Son of God + COO @upintheskyng + Author. To speak with me go here: https://xitter.gq/t.co/5KDzsHHZ5g
Lagos
Joined March 2010
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idiareno ✈️ retweeted
Look, I get that people are pissed about this thing—there’s a lot to be mad about. But I was raised by a civil servant, and time and again, I’ve learned that systems collapse gradually, not all at once.
Nobody shows up on their first day of work and decides to destroy archives or anything. Quite often, it’s a series of small decisions, small things we let fester here and there. Culture is whatever a system rewards or punishes.
But the thing about Nigeria is that while we’re always late to one party (the things we’ve lost are lost), I think it’s important to know we’re also always early to another.
So much has been lost, but so much can still be done. And it doesn’t have to be big things; just pick the little things.
For example, if someone in your family was a teenager when Nigeria became independent, statistically, they might be dead in a decade or way less. Sit with them and press record; they have so much to say, and so few people willing to listen. Just listen and press record. In whatever language they understand, no matter how little your understanding of it.
Keep the family album. Use your phone to photograph them. Keep the tapes.
Much of what our civilisation learned about fighting COVID-19 came from what we learned about the Spanish Flu of 1918: a mix of official records documenting death rates, etc., and personal correspondence that captured the experience of living through it.
Personal history is family history is national history.
idiareno ✈️ retweeted
How to Unf*ck Your Life. Nine things that work whether you started with nothing or everything. Zero motivational content.
idiareno ✈️ retweeted
There's a director looking for someone to elevate their story with original music.
There's a new artist looking for a producer to bring their songs to life.
There's an agency looking for a composer to take their brief to the next level.
Please repost this so they can find me.
idiareno ✈️ retweeted
BEST ADVICE I GOT FROM AN OLDER MAN THAT CHANGED MY LIFE:
1. Leave the house once a day, even when you have nowhere to go
idiareno ✈️ retweeted
The only reason we recognize this shot is because the Matrix has emotional resonance with us.
We know Neo. We know Agent Smith. Without the story of the Matrix, or the brand elements that we recognize, this is just two dudes fighting, and no one cares about that.
Hollywood isn't cooked because of AI, just like Hollywood wasn't cooked because of VFX.
The bottlenecks will always be ideas and distribution.
Can you tell a story and build characters people will care about? Can you get this story in front of the most people and make enough of a return to keep investing?
This quoted post is unavailable.
idiareno ✈️ retweeted
Why is it that, as a people, we rarely prioritize investing in art? Books, films etc, yet we have no hesitation putting significant money into cars, etc?
I genuinely admire how the French take art seriously, how it’s treated not as a luxury but as a necessity, something worth preserving, funding, and passing on.
It makes me wonder what it would look like if we valued and invested in our stories the same way.
idiareno ✈️ retweeted
Why don’t we talk about Wale in Afrobeats? 🤔
I’ve been a fan forever and super proud of how he repped his Nigerian roots. But I've often felt he hasn’t gotten credit for helping to push Afrobeats.
With his album dropping Friday, I dove deep into his journey and his role...
idiareno ✈️ retweeted
This has happened to me TWICE! First time my boss resigned and blessed me to replace her. Only for me to put my hat in the ring and be told another former boss was coming back. Her tenure as my boss was crazy for me but that’s a story for another day.
The second time was even more painful. That boss was fired and I was informally told I’d replace her. I again put my hat in the ring and did the interview. They picked my colleague whom I trained on the job to be my boss.
Here’s the lesson. Having the right attitude pays. I wasn’t bitter. I went to find out why I’d failed the interview and the feedback I got enabled me make senior management in my next role. The reason I wasn’t picked was because even though I was the more experienced and skilled candidate with a track record of results, I used to like to show up at my own time and hadn’t proven I could take instructions as well as the other guy.
That experience matured me faster than any mentorship class could.
I say this because if I had become bitter and entitled I wouldn’t have learnt the lesson. I would’ve walked around feeling cheated, hated everyone and they hate me back too and still gone on to repeat the same mistakes. Today all the people involved in that process are still good friends and help each other out till tomorrow.
Attitude matters a little more than skill the higher you go in corporate environments. The skills that gets you promoted into middle management are different from what you need to be senior management or to engage at very high levels.
Today I can walk into offices of some of the most important people in this world and come out with a deal. It’s a skill, not nepotism. And it is learnt in the most unexpected of ways.
If you want to be successful in this life, always keep an open mind. Choose to learn even when it’s hard to focus because of your emotions. It’s easy to point fingers externally and hard to introspect. Looking out for yourself means that you also have to introspect regularly so you’re not your own enemy.
Your boss resigned a few months ago, and you’ve been acting in her role for a while. You’ve received feedback that you’re doing an excellent job, and you’ve been hoping to be appointed as the substantive replacement.
Then one morning, you’re invited for a chat and told that a replacement for your former boss will be starting next month, and that you’ll need to coach the new hire since you’ve been acting in the role.
What’s your reaction going to be? Could you have done anything differently before the replacement was hired?
idiareno ✈️ retweeted
“Oh my god… I have no words.”
Listen to the emotional moment this year’s laureate Maria Corina Machado finds out she has been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.
Kristian Berg Harpviken, Director of the Norwegian Nobel Institute, shared the news with her directly before it was announced to the world.
#NobelPrize #NobelPeacePrize
idiareno ✈️ retweeted
A lot of final-year research projects in Nigeria go unpublished, regardless of quality or merit. This means poor representation in research and scientific documentation. We want to change that.
Do you still have a digital copy of your final-year research project, and would you be willing to share it for our online repository for African research?
Please retweet for others.
idiareno ✈️ retweeted
Owen Cooper is a first-time #EMMY winning actor at the age of 15.
Freeze Frame : open.substack.com/pub/id49ja…
Some thoughts on capturing memories as they happen
idiareno ✈️ retweeted
Its often due to "Empire Building''. Let me explain.
This Halloween, Jeff Bezos dressed up as Batman and his fiancée as Catwoman. This is costume play. Everyone knows that Jeff Bezos is not Batman, and more importantly, Jeff Bezos knows that he is not Batman.
