Issue 23: If it works, what then?
A couple of people have asked me, “Oriade, where’s your End of the Year review?” For someone who has encouraged the whole world (okay, maybe not the whole world but then…) to write an End of the Year review, it has taken so long to write mine. I’ll explain why.
Last month, I sent my friend, Faith, an email with the title, “If it works, what then?” In the email I explained to him how I decided around August/September to do things differently. Before then, I had left a lot of things to chance and simply hoped for a better life. While I worked hard nonetheless, I was not aggressive. In August, I asked myself: What will happen if I decide to give this career my all? If I decide to go all in, what will happen? If I do everything they said we should do, every single thing, will I see some results? I wrote more about this thinking process in Issue 20.
What I’m trying to say is this: it worked. I decided to do everything I could do. I stretched myself. I learned. I practised. I networked. I did everything I could do and it worked.
Here’s the question: do you ever see those tweets or Instagram reels that talk about ‘how to change your life in one year’? They put up a list that looks like this:
Wake up early
Spend less time on social media
Hit the gym
Eat more fruits
Journal daily
Blah blah
The question is, do these things work? Can you really change your life in one year? Does being intentional and aggressive work?
Last month, I came across Rufus’ Instagram reel where he talked about how he wanted to move from 3k followers to 5k followers by the end of 2023 but he ended up increasing his Instagram follower count to 17k instead. He started the year with 3.6k followers and ended the year with 17.1k followers. If you know anything about social media growth, you know that’s the kind of growth people wish for. Unlike most people who will say it was “God”, Rufus was kind enough to let us know that in 2023 alone, he posted 175 reels on Instagram. That’s aggressive showing up. How many days do we even have in a year to begin with so why will anyone post a hundred and seventy-five reels? But the result was astounding.
So does being aggressive work? These things people say: Post a reel a day, share your work on LinkedIn, network with people on LinkedIn, do 100 days of Data, do this, do that; does it really work? The answer is yes. Being aggressive works so much you will know you’re your own enemy once you see the result. Once you try it once and it works, then you know that if you don’t succeed at anything, chances are you’re the reason.
What does it actually mean to be aggressive?
It means you show up every time you are meant to show up even if you’re tired.
It means you produce quality work. Quality work that matters.
It means you don’t just produce quality work once but multiple times.
It means you’re consistent with producing quality work multiple times. So you consistently produce quality work.
It means you also take a break when you need to, to avoid burnout and to always get back to work once you’re refreshed.
It means doing it and keeping at it. You don’t give up. You don’t abandon your newsletter after four issues or 40 issues, that’s not how you get your desired subscriber base.
I’ve observed a lot of people in recent times, read a lot of essays, watched a lot of videos and oftentimes, the difference between the people who record success and those who don’t is the level of aggression. If your aggression level is 20% and someone else’s is 75%, all things being equal, they are more likely to reach the finish line before you because they’ve put in more time and effort. They’re playing at level 75 while you’re playing at level 20.
If you were to ask me to summarise 2023, I’ll tell you it’s the year I learned that I can do anything I put my mind to, the year I learned that aggression works.
I’ve tried this so I am not writing from a place of knowledge but from a place of experience. I became aggressive with my career for months and the results? Massive. Now I’m going again in 2024. I want to be aggressive with more things: my work, my art, my writing, my reading, my love life, my finances; everything. I want to be aggressive. That is, to be intentional, excellence-driven, and consistent. Emphasis on consistency! I have done it before and it has worked so what next?
That’s the question I asked my friend. Now that it has worked, what do I do next? I’ve tried to be aggressive with my marketing career and I have seen the result
I was promoted at my previous job.
I changed jobs.
I won three awards: the Community Manager of the Year award at No-Code Tech Awards, Impact Award at Cowrywise and Top 100 Techies in Nigeria Award by Tekisite.
I was invited to share my marketing knowledge and experience in multiple tech events in Lagos.
I put together Marketers Therapy twice with the help of friends, Treasure and Toyosi. We brought together over 50 marketers.
I learned a lot about marketing, tried out new things and gave my marketing career a 10x boost.
Now that aggression has shown itself to be a true and powerful force, what next? Because we’re treading dangerous waters now. It’s scary now because it’s like I have been given the answer to all life’s questions and it’s left for me to apply it or not. It’s hard for someone who has seen the result of aggression to complain when things don’t work out because now they know why they didn’t work out. They know it’s because they were not aggressive enough.
In my mail to Faith, I wrote: I placed a bet on myself at the end of August to be mad about my career and it has worked so far so now what? What next? Do I double down again next year? How long before I burn out? So what do I do? It has worked but now what? I now know I can get the results I want if I put in the effort. So what next? What does success look like now? If I won three awards in 2023, what does growth on that path look like for 2024? Six awards? How sustainable is that?
I don't have clarity on these questions yet but that's what has been on my mind. I don’t know what the answer is but I know what the answer cannot be. It cannot be to be less aggressive. So until I figure out what next? I’ll keep being aggressive, according to my definition of aggression above.
See you on the other side of aggression.
To read more from me this year, subscribe to the ER Club newsletter and make sure you share this with a friend. If you’re sharing on Twitter [and you should], mention me @michaelinioluwa.
Thanks to Emmanuel Faith and Nmabuobi Oba for reading drafts of this.
To read more career/motivational issues, check these:
Ahh this is genius!
I like how you articulated all that you did in a year and for me, I like the challenge you gave yourself in the past year.
It's the same thing my friend tells me all the time, "what if there was no limit to what we can achieve, what would you put your mind into doing and achieving?"
I'm giving myself that challenge too for 2024. I want to put my all into all that I do; work, studies, prayers, preaching, etc. I want to know and feel what success feels like. I want to be indispensable.
Thank you for always writing.
🏂
On the path of aggression right now and these words are exactly what my mind needed. I would also love to know what next. When you find the answer.