|#94 MWAVC| - Why strategic work > hard work.
Today’s post is sponsored by Tayo Oyedeji (@tayooye). Please follow him on Twitter and improve your financial literacy with his little nuggets of wisdom. Retired at 40 and holds financial literacy classes that help individuals build their wealth and spending power with the right practices. He put up a post on how strategic work differs from simple hard work, and I thought to share.
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Why strategic work > hard work.
Ex. 1
Hard work: PA to the CEO working 70hours a week.
Strategic work: PA to the CEO working 70hours a week (50hours on the job, 20hours observing/learning the job of the CEO.
Meet Barbara Corcoran (@BarbaraCorcoran)- who went from CEO's PA to founder/CEO of the $66m Corcoran Group.
Ex. 2
Hard work: Social media manager at @WarbyParker.
Strategic work: Social media manager at @WarbyParker who learned the tool of the trade from Warby and built the $1.4billion @Away luggage using Warby's template.
Meet college dropout, Jen Rubio, @jennifer
Ex. 3
Hard work: Working hard to build a gaming ecosystem that failed twice.
Strategic work: Pivoting from the gaming system to a communication tool that became the $17billion @SlackHQ
Meet strategic worker - Daniel Butterfield - billionaire and failed gaming executive.
Ex. 4
Hard work: working for your uncle to learn the trade.
Strategic work: Borrowing $3,000 from the same uncle to build a $10bn conglomerate.
Meet Dantata's nephew and Africa's richest man, Aliko Dangote
Ex. 5
Hard work: COO at a large financial service firm.
Strategic work: Took a pay cut to become the CEO at a smaller marketing service firm knowing that the No 1 guy at a small business > the No 2 guy at a big firm.
Meet @tayooye- retired @ 40.
Hard work is great, but it's never enough.
Successful people work hard while looking beyond their current roles and positioning themselves for bigger things.
Strategic work > hard work.
Article List— What I’m reading (10 articles a day x 7 days x 4 weeks x 12 months = 3360 articles a year).
Short thread on history of M-Pesa: This should be turned into a podcast episode on Business Wars or something. I liked where it was going.
Government To Launch “Universal QR Code” Payment System Next Month: For anyone looking to build anything payments in Ghana, hope you didn’t miss out on this news.
Africa Has All Ingredients for a New Era of Success: Africa on the move.
Angolans feel let down two years into new presidency: No surprise there. Same thing going on in Zim.
South Africa can’t afford to let its national airline fail: Reason 1234333243 that I don’t think Ghana launching the new airline is a good idea. South African Airlines is not running a profitable business and there’s no reason we should start an airline for sentimental reasons. Think of the business case first.
Twitter will free up handles by deleting inactive accounts: So what about our friends who have passed 😖😭.
Sim Shagaya’s uLesson African edtech startup raises $3.1M: Someone please convince me to be bullish on this? Only reason I like is because of Sim.
The Business Impact Of Gratitude: Be thankful for all the people you come across and do business with, you never know where you might meet them or do business with them again.
One page business plan: Aunty O did you a favor and made you a business plan template.
Two weeks after Cameroon exit, Jumia closes shop in Tanzania in pursuit of profits: Welp.
Podcast— What I’m listening to (1 podcast episode a day= 365 podcast episodes a year) — Broadening my experiences through others’ stories.
20 minute VC: Harry Stebbings is pushing the needle on spreading the word on VCs with this podcast. Listen and learn.
Book— 1 Chapter a day x 7 days x 4 weeks x 12 months = 336 chapters. Most books have 10-12 chapters, so 1 year = 28 to 33 books. And my book list is nearing 1000 books. Send help 🌚
Venture Deals by Brad Feld and Jason Mendelson. I’m actually learning so much from this book. Highly highly highly recommend to anyone looking to get into venture investing. Might take a while to grasp all the concepts. I’ll have to read it at least 3 times to fully get it.
📱📱Quote of the day
“There is no passion to be found playing small- in selling for a life that is less than the one you are capable of living.”— Nelson Mandela
Remember: “Until the lion learns to write, every story will glorify the hunter.”