Babies, Brandz àtìbébéló

Yep, I'm here! In the place I'd choose over any other place today. "Where's this nirvana-like place"? I can hear the curious murmuring to themselves. It's at the heart of the Mainland overlooking the road that runs right through to my almer-mater. It's the CCHub. Yeah, the place where innovation takes place. And even though my time here is limited - lasting until my venture's mature enough to hit the streetz - this place will remain close to nirvana. Reminds me of the British Council hub back in the Capital city. Somehow, it may seem like I was made for these places :-). And there's the IVD which bears same features to these places. Anyways, 'fore I jump right into today's work, I deem it fit to relieve my content-laden mind of its load. A bit of digression given the drama that played out in the BRT bus I boarded while on my way down. I had a bit of an altercation with the driver which reminded me of yesterday's drama with the okada rider on the Island. So, I'm thinking to myself, "what's with the dramas Bayo?" Yeah, what's it about this Lasgidi life that has one on the edge ready to blow off steam at the slightest *** (can't think of the perfect word to use)? Sure, life in the city is without its temptations, it's no excuse for anyone to loose it. And in a rather ironic manner, there's the occasional scenes of guys exchanging blows across the city that plays out like everyday. And while I'm often amazed as to how adults would stoop so low to settle scores over issues that are almost always trivial (as trivial as 20 naira though relativity's the name of the game), my verbal altercations seem no different. Why? Because the next exchange of blows is only an utterance away. And whoever thinks He can go no longer than exchanging verbose, you may want to rethink that. There's a reason why that Ramsy-Noah looking dude in white TM shirt was serenading the crowd of watchers (only in Lasgidi) with Mohammed-Ali styled steps while exchanging blows with a fellow driver. True man, we are humans with varying degree of sensitivities. One repetitive careless utterance is all it takes to strike the ego of any man.
Enough of the digression. That was my own way of saying to me: Be Careful o!!!
So, I was talking about the hub...I'll have a pic up from the roof-top soon as my phone's fully charged. Work's on ground for the day mehn and yeah, you guessed right, it's everything to do with àsà. And before you whine about my talk-talk about this brand, know that a parent cannot get enough of talking about his baby. Yeah man, for anyone with love for ideas and the creation process, it's like a baby. You ideate, build and nurture. Sad news though is the reality that this baby can die too. Yep. It can die at different phases. For some folks still in the grips of fear, the baby may never even come to life: it simply dies at its abstract stage. For winners who take it all the way from the abstract to reality, death can still come in the lab where over-ideation or over-tweaking in a bid to get out a perfect product translates to never coming up with a product. The latter brings to mind the concept of a Minimum Viable Product (MVP) as I've come to know. Still on the mortality of baby ventures, death can also come in form of the ultimate verdict as delivered by the market. Yes! The "people". The "users" whose attention, loyalty and trust we crave to self-sustain as parents enough to keep growing this baby. Yes o, ultimately, the baby called a brand requires people in loyal customers to live. Where I'm from, they say, "it takes a community to raise a child". Same goes for this baby. The initiator can only do so much especially at the initial stage. You champion from the labs as I'm presently doing here leveraging on the invaluable support of the IVD and the CChub cos it takes great environments to raise a good baby. The time is close though when this baby will hit the street to be validated by the people. I'm unfazed anyways. If I had a soft heart, I wouldn't be in this game. While that's not to say I'm a superman, successive failures mixed with some degree of success have only helped to harden my resolve. Then there's the Army of Happiness (http://tinybuddha.com/blog/build-yourself-an-army-for-happiness/) in writing, reading, B-town, family.. which help to a great extent. In all, it's an exciting experience. Glory to God.