, some things are better with time. Wisdom is earned, not rushed.

The Reality of Ageism in Work

Workplaces often discriminate based on age. Some jobs set arbitrary age limits, refusing to consider candidates over a certain age. This reinforces the idea that youth equals ability and age equals decline.

But this is short-sighted. Some of the most capable minds are those who have spent years honing their skills. Age should not disqualify anyone from an opportunity. We need to stop tying energy to youth and viewing age as a weakness.

Success Is Not a Race Against Time

No rule says you must become a star by 25. There is no expiry date on growth. You can launch your music career at 33, fall in love at 40, or change careers at 50. The point is to live with intention, not panic.

Instead of glorifying youth as the peak of life, we should learn to enjoy the process. Age brings beauty. Maturity brings strength. And life does not become less valuable with each birthday.

Ageing Is Not a Flaw. It Is a Feature.

There is something deeply satisfying about things that age well. A well-aged wine, a vintage jacket, or an old tree has a richness that cannot be faked. The same applies to people.

We need to stop pretending that looking young is the same as living fully. The more we embrace age as a part of our story, the more peace we find in the journey.

You are not behind. You are not late. You are just growing, evolving, and becoming.

One year at a time. Remember to breathe and take it easy.

In conversations with friends, artists, and creatives, a recurring tension keeps surfacing: the value of craft versus the pressure to survive. For many of us, especially those in our late 20s or 30s, we were lucky. We had some form of a support system parents who paid the bills for a while, mentors who offered guidance, a less expensive cost of living. Those conditions gave us the room to slow down and really learn something. To fall in love with the process. To become excellent.

But what if that time to focus was a privilege we didn’t realize we had?

Today, many young people don’t have that cushion. They’re thrust into a world of inflation, scarcity, and digital comparison. Developing deep skills feels like a luxury. If you’re 21 and hungry, who has the patience for two years of slow mastery when you can learn how to flip a trend on TikTok and earn fast cash?

There’s also the tyranny of the algorithm. It decides what’s cool, what’s trending, what’s worth caring about. It creates a loop where being genuinely passionate or thoughtful is seen as uncool. Cynicism is rewarded. Performing disinterest becomes a strategy. People who used to care now scroll mindlessly, not even sure what they’re looking for. Not because they don’t have interests, but because everything is competing for attention with such speed and intensity that caring deeply about one thing feels inefficient.

Yet, the truth remains: real mastery still matters.

People who build with intention, who dedicate themselves to the slow burn of learning, still win in the end. They may not have the biggest platforms, but they make the best things. And eventually, the world finds its way to what’s excellent. The old guard, filmmakers, musicians, designers, and thinkers who honed their skills over decades, still eat. Not because they played the game, but because they had craft.

But let’s not romanticize the past too much. Even then, survival was hard. Even then, people struggled. What’s different now is how engineered the struggle feels. Everything from food delivery apps to social platforms is designed to keep us online, consuming, distracted, and comparing. Even boredom, which once birthed imagination, has been eliminated by streaming queues and short-form content.

So, what’s the way out?

Maybe it starts with unplugging. Even for a few hours. Maybe it’s choosing to care again, even when the world tells you it’s cringe. Maybe it’s reconnecting with people in real life, not just digitally. Maybe it’s remembering that our value isn’t just what we produce or how much we earn, but who we are becoming in the process.

Craft isn’t dead. It’s just hiding behind noise. And finding it again will take intention, community, and courage.

Because the truth is simple: those who make the best stuff will always matter.

This is something that to an extent affects every single one of us – fear. Not just any fear, but the kind that gets passed down like an unwanted inheritance, the kind that spreads through communities like wildfire.

The Seeds of Fear vs. Confidence

You know, I've been observing kids lately – the confident ones. And there's something quite fascinating about them. Beyond just sharing their parents' values, these kids are blooming in gardens watered by words of life and encouragement spoken daily in their homes.

But flip that coin, and you'll see how negative words can plant seeds of fear that grow into forests of doubt. One of my favourite movies is the Pursuit for Happiness and a scene that sticks with me is Will Smith's conversation with his son while they were playing basketball together.

This is part of the reason why a rule in my house would be we are not allowed to insult our kids playfully or in anger the kids would not even be allowed to insult themselves

The Economics of Fear

Fear is more than just an emotion – it's a force powerful enough to reshape economies and rewrite the story of entire regions.

When fear takes hold of a region, it creates a devastating domino effect. Think about what happned in Northern Nigeria – businesses relocate or shut down, investors pull out, and property values plummet. Young talents flee, taking their skills and potential elsewhere. The brain drain is real, and it's expensive.

But it goes deeper than that. When fear becomes the dominant emotion in a market:

• Farmers become afraid to visit their farms, which causes food scarcity

• Traders become too scared to transport goods leading to inflation

• Parents keep their kids from school creating generational gaps in proper education

• Entrepreneurs choose "safer" regions and leave communities without essential services.

Look at what happened to tourism in places like Egypt after periods of unrest, or how real estate values crashed in areas labelled as "unsafe." A single headline about insecurity can erase billions in market value overnight.

The Biology of Fear

Here's a personal experience;

A few weeks ago, I was having breakfast in Rwanda with a Nigerian who lives in Europe. The conversation was flowing until I mentioned my road trips to Abuja and Kano, and how much I enjoy driving across the northern states. The dread that washed over her face was immediate. She practically begged me to never do it again, painting pictures of kidnapping and death.

Of course, I still took a road trip in the north a few days ago, and I was thinking if I leaned into her fear, I would have robbed myself of the experience I had with my friend driving across different states.

You see, when we experience fear, our bodies go into overdrive. That dread she felt? That's a cocktail of adrenaline and cortisol flooding her system. Our brains are wired to amplify threats – it's an ancient survival mechanism. But here's the thing: sometimes this system backfires, especially when the threats are more perceived than real.

The Ripple Effect

This is why terrorism is so devastatingly effective. Think about it – millions living in fear because a small fraction of people chose darkness. I remember when I was moving to the north, the warnings came flooding in. "Leave there oh" "Don't fall sick there oh". Funny enough, now I'm getting similar warnings from folks who think I should flee the country altogether.

The Personal Prison

But let's bring this closer to home. How many of us are living smaller lives because of fear?

• Maybe you're clinging to that "pensionable" job instead of launching your dream business.

• Perhaps you're postponing love, convinced you need millions before even thinking about getting married.

• Or you're hiding your God-given talents because your skills haven't caught up with your taste. (This one was exactly my issue for a while)

Breaking Free

So how do we combat this? I remember watching a movie years ago that said something profound—bravery isn't the absence of fear – it's doing what needs to be done despite being afraid. Wait was that not Nelson Mandela?

But look, I'm human too. I know this isn't as simple as flipping a switch. So to get started in the war against fear, we need to:

1. Feed ourselves with courage-building information

2. Root ourselves in scripture – remember, God didn't give us a spirit of fear

3. Face our fears head-on, one small step at a time

You know what helps me? My name – Osamudiamen. It means "God stands by me." When you know who stands with you, you realize you can't fall.

Closing Thoughts

So here's my challenge to you, identify one fear that isn't yours to carry. It could be an inherited fear, a communal fear, or something society planted in your mind. Name it. Face it. And start taking small steps to prove it wrong.

Remember, the opposite of fear isn't always courage – sometimes it's faith. Faith in yourself, faith in God, and faith in the journey ahead.

This was originally a script for a video I worked on, but I figured I could share it with you guys also.

You can watch the video essay on Instagram -

By morning, I had watched RPN's video and found myself installing Ollama and a DeepSeek model on my laptop. My computer started protesting pretty quickly, fans whirring like a jet engine, but the output? It was impressive enough to convince me it really is on par with GPT's latest model.

On a call this morning with a friend I'm building an AI tool with, I mentioned my latest experiment and how it was great but nearly melted my laptop. His response? He laughed and shared something fascinating. To him, this all feels like the steam engine era all over again. And when you think about it, the parallel is pretty striking.

Looking at history

Imagine this: Back in the 1800s, to power ten light bulbs, you needed a steam engine the size of a garden shed. It would burn through 50 pounds of coal, take hours to start up, and require a full-time operator just to keep it running. The cost? In today's money, about $100 just for a few hours of light. Today? We just flip a switch. The same power comes through a tiny wire in your wall, costs pennies, and works instantly.

Or think about a factory: A steam engine that filled an entire room (600 square feet!) just to power basic machinery. It needed tons of coal, constant maintenance, and a whole team to operate. Today, the same power comes from an electric motor the size of a small suitcase, runs quietly in the corner, and needs almost no attention.

Today, the future

This is exactly where we are with AI right now. These models we're running? They're our steam engines. They're incredible, groundbreaking... and hilariously inefficient. My laptop struggling to run DeepSeek? That's like trying to power a modern factory with an old steam engine.

This is what makes the DeepSeek story so exciting: They've shown us that you can build something comparable to OpenAI's models with just $6 million - $10 million and two years of work, instead of $6 billion and ten years. That's like someone figuring out how to build a steam engine for a fraction of the cost and time.

Just like how we went from room-sized steam engines to pocket-sized electric motors, from power-hungry bulbs to efficient LEDs, AI will follow the same path. The human brain already shows us it's possible - it's still the most powerful computer we know, running on less power than it takes to charge your phone.

Conclusion

What DeepSeek has really given us isn't just another AI model - it's proof of what's possible. They've shown that you don't need endless resources and massive data centers to create something powerful.

AGI is not too far again. We're watching the technology evolve just like every breakthrough before it - from massive, resource-hungry machines to elegant, efficient solutions.

One thing we can also learn from this is that if you can imagine it, it can be done eventually and that should be enough to get your going, evidence choke.

I’d definitely publish a story about what happened between 11:45pm and 12:00am in a few months from now.

Anyway, so for the first time in a hot minute I decided not to set goals anymore. Which is strange especially as this year is very important to me. For context last year I turned 30 and 2025 is basically a new decade for me, sorta like a Nexus Point (MCU slang) year.

So why didn’t I set goals? Well that’s simple. Only achieved one goal that I set in 2024 and that was to become better with the camera (oh btw I quit my job to become a filmmaker and would only take on freelance product design roles) and when reflecting on my year I realized that worked because I had a system that made it possible. Now I didn’t intentionally set up that system but anything that passed through it would definitely have been achieved.

Now I simply want to study systems and set one up for my life. That way when I make up my mind to do something, it’ll basically pass through that system and have a higher chance of success. Oh I go also press prayer and the word ontop, so you see say e go gel once.

We are simply as good as our systems, once I figure it out some more I’ll write another article. I am learning something new so as usual I’d need to write and document. It helps me think.

P.S I know my first article to you feels like a diary entry. Mabinu. Don’t be angry.

Happy new year and have an amazing 2025

I love you.

Newton's second law basically says something go move based on how you take put body. The more force you apple to an object, the more it'll accelerate.

You can take this a step further and say effort determines the quality of a result.

So I decided to ask her to write an article about work, productivity and human relationships using drawing parallels with Newton's second law.

___________

Newtons Second Law of Motion: The Relationship Between Work, Productivity, and Human Relations

Newton's Second Law of Motion states that force is equal to mass times acceleration. Simply put, the more force you put towards an object, the more it will accelerate. This law can be applied to various aspects of life, including work, productivity, and human relationships.

Work, whether it's physical or mental, requires force to be exerted. The force exerted is determined by the mass or weight of the object being moved or the task being performed. Newton’s second law of motion tells us that the amount of force required to complete the work is proportional to the mass of the object plus the rate at which the work is being done. In simpler terms, if the work is to be done faster than at its normal rate, more force will be required to move the same amount of weight.

The same principle applies to productivity. To increase productivity, more force or effort is required. This effort must be put towards specific goals and objectives to be achieved. You need to ensure that you are using your energy effectively in order to get the best results. This may mean prioritizing certain tasks or delegating certain parts of a project to other team members.

Human relationships can also be understood through the lens of Newton's Second Law of Motion. In order to form and maintain healthy relationships, the amount of force or effort put into them must be proportional to the weight or importance of the relationship. Strong and meaningful relationships require more effort to be put in over time, as well as more intensity or force when needed.

Keeping this in mind, how can we use Newton's Second Law of Motion to improve our relationships? First and foremost, we must identify which relationships require more force or effort from us. This can include romantic relationships, friendships, and even professional relationships with colleagues or clients. We can then ensure that we are putting in the necessary effort to keep these relationships strong.

One key factor in maintaining healthy relationships is effective communication. Just like the acceleration of an object can be affected by the force exerted on it, the quality of our relationship with others can be affected by how effectively we communicate with them. We must take the initiative to communicate with our loved ones, friends, and colleagues whenever we see fit. In addition, we can build our communication skills through being empathetic and actively listening to others.

Newton's Second Law of Motion reminds us that there is a clear relationship between the amount of effort we put in and the outcome we receive. To improve our performance, productivity, and relationships, we must invest more force or effort into each of these areas. We must stop procrastinating and start taking action, working on slowing down and increasing our attention to detail, and placing value on building stronger connections with those around us. By doing so, we can enjoy happier, healthier, and more successful lives.

I nor get wetin I wan add join am again, they have brought rice for me to eat. 🙏🏾

I was on Twitter on a basic November afternoon when I saw “photo leaks” of the new Naira notes. The government decided a few months before the election to design new Naira notes and phase the old ones out of circulation. By November 23rd 2022, our President Buhari launched the New naira notes. Lights—Camera—Action.

By early December, I started hearing a bunch of things, it started with the “old notes would no longer be legal tender by the end of January 2023”, but I wasn’t stressed by that bit of information, next we got reminded that we would be limited to withdrawing 20k a day for individuals in a bid to drive our adoption of the cashless policy. Now that was the part I found to be weird and alarming.

Yeah, I know that we have over 100 fintech apps on the app stores, but that does not mean we have the infrastructure to handle such a drastic change in such a short period. Even the cost of onboarding new users to our already stressed banking infrastructure is another headache on its own.

If you are a Nigerian, you can relate to the stress that comes with making simple transactions at the end of each month. It is the time of the month when most people get paid and when we have a huge spike in transactions, and there are a ton of issues that comes with this, ranging from failed transactions to frequent bank network downtimes, to an insane amount of people in banking halls to either make a complaint or get their money.

With the unavailability of Naira notes plaguing the country, this is what we experience daily. Now the best time to make a transaction is very early in the morning (5 am-7 am) or very late at night (11 pm-12:00 am). Most of us who used to have a high level of trust in the banking system when it comes to transactions now give our banks the side eye.

What does this have to do with the women in the market?

Mama Rita (The first picture in this post), sells the things you’d use to make soups. Especially melon seeds to make melon soup. Before this new policy, she usually sells close to 4KG of melon seeds in one market day. Right now, she is lucky if she is able to sell them off within a week (6 market days). She makes use of her daughter’s bank account to collect payments from those who want to make payments by transfer, even if these payments are basically micro transactions. The wait time to get confirmation of the amount getting into her kid’s account is absurd, it can take hours. This is simply because the buyer gets debited and it takes a while for the recipient account to receive the amount. I understand that businesses need trust to grow, but here is the issue, a good number of these transactions get reversed or totally fail. Say I buy 400g of Melon for N340, I can get debited when I send the payment in the market and she would let me go after 20mins of waiting and not seeing the alert, because of you know, trust. Turns out that one of 3 things would happen:

1. She gets the money later that evening and she is able to continue her business to an extent, assuming at all she needs to spend money on can be settled with transfers from her end.

2. I pay with my card to a POS agent who is in the market and who has limited cash, the POS agent acts as a sort of mini bank for these women who have customers willing to make payments with their cards. The customers can also transfer to the bank accounts tied to these Point Of Sale machines. What happens is that the agent is mostly able to give them cash to return back home and not near enough to restock their goods.

3. The money is unable to get to her account due to some weird network issue and it reversed back to mine, which means I have to go back to initiate that transaction again when I eventually see the reversal alert. Now I am a decent guy and I’d do my best to make that payment, but who is to say that other people will?
   This means Mama Rita might never get paid and she has basically given out the foodstuff for free.

4. The money gets lost in limbo. Now, this is something that happens from time to time, but due to the stress our infrastructure is taking, it has become a bit more frequent. The money leaves my account and never gets reversed, and it also never gets to Mama Rita. I have heard at least two cases where people have made transactions and the bank simply can’t find the money anymore.

The last two scenarios are enough to break the trust of most people, especially the people who were termed unbanked and forced into this version of financial inclusion. An inclusion where they have digital accounts but have more difficulty accessing an exchange of value (money).

It is interesting to note that these women get what they sell in bulk from farm owners, these farmers do not have bank accounts and only accept cash. This is the issue of the woman who sells Fresh vegetables, well not so fresh given that she now has to hold on to them for almost 3 times the usual duration.

She has to go all the way to Rijana in Southen Kaduna to get vegetables, and it is possible to get up to 100k worth of vegetables. The people she is buying from are “unbanked”, she does not control or influence their ability/decision to use technology to carry out transactions. She is a victim of a poorly implemented policy. So are many other women. Like the others, she just prays to sell enough to take herself back home, the transportation here is still very cash-heavy, especially as she would need to carry the vegetables back home with her.

In conclusion, I think it is too late to go back on this policy, but we can come up with solutions to reduce their suffering while also going hard on upgrading our infrastructure to accommodate the growing amount of users being onboarded into the system. Help the unbanked, not punish them.

P.S., I got into photography this year. Cool right? My friend Babangida iklima Shehu has been my teacher. Here are a few of the photos I took that day.

This is a problem because if basically goes against one of the commandments, which says, love your neighbor as yourself.

How can you give love that you don't have? How can you give and extend kindness to others when it is near impossible for you to do the same to yourself?

I was having a conversation with a friend about this and he admitted that he has this problem and I randomly said, this may affect your relationship with people. This was his response:

It’s already affecting my relationship… I feel like some “family” members are not doing as much as they should and my interaction with them is reflection of the expectations I have of myself, which is mean to them.

Thankfully he has been able to identify the problem and is working on extending grace to himself, without feeling like the world is about to end, although responsibilities and expectations makes it difficult.

In summary it isn't going to be an easy to just suddenly start being kinder/loving yourself. Yet you'd have to constantly and intentionally put in the work to make this happen. One way you can make this easier is by constantly being around kind people, soon you'd soak up all that kindness and see yourself learning what it entails.

Then you'd be obeying one of the commandments properly.

Love your neighbor as yourself.

😇😇😇

Have a wonderful evening everyone. ❤️❤️

fin.

This is how it feels like when you have to retrain yourself and let go of old behaviours, I used to be a hothead before, and now I have been working on that for years, I am calmer now, reading a lot on how to understand and navigate all my emotions. For the most part, apart from happiness and anger, I repressed most of my emotions since dealing with them is a herculean task.

I believe I am better at processing these things than I was 4-5yrs ago, just that it still has not gotten any easier. There are still a bunch of things I need to learn though, like discipline and minimizing distractions. (Lol, I was designing a data table and then stopped to write this piece, in my defence if I do not do it right now, I may never get around to writing it).

Unlearning old habits, patterns and thought processes is super hard, but if you are consistent it is worth it in the end. Some of the things I have unlearnt has greatly increased the overall quality of my friendships with people.

Oh well, back to Figma.

My service was one of the best experiences of my life, but I also had dark and low days. While I was building websites for people to get by, I was doing little to grow myself or my skills at that point. I was coasting through the growth period of my life. This was going on for a while until one day I ran into Unicode developer's Twitter account. I really cannot recall what tweet made me encounter the account, but I remember seeing his picture with some folks and feeling positive vibes and energy from it, so I hit the follow button (this was on my old Twitter account). 

Then I noticed something amazing he was doing, regularly he’d tweet a string of text with either the exact same message or a variation of it. 

A new day another opportunity to be world-class.

A new week another opportunity to be world-class.

These tweets often had the rocket and globe emojis appended at the end of the string or before it. 🚀🚀🚀🌍

It is crazy yeah? Just that tweet lit up a small light in my world. It was like I was in a dark room in the career growth phase of my life and someone was sending sparks of tweets to turn on the menorah in my life. 

What did I do next, I picked up my computer and started enrolling in every tech tutorial I could find, I mean I was not a stranger to the base rules of programming (I studied Information Technology in college), but I had given up all hope that I could ever understand anything that was being said in that world. 

Omo, I enrolled in Feecodecamp.org, restarted Codecademy again, finished the basic tutorials in General Assembly and even finally cracked how bootstrap worked (God I recall how excited I was when I figured out rows and cols and how to code diff layouts in bootstrap 4). I was just consuming stuff with anywhere belle face. JavaScript used me to see cruise sha, so I ran away from Freecodecamp and ended up picking up python (Lol, I still came back to that JavaScript for another beating the following year).

Picking up a python course plays a role in how I ended up in Colab the following year by the way. I would write on my Colab story before the year ends, I promise. 

Today I am a community grown Product Designer who strives to do good work, give back and improve on his craft daily, I thank God for how far I have come and how far he is willing to take me. 

Surely, I cannot forget the role amazing people have played in my life also, the Colab family and the design family (I promise to write on this too), yet I would not have been here today if someone did not send out regular strings of text telling me I had a daily/weekly opportunity to be world-class. 

So today I say this prayer for you Mr Prosper Otemuyiwa. 

The Lord God will prosper you in all you do, may everything you touch receive life and accelerated growth. May good success be a part of every facet of your life. 

…thou shalt make thy way prosperous, and then thou shalt have good success.
-Joshua 1:8

 You are amazing bro, I love you. ❤️✊🏾

I was having a conversation with Oselu a few days ago about laws of the universe that can make a man successful. Basically I believe that there are laws anyone can follow to become successful, no matter your Religious stance or lack thereof.

Tosin's tweet actually hit a nerve. This is something I think about often.

First off let me drop a Bible verse I find petty interesting.

And unto Adam he said, Because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree, of which I commanded thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat of it: cursed is the ground for thy sake; in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life; Thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee; and thou shalt eat the herb of the field; In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return.

Genesis 3:17‭-‬19 KJV

https://bible.com/bible/1/gen.3.17-19.KJV

“In the sweat of thy face, thou shall eat bread”. This sounds like, “You'll make money but you'll burn out regularly”, “You'll expend the energy of your youth to build wealth”

To me it feels like simply feels like a part of ones life force is being literally sacrificed towards attaining success.

There's hope tho, I think. Here take a look at this verse.

This book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth; but thou shalt meditate therein day and night, that thou mayest observe to do according to all that is written therein: for then thou shalt make thy way prosperous, and then thou shalt have good success.

Joshua 1:8 KJV

https://bible.com/bible/1/jos.1.8.KJV

What is good success? Is it any different from the initial sort of success above?

I think good success is more of a blessing, but it isn't void of hardwork also.

This is what I think it is, the first form of success is the normal hardwork we know and worship, the hyper productivity that'll very well lead to success, a good example is Elon Musk and his 80hr work week (shudders).

The other form of success (good success), still requires a lot of hard work(maybe with 80hr weeks too), I mean if we look at the parable of the talents we know God doesn't reward laziness (😭). Now the difference is this, there's a blessing attached to this hardwork. It isn't mainly the result / awesome output. It is also the absence of burnout. Like your life force that has been sacrificed doing all that work is being restored/replenished at the end of the day. It also involves not feeling empty after crushing set goals. (Renewed eagle strength perhaps?)

In all honesty, I really hope and pray I get good success. I hate the burnout that comes after pushing hard for weeks, despite making time for sleep. I mean even when I wake up well rested, I still feel the loss from the previous day. It scares me.

Sigh.

I am thankful and grateful to God for the success so far still, the growth has been amazing.❤️