“I have seen something else under the sun: The race is not to the swift or the battle to the strong, nor does food come to the wise or wealth to the brilliant or favor to the learned; but time and chance happen to them all.” – Ecc 9:11 [NIV]

 “So, how did you get so many friends on Facebook?” an eager Ty asked me.

“Well, you see…”

Ty was about to launch a website and needed an audience. He didn’t have enough money for a serious ad campaign like the big boys and wanted to invite people to his website at the lowest possible cost.

I would go on to explain how I was able to get so many friends, especially as a nobody, but the whole strategy can be summarized in the words of wisdom below.

 “My Son, you may not be the first to do something but never be the last…” – Unknown

 I can’t remember who said the above words but I must have picked it up while reading through philosophy books at the OOU Main Library years back, but it has been a watchword for me.

 “In Nigeria, it’s all about connections, it’s about who you know…”

 The above words were one of the reasons I took Facebook seriously. I figured since I knew nobody, I could at least know people via Facebook. I built strategic connections which have made me friends with “BIG” people in Nigeria as well as made me money. I could as well have lost hope like many Nigerians do because of my fate as a nobody.

 The moral of the story is I was able to get so many friends because Facebook was lenient in its early days as to the connections you could make. If you tried doing that today, you would get your account suspended. 

It was the same “never be the last” philosophy that made me go into web development (well, there was also the fact I read 17 yr olds were making crazy money in the US from it and it had barely started in Nigeria back then). It was what made me join Twitter early (Ha, the days when twitter was for full on intelligent people and no one was begging for followbacks, twitfighting etc). Same philosophy got me in 847 circles on Google plus. Yes, people use it. 🙂 

It was what I  noticed in Don Jazzy’s Maven League. I was fascinated that over 5000 people had joined in 2 days. That’s no mean feat. So I joined. I think I have 3 friends and a group of 14 members. I try na J. The amazing thing about Mavin League was the girls I met who had almost 200 friends and big groups. I do hope to study how they achieved it. Guess what a man can do…

It is this same philosophy that has pushed me into the field of Social Media Marketing, owning one of, if not the first Social Media companies and recently has seen me get into mobile apps development, and more recently E-payment solutions. I think everyone should be working towards getting the market woman to go Cashless instead of making fun of the policy. I believe there’s much money to be made here. A friend who runs several shops in Lagos Island is getting POS terminals already.

 The danger of not being among the first or just staying put in one field and not trying new endeavours is that the first movers take everything, and leave you with crumbs. A good example is trying to succeed in the Oil & Gas downstream sector of the economy. You can only get crumbs if you do that now. Otunba Gaddafffi’s death pained me. He was the first to make shit business cool, and made a lot of money, as well as employed a lot of people. It was the fate of those he employed that made me sad. We have this bad habit as Nigerians of rushing into a business we see a fellow Nigerian doing successfully even if we have no idea as to what the business entails.

In conclusion, everyone gets a ‘time and a chance’ to be the first. You are here because you came first in the race to fertilize the egg. Why not find a new field, sector, idea and become first in it?

About the author: Segebee is a Software Developer, Social Media Consultant, Entrepreneur and Blogger who loves Jesus, adventurous in nature with interest in new fields, which has seen him move from Web Development to Social Media and Mobile App development and recently Online payments (@segebee).  

Editor’s note: Op-ed pieces and contributions are the opinions of the writers only and do not represent the opinions of Y!/YNaija.